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Chirp!
Megatron smiled as his audio receptors picked up the sound of quiet whispers after the sparkling chirped in curiosity.
“Dad, are we okay to go up?”
“When Mr. Megatron says so.”
There was no mistaking the excitement in Alex Malto’s voice. From the bushes surrounding the small clearing in the forest that he sat in, his and Optimus’s small, little blue and purple and silver daughter in his lap. Andromeda blinked her bright blue optics at the new beings who were making their way towards them, her antennae on her blue helm - just like her carrier’s - twitching.
This was her first time seeing a human. He and Optimus had kept her well hidden from the prying eyes of GHOST as Optimus carried her, owing to Optimus hardly showing that he was in a delicate condition as he continued to fight and go on missions, much to Megatron’s insistence that he stay back and let him go instead.
But of course, there was no hiding her once she emerged.
She had been asleep, tucked against her carrier’s chassis, when an agent happened upon them and saw her. They'd caught the both of them with their napping little interloper, hence it being her first time laying optics on a squishy little human. Megatron chuckled as he remembered the absolute ruckus that had followed.
He’d gained a new respect for Optimus through it all. Carrying their sparkling, and then only days after emergence, having to handle the meltdowns that the higher-ups within the organization were having. Megatron would have aimed his cannon at them for having the audacity to act as they did - if he’d not been trying to reform his ways, after all.
“You may come forward,” Megatron said, not looking up from Andromeda as he gently tapped the point of her nasal plates, prompting her to giggle and turn her gaze back to him. “She won’t bite.”
Mo ran forward from the bushes, laughing and crouching down in front of Megatron and Andromeda. “She’s so small and round! She looks like an orb. Hey, dad!” She turned around with a mischievous smile on her face, her curls bouncing as she tried and failed to hold back a laugh. “You’re pondering the orb.”
Alex Malto followed behind his daughter, a very professional notebook in his hands and a pen slipped over his ear. “Observing the orb would be more accurate,” he said.
Megatron bristled at the word. Observing. Observation.
Then he noticed that Alex and Mo had gone quiet and they were looking at him warily. Megatron realized that his nonverbal language had given them pause.
“Optimus and I are not too happy that our daughter should be treated like a sideshow attraction, or a scientific curiosity,” Megatron clarified with a sigh. “However, Optimus and I far preferred that you write your observations as opposed to someone who might be more inclined to report every aspect of our conversation to the likes of Schroder. Additionally, I believe it may be of assistance to your career.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt Schroder will read these notes. But, if I write something down that you don’t want GHOST to have access to, I can strike it from the record,” Alex said with a small wink. Then he took on a more serious demeanor. “I’m sorry that you and Optimus were found out before you were ready to let everyone know.”
“We couldn’t keep her secret for very long, a brand new Cybertronian.”
Mo tilted her head at Andromeda, and Andromeda followed suit, chirping curiously and tilting her head. “Wait, so. She was born on Earth, but she’s a Cybertronian and not a Terran?”
“We refer to the Terrans as such because they are made from materials on Earth, and rely on sources that are not energon for them to continue functioning. Andromeda is a different case,” Megatron said as he pressed a digit against her abdominal plating and did a light back-and-forth motion, tickling her and prompting a sharp squeak. “She came directly from Optimus and I. She is our living metal and relies on energon to survive.”
There was the light scratching of the pen as Alex began scribbling down his notes. Megatron smiled and continued, “Given the difference, it would be more accurate to call her a Cybertronian.”
“Oh,” Mo replied, waving a servo slowly and then laughing as Andromeda also waved a servo. She tried to make a little chirp noise. “So she’s a baby Cybertronian, if she came from you and Optimus?”
“The correct term is sparkling. At least I think I heard Dot say that.” Alex asked, looking at Megatron for clarification.
Megatron nodded in confirmation. “You are a professor of Cybertronian History.” he laughed softly, moving his gaze from Alex and Mo to Andromeda as she batted at his hand, requesting his digits to play with. He dangled them in front of her and watched her take each finger in her small servos, bending them at each joint, warbling in curiosity. “Now, in lieu of the past, you look at part of our future, just as with the Terrans. Andromeda is the first Cybertronian sparkling born since… well, I would think Bumblebee. Optimus would be able to confirm if that’s correct.”
There were more scribbling noises for a few more minutes as Alex wrote, mixed with the giggles from Mo and the chirps and warbles from Andromeda as the sparkling copied the motions that the young human did. As someone who had once wanted to attend institutions of higher education on Cybertron, but had been forbidden from doing so by the mere circumstances of his creation, Megatron wondered what lesson plans and curriculum would result from this talk.
He also briefly wondered if there might be additions later down the line. Not from him and Optimus, per say, as Optimus had staunchly refused to go through emergence again and Megatron had Shockwave rid him of his forge out in the early days of the war, but from others. That would give Alex more opportunities for a variety of observations, observing different behaviors, among other things.
“So,” Alex said once he was done, rubbing at one of his eyes with the hand that didn’t hold onto the pen, “sparkling is what you call them. What does the process of making one entail? Since you said she came from you and Opt-”
Megatron was quick with his response, interrupting Alex. “It is very similar to your process of creating human younglings. Or so we have been told.”
He enjoyed the dumbfounded look on Alex's face as he processed what was said. Megatron was never quite sure at what age was traditional for humans to tell their young about how their reproductive cycles worked, but judging by the sudden blush in Alex's cheeks, he and Dot likely had not told Mo as of yet. Dot would probably chastise him at a later time for her and Alex having to move up the “talk” for their youngest.
Thankfully, the young human didn't seem to actually have been paying attention to that aspect of their conversation. She laughed as she held up her hand to the sparkling, palm facing Andromeda. Andromeda blinked her optics and chirped quietly, looked up at him, and when he nodded, she reached out and touched Mo's hand with her servo, their palms meeting. She then chirped again, triumphantly, and pulled her servo back.
“She's only a bit bigger than Twitch and smaller than Thrash,” Mo said. “Does that mean she's gonna stay this size? Or could she grow bigger?”
For the third time in his life - the first time being when Optimus discovered he was carrying and the second time when Optimus woke him in the middle of the night to tell him emergence was happening - Megatron wished Ratchet were here to explain a few things. All he could do was condense what would be a long elucidation into a few short sentences, especially for the sake of Alex as he took down more notes. “All we know is that she has some more time to reach her final height. It’s a mystery if she might only get to be as tall as Thrash, or if she will get to be closer in height to Optimus and myself.”
“It'll be interesting to continue observing her,” Alex said excitedly, before he toned it down. “Well, from an academic standpoint,” he clarified.
There was the sound of something larger than a human coming through the forest, crunching branches and bushes underfoot. A pair of blue optics met Megatron’s as he looked up to see who was on their way to their little meeting.
“Oh good! I heard Alex and Dot say you were coming by with her. I wanted to see her too,” Bumblebee said with a smile on his face. He came out of the forest and crouched down next to Megatron, giving a small flick of his doorwings in greeting to the sparkling. Her bright optics were immediately drawn to the movement, and she got a look of intense concentration on her face. Then, the little purple and blue nubs on Andromeda’s back twitched.
“What was that that she moved?” Mo asked, pointing.
This time, the scout answered, reaching his digits towards Andromeda and laughing as she batted her servos at them, warbling. “Those plates that moved on her back are what will be her wings one day.” Then he looked at Megatron, realizing he spoke out of turn. “Right? Wings?”
“Yes, they are going to be her wings,” Megatron confirmed.
“Wings? So she’ll fly?” Alex perked up and laughed. “Will we be able to see her learn to fly? That would be incredible to see and study.”
A small pang hit Megatron’s spark. Sometimes it was easy to forget that humans had a much shorter lifespan. Judging from the momentarily-stricken look on Bumblebee’s face that he could see in his peripheral vision, Bumblebee was thinking about that little, entirely unpleasant fact as well.
“It may take quite a bit longer than would be ideal for a human lifespan,” Megatron said, pulling Andromeda a little closer into his lap and clicking at her, prompting her to warble back at him. “If Optimus’s calculations are correct, Alex, you and Dot will be in your mid-to-late sixties when the time comes that I can teach Andromeda to fly. But if you and Dot are able to survive that long,” he chuckled, “you will be given a front-row seat, as I believe the expression goes.”
Thankfully, before they could fall into a heavy silence and ponder too much about the fragility of human life and the cruelty of long Cybertronian lifespans, his audio receptors caught onto a sound: a familiar set of treads on the road, heading right for them. He smiled and stood up, tucking Andromeda close to his chassis and giving her small warble in return when she chirped at him. “I do believe Dot and Optimus are close by.”
Indeed, Optimus pulled close to the clearing. Dot stepped out of Optimus’s cab and stretched as Optimus took on his bipedal mode. Alex and Mo ran up to her and she enveloped them all in a tight hug for a moment before letting them go.
“Optimus showed me pictures, but she’s so much cuter in person,” Dot said with a broad smile on her face as she looked at the tiny being with large, bright optics in Megatron’s arms. Then she looked around and furrowed her brows together. “Bumblebee,” she said after she noticed that only part of her family was there in the clearing, “where did Robby and the Terrans go?”
Bumblebee gestured beyond the forest from where he’d come. “They’re trying to teach Fluffy Ears some tricks. I told them good luck.” He laughed. “How many tricks can a cow learn, honestly?”
Optimus walked up next to Megatron, exhaustion written on his faceplates. “Here, give her,” he said with a tired voice, his optics just an iota dimmer than normal. Megatron reached out to his mate via electromagnetic field, mingling with it and sending small pulses of affection. Giving Andromeda a kiss on the top of her helm, Megatron passed her to Optimus, who took the chirping and squeaking sparkling into his servos. He tucked her close to his neck and face and kissed her helm.
She chirped and patted her little servos on Optimus’s faceplates before curling up against him, looking almost like the orb that Mo had proclaimed her to be. After a few moments, her systems engaged hibernation mode as she went into recharge. Almost immediately, Megatron was able to sense the change in Optimus’s electromagnetic field. He now felt more energized than when he’d arrived.
Dot put her hand to her hips and smiled up at Megatron. “You look good with a sparkling, Megs. Being a parent suits you.”
Megatron tried to hide the smile on his faceplates, both at the compliment, and at the way Optimus leaned against him, gently pressing his helm against his shoulder. He moved a servo to touch the side of Optimus’s face and then moved his helm minutely to kiss him. “Do you want to head back to headquarters now?” he murmured softly. “Or, we can go look at the Terrans and young Robby try to train a young bovine.”
Optimus looked very tempted by the idea of going back to headquarters and getting some much needed and deserved recharge, but then he looked at their gathered audience, all looking at him. Rather, looking at the tiny sparkling against him.
Megatron smiled as Optimus grabbed his free servo and tiredly replied, “I don’t think GHOST will miss us if we stay just a little bit longer.”
“Fine,” Megatron said with a tone of mischief in his voice as they began walking after Bumblebee and the Maltos, heading for the cows. In the distance, they could hear the Terrans and Robby shouting as they argued over what commands to try and teach Fluffy Ears. “But you’re going to answer any further questions Alex might have.”