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Warble?
The sound of Megatron rousing from their berth hadn’t woken him, but the sound of Andromeda’s curious clicks and warbles was like an automatic call to his spark, immediately waking him from a fitful recharge. Optimus Prime sat up and sighed, his systems onlining to full power.
“Rest,” Megatron said, strong servos going to his shoulder struts and gently guiding him to lie back down.
"Hmm. You're up earlier than normal," Optimus said, giving his mate a tired smile.
“It’s a mission with Agent Schloder. I’ve already told Agent Croft that I will go with him.”
Optimus furrowed his optic ridges and made a noise of discontent. “Megatron-”
“You went yesterday. I will go today.”
With that, Megatron lifted Andromeda from her makeshift crib and cradled her to his chassis, cooing at her as she beeped at him. She then squeaked and wriggled happily, giggling as he kissed her all over her face. After placing a kiss on her helm crest, he laid her down with Optimus, who in turn enveloped the sparkling in his arms. She proceeded to snuggle up to her carrier, beeping happily.
Sighing, Optimus looked up at Megatron. “Make sure you come back,” he said softly. He leaned up to kiss Megatron and pressed his own helm crest against the other mech’s forehelm. “You know I’ll never forgive you if you don’t.”
Megatron gave a snort and then whispered in a soft tone, “I love you,” kissed him again, and then left the hangar.
Just outside, Optimus could hear the voices of other GHOST agents asking where he was. Megatron firmly told them that Optimus was resting with their sparkling and that it would only be him available for missions today. Then, his audio receptor picked up the sound of someone telling another agent in undertone that they couldn’t get the installations to happen today, again, and to call everyone off until tomorrow.
Optimus shook his helm and pulled Andromeda closer. No doubt GHOST was waiting to waste yet another few thousand dollars on installing a “secret” camera with audio to record him and Megatron and their daughter, but they couldn’t quite do so with one of the large mechs present.
Even if they managed to install it, Optimus would hear it and destroy it. It was almost comical if it weren’t more so infuriating that his and Megatron’s wishes for privacy were continually violated. They had to keep fighting for it. What did GHOST want with the continuous infringement on their privacy, anyway?
Andromeda snuggled against his chassis, her sprouting wings fluttering gently as she began snoozing lightly. Optimus stroked the top of her helm, feeling his spark rate even out along with hers as their electromagnetic fields synced. The sparkling cooed in her recharge, and her antennae flicked back and forth.
She was perfect. Absolutely perfect.
He'd loved Megatron all this long time, and he thought he knew back then the depths that unconditional, undying love for someone else could go.
But holding this perfect little being in his arms for the first time had changed both of them forever. The already-deep reservoirs of love that both had for each other, deepened even further to make space for this little being they'd created together.
He hadn't imagined that he and Megatron would ever be in this position, creators to a sparkling of their own. It was a dream he'd had, that Megatron held independently of him, and they'd made peace with their old ages and their possible inability to conceive. Sure, they'd toyed with the idea in berth, much to his delight, but actually kindling had been… kind of far off.
Andromeda warbled in her recharge and Optimus kissed the top of her helm, and proceeded to open up a message in his inbox that was marked normal priority. Wheeljack was talking about funding for another one of his experiments, asking Optimus to go to bat for him.
At that moment, a communication request came through the communication link that led to their hangar's private intercom system. He checked who the caller was, and smiled when he saw that it was Dorothy Malto.
“This is Optimus Prime,” he said as softly as he could, trying to be heard but also trying to stay quiet so as to not disturb his daughter’s recharge.
Too late. She roused and blinked sleepy optics at him, her vocalizer emitting a soft chirp of inquiry.
"Optimus? It's Dot. I thought Megatron would answer me like he normally does."
"I'm sorry, I'm the only one here right this moment."
Chirp!
"Er, the only mature one here, I should say."
There was the sound of Dot laughing over the intercom. "She took offense to that, didn't she? I'm already on my way there so I suppose I'll just see you and Andromeda. Where'd Megatron go off to?"
"He just left for a mission. I don't know when he'll be back."
"Alright. Well, I'll see you and Andromeda when I get there."
With that, Dot hung up without a "goodbye" on her end, before Optimus could tell her to be safe and that he looked forward to seeing her. He sighed and looked down at the wiggly sparkling in his lap. She sighed in frustration at something he didn't know about and that she probably would struggle to tell him, before she looked around the room and then chirped questioningly.
Ah. Optimus understood now. She was looking for Megatron.
"Dot calls looking for your sire, and now you've gotten tired of me, have you?" he asked Andromeda jokingly.
As if on cue, a call came in to his communication link. A quick check told him that it was Megatron.
::Have you finished already?::
::So it seems. Ratbat went down without much of a fight. He did get in a few dives at Agent Schloder and took his sunglasses::
::Depending on the timing you get back, you might see Dot when she shows up::
::Oh? Did she say what she's going over for?::
Andromeda began clumsily tap-tapping her digits on Optimus's chassis. He took the hint and one part of his chassis plates lifted, a feeding line dropping down. Winding it around a freed servo, he placed the opening of the tube to his sparkling's mouth and winced as she bit down and began drinking her fill.
::I don't know. She just asked for you in particular::
::Ah. Well, I will let Agent Schloder that it would be preferable to go back as soon as possible then:: Then a little bit of levity entered his tone and Megatron continued ::I would much rather spend time with you both::
Optimus held the bitlet close and made sure she wasn't drinking at too fast a pace. ::We'll see you when you get back. We love you::
Megatron concluded the call, hanging up, and Optimus suddenly became aware of how loud the silence in their large private hangar was, with only the quiet sounds of the bitlet's drinking to interrupt it.
Optimus sighed and stroked Andromeda's cheek. "Your sire will be back soon, don't fret."
His thoughts drifted to his mate, and then Dot, wondering how far she was from their base.
The Prime had always felt that Dot didn’t care much for him. At least, not as much as he cared for her and her family.
It was a bit of a shame, but given her friendship with Megatron, and his and Megatron’s past, it was entirely understandable. He couldn’t expect the fact that Megatron had now bonded with him and sired a sparkling on him to change that overnight, or even at all. It didn’t stop him, and would never stop him, from looking out for the well-being of the Maltos. He was always happy to see her, Alex, and the children.
She’d noticeably softened in her approach towards him and his attempts at integrating with Earth culture ever since she’d been pulled in for a briefing with the higher-ups at GHOST and told that, well… Megatron and Optimus had added another Cybertronian to the group. She'd seemed so delighted that day in the clearing when they came upon Alex, Mo, Megatron, Andromeda, and Bumblebee, before they all went to watch Fluffy Ears being taught tricks.
Andromeda ceased drinking, taking the tube in her servos and swinging it around. Optimus laughed and then pried it from her strong grip, placing it back before shifting his plating back down.
He didn't have very long to be with his thoughts. The human-sized doorbell that had been installed in the human-sized door in the hangar buzzed. Optimus pressed the button that unlocked it, and then Dot came in, a large black rectangular portfolio - that was nearly as big as she was - at her side.
“Megatron is on his way back from the mission with Agent Schloder,” Optimus intoned. "I'm sorry that he wasn't here to greet you like he normally is. I'd take you to catch up with him, but Wheeljack, Arcee, and Elita are all occupied." He looked down at Andromeda in his arms. "I’m the only one that can take care of her for today.”
“No need to apologize,” Dot said, holding a hand up. “I know you can’t leave her alone.” Then she paused for a moment, and smiled as a faraway look came over her eyes for a moment. “I can imagine it’s probably hard for you to leave her alone too. When Robby and Mo were born, I didn’t want to let them out of my sight.” She crossed her arms over her chest. "Still don't sometimes." Then, she laughed. "Alex had to tell me I was going overboard one time when I told him to put Robby in his baby carrier and put him next to me when I took a bath."
Optimus laughed gently as he looked down at his daughter again, who was snoozing peacefully against the armor that covered his spark, and the Matrix. "It's hard for sure."
A moment of silence, and a look passed over Dot that indicated she was thinking of asking something. Then, she shifted her weight on her feet before remembering that Megatron and Optimus had accommodations in their hangar for humans. She crossed the room to the closet and fetched a folding chair. “So Alex told me that deliveries for Cybertronians are apparently the same as what humans go through, according to what Megatron told him.” There was a bit of a wincing expression in her normally strong and stoic face. “How true is it?”
He hadn’t known that there were, well, similarities between the methods of emergence until he’d sat in a basic “human education” course with the other Cybertronians after they’d called for their alliance with the humans, and Wheeljack had gleefully shown them a video of a human birthing their offspring. It had been… quite messy, much messier than the ancient and long-gone holo clips that most of them had probably seen on Cybertron.
It hurt. He and Dorothy had been through the same types of pain for their reward.
Optimus gently stroked one of Andromeda’s finials and smiled when it twitched and flicked against his digits. She stretched an arm out, reaching further up his chassis and resting her little fist on his windows as he replied, “I think there are a lot more bodily fluids involved when a human sparkling emerges from their carrier, but yes, it is essentially the same.”
Dorothy leaned forward on the chair she sat in, backwards, putting her arms on the back rest of the chair and resting her chin on her folded arms. Her doe-brown eyes looked at the form of the bitlet, safe and secure in her carrier’s arms, and she smiled.
“Megatron talks about her a lot. He talks a lot about you too, don't get me wrong, but with her… he's just absolutely besotted with her. He said the moment he held her-"
"-that the universe coalesced into just her, and he realized he would tear everything apart if it meant keeping her safe," Optimus finished, smiling as he thought of how Megatron had looked at the tiny, squirming form of their daughter in his large servos.
Accessing his internal memory banks, Optimus brought up a voice recording of that day, after Andromeda had been cleaned and Agent Croft thoroughly ignored so they three could be together.
He remembered Megatron's wide red optics, tearful, his gentle kisses, and how reverently he'd whispered "My servos, that ended so many lives, that snuffed out so many sparks, helped bring this beautiful being into the universe. How could I still be so blessed by Primus?"
Andromeda responded to the recording by sitting straight up.
Chirp!
“Oh, I’m sorry Andromeda,” Optimus chuckled and shifted how he held his daughter as she blinked up at him and then looked around for her sire, the source of that familiar voice. “Sire isn’t here yet. I’m sorry that I got your hopes up.”
The sparkling looked disgruntled, but then buried her face in the crook of her carrier’s neck.
"That was more eloquent than Alex was when he saw Robby for the first time," Dot laughed. "He just squealed in delight, and then he fainted."
Optimus thought of how comical it would have been if Megatron had fainted as well - granted that someone else was holding Andromeda - and laughed along with Dot. "Did he repeat that when Mo was born?"
"No, but he got so happy that his blood pressure went through the roof and he had to be sedated. Doctors said they'd never seen it before," Dot snorted. "I was there looking at him sedated in a cot next to me, and I didn't let him live it down when he woke up." She partially covered her mouth with one of her hands. "I still don't," she snickered. "I was there, pushing out an entire baby, and he had the audacity to faint like he was the one having it. But, he and I would go through it all again for them."
Optimus recognized that faraway look that came over Dot's eyes for a bit. It was the same look he got when he remembered all the pain that he went through, the relief, the joy when he held his sparkling for the first time.
"Megatron and I never expected to get together, much less have a sparkling of our own," Optimus said softly, prompting Dot to look up at him attentively. "Everything we both have been through…"
"You'd do it all over again for her, wouldn't you?"
Optimus smiled at Dot, and she smiled back, knowing the answer without him having to speak.
Andromeda began fussing again and Optimus turned his attention back to her. Resetting his vocalizer, he gently clicked at her. She calmed down slightly and curled into him, clicking back.
“Sire will be back soon, I’m certain,” he told the sparkling. She blinked her blue optics at him and made a face of discontent. “I know. I know,” he said softly, kissing the top of her helm. “I miss him too.”
Chirp chirp warble click!
"Ah, Dorothy," came Megatron's voice as he ducked back into the hangar space he shared with his little family. "It's always great to see you. What brings you here?"
"This," Dot unzipped the large portfolio she'd brought along and pulled out a large - to humans, at least - poster. There were scrawls all over it that Optimus recognized were handwriting from all of the Malto children, both humans and Terrans. "They made it the day after Alex and I told them that you both had had a baby of your own, so they made this to welcome her. I only just remembered to bring it over."
Andromeda chirped and looked at the large poster in curiosity, but upon realizing she couldn't read yet, looked up at her sire and held her servos out to him, her wings fluttering.
"Can you?" Optimus held their daughter out to his mate, grimacing and laughing at the same time. "Her wings are almost slapping my face."
Megatron immediately took the bitlet into his arms and kissed her helm crest as Optimus leaned down to gently take the poster from Dot. "Thank you, Dot. We'll be sure to place this somewhere when… well…" he looked around their hangar and frowned.
There were no ways to help them frame such a thing and put it up.
Dot took the hint. "Alex and I are stopping at a hardware store later this month. We can pick up something to help you frame and hang it," she offered.
"That would be much appreciated, thank you."
With that, Dot left.
Megatron pressed his forehelm against Optimus's helm crest and sighed in reverence. Andromeda chirred and Optimus kissed Megatron in return.
"So," Optimus said, looking at the poster and at Andromeda's little makeshift berth on the other end of the room from their own large berth. "Should we hang this over her crib?"
Chirp!