Chapter Text
Orion Pax didn’t know what to make of what he was looking at. It wasn’t the kind of thing that happened to just everybot but here he was, just your average archivist, standing in an alley in front of a crate that had been stuffed behind a dumpster.
It wasn’t the crate itself that was causing him such a crisis but what was inside it.
It was a sparkling.
And not just any sparkling but a seeker sparkling. In Iacon. In a small, dirty alley.
Orion snapped out of his thoughts when there was a soft but obviously distressed chirp from the sparkling.
Mechs were walking and driving past the alley but not one of them even glanced their way. If Orion hadn’t been late today and decided to take a shortcut through the alley, would anyone have noticed the sparkling? Would anyone have cared?
Another chirp finally got him to move as he slowly lowered to a crouch before reaching into the crate and carefully picking up the sparkling.
He was so small that he fit comfortably in just one of Orion’s servos. He was no medical professional but even he could guess that the seekerling was probably not even a cycle old. Even still he was smaller than he would’ve expected a seeker sparkling to be.
He also took the blanket that whoever abandoned the sparkling had at least given him and wrapped it around the cool frame of the small seekerlet. He couldn’t take him to work and he was already late so he might as well call that he couldn’t make it today due to an emergency.
Now he just had to figure out what to do about the little seeker. Probably go to the police? Sparkling abandonment was a serious crime and there was no way someone had accidentally misplaced their sparkling behind a dumpster.
With a clear plan in mind, he made his way towards the nearest police station.
As expected, the clerk was immediately disturbed when Orion told them that he had found a sparkling abandoned behind a dumpster. Unexpectedly, she turned him away when she saw the sparkling.
“I apologize but we don’t deal with seekers here”, she said before ushering him out.
He tried another police station and was met with the same response. He didn’t bother going to a third one. He didn’t think the answer would be different.
So he tried an orphanage instead but the reaction was the same. At first they were receptive but then they found out that the sparkling was a seeker and the tone changed.
“The only places that would take a seeker in are in Vos”, they advised him at least.
But he didn’t have the shanix or time to travel to Vos despite being a neighbouring city-state. Any other city-state he could just drive to but you needed to take a shuttle to reach the floating spires and towers of Vos and that cost a lot.
Orion looked down at the sparkling swaddled inside the starry blanket that he had been abandoned with, gazing up at him with light pink optics that knew nothing of what was happening around him. Such a small, innocent being.
Orion didn’t know what to do. No one would take the little seeker, he couldn’t go to Vos but he also couldn’t just leave the sparkling somewhere either.
So there really was only one logical option; he would have to take care of the sparkling. At least, until he got enough shanix to make the trip to Vos. He would need to save up a lot.
But until then, he knew that he would need some help and there was a mech that could help him, at least in theory. Whether or not he actually did help him was a different thing though, but it was worth a try.
After witnessing mechs that were supposed to be there to help, turning him and the sparkling away, he was starting to feel a bit bleak.
“It will be okay”, he said and he wasn’t sure if he was reassuring the sparkling or himself at this point as he turned to walk the familiar way towards the small clinic where a certain grumpy medic worked. He just hoped Ratchet wasn’t too grumpy today.
But it just wasn’t to be. Even before he entered the clinic, he could hear Ratchet yelling from inside.
Once he did enter, he saw the medic shouting at a sheepish looking mech that was holding his own detached arm in his intact servo. Considering the lack of sympathy or urgency from Ratchet, it hadn’t been a horrific accident but most likely something stupid that had caused the mech’s arm to detach from his frame.
Orion was just going to wait patiently for Ratchet to be free but the medic noticed him come in almost instantly.
“By the Allspark, please don’t tell me you somehow also got injured, Orion”, Ratchet lamented as he waved for the one armed mech to take a seat in the waiting area.
“No, I’m fine”, Orion reassured before gesturing to the sparkling bundled up in the blanket. “But I might need some help.”
Ratchet raised an optical ridge as he peeked at what his friend was holding before freezing when he heard a soft coo followed by the sight of tired, pink optics on a small, round face.
“Follow me”, the medic said and didn’t wait for Orion to acknowledge it before he turned around and headed for one of the examination rooms.
Orion readily followed after him, closing the door behind them once they were in the privacy of the room.
Ratchet immediately rounded on him, pointing accusingly at the little seeker. “Who did you spark and when? Did you even know they were sparked before the emergence? Or- Primus, please, don’t tell me you were carrying and never told me?”
Orion shook his helm quickly. “No, Ratchet, you have it all wrong”, he corrected hastily. “He’s not mine. I found him abandoned.”
Ratchet’s temper seemed to calm down a bit but he by no means looked any happier to learn that. “Someone abandoned a sparkling? You should take him to the police and not to me”, he said.
Orion let out an ex-vent. “I tried to but…” He shifted the blanket to show more of the sparkling. “No one in Iacon will accept a seeker. I tried the police and the orphanage but they all rejected him.”
Ratchet’s frown only grew. “Well, seekers have never been liked that much outside of Vos”, he grumbled.
“But he’s just a sparkling”, Orion pointed out, sounding dejected.
The medic let out an ex-vent. “I know but it’s just how things are”, he said before gesturing for Orion to hand the seekerlet over. “I will take a look at him.”
Orion let out a vent he didn’t realize he was holding and nodded before passing the small bundle over.
Ratchet started with a physical exam. “What’s your plan?”, he asked while looking over the still soft and malleable plating of the sparkling. There were some scratches but nothing major.
Orion scratched at the back of his helm. “I will take him to Vos”, he said.
Ratchet glanced at him briefly before focusing back on the sparkling. “You have the shanix for a trip like that?”, he questioned.
“No”, Orion admitted with a heavy ex-vent. “I…was gonna take care of him until I have saved enough.”
That got him Ratchet’s infamous unimpressed stare. “Do you know how to care for a sparkling?”, he asked.
Orion shifted awkwardly on his pedes. “I thought you might be able to help me with that?”
Ratchet turned back to his work with a grumble. “Of course, you would think that”, he muttered before falling silent as he scanned the sparkling. The little seeker let out a curious chirp at the light passing over him.
For a moment Orion was afraid that Ratchet wouldn’t help him when the medic suddenly broke the silence again.
“You’re going to need to buy some things if you want to take care of a sparkling”, Ratchet said. “Sparklings, especially ones with such delicate tanks like seekers, can only consume medical grade energon. A quarter cube every 2-3 joors for the time being.”
Orion quickly took out a datapad, fumbling with it for a moment in his hurry, and started writing it all down.
“You will also need somewhere for him to sleep where he will stay warm and can’t roll or crawl out of”, Ratchet continued, lifting the seekerlings upper lip a bit to show the still small and developing but sharp denta. “He will also need some enrichment. Sparkling-safe chew toys are a must unless you want him chewing on his own digits.”
Orion nodded. He could get those.
“You will also need to bathe him with oil diluted solvent 3-4 times a deca-cycle to avoid rusting. Around a 3-to-1 ratio. Any stronger and the solvent might eat through his soft, thin plating”, Ratchet warned. “And make sure he doesn’t drink it. His diet should only be pure medical grade energon for the first 13 orns of his life.”
“I understand”, Orion said before a contemplative frown pulled at his facial derma when he realized something.
Ratchet obviously noticed. “What is it?”
“I can’t take him to the archives”, Orion pointed out. “But he needs to be fed every few joors?”
Ratchet let out an ex-vent, looked at the sparkling- he was trying to reach for Ratchet’s servo that was on the examination table- and huffed in resignation. “If you can’t find anyone else to take him during the day, you can bring him here.”
Orion’s optics brightened. “Are you sure?”
Ratchet scoffed as he crossed his arms. “I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t sure”, he said with a roll of his optics.
Orion smiled. “Thank you, my friend.”
Ratchet fumbled for a moment, not used to getting such genuine gratitude from mechs. “Don’t thank me yet. You’re the one who’s going to do most of the work.”
“Even so, thank you for your advice and your time”, Orion said.
The medic huffed before turning back to examine the sparkling. “He is very small”, he said, an obvious change to the subject but Orion didn’t point that out. “Smaller than he should be.”
“Is that a problem?”, Orion questioned worriedly.
“It’s hard to tell at this point”, Ratchet said as he picked up the sparkling, weighing him in his servo. “He’s obviously a runt. Whether that’s due to premature emergence, coding defect or being a quadruplet, it’s hard to tell. Any health issues that he might get will only emerge later on in life if some parts of him grow slower than others.”
“A quadruplet?”, Orion asked, his faceplates paling. “There’s a possibility that there were three more sparklings abandoned there?”
Ratchet shrugged. “It’s a possibility but I think the most obvious reason he was abandoned in the first place is exactly because he is a runt”, he speculated, opening a cabinet and pulling out medical grade energon and a weird looking cube. “It’s also possible that his creators chose to dump him on the streets of Iacon to avoid getting in trouble.”
Orion frowned. “If that was the case, it seems to have worked out for them”, he said disapprovingly.
“Once you get to Vos, I’m sure they will find out who his creators are”, Ratchet reassured as he filled up the cube. “All adult warframes should have their spark signatures on record and they should be able to trace his back to them.”
Orion nodded his understanding before subspacing the datapad. He watched closely as Ratchet carefully fed the small sparkling from the weird cube. It had rounded edges and a nozzle on it. He’d never seen that before but assumed it was for mechs that couldn’t feed their sparklings straight from their lines.
“You can take this home with you”, the medic said, indicating to the cube. “Easier to feed from this than a regular cube without spilling it all over the place.”
“Thank you, Ratchet”, Orion said.
The medic huffed. “Stop it with the gratitude! I’m just doing my job!”
“Just because it’s your job, doesn’t make it any less worthy of gratitude”, Orion argued.
Ratchet was about to reply when- obviously energized from the fresh energon in his system- the sparkling let out a loud shriek, making both mechs cringe away from the sound.
“He sure has a powerful vocalizer at least”, he noted, rubbing at one of his audials with one servo while trying to soothe the sparkling. Once he quieted down, Ratchet wrapped him back up in the blanket, with the ease of someone who had done it thousands of times, before holding the sparkling for Orion to take. “You can take him home now. If anything comes up, you can stop by but be sure to remember my instructions.”
“I will, my friend”, Orion affirmed as he subspaced the cube before he took the small bundle containing the precious little seeker.
“One more question”, Ratchet said when Orion was about to open the door. “What will you tell Elita?”
“I-” Orion honestly hadn’t even thought of that. His thoughts had been centered on what to do with the sparkling and he had forgotten all about what his courted would think of this.
Ratchet let out a tired ex-vent. “You haven’t even thought of it, have you?”, he guessed before throwing his servos up in resignation. “Relationship issues aren’t my problem. All I can say is good luck.”
Orion was sure that he would need that.