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Slipstream stared down at the squishy blob of an infant in her servos, the infant in turn blinked its large optics slowly before squealing and kicking its little nub-like pedes uselessly in front of her. “Primus you’re ugly.” She muttered turning away from the door and walking toward the living area in her habsuite.
Her day had been relatively uneventful for the most part, she’d gone on patrol, gotten her aft beat on patrol, and complained about it to her coworkers when she got back. She’d been planning to spend the rest of the day sulking around base and doing as much lazing about as she could do without getting in trouble, that was until she’d had the ugliest sparkling to probably ever exist put into her care. The infant in question, which she had set on the ground in front of her spot on the couch, was wiggling around on its stomach while its nub feet kicked behind itself.
Everyone knew what a sparkling was, that was a given, but to actually see one at this stage of development was… weird to say the least. It had no plating and no legs aside from the small pedes sprouting out of its sides so it was functionally just a blob with a helm that was waving its arms around and clicking its mandibles at her. She knew Soundmaker had a sparkling with her but she never expected to truly see it while it was still so young, much less be asked to take care of it for a couple hours.
“What do you even do?” She asked the infant while cautiously poking its side with the tip of her pede, in turn the infant chirped loudly and tried to reel around to grab her. She startled yanking her pede back before it could try and chew on her plating which it seemed to be displeased by but ultimately forgot about as it quickly went back to trying to crawl around.
Of all the people that Soundmaker could’ve asked to watch her sparkling, why on cybertron did it have to be her? She didn’t know the first thing about what to do with this thing. This was all Shadowstrikers fault, she just had to go and ask the medic on a date didn't she. Eugh they were so annoying it’s like they can’t decide if they want to date or offline each other, hell sometimes it seemed like they were convinced they could do both.
All the time they were galavanting around base, sparkling in tow, while they got in some dumb fight about anything they saw. But it seems like date night’s too good to bring a sparkling with so now she had to watch their ugly baby while they probably insulted each other in the middle of a bar somewhere, typical. Oh what she wouldn’t give to be at a bar right now but here she is babysitting a squishy alarm clock.
The infant had ceased its crawling attempts and was now staring up at her while it let out the most horrid high pitched chirps one could possibly imagine, its tiny face wrinkled up in what looked like its best impression of a piece of melted plastic. Dragging a servo down her faceplate she stared up at the ceiling exventing heavily. What in the fresh hell could it possibly want? Picking the infant up she held it close to her chest as it squeaked and squirmed incessantly snapping its mandibles. Is it hungry? Who the hell asks for food like that? “Weirdo,” She muttered.
Standing from the couch she walked toward the kitchenette while cradling the infant in her arms, or cradling at best she could with its less than appreciated wiggling. She plopped the sparkling down on the counter where it continued shrieking at her while she grabbed a cube of energon from the cabinet above it and popped the top off. How the hell do you feed a sparkling? It has mandibles for primus’s sake. How did it even drink? Does it just chew on the cube or does she have to like pipette the energon into its mouth? Why the hell are sparklings built like this?
Awkwardly she placed the cube on the counter in front of the infant and slowly slid it towards its face. The infant, smelling the food, eagerly grabbed the rim of the cube and nearly toppled it over trying to stick its face into the energon. Yelping she reached out a servo to hold the cube steady while the infant clamped its mandible onto the side of the cube extending a tube like structure from its intake into the liquid. Oh, is that like a proboscis or something? I guess that explains how it drinks even if it’s kind of weird and ugly and there are probably better methods.
The sparkling drank with surprising haste emptying about half the cube before it seemingly decided it had had enough and let go. She awkwardly slid the cube away before staring at the infant who was now curiously nibbling on its claws while it stared back at her. Reaching out a single finger she poked its side to which it squealed in delight and reached for the digit. This time she let it grab onto her its little claws clicking against her plating and the soft palms of its servos closing around her finger.
She let out a huffing laugh as it held her finger curiously taping her plating with its claws. Maybe it was kind of cute in a super duper ugly kind of way, she’d probably never want one but she can see why Soundmaker keeps this one around. The infant at this point had grown tired of simply holding her finger and clamped its mandibles down on the tip of the digit. Panic and shock flashed in her mind as she prepared to jerk her servo away only to realise it actually didn’t actually hurt all that bad.
It certainly wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world but it wasn’t like it wasn’t absolute agony or something. Of course it wasn’t, she was a decepticon seeker it would be foolish for her to be harmed by a little blobs little mandibles.
Letting out an uncharacteristic giggle she scooped up the infant lifting it off the counter and into her arms, the little thing chirped and tapped her canopy glass with its soft servos. Walking back toward the couch she plopped down in her previous spot and set the sparkling in her lap. She grabbed its tiny servos in her own much larger ones and began to sway the infant from side to side. “Look, you're dancing!” She said in a baby voice that she would be torn limb from limb before she let anyone else hear her use. The sparkling chirped and squeaked with glee squeezing her thumbs with its servos and kicking its nubby pedes against her legs.
She shifted her servos to its sides, grabbing its little body and lifting it into the air, swooshing it around; she imitated plane sounds before she popped it back onto the couch beside her. The sparkling squealed, patting her side before it curled in on itself and absentmindedly nibbled its claws.
For a while she simply watched the infant as it slowly began to drift off to recharge its belly facing the ceiling. She was still mad at Shadowstriker and Soundmaker for dumping this thing on her so last minute just so they could go on their dumb date. By the allspark she was going to offline them when they finally came to pick the little blob up for doing that. Maybe though it wasn’t all bad, the sparkling was cute-ish and it was good enough company. She wouldn’t be mad if Soundmaker asked her to babysit again.