Parental figures
Masterlist
Cybertronians come online to a world that has already given them the basics of how to live. If a new spark emerged in the wild (in the earliest cycles of their race), they could be found around natural sentio metallico and knew the location of the closest energon source. They have their full length or are closer to it. They are developing their plating, if they are lucky they will be found by a group and be an iron apprentice to an already matured individual, new cybertronians are, for most part, ready to live as soon as they online, even the ones that come from carriers are very much ready to consume raw energon crystals and can move on their own, most of them need more time to get an alt mode but are self-sufficient until that point of development, but none are them are tiny, or not so as much as human infants.
Most organic beings on Earth tend to call out for their biological parents or whoever tends to them since the first feeling of life running through their bodies, most of them cry, scream, or chirp to find whoever is out there to take care of them, a feeling so engraved in their nature that comes from their DNA, maybe learned at some point, adapted, gained, some creatures do it to be cared of by being that aren't even related to them, they ask to be feed, to be cleaned, to be protected, and to share warmth, sometimes, by reasons not even their own can explain, the new life is gone, just gone, and it can be even comprehended because: “mortality rates” as their only explanation, or you can do everything right and still have problems because is a body that is learning how to exist and function.
So, due to such differences, it is obvious that some Cybertronians are going to have a crash course with being parental figures for creatures of Earth.
And while at it, with the most bizarre and nerve-cracking facts of their new charges.
“Blurr”, paternity, and new schedules, make your energy levels even more low than usual, and you love him, especially in how much he has helped with the baby, he is a nice husband, but she has only been here for a week and so but he acts like she is somehow going to kick it before she can properly move around, “please come back to the bed”.
Said husband is over the pod crib, his optics are dimmed but still online, they have been for so long that you're sure the baby considers it a bed lamp to this point, his digit just there for her to grab for as long as her sleep time goes, tiny face free of any problem, any grievances or horrors while Blurr looks like he is going to cry at any moment, “what if she doesn't wake up?”
You swear low, because you both promised she won't say a bad word at least until she is at least 5, and damn that horrible soap opera, maybe it is time to stop the direct connection with human television because this is stupid on a whole different level, “Blurr, that doesn't happen as often as the TV says it does”.
As if that is going to make him calm down, all that can keep him grounded is looking her body move, examine that rise and fall that show that she is breathing, feel the gentle grab of her tiny fingers on his digit, and he can't leave her, he just can not leave her because what if she is just gone when he activates the next day? He lets you get a hold of his faceplate, he lets you kiss him, but it will be harder to get him back to the berth, because his spark couldn't take it if anything happened to her and he is just there.
“I can't-”
“Blurr, we are literally sleeping in the same room with her, you can go back to the bed and still have a hand in her crib, just come to sleep”
Humans can't communicate in the early stages, at least not like adults do. They rely on short sounds, much like some Beastformers' sparklings do. However, curiously enough, it sometimes feels like they can follow a conversation.
Max does a shrill cry, searching for more attention and trying to grab the fabric on her head with clumsy tiny hands, “only a moment”, she counter attacks with another high pitched sound and Buster tongue laps at her face to distract her, whining with her in some kind of compassion, enough time for your boyfriend to finish his work and croon at her “Oh, look at you”, Buster sneezed, her pink bow went flying, “You two are so lovely”, Max was babbling in her crib with Buster, hands trying to reach Thundercracker, “Oh my sweet baby, it does look pretty in you”, all she mumbles is gibberish, but he keeps talking to her, because sparklings can talk as soon as they come online.
“You do know she doesn't understand a word you are saying, right?” your boyfriend looks almost offended by your words, wings up high in alarm.
He isn't mad, but he likes to think his baby knows he loves her very much, “she does, of course she does!”, but all Max does is babble to him, grabbing as hard as she can to Buster’s paw and her pompous dress.
Most new humans are anything but dexterous, they can not move their necks or roll their bodies until much later in life, they cannot even focus their sight for the first few days, and they need to be cleaned constantly by different kinds of fluids and so on, their arms move from side to side, now realizing that “hey, what is this?” as if their members are a new found mystery.
“You having fun there?”, Jazz is sprawled on the floor, visor bright while looking at Pauline trying to put a hand firmly on the ground as if it was the epitome of physical advance, and for her, it was, it took a while to reach this point, still remembering when she started to roll on her belly and now she is a pro at it, last time he left her in the center of her playpen only to find her at the left, rolling like a tire at the nobility of movement.
It made him so excited, even more so than the baby or you, “come on” using his servo to push up his whole frame, flexing middle handstand, her tiny mouth opening in disbelief at his flaunting scene, “I’m dying here to show you a few things”, you hear Jazz laugh from the other side of your place, turns out, Pauline didn't like how her dad showed off in front of her, and planted her hand right in his visor, her angry “bah!” as he just accepts his fate of being yelled at.
New humans don't change their armor periodically like cybertronians do while ending their growth (which is minimal), but humans change so much that it's not even funny, their hair grows every day and falls in the same nature with the constant need to be maintained, their nails have to be trimmed or it can become a mess, they change clothes, all the time! All the freaking time there is something new to catch up to!
So imagine the surprise when Dragstrip is comfortably recharging with you in his chest piece, cybertronians don't need as much time as humans to restore their energy but he has been in work for several hours and even had to deal with Motormaster, again, his circuits are fried beyond belief and all he needs right now is a deep, long, recharge session and maybe a shot of nightmare fuel in his early morning energon, only to feel a tap tap on his pauldron, one that keeps coming even if he growls and is oh so tempted just to kill whatever it is pestering him, only to power up his optics to see those brown eyes looking right at him, “Daddy, my tooth fell off”
Takes him a second, to realize the piece of calcium-concentrated thing in the hand of his iron apprentice, the drops of blood, and the saline drops soon fall when she recognizes the repulsion in his face plate and confuses it with terror, and if the mentor is in terror then the charge is expected, in her very organic way, to cry and secrete mucus like it is an intergalactic competition, “no, no, don't leak! It is-”, his purging sounds and the cries of your daughter makes you wake up apart from losing the chest where you were sleeping on, falling to the floor by the acceleration in of his movements at handling her high, just because Halo likes it that way, “just calm down! You don't hurt, right?”, his visor shines. He looks at you with absolute terror, “This slag doesn't hurt, right?” The absolute terror on him is more than enough to make you wonder if it is time to spare him while he lets her hide her face in his neck cables to give her a sense of protection as his servos press her to him, to shield her from something so out of his control, “right?!”
New humans are highly dependent on hormones to even feel something, their emotions also have origins in their biology, tears are high in different types of chemicals that contribute to the reason why they cry, a sad tear will not be the same as a happy one and cybertronians can tell the difference to some degree if they look closely enough, it takes time, that's for sure, and every length wave of their low, soft EMF tries to hold onto what it can find if they feel lonesome.
Takes a while to really get the hang of it, especially while trying not to stick the fibers of hair inside his digits, Rosalinde is lonely, and he does understand, she lost her sister, and Bumblebee is still trying to pass over his mistakes as a leader, they have lost so many humans so far and he asks to himself what could Optimus do in this situation, how to even make this tiny girl smile again as she sleeps in his lap, asking for some affection in a way that gave no way to say “no” to her, coming with her tiny blanket dragging in the soil before giving him the most spark crushing big eyes he has ever seen full of tears before letting herself fall in his lap, asking for something, for someone to hold her and give her security when everything falls apart.
It's his fault, Bumblebee wants to tell her, it is because of him and his errors that they keep losing people, and all he can do for her now is to stay here with her, a digit over her head, massaging and revving his engines from time to time to let her sleep longer, let her know he is there, and he isn't leaving her by anything in the world.
“Wow”
His plating jumped not only in surprise but also in anger, trying to appear bigger to protect the life depending on him, just to be surprised, and embarrassed when he sees you there, watching him with the tiny girl using him as a giant bed, “I’m just-”, Bumblebee looks around, a servo over the sleeping child in a protective manner, “she had problems to sleep and you know, well, I was trying to help and-”, you smile faintly, with surprise, and it is obvious you have seen him cradling her badly because he knows humans don't like to be treated as pets by them, call it weird, but he just wanted to do right to this child, but he doesn't want to be seen like that, much less by you, “it is nothing, really, she was just so sad and if I could help her…”
He can't finish the sentence, too focused at being catched in this, all he can do is cover her tiny body with a servo to keep her away from the cold bite of the wind, looking at the floor, Bumblebee can't even look you in the eyes in fear of a disappointed or disgusted expression directed to him, only to hear: “you would make a great dad” and looking into your eyes, that sweet smile directed at him.
All in all, you attributed the rumble of his engines to some kind of white noise for Rosalinde.
