After contemplating this all night and no having computer access till now I've thought long and hard. The baby does. With few memories and no real notions of right and wrong- just little feelings of this is right while something different was wrong- he likes happily ever after. Happily ever after is right here, right now. Cuddled in the cave with his sire all though his current ic status is wandering dangerously....
His elder self does not. There is no happily ever after There then, now, and tomorrow- but no happily ever after. It's made up to make young sparklings sleep happily through the nights recharge. HEA has no monsters, no sorrow, no pain. But when the past molds you- when the pain physically goes away but it still makes your spark and and you cry, where monsters aren't a thing but a mech you know- nothing will give you that HEA. There's only happy and sad and time.