Big Buddies

[Requiem]

Characters: @steamhammer
Location: Nemesis hallways
Content Warnings: n/a
Plot Summary: After managing to sneak away from his caretakers Requiem goes in search of his carrier among the busy halls of the Nemesis.

[Requiem]

He didn't recognize anything as he made his wobbly way along the hallway in search of a familiar face.  Preferably his papa.  He wanted a cuddle, he wanted feeding, he wanted to be held so he could recharge, he wanted to rest without hurting all over as his spark pined for being separated from twin and the mech that carried him.  He sniffled but kept going, forcing his little mind to work out what he needed to do and not dwell on the things he needed.  He was a smart sparkling, he could make this work for him.  Just because he'd never been out of the medbay before the strange creature took him from there didn't mean he couldn't figure it out.  His energy levels were low again, he needed to rest.  But he didn't know which way he'd come from and wouldn't go back if he did.  But at least he knew the strange creature would protect him.  Would these other bots?  He didn't know the answer.

His legs hurt.  He could walk by himself, but it took much more out of him.  So, logically, that meant he could get further if he crawled.  So he plopped down and kept on stubbornly going forward, looking up to try and find a distinctive paint job he recognized or someone friendly that would take him where he wanted to go.  He'd rather not have a stranger pick him up, but that was preferable to falling into stasis sleep on the floor where he'd be crushed by unaware pedes.

He grunted as he ran into a large metal rock.  "Umf."  He rubbed his little helm then hauled himself up onto the metal rock.  Even though it was attached to a metal pillar at least he'd be off the floor.  Nobody wanted to step on a rock, it could get lodged in the pede.  Requiem clung to the rock and pressed flat against it, growling at anybot that got too close to where he was clung so they'd no not to step on him.  Eventually he pressed more to his perch and purred at it. "Good rock."

[Deleted]

Clunk.

Steamhammer was used to the sound of random debris hitting his frame, conditioned into him over millions of years as a construction worker. Things banging into him came with the job, and subsequently the war that followed. Still, this didn't sound like Hightower had dropped his fusion cutter from the tenth floor of an under-construction megaplex again, and it didn't feel like a projectile either. Not to mention it was sitting on his foot.

The hulking Decepticon slowly glanced down to see a small speck clinging to his pede. He might've just brushed it off as a piece of debris he happened to have stepped on if he weren't a more thorough bot. It was a teeny tiny sparkling, on the Nemesis of all places. A barrage of questions flooded into Steamhammer's mind. Why was a sparkling here? Whose child was this? Was he about to accidentally step on it?? He looked around as if doing so would provide him an answer. Nothing. The halls were utterly empty, and Steamhammer was alone; with a baby.

There was absolutely no way in hell he was going to either pry the sparkling off and leave them, or continue along his merry way with them still latched on to his foot. Steamhammer saw only a single solution to his dilemma. Now, years of trying had led him to believe he could not actually stretch his arms all the way down there, normally. So, he improvised. The Constructicon's right arm folded back inside his torso, and was promptly switched for his over-sized excavator arm, previously having been resting on his back.

The arm was long enough to reach the floor without Steamhammer throwing his back out, which was good for the both of them. He opened the excavator bucket, positioning it so that the sparkling would have an easier time crawling inside. He was going to take them for a ride, like the responsible adult he was.

"Little man, I need you to crawl in here. I would rather carry you than step on you, accidentally."

[Requiem]

Had his rock just spoken to him. Requiem didn't realize he was sitting on a pede at first, his tired processors wouldn't let him put it together, so he stared at his rock with wide optics, then petted it. "Good rock." He told it. And then something above him shifted and he looked up to realize he was at the feet of the biggest grown-up bot he'd ever seen. His voice was as big as him, and rumbled through the tiny sparkling when he spoke to him.

Requiem functioned at a slightly higher level than his twin, mostly because his little body was weaker so his mind had to compensate. He looked up at the huge adult and felt his mouth fall open. But his processors were whirling, several outcomes presenting themselves and several plans blowing through before being just as quickly dismissed. The scoop was stared at for the longest time before he shimmied his way into is and plopped over onto his back.

"Big-bot take me home?" He asked hopefully, cuddling the scoop like it was a hand. At least with this big bot he'd be safe from being squashed. "Big-bot save me." He tapped his chassis. "Name is Requiem." He yawned and cuddled the scoop again. "Go home now?"

[Deleted]

Somehow, Steamhammer was now in this situation. Alone, and now carrying around a rogue sparkling in his excavator. He wished he was being shot at, instead; he didn't have anything against sparklings, just that he was lacking the experience necessary to deal with them. He held the little one closer to get a better look at him, before the image of a little sparkling falling nearly sixty feet popped into his head.That was something that wouldn't be happening on his watch.

Steamhammer extended his arm once more, taking a few moments to transform. His alt-mode was much better suited for traversing the Nemesis' hallways, anyway; he'd always hated scraping his head against the ceiling. Even better was the fact that Requiem now wasn't perched so high up in the air. The excavator began to roll along the metal flooring, slowly. Steamhammer wasn't going anywhere in particular, not quickly at least, so he decided to pry a little.

"Hello Requiem, it is nice to meet you. I am Steamhammer, and I do not know where your home is. Could you tell me... if you can?"

[Requiem]

Red optics stared at his new big buddy from his safe little nest inside the scoop. He squeaked when the other transformed, but otherwise didn't make a sound. He did yawn, however. "Steamhammer." He repeated it back perfectly, filing away the others designation for later. He could speak clearly, but he was also getting very weak and tired again.

But he was supposed to answer the question, he wasn't a rude sparkling. Even if he didn't particularly like being touched, at least this stranger was taking him somewhere else. "Um....been in medbay. Not sick sparkling, but medic say I am sick sparkling so has to stay in the medbay till I am not sick sparkling." That made perfect sense, yes. "Never been outside medbay till creature Ravage came and got me. So..." He motioned outwards to indicate the ship they were on. "Is home?"

[Deleted]

The question of where the hell had this sparkling come from had been bouncing around Steamhammer's head for the past few minutes. There were dozens of places a sparkling could come from, to the Nemesis, not into existence. He had hoped he'd merely just stumbled into the sparkling of one of the crew, perhaps. From what little information the little one provided, however, the hulking Decepticon grew more and more horrified.

This was an Autobot. Not just an Autobot, but an Autobot sparkling.

Ravage of all people wouldn't steal a child from a Decepticon medbay. Both variables weren't proportionate. It would be like sending Demolishor for a liter of Engex from the store. The entire store would be gone by the time he returned. No, he was carrying around a kidnapped Autobot sparkling with no prior supervision.

Steamhammer was a parent now, whether he liked it or not.

"Home is not a place, little one. Home is who you feel the safest around."

Despite his calm exterior, the normally stoic Decepticon was about to pop a circuit thinking of how best to deal with the situation before him.

[Requiem]

"Oh." He knew that. Requiem thought about it for a long time, then yawned and started to suck on his digits as he put his thoughts in order. Then the digit popped out. "Soundwave is safe. Creature Ravage say Soundwave take care of me. Soundwave feed me, Soundwave keep me warm, do best to cuddle. 'wave not very good cuddler, but he trying very hard." He gave a little nod. "Soundwave take care of me."

Little red optics peeked up at his large buddy then out to see where they were going. It amused him to feel so big in the scoop, Steamhammer was BIG, so big that all the other grown ups looked little in comparison. "Steamhammer BIG!" He cheered and yawned, plopping back into the scoop. "You feed me now? I'm hungry, I hurt, I want a cuddle." He whimpered and sniffled helplessly. "I good sparkling."

[Deleted]

Figures that Ravage would've offloaded Requiem on his boss. Soundwave was not the nurturing, or even sociable type. But, the mere presence of a sparkling meant the paradigm had to shift one way or another. Steamhammer wasn't sure whether or not the child had been taken as a means to mold him into a proper Decepticon, but he was here, now. Still, he wondered just how somebody like Soundwave would take care of a sparkling like that. He kept his mouth shut about any judgments or assumptions for the moment.

Then came the demands, sparkling style. He hadn't even considered feeding Requiem until now; a side effect of the men of his former crew knowing to feed themselves most of the time. There was a single spot on the Nemesis that was guaranteed to have some energon for him. "You are right. Good sparklings get energon." Steamhammer had no criteria with which to compare to Requiem, so he assumed that he was a good boy.

The massive excavator rolled up to the guarded doors of the ship's energon stockpile, staffed by a pair of vehicons. Steamhammer transformed as he approached their post, keeping Requiem held upright in his shovel while he did so. He stood rather threateningly above the pair of drones as they regarded him in a mixture of absolute silence and terror. He tilted his shovel, sticking up behind his helm, twenty five degrees down to show Requiem sitting there without a care in the world. Wordlessly, both of the vehicons stepped aside after unlocking the door. Without saying another word, Steamhammer entered the stockpile.

Steamhammer made his way over towards the output terminal, and punched in the dimensions of a fairly child-sized cube of energon. He held it up with painstaking care not to accidentally pop it between his fingers, hopeful that it would be enough to sate Requiem for the moment.