"What's Tickling?"—a Transformers RID 2015 Story

Summary: Sideswipe, Strongarm, Grimlock and Fixit ask Bumblebee about tickling after seeing Russell, Denny and Joy play, and Bee explains it in his own way. Please no flames.

TF RID © Hasbro

Joy © ME

~What's Tickling?~

"RUSSELL! GIVE HIM BACK!"

Russell laughed as he took off around the scrap yard, tucking his older sister Joy's beloved stuffed panda under his arm, and fleeing as fast as he could from her. When Joy was mad, he knew to stay ten miles away from her. But it didn't hurt to have a little fun and mess around just to make her fume even more.

"You want it so bad?! Come and get it!" he teased, holding the stuffed panda in the air by a leg, then raced off again.

"I swear, Russell, if you drop him, I will hammer you ten feet into the ground!" Joy hollered, picking up the pace. "AND DON'T YOU EVER HOLD HIM LIKE THAT!"

The kids both sped by Bumblebee, Strongarm, Grimlock and Sideswipe, who were returning from a patrol unit to collect more stasis cells. The Autobots watched them run by with dust trails behind them, confused as to what was going on.

"What was that all about?" asked Strongarm.

Denny sighed a laugh, shaking his head as he walked up to them. "Russell's got Joy's panda bear again," he explained. "Her grandma made it for her and it's been her ultimate treasure ever since. She'd throw fits as a child when I took it away to wash off the food stains."

Fixit came down from his station in the scrap yard, letting out a whistle. "I don't think I've ever seen Joy so glad—rad—MAD," he said with his constant glitch.

"An angry Joy?! This I gotta see!" Sideswipe grinned and went off after the two human children.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Grimlock shouted and followed. "I wanna see them fight, too!"

Strongarm and Bumblebee exchanged glances, shrugged, then followed the others with Denny and Fixit right behind them.

Russell went down one isle of the scrap yard and another, clutching the panda bear tightly, laughing and taunting his older sister—until he hit a dead end. He gulped as he stared at the tall mountain of "treasure" that blocked his way. "I should probably start digging my grave now..."

"Oh, you'd better believe it."

Russell jumped and turned to see Joy standing in front of his only way out, and her sickly grin made his heart race. "Heh-heh-heh. Looks like poor little Rusty has reached his end. Now, be a good little brat, and HAND OVER MY PANDA," she threatened, balling her hands into tight fists.

The Autobots watched from around the corner. "This is gonna be good," Sideswipe chuckled.

"I hope she throws punches," Grimlock said eagerly.

"No," Strongarm said, "Russell could get hurt. Should we intervene, sir?" She looked to Bumblebee.

"I think they'll be fine," he declared.

"They will be," Denny confirmed. "This has happened millions of times in the past."

"Are you speaking accurately or figuratively, Mr. Clay?" asked Fixit, but he never got an answer.

Each step closer Joy took, Russell nearly jumped out of his pants. She popped her knuckles and smiled sinisterly. "If you don't hand over my panda by the count of three, you will regret it."

Russell hugged the panda close. "You're gonna have to make me, Joy!" he exclaimed and stuck out his tongue.

"Fine. Have it your way. THREE!" Joy shouted and lunged right at him, tackling him to the ground.

"What happened to numbers one and two?" asked Strongarm.

"Maybe she forgot how to count?" Grimlock suggested.

"No," Bee said, "humans sometimes do such a thing to get straight to the point, or just to joke around."

"I see no joke in this at all," Fixit said worriedly. "Joy is making Russell spasm!"

The bots looked at him funny, then they perked up when they heard Russell suddenly start laughing. They looked to where the children were and saw Joy doing something to Russell that made him laugh uncontrollably and thrash around. Her hands were around his sides and her fingers wiggled rapidly.

"Give, give, give!" she demanded.

"N-Never!" Russell shouted in between laughs.

Denny smiled; he liked seeing his kids have fun instead of arguing over little, unimportant things. As he watched them, his smile became mischievous, and he crept down the isle.

"Denny Clay? What are you doing?" asked Strongarm.

Denny shushed her and continued creeping up on Joy and Russell, who were completely unaware of his presence.

Joy kept tickling her little brother until his hold on her panda gave way, and she snatched it into her arms. "Ha, you little snot! Gotcha!" she said triumphantly.

"And I've got you!" came Denny's voice. Before Joy could react and flee, she felt her dad's fingers wiggle into her sides and she let out a shriek before laughing uncontrollably herself.

"Dad, stop!" she tried to say in her angriest voice but her laughs took over.

"Make room, Dad!" Russell said and joined in, tickling his big sis under her arms and on her stomach.

"Aha-ha-ha-ha! I-I'll kill you both!" she shouted, but her threats made no mark on her family, for they continued despite her harsh words. Meanwhile, the bots watched in awe and confusion. Then, Denny suddenly turned on Russell and started tickling him, leaving both kids exhausted and curled up on the ground. While they strove to recover their strength, Denny walked off standing tall, brushing his hands off.

"Joy, Russell. Are you alright?" asked Bumblebee.

"Yeah...We're good..." Russell said exhaustedly, giving a thumbs up while rubbing his side with his other hand.

"What in the name of Cybertron was that?!" Sideswipe exclaimed.

"Aw, there were no punches," Grimlock pouted.

Joy chuckled. "Sorry, Grim, there aren't any punches in tickle fights—unless you can't control your body."

"...What's tickling?" Sideswipe, Strongarm, Grimlock and Fixit asked in unison.

Bumblebee, with his prior visit to Earth with Optimus, had seen such interaction between humans before, thus had a reasonable explanation. "Tickling," he began, "is when one human touches another human on a certain part of their body, and it makes them laugh."

"But it didn't seem funny," Grimlock said innocently.

"Well, it isn't really," Bee added, "but from what I've seen, it helps make people feel better."

"Or, in Joy's case, to get what you want," Denny stated.

Bee saw the others were still confused and sighed; then he smiled as a thought occurred to him. "Would you prefer to see a demonstration?"

"I would! Me!" Grimlock said excitedly, waving his arms. "I love demonstrations!"

"Very well," Bumblebee grinned, "but keep your arms out to the side for a minute, okay?"

"Okay!" Grimlock did as he was told while Bumblebee went and stood behind him. "Why do you want me to hold my—YEEK!" Grimlock squealed when Bumblebee put his hands up to his sides and wiggled his fingers. Grimlock found himself unable to keep himself from smiling and started laughing loudly, although this wasn't the least bit funny at all. "GYAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! OH-HO-HO-HO MAKE IT STOP! STOP IT!" he pleaded.

Bumblebee chuckled, stopped, and backed away as Grimlock fell over, weak from laughing. "You see?"

"Aw, that was so cute!" Joy teased. "Grimlock's ticklish!"

Grimlock quickly recovered his strength and stood up. "That wasn't funny...but it was fun!" he exclaimed with a grin. "I wanna try!" He eyed Fixit and raced over to him.

"Oh, dear!" Fixit yelped and tried to escape, but before he could get away, he was already scooped up by Grimlock and held tightly in a gentle grip. "Grimlock, put me down right—ACK!" Grimlock started wiggling a claw across his abdomen. He felt this sudden urge to laugh and smile, but couldn't overcome it. In a matter of seconds, he was giggling loudly and wriggling in the Dinobot's hold. "AHA-HA-HA-HA! YEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE! G-GRIMLA-HA-HA-HA-OCK! CEASE THI-HI-HI-HI-HIS! PLEASE!"

Grimlock only giddily grinned and kept going. "This is fun!"

Bumblebee smiled, glad to see the big guy enjoying himself, but he could already see Fixit beginning to fade. "Alright, Grim, let's not overwork him," he said, holding a hand up to signal the Dinobot to cease tickling.

"Aw," Grimlock whined and sat the minicon down on the ground.

Fixit was so exhausted that he nearly fell over, but luckily Denny was there to catch him. "Whew...for a moment there, I thought I was going to go permanently offline!"

"Ah, don't worry about it," Denny said. "Tickling is harmless."

"Sure doesn't seem like it," said Strongarm. "And I still do not see how this is 'fun' if the other person is wanting them to stop, but they don't?"

"It's all fun and play, cadet," Bee said with a shrug.

"You sound like you speak from experience," Russell pointed out.

Bumblebee opened his mouth to say more, but stopped himself and kept his mouth shut. But the other bots noticed and became rather curious. "Do you speak from experience, sir?" asked Strongarm.

"W-Well, I...um..." the leader stammered.

"You went through this kind of stuff?" Sideswipe said, then scoffed a laugh.

"Ooh," Joy teased, "team leader Bumblebee's ticklish, too?"

At this, Grimlock perked up and grinned with a sinister, yet playful chuckle. Bumblebee swallowed hard. Indeed, he had gone through the art of tickling before. Back when he was a member of Team Prime, his human companion Raf had found out he was ticklish by climbing around on his abdomen, but it's always been between them. He could not imagine what would happen if his teammates found out. "Scrap," he said, then took off with Grimlock behind him.

"Hey, wait for us!" Russell shouted, and they all followed Bee and Grim around the scrap yard. While Bee did give his best efforts to avoid the Dinobot, Grimlock eventually tackled and firmly held him down to the ground on his back.

"Grim—AHA!" Bumblebee jolted when he felt Grimlock's fingers dig into his sides directly besides his abdomen, and all words were forced down into his throat, being replaced by loud laughter. "AHA-HA-HA! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! G-GRIMLO-HA-HA-HA-HA-OCK!"

While the others laughed at the thought of their leader being helplessly tickled by the Dinobot, Strongarm was in shock. "He's practically assaulting him! That's strict violation of—!"

"Who cares?" Sideswipe interrupted. "It's fun to watch, and Bee can take care of himself." Strongarm frowned, strongly disagreeing with him, but did see Bumblebee was in no real danger, so she lowered her guard and remained where she was.

"AHA-HA-HA-HA-HA! O-OKAY-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE! GRIM, PLEASE, HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! E-ENOUGH!" Bumblebee begged, banging his fists against Grimlock's arms, not too harshly, but strong enough to make his point that he was done.

"Aw, okay," Grimlock said and complied, and watched Bumblebee lay there, panting and rubbing his sides and abdomen. Grimlock couldn't help but giggle. "That was fun."

Bee breathed a laugh as he sat up. "Perhaps for you."

"Well, you sure seemed like you were enjoying yourself," Joy said, resting a hand on her hip with a smirk.

"That had to be the most priceless thing I've ever seen," Russell laughed.

Bee blushed, a little embarrassed the humans and his teammates had to see that. But he wasn't going to stand by and let them tease him. With a mischievous smile, he reached down and scooped the two kids up.

"Russell! Joy!" exclaimed Fixit.

"Oh, they're in for it," said Denny.

"Hey! Let go!" Joy demanded.

Bee grinned sinisterly at them. "So, you think it's funny to laugh at me while I am helpless? Well, let us see how you like it!" With his free hand, he carefully tickled the two humans on their stomachs, and they instantly started laughing and giggling, wriggling in his palm, trying to escape his finger to no avail.

"Okay, okay-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee! W-We're sorry!" Russell cried.

"Sta-ha-ha-hap! C-Cut it out—ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Joy squealed, hitting Bee's fingers as hard as she could.

"Sorry, but no can do," Bee told them. "You two need to be taught a lesson."

"Lesson learned!" Russell exclaimed as he rolled around, hugging himself tightly. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! No more! Please!"

Seeing tears in their eyes, Bumblebee knew now was the time to stop. He ceased tickling them and carefully sat them back down on the ground, then stood up and brushed himself off.

"Are you alright, sir?" Strongarm asked. "Grimlock didn't hurt you at all, did he?"

"No, I'm fine," Bee answered with assurance. "It's like Denny said, it's harmless."

"Then why were you begins so much?"

"Because soon it becomes unbearable," answered Russell, "so you do what you can to make it stop, without hurting the other person, since they're only playing around."

Sideswipe cringed. "Humans have the weirdest ways of interacting with one another," he said. "Things like...tickling...don't happen back on Cybertron."

"Really?" said Russell.

"So you have no way of knowing if your ticklish or not?" Joy asked, and Sideswipe shook his head no. She and Russell exchanged glances, grinned, and then looked back at Sideswipe. "Well, good thing that the fun part of it is finding out."

Sideswipe paled. "Wait, what?"

Joy chuckled and looked to the Dinobot. "Grimlock, get him!" she ordered.

Grimlock smiled wickedly and lunged for Sideswipe before he had a chance to escape. Sideswipe tried wriggling and kicking free, but realized that Grimlock was sitting on him. "Urgh! Grim! If you don't get offa me in the next microsecond, I swear I am gonna—GYAH!" His words stopped as he felt a funny feeling in his sides as Grimlock wiggled his fingers there. He snickered as his lip plates quivered into a smile, and he suddenly burst out laughing. "HA-HA-HA! GRIMLOCK, HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! Y-YOU BIG BOZO! STOP! STA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAP!" Grimlock only grinned and continued to tickle Sideswipe on his sides.

"Hey, Grim!" shouted Russell, "Tickle his foot and see what happens!"

"Huh?" Grimlock looked behind him to Sideswipe's feet. Wondering what the humans had in mind, he did as Russell said and grabbed Sideswipe's right ankle. He pulled his leg up so his foot was close to his chest, and he started wiggling his claws across the surface.

Sideswipe lost it.

"NAAAAAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAA!" Sideswipe slammed his fists into the ground and kicked his other leg. "STAAAAAAP! GRIMLOCK—HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! YEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE!" Grimlock laughed, clearly enjoying this, and tried the other foot, receiving the same reaction from Sideswipe.

Russell, Joy, and Denny laughed, enjoying the show. Bumblebee winced, imagining what poor Sideswipe must be going through. Strongarm couldn't help but smile while watching him wriggle and squeal. Fixit only watched, still rather confused.

Bumblebee glanced over at Strongarm, a little curious. While she was distracted, he poked her in her side.

She jumped with a loud yelp and backed away, hugging herself. "S-Sir...!" she stammered. Bee at first was surprised, then he grinned and positioned himself to pounce. "L-Lieutenant...no! No!" Before Strongarm could escape, Bee lunged, tackled her and started tickling under her arms.

"I feel as if you've been too tense, lately, cadet," Bee said, "and it's about time you loosen up."

Strongarm giggled and laughed, even though she tried her absolute hardest to hold it in, and thrashed around. "L-Lieutenant! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! S-Stop, ple-hee-hee-hee-hee-ease! N-No more!"

"Are you sure? Because to me you sound like you're having fun."

"I am no-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-hot! P-Please, stop!" Strongarm begged in between giggles.

Bee had his fun for a little longer then finally stopped, giving the cadet a break, leaving her a panting, shaking mess. "You alright, strong—AHH!" Strongarm suddenly pounced on him and held him to the ground. "What in the—?!"

"Apologies, sir, but it looks like you could use a bit more fun, too!"

Bee instantly started laughing the second Strongarm tickled his abdomen; in his defense, he shot his hands up and tickled her sides. She started laughing as well, but neither of them would give, so they started rolling around.

Russell and Denny watched the four bots tickle one another crazy, just standing there and enjoying the show. "To think, Joy and I started this," Russell said with a laugh, then realized his older sister was missing. "Wait. Where is Joy?"

"Ya-ha-ha-ha-ha! Fixit, stop it!"

They followed Joy's cry and turned to see Fixit tickling her with a serious look on his face while Joy cringed and giggled. "I still do not see how this brings joy to someone," Fixit said and continued.

"F-Fixi-he-he-he-he-it, please! I-It tickles! Stop!" Joy squealed, squeezing her panda plush.

Russell couldn't help but laugh, then suddenly realized he couldn't stop when Denny started wiggling his fingers into his sides. "D-Daaaad!" he whined as he laughed.

"Sorry, son, but it's been a long time since I played with you," Denny said, "so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!"

After a while, the tickling finally came to an end amongst everyone, and they all laid around on the ground.

"That was awesome!" Grimlock exclaimed. "Let's do it again!"

"No way! I've had enough tickling for one day!" Sideswipe declared. "Going on patrol with Strongarm is much more easier to handle!"

"Aw, someone's just embarrassed because he's super ticklish," Joy teased, making Sideswipe pout.

Bee smiled as he sat up and looked at the sky. This never happened when I was on Team Prime, he thought to himself. I can't help but wonder if what happened today could have happened if we had fights like this...I'm sure Optimus wouldn't approve, though...

He looked to each of his teammates; though they hide it, he can see they each had fun, including himself—although he wasn't looking really forward to another tickle session any time soon.

THE END

A/N: this is my first TF RID 2015 story, so forgive me if some things are a bit off -_-