Chapter 3

"He is…"

"He is what Ratchet?" Optimus spoke impatiently. He needed to know if there was anything wrong with the sparkling, the sparkling he had come to care for.

"He is advanced. His fire wall around his main drive is so advanced, impenetrable and almost like a shield of some sort. He is a bit small and will need some food to get him to grow. Other than that he should be fine." Ratchet finished his analysis of triton and disconnected the wire that attached their arms.

Triton chirped happily as he watched the Autobots reactions with interest, Ironhide was walking towards him slowly and knelt down in front of him. Ironhide stretched out a finger to caress his little metallic face and he purred happily at the touch. He had felt Ratchet's power seep towards his mental shield and had enforced it so much that the medic couldn't invade his mind.

Optimus watched the two with a smile; Ironhide had changed so much since he had found the little sparkling. He had become a lot gentler and treated the sparkling as if it was the most delicate thing on the planet; it was certainly one of the rarest. Up until now Bumblebee had been the youngest and even his age wasn't young young.

"Let's take him back to his room and give him some Energon. He needs to be fed more often." Optimus ordered. Ironhide picked up Triton and the tiny mech gave an indignant squeak, Triton whirred unhappily until Bumblebee started to play Peek-A-Boo with him. Ironhide noticed that where the debris had pierced his back plate there was only a small scratch making it seem as though it never happened.

When they reached the room that Triton had stayed in the night before they saw that someone had been in and decorated, the walls where they once was grey were now done in blue with cars painted on them. The single bed had been replaced with a double that had plain blue sheets with an assortment of car cushions. There was a big box in the corner of the room that Ironhide assumed contained toys for Triton. He let the sparkling down and was happy to see him run over to the big toy box in the corner, Triton pulled out a box of Lego and happily sat down to play with it. He watched for three quarters of an hour as Triton made a Lego house, after that time he realised that he had forgotten to give the sparkling the cup of Energon that stood on the bedside table.

Triton looked up as Ironhide moved, where was he going? He got worried as the bigger 'bot moved further towards the door but smiled when he stopped at the bedside table. He watched as Ironhide picked up a cup of something and then as Ironhide moved towards him. He was plucked from his place by chubby mechanical fingers and sat on the bed, the cup of liquid was placed in his hands and Ironhide told him to drink it down. He turned his inquisitive gaze towards Ironhide who told him that the liquid would make him grow big and strong. Triton took a hesitant sip and as soon as the flavour hit his tongue he knew that it wouldn't be his favourite thing to drink. He forced himself to swallow it all and then handed the cup back to Ironhide who smiled with approval.

"You can play with your toys for another ten minutes and then bed." Ironhide told the little mech who nodded and ran to play whilst he could. When the ten minutes were up Ironhide dragged the little figure to his bed and laid him under the covers. As soon as the mech's head touched the pillow he was fast asleep. Ironhide covered the little figure with the duvet and tucked it around his sides before moving to leave. Triton as if sensing his leaving reached out with a tiny hand and wrapped it around his finger, he sighed and fell back to sleep. Ironhide decided to make himself comfortable and sat with his back against the bed and soon slipped into recharge.

Optimus walked in a few hours later to find the sparkling curled up on Ironhides legs with the duvet draped over the pair of them. He stepped forward to cover the sparkling's bare shoulder and watched as Triton shifted closer to Ironhide. Ironhide grumbled and pulled the sparkling closer towards him and with a satisfying grunt slipped deeper into recharge.