Inspired by optimus prime 007's story about Kaceystar, the daughter of Optimus Prime and Elita 1. All OC's excluding Blaze and Voltage belong to Optimus Prime 007, and any Transformer character's belong to Hasbro. I'll mention if any other characters that appear are mine.

Written with optimus prime 007's permission. If you haven't read her story about Kaceystar called Hope's Journey or My Beautiful Rising Star, then this won't make as much sense than if you had.

Warning: this chapter has not been beta-ed. I apologize in advance for any spelling or grammar mistakes I made. Please make me aware of them.

Optimus Prime

I watched as my beautiful Kaceystar conducted the meeting. She was stepping up to her responsibilities and taking on every challenge with the same enthusiasm that I saw in her when she was just a youngling. Kacey always gave her all. I am so proud to be her father.

I didn't even really need to be here for the meeting. I was only supervising, making sure that things didn't go awry. Not that there was much chance of that anyways. The people in this room all looked up to her… metaphorically, that is. Kacey never grew that much after her transformation systems were taken offline when she was a youngling. But it did little to detract from her leadership skills.

Kaceystar wrapped up the meeting, dismissing everyone so they could go about their duties. I stayed behind, knowing my duty was to be with her.

"That wasn't so bad," I said as I approached her. Her hand was massaging her forehead, easing away the stress from the meeting. She looked up at me.

"You weren't the one in charge, though." Kacey said, "How do you handle knowing that your choices dictate who could die out there? I can barely stand the thought that my choices now change their lives!"

"I know honey." I comforted her and pulled her into a hug. "I can say that these kinds of matters get easier… but not every choice will be an easy or obvious one. But you'll do well. You are my daughter, and I know you can and will do well."

She smiled and returned the hug. "Thanks, dad." Kacey pulled away. "I think I'm good now."

I chuckled. "You know, you did better than me at my first meeting."

"Really?" She said jokingly, "I think I've heard that before…"

She giggled and let the silence settle before she continued talking.

"Thank you dad. It's a lot easier knowing that you're still here. I'm glad that I don't have to take everything up at once. It makes it easier to breathe, you know?" She said, looking up at me.

I nodded, remembering my first days as Prime. It had been so stressful taking on the mantle of Prime, all of it at once, just after my surrogate father was murdered by Megatron. It was one of the reasons I was slowly transitioning the responsibilities to Kacey. I didn't want her to feel the same stress that I did.

Kacey changed the subject. "So are you and mom still up for watching Blaze and Voltage tonight?"

"Of course." I said. I loved Blaze and Voltage. Elita and I tended to dote on the little ones a bit much, perhaps spoiling them in the process.

"Thank you," Kacey said, "I love them with all my spark, but me and 'Bee need to have a night to ourselves."

"There's no need to thank us," I told her, "Your mother and I love them, and it's our job as their grandparents to watch them when you can't."

"Thanks anyways, dad." Kacey said gratefully. She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and left to go about her duties. "See you in a joor!"

"See you later, Kacey."

Later that night, I found myself watching baby Voltage imitating his sister as she wandered around the room, lost in her own make-believe world. Elita sat on the bench next to me, her arm around my waist. Mine was around her shoulder, and I used it to pull her even closer to me.

"I love you so much." I told her. She smiled up at me.

"You love all the femme's in your life." She told me.

I chuckled. "But I love you most of all."

"GWAMMA!" Voltage yelled her name joyfully as he toddled over to her. Elita reached over and pulled the little mech into her lap.

"Me too! Me too!" Blaze ran over, having noticed the attention that Voltage was getting.

She had been really jealous of Voltage when he had been born, just as Kacey had been on the twins. Except Blaze's jealousy wasn't as much or as violent as Kacey's. Blaze got over it soon enough, and she only had one little outburst. Kacey and Bumblebee had learned from Elita's and my mistake and made sure that Blaze got attention too.

But Blaze was still a little prone to having a little jealousy.

I picked her up, letting Elita hold a gurgling Voltage. Voltage knew enough words to communicate like our names, "ungry", "sweep-time", "mine", and "swag". The last one was my fault… but it made Kacey laugh when she heard him say it for the first time. It wasn't that Voltage thought that 'swag' was cool. He just has problems pronouncing his 'L's…

"Gwamma," Voltage piped up. "Ungry! Ungry!"

"I have some energon prepared for you in the other room, Volt." Elita said as she stood up. "Are you hungry too, Blaze?"

"Nuh-uh." Blaze said. "I wanna stay here with Granpa Oppy."

"Okay. Don't break anything, or else Granpa Oppy will have to recharge on the couch." Elita grinned at me and left the room.

"Hey Granpa?" Blaze looked up at me.

"Yes?"

"What happened when Daddy and Mommy courted?"

What the -! My mind processor nearly fritzed! Where did that come from?

"Uh," I asked, "Why do you want to know?"

She told me. "Cause two nights ago Daddy had to tell me a bedtime story. Mommy said I had to be good if I wanted one, and I was! So I wanted to hear bout him and Mommy, so he told me story about him asking Mommy out… But he never finished. He said I fell asleep, but I think he's lied."

She crossed her arms and pouted.

"Blaze," I said, "Has your father ever lied to you before?"

She paused and then shook her head slowly.

"Then why would he lie to you now?" I asked her.

She thought about it and said, "He wuldn't?"

It came out more like a question than an answer.

"That's right, he would not." I told her. "Blazeykins, your father loves you very much. It would break his spark to lie to you." I knew from personal experience.

Blaze smiled, obviously happy to hear that her dad hadn't lied to her.

"But Granpa Oppy," She said, "What did happen when Mommy and Daddy courted? Can you tell me?"

"Okay, okay, I can tell you." I gave in. Her eyes were pleading with curiousity at this point. "But first, can you tell me what the last thing you heard was?"

"Umm…" She paused, thinking hard. "I think I remember him saying that he went to you to get your permission to court Mommy… but I don't remember much after that. I was really sweepy…"

I chuckled, remembering that day when Bumblebee came into my office.

"Alright, how about I start when your dad came into my office?" I told her.

She smiled brightly. "Okay!"

"So, I was sitting in my office one afternoon, expecting Prowl to come by at any minute with his reports…"

I heard a knock at my door. Assuming it was Prowl, I didn't look up as I said, "Come in."

The door didn't open right away, but when it did it the mech who opened it cautiously said my name.

"Optimus?"

I looked up, surprised to see Bumblebee. "Oh, hello Bumblebee." I smiled as I greeted the yellow and black mech. "I was just expecting it to be Prowl with his reports."

"Oh."

I noticed that Bumblebee looked nervous. Almost like he did when he got in trouble as a youngling.

"Well…" Bumblebee said, almost stuttering over the single syllable word. "I wanted to ask you something sir."

Sir? Bumblebee almost never calls me 'sir'…

"It there something wrong, Bumblebee?" I asked. I was beginning to worry.

"No sir, nothing at all." He replied hastily. "I just…"

"You just… what?" I prompted him to continue. Bumblebee was confusing me. He was acting like he was in trouble. I needed to figure out what was going on, so I used a tone that I only rarely used outside my family. "What is it that's bothering you Bumblebee?"

"Nothing is bothering me sir." He said more firmly. There was that 'sir' again! The young mech was getting defensive.

I stared him in the eye, wishing that the young mech that I had raised was actually my son so I could understand his feelings. After a couple clicks of nothing, I said, "Bumblebee, I know that you came here for a reason. I can tell that something's wrong. I did raise you," as if you were my own son, "and I know when something is on your processor, Bumblebee."

Bumblebee sighed, lowering his eyes in defeat. What was he going to say? Suddenly, he straightened up and spoke.

"Optimus Prime," My optics widened. He almost never called me by my full name! He continued.

"I would like your permission to court your daughter Kaceystar."

My processor fritzed.

I sat there in silence, trying to get my processing gears running again. He didn't just say what I thought he said, right? I must be getting old, because I'm sure that I heard him wrong!

"I'm sorry, but my audio receivers must have glitched for a click." I said, "Because I swear I heard you say-"

"There was no glitch in your audio receivers, sir." Bumblebee said. "Unless you heard something different than my request to court your daughter."

He actually wanted to court my daughter? But he was like an uncle to her! He was always looking after her and he was always there for her when none of us were-

Elita was right.

I started laughing. Bumblebee stood there, looking for worried. For him or myself, I don't know.

But Elita was right!

I can't believe I hadn't seen it before! I had observed Bumblebee as he watched over my daughter as she grew up, but I had assumed that he was doing it for me! Never had it crossed my processor that he might have loved her!

"How- how long?" I managed to get out between my laughs.

Bumblebee was confused. "What do you mean?" He asked shakily.

"How long have you loved her?"

He froze. He must be scared to death. Frankly, I would be too if I had asked Elita's parents for permission to court her.

"Err…" He looked down at the floor sheepishly. "…Since I first set my optics on her."

I stopped laughing. When was it that he first saw my Kaceystar-?

"Since she was 10 orns old?!" I yelled as I jumped up from my seat. I wasn't furious, but I must of looked liked it because Bumblebee flinched. I was merely surprised.

"Y-yes sir." He replied shakily.

I sat back down, bringing my hand to my forehead. It's been 27 orns since Kacey came to earth! He must have had urges! How did he manage to keep this a secret this long? Did anyone else know? Surely he had talked to someone?

"Does anyone else know?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Sam Witwicky was the first person I told, and he told Mikaela. Then… Ironhide found out on accident and Leo figured it out on his own."

"Leo knew?"

"Yes sir, he did." Bumblebee said, relaxing a little. "He found out when we went to rescue Kacey from the 'Cons. I thought I was dying, so I asked him to tell her… but then he refused to tell her himself and saved me so I could." Bumblebee told me.

I smiled a little. That was just like Leo. "What about Ironhide? When did he find out?"

Bumblebee's faceplates heated up a bit. "It was after one of her accidents as a youngling. We weren't sure if she was going to survive. I was in the medbay, talking to her when she was unconscious. I thought I was alone… but Ironhide walked in on me. He actually asked me the same thing you did."

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah." Bumblebee chuckled.

"Well," I said. "I guess… I give you my permission to court my daughter."

His optics widened at my words. "Really?"

"Well, I have no reason to believe that my vocal processors are malfunctioning, so I do believe that I'm giving you my permission." I told him.

Bumblebee nearly jumped for joy. "Thank you! Thank you so much-!" He immediately calmed down, trying to be polite. "Thank you, sir."

I laughed quietly to myself. "It's okay. Now go. I believe my daughter is going to be coming back from patrol duty today."

Bumblbee grinned and nodded. He turned to go.

"Oh, and Bumblebee?" I said. I'd seen enough movies with Kacey to know this line by spark. "If you hurt my daughter…" my voice trailed off, leaving the threat to his imagination.

Bumblebee nodded in all seriousness. "You have nothing to worry about, sir."

"And they lived happily ever after?" Blaze finished for me.

I laughed. "Not just yet. Your father then went to see your mom. And you remember how nervous I told you he was when he came to me?"

"He was 'super duper uber nervous, about to accident-wee waste himself nervous, and about to have a systems upset' kind of nervous." She repeated what I told her.

"Yep," I said. "Well… he was even more nervous about asking your mother to court him. He got all weak-kneed, tongue-tied, and dizzy around your mom. Your dad had so much trouble working up the courage to ask her!"

"What happened? What happened!?" She asked excitedly.

"I can't tell you." I told her.

"What!"

I laughed. "You're going to have to ask your mom about that yourself."

"But-!" She protested.

"Leave your granpa Oppy alone, Blaze." Elita said as she walked into the room. Voltage was in her arms in recharge. "It's time for bed now."

"Granma, could you tell me what happened?" Blaze bounced over to Elita.

Elita shook her head. "No, that's not my story to tell."

Blaze began pouting. "Pwease?"

"No. Now come on, let's get your brother tucked in."

"Fine…" Blaze dejectedly gave in.

I laughed to myself as Elita took Blaze and Voltage to put them to bed. Blaze was such a curious and intelligent little femme.

A couple breem later, Elita came walking back into the room.

"Why did you have to get her all wound up?" Elita asked me as she settled into the seat next to me. I wrapped my arm around her and gave her a light kiss.

"I didn't mean to. I'm sorry." I said apologetically.

"It's okay," she told me. "I forgive you, granpa Oppy." She teased me, using the kids' nickname for me.

I kissed her gently on the lips, perfectly content with her use of my nickname. Only people outside of the family weren't allowed to call me that.

"Well, I suppose they're going to be quiet now." I told her.

"Maybe. Apparently Volt inherited his mother's knack for nightmares, so we may have to be ready to go to him." Elita told me.

"So… what should we do with this free time that we have?" I asked her. She raised an optic-brow, sensing my urges through our bond.

"Mechs…" She said simply as she got up to lead us to the guest's quarters.

Oh, how I love my Elita.

A/N:

And thus the second chapter of Bedtime Stories is done! With almost double the word count than chapter 1, I had fun with it. I hope you guys enjoyed it! Please review!

There was a little bit of trouble at the beginning, where I didn't really know how to transition Optimus' and Kacey's conversation into them talking about Optimus and Elita watching the kids, but it worked out. I like it. A bit of naughtiness at the end, but I figure that its okay… hopefully it's clean enough that I don't have to change the rating. (Please tell me if I need to or if I should).

To those who haven't read optimus prime 007's story, get your aft's together and read it! Do NOT click on the 'next chapter' button until you do! (you can find her stories in my favorites and she is one of my favorite authors as well).

Next chapter: Kacey's reaction to Bumblebee's confession!