Title: And What Is Halloween?
Author: Mirage Shinkiro

Rating: T
Warnings: mech/mech, a.k.a. relationships between androgynous and nonsexually reproducing but male-"pronoun'd" 'bots.

Disclaimer: Transformers is the property of Hasbro, and although I wish I could make money off the TF franchise so I could be independently wealthy, I am not. Alas, I remain poor and am just borrowing the lovely robots.

Summary: G1. Prowl and Jazz discover the oddities of a human holiday and discover each other at the same time.

A/N, explanation: For the October 2009 challenge on the ProwlxJazz lj community. I'm going out of order, and I may not do all the prompts. The challenge limits us to 1000 words per 'drabble', max. Cross-posted.

I'm purposefully not reading anyone else's challenge responses until I've written mine. (I don't want to be swayed.) But reviews for them will be forthcoming later.

Part I: Pumpkins

Prowl stared at the rotund, orange fruit Jazz had dropped on the table before him. "What is that?"

Jazz chuckled and plopped in the chair across from him, ignoring the curiosity of the other mechs in the noisy rec room. "That is a pumpkin."

Picking up the oversized fruit, Prowl judged it to be roughly the diameter of his head. "And why do we have a pumpkin?" He frowned, considering the fruit's weight. "Are they normally this large and heavy? If so, how do humans handle them?"

"Very carefully." Jazz merely grinned. "Apparently they have contests to see who can grow the biggest pumpkin." He shrugged, the casual lifting and dropping of shoulder plates. "An' we have a pumpkin 'cause on the human calendar it's October, an' that means Halloween!"

Prowl wasn't sure how to phrase his inevitable question, considering Jazz's statement had made less than no sense. He stared at his friend, wondering what he could possibly be up to. That Jazz had ignored his introversion and admitted lack of social skills was puzzling. But the way he constantly found ways to spend time with Prowl was downright confusing. "What is 'Halloween,' and what do oversized orange fruits have to do with it?"

Taking the pumpkin from Prowl, Jazz leaned forward in his chair. "Halloween is a holiday where humans celebrate death!" He paused and frowned. "Uh, or they celebrate people who've died. Or somethin'. All I know is they scare each other on purpose an' parade 'round the skeletons of their dead an' threaten each other with vandalism unless they pay each other off with food." He straightened up and grinned again. "Doesn't make a lotta sense, but whatever, man. They seem to think it's fun, an' there are pumpkins!"

A slow, deep processor ache bloomed through Prowl's head. In an unconscious imitation of Sparkplug, he reached up with one hand and rubbed his temple. "So . . . you stop others from destroying your property by giving them pumpkins?"

"Oh! Nah, I didn't mean that." Jazz set the pumpkin down and gestured around the room. Hound, Trailbreaker, and Bumblebee had entered with large pumpkins as well, and the other mechs were now crowded around the three tables where the pumpkins had been placed. "On this 'Halloween', the sparks of the humans' dead come back from their Matrix an' terrorize them unless they give 'em gifts, or somethin' like that anyway, so they carve up pumpkins with mean faces to scare 'em away."

Prowl stared. And stared and stared. "What kind of belief is that? Skipping entirely the fact it's utterly illogical-ghosts may be a universal myth or archetype, but they aren't real-why would you celebrate the orn on which your dead loved ones returned to terrorize you?"

"I dunno, man." Jazz patted the pumpkin affectionately. "Maybe I misunderstood somethin'. But that's no reason not to participate! So let's carve up our pumpkin, 'kay?"

Prowl resumed staring and wondered if there were any force in the entire universe that could save him from Jazz's oddball overtures of closeness. "And if I say no?"

"I'll ignore ya!" Jazz whipped a standard issue energon knife from his subspace and considered the pumpkin. "Should we make it look like Megatron?"

Leaning back in his chair in defeat, Prowl managed to smirk. "Is Megatron actually scary? Or simply strong, determined, and problematic?"

Jazz paused as though considering his answer. "Well, we destroyed the Exponential Generator easily. An' the Solar Needle. An' New Cybertron, the electro-cells, an' the Transfixatron." He snickered. "Nah, he's just a pest." He held up one finger. "I know! We'll carve it to look like Ratchet after he has to fix both Sides an' Sunny followin' some stupid stunt they've pulled on the battlefield."

Prowl laughed in spite of himself. "Now that's scary."

Jazz's smile turned soft for a moment. "Ya've got the most beautiful laugh, Prowler."

"What?"

"Nothin'!" Jazz cut a hole in the top of the pumpkin and began degutting it.

Tilting his head to the side, Prowl just watched, wondering at Jazz's words. Maybe if Jazz continued to pursue this strange human holiday, he would say something else that would give Prowl more data to work with. Or so he hoped.

Those thoughts were set aside, however, once Prowl ended up covered in stringy, sticky pumpkin guts. This pumpkin ritual was definitely not all it had promised to be.

Postscript: to be continued . . .

List of prompts, mostly for my benefit, granted:
1. Darkness
2. Black cat
3. Ghost
4. Pumpkins
5. Costumes
6. Crescent Moon
7. Orange
8. Trick
9. Spider webs
10. Fog
11. Treat
12. Graveyard
13. Thirteen