AN: Alright, welcome to a drabble collection! Each scene may/may not be canon, since most of them are tiny enough to fit perfectly without actually messing up anything, but there are some variants. I'll tell you when that happens. Also, unless stated otherwise, they're all from G1.
Each drabble came to be from a prompt, a randomized character and a burst of inspiration, which is why all ficlets will have the same formatting:
Character: Prompt
[extra information (will be added when the action doesn't happen sometime during the show, meaning, on Earth/Cybertron)]
I'm going to try to make chapters with 10 drabbles each, and all of them from the same category (Light Drabbles are those with humor, fluffiness, maybe a bit of parodies, and things like that; while Dark Drabbles can be anything from horror to light angst). I've decided to post it now because I'm going to be busy and unrelated drabbles are easier to write than a chapter from a multi-chapter story, especially since all of them are quite ahead in the story line and I need to constantly check my notes, something I won't be able to do with my job; but, since I didn't want to leave you all without knowing from me for months, I decided I could, at least, commit to this.
I'll still be working on my stories, but it may take me longer with the change of environment, so I hope this suffices for a bit.
So, without further ado, here come the drabbles!
Wheeljack: BAD
"Wheeljack, what is that?"
"It's bad."
Sideswipe runs, and slams into his brother and Bluestreak, and, when they hear him, they run, and pokes his helm in the Rec Room and gives a hurried explanation, and the mechs there also run, and listens to the gray Praxian's babbled message through the comm, and all those that hadn't heard through word of mouth finally start running too.
The whole of the Autobots, minus Wheeljack, wait tensely out of the Ark.
Until he comes out with a cute and metallic tiny creature.
"As I said, this is B.A.D., Buddy the Animal Drone."
Ratchet: Bug
"Ratchet? Bumblebee has a bug."
Faster than they can react, the Medic whirls to them, turns the Minibot around with a yelp from the smaller mech, and, with a couple of quick touches, has a cable plugged into the back of the scout's neck.
When Bumblebee slumps with black optics, Spike panics.
Ratchet pays him no mind, optics flickering as he analyzes the younger Autobot, before, with confusion and annoyance, he finally acknowledges the teenager.
"A bug? He has no such thing!"
"Not a bug, an insect! It slipped into his grill and he kept saying it itched!"
Silence.
"Oh."
Silverbolt: Make Me Happy
"One day, you could try to make me happy!" Silverbolt exclaims before leaving, and his brothers exchange guilty looks.
When the meeting is over, he gets a comm that his team is already outside, ready for flight practice.
He inevitably draws them closer to the ground to be able to concentrate without fear of falling, but none protest.
Back in the Ark, his brothers vanish as he checks some changes on their assigned patrol routes, but he finds them again in the Rec Room with a plate full of Energon goodies that they insist are his.
Silverbolt can only smile.
Eject: To and From
Despite being created on Earth, Eject's home is Cybertron.
That doesn't mean the organic planet doesn't have good things.
Like lots of sports. And weird creatures that, despite living here almost his whole function, he still finds fascinating.
And letters.
Trailbreaker doesn't mind driving him to and from, so he has a rented mailbox in the closest town, where he goes every Saturday to pick up his mail and send his own back.
None of them knows the other's real name, but that isn't important.
The only thing that matters is that Eject has the most awesome pen pal ever.
Brawl: Say When
"Just say when and I'll take care of it."
Onslaught can only give the tank a tired look, but he feels immediately better at spark.
Because they have the coded in loyalty clauses binding them to Megatron, and thus making it impossible to rebel against him, much to his chagrin and disgust.
Yet, good as he is, Shockwave didn't actually make it impossible for them to entertain thoughts of mutiny.
But all the Combaticons are in the same situation.
And still, Onslaught feels better. Because Brawl may not be the brightest, but he will always be there for his Gestalt.
Perceptor: Mr. Mom
The humans didn't get it at first.
The Autobots had picked up more than just Earth languages, making use of culture and jokes with more ease as time went by.
Yet, they didn't understand why Perceptor, calm, proper and polite Perceptor, would be called 'Mister Mom'.
They got Ratchet's 'the Hatchet', and Jazz's 'Meister', and even Sunstreaker's 'Sunny', but not Perceptor's nickname.
Until the sprinklers went off in the lab while they were visiting.
With a fussing microscope all over them, babbling about colds and the flu and even pneumonia, and insisting they take off their clothes, they finally understood.
Onslaught: Introduction
[Pre-War]
He doesn't know what to think when the small mech approaches him and Brawl at the bar with a smile and cubes of High Grade in an offer of 'goodwill'.
He distrusts him when he introduces himself as 'a mech of many trades that knows you are unemployed'.
He refuses the offer to hire them as bodyguards.
That's when a Rotor bearing the brand of a Noble Guard enters and goes to the 'merchant', saying his Lord is interested in making use of his services again.
Onslaught immediately picks up the forgotten contract and, seeing everything in order, signs it.
Fireflight: Magic
Just like the Decepticons never aim to deactivate or maim the Aerialbots, or the Autobots the Stunticons, no one ever reproaches Fireflight for being usually distracted, because none of them has the spark to take away what little innocence the recently created Flier has.
The newest additions to the battlefield were created for war, so allowing them to be children is the least they can do.
Especially because they know Fireflight isn't scatterbrained or lost in thought, but actually an intelligent and really focused mech.
That he uses his focus to look for magic, though… well, kids will be kids.
Breakdown: School
While planning certain strikes, especially those involving weapons instead of raids, the first step is always to obtain information, either through Soundwave's research or surveillance on the field.
However, this is the last time he's going to send the Stunticons to any such task.
Staring at the mechs curled together in the Repair Bay, shaking in horror, Megatron finds himself without the needed energy to look at his Communications Officer as he observes the futile efforts of the Constructicons to get them to relax.
"What did you say happened?"
"Breakdown: Located human reprogramming facility."
"And that means…"
"Breakdown: Found school."
Hook: Music
From the very first moment Long Haul brought the CD player to the ship, Hook hated it. It's noisy, annoying and distracting, and it is spewing human music all the time they are in the Repair Bay, meaning, minus raids and attacks, practically all orn.
The night after one big failure of a battle, Hook turns it on of his own free will, because his noisy, annoying and distracting brothers are too still and quiet lying on the Repair Bay berths.
Two days later, when the CD player is turned on again, Hook just glares before going back to work.
UPDATED 21/01/2019: Corrected grammar.
AN: And that's it for this time. Now a couple of notes:
About the title and summary: They're supposed to stand for the commonly used line "life is made of moments" or any variation of it. Basically, an instant can define a person or their future (cue Hot Rod catching the Matrix meaning he'll end up being the next Prime instead of Ultra Magnus), but they don't make the whole life. It's the collection of all moments, meaningless or meaningful, that, summed up, equal one life. So, that's why I chose that title and summary (I'm quite proud of it, silly as it may seem).
About Perceptor telling the humans to take their clothes off: Wet clothing sucks the heat out of the human body faster, so, to avoid catching a cold (or hypothermia, if the water's freezing), it's best to take it off, get dried/take a hot shower, and put on some dry clothes (from what I remember, that is; it's been a while since I checked that kind of things).
UPDATE: A reviewer pointed this out, so I'll put it here: You won't actually catch cold from being at a low temperature. You will only get sick if you come into contact with the virus, however being cold lowers immunity and makes it easier to get sick. Thanks for reminding me XD
Why Onslaught trusted Swindle as soon as Vortex came in (yes, the merchant and the Noble Guard were Swindle and Vortex; who can guess who the Noble is?): Cybertronian Nobles had golden detailing of a special magnetized metallic paint that acted more like a microchip in a credit card than just for visual effect. Meaning, you could recognize a Noble just by sight, but the proof that they were a Noble, and not just a mech that had painted themselves like them, was by feeling the magnetism of the paint with their own electromagnetic field (like letting a static charged balloon hover over an arm: you can feel the tingling of the static). As thus, the Nobles' Guards also had that same paint to be recognized, so Onslaught immediately knew that Swindle wasn't pulling his leg with the contract, ergo him signing it.
And that'll be all for this part. Read you later!