NOTE: The card game Bumblebee plays with Warper is the equivalent of Slapjack. (Google it if you don't know what it is.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Hasbro. The characters that are used in here aren't mine. Only Warper is of my own creation, as well as the plot.

A kidnapping case had been brought to a happy ending. During the week the investigation occurred, Bumblebee had been out. He had caught the seasonal virus. As much as he tried to convince Ratchet otherwise, he was ordered to bed rest.

However, the victim of the aforementioned case was a sparkling. She got rather unruly when she got bored.

The solution? Everyone at the precinct knew Bumblebee had a knack for entertaining the younger generations. The minute the black and yellow mech returned to work, the sparkling from the kidnapping case ended up in Bumblebee's care.

When Bumblebee met Warper, the Enforcer was stunned at the sight of her optics. It struck him odd that they seemed familiar with him, yet he couldn't place a finger on it.

Her thin armor plates were primarily a light purple with gray pedes, servos, and derma-plating. Midnight blue stripes accented her shoulders and ankles.

Currently, Warper's Sire, as the Enforcer was told, was on his way from several cities away.

To pass the time, Bumblebee had to brought in some old board games from his sparkling-hood. The sparkling played all of them, but Warper quickly got bored.

At a loss, he was about to suggest a different game. To Bumblebee's surprise, the femling pulled out a two items from her sub-space. One was a card deck held together with a rubber band. It had a theme with creatures native to Cybertron: Drillers, Predacons, glitch-mice and turbo foxes were the four different suits.

The other object . . . Bumblebee couldn't take his optics off it. It was a rectangular box, covered in purple fabric. The container was twice the size of Warper's palm. There were several symbols spread throughout the fabric. In several corners of it, the fabric was worn down. It revealed the titanium container it covered.

"Why didn't you bring this out with the others that had to watch you?" Bumblebee questioned the femling.

"They were boring. You on the other servo, seem interesting," Warper replied.

The black and yellow mech couldn't help but feel flattered. However, he couldn't help but feel bad for his coworkers.

"Can I see what's inside?" Bumblebee pointed to the decorated case.

"Sure," Warper nodded.

She gingerly opened the top of the box. Bumblebee had to refocus his lens-like optics to focus his vision. Inside the case, there was a deck of cards neatly placed in a small pocket. The back of the top card was a work of art. It was decorated like a glass window.

Bumblebee whistled in awe, making Warper giggle. The mech looked to the femling. "Where did you get this?"

"It was a gift from my grand-sire. It's a fortune telling deck. Wanna pick one?" Bumblebee nodded.

With the care of a paleontologist picking up a bone, the sparkling took the cards out of the case. Bumblebee raised an optic ridge as Warper shuffled them with the speed of a card dealer. The femling shuffled it a few more times before she fanned them out, face down.

"Choose a card," she instructed.

Bumblebee humored her and thought about it. He picked the one on her right and pulled it out.

The mech donned a confused expression as he flipped the card over.

"What is this?" As he showed her the card, Warper leaned forward and squinted.

The design on it was of a generic blue spark in the center. Strands of purple-pink energy encircled it. In the foreground, barely noticeable, were two shadowy, faceless protoforms. They looked at each other, and their servos were pressed against the other's.

"I never saw someone pick that before," she admitted. Warper quickly looked into the box. "There's a translation data pad in here, somewhere . . ."

The young femme pulled out a pocket sized data-pad from the false bottom. She turned it on and cross referenced the image on the card.

"I think I-oh." She stared at the screen before she turned her gaze at Bumblebee.

"What? What does it say?" Bumblebee's door-wings lightly flapped, curious.

"I can't understand a word of what it says."

She handed the data-pad to him. Bumblebee quickly read the description. His optics widened and his face-plate heated up. His door-wings jutted up.

"What did it mean?" Warper leaned forward as her expression became confused. "Is it bad?"

Silence reigned for a good few minutes.

" . . . Can we play something else?" Bumblebee finally pleaded.

"Fabulous idea," Warper replied quickly.

She took his card and quickly placed everything back into the case.

O*O*O

WHAP!

"Argh!" Bumblebee exclaimed when the little femme made away with the pile. Bumblebee was in the middle of his fifth game of 'Slap the Turbo-Fox' with Warper . . . and . . .

Bumblebee looked at the meager amount in his servos. He glanced at the deck in the sparkling's servos.

"Primus on a pogo stick femme! You're nabbing all my cards!"

"You have to be faster," she replied cheekily. The two burst into a fit of laughs.

"Ah, ok, ok kid. Lets keep going," Bumblebee sat up a bit straighter. He placed his servo upon the top card in his palm. His fingers twitched. "We already saw three of the four turbo-foxes. Let's see if either of us can get him."

Just about as he was about to place down his card, a knock came on the door. Bumblebee looked to the sparkling. Warper quivered in excitement.

The door opened, revealing one of the sergeants and-

"Sire!" Warper dropped all the cards as she rushed to the mech outside the door. Her pedes created a small whirlwind, scattering the cards all about the room.

Bumblebee looked up. Warper's Sire had knelt down to hug his sparkling. All the tension in the mech's shoulders swept away once Warper held him.

The mech had blue armor accented with a bright shade of yellow.

Bumblebee's optics snapped to the mech's helm. The grooves . . . and those dark blue optics-

"Smokescreen?" Bumblebee gasped. His optics cycled for a moment to readjust his vision.

Bumblebee hadn't seen Smokescreen since their Academy days. After their graduation, Smokescreen continued on to the Elite Guard. Bumblebee took a different path, which was to the Enforcers.

Unfortunately, they lost contact after several weeks.

Now though, Smokescreen was there. He was right in front of him, with the femling declaring that Smokescreen was her Sire.

Bumblebee watched them. He couldn't hold back a smile as Warper giddily jumped up and down.

"Sire! Sire! Sire! I missed you!" Warper squealed. Her smaller arms wrapped tight around her Sire's neck.

"Oh, I missed you too," Smokescreen exhaled. He held his sparkling in his arms. "I'm so sorry . . . I should have kept track of you . . ."

After another minute of hugs and apologies, the two loosened their grip on each other.

Smokescreen looked up to address the mech in the room. "Thanks for-" it was then that the blue and yellow mech noticed who he was talking to.

"Bumblebee?" Smokescreen stood up to his full height. That made Bumblebee get to his pedes as well.

"Smokescreen, your paint . . . blue and gold?" In truth the shorter mech almost didn't recognize him.

Smokescreen let out a rueful laugh. "Ah . . . change is good in my opinion."

Bumblebee failed to hide a frown as he saw the mech's optics. The black and yellow mech looked to Warper. The femme had pressed herself closer to her Sire, concerned.

Bumblebee could also feel Smokescreen's EM field. Sadness . . . the normally bubbly mech was upset.

"So, who's the lucky mech or femme that you had this little angel with?" Bumblebee asked quietly. He winced as Smokescreen frowned. The Enforcer took that as his cue to go.

Just as the Enforcer had put a pede out the door, Bumblebee felt a servo latch onto his shoulder. He turned his helm around to see Smokescreen's face, apologetic.

"Thanks for watching Warper," the elder mech squeezed Bumblebee's shoulder. He soon had a lopsided smile.

"Means the world to me," he whispered.

Bumblebee automatically placed his servo atop Smokescreen's own. "No problem," he replied, along with a small smile of his own.

Smokescreen released his grip on Bumblebee, allowing him to leave.

A/N: I know I should be working on my other fics, but frankly I can't really concentrate on them lately. I WILL get back to them, but at the moment my muse is only allowing me to write what I want to write. For now at least.

Sorry for those who are waiting on 'Return' and 'The Medic and the Scout'. I will get back to them in time. 'Return' is going to be on hiatus unfortunately. I'm slowly getting the chapter done though, so don't fret!