#why not take the opportunity to drown smokescreen in love and support?

[lets-try-some-writing]

During early 3rd season, Smokescreen finally lets it slip what actually happend after the base got blown up and that he almost became a prime. Bonus points if he also offhandly mentions how young he actually is (I always headcannoned that he was just a sparkling at the beginning of the war, but had his frame ubgraded cause cybertron needed soldiers).

Cue most (if not all) of team prime being geniuenly horrified that one of their teammates was by all means, both human and cybertronian, a child all this time(and maybe the older bots blaming themselves for not realising just *how* young Smokey was).

Maybe some Dad!OP becoming protective of him? And Ratchet slowly developing a soft spot for the (literal) kid.

Sorry for any typos

What a lovely little request! I do love me some fluff with ever so slight angst involved! (No worries on the typos front, I have seen far worse in my requests)

Child Soldier

During the height of the war there were a great many things that slipped past Optimus's notice for one reason or another. There were also a solid handful of amendments and rules he was forced to make in order to preserve the lives of as many of his Autobots as possible. One such order he gave and forgot about due to its relative irrelevance in regards to the overall war effort was the treaty he made in regards to sparklings and younglings.

After the last wave of sparklings emerged and were nearly wiped out, Optimus took as many as he could and to save them from being damaged further, issued the order to have them trained and put into larger frames. It was not a decision he made lightly, but it would be best for the sparklings as it would help them blend in among the regular foot-soldiers and keep them safe from targeting. Not to mention he could safely put them in secure guard positions in strongholds to give off the appearance of strength while fully grown bots went off the war.

In the end Optimus and most of high command forgot about the issued order once the stress of the war took more of their attention. The order fell by the wayside and all Autobot high command remembered about it was that there were hundreds of young recruits unfit for battle stationed at secure locations for their own safety. And once Cybertron was abandoned, the order was forgotten altogether as every bot was required to be mature or die.

As such when Smokescreen turned up originally, Optimus and Ratchet were the only ones who became vaguely interested in his behavior. It was like searching through a fog in their memories, but somehow they had this never ending feeling that Smokescreen was... young, very young. His abilities in battle were not exemplary and spoke of excitableness and rashness reserved for the young, but his skills were sufficient enough for it to be overlooked. His personality also seemed to fluctuate slightly in the manner of sparklings, shifting between serious and childish depending on the overall mood in the room. He was intelligent and showed great potential to apply it, but his attention was diverted too easily and his focus quick to be shaken. It was... off-putting. But nevertheless, the elder members of the team shook it off and chalked Smokescreen's oddities up to their own paranoia and Smokescreen's inexperience.

Of course then there was the destruction of the base and the subsequent battle that followed once Optimus was repaired. What happened between Optimus and Smokescreen was never spoken of aloud after the matter. On Optimus's end it was because it no longer mattered, the issue was resolved and he was restored. And for Smokescreen he simply never mentioned it because there were other things to worry about at the time, including but not limited to getting used to the new base and adjusting to all that had changed. However after things had settled down and the team were well acquainted with their new accommodations, Smokescreen brought the event up rather casually, not realizing the implications of his words until it was too late.

Bulkhead: It sure must be nice to fly, right Prime?

Optimus: It is a new experience to say the least, one I would not have had without the forge of Solus Prime.

Smokescreen: And to think I could have gotten wings if I'd become Prime that day.

Ratchet: *choking on his drink* You could have been wHAT?!

The team collectively dropped what they were doing to stare at the Prime and Smokescreen as they both just shrugged like it was no big deal. The team had been aware of the fact that Optimus nearly died that day. Bumblebee very nearly losing control of himself in response to his rapidly weakening bond to Optimus confirmed that. But they had never considered the fact that Optimus would have had no one other than Smokescreen to be his successor. It was startling to imagine the rookie being named Prime in any circumstance.

Upon being questioned Optimus pointed out that it was simply logical. At the time he was dying and there was no one else to take on the mantle of Prime. It made perfect sense for Smokescreen to be offered the title since he was there, worthy, mostly willing, and old enough to reasonably handle the Matrix (to his knowledge anyway). Also it would have been foolish for Optimus's body and the Matrix to be abandoned for any extended period of time for a plethora of reasons. And with darkmount and Megatron looming at the time... there was not other viable option but to have Smokescreen take the Matrix.

Upon hearing the comment about how Optimus's saw him as being old enough to be Prime, Smokescreen chuckled nervously and quietly added that he was in fact, not even five hundred years of age. Cue the entire team, Optimus included, pausing to stare at him in mixed confusion, shock, and awe.

Bumblebee: How old are you?!

Smokescreen: Uh, I think around three hundred and eight?

Arcee: You don't know how old you are?!

Smokescreen: Well it didn't exactly matter back on Cybertron. We were all cadets and our age wasn't important since we all had grown frames.

Optimus & Ratchet internally: Frag, the sparkling protection order...

It all came rushing back to the two eldest members of the team with the force of meteor. Smokescreen was part of the sparkling protection order and they hadn't even realized it. Suddenly all his quirks and behaviors made perfect sense. He hadn't been given the chance to develop normally and therefore had matured in body and mind, but not in spark or code.

Guilt hit them both right after, both because they had forgotten about the order they helped issue, and had failed to notice that Smokescreen was a victim/recipient of said order. There was nothing to be done to change Smokescreen's frame or give him back his sparklinghood now, but they could explain and try to treat him better. And so that is exactly what they did.

Optimus: Smokescreen, do you know why you received a frame upgrade so young?

Smokescreen: Hm, no, not really? We all got our upgrades as soon as we reached half a vorn of age. It was normal proceedure.

Ratchet: We issued that order Smokescreen, me, Optimus, and Autobot high command.

Smokescreen: Really? But... why?

Optimus: You were of the last wave of sparklings. It wasn't safe for you or the others. You needed to be protected and blend in, so we did what we had to.

The team were shocked, that is save for Ultra Magnus who had not forgotten about the order and had assumed Optimus recalled as well. Smokescreen wasn't upset at the reveal and accepted the reasoning without any pushback. He understood the logic and was just happy to be alive and well, even if he hadn't had a sparklinghood. And so before the explanation was even finished, Smokescreen wandered off not at all bothered by it.

In the end, whether he liked it or not, the team's interactions with him shifted, especially with Ratchet and Optimus.

Bumblebee began talking on a more brotherly role for Smokescreen. It wasn't really intentional, he just felt the need to be more mature and take the time to get to know Smokescreen better in light of his age. In fact, Bumblebee began taking every opportunity available to him to drag Smokescreen into a game and teach him the things that he should have been able to learn if he had been allowed to grow normally. Before long Smokescreen found himself playing games every time he wasn't on duty for at least a half hour. Often times he didn't even realize he was playing as Bumblebee tended to disguise it under the ruse of work. The scout also began quietly teaching Smokescreen, generally by poking fun at him in the manner of all siblings and helping him to adjust whatever he was doing wrong.

The team found their interactions cute.

Arcee, Bulkhead, and Wheeljack took to giving Smokescreen more leeway in his work. Arcee stopped being so strict and quick to snap, Bulkhead ceased any and all hostility, and Wheeljack silently gave Smokescreen a Cybertronian puzzle cube as his way of being nice. Smokescreen was baffled by the sudden kindness and overall leisurely manner in which he was treated, but he did not object to the lack of yelling or the puzzle cube which he spent long hours messing around with.

Ultra Magnus for his part didn't treat Smokescreen any differently, at least not openly. But behind closed doors he and Optimus worked together to keep any possibly dangerous missions out of the rookie's servos. Not to mention more than once the commander quietly took an extra patrol or two when Smokescreen was obviously too exhausted to work any harder or going through a bad day. It wasn't much, but it did show that Ultra Magnus cared, if only out of sheer obligation and a desire to adhere to his moral code.

Ratchet didn't mean to, in fact he kept trying to tell himself that he shouldn't, but in the end he couldn't stop himself from fussing over Smokescreen the same way he did with Bumblebee. The first mecha he checked when they came back from patrol were the youngest members of the team. Whenever he noticed Smokescreen struggling he would slip the rookie some energon goodies that he kept in a stash for special occasions. If Smokescreen appeared exhausted or out of sorts, Ratchet would come by and do his best to help the sparkling-turned-soldier without trying to make a big deal out of it. Smokescreen for his part was confused as pit when Ratchet started giving him extra attention, even going to far as to patch him up first and give him little treats on bad days. He didn't understand at all, but still rapidly found himself going to the medic on instinct after a while.

And then there was Optimus who seemed to take it as a personal challenge when Smokescreen shrugged off his age like it was nothing. Before Smokescreen could even comprehend it, his idol and Prime swiftly began fussing over him as a Caretaker would. If he was injured Optimus wouldn't quit bothering him until he went to Ratchet. If he showed signs of distress, Optimus was one of the first to turn up and try to offer his services, be it a listening ear or whatever else Smokescreen might require. The Prime also took to scruffing him whenever he thought about doing something Optimus's considered dangerous. It was embarrassing, but Smokescreen always found himself going limp whenever the Prime grabbed him by the neck guard and pulled him back from whatever he was attempting to do.

It was all little things, a bit odd for Smokescreen but not strange enough to make him feel like a sparkling. At first he wasn't fond of the babying, but he found himself growing to enjoy the little touches the team gave him and the attention he found being given to him. It was nice... and something he didn't know he needed.