Starscream followed step by step beside Optimus, watching, listening to the milling crowd. He held his wings high, proudly, yet tried to keep his body language open.
The chance he requested, the one for regaining trust... it wasn't easy. Every hateful look and doubtful comment reminded him about it, yet his resolve was set. He was going to make everything right. Be the mech Optimus could call his mate and if it meant silent whispers from Autobots, he would take it.
He made sure the Decepticons played nice. Well, as nice as they could, being Decepticons and all. Between the rest of his trine and Soundwave, who surprisingly pledged loyalty to Starscream, the security was pretty tight.
There had been harder moments when the Stunticons rebelled against the peace treaty, but he dealt with that in a way he hoped would impress Optimus.
Optimus was... cold, but Starscream searched for moments where Prime would be beside him; where they could be close. The coldness didn't feel so lonely then.
The hardest part was a lesson in humility. While Megatron never appreciated him as he should Optimus acknowledged his achievements with fairness Starscream came to love, but staying humble in the shadow of the Prime was not something the Jet was used to.
The biggest surprise had been Jazz. The hate in his blue visor that Starscream associated with the mech cooled down slowly. With every day the look changed into this defeated acceptance. It also took Starscream time to realize he was one of few that had had privilege of looking Jazz in the optics.
It was not long after this realization that Starscream went flying in the rain, the droplets thrumming against his hull like a caress. Freedom of flight, freedom of life, yet he ached deeply to the core because he had no freedom of love.
He let out a scream, a piercing, subsonic sound of anguish that ripped through the air, making drops of rain shiver and cry for him.
He thought no one heard, yet when he landed, water streaming down his chassis, the white shape of the Porshe waited for him on the landing stripe.
"I will tell him," Jazz murmured almost inaudibly.
Starscream stood silently.
"You deserve the chance I took away from you."
Starscream bit back the scathing remark that tingled on his glossa. "Thank you"
"I don't want to see him hurt."
"You won't."
The talk changed nothing. Starscream did not expected it to, yet when, days after, he found himself on the wrong end of Sideswipe's prank, trapped in one room with Optimus himself, he carefully dared to hope that maybe something changed.