"Starscream? Are you alright?" Thundercracker kept his voice low and soft, knowing that his commander was in no state to deal with loud noises or sudden movements.
"Is he…drunk?" Skywarp's voice was incredulous. They had been a Trine for thousands of vorns, he had never seen his friend drink more than one cube of high grade in a sitting. Surrounding the colorful jet now, however, were no less than nine empty cubes. Starscream was absolutely trashed.
"I- I'm fine." Despite his inebriated state, Starscream barely tripped over the words. "Don't wo-orry about me." Thundercracker and Skywarp exchanged looks.
"Come on, Star, let's get you into the berth. We have a big day tomorrow, and you're going to be hurting if you don't sleep this off." Thunder and Sky each took hold of their Trine-leader's arms and pulled him to his pedes. They gently guided him to his berth. Thundercracker held him steady as he lowered the lax form down, gasping in surprise as Starscream tugged him down too. Skywarp giggled, watching as his trine-brother snuggled against his bondmate. Leaving the pair on the berth he went back to the center of the room and gathered up the empty cubes.
"Won' matter. Already hurts. More won' matter."
"What hurts, Star?"
"Love him. Love him so much. Dun wanna leave, dun wanna stay. Jus' wan' him." The seeker's speech degenerated as he began to drift into recharge.
"Who Star?" This was new; Thundercracker had had no idea that Starscream had fallen in love, with a Decepticon at that. It couldn't be an Autobot, as they hadn't been among their brethren since long before they had left it in search of fuel. Besides, of the Ark's crew, Starscream found most of them to be annoying.
"S'wave." And with that the youngest seeker was out cold.
"Oh Pit." Thundercracker was too stunned to respond to his mate. "What do we do, 'Cracker?"
"I – I don't know. I mean, we have to go home. We've been recalled. And Soundwave is the most loyal fragger here. He'd turn Starscream over to Megatron in a sparkpulse. But this is going to kill Star. How long has it been since Starscream has liked someone beyond the two of us?"
"Not since Skyfire," 'Warp whispered as he crawled onto the berth. "He's too scared of getting hurt again, of losing someone else. Sure, Skyfire turned out to be fine, thank Primus, but the fear never really left Star, even after he got him back. What I don't get though, is why Soundwave? They're at each other's throats all the fragging time. How could he have fallen in love with him?" Thundercracker shrugged helplessly.
"I don't know 'Warp. I wish I did though."
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Rumble and Frenzy exchanged a glance. They were camped out in the vent that lead into the Command Trine's quarters. They had wanted to set up a prank that had promised to be spectacular, as Starscream's reactions to pranks were always something to rave about. They had wanted to wait until the mechs were all asleep and have Ravage get a video capture in the morning when the Seekers woke up. Needless to say, that wasn't going to happen now. Rumble jerked when Frenzy prodded at him over their twin bond.
'So the Screaming One is in love with the Soundwave? How the frag did that happen?'
'I'm just as shocked as you bro. You're the emotional one; I never notice slag like that.'
'I am not emotional!' Rumble raised an optic ridge.
'…Shut up. Anyway I think we need to abort this. We gotta tell Soundwave.' Without another word, the two tiny mechs disappeared back down the vents towards their own quarters.
----------
Soundwave watched the raid stoically. He did not have a significant part in this one, which he was rather grateful for. His youngest sparklings had brought him some rather interesting information last night. Even now his optics followed the graceful form of a red and white jet as it dove through the clouds. Starscream…loved him? The idea did not compute. He could admit that the jet was attractive, and he did enjoy their verbal sparring matches, but he never considered taking things further. Starscream was too flighty and disloyal to be considered a true partner. It was a shame, as there was no denying the mech had a brilliant mind. He wouldn't mind getting an interface or two from the jet, but that would be the extent of it. After all, opposites may attract but they weren't opposite so much as a nuclear disaster waiting to happen… and why was he do fixated on Starscream? It would be best to turn his thoughts to his current task, namely generating the cubes they would use to store energon.
He was distracted by the arrival of the Autobots. He had known they would show up, but he had not anticipated that they would arrive so quickly. There seemed to be an anxious tension running through the frames of the command staff, but he could not determine why. Jazz's mind was too chaotic, and Prowl's was locked down. He didn't try Optimus, knowing that he could not breach the Prime's mind. He did not have time to look at the others, but most of them were not tense and so he would not have bothered anyway.
What made this encounter very different from all the others was that the Autobots did not immediately attack. They were waiting for something, and in turn the Decepticons paused, trying to determine why their foes were not moving. Megatron recovered first.
"Ah Prime, we were expecting you." Optimus arched and optic ridge.
"Were you now?"
"But of course. You seem to be hesitating Prime. Are you finally giving up your foolish dream of defeating us?"
"Of course not, Megatron," the Prime said cordially, as though the two had civil conversations every time they met. "It seems that you have something that belongs to us, however, and we would very much like them back now." Megatron was about to reply with a scathing comment, but bursts of laser fire from overhead cut him off. The Elite Trine had gone into a dive, firing randomly at mechs who where to close to the Autobots. Mass chaos ensued. The Decepticons began firing at the sky, trying to take out the traitorous jets, while the Autobots, most who had not known about the seeker spies, shot at the Decepticons while they were distracted. Megatron, in his fury, had turned his back to the Prime, who used that moment to tackle the silver tyrant. Unfortunately, the moment of surprise did not last long, and it wasn't long before the two were exchanging vicious blows. Most of the other cons however, had been incapacitated by the Autobot frontliners and snipers, and were quick to fall back. Megatron was no fool, and he knew when the battle had been lost. He called for a retreat, optics focused on his ex-lead trine, the red orbs promising pain and suffering should he get his hands on them. The Autobots cheered as they watched the Decepticons flee. One lone sapphire mech lingered, but no one noticed, before he too turned and jumped into the sky.
----------
Soundwave was confused. He did not like the feeling. His cassettes had brought back information that did not correlate with the scene that he had witnessed a joor ago. Starscream, apparently, loved him. Starscream was a traitor. Starscream was smart, and knew better than to fall in love with an enemy. These were the facts. Theoretically, they should not affect him beyond the mission he had been assigned to capture the trine at any cost. So why was it disturbing him? He got his answer during his next shift.
The communication translation was giving him problems. It was rare, and annoying, but it happened. He turned to request Starscream's assistance, not that the seeker would be able to translate it, but he had an unorthodox method of observation that sometimes times picked up things that Soundwave missed, but stopped short. Starscream wasn't there. Sighing quietly, he turned to puzzle out the problem on his own.
More and more situations like that popped up. Soundwave had never thought that he had liked the seeker, after all the mech was an unloyal slagger who never failed to make his processor ache, so he didn't matter. But in truth he did. Soundwave missed their arguments, which had always been a challenge; he missed being able to have intelligent conversations. Primus knew none of the other cons could keep up with him. Pit, he was even beginning to miss Starscream's screeches and claims of leadership. Even his cassettes missed the seeker trine. Despite the numerous pranks, the three had never tried to hurt them for it like some of the other mechs on the ship. Soundwave couldn't understand it. Why now was he noticing these things? Did it have something to do with Starscream's confession? Further evidence was required.
"Ravage, Lazerbeak: Eject."