A/N: So, the poll's gone. I kept forgetting about it and honestly it just stressed me out.

Their first orn home, their caretakers had tried to pull Starscream aside and give him a talk. They still gave him the whole spiel they'd intended to: how he would feel it in his spark when he found his trinemates, how all three would instinctually know what part of the trine they were, stressing how important not ignoring even possible feelings was. They merely did it with Skyfire sitting there as well.

The next cycle Jackknife, with his trinemates in tow, took Starscream, with Skyfire in tow, to a large social center. The premise of these places was to help seekerlings find their trines as early in life as possible and to help with their development while they were there. Their sires had filled out some paperwork to sign Starscream up for sessions and filled out the single visitor allowance, meant for a carrier or sire of new or clingy seekerlets, for Skyfire. The coordinating caretaker at the front desk gave Skyfire an unsure look but allowed it. They gripped each other's servos tightly entering the main atrium where all the seekerlets interacted and played. Both were excited to see other sparklings.

Starscream happily led Skyfire around by the servo, meeting as many new friends as possible; Skyfire content to follow his lead. They enjoyed it the first few visits, but the coordinators grew concerned with Starscream's lack of desire to do anything without Skyfire.

Starscream's personal coordinator, Lightring, was convinced he was doing the right thing the cycle he wouldn't let Skyfire into the room. Starscream spent that entire session pressed against the wall and screamed energon soaked murder if you so much as tried to pull him away from it. When Starscream's sires came to pick him up again, Lightring had a talk with them about his concerns. The reactions he got were mixed, though they all seemed to agree with him. He asked if it was possible not to bring Skyfire in the future. They basically told him Starscream wasn't going to come without him. They said not to worry about it and he began letting Skyfire in the room again.

XoXoXoX

It seemed so normal to them, how often their caretakers would fight. Their caretakers had been together long before the two of them had come along, so it must be a normal thing. The twins never bothered trying to figure out what they argued about because it was just so normal, why would it matter? The two first frames played in the common room, ignoring the heated argument in the background. They hadn't even realized it had stopped until Carrier appeared in the doorway. She expressionlessly looked the two of them over.

"Come here Skyfire." Rainhaven's vocalizer was static laden from abuse but otherwise was just as emotionless as her gaze. The two sparklings looked at each other nervously, before both standing.

"Just Skyfire." The hard edge to their carrier's voice surprised them. That tone had never come from her before. Their hands subconsciously found each other. Hesitantly, Skyfire took halting steps forwards. He stopped when to move forwards they would have to let go and looked at Rainhaven.

"Closer." The uncharacterist edge confused them and Skyfire found himself complying. Unused to any distance, Skyfire wasn't able to make it all the way to Rainhaven before the twin bond felt uncomfortably stretched, felt almost painful.

"Closer."

"I can't." At the whimpered words some kind of regret flickered behind Rainhaven's optics. That small show of relent was all the permission Starscream needed to fling himself forwards. The two clutching each other like it had been vorns since they'd last seen each other. Their frames were about the same size, but Starscream still tried to envelop Skyfire as best he could. He'd known he needed to protect them from Jackknife and Poisonblade, now he was aware of the possibility he needed to protect them from Rainhaven as well.

There was more yelling when it was time for recharge, and though they couldn't make out the words, they had a suspicion it was about them.

The next cycle there was no fighting. They didn't know why and they didn't feel like leaving their room to find out. Jackknife came anyways. He stood in the doorway, commanding Starscream to come forwards.

"No." Starscream defiantly stared his sire down. Going so far as to throw himself into a sitting position, pulling Skyfire on top of him and wrapping his arms around the winglet.

Jackknife moved quickly. Grabbing Starscream by the wrist he dragged the seekerlet out of the room, locking Skyifre inside. Starscream was quickly pulled beyond how far their bond was ready to stretch. He didn't remain online much longer after.

XoXoXoX

Starscream onlined again in the guest bedroom next to the one they shared. He tried the door. When that didn't work he quickly moved over to the wall where he knew Skyfire was just on the other side of. They sat on opposite sides of the wall wishing it wasn't there so they could hold each other. Their spark still throbbed a little bit from the unwanted separation and being in their own home somehow made this worse than at the social center.

Starscream pressed at the wall contemplatively. When they first separated, he had been fine outside his sparkchamber. He saw no reason why that would change. Opening his chest and sparkchamber, he left his frame. Awareness was different without a frame to get input from, more feeling than anything. Regardless, he was able cross the solid barriers his frame had not been able to, happiness blooming across their shared spark. Weariness overtook him and Starscream was aware of Skyfire carefully bringing his servos up to gently cradle him. He sent gratitude over their bond. Everything was so much harder without a frame. Even if he wanted to, he didn't think he'd make it back to his own frame. He'd just have to spend a while in Skyfire's frame.

He slipped down through the seams in Skyfire's armor and used the wires underneath to carry him to the other's spark chamber. He crossed the barrier that kept Skyfire's spark contained there much more carefully than he had his own. They embraced each other as only a split spark could. Starscream couldn't connect to the aerial frame properly, but this close he could receive whatever input Skyfire was getting. Skyfire's frame fell into recharge with a smile on its face, its habitants tangled together even closer than usual.

XoXoXoX

They woke to a panicked wail. Starscream tried and failed to connect to the frame he was in. Skyfire leapt up. The door was unlocked now and he headed to the hall outside their room.

"You killed them! I told you we couldn't separate them too fast!"

"We're not dead Carrier." All of their caretakers looked scared and confused to see them. Rainhaven in particular kept glancing into the guest bedroom. Realization dawned on Jackknife's face before disgust overtook it. Poisonblade wasn't that far behind.

"You're both in there." Skyfire nodded, confused at their Sire's reaction. A horrified look came over Razorblaze's face. Rainhaven didn't look at them when she spoke.

"Get back in your own frame Starscream." They didn't want to. Not after Jackknife had tried to separate them so far. The distant, haunted look Rainhaven wore is probably what prompted Skyfire over to Starscream's frame. There he kneeled close, opening his chest plates and spark chamber. Starscream carefully slipped passed Skyfire's containment barrier again, falling into his own frame and onlining it quickly. They stood together, missing each other already, servos intertwined and wondering why their caretakers were looking at them like that.

XoXoXoX

Starscream warily watched his sires the entire way over to the social center. Their caretakers had left them alone to discuss something after finding them in the same frame the previous cycle. Razorblaze had been acting skittish ever since, which was never good for the two of them. Razorbalze was generally a strong person, but put him against his trinemates and he crumbled like rust. He didn't like whatever his trinemates had coerced him into, but agreed enough he wasn't going to put up a fight. It was one more reason why Starscream didn't care if he never found his trine.

The five of them entered the social center. Jacknife walked over to the registration desk like normal but Poisonblade walked away to speak with Lightring in soft tones. Starscream did not like Lightring. He didn't care if the mech was trying to do the right thing. Lightring was stupid and definitely doing the wrong thing. The coordinator brought Poisonblade over to the registration desk where he had the receptionist pull up several extra files. Starscream felt his bad feeling grow with each new file that was completed. Skyfire was just as nervous as he was and their servos gripped each other's just a little tighter.

It felt like an eternity later when their sires finished the data files. Starscream inched towards the main doors, pulling Skyfire with him; eager to deal with the other seekerlets and Lightring at his worst if it meant getting away from whatever his sires had planned. Jackknife, Poisonblade, and Lightring all approached. Starscream looked over at Razorblaze, whatever it was that Razorblaze didn't like was happening now. Lightring kneeled down and said in a sickeningly comforting tone,

"I'm afraid the two of you won't be able to hold servos this cycle."

Starscream kept his optics locked on Lightring's, ready for whatever the seeker tried to pull. A mistake, he realized a moment later as Skyfire was ripped out of his grasp by Jackknife. Jackknife picked Skyfire up and held him firmly, walking towards the exit. Before either could protest the separation, Lightring did the same for Starscream and headed into the main atrium.

It didn't take them long to figure out what was happening and they both began to fight. Jackknife plugged something into Skyfire's main medical port and his motions were reduced to trembles. Starscream felt Skyfire's shock and distress as he lost motor control, prompting him to fight harder. It took calling out one of Lightring's trinemates to get Starscream into the atrium and his whole trine to get Starscream to stay there.

Mercifully, Lightring's trine didn't force Starscream too far in, but his bond with Skyfire was still stretching. It wasn't until he was collapsed in pain and he could feel Skyfire slipping towards unconsciousness that Jackknife stopped pulling them apart.

Starscream came to loath the visits to the social center as each trip they were separated a little bit further.

They were almost ready for second frames when it came time for the trip where Skyfire was to stay all the way at home while Starscream went to the social center. Skyfire was powered down in a recharge like state in his room and Starscream fought his sires for all he was worth. Rainhaven was absent, as she tended to be these days.

"I'm not going! I hate the social center!" He screamed. Jackknife looked ready to resort to physical violence, long since frustrated by Starscream's behavior.

"Do you have any idea how low the chances of merely stumbling on your trine in the streets are? The social center is necessary for finding your trine."

"I don't need a trine! I already have Skyfire!"

"You stupid freak of nature! A trine is the only chance you have at even a semblance of normality. If you're lucky, a trine bond will be just strong enough to keep you alive when you sever your bond with him."

"The monster spent how long outside a sparkchamber without destabilizing? I wouldn't be surprised if he survived severing the bond without a trine."

Starscream put a protective servo over his chest plating and pressed himself up against the wall, ready to leave his frame and bolt through the wall if it became absolutely necessary. He was getting better at maneuvering without one and was pretty sure he could make it to Skyfire's frame.

Razorblaze acted on Starscream's distress; placing himself in a non-threatening position and saying,

"Now Starscream, even if we wanted to, the three of us couldn't sever your bond with Skyfire." He continued over Poisonblade's not so muttered 'Oh I want to alright.' "We're just trying to help you. Trine is a wonderful thing originating from a seeker's very spark. We know you love Skyfire. And either way he is your sibling; it's good that you love him. But I need you to understand how important it is for all seekerlings to find their trines. There are two sparks out there made just for you, and you're made just for them. Don't you want to meet them?" There was a long pause while Starscream visibly thought that over.

"Skyfire and I share a spark. If that's where trine comes from, wouldn't that mean they're meant for Skyfire and me, and we're both meant for them?"

Uncertainty crossed Razorblaze's face and he leaned away, obviously unsettled by the idea.

"No. That's not how trines work." Razorblaze didn't sound certain. He looked to his own trine for confirmation. They looked like they didn't want to consider the idea either. "No, they're supposed to replace him." Razorblade was too busy having a mild panic attack to realize his slip. "The medics agreed to sever—"

"Razorblaze!" But it was too late. Starscream had no doubt the rest of the sentence was going to be along the lines of sever the bond once he'd found his trine. He began edging away from the one caretaker he'd been sure was on their side.

"That would kill him." Though Skyfire's portion of their spark was by no means weak, there was no question whose portion was stronger. If their medics were worried about Starscream surviving without a trine, how was Skyfire supposed to? Razorblaze began trying to cover his mistake.

"It would be in the medical center; with all of your medics and all sorts of equipment nearby. They have different ways of improving his chances of survival that you don't need to worry about. The procedure wouldn't happen before the chances were high enough that we wouldn't lose either of you. I know it's hard to see from your perspective, but this is the best for both of you. If the two of you break your bond there's a chance your sparks will actually recognize being partial sparks and will begin healing towards full individual sparks." But Starscream was having none of it. It had always been them. Their spark. Two minds. And the thought of it just being him was terrifying.

"NO! No one is ever going to replace Skyfire! I'm never getting a trine and you can't make me!" That was the first time Jackknife hit him.

When the twins upgraded to second frames, their sires sat Starscream down, while Skyfire waited outside the locked room, and gave another long lecture on not ignoring his spark. If he ever felt anything looking at another seeker he was to talk to them. From then on he used that as his excuse not to talk to anyone. After all, he didn't feel anything towards them.

XoXoXoX

After the transfer to second frames their caretakers put an actual training program in place to allow the two the ability to separate more comfortably. It was drastically sped up the second time they were caught sharing Skyfire's frame. For their own good, they were told. A sore spark was a constant they were slowly getting used to.

Starscream had run off and hidden. There were always strange mechs over, most of them all concerned about the fact that his caretakers wanted a divorce. He had no doubt that Skyfire was getting the same visits. It was supposedly a big deal because divorces never happened, even with groups that didn't actually bond, but with all the fighting they did Starscream had to wonder why they became sparkmates in the first place.

Rainhaven had taken Skyfire and they were currently living in a lower floor. Without Skyfire with him all the mechs claiming to want to help him through such a traumatizing ordeal were just grating and loud and he didn't like them. Sometimes he just needed to get away.

Noise behind him alerted him to someone's approach. He didn't have to look to know it was Skyfire. Skyfire dropped down to sit beside him and Starscream leaned against him. No matter how far he went, or how well he hid, Skyfire always seemed to know exactly where and how to find him. And more importantly, knew when he really needed him.

Starscream wished he could do that for Skyfire.

Unsatisfied with their arrangement, Starscream crawled into Skyfire's lap. Skyfire hadn't really been any bigger than him as a first frame, but Skyfire seemed to be leaning towards becoming a shuttle frame like their carrier, and with their upgrades to second frames there was a more defined difference in size.

"Carrier wants to move to Altihex." Skyfire began. "There's a bigger need for transport mecha there."

"But the bond won't stretch that far!"

"It will eventually."

"They can't do that!" Of course their caretakers could. But they were already kept so far apart. They sat in silence for a while, before Starscream asked what had been eating at him for most of the cycle.

"What did our sires want to talk to you about?"

"What do you mean?" Starscream glared up at him. Skyfire knew exactly what he meant. "They really were just switching us for the cycle. They didn't specifically want to talk to me about anything." He kept glaring. Something had left Skyfire feeling devastated. And it had begun this cycle; while their sires had been taking care of him. He needed to know what had upset Skyfire so he could fix it. He was held a little bit tighter and Skyfire looked away. "Poisonblade warned me not to interfere when you found your trine, 'cause you need one to be healthy, that's all."

"No it's not."

"I… they said— …I want you to be healthy, and— but, I don't want to lose you." Snippets of memories and a summary of the conversation flowed across their link.

"I don't plan on letting them sever our sparkbond and unless you—"

"Of course not! But, you won't be able to form a bond without me if you don't"

Starscream leaned back and sent excess spark energy to Skyfire's frame. It interfered a little bit with Skyfire's neural grid, but it comforted them both.

"Stupid, I'm always going to choose you over a trine. They just don't get that we're one spark." He thought back to the other cycle when one of the other seekerlets that Starscream had a particular distaste for had come up to him claiming that he could feel Starscream was part of his trine. Starscream told the other sparkling exactly what he'd thought of that before telling him he could take his lying self back to his caretakers.

All three of his sires had scolded him for behaving so rudely. And how ignoring the feelings in his spark was dooming him to a life of loneliness. He had retorted that he wasn't ignoring them, because they weren't there. Jackknife had wondered if abominations even had trines, and Poisonblade muttered that it was probably Skyfire's fault.

Most seekerlets were at least a pair before their second frame; many found their full trine before their second frame. It was a rare thing indeed for a seeker not to have found both of his trinemates by third frame, and usually at that point you weren't going to find them. Starscream only knew a handful of other single second frame seekerlets and a couple of those had stopped coming when they joined a pair.

"I think they do get it, and that's the problem. They understand and are scared of it."

"Morons."

Melancholy stubbornly lingered in Skyfire's portion of their spark. Good thing Starscream knew just how to fix that. Starscream slipped off his lap into open sky and hovered in front of him, eagerly inviting Skyfire to join him.

They both had an aptitude for flight; and though Starscream's frame was the one more suited to it, Skyfire did a pretty good job matching him. Some of the unease lifted as he slipped off the edge into their playground as well.

They left the ledge and their caretakers expectations for them while they played. One spark, happy to be together while it was able.

A/N: I hope anyone reading this is enjoying it. Sorry if that ending line was too sappy for you….