A/N: DON'T. OWN. TRANSFORMERS. GOT IT?

"Cold gin time again
You know it's the only thing
That keeps us together, ow" –Kiss

There were times when it paid to be on the good side of Rumble and Frenzy. They seemed to particularly like inviting her to little parties that Data would have otherwise never heard of, probably for the best, anyway.

Data always seemed to drink more slowly than her male counterparts. As she had on the first day, she sat further from them, especially Starscream. The thought of talking to him completely terrified her; she had no idea what she would say, now more than ever. The Decepticons weren't stupid, either- someone was bound to notice, and Megatron wasn't a safe enough distance away to risk that.

On the plus side, she was feeling much more alert than she had earlier- how couldn't she? Had she been someone less shy, perhaps she would have asked the question currently infesting her CPU: why? She glanced over at Starscream, and saw he was watching back. She lowered her gaze to the shimmering cube in her hands. Maybe after I'm a little less sober…

Once again Data found herself the calmest of the entire crew. She stood and treaded toward the pile of cubes; a blue hand came close, and she quickly withdrew her own.

"You'd better be careful," Starscream sneered, "You don't want to forget things again."

"S-Starscream," whispered Data timidly, clutching a cube.

"Why do you sit so far away?" He grinned, and Data assumed he'd been there as soon as she'd left the database room. She had noticed he drank quickly- he liked having things all to himself.

"I-I don't know, sir…"

"Then come over here."

"I-I don't think I s-should…"

"It's too late for that, isn't it?" Starscream grabbed her arm, pulling her over to where he'd been sitting before, seating her in the gap he liked to keep- between himself and Megatron.

"Enjoying yourself?" growled Megatron. Data stayed as still as she possibly could.

"Y-Yes, sir," she managed to mumble, sipping from her cube.

"I see you made it through without sustaining any injuries this time?"

"Y-Yes, sir," Data looked down shyly; he was the last one she'd want to know of the… incident, but Data wondered if he could already know somehow. She tried to stay as close to the middle of the two of them as she could- offending either one or appearing to take sides was one of the last things she wanted to do, but her plans were foiled as Starscream suddenly pulled her close, the remaining contents of her cube splashing against Megatron's silver arm. Data winced.

"I-I'm so sorry, L-Lord Megatron!" Data cried, lips trembling. Megatron's glare went right past her toward Starscream.

"You idiot," he hissed, fluorescent pink Energon dripping from him as he got to his feet, fists clenched.

"P-Please, sir, l-let's not start a fight n-now," she begged. "J-Just… relax," she forced a smile, "I-I'll get more f-for you." Megatron grumbled and sat back down, still glaring as Data excused herself from Starscream's grip and retrieved three more cubes, just as she had the first time she'd dared to come to these parties- or the first time the twin cassettes had convinced her.

As she set the new Energon cubes in front of the two and sat again, she felt those blue hands pull her closer once more; she gasped.

"Leave the femme, Starscream," snarled Megatron, "Being drunk doesn't allow you to be more of a fool than usual- if that's even possible."

"Does she look distressed?" slurred Starscream.

"I-I'm fine," Data nodded quickly, blushing. Megatron rolled his optics.

After finishing another cube, as well as part of Starscream's (he had declared it was the best he'd ever tasted, and demanded she taste it too) Data was glad she'd remembered to back up her memory beforehand. Slag, she didn't really know why she was glad, but it didn't matter too much to her anymore. Optics slightly dimmed, she leaned against the equally drunk (perhaps more) seeker, smiling slightly.

"Get a room!" hollered Frenzy noisily from the other side of the room, completely tanked.

"Your mother!" Data giggled in response, unaware of just how strange her behavior was compared to the usual shy stammering she elicited. Megatron was highly amused by it; last time, he'd left early and missed out on her antics.

"I'm sleepy," Data thought aloud, nodding her head, which had began to throb not too long ago, though she hadn't the faintest concept of why. Little seemed to make sense at the moment. For instance, why was the base rocking back and forth? And where on Cybertron had these hiccups come from? Questions rattled about like loose screws in her mind as she slowly sat up straight, giggling in dizziness with a crooked grin forming on her pale face.

"I'm going to bed!" she announced proudly, getting to her feet, though just barely. "I'll miss you guys!" She stumbled into the hallway, tittering loudly.

Her balance was atrocious. After crashing to the floor with a bit of a scream, she'd fallen again when she made an attempt to get up. So for a few minutes, she sat happily on the floor, grinning at passersby. Eventually she found herself staring up at her silver leader, giggling until he pulled her up to her feet.

"Oooh."

"Get back to your quarters."

"Yeeees sir!" Data swerved her way down the hallway, singing a little improvised song on the way. When she was almost to her quarters, a hand that was getting to be slightly familiar to her snaked around her waist.

"You thought you could get away again?" smirked the seeker.

"Nooo," whispered Data, swaying slightly. "I'm sleepy."

"You didn't say good night," Starscream leaned down toward her, and she giggled, clutching his arm with one hand as their lips met again.

Data was not shocked as she had been earlier that day; the Energon had numbed her senses and judgment. At any other time, she'd have been offline hours ago, not standing in the hallway outside her quarters, letting the one who confused her the most come closer to her than anyone else ever had.

"W-Well, goodnight then," Data smiled, stumbling into her quarters while bumping into the walls a few times on the way to her bed.

A headache awoke her some time later; it felt like someone was throwing bricks at her head. She double checked her memory banks- she could still view what had happened the night before! Horrified, she shook her head in confusion as she watched from her chest panel, blinking to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

A pounding sound as loud as her headache came from the doorway, startling her.

"Data! Get out here now!"

--

"You once made this promise
To stay by my side
But after some time you just pushed me aside" –Cascada

Candy Stars: Oooh another new chapter vv It came out shorter than I'd thought, sorry!!

I might start doing a fancharacter 100 challenge for Data. Maybe. If I do, it won't have any spoilers for what will happen in this story before it's written, though (: Thanks for reading, if you review, I love you! 3 If you've already reviewed, I love you too!!