"Give me a groon to pack my things in Iacon," Starscream asked. It didn't escape his future trinemates' attention that his energy field rippled with sadness as he said it. They shared a quick glance and nodded inconspicuously.
"Why?" Thundercracker asked, confused by the request. "Don't you have your research and your studies to finish?"
"You wouldn't mind if I finished my research? It could take vorns." Starscream barely dared to hope.
"Nah, why should we mind?" Skywarp wondered. Clearly it was important to Star. "As long as you don't make me study, genius trine leader of mine, I don't really care. I've always wanted to visit Iacon anyway, never been there."
"He's right, you know," Thundercracker noted, "why should you give up your career and move to Vos when we can just move to Iacon with you?"
Yet again, Starscream found himself at a loss for words. His creators had always expected him to find himself a pair of trinemates, and 'get a real job worthy of a Seeker of his social status'. Roughly translated, it meant he was supposed to leave his 'useless studies', move back to Vos where they could watch over him and become a politician, diplomat or army officer. That was the Seeker way. The possibility that his trinemates wouldn't mind hadn't even occurred to him at all. Without preamble, Starscream jumped on his peds, flicked his wings in a follow me motion and took off the landing platform, transforming mid-jump.
As expected, they immediately followed, surprised by his unexpected stunt. Feeling playful, he let them chase him for a while, then abruptly stopped and transformed. They barely managed to brake and had to alter their course to avoid crashing into him. He grinned, contented.
"Starscream, what the slag?" the teleporter yelled as he transformed to his root mode.
"I knew you would pull it off," Starscream declared confidently.
"How can you be so sure?" Thundercracker questioned sullenly, following the suit and transforming.
"Because you are my perfect match," he answered simply as he floated close and took each of them by the wing. If his servos were shaking a bit, it was only due to the damn strong wind currents and nothing else. He took a few quick vents – to cool down, of course. He wasn't nervous!
"May Primus witness my words: I, He who makes stars scream with envy, hereby claim you as my Wings," his voice trembled only a little as he recited the ancient oath. "I solemnly swear that I shall always care for you and protect you at all costs. I shall fly with you, fight with you and die with you. You are my Trine." He resisted the urge to offline his optics as his processor suddenly filled with what ifs. Was he making the right choice? What if he wasn't? This was for life. Irrevocable decision. And what if they've changed their mind? Primus, what if they reject him now?
Thundercracker repeated the gesture and put his servos on their wings. "I, He whose thrusters sound like a crack of thunder, accept your claim, trine leader Starscream, and claim both of you as my trinemates," his spark was singing with joy. "I solemnly swear that I shall always care for you and protect you at all costs. I shall fly with you, fight with you and die with you. You are my Trine."
For the first time in his life Skywarp understood the strange idiom 'cry with happiness'. He felt like doing it right now. Nevertheless, he carefully redirected the static threatening to blur his vision, engaged a few subroutines to distract himself from the feeling and restarted his vocalizer. "I, He who warps the sky, accept your claim, trine leader Starscream, and claim both of you as my trinemates. I... I solemnly swear that I shall always care for you and protect you at all costs," slag it, his voice was breaking. "I shall fly with you, fight with you and die with you! You are my Trine." He completed the embrace and let his vision go white as he felt their newly formed tentative trinebond pulse with their shared joy. Two pairs of servos rubbed his wings soothingly, tracing them in patterns that meant trine, wind, fly and safe.
Skyfire did not expect Starscream to be there when he entered the lab early that morning. His friend was standing in front of the air separator, impatiently waiting for the cycle to finish. There was something strange about him, though Skyfire couldn't quite figure out what.
"Star? Welcome back. You were gone for longer than I expected."
"Hm?"
"How did the Trining go?"
"Better than expected. When was the last time this piece of junk got calibrated?"
"Ten vorns ago, I think." It seemed Star likely wasn't inclined to talk about the Hunt. He would have to pester him about details later.
"Have you seen the liquid strontium? I have been looking for the slagging thing for a joor!"
"It's right here," Skyfire reached up and took the container from the top of the cabinet, making Starscream growl in annoyance. "What do you need it for?"
"I want to synthesize durillium."
"You want to do what? Are you trying to blow us up?"
"I plan to use deuterium as an inhibitor," Starscream explained.
"Are you insane? Deuterium is highly unstable!" Skyfire didn't even notice how they slipped into an academic argument about thermic properties and chain reactions.
Questioning Star about what had happened in Vos would definitely have to wait.
