If you want some perspective on how far ahead I was in this, at the time I'm writing these here words, I just uploaded chapter three. This (I think) is chapter nine. I'm only doing it this way to assure I don't take a gazillion years to update… like some of my old "Labyrinth" or "Kingdom Hearts" stories… hahaha… (Or worse, the stage I went through when I was obsessed with "Yu-Gi-Oh"! Of course, I deleted all my non-one-shots in that fandom...)

Sorry for the way I ended last chapter, but as a PTSS sufferer myself, I figured I could use it to my advantage just so you all could kind of see a little into how messed up Screamer really is. Besides, I have plans for it near the end, if I decide to use the über-shitty ending I ended up thinking of.

I actually suck at chemistry, so I don't know if Lithium and Nitrogen can combine, and if they can, I have no idea if they'd react with anything. Let's just pretend they do, okee dokee? Just like we're pretending that the twins wouldn't have Jet Judo'd Starscream on the spot back when they first saw him in med bay.

Presently, I has no ownage of "Transformers" or the song "Wonderwall", y'dig?

--

Given his personality, Starscream refused to acknowledge that the severe flashback had happened. No matter how much Bumblebee asked, Starscream would find a clever way to change the subject, often taking on a haughty tone when doing so, as if to ask, "How dare you accuse me of something so trivial?" It didn't bother the Volkswagen that much, as the seeker had always been like that.

What did bother him was that Starscream treated everyone who knew about his presence with disrespect. He wouldn't even speak to Optimus, even after the Autobot leader had taken him in. Optimus didn't seem to mind, as he was wise and could see that the seeker had severe trust issues. But Bumblebee felt bad. What would Starscream do if one day the minibot or the twins couldn't be there for him? He couldn't fly away – the Decepticons most likely had a bounty on his head.

Luckily, Prowl never scheduled him to work the same shifts as the twins. Until today, that is, which is what had gotten Bumblebee thinking about all this in the first place.

"Can't you get out of it?" the seeker glared down his nose at Bumblebee. The Ark was so boring if he were alone – and it certainly didn't help matters that he was confined to certain rooms, especially since he didn't know where half the rooms were.

"I've already talked my way out of countless shifts for you, Starscream. Prowl won't be too happy if I do it again."

"Tch. I could take care of him."

"Starscream…" Bumblebee groaned. "Look, it's only for a little bit, alright? Why don't you go visit with Jazz, or Ratchet? Neither of them are working today."

"As if," Starscream spat.

"Fine. Be antisocial, then, but I gotta go," The Volkswagen motioned for the other to bend down, then kissed him lightly on the cheek when the jet complied. "I'll be back later, alright?"

Starscream scowled as he watched the other leave, then counted out a few breems before walking calmly out of Bumblebee's room. He was tired of being confined – Prime had no right to tell him what to do! And so what if any of the Auto-brats saw him? He could take them.

After wondering the maze of the Autobot base for what seemed like vorns, he finally made his way to a dark room which he'd never noticed before. Noticing scrap metal littering the floor, he was intrigued at the various sights that greeted him – inventions! What was this one for? And this one, here? At the Science Academy on Cybertron, his major hadn't been in engineering, but the subject still fascinated him.

"Hey!" a voice made him jump. "Woah! Sorry! Didn't mean to startle you! I'm just not used to seeing anybody else in here!"

Starscream turned to the Autobot that addressed him. Despite the fact that this one wore a mask, he appeared to be smiling underneath it – happiness twinkled in those blue optics.

"You aren't going to sound any alarms or shoot at me?" Starscream glared to hide his surprise, and was even more surprised when the things on the side of the Autobot's head lit up.

"Nah! Not unless you shoot me first. Anyway, I already knew you were here – I helped Ratch work on you when Bumblebee brought you in."

Starscream intensified his glare – this meant that this Auto-scum knew what Megatron had done to him; stuff he hadn't even told Bumblebee yet. But, oddly enough, unlike the others, this one didn't offer any pity. In fact, he just went right back to his work as if nothing had happened.

"That's all you're going to say?" the seeker questioned.

"Uh… hand me that welding tool, will you?"

Shrugging, the ex-Air Commander placed the tool in the engineer's outstretched hands. Curiosity getting the best of him, he peered over the other's shoulder to look at what he was working on. They remained like this for some time, when suddenly the inventor dropped his tool and muttered, "Slag it…"

" 'Slag it'? Slag wh –"

"LOOK OUT!" Before Starscream could protest, this strange Autobot pulled him behind a nearby rock, just in time: the invention he'd been working on exploded. Standing up to brush dust off his arms, the other turned to the bewildered seeker, "Alright, I think we're fine now. Sorry 'bout that. It happens sometimes."

"You say that like it happens all the time."

"Eh, pretty much," the Autobot shrugged again, nonchalantly. "Wonder what went wrong with that one…"

Starscream muttered something and looked away, embarrassed.

"What'd you say? I didn't quite catch that."

"I said you measured out the wrong amount of Lithium Nitrate."

The Autobot looked down in wonder. "How'd you know what I was doing?"

"I was a scientist… before the war… I'd just graduated the Science Academy…"

"Really? Y'mean like…"

The seeker glared up at the inventor ferociously, daring him to mention the traitor's name! However, the other merely finished his sentence with:

"…Perceptor."

Starscream shrugged and let the other help him up.

"Well, you know what they say: if at first you don't succeed, try again! Help me out this time?" The head-ornaments flashed so brightly when he asked this. It bewildered the ex-Decepticon that this Autobot was being so nice to him. Not the "I pity you" nice, like Prime or Jazz, but more like he genuinely considered Starscream a friend. And besides, this Autobot was a scientist.

"Anything's better than sitting by myself in Bumblebee's room," the seeker agreed. "Of course, you already know my name, but you are…?"

"Wheeljack!" The way the optics and head-fins flashed when Wheeljack said this made Starscream think he was smiling again under that ridiculous battle-mask.

The pair worked in silence on the invention for a while, mostly repairing it from the explosion. Starscream had no idea what it was supposed to do, but he allowed him self to enjoy it anyway. (He deserved to have fun, he told himself.) It reminded him of his days at the Science Academy, before he'd chosen his field of science.

Both of the scientists jumped when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Wheeljack called, those ridiculous yet somehow comforting things on the sides of his head flashing jovially.

"There you are!"

Starscream felt himself smiling when he saw it was Bumblebee. The minibot grinned back, secretly thrilled that his lover was finally starting to warm up to someone.

"My shift's over, and Jazz said he saw you go in here."

"I thought your shift just started," Starscream looked at the yellow mech quizzically.

"Starscream, that was hours ago!" Bumblebee laughed. "What have you been doing in here to make you lose track of time?"

"Starscream's just helping me out on the new energy-converter I've been working on," Wheeljack answered. "It's nice to have another scientist around, 'specially since Perceptor and Ratchet are always too busy to help me out." Somehow he knew not to mention Skyfire. Thank Primus.

"Probably afraid of being blown up," Starscream muttered, then smirked so his companions would see he was joking. Bumblebee smiled again – this was such a huge step for Starscream, especially since the seeker had seemed so hopeless not that long ago!

"Yeah…" Wheeljack scratched the edge of his face-mask sheepishly.

"Why does he wear that stupid battle-mask, anyway?" the seeker asked his partner, who shrugged and turned to the inventor expectantly.

"That's a good question. Wheeljack?"

"What, this?" Wheeljack pointed at his face. "This is no battle mask! Battle masks are pointed in the front, like Optimus's, or Grimlock's." He looked at Starscream and added, "Or Soundwave's. See, but mine is rounded. Ratchet custom built it just for me after a particularly gruesome accident with one of my, er, projects."

"Are you saying you blew the bottom half of your face off?" Bumblebee was surprised.

"Wouldn't you rather stare at the 'stupid' mask, now?" Wheeljack took it in stride, optics flashing happily. "Anyway, I won't keep you two. Thanks for coming to visit, Starscream. You were a big help."

He didn't show it, but Bumblebee could tell that inside, Starscream was thrilled. The seeker loved to be praised like a starving street-droid loved finding half-finished energon cubes in trash bins.

As they were leaving, the seeker asked something that surprised both the Volkswagen and himself:

"Can I come back tomorrow?"

Wheeljack beamed. "Sure thing, Starscream!"

--

"No way!" Sunstreaker gasped later on when hanging out with Starscream and Bumblebee. He'd grown rather fond of the seeker, who, though not as attractive as he was, was still a pretty cool guy.

"No fucking way!" Sideswipe added. "Starscream made a friend?"

"And with Wheelfuck!?"

"What is it with you two and that word?" Starscream scowled at the duo, taking a sip of the energon cube they'd brought him. "What does it even mean?"

"It's a human curse word," Bumblebee explained. "It's kind of similar to how we use 'slag', except much more vulgar. Sparkplug said it once when he stubbed his toe on Grimlock's tail."

"It's fun!" Sideswipe insisted. "We like to put it in mech's names when they piss us off. Doesn't work for Prowl or Hatchet, but we can do it to almost everybody else. The dirtier we can make them, the better!"

"Like your twerpy red comrade," Sunstreaker offered an example to Bumblebee, "Fuckjumper."

"Or Ironfuck," Sideswipe added. "Or Fuckstreak or Fuckspray."

"Just Autobots?" Starscream questioned, curiosity piqued.

"Oh, no, the Decepticons piss us off more anyway!"

"What's… Megatron?" the seeker asked. The twins replied in unison:

"Fuckatron."

"Skywarp?"

"Fuckwarp."

"Thundercracker?"

"Thunderfucker."

Smirking, Starscream asked, "Do you have one for me?"

"Fuckscream," Sideswipe grinned. "Get it? Fucks Cream!?" His brother shoved him, but Starscream's reaction was shocking:

The seeker began to howl with laughter. He was soon joined by his Autobot friends. They all laughed and laughed for breems and breems until Prowl's voice on the intercom interrupted them:

"Attention all Autobots: The Decepticon Shockwave has attacked a nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union. Autobots Jazz, Bluestreak, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe – report for duty like the rest of your faction has."

The twins stood up and grinned at their friends.

"'Bout time the new leader of you Deceptifucks organized an attack," Sunstreaker smirked.

"Do me a favour," Starscream replied, "and kick Fuckwave's aft."

-TBC-

Yay! Starscream made friends with Wheeljack! Everyone together now: D'aaaaaaaaaaaaaw! It was a little OOC, sure, but I just couldn't resist!

The language in that last scene, along with the scene with Soundwave in chapter 4, is the reason this is rated so highly.