U is for Under
As angry as he often becomes with the smaller jet, as often as he had to stormed away from the arrogant, selfish, narrow-minded scrapling – as often as he voiced his disdain in tones as poisonous as he could manage, Starscream couldn't help the tiny modicum of respect he was building for his bond-mate.
Carrion was weak and spiteful and had a nasty habit of letting his mouth run when it should have been shut. But, if one was patient enough to flay back all the dermal plating of fragility and petulance, underneath all that was a streak of conniving hardness that drove the smaller jet to come back again and again, after every insult and failure.
He wouldn't go so far as to say that the other mech was like him, because there were too many obvious flaws for such a comparison. But there was something to take pride in, something that was almost respectable in the way that Carrion can pull him along in a waltz of anger; using his impertinence and unfailing ego to push his Commander to the brink of rage and then dial it all back, taking what he wants while, until he gets a chance to review the events, letting Starscream think it was he who had been in control.