MANY MONTHS LATER…
Stars was stuffing his mouth with birthday cake. Megs was running around and shooting things with his new water gun. Skyfire was sitting on the floor next to Stardust, who was hovering in the air. Skywarp was hovering nearby to make sure nothing bad happened to her. Gemstone and Thundercracker, happily married couple that they had become, were seated on the floor. Megatron was sitting on the floor too, with Starscream sitting on his lap.
"I can't believe Stars and Megs are two years old now," said Starscream. "Just look at them."
Both of the twins were able to fly now, so Megs floated up to the table to get to the birthday cake. Hiding it on top of the refrigerator would be useless if their parents decided they'd had enough.
"They just grew up so quickly," Skywarp agreed. "Come here, sparklings! Give your uncle a hug."
"I'm not a sparkling," Stars said indignantly, his mouth still full of cake, but he floated up into the air again, descended onto the floor, and then ran to his family.
"But at least we can sing the birthday song, right?" said Starscream, gathering Stars into his lap—well, he tried. But it was pretty much impossible, seeing as his baby sister would be here in maybe just a month now.
"Birthday song!" Stars said happily, parking himself onto Starscream's knees.
"Not your birthday," Megs told him sharply, climbing off the table and walking at a leisurely pace towards everybody else. "My birthday! I'm oldest."
"By about thirty minutes, maybe." Megatron laughed and pulled his son over to sit by his parents and twin brother.
"So, how are you doing, Starscream?" asked Skyfire.
"I'm good," Starscream replied, leaning back into Megatron's chest. "We're all good."
"It's so great that you're going to have another sparkling," Skyfire continued. "I'm so happy for you. Do you know what kind it will be?"
"Well, I wanted it to be a surprise, but Starscream just had to know," said Megatron. "We got an ultrasound, and we're going to have a little femme soon. She's a grounder, like me—no wings."
"But we're waiting until her birthday to name her," Starscream added.
"Is she coming soon?" Stars asked, crawling up onto Starscream's abdomen.
"Yes, very soon." Starscream held Stars in place as the toddler placed both blue hands on the rather bloated canopy glass. Stars looked surprised when he felt the sparkling kicking (which she did a lot).
"Why are you kicking Mommy?" he said accusingly, pointing one finger. "Kicking's not nice!"
"Kicking?" Megs piped up. "I want to do kicking!"
Megs climbed up onto Starscream and kicked Stars from behind; Stars shouted "HEY!" and kicked him back; and the two of them crawled off to resume their fight on the floor.
"Shouldn't you stop them?" Skyfire asked, watching Starscream and Megatron laughing.
"They're just playing," Megatron told him. "What little Decepticon doesn't get into brawls every once in a while? That's what brothers are for."
"Well…it is kind of cute," said Skyfire, a reluctant smile appearing on his gentle face. "I always thought your twins were cute, Starscream, even if they did hate me."
"I suppose someday our daughter will be fighting with her brothers, hmm?" Megatron wrapped his arms around Starscream and used one finger to gently tickle his canopy glass, right where their daughter was. Starscream let out a giggle-like laugh and jokingly pushed his hand away, but Megatron still kept his arms around Starscream, feeling for the sparkling's kicks every so often.
Starscream (due to this being his second pregnancy) had felt the kicks a little sooner, and it had brought great joy to everyone involved, especially the twins; Starscream and Megatron had decided to wait until the second trimester to tell them a sparkling was coming. They didn't have to know all the details, being only two, but they were excited. Even though she wasn't in Starscream's spark chamber (she was attached to the spark, but lived in the gestation chamber), saying to the twins that "there's a sparkling femme inside Mommy's spark chamber and she'll come out when she's ready" was enough to satisfy the twins' curiosity. Even though Megatron had of course been in on the news long before this point, Starscream gave Megs and Stars the chance to "tell Daddy the big news." Megatron's fake happy-surprise fooled the kids, if not anyone else.
"So, Skyfire," Starscream said casually. "I don't suppose you'll be busy on Labor Day?"
"Wait, what?" Skyfire gasped as tears sprung to his eyes. "Are you saying—?"
"Yes, that's right, you can attend the birth." Starscream rolled his eyes. "You can be our doula or something."
"Oh, thank you so much," said Skyfire, hugging Starscream (gently). "And you remember who we chose to babysit the twins, right?"
"Speedwing," Starscream replied, remembering his old classmate. "It was nice to meet up with our old friend again. She became a science teacher, right?"
"She did," Skyfire told him. "We want to have a sparkling someday too—not now, but soon."
Soon after the wedding reception, Skyfire had worked up the courage to ask Speedwing on a date, and she had readily agreed. From then on, they had evolved into an item, a couple deeply in love. They were thinking about careers, cohabitation, marriage and, not too far into the future, a big family. Speedwing now co-taught Skyfire's sparkling science enrichment program during the summer—it had worked out for her, because her regular job was teaching science to younglings at Seeker School.
"That's good," said Starscream. "While I'm giving birth to their sister, they get to learn about science from a certified teacher. Once my daughter is born, Speedwing should bring the twins to the med bay so they can meet her."
"Okay." Skyfire nodded and smiled. "Just as long as I get to hold her."
"I want to hold her first!" Stars shouted.
"No, me!" said Megs, shoving him out of the way.
"Relax, there's plenty of her to go around," Starscream told them.
"But hey, at least they're enthusiastic." Megatron shrugged and kissed the top of Starscream's head, keeping his hands on the canopy glass but his eyes all over Starscream's body. No matter what happened, Megatron would always find this body attractive. And the odds were on Megatron's side; unlike last time, Starscream had…sort of become a nymphomaniac, which was just fine, according to Megatron.
True—not everything was so hot. Starscream previously had done no more than breathe in his sleep, but he'd recently begun snoring incredibly loudly—like the way Thundercracker sounded at night, only triple the decibel level. When he woke himself up snoring in the middle of the night, Starscream would declare that he was hungry and Megatron needed to get him food, or he would die, even though Megatron thought Starscream was perfectly capable of getting the food himself. These rude awakenings had been accompanied by frequent trips to the bathroom and, unfortunately, some clogging of the toilet. Not to mention Starscream's cooling fans and air vents had begun malfunctioning, so Megatron woke up in a puddle of sweat every morning and he didn't even know if it was Starscream's or his own. However, Starscream had decided to deal with this problem by sleeping with his armor off, so Megatron figured he was ahead.
"Mommy, my tummy hurts," said Stars, climbing on top of Starscream again.
"You just ate too much birthday cake," Starscream told him. "Come here."
Stars, seeking comfort for his full-of-cake tummy, snuggled into Starscream's left arm, the same way he had when he was a newborn sparkling (Stars preferred Starscream's left arm, and Megs preferred his right; it had always been that way). Starscream beckoned for Megs to join them, and Megs leaned into Starscream on his right side. Now the family was all together in one big pack—Starscream in Megatron's lap, the little twins on either side of Starscream, and of course the sparkling went wherever Starscream went. Starscream had a flashback of when they were still newborns, before Stars could even fly, when he'd had time to reflect on what a blessing they had been to his life:
Stars did a little yawn and turned over, then placed one small blue hand on Starscream's lower cockpit and snuggled up to Starscream in his sleep, his little wings twitching slightly. Goodness, his spark was beating so fast. Watching both of his sparklings, Starscream wondered how he ever could have thought, for one second, that he didn't want them. They were perfect, slaggit, no matter what anyone else ever said! They were his little gifts from Primus. Every time he looked at them, Starscream felt something he'd never felt before for anyone—strength, unconditional love, the desire to protect.
After all, his function wasn't just to shove them out of his body, or to be a walking cafeteria—he was those things, but he was also their Mommy. They were completely helpless beings who relied solely on him for care, support and love. If they were ever hurt, or sick, or hungry, or needed him in any other way, he had to be there for them, and he gladly would be. There was no way he would ever let anything bad happen to them.
"Mommy loves you so much," said Starscream, bending down and kissing both helmets. "Don't ever forget that."
Stars, still in the crook of Starscream's left arm, grabbed Starscream's left hand and snuggled his fingers, making Starscream laugh, just as he realized he had tears in his eyes too. What was wrong with him? The sparklings were already born; he shouldn't be having mood swings anymore. But they were so sweet…
"I love you twins and your sister so much," Starscream whispered, stroking their heads.
"We love you too, Mommy," Stars said quietly.
"And we love Baby," Megs added, placing both hands on Starscream's cockpit.
"What about me?" said Megatron. "I don't get any of your love, Starscream?"
"Well, you're okay too." Starscream casually reached up and stroked Megatron's cheek, which felt burning hot to Megatron afterwards; hopefully, Starscream's new passion would kick in again after all the guests left.
"Why does she kick you?" Megs asked, referring to his baby sister.
"Well…that's her way of saying she's excited to meet you," Starscream explained, wincing as Megs poked his cockpit.
"Don't poke your mother, Megs," Megatron reprimanded. "Or your sister."
"Sorry, Daddy," Megs replied, and Starscream reassured him there was no harm done.
"I'm excited for your new sparkling too," said Skywarp. "But I have a surprise of my own."
"You have a surprise?" said Thundercracker. "What?"
"I found out a couple weeks ago that I'm pregnant too," Skyfire told them, beaming, tears shining in his eyes.
"What?!" said everybody all at once.
"How do you know?" Starscream demanded.
"I got a donor on Vosnia," Skywarp explained, "so I know it's going to be a Seekerling. Two weeks later I took the test, and it was positive—I went back to Vosnia and got an energon test just to be safe, but I was right, and Stardust will soon have a new brother or sister!"
"Damn, Skywarp," said Thundercracker. "That's amazing."
"Well, that explains all that time you've been spending in the bathroom," Starscream added. "Do you still agree with your wish to be pregnant?"
"Of course." Skywarp nodded. "I get sick a lot. But I just remind myself of Stars and Megs, and Stardust, and how someday we'll have another Seekerling amongst us."
"You know, speaking of, it's very likely that Stars will form a Trine with Stardust and your new Seekerling, once they all grow up," said Starscream. "They're all energon-related, they're around the same age, and they'll be spending lots of time with each other. I could see Stars becoming a very good Trine leader."
"I would love that," said Skywarp. "I was hoping my two Seekerlings would have a Trine."
"Can you guys remember all the way back?" Starscream asked. "Remember when Megatron rescued me from the unstable energon cubes? Things were so different then. We've had so many good and bad times along the way…and somehow it's made us stronger than ever."
"Aw, that's scrap," said Thundercracker scornfully (he was never a fan of mushy things).
"No, I understand what Starscream means," Skyfire insisted. "What he means is that despite all we've been through, we stick together because we care about each other. We remember the important things, knowing that they've made us who we are today. I'm lucky to know all of you, and know that you all hold a deep place inside my spark."
"And we'll always stay together," Starscream concluded. "Because no matter what you do, or where you go, or how weird you are, your family loves you anyway."
-the end-