2 – The morning after
Jetfire knew as soon as he opened his optics that something was different.
Firstly, the digital information that usually displayed across his optics was gone. And they were slightly blurry as well. Confused, he blinked several times to be met with an odd feeling. He couldn't describe it, but it was different from the normal blinking he was accustomed to. He then rubbed his optics with one gloved hand.
Wait a minute ….
He looked at his hand and jumped with a cry, staring at them. And then he looked down at his form again and was met with folds of material. He reached up to touch his head and was met by the soft feeling of hair. Suddenly feeling something on his back, he realised he had a large pair or pure white wings on his back, tipped with grey on the ends in stripes.
Shaking his head, he realised that for some ungodly reason, he had been turned human.
And, as he looked beside him, he was met with the sight of a figure clad in red, black and white with tips of gold. There was also a pair of wings jutting out of his back, but they were spotted towards the ends with reds and black. Despite himself, Jetfire grinned at them and lightly ran a hand over them. They were quite lovely things.
That brought a jolt from the slumbering ex-seeker. Knowing that it was bound to happen sooner or later, Jetfire the human lightly shook the other on the shoulder.
"Wake up," He said, and noted instantly that his voice had lost its metallic edge.
That emitted a grumble from the seeker, as he got up to his knees. He rubbed his eyes also with various mutterings, before freezing on the stop.
Jetfire covered his ears just on time as the wide eyed human let out a started scream, looking at his hands and body.
"What th-" He jumped up, feathers on his wings on end and ruffled up as he stared around the room. Jetfire quickly pulled him down.
"Starscream! Settle down!" He commanded in a stern tone.
The other was breathing fast as he looked at the other with wide copper eyes. He then registered who it was and whimpered, burying his face in his black gloved hands.
"What, what, what, what, what happened …" He murmured, voice muffled in the gloves. Jetfire could already hear the difference in his voice and noted it was a lot softer and gentle than his robot form.
"Starscream …" He shook the other's shoulder gently again. "Hey, it's … probably just an accident of some kind."
It was then the red clad human looked up at Jetfire with a strange expression on his face.
"Your voice is weird." He said.
"Hey! So is yours!" Jetfire replied, annoyed.
Starscream huffed and folded his arms across his chest. He looked pretty much the same as he always did, except the armour parts of his body were in clothing form instead of metal. Jetfire was the same.
Jetfire couldn't help but grin a little. At least he was getting back to normal personality wise. He flexed his body and stood up, wings outstretching and ruffling his body a bit.
Starscream looked up from finishing contemplating his many beings he wished to kill to note that Jetfire had quite an impressive wingspan. It was an instant thing for flyers to look at the size of wings to impress them, and right now Starscream jealously looked at them and noted they were bigger than his. But, he thought with a smirk, his were more colourful.
"Ugh, what's all the racket this morning …?"
Both former transformers froze. They had completely forgotten that Astro was also present. They watched in horror as she attached her jetpack to her back and flew up.
"Say, what's all the-" The rest of her sentence froze in her mouth as she stared at the humans on the bed. They stared back. Jetfire had folded his wings in again as Astro flew down to stand in front of them. She looked from one to the other before she burst out in a shriek of shock.
Both males forgot to cover their ears, and did so quickly. They didn't register the difference in human tone of voice before just now. Starscream in particular both noticed how loud her voice was and also how big she looked compared to what he was used to. Jetfire fell over on his butt and held his ears to stop them ringing.
Astro then slowly fell down into a sitting position with her hands over her mouth, eyes wide. When she recovered from her shock, she lowered her hands and whispered out,
"Jetfire …?" She looked at the white human and then to the red one. "Starscream …?"
Jetfire nodded, and Starscream looked away, muttering "unfortunately, yes hu-"
He then remembered that he could no longer use that insult.
"Uh, what happened to you two?" Astro said in a calmer voice. "I mean … you're … you're … human!"
"Thankyou for pointing out the obvious," Starscream snarled.
Astro looked apologetic. "Well, at least you retained most of your physical aspects. Even wings!"
She gasped and looked at them. She had always wanted wings, but she knew that it was impossible for humans to get them. So she went up to Jetfire's own set to have a closer look, running a hand down the curve of one folded wing.
Jetfire looked a bit startled. Seeing Astro this big was a definite shock to him as he regarded her with some caution, but then relaxed as she gently stroked one wing. He smirked and said, "I guess you like wings, eh?"
"Yeah!" She nodded and grinned, then gasped and giggled as Jetfire wrapped the wing around her and made her fall over.
Starscream regarded the two friends with deep jealousy. It wasn't as though he didn't have wings too!
"Hey!" He said loudly, wings ruffling again. "I have wings too you know!"
Astro smirked at him, and then took in his own set. Smaller that Jetfire's indeed, but much prettier, she crawled over to them and stroked one. The smaller man shivered but remained still. He had to get used to this new feeling of touch that he wasn't aware of. Humans were much more sensitive, he noted.
"You have pretty wings too, Starscream!" Astro said, but then frowned and drew back. It didn't look like they would be changing back any time soon …
"Hmm," She let out, looking deep in thought. The two males watched her with some adhesiveness. Finally she looked up.
"Well, it looks like you're not going to be going back to your original forms anytime soon …" She said. "So it would be best if I taught you a few things you should know. And Starscream-" She turned to him as he opened his mouth to protest. "-I have been human for 17 years and you have been for 10 minutes, so I suggest you shelve your stubborn pride and listen up."
He closed his mouth and grumbled, but it was clear he was resigned to the truth and got comfortable.
It was then he realised how uncomfortable sitting on metal was, and he grimaced. Astro noted it, and got up with a wave of her hands.
"Come and sit on my bed, its more comfortable." She then flew down from the recharge berth to her own much smaller bed sitting by it.
The two former transformers looked at each other. Starscream had black hair with an earphone like arrangement that mirrored his former helmet. Jetfire had the same type of thing, though he had red hair and a gold scarf around his mouth and nose, which he had taken off. He then smirked and stepped back, before flapping his wings and managing to lift himself off the ground with a wild whoop.
"Hey this is kinda cool!" He said, and flew down after Astro with a laugh. Starscream grumbled and soon followed, though it was with a lot more hesitation. He landed on the bed with a small wobble due to the springs, and sat on all fours for a moment. He was so not used to this at all, and clenched his fists. He already had turmoil in his mind due to Jetfire and also a bit of Megatron, he didn't need anything else to add to it. Yet, this just had to happen. Terrific.
He sighed. Well, who ever said life was easy?
As he sat up, Astro looked at both and sighed too. This was going to be harder than it looked.
"Okay …" She started. "Being human is similar to being a Transformer, though there are some very important differences between our races that you should know. The first thing is that we must change our clothes and shower daily, for hygiene purposes."
Both men nodded.
"The next most important thing is to eat. This is like consuming energon though it's a bit more fiddly in some areas. I think it would be best to give you guys some soup first because that's quite easy to eat. The other stuff can come later."
'Note to self,' She muttered to herself, 'Do NOT take these two out for dinner.'
"The more important rule is sexuality." She smirked. "I know you two are in a relationship-" Starscream grunted in denial. "-But a lot of humans are what we call homophobes. They don't think that a pair of the same gender should be in a romantic relationship, especially men."
Jetfire looked confused. "Er, I don't get it …"
Astro looked at him with a resigned look. "In basic terms Jetfire, don't do any romantic acts with Starscream in public. Just act like you're friends."
"I can do that!" Starscream instantly said, while Jetfire looked sad. He then noticed a bulge between his legs that wasn't there before, and prodded it. He looked surprised and then prodded it again, noting it was a rather sensitive spot.
Astro saw this and went bright red, reaching over and grabbing his wrist. "Jetfire … best not do that, honey."
"What exactly IS that thing?" He said with some fascination.
Starscream, although he also did not know what it was and noted he had the same thing, had the decency not to touch it.
Astro really did NOT want to explain, but what choice did she have?
"Uh, okay boys … the last most important thing …"
She then went into an explanation of how one went to the toilet, and basically how the human anatomy worked. In the end, she buried her face in her hands in embarrassment, and both Jetfire and Starscream looked strange. Starscream in particular had a flushed face.
"O … kay well that explains it!" Jetfire said with a fake laugh, and soon shut up.
Astro breathed out a huge sigh, face settling to its right colour before looking at them again.
"So, just … go to the bathroom if you need to go to the toilet, okay?" She said.
Both of them nodded. This was harder than it seemed.
Astro then stood up and looked around. Now she had to figure out what to do with them …
"Okay … the first thing we need to do is get you some more normal clothes." She plotted.
"Hey!" Starscream protested. "I look FINE in this thanks!"
"Well unless you want to get stared at by everyone in existence then be my guest." Astro offered.
Starscream shut up and folded his arms in a pout.
After Astro had warped back to her house to find some clothes, in five seconds Starscream and curled into a ball and started whimpering. Jetfire looked rather alarmed and crawled over to him.
"Hey, what's up?" He said, resting a hand on one trembling wing.
"What's up? WHAT'S UP?!" He shouted, whipping around to face the other being. "THIS!" He jabbed at his chest. "We're HUMAN Jetfire! As if I didn't have enough to deal with without this as well!"
"Starscream, I'm sure there is a reason for this happening," Jetfire said, trying to calm the former seeker down.
"Yeah right. Primus hates me, that's why." Starscream muttered.
"Primus doesn't hate you." Jetfire said gently, reaching a hand out to stroke his wing. The other shivered but didn't protest. He was used to Jetfire touching him by now.
"It's … probably just an effect of something we don't know about. You'll see." He finished with a small smile. Starscream looked up, copper eyes a tad more hopeful despite himself.
"You … you really think it could be just that?" He said.
"It could be." Jetfire replied reassuringly. "But for now, is this really so bad? I mean, we can still fly."
Starscream smiled briefly, thinking. Yes, at least he still had his wings. That was a plus. And he was already fond of them a great deal.
"Yes," He said. "I guess I still do." He flexed them as if to reassure himself.
"See?" Jetfire smiled, stroking one as it flexed. "It's a change, yes, but its something I'm sure we can adapt to."
Starscream nodded, and then looked up with a smirk. "Your positively is normally nauseating, but it's actually a refreshment now."
"Har har." Jetfire said, but at least it was a compliment.
I was a bit worried about this chapter, cause Astro takes a bit of command, but its necassary to the plot. No, she does not love either and no I am not making this a mary sue. I want that clear now.
Thanks to all reviewers! Some serious flyer snuggling in the next chaper!
ST