4 – Learning about humans
Starscream had remembered his first arrival to the Autobot headquarters like it was yesterday.
Firstly, he had briefed the rest of his 'enemies' of his situation, and then settled for a part in the team.
No one, however, had expected a small human girl to burst though the door with a rush of energy and a big grin.
No one really knew where Astro had come from. They knew she was Australian, and that she had acquired her inhuman power by means of a bad science experiment with electric eels gone wrong. And that she had business with Starscream that was only referred to as 'The Mission'. Basically, she was there because there was no choice.
Not that her presence bothered the Autobots. She became fast friends with Alexis and the boys, and knew a bit about computers. She also was a bit older than the other kids, so she could provide moral support if need be.
Her presence bothered Starscream, though, which he made a habit of pointing out at every possible opportunity within their first meeting. Slowly, however, a weird kind of friendship had developed between the two. She had also formed a friendship with Jetfire, but that mainly included playing pranks on the seeker as partners.
In short, she was a normal kid. Just with a bit of extras to make her useful enough not to be squished by a certain ebony hand.
And so it was when the two flyers had woken up from their nap, their stomachs were growling. And Astro had set up some food in the meantime.
Starscream was naturally curious. He hid it mostly these days, but by default, he was a curious being. And now as he made his way over to the plates of food sitting on a rug, he sniffed it, eyes wide with that hidden agenda.
"Ah so you're awake!"
Both Starscream and Jetfire turned towards the voice. Astro smirked at the two and pointed to the rug.
"It's time you boys learnt how to eat." She said. "Unfortunately, it's not something easily taught, but mostly learned on your own. I got ya some food when you two were napping, so try some of each and see what you like."
On the cloth were a number of items. They ranged from spaghetti to soups to bread, plus some fruit like apples and pears and also some food bars. There was some pizza and stir-fry, plus some other dishes.
"Wooooow ….." Jetfire looked at it all, then at Astro in alarm. "We're not going to eat ALL of that are we?!"
She chuckled, "No, just try some and see what you like. I'm gonna make something to hide your wings."
With that, she flew up to the recharge berth and started to work.
The two former transformers looked at each other, then down at the food, and shrugged. They picked up a plate each and started serving themselves some.
Starscream didn't know what to choose. By his nose, everything smelt very tasty, but he just could not decide what to eat due to not knowing what to expect. So, he took a look at the spaghetti and shrugged, grabbing the tongs and putting some on his plate.
It slipped off with a splat and landed back in the bowl, some going over the edge. He cursed.
This time he held his plate steady on the mat, and put some on. This time he had more success than before, and it landed on his plate without too much hassle.
Jetfire had chosen the pizza. This turned out to be a good choice as he was soon eating a piece a minute.
"Mm!" He said. "This is … good!" His mouth was full. Starscream looked revolted.
"Stop eating so much like that, it looks rotten." The ex-seeker snapped, and Jetfire looked confused, before deftly hoeing into the pizza again. Starscream smacked his forehead.
Picking up a strange object that he had heard was called a fork; he speared a meatball on his plate with some noodles. He almost broke the plate. Jetfire snickered.
The other shot him a poisonous glare before bringing the food to his mouth and managing to eat it. It tasted very good to him, and he took another scoop at the food. He then managed to take a bite too fast and choked on a noodle. Jetfire thumped his back a bit before he coughed it back up, and sat there panting for a moment. Jetfire looked sympathetic and offered him some pizza instead. The seeker took it gratefully and managed to eat a slice.
Jetfire though was having a ball. He managed to figure out that with spaghetti you had to twirl it around the fork to make it easier to eat. He did this and managed to eat a whole plateful before he announced himself full. Starscream was deeply angered by this outcome.
"How did you know how to do that?!" He said in outrage.
"Uh, looked up some human stuff for interest when I was bored." He said thoughtfully. "Just one of the things I picked up."
Starscream growled and then looked at the stir-fry. He speared it with his fork and started to eat it. At least THIS food obeyed him.
At last, the two humans had done. There was a fair amount of mess around from their messy eating, but they had managed to do it without too much hassle. That was the main thing.
Astro came over to them and looked at their fat bellies. She smirked.
"You know you can get ill if you eat too much."
Starscream snarled at her, and she merely snickered at him evilly. This was major payback for all the times he had tried to squish her, she thought.
How convenient. She held up two sheets of cloth.
"Alright, if you want to go outside into the human world, you're going to need these to cover your wings." She said. Noting Jetfire's expression, she prompted. "Wings aren't exactly a commonplace among humans, so it would be best to use these. Sorry boys."
They looked rather annoyed, but they complied. It was either human's rules, or no freedom. So, they let Astro cover their wings to resemble hiker's backpacks. It didn't look too out of place either. And so, they got to the warp room and left for the local park.
Once there, the boys looked around in partial awe. They had never dreamed of seeing the world from this perspective before. It was beautiful to say the least, and they watched as ordinary humans played in the park with balls and their pets. Starscream in particular found all this strange; who knew that he would be one of these everyday people?
While Astro gave them a ball to play with, Starscream chose to go exploring up trees. Jetfire smirked and went over to some kids, and coaxed them easily into playing a game. Their parents smiled and watched him get tacked. It was clear Jetfire was very good with people.
The human girl sat under a tree, getting out a hat and putting the beanie on her head. It was the kind with two little ears on the top, and was a pale purple. There was some rustling above her and she looked up, seeing Starscream clinging to a branch and looking down at her with a sheepish expression.
"What's the matter?" She asked.
"Uh …" He looked from left to right before whispering. "I accidentally hit between my legs with a branch and it REALLY hurts. Uh, why?"
Astro smacked her forehead and blushed. "You do remember what I told you about it being very sensitive?"
"Yes." He replied.
"And that hitting it is very painful."
"Mm, no you didn't tell me that."
"Now you know."
"WHY did you make me learn the hard way?!" He glared down at the human.
She winked. "Sometimes things need to be learned by yourself instead of taught. Don't want me to mother you do you?"
"Hmph." He climbed back up to a higher branch and stared out of the top. He watched Jetfire play with the kids for a moment, thinking.
Why is it he's interested in me? He wondered suddenly. Primus … he's so damn perfect and I'm nothing but a monster. He's … friendly, smart, and playful. Everything I'm not …
He looked down, sighing and resting his head in his arms, sitting on the branch. The 'backpack' was irritating him, but he didn't dare take it off.
He could have anyone. Any Autobot would probably jump at the chance to go out with him. So why me? What do I have that all those people don't?
For some reason he couldn't see it. No matter what he did, he could not see why in the world Jetfire had chosen him to be his partner. He had told Starscream it was because of 'purity', whatever that meant. If they ever ended up bonding, that would be the first thing the ex-seeker would probably ask.
They returned back to base within the hour. Starscream had managed to almost uncover his wings by falling out of the tree, and with a shriek he tried to fly out of the predicament, but was already on the ground before he could get the blasted things out. Astro had managed to calm him down with a stroke on the back, proving to be a sensitive spot for him as a leftover from being a transformer.
After while of contemplating, Astro decided to just leave them be for a while, and went up to Jetfire's computer and went on the internet. She had her own human sized keyboard plugged in, so she didn't have to play 'tic tack toe' on the white shuttle's own huge typing mechanism.
Starscream had decided that things could be worse. He could have been turned into a rock instead of a human for all he knew.
Red Alert continued to work on whatever he had put in that energon cube. The toxic green muck had somehow caused a chemical reaction in the flyers frames, transferring them to flesh and shrinking them down to size by scanning Astro. It was a wonder they weren't female, but a lucky wonder in that case.
Soon enough, it was night time. Next to Astro's bed on the recharge berth, a double mattress had been laid out with the help of Jetfire, plus bedding had been added. Starscream huffed when he saw it.
"You seriously expect me to sleep next to him?" The ex-seeker said with a grunt.
"Would you prefer to sleep on the floor?" Astro said coldly.
Starscream was about to reply that he would when Jetfire sighed, walked over and pushed him onto the bed. He snarled at the other before Jetfire straddled him, pinning the smaller man down.
"Put your pride aside. It's not like this is new to you anyway." He growled. Sometimes Starscream really irritated him.
The pinned human merely growled, but turned his head to the side in defeat. He then bucked at Jetfire and told him to get off. He smirked and did so, while Astro tossed them a set of PJ's.
"Here, put these on when you go to bed." She said. Starscream held them up with a strange expression on his face.
"We have to change our clothes again?" He said, looked up at the human girl.
"Its hygiene, plus, walking around in the same clothes all the time can get yucky." She replied, then hopped down to her own bed and got out some toothpaste and a small brush, heading off to brush her teeth.
Jetfire sighed and merely started to take his clothes off, back turned to Starscream as he slipped on a night shirt. Starscream merely grunted and did the same, irritated at everything.
That night, when everything was still and silent, the ex-seeker awoke, and shivered. Primus, he felt cold for some reason. Not from the temperature, but from something else. Perhaps he was not used to the thin layers of flesh on his innards yet? He didn't know. He felt warmth on his back and turned his head slightly, noting Jetfire's wing in the air, back turned towards him also and sleeping soundly. Like he did in his robot form, he snored softly. Starscream found it a comfort rather than an annoyance, as Jetfire did when the ex-seeker purred in his sleep.
He curled up in the warm blankets, but it didn't seem to help. He shivered again and shut his eyes tight, letting out a small whimper.
The former shuttle opened his eyes slowly, hearing the sounds beside him and perked up. It was a shivery sound, one that he had not heard before, but knew the cause of. He sat up, the other oblivious to his waking. Starscream was shaking badly from whatever ailed him, be it the cold or sheer fear for the situation. Jetfire watched for a moment, before reaching out and stroking the shaking wing folded tight to the slim body.
Starscream froze, but did not make a sound as Jetfire rolled over to him, wrapping an arm around his torso and pulling the seeker close to his chest, grasping the blanket and pulling it up over them both, then wrapping his wing around the other's body. His other arm slid under Starscream's head and he nestled his own head into the crook of Starscream's neck. The ex-seeker blinked, and suddenly felt very, very comfortable. So much so, he didn't even have the ounce of voice to complain. Instead, he shoved his pride aside in a rare move and snuggled into the hold, feeling as though he had nothing left to lose. Jetfire smiled into his neck as Starscream put an arm over his own hand, and they both feel asleep in each other's arms.
Hope you like so far. Would type more, but I'm sleepy ... night all!
ST