Chapter 5 - Explanations
A.N.: So I hope you guys like angst. And resolution to angst. And idiots being idiots. Well, I'm assuming you like the latter, because you're here reading the newest chapter. I could probably say more, but I'll just let this speak for itself.
The next chapter will be up November 1st. Until then.
It was one of the worst hangovers of Thundercracker's young life. It took him until well into the next morning for his processor-ache to fade, and it wasn't until nightfall that he was rid of all the little lingering error messages.
Thundercracker left his room as soon as the worst pain had faded, mostly in search of fuel. He promptly locked himself back in his room immediately after he'd acquired a few cubes of energon. He hadn't even minded the increased price a few extra cubes cost him, so bad did his processor hurt.
Primus, but he hadn't expected Skywarp to be able to outdrink him. They were an even match width-wise, but Thundercracker still had a solid meter of height on Skywarp. Surely he should have been able to take the black and purple mech?
As Thundercracker slowly stopped feeling like Unicron was using him as a chew toy, he realized how big his room felt. Well, big and small. It felt too big because there weren't two other mechs crowded into the space, stealing his berth, table, and chairs and leaving him with nothing but floor space. It felt small because there wasn't the sound of bickering filling up the room, there weren't stupid competitions like arm-wrestling matches and dance-offs being held in it, filling the space with life and noise. Without Skywarp and Starscream, it was just blank white walls and utilitarian furniture. It was empty and unmarked, quiet, pointlessly large, suffocating.
He hated it.
It reminded him too much of when he'd first left his trine, how echoing and alone his head had felt. His mind still felt a little too empty, and occasionally he caught himself reaching out to one of his trine-mate's extra memory storage RAMs until he could make room for the information in his own processor. It still felt like a slap in the face that there was no extra memory storage waiting for him.
He sent twin pings to Starscream and Skywarp and sipped at his energon slowly, the seconds inching by in the way that only time can when a mech is waiting. After ten minutes of fidgeting, he gave in and went to check on Starscream, because the scrawny mech's quarters were closer to his own. When there was no reply at the door to Starscream's quarters, he concluded Starscream must be tinkering away in one of the academy's science labs, and Thundercracker was damned if he could ever figure out which one Starscream was in.
Rather than hunt through the facility looking for the ornery mech, Thundercracker trotted off in the direction of Skywarp's quarters. He hoped Skywarp wasn't off getting refueled, or in class or something.
When Thundercracker finally knocked on Skywarp's door, there was no answer either. Thundercracker vented heavily. He should have guessed that they were both busy. They were both still required to attend classes, after all, and it was the middle of the day.
Thundercracker hadn't realized how few friends he had left at the academy until that moment. Impulsively, he wrapped his arms around himself, though for comfort or protection, he wasn't sure which. He suddenly felt very small and very alone. Like an unnecessary cog.
Useless.
Thundercracker crept back to his own quarters and curled up on his berth. He tried to read for a while, but it just wasn't the same without the others there. His optics wouldn't track the sentences, and he found himself rereading the same passage multiple times, absorbing nothing, too preoccupied with the buzzing silence pressing in on him. He flicked off the datapad.
Without warning, Thundercracker felt static build up in his vocalizer. His HUD flickered with white noise as he choked out a static-ridden sob. He was alone. He was alone for the first time since he'd disconnected from his trine. He'd known this - he'd known that he was alone, that he was trineless, that he was unbonded - but it had been an external knowledge, a footnote in his life. Now, in his room, it had finally hit him that he was alone in the world, and that there was no one who cared if he lived or died. There was no one to talk sense into him when he was being too stubborn to listen, no one to laugh at him when he was taking himself too seriously, no one to sit in front of him when he just needed to think out loud.
He was alone. He had no one. He was no one.
For a long time, Thundercracker cried. The static didn't stop until after the last traces of his hangover were gone. Didn't stop until after the lights dimmed from a lack of motion in the room. Didn't stop until after Thundercracker had fallen asleep, his body heaving occasionally as static burst from his voice box.
Starscream, insufferable scraplet that he was, waltzed into Thundercracker's room the next day as though nothing was wrong.
"Don't ping me when I'm working with dangerous chemicals," was all he said by way of acknowledging the previous day's events, which was perhaps the closest he could ever get to giving an apology, at least as far as Thundercracker could tell.
Starscream had a nasty habit of speaking as he came into a room and assessing the situation only after he'd swept past the threshold. So it wasn't until he was fully in the room that he saw that Thundercracker was alone, and that he was lying on the berth on his side, without so much as a datapad in sight. "Don't tell me you're still hung over," Starscream scoffed.
"No," Thundercracker mumbled.
"Good. Then you won't mind giving me my spot back, you cretin." Starscream stood at Thundercracker's side and poked his sharp servos in between Thundercracker's plating. "Seriously, move it. I have a lot of reading I need to get caught up on, and how am I supposed to do that if I'm not dominating your freakishly comfortable berth?"
Thundercracker rolled over and focused on ignoring Starscream as thoroughly as possible.
Starscream scowled. "No, see, that's the wrong answer, TC. You're supposed to say something sarcastic about how my berth would be as comfortable as yours if I'd get all my junk off of it, blah blah blah, more witty banter ensues, culminating in you graciously offering me your berth as a place to do my reading."
When Thundercracker still didn't say anything, Starscream snarled. "I will drag your aft to Stabilizer. Don't think I won't." It was a legitimate threat. Stabilizer had little tolerance for mechs going into the medical center without actual serious injuries. He'd put a mech with anything less than a ruptured fuel line on cleaning crew for months as punishment. He'd even locked some in the brig for a few days for good measure, according to rumor.
Thundercracker blew cool air on his internal systems, trying to steady himself. "I'm, um…I'm not in the mood, Starscream."
Starscream rolled his optics, irritated. "Oh Primus, tell me you and Warp didn't have some kind of lover's spat."
Thundercracker sat bolt upright on his berth at that. "What?!" he demanded, staring at Starscream in wide-eyed shock. "What…what in the name of Primus would make you think…" he trailed off, spluttering at Starscream's self-satisfied smirk.
"Oh please," Starscream scoffed, his grin a blend of smugness and mild offense. "If you two interacted anywhere other than just your room, the whole academy would think you two practically spark-bound."
"We are NOT - " Thundercracker yelped, but cut himself off when his voice processor involuntarily hit an uncomfortably high note on the "not". He reset the box and tried again, Starscream laughing at him with his optics. "Skywarp and I are not…spark-bound," he said, the last word coming out uncomfortably. "We're not interfacing either. We're just…friends. That's it. I would never…I mean…" Thundercracker's faceplates hissed as energon rushed to them and they became hotter than the surrounding air.
"Oh my god," Starscream said, barely containing his laughter. "I knew you'd never 'faced before, but this is something else entirely." He crossed his arms and cocked an optic ridge at Thundercracker, shooting him a wicked look. "Never? You'd never swap coding with Skywarp? That'll break the poor little mech's spark when I tell him…"
Thundercracker scowled. "Don't be a jerk, Starscream."
"But I do it so well," Starscream purred, posing dramatically at the edge of Thundercracker's berth. It was Thundercracker's turn to roll his optics at that. "But seriously," Starscream said, mood shifting to blatant curiosity. "You'd never interface with Skywarp?"
Thundercracker suddenly felt uncomfortable. Starscream's optics felt like searchlights, prying into the corners of his processor. "I…" In all honesty, he wasn't sure he had an answer. He couldn't meet Starscream's optics.
"What is so difficult about that question?" Starscream snapped losing his patience. "Either you would or you wouldn't. Would you 'face me?"
Thundercracker's helm snapped up and he scooted as far from Starscream as the berth would allow him to.
"I'd say that's a 'no'," Starscream said, not bothering to let Thundercracker get an actual answer out. He crossed his arms and leveled Thundercracker with a scathing look. "You didn't have to be quite so enthusiastic about that rejection." He examined the tips of his servos as though he'd suddenly lost all interest. "I'm almost offended."
Thundercracker rolled his optics again. "Starscream, you're beautiful, but I am never letting you anywhere near my spark, cords or no."
"Good," Starscream said, flopping down on the berth next to Thundercracker, now that a space had been opened up. "Cause I feel the same way about you." When Thundercracker shot him a confused look, Starscream vented, annoyed. "Oh please, I'm not buying into your whole 'intimacy' crap. You're a good-looking mech, TC – I like 'em big." He shot Thundercracker a salacious smile that left Thundercracker distinctly uncomfortable. It must have shown on his faceplates because Starscream just laughed at him. "You're also way too tame for me. I don't like my partners quite as…timid as you are. Plus," he said, reclining on Thundercracker's berth, twining his fingers behind his helm, "I actually like you. You're an okay guy, you know, for someone with a pole up his aft. And I don't interface people I actually like." He kept his optics locked on the ceiling, but Thundercracker was sure Starscream was studying him with his peripheral sensors. "They get all sorts of ideas and feelings, they start thinking we're gonna be, I dunno, an item or some such slag…" He vented softly. "It just gets messy."
"That sounds like experience," Thundercracker said quietly, not used to this new, honest side of Starscream. He didn't want to frighten this Starscream away before he'd gotten a chance to get to know it.
Starscream shrugged. "Yeah, well. We all do stupid things when it's our first time. I haven't done it since. Course, I haven't had any friends since," he added with a derisive laugh.
"Can I ask their name?" Thundercracker said, afraid he was crossing a line. Starscream actually opening up of his own accord was…a weird experience. He didn't want to spoil it, but he was curious nonetheless.
"Flyaway," Starscream said quietly. "She's a nasty glitch, total piece of work - "
"I can see why you liked her," Thundercracker said with a grin.
"Get fragged," Starscream retorted, but there was no venom in his voice. He sat up on his elbows, suddenly looking contemplative. "Speaking of," he said, "where is the third member of our merry band of rejects? I thought you two were pretty much inseparable."
Thundercracker sat up as well, sitting cross-legged on his berth. "I don't know. I haven't heard from him since you two decided to play 'Who Can Shout Louder When TC's Hungover'."
"Huh."
Suspicion was starting to become second-nature at this point."Starscream," Thundercracker said slowly, not liking the smaller seeker's tone. "What did you do?"
"Nothing!" Starscream protested, but it sounded a little too defensive to be true.
"Starscream," Thundercracker repeated, keeping his tone quiet and even. The fact that brash, arrogant Starscream absolutely refused to meet his optics was telling.
After a few moments of dragging silence, Starscream finally caved."I hardly see how it's my fault if your little frag-friend can't take a little constructive criticism!"
"Constructive criticism?" Thundercracker asked, his tone carefully neutral. Too much emotion and Screamer would just start living up to his name.
"Well so maybe it wasn't quite…tch, you know this isn't my fault!" Starscream snapped, glaring up at Thundercracker. "If he's…I don't know, missing or pouting or whatever, that doesn't mean it's my fault!" Somehow, even though he was at a lower level than Thundercracker, he didn't seem in the least bit intimidated. Maybe it was because he was used to having to look up at people. After all, he was remarkably short for a seeker.
"Okay, it's not your fault. But it wasn't his fault that you went off to pout in the badlands, and he was still out there helping me look for you."
Starscream looked away again, suddenly finding an energon stain on Thundercracker's wall intensely interesting.
"Starscream," Thundercracker said, exasperation creeping into his voice.
"I told him a story!" Starscream snapped. "I was…when you passed out, he was acting like this lost little sparkling. It was pathetic, but I figured, 'what the hell, I'll humor him'.I tried to be nice to him, just once, and then he had the audacity to pretend he didn't know what 'overcharged' meant. He was so obviously baiting me, and I might've…implied no one in their right processor would want to 'face him." Starscream suddenly switched gears, saying "You see that this is entirely his fault, right? I am completely in the clear on this one. I'm the victim!"
Thundercracker rubbed his faceplates. "Starscream…I know you have a temper. And Primus knows no one should believe a word off your glossa when you get really torqued. But Skywarp doesn't know that. And Skywarp likes you because, unlike almost every other mech he's known, you are always honest with him." He looked hard at Starscream. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Starscream groaned and gracefully rolled off Thundercracker's berth. "You're saying he thinks we hate him."
"No, I'm saying he thinks you hate him," Thundercracker corrected, slipping off the berth, his bulk making it impossible to perform the same maneuver Starscream had. "Don't rope me into this just 'cause you're trying to dodge responsibility."
"I hardly see how him misinterpreting my words and having a temper tantrum constitutes as my fault," Starscream said in his most bland tone.
"You are so self-righteous," Thundercracker mumbled. He wasn't quiet enough.
"You're only just now figuring that out?" Starscream said with a sneer. He counted off on a servo, "You also forgot everyone's other favorites: Arrogant, obnoxious, egotistical, insufferable, self-centered - "
"Yes you have problems!" Thundercracker cut in. "Can we go find Skywarp now? I'm worried about him." Starscream smirked knowingly, and Thundercracker grumbled "Don't say it," as he walked past the slight seeker towards the door.
Starscream held up his delicate servos, faux innocence plastered all over his faceplates. "I have utterly no idea what you could ever mean, my dear Thundercracker." Still, he followed Thundercracker and the door slid shut behind them with a hiss of pneumatics.
After managing to rule out all the other obvious places that Skywarp could be, Thundercracker and Starscream finally found themselves outside Skywarp's quarters, the door locked against them.
"We already tried here, and he either isn't letting us in, or he's not home," Thundercracker protested, worry bleeding into his tone. Next to him, Starscream poked at the datapad that served as the manual lock for Skywarp's door.
"So let's find out which," Starscream said, pulling a laser-scalpel out of his subspace with a smirk.
Thundercracker's optics widened. "Where did you even get that?" he demanded quietly, quickly glancing around to make sure the hallway was clear. Students weren't supposed to have medical tools, which meant Starscream must have stolen it at some point. Thundercracker wasn't sure whether to feel angry or worried.
"Please," Starscream said condescendingly. He waved a hand at Thundercracker. "Make yourself useful for once and play look-out like a good little mech."
Thundercracker grumbled about no-good, stuck-up, sticky-servoed seekers, but did as Starscream asked. He stood by the corner nearest Skywarp's door, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. It gave him the perfect vantage point to see if anyone was coming from either end.
After only a few minutes and four muttered curses from Starscream, the door slid open. Thundercracker didn't even see Starscream pocket the laser-scalpel, but suddenly it was gone. "Am I magnificent, or am I magnificent?" Starscream asked, spreading his servos wide as though inviting Thundercracker to view his handiwork.
"I certainly wouldn't have pegged you as the type to be able to pick a lock," Thundercracker said.
Starscream grinned and crossed his arms. "These academy doors are scrap. You'd think they'd have better security what with this being a state-sponsored institution."
"Right, cause the Vosian government is just leaking money," Thundercracker said dryly. "Especially with all the slag going on at the borders these days." He held up a servo, cutting Starscream off before he could snap back with something smart. "Can we get inside before somebody sees us? Or Skywarp locks us out again?"
Starscream shut his lipplates sharply and pointedly strode into Skywarp's quarters. Thundercracker followed behind with a bit more reluctance.
It didn't take long for the two to determine that the room was empty.
Starscream flopped on the berth, servos interlacing behind his helm. "Well, we might as well get comfy," he said, settling in for a long wait.
Thundercracker looked around uneasily. Skywarp had always been touchy about others being in his space, and Thundercracker didn't feel right about staying in the room without Skywarp's permission. It was bad enough that they'd broken in. Thundercracker didn't want to make it worse by being in Skywarp's private space when he returned. "Uh…maybe we should wait outside," he said tentatively.
"Nope," Starscream said, shuttering off his optics. "If Skywarp didn't want us in here, he shouldn't have tried to avoid us. Besides, this is way more comfortable than the floor."
Thundercracker shot Starscream an annoyed look. "Not telling us to stay out is not the same thing as inviting us in, Starscream," he snapped.
The infuriating seeker ignored him and continued to lounge, his optics off as though he were preparing to take a nap. "Yeah. You're totally not in love with him. You're just overprotective of his private space."
"And is there something wrong with that?" Thundercracker snapped.
"Oh, not at all," Starscream said, dimly relighting one optic. "It's sort of sweet, really. You know, in a pathetic sort of way."
Thundercracker gritted his denta and grabbed Starscream by his arm.
"Hey!" Starscream yelped as Thundercracker dragged him from the berth. The slight mech was easy to pull out of Skywarp's room, even with him struggling and fighting the entire way.
Thundercracker threw Starscream against a wall, ignoring Starscream's protests that it hurt, and hit the button on the door that would lock it as soon as it swished shut. Thundercracker bent down so he could get right in Starscream's face.
"Let's get one thing straight," Thundercracker hissed at Starscream. "You're not going to go into Skywarp's room ever again without his permission. I don't care if you think permission is implied, or if you're convinced he's lying in there dead. Unless you get a verbal 'yes, please come in, Starscream' or screams for help, you don't set one pede in there. And if I find out you have gone in there without his permission, I will personally drop your aft back in the wilderness where we found you. Understand?"
"Primus, yes already!" Starscream said, shoving Thundercracker away. He shifted, uncomfortable, glaring and mumbling, "Totally not in love. Just his fragging knight in gold-plated armor." He rubbed his servos absently, and Thundercracker ignored him, scanning the hallways.
It was only when Starscream hissed that Thundercracker looked back down at him, still sitting on the floor. Starscream had put his servos behind his backstrut for some reason. Thundercracker's optics narrowed.
"Starscream," he said.
"Oh what now?" the smaller seeker demanded, sounding more than a little annoyed.
"Let me see your hands."
Starscream stared obstinately at Thundercracker and sneered. "Why? You gonna smack 'em to show me how bad I've been?"
Thundercracker was not in the mood for Starscream's games, and he grabbed the slight mech's arm again to loud protests. He easily yanked Starscream's servo out where he could see it, holding it still even as Starscream kept trying to yank it away.
"You'll pop it out of alignment if you don't quit moving," Thundercracker snapped, and Starscream stopped trying to throw off his grip. It did nothing to stop him from running his mouth, but Thundercracker easily ignored him in favor of studying the hands.
There were obvious recent scorch marks on them. Thundercracker frowned and peered closer, a bloom of concern taking root. There were clear marks from corrosive materials on his servo, one only partially repaired by nanites. There was a large, badly welded patch on the palm – it looked like Starscream had applied that particular repair himself.
Thundercracker loosened his grip, and quick as lightning, Starscream snatched his servo back, rubbing it protectively with his other hand. He was glaring up at Thundercracker, and the blue mech was fairly certain that if looks could kill he'd be lying on the floor in a puddle of his own energon.
"How in the pit do you let your servos get in that bad a condition?" Thundercracker demanded. He sounded angrier about it than he'd meant to, probably some left-over anger from earlier.
"I actually use them, unlike some mechs," Starscream snapped, holding his servos tighter to his chest, as though afraid Thundercracker would grab them again.
With a heavy vent, Thundercracker flopped down on the floor next to Starscream. Out of the corner of his optic, he saw Starscream edge a little away from him. He didn't blame the mech after his outburst from earlier. "You should really be more careful," Thundercracker said finally, shuttering his optics and leaning his helm back against the wall. "The number of chemicals you handle, you're lucky you haven't gotten a rust infection in one of those wounds. What're you gonna do if you lose a servo? No one's gonna hire a one-handed scientist."
"It's because of the number of chemicals that I haven't gotten a rust infection," Starscream said acidly. "And if I did lose a servo, it's called restorative surgery, you idiot."
Thundercracker pursed his lipplates and made a humming sound. "You're right. Those chemicals probably corrode anything that isn't reinforced titanium. Including your nanites, which explains all those scars and pock-marks." He flickered on an optic to see how Starscream reacted to that.
Starscream's nose was in the air, his chin raised to a superior angle. He sniffed. "They give my servos character, which is something a mech like you could stand to use a little of."
Thundercracker gave one dry chuckle. "I didn't realize 'character' was synonymous with 'pain'."
Starscream shot Thundercracker a glare, and Thundercracker met his optics with an amused smile. For a brief second, he thought Starscream's expression softened marginally.
In a flash, the moment was gone, undone by the sound of footsteps coming their way. Thundercracker jumped to his own. Part of him wanted to go meet the mech, but if it wasn't Skywarp he could picture how utterly awkward that would be. Starscream didn't deign to stand up, utterly indifferent about whether it was Skywarp, Stabilizer, or even Freefall.
It was indeed Skywarp who came around the corner. Slumped around the corner was more accurate.
He looked like slag. His optics were dim, which was a sure sign that he hadn't refueled lately. He was moving slower than usual, and he was favoring his right leg. The limp was slight enough to suggest mere stiffness and not actual injury, but Thundercracker managed to worry anyways.
To a lot of mechs, the limp wouldn't mean much. To Thundercracker, who had nearly the same build as Skywarp, it didn't mean anything, except to spike his concern. Starscream, however, narrowly-built Starscream, whose frame was not the same, whose frame meant he didn't have to worry about being crammed uncomfortably onto the edge of a berth too narrow to comfortably hold two broad-framed mechs, snickered.
"Skywarp, are you alright?" Thundercracker asked, striding forward to meet the mech.
Skywarp took one look at him - concerned, open-faced, arms outstretched - and shied away.
Thundercracker froze, and he slowly lowered his arms. That had hurt more than he thought it should. "I…sorry." He waited a moment. "Do…do you need us to leave you alone?"
Starscream belted out a laugh. When both Skywarp and Thundercracker turned to look at him, he offered them a smug grin and said, "Virgins. You have got to love them."
Thundercracker continued to look confused, but Skywarp took a step back, mortified. Starscream finally got to his pedes, sauntered over, and threw an arm across Skywarp's shoulders. He beamed at Thundercracker. "This," he began companionably, "Is what we of the berth-hopping profession like to call the 'walk of shame'. Or, in my case, 'the strut of sluts'."
There was no physical way for Skywarp to look more horrified than he did at that moment. He shrunk down under Starscream's arm, trying to make himself look as small as possible.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Starscream crooned, stepping away and looking coyly between Skywarp and Thundercracker. "Was that something you wanted to keep to yourself, Skywarp darling?"
Skywarp looked about ready to break out in static. "How about we go somewhere that's not the middle of the hallway," Thundercracker said quickly. If Skywarp was going to have a breakdown, he didn't want Skywarp to have to go through that in such a public area.
By the time they got Skywarp back to Thundercracker's room - and by the time they got him to stop bursting static - it was well into the evening. Realizing that Skywarp's lack of fuel wasn't helping the situation, Thundercracker sent Starscream on an energon run, which he only reluctantly agreed to after much whining and more than a few threats of bodily harm. As soon as he was gone, Thundercracker pulled a cube from his own private stash to help top off the crying mech's fuel levels. They didn't say much, sitting in silence until Starscream returned with a few more cubes.
"So," Thundercracker said. He was sitting on the floor as usual. He'd evicted Starscream from his usual spot on the berth, and now Skywarp sat comfortably on the edge of it, legs swinging freely like a sparkling. "Do you…do you wanna talk about…you know?"
"Does he want to talk about how he went and 'faced a random mech?" Starscream asked bitterly. He was sitting cross-legged on Thundercracker's single chair and refusing to look at either of them, an untouched cube of energon at his elbow. "Tell you what, TC, I'll give you three guesses for that answer, one for each member of a trine. Oh wait, you're not in one anymore. Oops, my bad."
"I'm sorry," Skywarp mumbled, not meeting Thundercracker's optics. "Please don't leave, Thundercracker. I know you don't like it when people - "
"I don't like it for me," Thundercracker said, putting a servo on Skywarp's pede. "I don't like being intimate with someone I barely know. I don't have a problem with other mechs doing it. And Warp, I'm not going to leave - "
Biting, caustic,"You left your last - "
"Will you SHUT UP, Starscream?" Thundercracker said, turning to glare at the scrawny mech. "I left them because they were afts who didn't respect me or my boundaries."
"Wow. They sound wonderful. Maybe I should give them a call, we can hang out, bond over how much disrespect we have for you. You don't happen to still have their personal comm channels do you?" Starscream sneered.
"You're an aft," Thundercracker said evenly, pointedly keeping his temper in check. "But you basically come with that carved onto your chassis. In block letters. Lit up. With narration."
Starscream snorted, still refusing to look at him.
"But my trine didn't respect me," Thundercracker said, turning to look back at Skywarp. "Like you said, I…I know where I stand with Starscream. Always. It doesn't matter what I've done, he's always gonna tell me how he feels about me. To my face. It feels good. Especially after I'd promised to spend my life with two mechs who didn't even have the decency to tell me how they felt about me after I'd let them inside my head."
"Still in the room, you know," Starscream said, examining the tips of his servos. Thundercracker fleetingly wondered how much of that was for show and how much of it was him actually looking at the damage he'd done to his servos. "Also, you keep sweet-talkin me like that, I'm gonna think it's me you're in love with and not a certain other mech who shall remain nameless," he added, looking pointedly at Skywarp.
Thankfully, Skywarp missed the look, and probably everything else Starscream had said. "I'm glad you're feeling better, TC," Skywarp mumbled quietly. "You were so sick, and I…I thought you might've actually-"
"Oh cut the act," Starscream snapped. "No one's buying that you don't know what 'overcharged' means!"
"Shut up, Screamer," Thundercracker said. When Starscream opened his mouth to protest, Thundercracker shot him an annoyed look. "Not everybody is as duplicitous as you are. Do you honestly think he'd lie this long about not knowing what overcharged means? Doesn't it make more sense that he actually doesn't know what we're talking about?"
"Not really," Starscream muttered, but he looked away as he said it. "You don't know him like I do, Thundercracker. You're convinced he's this…this innocent little mech, but you haven't seen - "
"Maybe he's as big of a jerk as you claim he is," Thundercracker countered. "Just like maybe you're as big a jerk as everybody else claims you are."
Starscream scoffed. "Oh I'm worse," he purred, crossing his legs and folding his servos across his knee-joint.
"And yet you still took my side when Freefall and Stabilizer were out for my inner energon," Thundercracker said with a grin.
Starscream gave Thundercracker a smile that looked more like a pained snarl. "Well that's simply because I hated them more than you at the time. Why don't you go piss 'em off now, see who's side I start taking?"
Thundercracker just shook his head and chuckled.
Skywarp suddenly reached down and tugged on Thundercracker's arm. "Hey, TC? Can…can you tell me a story? A nice one. One with a happy ending."
Thundercracker frowned. "Uh…sure? Why do you want a story, though?"
Skywarp's faceplates hissed, and he looked away. "I, um…I'm tired. Couldn't sleep last night."
Starscream belted out a laugh and said "Oh I'll just bet you couldn't."
Thundercracker ignored him, standing up to get a better look at Skywarp's face. Skywarp's optics were dim, even after he'd assured them he was fully refueled. His chassis was humming louder than usual as well, and he was running pretty hot. Then again, Skywarp seemed to run a little warmer than most mechs, so Thundercracker wasn't confident he'd be able to identify if Skywarp was running hotter than usual. "Have you been sleeping at all?" he asked.
Skywarp wouldn't look at him, but he shook his helm.
"When was the last time you recharged, Skywarp?"
Skywarp's optics flickered towards Starscream, then back to the patch of floor he'd been staring at. "It was…that night we drank energon and you went into recharge."
"The drinking game?" Thundercracker asked, and he didn't' wait for Skywarp's nod of confirmation before straightening and looking at Starscream. "What did you do?"
Starscream's servo fluttered to his chassis. "Why would you assume I did anything?" he demanded instantly.
"Because you're a jerk," Thundercracker informed him, crossing his arms. "What happened after I passed out?"
"Nothing!" Starscream said with an exaggerated optic roll. "Primus, you'd think I'd poisoned someone the way you're reacting."
"I haven't quite ruled it out," Thundercracker grumbled before crouching back down to try and catch Skywarp's optics. "Hey, Warp, why don't you tell me what happened that night after I fell asleep?"
"W-well," Skywarp said, shooting another furtive glance over at Starscream, "not much. I um…Starscream left pretty soon after. I…I didn't wanna go back to my quarters all alone."
"Why?" Thundercracker said, instantly pouncing on that piece of news. "Is someone giving you a hard time, Warp?"
"No!" Skywarp said, looking up for the first time. His face hissed again. "I mean…no more than normal. Um…it's just…I feel better when you tell me a story as I go home. I don't feel alone that way. It's nice."
Behind them, Starscream stifled a laugh, but when Thundercracker turned to look at him, he'd picked up a datapad and was pointedly ignoring both of them. He glanced up and caught Thundercracker looking at him. "Oh no, I'm not here," he said graciously. "You two just have your little conversation. You won't hear so much as a ping out of me," he said, miming locking up his lipplates and throwing away the key.
Thundercracker just shook his head and turned back to Skywarp. "Ignore him," he said.
Skywarp nodded. "I usually do."
"Hey!" Starscream snapped, face clouding in anger and something else that Thundercracker couldn't quite place. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Half the time you say stuff that I don't understand!" Skywarp explained. "It's easier to just ignore you than to try and work out what you said. Cause by the time I do, everyone's talking about other things and I'm lost!"
Starscream continued to stare at him suspiciously, but his face slowly cleared. Finally, he sniffed contemptuously and picked up the datapad again.
"Okay, so Starscream left my quarters," Thundercracker said, trying to get the conversation back on track. "What happened then?"
"Well, I asked him to tell me a story," Skywarp said uneasily.
Mentally, Thundercracker groaned and buried his faceplates in his servos. Externally, he said "And…did he?"
"Yeah," Skywarp said with a shudder.
"And what was the story?" Thundercracker asked suspiciously. He shot a glance over at Starscream, who had slowly positioned the datapad so as to block any eye contact. Thundercracker had a feeling he knew precisely what kind of story he must have told Skywarp.
"It was awful," Skywarp said in a sort of hushed whisper. "There was this hydro-weasel's claw - "
"Oh you have got to be kidding me," Thundercracker snapped, standing up to glare at Starscream. "Really, Starscream?"
"I have no idea what you're yelling at me for," Starscream shot back, flicking a digit across the datapad's screen. "It was one stupid story. I made up for it, anyway."
"How," Thundercracker demanded, crossing his arms.
Starscream's optics flickered up to meet Thundercracker's with annoyance. "By giving him chemicals to play with," Starscream snapped. "They changed color, and I figured it'd shut him up long enough for me to get some work done. Satisfied?" He immediately went back to looking at this datapad.
Thundercracker was a little taken aback. "You…wait, you actually - "
"Did something nice for someone?" Starscream asked dryly, not looking up. "Shocking, I know, but it does happen. Occasionally." He looked uncomfortable, exasperated, but Thundercracker wasn't sure if it was with himself or the mech he was refusing to looking at. "The mech helped save my life, alright? And since the story seemed to upset him so much, I figured I'd pay him back for his help in making sure I didn't die." He continued to glare at Thundercracker, as if daring the other mech to contradict his rational, to tell him he was secretly a nice mech.
"O…kay." Thundercracker didn't know how to react to this. A nice Starscream? A considerate Starscream? Unsettled, he turned to the mech he did know how to react to - Skywarp. "So what happened next, Warp?"
"Well like Star said, I played with chemicals."
"Star," the mech in question muttered, too quietly for any of them to hear. He smiled a little at that.
"I guess I fell asleep, though. And when I woke up, Starscream was gone. I tried to go back to sleep, but…I started thinking about that story." Skywarp hugged himself and brought his pedes up onto the berth, as though afraid something would reach out from under it and grab him. "I couldn't stop thinking about it. Every time I tried to fall asleep, I'd think about it. And yesterday, you both yelled at me, and you were dying - "
"I wasn't actually," Thundercracker tried to explain.
"You said you were!"
"Skywarp, it's a figure of speech!"
"You looked really sick!"
"I wasn't - !" Thundercracker paused, vented, took a moment to calm himself down. "Okay, you're right. I was in bad shape." He spread his arms wide. "Do I look sick now, though?"
Skywarp appraised him carefully. "No," he said with some uncertainty.
"Okay. So will you trust me when I say I wasn't actually dying?"
After a few moments, Skywarp nodded.
"Okay. So, you were upset because you thought I was dying and we both yelled at you."
"Right," Skywarp said, back on track. He vented tiredly. "I couldn't sleep, and…I was lonely. And 'facing usually makes it easier to fall into recharge, so I thought - "
"Okay, I get the picture," Thundercracker said quickly, not eager to hear the rest of what happened. Skywarp looked away, a little shamefacedly. Thundercracker drew air uncertainly into his systems. "So, um…did it…you know…help?"
Skywarp shook his head. He turned to look at Starscream. "That was so horrible, what happened to you, Starscream. And…I can't stop thinking about it. How do you recharge at night?"
"I offline my optics and think pretty thoughts," Starscream replied glibly, engrossed once more in the datapad.
"No, seriously. How do you do it?"
"I'm sorry, I'm missing something here," Thundercracker said. "What did Starscream go through?"
"The hydro-weasel's claw," Skywarp whispered. It was loud anyways. "One of Starscream's roommates found it, and it - "
"Yeah yeah yeah, I know the story," Thundercracker interrupted. "Everybody does."
"They do?" Skywarp gasped. "Then why is everyone so mean to you?" Skywarp demanded of Starscream. "If they know what you've been through - "
"Hold up, wait," Thundercracker jumped in, "Did Starscream tell you that story happened to him?" Skywarp nodded. Thundercracker glanced over at Starscream, who was sitting very still, optics fixed on the datapad, unmoving. Thundercracker wasn't impressed. "Um…Skywarp…you know that what Starscream told you… it's just a story."
Skywarp shook his head. "No, Starscream told me it actually happened to him."
Thundercracker stared at Skywarp for a minute. Then he snapped around to spit at Starscream "You idiot!"
Starscream dropped the datapad. "How in Primus's name can you think this is my fault?" he demanded. "How was I supposed to know he'd take that so literally?"
"Because he's Skywarp," Thundercracker snapped back.
"Yeah, and like you pointed out, everybody knows that damned story."
"Well apparently not!"
Starscream threw his servos up, then leaned over and recovered the datapad he'd thrown down. "I'm not talking to you until you decide to be reasonable," Starscream hissed, and stared resolutely at the datapad.
"This is not my mess! You can't unload this on me!" Thundercracker protested. Starscream just ignored him. "Starscream, you pit-roasted ground crawler, help me!"
"Not. Talking. To you. What part of that didn't make sense?" Starscream asked, still not looking up.
Thundercracker growled. "Fine!" he snapped. "I'll just fix your fragging screw-up myself, shall I?"
"Whatever," Starscream retorted.
Thundercracker rolled his eyes and turned back to Skywarp, who was looking at the two of them in wide-eyed, uncomprehending curiosity. The blue mech ventilated a few times, trying to cool down his systems.
When he was calmer, Thundercracker knelt beside his berth. "Here's the thing, Skywarp. That story Starscream told you? It's not a real story."
"But Starscream said - " Skywarp maintained obstinately.
"I know. I know he did," Thundercracker said calmly. Inside, though, he seethed, because Starscream was a callous, shortsighted, loud-mouthed brat. "But…see, that's just a storytelling trick, Skywarp. You say it really happened to you, and that makes the story scarier than it is. But I promise you, Warp, it isn't real."
"But Starscream said - "
"I know he said that!" Thundercracker exploded. At the look of fear in Skywarp's optics, Thundercracker sighed, struggling to get his temper under control."Sorry. Look…what exactly did Starscream say," he asked. In the back of his mind, an idea was forming.
"Um…" Skywarp said a little sheepishly.
"Can you remember the story? Word for word?"
Skywarp continued to look a little sheepish. Finally, he shook his head.
"Starscream, can you tell us the story again?" Thundercracker asked. When Starscream just continued to read, Thundercracker blew out air. "It doesn't technically count as talking to me," he told the sulking red and blue mech. "It counts as talking at me. I thought you liked being the center of attention."
Starscream shot him an annoyed look, then set the datapad down. "One night, me and my friends - "
"Stop right there," Thundercracker said triumphantly, and Starscream snarled at him.
"Don't order me to tell you a story if you're just going to interrupt right away," he snapped, but Thundercracker ignored him.
"Skywarp, I have proof that this didn't actually happen to Starscream."
"What is it?" Skywarp asked as Starscream rolled his optics and muttered "Yeah right."
"He started out the story by telling you that he and his friends found the claw, right? But Starscream doesn't have friends!"
Starscream gave a start and began spluttering. Skywarp looked at him, then back at Thundercracker. "Yeah he does. He's got us."
Starscream froze and stared, a look of shock on his face. Thundercracker smiled. "Yeah, but we're not the friends he's talking about, is he?"
Skywarp thought about that for a minute. Suddenly he looked over at Starscream. "Oh," he said as the realization dawned clearly across his faceplates.
"Now just wait a minute, you slag-guzzling, fume-huffing aft-'facing organic," Starscream said, launching himself out of his chair and heading straight for Thundercracker, who was grinning triumphantly. Over the sound of Starscream's furious insults and Thundercracker's laughter, Skywarp started peppering Starscream with questions.
"Did you actually know a mech named Steerclear or Aircurrent? Have you ever actually seen a hydro-weasel? Why a hydro-weasel's claw? I think a tooth would be a lot more scary. They can bite right through steel-plated armor you know. Hey, have you ever had your armor bitten through, Starscream? Does it hurt? I bet it does. How did Stabilizer react when you came into the medbay with bite-marks?"
Starscream ignored him, opting instead to chase Thundercracker around his tiny room, banging his own wings into the desk along the way. It didn't deter Skywarp any, as he just stood on the berth and shouted questions and observations down at the two mechs.
"This is why you don't have friends, you know," Thundercracker crowed as Starscream tried to corner him between his closet and his desk.
Starscream just snarled and grabbed at Thundercracker, who ducked past him and went skipping back to the berth, laughing.
While Starscream continued to chase Thundercracker around for another twenty minutes or so, he found that he wasn't actually angry at the mech. In fact, he felt his spark grow a little warmer. Skywarp had said they were his friends and Thundercracker hadn't denied it. For one of the first times in his life, Starscream realized that he felt the same way about them.
Not that he was ever going to admit it to either of them.