"What the SLAG?" Starscream screeched, overcome with anger and embarrassment.

Barricade burst out laughing, falling into the wall for support.

His entire room was painted pink. He even had a frilly pink duvet on his stasis bed.

Twenty Three, having never been in Starscream's room before, and never having been taught about what colors were associated with which genders was slightly confused.

"What's so funny 'Cade?" she asked him. Starscream didn't seem to think it was very funny.

The cop car doubled over again in hysterics.

Slagging BASTARDS! The first time I show her my quarters and they're slagging PINK!

"Starscream?" she poked him. "Am I missing something?"

"I… uh…" he rubbed the back of his head, uncomfortably. "My room isn't usually like this," he tried to explain.

"Oh? Then what happened? Did you suddenly decide to repaint?" she cocked her head at him.

"No! I didn't do this!" he bit his tongue to prevent himself from snapping. "Somebody's been in here without my permission," he growled.

"But who?" she blinked. "Maybe they did it to be nice."

Barricade snorted in amusement again. "By painting his rooms pink!"

"Hey, don't be mean, 'Cade! Starscream can like pink if he wants. There's nothing wrong with that," Twenty Three chastised him, but Starscream lost his control.

"I DON'T SLAGGING LIKE PINK!" he shouted, making the poor girl jump.

"I'm… sorry, Starscream…" she gasped, feeling tears well in her eyes.

Oh, frick… I'm gonna make her cry…

Still, he'd be damned if he'd apologize in front of the girls black and white body guard.

He swiftly picked her up, and slammed the door in the mech's face.

Gently placing her on the pink frilly duvet, he kneeled in front of her, bringing himself to eye level.

"I'm sorry Twenty Three, I didn't mean to shout," he spoke to her softly. "Forgive me?"

She nodded slowly. "I don't understand… Why are you so angry?"

"Somebody broke into my quarters and breached my privacy. It's not something I take lightly," he sighed. "And trust me, they weren't doing it to be nice."

"How do you know?" she questioned, curious.

"Pink isn't exactly a mechs color…" he explained. "It's a pansy color. They're basically calling me lame, feminine, weak."

"I believe I understand," she nodded, taking in the information. "Would you like me to help you clean it?"

"That's… not necessary," he sighed, thinking of the hours it would take to fix this. But Megatron would send me to the Pit if I made his daughter do my cleaning…

"Are you sure? I don't mind," she pressed, hearing how little he was looking forward to the job.

"I'm sure," he said in a tone of finality. "Now let me show you that gun…"

Without even realizing it, they had spent almost two hours messing around with Starscream's experiment, until it was a somewhat decent shape.

"I think it's ready," Starscream held out the finished product for her to take.

"Yeah…" she cradled it in her vectors, and brought it up to her stump of a shoulder.

She closed her eyes and concentrated deeply on changing the materials of her arm, converting the correct blood vessels into circuitry, whilst leaving the rest of her body alone.

Amazing… Starscream's voice drifted into her head.

Breathing out slowly, she opened her eyes and observed their work.

The metal seemed to blend straight into her skin until the bottom of her neck, then turned to strong white metal, traveling all the way down her arm and ending in a mechanical hand.

She opened up her palm, and stared down the hole going through the middle.

Starscream quickly grabbed it away, and directed it somewhere less lethal.

"You probably don't want to aim that at your face until you've mastered control of it," he laughed nervously. The idiot! She could have blown her head clean off!

"Oh, right," she joined his nervous laughter. "So… should we test this baby out?"

"Nothing I love more than testing new equipment," he grinned.

"What can I shoot…" she tapped her chin thoughtfully, subconsciously mimicking her father.

"This," Starscream rolled up the pink duvet into a ball, and tossed it in the air.

Straightening her palm out, she aimed for the sheet, and let out a blast of energy, half burning and half melting the fabric.

"That's great Twenty Three!" he grinned down at her. "You're a good shot… We should go out for practice sometime." Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes-

"That'd be cool… But I'll probably bring Zee and Rumble along, is that alright?" she smiled sweetly.

"Of course," he replied, as if it was a stupid question, but she could feel his disappointment. Damn it! Why couldn't it just be us…?

"Speaking of Zee…" she looked at the door pointedly.

"I suppose you want to get back to the little glitch."

"Don't call him that. But yeah… I didn't mean to spend as long as I did," she smiled at him warmly. "Thank you Starscream. For everything."

"It's okay…" he sighed. "I like spending time with you. Doing things for you. You're a magnetic little femme."

She laughed. "I'll try not to exploit you too much, Star. I'll give you some time for your own projects now…" she sighed, as she wrenched the door open, only to find Barricade still sitting outside it, not a trace of mirth left over. "Cade, you're still here! Why?"

"That bucket of bolts better not have tried anything," he growled. "Why didn't you answer me? I've was shouting at this door for half an hour!"

"Soundproofed," Starscream sneered. "As you can see, we worked on her arm, and nothing else."

"Twenty Three! Your arm!" he gasped, finally noticing it.

"Yep. Starscream's design was pretty good," she smiled at the jet. "Just needed a few modifications to double as a hand."

"And he didn't ask anything in exchange?" Barricade pressed her, keeping an optic on the seeker. "What else did he do?"

Twenty Three glared at him. "Starscream was a perfect gentleman. And I would have enough sense to know otherwise, no matter how naïve you think I am."

Barricade looked doubtful. I just want to protect her…

Twenty Three sighed. "Nevermind," she waved her hand at him. "I'm going to Soundwave's. Thanks again Screamer, I'll see you tomorrow," she called over her shoulder, leaving the other two alone.

She sighed again as she heard them arguing behind her. She knew Cade meant well, but she hoped he wouldn't give Starscream a hard time about it.

Smiling lightly, she used her new hand to tap on Soundwave's door.

It was opened immediately by Frenzy, who pulled her in hurriedly shutting the door behind her.

He slammed his girlfriend into the wall, making her eyes widen slightly, but she smiled at him.

"What's going on, Zee?" she asked him softly.

Whats? – The Pit! I have to get an answer!

"Babe? Your thoughts are confused. What's going on?" she shook him lightly.

"We saw you with Starscream," he accused, all his thoughts filled with fear of betrayal.

"Yes, what of it? He was helping me with my new arm."

"I saw… we were watching through the security systems…" he rasped, leaning heavily on her. "Rumble, show her the footage."

She looked over at the little mech on the console, who began the playback from when Starscream arrived at his room, Barricade and Twenty Three in tow.

She watched the events unfold, confused as to why Frenzy was so upset.

"Where's the sound?" she asked.

"Can't get it on these cameras," Rumble explained.

"What was going on in there?" Frenzy shouted as Starscream put her down on his bed, and talked to her with soft eyes.

"He was just upset someone broke into his room," she pointed out. "You know I'm not good with these social etiquette rules. He was explaining it to me."

"How do I know that's all that happened?" he cried out, insecure. "He didn't say anything else?"

Twenty Three was a little hurt despite herself… She knew Frenzy got jealous easily, but she thought he at least had more faith in her than this.

"If you don't trust me you can have Soundwave diagnose my memory," she offered helplessly. "I don't know what else I can give you…"

Even at the offer, Frenzy seemed to calm down. Soundwave seemed a little surprised to have his name brought into this. He looked up from his datapad, and sent a message to the young woman, not bothering with talking verbally.

Why do you let him get away with this?

Twenty Three looked at him curiously. With what? Am I doing anything wrong?

If anyone questions me, I put them in their place.

Sorry Soundwave… I don't understand that sort of thing.

The blue and white mech shrugged and turned back to his datapad, slightly surprised she would still offer him free reign over her mind, even after the threat f the Allspark was dealt with.

"Sorry babe," Zee edged closer to her. "I believe you, I just don't trust that jethead…"

She caressed his face fondly.

"I promise I wont betray you, dear… But... am I doing anything wrong? I don't act any different around Starscream than I do 'Cade."

"But you didn't sleep with 'Cade," he sulked, and immediately regretted it.

Twenty Three became very tense.

"That was my mother and you know it."

"It was your body…"

"It was also my body which killed Blackout. You told me that wasn't my fault. If you blame me for one, you blame me for the other. Do you really think I'm responsible?" she felt tears well in her eyes once again.

"No, Tee, I'm sorry…" he sighed, and snuggled his head into her fleshy shoulder. "I'm just jealous…"

"Zee…" she crooned, running her fingertips across his ribs, his sensitive spot.

"Get a room!" Rumble complained, obviously uncomfortable.

"What does that mean?" she blinked at her lover's twin. "Oh, is this that modesty thing again? I'm sorry! I'll try better next time," she attempted to remove Frenzy from her lap, but he wouldn't budge.

"I'm not moving," he clamped his arms around her tightly. She simply shrugged and looked over at Soundwave.

"What are you working on?" she asked curiously.

"Confidential."

"Oh, okay…" she sighed, slightly bored. "Hey, Rumble… If you have all that footage there, would you be able to see who painted Screamer's room? He was pretty upset about it."

The twins both snorted in amusement.

"What, you want in on the action next time?" Rumble smirked.

"What? No!" she looked horrified. "Starscream's my friend! I wouldn't ever do anything so hurtful."

"You're no fun," Rumble complained, but Frenzy just grinned up at her unrepentant.

"You have to admit it was pretty funny," he beamed up at her.

"No, it wasn't. You did it, didn't you?" she glared at him.

He seemed a little taken aback. She'd never glared at him before.

"Uh, Tee?" he reached up to brush her fringe out of her face.

She jerked her head away, and used her vector to tear him off her.

"You pranked him, just like you all did to me," she sulked. "That hurt, Zee."

"Hey, that was different," he tried to get closer to her, but she shoved him away again.

"How?"

"He should have been expecting it. This is normal for us, Tee," he tried to explain, but she just left.

"Forget it, Zee. I'll see you tomorrow," she said over her shoulder.

Fuck!

"And don't swear at me, Zee. You'll give me a headache," she closed the door on him, and headed back to her room.

This is normal for them, Soundwave's voice traveled through the door and into her mind.

She just heaved a great sigh, both mentally and aloud.

She'd been looking forward to spending the night with Frenzy, after so long in solitary confinement, but… She didn't know if she was sad or angry.

I just… need some alone time…

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