And it continues! Rumble's so cute. And over protective Soundwave for the win! Thanks so much for continuing to read and review!

Chapter 3

"He's late."

"By five minutes. Relax."

"He's going to skip out on us again."

"Give him a little more time before we just head off without him."

Skywarp kicked a rock as they stood out under the desert sun. Starscream had promised he'd show up for drills this morning. But Starscream was also practically a pathological liar, so his word didn't fill the black seeker with hope. Especially since he skipped the last two practices due to 'paperwork' or some other slag excuse. Thundercracker didn't care if their leader came or not so he was annoyingly calm about the whole thing. "He should be on time."

"Starscream's the leader." Thundercracker started to rub at some dirt that had somehow found its way to his arm plating. This planet was disgusting. "He can do whatever he wants."

"He should want to be here on time to go flying with us!" Skywarp nearly growled and waved his arms in the air. "Just because he's Megatron's favorite little pet doesn't mean he can ignore us."

"He's not ignoring us." Thundercracker deadpanned. "He's prioritized us beneath other things. And honestly, when did you get so clingy anyway?"

Skywarp frowned and tilted his head. Was he getting clingy? The teleporter didn't think so. It was normal to want both of your teammates around, right? "Well, I was thinking, and don't give me that look TC! But, Starscream beat me because he was mad about being trapped in the box right?"

"Yes?" Thundercracker hummed and looked up at the sun above them. There was a slight breeze and the sky was clear. And a very pretty blue that just seemed to go on forever. Maybe the planet wasn't too horrible. "What about it?"

"Well, if he'd been out flying with us he wouldn't have been in the box with the twerp and thus never gotten mad!" Skywarp held his arms open as if waiting to receive support for his theory. "If he would just fly with his team he wouldn't get into so much trouble!"

"I guess you have a point." Thundercracker mumbled. "Still wish you'd just drop it though."

"Why?"

Thundercracker paused. His first thought was that 'Warp was acting like a spoiled brat who hadn't got his teddy. Thundercracker's second thought was internal horror at imaging the brutal Skywarp with a small organic's toy shaped like Starscream. Thankfully Primus appeared to be on his side today, as he was spared answering the odd question by the sound of an engine approaching. "Well I'll be, he showed up."

Skywarp visibly straightened up and had a quirky little, almost happy smile on his face- that was wiped quickly with a smirk. The black seeker shouted at his very late comrade. "Hey Screamer! Where ya' been? Did you get lost?"

"Shut up you moron!" Starscream replied as he touched down next to Thundercracker. "You two ingrates should be happy I showed up at all. I swear, you'd think my faith that you two can handle yourselves without me to hold your hands is an insult."

"It's still good to run drills with all three members present once in a while." Thundercracker added before Skywarp could complain. "Usually works better than trying to pretend there's a third jet in the formation."

Starscream scowled. The one time he has a schedule free enough to do flight drills and his teammates are being idiots. Nothing ever changed. "Well? Let's do it then."

Skywarp jumped up with a small cheer and transformed immediately. With a blast of his jets he called back over his shoulder "Last one in the sky is Megatron's femme!"

Thundercracker let off a laugh as he too transformed and shot after Skywarp leaving a now fuming Starscream on the ground. The red white and blue seeker let out a highly undignified squawk before transforming and chasing down his two brothers. Not without screaming at them every second of the way of course. "Skywarp!"

Rumble felt like washing out his CPU.

Maybe that would scrub all these thoughts out of his head. It had started innocently enough, grant you, but started to delve downhill far too readily for the little bot to keep up. Rumble would, much as he hated it, be the first to admit he wasn't the smartest Decepticon in the base. His processor wasn't made for these types of problems!

At first, he just couldn't stop thinking about Starscream. Then it had progressed to acceptance that he liked Starscream. Rumble could live with that. The seeker was annoying, but he was really smart. He was loud, but his voice was no more annoying than Soundwave's monotone. And of course, Starscream was really good looking. Heck, everyone knew that last part about him.

Rumble nodded to himself as he sat under a desk in the control room next to his boss' legs. Soundwave was typing away at the control panel leaving his cassette to keep himself occupied. Normally he'd be off running around by himself, but Soundwave had given him that look that told him he was lucky he was out of the chest at all. It always sucked on days when Soundwave was in a bad mood, but for once Rumble was more than happy to have the time to think because he needed it. The small mech had come to terms with the fact he may have a somewhat, large crush on the seeker named Starscream. His problem involved the fact Rumble had no clue what to do about it.

Somehow, Rumble figured just going up to Starscream and saying something like 'Hey? Wanna' go find a private room and swap some wires?' would not go over well.

Then again, this crush could be something that Rumble gets over in a few months and is better off not bringing it up at all. Starscream could be vicious and petty at times and there's no telling how long he'd hold a grudge over this if it pissed him off. So, Rumble could either just leave the attraction alone, or pursue and hope the strange longing lasts enough to make it worth it. And the latter still left Rumble alone with the question of: how?

As far as Rumble knew, Starscream was pretty indifferent to him. Well, unless he was giving orders. Starscream liked to give Rumble orders. The small mech couldn't really think of a time when Starscream wasn't shouting at him to do one thing or another when they were together. Rumble shifted closer to the back wall when Soundwave moved his leg and sat his head in his hands. Maybe that was a good starting point. Rumble just had to somehow get conversation moving from orders to something more casual. Then the two of them could be friends and then Rumble could ask if the seeker wanted to release some excess tension.

Friends with benefits could be a good way to tell if this was just a spur of the moment infatuation or not. Like when Frenzy had that thing for Vortex for a week.

Still didn't solve his problem though. Rumble grabbed his head and rubbed with a tiny growl. Friends with benefits would solve the 'is this just a crush' thing, but it wouldn't help Rumble get to the benefits part in the first place! He needed a plan of attack but his mind just kept coming up with a big fat blank and it was driving him nuts because he was just going around in circles repeating the same big fat 'I like Starscream' without getting any-

"Rumble."

Rumble jerked out of his thoughts and looked out from under the desk. His boss was staring down at him with his usual unreadable expression. "Yeah, Soundwave?"

"Processor running 42% faster than normal. Problem?" Soundwave considered the tiny mech under the table. His cassette's most recent behavior had been causing him a bit of a headache trying to figure out what was distracting him so and thus the close proximity lockdown. Rumble had been unusually quiet yesterday afternoon and this morning. Usually when he was being punished the little mech was quite vocal about his disagreement. In addition to the still behavior, his CPU and memory systems had been running more prominently than per usual. Perhaps he was coming down with a virus?

"Uh…no." Rumble stumbled over his words. "I'm okay. Just thinking too much, I guess."

"About?"

Rumble shrugged a little. Sure, Soundwave was his boss but who Rumble spent his time with wasn't really any of his business. It's not like Soundwave was his caretaker or anything. "Nothing."

Sometimes Soundwave wished some of his cassettes were smart enough to think of more creative lies. Or remember that Soundwave had access to all of their vitals and systems information. 'Nothing' is not a suitable answer for a noticeable shift in Rumble's processes. Neither was it a suitable answer when Rumble was clearly trying to avoid mentioning the topic. Soundwave leaned closer to his cassette. "Repeat; processor running 42% above normal. Answer; thinking. Elaborate."

"Nothing…" Rumble repeated before trailing off and shifting his gaze away from Soundwave. This wasn't exactly a topic he wanted to discuss right now. "Nothing important anyway. It's just something personal."

Soundwave tapped a finger on the control panel before him. He could always just read the mech's mind, but that would be a violation of trust. The last thing he needed was his cassette rebelling. Then nothing would get fixed. Mind reading was a last resort for his cassettes and usually involved something life threatening. Sadly, this did not count. Soundwave wished he could sigh; he only had one other option: Punishment for refusing to answer the question. "Rumble return."

"What?" Rumble gaped. "Why? I didn't do anything wrong! I don't wanna' go into recharge yet! It's the middle of the day!"

"Will not repeat."

Rumble scowled. This was the part about being a cassette that he hated. Sure there were perks to having a permanent team and getting to hang out with his brother. And Soundwave was pretty cool most of the time; he looked out for him, his brother, Ravage, Laserbeak and all the others. But at the end of the day, Soundwave held all the authority. "Fine."

Soundwave opened his compartment and waited patiently for Rumble to transform and fit snugly in place in between Frenzy and Ravage. The cassette eventually dragged his feet enough to make the jump and slip into his slot. Soundwave clicked the chest cavity closed and waited for the sound of his processor to slow into its recharge state. Once it started to run steady, Soundwave returned to his work. Rumble hated being in the chest for longer than what was required to remain functional at optimum efficiency. Perhaps after a few hours forced to take a nap he'd be more open to sharing his personal quandary.

"I can not believe you talked me into that." Starscream huffed as he strode down the hall, flanked by his wingmates. He was a few minutes late for his shift with Soundwave in the control room all thanks to his bone-headed brothers.

"Oh come on, you have to admit that was fun." Skywarp was walking backwards with a grin threatening to split his face in half. "We flew circles around them!"

"Of course we did!" Starscream threw his arms up. "I just don't see the point!"

Thundercracker chuckled. "Ah, but it was worth it to see their faces when they realized we weren't part of their formation."

"And then we blew them up!" Skywarp snickered and turned around to walk forward. "We totally need to crash air shows more often. I don't know what was more fun: fooling those idiot human pilots that we were part of the show or the panic when we transformed and let um' have it!"

Starscream smiled slightly. Skywarp did have a point about that latter half. There was something satisfying about proving just how inferior those jets were in the air compared to him and his two partners. They were unstoppable in the sky. However, as much fun as it was to watch Skywarp shower jets and spectators in bullets and Thundercracker shattering eardrums and glass there was still the matter of the attention it drew. "You seem to be forgetting the part where the Protectobots showed up and formed Defensor."

"It wasn't that bad. They fired a few shots and we flew out." Thundercracker chuckled and looked at his arm. One of those human-loving morons got a shot in, but it just grazed his arm. Nothing threatening. "Not like it was an assignment."

Starscream huffed and crossed his arms. "A waste of ammunition and fuel."

"You had fun, Screamer." Skywarp slapped his commander on the shoulder. Even if his leader was all pissy now, during the time at the air show for the smallest bit, Starscream was cutting loose and showing off. Him and Thundercracker pulled off some double-team moves that just made Skywarp giddy. It was so much better when they all flew together. "Just admit it!"

"You delusional fools can believe whatever you want." Starscream kept the smile off his face best he could. He'd never say so out loud, but there was something amusing about out performing those weak little organic creatures who thought they could fly. Maybe he could organize some sort of show for him and the other fliers. Just to show off their sheer superiority of course. "Alright, go make yourselves scarce. I'm due in the control room."

"See ya' later, Starscream!" Skywarp nodded before grabbing his blue friend. "Let's go get something to drink!"

Starscream watched as Skywarp transported himself and Thundercracker from the hall and snorted. Of all the mechs in the universe to have teleportation. "Ah, well." Starscream mumbled to himself before turning into the control room and taking a seat next to the ever serious Soundwave.

"Late."

"By what? Ten measly minutes?"

"Late."

"Oh shut up."

Soundwave refrained from repeating himself yet again. Arguing wouldn't get him anywhere and would only serve as an invitation for the Seeker to speak his mind. Soundwave should enjoy the brooding silence while he could get it. The clicking in his chest, however, ruined any chance he had at the continued silence while working a shift with a partner. Rumble, desist.

It's been an hour! I've had enough recharging! Can I come out now? Please? Boss? Rumble was on the verge of whining, but he was wide awake and he hated being in the cassette form. He wasn't like Frenzy who needed all the recharge to keep himself from going insane or Ravage who slept all the time anyway. It was the opposite: he hated being cooped up. I'll be real good! No pranks or over thinkin' or nothing!

Soundwave paused. Rumble just sounded so pathetic his resolve to punish him for not giving up information was dwindling. An hour was probably suitable enough. Alright. "Eject."

Starscream had to jump out of his seat when the cassette landed on his console in the middle of the keyboard. He then of course got his wing caught in the chair and ended up falling flat on his back with an undignified yelp and an obnoxious clang of metal against the floor.

"Man!" Rumble stretched all of his limbs as far as they would go letting the wires pull and tug. "Feels so good to get out of there!" He paused and looked down at the floor. "Oh. Hey Starscream. Wha'cha doing on the floor?"

Starscream was going to kill the cassette.