Well, I've finally caught up with All Hail Megatron - and I'm now fully convinced that IDW comics supports Megatron x Starscream in some fashion. They've just been laying it on so thick in all of their titles. All Hail Megatron #11 Seems to have topped this with Megatron saying the line "You [Starscream] are mine." The straw that broke the camel's back so to speak.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with Rumble x Starscream, but I felt like sharing. XD Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone!

Chapter 4

Megatron was positive that there were reasons he had assigned these mechs command positions once upon a time. They had been reliable, dependable and even good company on the occasion they were in upward spirits. Hell, when he was drunk to his fill on quality energon he'd even call them friends and comrades in arms.

Seeing Soundwave and Starscream wrestling on the control room floor, however, caused him to have serious doubts about his choice.

Megatron did his best not to shout. "What, exactly are you two doing?"

They froze. Both Starscream and Soundwave looked up to the frowning commander whose fusion canon was humming softly at his side. Starscream, who knew that if anyone was getting blasted by that gun it was him, wisely removed himself from the stoic third in command. "Lord Megatron, what, what brings you to the control deck so early?"

"Stop stalling." Megatron could feel his voice rising with his frustration. "Why exactly are my two highest ranking officers rolling on the floor like sparklings?"

"It's all his fault, Megatron." Starscream pointed at the now standing cassette deck. "If he cold control his little brats none of this would-"

"Silence." Megatron cut off the babbling seeker. It was at this point where he saw Rumble standing off to the side with a wince adorning his face. "You, explain."

"Uh, right." Rumble stuttered and took a couple hopefully inconspicuous steps towards Soundwave. It was always best to stay close to the boss when the big guy was angry. And when Megatron was scowling like that, feelings for the seeker or not, best to keep to the truth. "I didn't look where I was going and it caused Starscream to fall out of his seat. Uh, there was some yelling and Soundwave stepped in and well." Rumble gave a little shrug. The rest should be fairly obvious.

"All this over a little scuffle? I'm disgusted with the both of you." Megatron stalked farther into the room forcing Starscream to one side and Soundwave to the other. "I expect that you, Starscream, should have greater control over your temper. Though that might be asking too much." The seeker started to make a move to complain, but he was cut off with a charging canon barrel in his face. "And Soundwave, while it is noble to protect your cassettes when they get themselves into trouble, I feel that I should remind you of the symbol on your chest. Let your brats deal with their own problems when it's not life threatening."

"Yes, Lord Megatron." Soundwave answered tonelessly, hands gripped into fists at his waist. He hated to lie to his beloved leader, but that was an order he did not think he was capable of fulfilling.

"And Starscream," Megatron removed his canon and held it in front of him to inspect it's condition.

"Yes, mighty leader?" Starscream forced a smile and held his hands clasped together in what he hoped was a conceding expression.

"Take Rumble and go wash the storage room out. Scrubbed top to bottom." Megatron smirked as the second's face contorted. "I want to see my face reflecting in the floors."

"What!?" Starscream screeched. "I'm the second in command of your army! Throw me in the brig for infighting, but cleaning detail? This is beyond insulting."

"You clearly started the fight, and if you choose to act like the lower level officers squabbling amongst themselves, you can be punished like them." Megatron turned his attention to the now fully hidden behind Soundwave ex-miner. "And you can join him. You should know better than to provoke mechs with trigger tempers."

"Uh, right, Lord Megatron." Rumble somewhere in the back of his mind realized he was all but clinging to Soundwave's leg like a sparkling. This whole cassette reprograming always reared it's ugly head at the wrong time. When in trouble - go for Soundwave. It was like a switch that turned on in Rumble's brain that he couldn't turn off, but wasn't there at other times. It was confusing, that's what it was.

"Well? What are you two waiting for? Get out and get cleaning!" Megatron shouted. Starscream looked, again, like he was going to argue but he really wasn't in the mood for it. Instead he grabbed the Seeker by the shoulder, fingers brushing close to the neck, and pulled him up close, optic to optic. "And I trust that there will be no arguments on this very lenient punishment?"

"No..no, of course not." Starscream winced at the wires and metal being compressed under the gladiator's grip. "We're on our way. Right now."

"Good." Megatron released the Seeker and watched as he scurried out of the room. A glance towards the tiny, knee-high mech sent him too sprinting out after the other. "Soundwave."

The silent mech tilted his head towards the leader but kept his eyes on the door where Rumble had just exited. "Yes?"

"You're not his creator." Megatron walked to his seat in the middle of the control room. "Stop acting like it."

Soundwave didn't answer.

Starscream grumbled as he scrubbed and scoured the walls. He was determined to make this room so clean that Megatron could see his reflection better in this wall than a mirror. He'd eat his words! "This is all your fault."

"My fault?" Rumble growled as he stood up from the floor. There was so much dirt and grime down here it was unreal. Just what on earth did the Stunticons drag in here? He was going to have Soundwave hint they have their hangout somewhere else. "You're the one who flipped out and tried to attack me!"

"You knocked me out of my chair!"

"And you tried to rip out my optics!" Rumble threw the cloth on the ground. "How's that equal!?"

"It's not!" Starscream snarled and pointed a clawed finger at the smaller annoyance. "We're Decepticons! We don't pay back equal, we step it up! You're lucky your master decided to step in and hold me back or your brother would be welding you back together again! Now get back to work." Starscream went back to his wall and tackled a particularly large strip of black paint. Motormaster needed to stop throwing his subordinates into the walls.

Rumble went back to the floors with a small sigh. He was all alone with Starscream and the seeker wanted nothing more than to rub him into the floor. Not exactly how he planned things out. The only perk was that Starscream had enough authority still to lock the doors to the storage room. At least no one would be in to laugh at them.

All in all, the work went by steadily. When Starscream was determined to prove something he worked with a strange efficiency. It took nearly half the day, but the Seeker had not only organized all the equipment and stored items into their proper piles and sections, but the walls just shone. The polish he had swiped from Mixmaster did wonders. Rumble dropped his rag into the bucket having finally finished the floor - which also shown like the walls - to smile at his reflection. Megatron wouldn't be able to say a word about this piece of work.

And speaking of pieces of work, Rumble looked over to Starscream who was now sitting on a crate sipping a cube of energon. Work done, he clearly was enjoying his time off from the control room. There was something nice about Starscream smug (from a job well done, ironically enough) and relaxed. The only thing that looked out of place was all the smeared polish and dirt that covered his frame. Just didn't look right on the normally well kept mech.

A small smirk fell on Rumble's face.

Well, he'd just have to take care of the seeker's problem. After all, who didn't like a good rub down? Rumble double checked that the door was locked before heading over to grab the leftover polish and rags.

Starscream looked up as the smaller mech headed in his direction with polish and a rag. He had a confidant step. The seeker was naturally suspicious. "And what, pre-tell, are you doing?"

"Yer' all dirty, Screamer. Figured you'd want to clean up before Megatron saw you." Rumble took a good look at the other Mech. This was a good test. If he could polish down Starscream and walk away fine, it was probably just a passing fling. "So, I figured I'd give you a hand with the hard to reach places."

"And what has caused this sudden sense of generosity?" Starscream set the cube of energon down on the ground. It was true, he needed a good polish before Megatron inspected the room. It was also true, that nothing felt better than someone else doing the polishing. However, he couldn't help but be curious about the ulterior motive. "You can't possibly believe this will get you off the hook for earlier?"

"Of course not." Rumble chuckled and waved the rag towards his own dirty chassis. "Favor for a favor. I could use a little help myself."

Starscream stared. He couldn't be serious. "What makes you think I'd return the actions?"

"Look, do you want help with the polishing or not?" Rumble growled. "For all you know I just want a little practice polishing a larger mech."

Starscream snorted. "For what? Going to give Soundwave a polish?"

"None of your business." Rumble snorted and took the initiative. He jumped around behind Starscream armed with a polished rag. No one ever said he thought these things through. And with the Seeker alone, and in front of him, Rumble couldn't pass this up. "Now then."

"What are you doing?" Starscream started to turn but stopped immediately. Rumble had started to clean his back and it felt downright heavenly. He had to hand it to the tiny bot, but he knew just the right motions to wipe away the grime. Polishes from Thundercracker and Skywarp didn't feel this good.

Rumble chuckled as he watched the Seeker turn into putty. Helping to clean Frenzy and Ravage taught him some fun techniques that were guaranteed to have a mech practically falling into recharge. "Want me to stop?"

"Don't you dare!" Starscream snarled and turned towards Rumble, momentarily pausing in the cleaning. "You started and now you finish. As your commanding officer I demand it!"

"Yes, sir." Rumble gave a mock salute and smiled as Starscream held out an arm. Starscream was trying so hard to deny it felt good that Rumble had to bite his own mouth to keep the chuckle from coming out. Work shouldn't be this fun.

It was spotless.

Megatron scowled as he walked around the storage room. He had seen it before he sentenced Starscream and Rumble to cleaning. The Stunticons used it as a hang out and from their rough housing had dented, scratched and coated the walls and floors in a layer of dirt. The feared Slag Maker could see his reflection in both the floors and the walls. He had forgotten just how shiny metal could be since he'd come to this horrid planet.

Starscream, too, looked as though he just came off an assembly line and had a remarkably smug smirk on his face. Rumble too was clean and standing to the side trying to hide the leftover cleaning supplies so they didn't sully the appearance of the room. Somehow, like usual, Starscream had taken a punishment and turned it into a subtle victory on his part. Megatron would have been proud, if he wasn't so furious. "I see you can be good at something."

"I'm good at everything I set out to do." Starscream smiled. "Be it cleaning or leading."

"Be that as it may," Megatron stopped. He sensed an argument coming and with an audience he'd be required to rough up the seeker to maintain his image. And right now, he wasn't in the mood to ruin that freshly polished finish. Even he could appreciate having a little eye candy around. Even if he was annoying at the best of times. "Rumble, go report to Soundwave."

"Oh, right." Rumble nodded as he started to leave the room. Megatron had an odd look on his face and Starscream couldn't have been smirking wider if he tried. The cassette didn't even want to try and understand the relationship between those two. If he thought trying to figure out how to get under Starscream's plating was taxing on his CPU, trying to figure that out would just overload his whole motherboard.

Not that it mattered much. Starscream let him give him a polish down and the coos and groans resulting from Rumble hitting all the right places were going to keep him in a good mood for weeks to come.