I made the mistake of starting that other fic. (SS/MT/SF + Sparkling). On the one hand – I got down on paper what I wanted. On the other – it was distracting. However, because I want to get to that one it means I should be more focused on trying to get this one finished because I promised myself I wouldn't post it until this one was done. And we're not too far from that point, I don't think. Maybe half-way there. Or something.

Oh, and I finally got to drop the title in this chapter – and it's not just a pun on Rumble's pile drivers. XD Oh, and: You're all awesome for reading anyway. Thanks for that and reviewing!

Chapter 18

Riding inside of Starscream was a very, very different experience than riding inside of Soundwave. For starters, Soundwave didn't consider Mach 2 a light and easy flight. Being a cassette tape snug and secure in a mechs' chest cradled by his siblings was also a much smoother ride than being strapped to some chair designed for humans. Rumble clung to the cockpit seat, feeling his young age flash before his eyes, and tried not to scream. "Can't you slow down!"

"No." Starscream chuckled, Rumble feeling the vibration all around him. Coasting along at the speed the other non-flyer Decepticons was not enough to clear his head, so other options were suggested for Rumble to join him. It had taken a bit of coaxing to get the cassette to sit in the cockpit instead of flying alongside, but it was worth it. One benefit of being the size of a human, Starscream supposed. "I'm not even going all that fast."

"Not that fast!" Rumble yelped. "How is this not that fast!"

"I'm only a little over Mach 1." Starscream took a hard left to circle back around towards land. He was in the mood to rattle drivers. Nothing more fun than seeing a car swerve after a Jet flies overhead a few feet from their hood. Even Rumble should appreciate that. "Should I speed up to compare?"

"No, no!" Rumble's death grip on the seat refused to relax when he remembered Starscream could go up past Mach 2 easily without so much as stressing his engine. Fastest flyer on Cybertron. Rumble slunk down into the seat. "How's this relaxin' again?"

"Clears my head." The Seeker lowered his altitude just enough that the were skimming the bottom of the fluffy white clouds. "Don't need to really think when you just let your systems do what they do best."

"I'm never gonna' understand you fly boys." Rumble cracked a smile despite the lingering terror that had been running strong since Starscream took off. "Doin' crazy stuff like this while ya' turn off yer' processors."

"You don't have to think about things that come automatically." Another dip had them coming in close to the ground. If Starscream recalled, there was a nice highway around here with minimal traffic. A booster thrust put him dead center of the road a few moments later where a poor unsuspecting RV was met with a nasty sonic boom. "Comes quite naturally."

"Dude! Look at him roll." Rumble snickered, distracted suddenly by the destruction of the human vehicle. Shame it didn't blow up. "Do that again!" Rumble's grip on the seat lessened slightly. "But this time find a stupid sports car!"

There we go. Starscream thought. An amused Rumble was far more fun to ride around than one destroying his interior with his servos clinging like was going to fall out. Preposterous. Rumble continued to rattle on excitedly about screwing with a sports car and pretending it was an Autobot happily from his seat. Starscream obliged the request by spooking a sporty Camaro doing at least twice the speed limit.

Rumble cheered and moved to press himself up against the glass, fear forgotten in the excitement of trying to see. "Awesome! Look at that fleshie drive!" Rumble looked out the window. "Hey! There's another driver there tryin' ta get off the road."

The seeker made the turn to go after the pointed out target with a little more energy than per usual. This game was always much more fun with someone else playing along, and even better when they weren't trying to dive in front to create the crash first. Starscream laughed as another car spun into the dirt and the cassette inside of him shouted in approval – much more pleasant than ridiculous, crumbling fear. Not to mention, Rumble's good mood in turn started a little reaction in the jet's core where his spark burned just a bit brighter. It seemed making Rumble happy, made Starscream happy – and he rather liked that feeling. Starscream found himself rather liking Rumble, for that matter.

Starscream's engines cut off bringing the jet to a dead stop in mid air.

"Rumble."

"Sir, that is affirmative." Thundercracker straightened his posture just a bit more under the intense gaze now staring him down. Skywarp smirked behind him. Thundercracker didn't need to turn around to know he did it. They were close that way. "Starscream's current interfacing partner, aside from Skywarp and myself, is Rumble."

The decision to inform Megatron of Starscream's current relations was not made lightly. In fact, it was made with a feeling similar to a sledge hammer repeatedly pounding into his head via the form of Skywarp bugging him every five seconds asking when he was going to do his job and tell Megatron. Like he was ordered. Though, for once Thundercracker suspected it had nothing to do with loyalty to Megatron and everything to do with getting either their Air Commander or Rumble in trouble.

Either one resulted in the separation of the two, which made Skywarp happy. Thundercracker merely agreed to one, get Skywarp to shut up and two, make Megatron happy. Hopefully. The contemplative look on their leader's face was not giving him any peace of mind.

"Rumble." Megatron wrapped his mouth around the name again like tasting bad energon. "Are you sure of this?"

"Yes, sir." Thundercracker replied sharply. "Skywarp stumbled upon them mid-interface."

"I see." Megatron leaned forward in his chair, his chamber quite save for the sound of moving bits of metal and circulating air. "You two are dismissed."

"Sir."

Megatron waited for the two Seekers to escape, one looking relieved he was free of duty and the other like he had just gotten away with stealing an extra supply of energon. He would ponder on that later, for now, his thoughts were focused on this one anomaly. Starscream interfaced for one of two reasons: casual fun or political gain. Considering his tastes and goals, in the past, Megatron often found himself meeting both requirements and spending more time with the Seeker than was probably healthy. But that was long ago and Starscream seemed to be finally branching outside of his personal team.

"Rumble." Megatron said the name again wondering how this odd factor could move his way in. It was true, Rumble had been spending more time with the Seeker in what he assumed to be a bit of a crush on their traitorous flier, but Starscream seemed more amused to be ordering around Soundwave's minions than anything. Hardly basis for a more intimate interest. It was possible he was interfacing with him just to provoke the communications officer, but while the cassette was rather dumb, he wasn't that dumb. Rumble would hardly participate in something intentionally provoking his family. So the only other option was casual interfacing or something more political.

As for just a quick, casual interface here or there, this was not Starscream's usual fair. His 'type' almost always included much larger mechs such as shuttles or tanks. Megatron had a feeling it had something to do with a certain traitor of a shuttle setting the precedence, but it was possible the shuttle was first chosen because Starscream had a thing for tall mechs. Megatron probably wouldn't have so much flickered his optics if Thundercracker had informed him Starscream had spent a night or two with Astrotrain, but Rumble was the complete opposite of what Megatron would have predicted.

Megatron supposed it could be experimentation, because it was clearly not political. There was nothing to gain from interfacing with Rumble for the seeker. Information? Hardly, there was nothing that cassette knew that Starscream couldn't look up on his own. Power? A slave to Soundwave was hardly a source for that, either. A middle man to manipulate someone else perhaps? Doubtful. Soundwave was over protective, but not so much that he chose his team over duties and loyalty. Rumble wasn't connected to any other Decepticon in that respect, so really, Starscream had nothing to gain by humoring the cassette's crush on the Seeker.

Then of course there was Starscream's team to consider. Clearly they were against this turn of events. Thundercracker and Skywarp fell into an odd category as far as interfacing was concerned in that it was both political, casual and probably some form of exercise to bond them together as a team. There were tactical advantages after all to being in sync with those you work with closely in such tight formations. The sharing of information therefore served a double purpose; pleasure and the spread of information. It was almost necessary in the team dynamic to keep all members accounted for. Understandable, even.

Megatron leaned back in his seat thoughtfully. Maybe he was merely trying to increase his database with a greater variety of information. Rumble was a very different fighter, driving forwards into battle without a care in an almost reckless abandon.

Megatron shook his head and pulled a hand up to cover his mouth. Despite theories, the fact remained that something felt wrong about the whole affair. Rumble held no power or useful skills to be abused without Soundwave's knowledge so the meetings had to be purely casual. It had been some time ago that Megatron had caught Starscream with his servo in the goodie jar so clearly this was not a one-time event. The air commander was seeing someone regularly without some sort of material or social gain.

Megatron felt as though his spark plummeted into his fuel tank with some odd, out of place feeling when it came to the Seeker. Jealousy, creeping up along his circuits and plating like cosmic rust at the realization that Starscream was moving on from his last relationship. A turbulent relationship, to be sure, littered with an odd camaraderie that to the average observer would appear no different from their usual fair, unless they were aware of what went on behind closed doors.

Megatron had been smug for quite some time when he realized Starscream hadn't moved on to a more, stable, partnership since they were together. After all, who could replace Megatron? Starscream craved power like a sparkling craves its first energon and there was no question Megatron was by far the most powerful Cybertronian the Seeker knew existed. Perhaps, Megatron stood up from his seat and walked to the shelf where Starscream stored his tools, that was why he was jealous.

Megatron had for all intents and purposes been replaced by a weakling, a communications spy. Megatron lifted a spare bolt from the shelf and twirled it momentarily in his thoughts. There was something unsettling about being replaced in such a way. Megatron wondered just how involved Starscream was with this new, partner. Megatron's fist crushed around the bolt and watched the broken bits fall to the floor. Perhaps it was time Megatron had a chat with his Second in Command.

"The best primus damned flyer on Cybertron and you crash into a tree." Rumble snarled as they continued down the main entrance ramp of the Nemesis. He was hopping strangely on one foot as he tried to remove a twig from the inside of his leg plating. Rumble hated trees. Starscream was cute and amazing but this was just stupid and Rumble was mad their sort-of-yeah-it-was date was ruined thanks to being forced to take the slow way back with anti-gravity thrusters. "And ya' don't just crash. Ya' drop like a rock! What in the pit's wrong with you?"

"Shut up." Starscream snapped back at Rumble without so much as a glance. He was biting the tip of his servo as he walked forward nervously, but swiftly. This was not good. Not good. Starscream didn't need this. A lab assistant who made him laugh? Good. A partner to frag to relax or relieve stress? Very good. Emotional attachment? Bad. "It was a crash. It happens."

Rumble stared at the Seeker through his visor and scrunched his face. Starscream was a wreck. Foliage was still stuck in various gears and breaks in his plating, completely unnoticed by the bundle of nerves that had replaced the calm, collected egoist. Something had happened between having fun messing with squishies and dropping out of the sky. Starscream had barely looked at him since they started heading back. Rumble wondered if he was just embarrassed about crashing. Or more hurt than he realized aside from the dented thrusters and leaves stuck which-way and that.

Starscream needed to distance himself from Rumble. He was already in far too deep with the squirt. The fact Starscream was not looking forward to the separation did nothing to help matters. The Seeker grabbed his head and fought the groan. Emotional attachments made things messy; destroyed logical thought. If one ever needed a perfect example of that they should just look to his trine and take a good long look at Skywarp and his need to cling. Or pit, just look at Starscream's completely fragged over relationship with Megatron. There was 'emotional attachment' plastered all over that disaster even if he was trying to kill the warlord.

"Hey, 'Screamer." Rumble asked softly and tapped his knuckles on the side of Starscream's leg. "You okay?"

"No." Starscream answered immediately before stopping dead in his tracks and covering his mouth. His response came too quickly, too comfortably. This was worse than he thought. "I mean, yes. Yes I'm fine. Just-"

"Starscream."

Both Rumble and the Seeker looked up at the sound of Starscream's name in that drowning monotone. Rumble jerked back and felt himself start to half-hide behind Starscream's leg. "Uh, hey Boss."

"What do you want?" Starscream's voice was laced with acid. This was the last thing he needed right now.

"Megatron; Requests presence. Report to quarters immediately." Soundwave answered. Their leader had been furious to realize Starscream was out of the base when he first hailed him. Soundwave had been told to watch for the Seeker and send him to report the very instant he got back. Considering how angry their warlord looked, Soundwave knew that it was going to be a good day.

"Fine," Starscream sighed before rubbing the top of his head. His finger caught a leaf that had hung in his vents and Starscream finally looked down at himself. "I'll be with him as soon as I clean up a bit."

"Denied. Megatron has been informed of your arrival." Soundwave smirked viciously behind his faceplate and tapped the side of his head indicated the internal comm.. "Expecting in five minutes." The exact time it would take to walk from the entrance of the ship to the leader's quarters – and Starscream knew it.

Humiliated by his own appearance and Soundwave's goading put a rather famous scowl on Starscream's face. Rumble couldn't help but feel sorry for the Seeker when he split off from them and headed towards Megatron's quarters, back straight with at least an attempt to regain his lost pride. Rumble watched him until Starscream rounded the corner and was gone from sight completely before he felt the shadow fall over him. "Uh, hiya' again, Boss."