Thundercracker was almost through the bowl of treats when Skywarp decided to break the stubborn silence.

"Permission to be bold?" he asked with a mischievous grin at Starscream that made the other mech grit his denta.

"You're going to be whether I give permission or not," Starscream grumbled.

Skywarp pouted at the bitterness of his tone. "It's called 'being polite', Screamer," he said matter-of-factly, using his high-grade glass to point disapprovingly at him. "Anyway, anyone here thought about fragging a non-Cybertro' before?"

Thundercracker almost bit down on his digit as he placed a Mercracker in his mouth, and Starscream shot up fast enough to give himself whiplash.

"What?!"

Skywarp shrugged at their outbursts. "Y'know... ever imagined what it might be like?"

They both gave a disgusted look at him as he waited expectedly for an answer.

Starscream was the first to show his indignation in a splutter. "Absolutely not! Believe it or not, Skywarp, some of us have standards."

Thundercracker shared his leader's sentiments with a shake of his helm. "Primus, Warp, is there anything you won't try and frag?"

Skywarp gave the blue Seeker an offended, almost hurt look. "Come on, TC, not even you? I thought you had that human companion back on Earth; Marissa something, was it?"

Thundercracker paused in tipping the rest of the bowl back into his mouth, giving his brother a glare of warning from his optics. "I don't see what she has to do with anything."

Skywarp raised an eyeridge doubtfully. "Seriously? I mean, just my opinion, but she's one hot device for an organic-"

"WARP!" Thundercracker bellowed, thumping a fist down in front of the purple mech. it seemed to throw him off, but a klick later Skywarp just shrugged innocently.

"Well, it's true."

Thundercracker just rolled his optics and threw himself back in his seat. "I don't see where you're going with this, Skywarp."
"I do..." Starscream groaned regretfully, only suspending his grimace to sip from his glass.

Skywarp brought the mischievous, slightly unsettling grin back. "Oh, what, you're telling me neither of you are at least... curious about it?"

"I'd rather shove my spike in an incinerator!" Starscream claimed, drawing more than a few disapproving stares from the other patrons.

Even with the finality in his tone, Skywarp would not be shut up so easily. "Well, let's just be hypothetical about it. Let's say... there was a human our size."

"Sounds like a nightmare I once had," Starscream muttered banefully. Thundercracker, meanwhile, seemed to have lost some of his aversion. To Skywarp, he suddenly looked quite intrigued by the thought.

'I always knew you were a secret squishie lover, Cracker...' Skywarp smirked knowingly to himself before turning his persuasion on Starscream. "Just think about it, Screamer. Sure, they're fleshy, but imagine how warm and smooth their skin must be, almost like our protoform. And their cranial filaments are soft, with a strange but enchanting scent... imagine all that, but scaled up to our size."

Skywarp took on a dreamy look that even Thundercracker seemed to share. Starscream averted his optics for a few klicks, tilting his glass idly, before making a distasteful noise. "Pervert."

Skywarp turned away to grin knowingly to himself, logging away the reluctant curiosity he saw flashing across Starscream's optics for blackmail purposes later. When he faced the mech again he just shrugged, as if Starscream's verdict made no difference to him. "Suit yourself. That closed processor isn't going to get you anywhere."

Starscream scoffed over the rim of his glass. "As long as it keeps me far away from humans, that's good enough for me." It was only when he took a sip that he realised it was empty. With a loud sigh he banged the glass down on the counter, drawing even more stares than before.

"Dammit; I need a drink, an oil change, and a nap. Not necessarily in that order." He pushed off from the bar before either of his trine could stop him with another barrage of unwelcome mental images.

Skywarp watched him leave, waiting until he was lost in the crowd before turning to Thundercracker. "Well, now that the family killjoy is gone, I think it's time for us to make some new friends."

Thundercracker looked suspiciously at him as he rose from his seat. "What are you up to now?"

Skywarp only winked before turning away, heading right for the table where Starscream's secret admiration and their own purple paramour for the evening sat. From the confidence in his stride and lofty wings Thundercracker was almost convinced Skywarp would make some progress with them. He was reminded that where Skywarp was concerned there was no such thing as progress when the purple Seeker returned a klick later, defeated and dejected.

Thundercracker didn't try stopping his smug smirk from surfacing. "Two rejections in one night, Warp? Must be a new record."

"In my defence, none of them slapped me this time," Skywarp said with a glare, crossing his servos over. "Why don't you be useful and come offer some help?"

Thundercracker barked a laugh into his glass. "I'm fine here, thanks."

Now Skywarp had the smug look as he nudged his companion. "Come on, Thundercracker, don't tell me you're shy. How old are you?"

"You know perfectly well how old I am," Cracker scowled. "What's that supposed to mean, anyway?"

Skywarp just snorted in answer. "Just that sometimes I really wonder how you won that pink Autobot darling over. What was her name again?"

Thundercracker paused before taking a long swig of his glass. "Arcee." Both the high-grade and memory of her gave his voice a regretful tone. "She was quite different back then..." He toyed with his glass for a few moments before pushing it aside, rising from his seat and brushing his armour down. "Alright, I'll be your wingmech. Primus knows you'll need one with those three."

Skywarp decided to ignore the veiled insult as he pulled Thundercracker over to the femme's table.

xx

Starscream emerged from the oil room with gratefully empty tanks and a scowl as he noticed his trine's absence from the bar. Instead Chromia of all bots had taken their place, waiting to place an order with the bartender. He perked his wings up and marched over to her, but she spoke before he could give his indignation a voice.

"If you're wondering where your friends are, they're busy making fools of themselves over there so feel free to join them." She gestured somewhere behind her with her helm. Following her direction, he saw Thundercracker and Skywarp competing with each other over the purple femme while Windblade toyed with her empty glass, expression indecipherable. Seeing him looking at her, Chromia mentioned, "I think Windblade would appreciate your company as well, Primus knows why."

Starscream's vocaliser stopped short, unsure of what to do with that remark. Either the sarcasm was subtle or non-existant, and he settled on ignoring the statement altogether to save him the job of choosing. "Any reason why you're not with them now?" he asked, flexing his digits around what he wished was a fresh glass instead of empty air.

"I was just going to get us all some special Camien drinks," Chromia answered a little too innocently for his liking. "A little sparkday gift. I'll buy you one as well, if you think you can handle it."

The challenge was clear in her tone and smirk, tugging Starscream's frown further downwards. "If I can handle Camien snark, then your drinks will hardly be a challenge," he declared. Chromia showed a glint of denta as her smirk widened, and Starscream was starting to feel the first tinges of regret when the bartender arrived.

"Two glasses of Supernovae, three Nebuloes and one Hypernovae, please," Chromia ordered, glancing over at Starscream as he cocked an eyeridge. She was right about them being Camien drinks, he hadn't heard of any of them before. Soon the counter was filled with neon-bright glasses studded with tiny umbrellas and shiny sticks. Chromia slid over the most obnoxious looking one; a concoction of orange and purple swirls and sprinkles of silver, stabbed through with something that looked like a miniature rocket. He eyed it suspiciously, almost scared to pick it up but eventually getting over himself when he saw Chromia watching him.

"Bottoms up, Screamer," she prompted. Starscream completely forgot the drinks in the midst of a sudden fury that flared up.

"My name is NOT Screamer, you insolent-" His snarl was cut short by an amused smirk from Chromia as she gestured all around them. So many other patrons... his reputation was already rocky enough without causing a scene in the middle of a crowded bar. He swallowed his pride before the drink, knocking back whatever was in the glass and hoping it didn't poison him. At least he knew Chromia hadn't secretly added anything to it, but that just made him anxious about what kind of things Chromia's lot soaked their processors in on a daily basis.

His glossa flicked as a sweet taste pooled over it, with some sour tones prickling at his edge taste nodes. It was actually quite pleasant, a nice change from the staler vintage of regular high-grade he was so used to.

"That was the Hypernovae, by the way." Chromia seemed far away as she spoke, gathering up her own glasses and leaving him at the bar. The whole club seemed to fade away, some noises dampened under the weight of tipsiness and others amplified. His own digits seemed unfamiliar to him as he stretched them out over the bar top, tapping them almost curiously. And the sweet taste of the Hypernovae still lay thick around his mouth.

He decided he wanted another one.