CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sparks On The Beach
***
Meg: I would hate to be blind.
Prowl: Be careful, don't jinx it.
Meg: But it's true! No seeing means no more anime, no more video games, no more rollerblading (and jumping), no more (proper) horseback riding, no more writing, no more drawing…nooooooo!
Prowl: Meg! Remember to breathe!
Arcee: Yes, breathe, young one.
Meg: *Is breathing*
Sunny: Isn't that how you breathe when you're pregnant?
Meg: SUNNY!!!! .
***
In our holoforms Screamer, Streamer and I stood on the beach, them watching the Bali sunset.
At least, Screamer said: "You know, I dunno what Prowl sees in these things."
"I'm sure it's very boring." I said, annoyed.
Screamer gave me a hug. "I'm sorry Em…are you hungry? Do you wanna go get something to eat?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I get to eat human food still. You guys will have to wait until we get back to Perth for energon." I added smugly.
Streamer said: "Hey, I didn't say anything about seeing!"
"Let's all walk down the street with our eyes shut." I suggested.
"Yeah!" Streamer exclaimed.
"Oh no, I am not escorting you both along these crumbly, uneven streets!" Screamer said firmly. He still had his arms around my shoulders.
"Fine then," Streamer replied, poutily. "Then I'll just walk backwards."
*
Starscream's P.O.V:
"How was I supposed to know they line the streets with offerings?" Streamer asked me, as we sat at the poolside restaurant at the Bali Dynasty Hotel. We had traded some of our Australian money in for Bali money (called rupiah).
Em ate like she hadn't seen (well, sort of) food in a week. Then, she sipped some sort of alcoholic drink, and Streamer produced some high-energon drinks from her backpack for herself and for me.
We had even been offered a free night at the hotel, after a hotel worker had knocked Em into the pool by accident, as he walked past her quickly and didn't know she couldn't see.
I had wanted to kill the man, but instead had just jumped in to save my wife, who had sort of frozen and then began splashing around in a panic. Streamer, who had gotten splashed, began yelling at the man as I rescued Em for the second time that day.
Back on dry land, and Em wrapped in a bunch of blue and yellow striped towels, the hotel worker had began apologizing, and then the manager had shown up, and everyone had been talking at once, but then they offered us a free night at the hotel.
"Terima kasih." Em had said politely, which means 'thank you' in Balinese…or was it Indonesian?
It didn't matter, because the hotel workers, who thought that we were the most amazing things they had ever seen (well, I happen to look like a god, or so I'm told), gave us free clothes, and we went to our room to get changed.
I wore a t-shirt that said Bali Hai, boardshorts and thongs (you know, those sandal-things).
Em and Streamer both wore bikini tops and things called sarongs. Streamer's bikini was pink, and her sarong was pink with gold designs woven into it. Em's bikini was black, and her sarong was yellow.
Hmm…
"So, what's your name?" Some random guy asked Em.
I gritted my teeth, and wondered if she'd mind if I slagged the guy, who was staring at her, like he might die if he took his eyes off her.
"Why?"
"Because you look hot," The guy said bluntly, and I watched Em's face turn red, NOT a reaction to the warmness of the Bali night.
I stood up, ready to go over there, but Streamer beat me to it.
She skipped over there, having ditched her sarong and wearing just her bikini, and said: "Hey, what's up?"
The guy's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Whoa…who are you? Her sister or something?"
Streamer looked intently at him with her red eyes. "I'm her sister in-law." She pointed at me. "That's my only brother, over there."
The guy looked and, when he saw me, he nearly fainted. He left in a pretty big hurry, though.
Em and Streamer started laughing.
Suddenly, someone turned up the radio.
"Oh, I love this song!" Em and Streamer exclaimed in unison. They both began singing: "So go on, go on, come on leave me breathless…tempt me, tease me, until I can't deny this loving feeling, let me long for your kiss, go on, go on, yeah…"
I just sat back and listened to them singing, glad that they were getting along so well, and also loving this song.
I was watching Em the whole time.
She looked so beautiful, and seemed sure of herself as she stood up there with Streamer…where had they gotten microphones from?
I thought about Em, and what she meant to me.
She meant so much to me, I had lost nearly everything I had once wanted, just for her. I remembered the first time I had ever seen her, when she had rescued that girl Zikya. I had looked into Em's metallic green eyes, and known she was the one.
And now, she was a Transformer too…we were even on the same side, sort of. I had been there when she'd found – and lost – her parents.
I wanted to spend the rest of forever with her, whether Bumblebee was there or not.
Suddenly, Em and Streamer were standing in front of me, both smiling.
"We're going for a walk," Streamer told me. "To talk about fem stuff." She added, as she led Em away, and I watched them both go.
I looked up when I felt someone standing beside me.
"So, she's your sister?" It was the guy from before.
"You stay away from her." I warned him.
He held up his hands. "Okay, okay…hey, you know your wife?"
"Yeah?"
"Does she have a sister?"
*
Stream Fire's P.O.V:
"Have you been here before?" I asked Em, after she said hello to the fourth person we'd run into.
She nodded. "Yeah, when I was younger, I used to come up here with Nenona and Jerome – oh, you didn't meet them, they were my foster parents…" Sadness flashed across her face, replaced by calmness. "Anyway, we used to come here every few years, it's amazing how people remember you…" She looked around unseeingly, and smiled. "I love Bali, it feels so warm here, and it's so pretty, even though I can't see it." She said wistfully.
"Did you used to stay here?" I asked her.
She nodded. "Yes. We stayed at the Rani and the Gardens a few times, too, but this one was my favourite." She shrugged. "Four stars makes all the difference."
I didn't know what that meant, but I had another question in store for her. "Do you love my brother?"
She stopped. We were walking over a bridge. I stopped too. "What?" She asked quietly.
"I said, do you love my brother?" I asked her again.
"I heard you," She replied. "I'm just trying to figure out why you had to ask that." She held up her left hand, and waved it in my face. "See this silver ring? It means Star and I are legally bonded."
"Have you merged sparks yet?"
"Stream Fire!!" She looked shocked.
"I'm just asking. Have you?"
"No." She shook her head.
I raised an eyebrow. "Oh, but you've merged sparks with Bumblebee?"
"How did you know about that?"
"I'm a seeker – it's my job to find out about these sorts of things."
"I don't think this is exactly what Megatron had in mind," She said to me. She paused. "Streamer, why exactly did you decide to join us?"
"Because of Starscream…and don't change the subject!" I exclaimed.
Em laughed. "I'm not!"
"Oh, so now who's lying?" I put a hand on her shoulder. "Em, look, I'm not gonna lie to you, so I'm just gonna say this straight out – I think you should merge sparks with my brother, and forget about Bumblebee."
Em sighed. "I'm not even gonna bother asking why you'd say that. Just tell me this – will you merge sparks with Barricade?" She looked intently at me, but her metallic green eyes twinkled.
"Emma!!" It was my turn to be annoyed now.
Em just laughed, and you know what?
Her laughter was contagious.
I also decided then and there to inform Barricade that we were going to merge sparks, as soon as I got to Perth.
"Terima kasih, Em." I said, hugging her.
"You're welcome." She replied, hugging me back. "What for?"
"Everything." I replied.
*
"Screamer," I whispered.
"Yes?" He said instantly.
"I can't sleep." I said simply.
He sat up quickly and looked at me.
I wondered if the deja vu of the situation meant anything to him.
It did. Nothing gets lost on Starscream.
He took my hand and led me outside, and we walked down to the beach, before transforming, and flying servo-in-servo across the waters, to a small island that Star found.
I dunno if it was one of the Lesser Islands, or if it was one of those Mirage-Vanishing-Island thingies, but it was there, and we took full advantage of its being deserted.
"Are you sure you wanna do this?" He asked me. "Because…I'd understand if you…didn't…"
I gasped. "You mean…you don't…" I was just teasing though, because I knew he really wanted to.
He was teasing too. He suddenly grabbed me around the waist, and drew my robot body close to his.
"It seems fitting, being here on a beach like this, don't you agree?" He asked me, his face very close to mine.
"You talk too much." I informed him.
*
Sparking with Starscream turned out to be as natural and as enjoyable as it had been to do it with Bumblebee. It was a different experience, but still an enjoyable one. I can't describe how loved I felt right then, as my spark was merged with Screamer's, but at that moment, I looked, really looked into his optics.
The sheer joy in them, the bright redness of his Decepticon-born optics, delved right down into me, and for a moment, all I could see was sheer whiteness, before darkness settled around me, but it wasn't the same darkness I had been experiencing for the past week.
For a moment, I couldn't speak.
I could only lie there, with Screamer above me, staring into my optics, which were stinging with the clarity of the situation.
Everything around me – the green of the trees, the grey of the sand, the blackness of the water, and the lights twinkling high above us in the sky…it all made so much sense now, and I was amazed by its completeness and its beauty.
Not an experience to be taken for granted again.
"Terima kasih, Starscream, my love." I told him.
He looked surprised, and I had to smile, the moonlight glintering off my vampire fangs. "What for, dearest?" He asked me, kissing my gently.
"For showing me what's really important." I informed him, as he drew back, and then I giggled. "You have sand on your face. Here…" I told him, and reached up and bushed the sand away, very carefully, and very deliberately. I held it up to my own face, and looked at it. "Hmm…this has tiny shells in it…"
Screamer looked at me, comprehension dawning on his handsome face. "E-Em! C-can you…s-see!?"
I glanced past him, to our right. "Umm…the tide's coming in." I pointed out.
