Approximately one Earth week later…
Starscream had been trying (unsuccessfully) for one week to get Spaceflower to notice him, but she never did. His room was next to Lugnut's, so he had to listen every night to Lugnut working on his Megatron shrine or practicing his "speech" for when he finally got appointed second-in-command or who knows what else…
He could tell Blackarachnia didn't like Spaceflower, and he knew Spaceflower was just friends with Lugnut, but he thought either he was being very paranoid, or there was something going on between her and Blitzwing. Blitzwing guessed (correctly) that Starscream was in love with Spaceflower, and Starscream wondered if he would deliberately start a relationship with her. He wouldn't do that, would he? But then again…
Night after night he would lie awake in bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to ignore Lugnut's "Megatron, my glorious leader, I love you so much!" and wondering if he would ever be able to get Spaceflower to love him, or at least remember that he existed. She hadn't talked to him at all since that day when she had flipped him and sang him to sleep. Maybe she'd forgotten about him entirely.
Of course, he hadn't talked to her, either, but this was only because he didn't have anything to say. As everyone knew, he usually had plenty to say, but not to Spaceflower. Maybe he should try talking to her. What was the worst that could happen, anyway?
So that morning, Starscream grabbed himself some energon, and was casually sipping it in the main room when he heard Spaceflower coming around the corner. Except she was with Blitzwing, as usual.
"So you're really going to give me those dancing lessons?" she asked, giggling. Her laugh was as beautiful as her voice.
"Yes!" Random said, breaking into a little dance right there, to Starscream's disgust. "You can be light on your servos, like me!"
"And we can perform in that musical," Spaceflower added. What musical? They were planning on being in a musical together? Why hadn't he been told about this? And besides, Decepticons didn't stage musicals!
Spaceflower and Blitzwing were just walking past, and it was like they didn't even notice Starscream. Last time he checked, turning invisible wasn't one of his powers.
He drank some more of his energon, feeling bitter. Spaceflower and her stupid boyfriend were going to work on their stupid musical as soon as they left the room, and then probably make out right on the set. It was probably a musical about their love. As if Blitzwing wasn't annoying enough!
Finally, they left the room, leaving Starscream alone and in an incredibly surly mood. Lugnut came to sit next to him, carrying an empty oil container. Starscream didn't say anything, didn't even look up.
"I took Megatron's old oil container," Lugnut said. "Don't tell him, okay?"
"Don't tell me what to do, you malfunction!" Starscream yelled, grabbing the oil container and shooting it into pieces with his null-rays.
"You're going to pay for that!" Lugnut hollered. "That was Megatron's!"
"Don't you know he thinks you're annoying?" Starscream asked angrily. "He regrets even recruiting you!"
Lugnut looked panicked. "Is that true?"
"Yes!" Starscream picked up his energon and sipped it dramatically.
Lugnut picked up the shattered pieces of the oil container. "Have I not served him well enough? What did I do wrong?"
"Now you know what it's like to have your spark ripped out and torn into tiny little pieces!" Starscream shouted. "Not fun, is it?"
He slammed the energon down on the table and stormed out. He wasn't even looking where he was going and consequently, to his surprise, he smacked right into Spaceflower, who was now alone.
"Um, sorry," he said, still not meeting her optics. He knew his faceplates were turning bright red.
"It's okay," she told him. He heard the smile in her lovely voice. He finally looked up and saw she looked a little confused, like she was trying to figure out a difficult puzzle. Probably the puzzle of remembering where she's seen me before, he thought to himself sullenly.
"Wait a minute, I know you!" Spaceflower smiled. "Aren't you the one who helped me demonstrate my weapons to Megatron? And you fell asleep at my singing?"
"That's me," Starscream grumbled.
"I never got your name," Spaceflower said. "What is it?"
"My name is Starscream," he said. She didn't say anything after that, and he wanted to fill the silence more than anything else. So he asked, "Are you and Blitzwing really going to do a musical?"
"We might." Spaceflower laughed. "Your friend's a great singer."
"My friend?"
"Blitzwing," she said.
Blitzwing? A great singer? As good as Spaceflower? Oh, how he mocks me! Starscream decided that from now on, he was definitely NOT friends with Blitzwing.
"Anyway," Spaceflower continued, "I'd love to do a musical for real. You can be in it, if you want. Do you like singing?"
She was staring at him, that smile on her lips again, so he blurted out, "Are you kidding? I love singing! I was even in a musical at school, when I was younger."
Starscream had a tendency to lie, but this particular statement was actually sort of true. Starscream hated singing—he hated even the thought of it—but he had been forced to be in a musical, back when he was in Autobot School. That was one of the worst memories of his life cycle, and he had been unsuccessfully trying to remove it from his memory core ever since.
The teacher had forced everyone to be in the musical, and no matter how bad you were, you had to sing. Starscream couldn't hit any of the notes, which meant the other sparklings teased him even more than they already did, if that was even possible. To make things worse, he had a lisp back then, too, so he couldn't even pronounce the words right. He recalled how others had called him "Shtarshcream", and never invited him to their parties or wanted to be around him at all. Basically, Starscream had hated every moment of Autobot School.
He must have been scowling, because Spaceflower asked, "Are you all right?"
"Oh, yeah, I am," he assured her. "It's okay."
"So you were in a musical?" Spaceflower looked genuinely interested now. "That's great! I was in musicals too. I don't mean to brag, but I got the lead role, and even a standing ovation."
"I'm not surprised," Starscream told her, smiling. "But…didn't they all fall asleep?"
"No." She shook her head. "It's only a certain set of notes and pitch and all that, a certain song I sing. I can sing without making people faint, so it becomes my talent and weapon."
Oh. Why hadn't he noticed that? Of course all her singing wouldn't make everyone fall asleep.
"Well, anyway, if you love singing, I would love it if you could be in our musical!" Spaceflower gushed. "Could you sing now? With me?"
Oh slag.
"You see, I would, but I can't, because, um…my vocal processors are harmed," Starscream told her hastily. "I mean, I can talk fine, but I can't really sing right now, and besides, you know, I'm pretty, um, rusty, so, um…"
"Don't worry!" Spaceflower patted him on the shoulder and laughed again. "I understand. You can sing for me and Blitzy once you feel better."
Blitzy? Starscream thought. Please, don't tell me she ACTUALLY called him that!
"Want to come plan, though?" Spaceflower asked. "I'm sure Blitzy wouldn't mind doing a musical with us. He said he would give me dance lessons, isn't that funny? He's good at dancing too!"
"Hilarious," Starscream muttered under his breath.
"What?"
"I said, I can go with you," Starscream told her. "That musical sounds so fun."
"Great!" Spaceflower cried happily, and she grabbed Starscream's servo and pulled him all the way to Blitzwing's room. After she finally let go, it felt like it was on fire.
"Spaceflower, Starscream," Blitzwing's Icy face said. "What brings you here?"
He was laying down on the bed, just relaxing, presumably. Spaceflower sat down on the bed, but Starscream turned on the rocket thrusters on his feet and hovered near the doorway, arms crossed.
"We wanted to know if you would help us create a musical," Spaceflower explained. "With all the Decepticons! Because you're so good at singing and dancing, you know? Starscream says he is too."
Blitzwing gave Starscream a funny look and Starscream made a cutting motion across his throat.
"I guess I could help you," Blitzwing said, his face switching to Random. "But only if you give me the lead role!"
"No problem!" Spaceflower giggled. "After all, you would do fantastic!"
"I thought you wanted to be the lead role," Starscream suddenly said, pointing at Spaceflower.
"I like being in musicals," she explained. "But that doesn't mean I don't like letting others share the spotlight too." She turned to Blitzwing again. "Why don't we just sing some duets, then? I bet I can sing better than you can!"
Blitzwing's face switched again, this time to Hothead, and he shouted, "Nobody can beat me, not even you, Spaceflower!"
Spaceflower smiled sweetly. "We'll see, won't we? This is going to be so amazing! Now we just need to get everyone else to join. You'll be in our musical, too, won't you, Starscream?"
He nodded, still hovering by the doorway.
Spaceflower smiled. "I knew you would! And you can sing too!"
Starscream winced, the vision of himself trying and failing to sing in an old school musical infiltrating his CPU again. How did he get roped into these things? A musical? It was like the worst memory of his life cycle being relived all over again—only this time in front of the one femme he wanted to be romantically involved with.
Approximately two Earth weeks later…
The musical was going quite well now—Blitzwing and Spaceflower were both wonderful in their singing and dancing, and Starscream was learning dancing, still avoiding singing on the pretense that his vocal processor was still damaged.
One of their main problems was getting the other Decepticons to join in. Everyone was supposed to be participating in this musical, but Blackarachnia, when asked by Spaceflower, had given a flat-out "no". They knew they wouldn't have a problem casting Lugnut if Megatron agreed, but Megatron, when asked by Starscream, had simply given a look that implied, "are you insane?"
Another problem was the plot. They weren't having much trouble with the music part, due to Blitzwing and Spaceflower's talent, but they couldn't decide what the musical should be about. Finally, Starscream, after many hours of thought, came up with an idea.
"Why don't we make it about the Decepticon cause?" he suggested, tentatively. "And that will probably make Megatron want to join, since you know how he loves to talk about Decepticon oppression and all that. And then Lugnut will need to join. And I don't know how we can cast Blackarachnia, but at least this plot might take care of some of our problems."
"Good idea," Spaceflower told him. "In fact, maybe we should have him write it."
"Yes," Starscream agreed. "I'll ask again."
Starscream didn't really want to bother Megatron again, but he figured this would score him major points with Spaceflower, especially once she found out that he couldn't sing, which she undoubtedly would. He dismissed this thought from his processor and approached Megatron, who was sitting in his chair.
"What is it now, Starscream?"
"Well…Blitzwing, Spaceflower and I wanted to ask again about the musical," Starscream replied, nervously. "And I know you thought it was a really stupid idea, but…we thought maybe if we let you write it, you might reconsider. After all, haven't you always wanted to speak about how we Decepticons are so oppressed?"
"That is true," Megatron said pensively.
"Then why not sing about it?" Starscream asked hopefully. "Can you sing?"
"Of course I can sing," Megatron told him impatiently. "All right, I'll do it. I'll write your musical for you. Have you got the songs written?"
Starscream nodded. "Yes, we have…and I can tell, Spaceflower loves it here! She thinks you're a great Decepticon leader!"
"However," Megatron replied darkly, "she does not love you, and she does not think you will be a good Decepticon leader."
Starscream was momentarily speechless. How had Megatron figured out his two current life goals, and how did he know how Spaceflower felt? Was he some kind of processor reader?
Starscream tried to regain composure quickly, and told him, "Well, either way, you can write the script to our musical, if you want, and I'll give you the songs we wrote and choreographed, so it'll be easier."
"Fine," Megatron said. "That will be all, Starscream."
Starscream bowed and left, and then ran all the way to Blitzwing's room, where he knew Spaceflower would undoubtedly be.
"Great news, guys," he told them. "Megatron agreed to be in the musical, and to write the script. So now Lugnut will join too."
"I think we need to give up on Blackarachnia, though," Spaceflower told him. "I had Blitzy ask her again this time, and she screamed, no! Maybe we should just let her be the audience."
"Whatever." Starscream shrugged. "I don't know how good of a singer she is anyway. Maybe she would just stifle our talent. Especially yours."
"You mean mine?" Spaceflower smiled.
"Of course," Starscream replied, spark starting to pound, faster than usual. "You're a big part of what made this musical happen."
"Thanks." Spaceflower walked up to Starscream and stroked one of his wings. Her fingers were slightly claw-like, like his, and the sharpness, mixed with the gentle way she touched him, felt incredible. Maybe soon she could make him faint without her singing, he thought. Only after she had walked away did he wonder why Blitzwing hadn't tried to stop her. Wasn't he supposed to be her boyfriend?
Or…was he really appealing enough that even though she was in a relationship with someone else, she was still in love with him? What if she loved him so much that she broke up with Blitzwing for him? That wouldn't make "Blitzy" happy, of course, but wouldn't he want Spaceflower to be happy? Maybe she wouldn't care that he couldn't sing. Maybe she would love him for some of his other assets, and Megatron would be wrong. He wasn't right all the time, after all. They would fall in love…
"HEY!" Starscream felt Blitzwing kick him in the leg. "Turn on your audio receptors!"
"Huh? What?" Starscream asked, snapping quickly out of his fantasy.
"I'm going to go and get Lugnut, and see if he wants to be in the musical, now that Megatron is in it," Spaceflower repeated, still smiling. And before either of them could say anything, she was gone.
As soon as she had left, Blitzwing's face had switched to "Hothead", and he had grabbed Starscream by the arm. "Stop this foolishness right now!"
"What are you talking about?" Starscream asked, as innocently as he could.
"You cannot sing, I know it! And you cannot dance! You could never perform in a musical! You would ruin the whole show!" Hothead yelled, gripping Starscream's arm even tighter. His face switched again, this time to Icy, and he added, "I know you are only doing this musical because you are in love with Spaceflower, but if you humiliate yourself onstage, she will not love you any more than she does now."
"Oh, like you care!" Starscream scoffed. "Don't you just want more stage time with your girlfriend, Spaceflower?"
Blitzwing's face switched again, to Random, and he started dancing, again. "Actually, as long as I've got rhythm, and I've got music, what more could I want?"
"You walking malfunction!" Starscream yelled. "You didn't even—"
There was a light knock on the door, and Spaceflower entered yet again, Lugnut following closely. "I've got Lugnut, you guys. He says he'll perform in the musical, as long as he can do a number or two with Megatron."
"I guess we could write some for them," Starscream replied sullenly. "I've never heard either of them sing before, though. And I'm not really looking forward to it."
"Don't be that way," Spaceflower insisted, grinning. "I'm sure they'll be fine. Next up, after everything's written, it'll be time for rehearsal."