Hi, it's me again (well who else would it be). Chapters might slow down a bit, since the exam schedule is starting up again, and I really didn't pick a good time to start my first story :P I'm glad you guys are enjoying this, and if I could get my first ever review, that'd make my day 3
As Always, have fun reading!
"That was fun!" Skywarp pranced along the corridors, tugging Thundercracker by the arm and whistling a small tune to himself, apparently all his care for the rest of the world having vanished. Thundercracker on the other hand, was well enveloped within his own thoughts. Although it might be technically possible to put the two crazy mechs together, there was so much that could go wrong at one time. For example, what if Megatron completely ignored Starscream from the advice within the datapad he'd been given? What if Starscream prematurely let his secret slip and all havoc broke loose? And the more daunting conclusion, what if Megatron rejected the seeker after they'd gotten closer? There was a very slight chance that their commander would actually see him in that way, though Starscream was by no means a bad mech to look at.
As the two entered the dormitory, Thundercracker merely sat on the edge of his berth, twiddling digits around rapidly to try and avert his processor from such thoughts. Surprisingly, Skywarp managed to step out of his own little word for long enough to notice this, and frowned at the sight.
"You okay, TC? You haven't drunk too much high grade again without telling me, have you?" He snickered, poking him gently on the arm. Worryingly, the blue seeker didn't reply.
"Let it all out. Psychologist Skywarp can make your troubles fly away!" Whilst the blue flier highly doubted Skywarp even knew how to spell psychologist, he supposed the purple bumbler did have good ideas sometimes. It wouldn't do any harm to tell him.
"I was just thinking… Maybe we shouldn't be doing this."
"Hmm…? Why's that?" Skywarp questioned, coming to sit on the berth next to his troubled trine member and attempted to make optic contact. Eventually, Thundercracker complied with this request, staring for a good while before he started talking again.
"Well, what if something goes wrong? Screamer's been kinda sensitive lately, he'd be in a right state if he were to be rejected. And then Megatron would become even more violent towards him, and maybe towards us, and then the whole base would blame us, and then we'd be hated, and it's possible we might-" Thundercracker was interrupted when a surprising servo clasped itself over his mouth. He made a muffled "huh?" sound in surprise.
"Stop." He just said, looking more serious than Thundercracker had ever seen. "None of that's going to happen."
"But Skywarp…"
"Even if it did, it wouldn't matter." The confused seeker stared, wondering what his fellow trine member could be thinking. As if reading his thoughts, Skywarp began to explain, swinging his legs playfully over the tall berth simultaneously.
"Look at it this way, TC. Do you remember how happy little Screamer was when he was first promoted?"
"The slagger could barely contain himself!" Thundercracker laughed, remembering what a pain in the aft Starscream had been to the both of them when he turned out to be the highest ranking of the three mechs. He made Skywarp look like an angel.
"Right? So, if we succeed in this… He'll be that happy, all the time." Skywarp used his servo to guide Thundercracker's faceplates to be in line with his. "We have no right to take that away from the guy. Besides, how could anyone not love him? He's adorable as it is, having the poor thing swoon over you would be magical!"
"I think we differ on the definition of adorable…" Thundercracker murmured, "But I guess you're right. We have to try at least." Skywarp smiled and gave him a nod in agreement.
"You know, you can be really smart sometimes, Skywarp."
"I thought I was smart all the time."
Starscream currently sat in his own quarters. Apart from the flickering monitor of his computer screen, the room was pitch black, as he'd covered up the only window to one side, and refused to turn on the light. Besides, the screen allowed him to see pretty much all around the room. The rest of the place was fairly standard too, considering he was second in command out of the thousands that took shelter within the base. A spacious berth towards one corner, an energon dispenser in the other, and a small amount of scientific equipment arranged neatly on a nearby table. He did most of his experiments elsewhere, of course, but it was nice to have something here should he get bored or suddenly find an idea pop into his processor.
Currently, he had no ideas. What he had been doing, was looking for answers to his 'problem', worded in various different ways. Some of these searches included "How not to think about things" and "Why don't I hate him", but nothing that came up related to what he wanted. Why was this stupid thing trying to trick him? What did it want him to say?
Starscream took a deep breath, deleted his text, and started again, typing excruciatingly slowly. He began with "Why do I", and then paused. Putting in the next word would really be taking a large step forward. He wasn't sure if that step was even in the right direction. How did he feel about Megatron? It was more than respect, for sure. He respected Soundwave (very slightly) for his ability to hold in his emotions where Starscream lacked this ability, but that certainly wasn't similar. Was it friendship? Maybe not, Thundercracker and Skywarp where his friends even if they were his trine too, and he still wasn't that fond of them.
So what did he want from Megatron?
He wanted… He wanted to hold his hand. And, he wanted to hug him, and talk about everything, and watch those stupid goofy human movies that Starscream had a secret liking for with him. All of those mushy, horrible Autobot things that he shouldn't have been able to feel, he wanted to do more than anything else in the world.
"Fine…" He sighed, having lost yet another mental battle with himself, "I'll admit it." Slowly, and with great force, he bashed the letters with one of his digits. L, O, V and E. He shuddered at the mere sight of the word, but he'd have to get used to it. Once he was able to isolate the problem, he'd be able to tear at the roots and make it disappear. Then he could return to his happy self. Well, not exactly happy, but happier than he was now.
Satisfied with the question laid out in front of him, he punched in the enter key. Just as he was about to look at one of the results, there came a knock on his door.
"Go away, Skywarp." The seeker said with anger, a little annoyed that he wanted to cause even more trouble for him. There was no second knock, so Starscream could now proceed to-
There was another knock. Strange, usually Skywarp would either get the hint or have teleported right on top of him.
"Okay" Starscream moaned with rolling optics, "Just say what it is you want to sayyYYyYyyy…" Starscream had opened the door to find a very unexpected mech appear at his doorstep.
"Meh-Megatron!" He stammered, slightly startled to have the larger frame of his leader looming over him so suddenly.
"Why hello there, Starscream." He smiled. "Mind if I come in?"
"Uhh, not at all, of course!" The seeker replied, still utterly confused, and admittedly a little scared as to why the tyrant was grinning at him, and acting almost… nice. Starscream watched him calmly stroll about the room, occasionally pausing and bending over to examine something within the room. The Decepticon leader genuinely seemed fascinated by anything he came across, as if he'd been living on a whole other planet. With the privileges that he entitled himself to, that wasn't at all far from the truth.
What on earth was he doing here? Megatron had never so much as paid attention to the seeker, and suddenly he had gone out of his own way to visit him? It didn't make any sense. Unless… Did he know? Impossible, even Skywarp would know his life would come to an end should he give away something like this. But there had to be some reason he'd come down here.
"How are you feeling, Starscream?" His leader asked, still not turning around to talk to him. What kind of a question was that? The seeker wasn't sure what the correct answer was. He took a guess.
"Great."
"Oh, is that so?" this time Megatron did turn his head to look at Starscream's optics, which resulted in a nervous shuffle from the flier.
"Why wouldn't I be?" He snapped back.
"You've been acting awfully strange as of late." The tyrant replied, beginning to take a few steps forward, though Starscream made sure they were a safe distance apart.
"Have not!"
"I think you have", the commander insisted. "I haven't heard a peep from you in these past few weeks, and you're the loudest mech I've ever met. Don't you think those two facts contradict each other?"
"Maybe you've just gotten so old you're turning deaf." The instant after he spoke, Starscream clamped his servos over his own mouth in the slight chance that Megatron hadn't heard him.
The good news – Megatron had indeed not heard what he'd said.
The bad news - he was now observing Starscream's computer screen, which if he recalled correctly had a very private situation on it…
The seeker lunged in front of Megatron's point of view, flicking the off switch and praying that he had been in time. The sly grin that appeared on his faceplates told him that no, he had not been on time.
"Oh… So this is the problem" he snorted, barely able to keep laughter from his insides bursting out and escaping.
"What's so funny?" Starscream yelled, all his previous nausea now transforming into energon curdling rage.
"Nothing, nothing!" The silver mech smirked, clearly not a good liar. Starscream was torn between feeling angry and scared. He currently had a mix of both, though fear triumphed when the commander just had go and press himself obnoxiously far into the seeker.
"So, who's the unlucky mech?" he teased, prodding Starscream in the face plates with one of his digits. To amuse him further, the flier's face lit up like a firework, half because of his embarrassment, yet also because he rarely got the chance to be so close to Megatron. It took a great deal of restraint on his part not to lean into chest, at least just a little.
"What makes them so unlucky if I like them?" Starscream murmured, opting to shrink back into himself. The two just stared at each other for a moment, all the while Starscream contemplated his options. First option – Tell the truth. Either Megatron wouldn't believe him, or would get very, very angry. Second option – Don't say anything. But then he might look into it further, and eventually end up asking one of his trine… Third option – lie. He'd have to, but to make it believable yet not believable eventually.
"It's… Soundwave." He whispered.
"Soundwave!?"
"Shh, not so loud!" He hissed, snapping his head towards the door should someone be eavesdropping. Starscream half wished there were, at least he'd be able to get out of here. This had not been a pleasant visit.
"Really now? I didn't think he'd be your type!" The Decepticon leader did nothing short of giggle like a school girl with the new information he'd obtained.
"GET OUT!" Starscream lived up to his name and produced an audio shattering sound, which sent Megatron scurrying out of his quarters, not without making one last remark though.
"I'll say hi to Soundwave for you!" He chuckled, walking out with some more than useful information. Maybe being friendly wasn't such an awful thing after all, if he stood to gain something like this every time. Starscream smashed his helm on the desk twenty three times out of frustration before passing out.
"Okay, let's just get this straight a second." After a less than fortunate experience, Starscream had eventually alerted his trine to what had happened a few hours ago, after he'd found the will to live again. They sat in a neglected lounge room somewhere off to the south of the base, Starscream curled up on one of the chairs with Skywarp and Thundercracker sitting opposite. Partially due to Starscream's mouth being propped up against his arms, the blue seeker hadn't been sure of whether he'd heard the correct story. Also, it was pretty ridiculous in its own right.
"So Megatron came and gave you a surprise visit, which made you uncomfortable. It happened to be just at that time you were looking into your attraction, so he partially knew your secret. And somehow, you ended up getting him to think that you loved Soundwave?"
"Hey!... It's not as bad as it seems."
"Do you want me to tell you how it seems?" Thundercracker sighed, "It seems as though you managed to convince the one person you actually like that you're in love with someone else in a matter of minutes!" Starscream wriggled in his seat a little, trying not to meet his trine's gaze. A light tug on the arm from Skywarp told him he might need to consider taking a different approach. He sighed once more, before leaning over and gently moving one of Starscream's now limp arms so that they could make optic contact.
"You know, even Skywarp wouldn't muck up this bad." The blue seeker joked softly. Starscream allowed himself to smile a little, albeit at Skywarp's expense. For the good of the love smitten seeker, the teleporter ignored this blow to the ego.
"Don't worry Screamer, me and good ol' TC here will fix you guys up if it's the last thing we do! Which it might be, depending on whether Megatron catches us in the act… But that makes it more exciting, don't'cha think?" Exclaimed Skywarp, shortly afterwards receiving a short smack from Thundercracker.
"Calm down a little, will you? We've still got a way to go, in case you hadn't noticed." Thundercracker reminded him.
"Sorry, but it's hard not to get excited, you know? Those two would be cute together, right TC?" Feeling embarrassment wash over him, the air commander hid his face plates like a timid sparkling, whilst 'TC' merely laughed it off.
"If you say so. Regardless, we'd better get started on fixing this mess. You'll be ready for the next step, won't you Skywarp?"
"I was born ready"
"Wait!" Starscream interjected as they started to walk out the room, "What should I do?"
Skywarp smiled to himself and said "Try to keep your hands off of Soundwave for a few hours".
How will Soundwave react to this new development? And what could possibly save Starscream and Megatron's relationship that the two seekers are planning? Hmm, you'll eventually find out :)