A/N: So I learnt A/N stands for author's note, neat! I also learnt that slacking off writing for school is bad, and it shan't be done again (Seeing how exams are over, and all). I promise I will upload more often now, plz don't hate me! Beg?
Skywarp sat in deep thought. This was a feat in itself, since Skywarp didn't often think about things, but in this case, Thundercracker was practically forcing him to. The two seekers had way too much time on their hands since Megatron was particularly stumped on something (therefore refusing to make any plans concerning the Autobots), and so Thundercracker had suggested that the two of them play a human game to pass the time. Chess eventually won the vote, and through time the purple flier became increasingly paranoid that his opponent had snuck in some practice beforehand, because Skywarp never lost at games. Never. And yet, his aft was currently being handed to him on a silver platter.
"Let's see here…" Skywarp murmured, his servo hovering over multiple different pieces in indecision. Unlike Thundercracker, who opted so sit legs crossed and upright, the purple mech lay flat on his chassis, legs swinging to and fro above him.
"I'll move my horsey to D6!" He suddenly exclaimed, picking up the black object and using it to smash a white piece across the room and into a berth. He giggled in excitement in the noise that he'd created.
"I wish you wouldn't do that." The eldest flier moaned, picking himself up and hauling his pedes over to the berth for the fourth time that game, retrieving the miniscule item.
"And it's called a knight, not a horsey." He continued, not even bothering to reprimand Skywarp as he sat back down. He wouldn't learn from it anyway.
"Oh, you're playing chess again? Managed to win yet, Skywarp?" Both seekers turned to see Starscream make his way towards the pair, sitting down on the floor in front of the board and beginning to inspect the field. He wasn't exactly brimming with confidence, but the flier could at least talk to other mechs now, a huge improvement in behaviour since what Skywarp called his "Teenage hormones acting up". Of course, Starscream wouldn't be Starscream without mocking sarcasm in every other sentence.
"Nope, but this'll be the game! I can just feel it, you know?" Skywarp looked hopefully into the young flier's optics, only to find an overpowering sense of doubt within them. The red optics then switched to scan the board for a moment.
"Whose turn is it?" He asked, glance unmoving.
"TC's."
"Yeah, you lost this one pal." Starscream smiled, patting the now outraged purple mech on the head.
"Checkmate!" Thundercracker declared, for once choosing to dramatically knock the pieces over. Skywarp howled in disappointment, smashing his helm against the floor repeatedly until his trine came to the rescue.
"Cheer up buddy; you'll get the next one." Thundercracker grinned, actually willing to let himself lose for the sake of the idiot. Skywarp gave his most convincing puppy dog look, motioning to the board to play again.
"Maybe you'd want to play against Screamer this time?"
"Oh, as if that'd be an easier game to win!" Starscream scoffed, a little annoyed yet amused at the suggestion. As Skywarp was about to insert his own snide comment, he held up a servo to silence the other bickering seekers as he received a comm from someone.
"Who dares call me!?" He yelled into the room, filling the awkward silence with mere awkward noise.
"Huh? They hung up on me for some reason…" The purple flier frowned, unaware that Thundercracker was currently receiving a call of his own.
"Hey, who is thi-"
"That damn seeker of yours needs to be punished!" He heard an enraged tyrant snarl into his audios. The blue seeker jumped slightly at the sudden loud noise, though he was quick to regain his cool.
"Although he isn't my seeker, I'll gladly let you do whatever you want with him should you be able to catch Skywarp." That answer was not dignified with a real response, only a snort of frustration. Unknowingly, the rest of his trine were gathered behind Thundercracker's back, peering in as close as they dared to try and find out who was on the other side. Somehow, Starscream had ended up sitting on Skywarp's helm.
It took a lot of waiting before the conversation moved on.
"I have a predicament." Whilst Megatron waited on the other side, Thundercracker carefully thought through the various outcomes of this call, which wasn't too easy when you had four servos pawing at your face plates, begging for attention. Either he was calling merely to have someone to complain to, which the blue flier could deal with but still wouldn't like to, or even worse, he would be expected to help. Whichever one of the two it was, the smart thing to do would be to end the conversation as quickly as possible.
"Well I'm sorry to hear that, maybe I should get Soundwave for you-"
"If I wanted Soundwave, I would have gotten Soundwave!" The tyrant seethed, clearly his ludicrously short fuse already lit. Thundercracker inwardly flinched at the malice of his tone.
"For some preposterous reason, the Autobots insisted on a little ceasefire between our two sides." Megatron did not sound particularly happy at the lack of violence that would occur as a result of this. Then again, he never sounded happy anyway.
"And why would that be, my lord?"
"Apparently, nearly terminating Starscream instead of me made them feel guilty. Can you believe it? Guilt over hurting their own enemies! What a bizarre bunch of mechs they are, considering such mushy feelings in the middle of a war." Thundercracker chose to ignore that statement.
"And is this your predicament?" The blue seeker asked hopefully.
"No, of course not! Such a simple thing wouldn't faze me, the great and all powerful Megatron!" Megatron waited for confirmation that Thundercracker knew exactly how great he was. None was given. For all the annoying traits that the seeker didn't have, the Decepticon commander found himself hating the flier's self-confidence. Of course, Megatron was the only one allowed to think himself the best – because he was.
"My predicament is that I need something to distract the many idiots that somehow got appointed here before we can fight again. Since I am not willing to associate with other mechs", the commander spat, "I have decided that you will come up with a suitable occasion."
"Okay, will do."
…There was a long pause.
"Wait, do you mean right now?"
"I have things to do, you know." Megatron growled dangerously, rolling his optics. Meanwhile, Thundercracker nervously racked his processor for anything that he could use. The result of not finding anything would not be so pretty. The seeker shot a pleading look at his trine, and whilst Skywarp was uselessly taking a nap, Starscream came to save the day, mouthing the word "human". Of course, he'd get plenty of ideas from them!
"Well actually, I do have something in mind."
"I'm listening."
"Well", Thundercracker began rather excitedly, "There's a human custom in which-"
"No longer listening." The blue seeker sighed at his leader's closed mind before continuing,
"Would you hear me out at least?" The commander thought for a brief moment before grunting in approval. Thundercracker gave a small sigh of relief at this.
"As I was saying, at some point during the winter, they have a small festival of sorts which they refer to as Christmas."
"Stupid name." Megatron interjected.
"Be that as it may", the seeker ploughed onwards, secretly fond of the name himself, "It would be likely to qualm any disruptions in the near future."
"And what ridiculing antics will I be expected to partake in this time?" Megatron inquired, still feeling a little hesitant towards the whole thing. So far, no benefit of his had even been hinted at. A prime reason to shut down this idea.
"Well, generally it involves people giving things to others such as family and friends in the form of presents."
"And I would be inclined to receive some of these 'presents', correct?" a now more interested silver mech asked.
"Technically, yes, but it'd be nice if you gave things to others as well…"
"But that part is optional, right?" Thundercracker exhaled in disappointment at how he knew exactly how much Megatron would be willing to give. And how much he'd be willing to take from others, too. At least he'd finally appreciate the seeker's suggestion.
"Yes, that bit is optional." A smile invaded Megatron's faceplates, as he almost felt… excited. Whatever it was that he was experiencing, it felt pretty good.
"Excellent, then it's settled. We'll have our own… winter present thing. I trust you can set it all up and inform everyone about this?"
"Wait I can't just-"And the comm link cut off. After contemplating for a short while why on Cybertron he still answered to Megatron, Thundercracker turned to see two very expectant pairs of optics gazing up at him.
"I heard presents." Skywarp said.
"Was that Megatron calling you? Did he say anything about me?" Starscream chimed in. Not feeling like answering either seeker, Thundercracker left the room. Megatron had given him enough work to act as an excuse for today.
In human time, Thundercracker reckoned it was around the 23rd of December by now. The flier would like to have thought that time had gone past quickly for him, but it hadn't. The main reason for this was that other mechs were not him, and would therefore do things differently from him. i.e., the wrong way. It took enough effort to actually shut some of them up and confine them within their rooms, let alone get any other Decepticons to assist him.
But of course, the seeker was most grateful for Soundwave constantly following him, giving various 'pointers', and repeatedly underlining the flaws in his idea.
"Likely energon consumption: too high to maintain for a suitable degree of time." The mech informed Thundercracker, who had already heard this twice in the last hour. Instead of dignifying that fact with a response, the flier gave an irritated grunt.
"Materials needed: Largely expensive" Soundwave thoughtfully added.
"Maybe you should ask Megatron to increase your allowance to pay for them then" Thundercracker snorted back at him. Soundwave's visor glinted as though he had gotten another idea.
"Megatron: not likely to be happy with idea."
"He's the reason I have to organise all of this mess, idiot." Soundwave paused as if he were questioning the validity of that idea. Although wanting to remain apathetic, the seeker stopped mid-walk to observe these thoughts. Without any warning, Soundwave brushed past a now baffled Thundercracker, snatching away a datapad he'd just been holding.
"Soundwave – take care of preparations. Thundercracker – Leave." Thundercracker gave him an inquisitive look, wondering if this was a serious suggestion, or a joke. He then remembered that Soundwave was probably incapable of making jokes, even if he wanted to. He had tried once to make one in Megatron's presence… It hadn't ended prettily.
"Are you sure you can take care of everything?" Soundwave gestured towards the datapad as if to say 'I can read, by the way', and left. The blue seeker stared after him for a little, though was in no way going to question his decision.
"Maybe he isn't so useless after all." And yet now, Thundercracker was left with quite the opposite problem. Instead of being overloaded with dreary tasks and orders, he had absolutely nothing to do. The flier briefly contemplated his options for the rest of the day. Around 99 percent of mechs hated visitors, so that pretty much ruled out a lot of the base. Hook tended to berate anyone who came in uninvited, which in all fairness was Skywarp's fault for teleporting in and out during major surgeries. However, being the trinemate of said seeker did not increase his popularity. Besides, Soundwave would have most likely gathered everyone and have them do his bidding. Thundercracker supposed he could at least get a wink of recharge before some other shenanigan demanded his attention.
He opened the door not expecting anyone to be within the shared dormitory, but he was greeted by something else. Two unusually docile red optics stared from a few metres away, shimmering slightly in the light cast upon them. Thundercracker asked Starscream how he was doing, but only got a weak smile as a response.
"Sorry, I thought you'd be out for a little longer." The seeker replied, already too engrossed in his work to look up. From the looks of it, he was working on some sort of weapon, though Thundercracker only ever had a simple grasp on Starscream's creations. Despite being young, everyone, supposedly even Megatron acknowledged his grasp for science. Unfortunately, it sometimes went to waste due to his other joint responsibilities as both Air Commander and Second in Command over the entire force.
"What's that you're working on there?" Thundercracker asked, making himself comfortable on the berth adjacent to the air commander's desk.
"Fusion Cannon." Said Starscream, not explaining any further as if everything else should already be apparent to Thundercracker. Since it wasn't, the blue seeker shuffled over to take a closer look, and frowned at a giant (literally) flaw in Starscream's design.
"Isn't it a little big? I mean, it covers the whole length of your arm!" Starscream muttered something under his breath.
"What?"
"It's… not for me." He whispered hesitantly, not opting to look at Thundercracker despite how close the two seekers were.
"Then who…" A sudden thought jolted the blue flier's processor. "Really? I mean, I know you like him Star, but something like this isn't necessary!"
"I know, but…" Starscream looked away shyly in a nature so far out of character it was hard to believe the movements had come from his frame. "I mean, he'll expect something from me at least with this new event you're planning."
"Even so, I don't think a weapon of all things was the smartest idea." Thundercracker joked softly, poking a no longer concentrating Starscream in the side of the helm.
"I thought about that too, so I modified the design a little. I should be impervious to all of its firepower; though I can't say the same thing should he choose to use it as a baseball bat." The seeker grinned. Thundercracker wanted to tell him that violence wasn't something he should be joking about at all, yet he didn't have the heart to do so. A smile from him was rare enough, and so the eldest trine member gladly returned it with one of his own.
"There, finished!" As he carefully laid the gun down, Starscream smiled with satisfaction. He then promptly slumped on the floor, not bothering to move any further to find a place worthy of recharge. Thundercracker watched him with curious optics, glance unwavering. It amazed him how Starscream could work so tirelessly, be so contempt with serving someone who constantly berated and abused him for a living. And to develop feelings for said mech on top of that… It just boggled Thundercracker's mind to the point of annoyance. He had to ask. Even if it was embarrassing.
"Hey, Starscream… Still awake there, buddy?" the seeker gave a high pitched whine that roughly translated to 'yes', as he buried his helm further into the floor.
"Why do you… I mean…" Dang, it was harder to ask than Thundercracker had expected. The fact that the seeker in question was now staring right through him made it even harder, causing the blue flier to shift away with nervousness.
"If I knew, I'd be sure to tell you." Starscream replied, as if able to read what Thundercracker wanted to ask. He didn't go on to say any more though, merely curling up into a tighter ball and trying to forget the whole topic.
"Will you ever tell him?"
There was silence.
"Okay, go to sleep, you crazy seek-" The blue seeker sighed as he was interrupted by the sound of light snoring. Carefully, Thundercracker snaked two arms under the young mech, lifting him gently onto a berth. Once satisfied that Starscream was safe and sound, he began to start recharge himself. Strangely, he felt ever so slightly excited as for what was to happen the next day.
It was Christmas, after all.
A/N: Sorry, not toooooooo much happened I guess. Was just trying to get back into the mood to write, if I'm quite honest. The shenanigans shall proceed next time (hopefully soon)!