A/N: Again, I am late. Again, I am sorry! But you know when you're watching an anime, and you just can't put it down to get writing? It happened...
But yeah, review and all that good stuff, I'm always open to advice, or if you want to tell me you enjoyed it, that's totally cool. On with the show!
Morning had risen. Thundercracker rose more than uncomfortably after an ecstatic purple blob jumped on his pedes for the tenth time, begging him to wake up. Tilting his head to one side, the seeker glanced down at Starscream, who by the sounds of his moaning had been woken up using a similar method.
"Come on, you guuuyyyyysssss! How can you be asleep at a time like this?" He wailed in an over-dramatic fashion, pulling Thundercracker up by his shoulders with strength the elder flier didn't know he possessed.
"How can you be awake at a time like this?" Thundercracker groaned, rising to a seated position against his own will. "It's 8 a.m., and I'd like some more sleep if you wouldn't mind…" he mumbled, trying to drag the covers over his face plates once more. Skywarp was having none of it.
"But it's Christmas!" The purple mess whined. "We should be singing songs, gifting presents, having snowball fights and all of the fun stuff! Right? Right!? This was your idea, you can't have just gone up and forgot now!" For a moment, Thundercracker simply stood dazed, his processor lagging a little bit, until he finally caught up to what Skywarp had said. He still didn't completely agree, though he was smart enough to know that complying with his demands would just be easier for everyone.
"Alright, hold your horses…"
"My what?" Skywarp frowned. Thundercracker mumbled something under his breath, but swatted Skywarp's servos away with one of his own, slowly getting up to a sitting position. To his surprise, it was actually snowing outside (which he'd learnt to be a very lucky coincidence), though he reminded himself that Skywarp and painful projectiles did make a friendly combination. More than anything, Thundercracker was anxious to see how well Soundwave had managed to sort everything out. It wouldn't do to be blamed for something he hadn't even been responsible for, so he'd made sure that Skywarp would tattle tale the moment anything of fault arose.
"It's pretty…" Starscream remarked to no one in particular, admiring the scenery through a small, now chilled window. Trees, grass and rocks alike had all been covered in a fluffy white blanket, and a few puddles had been frozen into such a shiny state, Starscream could see a fraction of his own reflection in one of them. It was a shame Starscream was torn away from this view to go along with his trine, Skywarp rushing all the way down the corridor only to come running back again, and bounce on the spot in hopes the other two seekers realised that he wanted them to go faster. It seemed that they got the wrong end of the stick, and ended up walking slower than usual.
"Wow." As it turned out, Soundwave had done a much better job of decorating the place than Thundercracker could have hoped to do (as Starscream politely pointed out to him several times). You couldn't move your optics a metre without catching a piece of tinsel or a bauble in your field of view. Golds, silvers, greens and reds all blended into one giant burst of colour, making the few patches of grey, unaltered metal almost invisible. At the very front of the hall, stood an obnoxiously tall tree, with an excessive amount of decorations on it. And of course, as the arrogant cherry on top, a small model of Megatron himself rested at the peak of the tree rather than a star or an angel (though the commander probably thought of himself as both anyway).
Ignoring Skywarp's suggestion of a 'friendly prank' by replacing the model with a similar one of Optimus Prime, the three seekers walked into the hall before going their own separate ways. Starscream dashed back to their quarters to retrieve something he'd forgotten, Skywarp attempted to pilfer seemingly unguarded gifts scattered around the place for himself, and Thundercracker went to strike up a conversation with Soundwave. Not that he would find much fun in doing so, but he seemed to be the only sober mech around.
Soundwave didn't even acknowledge his approach, but remained still and silent, scanning the crowd for something. The blue seeker jostled his shoulder a little to gain his attention, but then forgot what he wanted to say.
"Uhh, nice weather we're having." He improvised, making a small gesture to the outdoors.
"Cold Temperatures – Undesirable." Soundwave informed him.
"Well yeah, but it looks kinda nice."
"Aesthetics of weather – irrelevant to function of weather." Thundercracker subtly glowered at the monotone mech, now remembering why he didn't do this very often. Even the constructicons offered better small talk than this.
"Megatron – inquired whether I had feelings for Starscream" Soundwave decided to blurt out, giving Thundercracker an incredulous look as if he already knew it was his blunder.
"And do you?" The blue flier asked, not turning to face Soundwave as his smirk would reveal what he knew. He still had to cough to interrupt a small chuckle from escaping his vocaliser.
"Answer – already obvious." Soundwave said, a hint of disgust present in that monotone of his. Of course, Soundwave absolutely hated Starscream, but that didn't mean Thundercracker couldn't poke fun at him a little. It was always amusing when Megatron put the two of them together, you could never quite predict what would happen.
"Yeah, well sorry about that. We somehow accidentally put that idea into his head." Neither of them said anything, but both simultaneously turned their heads to see Skywarp chased by a mob so overcharged, the mechs involved couldn't catch themselves falling down. To Thundercracker's dismay (and possibly Soundwave's joy), Skywarp ended up getting nicked on the pede by one of them, and fell flat on his face, looking less than confident at the blood thirsty looks he was on the receiving end of.
"I'd better get that." Thundercracker sighed, jogging along unenthusiastically. Soundwave stared after him in bewilderment.
Starscream shuffled into the hall, feeling extremely awkward. True, he was feeling a little rattled because of what he was about to do, but it was more because what he was carrying was very, very heavy. Instead of long, confident strides, he more waddled in like a penguin, struggling to keep balance over the large weight that dragged him towards the floor. How Megatron would be able to carry this thing on his arm all day, every day, he had no idea.
Having made it far enough, Starscream swivelled round in a circle (or more, shuffled), optics trying to find someone. Just as he was about to sit down and take a long needed rest, something smacked straight into him from behind, sending him and the box he was holding sprawling into a nearby table. Though he managed to protect the box itself from harm, Starscream himself was not so lucky. Whatever it was that'd hit him, it'd done a good job, Starscream hissing in pain at the damage his left arm had received. If he'd thought lifting heavy weight was difficult before, this would be a whole new challenge.
Megatron was, for his part, very confused at what had happened. The warlord had been walking merrily along, about to get his fifth (or was it his sixth?) cube of high grade, when something had just pushed itself in front of him. Megatron being Megatron, had decided to push back, albeit a little harder than he had meant to. He now gave Starscream a blank look, which was returned once Starscream's initial glare subsided.
Megatron opened his mouth to say something, but the high grade energon got there before him, causing his slight swaying to turn into a powerful lean. Starscream ended up knocked off his pedes for a second time that cycle. As he came to, embarrassment washed over the pain of being crushed against the table when his optics met Megatron's, who was currently leaning on him and meeting his gaze with a certain curiosity. For a moment, Starscream heard nothing except his own rapid intakes from having his breaths cut off.
"Get off me!" He suddenly wheezed, desperately attempting to push the larger mech off when his processor started to feel fuzzy. It was no use though, the tyrant was impossibly heavy. It took Megatron a few seconds to comprehend what had been said, before he pushed himself off the now gasping seeker.
"Uhhhhhh, sh-sorry about thaaat." Megatron chuckled, finding difficulty in pronouncing the simplest of words. And also staying upright. Starscream glowered for a few moments, infuriated by the simple, carefree expression Megatron held, despite having almost squashed him into scrap metal. It was NOT funny. He considered starting a shouting competition, but dropped the idea when he considered the repercussions. Judging by the fact that Megatron actually apologised for something, he was either scheming something that would end up harming Starscream, or was drunk off his aft. Probably the latter, considering how he barely kept his balance even now.
"You've sure drunk your fill." Starscream remarked, only getting angrier off of the smile Megatron offered him.
"More than thaaat" he replied, now able to talk a little better. His balance, however, still needed improvement. Megatron fell into a nearby chair, and either due to the faulty fourth leg or the chair, the speed he hit it at, or both, it shattered to pieces, leaving a very confused Decepticon commander sitting on his aft. No more than a few seconds later, he burst into laughter, rolling around in his own mess. Starscream stared.
"And he calls me a sparkling" he whispered to himself, wary that even if he was overcharged, Megatron could still get very angry very quickly. It would be best just to play this whole thing safe. After the last smirk left his lips, the gladiator took another seat, careful not to break this one. It winced a little at his weight, but fortunately stayed put.
As much as Starscream desperately wanted to leave this whole situation and forget about it, he couldn't. Shuffling his pedes together under the table, he shoved the large box towards Megatron, who looked at it. It was as if he expected a jack in the box to pop out, because for a while he did nothing but ogle it.
"It doesn't bite" the seeker told him, actually a little amused at this sudden change in behaviour. Pop a few cubes of high grade into his system, and Megatron became a completely different mech. It almost seemed as though he could be happy at some points, though Starscream wouldn't go that far. Megatron and that word just didn't mix.
"Iss… Is it for me?" He asked, speech heavily slurred. Starscream nodded his head, still watching out of interest to see what happened next.
"Can I eat it?"
"What? No, you can't eat it!"
"But you said it was mine" Megatron whined, staring longingly at the box as if it were the best cube of energon to be made.
"You can eat it tomorrow." Starscream said, pushing his gift out of reach. Giving him a gun at this point would not be the best idea in the world. Starscream had done what he came here to do. There was no point in staying any longer. He hated parties, mostly because there was no decent conversation to be had, or decent anything. Just mechs drinking high grade for the sake of it. Although he hadn't told anyone, Starscream technically was a little under the drinking age. No one knew since he looked much older than he really was, and the seeker wasn't one for spilling secrets. Of course, something so derogatory as an age limit wouldn't hold him back should he want to drink any, but the whole idea of acting foolish and spilling important information accidentally was not his cup of tea.
Just as he was about to get up and leave, Starscream felt a powerful servo yank him back down to his seat. The shock left him stunned for a moment. He glanced over at Megatron, who was eyeing him carefully, with a look he took to mean 'sit'. Like he had a choice in the matter.
"You know, weeee don't talk m-much" Megatron told him, his grip only getting tighter.
"There's a reason for that." Starscream spat, voice dripping with acidity. If he had to talk to him at all, he would rather Megatron be sober, and not have a death grip on his arm. Which was actually starting to hurt.
"We used to talk alllllll the time." The commander beamed. "You know, before you started trying… you know, to kill me and stuff." Starscream averted his gaze to the floor, pretending not to have heard. Megatron continued on anyway.
"It's annoying, did you know? Liiiike, you're not much good at it… You're really bad at it. I meannnn, I'm still alive. It would be a lot easier if you stopped, but you're tooooo stubborn. I would kill you, you know… But you're good at your job, so it's not worth it." Starscream stopped deathly still.
"What?"
"I said stop trying to kill me."
"No, no, the other bit. What did you say afterwards?" Megatron sat deep in thought, holding a hand up to his chin as if to illustrate this. After a few seconds, he just shrugged. Starscream scowled at his appalling memory, or choice to simply devoid him of information.
"Maybe I wouldn't try to kill you if you listened to me once in a while!" The seeker shouted. Megatron winced at the high pitch of his tone, the high grade flowing around his systems not helping either.
"Would you do the same if you had all the power?" Starscream didn't answer that question. From the obnoxiously loud laugh Megatron let out, he gathered the commander knew the answer anyway.
"If you hate me so much, I don't get why you don't just kill me off anyway…" Starscream mumbled, hoping to keep the thought to himself. Apparently he'd spoken a little too loud.
"I don't hate you." Megatron said, suddenly sounding a lot more in control of himself. Starscream would have grown suspicious, if he couldn't smell the overwhelming stench of energon in his breath. "But when you argue with me every, single, time, I have to be strict. If you were a good boy", he grinned, patting Starscream on the head for emphasis, "Then I could be nicer." Looking optic to optic, Starscream wondered why this sounded so loudly in his mind. Megatron was horrible. Everyone hated him. Well, Starscream technically didn't, but he was still always so mean to him for no reason. He already acted nicer around him than anyone else, and he still didn't notice, still didn't care, still beat him for it. What did he want, for the seeker to just forget his own ideas, pretend that Megatron was smarter than him? Well he wasn't, but still, the idea was tempting…
One week. Starscream would be 'nice' for one week, and no more. He dearly hoped his hunch was right on this one, otherwise all this aft-kissing would just be used as blackmail later. A Megatron with blackmail was a very dangerous creature indeed.
He was brought back to his senses by the loud snores next to him, and turned to see a passed out mech slumped across the whole table, taking up as much space as physically possible with two outstretched arms. Everyone seemed to have either headed off to sleep, or had simply not bothered and slept on the floor. Careful not to wake him, Starscream pushed the wrapped and thankfully uneaten Fusion Cannon back towards Megatron, who instinctively wrapped an arm around it and brought the object close to his helm. For a while, Starscream returned to his seat and just stared at the mech. Megatron, the ruthless commander that struck down all enemies with not even a hint of mercy. Megatron, who ruled over an extensive Decepticon army with an iron fist. Megatron, the mech who slept like a sparkling and whom Starscream secretly adored. Thinking that he wouldn't have a chance like this again, Starscream stared for a while longer, letting out small sighs and swiftly retracting his servo when it seemed to sneak up on Megatron and be moments away from touching him.
Quickly sub spacing a datapad, Starscream hastily scribbled down a chunk of text, and laid it down on the table. After that much energon, the seeker doubted Megatron could even remember his own name in the morning. He took one last look at Megatron, before turning away and trudging towards his own quarters for some strongly needed recharge. It wasn't anywhere near night time, but he already felt exhausted.
It had been a very strange Christmas.
Sorry for the lack of snowball fights. Also, if you don't like all things cheesy, the next chapter will probably not be for you ;)
(Just kidding...
kind of)