A/N: It's been a while. Sorry, school is on the verge of starting, exam results etc. I really have been busy. On the bright side, I'm heading for Scotland tomorrow at 5am sharp! Not sure what I'm gonna do, probably see the Lochness monster or something. And get wet (there's a lot of rain up there, even more than in England).

But yeah, enjoy the chapter, review if you enjoyed or thought something could be improved!

"You know, I think you're going to have to explain this game again…" Starscream frowned. More often than you'd expect, both members of the Decepticon and Autobot armies ended up with spare time on their hands, when they weren't fighting each other to the death. This happened to be one of those occasions for the two seekers. Skywarp huffed, imitating a frustrated Starscream, before giving his speech once more.

"What's so hard to understand? The player says 'I spy with my little eye, something beginning with…', and then states the letter the thing they've spotted begins with. Then the other player just has to guess what it is!" Skywarp was as excitable as usual, and had secretly planned out an object so hard to guess, Starscream would do nothing but submit to his genius. He grinned in triumph as the seeker finally agreed to playing.

"Fine, fine, whatever." Starscream decided to amuse the purple flier for a short while, not having anything else requiring his immediate attention. From the look he received, he could already tell Skywarp was up to something bad.

"I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with 'S'. Be careful", Skywarp smirked, "It'd be pretty hard for you to get it first-"

"Is it Starscream?"

"…"

"…"

"Is it-"

"Why do you have to ruin everything" Skywarp wailed, stamping on his pede and whirling his helm around to face the opposite direction. Still shocked that he'd actually got it right, Starscream just stared at his trinemate from a distance, unsure of what to say. It would have been less obvious if he hadn't been staring at his frame the entire time he was talking.

"It's y-your turn…" He heard a whimpering seeker struggle to get out. Feeling like Skywarp would only get more upset should he not be able to guess what Starscream had chosen, he decided to talk instead. He didn't feel like losing on purpose, and was fairly sure that if he did try, Starscream would outwit the purple flier.

"Why do we still say 'with my little eye' anyway? We have optics, not eyes." Skywarp made a little shuffling sound, and before long Starscream could see his face again, even though it still seemed ever so slightly distraught from the loss.

"Nothing rhymes with optic." Skywarp reminded him.

"There must be something…" Starscream murmured to himself, no longer interested in playing any more games with the childish seeker. Optics were often used to describe mechs in literature, and literature meant poetry, and poetry meant rhyming, and this meant that something must rhyme with optic, even if it wasn't a full rhyme.

"Ah, you two are already here." An electric blue wing made its way into the room from outside, shortly followed by a matching helm and frame. Thundercracker looked like he were about to say something, before Starscream cut him short.

"Thundercracker, you're good with words."

"I am?"

"Better than me." The sleek seeker conceded. "What rhymes with optic?" Thundercracker stood for a moment, a servo pressed to his chin, before it shot up with an idea.

"Cockpit?"

"Ah, of course, how could I be so stupid!" Starscream cursed himself. They were both parts of a mech, after all, it would be easy to relate them in-between lines of a stanza. He would have to work on his poetic skills later.

"Anyway…" The blue flier intervened, this being one of the few occasions in that he didn't wish to discuss the written word, "I came to talk to you about something. And well, I have a friend here to help me." After a few awkward shuffled, Thundercracker eventually managed to pull a bored looking Soundwave into the quarters. Whilst Skywarp tried to go in for a hug, Starscream eyed the visored mech with a suspecting glare. He now knew that Thundercracker hadn't come for a recreational cube of energon to pass the time away.

"I'm sorry to say that because of my… how to put it… misdoings, Soundwave knows."

"Knows what?" Starscream didn't hesitate to snap back a reply, a small yet irrepressible fear in the back of his mind beginning to grow. Instead of responding, Thundercracker just gave Starscream a stern look. The seeker understood, but still had to be held back by Skywarp as he attempted to gouge out a pair of optics.

"But he's agreed not to tell anyone!" Thundercracker hastened to add. Slowly, very slowly, Starscream returned to a seated position, deciding Soundwave's death could wait a couple more vorns after all. "If…"

"If?" The air commander questioned, observing the worried mumblings and movements the eldest trinemate made. Soundwave placed some sort of box into his hands, and hesitantly, Thundercracker thrust it forward into Starscream's servos.

"If you wear this." Not one for waiting, Starscream tore open the box, only to throw it down on instinct almost immediately.

"You want me to wear THIS!?" The seeker screeched, optics flared up to be both larger and redder than usual. He failed to notice during the uproar how Skywarp cackled like an evil villain out of a story book, rolling on the floor in uncontrollable laughter.

"I-It's just for a day-"

"I don't CARE how long it's for, there's no way in the pits that I'm wearing that for even one second!" Starscream knew he'd have to wear it, secretly. Yes, it would be embarrassing. Yes, he would be made fun of, and yes, he would probably never be allowed to forget this moment. But, he convinced himself… It was worth it. The seeker glanced at each mech individually, then at the clothing again.

At least it was a good fit.

The constructicon's remains were harder to clean off than Megatron had expected. Why did he have constructicon remains on him? After coming to a rather… startling revelation concerning a certain seeker, someone had to be punished for making him feel this way. The very idea of the leader of the Decepticons thinking such things, just made him so sick, he had to release his stress in the form of bloodthirsty violence. As it turned out, the constructicons made for good target practice. They did not, however, make for a clean kill, as the silver mech had discovered the long-before dried energon now sticking to his armour.

The energon would come off in due time. It was what wouldn't come off that bothered him. Whatever Starscream had planted to alter his spark, it was causing him to feel differently. As if the fact he were feeling anything at all weren't enough to make him want to rip the cause of it limb from limb, he didn't recognise the feelings at all. They just remained blank in his processor, something unlabelled and unknown. Soundwave had suggested that he go to tell Hook about it, but the tyrant had very impolitely declined. After all, Megatron had an inkling of what the feeling might be, and if he was correct, no one would be allowed to find out about this.

This wasn't the only time Starscream had attacked his spark either. When both mechs had first met each other, Megatron had felt a similar, violent tug at his heart. It was almost as if it was trying to tell the commander something, but what that was exactly, he had no idea. Most of the time, it just hurt in a strange sort of way, not quite painful yet not pleasant either. But sometimes, seemingly when he was in the company of Starscream, it would turn warm almost, and made him feel more relaxed. He had tried many, many, many times to just deactivate Starscream to remove the problem, but said feeling wouldn't even allow him to do that.

Standing up from the rather feeble positioning on his berth, the large Decepticon decided that he'd had enough. He would meet with Starscream and try to remove this hideous disease. But first, it'd probably be best to discuss the whole thing with Soundwave. It was probably something he could just block out, and if not, Hook could transplant the feelings out of his system. Thankfully, he could track his third in commands movements, as he had actually agreed it to be more practical for the two to be able to find each other easily (Starscream did not share the same thoughts).

"Hold still." Thundercracker ordered the seeker, trying to tug over something that seemed to be a less than comfortable fit. He did not hold still.

"Hold still, Starscream" He repeated, receiving a high pitched whine in response. Thundercracker stood back to admire his handiwork, and was surprised that the rather embarrassing outfit actually suited the seeker rather well.

"Now these go on the helm I presume." He added the final touches to Starscream's attire, ignoring the giggles Skywarp made no effort to hide.

"There. Would you like to see?" Thundercracker asked, holding out a small, rectangular mirror for Starscream to take. He eyed it nervously, at first only letting it sneak a tiny hint of his frame, before gradually putting more of himself into view.

"It's not awful…" Starscream admitted. It was the fact that it looked more likely designed for a femme than anything else, which really bothered him. Sure, the seeker was aware that he looked a little more feminine than other mechs, but he didn't like to emphasise it a whole lot. Being in the base full of Decepticons, said appearance was a prime source of ridicule.

Starscream was interrupted from observing his own frame when another one appeared around the doorway. An unwelcome frame to Starscream's sight.

"Soundwave, I need you to…" The commander began. Megatron stopped mid-speech, however, when his optics locked onto something quite unexpected. His gaze met Starscream's, who's faceplates were currently lit up like a firework, his mouth agape in a startled "O" shape. The seeker's expression was not what the tyrant chose to focus on though, as he found the outfit the flier wore much more interesting. The clothing took the similar form of a human dress, black and frilly below the waist, becoming tighter as it moved up the seeker's frame. As the cherry on top of the cake, Starscream had a pair of cat ears resting on his helm that, although it may have been the warlord's imagination, seemed to perk up along with Starscream's embarrassment.

"What… is this?" A half amused, half curious Megatron asked, ignoring the fact that other mechs were in the room as he strode towards Starscream to get a closer look. Starscream did not agree with that idea.

"It's nothing!" Starscream yelled back, keen to distance himself from Megatron as much as possible. With his longer paces, it wasn't long before the two were inches from each other, optics in different places. Whilst the seeker stared in wide eyed horror at his superior, Megatron's look took a detour around to observe Starscream's frame. He rarely had a chance to ever be around the seeker without having to hurt him for the good of his own status. Seeing Starscream so shy like this, in something that advertised his frame so well…

For a short, awkward moment, Megatron simply ogled his subordinate. And then he realised what he'd been doing. And mentally screamed.

Starscream was pushed back violently, his wings taking a less than desirable hit from the wall, sticking into it at odd ends from the sheer force of the shove. Megatron simply grabbed Soundwave's servo and hauled the telepath after him, anger and a hint of embarrassment washing over in his mind, unable to forget what had just transpired no matter how hard he tried. Soundwave made a short sound of protest at being handled so roughly, but knew that no seeker would help him, and given that it was an infuriated Megatron he was dealing with, the visored mech was lucky that was the only pain he was receiving. Skywarp merely stared after Megatron before smiling in a devious, all knowing way.

"You okay, Screamer?" Thundercracker asked worriedly, doing his best to peel a broken Starscream off the wall without furthering his pain.

"I've had worse." He claimed, though from the sound of his voice, you wouldn't believe it. "Still… What was that about? I always tell you that I never do anything, he just attacks me for no reason!"

"I wouldn't say for no reason."

"What do you mean by that, Skywarp?" Thundercracker eyed his trinemate suspiciously, not liking the happy face he was pulling. The purple seeker dropped this look to huff, clearly disappointed in something Thundercracker had said. Starscream gave a similarly blank look in response, still not completely recovered from his recent forced encounter with the wall.

"C'mon, it's so obvious TC! Didn't you see the look Megs was giving Starscream? Starscream saw it too! You did right? Tell him!" Skywarp yelled excitedly. When the seeker did nothing but raise an optic ridge, Skywarp face palmed, sagging down to the floor in disappointment.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid…" The purple blob muttered to himself, before standing once more. "Let me put this in a way you'll understand. Megatron, you know the big, scary guy? He likes Starscream. He was literally drooling at the sight of him, something's definitely going on!"

The door slammed shut. Megatron threw himself down on his throne, slung his arms across his chest and pouted in a very unmechly fashion. Soundwave, who was now no longer being dragged along the floor, took this opportunity to take a seat opposite his leader, waiting for… whatever it was he was upset with to be put out in the open.

"I want him dead."

"My lord?"

"Starscream you imbecile!" He spat, his saliva narrowly missing Soundwave from the ferocity of his speech. "I don't care what you have to do, or even if you just throw him out the base, but remove him immediately!"

"Removal of Starscream – negative results on overall performance of Decepticons." Soundwave informed him, though he cursed a second later at passing up the one chance he had to get rid of the seeker.

"I don't care" Megatron hissed, fingers drumming loudly on the table as he felt a mixture of emotions rise and fall along with his breathing. And for some reason he still couldn't shake the mental picture of the seeker from his processor. Why did it remain so prominent in his mind? Surely, a dead Starscream would solve these disgusting problems he'd been having recently?

"Megatron – remove Starscream himself?" Soundwave suggested, which received only a snort of derision in response.

"I've tried to kill him, believe me. It would be so easy too, if… if…" Truth be told, Megatron wasn't exactly sure why he couldn't just deactivate Starscream. The first hit was easy to land, almost too easy when the seeker didn't fight back, only plead for mercy. He knew exactly where to strike him too, the very point that would end this whole ordeal. And yet, something within him always stopped the tyrant from landing the final blow. He'd feel a rush of pain right when he was about to strike the flier, and then it would stop once he stopped, being replaced with a sense of relief at the seeker still being alive.

Relieved. To see Starscream alive. Ridiculous, ugly, intolerable, unbearable. Some of the many words to describe the phenomenon.

"Suggestion – Go and see Hook for further analysis?" Megatron grunted. He didn't want to see Hook. Partially because he just detested Hook in general, but also, he was frightened of the diagnosis he might give. Megatron frightened. Not something you'd see every day. The warlord had the idea cross his mind very briefly a few weeks ago, and that idea had steadily risen in likelihood of his problem, whilst all other solutions had dissipated.

"Fine, I'll go." He sighed, lifting from the throne and making his way towards the med bay. For once, Megatron dearly hoped he was wrong.

I hope I can write whilst on holiday, you guys deserve another chapter for my lateness!