Speaking of that AU bunny. Now with extra Starscream!
Title: Chained to your Side.
Rating: R
Pairings: Optimus x Starscream. (one sided for now) Implied Thundercracker x Skywarp, Blaster x Soundwave, Ironhide x Ratchet, Sunstreaker x Bluestreak (one sided for now.)
Summary: AU - Partly using Dreamwave's comics as basis. A re imagination of Cybertron's society where the line dividing slaves from nobles is so thin, a young mech suffers his love in silence. (These keep getting cornier by the minute.)
Notes: I'm trying my best to keep Screamer as 'obnoxious brat' as I can given the situation but I think I'm failing. >w>; I apologize for the crappy. Oh, right and Bluestreak finds out about Prowl's uh.. interfacing 'experience', in this one.
Not Beta'ed so feel free to correct me if you see anything wrong.
"You like him."
"I do not."
"Yes, you do."
"He's the Prime's son, Skywarp. It's just admiration." Starscream shrugged as he cleaned his desk.
"Admiration my aft. Even uncle Octane can tell!"
"Primus, why you hate me so?" The seeker groaned and hid his face on his hands. "He's not telling everyone he can, is he?"
"Nah. He just told me because I mentioned it." Skywarp crossed his arms with a smug grin on his faceplate. "Admit it, Screamer. You're crushing over Optimus."
"Fine! I do. There. Happy?"
"Yep!"
Starscream groaned heavily in defeat and tried to distract himself with his cleaning duty. Frenzy had tried to do it for him but he insisted on doing it himself, he needed the distraction after all.
"Are you going to approach him?" Skywarp asked as he moved things around, trying to help his brother's cleaning, though not doing that much to actually clean anything.
"Why, of course, Skywarp." The oldest seeker turned around to look at his brother, "I'm going to drop by Iacon's Tower, waltz my way past security for no reason, knock into Optimus' office and sprawl myself over his desk and tell him 'Oh, Optimus I think I have a crush on you, like hundreds of mechs and femmes alike all across Cybertron probably do, too!'"
"Spare me the sarcasm, Starscream. It was just a simple question." The black and purple seeker shrugged and moved some of the furniture on the far wall. "You know, out of other those potential crushes he could have, you probably have better odds to win the 'bot."
"He's member of the ruling family, Skywarp. He's right in the line of succession for Sentinel Prime along with Megatron. I have the little suspicious that a 'mate' is the last thing in his list of interests."
"Well, I'm just saying you could clear it up. Get over with it, if he says no, move on. At least you'd know for sure instead of crushing over and never knowing if maybe you'd have a chance." The younger seeker moved around the room, pretending to be cleaning and re-arranging Starscream's personal effects.
"I'd rather not take any chances. I am the future successor of Cybertron's High Priest. I cannot afford to make a fool of myself before someone that could become the next ruler of Cybertron." Starscream shook his head and cleared his exhaust in exasperation, his body language clearly indicated he didn't want to continue with that conversation.
"Fine, fine. Do whatever you want, brother. I think now I get why uncle Octane opted to turn to celibacy." The younger seeker dropped himself on his brother's berth. "Relationships can be so troublesome. You and your crush, and me with Thundercracker and his 'I'm too undeserving' act. If I didn't love him so much I'd say screw it and spare me the trouble."
"Maybe you should just tie him to a chair, gag him and force him to listen to you." The future priest was thankful about the change of topic.
"Have you ever tried to sneak on Thundercracker? He can spot me right on even when I teleported!"
"Well, you could just order him to sit still and let you tie him. I swear if you asked him to jump, he'd reply with 'how high?'. You have him wrapped around your fingers, Skywarp." Starscream smiled widely as his words were rewarded with a deep blush spread across his brother's faceplate and the soft hum of air cycling through his vents.
----------------
"I'm telling you, Prowl. These are getting more and more vivid!" Bluestreak walked through the corridors of their family's home, the younger mech trying to keep up with the steady but fast pace of his older brother.
"Bluestreak, I really have no time to hear about your dreams, especially when they involve your fantasies about Sunstreaker." The eldest of the Defensor brothers replied as politely as the situation could allow. His brother had a tendency to talk non stop and his vocal processors worked at a faster speed than his CPU, and many times this leaded to the younger mech to speak about private matters Prowl felt should remain private.
"Eh, I guess I just need a good interface to release some energy. But it would be so much more rewarding if it was with Sunstreaker."
Prowl wished he could just offline his audio receptors and let his brother babble long and loud. He didn't want to hear about this. "Then go and ask him."
"It's not that simple. I mean, sure, I'd love to Interface with him but I don't want it to look like I just want him for that reason." Bluestreak continued his ranting as both brothers approached Smokescreen's office, giving detailed information about his previous interfacing experiences and how the most recent times had involved him imaging he was with Sunstreaker.
"So, have you ever had that happen to you?" The younger mech's question was far from expected.
"What?" Prowl looked back to his brother with a confused expression.
"Have you imagined you're with someone else when you interface with someone?"
"No. I haven't Interfaced with anyone." Prowl shrugged and took a couple of steps before he noticed his brother wasn't following him. "Bluestreak?"
"You have never, ever, interfaced? At all? Have you ever Overloaded yourself?" Bluestreak's face was contorted in a rather surprised, yet unbelievable expression.
"No, I have never interfaced. And no, I haven't overloaded either. Why?" The older mech was getting tired of hearing the word 'Interfacing' so much in one day.
"Are you serious?!"
"Yes."
"Oh man, how do you do that?"
"I am really confused. Why it's surprising you so much? It's just interfacing, I haven't grown a second head." Prowl was beginning to grow uncomfortable with the stare his brother was giving him.
"I just think it's odd. It's such a great experience, I'm surprised my older brother has less experience on that than I do. I just find it odd, I guess." Bluestreak rubbed the back of his helmet uneasily before he rushed past his brother. "Eh, we better hurry if we want to catch dad before he's gone!"
The black and white mech watched his brother walk away in a hurry, making evident his wish to drop the subject. Prowl just couldn't understand what was so surprising about his lack of Interfacing experience, but the way his brother made it sound it felt like he was telling him something wasn't right with his systems.
Prowl considered it for a moment, perhaps something was actually wrong with him. He looked over his shoulder on the direction his brother had left and then looked to the opposite direction again. Feeling uneasy about his brother's reaction, Prowl decided to head the other way towards the 'territory' of the one 'bot he'd go to whenever it came to his physical and mental well being.
-------------
Ratchet looked up from his data pad as he heard a soft knock on the doors of his personal studio. "Come in."
"Hello, uncle Ratchet. I hope I'm not interrupting anything important." Prowl moved into the room.
"Not at all, I was just reviewing some paper work from my father. What can I do for you?" The medic motioned for the seat across his desk.
"Uh... Well, I have a problem, and I want your opinion about it."
Ratchet nodded and allowed the younger mech to explain his current problem, raising an optic ridge as the situation was relayed to him he had to force back a chuckle once or twice during Prowl's explanation. "And you're wondering if there's something wrong with you because you have yet to interface or overload?"
Prowl nodded. "The way Bluestreak was looking at me made me feel something was wrong with me. That's why I came to talk with you."
Ratchet chuckled softly and stood up, patting his nephew's shoulder as he pointed to the medical bay attached to his studio. "I'm sure you're just fine, but I can run a scan on you to reassure you if you want."
"Please." The younger 'bot followed his uncle to the med bay and laid on the appointed table, allowing the medic to hook him to several scanners and monitors to run a quick check up on his systems.
"You know," Ratchet began as he entered the protocols for the scan in question. "Not having any experience about interfacing or overloading is nothing to be worried about. Even though at your age most Cybertronians have had at least a few interfaces already."
"Or in Bluestreak's case, plenty of them." Prowl grumbled as he looked at his uncle. Ratchet chuckled in genuine amusement, his nephews managed to brighten his day with their antics sometimes.
"He's young and the experience is certainly rewarding. He's going to take all the chances he can to experience sensory overload."
"So, I am flawed because I haven't experienced it yet?" The older of the Defensor brothers sighed heavily.
"Not at all, the scans show no abnormalities with your systems. You're on top condition. I think your issue isn't physical and certainly not a mental incapacity." Ratchet turned off the monitors and began to unhook the scanners from his nephew's body. "I believe you just simply haven't found a reason to experience sensorial overload let alone interfacing."
"Excuse me?" Prowl looked back to the medic as he sat up on the table.
"Prowl, I've known you since you were a sparkling and Ironhide and I weren't even United yet. Back then you were already a 'bot of logic. If you're given no good reason to do something, you won't bother with it just for the sake of experiencing it." The older bot patted his nephew's back gently. "I'm pretty sure you hadn't even thought about it until Bluestreak brought it up, had you?"
"No. To be honest I didn't think about it until now." What Ratchet said made sense, he usually took his decisions based on what reasons he had to do or not do something along with the most logical course of action. "Well, I guess that settles it. Thank you, uncle Ratchet."
"You're welcome. Now, better hurry if you intend to catch Smokescreen before he's gone."
Prowl nodded and made his way out of the red and white mech's studio and adjunct med bay.
----------------------
"Why are we here, again?" Skywarp grumbled loudly as he and his brother subspaced a pile of data pads and waited outside of Ultra Magnus' office.
"To deliver this week's records of the new sparks granted, Skywarp. You already know this. Why do you even ask?" Starscream wasn't in the best of moods, and being sent to do Octane's job was the least thing he wanted to do that day.
"I'm sorry to keep you both waiting, I had to sign up some requisitions for my brother's and sister's upcoming party." Ultra Magnus peeked from inside his office, motioning for the seekers to come in. "I'll be glad when that blasted party is over."
"So, what is the party for exactly? I know it's not their sparking anniversary." Skywarp sat on the chair he was appointed to as he fiddled with the data pats to make sure they were in the appropriate order.
"Arcee and Hot Rod are graduating from the Education Center in a few orns, and uncle Sentinel is letting them have the party as gift for their celebration, along with a new upgrade for Arcee since she's graduating with better grades than Hot Rod."
"Well, here's the records. And as usual, you can find the information of the new sparks, the parents and in the case of the two slaves sparked, here's the information of the owner." Starscream didn't really feel like socializing and chit chatting with Magnus. He wanted to get over with it and back home.
"Perfect. Thank you, Starscream. Oh, hi Optimus!" Ultra Magnus smiled and waved up to his large cousin who came into the office. Skywarp saw his brother freeze up for a moment before he regained his bearings and relaxed a little.
"Hello, Magnus. Skywarp, Starscream." Optimus nodded lightly to the seeker brothers before he turned his attention back to his cousin. "Do you have those requisitions reviews signed and ready?"
"Right here." Magnus handed the pads to the younger child of Sentinel Prime while reviewing the pads Starscream offered him.
"Thank you. Oh, by the way," Optimus turned to the seekers, placing a hand on Starscream's shoulder casually. "We hope to see you both and your family at the celebration."
"Thank you, sir. It'll be an honor to attend, rest assured we'll be there." The future High Priest nodded politely, ignoring the almost expecting gaze from his brother. Optimus nodded and excused himself before he vacated the room. Ultra Magnus reviewed the records given to him and forwarded them to his assistants to archive the information.
"Thank you both. I am sure you must have other duties to attend to, so I won't hold you here any longer." Magnus shook the hands of the young seekers before they left the room, allowing him to return to his duties. "Oh joy, more reports from Red Alert."
"Starscream..."
"No, Skywarp. Don't even start." Starscream raised a hand to keep his brother from talking further. "We're going to attend because we're invited and expected to go, and because I don't fancy an audioful from dad about diplomatic relationships and behavior expected from us if I attempt to get my way out of this."
"Fine, I'll keep my lip components shut." Skywarp would have rolled his optics if that had been at all possible. "Woah, look who's heading to the tower."
"None other than mister pipe-up-his-aft Shockwave." Starscream growled lowly as he jumped in the air and transformed into his alt mode, followed by his brother.
"You don't like him, huh?"
"Why should I?" The red and blue seeker speed up. "The bastard's been nothing but trouble for me."
"You really wanna let Soundwave go? I mean he's a performer and his twins are, too. It's kind of crazy to let them go to another family."
"To be honest I wouldn't want to 'let them go' as you say, but I think Rumble and Frenzy would like to not be regarded as 'Blaster's bastards' among all those hypocritical nobles his father hangs around with." Skywarp knew his brother had very little respect for the 'old' nobles of Cybertron, a situation that often led to lectures from Sunstorm about diplomacy and good behavior for the future High Priest.
"So, you want Blaster to Unite with Soundwave? And then what? He'd take Soundwave and the twins" Skywarp was thankful at that moment he didn't own any slaves himself, at least, none that were directly registered as his own.
"I don't know. I really don't know. I just know all this slag wouldn't be nearly as complicated as it is if Shockwave wasn't such an idiot about the whole deal." The seeker grumbled as he and his brother approached their family's state, as he expected, Rumble and Frenzy were waiting for them on open grounds. "But if it made Frenzy and Rumble happy, maybe I could convince myself to give them up."
As the seekers landed Rumble and Frenzy rushed to meet their masters, offering them a cube of regular energon as they always did when they came back home from any errands. Frenzy was far more devoted to Starscream, while Rumble simply did what he thought was best. Starscream had no problem lending his slaves for performances, even lacking their company for several orns, but the idea of giving them away completely wasn't appealing to him.
"Primus, this is so hard."
"Hard?" Frenzy asked as he raised the tray in his hands for the seeker to set the empty cube back on.
"It's nothing." Starscream waved his hand dismissive. "I'll be in my quarters recharging for a while, leave me alone, all right?"
The twins nodded and watched the seeker brothers walk away. "I think that thing with Optimus is getting to him." Rumble shook his head before he looked back to his own brother.
"Indeed." The black and red twin headed back to Soundwave's quarters to rehearse a new composition.
Rating: R
Pairings: Optimus x Starscream. (one sided for now) Implied Thundercracker x Skywarp, Blaster x Soundwave, Ironhide x Ratchet, Sunstreaker x Bluestreak (one sided for now.)
Summary: AU - Partly using Dreamwave's comics as basis. A re imagination of Cybertron's society where the line dividing slaves from nobles is so thin, a young mech suffers his love in silence. (These keep getting cornier by the minute.)
Notes: I'm trying my best to keep Screamer as 'obnoxious brat' as I can given the situation but I think I'm failing. >w>; I apologize for the crappy. Oh, right and Bluestreak finds out about Prowl's uh.. interfacing 'experience', in this one.
Not Beta'ed so feel free to correct me if you see anything wrong.
"You like him."
"I do not."
"Yes, you do."
"He's the Prime's son, Skywarp. It's just admiration." Starscream shrugged as he cleaned his desk.
"Admiration my aft. Even uncle Octane can tell!"
"Primus, why you hate me so?" The seeker groaned and hid his face on his hands. "He's not telling everyone he can, is he?"
"Nah. He just told me because I mentioned it." Skywarp crossed his arms with a smug grin on his faceplate. "Admit it, Screamer. You're crushing over Optimus."
"Fine! I do. There. Happy?"
"Yep!"
Starscream groaned heavily in defeat and tried to distract himself with his cleaning duty. Frenzy had tried to do it for him but he insisted on doing it himself, he needed the distraction after all.
"Are you going to approach him?" Skywarp asked as he moved things around, trying to help his brother's cleaning, though not doing that much to actually clean anything.
"Why, of course, Skywarp." The oldest seeker turned around to look at his brother, "I'm going to drop by Iacon's Tower, waltz my way past security for no reason, knock into Optimus' office and sprawl myself over his desk and tell him 'Oh, Optimus I think I have a crush on you, like hundreds of mechs and femmes alike all across Cybertron probably do, too!'"
"Spare me the sarcasm, Starscream. It was just a simple question." The black and purple seeker shrugged and moved some of the furniture on the far wall. "You know, out of other those potential crushes he could have, you probably have better odds to win the 'bot."
"He's member of the ruling family, Skywarp. He's right in the line of succession for Sentinel Prime along with Megatron. I have the little suspicious that a 'mate' is the last thing in his list of interests."
"Well, I'm just saying you could clear it up. Get over with it, if he says no, move on. At least you'd know for sure instead of crushing over and never knowing if maybe you'd have a chance." The younger seeker moved around the room, pretending to be cleaning and re-arranging Starscream's personal effects.
"I'd rather not take any chances. I am the future successor of Cybertron's High Priest. I cannot afford to make a fool of myself before someone that could become the next ruler of Cybertron." Starscream shook his head and cleared his exhaust in exasperation, his body language clearly indicated he didn't want to continue with that conversation.
"Fine, fine. Do whatever you want, brother. I think now I get why uncle Octane opted to turn to celibacy." The younger seeker dropped himself on his brother's berth. "Relationships can be so troublesome. You and your crush, and me with Thundercracker and his 'I'm too undeserving' act. If I didn't love him so much I'd say screw it and spare me the trouble."
"Maybe you should just tie him to a chair, gag him and force him to listen to you." The future priest was thankful about the change of topic.
"Have you ever tried to sneak on Thundercracker? He can spot me right on even when I teleported!"
"Well, you could just order him to sit still and let you tie him. I swear if you asked him to jump, he'd reply with 'how high?'. You have him wrapped around your fingers, Skywarp." Starscream smiled widely as his words were rewarded with a deep blush spread across his brother's faceplate and the soft hum of air cycling through his vents.
----------------
"I'm telling you, Prowl. These are getting more and more vivid!" Bluestreak walked through the corridors of their family's home, the younger mech trying to keep up with the steady but fast pace of his older brother.
"Bluestreak, I really have no time to hear about your dreams, especially when they involve your fantasies about Sunstreaker." The eldest of the Defensor brothers replied as politely as the situation could allow. His brother had a tendency to talk non stop and his vocal processors worked at a faster speed than his CPU, and many times this leaded to the younger mech to speak about private matters Prowl felt should remain private.
"Eh, I guess I just need a good interface to release some energy. But it would be so much more rewarding if it was with Sunstreaker."
Prowl wished he could just offline his audio receptors and let his brother babble long and loud. He didn't want to hear about this. "Then go and ask him."
"It's not that simple. I mean, sure, I'd love to Interface with him but I don't want it to look like I just want him for that reason." Bluestreak continued his ranting as both brothers approached Smokescreen's office, giving detailed information about his previous interfacing experiences and how the most recent times had involved him imaging he was with Sunstreaker.
"So, have you ever had that happen to you?" The younger mech's question was far from expected.
"What?" Prowl looked back to his brother with a confused expression.
"Have you imagined you're with someone else when you interface with someone?"
"No. I haven't Interfaced with anyone." Prowl shrugged and took a couple of steps before he noticed his brother wasn't following him. "Bluestreak?"
"You have never, ever, interfaced? At all? Have you ever Overloaded yourself?" Bluestreak's face was contorted in a rather surprised, yet unbelievable expression.
"No, I have never interfaced. And no, I haven't overloaded either. Why?" The older mech was getting tired of hearing the word 'Interfacing' so much in one day.
"Are you serious?!"
"Yes."
"Oh man, how do you do that?"
"I am really confused. Why it's surprising you so much? It's just interfacing, I haven't grown a second head." Prowl was beginning to grow uncomfortable with the stare his brother was giving him.
"I just think it's odd. It's such a great experience, I'm surprised my older brother has less experience on that than I do. I just find it odd, I guess." Bluestreak rubbed the back of his helmet uneasily before he rushed past his brother. "Eh, we better hurry if we want to catch dad before he's gone!"
The black and white mech watched his brother walk away in a hurry, making evident his wish to drop the subject. Prowl just couldn't understand what was so surprising about his lack of Interfacing experience, but the way his brother made it sound it felt like he was telling him something wasn't right with his systems.
Prowl considered it for a moment, perhaps something was actually wrong with him. He looked over his shoulder on the direction his brother had left and then looked to the opposite direction again. Feeling uneasy about his brother's reaction, Prowl decided to head the other way towards the 'territory' of the one 'bot he'd go to whenever it came to his physical and mental well being.
-------------
Ratchet looked up from his data pad as he heard a soft knock on the doors of his personal studio. "Come in."
"Hello, uncle Ratchet. I hope I'm not interrupting anything important." Prowl moved into the room.
"Not at all, I was just reviewing some paper work from my father. What can I do for you?" The medic motioned for the seat across his desk.
"Uh... Well, I have a problem, and I want your opinion about it."
Ratchet nodded and allowed the younger mech to explain his current problem, raising an optic ridge as the situation was relayed to him he had to force back a chuckle once or twice during Prowl's explanation. "And you're wondering if there's something wrong with you because you have yet to interface or overload?"
Prowl nodded. "The way Bluestreak was looking at me made me feel something was wrong with me. That's why I came to talk with you."
Ratchet chuckled softly and stood up, patting his nephew's shoulder as he pointed to the medical bay attached to his studio. "I'm sure you're just fine, but I can run a scan on you to reassure you if you want."
"Please." The younger 'bot followed his uncle to the med bay and laid on the appointed table, allowing the medic to hook him to several scanners and monitors to run a quick check up on his systems.
"You know," Ratchet began as he entered the protocols for the scan in question. "Not having any experience about interfacing or overloading is nothing to be worried about. Even though at your age most Cybertronians have had at least a few interfaces already."
"Or in Bluestreak's case, plenty of them." Prowl grumbled as he looked at his uncle. Ratchet chuckled in genuine amusement, his nephews managed to brighten his day with their antics sometimes.
"He's young and the experience is certainly rewarding. He's going to take all the chances he can to experience sensory overload."
"So, I am flawed because I haven't experienced it yet?" The older of the Defensor brothers sighed heavily.
"Not at all, the scans show no abnormalities with your systems. You're on top condition. I think your issue isn't physical and certainly not a mental incapacity." Ratchet turned off the monitors and began to unhook the scanners from his nephew's body. "I believe you just simply haven't found a reason to experience sensorial overload let alone interfacing."
"Excuse me?" Prowl looked back to the medic as he sat up on the table.
"Prowl, I've known you since you were a sparkling and Ironhide and I weren't even United yet. Back then you were already a 'bot of logic. If you're given no good reason to do something, you won't bother with it just for the sake of experiencing it." The older bot patted his nephew's back gently. "I'm pretty sure you hadn't even thought about it until Bluestreak brought it up, had you?"
"No. To be honest I didn't think about it until now." What Ratchet said made sense, he usually took his decisions based on what reasons he had to do or not do something along with the most logical course of action. "Well, I guess that settles it. Thank you, uncle Ratchet."
"You're welcome. Now, better hurry if you intend to catch Smokescreen before he's gone."
Prowl nodded and made his way out of the red and white mech's studio and adjunct med bay.
----------------------
"Why are we here, again?" Skywarp grumbled loudly as he and his brother subspaced a pile of data pads and waited outside of Ultra Magnus' office.
"To deliver this week's records of the new sparks granted, Skywarp. You already know this. Why do you even ask?" Starscream wasn't in the best of moods, and being sent to do Octane's job was the least thing he wanted to do that day.
"I'm sorry to keep you both waiting, I had to sign up some requisitions for my brother's and sister's upcoming party." Ultra Magnus peeked from inside his office, motioning for the seekers to come in. "I'll be glad when that blasted party is over."
"So, what is the party for exactly? I know it's not their sparking anniversary." Skywarp sat on the chair he was appointed to as he fiddled with the data pats to make sure they were in the appropriate order.
"Arcee and Hot Rod are graduating from the Education Center in a few orns, and uncle Sentinel is letting them have the party as gift for their celebration, along with a new upgrade for Arcee since she's graduating with better grades than Hot Rod."
"Well, here's the records. And as usual, you can find the information of the new sparks, the parents and in the case of the two slaves sparked, here's the information of the owner." Starscream didn't really feel like socializing and chit chatting with Magnus. He wanted to get over with it and back home.
"Perfect. Thank you, Starscream. Oh, hi Optimus!" Ultra Magnus smiled and waved up to his large cousin who came into the office. Skywarp saw his brother freeze up for a moment before he regained his bearings and relaxed a little.
"Hello, Magnus. Skywarp, Starscream." Optimus nodded lightly to the seeker brothers before he turned his attention back to his cousin. "Do you have those requisitions reviews signed and ready?"
"Right here." Magnus handed the pads to the younger child of Sentinel Prime while reviewing the pads Starscream offered him.
"Thank you. Oh, by the way," Optimus turned to the seekers, placing a hand on Starscream's shoulder casually. "We hope to see you both and your family at the celebration."
"Thank you, sir. It'll be an honor to attend, rest assured we'll be there." The future High Priest nodded politely, ignoring the almost expecting gaze from his brother. Optimus nodded and excused himself before he vacated the room. Ultra Magnus reviewed the records given to him and forwarded them to his assistants to archive the information.
"Thank you both. I am sure you must have other duties to attend to, so I won't hold you here any longer." Magnus shook the hands of the young seekers before they left the room, allowing him to return to his duties. "Oh joy, more reports from Red Alert."
"Starscream..."
"No, Skywarp. Don't even start." Starscream raised a hand to keep his brother from talking further. "We're going to attend because we're invited and expected to go, and because I don't fancy an audioful from dad about diplomatic relationships and behavior expected from us if I attempt to get my way out of this."
"Fine, I'll keep my lip components shut." Skywarp would have rolled his optics if that had been at all possible. "Woah, look who's heading to the tower."
"None other than mister pipe-up-his-aft Shockwave." Starscream growled lowly as he jumped in the air and transformed into his alt mode, followed by his brother.
"You don't like him, huh?"
"Why should I?" The red and blue seeker speed up. "The bastard's been nothing but trouble for me."
"You really wanna let Soundwave go? I mean he's a performer and his twins are, too. It's kind of crazy to let them go to another family."
"To be honest I wouldn't want to 'let them go' as you say, but I think Rumble and Frenzy would like to not be regarded as 'Blaster's bastards' among all those hypocritical nobles his father hangs around with." Skywarp knew his brother had very little respect for the 'old' nobles of Cybertron, a situation that often led to lectures from Sunstorm about diplomacy and good behavior for the future High Priest.
"So, you want Blaster to Unite with Soundwave? And then what? He'd take Soundwave and the twins" Skywarp was thankful at that moment he didn't own any slaves himself, at least, none that were directly registered as his own.
"I don't know. I really don't know. I just know all this slag wouldn't be nearly as complicated as it is if Shockwave wasn't such an idiot about the whole deal." The seeker grumbled as he and his brother approached their family's state, as he expected, Rumble and Frenzy were waiting for them on open grounds. "But if it made Frenzy and Rumble happy, maybe I could convince myself to give them up."
As the seekers landed Rumble and Frenzy rushed to meet their masters, offering them a cube of regular energon as they always did when they came back home from any errands. Frenzy was far more devoted to Starscream, while Rumble simply did what he thought was best. Starscream had no problem lending his slaves for performances, even lacking their company for several orns, but the idea of giving them away completely wasn't appealing to him.
"Primus, this is so hard."
"Hard?" Frenzy asked as he raised the tray in his hands for the seeker to set the empty cube back on.
"It's nothing." Starscream waved his hand dismissive. "I'll be in my quarters recharging for a while, leave me alone, all right?"
The twins nodded and watched the seeker brothers walk away. "I think that thing with Optimus is getting to him." Rumble shook his head before he looked back to his own brother.
"Indeed." The black and red twin headed back to Soundwave's quarters to rehearse a new composition.