Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The stomping of familiar pede steps toward their shared habsuite alerted Thundercracker that he would not be able to finish the Human romance novel he had been immersed in. Skywarp was still fiddling with the datapad he’d been trying to “jailbreak” for the past six joors. By the curses and banging of the offending datapad against the walls of their habsuite, it was not going well. It was his trinemate’s own pride that had him refusing to be taught by Rumble and Frenzy, and Thundercracker was happy to see him struggle with his decision.

The door to their shared quarters slid open to reveal a fuming Starscream. Thundercracker immediately lowered the input to his audials.  

“That stupid glitch of a prime!” Thundercracker winced at the still too loud voice. Skywarp hissed and complained loudly. Starscream paid them no mind, continuing on his tirade.

“Are all Autobots this slagging idiotic?! And here I thought only we had a fool of a leader!” Skywarp groaned, not even bothering to look up. Thundercracker regrettably closed his novel. He still wasn’t sure if Paul was going to recover from his fleshy disease and if Mariah would lose her first love!

“What crawled up your exhaust pipe and died?” Skywarp grumbled. “Or are you just pissy the Prime hasn’t given you a good frag in a decacycle?”

Starscream lunged at the purple seeker with a screech befitting his name. Thundercracker jumped in to drag them away from each other before they clawed each other’s optics out. They were running low on extra parts and then he would have to deal with the complaining. They barred sharp dentae at each other once Thundercracker yanked Starscream off the teleporter.

“What’s wrong now, Starscream?” Thundercracker asked, irritation growing exponentially. Starscream threw one last poisonous glare at Skywarp before removing something from his subspace and throwing it onto the berth. Both Thundercracker and Skywarp peered at it.

“So, that’s a gestation strip.” Skywarp said, intelligently. He looked disgusted at the strip.

“I’m not going to even deem that with a response,” Starscream said, servos on his hips.

Thundercracker paid them no mind, more preoccupied with the fact that the strip announced for all who observed it that his trine leader was fragging sparked. And by the Autobot leader no less. He took a deep invent, then looked up at Starscream.

“Okay, so how are we going to get rid of it?” Thundercracker asked.

“What if I wanted to keep the parasite—I mean the sparkling?” Starscream challenged, squinting at Thundercracker. He simply stared at the other, who grumbled in defeat.

There was no doubt in his mind that Starscream would hate to be a carrier. There was a thing that humans said that their carriers had called “maternal instinct” and Thundercracker only needed to have a glancing idea of the concept to know that Starscream would have started purging his tanks at the idea. No, his trine leader had whatever the opposite of a maternal instinct was. He’d probably give the new spark some engex just to make it stop crying.

“I personally couldn’t care less if you get rid of it or not,” Skywarp shrugged, already returning to the datapad he had been attempting to jailbreak to limited success. “If you want, I can punch you really hard and we can solve it like that?”

“I would say you are the stupidest sack of bolts I know, but I am unfortunately well acquainted with our ‘illustrious leader’, so you get a pass.” Starscream sneered. Before Skywarp could lunge at him, they are both stopped by the ominous crackle of Thundercracker’s ability engaging.

“It doesn’t work like that, ‘Warp,” said Thundercracker once the other two had settled. The blue seeker turned to Starscream, ignoring the teleporter.

“Did you ask Hook? He’s the medic, there has to be a way to…” Thundercracker gestured at Starscream, expression pinched. “To terminate it?”

“There is no way I am letting that malfunction touch me anywhere near there.” Starscream declared, turning his nose up.

“The frag you expect us to do, then?” Skywarp asked, having finally given up on the datapad.

“We don’t have that many medics, and if you don’t want Hook there is little else we can do.” Thundercracker reminded him. Starscream clicked his vocalizer.

“Why don’t we just grab that Autobot medic? He got that fancy Iacon doctor knowledge, yeah?” Skywarp suggested. Thundercracker stared at him incredulously.

“That’s the stupidest—” Thundercracker began.

“Perhaps you do have a processor in that helm of yours.” Starscream said at the same time.

Thundercracker turned to stare at his trine leader. Surely there is no way that Starscream was actually taking the suggestion seriously. A probe into the trine bond told Thundercracker otherwise, to his dismay.

“Starscream, you seriously aren’t thinking of taking The Hatchet hostage.” Starscream hummed, not bothering to look at Thundercracker. The blue seeker stared in horror.

“Oh my god, we’re going to die.” Thundercracker put his face in his servos.

“What the frag is god?” Skywarp questioned.

“The next raid, we will put this glorious plan in action!” Starscream declared, causing a cheer from Skywarp and a groan from Thundercracker.

Grabbing the ambulance was much easier than expected. Starscream felt quite satisfied with himself as his trinemates walked the Autobot CMO to their own medbay. Other than the dents thanks to a very generous whacking with a wrench, the rest of his trine managed to escape unscathed.

When they arrived, Hook looked up from where he was patching up Thrust.

“Both of you, get out!” Starscream demanded. Thrust gawked at him as Hook cycled his optics. The constructicon frowned as he spotted Ratchet.

“Why is—” Hook began only to get interrupted by Skywarp, who teleported away from his place by Ratchet.

“You guys are taking too long!” the purple seeker complained, appearing next to the two Decepticons. The two looked stunned and Hook opened his mouth to complain, only to once again be interrupted by another vwoop. With that, the two previous occupants of the medbay disappeared, teleported to wherever Skywarp decided to take them. The teleporter returned with a mischievous grin.

“Well, we’re not gonna have to worry about them for a while!”

Now alone in the medbay, Starscream gestured for Thundercracker to bring the Autobot doctor over. Skywarp locked the medbay doors while Starscream stared the doctor down. Ratchet glared at him from where he was sitting in Hook’s chair.

“You got a lot of nerve wasting my time here!” Ratchet growled. Starscream flicked his wing tips in boredom. Thundercracker and Skywarp left them to themselves, moving to the other side of the room.

“I assure you, doctor, that this is the single most important thing you will ever do!” Starscream sniffed, turning his face up.

“Doubt it!” Ratchet snorted, voice mocking. “What is it, your claw broke or something? Can’t have that, now can we?”

Starscream narrowed his optics.

“I’ll have you know—”

“He’s sparked and we want to know if you can terminate it.” Thundercracker cut in before the two devolved into name calling and nothing got done. Starscream bristled while Ratchet’s optics brightened just a little.

“I offered to punch him, but TC said no!” Skywarp pouted from where he was using a scalpel to carve into his datapad. His words snapped Ratchet out of his shock, and he looked at the other incredulously. He then turned from Starscream, before turning to Thundercracker.

“Is he serious right now?” Thundercracker could only sigh and nod.

“Unfortunately, Skywarp doesn’t have the same intelligence as I.” Starscream said, much to Skywarp’s protestation.

Ratchet smirked, “Could’ve fooled me.”

Starscream opened his mouth, fury about to be unleashed at the Autobot when Ratchet stood up and gestured to the medical berth.

“Alright, get up here and open a port. After that, I’m checking your spark. You’re lucky this joke of a medbay has what we need. Color me surprised.” Starscream huffed at the bedside manner before following directions.

Ratchet kept his touch professional, running through multiple different tests. It was almost like a standard check up from before the war, and Starscream had to begrudgingly concede that Ratchet was one fine medic.  After a while, the older bot disconnected from Starscream’s port.

“You’re in fine working order, just with lower energon than usual but that’s to be expected.” Ratchet reported. He paused, before continuing.

“I just need to confirm. You wish to terminate the gestation, yes?” Starscream snorted.

“What kind of stupid question is that?” Ratchet cycled his optics.

“Just answer the question, Screamer.”

“Yes, I want to get rid of this thing!” Starscream snarled, optics flashing at the nickname.

“And thank Primus for that. We’re in a war, and nobody has time for a sparkling to run around. Especially not you two.” Ratchet gave a side eye. Starscream’s cooling fans clicked on in embarrassment as the rest of his trine snickered. He sent an angry pulse through the bond, only to be met with humor.

Ratchet continued, breezing past Starscream’s injured pride and fuming. He removed what looked like a data slug, a few capsules of medicine, and two patches from his subspace. He placed them on the table near the berth, before moving to the cabinets in the medbay. Starscream could hear the Autobot cursing out Hook’s organization, or lack thereof, and couldn’t help the mocking snicker and sneer at the Autobot’s struggle. Ratchet finally returned, showing off an assortment of pain medication.

“You’re lucky we were doing inventory today and I had this stuff in my subspace,” Ratchet grumbled, picking up the data slug. “This is RU-486. I’m going to connect this to a data port so that it will begin to induce the termination process. You’re going to feel some cramps in your gestation tanks and a burning sensation in your spark. Stick to med-grade energon because the pain is going to make you feel nauseous.

“You’re going to insert these,” Ratchet held up the six capsules, “In your valve. Yeah, yeah, I know. Deal with it. Anyways, the whole thing is going to suck slag and it’s going to be incredibly painful. These are some pretty heavy pain patches along with some regular ones. Try not to abuse the pit out of them.”

Starscream felt mildly disgusted by the explanation but still heeded the advice. It would be foolish not to pay attention. He could feel Skywarp’s mirroring disgust and Thundercracker’s horror.

“How long is this going to last?” Starscream asked, slightly dreading the answer.

“Shouldn’t take longer than three cycles starting now.” Ratchet shrugged, before turning to Thundercracker and Skywarp. “You two are going to have to stick around and make sure he doesn’t do something stupid. And make sure he goes through the procedure, too! No wimping out at the pain, you hear?” Thundercracker nodded, looking a bit sick. Skywarp gave the Autobot CMO one of those organic gestures he’d picked up from one of Soundwave’s brats.

At the agreement, Ratchet turned to the second-in-command.

“Ready, Screamer?”

Starscream’s only answer was barring his data port to Ratchet.

Thundercracker fidgeted as he waited for Megatron to acknowledge him. The warlord hadn’t been too pleased at his SIC’s lack of presence this cycle. Apparently, Starscream had a shift in the bridge that he had neglected to let Thundercracker know about. Considering the smaller seeker was out of commission, writhing in pain in their habsuite, he would have to meet with their leader.

At least it was nice to see Soundwave, albeit just for the walk from the mess hall to the bridge. Soundwave had inquired about Starscream to which Thundercrack had promised to explain after everything calmed down. Were it anyone else, Thundercracker was sure the cassette carrier would have demanded an answer in that silently intense way of his. However, Thundercracker’s status as his partner meant that Soundwave would let him off the hook for now.

Thundercracker knocked on the doors, entering when permission was granted. Megatron sat upon his chair, optics studying Thundercracker.

“Thundercracker,” Megatron greeted. “You were not the seeker I was expecting.”

“Apologies, my lord.” Thundercracker bowed his head. “I came in Starscream’s stead. He’s currently indisposed and will be for at least another cycle.”

“And why is that?” Megatron hummed, his optics critical.  Thundercracker bit his derma, awkwardness breaking through his professional façade.

“Well, uh…” Thundercracker opened and closed his mouth, feeling himself flush with embarrassment. Why must he be put into situations like this?

“Starscream is in the middle of… a procedure.” Thundercracker said carefully. He was well-aware of Megatron’s narrowing optics and the impatient tapping of his digits against the arms of his chair.

He continued, “This procedure is somewhat delicate and causes quite a considerable amount of pain. He can barely stand and has been nauseous from the pain. He wouldn’t be able to work.”

“And what procedure is this? Hook has told me nothing about it.” Megatron questioned. “And be clear, Thundercracker. This better not be one of Starscream’s harebrained schemes against me.”

“It’s not!” Thundercracker attempted to reassure. “It’s a... termination. Of a news park.”

The silence was deafening. Thundercracker could barely take it. Megatron stared at Thundercracker, expression blank. It was killing him.

“Starscream is sparked.” Megatron said haltingly.

“Well, not anymore, hopefully.” Thundercracker replied, before offlining his optics with a sigh. He is really bad at this.

“I didn’t know Starscream was one to…” Megatron cleared his intake. The atmosphere in the room could only be described as uncomfortable. Thundercracker almost wanted to cough like humans did when the silence was too awkward.

“Well, Starscream’s leave of absence is acceptable. I’m glad he took a responsible course of action. Give him my… congratulations.” He sounded hesitant, with regret evident in his face the moment his words left the vocalizer. Thundercracker can almost see his leader’s wince at his inelegant phrasing. Thundercracker gave a nod, his plating feeling like it was crawling.

There was a mortifying moment of silence as they stared at each other. They tried their best not to look at each other. After a klik Megatron broke the silence.

“You are dismissed, Thundercracker.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

The moment they were both outside of the other’s presence, they both exhaled.

Thank Primus that is over and we will never have to talk about that again.

Chapter Text

Skywarp almost wished he was the one to be reporting to Megatron right now. Starscream was groaning, hissing in pain as he curled up in the berth. Next to him on the floor lay a bucket in which his trine leader would purge into every so often. When the Autobot CMO said something about nausea, he didn’t think it would be this gross.

He should’ve just punched Screamer. It would have saved him having to listen to the smaller seeker be sick. His optics drifted to the abandoned datapad he still hadn’t figured out.

He refused to ask Soundwave’s terror twins for help. Thundercracker doesn’t understand. His very pride as a seeker depends on him figuring this stupid fragging device out.

Starscream let out a pitiful groan from next to him. Skywarp poked at his helm. Starscream hissed.

“You’re such a wimp.” Skywarp snickered.

Starscream turned his head, giving him a poisonous glare. “You would too if you were in the process of eliminating a stupid sparkling.”

“Probably,” Skywarp shrugged, before grinning. “But I don’ do the nasty so it isn’t my problem!”

“Offline into a ravine.”

“Nuh-uh! You’d be pathetic and sad and so would TC.”

Starscream clicked his vocalizer.

“Whatever,” the seeker rolled over, throwing out an arm. “Help me up, I think I got to get rid of more energon.”

Skywarp scrunched up his olfactory sensor in disgust. Yeah, he was incredibly glad for the lack of interest in interfacing. The process already seems gross and “cringe” as Frenzy would say. A sparkling and getting rid of the thing is even worse from what he can see.

“C’mon, loser.” Skywarp heckled, pulling the other up. His grin twisted and he continued. “Time to piss that thing out!”

“Never say that ever again.” Starscream hissed, disgust clear as day. “And stop hanging around with Soundwave’s brats! I know you don’t even know what that is!!”

Leading an army, surprisingly, involved much more paperwork than Optimus had envisioned. Not that he had thought much about being a war commander as the dock-worker Orion Pax. It just wasn’t quite what he expected, even though there hadn’t been much to expect anyway.

Regardless, there was a veritable mountain of paperwork with his designation on it and Optimus could only stare at it with weary optics. He wondered if it would be ethical to hire someone as his secretary. Probably not. He sighed, looking longingly at the door. He could use a distraction right now.

Primus must have been listening to his pleas for once in their life, because there was a single, sharp knock at the door of Optimus’s office before it slid open, revealing a notably irritated Ratchet. Sparkplug once described a situation like this as a result of a monkey’s paw curling.

“Optimus Prime!” Ratchet gritted out, and Optimus knew he was in it for a scolding. As the medic stomped into his office, his faithful wrench gripped in his servo, Optimus ran through a list of things he had done to warrant the wrath of his chief medical officer. He only drew blanks as Ratchet stood in front of him, all but looming over him. Well, at least their missing medic has appeared, safe and whole.

“Ratchet,” Optimus said, hiding the nervousness from his voice. “What can I help you with?”

The medic stared at him as if he were a particularly offensive organic slime, optics narrowed. Optimus can all but hear the ticking of a bomb about to be set off and he was caught in the blast zone.

The bomb went off.

Optimus couldn’t remember a time either as Optimus or as Orion Pax when he had such severe a dress down. He would have wondered if this was how Sunstreaker and Sideswipe felt when they faced Ratchet’s fury if he hadn’t been too busy wincing and looking at his folded hands over his desk. Ratchet had a way with words, even in other languages, that left Optimus both mortified and impressed. He hadn’t even known that Ratchet knew Nebulanese.

“I cannot believe you two idiots would interface with no protection!” Ratchet seethed. From what he could tell, the tirade was dying down, which was for the best considering he didn’t want to get hit with the wrench again.

“We are in the middle of a war; this is unacceptable behavior from two mechs of your position!”

Despite the verbal lashing, he couldn’t help but feel at least slightly happy that Ratchet scolded him just like the rest of the Autobots, matrix or no matrix. He did not verbalize any of this, however, as Ratchet was staring him down with his arms folded. He was waiting for an explanation that Optimus simply did not have.

He had long come to terms with the fact that his affection for Starscream was less than ideal. Starscream himself had professed the very sentiment, yet Optimus found himself impressed and fond of the sharp seeker.

Beneath the bravado and the scheming lay a meh that was as frighteningly strong as he was smart. As a former member of the bottom rungs of the societal ladder on Cybertron, Optimus was well-aware of the struggles of those like him. The Decepticon cause, in that respect, is understandable. Were it not for the tactics, this war would never have commenced. It is too late to imagine hypotheticals, but regardless, Optimus respected the dedication Starscream had to the cause itself, even if he cared little for the Decepticon leader.

His affection for the mech had him risking it all, and perhaps there was more to the encounters than a purely transactional relationship. At the very least, he hoped there was.

“I am sorry for what I have done, Ratchet,” Optimus said, giving a sheepish smile to the mech. “I realize maintaining a casual relationship with Starscream is not what is expected of me. I ask you trust me in my decision on this matter and know I would never risk the lives of our people.”

“Not what I was talking about, though I wish you had told me about this relationship earlier.” Ratchet cut in, staring at him pointedly. Optimus tilted his head, confused. What could be angering Ratchet then?

Ratchet sighed, “I’m not that angry. More…. Disappointed and disgruntled.” Ratchet squinted as he thought for a moment. The words had Optimus slump slightly. Ratchet gave him a look.

“If you don’t know, then I think I should wait to see if that brat seeker contacts you about it.” Ratchet decided, expression disgruntled.

“Is anything wrong with Starscream?” Optimus questioned, trying to disguise the worry in his voice. He doubted he had been successful, considering Ratchet’s disgruntled face.

“He’ll be more than fine if he followed my directions!” Ratchet grunted, annoyed. “I’m banking on that bothersome trine of his to keep him company. Again, Starscream will contact you soon, provided he isn’t an idiot.”

Optimus could only nod as a response. Ratchet hummed in satisfaction. Having said his peace, he turned to leave, but not before throwing something at Optimus’s helm.

“Good! Now make sure to use this next time, ya malfunction!”

The door slides shut behind his medic. Optimus stared at it for a moment, before turning to the item Ratchet had thrown. Immediately, he felt his mask snap on and smoke puff out of his stacks.

He quickly put the anti-sparking modules in his subspace and immediately grabbed the stack of paperwork to try to ignore the mortification he felt.

It was the next cycle that the heavily coded comm arrived. As usual, it was a short message that only provided the coordinates of their meeting place. By the time Optimus was able to slip out of the base, Starscream was already there. Optimus couldn't help the fondness that settled in his spark, despite the worry gnawing at it from Ratchet's words. Starscream looked perfectly fine from what he could see, if not a bit restless with his arms crossed in front of his cockpit. Optimus sent a wordless ping at the seeker, who turned toward him as he walked nearer. His optics brighteened, shoulders relaxing before Starscream caught himself and straightened up. It was endearing.

 “Starscream,” Optimus smiled, staring down at the smaller mech. It had been much too long since he had seen the other. His spark surged with affection that he made sure to temper. “It’s very good to see you again.”

Starscream bristled at his words. He grumbled as he turned away. Optimus couldn’t help the fond smile behind his mask. After vorns of whatever this was, Optimus had become well acquainted with all of Starscream’s idiosyncrasies. The other was not annoyed by him, but more the reaction. It was endearing, something he knew that he was alone in believing.

“Typical Autobots with their soft-sparked sentimentalities.” Starscream scoffed, flushed face plates turned to the side. “Don’t you know when to quit while you’re ahead?”

“No, it seems that was a lesson that never stuck.” Optimus said, his voice turning just a little wistful. He pushed down the sentiment as Starscream gave him a knowing side glance. It was not the time for that.

Right now, it was Optimus and Starscream. The war can wait, just a little longer.

“You normally don’t call a meeting so soon.” Optimus said, observing the seeker. He clicked his vocalizer, seemingly irked by something. Optimus took the risk, closing the distance. He does not touch the other, knowing well that Starscream was quite liberal with using his claws.

Starscream’s optics tracked his movements. He stopped mere nanometers from the other. If Optimus so wished, their servos could touch. Instead, he offered one.

“What is wrong?” There are many things Optimus could say, words stuck on the tip of his glossa that he knows not to speak. A critical eye studied the offered servo. Optimus would not call it hesitation, more a pause. Starscream never did anything in halves. It was one of the things Optimus most respected of the seeker. A claw slowly slipped between his digits.

“The last time we met, I got sparked.” Starscream said, bluntly. His optics glared at Optimus, a challenge burning in them. The rigid posture of his wings betrayed the disgust and dread of what he said. Optimus said nothing, taking a moment to process the revelation.

Optimus didn’t quite know what to say. The war was pervasive, slipping through every crack in his life. Even now, away from the frontlines and the chain of command, holding the servo of a mech dear to his spark, it burned in the back of his processor. The idea of a sparkling was heavy, almost oppressive to him. But it ultimately was not his decision, not completely.

Starscream never did things in halves, and neither did Optimus.

“I see,” Starscream’s servo flexed in his own. “What are your plans?”

Optimus would follow Starscream’s lead. But he wouldn’t be lying if he said that he would prefer if—

“I already got rid of it.” Starscream spit out, looking almost insulted at the insinuation he would do anything but. Optimus felt a surge of relief flood his system. His hand squeezed Starscream’s in his lapse of control. Starscream let out a bark of laughter, a taunting expression crossing his face plates.

“It was ultimately your decision to make. I am glad you are happy with it.” Optimus cleared his vocalizer like humans tended to, flushed with embarrassment.

“Don’t sound too heartbroken, Prime!” Starscream snorted, poking at Optimus’s blunder. Optimus let out his own chuckle, amused at the situation.

“Not very stealthy, was I?” Optimus laughed. Starscream cycled his optics, a fond smile on his derma. He seemed to catch himself, straightening up.

“You can thank that ancient medic of yours!” Starscream said, triumphantly.

“So that’s why Ratchet had recently been missing for a few joors after the last raid.” Optimus hummed, filing away the information for a report.

The Prime continued, “I assume that was why he had cornered me in my office and lectured me about contraceptives for nearly 30 breems.”

“Completely deserved, you oaf.” Starscream snickered, optics alight with glee. The seeker leaned closer to him, his wing brushing against his frame. Optimus leaned closer, bringing their face plates close. Starscream almost met him halfway before the other tensed and immediately jumped back with a furious hiss. Optimus pulled back as well, worried that he had done something wrong only for a purple seeker frame to pop up in between them.

“Nuh-uh!! We’re not doin’ this scrap again!!” Skywarp declared, arms held out to create even more distance between them. “He was so fraggin’ annoying, Prime! Both of you keep it under the plating!! No gross interfacing allowed!!”

“Skywarp, I am going to eviscerate you slowly and painfully.” Starscream seethed. Optimus immediately intercepted as his seeker launched himself at the teleporter. Skywarp stuck out his tongue in a very human-like gesture.

“I would say get fragged, but we saw what happened last time,” Skywarp taunted. Starscream let out a screech, clawing at the other seeker who stayed just out of reach. The sound of a jet arriving distracted Optimus as he saw Thundercracker transform into his root mode and immediately jump in the fray, ignoring him. Optimus could only smile at the chaos.

A distance away, Soundwave observed the noisy group. Ravage turned to him with her head tilted.

“Ravage: No need to report. Soundwave: Very relieved that Starscream chose termination.” Soundwave responded to her silent question. The two continued staring as his conjunx-to-be tried his best to mediate, only to be dragged into the fight between his other trine members when Starscream slipped out of the Prime’s grasp.

“Soundwave: Would prefer not to imagine a second Starscream or Skywarp. Termination: Ideal choice that could have been taken.”

Ravage shuddered, optics warily looking at the seekers and prime. “Thank Primus for Ratchet.”