Sparks against the Machine

by JazzedMuffin

Summary:

The war between Autobots and Decepticons has turned cold, and Autobots have enforced several rules to ensure the continued existence of their faction. Bumblebee never thought to question his leaders, but a certain decepticon gets him to do exactly that.

Or: Starscream redemption arc where he saves Bumblebee, reluctantly joins the autobots for a shared cause and accidentally kind of falls in love with Bumblebee.
He also still believes in Sparkmates, but not the way Bee does.

Notes:

Yo lovelies,

I am trying my best. I am not a native english speaker. I am also a first time transformers fanfic writer. Please be kind!

Also, since the Tranformers Universe is big and different terminology is used, here is some that I used with their meanings:

-“spark mate” = soul mate
-“klik” = something around a minute
-“nano-klik” = something around a second
-“vorn” = 83 human years, 1 cybertronian year
-“processor” = brain
-“spark” = heart
-“interfacing” = sex, basically
-"plug and play" = two bots connecting their main cables in their chests in order to be able to feel what the other is feeling, see what the other is seeing, and also share memories
-"breem" = around an hour
-"digits" = Fingers
-"servos" = Hands
there's a lot more but most of them are easy to tell.

Chapter 1

Bumblebee’s head hit the wall. Hard. For the third time in a row. His stabilizers finally started malfunctioning, while Steeljaw repeatedly ripped him forward, just to brutally push him back into the concrete behind Bumblebee.

His com link had already been destroyed with the first punch he took, and while more and more warning signs appeared within his field of vision, he realized this was it.

He was going to go offline.

Bumblebee tried to push Steeljaws claws away in a last effort, but he was already too weak, and lifting his arm only resulted in a sharp pain beneath his chest plate. Darkness started to creep into his field of view from all sides.

Suddenly, however, the forced movement of his head stopped, and he fell to the side, not able to hold his chassis upright.

He groaned, blinking, trying to actually see what was happening. Why had Steeljaw stopped instead of finishing him off? It was impossible to see, everything around him moved, the errors angrily dancing in front of his eyes, and somehow, his optic’s power source seemed to be lacking too, because the image went darker and darker.

When Steeljaw finally grabbed him again, he was nearly thankful. Make the pain stop, he thought, but didn’t give the Decepticon the triumph of hearing any last words. He instead pressed his intake together, bracing for the final impact that would separate his spark from his chassis.

But it never came.

Instead, he was presumably hauled up and carried somewhere, or something like that anyway, because Bee’s stabilizers made another last effort to map movement to his processor, resulting in more red warning signs. The darkness thankfully finally closed in, blocking out the signals, and Bumblebee disconnected from the world wide web.

 

When Bumblebee’s optics suddenly actively detected light and his internal functions slowly, one by one, went from standby to active again, he had no idea how much time had passed or where he was. He knew he was in pain all over his frame, though.

There still were warning signs before his optics when he started calibrating them to scan the room, but the count was much less, which made it possible for him to actually see.

The room was quite dark, and he seemed to be laying on a Cybertronian table, judging from the glowing display panels beneath his arms. He tried to move slightly, and noticed the whole table was covered in energon, mech fluid, and coolant. Bumblebee didn’t doubt it was all his own.

“Well, if that isn’t our favourite Autobot scout finally connecting his processor to the world wide web again.” The voice ripped Bumblebee from his studies of his surroundings.
His optics quickly found Starscream, leaning in the doorway of the room. Which probably was part of Starscreams spaceship, now that Bumblebee counted one and one together.

“What do you want.” Bumblebee croaked, causing a sharp pain in his vocalizer, his servos instantly shooting up to its hull. Another red signal popped into his direct vision.

Starscream stepped closer. “Mh…” he mused, scanning the Autobot intensively.

“I am afraid I didn’t understand a word you said. Your vocalizer seems to be malfunctioning. Care to repeat?”

Desperation rose in his chest, while Bumblebee collected the strength to speak again, ignoring the pain. “What d-“ But Starscream cut him off.

“Ugh, yeah, yeah, what in Unicrons name do I want, I understood you the first time alright, you’re so naïve. Spare your dented voice box the strain of asking stupid questions. Especially of asking them two times.”

“But-“ “Cybertron below me, I just teased you, is all. Wouldn’t know you would believe every word I say. Haven’t you been taught well by the Prime himself to never trust a Decepticon? The word deception takes up most of my faction title!”

He now stood directly over Bumblebee, quickly reached out with his arm, grabbing Bumblebee’s neck guard. The Autobot struggled, but he was way to weak to pry Starscreams claws away.

“Hold still and let me see this.” Starscream groaned and Bumblebee went finally went limp, realizing it was no use. Starscreams digits wrapped around his vocalizer, instantly causing pain again, but it was over only a few nano-kliks later. Starscream let him sink back onto the table.

“Try speaking again.” The other bot commanded. Bumblebee gave him a confused look. Hadn’t Starscream just said he shouldn’t talk? Nothing the decepticon said made sense.

“Come on, dimspark, it had a small dent, I fixed it. I don’t have enough nano-kliks of patience for you to stare at me like your processor doesn’t function enough to do some basic thinking.”

“Why would you do that?” Bumblebee finally blurted out, acknowledging the fact that his voice left his intake without glitching, and without causing him pain.

“So I’ll enjoy your company better. A mute autobot scout is no fun teasing.”

That was not what Bumblebee meant, and Starscream knew it too. Bumblebee decided to not bother rephrasing. Starscream obviously didn’t want to explain just yet why he fixed Bumblebee up instead of letting him go offline.

“What happened to Steeljaw?” He asked instead.

“All those questions…” Starscream sighed. “The filthy rat escaped me. But barely. Hopefully went offline somewhere.”

“Doubtful.” Bumblebee replied. “That particular bot never does. I would know, I’ve been trying.”

“Pft, are autobots even allowed to take cons offline since the war is over? I’ve only seen you stuff some back into statis pods.”

Bumblebee had to admit that Starscream hit the nail square with that. Disabling was allowed, taking them offline however, even if it was Steeljaw, would lead to serious interrogation and would probably mean the end of Bumblebee’s career.

“Your silence speaks.” Starscream grinned.

Chapter 2

It didn’t take long for Bumblebee to get on his pedes again. But the more time he spent on self-repairing the damaged parts in and outside his chassis, the more components he discovered that had been fixed up – most likely - by Starscream while Bumblebee’s systems had crashed.

Many of his cables had been patched up, even the thick ones that ran between his processor and his mainboard in his chest, leaks that easily should’ve caused him to go offline.

Even Bumblebee’s spark chamber had been dented, and Starscream had done an incredible job fixing it up. It would heal.

Bumblebee joined the decepticon in the main control unit of the starship and sat down on the floor while Starscream typed something on the panels, his optics scanning the holograms in front of him. He didn’t react to Bumblebee at all.

“Starscream, why am I even here? And how long have I been offline?”

The decepticon didn’t answer. So, after a few kliks of silence, Bumblebee tried to coax out a reaction with a different approach. He stood up again.

“Okay, you don’t have time for this, got it. Then I guess I’m just going to go back to my team. They’re probably -“ Before he could even finish the sentence, Starscream was already grabbing him by the neck and pressing him into the wall of the spaceship. Not as brutal as Steeljaw had done, but the memory still made Bumblebee flinch.

“You’re gonna wait right here, patiently, while I finish tracking the piece of scrap, understood?” Bumblebee could only nod. He had no weapons, his com link was still destroyed far past repairable, and Starscream was strong. Stronger than how Bumblebee had remembered him. His frame seemed broader, even, maybe because he stood up straight?

Starscream let him go then, pushed him away even while ripping his hand away, as if he was disgusted even touching the autobot.

“My team will be-“ Starscream had already turned around again, but turned back, and glared at him. “The ship is cloaked. They won’t find you.”

“-extremely worried about me.” Bumblebee finished, returning Starscreams glare.

“They’ll do without you. They did before you. You’ll notice once you go back. Everybot likes to imagine a special op team would search for them forever. The truth is… Hardly anybot matters that much.” Starscream focused on the panels again. Bumblebee sighed and rubbed his neck with his servos but said nothing.

“Don’t be so dramatic, I didn’t even really grab you. Wouldn’t risk all my soldering.” Grumbled Starscream without looking at him.

 

They didn’t talk about what happened for the full solar cycle, and by the end of it, Starscream had finally successfully tracked down Steeljaw and a few Decepticons that seemed to gather around him.

“I think that should be Thunderhoof, Underbite, and whoever else of that group is still on track with Steeljaws goal.” Bumblebee explained.

“I don’t care for their callsigns.” Starscream replied. “Earth belongs to me, and these bootlegs have to make space.”

Bumblebee couldn’t help but snicker. It earned him another glare. “What is so funny, autobot?!” Bumblebee shrugged, still smiling. He vaguely gestured towards the hologram.

“Your tracking system suggests it’s at least 6 decepticons against you and me. What makes you think we would win this?”

Starscream stared at him. “What makes you think you’re invited?”

Bumblebee frowned. “If I’m not, and you’re planning on going on this absolutely spark-tired mission alone, why do you still keep me here?!”

Starscream grinned. “So you can watch how it’s done.”

“Going offline? Thank you very much, I know by now. Kind of experienced it first hand.”

Starscream looked enraged for a few nano-kliks, but ultimately said nothing. Instead, he opened a portal and Bumblebee realized Starscream really was about to do this.

It was madness.

“Do you suffer from processor rust?! They’ll make a pile of scrap out of you. Every single one of them needed my whole team to take down before. You might be stronger than I am, but-“

However, Starscream just pushed him aside and stepped through the portal.

Bumblebee was absolutely not planning on sitting in the vessel alone, so he jumped to his feet and through the portal, right before it closed.

 

He hadn’t exactly expected Starscream to teleport right into the cave of the decepticon group, but here they were. Standing right between a group of – admittedly – quite surprised looking decepticons, who already raised their weapons.

Bumblebee recognized most of them, but not all. Steeljaw himself looked rough, and his optics widened when he saw Bumblebee. He seemed to be collecting himself quickly, as he walked up to face Starscream directly.

“Well, greetings. To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you again so soon, Seeker?” Starscream grinned, his eyes gleaming.

“I have an offer to make,” he started, and looked over Steeljaws shoulder into the group of decepticons behind him.

“Surrender to me, and I shall leave you online…” he scanned the different frames carefully. When his eyes fell onto Clampdown, he rolled his optics. “You can run, bit-brain. I don’t have space for traitors. Especially not for the scaredy-crab type ones.”

His optics focused on Steeljaw again. “For you, I’m afraid, I can only offer deactivation.”

And with that, the pit broke loose.

Chapter 3

Notes:

Yay, next chapter! Also another chapter having fighting scenes.
ngl I do NOT enjoy writing those but well, I need the d r a m a.

Bumblebee wasn’t as good at bare servo fighting as Grimlock, but he got lucky when Clampdown actually decided to escape – dropping a sword in the process. Bumblebee grabbed it from the ground and hit Clampdown into his backplate, causing him to fall.

The con still only struggled to get on his pedes again and ran for the exit.

Bumblebee considered doing the same for a second, but within the next nano-klik, Thunderhoof already aimed at him, and next thing he knew, Bumblebee found himself backplate to backplate with Starscream, fighting off the cons.

It didn’t go well, just as Bumblebee had predicted, because it was absolute madness to expect otherwise.

Steeljaw flung Starscream across the room, who, to Bumblebee’s shock, went temporarily offline from the impact on his helm. Quickly, Bumblebee dodged Thunderhoof’s blaster and Steeljaws claws and ran towards the disabled con, seeing his chance.

Starscreams comm module was set on a foreign frequency, but Bumblebee knew his own by heart. With quick digits, he activated it, contacting the scrapyard.

“Bumblebee to scrapyard, we need immediate backup. There’s six decepticons up against us. We’re in their lair.”

He didn’t have more time, because the next thing he knew was that he was flying through the cave again. He landed on his pedes, however, and dodged another bullet from Thunderhoof. Bumblebee was playing on time, praying to Primus his teammates wouldn’t assume it was some sick joke Starscream played on them.

But his worries were unnecessary. The portal opened right next to him, revealing Strongarm first, who instantly had his back, shooting at Thunderhoof.

The fight ended with the autobots managing to capture Steeljaw due to him still being wounded from the fight with Starscream, but the rest of his group ran.

 

Bumblebee secured the con and then focused on Starscream, who still lay on the edge of the cave, but had just activated his optics again. When he saw the autobots around him, he was up in no time.

“What are you doing here, Starscream?!” Strongarm asked him, and the seeker rolled his optics. “Taking down the filthy little bootlegs, what do you think I’m doing?”

He gestured around himself, seemingly upset, then scanned the cave for exits. Strongarm reacted instantly, blocking Starscream’s only possible escape route, but opening the space between him and Steeljaw instead.

Bumblebee noticed Starscream’s act too late as well, and within a nano-klik, the seeker was on the restrained Steeljaw.

Steeljaw howled in pain while Bumblebee and Grimlock pulled away the other decepticon. They managed to finally pin him down and Bumblebee locked his servos behind his back, but Steeljaw was already temporarily offline.

When Bee pulled Starscream to his pedes, he turned around. “I saved you. Let me go, and we’re even.” Bumblebee shook his head. “I’m sorry, I can’t. You’re dangerous.” Starscream laughed so loud, everyone turned to him for a second.

“Dangerous? Me? You consider me dangerous?” Bumblebee frowned. “Of course I do, what’s your malfunction?!” Starscream laughed, still, even bumping into Bumblebee’s frame.

“I’m nothing, little naïve Bumblebee,” he finally whispered in his audio processor and when they reached the exit of the cave, the stasis cuffs suddenly clicked and fell. And Starscream instantly transformed into his jet form. He was gone the next nano-klik, leaving Bumblebee behind wondering how that just happened.

 

Back at the scrapyard, Bumblebee instantly got bombarded with questions what exactly happened. He retold what he remembered, and everyone seemed as confused as he felt.

“Why would he help you. Why would he repair you? Are you sure he did it, and he didn’t simply kidnap you?” Strongarms questions were good enough for Bumblebee to admit that he indeed had no idea.

“He might want to gain some form of power over this life-debt from you,” Drift said. Bumblebee shrugged.

“I’m not sure he believes in debt and repayment, do you think, if it was the other way around, he would feel indebted to me?”

“Maybe not, though it would be a great misdeed to disregard it,” he said finally.

And just like that, he had made Bumblebee feel a little indebted now, himself. Was it true? Should he spare Starscream once he got the chance? When would his debt even be repaid? Wasn’t it already, when he called for his team in the cave, resulting in them both not going offline?

All the thoughts made his processor hurt, and he decided to set them aside for now and talk to Steeljaw instead. Maybe he had some kind of insight on the seeker.

 

“I’m telling you, it’s all I know. He’s simply gone mad, maybe it’s brain rust, whatever. He came through a portal and instantly jumped me like some… some overgrown retro-rat. I barely stayed online! And he did it two times!! I don’t even know that bot!” Steeljaw howled, and for once, Bumblebee actually believed him.

However, he also didn’t deem it surprising Starscream didn’t like some other decepticon leading a growing group to take over earth, when he himself didn’t even have a team on earth currently.

“Ah. You’re gonna have a lot of time for self-healing now and maybe you’re even getting a new paint job on Cybertron, so you’re presentable for trial,” Bumblebee grinned, and then finally put Steeljaw back into statis, not listening to his whining. He really didn’t feel any sympathy for him. Not that he did before the incident, but now he knew Steeljaw really didn’t hesitate to deactivate bots in his way, even if they were no real threat in the moment.

So, he also didn’t hesitate to stuff the disabled bot into his tight statis pod, maybe accidentally giving him a few dents and a few more scratches. He hoped he still felt it, even though in stasis.

 

After triple checking the con was secure, he realized his systems were already begging to go into energy saving mode. His battery status blinked red on the side of his vision. He really needed some recharge – which, how it turned out, was hard to come by, even though this solar system’s sun was already visible again. He just had too many thoughts interrupting his shutdown.

Finally, after a while of twisting and turning in his bed, his systems finally shut down one by one.

Chapter 4

The solar cycles went by, and there was no trace of Starscream. Of course, Bumblebee and his team had started to track him the klik they had sent off Steeljaw, but to no avail. There wasn’t even anything to be found he had destroyed, or stolen, or simply… disrupted.

In contrast to Starscream, the decepticon group that had formed around Steeljaw disrupted plenty. It seemed like without Steeljaw as their leader, the group had completely fallen apart, and everybot now did their own thing.

Which wasn’t a bad thing per se, as they were much easier to catch and overpower when they were on their own, but Bumblebee also suddenly saw himself faced with several different missions at the same time.

Therefore, he didn’t really have time to think about anything surrounding the former right hand of Megatron.

Today, they got back late again, paint job all scratched, with dents and even some snapped cables, desperate for some recharge. Bumblebee had just sat down next to Strongarm, when suddenly, a circuit-stopping screech transferred through his comms.

He jumped up, startling everybot around him, when it continued.

“No, master, believe me, I-“ The bot on the other side was cut off, and for a while, all Bumblebee could hear was metal scraping over rock.

Bumblebee had instantly recognized it as Starscream’s voice, and there was little to no guessing needed to know who it was that Starscream would call master. Just – that wasn’t possible, was it?

“You haven’t even tried to look for me, have you? No, you were busy trying to TAKE OVER MY ARMY!”

Now that was clearly Megatron.

More scraping, and then both voices started slowly fading away, getting sucked up from interferences, static and a high-pitched warning signal. Bee knew how that happened. Something – or some bot – constricted the energon and or power flow to the comm. Starscream was strangled so bad, his helm didn’t correctly function anymore.

The distorted sounds from Starscream’s voice box were incomprehensible, but he could still hear a few from Megatron.

“…Will wreak… world… scrap…”

Just when he thought that the connection wouldn’t hold much longer, it went radio silent.

And Bumblebee looked into several confused optics. For a moment, he didn’t say anything, trying to find a way to make it make sense. When Strongarm opened her mouth to ask, Bumblebee started.

“Megatron is back. I think he knows about the scrapyard, too. Strongarm, call Optimus. Sideswipe, try to contact Windblade. We desperately need both their help. Fixit, find Megatron’s signal. It must be somewhere close to us, or otherwise I couldn’t have heard everything so clearly.”

There was a moment of shock, then everyone scattered, except for Strongarm.

“What did you hear, exactly?” She asked, and Bumblebee frowned, then sighed.

“It was a call from Starscream. On accident, I suppose. Because I used our frequency on his comms when mine were not functioning.”

Strongarm opened her intake again, but Bumblebee cut her off before she could even process any words.

“Cadette, I need you to follow my orders now. I am aware of the possibility of a trap. I don’t underestimate Starscream, but I also don’t underestimate Megatron. If there is even a slight chance of him being here, and targeting us, we must act on an instant.”

She nodded, and finally started to try to get in touch with Optimus.

Bumblebee feverishly tried to make out a right course of action. Attacking Megatron as soon as they located him seemed foolish. But Starscream was obviously there, and Megatron didn’t sound like he would be taking him back. He could be offline already. But maybe, just maybe, there was a slight chance of rescuing him and working together to bring Megatron down.

Also, as much as he tried to push the thought away, Bumblebee owed the seeker.

 

So when Fix-It came back with the signals only a few kliks later, and Strongarm and Sideswipe said Optimus and Windblade were on their way, he made a decision.

“We will not wait for Megatron to arrive here. We evacuate the scrapyard, especially Danny and Russell, and then try to find him first.”

This time, no bot waited for further explanation. Fix-It opened a portal to the city boundaries where Russell and Danny should be relatively safe.

Within nano-kliks, everyone was ready. Megatrons signal hadn’t really moved from Starscreams, which had just appeared next to him. Bumblebee assumed his cloaking mechanisms had just started malfunctioning. Not a good sign.

 

“Autobots, let’s rev up, and roll out!”

Chapter 5

Once they got close to the military base where the radar showed Megatron’s signal, Bumblebee quietly told his team to stay put.

“Megatron hasn’t moved anywhere yet.”, he whispered. “He’s probably still fighting Starscream. If we play for time until Optimus and Windblade arrive, we have the best chances to win against him. I will go see what is going on there, Strongarm, Grimlock and Sideswipe, you will keep watch, Drift, you come with me.”

They split up and Bumblebee entered the abandoned military base. It didn’t take long for them to find the fighting bots, because Starscream quite literally broke through the wall just next to Drift. They instantly hid away again, but Bumblebee knew Starscream had seen them. His optics had widened for the tiniest fraction of a nano-klik, then he went back to crawling away from Megatron, who followed behind him.

“I will rip you apart,” was the only thing Megatron screamed before he grabbed Starscream again.

The smaller decepticon was leaking energon already, at his chestplate, his arms, his pedes. Bumblebee couldn’t look at it. He wasn’t sure if he had seen Starscream like this before. He knew he himself must’ve looked worse last week, but Steeljaw had said Starscream hadn’t so much as faltered before he jumped him and saved his enemy. And here he was, cowering behind a wall, watching.

He activated his comms. “Bumblebee to Strongarm, have they arrived already?” “Only Windblade, Sir. Optimus sounded like he would take several solar cycles, still.”

Bumblebee cursed, but then made up his mind. “We attack right now.” “Understood,” Strongarm answered, and Bumblebee nodded to Drift, and then started shooting at Megatron with his blasters.

Megatron instantly turned around, not even bothering to dodge. He smiled. “Oh, the little Autobot Scout himself! Have you grown taller since we met? What a pleasure.”

His eyes wandered to Drift. “And Deadlock, you transferred to the autobots, too? Shame.”

With that, Drift pulled out his katanas, and Megatron loaded up his fusion cannon and aimed directly at Bumblebee.

Like every fight, chaos ensued so fast Bumblebee could hardly keep up with everything that happened.

Luckily for them, Megatron didn’t seem to have any other decepticons around currently. Strongarm managed to get quite a few good hits on him, and Sideswipe cracked his shoulder plating, causing Megatron to leak energon.

Bumblebee felt he was weaker than last time they fought. Maybe it was because Megatron had just travelled quite a while to reach earth. Whatever the cause may be, Megatron also noticed he wasn’t in a good position.

He turned around, dodging Drift, and screamed at Starscream. “Starscream, you useless waste of Energon, get up and fight already!” Bumblebee turned around to the injured seeker, meeting his wide optics for a nano-klik, before Starscreams’ optics flickered, and he slumped to the side, offline.

Megatron roared in fury, slapped Bumblebee away like a fly, transformed, and sped away.

Strongarm was about to transform too and follow him, but Bumblebee held her back. “Without Optimus, we’re no match for him, as weak as he may seem right now. My battery is drained, too. Let’s collect Starscream, get back to the scrapyard, and wait for Optimus.”

 

While clicking the stasis cuffs closed around Starscream’s and his gantlets, he took a closer look at the other’s destroyed leg plates. There was no way Starscream could walk, much less transform, even if he was online. So, he kneeled in front of him, ex-vented and thought about how to pick him up best so he could carry him to the scrapyard.

“What are you doing?” The question startled Bumblebee for a nano-klik, and he looked up into the seeker’s optics. He raised his optical ridge.

“I thought you were offline.”

Starscream rolled his optics. “Just an act of self-preservation. You’re not answering my question.”

“I’m picking you up, so we can leave this place,” Bumblebee decided to answer, and Starscream shrieked and crawled away.

“Not happening. Don’t touch me!” Bumblebee followed him and ex-vented loudly. “Listen, I don’t have time for this. You can’t walk. Your leg-plates are scrap. Let me carry you, just through the space bridge –“

“No!” Starscream exclaimed. Bumblebee massaged his audial processors.

“Alright. Let me help you up at least.” He extended his servo, and Starscream first scanned the room, possibly for another way out, but then took it. Bumblebee hauled him up, and as soon as Starscream stood on his pedes, his leg plates gave in, cracking further, and he whimpered. Bumblebee wanted to support him, but Starscream pushed him away as far as the cuffs would let him

“Come on, just take my help,” Bumblebee tried again, but to no avail.

“I don’t NEED your help. I don’t need your pity either, dustkicker. So, spare it, would you?”

Bumblebee shrugged and pulled Starscream along to the space bridge that Fixit had opened. Step by step, he followed - and no word of pain left Starscream’s vocalizer.

 

Arriving at the scrap yard, he forced Starscream to sit down on one of the steel girders. He was still heavily leaking energon and mech fluid, so the autobot got a fixing kit and a bit of cloth to clean everything up.

When he got closer to Starscream to use it, the other again swatted his servo away.

“I need to fix you up, so please! Otherwise, you will be offline from energon loss by the end of the cycle. Not talking about the pain you have to feel right now. So, may I please?” He held out his servo again.

Starscream looked at him with wide optics. “What if you may not?”

Bumblebee shrugged. “Then I won’t. It’s your call. But self-healing will take you too long to fix these leaks without going offline for a few cycles. And you can’t all fix these yourself. Most of them you can’t even reach.”

He kept his servo reached out. Starscream stared at it, then ex-vented. “Fine,” he grumbled, letting his gantlet fall into Bumblebee’s servo. So, Bumblebee finally got to work. When he touched Starscream’s energon-drenched shoulder plate with the cloth, Starscream flinched, but said nothing. Bumblebee wiped away the Energon, then started soldering the cables below the plating, then went on to the plating itself. In the end, he cleaned it again with another cloth, then fixed the paint job, too.

“That’s unnecessary.” Starscream pointed out, but Bumblebee just shook his head. “It’s not taking me a lot of time, so I might as well.”

He went on the leaks on Starscream’s leg plates then, fixing the cables and circuits, and then replaced most of the plating, as it really was scrap at this point. The longer he worked, step by step, he noticed Starscreams system powering down several stages, and he when he looked up to him, he realized Starscream’s optics were shut off, too.

He had gone into regular recharge.

 

When he finished the leak at Starscream’s back, too, he stood up, realizing his battery was signalling a critical level, too. He turned around and called Strongarm, who instantly stood by his side, starting to talk, when he cut her off. “Shh, he’s in recharge.” She followed his gesture with her optics.

“In recharge?”, she blurted out, of course waking the decepticon in an instant.

“What recharge? I don’t recharge!”, the seeker echoed, jumping up startled. Bumblebee grimaced and Strongarm looked at him apologetically.

He looked at Starscream again. “If I take off your stasis cuffs, so we don’t have to stick together all night, will you transform and flee?”

Starscream snickered. “What do you expect me to answer? What happens if I stay? You wait for the Prime, put me into a stasis pod again and then you lose against Megatron, and he disassembles me after finding my pod. No thank you, I’d rather not be dependent on you to save my aft.”

“What if I promise to not put you into one of these pods if you cooperate with us?” Bumblebee offered.

“Sir, he-“ Strongarm jumped in, but Bumblebee silenced her with a gesture.

“If you cooperate, I will not put you in stasis and release you after Megatron is imprisoned. However – you’re not gonna be pardoned. Cybertron will not forget your crimes, and neither will I. I will hunt you, and the next time I’ll catch you, there’s no such thing.”

“How do you know I won’t feed you to him as soon as I get the chance to?”

“I trust your instinct to stay online. You hate him just as much as we do. Maybe more.”

“Oh, definitely more…” Starscream grumbled.

“Then is that a deal?” Bumblebee’s battery signal reached 1%. He reached out his servo the third time towards Starscream. This time, the other bot took it quickly.

“Deal.”

 

The young autobot leader coordinated the watch turn order, then showed Starscream a closed off space in the scrapyard where he could recharge.

“You know you didn’t have to repay me, right?” Starscream asked. “I didn’t do it for you.”

Bumblebee had been about to leave but turned around again. “I know. You needed to save your own aft. Now I do, too.”

Bumblebee turned his backplate towards the seeker and went towards his own space.

He hadn’t reached his berth yet when his battery flashed red.

He was going into go into forced recharge. He tried to take another step, but his systems already powered down, his legs gave in, and he fell to the ground, optics shutting off last.

Chapter 6

Notes:

Listen guys and gals I'm sorry, I went to a con this weekend so I couldn't upload yet.
I'm gonna upload two chapters today to make up for it!

The next morning, Bumblebee went out of recharge because somebot frantically shook him. While his systems powered up one by one, he groaned. “What’s going on?” he asked, finally turning on his optics, too.

Strongarm stood over him.

“Sir, why are you in recharge on the floor? Are you okay?”

Bumblebee scrambled to get up and nodded. “I just didn’t make it to my berth when I went into forced recharge last night,” he admitted. Strongarm looked much more worried than Bumblebee would’ve liked.

“Why did you wake me up? Is everything alright?” He tried to cut the awkward silence short.

“Ah, yes, Sir. The… the decepticon and the others are arguing, because nobot wants him as a partner on any of their missions.”

Bumblebee sighed. It had to be expected, he couldn’t even blame his team. Starscream had a huge history of crimes and, even though most of his team wasn’t all too interested in history, every bot in his team knew about them.

He got up, stretched his cables a bit, and followed Strongarm. He could hear the shouting and cursing even before he could see Sideswipe struggling on the ground, with Starscream on top of him. Grimlook stood beside them and looked a little bit lost.

“Urgh… Enough!”, Bee shouted, and for a second, everyone actually went silent and looked at him. Even Starscream, and Bumblebee was kind of proud of himself. Then, Sideswipe started accusing Starscream of trying to offline him, and the Decepticons first reaction to the accusation was something that looked very similar to trying to offline the red sports car.

 

Bumblebee groaned and shook his head. “Starscream, stop it, or I will cuff you.” Starscream turned his optics at him, stopped in his tracks, and then grinned widely.

“In a hot kind of way?”

Bumblebee heard the energon rush in his head. “It will probably be a really cold kind of way when I put you in stasis, how does that sound?” He coughed up, and he didn’t even know how he managed to form a coherent sentence like that.

Starscream looked disappointed, and got up, leaving Sideswipe on the floor. He then proceeded to get very close to Bumblebees faceplate.

“Mh, you’re no fun, you know that?” he murmured while keeping their optics locked. Bee struggled to keep the intense glance.

“It’s not fun jumping out of recharge because two idiots are trying to take each other offline over some small missions. Are you sparklings, or something?”

Starscream turned around, finally breaking the optic contact, and instead staring down Sideswipe. When he flicked him off, Starscream just gestured at him in defeat.

“Listen, I won’t sit here all day, babysitting the squishies, babysitted by a dinobot. And they won’t let me go alone, but they also don’t want to share their precious time with me. So tell me, Bumblebee, mighty leader, what shall I do?”

“You come with me.”

Starscream opened his intake, as if he wanted to argue, but then closed it again quickly. “You’re going …?”
“… On patrol, just like Sideswipe and Strongarm are, just the other direction. Let’s go, it’s late enough already.”

“Sir… shouldn’t someone come with you? What if…” She didn’t finish, but she didn’t have to, either.

“Strongarm, I’m going to be fine. I will always have the scrapyard on comm speed dial, alright? Plus, we’re not going to get out too far.” He tried to reassure her. It didn’t quite work as good as he wanted, he could see it in her optics.

“Autobots, let’s rev up and roll out!”, he still shouted, and transformed alongside his teammates. While Strongarm and Sideswipe already left, he turned to Starscream, who was snickering.

“What?” he asked.

“Do you do that all the time?”, Starscream asked, still in robot form.

“What?”, Bumblebee repeated.

“That cute battle cry or whatever that is.”

Bumblebee was a little afthurt and decided to not answer.

Instead, he sped away. “If you still want to get out of the scrapyard today, you have 5 nano-kliks, before Fixit reinstalls the defense system!”

And that seemed to work, because Starscream transformed in half a nanoklik and went after him.

 

They were silent for a while, but Starscream wasn’t Starscream if he didn’t hear himself talk, Bumblebee figured. Because after a few kliks of him flying like the maniac he was, he turned back towards Bumblebee and flew lower.

“Your team doesn’t like me much,” he stated.

“And they’re right,” Bumblebee retorted, and he could hear Starscream snicker again.

“True, but do you think we will ever work together? It’s a bad plan. Worse than my regular ones. And I’ve failed a lot of times.”

Bumblebee knew he was right. There was definitely no way the autobots in his team would work together with Starscream if they didn’t trust him further than Grimlock could throw him. Doubt was gnawing at him like a Scraplet.

 

He watched the seeker fly over him, taking loops so Bumblebee could match his speed better. Was it really impossible for decepticons and autobots to work together, even if they had the same goal?

“It was your plan, too. Wasn’t it? To get me to work with you.”

“I didn’t really calculate the possibility of your teammates disagreeing with you without punishment.”

Bumblebee was first taken aback by the comment, but it made sense the longer he thought about it. Megatron wouldn’t have accepted any opinion other than his own, right?

“They’ll just have to make their own decision. I can’t force them to work with you. If they’re not willing to take the risk of trusting you, I guess the plan is scrap.”

“Do you really trust me?” Starscream asked, and there was something behind the tone of his voice box that Bumblebee couldn’t identify.

“I…” Bumblebee didn’t really know what to say. He obviously didn’t trust Starscream very far. But for some reason, he honestly didn’t think he was a threat to them right now. Not when they were up against Megatron. It was still foolish, his calculations said. Starscream had worked as Megatron’s left hand for eons, and even if he was arguably not the most loyal servant to him, they hadn’t been apart for long. And probably the beating that Megatron gave Starscream prior to them saving him wasn’t even the worst Starscream had endured.

Maybe he was an idiot. Maybe he allowed a decepticon into their home who just tried to find the best moment to take them all offline and report back to Megatron to regain his standing as his left hand.

While he was doing the calculations, he realized this view of the situation was entirely possible. He somehow had acted on blind, weirdly misplaced trust and loyalty, after Starscream had saved him once.

“You turned back to Megatron quite a few times after a falling out, if I can trust the criminal records. You never tried working with the autobots. Why now?” He finally asked, dodging the question Starscream had asked.

“I might’ve gone crazy. Who knows? If you want an explanation from me that would assure you or help you to trust me, I’m sorry. I can’t give you that.”

“Did you disagree with Megatron a lot?”

Starscream coughed out a laugh. “Are you asking me if I got beat up a lot? Because yes. Yes I did. And I did disagree with him especially in the point where he thought I was his fragging slave and he was better than all of us.”

 

Bumblebee was silent for a while. What could’ve possessed Starscream to stay with Megatron for so long, if this was what their relationship looked like?

 

“I tried to take Megatron offline several times on my own. He always managed to come back for some reason. You didn’t even manage to keep him in prison, for all I know. Maybe together we can finally take him apart into so many pieces he can’t put himself together again.” Starscream finally added.

“I’m not sure the plan is to take him offline – “

“Oh, don’t worry about it, because I am sure. Because my plan is to take him offline and if you stop me from doing so, I’ll have to take you offline first.”

Bumblebee ex-vented heavily. This might be the end of his career, after all.

Chapter 7

The following solar cycles went surprisingly smooth, if Bumblebee didn’t count in the multiple instances he had to stop Sideswipe from strangling Starscream and the few moments he saw Strongarms optics darken. Did she think about reporting him to Cybertron? To… Optimus? If so, she probably decided against it, since Optimus was scheduled to arrive on earth in another two solar cycles anyways.

Grimlock stomped up to him and ripped Bumblebee from his train of thoughts. “Bumblebee! It’s trust fall training today, right? I think everyone of us could use it!”

Bumblebee’s optics widened, looking into a pair of very excited ones (Grimlock), and behind those, two pairs of annoyed ones (Sideswipe and Strongarm), one indifferent (Drift), and one absolutely clueless but definitely worried (Starscream).

“Uh…” he started, and Grimlock’s face instantly fell. Bumblebee sighed. It was Grimlocks favorite lesson, and to be fair, the reason why Bumblebee had kept it on the schedule was the fact that Strongarm and Sideswipe still were unable to complete the lesson successfully.

“Yes, of course it is”, he quickly continued and ignored Grimlocks immediate celebration that consisted of hopping around and clapping excitedly.

He instead turned towards Starscream and explained the lesson briefly.

“We are training to trust and rely on each other through an exercise in partner work. One of the pair has to stand behind the other, while the one up front has to let themselves fall. The other one has to catch them before they hit the ground.”

If Starscream hadn’t looked disgusted before, he definitely did now. “Sounds like a lesson for sparklings. And a dim sparked one, at that. What good does it do to intentionally rely on another?”

Bumblebee sighed. “It’s meant to help you have each other’s backplates in a fight -”

“That decepticon is not gonna have anyone’s backplate in a fight. If anything’s going sideways, he’s gonna save his own aft, and then run.” Sideswipe shouted, cutting him off.

Bumblebee glared at him, opening his mouth to reply, when Starscream shrugged. “He’s not wrong. I’m not giving up my spark for your little party here. Not for any little party, just to make it clear. I like my spark unscathed”

Again Bumblebee tried to say something, when Sideswipe immediately fired back. “See? It’s no use. I say put him in a stasis pod and solve the Megatron problem without him!”

“If you think you can stuff me into that thing, you’re mistaken,” Starscream hissed.

Bumblebee finally flipped. “STOP IT” he screamed. “We are definitely going to do this lesson because you all obviously still need it!
Sideswipe, how about you keep your mouth shut until you actually manage to work through this simple lesson with Strongarm? We’ve been doing this for a while now. You’ve failed repeatedly. I’m not sure you grasp the meaning of trusting your teammates yet.”

He vented deeply, then looked at Starscream.

“If this is supposed to work, you must work with us. I know this might be news to you, but I don’t need a lone wolf, I need a functional team that can rely on each other.

So yes, the lesson might sound funny to you, but until you complete it with every single one of my team, you’re not going to go on patrols with anyone anymore. I am serious, I don’t need another half-sparkling to argue with, do you understand?”

Sideswipe was silent through Bumblebee’s complete crash out, which was definitely uncommon. When he glanced to Starscream, he expected arguments on his side as well, but all Starscream did was heightening one of his optical ridges and glancing at him intensely.

Bumblebee felt energon rush into his head again, so he looked away quickly. “First teams can be formed by yourselves. If I catch you arguing again, I’ll make you do the same lesson for the whole moon cycle.”

He turned around to watch the teams form, and could’ve sworn he heard a muttered “Of course, mighty leader” from Starscream, but when he turned towards him again, he looked completely innocent.

When Grimlock instantly picked Drift as his “teamie” (to no one’s surprise), Sideswipe and Strongarm simultaneously turned towards Bumblebee. “Will you team up with me?”

Bumblebee snickered and shrugged. “I’ll team up with whoever is left in the end.”

Now, he saw the absolute dread sneak into Sideswipe and Strongarms faces. They looked at him, then Starscream, then at each other.

Bumblebee could practically hear their gears turning. “I’ll team up with you”, they both shouted at each other in unison again. Bumblebee nearly found it funny, if he wasn’t scared of the outcome of this disaster lesson himself.

“That makes us the leftover team”, he stated and looked at Starscream. He played calm but in reality, this was insanity. Not because he was actually risking injury, but he felt like he was risking his already wobbly standing in front of the team. If Starscream made a point out of disrespecting him now, what would come next?
Every bot’s eyes were locked at them when Starscream slowly walked towards him.

“I’m not going to fall into the mud in front of you.” He said.

“Correct, because I’ll catch you.”

Starscream shook his head. “I will not play this little game just to be embarrassed in front of the team.” he muttered.

Bumblebee nodded. “I go first.”

Starscream looked so confused, Bumblebee nearly thought it was endearing. He brought himself into position. “Are you ready?”

The decepticon didn’t say anything for a moment, then: “If catching you scratches my paint, you’ll polish it.”

Somehow, this reassured Bumblebee so much, he just let himself fall.
For a nano-klik, he was sure he would hit the ground, but then - (admittedly) strong arms caught his frame with ease, with the ground not even being close to his aft.

Starscream just held him, not moving. His faceplate was way to close to Bumblebee’s, with Bee’s frame all wrapped up in his arms “What now?” he asked silently, with a stupid grin on his face so wide Bumblebee couldn’t help but smile as well.

“I’d be eternally thankful if you would help me back up.” Bumblebee answered finally.

“You mean I should not let you fall the rest of the way?” Starscream asked innocently, loosening his grip ever so slightly. Bumblebee struggled to hold his balance for a nano-klik, but before he had the chance to answer, or curse him out, he was put back onto his feed by the decepticon and the frame contact was gone. Bumblebee’s spark danced like a he had some malfunction and the energon rushed through his whole frame while he stared at Starscream who had already stepped back a few steps.

It was weird, he could’ve sworn there was something in Sarscream’s optics that he hadn’t seen before. He tried to make sense of it, but it was difficult.

Strongarm’s gasp had Bumblebee jolt back into the current situation. He turned towards the others, everyone watching him and Starscream intently. “What are you waiting for? You know the lesson, you didn’t need a visual example.”

He caught Strongarm frowning for the tiniest fraction of a nano-klik, then she turned towards Sideswipe, instantly arguing over who would start.

For once, Grimlock wasn’t another reason for his hurting processor, letting himself fall into Drift’s arms repeatedly, giving the samurai bot a hard time catching him without falling himself.

While he tried to solve Strongarm’s and Sideswipes general mistrust towards each other and find a solution so they would finally not end up both laying on the floor, he noticed Starscream tried to sneak further away.

“Starscream, it’s your turn”, he shouted after him. “Are you ready?”

Chapter 8

Notes:

Let's go! You ready for some awkward discussion topics? :D

Bumblebee felt like a kindergartener again. He had officially put an end to training for this day after Strongarm and Sideswipe had started a screaming match, and there was no bot that wasn’t relieved except for maybe Grimlock. The sun was going down already anyways.

Starscream insisted he had a dent where Bumblebee had caught him earlier, but if Bumblebee was honest, he was surprised Starscream had even done the exercise.

If anyone had told him, even only a few lunar cycles ago, that he would have one of the worst decepticons in his team, he would have thought they were malfunctioning. But now he was here. With Starscream, who whined about the imaginary dent on his lower backplate.

“You promised you would take care of it!”, he now complained, so Bee gave in. “Come with me,” he sighed and brought him into his small space.

He motioned for him to sit on his berth. He then sat down next to him. “Let me see that.”, he murmured and ran his servo over Starscream’s lower backplate. Starscream ex-vented heavily, and Bee stopped for a second, then continued to search for the dent he was sure wasn’t even there.

However, he found something else: severely knotted and overlapping cables right under the plating, around a small energon leak that must’ve been from when Megatron had nearly torn Starscream apart.

Bumblebee was sure it hurt much more than a little dent.

“Lie down.” He instructed, and Starscream didn’t even ask.

Gently, he loosened the cables by massaging the area around them, pulled them apart a bit and when the leak was reachable, he fixed it as good as he could. He was sure Ratchet would’ve done a much better job, but it would suffice.

“I’ll loosen up your cables a bit, is that alright?” He asked, and Starscream just hummed in agreement. So, he kept massaging the broad area, practically feeling the tension leaving the other bots frame. When he was done, he realized Starscream had shut down into recharge again. Again.

He did consider waking him up, but it felt unnecessary. Instead, he watched Starscream for a moment. He looked so peaceful without the permanent frown or his challenging grin on his face.

He kind of liked seeing him like that.

Bee stood up and shook his helm. That thought was idiotic. He considered leaving for a short patrol, but he didn’t want Starscream to get caught leaving his room while he was gone. He wasn’t sure Strongarm wouldn’t instantly jump him, no questions asked.

So instead, he decided to lay down on the ground, since Starscream had so conveniently taken up the berth.

Recharge, however, didn’t come easy this night.
He was wide awake, processing everything that happened today. He couldn’t make sense of the other, and it annoyed him.

The rest of the team was predictable, in a way. He knew the possible next moves of every single one of them, but Starscream was a complete wild card to him.

The last days, he had been nearly civil, but Bumblebee always waited for him to snap. For it to go sideways. Which hadn’t happened, and right now he found himself kind of liking this side of Starscream.

That especially scared him. He knew, objectively, that the decepticon was not a friend. But that fact was so easy to forget if he was so … so different than the image he had of him from their past fights.

He seemed more broken than dangerous, more proximity-seeking than aggressive.

It was confusing-

Suddenly, a silent beep startled him wider awake than he would’ve liked. It was a message… from Cybertron.

“We are happy to inform you that you were assigned a special match for your conjunx endura.”, read the text. Bumblebee’s spark flickered.

It wasn’t very common for bots like him to get matched by the system, but lately, Cybertron apparently scanned for more matches to encourage conjunx ceremonies and with that, increase the amount of created sparklings.

“53% compatibility.”

That wasn’t a whole lot. Really, it was a quite bad match, just barely enough to even be one. The system matched automatically with the best possible, available bot. Bumblebee’s spark dimmed. There was not one registered autobot in space that would match his spark more than 53%?

“It is strongly recommended that you contact your match to plan the next steps.” Below that, there was a small card with the most important data of his match, including a means of contact. Another flicker of his spark - He knew the other bot.

However, before he could realize what this all meant, he felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned around and Starscream’s red eyes stared back at him. “You look like you saw Unicron.” Starscream stated, but Bumblebee shook his helm. “It’s nothing.”

“Did your Prime call you back to Cybertron or something? Are you in trouble?” The decepticon didn’t budge. Bumblebee again shook his helm. “Really, nothing of the sort. I just-“ he ex-vented heavily. “Got matched, is all.”

Starscream made a grimace. “With your weird system that claims it could calculate some variables and find spark mates?” Bumblebee just nodded.

“So, who is yours?”

“It’s only a 53% match.”

Again, confusion. “That can hardly be your spark mate.”

Bumblebee started to grow irritated. “Yes, I am aware. It’s just that apparently there’s no bot better for me.”

Starscream coughed up a laugh. “You believe this… this system? Processor compatibility may be calculated, but that doesn’t mean your sparks want to be close, too.”

Bumblebee said nothing. There was no reason to mistrust the system, right?

“Come on, Bumblebee. Ignore that system and just, you know, try yourself out. Who cares how much percent you match in your processors if your interfaces fit.”

“Inter-“ INTERFACES? Bumblebee stared at him in disbelief. “That’s… doing that is not safe.”

“What the frag do you mean?”

“Inter… Interfacing is prohibited for … for 50 vorns or something.” Bumblebee stumbled over the word, feeling embarrassed about even saying it.

Starscream said nothing for a good while, seemingly thinking. Then: “Yeah, you autolosers definitely short-circuited at some point in time. Now tell me, why, exactly, is it prohibited?!”

Bumblebee felt the energon in his head. “Programming sparklings is much safer, it doesn’t… rely on… luck…” He stammered.

“You do realize there’s more to interfacing than just creating sparklings?”

“Yeah, I mean, maybe, but – it could-“

“That is insane. Y’all are scared of … of what exactly, of sparklings being imperfect?”

Bumblebee hadn’t exactly thought of that before. He didn’t really plan sparklings anytime soon, so why would he. He also didn’t have a bot to court.

“And, you’re telling me you never – “ Starscream cut himself off, probably realizing that his question was both self-explanatory and inappropriate.

“Decepticons make… sparklings… manually, then?” He asked silently.

Starscream snorted. “It’s not all about sparklings, Bee. Hell, I don’t care about sparklings. There are ways to avoid them. Ever heard of fun?”

“Fun?” Bumblebee repeated, and Starscream shook his helm.

“You’re a lost cause, little bug.”, he sighed and stood up. Little bug, echoed his processor. Why did he kind of like that, even though it obviously was an insult?

 

“I’m going back to my place, don’t want your Prime to catch us in the same berth, only Primus knows what could happen! Wouldn’t want to get you in jail for, you know, interfacing, and all that.”

Bumblebee’s faceplate had to be glowing blue by now.

He didn’t hold Starscream back when he left.

Chapter 9

Notes:

Who thinks Optimus will stay true to his word? :D

It was the worst recharge session Bumblebee had ever had.

When he got up from the berth, his battery only showed around 27%. He was exhausted.

He went outside and was surprised when he heard no one shouting at one another. In fact, Starscream was talking to Sideswipe, seemingly in a civil manner, and Sideswipe seemed quite excited.

“Bumblebee, Sir, can we talk about something?”, Strongarm asked when she joined him. He nodded. “Of course, what is it?”

She followed his glance to the decepticon and the autobot. “I… I am not sure how to say it… but… well, I only see danger in him for us. I think he shouldn’t be here.”

Bumblebee looked at her, then nodded slowly. “Hm. You’re probably right. He might get us in danger. However… right now… we must work with anyone that can help us against Megatron. I know you never met him, or witnessed him fight, but… I did. And he’s… well, it was dark times, back then.”

She grimaced. “Is there no way around him? We are strong on our own. We could get backup from Cybertron. Anyone… except him?”

Bumblebee fought down some irritation that welled up inside of him. “Cadette, I need you to believe me that the moment he becomes a danger to us, he’s out. We can’t always rely on others to solve our problems. And he hasn’t done anything suspicious as of now. In fact, I think he’s doing quite well.”

She ex-vented and shrugged. “It’s just… the way he always looks at you… I’m worried.”

Now, Bee was confused. “What do you mean?”

“He looks at you like he wants to… I don’t know… eat you, or something.”

Bumblebee frowned. Yes, Starscream had a way of joking with him that some could understand as flirtatious. But wasn’t that simply Starscream?

“I can practically feel the tension between you two, you can’t tell me it’s not there!”, Strongarm exclaimed, and Bumblebee’s spark flickered again.

“I’m scared you’ll get manipulated into… liking him.”

“I- No! That’s –“ Bumblebee stopped himself. That was ridiculous, right? “Cadette, you’re overthinking. I am well aware of who he is. I’m not in danger of any of that. I’ve got different things to worry about than flirting with a decepticon.”

The thought of match from the system that he had pushed back into the depths of his memory came back with force and made his tanks drop in worry. He wished he had never read it. He wished he could wipe it from his memory. But he saw his chance for changing the subject.

“I got matched by the system last night.”, he said.

Strongarm seemed like he was about to say something to their previous discussion but decided against it when Bumblebee brought in the new topic. “Oh, that is awesome! I’m so happy for you! Who is it? Is it a perfect match?”, she asked, suddenly excited.

Bumblebee dodged the questions as good as he could.

“It’s alright. I know them. Maybe we should call each other soon.” Then, before Strongarm could say or ask anything else, he clapped his servos. “Now! We should get this day started, shouldn’t we? Everyone, listen up!”

 

They started with some patrols, then training, and a short mission that sadly wasn’t entirely successful, since the target could flee.

Bumblebee’s thoughts were somewhere else entirely, anyways.

With this awful match, with the weird spark-to-spark he had with Starscream the night before, and with the talk with Strongarm, too.

He therefore not only tried to dodge talking to Strongarm, but also talking to Starscream, because now his spark flickered whenever their optics met. It had to be because he now had to think about interfacing, of all things.

Somebot knocked on his helm.

“Are you home, little bug?”

Of course, it had to be the very bot that Bumblebee had just (involuntarily) thought about.

He looked up. Their optics met. His annoying spark did its thing.

“What is it?” Bumblebee asked, rougher than he had intended to.

“Wow, what a mood. Are we going on patrol, or what? Should I go alone?”

Ah, yeah. He was on patrol duty today. With him. And Starscream definitely looked like he was about to ask questions.

He ex-vented and transformed. “Come on.” He shouted while driving away, but Starscream was already just above him.

 

While they patrolled the surrounding area on their regular path, Bumblebee’s processor was completely occupied by his calculations. He calculated every single possibility in the upcoming conversation that would end up embarrassing him. In the end, he was only waiting for Starscream to start talking so it would already be over.

“You’re not in a talking mood today, huh?” Starscream finally said.

Bumblebee had already prepared some excuses on why he didn’t want to talk about the match again or about why interfacing and everything around was a topic he was embarrassed to talk about, when he compiled the sentence.

“Uh… yeah. It’s kind of a lot. I don’t know what to make of anything right now.” He answered.

“That’s fine.”, Starscream continued, and then… nothing. He said nothing.

For the rest of the patrol, they were silent, and it was weird, but also just what Bumblebee had needed.

He could sort his calculations and fears and worries for quite a while, and he finally felt a bit more at peace.

That was, until they arrived back at the scrapyard and Bumblebee saw Optimus Prime standing next to Windblade and Strongarm.

He had already nearly forgotten they had called for him, and now he was worried. What would Optimus say to the Starscream situation?

“Bumblebee”

The Prime’s tone was cool, and Bumblebee’s spark dimmed for a nano-klik. He swallowed and looked up. “Hello, Optimus.”

Optimus gestured towards the back of the scrapyard. “A word?” Bumblebee nodded, silently, and before they left the group of bots that had all gathered around them, Optimus looked at Windblade. “Have an eye on the team until I am back, Windblade.”, he ordered, and she nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

Sideswipe protested almost immediately. “Excuse me? We don’t need to be babysitted!” Strongarm rolled her optics and Optimus didn’t say anything anymore, but but his hand on Bumblebee’s back to gently shove him away from the crowd. Bumblebee could hear Sideswipe protesting, until Starscream cut him off. “You little dimspark, it’s not you she babysits. It’s me.”

Sideswipe’s answer was a huff and a “How would you know?!”, just to have the last word, Bumblebee supposed. And in that, he succeeded, because Starscream said nothing anymore, but Bumblebee could perfectly picture the rolling of his optics and his crossed arms.

Optimus pulled him back into the issue at hand.

“Bumblebee, what is the situation exactly, and why is Starscream in the base?”

Bumblebee started to quickly explain what had happened the last few solar cycles, starting with him nearly going offline, Megatron coming back, saving Starscream and the deal they made. He left out the fact that Starscream was dead set on killing Megatron.

“We don’t need Starscream. All he does is betray us, and we’ll have less chances on capturing Megatron.”

Bumblebee shook his head. “Starscream is not a threat right now. We can use every single bot we can get, and Starscream is strong.”

“He will drop you the moment he finds a way back to Megatron. Having him here is a risk not worth taking. You’ll call for backup, and I can make Starscream a fair process.”, Optimus insisted.

Bumblebee’s processor slowly heated up. He was getting angry. “I made that deal with Starscream for my team, because my team is fighting against Megatron on earth. You took several solar cycles to even get here, and there is no guarantee you will even be able to stay long enough to help us fight! Cybertron doesn’t value me enough to even listen to me, much less believe me. It happened before! Me and my team nearly became wanted criminals because I followed your orders that everyone else thought were hallucinations. You are practically only a hero of the past to them right now, too. You don’t exist anymore, officially.”

“I will not allow you to get destroyed by a decepticon just because you think they are trustworthy. I made that mistake too often.”

Bumblebee walked back to the group, furious.  “Well, why are you allowed to make mistakes, and I can’t?”, he shouted while passing the others to reach his container. “It’s not your responsibility to correct me.” He added. “It is my responsibility to protect you!”, Optimus now raised his voice as well. Bumblebee stopped in his tracks and turned around.

He looked into the Prime’s optics. “No, Optimus. It is not. Not anymore. You left Cybertron, and you do whatever you do in the stars, and that is your responsibility now. I have my own team now, and I protect them, and they protect me.” He let his glance wander over his team members’ optics, all of them staring at him.

His spark flickered in fear of what might come next, but he needed to make this clear. He set his hand on Starscream’s shoulder plate.

“Who of you think Starscream can be of use defeating Megatron?”, he asked. The reactions where slow, but Drift, Sideswipe, and Grimlocks servos raised up first. Windblade put up hers a moment later. Then Strongarm followed, reluctantly however, and she looked like she wanted to say something to put it into perspective. Fix-It seemed like he just raised his because he didn’t want to be the only one not raising his servo, but Bee took it as a win.

He nodded, and Optimus crossed his arms, his optics darkening.

“Alright, seems like we agree on this. Now, please be open and honest with me: Who of you thinks the threat he poses to us outweighs his use?” For a moment, nobot reacted. Then, slowly, Fix-It raised his servo, and then Strongarm. Sideswipe instantly opened his mouth to argue, but Bumblebee cut him off. “Fix-It, Strongarm, can you please elaborate why you think this is the case?” Starscream became a bit restless next to him, and he mumbled something about feeling like he shouldn’t be a part of this, but Bumblebee didn’t let him flee just yet.

“I fear he might just go back to Megatron and rat us out at any given time.” Strongarm said, and Fix-It nodded. Before Bumblebee could say anything, Drift started talking.

“I am positive he won’t. Can you see the scratched Decepticon logos on his chest and wings? It’s the first thing Megatron destroyed.” He walked up to them and pointed at the logos. Starscream swatted his servo away, hissing something about “Don’t touch me!”, but it was true.

The decepticon logos were scratched so deeply, they were hardly recognizable as a decepticon logo anymore.

It was worse than the ones of Steeljaw’s crew, who did the scratching themselves.

“My point is, Megatron was not only beating him up. He was about to take him offline and make him a symbol of what awaits the cons that are not only in- and ex-venting for him. He isn’t going to take him back anytime soon, all Starscream would accomplish in going back is being severed from the world wide web permanently.”

“How do you know this is the case? They had several fallouts with each other and always ended up working together in the end.”

Starscream sighed deeply. “Megatron likes to impose fear. He forgives mistakes or failure after a good beating. What he can’t forgive, however, is somebot not respecting him, not fearing him enough, or trying to overpower him. Maybe I did that one too many times.

I know you don’t believe me, but I have no plans on crawling back to him, even if Drift wasn’t right. I’m done playing the slave.”

Drift nodded slowly. “I guess he realized that, too.”

Starscream grimaced. “He didn’t even need to think by himself, because I told him right before he tried to murder me.”

“I’m still not sure this is a good idea.” Said Strongarm, and Bumblebee nodded. “I hear you, and we will be cautious moving on.

You don’t have to trust him, trust me, alright?” Strongarm nodded slowly, and Bumblebee looked back to Optimus, who hadn’t said anything the last few kliks.

“It seems I am outvoted.”, he finally said. “While I do not agree with you, I will honour your choices, so long as I don’t see an immediate threat to your lives. However, if I do, I will step in.”

Bumblebee figured it was the best they could get right now.

Chapter 10

Working with Optimus was harder than Bumblebee had anticipated, even after the whole ordeal the day he arrived. He overruled his orders several times, and they had more than one heated argument before it was even time to do the first patrols of the day.

When Bumblebee told Drift and Sideswipe to go for the first area towards the city and Windblade with Strongarm the second area behind the scrapyard, so Bumblebee and Starscream could cover the third direction that was deeper into forest, Optimus interjected yet again.

“Starscream should not go on patrols with any bot alone.”

“We have done this for several days now. I am fine. I have the scrapyard on speed dial in my comms.” Optimus shook his head. “It’s too risky.” Starscream ex-vented heavily and started pacing.

“I said it’s fine. He should be allowed to spread his wings. He is not a prisoner.” Bumblebee sighed and looked at Fix-it. “Fix-It, could you please open the gates?”

Optimus turned to Fix-It as well. “Do not open the gates. I am not finished.”

Fix-It was stammering something inaudible and looked at Optimus, then Bumblebee, then Optimus again.

Bumblebee felt the energon rush into his head. How could Optimus play the great leader in front of his team after being gone for eons?

Starscream suddenly touched his arm. “Let’s just go, scream at the big grandpa Prime some other time.”, he whispered, tipping his helm towards a small opening in the laser grid over the scrapyard. “We don’t need the gate.”

Bumblebee turned back to Optimus, who had started a lecture on safety on patrols. He decided in a flicker of his spark, wrapped his arms around Starscream who instantly reacted, pulled him close, and fled the scene through the laser grid.

 

Flying was fascinating. Flying on the back of a decepticon maybe was the craziest thing Bumblebee had ever done.

Starscream had fully transformed after moving through the grid, so all Bumblebee held on the Decepticon’s back was himself.

“You’re really heavy.” He complained, but Bumblebee was way to excited to be afthurt about it.

“I’m going insane. Why did we do that?” He instead said, thinking about Optimus wide open optics just before he couldn’t see him anymore. He was going to have a problem once they would be back.

A big one at that.

However, right now, it felt so far away. He felt free, even if it wasn’t real.

“Because you wanted to leave. And it was fun.” Starscream became slower, then transformed back into robot mode, catching Bumblebee before he could even start falling.

They landed gently, and for a few kliks, Bumblebee held onto Starscream, but once he looked up, Starscream instantly rebuilt a healthy distance between them.

“Hey… You were desperate for getting out of the scrapyard, too.” Bumblebee tried to play over the flicker of his spark by picking their conversation back up.

Starscream chuckled. “I am always desperate to get out of there. I mean… what’s better than being in the air? Also, your Prime… he sucks.”

“You’re right… about flying, I mean. It’s great. Optimus is… he’s fine. He just tries to protect us.”

“If you like flying, why are you, well… a dirtkisser?” Starscream moved around him, tapping the wheels on Bee’s shoulders.

“It’s better for the environment. We shouldn’t use too much energon.”

Starscream ex-vented heavily and rolled his optics. “Do you always to what’s best for everyone?”

Bumblebee shrugged. “It’s the right thing to do, isn’t it?”

He thought back to all the idiotic things he had done when he was younger, and the danger coming with it.

“Is it? What about what you want?” He gestured towards him. “What about having fun?”

Bumblebee stared at him. “I care about the bots around me more than I care about myself. I don’t expect you to understand. The only thing you can do is care about yourself.”

“What do you even know about me?! Caring about myself is the only reason I made it through all this online, and pretty much unscathed, if we don’t count in the constant paranoia that my spark learned from it.” Starscream exclaimed.

“Not everybot has some chosen family that cares about them, I hate to break it to you, but most of us are alone! And we fight alone, and we survive alone. Depending on others is a weakness. Caring for others is a weakness. So yes, I care for myself, and I follow my own rules, and I draw satisfaction from things that are good for me, because it’s the only thing that keeps me sane during whatever shit gets thrown at me next!”

Starscream was heavily venting, and for some kliks, it was the only thing that could be heard. Then, Bumblebee tried to move closer, but Starscream took several steps back. “Don’t”, the Decepticon warned. Bumblebee stopped.

“I’m sorry.” He started. “I shouldn’t have judged. I guess I indeed got lucky.”

Starscreams expression changed to a grin too quickly. The expression in his optics didn’t instantly follow.  “Not sure your group of useless ornaments should be counted as luck.”

Bumblebee took another step towards him, and this time, Starscream didn’t avoid his touch. “I’m sorry you had to fight on your own all the time.” He looked at Starscreams optics, that hid Starscreams thoughts far too well again. He therefore decided to not dig deeper and opted for the light-hearted thing to say.

“I bet my group of ornaments could warm up to you though, if you need another weakness anytime soon. Or, you know, a hug or something.”

 

They finished the patrol with no more breaks, and decided to turn around early, because there was no sign of any danger. Bumblebee dreaded going back to the scrapyard, though.

He also still thought about their conversation earlier. Maybe Starscream had a point too, and he had to think about himself sometimes?

So, on the way back, Bumblebee stopped and transformed in front of the small lake that they always passed.

Starscream transformed in the air and landed on his feet next to him.

“Let’s have a small break before we go back.” Bumblebee offered, and Starscream nodded. “Any klik I’m out of your little golden cage is welcome to me.”

“I must ask you a question. And I know it’s kind of stupid, but bear with me.”

Starscream laughed. “I mean I did for the last … Unicron knows how many earth days, and you do a lot of stupid things, so that has to count for something.”

Bumblebee was only slightly offended.

“If you had this… match, you know. From the system. What would you do?”

Starscream raised his optical ridges at him. “It really is a dumb question, wow.”

“Please?”

“Bee, I would comm this bot, tell them that it’s barely even a match and I am sure they have better bots than me waiting for them, and then reject the match. You can’t really be interested in them if this match doesn’t have you jump in happiness, so it’s worth nothing and maybe some shit.

It really is that easy.”

“You know no bot in my team would agree? What if the other bot believes in the system and loses their best match because of me?”

“You’re all stuck-up little Autolosers that believe everything some AI and some higher ups tell them to believe.” He paused. Then:

“Also, if you really believe in this matching system, and you’re so worried about this other bot, ever thought of the fact that you might just be ranked higher than them and therefore it’s only your best match, but they have a much better one? And maybe the system doesn't care, because it’s, yknow, just about your best match because it thinks you’re worth more?”

Bumblebee thought about that. That was… absolutely plausible. He stared at Starscream.

“You’re right.”

“Of course I am right! I always am.”

“Not always.” Bumblebee corrected.

“Tell me one time I wasn’t right about something.”

“You didn’t think that you would enjoy working with us.”

Starscream optics flashed in a slightly more intense red, and he grinned. “Who says I do?”

Bumblebee just shook his helm and looked at the lake.

“Okay, I am mostly right.” Starscream admitted finally. “Also, I only enjoy it because I love to laugh about your dim-witted problems. And those of your comrades. Now call the bot you’re matched with.”

“What?! Why?”

“We just concluded it’s the right thing to do. Now go do it. Entertain me, little bug. It will give me the joy I need to put up with your Prime.”

Chapter 11

It was an insane idea, but Bumblebee wanted to follow it.

If he didn’t call his match right now, he knew he would probably calculate and calculate and calculate every single outcome, and then never do it.

So, he opened the message. Starscream leaned over and looked at it.

“He looks like-“ Bumblebee ex-vented. “Sideswipe’s twin? Because that would be correct.”

“- like an idiot. But yeah, that checks out, too.” Then he tapped on the holo, right where the “contact” button was.

Bumblebee didn’t even have a chance to protest, because Sunstreaker was instantly on the other line. “Bumblebee, yes?” He asked, and suddenly Bumblebee didn’t even know what to say anymore.

“Are you there? You probably call about the match, right? I mean, if you can even call it a match. Sorry, I already rejected it. Its 3% over the limit to even be one, and uh… no front, but I think I can do better.”

Starscream next to him nearly fell apart in silent laughter.

“… Yeah, no, I…” Bumblebee stammered, then tried to collect himself, while Starscream fell backwards into the grass, still laughing.

“I agree. I just wanted to call to confirm that it’s fine to reject.”

“Oh! I’m sorry, didn’t knew I had to check first”, answered Sunstreaker, and Bumblebee shook his helm, until he realized Sunstreaker couldn’t even see it.

“No! No, you didn’t have to. We’re fine, you’re fine, I am also going to reject it and we’re over with it.”

“Hm, yeah. Sorry, bro. Guess you gotta find a better match between the decepticons, if there’s no autobot that has a higher score than 53%, right?” Sunstreaker laughed, and Bumblebee choked on his own mech fluid. “Haha, yeah.” He pressed out, then just… hung up.

He needed a few kliks to come back to the situation, while his processor still screamed that this was the most embarrassing comm call he had ever had.

Starscream was still laughing at him.

“That… that was… the weirdest and most uncomfortable call I have ever witnessed.” He wheezed.

“Well, thank you dearly for helping me overcome my embarrassment.” Bumblebee sighed.

“The way he… just… said he… already rejected you-“ Starscream continued, still absolutely falling apart. Still laughing, now already with coolant in his optics.

 “You don’t understand… the way you looked at me…”

Starscream’s laughter was kind of contagious, and slowly, Bumblebee realized what this meant.

It meant he was free.

Free from the pressure of liking some bot he didn’t actually like. And it hadn’t even been a big deal? He clicked on “reject” in the same nano-klik, then got up.
“Are you able to transform, or do you still have to relish in your malicious joy?”

 

When they arrived back to the scrapyard again, Bumblebee was extremely nervous. Was he about to lose everything because of this?

The gate opened almost instantly, and because Bumblebee wavered, Starscream stepped in front of him and entered the Autobot base first. It was different than last time they had arrived back from a patrol it was silent, and this time, Optimus didn’t look at him at all.

The others did, however. Everyone watched them. Bumblebee’s energon rushed through his body, and his processor started whirring loudly.

Starscream stood next to him, and somehow, he felt safer right now with him than everybot on the scrapyard.

“I am sorry for leaving, Optimus. I needed space.” He started, talking to Optimus’ backplate until the older bot finally turned around.

His glance was unreadable.

“I do understand you wish to make peace, but I also know you are not sorry about it, and you do not have to be. I overstepped.”, he finally answered.

Bumblebee raised his optical ridges. Was Optimus trying to say –

“I am sorry for meddling with your affairs. It was not my place to do so. I am not sure you are right by trusting him, but maybe we must do it your way this time.”

Fix-It came up to them. “I am also sorry, Bumblebee! I didn’t mean to infect, uh offend you!”

“We fixed the security issue, however.” Optimus pointed at the laser grid over them. “It is not safe to leave it open wide enough to fit two bots.”

Bumblebee felt Starscream’s cables tighten next to him. He opened his intake, but then closed it again. Was it the right moment to argue on Starscream’s behalf again?

Instead, Strongarm started to speak. “We know you need to stretch your wings and use your jetpacks regularly, Starscream. You’re not a prisoner here, but you don’t have access to the gate controls, so you can’t really leave the scrapyard without asking anyone. We get that that doesn’t feel like freedom.”

Starscream tightened even more, and moved his jaw.

“So, probably this tiny space in the grid was your way out to get some fresh air. So we… we made you this.”

She stepped closer, offering Starscream a tiny little gadget with a single button on it. Starscream just stared at her.

“It is… it controls the extra laser beam we put into the space that you could fit through. You can open it up whenever you feel like you need some space.”, she quickly explained.

Starscream opened his intake and closed it again. He didn’t take the gadget just yet.

Sideswipe now added: “If you misuse it, you will lose it, got it?”

The decepticon looked at him. “What would misusing include?”

“Well, anything that would endanger us or the humans on the scrapyard, and…”
“So, going back to Megatron, or bringing some old friends through it, or….” Bumblebee hit Starscream in the chest. “Stop it, don’t give them reasons to take it away, dimspark.”

Starscream looked piqued but then seemed to take the hint. He grabbed the tiny gadget quickly out of Strongarms still offering servos and nodded.

“Got it. Anything that would displease your mighty leader Bumblebee, will not be done with it, I promise.”

He patted Bumblebee on the back.

“Everything said and done then, here? It’s kind of awkward having so many optics staring lovingly at me.” Starscream then added and in an instant, Strongarm lowered her optics, and Sideswipe started arguing about how he definitely hadn’t stared lovingly at anyone.

Bumblebee just started laughing. He laughed through Sideswipes’ protest, through Starscream’s embarrassment about being thought of and through Strongarms worried questions about his processor load because he was laughing so hard. 

Notes:

ha, ha. Had to resolve that matching situation, right?

Chapter 12

Notes:

you ready for some comfort?

The following nights, Bumblebee tried to find out if Starscream used the gadget. He only caught him several solar cycles later, when Bumblebee woke up from recharge because of a noise close to the gate. He glanced outside, through the darkness, and spotted Starscream in front of the gate, pacing left to right and staring at the gadget in his servos, then at the lasers on the ceiling, then at the gadget again.

Bumblebee’s spark dropped.

Why did Starscream seem so torn? If he only wanted to fly for some time, wouldn’t he just do it?

Did he possibly think about fleeing? He wasn’t kept prisoner, he could technically go whenever he pleased, he wasn’t obligated to help them. Their relationship would go back to what it had been: Trying to survive when meeting. Bumblebee couldn’t help but feel irritated at the thought. If he wanted to leave, he could’ve just said so.

Or was it worse, did he think about going back to Megatron and bringing his cons to the scrapyard? Bumblebee shook his helm, trying desperately to get that thought out of his processor. He had promised to trust Starscream on the fact that this was not an option.

He felt like he had just ripped his optics from the pacing con and turned from the door, still trying to sort his thoughts and fearful calculations, when he suddenly heard steps getting closer to his space.

He hurriedly sat down on his berth, when it already knocked. “Come in?” He answered, and in the next moment, Starscream stood inside his container, closing the door behind him.

“It’s a test, isn't it?" He said, throwing the gadget at Bumblebee.

The yellow bot was confused. “What do you mean?!”

“The gadget, it’s a test if I would run if I could. And if I do, you track me through it and lock me up in your stasis pods again, right?”

Starscream seemed so upset and vented heavily, and Bumblebee couldn’t help but get up and gently touch his shoulder.

“No, it’s not. Why would it be?” He answered calmly. “You’re not a prisoner.”

“You always say that, everybot here always says that, but it’s not true. You try to test me, and maybe the gadget will explode and rip me to shreds if I try to use it. I am not stupid, you know.”

Bumblebee stared at him when he realized. “Is that the reason you were pacing in front of the gate just now? You feared the gadget being a … trap?”

Starscream took a step back. “You watched me?”

Bee held up his servos. “I woke up because you were loud doing it, I am sorry.”

“Why would you want me to be able to have this kind of power over your safety. Your rules-loving teenager doesn’t trust me, and neither does the mini bot. They hate me. It can only be a trap.”

Bumblebee took Starscream’s arm and left the container. “I’ll prove to you it isn’t.” He simply said, and Starscream didn’t resist but followed him.

Bumblebee trusted his teammates to never build a trap like this, no questions asked.

It still felt kind of unsafe to press the button, if only for a fraction of a nano-klik, just because Starscreams fear was so visible in his faceplate.

For two nano-kliks, nothing happened, then the extra laser beam went out.

Bumblebee looked to Starscream and smiled. “Like I said. Nothing to fear. It’s not a trap, and I promise it’s not a test either. I know you want to fly, but Fix-It and I are the only ones that can know the security codes for the gates and the security system. That is why they made this for you, so you didn’t have to ask me every time you just wanted some space.”

Starscream’s faceplate looked confused, unbelieving, and still unsure.

“I am allowed to go out alone?”

Bumblebee stared at him. “Yes, of course. You can also always ask me. That’s what I meant with ‘you are no prisoner’. If you chose to abandon this mission and not come back, it would still be your choice.”

“Do you want me to leave?” Starscream asked, and Bumblebee shook his helm so fast it was a bit ridiculous. “No, I want you to stay, and fight with us. I think that is obvious enough.”

“Then I might just come back, you know.” He smirked now and took a step closer to the space in the grid.

“Will you let me go, little bug?”, he asked after another two nano-kliks, and pointed at Bumblebee’s servo still holding his arm. Bumblebee’s helm rushed with energon, and he quickly let go off Starscream.

The con transformed and, without another word, jumped up and squeezed through the space.

Bumblebee only now realized that the deep scratches on Starscreams wings that he noticed during training a few cycles earlier must’ve come from when he carried him through it, when it really only fit one bot. And the thought made his spark flicker.

 

Later that night, Bumblebee was pulled slowly out of recharge again when a bot entered his space. He blinked a bit.

“Didn’t think you’d be able to recharge not knowing if I’d bring back Megatron.” Starscream whispered, and Bumblebee could hear his smirk in his words. “Mh, you aren’t the center of all my calculations, you know.”, Bumblebee mumbled.

Starscream stepped closer to Bee’s bed. “You sure? Could’ve sworn you just called my name.”

The energon rushed right into Bumblebee’s head, and his spark flickered, he was embarrassed. He wasn’t sure if Starscream was only mocking him, but it wasn’t impossible he’d called out his name while in recharge. His processor was still whirring; he must’ve recalculated some things from the past days.

“I- Don’t you want to recharge, too?”

Starscream shook his head. “My battery is fine.”

Just when he said it, something beeped inside his chest, and Bumblebee knew that signal. He’d heard it a lot of times.

“Your battery is going to bring you into forced shutdown soon.”

Starscream ex-vented shakily. “I know.”

“Don’t you recharge enough?” Bumblebee asked. Starscream shrugged. “It’s been a while.”

“Well now you’re going to.”

He heard Starscream’s processor starting to turn up, and his vents getting faster.

“Are you –“

“I’m scared of … losing control. Recharge is… scary… Forced recharge is – It means I can’t – “, he stammered, and Bumblebee finally understood. He had seen Starscream recharge two times since he’s been at the scrapyard, both times when he was around, both times probably not completely by Starscream’s choice. Has he not been recharging any other time?

“You know nothing can happen to you here. Get in, dimspark.”

Starscream looked up at Bee, when the beeping repeated. Bee knew there were only a few kliks left.

“You’re fine, get into the bed, come on, you don’t want your systems give out on the cold, hard, floor.”

And Starscream did as he told and laid down next to him. Bee scooted a bit closer, his spark flickering, his energon pumping.

He felt the vibration of Starscream’s processor even if they didn’t touch yet.

“I’ll keep you safe. I’ll be there when you’re back online.”

“If you’re not, I will make you regret promising it. If you make fun of me, I will make you regret getting to know me.” Starscream replied hastily, and then, his optics shut down, and the other bot’s frame relaxed into Bumblebee’s pillows.
The processor also turned down a few stages, and set into a silent, idle humming.

Bumblebee didn’t recharge that night anymore.

Chapter 13

Notes:

drama!! we need the drama and the deadline!! (or they will never get together)

Dawn came faster than Bumblebee had anticipated, even if he had spent the whole night watching Starscream recharge. It was peaceful, in a way. Watching the forced recharge that had shut down every function except for the necessary ones, slowly fade and allowing the energy supply to power Starscreams limbs again. Starscream had then moved closer towards him, and Bumblebee had allowed it. The decepticon had laid an arm on Bee’s chest plate, and Bumblebee had allowed that, too. His spark had started to dance.

Now he dreaded Starscream waking up. Because what should he even say?

But the moment came anyways. The bot right next to him moved another inch closer, then turned on his optics. The dim red light was visible for Bumblebee even though he tried not to glance at him. This was awkward, right?

Starscream slowly detangled himself from Bumblebee’s frame. “Mh, you’re not in recharge?” He asked. Bumblebee momentarily ignored that he was embarrassed about the whole situation and glanced at him. “No, I – “, he stuttered, then continued. “Uh, I promised I’d watch. So, uh, I did.”

Starscream stared at him in disbelief. “You watched me for the whole night? That – What’s your battery level?”

“It’s at 74%, relax. I can go half a night without recharge.”

“But- why would you do that? The scrapyard is quite well-protected, right?”

 “You were… panicking, and I promised to keep you safe, so… so I did.”

Bumblebee could’ve sworn he could see a blue shimmer on Starscream’s faceplate.

“You didn’t have to do that. You know I was irrational and stupid last night. I don’t even remember all the scrap I said-”

Bee shook his head. “I hold my promises.” Then he continued, when the worry came back with full force. “Also, about last night. Panicking wasn’t stupid, but flying on low battery was! You could’ve gone into forced recharge mid-air for all I know!”

“But I didn’t.”

“Can you promise me you will not take that risk again?”

“Depends, will you let me sleep on your chestplate again?”

Alright, Starscream was back to his ironic self.

“I will not only let you, but I will also make you if that keeps you from these stunts.”

Bee was not joking.

What he didn’t say was that it wasn’t only because he worried. In reality, he found it oddly comfortable lying next to Starscream. Something about his frame just fit perfectly next to him.

“Alright, big boss bug, I’ll come back to your bed tonight.”

With that, Starscream got up and was out of the door before Bumblebee could even reply. With a glance on his watch in the top right corner of his vision field, he jumped up as well. He knew for a fact; everyone would be waiting already.

 

The training sessions went better than expected that day. Bumblebee realized that slowly, but surely, his team grew together. Finally.

It seemed like everyone slowly adjusted to Starscream’s presence, as well. The bickering with Sideswipe became less poisonous, and even Strongarms lectures became more relaxed.

Fix-It still seemed extra nervous talking to the decepticon, but Bumblebee saw Starscream even made an effort to not scare the mini-bot off.

And right now, after Starscream beat Drift in a training fight, he caught the decepticon strike a full, real smile when helping the older bot up.

Drift patted him on the back. “You did well. It was a good fight.”

Starscream nodded. “Yeah, you were quite a hassle to overpower. Even though you’re old.” Drift laughed, and Bee’s spark in his chest grew a little bit taller. He was somehow proud of every single one of them, and his nervousness ebbed down a little. Maybe it was actually doable, working together.

“Alright everyone, we should start working on the combination again.” He shouted over the training space.

The others turned around and he stepped closer.

“I think it’s a powerful tool in a fight against Megatron. Maybe not more than two or three of us combining, but we are stronger together.”

Sideswipe was the first to start groaning. “I hate not seeing shit. Can I be the head?”

Bumblebee snorted. “Like I said, I want you to train in teams of two or three. So, there is a chance you might become the head, Sideswipe.”

While a fight broke out between his teammates about who would pair up with who and who was allowed to be the one seeing, Starscream stepped next to him and crossed his arms.

“Bee, what the frag is combining and why is there the possibility to see nothing while doing it? I kind of hope it’s something kinky, but I’m gonna say it right now, I’m not the kind of bot you can blindfold.”

Bee couldn’t help but blush.

“NO! It’s not at all like that. It’s …” He stumbled over his words and started again after in- and ex-venting heavily.

“It’s the ability to combine our frames to something bigger, stronger, and more durable. We have done it before in fights. Normally, it was me taking the lead as the head and rump of the combiner. Sideswipe was one of the arms, and arms don’t have optics, you know?”

“So… in that form, your teammates have to trust your lead blindly?”

“Pretty much, yeah. The coordination is a bit tricky, we needed a while to adjust. I think it is easier in smaller teams.”

“I won’t do that.”

Starscream’s firm words hit Bee right into his spark chamber, but he had anticipated Starscream to not like the idea.

“That’s fine, you can take the lead.”

Starscream turned his helm to stare at him in disbelief. “Wh-?”

Bee just smiled. “Come on, lets try it. Let me be your support.”

For a moment, he thought he saw the slightest hint of blue on Starscreams faceplate, while he rolled his optics, still not completely buying it.

“Alright, little bug, whatever you wish. How does it work?”

 

Starscream caught on surprisingly fast, and by the time they successfully formed a combiner with Bee as the legs, the others were still arguing about who would be on top.

“This is fucking weird, how do we move?” Starscream exclaimed, trying to get Bee to move the pedes.

“Relax, and trust me. We’re combined at a few hinges and data cables, and you can send a signal through those specific cables to me so I know what I have to do. Try it for the left foot.” Bee explained.

The amount of chaos coming though their signal slowly ebbed down. Then, a signal, still shaky and too strong for Bee’s liking, arrived at his processor. The interpretation was easy, and he took a step forward.

“Frag, how did that work?!”

“You’re indirectly connected to my processor, I just have to interpret your signals. So whenever you want to do something, you have to give me a clear signal.” The next signal arrived, and Bee tried not to wince. “It doesn’t have to be so forceful, though.” He added, and the next one was instantly more gentle.

They practiced on and off combination for a bit more time, and Bee felt confident they made it work much better than the full combination of his team.

The others had made progress as well, and Bee was surprised to see Strongarm combined with Sideswipe. And even more at the fact that Sideswipe was the legs. They also did a good job, still moving a bit rigid but they worked together.

The rest of the team still worked out what worked best for them, currently Grimlock, Windblade and Drift formed a team and Optimus stood on the side, watching them.

He transformed out of combination with Starscream and marked the end of the training session for the day with a shout over the yard.

However, before he could praise his teammates for their work together, the alarms around the scrapyard went wild.

The beeping and blasting lasers triggered a panicked chaos within nano-kliks. Bumblebee shouted commands, to make sure the humans were safe, and to get some kind of structure into his - admittedly quite young – team.

Surprisingly, Starscream followed his commands directly and without hesitation, even helped calm down Drift’s minicon students so they would deploy back into his arm plating.

Starscream knew war – and he knew how to survive it, Bumblebee thought.

When Starscream suddenly touched his shoulder plate, Bee snapped back into the situation at hand. “Bee, it’s Shockwave, I’m pretty sure Megatron sent him, he’s just gonna want to – “

“COME OUT OR I’LL WIPE THIS PLACE OFF THE EARTH.”

Well, it was indeed Shockwave.

“Why is he alone? Wouldn’t he come with Megatron and whoever else they already recruited again?”

“Very possible they don’t have many more cons located yet, and Shockwave was sent out to find out how many opponents there are.”

Another shelf was blasted away and the debris rained down on them.
“We have to fight him outside, or he’ll destroy everything and endanger the humans,” Bee shouted and Starscream nodded.

“FIX-IT! We need to get outside the gate, fast! And then you close the gate again, IMMEDIATELY!”

“Autobots…and Starscream, um, rev up, and roll out!”

 

When they were outside the gate, they transformed back into robot mode.

Bumblebee half expected a dozen decepticons to jump out of the forest around them, but Shockwave seemed like he was indeed alone.

“You have to adjust your action call, you know. It sounds pathetic like that.” Starscream whispered next to him.

Bee rolled his optics and focused on Shockwave instead.

“Shockwave, what do you want?” Bee asked, and Shockwave didn’t answer immediately. Instead, his faceplate turned towards Starscream right next to him.

“Oh, Starscream. You really ran to the enemies, I see. Well, loyalty was never your forte, am I right?”

“How does that concern you? Megatron wanted me offline. I’d rather be online.”

“Oh, poor little fly. You were always too cold to care for anything else than you, anyways. And too treacherous to be trusted. And you haven’t changed.”

He turned towards Bee. “He’s got you wrapped around his digits already, but be sure, he will try to destroy you while you sleep.” The sentence grew more poisonous with each word. He then laughed.

“I’m here to announce that Lord Megatron is going to destroy the whole squishy city, if you don’t give up and turn in the traitor by the end of the moon cycle. You could of course give him to me right now.”

Bee felt Starscream twitch, then stiffen next to him. He didn’t turn to him and instead locked his optics on the decepticon. “Forget it, Shockwave.”

Shockwave ex-vented heavily. “He’s just gonna betray you, why not save yourself, everybot around you, and the squishies by giving him up? Megatron just wants to make sure his treacherous Spark is separated from his chest.”

“He belongs to us. Like I said. Forget it.”

And with that, he ordered to attack. Everyone followed, but Shockwave transformed and fled the scene, however not before he reminded Bee about the deadline again. “10 solar cycles, little Bumblebee, or the squishy city is gone.”

Chapter 14

Notes:

LISTEN. Buckle in. We're getting there, aren't we?????

The damage the decepticon had left behind was visible, but nothing Bumblebee hadn’t seen before.

What worried Bumblebee more was the look on Starscream’s faceplate when they went back to the scrapyard.

It was only a fracture of a nano-klik when their optics met, and Bee hadn’t seen Starscream’s look of pure fear often yet, but it was back in that moment. The next, Starscream had already stuffed every emotion behind his mask of snarky remarks and grins again.

They cleaned up and started reparing the most important parts of the scrapyard structure, then the rest of the team started to make plans on how to stop Megatron and the decepticons from destroying the city. They argued about how to fight them and where, if it was better to surprise them right now than to wait for the last cycle.

Bumblebee couldn’t concentrate on anything else than the question that his processor tried to calculate over, and over, and over again.

Was it the right decision to endanger his whole team and the unknowing species living on this planet for a decepticon who was probably going to be up and running as soon as Megatron wasn’t a danger anymore? His spark told him yes over and over again, but he couldn’t forget Strongarms comments from a while ago. What if he was falling for this con and let his feelings overpower his judgement?

Optimus sat down next to him and pulled him out of his calculations when he started to speak.

“It was the right decision, Bumblebee.”

Bee looked up to him, surprised.

“You really think that?”

Optimus nodded, humming in agreement.

“Even if you didn’t believe in Starscream being helpful to the team, he certainly isn’t helpful to us on Megatron’s side. And -” He paused, watching the other bots frantically discussing options for a moment, until he continued. “- betraying somebot who needs protection isn’t you, my friend, as much as it isn’t me.”

He patted his shoulder, then got up. “Don’t run your calculations in a circle. I am proud of you. You did well today. Now we must do well in the following cycle, too.”

After several lengthy discussions about tactics without a definitive conclusion, with Sideswipe and Strongarm shouting over one another, Drift, Windblade and Optimus trying to reason, and Grimlock just pacing back and forth while shouting something about smashing all the cons right now, while Starscream still sat in a corner, staring into the distance, Bumblebee finally stopped his team. “Let’s get some rest. Panicking results in sloppy decisions. We can discuss more tomorrow.”

There were no disagreements and shouting about this decision, at least. The bots one by one disappeared into their own containers, while Starscream still just seemed lost.
Bee mustered up his courage and approached him.
“Are you alright?”, he asked gently.

Starscream flinched and his gaze darted towards him, then into the distance again, then back to him.

“Uh, yeah, sure. Go recharge, Bumblebee.”

Bumblebee frowned. “Didn’t you want to …” his voicebox gave out. He didn’t remember a second time he had been so scared to embarrass himself. He shook his head and tried to regain his composure, but Starscream had already caught up on what he was trying to say.

“Ah, yeah, I know. Bumblebee, I don’t think I need to take up your space tonight. I am alright.”

Bee’s spark dimmed. He still tried.
“It is no bother, Starscream. And I know you’re not fine, so quit the act.”

Starscream coughed up a humourless laugh.
“What do you know, Bumblebee.”

Bee ex-vented heavily. “Well, not much, except that you called me ‘Bumblebee’ more times in the last 2 kliks than you did your whole time here.”

Starscream raised his optical ridges, surprised.  “I –“
Bee cut him off. “Also, you’ve been staring into the void for the last few breems, which isn’t exactly your regular behaviour. You’re much more… exasperating, normally, with your constant bickering and I do have to admit I kind of miss it.”

Starscream opened his intake again, but Bee wasn’t done.

“You always pretend you’re alright, and damn, you have hidden your worries from me very well the last few cycles. However, right now it is very visible and that means you come with me into my bed tonight and –“

“Alright, alright, little bug, just vent. I’m coming!”

 

When they sat down on the bed, the energon rushed into Bee’s head. He hadn’t really planned as far as what to say to break the awkward silence between them.

Luckily, Starscream wasn’t the con to say nothing for extended periods of time.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know.” Bee knew exactly what he meant.

“Maybe not. But you’re a part of us. And you’re important to me.” It felt good saying it, Bee thought.

It triggered another surprised expression from Starscream, who had turned his head towards him when he processed what Bee had said. And another nervous flicker of Bee’s spark. Another rush of energon in his cheeks.

“I might be the end of your career if you continue doing things for me, little bug.” Starscream murmured.

“Oh, is that - “ Now it was Bee’s turn to be surprised. “- Is that some worry about me and my career that I just heard? You know, one could think you care about me.”

Starscream snickered, then shook his head.

“Really, Bee. I’m serious. You care too much. Think about yourself more.”

Bumblebee’s spark started dancing, because this was answer enough.

He laid down, patting the mat next to him, until Starscream followed.

They said nothing for a while, getting comfortable next to each other.

“Starscream… If you could do anything after this whole Megatron stuff is over. Anything you wanted. What would you do?”

A long silence followed, then:

“That doesn’t matter, because I will have to find a way to get out of your sight and stay hidden from the decepticons. I don’t think there’s much space for wishes.”

Bee rolled his optics.

“Please, just imagine you’re the boss. You decide. What would you do?”

“But I’m not, there’s always somebot shitting on me.”

Bumblebee turned to him, ex-venting heavily.

“Would you please humor me and just think about it for a klik?”

Starscream locked eyes with him. “I don’t know…”

“Okay, then I start.” He vented deeply, and then quickly pushed the words out of his voice box that he feared to be ridiculed for. “I would ask you if you wanted to stay. I would make sure to give you a position that works for you. I guess I would try to make some change, too. Try to start creating bridges over the huge chasms between Autobots and Decepticons. I’m sure there’s more we can do than trying to not kill each other.”

Starscream smiled, something that was rare for him. “Then I guess I would try to become your boss. And make you kneel in front of me. That would be a pretty sight. And a bit hot, too.”

Bee stared at him.

“I’m joking, little bug. I’m comfortable here. I guess… If you’d have me, I would stay here. I might be able to be of help with some of the decepticons that were open to make amends. Not saying I’d want to be part of the autolosers. I’m not putting up with all these weird rules. You’d have to change a few of those, too.”

“Specifically the… no taking bots offline rule?”

Starscream snickered again, but shook his head. “That one, I can deal with most of the time. I think. However, I will not save energon and become a dirtkisser. My ass stays in the skies. And scrap, the interfacing one! It’s insane! Why would such a rule even exist. Makes no fragging sense.”

Bumblebee had to laugh a bit as well now. Starscream really seemed to have hard feelings about this particular rule. Bumblebee wondered if it was only because he didn’t understand the reasoning behind it.

“Okay let’s say you weren’t obligated to follow that rule in order to stay. Now it’s hard to break that rule without some other bot breaking it with you. Who would you ask?”

The decepticon raised his optical ridges. “Hm. I guess…” he turned down his voice box to a whisper, and leaned closer to Bee’s audial receptors. “… that would have to be you.”

Bee’s spark felt like it could explode in his chest every nano-klik. He didn’t know what to say.

“Uh, why… why me?” The next moment, he realized Starscream could have been joking just to mock him. His processor coolers turned up.

“Uh, because otherwise there’s two grumpy grandpas in your team, four kids, two squishies, one minibot, a dinobot with only half a working processor and a mostly absent ex of mine. I guess you’re the most intelligent option here.”

Bumblebee tried not to think of the fact that Starscream had just said he was the only viable option of a lot of bad ones. Instead, he focused on another thing he said.

“Ex? Is… Windblade your ex?”

Starscream looked at him, smirking. “It was a few vorns ago. Didn’t work out.”

“What does that mean?!”

“Well, if ‘she shot me in the stomach plating while I tried to calm her down’ sounds like it DID work out, I’m all ears.”

Bumblebee grimaced. “That sounds like it hurt.”

“Well, I hurt her first, so it seems fair. Let’s talk more about what could be than what has been, come on, would you agree?”

Starscream’s optics gleamed red in anticipation of Bee’s answer.

Bee really didn’t fragging know what to make of this. He didn’t know if he would be able to say no, but also this was insanity. Right?

“I… I don’t know, inter... interfacing means… being so close, and it’s… it’s…”

Starscream looked unimpressed. “It’s hardly closer than we are right now.”

Bumblebee suddenly realized how close they were, and his processor cooler turned up yet another stage. Technically, Starscream was right, even if Bumblebee meant another kind of closeness.

“It’s prohibited, and… what if it goes wrong… and anyways, I always thought it as something only for… Conjunx Endura. For one bot, only one and nobot else.”

“Frag, you hurt me!”, Starcream exclaimed. It wasn’t all too believable. “So, it’s fine for autobot Conjunx to do it?”

“Only during the ritual.”

Starscream coughed up a humourless laugh again. “That is crazy to me, Bee. It’s like you can have a taste of one of the most relaxing things in this fragging universe and then they take it away from you forever. No wonder you’re all so stuck up and tense.
Then again, I don’t think many of the autolosers who have a Conjunx Endura stay loyal to this rule.”

Bee ex-vented, tried to calm down, then asked: “Is it really that big of a deal though? I can’t say I miss anything.”

“Well you don’t know what you miss, Bee.”
With that, they changed the topic for a while, talking about this and that, rules that Bumblebee knew would be tough for Starscream to follow.

Like the ‘least drastic measure’ rule, the rule against violence unless provoked, and the one that limited the acceptable flight height and speed in cities.

Suddenly, Starscream cut him off.

“Anyways. How’s kissing?”

Bee felt the hot energon in his cheeks again. He really shouldn’t be this nervous, he felt like a youngling.

“What about it?”

“Is there a rule against that as well?”

“N..no, not that I know of…”

“Okay, that means if I kiss you know, you’ll stop giving me all these reasons not to play with the thought of staying?”

Bee’s optics grew wide.

“…WHAT? I mean, I guess, I… if you… yes?”

He wasn’t sure what he had even tried to say, but within the next nano-klik, Starscreams lips were on his, and his processor seemed to turn off, and his spark took over.

Everything around him vanished, and the feeling of Starscream’s lips moving on his made his spark chamber vibrate.
He reluctantly kissed back, fearful of scaring the con off. He wasn’t the best kisser, at least that’s what he took out of his past … situations.

But Starscream didn’t pull back, but deepened the kiss, and Bumblebee wrapped his arms around him and pulled him closer, until Starscream moved on top of him, which deepened their frame contact even more.

Their kiss got sloppy and intense real fast, until Bee had to push Starscream back. “N- No, Starscream we can’t-“

Starscream wiped his lips and grinned. “Hn. Are you scared you’ll realize what you’re missing already?”

He leaned closer again. His red optics sparkled, and Bee thought it was the prettiest thing he’d seen in a while. He pulled Starscream’s faceplate back onto his.

Chapter 15

Notes:

take the cute stuff while it lasts
time is running out.

Also i might change the Rating to M because I feel like it is more fitting, also for future chapters maybe. Not sure yet though...

The next morning, Starscream was already gone when Bee woke up.
He couldn’t help but feel disappointed but tried to ignore it.
It wasn’t like anything more than some kissing had happened, expecting Starscream to stay by his side was dim-sparked at best.

He left the container and started his daily routine.
He instantly noticed Starscream was weirdly distant, less flirty, less outgoing around him, and generally less touchy and playing with him. He even avoided optical contact most of the time, even when Optimus started another pep-talk, he couldn’t manage to catch Starscream’s gaze to exchange rolling optics.

Bee tried to shrug it off, but it hurt. Had he done something wrong? Was he really just such a bad kisser? It hadn’t felt bad in the moment, and Starscream hadn’t said anything, so he couldn’t make sense of it.

He tried to talk to him several times throughout the training, but Primus, Starscream was GOOD at avoiding him.

He only was in his vicinity when the others were around and was quick to have another place to be when Bumblebee just approached him.

Frankly, it was annoying, and Bumblebee was fed up playing his game of catch by midday.

During break, he went over to Starscream’s container and knocked on it. “Don’t come in, I don’t care who you are, it’s my break.” Was Starscreams answer.

Bee ex-vented. “Starscream, we NEED to talk.”

Silence from inside the container, then: “I don’t know what there is to talk about. Take a hint.”

That hurt, but it didn’t stop Bee from continuing. “You know I don’t deserve that kind of treatment. I deserve an explanation. Help me understand what I did wrong and how we can fix it so we can work together properly again.”

Starscream nearly shoved the door in his face when opening it. “Come in already, you persistent little pest, we don’t need you shouting over the whole scrapyard.”

When the door closed behind Bee, silence spread between them again.

He crossed his arms.

“We need to ignore what happened tonight.”, Starscream said, finally.

Bee furrowed his optical ridges. “Why?”

“Because it’s not what you want.” He didn’t say it wasn’t was he himself wanted. Bee reluctantly let some hope into his spark chamber.

“Why do you think you know what I want? I …”

“What do you think it is you want right now, little bug?” Starscream muttered.

“I want you to kiss me.” The words tumbled out of his voice box before Bee had calculated them through.

Starscream stood up and moved closer, step by step, until there was hardly any space between their faceplates anymore. His optics were nearly hypnotic as Bumblebee stared into them.

"You should be careful what you wish for", Starscream whispered, his voice deeper than normal, hoarse, even.

"You might not be able to handle what comes with it." Bumblebee ignored his flickering spark and his trembling kneeplates. "What do you... mean?" he croaked, and his voice box nearly gave out.

"What I mean, sweet little bug, is this:

You don't want some kissing and making out, then some interfacing and tomorrow everything's professional again, you're not the type for that. We talked about it last night.

But here’s the thing, I'm tolerated here during one, and only one mission. This mission will end. It will most likely end in less than 10 cycles. And therefore, whatever we start here will end, and it will probably damage your spark. There is no happy ever after here."

Bumblebee's processor knew he was right. His spark screamed at him he wasn't.

"I don't care." The words were out too fast for him to stop.

Starscream ex-vented and broke optic contact for a nano-klik while he took a few steps back.

"Bee, I... I can't give you what you want." Bee's spark dimmed while fear crept through his frame. Did he misread the signals? No, that wasn't it, right?

"If you can't, why did you kiss me last night?" There had to be something.

"We were talking about fairytales, and I got carried away. I was delusional, thought it could stay just in this moment, but it obviously couldn’t. Nothing we talked about will ever come true. It’s wishful thinking and indulging in that will only result in disappointment." Now Bumblebee was the one to step closer and force optical contact. He was pleading now. "Starscream, let’s be delusional, together. For the time we have, in Primus' name it's not much, I know, but I want this."

Starscream cupped Bee's faceplate with his servos.

"I don't want to damage your spark, but giving into this, it won’t be able to shield you from it. It will probably damage mine, too, if I even have one left. Because you're so, so ... adorably naive and... you believe in everything good in the universe. You still believe in everything working out in the end. I don’t want to take that from you."

Bumblebee didn't know if he should be offended or feeling complimented.

"It's too late anyways." Bee tried one last time.

"It will hurt no matter what! Especially now after you basically said you just won't frag me because you care for my spark."

Starscream raised his optical ridges higher than he ever had. Bee cringed.

"I'll pretend I haven't heard such obscene words out of your disciplined, well-behaved autobot voice box."

Bumblebee decided he would show Starscream how well-behaved and disciplined he really felt right now, stepped another step closer and pulled the decepticon by the neck into a kiss.

Their lips clashed with a little bit too much force, but they adjusted quickly. And Starscream didn't pull back immediately like Bumblebee feared, but groaned silently, then grabbed him roughly and pulled him even closer.

The kiss deepened almost in an instant, just like last night, weakening Bumblebee's kneeplates. He let himself melt into Starscream's arms, and the decepticon held him.

It was over too fast.

Because Starscream did pull away eventually, gently pushing Bee back onto his own pedes.

They were both breathing hard, and the blue shine of energon, that Bee knew he displayed on his faceplate, was also visible on Starscream's.

"Alright. I tried to be the responsible one for once, but you really are a little pest that I don’t have enough self-control to ignore. Just don't say I didn't warn you, little bug." He complained, slowly ex-venting onto Bee's lips. Bee just rolled his optics. “Couldn’t have dreamed that I’d ever put responsible and your callsign into one thought.”

Chapter 16

Notes:

this is the second to last chapter I've got prepared.
That means, updates will come slower after the next one, I'm sorry!
I know this one is a bit tooth-rotting and maybe slow on drama, but we get a ton of that in the next few chapters.

Also, fair warning I am gonna be putting the Rating up to M.

Bee was on edge the whole time for the following days, calculating every single possible outcome of their fight with Megatron that would happen far to soon for his liking.

Starscream and him hadn’t touched the topic of anything beyond the day of the fight anymore, and Bee didn’t know if it was even on Starscreams mind, but he himself couldn’t stop it.

He felt conflicted over his decision to use their time for … for what, exactly, even?

They did kiss at night and in moments no bot watched, and always shared Bee’s bed for recharge, but it felt like it wasn’t enough, ever.

And when he looked into his Primes’ eyes, he felt like it was too much, every step over the line between a friendly but professional relationship was too much.

He felt like he was betraying every single one of his friends. He felt like he betrayed himself, even, because Starscream was right, and he wanted more. A relationship that he could lean on. Somebot he could share soft words of endearment with.

Somebot that loved him.

And Starscream had made clear that this wouldn’t happen.

Right now, they were working on the combinations again. But Bee couldn’t focus. He interpreted Starscream’s signals delayed, causing the other bot to loose balance more than once. When they fell back onto the ground for the fifth time, Starscream transformed out of combination and sighed. “Bee, what’s going on. You’re never that bad at this.”

“Ugh, I just …” He trailed off. It wasn’t his right to whine about this now. He had wanted this kind of … situationship, and Starscream had told him not to cry about it.

Instead, he feverishly tried to find a better thing to say.

“… am low on battery today. Didn’t get enough recharge. You snored.” He managed to say, and begged Primus to let Starscream believe the lie.

The decepticon hesitated, but then said: “Fine. I can get you some engergon.”

Bee shook his head. “Nah, it’s okay. I’ll just have to try harder.”

Starscream wasn’t convinced, but he turned around and pulled Bee up.

“You know what I wonder?” He asked before they combined again. “Do you think it’s possible to … combine into vehicle mode? Or, I don’t know, transform within combiner mode?”

Bee raised his optical ridges. He had never thought about that before. If it was, it could be helpful for both getting into and getting out of a fight, since Starscream’s vehicle form was much faster than his.

They tried this and that for a while, and Bumblebee finally succeeded in pushing his dark thoughts away while trying to become the wings of a jet.

After some trial and error, when they combined again, Bee’s vision turned another type of black, and the sound Starscream made could only be interpreted as a happy squeal. “Did it work?” Bee asked, excitedly. “Yes! Yes, we’re flying. Frag, I wish you could see the optics of your ornaments staring up to us.”

Bee wished, he could see them, too. And the sky around them when they left the scrapyard in full speed. And the trees below them.

Starscream’s signals were clear, but the speed at which they were flying made it hard for Bee to react accordingly. It was still not like they were only one frame.

“Ugh, Bee, you need to-“ The next moment, Bee felt like they were falling. Were they?

“Bee, I need to access the wings and the spoiler. Give me full access to your frame, PLEASE!” Starscream’s words were hasty, and Bee wanted to do it, but didn’t know how.

But he could only imagine the ground coming closer and closer, and while bracing for impact, in a last-ditch effort, he gave up all his control.

The next moment, they were stable again. Bee felt a brush of leaves against part of his frame. Was that the ground or a tree they nearly hit? Then, slowly, his vision cleared.

He could see.

Through Starscream’s eyes, the world was tinted slightly warmer, more reddish and orange, which was to be expected due to the color of his optics, Bee supposed.

Starscream’s voice was in his processor. “Frag, that was close.” They both got startled, nearly losing control again, but Starscream caught them yet again.

“Why are you in my processor?!” He asked, and Bee really didn’t know what to answer. A wave of uncertainty rushed through him, and he realized it wasn’t his own. “I don’t know. I can … see through your eyes, and I think I can also feel parts of your emotions.” He whispered, and the next thing he felt was a flicker of fear.

For a moment, he thought Starscream would instantly pull back from whatever connection they found, but then Starscream answered. “Mh. You can see now, then, but you’re still nervous. Don’t you trust my flying skills?”

Bee laughed. “I do, I do, I promise!”

“You better, because if I am good at something, it’s this.”

A warm feeling settled in his spark chamber, and he concentrated on what lay beyond them. “Where are we, anyways?” He asked, when Starscream flew a looping and then into the opposite direction to where they were headed first.

“Only a few miles from the scrapyard. I needed to try how fast and high we could go. But this…” He hesitated. “… it’s just like flying with my frame, only… better. I feel like we’re much stronger. No delay, either. Is it uncomfortable for you?”

“No, I feel like I could still take over control whenever we wanted to, but I guess you’re the better pilot between both of us.” There was pride in Starscream’s next words.

“I’m gonna get us back to the scrapyard. This connection must be possible in every combiner form. It’s gonna give us an advantage over Megatron and his cons. I’m not sure they are aware this even exists. I for sure never heard of it, and even if I did, I would’ve refused to try it.”

“Why are you doing it now, then?”

“Maybe because it feels fragging nice to be in control over both our frames at once. I bet we could leave earth in this form alone…” Starscream quickly answered, but his words held no spite.

“I think it’s because you trust me … maybe only me.” Bee corrected and the flicker of Starscream’s feelings were answer enough for him - because they were opposite to his own nervousness.

 

When they arrived back at the scrapyard and transformed out of connection, Bee instantly missed the closeness they had shared. It was weird, but he felt somehow... naked, and raw.

With an excited sparkle in his eyes, Starscream instantly told Sideswipe how strong he had felt and how perfect the wind was in his wings. And how easily he had maneuvered them back to the scrapyard.

Bee wasn’t sure what to say or if he even wanted to share his side of the story. His details about this connection that felt awfully close to a practice that he had only heard of until now.

He remembered the law against this practice, too. Connecting two bots by their main cables was considered an intimate act. It allowed both bots to roam the processor of the other freely, share emotions and data, especially memories. Autobot law prohibited doing this, since it sometimes impacted both bots through tiny data glitches. In short, it was possible to influence the programming of another bot permanently. During earlier ages of war, it had been used as interrogation tactic, until the enforcers who had done it slowly started to change. At least that was what Bee had heard.

He was pretty sure they hadn’t done that, but it had to have been some minor data cables that they had accidentally connected. And he wasn’t sure if it bore the same risk, or if there was a law against that form of connection too, but he didn’t want to take the chance.

“You gave up all control to Starscream?” Strongarm asked and ripped him out of his calculations.

Bee shook his head. “I was in full control the whole time. We both were. I just… let him do the flying.”

Strongarm instantly looked less worried. “But how is that even possible? The connection through the cables between the combiner hinges are… thin and not connected to the processor directly. Did you…” She stopped. Here optics went wide. “Did you exchange other cables?!”

Bee had feared Strongarm would think the same way as him. It made it more real. “I… don’t know. Right now, I think it is very possible we did by accident.”

Strongarm gasped. “But you didn’t connect your main cables, did you?!”

“No! I would’ve known that, wouldn’t I?” He exclaimed. Strongarm looked pensive. “Probably. If there is a possibility to connect cables that are more effective than the ones directly at the connections and less … intrusive than the main ones, maybe we can use that for our advantage.”

Bee looked at her. “Do you know of any law concerning connections with data cables beside the main ones?”

Strongarm shook her head. “No, I’ve read some studies, and apparently, it is believed that it’s only the main cables that can have this kind of … negative effect.”

Bee sighed in relief. Maybe he hadn’t actually broken any law today.

 

That night, Starscream and him both couldn’t really settle into recharge.

“What do you think happened today.” Starscream asked, silently, contemplative.

Bee decided to tell him what he talked about with Strongarm. It sounded scary, sure, balancing on the verge of some intimate bonding act that could go horribly wrong as far as science knew.

But Starscream reacted calmly. “Hm. You autolosers really have studied everything surrounding connections between bots, huh.”

Bee blushed and looked away.

“I do admit it felt kind of intimate, not going to lie. It’s kind of unsettling having someone listen in to your feelings, don’t you think?”

Bee laughed silently. “You hardly let anything through!”

Starscream cocked his optical ridges, grinning. “But you did! You were constantly giving me the nervous chills; I am still stressed thinking of your constant anxiety!”

Bee just laughed more. “I’m sorry! I’m not used to flying, much less doing somersaults in the air.”

Starscream rolled over, suddenly kneeling over him and whispering to his audial receptors. “Well, then we should get you used to it, don’t you think?”

Bee’s spark flickered violently, like every time Starscream was so close to him, and he drowned his upcoming anxiety that this time had nothing to do with flying by pulling the con into a kiss.

Chapter 17

Notes:

Content Warning for smut I guess.
Also I do apologize ahead for this.
I'm not used to writing smut, to be completely honest this is my first time ever.
I just felt it was kind of relevant since a bigger part of the plot is the laws of the Autobots prohibiting anything that couldn't completely be controlled.
Don't hate me if this is a little cringe to read :')

It was time to act. Bee knew they didn’t have much more time to practice fighting in and out of combination. The more time they gave themselves, the more time they also gave Megatron’s team to gather up more decepticons.

With a shaking voice box, Bumblebee had messaged Megatron to set the date for the meetup to tomorrow, one day before their ultimatum ended.

“You won’t do anything stupid, little Bumblebee, will you?” Megatron had asked, before cutting off the connection.

Bee wasn’t sure if he was about to do something stupid. In reality, he was doubting every klik in his current existence.

A part of him wanted to just pause time.

He wanted more time with Starscream, more time to make sure they were prepared to fight against Megatron, and more time to find out what he actually felt.

“Do you think it is possible to keep Starscream here… officially… after the mission?” He had asked Optimus in the morning.

He had done it with Grimlock, but his crimes were minor and easy for Bee to weigh up against his value for the team in front of a committee. Starscream’s criminal record on the other hand was longer than anything Bee had seen before. As far as Bee knew, it was absolutely possible for him to be sentenced to several hundred vorns in stasis if he was brought in front of a committee.

An allyship against Megatron wouldn’t change a lot in that case.

Optimus’ answer had been honest, but short. “It might be, but you both have to be prepared to lose everything.”

Bee knew what he meant. Defending Starscream in court could cost him his career, his team, and his privileges. And Starscream would have to agree to facing court. His choice to leave was still there. And facing the possibility of two or three decavorns in stasis, leaving sounded like the better option even for Bumblebee.

Somebot ripped Bee out of his train of calculations by gently touching his temples. Bee focused his optics on the taller bot and tried to smile.

“Look at you, so worried, little autobot. What is bugging you… except for your name that indicates you’d be able to fly while you really can’t?”

Bee wanted to collapse into Starscream’s arms, but there were too many bots around right now.

“Just calculating possibilities.” He answered.

“You need to relax, little bug. Tomorrow’s our big day.”

Bee ex-vented and shook his head. “I just wish we had more time.”

“We don’t need more.”

It stung, hearing these words, even when Bee knew it was probably intended as reassurance in anticipation of the upcoming battle. Mostly because it seemed it didn’t even bother to Starscream that their time together was running out, too. In the battle against his feelings, Bee was on his own.

 

“Let’s clear our processors a bit and fix your only flaw, huh?” Bee nodded and told the others they would do a patrol flight around the scrapyard.

When they transformed into their combined form again, it already felt too natural, and when Bee focused his optics, the world was slightly warmer tinted again.

They left the scrapyard behind fast, and Bee wished for the weight in his spark chamber to drop, but it stayed.

Starscream said nothing for a while, so he must’ve felt it too.

Finally, they landed in a small clearing in the forest on top of a hill. From here, the scrapyard wasn’t visible. Instead, the trees framed the setting sun, casting shadows onto the grass steeped in gold.

It was beautiful, and Bumblebee couldn’t help but think it would be even more pretty through Starscream’s eyes.

But the setting sun reminded him of another thing, and he turned around to the other bot. The golden rays reflected on his wings, chest, and smirking face, and Bee tried to imprint the image into his processor.

“We should do it.”

The words where out of his voice box faster than he could calculate the consequences.

Starscream’s optics focused on him. “What exactly?”

Bee felt the energon rush to his helm and ex-vented shakily in order to muster up the courage to say it. He turned his optics to the ground.

Starscream took a step closer and forced Bee to look up with his servo under his chin.

“If you want to do it, you should be able to say it into my faceplate, don’t you think?”

Bee was irritated by the fact that Starscream obviously already knew what he meant, but the smirk on the other’s faceplate made him forget both the irritation and his embarrassment.

“I think we should … interface before we don’t have time for it anymore.”

Starscream’s smirk dropped for the slightest fraction of a nano-klik, then it widened.

“You sure? That’s quite rebellious of you regarding the fact it’s prohibited for autobots. Didn’t you swear you didn’t miss anything?”

Bee rolled his optics and took a step back, breaking their frame contact. “If you don’t want to, fine. Then let’s go back.”

He turned around, spark flickering nervously. Before he could think about the possibility that Starscream really didn’t want him, the con grabbed him by his arm and pulled him back into his arms with so much force he stumbled against him and their frames made contact with a loud clank. That must’ve scratched both their paint jobs, but Bee couldn’t care less right now, because Starscream already kissed him with so much intensity his legs went weak.

“Sit.” Starscream whispered into his audial processors and the next moment, Bee was on the ground, and Starscream kneeling over him. They started making out again, and Bee’s servos started shakily moving over Starscream’s backplating. Starscream broke the kiss. “Bee, if you’re not sure – “ Bee shook his head. “I am sure. I just wish this wasn’t a crime.”

Starscream laughed silently, then shook his helm. “You’re taking all these rules too seriously. What would even happen if they caught us?”

“Well… regarding the fact that you’re a decepticon – “ Starscream rolled his optics and cut Bee off with more kisses. “Ugh, Ignore that I asked, and relax.” He whispered between them.

Just when Bee started to lose himself in their kisses, Starscream tapped against Bee’s modesty plating. “Will you open this for me, my little bug?” His whisper right next to his audial processors sent a shiver down Bee’s cables. Another slight touch of Starscreams digits on the plating made Bee react instantly. His modesty plating disappeared behind his stomach plating, and his already hard spike pressed against Starscream’s frame.

Starscream’s optics where glowing when Bee looked up into them.

“Will you open yours, too?” He asked breathlessly. Starscream smirked. “No.”

Bee furrowed his optical ridges. “Wh-“ Starscream laughed. “I’m just kidding! You’re so easily fooled, and just so pretty when you’re offended.” Bee wanted to be offended, but the next moment, Bee felt the modesty plating of the other con slide back and suddenly, their spikes touched. Bee wasn’t prepared for the lightning rushing through his frame in that nano-klik.

He moaned in surprise, and then, horrified, quickly clasped his servos over his voice box. He half waited for Starscream to make fun of him, but when he looked up at the decepticon, he was frozen, had his optics tightly shut and was breathing heavily.

When Starscream moved ever so slightly against him, Bee couldn’t stop himself from moaning again, and this time, Starscream took the servos in front of Bee’s voice box and interlocked them with his.

“Let me hear the sounds you’re making, maybe it will convince me this is a good idea.”, he muttered.

Bee just nodded. He didn’t trust his voice box to form words right now.

“Bee, I-“ Starscream paused for a few nano-kliks. “… I don’t know what you prefer, but I don’t really do-“

Bee cut him off. “It’s fine. You know I don’t have much experience with this, so let’s just do it how you enjoy it, alright?”

Starscream’s frame relaxed, and Bee just pulled him closer, holding him tight. He was pretty sure he could overload only with their spikes touching, but he wanted all of it.

Starscream’s digits moved between their frames gently, stroking his spike and making Bee gasp again, and then finally reaching his valve.

He started massaging it slowly, and in a last ditch effort to stop himself from moaning, he started kissing Starscream again.

When his digits went into Bee’s valve, another lightning of desire flashed through Bee’s frame, and he pushed against him involuntarily. “Please, Starscream, I want to-“

Another moan cut him off, because Starscream pushed his digits into him deeper, then pulling out and pushing in again.

“Please… let’s just – “

When Starscream didn’t do what he wanted, but instead pulled his digits out of him and just watched him for a moment, Bumblebee took matters into his own servos. He pressed his valve against the other’s spike, and the tip slid into him without resistance. Starscream’s digits digged into his shoulder plating, and the other servo grabbed his tighter, and then he pushed completely into him.

Bee shuddered from the electrical reaction of their interfaces, he saw lights dancing in front of his optics, and his spark was ready to burst through his chest plating.

He felt raw, the cable endings inside his valve pumping electric signals through his frame. Starscreams spike filled him out, and everything felt so right, so perfect. How could any of this be wrong?

Starscream groaned, breathing quickly, and his servos were also shaking.

“I don’t think I can –“ Starscream groaned, cutting himself off with another moan, but Bee knew what he meant. His overload was already close, and every nano-klik another electrical surge rushed through his frame, pulling it even closer.

“I know, me neither, it’s fine, I-“

The moment Starscream pulled out of him, overloading over both of their frames, Bee lost the control over his overload as well, groaning loudly and pressing his frame against his `Starscreams’.

The electrical tension between them ebbed down, and Starscream let himself fall next to him into the still warm grass.

 

A few kliks, none of them said anything, until Bee broke the silence. “Are you sure I won’t-“

Starscream cut him off instantly. “I took care of it, Bee. No danger of sparklings, I promise.”

Bee nodded. “Okay.”

Starscream ex-vented. “I’m sorry I overloaded so early. That… hasn’t happened to me before.”

Bee chuckled. “Does that mean I’m simply the best?”

Starscream looked at him for a few nano-kliks, saying nothing.

Then, silently: “I guess that must be it.”

“It didn’t bother me, you know. We don’t have too much time until anyone goes looking for us, anyway.”

“Well, does that mean you don’t regret it? Even if you’re a criminal now?”

Bee laughed. “I guess so.”

Bee was indeed far from regretting anything. He still felt the echo of the electric surges rushing though him. He questioned the bot who had decided this experience would have to be illegal.

They cleaned up in the lake nearby, and Bee was calculating their future again. If everything went according to plan, tomorrow at the same time, they were enemies again. He wasn’t sure if that was possible anymore.

“I’m not sure I can go back now.” Bee mumbled, and Starscream shook his head.

“We both have our roles to play, Bee.” He got out of the water, and Bee followed him.

“But after the battle…” He started, but trailed off. Starscream didn’t look at him.

“You knew this would be the case, Bumblebee.”

Bee nodded, but he didn’t want to face it.

“Yes, but what if… what if you stayed.”

“I’m not going into a stasis pod, Bee. I made that clear from the beginning. And I won’t take the slightest chance. You don’t know how it feels to be frozen in stasis for any amount of time. I’ll be gone before the ship from Cybertron lands. And it will be there quickly.” Bee’s spark flickered in pain, but his decision wasn’t a surprise.

“We should end it right now, then.” Bee whispered. “So it won’t be hard for you to do what you must.”

Starscream’s optics dimmed visibly. “That’s probably for the best.”

Chapter 18

Notes:

TW: Violence.

Bumblebee returned to the scrapyard by himself, on his own four wheels.

He didn’t check if Starscream followed him.
He tried to ignore the pain in his spark chamber, the cold against its walls where the warmth of his sparks flame had still been only a breem ago.

He went straight into his container, not able to face the others right now.

The plan was still intact, nothing had changed. It was easy enough: Meet with Megatron, defeat him. Starscream would take him offline. Afterwards, Starscream would disappear, take the blame for taking a bot offline with him, and their alliance would end with that.

They’d return to their lives.

It was easier like that; his processor tried to explain his spark.

It was the plan all along.

His spark couldn’t listen. The calculations overheated his processor, and coolant started running down his faceplate. He just let it while fixing his paint job. Some of the scratches on his chest plating, legs, and stomach plating still wore Starscream’s paint. He scrubbed and scrubbed trying to get it off.

The coolant blurred his vision, and he finally gave up. Tomorrow’s fight would leave more marks. It was no use polishing now.

 

The next morning, he got up early. He hadn’t recharged a lot, and the coolant still burned on his faceplate. He decided to repaint the parts of his faceplate it had left traces on, then left the container.

When he called his team together, everybot seemed nervous, but when they went through the official plan of taking down Megatron, nobot hesitated to agree to their position in the battle.

“Alright, autobots, rev up and roll out!”

Every word that left Bee’s voice box felt off, but when everyone transformed, he pushed the calculations away and quickly followed his team into the forest.

When they arrived at the agreed location, Megatron was already there. Bumblebee felt Starscream tense next to him, even when they didn’t touch frames.

Sadness overcame him in a wave again, but he pushed it away once and for all. He was no help in a battle thinking of some uncertain future. They first had to survive this, then he had time to be sad about what he lost.

“Bumblebee, how nice to see you’re here.”

“I wish I could say the same. But I don’t exactly feel joy seeing you, Megatron.”

“I see you brought your friends, too. Hm… I thought we had agreed on meeting alone?”

Bumblebee coughed up a laugh.

“You’re not alone either. Why would I be?”

Megatron slowly shook his head. “I suppose you’re right. Well, then let’s get to the business at hand, shall we?”

“Yes, of course.”

Bumblebee looked into Starscream’s eyes, which were void of emotions. His gaze went over to Optimus, then Strongarm. A small nod was all it needed, and his team started to attack.

The surprise factor helped them for a few nano-kliks, enough to get some hits on Megatron, but he recovered quickly.

“I thought you promised you’d do nothing stupid, Bumblebee.” Megatron shouted, then laughed.

“But to be honest, this is way more fun.”

Shockwave and Soundwave already shot back, and their blasters found their targets, too.

Strongarm landed a great hit on Shockwave, sweeping the decepticon off his pedes, leaving a visible dent in his chestplate. Bumblebee ducked below a shot that came from Soundwave’s cassette bot and shot at Megatron again. He felt proud of his teammates, everybot knew their place, and worked together well enough to have their enemies struggle visibly.

Drift supported Grimlock fighting Barricade, forcing him backwards.

Sideswipe kicked Shockwave in his faceplate just when he had come to his pedes again after Strongarms attack.

Bumblebee dared to hope that they could actually win.

He now concentrated on Megatron, but the decepticon leader only swatted his shots away as if they were merely minor annoyances, and instantly went after Starscream.

His fusion cannon’s first shot hit Starscream in the back, and he crashed into the ground with so much force Bee could hear hinges break.

“Really, it’s easy, Starscream. These autobots won’t even try to take me offline, so the only bot I have to destroy… is you.”, Megatron laughed.

Starscream picked himself up quickly and turned around, shooting at Megatron, but another shot of the canon hit his wing, and to Bumblebees horror, Starscream’s wing broke apart under the force of the canon. There was no way he would be able to fly in this state.

His pain filled scream filled Bumblebee’s spark chamber with unrelenting fear – and fury.

He pushed back shockwave with his pedes who had been trying to grapple him, and ran over to Starscream, who crawled backwards while Megatron was towering over him, every step of his pedes trying to smash Starscream’s frame.

Bumblebee ran behind his injured ally, jumped up right behind him and, with all force he could muster up, kicked Megatron right into his faceplate.

The leader of the decepticons was not only pushed back several feet but also swayed and lost his balance for a few nano-kliks, forced to step back another few steps to regain it.

It gave Bee time to check on Starscream. He stumbled towards him and held his shoulders, looking into his optics.

“Are you okay? You’re hurt…”

“Starscream’s optics were dim. “Well, I guess he won. Again. Probably the last time, too.”

“Get out of my way, little Bumblebee. I need to take this one apart.”, Megatron shouted behind them.

“No, he hasn’t.”

Their optics met again, and a glimmer of understanding went though Starscream’s.

The next moment, they combined into jet form, with Bumblebee’s frame forming perfectly healthy wings.

You didn’t want to be part of this. Starscream’s inner voice appeared in Bumblebee’s processor.

I guess I am now.

And with that, he started shooting at Megatron’s face.

He didn’t stop when Megatron’s canon broke apart.

He didn’t stop when Megatron fell to the ground.

He didn’t stop when Optimus started shouting incomprehensible commands at them.

Starscream took over their blasters forcefully when Megatron’s frame fell apart on the ground, and Soundwave and Shockwave fled the scene.

Stop, Bee. It’s over.

When the fear and rush of energon finally stopped, and he came back to his senses, Bumblebee fell out of their combination mid-air.

He didn’t feel the impact of the ground anymore.

Chapter 19

Notes:

kinda short chapter today but I promise the next one is humongous so it's okay

When Bee woke up, he was back at the scrapyard. Next to him stood Optimus, watching him intently.

Bee groaned. Every cable inside his frame hurt.

“You’re awake.” Optimus stated.

His voice was silent, an unfamiliar defeated tone underlying his words.

“I… what happened? Is… Megatron…?”

“He’s permanently offline, you made sure of it. Did you…”

Optimus paused, then shook his head.

“No, I don’t need to know. A ship from Cybertron is on its way. They’ll take what’s left of Megatron’s frame to make sure no con is trying to get him back online in any shape or form. Also, I fear you’ll be taken to court.”

Bumblebee nodded without looking at Optimus. Everything felt surreal right now. He watched himself move his servos. The stains of Megatron’s mech fluid weren’t really there, right? He’d never come in touch with it, and still he could see it, all over his servos, all over his frame, the bed, on everything he touched.

He couldn’t process it. He was a criminal, and not because he did some harmless interfacing, or because he fell in love with a decepticon.

He was a murderer.

 

“Starscream will be taken to court and shipped back to Cybertron in a stasis cup on the flight back.”

The ringing in Bumblebee’s ears stopped.

“He’s not left already??” That hadn’t been the plan. He had to leave, fast.

“He’s still offline, he fell too when you disassembled your combination. He caught you and used his frame to brace your fall.”

Guilt rushed through his spark chamber.

Starscream had already been severely injured when they combined. Why would he have done this? He must’ve known that his processor would turn off due to the damage to his frame.

Bee jumped out of his berth. “I have to wake him up.”

Optimus crossed his arms disapprovingly but didn’t hold him back.

Starscream looked terrible. Bee couldn’t tell if he’d seen Starscream closer to Primus himself before.

He kneeled down next to his berth and took his servo into his.

“Starscream, you have to wake up, please, you have to go.” He gently shook the frame of the temporary offline con, repeatedly begging him to go online.

For several kliks, nothing happened, and he slowly lost hope. Then, finally, Starscream’s optics turned on.

“Ugh, Bee, please in Primus’ name, stop shaking me, or you’ll soon have my tank fluids all over you.”

Starscream’s voice sounded rough, probably his voicebox was damaged, too.

“The ship from Cybertron will be here, soon, and they want to take you to court. Once they’re here, there’s no chance to flee, please, you have to go.”

Every word out of Bee’s voicebox sent a stabbing pain through his spark chamber, but this wasn’t what Starscream wanted and having him in a stasis pod somewhere on Cybertron wasn’t what Bumblebee wanted, either. And with Bee at court with him, there was no chance for him to help reduce the sentence.

He forced him into an upright position on the bed. “Please,” he begged. He could hear the motors of the nearing space ship.

“You must leave. You-”

He couldn’t finish his sentence, because Optimus stepped inside, grabbed him by the arms and pulled him out of the container.

“Do you want to lead them right to him? Go. Surrender to them and show you still honour the autobot laws. That way, you will have a chance they will believe you did not have a part in the murder.”

With that, Optimus gently shoved him into the direction of the landing ship.

“I will take care of the decepticon that is so close to your spark.”

And Bumblebee did what Optimus had told him.

The moment he greeted the soldiers leaving the ship, they were around him.

Stasis cuffs clicked around his wrists faster than he could blink, and all the strength in his frame instantly vanished, and he struggled to stand upright.

The shocked faceplates of his team around him moved in and out of focus.

He didn’t meet their gaze but silently followed the soldiers into the ship.

Chapter 20

Notes:

I'm a birthday baby today everyone!!!
So you get a super extra long chapter to celebrate. Haha.

Starscream POV

Every step Starscream took sent pain through his whole frame. He wasn’t fast enough. He couldn’t transform with his destroyed left wing and walking he could never outrun the Cybertronian soldiers once they started searching.

He wasn’t sure if he should even try.

He turned around to watch Bumblebee greet the soldiers, but what he saw sent anger through his spark chamber. Why were they cuffing him?

“He’s going to undergo investigation due to taking Megatron offline.”

Starscream turned around to Optimus, startled.

“But… I did-“

Optimus shrugged.

“He was part of it. My documentation of the battle and how Megatron was destroyed had to include Bumblebee’s participation in it.”

“But they’ll find he’s not guilty, won’t they?”

Optimus shrugged again.

“I have a feeling he will take the blame and talk himself into a stasis pod.”

Starscream flinched, then took a step back.

“Why are you telling me this.”

“Because if you are half the bot Bumblebee sees in you, you will go into that ship and sit next to him and defend your team leader.”

Starscream laughed humourlessly. “What can I do? Take the blame? What weight does my word even have?”

“You were part of his team, taking the blame would still result in them stripping him from his status. But you can lie.”

Starscream frowned.

“He is terrible at it. He’ll tell all his truths easily and doom himself. Lie, and do it well.”

Starscream watched while his broken team leader followed four soldiers into the space ship.

“If I save him, I doom myself for decavorns inside a stasis pod.”

Optimus nodded.

“That might be true.”

“Not a chance, Prime.” He turned his back to the other bot but couldn’t push away the guilt gnawing at his spark chamber.

He heard Optimus’ heavy steps receding. He should’ve been relieved Optimus didn’t force him to stay. He should just leave right now. Why did it suddenly feel so wrong?

He took another step towards the forest, but his spark pulled him back with so much force he couldn’t ignore it anymore.

So, he gave into the pull, ex-vented heavily and turned around. Lie, the Prime had said.

Well, he would give them the show of their lives.

 

Bumblebee POV

The Autobot soldiers had forced him to sit on a plain bench in front of a jury of four autobots that watched him intently, but with plain faces. The tight cuffs around his wrists made him unable to move without pain.

The questions he got asked were simple at first.

“What is your callsign.” - “What is your occupation.” – “What is your academic background?”

Bumblebee answered every questions truthfully, but short. He knew those were only for documentation purposes.

They asked another, and another, and one more, and Bumblebee started to feel more and more numb.

“Why did you take the Decepticon with the chosen name “Megatron”, official callsign “D-16” offline?”

Bumblebee’s spark flickered in fear, and he paused for a moment, then opened his voice box.

“I-“

But he was cut off by another bot entering the room.

“We had to defend ourselves.”

Bumblebee’s head turned around to fast he was lucky he didn’t get whiplash.

There Starscream stood, right behind him, slowly putting his servos on his shoulder plating. Why was he back?

“I am sorry, Decepticon Starscream, but you cannot just walk into this investigation –“

Another bot entered the room that Bumblebee couldn’t see, but his voice he also instantly recognized. Optimus.

“Officials, do you not think we should combine both investigations of both Starscream and Bumblebee regarding this incident. We are dealing with only one incident, after all.”

Normally, Optimus hardly made an appearance towards officials from Cybertron, since he wanted to keep out of Cybertron affairs. Bumblebee was surprised Optimus really cared so much about him.

“O-optimus Prime, of course, you are correct. Starscream, please sit next to Bumblebee.”

Soldiers that had already surrounded Starscream, aiming their blasters at him, now lowered their weapons. They pulled out stasis cuffs and pulled back his wrists with enough force Bumblebee heard the scratching Starscreams shoulder hinges. Starscream didn’t make a sound and let them cuff him without fighting back. Bumblebee’s spark burned with anger seeing Starscream get treated so roughly, but there was nothing he could do.

When Starscream did what he was told, he sat close enough to make contact with Bumblebee’s frame. It wasn’t much, but it was all it took for Bumblebee’s spark to grow bigger again.

They continued by asking all the questions they’d already documented for Bumblebee to Starscream as well, then came back to the question at hand.

“You said you had to defend yourselves. That implies it wasn’t planned?”

Starscream shook his head. “No, it wasn’t”

“Is that right, Bumblebee? Did any one of you plan on taking Megatron permanently offline before the battle?”

“No, Sir.” He lied.

Starscream didn’t look at him but gently increased the pressure of his shoulder plating against Bumblebee’s.

“So, Bumblebee, has Starscream ever voiced or acted on violent tendencies while under your command?”

“No, Sir, he hasn’t.

“Has Starscream shown any tendencies of breaking laws?”

“No Sir.”

“Starscream, do you feel able to follow Autobot laws in every situation?”

“Yes, of course, Sir.”

The questioning was dull, and lengthy, and before they came back to the incident at hand, they asked more than a dozen irrelevant questions. Bumblebee grew more tired with every klik in front of the committee of Autobot Commanders and Officials.

“Please describe us the incident in detail.” The question was directed at Bumblebee, but Starscream took over.

“Sir, I was gravely injured by Megatrons fusion canon when Bumblebee came to save me. Megatron had already tried to take me permanently offline when Bumblebee pushed him back.

We combined out of pure necessity, there was no other way for me to survive it.

When Megatron started shooting at us both with the fusion canon, I was not only worried about myself, but also Bumblebee. We shot back, to defend ourselves and stop Megatron from taking us both offline.

When he fell, he still fired at us. We saw no other way than to continue shooting to save both our lives.”

The officials looked at him, doubtful.

“In the documentation it seems the fusion canon broke before Megatron went offline.”

“He still shot at us with his other weapons.” Bumblebee added. “And Starscream was already injured badly. We could hardly hold each other in the air. I had to protect him.”

“So, Bumblebee, you did the main shooting?” Bumblebee felt Starscream tense, but he needed to tell the truth here. He wasn’t going to set Starscream up for yet another crime.

“I did, Sir. In defence of my teammates, especially Starscream in this incident.”

“This seems like a harsh measure to us, weren’t you able to retreat?”

Bumblebee ex-vented shakily. He was getting nervous again.

“Technically, yes, but I had reasons to believe Megatron would follow us and take Starscream permanently offline as soon as he got back on his pedes.”

“Are these reasons you talk of documented? How positive were you? The incident does seem more like an overreaction on your side, not like a necessary emergency aid.”

Bumblebee was at a loss for explanations. He looked to Starscream, but he didn’t seem to know what to say either anymore.

“I regret that I have to say this, but-“

 “They are spark mates. Regarding paragraph 11c, emergency aid of spark mates can take more drastic measures as the situation that endangers a spark mate feels more life-threatening to a bot than a situation endangering their own frame.”

Both Starscream and Bumblebee turned to Optimus in shock. The room went completely silent.

Chapter 21

Notes:

I'm literally so sorry, but we have some more drama to endure. Just some more!

“That is impossible. How-“

“I am not in the system, Sir. Cybertron wouldn’t be able to know.” Starscream quickly explained after regaining his composure, while Bumblebee still stared at him.

“So how would you know?”

“Our sparks can find our spark mates without the system. A healthy bot, be it Autobot or Decepticon, can feel if another is their mate. At least, that is my experience.”

Bumblebee hardly heard what Starscream said to the officials. There was a buzzing in his audial receptors, and his spark was burning in his chest so strong he felt like he was going to melt his way through the plating.

Was this real? Was it really what Optimus and Starscream believed? Was it just another lie to save him? It was easy enough to prove by putting Starscream into the system and calculate their match, so if it was a lie, it wasn’t a smart one.

“…, would you answer the question please, Autobot Bumblebee?”

Bumblebee looked up, energon rushing into his faceplate. “I apologize, I haven’t paid attention, would you please repeat the question for me?”

The official watched him unwillingly, but repeated it.

“Is it your belief as well, that the Decepticon next to you is your spark mate?”

Bumblebee looked at Starscream’s optics. The red shine was warm, the metal of Starscream’s shoulder plating against his felt warm, and he remembered how reassured he had felt only when he came in.

“It is. I am positive.” He replied, shakily, but clear.

“In that case… you both are found not guilty given that you are indeed spark mates. The hearing is closed.”

An official took off his cuffs. Bumblebee didn’t dare to hope. He wasn’t sure if the system would agree to them being spark mates. Starscream had never believed in it anyways, and now, everything depended on the possibly faulty calculations of exactly that system.

“The hearing of Decepticon Starscream regarding his other documented crimes will take place right now. The system calculation will take place afterwards. Please leave the room, Autobot Bumblebee.”

“He should be allowed to listen to the hearing, given they are spark mates.” Optimus brought up.

The officials seemed to get irritated at Optimus’ interruptions, but he was still a Prime. So, they agreed, and let Bumblebee stand next to Optimus during the next breems of them painstakingly going though every little position of Starscream’s criminal record.

 

At the end of it. Bumblebee felt sick. The list had been huge, and the official’s optics gleamed with excitement about the upcoming sentence.

“Decepticon Starscream, you will be sentenced to 245 vorns of compensation of your crimes. The sentence will be served in stasis –“

“No! You can’t do that! He is my spark mate, so –“

“Autobot Bumblebee, it is not your place to speak right now. Him being your spark mate is not proven yet. I must warn you, if you interrupt the hearing again, you will be excluded.”

“He is my spark mate, so he should be allowed to serve the time under my watch.”

Bumblebee replied, not listening to the officials’ warning. “Paragraph 11f, if-“

“We are aware of the law, Autobot Bumblebee.” The official rumbled, not pleased with the continued interruption.

“He is right, tough, isn’t he?” Starscream picked up. “He is a trusted Autobot commander, so his level of trustworthiness must be sufficient.”

Optimus smiled next to Bumblebee. “You must admit, they know their rights, official.“

The official groaned. “Decepticon Starscream, you are sentenced to 245 vorns of compensation, served under watch of your spark mate, under the assumption Autobot Bumblebee is in fact your spark mate of 89% or higher. The hearing is closed. You both are prohibited to leave the vicinity. A sample will be taken from you to prove your match to Autobot Bumblebee. During calculations, you will be under the watch of our uninvolved soldiers.”

 

After they had taken the code sample from Starscream’s processor, they didn’t remove his stasis cuffs like they did with his, which instantly filled Bumblebee with rage again. When they left the space ship, he pulled out the general keys and opened them. He half expected the soldiers around them to intervene, but they just kept watching. Bumblebee pulled Starscream in a tight hug which Starscream reciprocated instantly.

“Why are you still here.” He whispered, coolant already overflowing from his optics.

“Because I suddenly realized you were my spark mate of more than 89%, little bug, and I wanted to show these other autolosers that dared to treat you like that.”

Starscream gently wiped away Bee’s coolant from his faceplate. Bee giggled, coolant still running down. He was a mess.

“But the system… it-” He started, but Starscream cut him off quickly.

“Bee, stop. We’ll have to see. And if it’s not giving us the number we need, you know it’s exactly what I told you it is – useless.”

“Do you really believe that we’re spark mates?”

Starscream pulled Bee’s chin up, so they looked into each other’s optics. “I do. Because frankly, I’m still not sure what possessed me to stay. I would’ve just ran in any other situation. And…”

He lowered his voice, getting closer to Bees audial receptors. “… and interfacing with you was way too good for you not to be my literal other half.”

Bumblebee felt the heat rush both into his faceplate and somewhere lower, and he simply hid his face against Starscream’s chest plating.

“That’s… kind of hot.” Bee mumbled against the warm metal of Starscream’s chest plating. He could feel the decepticons spark whirr behind it, and for a moment, he dared to hope.

 

That was, until the official called them in for the results. They were projected onto the table in front of them, and when Bee saw the number, his spark dimmed, and his chest turned ice cold.

It said 23%.

Chapter 22

“That is impossible!” Bumblebee heard himself shout. It wasn’t true. There was no way they hardly shared any part of their sparks. He had worried about getting less than 60%, and in the worst case being below 50%, and had hoped for more than 70% which would make them official spark mates. But 23% was ridiculous. How would they even get along at all?

He looked to Starscream, but his face didn’t move. He still had him tightly in his arms, staring at the number. Optimus didn’t say anything either. Is jaw moved, however, and his shoulders were tense.

When the soldiers pulled out the stasis cuffs again, and stepped closer towards Starscream and him, Bumblebee went rogue.

“No! Stop!” He screamed when they started pulling Starscream away from him. He kicked and shoved the soldiers trying to restrain him.

“It’s not true! I don’t believe the result, you’ve faked it! STOP!” He screamed, elbowing the soldier next to him, which resulted in the other shoving him to the ground forcefully, and pulling his arms behind his backplating with so much force, his shoulder hinge ripped apart.

He didn’t feel the pain, only disappointment, and betrayal.

There was no way this was the real result. He refused to believe it.

He looked up to Starscream, who hadn’t resisted, but now hit one of the soldiers in the faceplate just to kneel in front of Bumblebee.

He gently stroked his head, and while he already got pulled from the floor again, he whispered: “You got this, Bee. We’ll find each other again, I promise.”

And then, he raised his voice.

“If you hurt my Bumblebee, I promise you, I will tear every single one of you apart and I will take everything you love and care for.”

The soldiers just restrained him harder, the cuffs clicked behind his backplate, and they pulled him away.

Bee didn’t know what to do, and the pain in his shoulder now suddenly came back, when the energon rush broke down, and he suddenly had no strength left to get back on his pedes, much less struggle against the soldiers cuffing him, too.

They must’ve brought Starscream into the space ship instantly, while they put bee into a container as temporary confinement.

Maybe because they wanted them to be separated. Maybe because they didn’t see any real danger in Bumblebee. Most likely because Bumblebee wouldn’t end up in a stasis pod but simply be removed from his position. Bee didn’t care what the reason was, it just felt extra cruel.

He tried to push his shoulder hinge pack together, but it seemed something was broken inside, and he couldn’t really move in his cuffs either, so he gave up quickly. He just stayed in the position he was dragged into the container, kneeling on the floor, slightly leaning forward, and again, his processor overheated from the anger and desperation he felt. His tears of coolant fell to the ground without even touching his cheeks, forming a glowing pool on the metal ground in front of him.

He wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. Was the system more flawed than even Starscream thought? Or was it really only in their processors, only the hopes of something more than simple attraction? Or… had the officials of the autobots, the representatives of everything he believed in, betrayed him? He had doubted some of the lawmakers decisions before. But now he was doubting their main systems and their loyalty towards every bots best interests, and slowly, his understanding of the universe and their part in it dissolved in the coolant that was still falling to the ground.

Maybe it was his processor running into a major malfunction. But maybe he also had been lied to for a while now.

He lost all feeling for time while falling into an endless loop of calculations with no solution.

 

When the door opened, Bumblebee looked up, sending pain through his shoulder again when he jerked back from the two bots towering over him.

His sight was blurred, and it took him a while realizing it was only Optimus and Strongarm.

Strongarm instantly knelt in front of him, worriedly inspecting his face.

“Sir, I am so sorry, I- are you hurt?”

Bee shook his head, slowly.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“You are! What did they do to you? I will – “ Bumblebee ex-vented, and shook his head again.

“Strongarm, we don’t need another bot getting detained. Don’t worry. It’s just my shoulder hinge. It will be fine in a few cycles.”

Strongarm looked like she wanted to contradict him, but she said nothing.

“I know, I was kind of bit-brained thinking I could actually be his spark mate. It’s … I feel ridiculous.”

Strongarm vigorously shook her head. “You’re not ridiculous!! We… well, I kind of believed in it, too. You were such a good team.”

Bumblebee laughed joylessly. “Yeah. Well apparently, it was only 23% of a good team.”

Optimus now knelt next to him as well.

“Bumblebee, I need you to be honest with me right now. Do you believe you are spark mates?”

Bumblebee looked into his former leaders optics.

“I don’t know what to believe in right now. Maybe I am malfunctioning.”

“It is of utmost importance that you use your spark and you processor to tell me what you think. Use it! We do not have time for insecurities.”

Bumblebee did what he was asked. The chaos in his processor made it hard to focus, but he knew his spark should know the truth. He should trust his spark, shouldn’t he?

“I do believe we are spark mates, I felt it before but didn’t know what it was. We match in so many different ways, if this isn’t what spark mates are, then I don’t want one.”

“We believe you. We are going to fix it, Bee. I promise.”, Strongarm said and got up.

“We need another code sample. Did you connect to Starscream on any port other than the hinges you combined at? We might get his data from you in that case.”, Optimus added.

Bumblebee nodded and couldn’t help but get his naïve hopes back up again. However, he wasn’t sure what he would rather lose –his faith in the good in every autobot, or his faith in his own intuition.

Notes:

I promise I don't plan to leave you hanging on a cliff hanger every day. It just happens :')

Chapter 23

Notes:

FRIENDS
before you read this chapter, guess!!!

What's their real spark mate potential? Is it truly 23%? Or maybe more? ;)
Get yourself a cookie if you guess right.

Starscream POV

Starscream leaned on the walls of his cell, watching the soldiers roll in the stasis pod that seemed to be his home for the foreseeable future.

In his mind, he still heard Bumblebee scream. He still heard the hinge pop in Bumblebee’s shoulder. And while the soldiers struggled to even put the stasis pod upright, he imagined ripping them apart, first the one who had pushed his spark mate to the ground, and then the other who had cuffed him. And then the ones that had pulled him away so he wasn’t able to help his mate.

 

He wasn’t sure which of the officials had been behind the fake percentage. Maybe all of them, maybe only one, but even with the system being faulty, it wasn’t that wrong.

One of the soldiers now stepped closer to his cell and opened the laser wall.  “Come out, slowly.” He commanded.

Starscream coughed up a laugh. In a flicker of his spark, he was in front of him and spat him in his face.

The blank horror in the young soldiers face, that quickly turned to disgust once he realized what had happened gave him a slight sense of satisfaction.

He was on the ground within the next two nano-kliks, as the other soldiers supported their colleague.

Starscream didn’t bother to struggle. They had already made sure to cuff him well enough he had no chance of freeing himself, and there were enough soldiers around him to restrain a fragging Prime.

The soldier he had spat at pressed him against the cold glass of the stasis pod. “I hope you rust in it.” The autoloser hissed through clenched denta.

“I wouldn’t bet on it. My paint job is great. When I get out, I’ll come for you first. And when I do, and take you offline slowly, I’ll look awesome while doing it.”

It earned him another shove of his helm against the glass. He didn’t even feel it.

Instead, he wondered if Grandpa Prime would be of any use and help Bumblebee out of trouble.

Just when he had finished that thought, the Prime pushed the door open. “Speak of Unicron…” he muttered, when Optimus simply gestured to the other wall of the room, creating a projection big enough for everybot to read.

It showed the holo outlines of him on the left, and of Bumblebee on the right. Underneath both their pictures were a few technical dates, and then, in between both their data sheets, a percentage counter. And it counted up. Further than 23%. Further than 50. It still moved higher when it hit 80. And when it hit 90.

It slowed on 94. It finally stopped on 97%.

Starscream stared at the number, and all time stilled. It felt like the outlines burned themselves into his optics, when he noticed a slight pixel error at the 7. Just when he thought something was off, there was another, and another.

And then the 7 turned into an 8.

98%.

He only came back to his senses when he heard his own cuffs click and fall to the ground. He flinched and turned around, ready to shoot, but it was the Prime, holding the key in his outstretched servo.

Starscream stared at him, puzzled.

He cautiously took the keys, not sure what was happening.

The next nano-klik, he understood.

He whirled around, grabbing the first soldier in his way by the neck, pushing him against the stasis pod.

Nobot around reacted. They all stood there, glued to their place.

“Where the frag did you put my spark mate.” He spat.

The fear on the soldiers’ faceplate was a delight, and he savoured it to the fullest.

“I-in the red container … left of the …gate.”

Starscream choked him a little more, claws digging into the cables, before he let go.

“You’re lucky taking you offline would make him mad.” He hissed.

With that, he pushed him aside and left the claustrophobic room behind. He left the politics to the Prime.

He was off the space ship in less than five nano-kliks, and in front of the container in only five more.

He didn’t waste time to search for a key and just kicked the door in.

 

What he saw when the door fell apart into the small space made his spark burn in pure rage.

It took all his strength not to go back and take a few of these disgusting losers offline.

Bumblebee cowered in a corner, his head against the metal wall, his shoulder awkwardly positioned, and his servos still cuffed behind his back. And he was trembling, not looking up.

Starscream instantly felt awful to have caused even more distress.

The container was too small for Starscream to stand upright, so he crouched down in front of Bee, gently stroking his head.

“Hey, little bug, I’m sorry I’m late.” He whispered, and instantly, Bumblebee’s head jerked up and his wide blue optics hit his.

“St-Star…” he mouthed, still obviously in disbelief.

Starscream waved with the keys for the cuffs. “I got these. Let me help you.”

Before the cuffs fell to the ground, Bumblebee’s arms were around Starscream’s frame, and he carelessly dropped the keys too to pull the trembling yellow bot closer.

He tried to be careful around Bee’s shoulder, but he knew every little movement must hurt.

The coolant on his shoulder and chest plating made his own processor overheat as well.

“I’m so sorry, they hurt you, I’m so sorry.” He murmured, keeping Bee in his arms.

“I thought I’d never see you again.” Bee sobbed and Starscream’s spark started growing a little more.

“I promised you we’d meet again, little bug.” He pulled away gently, wiping away the coolant again, realizing the paint job on Bee’s face was rough, dissolved under the streaks of the blueish fluid. Another wave of anger flashed through him.

“I can burn down that whole space ship for you, just tell me, and I’ll do it.”

Bumblebee’s optics widened again, and he quickly shook his helm.

“N-no! I only need you with me. Don’t give them another reason to take you away from me? Also, I need them to rust.”

Starscream ex-vented, then nodded. “Shame. But your word is my command.”

He cautiously carried Bumblebee out of the container and put him down on the ground outside.

“How did you- do we have to -did you –“ Bee seemed to slowly fall out of the trance he’d been in. He now grew more worried with every nano-klik.

“Shh, shh.” Starscream pulled him close again. “We’re legal.”

He grinned when Bee stared at him, wide-eyed, completely confused.

“Wh-“

“98%”, he whispered into Bee’s audial receptors.

Bee choked on his own mech fluid, and for a brief moment, Starscream was worried he might actually pass out.

But then, he caught himself again.

“You’re making fun of me.”

“Nope. 98% is what your grandpa Prime calculated. And those little slag sucking glitches didn’t even try to argue.”

“That- That’s – they really faked the results? But why? And –“

Starscream ex-vented. A part of him wished to be able to see the good in everybot like Bumblebee did. To be surprised when a bit betrayed him or tried to make him lose something he cared about. To not see the reasons bots hated him.

However, he’d been surprised one too many times long before he’d saved Bumblebee that first time. It’d trained his insight in others, and now it was too easy to see for him to look away. Sure, sometimes bots carried resentment and never acted on it, but he wasn’t the bot to trust on their self-control. He believed in keeping those around he couldn’t smell the hatred on.

Like Bumblebee.

“Isn’t it obvious? They didn’t want me to get out of the stasis pod. And I get it, Bee, I do. Imagine you’re hunting a criminal, and they just get acquitted after all your hard work. I know this is not what is happening to me exactly but… It’s close if you look through their optics, don’t you think?”

 

“Nevertheless… it’s not their place.”

Starscream nodded.

“It’s not. And I’m not saying I agree to what they did. Primus, I’d love to take them offline. Right in front of you, and slowly…” He stopped, because Bee frowned, worry clouding his optics again.

“I guess what I am trying to say is, I saw their betrayal in their optics the moment I looked into them when they asked you all those questions, and I knew the hearing wouldn’t be fair. And they perfectly represent every Autobot I have ever had the pleasure of talking to … that is, before I met you.”

“I didn’t know … I thought the whole reason for court was fairness.”

Starscream coughed up a laugh.

“In a dream world, sure, it is.”

Bee got up, anger on his faceplate.

“I have matters to attend to. Give me a klik.”

With that, he ran towards the spaceship, Starscream following him quickly.

He had a feeling he wanted to see this.

Chapter 24

Notes:

ok friends, were coming to an end here.
I know it's kind of a lot that is happening right now, but it kind of... just went out of my hands there.
guess these two finally wanted their peace.

I will make another chapter, more of an epilogue kinda thing, I think.
I was so unsure about uploading this, because I felt it wasn't good enough.
But for real, this has been the nicest experience on here that I ever had. Thank you for your nice comments! And the kudos.

I love y'all <3

Bumblebee POV

Bumblebee stormed into the room where Optimus currently sorted out things with another one of the higher ups on Cybertron Bee didn’t remember the callsign of. He looked important, but Bee didn’t care.

He focused on the official in the corner that had looked at him so dismissively just this morning. He stepped closer.

“Were you the one who faked our results?”

His voice was calm, but dark.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You don’t? Are you sure? Let me help your processor a bit: Some bot faked our match results from 98% to 23% to make sure Starscream and I both would suffer. Maybe it was somebot else? Maybe you?”

He turned around and pushed one of the other officials that had sat next to the main judge into the wall. The bot instantly held up his servos in defeat, staring at something – or somebot?- behind Bee. He could only guess a certain con wasn’t looking too friendly right now.

“N-no! It was his idea alone! I didn’t even know it was fake!”

Bumblebee heard Starscream snort.

His frame moved by itself. His servo made contact with the official’s faceplate with a loud clank.

The other bot hadn’t seen it coming, the force of Bee’s punch into his face made him loose his balance and he stumbled to the ground.

“You knew it can drive spark mates into malfunction if they’re apart for such extended amounts of time. Law tells you what to do in these situations. And you still did however you pleased? Status doesn’t give you the right to outrule the law. You disgust me!”

Bumblebee didn’t shout. His tone was full of resentment, but he was calm. He didn’t have to fight anymore. It was over.

He turned around and met Starscream’s glance. His optics were glowing, an amused smile playing on his faceplate.

He turned to the bot Optimus talked to.

“I want them gone. All of them. I don’t trust them to program Starscream’s monitoring device either. Who knows what features they’ll build into it?”

He heard Optimus apologize on his behalf to the other bot on the video call.

But Bee wasn’t in a mood to duck down again.

He got up next to Optimus and crossed his arms. “No, I’m not sorry! He shouldn’t be, either. I want you to send someone who I can trust to not put a bomb into a simple monitor!”

Optimus vented in sharply, while the bot on the other line just laughed. “You’re a fierce one; I’ll give you that. I’ll trust our Prime will be able to program it to your satisfaction. But afterwards…”

His tone turned ice cold.

“you’ll make sure never to speak to me, or any official like that ever again. You understand?”

This was the nano-klik Bumblebee realized that the officials around him weren’t exceptions. They might not even get punished once back on Cybertron. The whole leadership seemed to be full of individuals thinking they had the right to decide who was worthy of basic rights and who wasn’t.

“Yes, Sir.”, he quickly agreed and retreated from the hologram that still stared him down. It was no use.

 

 

The night had already turned into dawn when the spaceship finally left the scrapyard. Optimus had left with them; he’d been called to whatever mission he had between the stars again. Bumblebee wondered if Optimus had left because of the corruption within the ranks of the Autobot government, or if it had only started after he’d left.

He’d left the monitoring device in Strongarm’s servos.

Bumblebee’s battery percentage was around 15% when Strongarm entered his container, which he and Starscream had used to just hide away from all the chaos.

“I’m sorry.” She mumbled, looking to the ground. “I have to-“

Starscream just smiled at her, tiredly. “Just put those shackles on already.”

She relaxed visibly and started clicking buttons on the tiny device

“It will connect to your frame quickly. You should hardly be able to feel it afterwards. It’ll allow you to … well… move about … 30 feet from him for the first few vorns.”

She looked up apologetically. Starscream raised his optical ridges.

“You’re saying he’s coming everywhere with me?”

“Pretty much. If you don’t cause trouble for the first 50 vorns, you’ll get upgraded to about 100 feet, probably. It’ll have to go through court, again.”

“Oh, great. We’ve got perfect chances to never be able to move apart more than 30 feet then. What kind of reaction will go off when I’m moving past the invisible line?”

“Oh, it won’t be invisible. You’ll be able to see it when you connect to it. And… it might zap you. Every third nano-klik you’re outside the line. If you stay outside of the line for an extended amount of time anyways, it will alarm Optimus. You’ll be tracked down and put into a stasis pod for the remainder of your sentence.”

 

“Well, isn’t that great. Where does that parasite go?”

“One of the ports under your stomach plating on the left side.”

Starscream nodded and opened the plating for her to connect it to his frame.

Bumblebee gently brushed over his servo, and Starscream took it, intertwining their digits.

“I’m sorry.”, he mouthed, just as Strongarm connected the device.

Starscream’s frame tensed and arched back, and a whimper left his voice box. Only a few nano-kliks later, he relaxed again, and his plating shifted back into its place.

Starscream vented quickly.

“Ugh, that felt like scrap.”

He blinked a few times, then looked to their servos.

“I’ll leave you alone now. You probably need to recharge.” Strongarm whispered and left the container.

 

Bumblebee used his free servo to gently brush over Starscream’s faceplate.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t seem alright, Star.”

“Well…It’s hard. The limits of my world are… only 30 feet away from me now, a red line that’ll stay there for … Primus knows how long. It’s better than a stasis pod, but… ”  He trailed off.

Bee nodded. “There’s no limits with me. See?”

He got up, and moved into the direction, knowing the limits Starscream saw would move with him.

Starscream gave him a slight smile. “You’re right. Guess my home being my prison isn’t too bad.”

Bumblebee’s spark started flickering again, and he got back on the bed, pulling Starscream down with him.

“Let’s recharge for now, and figure this out when we’re at a battery percentage that allows us to calculate properly.”

To his surprise, Starscream didn’t argue for once, but simply pulled him closer.

For a while, they just laid there, both unable to get into recharge, listening to each other’s whirring processor. Finally, Bee gave up trying to force himself into recharge and whispered:

“Star, I… I wonder… Well, I know this is bad timing and maybe super weird, too, but… I need to know if– uh…”

“Just spit it out, little bug.”

“Um…you told me we could never, uh, be together and um… court each other, and I totally respect that, if you don’t want to, but um… I was wondering…”

Silence stretched between them when Bumblebee trailed off.

“Go on?” Starscream prompted, and Bumblebee ex vented, irritated by Starscream’s way to make him spell everything out.

“I was wondering, if your view on this… might have changed, regarding the fact that we’re true spark mates… I mean that doesn’t have to mean anything, but I… really would like to court you.”

Silence, again, but only for a nano-klik. Then Starscream laughed silently. Bee’s spark flickered in fear. It really had been the worst timing. And Cybertron below them, Starscream didn’t even believe in that calculation system.

“I’m sorry, I-“ He started, but Starscream cut him off with a kiss.

“Bee.” He mumbled.

“In which universe have I given you the feeling I wouldn’t jump at the chance to court you when it presented itself to me?”

Bee stared at him, confused.

“What I said was that it was impossible, because I didn’t see a chance to be together without making you lose everything. I never said I didn’t want you.”

“Does that mean…”

“Little bug, it means I don’t give a flying frag about the -admittedly impressive -number of our calculated match, it could’ve been 23% for all I care, I would still be convinced we are spark mates. I’m here now, and Primus knows I won’t leave for the next 245 vorns, and I won’t for as long as you’ll have me afterwards. And I do love you, scrap, I thought as much was obvious when I decided it was worse leaving you than being in a stasis pod. So yeah. Let’s call it courting, or anything in the universe you’d like to call it, because I’ll be whatever you want me to be for you. But only for you. Not Grandpa Prime.”

Bee’s spark danced, strong and warm in its chamber, and his processor overheated again.

Small tears of coolant rolled over his faceplate and into his pillow. He didn’t know how there was still coolant left in his frame. Starscream just kissed it away.

“Can you say it again?”

“What?”

“What you said just now?”

“The whole paragraph? Not sure if I can repeat that word for word. It was kind of a spur of the moment romantic poetry.”

“No, just the part where you said you loved me.”

“Depends, will you beg?” Starscream’s amusement was visible on his faceplate.

“Please, Star, my love, please, will you tell me again?”

“I love you.”

“Again?”

“Maybe when we get out of recharge. I’ll go into forced recharge in 4 kliks. As much as I love you, I don’t want that to happen again.”

Bumblebee snickered and just scooted closer once again.

“I love you too.”

Starscream simply wrapped his arms around him and turned his optics off.

His processor slowly went into idle mode, and Bumblebee let the whirring guide him into recharge as well.