Chapter Text
“Knock knock!” An excited voice called from the front door. Skyfire set his tools down, already knowing who it was, standing for a second before there was a loud VOP! Skywarp stood in the center of the room, grinning.
“Hold your applause please!” The purple seeker bowed slightly.
“I’m glad to see you’re back to size,” Skyfire smiled. Skywarp bounced over to the entrance and opened it, letting his trine inside the lab. Starscream stormed in, beelining for the shuttle. He smacked Skyfire’s arm lightly, it being more of a soft pat.
“That’s for embarrassing me in front of the Autobots,” Starscream muttered.
“Good to see you too.” Skyfire could sense the ease of the seeker. Something that he hadn’t felt since Iacon. Starscream shuffled on his thrusters, clearly wanting to say more but seemed unable to.
“I hope you don’t mind us coming over so soon,” Thundercracker said, walking in and immediately preventing Skywarp from knocking over jars of Earth dirt that lined the wall.
“I expected nothing less,” Skyfire admitted.
“Screamer said you’re working on something big. What nefarious weapon of destruction are you planning?” Skywarp teleported in front of the shuttle, wings twitching with excitement. Starscream flared his wings at the nickname, reaching over and pinching Skywarp’s wing edge.
“An energon filer you dumbaft. An idea that we’ve,” The trineleader motioned to himself and Skyfire, “been working on since Vos.”
“The planet’s resources are in abundance and I’ve been able to run experiments consecutively without disturbing too much of the surface. Once I find a way to safely extract energon and return the unused resources with little fallout then there won’t be a need to pillage as your faction has been committing,” Skyfire began rambling, watching with some amusement as Skwarp’s optics unfocused, quickly bored. Thundercracker also had begun to look lost.
“With no Megatron breathing down my neck, I could get some work done,” Starscream added. Skyfire looked over the flier, chuckling.
“Has he figured out yet about you being in the seventh stage?”
“Unfortunately,” Starscream sighed, “but that slagger would be stupid to demote me now. I’ve done way too much for that faction!”
“He let you take time off for this?” Skyfire asked. Thundercracker laughed, before reeling himself back in and shyly looking to the ground.
“Not exactly,” Thundercracker mumbled, “we sort of flew away.”
“I’m second in command. I decide where my trine goes,” Starscream stomped his pede.
“Does that mean we can stay for as long as we like?” Skywarp chirped up, a grin spreading on his face. The three looked expectantly at Skyfire. It had been a long time since the four worked together on a project, especially one that they decided to do and not some demand from higher-ups.
“We have all the time in the world?” Skyfire asked softly.
Starscream snorted, “duh.”
“Well. Ok. As long as you don’t turn into sparklings again,” Skyfire quickly flipped from nostalgic to teasing, watching Starscream sputter.
“That wasn’t my fault!” The seeker shouted, getting his trine to laugh at him.