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“This is stupid.”
“What is?”
“This!” Bee gestured to the presentation Starscream had set up and the different metal sheets covered in various shades of red, yellow, black, and gray thrown around the room. “Is literally any of this necessary?”
Starscream scoffed and rolled his optics because apparently Bee clearly didn't understand how important it was to the jet that he looked his absolute best once they figured out how to bring him back. "You clearly don't get it, Little Bee," he told him. "We can't have your frame made and then have it be anything less than perfect."
Said frameless bot sighed and shook his helm, giving Star a look. "I get that you want me to have a nice frame, but I still don't get how all this is needed. I'll probably just go with one that looks kinda like this and has my old alt-mode."
"But what about all of these options? A nice flying alt-mode will get you places so much faster, plus I personally find them to be very-"
"I'm not getting a flight alt-mode," Bee laughed quietly. "I like my old one so that's what I'm sticking to."
"Ugh, fine!" Starscream turned the presentation off with way to many dramatics thrown in, though if Bee was being honest, it was kinda cute. "Since you're not fun and refuse to even try to listen to reason, I guess we'll just have to move on to the color scheme."
"Don't worry about it, I'll probably just go with yellow again with some black and red thrown in," Bee told him. "It's not a big deal."
Starscream actually gasped at that, staring at Bee with a look of both disbelief and mild terror. It almost made Bee laugh. "Not important!" the seeker practically screeched, his voice pitching high enough that Be was actually worried he'd break the sound barrier. "One's color scheme is immensely important!"
"Well, I like yellow, so there's not much to talk about." Bee hoped that would he the end of it but of course it wasn't.
"But what shade?" Starscream asked, picking up three pieces of metal painted in different shades of yellow. "Golden, vibrant, or sunshine? It has to be bright and peppy to match your personality and apparent frame choice so it can't be too dull, but it also can't be too bright or else you'll blind everyone within a radius of you and it'll be too much. Plus we also have to base it around what shades of red, black and gray you choose because those shades have to also be vibrant enough to match with the yellow but not so bright that they overwhelm it or are no longer recognizable and they can't be to dull or else they won't perfectly match it and it will look ridiculous and tacky. And even then the different shade choices have to reflect you as a bot and how you want others to perceive you. Tough and intense? Cunning and sly? Cute and friendly? Since I have a feeling you'll want something along the lines of that last one I suggest you should go with vibrant, but once more not too vibrant, and have the main plating be a shade of yellow with back being the secondary main color in the color scheme, which will bring the image of that Earth insect thing that you somehow share a name with so even the fleshbags will see you as harmless, with a bit of gray accenting your joints and touches of red here and there to add flare. Now, as for the shades themselves, I'd go for-"
"Uh, Starscream, sir, are you alright?" Be sighed in relief as some secretary intern that had recently been hired interrupt the seeker's rant about colors. At the same time though he cringed slightly because how was Starscream supposed to cover the fact that by all appearances it looked like he was ranting to an empty room and going insane.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Starscream snapped, crossing his arms in annoyance. "I'm trying to practice for convincing an acquaintance of mine who's getting a new frame to actually have a decent color scheme for once."
"Oh," the intern said, still looking a bit confused but luckily less concerned. "In that case, I'll, uh, just, leave you to it then."
When the door closed shut behind the young bot, Bee couldn't help but break into giggles. "Nice save," he commented, snickering as Starscream glanced at him.
"It hardly matters," Starscream said, waving his serve dismissively. "They'll probably eventually realize what I was doing in here, especially once we bring you back." That almost giddy smile that always appeared whenever he thought about the ghost actually being here stretched across his face, completely sincere and with nothing hidden behind it. Bee thought it was beautiful.
"Well?" Starscream asked suddenly, startling the minibot momentarily. "Have you decided on a shade of yellow?"
"Yes, and it's called 'I don't care yellow.'"
This time Bee actually did laugh as Starscream screeched, "That's not an actual shade-!!!"