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“Get over here.”
Megatron rolled his optics, but only paused briefly to unload the fuel he’d gathered into their storage unit before continuing across the camp to where his mate sat cross-legged, absolutely covered in sparklings. “Hello to you too, Starscream.” he bent to give the mech a quick kiss, and let himself be pulled to kneeling by a perfectly manicured claw in his clavicle seam.
“You were barely gone, why should I need to say hello to you again?” Starscream scoffed. Megatron rolled his optics again, plucking one of the larger and more adventurous sparklings off of their other creator’s shoulder.
“It’s polite to greet a mech before sticking your talons in all his seams.” he huffed, directing his attention down to the bitty in his hands, who’d decided his thumb looked tasty and was doing their damndest to gnaw it off. “I thought you wanted to set a good example for the little ones.”
“Please, they barely know their own designations at this age.” Starscream stopped prodding at him and sat back, looking from his sparkling-covered frame to Megatron, then back at their offspring. “Oh bitties~” he crooned, and a dozen bright little pairs of optics turned to him curiously.
“Wait, no-”
“Why don’t you go play with your sire?” Starscream told them, gesturing to Megatron and the wriggling ball of bitty still trying to take his thumb off at the knuckle. The sparklings, who had been quietly playing with each other, began beeping and cheeping up a storm as they swarmed off of Starscream and latched onto Megatron instead, their tiny fields bursting with joy play love love play!
“You fight dirty.” he growled, glaring as Starscream rose to his pedes.
“They’re your spawn too, you know.” his mate replied with a sharp smile, plucking the little biter in his hands up and depositing them atop his helm before settling down behind him. “And look, your back plating is a mess.” he prodded sharply at a buckled piece of armour. “What did you do, pick a fight with a tree?”
“Self repair will take care of it.” Megatron huffed, turning his attention to his lapful of noisy little sparklings, carefully trying to keep the one settling in on top of his helm from sliding off. “Yes, hello to you too.” he said, unable to keep a small smile from his face as his sparklings’ little fields flared bright with the pure sort of love only sparklings had for their carriers.
“Oh, so you’ll greet them but not me?” Starscream huffed, talongs getting between Megatron’s plates to work out what little grit had gathered there.
“You started it.” he pointed out, then returned his attention to the sparklings, who were proudly showing off... “Starscream, why is this one injured?” he asked, picking up one of the mid-sized sparklings who had been proudly waving around an arm with a long gash down the length of it.
“She behaved for her bath, then picked a fight with some of the wildlife while I was wrangling the rest of them.” Starscream said, sounding more proud than anything else.
“Well, in that case.” Megatron twisted to scowl at him.
“Oh, cool your axles old mech.” Starscream swatted him on the shoulder. “It’s already been disinfected, and she’s proud of her little battle scar.”
Megatron scowled for another moment, then winced as Starscream found and roughly straightened a kinked cable. “That’s your battle scar, huh?” he asked when he’d turned to look at his sparklings again, setting off a fresh round of high, cheerful bitty noises. “You’ll grow up to be a fierce warrior indeed.” he patted her gently on the helm, then scooped her up and lifted her to his chest, letting tiny claws sink into his seams to hold her there, over his warm engine and near to his spark.
This, of course, prompted the rest to swarm up his chassis, and he chuckled as he sat back a bit to let them. “It’s good to see them so energetic.” he murmured, scratching one under the chin and eliciting a purr from their tiny engine.
“With us caring for them, why would they be anything else?” Starscream asked, leaning up against his back, arms wrapping around Megatron’s middle, threading deftly under and between sparklings. He leaned in, and Megatron turned his helm to catch Starscream’s kiss.