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The world came into brilliant focus and Bumblebee paused for a moment. He vented in even though he didn’t need to and he no longer had those systems. Sometimes just going through the motion calmed him down and resettled him whenever he came back from whatever nothingness he’d been in.
Bee wasn’t sure how long he’d been gone for this time, but the room he found himself in was one he’d never seen before, which was odd because he’d been everywhere with Starscream so far. He took the chance to look around, blinking wide optics at all the small figures. They were tiny and round and utterly adorable and surprisingly detailed. His optics finally landed on Starscream, who was hunched over a work table, clay and tools strewn everywhere around him. Bee floated over, peeking over his shoulder and wing to get a better look at what the Seeker was working on.
The figure was absolutely tiny in Starscream’s servos and still a very rough shape. Even so, Bumblebee could make out the distinct horns on top of the helm. He’d also seen enough cartoons on Earth to know the wispy part on the bottom made the figure a ghost. Bee grinned, barely keeping the sudden, delighted laugh inside. He floated around to the side and leaned against the table, or at least he pretended to. He couldn’t actually touch the thing.
“What are you working on?” He asked.
Starscream lurched, wings shooting up and servos quickly cupping the clay figure so Bee could no longer see it. “What do you think you’re doing in here!?” And wasn’t that a new level. Bee hadn’t thought Starscream could get to that octave, but he’d just been proven wrong.
“You know I can’t control when or where I show up. I always show up near you.” Bee said with a shrug.
Starscream glared at him, servos still gently cupping the clay so Bee couldn’t see it. “I’m not doing anything.”
“Come on, you can tell me. I’m already in this room and it’s not like I could tell anyone if I wanted to.” Bee rolled is optics. They’d been making such progress too. Starscream had been opening up to him more often and Bumblebee was pretty sure he was falling for the awnry Seeker. And wasn’t that a shocking realization he tried not to think about.
“You could still laugh at me,” the Seeker muttered, servos tightening just a touch around the figurine.
Bee frowned and shifted a bit. He really wanted to reach out to Starscream and hated that he couldn’t. “I won’t, I promise.”
Starscream glared at him, sharp optics scrutinizing the yellow minibot. He swallowed and slowly uncupped his servos to reveal the miniature sculpture of Bumblebee. Bee grinned and reached out for it before stopping himself. He really wished he could pick it up and look at it. Starscream had a light flush over his cheeks and quickly turned away, placing the model back in front of him.
“It’s really good,” Bee said gently.
Starscream just shrugged, picked up a tool, and started smoothing out parts of the clay. “It’s barely anything,” he muttered again, shoulders hunching up around his helm.
“True, but I can still tell that it’ll be me eventually.” Bee looked back over the Seeker’s shoulder to get a look at what exactly he was doing.
He froze for a klik and then started back up as if nothing had happened. “How do you know it’s you?”
Bee snorted and rolled his optics. “It’s got my horns and the little ghost tail from Earth cartoons on it, who else could it be?”
Starscream snorted, a smirk pulling at his lips and the flush deepened just a bit more. “A good guess.”
They fell silent as Starscream worked and Bee watched how skillfully he manipulated the lump of clay. It felt like no time at all had passed by the time Starscream carefully placed the miniature on a small try. Bumblebee grinned down at it.
“Now what?” He asked.
“Now I bake it for a while so it hardens. Once it cools off and if it’s in one piece afterwards, I paint it and then put it on one of the display shelves.” Starscream smirked at Bee and carried the tray off.
Bumblebee followed after him slowly. He took another chance to look at some of the other models throughout the room, noting how some were more expertly formed than others. There was one of Megatron scowling that had odd little lumps and shaky paint strokes. Even the figure’s scowl looked more like an uncertain pout than his trademark scowl and there was a slight dent in his helmet; although that was arguably on purpose.
“I started early on in the war,” Starscream’s cool voice floated over to Bee from a doorway the minibot hadn’t noticed earlier. Bee looked over at him. “I needed some way to relax and we were stopped at this little dingy spaceport for almost a month to get repairs done on the Nemesis . One of the shops had these little figurines in the windows. Well, little to us, huge to the locals. There was this little jet one that reminded me of Skywarp and I wanted to buy it from him but the price was ridiculous and I tried negotiating the price down. It somehow turned into me yelling at the shop keeper that I could do a better job at it than him. He threw a block of wrapped clay at me and some tools and told me to try.”
Bee raised his eyebrows and huffed out a little laugh. “And? Was it better than his?”
“Not by a long shot,” Starscream chortled. “I almost gave up but then I made the roundest, chunkiest little jet and painted it and here we are.”
Starscream waved his arms to indicate the room with a smile on his lips. Bee liked how it looked on him; liked how relaxed he was right now. It was rare to see the Seeker like this.
“So all of these are a mix of old and new?”
“They are. I only throw out ones that have gone horribly wrong.” Starscream said, walking back into the room toward his desk.
Bee noticed a particularly lumpy looking pile of grey clay in the corner. “What about that one then?” He asked and pointed toward it.
Starscream followed his digit and snickered, walking over and bending down to retrieve it. “This was my first ever attempt at making Megatron. I’ll never get rid of it.”
It was vaguely shaped like Megatron’s helmet and Bumblebee couldn’t help but giggle at it. It really was horrible, but also somehow fitting.
“I know, it’s atrocious, but so is he so it works out just fine.” Starscream dropped the thing on the corner of the table and smirked. “The tiny jets are still my favorites though.”
Bee turned to follow where the Seeker was pointing and then drifted closer to the tiny, rounded models on one shelf. There were three tiny, rounded jets all painted in bright colors and arranged in a proper formation. Bee grinned at them.
“Is this you and your trine?”
“It is, all the details are there, they’re just…” Starscream paused and Bee looked back at him. He had a bright blush on his cheeks. “They’re cutesie. A lot of my models are.”
“Is that how you made my figure?”
“It is.”
Bee grinned up at the Seeker. “I can’t wait to see it once it’s finished.”
The smile Starscream graced him with was soft and filled with a warm pride. “I can’t wait for you to see it too.”