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The first time Starscream proposes to Bumblebee it is a big, loud, romantic gesture he'd planned months in advance, with live music and an expensive dinner on top of a skylight overlooking the city. The kind of proposal you see in movies, and sigh dreamily about after.
The second time he proposes, it is a private thing.
It's him, gently rousing Bumblebee in the morning and giving them his pitiful attempt at tapioca crepes, the crepe itself singed and the filling leaking out the sides because he measured the ingredients wrong. Bumblebee likes to sleep in whenever they can, so it takes a little while for them to wake up enough to notice the breakfast, the quiet music coming from Starscream's old unused gramophone, and Starscream himself, sitting awkwardly on the floor looking more than a little embarrassed
"Breakfast in bed," Bumblebee murmurs, voice rough from sleep, optics half-shuttered. "Mmm, romantic music haha. Important question." They prop their head up on the pillow, looking at him, smiling faintly. "You realised you missed me in the war and now you're proposing?"
Said as a lighthearted tease with an undercurrent of is this real and are you really.
"Something like that," Starscream says. Bites his lip, eyes averted. They flit around as he gathers his words; figures out what it is he wants to say. "Exactly like that," he whispers, confession so quiet Bumblebee almost doesn't hear him. "Would you? Marry me again?"
It takes nearly an entire minute to get an answer. "Well?" Starscream prompts. "Any thoughts? Yes, no, are you crazy go get your head examined? All on the table you know."
A tittered laugh as Bumblebee reaches for the crepes. "Did you make these?"
"They're awful." Grimacing as Bumblebee takes a bite. Hums their approval.
"They're wonderful." Looking right at him as they say it, all soft and quiet still, glowing as sunrise brushes them through the gap in the curtains. "Yes," they say. "Of course I will." And it's a weight lifted. A relief crashing over. And they lean over and kiss him, as they have done a thousand times before, unhurried and simple, all love and passion without the lustful heat so many expect them to have. They are still tired. They are trying to kiss him again, just because they can. Because they want to. "Where did you get those vinyls, viper? I know you've never used that gramophone a day in your life."
Starscream's vents heat up. "...I may have," he admits grudgingly, "asked your friends for a recommendation."
They laugh at him, of course. At how awkward and awful it must've been for him. They laugh because they love him. Starscream lets them laugh. And then he tells them to finish their breakfast. He turns off the vinyl. And he slips back into bed, holding them close, wedding plans dancing in his head. "Nothing fancy," they chide, nuzzling under his chin.
Starscream scoffs. "Really," he sniffs, "it's like you don't know me at all."