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"Primus."
Skyfire did not look up from his datapad as Starscream entered the common room of their quarters. He heard his wingmate's light steps slow and finally stop, halfway to the table where he was seated in his oversized chair.
After a few moments of silence, Starscream made a soft whuffing sound. "Thundercracker is a lecherous old pile of scrap. Or Skywarp is a horny youngling."
Skyfire chuckled softly. "At least they aren't doing whatever they were last time. It's quieter tonight."
Starscream groaned. "Please, stop with the unwanted mental images."
"You're the one who brought it up."
The wing leader looked at the closed door of his teammates' quarters, his faceplates tightening against one another in a scowl. "Can't they get their own room or something?"
"They have their own room, Starscream."
"That's not what I meant, and you know it." Starscream flopped into the seat across the table from Skyfire, slouching back in it tiredly. "What's got so much of your attention this evening? Not more planet-scouting reports, I hope."
"Every mech needs his aspirations," Skyfire replied in a low rumble. "They're just the notes given to us at today's debriefing. Thought you might want them. Since you missed the debriefing and all." He smirked, sapphire optics narrowing.
Starscream snatched the pad from his giant hand. "I had other slag to deal with," he said sourly.
It was true enough. As the wing's leader, Starscream had the fun of attending to all the bureaucratic nonsense for them. Yet despite his all of complaints, he was good at it, as if he had a secret sense for how to hide his cunning behind his brash, impulsive exterior. Even from the first time Skyfire had met the smaller Seeker, he had noticed a sharp mind behind the smart-mouthed troublemaker, and his curiosity about what made Starscream tick had made him one of the few mechs able to stand his presence for more than a few breems. It had only been natural, then, that they had been assigned as wingmates.
They had never been apart since, becoming closer than just comrades-in-arms, closer than friends or brothers or...
Skyfire watched his beloved companion as he read the datapad. Glowing red optics darted back and forth, scanning the screen, absorbing information, filing it all away in some corner of his mind, to wait for the exact moment when he would need to call on it again.
Then he glanced at Thundercracker and Skywarp's door. Being assigned a wing with those two had been an interesting choice on their commanders' part. Surely they had foreseen how badly Skywarp and Starscream would clash, two Seekers with similarly antagonistic attitudes and braggadocio. Sure enough, the shouting matches between the two of them had given the entire base a demonstration of how Starscream got his name. And more than once, Skyfire had found himself forcibly separating the two when they fell to blows. It had been a bit more surprising that Thundercracker, an old and more level-headed mech, had found the newcomers' presence offensive enough that he outright attempted to butt Skyfire out of formation during practice patrols on more than one occasion.
Skyfire himself had refrained from retaliating in the normal Seeker way--with equal if not more violence--even though every part of him wanted so badly to rend the blue Seeker's wing flaps from his body. No, Skyfire knew Skywarp and Thundercracker both were simply waiting for an excuse to have at the biggest Seeker on Cybertron, and he would not give them that satisfaction.
Their frustration at not being able to bait him into a fight had been palpable, a most delicious victory. For once even Starscream had approved of his 'slagging placidity.'
Then one day several vorns later, it was as if Skyfire and Starscream had passed some unknown test. Thundercracker and Skywarp fell into place next to them, allowing Starscream, with his more aggressive personality, to command them, turning what had initially been a hostile relationship to one of deep respect. The four Seekers now got along as if they had been created as siblings, working together with the precision of seasoned veterans.
If he was going to be forced to serve a stint in the army, at least Skyfire could enjoy his time in this wing.
Except for one small thing.
Thundercracker and Skywarp were very much a spark-bonded pair, as commonly happened with paired Seekers. Though they never let this interfere with their work, after retreating to their quarters it was a different story entirely.
Skyfire was happy for them, he really was. Truth be told, even these times when they forgot that not everyone might want to hear their ecstatic exertions didn't bother him. No, what got to Skyfire was that he knew their closeness bothered Starscream, made him fume with silent jealousy, and Skyfire couldn't bring himself to do anything about it.
'You can never truly leave your past behind, can you?'
With a soft sigh, he stood and disappeared into his quarters.
It didn't register with him until a few breems later that his companion had left the table. Starscream blinked a few times, tearing his gaze from the glowing datapad in his hand.
"Skyfire?"
There was no reply.
He made a disgusted face. 'Do those two have to carry on like that?' Swearing to himself, Starscream stood, sending out a querying comm to his partner. Even if Skyfire shut himself off from the rest of the world, as he sometimes did when in one of his rare bad moods, he never closed himself to Starscream.
He could easily sense his partner, that warm presence that melted all his stresses away. The giant Seeker was in their quarters, but he didn't respond to Starscream's soft call.
'Odd.' Worried, the wing leader set the datapad down, stepping softly towards the open door to their quarters. 'He can't have gone into recharge already.'
Skyfire's massive body was silhouetted against the large window at the far side of the room. He was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, staring off across the city and to the stars beyond with a blank expression. He was absentmindedly running his fingers along his chestplates, where the panels met in the middle. Starscream knew what was hidden on the underside of those bits of armor: old scars, grooves along the insides of the plates where someone, someones, had reached in and ripped the armor open in times past, long before Starscream had known him.
Starscream was one of the few mechs who knew that similar marks covered Skyfire's spark casing.
Immediately, Starscream's own spark ached within him. 'No, Skyfire...don't do this again...' He walked up to his friend, intending to say something, but instead stopped a few paces behind him. He had never been good at the whole 'comforting someone' thing. His personality dictated that he usually did the exact opposite. Being comforting was Skyfire's job. Starscream was the one who went to him when he needed a kind word or smile, or simply the presence of someone who cared about him. Skyfire never sought out comfort when he was distressed, he always went off by himself, and when he returned he had buried his hurts deep within, once again his normal placid, polite self.
'What do you want me to say?' Starscream thought morosely. 'What do you want me to do? After all this time...just tell me.'
"I'm sorry." Skyfire spoke so softly that the wing leader almost didn't hear him.
"For what?"
"For this." He had not stopped rubbing at the hidden scars. "That I can't...do anything...for us..."
Starscream hissed softly, the pain in his spark flaring. "Don't talk like that. You know it doesn't matter to me." Some small part of him did envy that part of Thundercracker and Skywarp's relationship, their ability to bare their sparks before one another without a second thought. But Starscream knew how Skyfire felt about it, that his history with such experiences had left more than just body parts scarred. If refraining from such activities would allow Skyfire some small piece of mind, then that was what Starscream would do. And he was content with it.
Skyfire had not said anything more, had not even moved from his spot.
"Come on, get up," Starscream urged, pushing his foot lightly against the larger mech in an effort to goad him into moving, despite the fact that he had learned long ago that no amount of trying to physically move Skyfire anywhere would do any good. If the giant Seeker did not want to be moved, he couldn't be.
That was exactly what was going on now. Lost in his brooding, Skyfire was as good as welded to the floor.
With a sigh, Starscream slumped against his friend, gently pressing his double-crested head against Skyfire's shoulder in a small gesture of affection. He slid down to the floor, turning himself around to sit back-to-back with the larger mech. 'What do you want me to do, Skyfire?' He leaned back, his wings rasping lightly against Skyfire's. 'Why won't you talk to me?'
They sat in silence in the darkened room for a long time.
"Skyfire..." Starscream started. He paused, unsure of his next words. Serious conversations like this never came easily to him. "When we're through with this...when we're both too old to be pulling stunts in the air any more, let's go exploring. Just you and I. Across the stars."
For a while Skyfire didn't answer. Then, Starscream felt the metal plates against his back rumble. "I would like that, Starscream."
Starscream smiled to himself, feeling no small measure of relief. 'When we are done being warriors...
Just you and I.'