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Starscream lay unmoving on the berth, limbs spread out and optics staring vacantly at the ceiling. He had never imagined free time could be so boring. But after being out of school for nearly ten weeks, it seemed every fun idea had already been done too many times to count. With the heatwave that had hit Vos the last couple of days, he couldn’t even go out for a flight. Instead, the only thing left to do was laying here on his berth, try not to overheat, and wait for-
The mechanical beep and the metallic clunk that followed were both very faint from the open window, but they still had Starscream shooting up from the berth. Physical post was very rarely used in this day and age, reserved only for the most important official documents. It could only be one thing.
“Was that the academy acceptance letter?” Skywarp, who had been lounging on the living room couch, poked his head up from behind its backrest.
“What else would it be?” Starscream huffed, though he couldn’t contain his own excitement as he hurried towards their apartment’s front door.
To his annoyance, Skywarp quickly followed him.
“Where are you going?” He asked as Starscream entered the command for the door to open.
“To retrieve the letter, of course.” Starscream scoffed, rolling his optics at how dense his trine mate truly was.
He should have known better.
“Not if I get to it first!”
Before Starscream could react, Skywarp had shoved him back and teleported through the door, giving the panel outside a hard slap to force a reboot before it could be used again. Starscream swore loudly. Skywarp wouldn’t be able to teleport all the way to the first floor, but with the building’s landing balconies currently closed down due to maintenance, the stairs would be the quickest way down. Starscream could never hope to catch up with the lead Skywarp already had. Unless he found a better way, of course.
Starscream’s optics swept across the apartment, landing on the still open window in the berth room. That would do.
Without a second thought, he started running, building up momentum through the apartment before throwing himself out the window. The wind came to meet him in a rush as he fell, not even bothering with a transformation sequence. It would only slow him down.
For a moment, Starscream allowed himself to relish in the feeling of freefall before returning his focus to the task at hand. He would need to time the activation of his thrusters perfectly in order to hit a smooth landing and maintain his advantage. Skywarp may have fallen behind for the moment, but not by much. Starscream could see him through the windows of the stairwell, leaping down what must have been five-six steps at once.
Suddenly, something made Skywarp turn his head towards the window. For a moment, both seekers’ optics met, and then Skywarp disappeared in a flash of purple only to appear again on top of Starscream’s back.
“What do you think you are doing?” Starscream snarled, turning around in midair and trying to grab him. “Get off of me!”
“Nu-uh!” Skywarp shook his head as he and Starscream grappled in the air. “Not if you’re going to steal that acceptance letter all for yourself.”
“I’m not going to steal it!” Starscream screeched. “It’s my privilege as trine leader to see it first!”
“That’s not true!” Skywarp shouted back. “I’m the one who can teleport. If we get accepted into the academy, it will be because of me!”
Starscream never had time to retort, as the two of them were rapidly approaching the ground. He fought to twist his wrist free from where Skywarp had it in an iron grip, but his trine mate was both bigger and stronger, refusing to budge even an inch. The ground was coming closer by the second.
“You fool!” Starscream shrieked as panic began setting in. “We’re going to-”
He didn’t get any further before they were both surrounded by crackling energy, followed by a purple flash of light, and in the next second the two tumbled onto the ground. The force from their speed still made the impact considerable, but thanks to Skywarp the only damage was cosmetic. Starscream would still chew him out for it later, of course, but at the moment he had more pressing matters to attend to.
Ignoring the stinging from where his plating had been scraped down to the primer, Starscream got to his feet and began shuffling towards the coveted mailbox as fast as his aching legs allowed him to. Skywarp was already a few paces ahead, having managed to get up before his trine leader. Starscream attributed it to him being well versed in teleporting-related crashes. Fortunately, he himself was even more well versed in hand to hand combat.
With a furious roar, Starscream sprang forward, hitting Skywarp square in the back and sending them both to the ground. His trine mate went down with a surprised yelp but quickly regained his bearings and began fighting back. They both rolled around on the ground, fighting to hold the other back while also crawling towards the mailbox themselves.
Their struggle continued for a while, with the two seekers slowly but surely making their way forward. Eventually, Starscream found himself only a few meters away from the coveted prize, crawling forward on his elbows while Skywarp held onto his legs like a starved piranhacon. He reached out towards the box with a victorious cry, only for something large and blue to step in front of him, blocking his reach. Starscream looked up in confusion, Skywarp momentarily giving up the struggle to do the same.
Thundercracker was standing just in front of the mailbox, looking down at them with pure exasperation. Then, he shook his head with a sigh, turning around on the spot to walk back inside with the acceptance letter held tightly in his hand.