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The sparkling was probably the tiniest Starscream had ever held, and he’d certainly held a lot of them. Not just his and Skyfire’s children, who tended to be bigger just by nature of Skyfire’s coding. No, Starscream had raised Skywarp, Blitzwing, and Sunstorm from hatchlings as well, and even they certainly weren’t this small. He could probably cup her in one hand instead of two but he didn’t want her falling out of his grasp.
She had at most a trace of wingnubs and if Starscream were to guess, she wouldn’t have full wings, just enough to navigate in the air with the thrusters in her peds.
Caution was also suspiciously yellow.
Skyfire was currently running a geiger calculator over her, but considering she hadn’t melted Starscream’s hands she probably wasn’t radioactive. Good, because human regulations had made lead slightly harder to acquire these days.
So if she wasn’t radioactive, there was only one other explaination.
His daughter and her mother, C-28, hadn’t had much to recover from, and was already up in bed reading something on her datapad. “C-28. My little one. Sweetie. Girly. Dearest daughter.”
C-28 didn’t even look up from what she was reading. “Yes, mom?”
“WHERE IS BUMBLEBEE?!”
The mini bot was still rendered functionally mute from when C-28 lost balance and crushed his neck the one time, but he was still spitting off static and beeps as he struggled in Galecrest’s grip.
His oldest was probably second only to Starscream in rage at this development. Galecrest had been very pleased that after Ratchet helped deliver K-17, Ratchet had also switched off Starscream’s carrier protocols while in there, so the idea that now his siblings would start having kids instead was bleak.
Starscream rearranged his body in the throne he sat in. It hadn’t taken much to convince Megatron to let him borrow the Nemesis throne room for this moment. Just a little tip of his hips and a flare of his wing. The great warrior leader of the Deception was weak to Seekers.
“We meet again, Bug.”
Bumblebee froze in Galecrest’s hold and spit static at him.
“Aw, nothing to say in your defense. Adorable.” Starscream stood up from the throne. “You were a very easy mech to find. Your brother Wasp had a very loose tongue. I don’t think he likes you very much.”
Starscream approached, holding his arm to his frame, and circling the terrified autobot. “Now, I could kill you slowly. Rip your innards out and make you swallow yourself dry and then sell your remains for spare parts…or…” Starscream pulled Caution out of his cloak. “...you can explain this.”
Bumblebee ceased all static, looking wide eyed at Caution, who was currently trying to chew on her own foot.
“I don’t think a CNA test is needed but if your pitiful team wants to perform one…”
Swinging a bit, Bumblebee made grabbing motions for his spawn. Starscream passed her over. “Correct answer. Galecrest, lower them in case the fool drops her.”
Bumblebee made an offended beep as Galecrest placed him on the ground. In Bumblebee’s arms she looked far less tiny. Sire and sparkling locked eyes, matching blue.
“C-28 named her Caution.” Starscream supplied, but he wasn’t sure if Bumblebee heard him, clearly too anamored with he result of his toxic situationship.
“Huh.” Galecrest snorted. “I tried to rename C-28 as Caution once after I her caught at the opening of the Eiff…”
Caution beeped loudly and Bumblebee made a little purring static at her, and Galecrest trailed off in distraction.
Starscream leaned down to adjust how Bumblebee was holding her. “Now. As C-28 said, this is an iss-you not an iss-me. We will visit on holidays and special occasions. Galecrest, take them back to the autobot base while I threaten Megatron with a threesome.”
Galecrest saluted, and started pushing Bumblebee towards the exit.
Through the static Bumblebee produced, Starscream could almost hear the ‘what the frag?!’
“Honestly, what did you expect when you stuck your spike in crazy?!” Starscream waved. “Bye Caution!”
Starscream felt like such a good grandmother