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Starscream is moving around within his office, trying to finish the last of his report. The room itself is boiling hot, like he is slowly being cooked inside.
Starscream's wings are waving back and forth while his fans let out weird creaks as they continue to roar at their highest setting.
His optics are unable to focus, with every line on the datapad feeling like it's moving around so much he can barely make out what it's saying.
Hooked to the datapad are several other monitors with numerous tabs open, large amount of heat wafting from them.
"For Primus' sake," the tricolor seeker curses, trying to ignore some of the warning notifications popping into his interface. "Of course, when I finally get my space back to work, something like that had to happen."
After getting banned from his office from another assassination attempt, then the space itself literally getting flooded from a certain dumbaft conehead deciding to ram himself into the ship's wall for some reason, Starscream had been rather occupied to say the least.
All the equipment within this room had been personally modified and optimized by him so that it's not only efficient but also away from certain prying optics. Starscream would rather keel over dead than use one of the monitors in the commons office room where Soundwave is likely monitoring his every activity. Or the one in his quarters, which is from his school years and runs at a single pixel per minute.
Watching as the screen slowly loads up, Starscream begins to tap his digits against the table's surface several times.
"C'mon, c'mon," the tricolor seeker urges while vibrating his leg. "Scrap, just finish saving already."
Starscream's wings continue to wave back and forth, slowly burning up with every second. His processor feels like it's spinning within its casing as his vision further blurs out.
'Knock!' 'Kncok!'
"Come in," the tricolor seeker absentmindedly says even as his optics are still strained on the monitor before him. "Close the door behind you. I don't want any other mechs coming in to disturb me."
From the corner of his vision, Starscream can make out what looks to be a bulky bluish figure coming into his office. Those red visor-like optics briefly glint whenever the light hits them just right.
"Starscream," a voice calls out, sounding somewhat far away.
"What?" the tricolor seeker answers, not even bothering to look up from his work.
A long silence follows, with the only sounds being Starscream's own typing against the keyboard.
"Spit it out," Starscream hisses, typing even harder against the keyboard. "I don't have time—"
"Have you been getting any rest yet?" Soundwave's voice rings out in the room.
The tricolor seeker momentarily pauses in his typing and glances up. Standing near the entryway is none other than Soundwave. Despite the other's usual well-kept appearance, Starscream can spot what looks like dark circles under the cassette player's visor.
"That's rich," Starscream mutters, turning back to his monitors. "Especially coming from you."
Soundwave doesn't say anything and begins moving around the jet's office, occasionally giving some of the discarded wrappers on the floor a few glances.
Before the tricolor seeker can have the chance to do anything else, a servo suddenly places itself on top of his.
Resisting the urge to jump, the jet swivels his helm up.
"Hmm, your body is a lot warmer than it should be," Soundwave mutters, slowly taking his servo away and reaching into subspace. "That's not good."
"Don't do that," the tricolor seeker hisses, feeling his whole face begin to warm up.
"Do what?" Soundwave asks, tilting his helm to one side.
The tricolor seeker begins to open his mouth, then pauses before he quickly closes it with a shake of his helm.
"Nevermind," Starscream hisses, crossing his arms. "You wouldn't understand anyway."
Despite having worked with other bots for several eons by now, the tricolor seeker feels like he hasn't figured out the other quite well. Sometimes he would be the most annoying little scraplet that seems to be reading his every thought. And then something like this happened, and it makes Starscream wonder if the other bot was missing a part of his processor responsible for social cues.
Soundwave didn't say anything and just silently hands him an energon cube.
Staring down at the container, Starscream raises an optical ridge.
"What is this?" the tricolor seeker manages, pinching his nasal bridge.
"Energon," Soundwave answers. "I noticed you haven't been seen in the mess hall for a while now."
Slightly shifting some of his weight to one side, the cassette player shrugs his shoulders.
"While the both of us often don't see optic to optic, you are still important to the Decepticon's cause," Soundwave explains. "It would be a detriment to the faction if our air force were to fall behind because the commanding officer fainted."
Staring down at the cube with a frown, Starscream briefly closes his optics. "I don't have a choice in this, do I?"
"No," Soundwave promptly answers.
Letting out a long sigh, Starscream snatches the cube away from Soundwave.
'Idiots,' the tricolor seeker's face silently fumes.
Despite his griping, Starscream feels his face continue to warm up more. Raising his wings further up, the tricolor seeker hides his face behind it as he continues to sip his energon.
As the tricolor seeker takes a sip of the energon, he finds a burst of flavors rolling against his tongue. For one second, the jet feels as if he's been taken to cloud nine as the cool liquid rushes through his lines.
'Wait,' Starscream blinks his optics a couple of times. 'This is my favorite flavor. How—'
"That is all," Soundwave calls out from behind him. "I will be taking my leave now."
Quickly turning around, Starscream finds Soundwave already near the entryway.
Right as the cassette player is about to step out, he pauses and turns his helm back.
"Me and my cassettes will be above surface," Soundwave says in his usual monotone voice. "You're welcome to join us at any time."