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Rodimus was enthusiastically showing Starscream Earth music. He was working his way backwards because "You have to save the best for last."
And Starscream was reading vitally important information on his own datapad. Or at least pretending to. He was actually enjoying quite a few of these songs. Cybertron hadn’t had a lot of time for frivolous culture during the all-encompassing war, and he had missed this sort of thing. Rodimus had mentioned that humans also had music called “classical” music, that was similar to older Cybertronian music. But he certainly wasn’t interested in any of that boring shit.
It was possible Starscream had blankly looked at the same line on the report a couple dozen times by now. No one needed to know.
When Rodimus turned the volume down, almost imperceptibly, Starscream looked over to him. Rodimus was cross-legged on the floor and leaning against the plush couch Starscream was lounging on. It wasn't an unwelcome change from the screaming volume it was at before, but it was odd that Rodimus would want to be able to hear anything besides loud bass and lyrics.
Rodimus was preoccupied, scrolling through the datapad the music was saved on, still absently grinning but his eyes were thoughtful.
Before Starscream could ask, Rodimus said "Bee and I used to listen to earth music together all the time. "
Oh?
Starscream put his datapad down into his lap and put his full attention to Rodimus.
Rodimus was still scrolling through the song list.
"Jazz likes it, but he was always somewhere else. Me and Bee were busy with important things too, of course, but we had tons of time to soak in the culture together," Rodimus looked up to Starscream’s face from where he was sitting on the floor, optics bright with something, "D’you like it?"
Starscream wasn't sure what possessed him to respond with "I see Bumblebee, sometimes."
Rodimus stared. Starscream stared back.
‘Fantastic, now he's going to tell me I need to see a medic. Why did I say that, I have a bad enough reputation as it is. I don't need "paranoid hallucination of annoying enemies whom you've previously insulted" added to my list of negative traits. Yes, tell the one bot you can trust and who actually trusts you something so mortifying, Starscream. He's going to treat you with frail protoform gloves now, what if he tells Optimus Prime? That would be the perfect excuse for--’
"Is he here, right now?" Rodimus said, breaking optic contact to try to surreptitiously glance around the room hopefully.
No questioning. ‘Well,’ Starscream thought bemusedly, ‘Rodimus did find some sort of religion with help from Drift. Perhaps he believes in that spiritual stuff?’
"No. Not right now." It was slightly a lie. Bumblebee was always there, in Starscream’s periphery. Not truly there, but like a shimmer in Starscream’s conscious. Bumblebee only appeared completely and visually when no one else was around, but Starscream could never truly feel like he was ever completely alone.
Was he a figment of Starscream’s guilty conscious, or an actual ghost who wanted to help guide Cybertrons chancellor? Froid or Rung would have a field day.
"Well, can you tell him something for me?" Rodimus broke through Starscream’s thoughts. He seemed earnest all of a sudden.
"What is it?"
"Could you tell Bee I'm--" Rodimus paused abruptly, an arm crossed over to touch his opposite flamethrowers. It was something of a nervous tick. "That I miss him. And I still listen to all those boy bands he loved."
Rodimus was smiling now, sort of wistfully. Starscream wanted to touch it.
"I'll do that." Starscream reached over to place his hand on Rodimus’s arm, the one that was mindlessly curling it's fingers over the flamethrowers. It was meant to be like a comforting gesture, but ended up pulling Starscream off the couch to be next to Rodimus.
They looked into eachother’s eyes. It felt... Intimate.
"What’s a boy band?"
The bubble of the moment had burst. Rodimus leaned away suddenly, laughing. When had they started leaning in close to one another?
"Oh man, we haven't gotten there yet. There was a couple really popular earth girl and earth boy groups that did really cheesy song and dance routines. You'll love them!"
Starscream wasn't actually sure how much he would 'love' them. But he hadn't hated any of the music so far.
He felt more than saw a flicker of yellow at the edge of his sight.
When Rodimus turned his attention to the datapad, flicking through at top speed and talking about 'early 2000s' and 'awesome human fashion' Starscream looked over to where he thought he saw Bumblebee.
No one was there. Rodimus finally picked a song that started with a strong chorus of (presumably) male vocals, and he could hear something being faintly tapped along to the rhythm, like a stick or a cane.
Starscream felt the message has gotten across without him even having to do anything.