Something Wonderful

Chapter 10

Knock Out still refused to talk about that incident in the dark street. Starscream tried ignoring it, told himself that the medic would tell him when he was ready, but after two weeks he was becoming frustrated.

He had never expected to grow to like Knock Out, much less care about him. He wanted the red mech to show some trust, though they weren't yet lovers, they were definitely more than friends at this point.

The silver mech had hinted on the subject several times: when picking Knock Out up after work, during meals and quiet hours when both of them would just settle in the living room to read and just enjoy each other's company, once he even tried bringing it up over a bottle of high grade and even overcharged, the redspeedster still clammed up over the whole thing.

Eventually, he got so frustrated and angry that he'd actually snapped at the smaller mech, and instantly regretted it when he saw the flash of anger and hurt in those red optics. Then the medic had stood up and left without giving the silver flier a chance to apologize, which now found Starscream out on the balcony, taking relationship advice from Smokescreen of all bots.

Simply put, he really wanted to kill himself at that moment.

"-All I'm saying, 'Screamer, is that you've gotta have some faith in 'im. He'll tell ya when he's ready and you have to apologize and let him know that you were in the wrong, not him."

Starscream groaned, silently cursing his decision to come out here instead of his room. But he was a seeker and seekers needed to be out in the air a lot.

"And what if he doesn't come around? It's easy for you to talk, you probably don't have anyone, rookie."

Hurt flashed in Smokescreen's optics, there and gone within a second.

"Hey, you're the one who came out here whining, I was just trying to help."

Starscream tried not to snort. Sympathy - another stupid Autobot sentiment. No matter what, he was still a decepticon at heart and though he learned not to want to kill every autobot in sight that didn't mean that their ways didn't annoy the scrap out of him.

Swallowing his pride and silently imagining getting rid of Smokescreen a hundred different ways (including tossing him over the balcony railing), he spoke:

"I'll..heed your advice, you may be right after all."

He instantly regretted his choice when Smokescreen grinned.

"Glad I could help, also, Screamer.."

Starscream glanced at the blue youngling as the latter suddenly trailed off. Noticing this, the rookie smirked, abruptly leaning over his balcony railing and into the flier's personal space.

"You hurt Doc Knock and I will personally make sure you no longer have a spark chamber." He hissed threateningly.

Starscream involuntarily took a step back, lifting his servos in a peaceful gesture. Some part of him was amused that an inexperienced youngling dared to threaten him, former second in command of the decepticons, but the other was terrified.

While working in the mines he hadn't had a chance to really talk or even watch the autobots, for all he knew the rookie might just have got the training he needed and had got a little smarter over the years. And judging by how all decepticons were treated, Smokescreen could very well go through with his threat and nobody would bat an optic.

Frowning just slightly, he finally said:

"I'll bear that in mind."

The rookie smiled, instantly backing out of Starscream's personal space. "Glad we understand eachother."

The seeker scowled, but otherwise did not respond. Sighing internally, he turned away from the younger mech. In the day, rebuilt Iacon was just as beautiful as it haf been during the night. Tall, silver skyscrapers glinting in the sunlight, crowds of bots both on the ground and in the air... but it would never be Vos.

Oh, how he longed to see that city again. The city of seekers. He'd been born and raised there and he had missed it every day since it had been destroyed in the war.

In fact, with his newly regained freedom he had planned to go there once he was cleared by the medic, Ratchet. But after the last few weeks, his mind had changed.

He didn't want to leave Knock Out. Primus knows how he had learned to care for the narcissistic mech, but he had. Vosians would not truly accept a grounder.

Sighing, he turned his helm just slightly to glance at Smokescreen's balcony, relief washing over him when he noticed that it was empty.

Eventually he returned to the apartment and sat down in the living room, looking through the brochures Knock Out had left him on the kitchen table.

It seemed that the red medic, knowing that Starscream had once worked as a scientist, reached out to a few mechs he knew that worked in different laboratories, acquiring some job options for the silver seeker.

Though he would never admit it, Starscream was grateful to him for his efforts and vowed that he'd apologize that very evening.

For now though, he'd look through the offers. All work on experimental weapons had long since been scrapped, no one wanted to even think about fighting. Even if it hadn't been scrapped, Starscream doubted that he would have signed up for it, not that they would accept an ex con, the former SIC of the decepticons no less anyway. He'd had enough of war as well.

The seeker soon found that several of the job offers that the medic brought him were to his liking and after some consideration set off, hoping that now that he had been officially pardoned, they would let him apply.

Knock Out grumbled softly to himself as he walked through the busy streets of evening Iacon. Getting to his apartment would've been faster if he haf just transformed, but he didn't feel like it.

Starscream's words stung. Really stung. Usually, he would've brushed it off and forgotten about it, but for some reason he just couldn't. Maybe he truly was a coward.

The urge to yell out his frustration rose, but he fought it down. He didn't want to attract unnecessary attention, not when he was this miserable.

The feeling of being watched hadn't left as he'd initially hoped. Countless times he had felt optics boring into him, but when he turned around, no matter how fast, there was no one there.

Maybe he was just paranoid. Maybe he was too ised to the way things were during the war.

Venting a sigh, he stopped. He couldn't go back to the apartment right now and face Starscream.. Knowing the seeker, the whole confrontation would result in a massive helmache. What he needed right now was to burn off some steam.

Transforming, he sped off in the direction of the race track.

Fortunately there weren't many mecha there. Just four or five younglings, racing together, their joyful laughter echoing throughout the entire track.

They ignored him and though Knock Out would usually be insulted by the lack of attention to his flashy finish, it suited him just fine now.

The smooth metal felt good beneath his tires and he felt his frame slowly relax as contentment replaced frustration.

As he was making a steep u-turn, the feeling of being watched returned and he tilted his side mirrors towards the stands.

A mech was standing there, half concealed by the evening shadows, yellow optics tinged with green bright with lunacy, mouthplate pulled into a creepy audio to audio grin that made Knock Our plating crawl. He swore he glimpsed energon stains on them.

His tires screeched loudly against the metal as he brought himself to a sudden halt, just narrowly avoiding to collide with one of the youngsters.

"Hey, the frag's your problem?! I nearly crashed into you, slagheap!"

The young mech exclaimed, but the medic ignored him, transforming and turning to look back at the stands.

The mech was gone.