Hello! Please sit back and enjoy this Christmas special!

Snow, among other things

Megatron secretly liked the snow.

For some reasons that he couldn't explain to himself, the cold white matter never failed to call to that part of him that greatly appreciated beauty and purity.

But he had a reputation for being an insensitive monster to keep, and couldn't offer himself the luxury of contemplation. So, as he watched the snow fall, through the window of his new temporary base of operations, he only grunted out a disgusted, barely audible statement of how despicable this organic planet's weather was.

One day of that month the fleshlings called 'December', Skywarp and Thundercracker came back from patrol and reported to the command center with uncharacteristic gleefulness.

They came to Megatron, babbling nonsensical things about pretty lights and colorful human cities, their optics too bright from unknown emotions. When they eventually finished their strange tale, they requested the permission to use Reflector for a reconnaissance mission whose purpose Megatron didn't understand.

It sounded uninteresting enough and the warlord knew he should have paid them no heed but still, he found himself strangely intrigued by what seemed to be a weird human custom. With a bored gesture of the hand, he granted them the permission they needed and watched as they hurriedly exited the room with almost sparkling-like excitement.

After all, and this was his excuse for being so generous, there might be something about this he could benefit from.

When they came back a few groons later, still in the same agitated state and, this time, backed up with half of his army, Megatron feared he was facing a mutiny.

But then Skywarp moved forward and pushed a pile of pieces of paper in his hands and, confused, the leader realized that those were the pictures they made Reflector take. At first, he couldn't understand the meaning of what he saw on them: Houses covered in light garlands and humans marveling at excessively decorated fir trees.

"The flesh creatures call this 'Christmas'" they explained, their faces displaying hopeful grins. "And we wish to celebrate it too."

Megatron had always thought the humans were insignificant, under-evolved parasites, and that nothing that came from them could be of any interest, ( except their meager energy sources and poorly designed industries. After all, the Decepticons needed to find their energon somewhere) but this...Christmas thing...

He didn't wish to admit it, but what he saw on the pictures was touching in a strange way and the ex-gladiator found himself oddly willing to learn more about the strange custom.

He decided he would check the Internet for it later on, when no one would be there to catch him doing so. For now, he tried not to smile at his men's expectant faces and just gave them a bored look as he said:

"Whatever."

"Does this mean we can decorate the base and organize a party?" Skywarp asked, further pushing his luck.

"As long as you find your decorations and high-grade by yourself, I couldn't care less about what you do." Megatron retorted, clenching his teeth hard to fight a decidedly insistent smile.

Words of gratitude and respectful bows followed his words, Megatron dismissed them with a lazy gesture of the hand.

Later that night, in the privacy of his personal quarters, he switched his computer on and made a thorough search on the topic. With surprise and the slightest amount of shame, he realized that there was more to humanity than he had thought, and found himself compelled to read further.

At some point of his readings, he stumbled on something called 'The spirit of Christmas'. The concept was vague and seemed to pertain to a lot of different things that left Megatron confused and frustrated, because no amount of reading and searching he did explained exactly what that 'Spirit of Christmas' was about. As the night grew old and with utter annoyance, he finally gave up, defeated.

oOo

Megatron was secretly a mech like any other.

And, just like any other mech, he sometimes desired things he couldn't have.

Among those, ultimate victory in the war against the Autobots and domination of the Universe, there was one thing that seemed even further out of reach. It was very close and yet impossibly distant.

Megatron himself had built this distance he now despised and yet had no right to regret. Because feelings of that kind were dangerous and acting on them could have dire consequences he wasn't ready to face. He had forbidden himself to indulge in his secret passion.

So he had steeled his resolve, settling for just watching, from his throne and in silence, what he could never have. He pretended to feel nothing but hate toward that being he so desired. Surprisingly, it worked, and Megatron was oddly disappointed that it did.

As another day of work reached its end, the soldiers started exiting the command center one by one. From his seat on the big throne, Megatron could see that they were setting things in motion and preparing for that Christmas celebration they were so exited about.

They still looked as gleeful as the day they had first discovered the human custom. Greatly amused by their agitation, the fearless slag-maker brought a hand in front of his mouth to hide a fond smile.

The smile turned into a frown when he realized that they had all left but one, the very being he desired and whose sight he sometimes couldn't bear.

For a moment, he just remained silent and slightly suspicious as he stared intently at a pair of beautiful white wings that hid the view of a flawless dark face. Megatron knew that, if that face were to turn toward him, it would display all the beauty and the arrogance in the Universe.

"Why are you still here, Starscream?" he asked, tuning his voice so it would convey only annoyance. "Are you planning my demise like you always do?"

The flawless face turned toward him at last, and Megatron drank in the sight of its perfection even if his own face expressed only bored contempt.

"Not this time!" the seeker replied, "but I will get back to that shortly, don't worry."

At times like these, Megatron wished he could kill him. But under the beauty of the character, there was a sharp, clever mind and a certain number of valuable skills he couldn't do without. Starscream was undeniably useful, certainly the best soldier he had, and Megatron knew he could never win the war without him at his side.

One doesn't kill their best weapon. Therefore, Starscream had survived all the punishments he had so often brought on himself.

"What are you doing then, aren't you supposed to be off-shift?" Megatron stood and walked closer so he could see what Starscream was doing. "What is that new trinket you are working on?" he asked, recognizing plans for an unknown device.

"I am working on a new kind of energon convector, leader," the seeker gave away. "I think we can brew energon out of inert material as long as they have potential thermal energy."

"What kind of material?" Megatron inquired, confused by the science talk. Not that he was an ignorant fool, but he was no scientist either.

"Snow, among other things." the seeker replied honestly.

The warlord nodded his appreciation at his second-in-command's work and retreated back to his throne. He would stay there and watch, enjoy their proximity while pretending that he needed to be there only to ensure that his treacherous second wouldn't do something behind his back that he wouldn't like.

Megatron secretly cared about his Decepticons.

The next day, the soldiers came back, arms loaded with heavy-looking crates. Megatron surveyed them from the corner of an optic.

A moment earlier, he had received a call from an angry Optimus Prime, who had informed him that his soldiers had abducted and threatened the Autobots' human friends, Spike and Carly. Apparently, his Decepticons hadn't harmed the young fleshlings at all, they had given them a long shopping list and forced them to go shopping for Christmas decorations.

Megatron had only smiled at the Prime. "If your pets have been given back to you undamaged, I don't see what you are angry about!"

His Decepticons did him proud, sometimes.

They had dragged a big fir-tree - the humans would have considered it huge - in the command center and Megatron watched with barely concealed amusement as they fussed around it.

Light garlands were drawn from wall to wall and all around the room, shiny and sparkly things were attached to the ceiling, strange-looking little spheres of glass were hooked to the fir tree's branches and, little by little, the usually austere command center was filled with colors and warmth. They dimmed the base's lightening to make it look prettier and it became almost magical.

From his yet-to-be-decorated throne, Megatron smiled.

The multicolored lights reflected beautifully on Starscream's wings and although each and every piece of decoration the Decepticons brought in were pretty, to Megatron, the Air commander was still the most alluring thing in the room.

Starscream stepped back a little as he inspected the Christmas tree critically, not looking satisfied of its appearance yet. He let out a funny little sound and snapped his fingers as he finally realized what was missing to that tree. Intently, he looked around and searched the crates.

"Ah, there you are," he finally exclaimed, reaching for a small plastic box. Megatron, who had never seen his ruthless second act like this before, stood dumbfounded as the beaming red seeker dealt the final touch to the work and placed a finely designed and shiny star on top of the tree.

At that very moment, Starscream's smile looked honest and true, so unlike all those malevolent, arrogant smirks and grins the warlord was used to see on his second-in-command's face. At that moment, the seeker looked genuinely happy.

Megatron knew he would never forget that image.

oOo

The machine Starscream had finished building the previous day worked perfectly.

Today was Christmas eve and everything outside was covered in snow, which was very convenient: The energon produced from the snow by the new converter was delicious.

And since it kept snowing, the Decepticons would have plenty to go by and the party promised to last long in the night.

While his warriors were having their Christmas party inside, enjoying the amount of high-grade at their disposal and the loud music Soundwave and his cassettes were playing for them, Megatron felt like taking a walk outside.

He had, for a reasonable part of the evening, participated in the festivities among his soldiers. Like them he had already consumed a fair amount of potent energon and felt pleasantly lightheaded.

The good old days when he was able to drink gallons of high-grade and still not end up with a bad hangover the next day were long gone. It wasn't often that the Decepticon leader got to drink to his spark's content nowadays, and his resistance to high-grade had gradually decreased because of that.

He knew that, if he wanted to further indulge in the good stuff that evening and if he didn't want to make a fool of himself, he'd better sober up a bit before resuming his drinking.

Hence his little trek outside.

Also, and as he found himself alone outside of the base, he could indulge himself in the tranquility of the night and the pleasant sight of the snow-covered landscape.

Meanwhile, inside the base, no one really noticed his absence.

"We are out of booze!" Astrotrain declared.

"It's not possible!" Starscream stated calmly, standing up from his seat. The converter was on auto-mode and the tunnel should have been conveying a continual supply of cubes into the base's warehouse.

"Your new toy must be broken, Screamer!" Skywarp said with a stupid laugh, the fool was already inebriated and Starscream decided it would be better to ignore it.

He went to check the conveyer belt and found that it worked normally. "Must be the machine," he stated for himself, "Something stuck or...I need to check it." Switching off the belt momentarily, he turned toward the others. "No big deal, I'll fix that."

It wasn't in his nature to be so accommodating, but he too wanted his drinks to keep coming and no one else knew how his device worked. Also, that weird human custom and all that came along with it did strange things to him; for some reason, he felt like leaving the asocial part of his usual persona in the proverbial cloakroom.

After a short stop in the workshop to grab the tools he thought he might need, he went out and header for the small roofless cabin that housed the converter, the snow making a soft crushing noise as he stepped on it. It was nice, he thought, allowing himself a smile since there was no one here to see him and mock him for his unusual and softened attitude.

The fix turned out to be an easy one, just as he had expected and hoped. The machine was still a prototype and its gears' axis weren't sufficiently adjusted yet, so the gears had shifted slightly, which had made the transmission belt slip askew. Starscream only needed to switch off the device for a short time so he could better screw some bolts and re-set the belt around its gears, he was done in less than a breem. Once re-started, the device resumed its work normally and fresh energon cubes were placed on the conveyer belt.

/It's okay, Astrotrain,/ He comm-ed the base, /You can switch the conveyer belt back on./

As he cut the comm and straightened himself, he perceived a lone figure standing alone down the slope of ground, a few dozen meters away from the cabin. Whoever that was was facing away from him and didn't seem to have realized his presence.

Such a bad idea to come out alone and lower your guard so carelessly! He thought, recognizing Megatron.

With a mischievous grin, the seeker crouched down and scoped as much of the snow as he could hold in the palm of his both hands. Biting his own lips to hold in a chuckle, he molded the icy matter into a compact ball, stood up and took aim.

The next moment, Megatron was hit square on the back of his neck. Furious to have been caught unaware, and as he quickly turned around to see who was attacking him, his foot slipped on the frozen ground. With an undignified humph of surprise, he fell forward and landed hard on his aft.

"Megatron has fallen!" Starscream shouted, "I guess that makes me the new leader!" he declared, laughing at his own joke as he placed his hands on his hips, mimicking his usual, triumphal pause.

"Really now, Starscream?" Megatron said, chuckling. He felt not quite as angry as he should have been. He scoped some snow and promptly threw it back at his assailant.

The seeker's laughter was cut short when he received the projectile straight in the face. "Oh wait, you..just wait!" He said, wiping the snow away. He crouched down again and, safely hidden behind the cabin, prepared more munitions. Grinning wickedly from audio to audio, he stood up again with a snow-ball in each hand, he threw them both at his leader.

One landed pitifully on Megatron's foot and the second one missed him completely. "Missed!" Megatron declared as Starscream's head disappeared back behind the cabin. "You failed yet again!"

Playing along, the warlord packed his hands with snow, then ran up the slope and over to where his second-in-command was hiding. Oh, this was actually quite amusing.

"Come out, spineless coward!" He bellowed, rounding the cabin, "Come and face your punishment!" He laughed silently as Starscream poked his head out and over the cabin's top in a most comical way. He could see his head shifting from side to side and imagined the seeker's optics do the same as he searched for him, not yet realizing that his adversary was now right behind him.

Megatron moved quickly but silently and, bringing his snow-laden hands forward, smeared their content all over Starscream's face from behind. His almighty cry of outrage made for a most satisfying reward, but Megatron wasn't done yet.

He battled the seeker's hands away as Starscream tried to remove the snow from his face and, grabbing his wing-tips, yanked him backward. The seeker fell on his back and wings with a loud and scratchy "Meeep!"

"Pray tell, Starscream," Megatron said, enjoying himself immensely, "Who is your leader?"

"You'll pay for this, you brute!" Starscream swore half-angrily. He tried to give Megatron his best , dedly and dark glare, but found out he could not keep the act for long. He pulled his tongue out, his mouth morphed into a smile full of mirth, and said: "It is you, oh fearless snow-balls fighter!"

They both laughed.

And since Megatron was in a particularly good mood, he extended a hand to pull Starscream up to his feet. He couldn't remember the last time he had had his spirit lifted like that, this strange human celebration and the ambiance it carried inside and around the base had strange effects on him.

While he thought of it, perhaps that was what the fleshlings called the 'Christmas spirit'. Apparently, it was less a spirit than it was a state of mind.

A state of mind in which one finds themselves willing to soften up for as long as the moment lasted.

Yes, it must be so, Megatron decided as he watched Starscream brush the snow off his own armor, his beautiful smile still in place.

"You know," he felt suddenly compelled to say, "I actually like the snow."

"Me too," Starscream admitted, looking up at him with a strange expression.

And it is not exactly true that I hate you, Megatron thought, but this he didn't say aloud. The words were too dangerous to be let out.

"I could use a drink," he declared instead. Then, somewhat awkwardly, he added, "Let's go back inside?"

Starscream just nodded. He was a bit thirsty, needed shelter as the cold was getting insistent and the melted- but still icy- water on his frame felt quite unpleasant. Together they walked back toward the main entrance of the base.

Above the reinforced automatic door, the soldiers had placed a small bundle of green organic matter, a plant of sort, that the humans called 'mistletoe'. It was nowhere as pretty as the rest of the decorations they had placed around the base and most of the Decepticons probably didn't know what it was for.

But Megatron, like any self-respectful leader should, liked to inform himself thoroughly on any topic that came to his attention. Therefore, he had done his homework on Christmas customs and knew very well why the humans placed those 'mistletoe' in their home.

He smiled bitterly as he saw it hanging there, placed innocently and without purpose, only because it had been on the pictures Reflector had taken.

If only he could...no!

"Oh!" Starscream suddenly said, looking up with a smile as they passed beneath the bundle of plants, "I hadn't noticed it before!"

"Hmm?" Megatron made a non-committal sound and faked indifference and ignorance as he followed the seeker's stare. Shrugging for the act, he extended a hand to the control box to key the entry code.

He never reached the box, though, because the red seeker stopped him before he could do so.

"What is the meaning of..." He started but was cut short when Starscream suddenly planted his lips on his for a quick, soft kiss.

When he leaned away, the seeker was still smiling his flawless, devious smile. "That what's you do when under the mistletoe." he simply said.

Megatron smiled at him and, placing a hand on the small of Starscream's back, pulled him back against his heating-up frame for another, longer and deeper, kiss.

oOo

Megatron secretly liked the snow.

He also loved how, just like the cold white matter, his second could melt in his arms.

The spirit of Christmas, wasn't a spirit, an attitude or a state of mind , he decided as he woke up the next day with a pretty red seeker still asleep in the berth next to him and no headache.

It was all that and more; it was something strange that happened only then and allowed you to dare and hope, because that is how one reaches their dreams, it was a gift of willpower to the spark.

And if that sounded absolutely cheesy, he couldn't care less; The night had been ultimate perfection and, at that very moment, he had everything he'd always wanted.

…Well...almost.

But, for those other things, there would be others Christmas.

END

I am aware of how ooc and illogical this story is, ( seriously, it looked better in my head) but I hope you enjoyed it anyway!

Thank you for reading, please review.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Deezaster82