Afterglow

Another oneshot, I'm afraid, but I felt like doing something light-hearted and the idea came to me last night. I'll get back to doing my prompts for "My Little Lover" eventually, it's just hard to be inspired for all of them ; As usual, I don't own the Transformers or anything. There is hinted Megatron x Starscream to warn you - nothing graphic though.

From the moment Skywarp stepped into the command centre, he knew that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

He rubbed the back of his helm and frowned, walking over to his usual seat next to Thundercracker. Looking around, he noted all the Decepticons in the room - Megatron was there in his throne looking pensive, occasionally sipping at an energon cube. The second and third in command were both there - Starscream staring at a data pad, Soundwave doing…whatever it is Soundwave does at that console all day. Starscream's second and third were there - not that any of them knew which order Thundercracker and Skywarp came in. Their rank seemed to change depending on Starscream's mood. Skywarp could hear a distant buzzing and a faint scratching, notifying him of Laserbeak and Ravege's presence (not Soundwave's second or thirds, but Skywarp preferred those two over Rumble and Frenzy, simply for the fact that they could not talk).

Thundercracker began to nudge Skywarp irritably, and the purple seeker looked around to his trine-mate. The blue seeker jerked his head towards the console, signifying that Skywarp should stop being an aft and get to work. Sheepishly, the teleporter logged in to the console without a word. Hm. Nothing different or strange about the console, nor anything unusual about the reports from Dirge and Thrust vying for his attention.

Then, suddenly, it hit him. With bulging optics he whipped around in his chair, mouth gaping, looking between Starscream and Megatron. His two superiors stared back, puzzled.

"Is there something wrong, Skywarp?" Megatron growled, swirling his energon around in its cube.

He gulped. "N-nothing sir," Skywarp choked out in reply, and quickly turned back to face the screen. Megatron and Starscream looked to Thundercracker, who merely shrugged.

Next to him, the teleporter was beginning to wonder if he had landed in an alternate reality. They. Weren't. Fighting. Megatron and Starscream weren't fighting! No arguments, no snide remarks, no sarcasm, no tell-tale dents or scratches on Starscream's plating, no heavy tension in the air, nothing! Starscream didn't have that look on his face or that glint in his optics that said "today is a fine day for an assassination attempt". Megatron didn't have that twitch in his optic ridge or that clenched fist that told everyone Starscream was about to be beaten to a fine pulp.

Baffled, Skywarp opened a private communication channel with Thundercracker. Immediately as he did so, Soundwave turned to glare at him reproachfully. Thundercracker looked worriedly at the telepath, but as was the purple seeker's custom, Skywarp simply ignored Soundwave listening in.

"What the hell is going on, TC?" Skywarp hissed over the link.

"What the hell is going on with you, 'Warp? You've been acting weird ever since you came in here! And make this quick, Soundwave is giving you 'the look'", came the aggravated reply.

"Ignore Soundwave! What's going on with Megatron and Screamer? They're not killing each other!" the purple seeker pressed on.

"The slag should I know, ask Screamer," Thundercracker snapped, and the channel was abruptly cut off - though by Thundercracker or blocked by Soundwave, Skywarp couldn't tell. He looked over his wing at the telepath - but Soundwave had already gone back to his mysterious work at the console. Discreetly, so as Megatron wouldn't see, Skywarp made a rude face at the blue Decepticon.

Skywarp began to drum his fingers nervously against the keys. Dirge and Thrust's reports were still blinking at him, marked "high priority", but although he was staring at the screen, the display was the last thing on his processor. He gave them a quick glance, but decided to simply mark them as "approved" just so it would look like he had done some work since starting his shift this cycle. Carefully, he then looked up at one of the offline screens of the console, trying to catch a reflection of the air commander.

Starscream appeared to be pacing around while reading the data pad - something which normally drove Megatron nuts. It occurred to Skywarp just then that the motion Megatron made by swirling the energon around the cube was normally something which annoyed Starscream to the pit. He shuddered imperceptibly (though Soundwave, who was looking annoyed at him again, noticed, of course). This was seeming weirder and weirder.

"Skywarp!" Megatron suddenly barked, and the purple seeker squeaked in fear and jumped to his feet, saluting his supreme commander. "Are you certain you don't need Hook to check your brain circuits?"

Skywarp recoiled at the threat - the last time Hook had done that, his patient had come out of the operating theatre a drooling mess. "Sir yes sir! I mean no sir! I mean I'm fine sir!" he answered in an octave higher than his usual voice. Behind the tyrant, Starscream was wrinkling his face plates in irritation - Skywarp was definitely his third in command today. Moron.

"Then would you like to tell me exactly what is so fascinating about the black screen you've been staring at for the past five breems?" Megatron coaxed, a dangerous undertone to his gravely voice.

"Ehhuhhh…" Next to him, Thundercracker put his face in his palms.

"No, I didn't think you could," Megatron said, pleased, a wicked grin on his face. "But as I am in a particularly pleasant mood today, I shall make this your last warning. Now get back to work."

What Skywarp meant to reply was "yes sir", but what came out was an undignified squawk as he clumsily threw himself back into his seat, gluing his eyes to the console fearfully. Ramjet's report had now come up on screen at last - the purple seeker decided he'd better concentrate on this one, lest Soundwave tell on him again. The contents of the report, however, were absolutely ridiculous - the text contained a request for five humans dressed in clown suits "for the sake of improving morale" in the air unit, eight llamas, three camels, a dromedary for good measure, an order for energon candy canes to be sent to Shockwave back home on Cybertron, a complete box set of Disney videos, various video game consoles, and…

…and Soundwave was looking at Skywarp with 'the look' on his face again. Skywarp grimaced, and knowing full well that Soundwave was reading his mind, thought loudly "don't give me that look, this is what Ramjet has written here!". Soundwave let out an unconvinced, almost inaudible hum to himself, but turned back to the console once more. The purple seeker promptly hit a button on the console, and in red letters the word "DENIED" came out on screen.

Reports dealt with, Skywarp's processor turned back to the strange calm in the main control room. "A particularly pleasant mood", Megatron had phrased it…but what could it mean? Why would Megatron possibly be in a good mood (especially considering their appalling defeat at the oil factory yesterday - Skywarp could still see that smug glint in Prime's eyes behind the facemask)? Finally, Skywarp decided it was time to ask Starscream.

"Permission to open a communication link with Starscream!" he hailed Soundwave on the telepath's own frequency.

"Denied," came the deadpan reply.

"Ignored!" Skywarp yelled gleefully, and happily proceeded to open a link with Starscream anyway. Soundwave glared at him and clenched his fists, an odd mixture of hurt and anger on his face - or as much as there could be, when his face was almost entirely covered.

The first thing Starscream heard on the newly opened link was Soundwave's voice. "Skywarp. Close channel immediately. Get back to work."

"Close the channel, moron," Starscream agreed, "I'm busy trying to fix the triple-changers' mistakes here."

"Shut up, Soundwave. Screamer, this will only take a minute, I swear!" Skywarp begged.

"Order: Close channel," Soundwave droned insistently, pitch rising in frustration by the smallest, smallest note.

"Either close the channel or hurry up and speak, moron," Starscream added in a sickly sweet voice.

"Soundwave, slag off already! Screamer, what the hell is up with you today?"

"What's up with ME today?" Starscream stared at him from the other side of the room incredulously. "What the hell is up with YOU? You're acting like you have a squishy lodged in your processor. Hook can take real good care of that, you kno-"

"There's nothing wrong with me, what's wrong is you and Megatron! You're…you're not screaming at him or being beaten up by him or anything!" Skywarp yelled over the link indignantly. There was the faint buzz that came with Soundwave's voice - but then the channel fell deathly silent, as Soundwave turned to look towards Starscream as well, unable to help his curiousity.

Starscream gave them one of his patented smiles, one side of his mouth twitching up in a grin, the other smug and condescending, optics glittering in that "I know something you don't know" way that he seemed to have perfected over the last few million years. Then, wordlessly, he walked up behind Megatron's throne. The silver tyrant looked up at him briefly, suspicious, but the harsh face melted into a lazy, dangerous smile.

Starscream smiled sweetly down at him, wrapping his arms sensually around Megatron's shoulders. Skywarp looked horrified. Megatron looked amused. Soundwave looked…as blank as Soundwave always looked, really. Starscream simply looked smug, and with all the haughtiness he could muster into his scratchy voice, replied happily,

"Call it…an afterglow."

Epilogue

Hours later, Long Haul was baffled to find a shipment of plush toys, golden age comic books, key chains, moisturising lotion, Looney Tunes DVDs, magazines for teenage girls, chocolate chip cookies, cream-filled donuts, crates filled with various species of parrot, cages containing an assortment of different coloured rodents and a complete collection of Elvis memorabilia on the Decepticon doorstep, addressed to Dirge and Thrust.

Ramjet was severely disappointed.