Tightly Wound

Disclaimer: I do not own anything but Moonsliver and Starwinder. The rest is not my property. Sorry to disappoint!

"Give yourself up, Cloudrail! You are out of options!" Starscream ordered the black Decepticon. Moonsliver glowered at the trapped ground roller, blaster pointed at him sharply. He and his friends had come to them a couple months ago, claiming to be neutrals requesting to join their causes. Now all the alarms in the Seeker housing were going off, and they find him trying to sneak out with Energon cubes and weapons. She knew she didn't like the mech; there was always something off about him. She had never found any proof, however, so she kept her vocalizers mute. But now she wished she hadn't.

The dark Decepticon traitor grinned amusedly. Moonsliver practically felt the tension in the air, surrounding herself and her sparkmate. If Starscream felt it, he hadn't moved a servo.

"Oh you think, Air Commander? Somehow that just doesn't pass as right with me." Cloudrail sneered, that stupid grin still on his face. He snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, a stab of pure, raw, chilling fear ran through her spark. It took all her will not to reel backwards at the sensation that didn't belong to her.

She glanced at Starscream. No, he wouldn't have felt that in this situation and if he had he would have toned it down much, much farther than that, she knew.

Her only other option was....

"MAMA!" She couldn't hold back the loud gasp the ripped through her intakes, and the surge of fear running through her own spark was 100% hers now. Comfort/love/understanding surged through her bond with Starscream, who had felt her fear, as though it was his own. She hadn't been able to stem the flow of it fast enough before it got to him. She returned it as best she could.

"Mama...Mama...." Starwinder was sobbing, reaching for her from where Cloudrail held him by the scruff of his neck. She practically saw the entire Seeker squadron stiffen at the sight of the sparkling. Was he just stupid? He must be. Didn't he know about the seeker programming? It didn't matter. No matter the programming, this was a very low hit. Using the sparkling put the Air Commander and SIC in a very rough position; one that was between a very rocky place and his sparkling's life.

"Give me the sparkling, Cloudrail. Now." Starscream ground out, seeing his little white, blue and purple sparkling dangling from the grip of the ground vehicle.

"Some how, I just don't see that happening, either."

Moonsliver took a couple steps, suddenly smothered in unbridled fury.

"Give me back my sparkling, Cloudrail, or so help me Primus I will-" She was cut off by the evilly amused mech.

"Or what, Moonsliver? Take my spark out and crush it in the palm of your hand? Good luck with that. Before you even take a step I will blow his head off. And then watch and you and your precious Air Commander's sparks shriek as your little one's shrivels away to nothing-ness." She froze, air catching in her intakes. She held back a wince.

Starwinder had listened to every word his captor had said, and if that hadn't scared him enough, he let out a frightened cry as Cloudrail used his blaster to point it directly at his head.

"Do you hear me, Mrs Commander? Yes? Good. Now take a couple steps back, there you go. Now, Starscream, call your troops away from the door. Wouldn't want my trigger finger to slip trying to get by them, now would we?" He asked condescendingly, leering at the jet, who was bearing his dentas in an angry scowl.

Neither Starscream nor Moonsliver said anything, the femme's eyes still concentrated on her sparkling, trying to flood it with love and comfort.

"Now, Starscream!" He demanded few moments later, pushing against Starwinder's head with the blaster, metal clicking against metal.

"Creator! Daddy!" Starwinder gasped, small blue hands reaching as though desperately for Starscream, who's optics widened a fraction, scowl deepening as he looked away.

"Seekers, clear the doorway." He called begrudgingly.

Cloudrail laughed, leading his small troop to the door.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Commander!" He called back.

Moonsliver barely heard anything else but a loud CRACK that filled the air.

Suddenly, there was a yell of surprise from the grounder that had been such a threat to Moonsliver and Starscream's tiny sparkling.

"What the-?!" Skywarp smirked, grabbing his 'nephew' from the bewildered mech, and punched him square in the face with his other arm.

He disappeared with a bang of displaced air and reappeared next to his trine mate as the entire seeker squadron rushed in to apprehend the little party that had torqued them off so bad.

"Mama! Daddy!" Starwinder cried out, and Moonsliver plucked him out of Skywarp's arm, cuddling him close and cooing to him, clicking and whirring as they conversed without words. Starscream pulled them both into his arms protectively, lowering his head to nuzzle Starwinder's helm.

"Thank you, Skywarp." He said to his trine mate gratefully. What would he do without TC or Skywarp?

"No problem, Starscream. Bad move he made, messing with the Seekers' sparkling." Starscream let his mate and creation go.

"Speaking of which..." He said, turning to the apprehended traitor, who was being held up by Dirge and Ramjet, a pair of stasis cuffs firmly linked around his wrist plating.

"If I ever, ever, see you again, I will deactivate you." He growled, his fist slamming into the side of the other mech's face. Cloudrail cried out as the dented metal broke a small energon line, some trickling down his faceplates.

TC and Skywarp were still huddled around Moonsliver and Starwinder, like bodyguards.

Starscream joined them, planning on giving Megatron a few choice punishment suggestions...prolonged deactivation big on that list.

Starscream returned to his chambers, slightly amused but mostly impressed that Moonsliver had put a high security lock on the door, so only the master password they had decided on would open it. He had left to brief Megatron on the earlier apprehension of Cloudrail and his goons, and now his recharge levels were astoundingly low.

He locked the door again behind him, and went into one of the three separate rooms their quarters had: A 'master bedroom', private washracks and a 'nursery' (The nursery wasn't even to the ones back in Vos, but he and Moonsliver had to make due with it.). Entering the room he and Moonsliver shared, his spark twitched happily at the sight.

Moonsliver was lounging on the berth, head propped up with one arm, the other helping a giggling Starwinder stack a couple metal blocks one one another (gifts from Soundwave; some of Rumble and Frenzy's old sparkling toys.) She was giggling too as he would push the small tower over, then proceed to build it back up again.

She looked up, almost defensively, as he opened the door with a swish. She relaxed again, smiling as Starwinder looked behind him, shrieking with happiness as he caught sights of Starscream.

"Daddy!" He yelled, trying to twist around while reaching for him at the same time.

Starscream chuckled.

"Don't hurt yourself, little one. I'm not going anywhere." He said, sitting on the berth next to his little family unit. Starwinder climbed up on his lap, and cuddled up next to him, engines buzzing contentedly.

Moonsliver put the blocks on the floor carefully, Starscream rubbing the little seeker's helm as he drifted to sleep. He gently lay down, trying not to wake him. Moonsliver got back on the berth, after turning the lights off.

"You're not going to let him out of your sights are you?" He asked his sparkmate. She shook her head.

"After today? Absolutely not."

"I don't think the entire Seeker Army will."

They both smirked into the darkness.

What a night for them, huh? Please review for me, it makes the Seekers happy! =)