Disclaimer: Don't own Transformers…

Summary: When seeklets search for trine members, there are, of course, rules to follow. Light slash. Baby seekers!

AN: Some editing has been done, thus the reposting. If you see any spelling/grammar errors, please do not hesitate to point it out. Thank you!

Seeklets: The Rules of Trine Forming

A distressed click called out into the darkened room, echoing along the empty walls, the coldness in the air bitter with remorse. It was void of life, except for one small seeklet now lost and alone, clinging to the data pad he'd thought would give him his trinemates, abandoned for another with wings brighter than his own.

It would be some time before anyone would hear those cries.

The room was bright and open, much like the care centers they'd grown so accustom to during their fairly young lives, but lined along the walls, on the other side of a gate keeping the seeklets in, were seats where their creators could observe without interfering. There was great pride and expectancy in their creator's optics.

Sharp optics scanned the area, scrutinizing the other seeklets grouping up about the room. Many of the young seekers would return the gaze for a brief moment, inspecting their observer with curiosity, then turn away to their respective groups when the gaze would pass them by without a second glance.

It was, and had been for some time, the time of trining for the new generation of seekers, and the competition for the best potential trine members was fierce. It had even come to the point where a few of the more aggressive seeklets had to be forcibly removed from the pen when they attempted to defend their newly won trine members from interlopers.

To say that the seeklets' creators were impressed by the strength of the bonds their young ones were building would have been an understatement. Some of them were even taking guesses as to which of their offspring would pair up with whom. This was one of the most vital parts of their seeklet's developments after all.

The lone seeklet with the piercing stare turned his attention to a silent figure sitting motionlessly at the far corner of the room, watching the seeklet as intensely as the seeklet had been observing the other younglings. Without a click or chirp of acknowledgment the seeklet staggered towards the elder mech and stopped just at the gate, waiting. The older seeker merely sighed and shook his head.

The seeklet, understanding the gesture, chirped in annoyance and opted to crawl off to the far corner of the seeklet pen and sulk, as this particular seeklet was prone to do. The older seeker offlined his optics and rubbed a hand over his faceplates, broad shoulders sagging in exasperation though his wings remained perfectly rigid. One of the other seekers sitting beside him patted his back in a friendly gesture.

The seeklet glanced briefly over to the older seeker, before grabbing a data pad and turning his attention away from everyone in the room. The seeklet knew that his intelligence had always pleased his creator, made him his creator's pride and joy, but sometimes- like now- it only seemed to distress him. But no matter how much he wished to please his creator, he could not bring himself to put effort into finding trine members that would only hurt him in the end. Even so young, the seeklet held an air of mistrust.

The doors to the room opened and more adults came in with their seeklets, while some others already within the playpen, without a group, were being taken out. The lone seeklet merely looked up to his creator expectantly and held up his tiny arms.

The older mech sighed once more as he stood and plucked his seeklet out of the pen and started for the door at a slow pace. He did, however, rub affectionate circles along his creation's back and soothed across the sensitive wing stubs as he headed for the next room, his weary optics glancing down to the young one with resigned understanding.

"Starscream, can't you at least try?" He pleaded softly, not really putting much effort into it. He sounded so tired, but there was still so much affection despite the weakness of the tone.

The little one flicked his wing stubs once and gave his creator a calculating look, before tuning to nuzzle back into the elder's shoulder and clicking in what his creator took as acceptance. The older seeker smiled at that and patted his seeklet's back comfortingly.

The seeklet didn't particularly want to find a trine, but if it made his creator happy, he could at least pretend.

They were a strange pair as first glance, with their clashing colors and polar personalities, but it was not difficult to see why they'd paired up. Their creators had approved instantly and were already planning a schedule for their future training.

One was mischievous, not all to bright with numbers and known to be a bully, using his size and unusually sadistic attitude to get what he wanted. His dark purple paint was sleek and appealing to the optics, even for one so young, and the black that ran through it only highlighted its richness. His optics shone deep crimson with impish glee.

The other was of the serious nature, cautious in his decisions and quick to understanding, and with his cool exterior and steady gaze it was easy to see that he was more mature than his size let on. The blue of his paint was flashy and bright, eye-catching in many regards, but also regal in its shade. Unfortunately, frowning seemed to be his default expression and it was often off-putting for many.

The purple one clicked, briefly glancing over towards another seeklet to their right and pointing questionably. The blue one turned a concise glance towards the yellow seeklet in question and frowned deeply, clicking his disapproval. The purple one merely chirped brightly and went back to searching, sometimes even pulling other seeklets from already formed groups to inspect them.

Rule one when forming a trine: Strongest get first pick.

When forming trines, all seekers have pulls, with some being stronger than others. If the pull is weak from one member of a formed trine, then another can replace that seeklet if it has a stronger pull to the others. It is cruel, but it is the way trines are formed. It's very rare for new seeker trines to find members that all have powerful pulls to one another on the first go though, so it happens often.

The purple one chirped in disappointment as he pushed aside yet another seeklet that they felt no draw to, turning to face his recently acquired trine member with flicking wing nubs. He was beginning to get impatient, and when he got impatient he got angry. He chirped in complaint.

The blue one clicked back, his gaze narrowing as he gave the others one last look over. To his disappointment, he found none of interest. With a scowl, he turned to the purple seeklet and chirped irritably.

The purple one wailed in frustration.

"Don't worry Skywarp." A pure black adult seeker comforted gently, reaching in briefly to rub his creation's back. "I'm sure you'll find your third soon. Keep looking."

The purple seeklet, Skywarp, clicked in confusion at the words he didn't understand, but calmed nonetheless at the soothing stokes. Cheerful again, he grabbed hold of the blue seeklet's hand and headed for the pen corner closest to the door, waiting for more seeklets to be brought in.

He may not be the brightest of the seeklets, but he was observant enough to get what he wanted.

An adult blue seeker smirked as he watched his own creation being dragged off by the ever-determined Skywarp, shaking his head nonchalantly and turning back to finish discussing their sparklings.

"Skybomb, my friend, I am already calculating how long it will take for Thundercracker and Skywarp to find their third, and at the rate they're going through the younglings, it's only a matter of time." The blue one chuckled, casting a glance over to the two creations.

Skybomb snorted playfully. "I second that."

All attention turned to the door as more creators brought in their seeklets.

Instantly, Skywarp's optics brightened as he quickly scanned the young faces coming in through the door and began clicking to Thundercracker excitedly when he felt a few pulls from some of them. He even flicked his wing nubs a bit for emphasis.

Thundercracker merely chirped back and turned his attention to the new arrivals as well, already beginning the inspection process as the new seeklets were set down in the pen while lone seeklets were taken out. A few times his gaze would linger on any particular youngling, but then he'd hear Skywarp chirp disapprovingly and mark that seeklet off. It would not due if they did not both have a connection to their third.

A panicked clicking caught their attention as a set of two heavily built seeklets came running towards them, a much smaller seeklet frantically running away from them.

Thundercracker tilted his head slightly in curiosity, but merely stepped to one side as the smaller seeklet barreled pass him and Skywarp, the two larger seeklets right on his thrusters. His curiosity only grew as the smaller seeklet threw himself at the creator standing before the gate, clicking in distress, and the creator only smiled and shook his head with a laugh.

Within seconds, the larger seeklets had grabbed hold of the smaller one and were giving him a thorough inspection from helm to thrusters, much to the little one's dismay. The elders just chuckled at the sight and began cooing when the little one finally settled down enough to actually comprehend what the other two were doing, clicking in innocent confusion.

Rule two when forming a trine: Paired off seeklets generally chose their third.

Thundercracker was about to turn his attention away from the now happily clicking seeklets and back to Skywarp, when a flash of brilliant red caught his optics. He clicked once when he found himself unable to look away.

The pull on his spark was so strong he nearly gave a startled jumped at the feeling. It was as if in that moment his spark was about to burst forth from his tiny cockpit and dash about the room wildly until it went supernova.

The red seeklet was a bit smaller than he and Skywarp, not by much, just enough to notice, and was isolating himself in a corner with a data pad in his hands. Thundercracker found himself fascinated by the awe inducing sight.

Seeklets their age shouldn't have been able to read yet and the thought one actually doing so astonished him.

Before he would turn to get his second's attention, Skywarp had already grabbed his hand in a firm grip and was pointing to the red seeklet in question, crimson optics just as entranced as his own, burning with instinctive want. He was shivering lightly in anticipation and Thundercracker realized that he was as well.

Apparently, they both felt the pull from the other. As one they began making their way over to the lone seeklet, hardly even pausing as they pushed aside any younglings unfortunate enough to be in their path.

As if sensing the approaching figures behind him, the red seeklet paused in his reading and cast a glance over his shoulder, flicking his wing nubs irritably. A small grimace made its way to his face as he watched the odd-looking pair approach, taking note of the way they threw the other seeklets from their path as they came.

Yes, he felt the pull, felt it so strongly it hurt, but he was not going to show any sign of the connection. He still remembered all too clearly what had happened the last time he'd let his guard down.

He would not let it happen again.

Starscream glanced up at his creator and held out his hands, wanting to be taken away from the whole ideal before anything like what had happened last time occurred. He clicked in distress, flicking his wing nubs more frantically as the two got closer, now standing and trying to get leverage on the gate.

His creator gave a pained expression at the sight, before he noticed what had his young one so spooked. He smiled affectionately and leaned down to comfort his seeklet as he watched the two approach his creation, rubbing Starscream's back as his sparkling chirped loudly at the betrayal.

It was when he felt a hand gripping onto his small wing nub that Starscream stiffened and swirled around to screech indignantly at the other seekers, already on the defensive and ready to drive the others away. But instead of causing the seeklets to back up and flee as he'd hoped, all he received was a smirk- or as close to a smirk as younglings of their size could give- and an approving click.

The purple seeklet clapped his hands joyfully and made another grab at the red seeklet's hand, wanting to show him off to his own creator. The blue one also made a grab for the red seeklet's other hand, but all they got for their effort was a threatening hiss. They twitched their own wing nubs in amusement at the threat from such a small seeklet.

The creator hovering over them sighed and put a hand over his face, but still couldn't help smiling fondly at the sight. Thank Primus his little one's future trine mates seemed accepting of his little one's attitude since most bots- young and old alike- were rather put off by it. There was hope.

"Starlight, was it? You've got a feisty one don't you?" Skybomb taunted good-naturedly, having followed his creation's movements all the way across the room.

Starscream's creator, Starlight, smirked lightly, turning to face the other seeker as the seeklets became better acquainted, if hissing and flaring out one's wing nubs threateningly could be considered becoming acquainted. "Yeah, but its not completely his fault." He gave Skybomb a particular look, and the black seeker understood immediately.

"Hn. First attempt was that bad?" The other nodded silently and Skybomb vented some air. "Well, my Skywarp seems rather taken with it." He noted, smirking when the purple seeklet made another grab at the red seeklet's wrist, failing, but not ready to give up. "He just needs time to adjust." Most did.

Starlight nodded, smiling softly, though any seeker with half a processor would be able to recognize the hope burning in his optics. He was happy, really, truly happy after so long of dreading his young seeklet ending up alone. It was unfathomable, the joy he felt.

All the hisses and indignant clicking stopped when the blue seeklet grabbed a small data pad from the stack piled high in the pen corner and handed it to the red seeklet, clicking softly, waiting for approval. The purple seeklet tilted his helm, confused, but immediately plopped down and chirped in excitement when he realized the other was asking the smaller seeklet to read the data pad to them- in seeklet speak of course.

Starscream hesitated briefly, unsure of what to do. He chanced a quick glance up at his creator and found him smiling and, undoubtedly, showing his abilities off to the other seeker, if the stunned expression on the black seeker's faceplates was anything to go by. With a flicker of his wing nubs, the red seeklet settled down and opened the data pad, looking for a good place to start.

Once he'd finished the data pad story, the red seeklet look up from his reading, expecting to find himself alone once more, but instead found them both watching him still with wide, curious optics. His wing nubs flickered faintly, hopeful for the first time in a long time, waiting for the other's reaction.

Then they smiled excitedly, the purple one grabbing a data pad of his own and holding it out to Starscream with a chirp. He tilted his head, expectant, shaking the pad about in anticipation.

Starscream took it, and smiled.

Rule three when forming a trine: Only stay with those you trust.

AN: So cute! I love baby seeker fics.

Please review, they please me and make little Starscream happy…