Once Astro got back from her house, she had a couple of big bags over her back
full of clothes. She knew that they would probably prefer to stick to their
normal colours, so she had ‘borrowed’ some of her brother’s
clothes. It was lucky that her brothers were of the same build as both Jetfire
and Starscream; one buff, and one skinny.
Both men were waiting for her when she arrived. She looked over them and sighed.
This was going to be a bothersome task.
Starscream and Jetfire had been sitting on the bed, thinking their own thoughts
when Astro came back.
“What’s all that?” Jetfire asked, pointing.
“Clothes.” Astro replied, dumping the bags down and tipping them
out, revealing numerous articles of clothing of all sizes. “While you’ve
got some of your own, it would be best not to walk down the street wearing that
or you’ll be stared at.”
“Everything about us you say we’ll get stared at for.” Starscream
grumbled.
“Unless you change a few things, then yes, it’s the truth.”
The girl said sternly, sorting though the clothes and tossing some at each of
them.
Starscream grumbled and looked down at his (to him) perfectly normal outfit.
Then he looked at the ‘normal’ red shirt he was tossed and growled.
Well, at least it KIND of looked like him. He sighed, and then looked down at
all the straps and zips on his current clothing. He then started to undress
his top half.
Five minutes later he was raging at it with steam coming out of his ears.
“Whoa calm down!” Jetfire said, startled.
Starscream looked stressed out, when Astro came over and gently took a hold
of his jacket, unzipping it for him. Starscream sat still, almost protesting
that he could do it himself, but knowing that it was a lie. He watched as the
human girl took off the many parts of his outfit until he was down to a red
and black shirt. She took that off him too.
Starscream shivered and wrapped his arms around himself. Astro took no notice
of the glare sent her way when she put his clothing away in a drawer, and helped
him get his other shirt on. He pushed her away gently and managed with a great
amount of difficulty to get it on. Astro clipped holes in the back for his wings.
Jetfire was having a bit more luck getting his clothes off. He had payed attention
to humans more than Starscream did, so he had some idea of how to do it. But
even he got stuck when it came to getting his wings out. Astro managed to help
him more with a bit more dignity that Starscream did.
Luckily, Jetfire had a quite normal shirt underneath, so he left it on.
“Now for the bottom bits.” She said. Normally a girl would be a
bit more bashful around dressing men, but Astro had lived with only boys apart
from her mother all her life. So there was nothing she hadn’t seen before.
They managed to get the boots off, and the pants. Starscream for some reason
had leather pants on, which made things rather difficult as they were tight.
He managed to get them off, revealing boxer shorts underneath. That was a big
relief for Astro, and she sighed as he put some black shorts on. Jetfire managed
to get his track pants off and slipped on some grey shorts.
Once that was all done, she let out a great big sigh. Well, at least that went
well.
“Okay …” She said, scratching her head. “I’m going
to inform Optimus of this … situation-“ Starscream glared at her.
“-Unless you want to do it yourself.”
The seeker then got a bad mental image of Hotshot laughing his head off and
jeering at him, and grumbled out loud.
“Do it.” He said simply.
The teenager nodded and took off up to the vent, and disappeared out of sight.
Some were laughing. Hotshot was cracking up like no tomorrow and Smokescreen
fought hard to keep a straight face. Others were snickering at the predicament.
Optimus frowned, or as much as he could.
“This is a bad twist of events, indeed.” He said. His second in
command having been brought down with this … ‘condition’,
would be a blow that would affect the team a fair amount.
Scavenger nodded, and hit Hotshot on the back of the head. “This is NOT
a funny situation.”
Red Alert, however, had suddenly disappeared …
***
Starscream looked like he would throw a fit if anyone dared to touch him.
Jetfire, however, was merely looking for more clothes to put on. It was winter,
and although he was warm in the base, he knew it would get cold outside. So,
he pit on a nice thick jumper like Astro had taught him to, and put some long
pants on instead. He felt a bit hot, to his annoyance, so he took off the jumper
and tied it around his waist.
He then noted Starscream eyeing him with an unreadable expression.
“What?” Jetfire asked.
“You seem to be handling this okay.” The former seeker said.
The white clad human shrugged. “I just don’t think it’s so
bad. I mean, I think I would be worse off if my wings had gone too, but since
they haven’t, I’m fine.”
Wings were the most important thing to a flyer. Jetfire in particular loved
his dearly like a friend.
Starscream blinked and then looked away. Maybe it was an over reaction? He didn’t
know. Still, he wished it had not happened …
Like so many things in my life. He thought to himself, and his dark
mood mounted.
Jetfire sighed as he looked at him. He was handling this worse than what was
really necessary. Carefully, he went over and brushed a hand along his wing.
Starscream jumped violently and stood up, growling with teeth bared. Jetfire
stepped back with his hands up, looking shocked.
“Hey!” He said, startled. “Uh, are you okay?”
“Perfect.” Starscream growled. “Just bloody perfect, Jetfire.
I feel all fine and dandy just now.”
“You look it.” The other said, a definite coolness in his tone.
Starscream snarled, and then looked down and to the side, then down again, and
his anger faded. For a moment, he just looked so lost.
Jetfire watched him as he balled his fists, shaking, and then walked closer
to him. Hesitantly he put a hand on his wing, and the ex-seeker didn’t
pull away. It was that that made Jetfire throw caution to the wind and pulled
the shaking human into a tight hug.
Starscream blinked at the softness of his chest, but then shut his eyes and
buried his head into it. He was close to the same height as the other, but right
now he was almost curled up against his chest, making him smaller. Jetfire stroked
his back gently as Starscream sorted his emotions out.
After a few moments, the smaller man drew away weakly, looking down at the bed
and sighing. He had needed that, just a bit of comfort. He realised that he
and Jetfire were in this together, so for once, they would need each other for
support.
No words needed to be spoken about what Starscream had needed that for, but
the small grin on his face said thanks. Jetfire ruffled his hair a bit and got
a moan with a swipe for his efforts.
“Now,” Jetfire said gently, leading him over to lie down for a bit.
“I want you to think about the good parts of this situation, okay?”
Starscream, for once, didn’t protest. He shut his eyes and imagined the
things he could explore with his new body, the things he could do now that he
was smaller. Much smaller, in fact. Why couldn’t he enjoy it? There was
no reason not to.
It took him a few minutes before he opened his eyes and looked up to see …
nothing. He turned to the side and saw Jetfire lying down and watching him,
arms folded behind his head and a smirk on his face.
“What are you looking at?” Starscream smirked.
“A still sexy person, no matter the form.” Jetfire sniggered and
the other blushed.
“Flirt.”
“Tease.”
“Asshole.”
“Bastard.”
“Moron.”
“Sucker.”
“SUCKER?!” The former seeker sat up suddenly, face beet red.
“Sucker.” Jetfire smirked. Starscream snarled and tackled him, and
the two wrestled for a moment, limbs, feathers and the sound of growling and
laughter filled the room. Starscream grabbed Jetfire in a headlock and ground
his knuckles into the other’s red head. Jetfire cried out and elbowed
him lightly in the gut, causing the other to gasp and let go. Jetfire then tackled
him and mauled him, while Starscream shrieked and kicked his legs out. Then
Jetfire bit his neck lightly and Starscream clawed his neck and back, cringing.
Then muscles started to relax as they fell onto the bed slowly, Starscream’s
wings giving a fruitless flap. The two looked like a tangle of limbs and feathers,
as Jetfire let go of his neck and shut his eyes, snuggling up into the other’s
neck.
A lot of the times that Starscream got into a situation like this with Jetfire,
he realised a lot of their bonding was done in silence. As he lay there with
the other on top of him, limbs tangled and not a fear in the world, he sighed
out. They always went like this: Talking, fighting, make up, making out and
then silence. Though the making out part differed from a fist fight to actual
intimacy. It was this silence that Starscream looked forward to and relished
in every time. Funny how it was, normally he would snarl and tell the white
Autobot to ‘get the hell off me’ whenever he got pounced on, but
right now, he really didn’t mind. He shifted a bit, their bodies brushing
together as Starscream raised his arms up, hugging the other to him, one leg
curled around Jetfire’s, the other brought up and by the other’s
hips. Jetfire sighed again and moved his head so it was resting on the side,
arm around his back.
They stayed tangled on the bed like that for a long time, taking in the new
sounds of heartbeats and breathing, feeling one another. The warmth of each
other, and the comfort of the bed plus the warmth of the room sent them both
into a doze.
That was how Astro found them when she came though the vent a while later. She
grinned softly and flew down quietly, trying not to disturb the two slumbering
men. She perched there for a while before she realised it was time to get to
work. To teach them more, and find a cure.