Chapter Text
“Starscream?” Skyfire sighed heavily, sinking down into his desk chair. “Now there is a youngling I do not know what to do with. Where do I begin?
“He’s sharp. Certainly smarter than other people give him credit for. If he applied himself, I think he’d be in the top percentage of the whole Academy. The problem is, he bends his intelligence towards securing a reputation, instead of letting his abilities shine as they are. I don’t know why—maybe he had to compete for attention in his aerie, maybe he got no support from his peers when he was younger. But with the way he carries on now, everyone assumes from his boasting that he must be compensating for stupidity.”
He shuffled in the desk drawers for a moment, pulling out a couple datapads and bringing up a layout of charts and diagrams, marked with Starscream’s name at the top. “He’s taken to xenobiology like an insecticon to sweet gels. Thundercracker and Skywarp haven’t grasped the concepts like Starscream, but somehow he’s the one who feels the need to remind everyone in the vicinity that organics are disgusting, lesser-than creatures that shouldn’t be considered lifeforms. It’s like he’s parroting the common propaganda to prevent others from accusing him of being interested in a subject that seekers don’t often study.” Skyfire looked down with a blank expression. “He doesn’t want to be bullied for falling outside of his frame’s stereotype. I understand that.”
He put away the datapads and stood to pace the length of his office. Late evening sunlight blazed through the bay windows, sending prisms reflecting off the many specimens and replicas of organic life scattered across his space. “The worst of it is, he’s perfectly willing to become a bully himself! One moment he’s shrugging off cruel remarks from someone taunting his voice cracking, and the next he’s mocking another for their low grades, or their clumsiness, or some other inane thing that he thinks he can compare himself to and come out better looking. He—”
Skyfire stopped and sighed once more. He shuffled to the windows to watch the sunset light up the cityscape, plating bathed in crimson. “He has so much potential,” he murmured. “There’s no reason for him to squander it, trying to force everyone to recognize him. There are people who see and appreciate him for who he is. Why, if it weren’t for Windblade still stubbornly talking to him, I wouldn’t have noticed half of what Starscream does. She seems so determined to prove him a good person… and he often proves her right in spite of himself.”
“One day,” he said, the corner of his mouth twitching up in a wry smile. “Mirage was particularly antagonistic, and no matter what I did he would not stop pestering the students in his row. Starscream paid him no mind, but as soon as he turned his comments on Windblade, he got right up to Mirage and hovered there, perfectly poised, and with a lot more menace than a youngling should be capable of! I’d never seen a mech of his age fly in root mode with such control and precision, and no one else in the class had either, because they all stopped to stare. I don’t even remember what it was that Starscream said, but it was scathing enough to keep Mirage quiet for an orn. Windblade looked shocked. Starscream did too, to be honest. I don’t think he thought about what he did until it was already over.
“His base instinct is to intervene when wrong is being done… but his learned behavior is to protect himself from perceived danger.” Skyfire’s smile fell, and he looked very somber for a moment. “I don’t understand how he finds the bravery to transform and rise up as… anyway.”
He strode back over to his desk and flipped through a stack of files, as if leaving his train of thought behind. “Starscream is a favorite student of mine, true. But I don’t go easy on him. I simply understand that he struggles with more demand on his time and energy than I know about, and I give him the space he needs. I’ve told him I am always here to help should he need it, but it’s his choice to take me up on the offer. There isn’t much more to say.” He looked up, something hard in his optics, and gestured to the door. “Anything else would have to come from Starscream himself, although I don’t believe he will trust so easily. And I will certainly never break the trust he’s given me.”