Chapter Text
Starscream saw Megatron whispering to Soundwave and immediately wanted to scratch something. He didn’t really care what he scratched; it could be his chatty trinemate, the expensive new console just installed, or maybe the Decepticon emblem that was painted so meticulously on the bridge of the Victory base.
Or maybe it could be Soundwave’s stupid faceplate.
Megatron never raised his voice to Soundwave. Never slagged him for pointing out a flaw in a plan, never made fun of him, never humiliated him by dropping him unceremoniously on some island somewhere when he was unconscious. Starscream knew that Soundwave was just as ambitious as he was; given the right circumstances, Soundwave would wrest power for himself, especially if he could be sure Megatron was dead.
They weren’t that different.
So why did Megatron treat them so?
“Staring pretty hard, ‘Screamer,” Skywarp observed, leaning over to murmur in his audial. “You look jealous.”
“Why in Primus’s name would I be jealous?” he hissed.
Skywarp shrugged. “Seems Soundwave gets a lot more positive reinforcement than you do.”
Starscream narrowed his optics at his surprisingly observant trinemate. “You do not know what that is.”
Skywarp licked his lips. “I do so. Thundercracker told me we’re going to try it. In the berthroom.”
“Hard pass on this conversation,” Starscream said, standing. He flicked his gaze one more time over to Megatron, smiling at Soundwave.
Smiling.
Starscream wrinkled his nose, gathered his datapad, and walked right up to them.
“My lord,” he said as he approached, pouring deference over every syllable. “I have the reports you requested.”
“Only three hours after I asked for it,” Megatron replied, dragging his gaze from Soundwave to give Starscream a look. “You are getting sloppy.”
Starscream bristled. “This task usually takes others half a day,” he ground out between his clenched denta. “And not to my same level of accuracy. You’ll find I did more extrapolation and projections for the next-”
“Whatever,” Megatron said, waving him away. “Put it down somewhere. I’ll find it and look at it… eventually.”
Starscream’s wings sagged. The fragger wasn’t ever going to look at it! He didn’t even need it in the first place, he just made Starscream do it for his own amusement. His optics flicked to Soundwave, who was watching him carefully. Stoically.
Likely laughing at him.
Starscream grimaced, which then turned into a hateful smirk. He dropped the datapad on the ground, and it shattered, going dark and ruined.
Megatron looked at him incredulously. An energon line in his temple pulsed angrily.
“Well, you did say put it down some-”
Megatron had darted his arm out, using his hand to squeeze around Starscream’s neck. Starscream choked, choosing to give a hysterical laugh in Megatron’s face because he had a death wish, apparently, and flared his wings behind him.
Megatron squeezed for another moment before roughly pushing him back and releasing him. Starscream stumbled and stepped on the datapad as he massaged his neck cables.
“Get out,” Megatron said lowly.
Starscream glowered but kept his mouth shut, bending down to pick up the ruined datapad and leave hastily before Megatron changed his mind. As Starscream turned to leave, his optics met Soundwave’s one last time before Soundwave looked away and focused on anything other than Starscream’s furious gaze.
Starscream thought he had detected… pity.
Which, of course, made him angrier still. But at the same time… that could be manipulated.
Starscream stalked off the bridge and walked to his quarters, holding his chin in thought. A terrible, awful idea was brewing in his helm, and it was going to be amusing if he could pull it off.