[TFP] Despicable Me - Chapter Five

Despicable Me
Chapter Five

The alert hits his comm the same moment it hits Ratchet’s. Starscream knows this because they growl in tandem. Ratchet’s field flares with agitation; Starscream’s own with a mixture of anger and distress. He’s not ready to do this again.

“You can say no,” Ratchet says as he bends back over his microscope. He’s pretending to be nonchalant, and it doesn’t help. It doesn’t soothe.

It feels more like Ratchet is calling him a coward, but Starscream knows he isn’t. Still, an irrational burst of anger bubbles inside of him like an emergent volcano.

“I’m aware of that,” Starscream snaps, only to immediately feel guilty. His unease is not Ratchet’s fault. None of this is Ratchet’s fault.

Starscream puts down his datapad. He braces his hands on the edge of the table. The screen swims before his optics, his spark fluttering like a caged bird.

“You don’t owe him or Soundwave anything,” Ratchet says. Lightly. Carefully. Maybe a bit like ‘I told you so’ only not quite so rudely.

“I know that, too.” This time, there’s less heat. The only one Starscream can truly blame is himself.

( Read more... )