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Starscream pressed a hand on the wound across their chest, growling at the reason for the wound, Megatron. They staggered back, their sword gripped tightly in their hand. Why did they leave their minicons at the Autobot base? They would’ve come in real handy at the moment.
Doesn’t matter, Megatron was right in front of Starscream and it looked like Starscream might not be able to get out of this encounter… alive. Just like… No. Now’s not the time to think about that. Megatron leisurely walked towards Starscream, chuckling. “Now, now, it looks like this little traitor’s luck has run out.” Megatron said threateningly, “I hope this was worth it.”
Starscream tried to calm down, to hide how afraid they were, but it was hard when their impending death was walking right at them. They were losing energon fast, and if Megatron didn’t do them in first, it would be energon loss that would finish them off. Running was a possibility, but how far Starscream can get was another question that didn’t seem to have a good answer. Starscream could feel their vents growing more erratic the longer Megatron approached.
Starscream didn’t even register the first hit. Megatron punched fast and hard, cracking their helm and leaving a nasty wound. At first, they felt nothing, but then the pain exploded in their helm, making them scream as they fell to the floor. There was no time to recover as Megatron stamped a pede into Starscream’s previous wound, causing more pain to flood Starscream’s systems. If Starscream wasn’t already panicked before, they definitely were now.
Megatron smirked, and said something in a condescending tone, but whatever it was Starscream couldn’t piece together, but it didn’t matter. This was it. This was the moment Starscream died. There was nothing they could do. They were as helpless as they were not even a few months ago, only Demolisher would not intervene and save their life.
“LEAVE THEM ALONE!”
But then Starscream heard another voice. Their processor was too full of pain and fear to make out what they said, or who, but, it was another voice. A red and yellow blur then careened into Megatron, causing him to stagger back. The moment that the pede on Starscream’s chest had moved, they dragged themself across the ground agonizingly slow. It won’t be fast enough to escape Megatron, but any distance between Starscream and him means a better chance to escape.
Glancing up, Starscream noticed that Megatron was furious, likely because what would’ve been the end of Starscream wasn’t, and through the many warnings in their vision, they could see Hot Shot… Defending them? Maybe Megatron hit their head so badly that they’ve started seeing things. There’s no way Hot Shot do that for them.
Quickly Starscream was proven wrong when Hot Shot scoped them up and started running as far away from Megatron as some other Autobot continued to distract him. Starscream was confused. Why? Why save them? They weren’t an Autobot, only a neutral ally at best! But no amount of denial would change how carefully Hot Shot held them. He saved them, saved them from Megatron.
In Starscream’s spark, they could feel some odd, fluttery feeling. Through the haze of their vision, they saw Hot Shot’s determined face, and felt the feeling expand until it filled almost all their thoughts. What even was this feeling? Starscream’s spark buzzed in their chest, the few coherent thoughts that they had muddled even more with this strange feeling… Maybe Megatron hit Starscream’s head so hard it scrambled their processor…
Hot Shot ducked behind some cover a good distance from the battle going on nearby and carefully set Starscream down. “Starscream, you with me?” Hot Shot worryingly asked. Starscream looked up at Hot Shot, trying to piece together a sentence to answer.
“I’m… Fine…” Mumbled Starscream, barely able to keep their optics open, “Nothing… I can’t…”
“Okay, I see that, stop talking and save your energy,” Hot Shot said, and then mumbled something Starscream couldn’t make out. Hot Shot was trying to stop Starscream’s bleeding— trying to help them— to little success. “This is fine, — fine, I just have to — long enough for—”
Starscream couldn’t stay awake long enough to figure out what Hot Shot was trying to say.
Starscream’s body ached
The plating on their chest felt like it was torn off and haphazardly put back on, and they had one hell of a processor ache to make it even worse. Their audials muffled to the point making out anything would be a chore. If focused, though, they could hear a faint hum of medical equipment in the background. Starscream could also hear someone talking nearby. No wait, two someones. One of them had worry laced through their voice, while the other was more calm and collected, but whatever they were talking about was muddled through the ache in their processor.
Starscream’s mind drifted back into unconsciousness.
When they awoke, Starscream’s processor, while still aching, was far clearer. Groggily blinking open their optics, they were met with the ceiling of the Autobot medbay. Shifting their head to look around, Starscream saw that they were hooked up to an energon line, as well as a spark monitor. Fair, as their aching processor supplied the last memories they had before being in the medbay of them losing a lot of energon. Starscream thought of getting up, but was exhausted.
It wouldn’t hurt to recharge a little more.
The next time Starscream’s mind graced the conscious world, they weren’t alone.
While nothing of note had really changed about the room, Hot Shot sat near the berth Starscream laid in. Immersed in a datapad and with a somewhat worried face, he hadn’t noticed Starscream was awake. Glancing at him, Starscream noted their spark… fluttered? Nothing about Hot Shot was any different from before Starscream was injuried, so why do they have this feeling now?
Grumbling and shaking their helm, Starscream hoped it would just go away eventually. Hot Shot had looked up from his datapad, and when he saw Starscream awake, relief flooded his face. “Good morning sleepy head, you sure took your time waking up” Hot Shot playfully said, and the way Hot Shot looked at Starscream made their spark melt.
“Shut it…” Starscream grumbled, mildly annoyed, “You weren’t the one who lost most of their energon…”
Seemly as if he just remembered why Starscream was in the medbay in the first place, Hot Shot’s face fell, “... Yeah, right,” Hot Shot resetted his voice box, “That… You did nearly die…” The two of them lapsed into an awkward silence, one that felt even more horrible to Starscream because of that stupid feeling they were feeling. Trying to avoid any more awkwardness, if it were even possible, Starscream glanced away from where Hot Shot sat.
“... Please don’t do that again…” Muttered Hot Shot, much to Starscream’s surprise, “You… You genuinely had me… Afraid. Afraid that I’d… Never see you again.” Starscream looked back at Hot Shot, the strange feeling growing even more insistent. His face… While cheerful, was barely masking a deep worry. A deep worry for them.
“... Well I don’t plan on doing this again,” Admitted Starscream, venting slightly, “It wasn’t exactly pleasant for me either.”
Hot Shot smiled warmly, making Starscream’s spark nearly leap out of their chest, as he teasingly said, “Well, I’ll hold you to it.”