Never Change

Starscream had never been the type to dwell. It never helped, it never made things better, and it really never changed anything. He had failed more times than he had won, perhaps, but when he was won it had been so good. Tossing Megatron out into the cold of space had been a win, even if he was only to return as the disgusting purple psychopath that was currently running the Decepticons into extinction. If Starscream had still been leader, none of that would have happened. Unicron, well, Unicron would have still been a problem – but Starscream wouldn't have been his pathetic little puppet. Starscream would have led the Decepticons to… well, something more than they had now. All in all, what did they have now?

There was a certain measure of smugness, however, at knowing that without him picking up the pieces after Megatron's demise, the Decepticons had fallen apart. Soundwave was a useful tool, and Galvatron had seemingly forgotten the spy had existed. During his boring travels through the remains of his fellow Decepticons, Starscream often saw the communications officer forlornly wandering around in some aimless way. Starscream would have laughed in his face any other time, but Starscream didn't much feel like laughing anymore. He thought he'd never see the day he'd pass the opportunity to mock someone who was less fortunate.

Well, Starscream couldn't really consider Soundwave less fortunate. At least he had a body, and his stupid minicons, and he seemed to enjoy his little rendezvous with Blaster – even if they were in a more violent context then Soundwave would have likely preferred. Not that Starscream was a stranger to random lust for his enemies. At least he was probably a bit more subtle about it. Whatever the case, Starscream still delighted in the fact that Soundwave was alone, ignored, and whatever misguided attraction he had was completely, totally unreciprocated. Mostly, Starscream tried to forget that he was alone and ignored too.

Up until a few solar cycles ago, Starscream had at least been lacking any romantic entanglements that would only exacerbate his already perpetual bad mood.

Of course, nothing good could last forever. Starscream had been idly wandering around the shipping docks of Cybertron when he saw him – Skyfire. Skyfire was doing the chores worthy of lackeys rather than studying science as he so often did. Doubtlessly, Rodimus Prime had no idea that Skyfire was a scientist. By the pit, Rodimus probably didn't even know who Skyfire was. He wasn't going to give some no name dropout of a soldier a grant to go wandering off into space alone with their supplies and their precious energon. It seemed that no one remembered that Skyfire had saved a lot of Autobot hides in the past, mostly because he was such a sentimental moron.

It was true, though, that Starscream himself had made scrap metal out of those Autobots. He wasn't about to start feeling remorseful about that. That was one of the last fun things he'd done before Galvatron blew him up.

Starscream saw Skyfire take off, probably taking armor polish or something ridiculous to some city on the other side of Cybertron. Whatever the case, it was none of Starscream's business and he knew he should move on because there was nothing more boring than watching Skyfire humiliate himself by being an obedient little pawn. Starscream rarely noted positive features in anyone, much less an enemy, but even he knew that this work was below Skyfire. All of the work the Autobots made him do was below him. They went to Perceptor instead with all their silly little science questions, while Skyfire was called on when they needed a ride or they needed some big 'bot to scare the wits out of the opposition. No one cared about Skyfire.

Well, he brought it on himself, Starscream reasoned. If Skyfire had just trusted Starscream, he could have been his second-in-command. Things would have gone much smoother with Skyfire at his side. They could have even studied science again when the fighting died down, maybe even…

Well, those thoughts were entirely unproductive. This was the problem with Skyfire – he always made Starscream think about things that didn't suit him well. He thought about things that were entirely too Autobot, thought about things that weren't directly related to power and war. Starscream had enough problems without his silly, random fantasies about things that would never – could never – be. Plus, it was almost sick how detailed his silly little fantasies got. And how often he thought about what it would have been like to sit on Skyfire like he was a throne, while wearing the cape and the crown.

Starscream really missed his cape and crown.

At first, Starscream was able to move on without too much of a fuss. He thought he'd put Skyfire out of his mind about the time he started replaying his last encounter with Megatron – not Galvatron – in his mind. How good it felt to just let go and let the door slam shut. Standing there watching every brawl over who should be the next leader, smirking and knowing it was all useless – he was the rightful leader now, after all. He would have made a great leader – he did make a great leader! He would have had everything he could have ever wanted… except a second-in-command.

And just like that, he was thinking about Skyfire again. It was unfair how easily such a big bot could slip right into his thoughts like that without him even realizing that. And the more he fixated on this silly obsession, the more he remembered about Skyfire, and the angrier he got that Skyfire was so untouchable – literally untouchable – unless Starscream wanted to take over his body. And he couldn't. He wouldn't, because it would just be boring. It might be fun to have a body for a while, but it would never be a permanent thing. Skyfire surely wouldn't remember any of it – even if he did, Starscream doubted he'd be thrilled with the situation.

Starscream meandered back to the shipping docks and watched. Skyfire came back, eventually, left, came back, left, and no one gave him much more than a few pleasantries before telling him to get on his way with the supplies. Starscream could almost feel his anger increasing with every passing trip, almost to the point where he was tempted to do something noble like take control of the Autobot in charge and order Skyfire to go be a scientist rather than a moron. Luckily, Starscream didn't get the opportunity – Skyfire was off duty and heading back to his own quarters, it seemed.

Starscream couldn't help but follow.

Almost playfully, Starscream leapt and twirled around Skyfire. He used to do this sort of thing all the time when they had been partners, and in had led to a few injuries when he got too careless, but it was too amusing to pass up. His spark masked itself, and Skyfire didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. The spark that was currently bouncing around his large frame went unnoticed, and Starscream felt better than he had since he got shot. He didn't know why – his mind informed him that this was all very pathetic, but no one knew about it, no one cared… so why not?

However, the joy was despairingly short-lived. When they got back to Skyfire's quarters, he found that – much to his chagrin – Skyfire appeared to live in a docking bay. Not only was he the Autobot taxi, he was housed like a taxi. Admittedly this was a step up from how Skyfire and Starscream had lived back in the old days – as nomadic as they were as scientists, and as under-funded as they were, they didn't have anything but themselves and the supplies they carried. Starscream usually slept under Skyfire's wing when the weather was too despicable on those organic planets they so often traversed. Still – at least they had had their pride.

Not much else, though.

Starscream kept his silence nevertheless. He drifted around the room, examining all the little things that Skyfire had littered about. At the very least, it was a private docking bay, and Skyfire could make it look more like some makeshift room of his own rather than a humiliating cage he was told to return to every night before having to carry out equally humiliating duties. Skyfire even had some science supplies – second-hand, ratty old things, but they were sturdy enough. Upon closer inspection, Starscream realized that some of those supplies used to be his. Skyfire carried most of their supplies, and he must have had them stored in him… and somehow they survived his crash.

There wasn't much else, though, and as Starscream quickly found out… Skyfire was a very boring mech. Starscream never really left once he got himself settled in this place, and every day Skyfire would work, come home, drink energon, and then recharge. It was so perfectly routine that Starscream could almost count the nano-kliks between each task that Skyfire attended to day in an day out. It was mind-numbingly boring, yet Starscream still couldn't seem to bring himself to just leave. He spent his days moping around like some pathetic lovelorn Autobot, poking at the supplies that used to belong to him, watching Skyfire recharge, and staring at the wall listlessly when Skyfire was gone. It was going to drive him insane, but he didn't want to speak. What was he supposed to say about it anyway? It would be a bit challenging to explain his ghost status to someone like Skyfire.

Nothing interesting happened for the first few solar cycles. Nothing even moderately interesting. Interesting, well, interesting usually is an accidental thing in science. Something that happens because you introduce a new idea, a new element, a new something to a perfectly boring, ordinary something. It turned out that in this case, the interesting thing would be perfectly accidental and infinitely entertaining.

Skyfire, upon his return from his work, walked through Starscream.

Of course, this wouldn't seem to be an interesting thing normally. Skyfire had accidentally walked through him a few times, and Starscream had always been righteously annoyed with that. However, this time, Starscream had been lounging weightlessly in the air, and his energy – his spark – ran against Skyfire's when he slipped through his torso. Before Starscream could even think of pulling back, their energy soaked into one another.

The pleasure that immediately blossomed through Starscream was invigorating, dizzying with its unbelievable force. As all that was left of Starscream was his spark, it was a pleasure he felt over every inch of him, rendering him useless for some time. Skyfire appeared to have experienced a similar pleasure, as he stumbled gracelessly to the ground and made a sound that made Starscream's spark shudder with anticipation. When Skyfire found himself sitting on the ground, the pleasure he had just unwittingly caused was evidently far too difficult to ignore. Skyfire finished the job that Starscream had begun, his broad fingers scraping over his own frame, slipping beneath the plating to tease sensitive wires and circuitry until he finally overloaded – with Starscream's name hoarsely escaping his vocalizer at the height of pleasure, no less.

It all happened so fast that Starscream hardly knew what to think. He watched Skyfire recharge as he usually did, but all he wanted to do was dive back into that chest and wrap himself up in that energy again. He had taken control of other bodies, but nothing quite like that had ever occurred. Starscream decided that it must be something that only happened with Skyfire, for some reason he didn't wish to think about now.

It was, however, quite troubling that Skyfire seemed to recognize that it was Starscream that had elicited such a response from his spark. As much as Starscream would have loved thinking that Skyfire screamed out for him because he was still pining his friend after so long, he wasn't quite so naïve.

Skyfire had recognized his spark. He'd felt Starscream.

That thought filled Starscream with that undesirable thing – hope – which he pointedly tried to ignore. He silently agreed to himself that that was never going to happen again – which, it wouldn't. The foolishness of continuing this was apparent, as he knew Skyfire was not an idiot, and would guess at the truth quickly.

Starscream was doing perfectly well with his own agreement, until Skyfire awoke from recharge and Starscream decided it prudent to dive back into his chest the moment he was conscious. This time, Skyfire didn't have to humiliate himself by causing his own overload. Starscream swam through the hot energy, his own spark twisting around Skyfire's and coyly pulling away every few moments to explore other areas of Skyfire's body. Energized as he was from the connection, Starscream was able to trace the heat and pleasure wherever he touched Skyfire, making every joint and wire jerk and squirm beneath him.

That was around the time that Starscream decided his little decision never to do this again wasn't going to work for him. At all.

Skyfire's overload was quick – Starscream curled his intangible body around the warm spark, coaxing it to pulse faster and harder and stronger until he could not resist his own overload.

Without a body, it was quite a different feeling. No wires or sensors to pick up the energy fluctuations, no annoying statistics pinging his mind, needlessly informing him of the energy he was taking in or giving out. All he felt was warmth and pleasure as his spark curled around Skyfire's, soaking in the vibrations and pulses from Skyfire's spark.

It occurred to him that if he wanted, he could just stay right there, and be warm forever. It wouldn't be such a terrible afterlife, then.

'Did you miss me?' asked Starscream coyly.

'Yes,' responded Skyfire in a distant, dazed way.

Starscream would have smiled, if he had a form that was anything more than a ball of pulsing light right now. As their energy slowed into a gentler pulse, Starscream began to extract himself. His energy stretched languorously, slowly rising out of Skyfire's chest. Starscream took shape as his familiar form. He was transparent now, and strangely… sparkly, but it would have to do.

Skyfire smiled at him – smiled, perfectly genuine and honest just like one might expect from an Autobot fool. Starscream smiled back. Which was, well… embarrassing in its own right.

Skyfire didn't seem to mind it.

'How long have you known?' asked Starscream, his hand still tucked inside of Skyfire, teasing the warm spark beneath. 'You're not surprised.'

'I heard rumors,' said Skyfire quietly. 'That you were haunting Cybertron.'

Starscream laughed, slipping back inside the warm chest, his arms encircling the blue spark playfully. 'And you actually believed the rumors? You, the agnostic Skyfire?'

Skyfire made a delicious little sound, his spark thrumming harder as Starscream encircled it. 'Ready to go again so soon?' teased Starscream, tangling his fingers into the heat, stroking it until the spark burned brighter. It was quite a stunning sight from this close.

Ever shy, Skyfire dodged the question. 'I knew, if it were true, there must be some sort of scientific explanation, something–'

'The well of all sparks was too boring,' responded Starscream sarcastically, rising up again to look at Skyfire's face. His hands continued to squeeze and tangle into his friend's spark, but he was curious to see the amusing little expressions that Skyfire made when he was at the height of ecstasy.

Skyfire smiled at him. 'I didn't know I was that interesting,' he remarked, emitting another little sound of pleasure soon after that made it entirely too difficult for Starscream to think coherently.

Shakily, Starscream protested. 'Interesting?' he demanded. 'You were the most boring Autobot I've ever seen, up until a few cycles ago! And that was only because of my interference!'

Skyfire reached up, his fingertips tracing the image of the intangible projection of Starscream's wing. Despite being unable to physically contact him, Skyfire didn't seem particularly upset – he was still smiling nicely.

'I didn't feel comfortable doing anything else with an audience,' he remarked softly.

Starscream hrmphed loudly, leaning up to press a nonexistent kiss on Skyfire's mouth. 'I hope you know that if I weren't already dead, I would have died of boredom.' He stole another air kiss. It was ridiculous, but Skyfire's spark seemed to pulse harder nevertheless. 'How did you know it was me?'

'I didn't think any other ghosts would be particularly interested in watching me recharge,' remarked Skyfire gently, his vocalizer hitching now and then whenever Starscream teased his spark. 'And the feel of your spark. Even after everything, it's never changed. Not even after you'd changed.'

Starscream dove back into the inviting cavern of Skyfire's chest. 'I don't think I've changed as much as you think,' he remarked haughtily, immersing himself into Skyfire's spark entirely.

Skyfire made a sound, somewhere between a chuckle and a moan, but there were no more words. Words were just distracting them from important things – the whys and hows could be discussed some other time. For now, this was all that mattered.

Starscream didn't really think he needed to mention that Skyfire's spark hadn't changed at all either.