Work Text:
It wasn’t exactly unusual for Starscream to wake up to music blaring through the base. In fact, every weekend, Starscream could count on Miko’s metal music startling him awake and never failed to give him a violent helm ache.
But this Saturday, instead of being ripped out of his precious recharge, he was gently stirred awake by a nice male voice singing in calm, even notes talking about something called ‘Christmas.’ Starscream could have easily drifted back into recharge, but the fuel capacity display in his HUD told him that energon would be a good idea.
…And he was the tiniest bit curious what this ‘Christmas’ thing the singer was talking about.
He rolled out the berth, knocking his covers off of him, hastily straightening out his pillows and blankets.
As he wandered down the halls, he wondered what Optimus would have him do today. Hopefully it was something out of base. He could use some time on patrol in the skies. Inventorying was starting to grow tedious.
He ran through the patrol schedule, which was more or less than a loose outline that was subject to change. But if his math was correct, he should be out on patrol today. But all those thoughts came to a halt when he saw the state of the common area in the base.
Not only the children were there (something pretty common), but both Agent Fowler and June Darby were there. Which usually meant something very bad, and it probably meant that Starscream was going to get chewed out by the agent. It wasn’t like Starscream could really blame the guy either. He had tortured Fowler, which led to many subsequent issues with the US government that Fowler had to put in overtime to iron out.
If the presence of all five humans, all of whom who were wearing read hats with a white fur ball and white trim, there were bins upon bins full of an assortment of sparkly things. And the children were running around with quite a lot of it, wrapping it around the railings and basically anywhere they could reach.
“...What is this?” Starscream asked, pointing one of his claws at all of the shiny decorations.
“‘Screamer!” Miko yelled, “You’re up! Now you can help us decorate for Christmas!”
Now Starscream was severely regretting his decision to be a functioning member of Team Prime today. He should have sent a ping to Ratchet or Optimus saying that he wasn’t feeling well. But then Ratchet would have demanded that he come to the med bay for a check up, and Optimus would have insisted that he care for him.
“The children thought that it would be fun if they decorated the base for one of their human holidays,” Optimus said, helping Jack hang a piece of tinsel somewhere that was just a little too high for him to reach.
At Starscream’s unamused face, the Prime continued, “And I thought that it would be beneficial for us to partake in their culture, seeing as the United States is our home for the foreseeable future.”
Great. Way to remind the team that Cybertron was dead. Heartwarming, truly.
“Plus, I’ve always wanted to celebrate Christmas in the States!” Miko added on, attempting to throw a string of colorful lights over Starscream’s wings, which he just flicked off and they fell to the ground with a clatter. “In Japan, Christmas is all gross and lovey-dovey-” here the girl gagged-”but you guys get presents and all sort of cool stuff!”
Starscream sighed, turning to get a cube of energon.
“My family usually celebrates Christmasm but we never do any of the decorating until like, the day of because we’re always too busy,” Raf piped up as Bumblebee helped the boy set up what looked like a synthetic tree.
“Jack and I also celebrate, but the holidays are always so busy at the hospital,” June added on, helping Fowler hang a garland over a human-sized door frame, “Lots of people making bad decisions with too much alcohol in their systems.
“And what about you, Fowler? Any tragic experiences with this holiday?” Starscream asked, looking at the special agent out of the corner of his optic as he sipped on his cube.
“Um, well yeah,” the dark-skinned human began, a blush appearing on his cheeks, as he reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, “Haven’t really celebrated Christmas since my wife left me a few years back. But I had some old decorations in storage, and June said that I should bring them to help decorate the base.”
At that, June gave the special agent a soft, shy smile, and touched his arm. Gross.
“You know what would be awesome?” Miko shouted (Starscream firmly believed that Miko was incapable of speaking in what humans called an ‘indoor voice’), “A giant Christmas tree for you bots!”
“Eyyyy, that would be pretty cool,” Bulkhead said, who was lifetime Miko to help her put lights somewhere high.
“No it would not!” Starscream yelled, moving towards the green mech before Optimus placed a steadying servo on the seeker’s shoulder.
“I agree with Bulkhead and Miko, Starscream,” Optimus replied.
“WHAT?!” Starscream shrieked, whirling around to stare at the Prime slightly crest fallen.
“The best way to learn about the human’s culture is to partake in their holidays,” Optimus replied, causing Starscream to groan.
“Sweet! Boss Bot agrees with us, Bulk!” Miko exclaimed, jumping.
“Where would we even find a tree that big?” Arcee asked, as she helped Jack decorate.
“There are a few forests up in Montana that I could tell Ratchet about,” the agent said, with a smug grin on his face.
Starscream scowled in return, the bastard was only doing this to get under Starscream’s plating and he knew it.
“Thank you, Agent Fowler,” the Prime responded, causing Starscream to groan again.
Optimus was supposed to be on Starscream’s side, and normally was, especially when it came to Fowler.
He was about to slink back to his room, when Optimus placed his servo on Starscream’s shoulder again.
🎄🎁🎊🎁🎄
“I thought you didn’t want a tree,” Bulkhead said as they tramped through the woods that were blanketed in a thick amount of snow.
“I don’t,” Starscream retorted, glaring ahead, scanning the foliage for an acceptable tree. “But if I’m going to have this thing be in the place where I live, then I want one that isn’t a complete mess.”
The tree needed to be at least several feet taller than Optimus, but small enough to actually fit in the base and not get in their way. And because the humans insisted that they decorate it, one with too many thick branches would just hide the decorations, and Starscream absolutely refused to have a tree that looked sickly in the base.
They had managed to find a few trees that met Starscream’s standards, but as soon as they attempted to bring it back, they had discovered animals using it as their winter home. Starscream suggested that they could find a new home, but Optimus refused, stating that the creatures would spend too much energy that they needed to keep until the spring.
And because Optimus was the leader, Starscream was forced to concede. And fine, those creatures happened to be cute enough that Starscream would feel bad if he made them move. With all of those factors combined, finding a suitable tree was a bit more difficult than they had anticipated.
And Starscream was starting to get cold, dammit! He was built to handle the cold well enough in his alt-mode, but in his root it was a completely different story. Plus, he was a lot smaller than the wrecker and the Prime (and thus didn’t retain heat well), so he wanted to find a tree as soon as possible.
At most complaining would have Optimus insist on keeping him warm, which he didn’t normally object to, but he didn’t exactly want to hear Bulkhead’s taunts. And Starscream had chosen to join them in the woods after all, it had at least gotten him away from the chaos ensuing back at base – June had suggested that they make cookies, which would only result in the kitchen that had been set up in a complete mess.
Plus it wasn’t like the Prime was even around to keep the seeker warm; they decided it was best to fan out.
Perhaps Starscream could transform and look for a tree above. That would help keep him warm at least.
“Hey Starscream!” Bulkhead called out. “What about this one?”
The seeker opened his intake to retort, because there was no way in the Pit that Bulkhead could find anything close to a suitable tree, but then he saw it.
It was perfect. Which Starscream hated.
“It doesn’t have any creatures that Optimus is going to feel guilty about evicting?” the seeker asked, raising an optical ridge, trying to find something wrong with the seemingly perfect tree that Bulkhead of all mechs had found.
“Uhhhhh, not that I can tell,” the wrecker said, looking the tree up and down just to be sure.
“Fine, you wait there, let me find Optimus,” Starscream sighed before he set out looking for the Prime. It shouldn’t be too hard – the mech happened to be bright red and roughly 30 feet tall in a forest full of white and green.
🎄🎁🎊🎁🎄
“Uhg, there you are,” Starscream huffed dramatically, finding the Prime bent on one knee, peering into a small cave.
Even after following the Prime’s pede prints in the snow, it had taken him nearly 20 minutes to find.
Optimus looked up, signaled for Starscream to be quiet then beckoned him over.
“What are you even looking at?” the seeker whisper-shouted at him, kneeling beside Optimus, “And why did you turn your COMMs off? I could have been hurt, and you wouldn’t even know!”
He peered into the small opening out of pure curiosity. Inside, there was a large, fluffy creature that Starscream recognized as a bear from one of the children’s zoology textbooks, with her cubs sleeping close.
Oh for the love of Primus, why did Optimus have to be such a nerd when it came to this planet’s wildlife?
“Earth has such beautiful life, does it not?” Optimus asked softly, his gaze never leaving the bears.
The seeker tilted his helm; he could kind of see it. Raf had told him that these bears often killed one another’s offspring to pass along their own genetics. But with the mother and her cubs, they looked… cute.
There was another long beat of silence that Starscream found comfortable, watching the subtle rise and fall of the creature’s bodies as they rested.
Finally, Optimus leaned back and asked, “Did you find a tree?”
🎄🎁🎊🎁🎄
“No, no, no! To the right! THERE! That’s perfect!” Starscream yelled as Optimus and Bulkhead worked to position the tree exactly how Starscream wanted it.
He was beginning to realize that this whole decorating thing wasn’t the most terrible thing in the world. Starscream had always had an optic for aesthetics after all. And what was better is that Optimus seemed to let Starscream have complete control over the whole thing.
While they were still in the woods, Starscream had grabbed some pinecones and branches that had fallen to make some garlands to hang in the base. Because a lone tree would look rather sad and pathetic. And while Starscream worked to make that all that happen with the help of Optimus, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Arcee all painted plywood to create ornaments. And Jack was constructing a rather elaborate Star as the topper. Which Starscream found more than suitable, given his namesake. Even Ratchet was helping out, making sure the lights wouldn’t start a fire.
Starscream hadn’t had the luxury of celebrating anything in the past few centuries, other than when Megatron left on his trip into deep space. Megatron just saw it as a waste of resources and were only distractions to plans that would survive the week. It was nice to do something so mundane again.
Optimus and Bulkhead had even re-arranged some of the crates that were occasionally used as seating and Ratchet and Raf worked on setting up a projector so they could watch a movie later. And of course, Starscream immediately launched into the task of meticulously arranging soft things, blankets and pillows so it could be comfortable, trying to imitate the living rooms that Raf had shown Starscream pictures of.
When it was all said and done, it looked nice. Starscream liked the base before, mainly because it was devoid of the presence of Megatron, but this, this made it feel more homey.
He flopped down on the nearest make-shift couch, admiring all of his hard work, especially since Megatron couldn’t ruin it.
He sighed, closing his optics. The peace lasted all for about five seconds before he heard the sound of children laughing.
He opened his optics again, seeing all three children and the two adults dressed in warm layers.
“What exactly are you doing dressed like that? We live in a desert.” Starscream said, already dreading what they were going to say.
“Ratchet is going to groundbridge us to see the snow!” Raf said, looking thoroughly excited.
“I do believe that I owed Raf a snowball a while back,” Optimus said, helping Ratchet plug in the coordinates.
“Wait, they haven’t seen snow?” Starscream asked, fully shocked, “They have been under your protection for months, and you possess the capabilities to travel anywhere on this planet, and they haven’t seen snow?”
Optimus nodded, and Starscream just huffed, for once in his life at a loss for words.
“Starscream, I would like it if you came with us,” Optimus said.
“And why is that?” Starscream asked, stretching his wings as he laid face down on the couch, “I already participated in your decorating game and already saw more than my quota of snow.”
“We’ll have uneven teams if you don’t come along,” Arcee said, playfully nudging one of the seeker’s wings. “Bulkhead is inviting Wheeljack to come along, and you don’t want to leave me and Optimus to the tender mercies of him, now do you?”
“Take Ratchet,” Starscream replied dryly, his voice muffled by the pillow.
“I need to work on the projector,” the medic replied from the console.
Great.
“Please, Starscream,” Optimus said, giving Starscream one of those soft smiles that the Prime must know that the seeker was susceptible to.
“Fine,” Starscream said, picking himself off of the couch.
🎄🎁🎊🎁🎄
Snowballs whizzed over Starscream’s helm as he hid behind the wall of snow that acted as their fortress that protected the three of them from Wheeljack’s modified canon that shot snowballs in rapid succession. Leave it to that mech to figure out how to modify a weapon in such a jurassic way in under ten minutes.
“Alright, what’s our game plan, Optimus?” Arcee asked.
‘Disabling Wheeljack is our top priority,” the Prime stated, his battlemask up, “Arcee, you will be our distraction: draw Wheeljack’s fire as I advance. Starscream: you will ensure that no one commandeers the fortress and provide Arcee and I cover fire.”
“I am capable of much more than providing cover fire!” Starscream objected.
“I thought that you were only doing this because Optimus insisted,” Arcee said, raising an optical ridge, but only in a friendly way.
“Arcee, Arcee,” Starscream tsked, shaking his helm, “You forget how competitive I am.”
“Do you mind providing cover fire for Starscream and I, Arcee?” The Prime asked, looking at the two-wheeler.
“On it,” she said with a nod.
With that, Starscream grabbed an armful of snowballs, and leapt out from behind the wall, immediately drawing fire from Wheeljack.
Starscream was built to be fast, which surprised most bots given his heeled pedes, and he just managed to stay out of the opposing team’s fire.
Out of the corner of his optics, he could see Optimus advancing on Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Wheeljack.
Just a little longer…
He threw a snowball at Bulkhead, which the green mech dodged just as Optimus managed to take down Wheeljack by throwing a large snowball to knock the weapon out of his servos.
Starscream immediately dropped the remaining snowballs and trotted over to the Prime to gloat at the other mechs and to congratulate Optimus. Well, mostly to gloat.
But as he neared the Prime, he saw Bulkhead lob a snowball that was at least half of Starscream’s weight, if not more.
Oh scrap.
Just as the snowball was about to hit Starscream, a large, red mass collided with him, knocking him out of the way of the snowball, the cold snow padding his fall.
“Saved you,” Optimus said, retracting his battlemask, his frame braced over the smaller seeker in the snow.
“My hero,” Starscream said sarcastically as Optimus helped him up out of the freezing wet slag.
Some of the snow had melted on Starscream’s armor, which sent a chill down his struts and when the wind blew. He pulled his wings down and wrapped his arms around him, trying to keep himself warm.
The Prime had taken notice of the now shivering mech and wrapped an arm around him, trying to keep the seeker warm. Starscream leaned into it, he was too cold and tired to really care whether or not Bulkhead or Wheeljack would make fun of him.
“I think that it would be prudent to return to base at this time,” Optimus said as Wheeljack and Bulkhead started seeing who could create the larger snowball.
Just then, Starscream noticed how much the sun had moved since they first arrived, it had been at least one, no, two hours.
“Awwwww,” Miko groaned, her puffs of hair seeming to deflate along with her mood. The human children had been playing a similar game, with Miko battling against the two boys while Fowler and June made a snowman.
“I agree with Optimus,” June said, “We still need to watch our movie.”
Starscream couldn’t agree more, he was cold and wanted to go back to base where it was warm and dry.
Optimus reached up and turned on his COMM, telling Ratchet to bridge them back, rubbing his servo on Starscream’s shoulder as he shuddered and pressed himself closer as a breeze caused loose snow to dance across the ground.
As they walked through the groundbridge that Ratchet had sent, they were immediately greeted by the warmth that settled over his systems.
Optimus sat Starscream down on the couch and wrapped a blanket around the seeker’s shoulders.
“Wait here,” Optimus said softly and Starscream mutely nodded, exhaustion seeping into his frame. And the couch was so soft and warm…
🎄🎁🎊🎁🎄
“Starscream?” A deep baritone asked, gently shaking his shoulder.
“Mhm?” He responded, bringing his optics back online, discovering that the overhead lights had been turned off, the room only being lit by the soft glow from the tree and the surrounding decorations.
Oh Primus, how long had he been asleep?
“You were not in recharge for long,” the Prime reassured, seemingly reading the seeker’s mind, rubbing his back as he blinked the sleepiness from his optics.
“I made this for you,” Optimus said, pushing a cube of energon into his claws. It was a warmed cube of energon with light blue whipped coolant on top.
The seeker stared at it, feeling tears prick at the corners of his optics.
“We brought in extra energon this month,” Optimus explained, sitting beside the seeker, wrapping an arm around him once more, holding a cube of his own. “We decided that sweetened energon would be a good way to celebrate alongside the humans.”
Starscream shifted on the couch, careful not to spill his drink as he snuggled into the Prime’s side, keeping his wings tucked so the Prime wouldn’t need to adjust his hold at all.
“Thank you,” Starscream whispered as the others began taking their seats and Raf worked to connect his computer to the projector. “I can’t even remember the last time that I had energon that wasn’t a military ration.”
The Prime squeezed Starscream’s shoulders, drawing him closer, letting the seeker rest his helm on his chest plates.
“Exactly what movie are we watching here?” Wheeljack asked.
“Home Alone,” June replied, sitting on the human-sized couch on the balcony with her own drink in her hands.
The movie began to play, and Starscream let himself enjoy it without being forced into it kicking and screaming. He was too tired to fight it anyways.
So he watched the movie, warm drink in hand, letting himself be held.