Archive of Our Own ^beta

“You!” shouted Thundercracker as he rounded into the common room, still dripping with solvent as he pointed an accusatory claw at his impishly smirking sister, “Give me back my rotary buffer!”

Slipstream’s smirk harshened as she tapped the tool in her hand and replied, “Maybe when you give me back my claw file you stole .” 

The blue Seeker scowled, retorting loudly, “I just borrowed it! Skywarp has mine and I need something to keep my perfect claws in pristine condition!” He spread his claw tips out in emphasis. 

The femme set her hands on her hip, resting the contested tool against her thigh, and sassing back smoothly, “Well maybe I’m just borrowing your buffer.” 

“‘Borrow’ my afterburners!” cried Thundercracker, pointing again at his sister, “This is a hostage situation!” he accused. 

Slipstream’s grin widened, “You bet it is! So are you going to give me what I want?” She waved the tool tauntingly in front of herself. 

With a wordless angry growl, Thundercracker lunged at his sister, reaching at the tool in her hands. She promptly boosted into the air, holding the buffer out of reach. Thundercracker went into the air after her, making another grab for his stolen property. “Give,” he reached for the buffer, missed it, “It,” another attempt, only for his sister to slip away, “Back!” he ground out as he made continuous grabs for the buffer, Slipstream dodging away each time and moving it away from his grasp. They flew jerkily across the common room with each of TC’s attempts. “Give it up!” he shouted, making another lunge and just grazing the tool before it was ripped away from him, “I’m the best flier in this house, you won’t be able to evade me forever!” 

“Wanna bet?!” shot back the femme, dodging back further and dangling the buffer in front of herself mockingly, before reaching behind her and pointedly putting it in her subspace pocket. 

“That’s not gonna stop me from getting it back!” declared TC, shooting across the room to try and reach into her pocket, Slipstream keeping him at arms’ length with a surprising strength. Scowling, Slipstream finally went on the offensive and did the same, trying to dig into her brother’s subspace and grab her erstwhile claw file. The two tumbled through the air head-over-thrusters in their scuffle as they both tried to reach behind the other, sending sheets and cushions on the floor flying and occasionally scorching the floor with their thrusters. The scuffle was approaching the point of clawing when Starscream, drawn by the increasing sound of a fight, rushed into the room with a deep scowl. 

“What are you two glitchheads doing?!” he snapped at the squabbling Seekers. 

“He stole my claw file!”    “She stole my buffer!” they yelled simultaneously, trading matching scowls as they made another grasping attempt to get at each other's subspaces. In a rare moment of absolute annoyance Slipstream had lost her cool composure. 

As the young Seekers batted at each other, Starscream looked up to the ceiling in exasperation, “Sparks sake. I’m gonna steal a lot more from both of you if you don’t knock this off!” 

The two siblings at last drifted away from each other, though they continued to trade heated glares. “Thundercracker started it,” proclaimed Slipstream coolly, regaining her composure as she gave her brother a side-opticked glare. 

“ You started it when you stole my buffer while I was in the shower! Now how am I supposed to get my finish perfect?!” yelled back the accused Seeker, swaying in the air as he gestured affrontedly. 

“I don’t care who started it!” shouted Starscream sternly over the growing argument, “ I’m ending it! Both of you,” he pointed at the younger Seekers, then emphatically to the ground, “pedes back on the floor.” 

The siblings landed, Thundercracker sullenly and Slipstream primly as she put back up her unaffected front. Starscream looked between the two with a frown, his arms tightly crossed. “I’m disappointed in you,” he scolded in a tight voice. Both Seekers’ postures tightened defensively, but before they could reply Starscream turned to the femme, saying in an almost accusatory voice, “Slipstream, you seriously couldn’t find a way to steal your file back? C’mon I thought you were the clever one! I mean, at least fight him for it like a Decepticon instead of bickering like a couple of protoforms.”

Slipstream jerked in surprise, but then smirked slyly, replying, “Now, where would be the fun in that?” 

“You better believe it wouldn’t be fun!” interjected Thundercracker, turning on his sister with a sharp, prideful, smirk, “I’m too observant for you to just steal from my subspace, and you would surely lose a fight!” 

“Not observant enough to keep your buffer from being stolen, though, huh?” goaded Slipstream in a fake innocent voice. 

“Why, you--!” Thundercracker attempted to jump his sister again, but was stopped short by Strscream tugging at his wing. With a pained yelp the blue Seeker froze in his tracks, reaching behind him to swat at the claws on his wing. “Let go of me!” he protested. 

Starscream did not, keeping his grip as he lectured, “If you’re gonna fight, take it outside. After you two fix this mess you made of the common room.” He scanned around the room pointedly, and the young Seekers finally noticed the wreck around them. 

“But--” Thundercracker attempted to argue, squirming in his creator’s hold. 

“Ah, ah, ah!” countered the older Seeker sternly, waving a disapproving finger with his free hand, “No ‘buts’.” 

“Why should we?” demanded Slipstream defiantly, her arms crossed tightly as she tilted her helm to look down her nasal ridge at her creator, seemingly not even realizing she had suddenly taken her brother’s side. 

“Because I use this room too, and if you don't it’ll tick me off and I’ll make sure neither of you so much as sees a file or a buffer until I say so.” 

Slipstream’s optics narrowed, and she countered doubtfully, “You couldn’t.” 

“Wanna bet?” shot back her creator confidently. With Thundercracker still in hand, he reached into the other’s subspace, drawing out the argued-over file with a pointedly raised optic ridge. 

“Hey!” complained Thundercracker, making a reach for the metal bar, which Starscream promptly drew away, holding the young Seeker solidly in place by the wing. 

“I know plenty of tricks for getting something out of a mech’s subspace pocket,” gloated the older Seeker, subsequently subspacing the file. Finally releasing Thundercracker (who rubbed at his wing with a pout), he turned to the young femme, with one hand on his hip and his other reaching out palm up, “So, are you going to hand over the buffer or will I take it?” 

Slipstream glanced between her creator and her brother, briefly considering whether she and Thundercracker could take Starscream in a fight or not before discarding the idea. For now, complying would probably be the best idea, and she sullenly withdrew the buffer and slammed it into Starscream’s expectant hand. 

“You two can get these back when this room is spotless,” declared Starscream. He then turned on his thrusters and strutted out of the room, seeming very pleased with himself. 

The two young Seekers glared at him as he left, eventually starting on cleaning the room. Not because of their creator’s threat, no. They weren’t going to beg to him to get what was theirs. Just because they needed to use the room eventually, too. It also gave them a chance to …discuss things. 

“So. I’m thinking a truce?” suggested Slipstream casually as she put a mattress back in its original place. 

Thundercracker glanced in the direction Starscream had left, then nodded. Slipstream grinned and cackled to herself, and the sibling’s argument was set aside in favor of planning their joint revenge.