The Silent Light - Part 2 (A Megatron x Starscream (Megastar) Fanfiction)

Episode 31: A Dream

Starscream lays on the bedroom recharging slab, his arms draped gracefully over his chest. His nightstand is wide open, and Megatron's letters are splayed out all across the floor like a museum of memories. One of the notes rests on his belly, detailing how Megatron desired to rouse Starscream's spark to incalculable pleasures. Starscream had dosed off during the final scrawling of sensual phrases. After the vicious fight between Ryo and Shockwave, he had been too stimulated to fall asleep, his adrenaline pulling him away from the hearty grasp of rest. To rid himself of his energies, he flipped through the stack of letters, reading one after another.

Even though the stack of papers transformed his fight-or-flight into torment, it still drew him to slumber.

One of the hardest notes to get through was very simple:

Dear Starscream,
Going out for a walk and will be back soon. Probably in a cycle or two! Also, what do you want for dinner tonight?

It was such a pleasant note, reminiscent of daily life and simplicity. All they had to worry about was taking a stroll and ponder about what they want to eat. And Starscream felt cared for and appreciated. Megatron told him where he was off to so he wouldn't get worried, and he planned to provide for him when he got back. And Starscream would regularly return the gesture.

Starscream opens his optics as a pleasant dream gone rogue rocks his sleep, whisking him away from the endless darkness behind his eyelids. He sits up and looks around the silent bedroom. No one is snoozing at his side. Starscream slips out of bed and gathers up the letters before placing them back in their comfy home of the nightstand. He ventures quietly out to the living room.

Ryo is asleep on a slab, and Megatron is still seated by the fire, now reduced to dead embers. The skin around his eyes is puffy with exhaustion, and faint, glowing hot cables spread like tree branches at the corners of his optics. He's been staring all night. Starscream kneels by him and places a hand on his shoulder.

"Megatron, are you awake?"

Megatron slowly nods.

"Have you slept at all?"

Shakes his head.

"Are you tired?"

Yes.

Starscream licks his lips as a question sprouts in his mind. "Is...are your thoughts too busy? Are there too many thoughts for you to go to sleep?"

Yes.

"Do you want something that will make you go to sleep?"

Megatron sluggishly turns his head to Starscream, his pupils struggling to find something to focus on. He nods. Starscream pats his back before wandering over to the kitchen. He opens a cabinet and sifts through the various samples of plant matter and whatnot stacked away. He pulls out a small bronze tin and opens the lid. Dry, black furled leaves sit at the bottom, and Starscream pulls out a couple. He would regularly utilize this trick when insomnia struck; he's been off his homemade treatment for some time now.

Starscream places the leaves in a cup before crushing them into a fine powder with his finger. After adding a good helping of oil to the mixture to help it go down easier, he brings it to Megatron, placing it in his hands.

"It's the sleeping herbs," Starscream whispers as he crouches beside Megatron.

Megatron shakily lifts the mug to his mouth, slowly drinking it as his eyes continue to lock onto the cold ashes. His throat moves in and out as he swallows the liquid.

"Do you want to sleep here or somewhere else?" Starscream takes the cup from him as he finishes the drink.

Megatron sighs before leaning into Starscream, his cheek pressed to the Seeker's chest. His legs slowly slide out away from him, causing more of his weight to spiral down onto Starscream. Starscream abandons his shaky crouch and places his rump on the floor, establishing a stronger platform for his lover to lower himself onto. Megatron migrates his head to Starscream's lap, soft snores now coming from his lips. Starscream pats his cheek.

"Starscream?"

Starscream turns to look at Ryo, who is now yawning and stretching on the slab. "Yeah?"

"Can I get something to eat?"

"Sure. Help yourself."

Starscream goes back to petting Megatron. He picks off tiny crumbs of dust and dirt from his head while he listens to Ryo shuffle about behind him.

. . .

Megatron stews in the silence of his dreary dream. Crystal clear raindrops fall from an undefined sky, streaking down his hazy body and pooling on the grey floor below. Dead, foggy clouds swirl at his ankles, puffing up as they touch his skin. A sudden vibration starts to gather in his heels, and the simulation rockets up to his belly, where it waits and billows up to uncomfortable levels. It pushes and pulls on his organs, like a frightening panic attack, before it slithers up to his spark. It blossoms into a hungry sensation of anticipation, and Megatron looks about, trying to spot the source of his trepidation.

A pink flash, like an echo, surges from his feet. It stumbles away across the ground, disappearing in a flash behind the gathering fog. Its blurred form floats up into the sky, where it meets at a central point over Megatron's head. He looks up at the convergence, awaiting a response for the echo. His expectations are soon met.

An overstimulating flash of colors and circles befell Megatron, slowly falling towards him in distorted zigzags and nauseating greens and yellows. White dots sparkle around, drawing him mentally further into the hypnotizing patterns besieging the sky. An ungodly sound creeps up on him, startling Megatron to his core. The colorful arrangement distracted him from the oncoming onslaught of sound, and when he finally perceived it, it was already at a tantrum-inducing level.

It all sounds like screaming and singing at once. I can't tell the difference!

Megatron crouches on the floor, covering his auditory receptors with his hands and screwing his eyes shut, trying to block out the attack. The pulsating patterns still riots behind his eyelids, and the shrill opera knocks against his knuckles and trickles through his fingers. Closing his eyes seems to make the sensations worse: he feels like he is spinning right and left and up and down and in every possible angle. Megatron is toppling about at -5˚ and 0.00000034˚ and 275˚ and 10.57800000004˚ and every imaginable number, all the way to infinity. Every timeline, is made clear, and all choices, morally corrupt or beautiful, are seen neutrally. Nothing is better or worse than the other.

"Starscream!" Megatron howls to the nightmare sky. "Help me! It hurts so much!" But it also feels startlingly...good?

The barrage suddenly ceases, leaving Megatron alone in the chilly grayscale his dream birthed him into. A voice dances through is brain, every word playing at once but still perceived individually:

"Ask
me
any
question
you
want."

Megatron lowers his shaking hands and stares at the coils of fog slipping over the ground. "Get me out of here."

"Can
I
not
show
you
myself?"

Megatron shakes his head and looks up, tears falling from his bright eyes. "I don't know what happened to me in there, but I want it all gone. I can't do this. I can't even take care of myself because my mind is too overwhelmed with memories of what happened in there. I physically cannot remember it all at once."

"Yes
you
can.
Give
yourself
time.
You
have
all
the
time
in
the
world."

"I have a boyfriend to take care of. I provide for him, and he provides for me. It is not fair for him to just care for me! He needs help, too."

"Trust
in
me.
He
is
safe.
And
you
are
safe
to
travel
me."