Starscream and Alexis Part 1

Summary: Transformers Armada. As Starscream is figuring out his feelings, trouble begins for Alexis. Between them and their friends they need to overcome many trails but when the Dcons get in the mix, something worse arrives

Author's Notes: Don't own Transformers, it is the property of Hasbro. This story goes with the beginning of the Episode "Mars" but only at the beginning before Alexis finds the new Mini-con signal on Mars. I have added that Alexis is short for Alexandra. I need to thank Talking Hawk. She helped me with the details of the basketball game and a couple other things. Thank you for your help.  Smokescreen isn't called Hoist yet. Story is very popular on fanfiction.net

Prologue
Chat With Starscream

Starscream sat on a huge rock, allowing the Star Saber to disassemble and his own Mini-con, Swindle, to detach from him. He had been thinking of why he was with the Autobots in the first place. Yeah they were his survival at first but they didn't see his views on wanting to get rid of Megatron. Suddenly he heard voices from the kids and one of them was approaching him, it was the girl.

"Hey Starscream," he heard the girl say. He looked down to find her beside the Mini-cons plus her Mini-con. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Go away," he snapped.

He was about to get up and leave when Alexis used the Mini-cons to jump up onto his knee. With quick thinking from Sureshock, him and the Star Saber Mini-cons helped her up by Sureshock lifting Alexis and Runway and Sonar getting her to Starscream's knee. The Mini-cons then left, leaving Alexis and him with Rad and Carlos not far away, but not in hearing range.

"I understand how you must feel," Alexis said.

"How could you understand?" Starscream asked a little too roughly, looking away.

Alexis ignored the tone and sat down on his knee. "Before you Transformers came, I didn't like hanging around Rad and Carlos much. But when Rad stumbled upon the beaconed, I went to the mountains to find them to find out if they were ok. And they were and then we met you."

Starscream turned to look down at Alexis. "That is a total different situation then what I'm in."

"That maybe so but the end result is the same," she said. "See, I always thought of Rad as a dork but underneath it all, I wanted to be friends with him, I just wouldn't let myself do it. With you, you want Megatron dead."

"Is there anything wrong with wanting someone dead?"

". You wanted to destroy the Autobots for centuries. But your method in wanting Megatron dead is almost suicidal. One needs a good plan to bring someone down not go into battle guns flaring. Optimus wants a foolproof plan before attempting to bring down Megatron. But he does understand, more than he lets on."

For several minutes, Starscream was silent, watching Alexis and keeping an optic out for the other two kids. "What is your name again?" he asked breaking the silence.

Alexis looked up, "Alexis," she answered. "Well my full name is Alexandra but all my friends call me Alexis."

"Alexandra, that is a pretty name," Starscream said, taking his hand and clasping it around Alexis. She jumped when his hand came around her, but soon relaxed when he was only holding her gently.

"If there is anything you want to talk about Starscream, I'm here," Alexis said.

"Alexis!" Rad called, running up to Starscream. "We have to get going. Mom is going to have a fit if we don't get back home soon. Remember about the basketball game tonight."

"Oh right, I forgot," Alexis said. "Sorry. But I have to go," she said to Starscream. With a nod, Starscream set her down on the ground beside Rad.

She jumped off his hand and started running down the hill for home, leaving Starscream alone. But he wasn't alone long. A sound of another Transformer was coming up behind him. Starscream's sensors told him it was Optimus Prime before he got to him.

"Optimus Prime," Starscream said. "What brings you out here?"

"To talk to you," Optimus said. "I seen Alexis and Rad leaving. They must be heading home to go the basketball game tonight."

"Yeah."

"I know I made you make a hard choice, the other day."

"Yeah, I was already told. Alexis said that you want to get rid of Megatron just as badly as I do but you want to have a good plan in doing it."

"That is right. I know you weren't there, but you would have heard that Smokescreen was almost killed by Megatron from the Requim Blaster. And Megatron will pay for that but there are more important things then a vendetta against Megatron and that is to protect this planet and solar system from the Decepticons."

"What is Basketball?"

"Ha, ha, ha. I was waiting for that comment," Optimus said. "In an hour be at the command center and you'll find out. The kids are going to have Lazerbeak watch the game so we can watch too. Sideswipe wants to see the game too. The rest of us have already seen what it was on Television."

/////////////

Starscream arrived in the command center of the Autobot base at the appointed time that Optimus gave him. When he entered, he could hear Hotshot and Smokescreen having a discussion about the game over in one corner off to the side of the main viewer. He ignored them and proceeded to where Optimus and Jetfire were, which was at the main viewer. Over in the other corner, the Autobots Mini-cons including Swindle, the shield and sword Mini-cons were also waiting, as were Scavenger, Red Alert, Sideswipe and Blurr.

"Starscream," Optimus said. "You're just in time. Make yourself comfortable. The game will start very shortly."

"Who has Lazerbeak?" Hotshot asked.

"Rad, Carolos and Alexis didn't get there in time so they are on the other side further away," Jetfire said. "They gave Lazerbeak to Billy and Fred since they managed to be closer to the game."

"And the best part is," Red Alert added, "this time it's Liberty high school versus the local team."

"From what Carlos says," Scavenger said, "it's a charity game. Not sure for which charity though."

Sparkplug beeped. Earlier, he had overheard Rad and Carlos talking about the basketball game and the local orphanage.

The Autobots had heard of the orphanage a few months prior and felt bad for all the children that were there. It was an organization that only helped the homeless children but also helped abused children. It was a small chain off of YMCA

"Too bad there isn't anything we could do for the orphanage," Hotshot said.

"Gentlemen, the game is starting," Optimus announced.

"All right!" Hotshot cheered. "Let the games begin."

The Autobots watched the view screen as two teams sent a player from each into the middle of the court. A referee dressed in black and white held a basketball out in between the two, and they each patted the ball once. Then, the referee blew his whistle, throwing the ball up in the air, and one of the players had hit it to another member on his team. The high school had a blue shirt while the local team had red shirt.

"Hey, that's no fair! The red one touched it first; it was his!" Starscream said.

Hotshot turned and looked at Starscream. "Uh, Starscream, just because someone touches it doesn't mean it's theirs. You have to have the ball in order for it to be yours."

Starscream folded his arms, "Oh. Whatever."

During the course of the game, Starscream found that Hotshot and Smokescreen were making a bet to see which team was going to win. The bet was whenever the next time they played tagged with the kids whoever lost was going to be 'it' first. Hotshot had betted for the high school and Smokescreen for the local team.

Every once in a while, whoever was holding Lazerbeak; the Autobots were able to get a quick look at Rad and the others and in those quick seconds Starscream would think back to his small conversation with Alexis. She was one human he couldn't understand.

At one point, the two teams had been going back and forth across the court for quite some time and finally, a shorter basketball player on the blue team got a hold of the ball and dribbled it down to the red team's side of the court. Two taller red team players then confronted the blue player, waving their arms, blocking him from getting a clear shot of the basket.

Sideswipe seemed very distressed by this.

"Hey, why are they picking on that shorter kid?" Sideswipe asked

Scavenger chuckled, "It's the object of the game, kid."

"But they're not being very nice," Sideswipe said.

Meanwhile, on the screen, a red team player knocks the ball from the blue player's hands and began running across the court.

Hotshot shouted, "Thief! THIEF!"

Smokescreen turned and looked at his comrade. "What do you mean 'thief'? That was perfectly le."

Hotshot turned and punched Smokescreen and they got into a fistfight. Scavenger and Sideswipe tried to stop them.

Optimus turned, annoyed at the little brawl, "Knock it off or no more basketball!" Everyone froze at Optimus's outburst and slipped away back to their area of the room.

By the end of the last quarter, the two teams were tied 50-50. No one team seemed to have control of the ball, as it kept on switching to both sides across the half-court line. All of the Autobots, even Starscream, were on edge, and wondered what the final outcome would be. A member on the blue team had stolen the ball, and rushed toward the net at the last 15 seconds.

When it was down to the final few seconds of the game, Hotshot and Smokescreen seemed to hold their breaths. The boy, who had the ball, stopped at the three-point line, aimed, and released the ball. Then, the camera was filled with a huge hot dog as buzzer sounded, and all of the Autobots began speaking in a panic. Questions like, "Who won?" filled the room. Optimus, who was closest to the screen, punched a button and began to speak.

"Fred, move your hotdog! Or rather, tell us who won!" The Autobots were silent, leaning forward to hear the results of the charity game.

"Uuuh, sorry, Optimus," an unsure voice could be heard over the intercom. "I didn't realize my hotdog got in the way."

Blurr in the meantime felt like punching something. Fred had always annoyed Blurr especially when he would complain about wanting to eat. And now his food was getting in the way. Jetfire placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

Suddenly a male announcer, before Fred could say anything more, was heard through the intercom, "Ladies and Gentlemen and children of all ages. The winner of the game by just a split second is Liberty High School."

Hotshot whistled out in victory.

"Well, I guess you win the bet, bro," Sideswipe said.

"You betcha I did," Hotshot said bringing his arms to rest on his head. "So that means Smokescreen."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm 'it' the next time we play tag with the kids," Smokescreen said with a disappointed face.

Everyone in the room laughed, even Starscream gave a little chuckle. He had learned through Sideways that the Autobots did things with the kids in their spare time but had no idea they would play games with the kids. He didn't even know what tag was.

"So that is how basketball is played?" Sideswipe said.

"Yup," Blurr said as he walked out of the room with Scavenger close at his heals. Hotshot, Sideswipe and Smokescreen had also left the room talking about the game, which left Starscream, Optimus, Jetfire and the Mini-cons.

"So what did you think of the game?" Optimus asked Starscream as he turned of the monitor.

"Different," Starscream said. "I had wondered what that game was. In the past few weeks, Thrust would stumble upon a live game and we would watch, that would be until Megatron caught us." Starscream balled his fists at the Decepticon leader's name.

The mention of his ex-leader's name soared his mood and he left the room with not so much more than a sideways glance on his way out, he stopped long enough to pick up Swindle and continued on his way. He could hear Jetfire speaking to Optimus about the game.

As he walked down the hall, he stopped, as something caught his optic. He turned to see a room that was clearly used as a lounge. Just to amuse himself and get Megatron off his mind he entered the room. He couldn't quite understand why there would be a lounge in a space ship that crashed four million years ago. But of course the Autobots had done a lot of work to the old ship to make it livable.

It wasn't as big as the control room but was big enough to fit all the Autobots. In one corner, Starscream noticed a human sized fridge with two tables and chairs with a sofa for the kids. Beside the corner was a transformer size table with pictures on it. To Starscream's surprise the pictures were of the kids.

He walked over to the table and picked up the picture of the human Alexis. He stood there gazing at it. *I don't understand her* he thought. *There's something about her I just can't quite figure out. She has every reason to hate me, only she doesn't*. Starscream sighed and placed the picture back down. "It seems she has put a lot of trust in me."

"She has." Starscream turned to see Hotshot approach him. "I didn't think anyone was in here. I thought it was funny the day the kids gave us a picture of each of them. Red Alert used the computer to enlarge the pictures and had frames made for them too."

"So what brings you here?" Starscream asked in his usual tone.

"To get some peace and quiet. I don't know why but I feel closer to the kids when I'm in here. Maybe it's because of the pictures and the belongings the kids brought in," Hotshot said. "Though I'm wondering why you're in here."

"For your information, I just stumbled upon the room." Starscream turned and left the room to head outside the base. He sat on a small ledge . well to a human it would have been a good size ledge but since he was a transformer . it proved to be a good seat, and stared out over the town the kids lived in.

When dark approached, he continued to stare off over the mountains. He knew Optimus was behind him against the rocks. Optimus had showed up shortly before sunset but was silent allowing Starscream to have time to himself.

"What brings you out here Optimus Prime?" Starscream asked without turning.

"I came out here to watch the sunset. I didn't know you would be out here until I arrived," Optimus said moving from leaning against the rocks and approached the ex-Decepticon.

"What's so special about the sunset?"

"It's a beautiful sight. I've never been on a planet that shows such a sight until now. By the way before coming out here, I heard the kids were coming up tonight."

Starscream turned to the Autobot leader, "Why would they be coming back here after dark?" he asked curiously.

"The kids don't have school tomorrow and quite often they stay here when there's no school the next day."

"Don't they realize you are in the middle of a war? They could be hurt or killed."

"They know the dangers but they have become our good friends and have helped us many times and I do fear for their safety."

Starscream turned away and allowed the silence to roam between the two of them and after several minutes of silence, he found it was too awkward. "Alexandra," he said. The name ended the silence.

"What about Alexis?" Optimus asked remembering when Alexis had told him and the other Autobots that Alexandra was her full name. They had heard her full name not long after they arrived on Earth.

"She has put a lot of trust in me," Starscream said. "More than what I put in myself. Out of all those human kids, she is one that I can't figure out."

"Yeah it takes a bit to understand Alexis. She is one of a kind. She is quite, how the humans put it, the computer whiz."

"I don't know why she wants to be my friend. I tried to kill her and the others a few times."

"She has looked passed that. Humans can be hard to figure out but some of the humans actually will give people second chances. And Alexis is one of those people. You risked your life to join us and she seen that. I've never seen a Transformer able to leave Megatron's services and live to tell the tale."

"Optimus!" a female voice called.

Optimus and Starscream turned and saw Alexis and the boys arrive with Hotshot. The kids had their backpacks stuffed as they usually did when they stayed at the base.

"Welcome back kids," Optimus said.

"Optimus sorry for getting my hotdog in the way earlier. I was just too excited," Fred said.

"Forgotten, Fred," he said. "Well let's get you guys in and set up."

"Alright!" Carlos shouted. "A campout at the Autobot base."

Hotshot laughed not missing the enthusiasm in Carlos's voice. Hotshot always had enjoyed the kids campout since Alexis would tell stories. They would always campout in the lounge.

As the boys, Optimus and Hotshot left, Alexis stayed behind with Starscream. For a few moments he stared at her. The evening air blew at her hair, which barely went to her shoulders. He noted to himself that she looked pretty as she stood in front of him. He broke the silence as he noticed that she had a slight chill.

"You could get sick if you stand here any longer since the air is cooler up here."

"I know," she said. "I was just wondering why you were staring at me."

"Oh," he said. He went speechless that she knew he was staring at her. He bent down putting his hand on the ground for her climb up. She took the invitation and sat down, placing her backpack beside her as he lifted his hand to eye level. "I'm puzzled by your kindness. I have tried to kill you and yet you're talking to me as if I never was with the Decepticons."

"I may never forget that you tried to kill me or the others but when you asked for our help, I just thought that you deserve a second chance. I've noticed in previous battles you seemed reluctant to battle almost as if you are questioning yourself."

"How do you know these things?" He was getting confused now. She was figuring him out and she really knew nothing about him. In a way he was getting angry with her but on the other hand, he liked the idea of her figuring him out without him saying so.

"My parents are divorced and through the years I've been able to see why my mother would get upset or be depressed. Then when I met you Transformers I've been able to know the Autobots moods just by looking at them. Mind you, with Optimus's faceplate, it's hard to tell when something's on his mind so I've gotten to know when something is wrong; Optimus will seem quiet or distant."

Starscream was silent for a few moments watching the young girl shiver more. He stood and walked into the base getting quite comfortable with her presence. When they were out of the chilled air he broke the silence.

"What is divorced?"

"Huh?" She looked at him. "Divorce . " She didn't know where to begin. "It's when a husband and wife decide to stop being married. Usually a divorce happens when one of them is either abusing the other or having an affair."

He cocked his head getting more confused.

"Ok ... Affair is when someone is sleeping around on his or her partner . or in a Transformer's case, mate. Another word for affair is cheating on someone." She was told that there were female Transformers or Cybertron and when two Transformers hooked up together they were classified as 'mate'.

"So why are your parents divorced?" he asked finally understanding. Humans were a complicated race.

"It's not like my dad was cheating on my mother or abusing her or anything. It's just my mom didn't want to relocate when my dad had been transferred to another state and they were getting into a lot of arguments because they couldn't agree to disagree."

They continued the rest of the way in silence to the lounge and when they got there, the kids already had the sleeping bags set up and Hotshot and Scavenger were laughing at Rad as he was covered in head to toe in whip cream but was laughing.

Alexis started to laugh. "What happened?"

Hotshot turned and tried to stifle his laugh with no success so Scavenger explained. "Just a minute ago Jolt, Longarm and Sparkplug grad the whip cream pies from your fridge and threw them at Rad. So what took you two so long?"

Starscream was about to make a snappy comment when he actually looked at Rad and he laughed himself. It wasn't his usual maniacal laugh but a different one that everyone in the room noticed but didn't say anything.

Starscream set Alexis down as she went to assist her friend with the whip cream. When he was cleaned off, Optimus came in the room and dimmed the lights. Soon all the Autobots were in the room listening to Alexis telling campfire stories. Some of the stories were spooky and some made everyone laugh.

At one point when Alexis was telling a scary story, Billy decided to try something and when Alexis wasn't looking he indicated to the Autobots what he was about to do. He stood up and went behind Alexis and scared her. Alexis jumped out of her sleeping bag. Starscream who was the closest to her, caught before she fell too hard. Everyone laughed.

"Billy!" Alexis said after her heart went back to normal. She peered over Starscream's fingers. "One of these days I will get you for that."

When Optimus controlled his laughter, he stood. "Well kids it's getting late, you should get some sleep as well as the rest of us."

As the Autobots started to leave, Starscream placed Alexis down and watched her get back into her sleeping bag.

"If you kids don't mind, I'd like to stay for a bit." Starscream surprised himself at what he said. Even the kids were surprised until Alexis said sure. When the kids were asleep Starscream placed a finger on Alexis, which covered her whole body and watched her. He knew that if anyone was going to change him for the better it was going to be her. She knew what to say to him and he was getting to like her. In fact he secretly liked her but now liked her even more.


New Experience

Author's Notes: Set after the Mars mission. Starscream is confused about Alexis. Why does she want to help him? He tried to kill her. Can Starscream and Alexis become friends? There will be some G1 dealings ex: Seaspray being in love with an alien. But, of course, it’s in a different time frame. I mean, even though in G1 it happened while the Autobots were on Earth. Well what if some of the events happened while on Cybertron before the trip to Earth?

“In my opinion you belong on the Autobots side,” Alexis said to the injured jet. She knew that his canons were gone but when she looked up and saw the damage, it blew her away. It just wasn’t the same looking at him without the canons.

“If you don’t mind I would like to be left alone,” he said. He stood and walked away being careful not to crush the girl at his feet.

“Hey guys look what Starscream left behind,” Fred yelled to his human friends. On the other side where Starscream sat, there was a huge rock that obviously came from Mars.

Alexis ran over and picked a chunk of it off the main part. “He left it for us,” she smiled.

“We should do something to thank him then,” Rad offered.

“What should we do?” Carlos asked as he picked up a small piece of the rock.

“How about since he has the Star Saber, we make a chamois so he can polish the Mini-Cons,” Alexis suggested.

“That’s a good idea,” Billy agreed. “We can all pitch in and help.”

“Good. When we go home lets work on it. Each of us will sew a small section and since I’m good with the sewing machine, I’ll take the five pieces and sew them together.”

“Ok.” They all agreed.

“Oh shoot,” Rad cursed. “I promised Hotshot that I would help him find his wrench. He lost it the other day in his quarters.”

“I guess to us, it will be easier to find.”

“You bet, since we can get into places they can’t.”

“I’ll join ya,” Carlos said.

As the boys started to leave, Alexis stayed behind and watched them leave. She felt she should go and thank Starscream personally. When the boys were gone, she thought she was alone, until a large metal finger tapped her shoulder. She jumped, not expecting anyone.

“Whoa,” Optimus said as he watched her jump. He placed his hand on the ground, as she seemed to stumble. She looked like she was going to fall into his hand.

When she had her footing, she turned to the Autobot leader. “You startled me. I thought you left already.”

“No. I was about to but saw you standing here alone.”

“Oh. Where’s Red Alert? He was here just a bit ago.”

“He’s gone to fix Starscream.”

“Ok, thanks.” Alexis turned and walked out. She walked to the exit of the base that led outside onto the mountain. She looked out into the grassy meadow that was on the other side, opposite of her town. She sat on a rock, thinking. She didn’t know how long she was sitting there until a sound of a Transformer came up behind her and had lightly touched her shoulder with a finger. This time the touch did not scare her. She turned expecting to see Optimus but it was Starscream.

“Your fixed,” she said. She looked up to see it was getting dark. “I’ve been up here too long. I should go.” She stood to leave.

“Wait.” He sat down beside her. “I would like to talk to you. I don’t know why I want to. I’ve never willingly talked to someone before.”

Over by the doorway to the upper part of the base, a tall Autobot watched Alexis and Starscream. “It would seem,” he quietly said to himself. “He’s starting to have a changed of heart.”

“If anyone can change him,” another Autobot came up beside him. “It’s Alexis. He seems to be more comfortable around her.”

“I think you’re right Red Alert.” Optimus turned to his friend. “It’s almost as if Starscream wants to atone for his mistakes and he’s asking her for his forgiveness.”

“I think it’s more than that Optimus,” Red Alert stated. “Look when the kids had that sleepover, Starscream stayed with them all night beside Alexis.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, I think he’s falling for her.”

“Is that even possible? A human and a Transformer?”

“You should know yourself anything is possible when it comes to love. For instance you and Elita-One; you two have outwitted the odds. Even that time when she was presumed dead, you never gave up. You kept looking for her even after everyone else ended the search.”

“I knew she wasn’t dead. I was able to feel her through the Matrix.”

“Yes and after three months, you found her being held captive by Megatron. Megatron made that explosion at the base that separated the female Autobots from everyone else.”

“But we’re not talking about my love life, we’re talking about a possible relationship that shouldn’t be happening.”

“Optimus, you were the one who told everyone to leave Seaspray alone when he was in love with that alien woman. And for years he was with her, and since he was able to turn himself into an organic life form, he had a family with the woman. What if Starscream and Alexis and can do the same thing?”

Optimus sighed. “Your right. But I’m worried about Alexis. She is only a child still, a girl who’s turning into a woman. I have been watching the humans here and girls Alexis’s age go through these mood swings and it bothers me.”

“It’s called puberty,” Red Alert informed. “You almost seemed to be more of a concerned parent then a concerned friend.”

“I know.” Beneath his faceplate, Optimus smiled. “Alexis came over this morning earlier than usual. I knew the kids had no school today. When I approached her of what was bothering her, she never said anything.

“Yes, I noticed that too. I wonder what’s wrong?”

“Let Hotshot or Sideswipe to be on stand by. I can see Alexis being here late again and she will need a ride home.”

As Alexis and Starscream sat quietly, they never realized the Autobot commander and science officer watched them.

“Starscream,” she began. “You wanted to talk to me.”

“I don’t know where to begin,” he admitted.

“Anywhere you want. I know I want to thank you.”

“For what.” He looked at her a little baffled.

“For leaving that Mars rock. Fred noticed it right after you left to get fixed. How did you find it?”

“After Tidal Wave, damaged me, I fell to the ground. I found a rock and crushed it with my hand. Then I realized the rock glittered and I remembered that your three friends who wanted to go with Jetfire, wanted him to bring back something.”

“Thanks anyway, it’s beautiful.” She pulled the rock out of pocket of her knickers. “Scientists have been trying to get to Mars for the past ten or more years now and this is the first time anything from Mars has been brought back.”

“I’m glad you like it.” He looked down on her and as the final rays of the sun were starting to go behind the horizon, he noticed that the light made Alexis look beautiful.

What was he thinking? He shook his head of the thought before Alexis could notice. “I was wondering,” he said. “Why do you keep talking to me? I tried to kill you.”

“Well like I said before, you deserve a second chance.” Alexis looked away from the sunset.

Starscream noticed Alexis’s mood changed quickly. “Is something wrong? You seem sad.”

“My mom and dad,” she said. “They are fighting more and I don’t want to hear them.”

“But you live with your mother. Why should hearing your father make a difference?”

“My dad is home for a vacation and he visited us this morning. Luckily there was no school today due to a flood and when they started to argue, I left and came here. When Optimus knew I was here, he asked me what was wrong but I didn’t know how to tell him.”

Even as he said, he couldn’t believe he said it. “Well you can tell me.”

“Thanks.” Her voiced saddened even more. “I don’t know what to do anymore. My father wants to take me with him.” A small tear slipped out of her eyes and traced a line down her face. “But I don’t want to go with him. I want to stay and not because of you guys but because I was raised here.” More tears started to come down her face. She tried to hide the tears from Starscream but he caught her. He picked her up and placed her in his hand.

“Do you have a choice to stay or go?” he asked quietly, allowing his voice to be soothing.

“I don’t know.” She tried to rub the tears away but more kept coming. “I don’t want to go back there.”

“Well you don’t have to. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

She stood in his hand and hugged his thumb as she cried. Over where Optimus and Red Alert were, they heard the sobs from Alexis and it concerned them and immediately walked over to the two. Alexis didn’t even know her and Starscream were no longer alone.

“What is wrong?” Optimus asked quietly, concern flavoring his words.

“Her family,” he said quickly.

Alexis turned from Starscream’s thumb and looked to see the other two Autobots. She roughly rubbed at her tears, trying to control them. “I don’t know...sniff...what to do.”

“I told her she could stay here. She doesn’t want to go home. She’s afraid her father will take her away.”

“Alexis,” Red Alert said. “I’m sorry. Why didn’t you tell us you were having some hard times with your parents.”

“I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“That is why you have been distant today.”

“I also just found out that my father is getting re-married.”

“The boys have gone home, so you can have the lounge to yourself,” Optimus suggested. “It’s just what if there is school tomorrow?”

“I will call in sick. Thank you but I would like to stay out here a little while longer. I would like to see the last of the sunset.” She finally had the tears under control.

“All right. Do you mind if I watch with you?” Optimus asked her.

“No.”

All three Transformers and Alexis watched the sunset. When the sun was completely gone, both Red Alert and Optimus went inside.

Starscream knew Alexis wanted to be alone but he couldn’t get the will power to put her down and retreat to the base. He, some reason, was concerned about her. And he couldn’t figure out why. As dark approached, they were quiet, neither one wanting to ruin the mood.

In the distance, Alexis and Starscream could here crickets. The sound was soothing Alexis and before long she fell asleep listening to them. Starscream watched her curl up and fall asleep but he didn’t want to disturb her. After awhile he decided that the cool air was not good for her. He slowly and quietly got up and went inside and proceeded to the lounge.

When getting to the lounge, Sureshock was waiting for them. He also noticed a sleeping bag was set up for Alexis. Optimus must have told Sureshock about Alexis’s little problem. He gently laid her down on the sleeping bag before making himself comfortable in a corner beside her. He was going to stay with her until she woke up.

She woke around 9pm to Starscream watching her in the corner. “I must have fallen asleep. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he said. “You were too cute to move.” Wait a minute did he just use the word ‘cute’? He was stunned that he called her cute.

Alexis was amused at his shocked look and started to giggle, which brought Starscream out of it. He looked at her and slightly smiled. It was nice to hear her giggle when she had cried a few hours earlier.

“I’m getting hungry.” She got up and headed to the small fridge and made herself a couple sandwiches. She sat back on the sleeping bag and ate.

“You humans are a strange race.”

“Well I could say the same thing about you. You survive on Energon.”

“You got me there.”

“Do you mind if I join you?” Hotshot asked coming into the room.

Alexis looked at Starscream. “I don’t mind,” he said.

Alexis’s mood was finally started to look up. She went over and under a table she took out a game. “You two want to play Trivial Pursuit?”

“How do you play?” Starscream asked intrigued.

“We’ll show you. Alexis you and Starscream be on a team and I’ll get...”

“I’ll be your partner,” Optimus said.

Alexis got the board set up and prepared to play. She remembered the day her and the boys taught the Autobots how to play. Unfortunately the Autobots were too large to move the game pieces so the kids helped out on that. During the whole time, Alexis showed Starscream how to play. After awhile he got the hang of it and actually answered a few questions.

By midnight, all the Autobots were in the lounge watching the game be played and it almost seemed that Optimus and Hotshot were going to win when Alexis gave the winning answer.

“Ha, beat ya,” she smiled and yawned.

“Damn,” Hotshot said. “We were so close.”

“Well team, we better let Alexis get some rest,” Optimus commanded.

As everyone left, including Starscream, Alexis put the game away. She knew Optimus stayed behind to allow her to get in the sleeping bag.

“Good night, Alexis.”

“Good night Optimus. Optimus I’m sorry for not telling you earlier what my problem was. I just didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Did you want to tell me now?”

“Yes, I would like that. See my father is home on vacation and this morning he visited Mom and me. Not long after arriving, Mom and him got in an argument about me. He wants to take me to Florida.”

“And you don’t want to go.”

“No. My friends are here. You are here. But mostly I was raised here. I don’t want to leave.”

“Tell your parents how you feel. You need to voice your opinion when it comes to your life.”

“Thanks Optimus,” she said as she settled down.

When she was comfortable, Optimus dimmed the lights and left for his quarters. Alexis soon fell asleep. One thing that she could never figure out was why she was able to sleep better on the floor at the Autobot base then in her own bed at home.