"Starscreeeeeeeeeam!"

Starscream groaned and pulled a pillow over his helm as his young femme came sprinting into his quarters, yelling like a maniac. He waited for the noise of her pedesteps to stop, staying silent in hopes that she would leave shortly, allowing him extra recharge time.

"STARSCREAM!" The Seeker nearly jumped out of his armor as Seismic shouted his name from a few feet away this time, voice enhanced by her audiokinesis.

"What the frag?!" Starscream screeched, now wide awake and facing the pink femme. "What was that for?!"

"We've got a customer!" Seismic exclaimed excitedly, unfazed.

Starscream blinked as he comprehended this information, irritation fading. Then, he stood up from his berth, stretching his limbs out. "Someone sent a message?"

"Welllllll..." Seismic trailed off, holding her elbow. "Not exactly."

"The frag is 'not exactly' supposed to mean?" Starscream questioned incredulously.

"You'll have to see."

Starscream vented, rolling his optics as he followed the femme outside. "Seismic, I don't see any- oh."

At the place the small family had come to consider the entrance to the ship, there was a femme: only, this one was obviously older than Seismic, perhaps the equivalent of a human woman in her mid twenties. She stood with her arms crossed, looking around with moderate disinterest in her surroundings; when she spotted Starscream and Seismic, her expression didn't change at all.

"So you're the owner of this slagheap." She drawled, not waiting for introduction. Starscream opened his mouth to speak, indignant and a little angered, but Seismic elbowed him. The other femme continued, "How much is it to stay here?"

"Um," Starscream began, turning to share a look of uncertainty with Seismic. "Decently affordable?"

The femme narrowed her optics at the pair, eyebrow raised. After several moments of awkward silence, she rolled her optics. " You haven't even thought that far ahead. Imbeciles."

"Excuse me, I-" Starscream was interrupted yet again by the femme's hand of silence. He glared at her as she said, "You've got my business, Mr Con, but only because the kid needs someone with money to raise her properly. Don't think for a second that I like you or your stupid hotel."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Starscream practically growled. "And it's Starscream."

"The former SIC of the Decepticons," the femme observed with well-concealed surprise. "I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but it's really not. Mirage."

"What?" Starscream huffed through the beginnings of his seething anger.

"My name." She deadpanned. "Mirage."

"It's very nice to meet you, Mirage." Seismic held out her servo, smiling brightly. "I'm Seismic."

Mirage stared at Seismic's outstretched servo with an unreadable expression. Just as Starscream was able to start yelling and kick her out, she hesitantly took the younger femme's servo and shook it.

"Nice to meet you too, Seismic." Mirage returned with half of a smile. Seismic's faceplates broke out into a huge grin.

"Welcome to the Solar Flare!"

Starscream muttered something intelligible.

"We're both glad to have you here." Seismic told Mirage, smiling still as she led her companions into the ship-turned-hotel.

Mirage looked unconvinced, turning to raise a single eyebrow at Starscream. "I'm sure you are."

Starscream gave a scoff of agreement, rolling his optics as the femme turned around again.

"The Solar Flare has state-of-the-art rooming," Seismic began her tour. "Very impressive, considering that just a few months ago, this place was a scrapheap. You-"

"I wouldn't call it a scrapheap," Starscream interjected. "The ship was in shockingly decent condition when we-"

"Shut up, Screamer." Mirage glared at the Seeker. "I'm listening to the kid, not you."

Starscream glowered vehemently in response.

Seismic blinked before continuing, "As I was saying, you have me, Starscream, and a few of the Autobots to thank for that."

"I'll be sure to give the Autobots my undying thanks." Mirage spoke drily, derma curled up in a faint smile. Starscream vented deeply and followed behind the two femmes, servos clenched hard.

"And this room used to be the officer lounge, but it's been converted into a cafeteria where we serve Energon to all of our guests." Seismic gestured to the lounge, turning to Mirage. "Once we have more guests joining us, it'll be much busier."

Mirage raised her servo. "Just a quick question, kid." Seismic dipped her helm. "Why are you serving Energon? And why do you keep calling me a guest?"

Seismic blinked, a little confused. "Well, this is a hotel, after all. It's part of our job to provide the best service we can to our customers, including sustenance."

Mirage stopped in the middle of the hallway. "This is a hotel?"

"Well, yes." Seismic confirmed, digits fidgeting absentmindedly. "I believe it was mentioned in our ad. Isn't that why you came here?"

"No," Mirage protested in annoyance. "I need a place to live!"

"Well good, then I have no problem telling you to leave!" Starscream finally snapped. "If you're not going to give us business, then go!"

"Oh, no, I'm staying," Mirage spoke firmly. "You clearly have no concept of management, so I'll have to stick around to do it for you. You can thank me by giving me free lodging once we make some profit."

"Are you serious?" Starscream exclaimed incredulously, optics burning. "You expect me to just give you anything, especially after you just waltz up and antagonize me?"

"Yes," Mirage deadpanned. "You'll do everything wrong without me. And Screamer," She tilted his chin up with one digit and a smirk, "you're pretty easy to antagonize."

With that, the purple femme turned and sauntered away. Starscream stared at her, faceplates flushed as he sputtered, speechless. Seismic blinked, then called, "Where are you going?"

Mirage turned around to smirk. "To get my stuff. Expect me back within the next several hours." She transformed into some sort of human ground vehicle and drove away.

Starscream stared in her wake, gaping in shock at her gall. Seismic looked up at him in amusement for a moment before she turned and poked him with an index digit. He shook himself out with angry mutters. "That glitch."

Seismic shrugged, struggling to hide her amusement. "I liked her."

"Of course you did." Starscream rolled his optics. "You like everyone."

"Is that such a bad thing?" Seismic questioned, crossing her arms. "Maybe I'll attract enough business to make up for the profit we lose because of your offensive attitude."

"Hey, Mirage was a special case." Starscream frowned. "She was rude and antagonizing."

"She was nice." Seismic defended herself and the other femme. "And I think she'll be a good bot to have around once business starts to pick up."

Starscream snorted incredulously. Seismic gave him a look, and he threw his arms up. "What? I don't like her."

"Well, of course you don't." Seismic rolled her optics, albeit with a grin, parroting his words. "You don't like anyone."

"I like you, don't I?" Starscream brought up. "And by the way, this isn't a hotel."

Seismic blinked. "It's not?"

"Nope," Starscream said with self-satisfaction. "It's an apartment complex."

Seismic's jaw dropped. "And you didn't tell me this earlier why?"

"I did. We discussed at length that this was to be an apartment complex, and I remember this very distinctly because you said, and I quote: 'Whatever. An apartment complex is just a long-term hotel anyway'."

Seismic groaned and facepalmed as Starscream grinned smugly. "I remember that now. And I went through that whole tour to tell Mirage it was a hotel."

"The lounge is still just a lounge." Starscream couldn't help smirking. "It's not a cafeteria or anything."

"I'm a fragging idiot." Seismic whispered.

"Hey, my plan to get Mirage to leave didn't even work all that well." Starscream patted her on the back. "She's just coming back even stronger."

"Ya know," Seismic spoke thoughtfully, a single digit touching her derma. "If you really wanted her gone, you could've tried harder to keep her away."

"I have no idea what you're referring to." Starscream protested. "I tried to get her to leave."

"You know what I think?" Seismic's helm tilted up, denta glinting as she smirked knowingly. "I think you like having someone to bicker with."

Starscream sputtered. "That's preposterous! I have no desire to be around bots that grate on my nerves constantly!"

"I think you do." Seismic's red optics took on a wicked glint that Starscream didn't appreciate at all. "And I think you want Mirage to stay here."

Starscream harrumphed, rolling his optics. "Like I said, preposterous."

Seismic nodded in mocking agreement. "Many of the things you do certainly are that. I have no idea why you are the way you are."

"Why, you-!" Starscream huffed, cutting himself off to flick his charge, who promptly giggled. He vented deeply.

I'm so sorry I took so long to update- I had marching band, then school, then I forgot about this story in the business of life. I have a lot of the information for the AU in my mind, but not all, and I'm occasionally making up chapters as I go. This will definitely take a while to write, if I even bother finishing. I certainly hope I do, it would be the first completed story I've ever written. In any case, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed and continue to enjoy!

Also, Mirage is not the same Mirage as in most other continuities of Transformers, she's an entirely made up character for this AU.

In addition, as of now, this fic is also being posted on FanFiction.Net.

Don't forget to vote, comment, and follow!

SalixEnder03