The question drew optical ridges upward in a questioning manner, the slight tilt of his head urging for elaboration.
"Would you really have stuck to the deal?"
Megatron deeply sucked in some air before sighing, shifting his weight on his pedes. His large frame nearly dwarfed the one standing beside him, the winged mech sleek and slender and adorned with a touch of color compared to his dull grey.
"Why are you asking this now?"
"Because I want to know," came the pensive response, and Megatron's crimson optics turned to the one whose wings lowered in hesitant anticipation. The one who'd asked a rather serious question.
The deal. He knew exactly what Starflare meant when he brought it up. The deal made with Prowl, where he is to turn himself in if the Knights of Cybertron and their utopia were nowhere to be found, and face the consequences of his past actions. He'd considered the what-ifs, many times in fact, but he tried not to linger on those thoughts, not after getting a second chance.
To think about what may have happened with the other copy of this ship and its crew was a waste of energon, a processor ache nobody asked for. But it seems his conjunx was plagued by the unknown, an unknown which wasn't such a mystery to Megatron.
It was an honest but unwanted answer, judging by the twitch in Starflare's expression. The flier turned his face away to no longer gaze up at the much larger mech at his side, visibly mulling Megatron's words over before his expression hardened with hurt.
The flick of his wings betrayed his struggle, his servos balling into fists to suppress the tremble, and possibly some anger. Megatron won't hold it against him, not after giving him that answer.
"The other me would have, yes. I'm sure he already has, perhaps shortly after we made the jump," Megatron guessed and leaned down to stroke the back of his dark digits across Starflare's pale cheekplate, drawing the other's uncertain optics with the light caress. "But me, the mech who sparkbonded with you and started over in this unknown universe, would have imposed a banishment from Cybertron upon myself. To never return and avoid the risk of losing you."
There was a pause before Starflare laid his servo across Megatron's and asked quietly," You'd give up Cybertron... for me?"
The disbelief-filled fluster held a shimmer of hope, one Megatron was certain to be flavored with guilt for the flier. Starflare didn't quickly allow himself to be selfish.
He cupped the other's cheek and nodded, the forming of a smile upon his conjunx's lips tugging at his own.
"It wouldn't be Cybertron without you, my little scout."
