Human Closeness
Pairing: Starscream x Reader
Word Count: 1001 words
Warnings/Content: mass displacement, fluff, kissing, GN!reader, no use of Y/N, reader lives on a farm
Author's Note: this may be ooc for Starscream but idc this has been bouncing around my head for ages.
The size difference was never an issue.
In fact, you liked it. Starscream was 16 feet of metal and shrieking ego and yet he handled you like you were made of glass. Like you were a tiny, delicate thing he’d hold in his hand and gently brush his claws against you, lift you up higher so you could press tiny kisses against his faceplate. And he’d lean into them with a fervent desire of something never having known softness. You’d sometimes think he’d purr if he could.
You still sometimes wished for closeness.
Human closeness. The ability to throw your arms around his neck or have him pick you up without worrying he’d crush you. You knew what you we’re getting into when you started a relationship with an alien robot 3 times your size. But you were human after all.
You hadn’t expected him to do anything about it, he liked being bigger, imposing, dominant. He never brought up the same kind of human complaints, the kind of things you assumed he found trivial.
Which is why you were stunned when you walked into the barn and he looked different.
You’d gotten used to craning your neck before you even walked in, expecting to look up to see him sitting like an impatient cat you’d forgotten to feed, keen for your attention.
Except he wasn’t sitting.
He was standing, arms folded over his chassis, looking deeply irritated for someone who had clearly done this to himself. He was still tall, taller than any human had any right to be but he wasn’t towering over the rafters any more. He wasn’t so far above you that your first instinct was to tread carefully in fear of being crushed.
“Well?” Starscream broke the silence. “Are you going to stare at me all day?”
You realised you hadn’t said a word since you walked in, far too taken with how much smaller, how much closer he was to you. You finally blinked.
“I-“ you tried hard to find the words. “You’re smaller.”
That made him laugh, a short, thin bark at your truly articulate response.
“I am not smaller. I am employing mass displacement.” He replied with his usual tone of grandiosity. At your blank stare, he let out an irritated sound.
“A sophisticated manipulation of frame density and subspace storage. I would not expect an organic to understand.”
You smiled at his posturing, looking him up and down with a quickly softening expression. That seemed to irritate him further.
“Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it is to compress a frame built for flight, speed, and superiority into this ridiculous scale?”
“And you did it for me.” You said, finally walking closer, loose hay crunching underfoot. The sunlight streaming in from the high window only served to make him look more otherworldly, a mechanical angel framed by sunlight.
“I did not-“ he halted as you stopped in front of him. You were close enough now that he didn’t have to lift you. Close enough that your presence wasn’t something held carefully in his hand, but something beside him. It was strange and intimate in a way that almost made him uncomfortable. He still towered over you, but the difference was so little compared to what you were used to, you were close enough that you could reach for him without waiting for him to let you.
So you didn’t wait.
You stepped forwards, hesitant at first. Your hands settled against the hard planes of his frame first, uncertain, testing. Then you stepped in and let your arms close around as much of him as you could.
It wasn’t graceful. He was still too broad, to sharp-edged, too unlike anything human. But he went very still beneath your touch.
You closed your eyes, resting your cheek against his chassis, warm skin against cool metal. There was no rise and fall of breath but he wasn’t silent. You listened to the low hum of his systems beneath the plating, the quiet whirring of cooling fans, the faint tick of shifting components and the muted pulse of something deeper. A strange, alien heartbeat. His systems carried a faint jet-engine whine, subdued now, but still present beneath the plating. You knew he was alive, in a different way to you, perhaps. But hearing it, feeling him beneath your hands, was so altering that it almost brought you to tears.
He hesitated for a moment before one hand found your upper back, the other coming to rest against the back of your head, servos combing through your hair. Even now he was being gentle with you.
“Hold me tighter.” You said, your voice almost a plea.
Starscream tightened his grip, pulling you further into his arms and the flood of emotion you felt for him, for your relationship made your chest tighten. You raised your head, looking up at him to see he was already watching you, red optics softened and his expression unarmed in a way you didn’t get to see very often. He was always guarded, feelings buried beneath layers of ego, attitude and the many years he spent alone or constantly expecting conflict. He didn’t have to be that with you. He was learning that.
You rose up on your tiptoes and he leant down to meet you.
The kiss wasn’t hurried or desperate. It was soft and hesitant, like you were both unsure about whether or not this was ok. His hand left your hair, instead moving to the curve of your lower back where he pulled you closer still, deepening the kiss as if trying to memorise the shape of your mouth against his. When you finally pulled away, you were pink cheeked and panting softly.
“Was this what you were imagining?” he asked softly.
“kiss me again.” You replied breathlessly, looking up at him with half lidded eyes, your lips parted expectantly.
“As you wish”.
He kissed you again and didn’t stop until you needed to come up for air.
