Starscream Prime

The bathroom door clicked shut behind him, cutting off the hum of the hallway and the sounds of other people's voices. Starscream paused in the threshold, as if he couldn't decide whether to enter for real or just hide for a few seconds. He didn't look in the mirror. He didn't look at anything. He simply stood, his palm pressed against the cold wall next to the sink, as if checking to see if it was real.

My chest still hummed from Megatron's words—not from the shout, but from that even, heavy tone, like a growl, that made everything inside me tighten into a tight knot. "You failed again," "Don't get in the way if you have nothing good to say," "You're missing the big picture," "You're acting like a child." Each word hit me squarely in the most vulnerable spot, and now these phrases swirled around in my head like stuck static.
He drew in a sharp breath, as if he wanted to push this weakness out of himself with this exhalation, and then winced - it came out too loud, too much like a stifled laugh - or even worse, a whimper.
"Oh, come on ," he muttered under his breath in a venomous tone. "As if I don't know what I'm doing. As if I need someone to rub my nose in every mistake like a kitten!"

His fingers clenched into a fist, then just as abruptly unclenched. He glanced at his reflection—accidentally, out of the corner of his eye—and immediately turned away. He didn't want to see that shadow on his face, that momentary loss of control, that humiliation on his face. Instead, he stared at the faucet, as if it were to blame for everything.