Actually . . . he did want that. He wanted - needed - to hear from as many people as he could that he was okay, that he'd done the right thing. Hear it from those who mattered to him. He didn't care anymore if that made him weak. It . . . he just needed it.

Not that he'd ever admit or ask for it, though, of course.

"Thank you, Starscream." His voice was quiet. "That means a lot." He nodded. "Yeah. I imagine they will for a while. They're fine, though. I've been far worse off." As often as not, at the hands of the one he'd sworn himself to, the one he was now breaking from.