Chapter Text
When Optimus stepped through the groundbridge he had not been sure what to expect… but it definitely hadn’t been what awaited him on the other side.
Exactly one breem ago, a distress signal had reached the Autobot base, sent by none other than Starscream. Of course that in itself was not a new occurrence. Ever since the former second in command of the Decepticons had turned his back on his leader and lived as a rogue of sorts, they had gotten a few requests for medical aid in exchange for information. What had been strange was the fact that there had been no message attached to the distress signal. It hadn’t even been up for long before vanishing completely, as if it had been an accident.
After what could have only been described as a heated debate, Optimus had decided to check the source of the signal himself. If this turned out to be a trap, he did not want to put any of his team in danger but on the other hand, he thought it was time to confront Starscream and the strange bargains they always made himself. Besides, should there be a need for medical attention or backup, he would be able to comm the Autobot base immediately.
The first thing he noticed when he stepped into the destination the groundbridge had sent him to, was that this was a ship, more notably the crashed Harbinger. It made sense that Starscream would use this place as a new base of operation, seeing how it had to have some equipment that could be valuable for a mech trying to survive on his own.
Optimus frowned, scanning his surroundings for the ship’s sole inhabitant. He could hear a faint noise coming from a room down the corridor and immediately moved towards it to investigate, weapon systems ready to boot up at any moment.
The door led into a laboratory and that was where he found Starscream. The seeker was on the floor, trying and failing to prop himself on his arms. Violent shivers wrecked through his frame, fans working overtime to dispel the heat that seemed to accumulate inside him, so much that he cycled air through his vents in harsh gasps. Optimus was just about to call Ratchet when the reason for Starscream’s current condition hit him full force.
Starscream’s EM field pulsed, powerful waves reaching all the way to the door where Optimus stood, momentarily frozen on the spot. It was awash with signals, heavy and forceful. They hit the metals of Optimus’ armor, stimulating his sensors before dissipating into static. Lust, desperation and pain were the dominant sensations generated by the field. One didn’t need to be a medic to know what that meant.
Starscream was currently in the middle of his heat cycle.
Optimus took another look and almost wanted to shake his helm at himself for not having seen the visual evidence sooner. Starscream’s interface panel was open; spike pressurized, valve convulsing and both leaking a generous amount of different fluids onto the metal flooring of the ship.
Now, heat cycles always differed from mech to mech regarding duration, intensity and time between cycles but Optimus still had never seen or felt anything quite like this. The pulses coming from Starscream’s EM field told him that the seeker was definitely not enjoying his current ordeal, it seemed like he was currently completely helpless, unable to handle the waves of raw carnal coding that cursed through his frame. A tired, drawn out moan left his voice box and he ground his hips against the floor, seemingly in hopes of the friction relieving him of some of the tension. The result was a sudden rise in frustration signals in his EM field.
Optimus was at a bit of a loss as to how to react to the scene unfolding in front of him. Perhaps it was best to leave Starscream alone until his heat cycle reached its end. The again, it was way more intense than anything he himself remembered ever experiencing, even before he had received the matrix. It looked… unhealthy, actually. Was that why Starscream had sent out a distress signal? Had it perhaps truly been an accident while he writhed on the floor, unable to control his own frame?
No, he couldn’t leave Starscream like that after all. He was completely defenseless like this and Optimus believed in helping any individual who was unable to protect themselves. This included Starscream, especially because he remembered that the seeker was currently without a T-cog.
Bracing himself, Optimus stepped forward into the room.
“Starscream-“
Starscream’s whole frame twitched in surprise, helm whipping into Optimus’ direction, optics wide and barely able to focus. He had only now realized that there was someone with him and upon the realization just who it was, the cycling of his vents became frantic.
“O-Optimus Prime?! Why… you… leave! Go away!”, he screeched before another moan broke free and he pressed half of his face plate against the floor. His hips still gyrated in little movements that probably only made matters worse instead of giving him much needed relief.
“I’m afraid I cannot leave you to your own devices in your current condition. Be assured that I do not seek to bring harm to you in any way.”
Starscream chuckled at that, although the sound lacked any mirth.
“And… why are you here then? Is a seeker during his heat cycle so enticing that not even a Prime can withstand the allure? Taking advantage of me like that. Tsk tsk, you should be ashamed.”
Optimus frowned in confusion for a moment before it occurred to him that, all things considered, Starscream was in a rather vulnerable if not to say embarrassing position – exposed in such an intimate way in front of an enemy – and he had been too concerned with the other mech’s wellbeing to take note of the implications his approach had. He couldn’t blame Starscream for being suspicious of his motives.
“I apologize if I made you believe that my intentions were anything less than pure. You have my word that I will not do anything you do not want. However, I believe that you might require protection until the worst of your heat cycle is over. The Autobots might not be the only ones who have received your distress signal.”
“Y-you received that?! But I canceled it before… urgh.” Starscream managed to prop himself onto shaky arms and knees just for his frame to decide that moving drained too much energy. He sank down again, this time on his side, servo reaching for his own spike.
“Whatever, it’s not like it matters.” He gripped himself and hissed. Optimus averted his optics, even if he couldn’t deny that the display was hard to ignore. He was not here to leer at Starscream.
“You… you must not know much about Seeker heat cycles. Curious, for a former archivist to not know something so infamous.” There was another heat cycle coding induced wave of sensations spreading inside Starscream, at least if Optimus’ readings on his EM field were to be believed. Desperate whimpers reached Optimus’ audials as he tried to remember if he actually had ever heard anything about that.
There had been rumors he had picked up now and then but he had never been someone to believe idle gossip, had it almost seemed to him that those who spoke about it were always lecherous characters of questionable intentions. Seekers were always a rarity, even back in the days before the war. All of them had been quite pleasing to the optics and… ah, yes, he remembered now. Their heat cycles were said to be so intense that they needed to be spiked during that time or risk severe damage to their circuits if the excess charge had nowhere to go. Which was one of the reasons why they often appeared in trines, their base coding required them to have company.
And then there was Starscream, who could very well be the one of the last of his kind after all these millennia of war and he was alone during his heat cycle, trying and failing to take care of this problem himself.
Optimus focused his gaze on the writhing form on the floor again and he felt compassion, took another step forward. Already could he feel the static of Starscream’s charge, wild, uncontrolled and much too strong for such a narrow frame. If interfacing was the only thing that could help Starscream, then he would do it, however, he needed to be sure.
“So it’s true what they say?”
The noise Starscream made was a mix between annoyed, desperate and sore before he answered in a frustrated shout.
“OF COURSE IT IS! WOULD I BE ON THE FLOOR IF IT WEREN’T?!” He let go of his Spike just to punch the floor with a shaky fist, dentas gritting in the process.
“I can’t… do anything… I can’t overload… I can’t… walk… I’m going to die like a glitch… s-so stop mocking me already, Prime!”
Optimus crouched down in front of Starscream. Here, the charge was so strong it was hard for him to stay calm. His own base programming demanded to take action but he cycled some air through his vents slowly and reached out. As expected, Starscream slapped at his servo when it came too close.
“Don’t touch me!”
“Would you be opposed to me… helping you through this? I do not want to take advantage, however, it seems cruel to simply let you go through this on your own, especially if the situation is a dire as you say.”
“Why would you do that if not for personal gain? I’m not stupid, no one ever does anything if not for some ulterior motive.”
“Very well, then let’s just say that I’m doing this because I still believe that you’re capable of changing for the better and I hope that my actions will have a positive influence on you.”
Starscream became still at that or a still as he could be while sudden shudders of carnal need still rattled him to the core. A twisted shadow of a smile played around the corner of his mouth plates before he let out another frustrated groan. He seemed to be considering and Optimus waited patiently, keeping his servos to himself for the time being, even if age old sub routines in his processor told him just to reach out and take. A mech was only as strong as his ability to withstand such urges.
“If you’re really that naïve, be my guest. Just… DO something already!”
That was the cue. Optimus reached out again and this time, Starscream didn’t protest. The seeker’s chassis was hot to the touch, so he really was burning up right now. Optimus’ optical ridges drew together in worry. He wasn’t exactly sure anymore if he should have dived into this without any sort of plan, especially because his knowledge of seekers was very limited. Perhaps it would have been better after all to comm Ratchet… it was too late for that now. He could only hope that interfacing would truly solve this problem instead of making matters worse.
“H-hey, what are you doing?” Starscream struggled as much as his current condition would let him while Optimus hooked one arm around the base of his wings and one underneath his knees before lifting his up. He was worryingly light but then again, fliers were supposed to be made of lighter materials, weren’t they?
“I believe a change of location is in order. Is there a berthroom in this part of the Harbinger?”
Starscream writhed in his grip, charge fluctuating wildly at the fact that he was being touched right now, even if it wasn’t in a sexual way.
“Down… down the corridor and then… right… urrgh, hurry up, will you?!”
Even during his heat cycle Starscream was rather rude. Optimus decided to ignore it and made his way to the berthroom. A slight impatience made itself known inside his interface panel as well. Despite his good intention, it shamed him slightly that he felt himself getting more and more eager for it, even if it was just a natural reaction of his frame to the waves upon waves of signals Starscream gave off unintentionally. It also didn’t help that Starscream was, admittedly, rather mesmerizing to look at on his own. All sleek and streamlined with sharp edges and soft curves, pretty even for seeker standards.
They reached the room and Optimus wasted no time in placing Starscream – gently, despite his impatient thrashing – onto the berth. Immediately, the seeker opened his legs in an obvious invitation. On his back, venting heavily, wings pressed against the berth and trying to put on an alluring display. The effect was not lost on Optimus.
“Prime, hurry! Hurry…” The demands slowly melted into pleas that were immediately swallowed by desperate moans and impatient wails when finally, Optimus started touch him for real. He was still somewhat reluctant of handling a frame that was so overheated but he settled with drawing soothing circles over Starscream’s narrow waist. He knew however that he needed to speed things up, as much as he would have liked to start slow to show that he could be trusted. The charge inside Starscream would not dissipate like this.
Optimus climbed onto the berth, positioning himself between Starscream’s legs. He let one servo wander towards the eagerly waiting valve, slipping just one digit inside for now. A wave of overcharge used the new connection to crawl up Optimus’ arm and spread out over his frame at lightning speed. His fans started up before he could manually stop them. Starscream, unaware of what he was doing to Optimus’ willpower, ground down onto the digit, hissing all the while.
“It’s not enough! You’re too slow! I NEED this, Prime! You said you would help me!”
Optimus added a second digit to the first, momentarily breaking the flow of complaints in exchange for a satisfied moan and he took that as a cue to start stretching. The inside of Starscream’s valve was incredibly hot and soft, his calipers adjusted easily to the intrusion with no resistance whatsoever. He moved his digits experimentally, exploring the lubricated mesh for sensitive nodes.
Starscream threw his helm back, urging Optimus on with a high keening noise. Sharp claws dug into the metal of Optimus’ armor and he realized that the seeker desperately sought purchase; something, anything to hold onto. He had to be close.
A wave so strong it made the air inside Optimus’ vents hitch hit him while the calipers in Starscream’s valve spasmed and Starscream… he pretty much screamed.
That… had been easier than anticipated, though the charge was still not gone, it sizzled and crackled in the air around him and his own EM field was responding more and more to it despite his best efforts to keep this purely professional, so to speak. Starscream’s heat induced lust was slowly but surely tearing down his walls and he wasn’t sure what he would do if the seeker begged him to…
“Your spike… I need it, now! Come ON, I’m not fragile, I… I NEED…!”
Well, exactly that. There was no way around it, was there? He had to give in eventually. His spike cover slid aside to release it from its uncomfortable compartment and he heaved a silent relieved sigh at that.
Just to make sure that Starscream would be prepared enough and not feel any discomfort whatsoever, he added a third finger to the other two and kept stretching for half a klik. No matter how much he stretched though, the valve accommodated him. Perhaps that was a feature of seeker heat cycle coding to make interface during that time easier? Whatever the reason, he had made sure that he wouldn’t hurt his current berth partner, which was always a priority in Optimus’ opinion, no matter the circumstances and no matter how impatient the mech might be.
“I’m going to spike you now.”
This was the last warning, the last chance for Starscream to back out of this but he only spread his legs further, an unmistakable invitation.
Soft, slick heat greeted him as well as the full force of Starscream’s overcharge. He had barely managed to fit the tip inside before he had to pause and stop himself from pushing in one hard motion. It felt good, so good it almost felt like torture, a poison that numbed his sensors except those that registered pleasure. He just wanted to… no, no he couldn’t. He wasn’t doing this for his own gratification. It was just… difficult to hold onto what rational thoughts he still had.
Beneath him Starscream was growing frantic, writhing and whining and ordering him to move, to just do something, he could take it, really! His sharp claws kept scratching at Optimus, causing painful cuts to appear on his arms and chassis until he took each dangerous appendage into one servo and pressed them into the berth next to Starscream’s helm while sliding further inside the valve.
Starscream moaned in approval when he finally got what he wanted. His legs trembled around Optimus but he wasted no time hooking up his pedes behind the Prime’s aft and drawing him in more.
There was no way Optimus could stop himself from thrusting now, willpower at its very end. But that had been the point along, hadn’t it? So there was no reason to feel guilty about this.
Except, he did. Starscream’s words still echoed in his mind. “Taking advantage of me like that. Tsk tsk, you should be ashamed.”
He tried to quell the shame by bending over Starscream as close as possible until he could reach the sensitive cables of his neck with his intake, showering them with soft nibbles and licks. He could hear an annoyed huff coming from Starscream.
“Stop that! I’m not- not… not your damn sparkmate! Just frag me harder!”
Despite the angry outburst, Optimus could clearly feel the surge of excitement in Starscream’s EM field. He obviously enjoyed this kind of attention more than he liked to let on. Somehow, beneath all the haze and desire, he couldn’t help but find it endearing. It seemed like even someone as acidulous as Starscream enjoyed something nice now and then. Not that Optimus had ever had a doubt.
“Optimus? Optimus are you there?”
For exactly one nano-klik, every function inside Optimus’ body came to a stop, including his sparkpulse, probably. He had forgotten about Ratchet. He had actually manged to completely forget that he had been supposed to give a status report or Ratchet would send backup immediately.
He let go of Starscream’s wrist and raised himself back to an upright position before answering.
“Optimus I swear if you don’t answer right now-“
“There is no need to worry old friend, I am fine.”
“Fine?! You were supposed to comm base at LEAST a breem ago. What’s going on over there?”
“The Matrix is many things, a chronometer it is not.”
“What’s that even supposed to mean?! …are you telling you forgot? More importantly, what about Starscream? Why did he send the distress signal? Does he require medical assistance or not? I swear, if it’s one of his foul schemes, I will-“
While Ratchet continued his rant on the other end of the comm line, Starscream became visibly more and more impatient, not that this was a new development considering how he hadn’t been patient for even one moment yet. He moved his hips in sudden, desperate bucks, causing shudders to appear on Optimus’ strained circuits. It was getting harder to keep a calm front and – out of other options- he grabbed onto those restless hips to force them to stay still. Starscream’s answer was a frustrated groan.
“…was that Starscream? Seriously, Optimus, what is going on?”
“Starscream is… fine. I will explain everything in due time. For now, I… have something… that demands my attention.”
“What? Optimus, don’t disconnect, Optimus!”
Then there was only static after Optimus closed the comm line. This had most likely been one of his least dignified actions as of date. He almost couldn’t even blame Starscream for laughing at him because that was what the seeker did, despite still not having gotten rid of his overcharge.
“Ahahahaaha! You should have listened to yourself! The high and mighty Optimus Prime, spike deep inside his enemy, trying to appease his angry chaperone of a medic over the comm line! What would your precious Autobots think if they knew what you’re doing right now?”
“They would advise me to not let you talk so much.” That was the moment when Optimus decided that they needed to finally finish this whole ordeal. Starscream had wanted to be “fragged harder”, as he had put it? Optimus was sure that could be arranged.
Without another word, he shifted their position, taking a hold Starscream’s legs before bending over again, almost folding the seeker in half. And then he started thrusting.
The effect was instantaneous. Starscream’s EM field flared at the sudden onslaught of stimulation, overcharge rushing back and forth between the two rocking frames as Optimus picked up a steady pace.
Any words that might have still been at the tip of Starscream’s glossa melted into a hot gibberish of moans and pleas for more and Optimus couldn’t deny that this was actually rather encouraging. He let himself be caressed by the EM field and the overcharge, letting his own field melt into the mix and creating crackling static along both their frames while his spike reached into the deepest parts of Starscream’s welcoming valve.
He felt himself growing hotter, fans and vents working in tandem to dispel the excess heat. If he kept this up, it wouldn’t be long until the climax.
When he felt Starscream nearing his overload, it was almost too much to handle. The waves and pulses sped up until they were one big cluster of signals, every single one of his sensors was singing, reaching all the way to his very spark and suddenly he understood – intimately – why seeker heat cycles were both so infamous but also dangerous. Had Starscream felt like this all the time? During every heat cycle? He had no time to ponder this because the onslaught of pure, raw pleasure pushed him the rest of the way as well. He gasped, not prepared for this kind of feeling.
For a few nano-kliks, there was only static, release, the freeing feeling of the heavy charge leaving their frames. He onlined his optics that he hadn’t even felt offline and looked down at Starscream. He was a mess, dripping with fluids and on the edge of falling into recharge. But – and that was the important part – he also seemed a lot more relaxed now.
Optimus withdrew carefully, ready to clean them off and then ask for a groundbridge via comm-link. He needed to get back soon and explain his longer-than-planned absence. However, a thin servo grabbed his own for a moment.
“The heat cycle… it’s not over yet. You need to come again next solar cycle. You need to help again! You will, won’t you? You won’t leave me like this?”
Now, without the processor power to play out any treacherous routines or make use of a silver glossa, all that was left of Starscream was a desperate mech, afraid of being left alone after all when he was most vulnerable. Optimus simply couldn’t deny him, even if he had wanted to.
“I will return, you have my word. You can rest now.”
Something flickered inside Starscream’s optics that was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Genuine surprise? Whatever it had been, the seeker didn’t have enough energy to say anything else before he practically passed out.
Optmus watched him for a klik or two, wondering how he had managed to get into this mess. In all these long millennia of war, he had never been at a loss of what to do next, relying on the matrix and his instincts to do the right thing. Now… he wasn’t so sure. He didn’t know what he should say to Ratchet and he didn’t know what to do about Starscream. If only his knowledge of seekers had been broader, maybe he could have been of better help, perhaps it would even let him understand why Starscream acted the way he did.
Hm. That was food for thought. Maybe there was something he could do after all. For now he needed to find something to clean both of them off with and then leave, as much as it didn’t sit right with him to leave Starscream behind without protection.
But he would return. He had given his word.