TITLE: Days
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money
Author’s Voice of Warning (aka Author’s Note):
The spell-checker said everything's okay, but you know how trustworthy those thingies are....
FEEDBACK: Loved
BETA: okami_myrrhibis





The day of the accident was a day he couldn’t recall. Not for a million bucks, not if his life depended on it. There were hazy memories of being at the Autobot base, in the lab, then some kind of explosion, a blow to his stomach.

Nothingness.

When he woke, it was days later, in quarantine, and everyone had looked at him like he was some kind of dangerous lab specimen.

His memories of that day were gone. Erased. Like it had never existed. He clearly recalled the fact that the team had wanted to hit Vegas, spend off-time gambling and in strip clubs and just letting go.

He should have gone with them.

Looking into the mirror Lennox drew a finger down his chest and watched the skin ripple like it was nothing but a holographic image. It felt human, but it was… different. Tiny fissures around his finger grew, then contracted, flowing together into smooth skin once more. If he concentrated hard enough he could even make them change… shape, color, texture… whatever.

He was human. And then again not. He was alive, but part of him had also died.

His palm rested against his stomach. There were no scars, no sign that a huge piece of alien metal had torn into him – and disappeared.

It had spread out like dye in water, merging with him, becoming him.

Will raised the hand from his stomach and watched intricate patterns whisper over his skin.

Like living tattoos, he mused. They were all over his body, most prominently on his back, running down his spine, his arms and his legs. Whorls and curves and wriggly lines and ancient runes.

* * *

The day he had left the military was very clear in his mind. He had gone to San Francisco as Major Will Lennox, Army Ranger. He had come back as a civilian. Forced retirement. It was for the better.

Nothing anyone could say cheered him up. Epps had taken over the unit as captain. Will was just… an appendix. An epilogue. Someone now no longer part of it all, while involved so deeply, there would never be a way back.

Ironhide had been with him a lot back then. Even now Will recalled the mech’s presence, the way Ironhide had tried to help, to understand.


“So now it’s official,” Lennox said softly. “I’m out.”

“You’re still with us.”

He turned his head, smiling dimly at his friend. “Yeah. No choice there.”

“Would you leave if you had one?”

“No.”


No, he couldn’t and wouldn’t leave. Not because of the runes. Not because he was a hybrid human. Something had kept him there.

Something strong.

* * *

The day Will Lennox died had been like any other. His death was a matter of letters on paper. He had felt no better or worse afterwards.

He simply mourned for Sarah and Annabelle.

On paper he now no longer existed. His files had been closed, there was an empty grave site, part of his pension went to his widow and child, his life insurance, too. His family had been taken care of.

Will had spent the day alone, thinking, wondering if it was all worth it.

* * *

The day his father died, Will wanted all of this to end for him, too. He was an outcast, unable to walk among the people outside the base. He had to hide who he was and it was grating on his nerves. Like a leper he stood at the fringes, unable to interact the moment he had to be somewhere personal.

He couldn’t even go to the funeral.

* * *

The day Ironhide showed him the pleasure of energy transfers was the day everything changed for Will. It was the day he actually thought about a new life, a different life. He thought about taking his life into his own hands again and making something of it.

It was the day that changed his perception of himself. He was no longer human. What he did and felt was different now. His thinking was that of a human, trapped in a hybrid body.

It was the day he thought about giving in to a need that wasn’t so far from sexual at all.

* * *

The day Will found out he could give Ironhide a similar kind of pleasure without connecting through his protoform first was the day he grew experimental. The runes were a dead giveaway of what they had done and Ironhide usually waited before returning them to the ‘public’ until after Will had calmed down.

Because it was a rush. Better than sex. Better than anything he had ever felt before. Intense and filled with an until then unknown pleasure.

* * *

When Will became liaison to Nellis Airforce base, his life had a new purpose. He could work again. He wasn’t a useless appendage.

His difference became his asset. The runes were like a field test for the new recruits. His friendship with Captain Mike Bowman helped him as much as the exposure to the soldiers selected to work at the Autobot base.

It was liberating.

His own kind of Liberation Day. He smiled at the thought.

But it was the truth.

* * *

Ironhide’s foray into the world of hardlight holography didn't change much, but it changed important things. While he felt even less than a pat on the hood, as the mech had told Will, Lennox in turn enjoyed the physical aspect. Being able to touch was important for the human hybrid. The hardlight touch was nice.

Nothing else happened.

Nothing else had to happen.

The days and nights that were spent like this, Ironhide giving Will the comfort of touch, were special.

* * *

The day the bond was confirmed, Will Lennox knew that this was it. He had reached a point where his old life had truly died. He was connected to a mechanoid life form in a way only Sam could truly comprehend. This wasn’t lust. This wasn’t human love. Ironhide didn’t understand the concept. There was a physical side, but completely unlike what humans had with each other. It was simple, but highly complicated, too. It was them, only them, and no one of either race had ever had this before.

It was incredible and it frightened him. It was stormy and it gentle. It was everything.

* * *

The day Sarah Lennox married, Will felt nothing. Eight years after his death his ‘widow’ had married her boyfriend of six years. The guy in question, Jeff Coles, even adopted Annabelle as his own.

Epps held out a beer to him as he joined him outside on the tarmac, watching the brewing storm over the mountains.

“Sucks,” had been his only comment.

Will wondered why he didn’t feel anything at all.

* * *

The day Ironhide first sent him a wet dream was the day Will knew that their relationship was still open for more, for new things, for experiments. Ironhide was experimental, he wanted to help his partner, and Will appreciated it. They had gone a long way from using physical interface slots to creating and using a bond.

That day repeated itself, with different variations to the theme, and the hybrid body enjoyed the dreams just as when it had still been purely human.

Ironhide was learning from that day on.

And he was a very good student.

* * *

It was a cloudy day that Will Lennox sat on top of one of the many unused buildings at the old airbase. Most of the Autobot base was underground and it still looked like a derelict site to anyone who might happen to come by.

No one just ‘happened by’. It was too well guarded.

Feeling the cool breeze on his exposed skin, Will relaxed a little more. It was a nice day. A day like any other, but still nice and one he would enjoy. He could see most of the base from here and right now he was watching Arcee and Trent. DeMarco was still limping, but his mobility was getting better. Arcee was usually with him when he wasn’t on duty, like right now, and whatever they were talking about, it looked like a relaxed conversation. Sam and Bumblebee were visiting Mikaela and the family. Ratchet and Jazz were at the Arctic station. Optimus had mentioned paper work. Will smiled wryly.

He would stay out of the way for now. Day off.

His day.

Runes wandered lazily over his skin. Lying back on the dusty roof, not caring at all about getting dirty, he enjoyed the peace and quiet.