TITLE: Split Complications
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation – Off Balance
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money :)
FEEDBACK: Loved
SUMMARY: so, maybe, Scavenger is now in over his head...


Okay, so he might have gotten in over his head.

So maybe he had underestimated what a twinned spark might do when interfacing with a normal spark.

So maybe he had let this go deeper than simple comfort.

So maybe staying together as long as they did was beyond normal sharing.

So maybe… just maybe… he was doing the wrong thing.

Scavenger sat in the middle of the Laguna Test Area at the Yuma Proving Ground, completely alone with himself and his thoughts, gazing at the harsh landscape in dusky twilight around him.

Sharing with another mech was an almost casual affair. Normal. Without bonds to tie either side down. There was no danger in sharing. No delicate data would be exchanged, no walls breached, no memory files accessed. Sharing was superficial, energy brushing against energy, almost primal in its origin.

It was for a kind of pleasure humans couldn’t understand since their own receptors were so different, needed stimulation of a different kind, and their version of interfacing was guided by hormones. Mostly anyway. There was also lust and several issues Scavenger didn’t understand; all alien to him.

Sharing was easy.

Sharing was brief and to the point, over when the energy dissipated.

But things had grown complicated for Scavenger.

Sideswipe was touching more than the surface. His spark was in need of more than the superficial rush. Each time they pulled apart, Scavenger felt something inside of him twang with the separation.

That wasn’t normal.

When Sideswipe had started to stay close, both still linked and pretty much sharing sparks, Scavenger had let him. Because it had been good. Not like a combiner forced to acknowledge other sparks that had been pushed together; chained to one another. No, this was different. It was erasing the scars of Bonescrusher’s dead link, making the black hole acceptable in its continued presence, and it soothed.

It wasn’t a bond either. He had never been bonded – clearly – but what he understood of such rare occasions was the fact that both parties involved knew it right away. The two sparks would resonate off each other, aware that this was what the other had been missing. The draw and pull would be inevitable.

Scavenger had never felt any pull toward Sideswipe. He had never thought that this was something he had missed before. It was no different from the past encounters in his very long life. Comfort. Nice and pleasant.

But Sideswipe’s spark was different. It was as rare as a bond. It was half of what it could be, shared by another mech who was called his twin.

Scavenger sighed softly. Whatever was happening, it was already in progress. He had allowed it to happen without knowing what it might bring.

Now he had to deal with the consequences. That the consequences were a really good time and very intense sharing sessions, followed by the very pleasant entwinement later, made it just harder to judge as something wrong or bad.

He liked it.

He hadn’t lied to Tony when he had told him that his was casual; it was. It was simply a little bit more complicated than the casual he was used to.

Scavenger almost laughed. Right!

The last time he had had a partner had been long before the war, when he had been one of many. It had been a young, promising engineer who had later disappeared just before Megatron had started his all-out assault – before Scavenger and the other Constructicons had become pawns. Mindless and enslaved.

Now there was Sideswipe. Casual but not casual. Mutual benefits… with no complicated relationship issues. Something to help them both, Sideswipe a bit more than Scavenger.

And still… not normal. Not any more. Not like he remembered it from millennia ago. He wasn’t getting old; he hadn’t forgotten what had been before. He had gotten into something that was completely new territory.

And he should have known. He should have taken the split spark into consideration.

He hadn’t.

Scavenger drummed his fingers against one armored leg.

Casual with a twist. He would have to see where this led, what developed. He didn’t want to stop what was happening because it was good and normal and far from wrong.

Rising with the first sunlight, Scavenger transformed and headed back to the base. He would have to keep an optic on matters.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

The problem was, as much as he had good intentions to monitor everything, matters turned more intense with each encounter.

Two weeks after his silent musings in the Yuma dawn, Sideswipe was back with him on the Ark, in his quarters, sharing his spark energy. Scavenger let him lead, guiding him with gentle pushes now and then, enjoying how sure of himself and the interface Sideswipe had become.

And with surprise he noticed how much the Autobot liked to tease throughout the first connection.

Great Cybertron, he only thought. What have I gotten myself into?

Because he wanted this. Because he liked this.

And he didn’t want to miss it any more.