TITLE: Step
Three
Based on events in Broken
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: R
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
If there was one thing Ironhide had learned
in his
time on Earth about humans then it was that they were rather
unpredictable in
their reaction to a situation. Their fight or flight behavior
fluctuated. One
human would run one day, stay to fight in the same situation the next.
Since he
was surrounded by humans who were all different from each other, he had
had a
hard time adjusting to this versatility.
What he hadn’t thought was that he would run into this problem with
Will
Lennox. Will was ‘his human’, like Sam was Bumblebee’s. They understood
their
particular humans because they had been so close for such a long time
in human
time spans.
The situation with Chromia had proven him wrong.
Will had been jealous. It was a new concept
for
Ironhide. Cybertronians weren’t known for jealousy when it came to
relationships. His own with Chromia had been one born out of necessity,
to
relieve stress, to have a companion, but it hadn’t been any kind of
strong
bond. Humans would call it on and off, if at all. There had been no
claim to
the other, no belonging.
Humans had different concepts of relationships and each culture
expressed
itself differently. While Ironhide understood the concept of marriage
compared
to a one-night stand, he couldn’t apply any of the human ideas about
two people
getting together to his own world’s interpretation of such
companionships. Jazz
and Barricade weren’t married, they were spark-bonded. It was the
ultimate form
of sharing a life and a spark. While neither died if the other did,
there would
never be a new spark-bonded.
Then there were those bonded for life by the simple fact that they had
found
the one mech who completed them. Optimus Prime and Elita-1 had been
like that.
Bumblebee shared something similarly tight with Sam, though a human had
never
figured into any Cybertronian equation. Ironhide had believed that what
he had
with Will was similar.
But Will had apparently been rather unsure in this. He had thought
Chromia
would simply step up and continue where she and Ironhide had left off.
That the
‘left off’ had been millennia ago and they had parted as friends hadn’t
come
up. Even if Chromia hadn’t come back as one very insane mech, Ironhide
wouldn’t
have picked up their old relationship. They had been friends and if she
ever
healed, they could be again, but never again would they Share. Will was
perfect, Will was what he wanted, and their resonance was incredible.
How to show and tell that to his partner was something that was beyond
Ironhide. He had researched the human Internet and found pages upon
pages of
different customs, none fitting them. Will already wore Ironhide’s
Cybertronian
name on his skin, wrapped neatly around his wrist, created by the
Allspark
shard inside the hybrid human.
Looking at the dozing man, Ironhide wondered if he could ever erase
that doubt
inside Will. He wondered if there was a way to bridge this gap between
their
cultures. Bumblebee had no such problems because Sam was a technopath
and
simply knew. Will was a hybrid, which defied the definition of either
human or
Cybertronian, and he had very human doubts and insecurities.
Sharing didn’t remedy those doubts. Sharing was like sex to
Will moved slowly, yawned and blinked his eyes open. Runes moved lazily
over
his skin, showing how relaxed he was. Ironhide let a hand follow one
rune, a
dark, burned-gold colored one. It teased him with its alien code, the
cosmic
language of the Allspark that no one had ever managed to understand,
and Will
rolled onto his stomach to let him follow the rune.
Ironhide had powered up his hardlight hologram, without the human
features,
just the black, featureless bipedal form. He had all human traits, but
aside
from the bright blue eyes, there was no distinctive mark in his face.
The rune skipped along the spine and he did the same with his fingers.
While
Ironhide felt nothing as a hologram, he knew Will enjoyed it.
“You’re depleting yourself,” Will murmured.
“I’m fine.”
“Hide…”
He rumbled softly.
Will sat up and slid off the bed, padding over to where Ironhide had
parked in
his truck form.
The hologram disappeared as Will let his
skin change,
as his body flowed into the much taller, black and blue form of his
Protoform,
and Ironhide transformed. Fingers slid along his armor in a very human
way of
teasing and he found the sockets that allowed interfacing with ease.
“Tease,” Will murmured, ice blue optics almost white with energy.
Everything fit perfectly together, the familiar rush racing through
Ironhide’s
systems and he tried to slow it down, make it last. He had learned that
taking
their time intensified everything even more. And he had learned that
connecting
in two places drove his human hybrid crazy with the feedback. Using
that
knowledge he pulled Will closer with an arm around his waist, then opened up the second connection. It got him
an
immediate reaction.
It was something they could only do in the privacy and safety of the
base, away
from the others, perfectly guarded, because both could let their
personal
guards down. Will did it with more ease than the Autobot since he
hadn’t fought
for survival for millennia. Ironhide had had to learn.
Like he had learned so much else.
::No one but you:: he sent as the peak
passed, as
their bodies wound down.
Will gave him a startled look, optics sparking with the remnants of his
high.
“Hide?” he croaked.
He kept the tight hold around his partner’s waist, reveled in the
sensation of
smooth protoform metal against his armor.
“You heard me,” the weapons specialist murmured.
Yeah. He had heard him. And he was hoping and wanting to believe.
“I’m not human, Will. Never was, never will be. There is nothing I can
promise
that wouldn’t sound alien to you.”
“But this is a bond for me,” the mech went on. “Like
it is a
bond for Bumblebee. We don’t function along human standards. A
bond is
serious. I won’t dump you for another spark.”
“Uh…”
“And I enjoy what we are, Will.”
So did he, but Will couldn’t voice it.
Human males
really had a problem with emotional openness, and it always came back
to bite
him in the butt.
“A bond?” he finally asked.
“Yes. We don’t exchange rings. We don’t have that custom. Your body
shows it
anyway.” Ironhide traced a finger along the glyphs permanently affixed
to
Will stared, then started to chuckle. “No. Not necessary. Really.”
Ironhide smiled. He loosened his grip and Will stepped back,
automatically
changing back into his human form, though he kept the Allspark skin
coloring. With
a sigh he rooted around for some clothes.
“I really need to work on a way to absorb and recreate clothes,” he
muttered.
Not that it bothered the Autobot. The mechs had no concept of nudity.
Since
bonding with a human, Ironhide had researched into human recreational
sex and
whatever was pleasurable to them, but he had found too much data, very
conflicting statements, and had come out none the wiser. The dream he
had
started in Will had yielded interesting results, much to
Ironhide just watched his partner with amusement as he dressed, pulling
clothes
over his rune-covered skin, before walking over to the door to leave.
They had
to prepare for their departure in a few hours. They would spend the
next few
weeks in
Ironhide was already looking forward to it.