Author's Note: I'm playing in someone else's sandpit here. The concept of Aegismechs and their Distillers belongs to my fellow author femme4jack, who was kind enough to let me borrow her wonderful characters. More information on Distiller-Aegis bonds and siphoning can be found in the great stories "Aegis" (posted here on FFnet) and "Homo Sapiens domesticus: Freight" (posted on Ao3) as well as in the comment at the end of this story.
The idea of Seaspray befriending a remora was provided by fractalserpent. I just took that idea and let my muse have fun with it ;-)

Disclaimer: I do not own The Transformers, and I do not make any money with this.

Seaspray's New Friend

xxx

The creature was clearly a ray-finned fish, slender, silvery and about the length of Seaspray's forearm. That it was clinging tightly to his Distiller's outer armor didn't bother Oceanus in the least. His Distillers were frequently claimed by a variety of creatures, be it as cohort mates, adopted offspring, or even as a temporary home, depending on the claimer's size. Phoresic life forms such as this one were common companions for both the Distillers and for the Aegismech himself. This particular individual, however, though an initial scan did not reveal any obvious malfunctions, seemed to have a little problem with its sense of direction.

'Seaspray,' Oceanus rumbled gently to his Distiller. 'The actinopterygius specimen of the percoidea family that has attached itself to your plating appears to be in an upside down position. Is the creature well?'

Seaspray, perched upon a small protrusion in the metal above one of Oceanus' alvei, laughed softly. "I wanted to introduce you to each other," he said. "That little guy's been with me for two cycles now. Isn't it fascinating?"

Watching Seaspray making new friends was always a charming experience, and Oceanus would have indulged him even if he hadn't been curious himself. Sending a pulse of fond amusement to his Distiller, he engaged his scanners again to give the strange animal a more thorough examination.

'Ah, I see. The first dorsal fin has developed into a sucker organ. What an unusual position for such a structure.'

Seaspray chuckled and came swimming down from his vantage point, careful not to dislodge his little passenger. "So I thought. But it seems to be the usual mode of transport for the species. It consumes some of the organic compounds I discard, and it seems to like it when I swim close to the surface where the sunlight filters through."

'Do you intend to bring it inside?' Not that the prospect worried him. The creature obviously posed no threat, and they were both perfectly capable of adapting their electromagnetic frequencies so the animal wouldn't get harmed during the siphoning process. Oceanus simply loved to tease his Distillers.

Knowing the game, Seaspray nudged his Aegis' field flirtatiously with his own as he snuggled up against the closed wall of the alveus. "I'd love to. I didn't have the spark to detach it." He gently stroked his fingers across the animal's pale underside, and it responded with a wriggle.

'I shall be pleased to accommodate you both, then,' Oceanus rumbled fondly. He sent the appropriate commands to open his alveus, just wide enough for his Distiller to wriggle through, and Seaspray gave a happy chirr as he pushed off the wall and did exactly that. Oceanus felt him sink down into the sensitive protometal, a precious, welcome weight, and sent another data burst to his thermo-nanites to increase the temperature a bit, just the way he knew his partner liked it. Seaspray purred in contentment as he curled up, little field already pulsing grateful/happy/want you at his Aegis, and Oceanus morphed a part of his protometal lining into flexible tendrils to wrap him in a cozy embrace. He stayed mindful of the little suckerfish, though, moving slowly to not alarm it.

The creature, it seemed, had other ideas. It suddenly started to wriggle and squirm like an excited sparkling, lithe little body moving in a strangely serpent-like fashion that made Seaspray giggle.

"He, stop that. You're tickling me."

A strong flap of the tailfin sent the animal sliding forward across Seaspray's plating, and the movement caused the slat-like structure of the sucker organ to close and thus disengage. Soft touches grazed Oceanus' tendrils here and there as the fish brought some distance between itself and the Distiller.

"Oi," Seaspray exclaimed softly in surprise. "What's wrong, sweetspark? Did we scare you?"

The creature drew a lazy circle around the alveus, but whether that was some kind of answer, the Aegismech could only guess. It seemed not interested in a conversation anyway, for in the next moment it changed directions and aimed straight for the entrance of the alveus, which Oceanus had not completely closed yet. Before one of them could say or do something, it had slipped through the remaining opening and disappeared into the blue-green ocean depths.

"Oi," Seaspray repeated, this time sounding dejected.

'Perhaps the species is averse to confined spaces,' Oceanus mused, though he, too, felt sorry for having scared off the funny little thing.

"Perhaps," Seaspray agreed, but his field was so thick with disappointment that Oceanus' protective protocols instantly jumped into high gear. He wrapped his tendrils more firmly around his partner, and even went so far as to rock him a bit in an effort to provide comfort. For a moment, Seaspray leaned into the embrace, but then he laughed and responded with a playful push against his Aegis' hold.

"Oh, don't coddle me, I'm fine. You know me, I'll make other friends soon enough."

'You were fond of this one,' Oceanus pointed out.

"Yes, but I didn't own it, right? Besides..." Spindly little fingers began to caress sensitive protometal as Seaspray extended his field, a clear invitation enwrought with affection and little sparks of desire. "I still have you, don't I?"

One of Oceanus' tendrils came up to caress his Distiller's faceplates while the rest of his protometal lining moved like a semi-liquid blanket to cover the precious little form in his embrace. 'True,' he rumbled lovingly.

Thanks to extensive bond coding and long vorns of shared experience, it didn't take long until he had a pleasantly hot, quivering and warbling little puddle of Distiller in his alveus, ventral channel aperture wide open and sending love/want/need at him with every pulse of his field. The delicious smells rising from Seaspray's tanks had the Aegismech hum in pleasant anticipation as his siphon gently, carefully made its way into and through that familiar tight warmth, finally latching on to the open tap it found inside.

A tiny sensor blip alerted Oceanus to a barely-there touch to his outer armor, right above the alveus Seaspray currently occupied. Such frequently occurring, non-vital information was automatically run through a tertiary thread and delegated to a temporary queue to await standard inspection and processing. Right now, there were oh so much more urgent matters to attend to...

Seaspray had prepared a mineral-rich lubricant for him this time, just perfect for the tiny little gears in his secondary steering fins. Oceanus immersed himself in the intensely physical process with gleeful abandon, marveling once more at how fundamentally right this felt each and every time. He pressed his Distiller even deeper into his protometal, desperately trying to keep the precious little thing all the more safe and warm within his own frame, and Seaspray trilled and chirred in thrills of unreserved ecstasy each time his Aegis' field lit up around him in grateful overload, stubbornly refusing to let Oceanus withdraw his siphon even long after he had nothing more to offer.

They rested in the afterglow, floating in golden, mutual bliss. Seaspray's dorsal fins fanned idly back and forth as he hugged his Aegis' fronds and buried himself deep into the tangles. Being intimately familiar with all his Distillers' habits, Oceanus knew that he would now power down for a quick recharge, which was fine, since it gave him the opportunity to enjoy the sensation of the warm little body plastered to his protometal for a bit longer. Cuddling his Distiller close, he simultaneously diverted an additional fraction of processing power to his standard data streams, mildly interested in that little signal that had distracted him earlier.

The light touch was still there, he registered, right where he'd left it. He ran an idle scan - and did a double take. Was that...? He scanned again, compared data and image captures. Yes, no doubt about it. The results came up one hundred percent consistent. A soft chuckle emerged from deep within the Aegismech.

'Seaspray...' He gently nudged his Distiller with a tendril.

"Huh?" Seaspray murmured.

'Your little percoidea friend has returned.'

Seaspray's head emerged from beneath a bundle of fronds. "No kidding?"

'None at all. It has adhered to my outer plating right above this alveus. Do you wish to see for yourself?'

Seaspray disentangled himself from his protometal blanket, and Oceanus smoothly disengaged his siphon, enjoying the gentle tremor that ran through his partner before he opened the alveus for him. The Distiller leaned out and twisted around to cast a look upwards.

"Hey, there you are, sweetspark." He slipped out into the open and brought himself on level with the animal. "Oh, now I get it. You weren't leaving, hm, you migrated."

Oceanus wondered if the creature recognized Seaspray's vocal harmonics, or perhaps even his energy pattern, because it reacted instantaneously. It performed the same funny-looking maneuver as before, sliding back and forth a few times until it had freed itself from the Aegismech's hull. Then it flipped onto its belly and headed straight for the smaller Distiller.

Seaspray held himself very still, but his field flickered with curiosity as the animal circled him once, twice, and finally a third time. Then it seemed to have found what it was looking for. It snuggled up close to Seaspray, pressing tight against his plating, and then proceeded to twist and turn until it had securely fastened itself to the smooth metal right above the Distiller's spark.

It might have been a simple optical illusion due to the creature's position, for in his long existence, Oceanus had encountered very few species of bony fish that were capable of facial expressions. But he would have bet his tailfin that this one was smiling.

Seaspray laughed and flared his field to engulf the creature in a bubble of tender warmth. "Aww, I knew you love me. Are you hungry? I bet you are. Let's see if we can find you something, huh?" And with that he slid away into the open sea again, happily chattering to his little companion and pinging his Aegis a cheerful thank you/love you/see you!

For the sake of the two dozen bots residing in his habitation area, Oceanus refrained from shaking what would be his head structure in his mech form. So many strange novelties this adorable little planet had to offer... For colonial mechs like them, this world was a constant source of wonder and endearment. Most important, their presence here made his Distillers happy, and as long as that was the case, Oceanus could deal with pretty much everything.

Even with a smiling suckerfish.

*Fin*

Distiller - particular frametype engineered for Cybertron's outer colonies. A small, minibot frame with a spark the size of a far larger mech who has the capability of internally creating/distilling energon and other substances vital to Cybertronian functioning. Distillers traditionally were coded to bond with and care for the needs of one large colonial mech who in turn protected and cared for their smaller partner. Distillers enabled colonies to be completely self sufficient, with little or no contact with Cybertron.

Aegis - "shield", term used by Distillers to describe the individual mech they bond with and set their systems to provide energon and other important substances for. Preferably a mech with Guardian coding and a highly protective nature.

Cited from "Aegis" by femme4jack