TITLE: Feel You Here Forever
Sequel to Set Fire to the Rain
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
The prequel was set in my Imperfection 'verse. This one is solely TF3 (after the Fix It). My first non-Imperfection TF fic in… uhm… five years? This was heavily influenced by it anyway. Hope you still enjoy!
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x xHe sat with his back against a black metal wall. His eyes were on the desert around him. It was cool, the sun just rising. The shadows receded. Part of him enjoyed the solitude, away from it all. Another part was wondering what was going on at the new base. Epps had told him to leave it to him, to get out and just take time off, for fuck's sake. His words.
Will Lennox smiled a little. Epps returning to NEST had been almost certain at the end of the battle. For all him wanting to get away from the whole 'alien fighting shit', he hadn't been able to. Things tended to find those who had been involved once. And NEST needed them. They had had losses and Epps and his team were those who could train the new ones.
Closing his eyes, Will enjoyed the slight breeze. Cool, with a hint of dryness as the sun began its slow ascent.
He knew he had to get back by mid-morning. He was still the commander-in-charge, he was still their leader. He had to talk to Optimus Prime, he had about a million mails to read and phone calls to answer. He had to…
A touch stilled his thoughts and he opened his eyes, looking into the brilliant blue semi-real eyes of a holographic form.
"You think too much, Will."
Lennox smiled dimly. "Bad habit."
The muscular form stepped in front of him, blocking the light. A hand was held out. He took it, allowing the other to pull him to his feet.
"Prime told me to get you back no earlier than this afternoon. He has everything handled."
"You talked to him?"
Will had no idea why it disturbed him so much. They had hidden this for so long and he believed they had been sneaky enough. For Optimus to tell Ironhide to stay out here…
"He always knew."
It froze him. "Always?"
"Some things you can't hide. I've known the guy for all his existence. He knows me too well." Ironhide shrugged. It was a very human looking gesture in a slightly incomplete looking human holoform.
Another secret. His logical mind had told him that whatever this was, it would never be more than a strong friendship. That a relationship between a gigantic alien mechanoid and a much smaller organic human was too far from normal to ever work.
It had been the night when he had first seen Ironhide's holoform. It had been the night the mech had demonstrated that not only did the Autobots know about human reproduction, Ironhide also knew about the finer details of same-sex relationships. A lot of fine details. It had been the night Will Lennox had decided that he could let go of Sarah, that he could sign the divorce papers, that he could confess to himself that he had lost his wife to his job.
Whatever Ironhide got out of it, he had never been able to explain it to Lennox in a way that made sense. Mechs had no sex. Mechs had no orgasms. The holoform was simply a hardlight projection that normally allowed a much better undercover work. It didn't have nervous cells. But Ironhide always seemed rather satisfied.
Lennox had stopped wondering and simply enjoyed their encounters.
Like now.
With hands sliding under his black shirt and pulling him into a kiss.
"You think too much," Ironhide rumbled.
"Can't stop thinking."
"Maybe I can help."
The hands wandered, distracting Lennox quite nicely. He was pushed back against the black metal wall. Ironhide's body. His true form. Lips claimed his. Something arced through him, energetic and rough and demanding. He had felt it before, in the past, whenever their emotions were too close to the surface. Ironhide's near-death had sparked it again and it stoked a fire Lennox had never felt with anyone else, be it man or woman.
"'hide…" he managed, aware that clothes were disappearing.
"I can feel you," Ironhide murmured and the metal behind him was trembling.
His brain short-circuited and he knew he was crying out incoherently. Somewhere something deep inside whispered that Ironhide had died, that something had happened to save him, that this was their one and only chance to complete what had so slowly and hesitatingly begun. He felt energy curl around him, felt it prickle across his skin, saw white-blue light dance around them.
"Will…"
The spark bloomed, pulsed, stronger than before, reaching out, touching him, and Will surrendered to the demand, sensed more than heard Ironhide's yell. Strong arms held him as the fire ate at them, completed them, undid what stopped their connection before, and Lennox wasn't really afraid. It was curiosity and awe and wonder, and it was a deep emotion that was more than human love.
The semi-human eyes were no longer just blue. They were glowing. The glyphs normally etched into Ironhide's armor shone on the human face. Will kissed them as they crawled over Ironhide's lips.
"Are you sure?" the mech asked.
"Yes."
He had never been so sure of anything else. This was it. Their last chance. His last chance. And if fate had pushed them this far to finally make sense of it all, who was he to deny it?
The energy spiked, encompassed him, and Will let it.
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When he woke it was in the cradle of Ironhide's hands. Still very much naked and human, made of flesh and bone. But he felt a deep sense of belonging. He was aware of the ancient spark underneath the scarred, black armor. He felt it pulse. Something inside him responded.
"What happened?" he asked, sitting up.
The sun was still not past midday. He hadn't been out long.
"We completed."
"Completed what?"
"What we share."
"In English, 'hide."
"I didn't believe it possible with a human, but apparently it is. If the emotions run deep enough." Blue optics shone with amusement.
Lennox almost blushed. He shot daggers at Ironhide instead. He didn't mind being naked in front of him – that had happened throughout numerous, almost countless, encounters. He hated it when his partner refused to answer in a straight-forward way. Ironhide wasn't normally one to hold back with a remark.
"We bonded," Ironhide added pointedly.
"What?"
"It is possible. You can feel it. I'm certainly very much aware of you."
"Interspecies?" Will asked, flabbergasted.
"Apparently. My spark liked you." He leaned closer. "I like you."
"B-but…"
"I know you don't object to it because otherwise it wouldn't have happened."
"I'm not. It's just…" Lennox stopped, closed his eyes and counted to three. "Is this the Cybertronian equivalent of a marriage?"
Ironhide laughed, genuinely amused.
Lennox glared more from narrowed eyes. He felt Ironhide. He felt the spark and he unconsciously reached out, touching the black armor. It seemed to sizzle underneath his hands.
"That's why you got feedback through a holoform encounter," the human stated, no longer needing to really form a question.
"Yes."
"Through human sex."
"Very intriguing."
"You used a holoform, Ironhide!"
"It transmitted energies quite satisfactory. You enjoyed yourself, too."
He glared at him once more. "You think I would have come back for more if I hadn't?"
Ironhide's laugh was a low, electronic rumble. "No, probably not."
"Probably?"
The blue optics came closer. "I might know you better by now, Will Lennox, but I might not be aware of some of your kinks."
"I have no kinks!" he growled.
"Aside from me."
He slapped one of the large fingers. "You're not a kink."
More like an obsession. A good one. Because Will couldn't let him go. An addiction maybe? His emotions ran strong and deep when he thought of the mech. They were no longer so scary than in the beginning when he had tried to figure out just what attracted him into this, to him, to an alien being so very, very different. He had been familiar with buddy-fucks, especially after emotionally harrying situations, but never this.
And no one knew. Well, aside from Prime.
"Who else knows about this?"
"About this depth? What happened today? No one."
"But Prime will figure it out?"
"Most likely."
"Anything important I need to know about this bond thing?"
Ironhide leaned back and settled against the rock face, studying him calmly. "Nothing I know. I don't think a link between one of my kind and one of yours ever happened before."
"And between your kind and other organic life forms?"
"Nothing I know," the mech repeated. "I'd have to ask Ratchet."
"No," Lennox said flatly.
"He will know one day, Will. You can't hide this forever."
Lennox stayed very still for a moment, his mind catching something in the tone of Ironhide's voice. A gentle caress had him shiver and he felt something curl around him, like a silky sheet. It embraced him and for a second he thought he saw something akin to a rune tattoo on his inner wrists.
"What… the… frag…?"
"Interesting. I never thought this might happen to an organic being. Our energy normally only influences our own kind."
"What the hell is this, Ironide?" he demanded.
"A bond is engraved in our innermost spark. In you… you show it, too."
Like the runes on Ironhide or Optimus or anyone of the others. Prime had the Prime glyph.
"How can this be?"
"Ratchet has some research on the first contact between your race and the Allspark. Especially after its energies were set free. We don't know where they went. Since Sam was briefly the carrier of the wisdom of the Allspark, its knowledge and power, I believe you might…"
Lennox held up one slightly trembling hand. "Stop."
"Lennox…"
"Just stop. Not now, okay? This is enough already." He made a gesture that incorporated himself and Ironhide. "Later. Much later. And if we tell Ratchet… we do it together and it's not to be revealed to anyone else. No other human. You shut about it, Prime shuts up about it, and Ratchet will keep his scanners away from me!"
Ironhide chuckled. Will was gently set down and found himself embraced from behind by the holoform. Ironhide kissed his neck, then his throat, then turned him and claimed his lips. Will hated his emotions as they surged, nearly letting him blurt out what was racing through him. Instead he grabbed the other and kissed back roughly.
"I call the shots on this one, 'hide," he growled when they parted.
Those hands were really, really distracting. And no, he didn't see the tattoo on his wrists. He tried to ignore it. But it were there, like some freakish alien wedding band. The next panicky thought was obliterated when Ironhide let his hands find the objective of his search and Will's eyes slid shut in appreciation. They might not be running through every page of the alien-human Kamasutra, but damn if the old mech didn't know a lot of tricks when it came to the human body.
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By the time Lennox returned to base, they had worked it out of their systems. Will felt more mellow, the tension gone, and while the memories of the close call, Ironhide's mangled chest and back, and the touch-and-go moments were still there, he was calmer. The tattoo on his wrist had faded away.
He patted Ironhide's hood, something he always did and which no one could interpret as anything but friendly, then walked into his quarters. He stripped, took a shower, and dressed in his uniform. A quick look at his calendar for the day told him that a lot was still waiting for him.
It didn't bother him at all. With a smile he left and went to his first task of the rest of the day.
Something warm seemed to touch him when he discovered Ironhide was part of the meeting and the warmth strengthened briefly, like a gently caress, then it was gone.
Huh. He really had to get used to this… this… thing… bond… whatever it encompassed.