AN: So I finally managed to update this. I'm not entirely happy with this chapter (probably because I have never written Jazz before and have no idea whether I did it right), but I figured I'd get feedback on it before I edit it to death.
Lots of background stuff in here with a mild hint of plot. This chapter takes place a couple of hours after the last one (Most of the Jazz chapters will be ahead of Skywarp's, timewise. Even if Jazz is musing about the past in a non-flashback way).
The recent battle had been… interesting, for Jazz at least. It wasn't as if he usually made a habit of interfacing with the enemy- it was a risk that Special Ops agents tried not to take. For the rest of the army the matter was a lot simpler (well except in the case of the minibots, them being such paranoid fraggers). Frontliners faced like they fought; openly and without thought of repercussions. There were exceptions, of course, since Ironhide hated Decepticons so much he'd rather die than face one and Prime… well nobody really wanted to think of their Prime's interfacing life. It didn't really seem right. However bots like the twins 'faced as much as fought some of their "opponents", especially when there was an extended break between battles and they turned their frustration on the other faction.
Most of command turned a blind optic. Red Alert would glitch if he thought too much about it, Ironhide didn't care as long as it didn't affect their performance in battle, Prowl also tried to avoid thinking about it and Ratchet simply made sure everyone had their anti-sparking protection in place.
Jazz "merely" tried to keep up with the various dramas that inevitably spawned between the different pairings, the top one for gossip being the questionable relationship between their shuttle and the Decepticon SIC, which officially neither side knew about and unofficially both sides had betting pools on. Mostly about which of them "wore the pants" as humans put it.
Anyway Jazz usually wasn't the one to take stupid risks. He kept up with the gossip and tried to keep tabs on everyone, in particular potential turncoats (hence his careful eye on the Skyfire and Starscream drama. Well that and the bets that he was contemplating on hedging in his favour).
Interfacing with Skywarp was even riskier than his normal steamy interludes. The flyer was one of the cruellest and sneakiest Decepticons around, sneaky not in the sense that he was particularly stealthy but that he was unpredictable and prone to pop up anywhere from Autobots secretly thought it to be a miracle of Primus that the teleporter wasn't smarter or more strategically-minded. Otherwise he might even be in place as loyal Air Commander and SIC, which did not serve their purposes as much a disloyal one.
The short fling he'd had with Breakdown hadn't been risky at all. The Lamborghini was young, inexperienced and very paranoid, so all Jazz had wanted to do was show him what a good time outside the Decepticons looked like (and also test out the strength of the Stunticon forcefields under physical stimulation and on an even deeper level, reinforce Breakdown's paranoia to make the Stunticon even more easily startled). The only thing Breakdown realistically could have done to harm Jazz would have been to unleash his sabotaging engine rattles on the saboteur. Which did admittedly happen during the heat of interface but Jazz had been too far gone by that point to make any sort of comment and it hadn't affected him that badly. Not that Ratchet had believed him.
Skywarp, on the other hand, was a lot bigger than Jazz, but with speed and agility that nearly equalled Jazz's abilities. Skywarp was not a lumbering brute; he was an annoying, big, fast jet that Jazz really shouldn't interface with.
No matter how stealthy and clever Jazz was, there was an element of Skywarp that couldn't be predicted that would make either very clever or very stupid decisions. Either could be fatal to Jazz.
But Skywarp had been trapped, with nowhere to go and Jazz had, after some deliberation, obliged Skywarp's "request". Well he'd first let the teleporter stew a bit, seeing the flyer become more and more nervous whilst trying to shift his wings. The Seeker had probably already been feeling the effects of claustrophobia by that point, since it was something apparently inherent to all but the craziest or most grounded of flyers (Starscream, of course, being the one exception as he always had to be).
The merge itself had been exactly like a normal sparkmerge; enormous amounts of fun.
A human might have said something like "It was surprisingly good," seeing as it was their nature to try and connect the term "enemy" with as many negative connotations as possible. Including in intimate terms.
The warring factions knew better than to try and separate themselves in that distinction, interfacing was interfacing, no matter the faction. The only difference was really the intensity and the intimacy between the parties. Admittedly it had been quite intense with Skywarp, possibly because of the his Seeker nature (which Jazz admittedly had little experience with), but intimate?
No. It had been the shallowest of merges, designed only to bring quick, intense pleasure and nothing else. No strings attached.
Well not always. You had to be careful with merges that way. There were legends of bots bonding instantly at the first merge, as if their sparks had been made for the other.
In wartime this wasn't a good thing to risk, hence why although crossfaction merging was known to happen, it didn't happen all too often, especially amongst Jazz's cadre.
There were also no known instances of rape in either faction, whether in crossfaction or interfaction interfacing. A long time ago there had been instances of this happening, but since merges dealt with what was not only their kind's internal power-source but their soul as well, "rape" left mental scars on both participants and brought pleasure to neither party.
Humans might try and see as many things in common between their respective races as they liked, but in terms of interfacing versus sex their species were entirely different, no matter how much they liked to deny it (and speculate in very strange literary circles).
Anyway, bottom line of this strange strand of thought was that the merge with Skywarp had been a onetime deal, fun while it lasted and probably never to be repeated.
Well Jazz had thought so until a heavily wounded Skywarp crashed in front of the Ark, asking for amnesty before he passed out.
AN: So, opinions? I'd love to hear where you guys think this is going/what pairings there will be (you might inspire me to add some more).
Eli