Note - Mature Warning here and beyond.
~O~
The Sun
He was still so very gentle.
Eros had not expected such, but he showed his capacity for it in many ways. She was genuinely appreciative for that given his size. The way he held her, kissed her and spoke such loving words, Eros forgot everything. She forgot the war, she forgot the reason why she was even fighting. All she knew right now was him and his touches.
She reached between their joined bodies and touched whatever part of him she could, prompting a delicious shudder to rush through him.
Eros moaned his name softly, arching her hips. This pace felt wonderful, but it was entirely too slow for her. So she encouraged him by shifting her hips a little harder against his movements. He hissed sharply at that, kissing her firmly on the lips. Eros groaned again, parting.
"Jhiaxus...please," she moaned. "Harder. You won't hurt me."
Initially, that had been his concern given their size difference, but hearing that she was okay with the alternative, he granted her request.
Eros let out a delighted, deep moan at the change in pace, wrapping her limbs tightly around him, her fingers digging into his back. He lifted her leg somewhat and leaned over her, pressing one hand into the wall over her head as he moved harder into her. That thrust hit home, striking a particularly sensitive place deep within that left her gasping out loudly. Jhiaxus leaned down, whispering against her lips.
"There?" he queried.
Eros nodded with a strangled sound. The soft heat of her pleasure erupted into an intense, star burst of sensation. Waves of electricity passed down her lower back.
Jhiaxus simply watched her, breathless as she reeled from that unexpected motion. When they locked optics, they smiled. His back arched in a tense curve of concentration as he worked himself harder into her. Those pleased sounds she made threatened to make him lose control, but he wouldn't. No. He would see her lose it first.
"Primus...I'm so close..." she groaned.
"Good." Jhiaxus gasped, lightly nibbling her jaw.
He continued that pace, working against that same spot he'd found as he watched her features become tormented with pleasure. It took only a few more thrusts before she seized tightly, clasping onto him hard and shrieked out his name loudly to the heavens above.
By Primus and all that was holy and unholy in the universe...THAT was the sound of a very pleased femme.
When she overloaded, Jhiaxus followed behind her, letting out a soft snarl as he released himself into her. Watching her writhe at the sensations and feeling her valve convulse tightly around him sent waves upon waves of delicious heat through him. He hung there, panting softly and Eros held him close.
For the moment, they both laid there, making soft, static-filled sounds. Eros stroked Jhiaxus' cheeks lovingly and he lifted his head.
She looked positively stunning in her post-overload condition.
"I didn't hurt you, did I?" he asked.
Eros smiled. "A little, but it's okay. I expected that." she told him. "I'm glad my first was with you."
"I never want to hurt you again." Jhiaxus said, gently caressing her cheeks. "Let's get you cleaned up."
Eros chuckled. "Do we have to move right now?"
"Not if you don't want to."
"Good."
O
A drone walked down the corridors, carrying food to Eros' chambers as Jhiaxus had instructed all of them to do. When he entered her chambers, he was surprised to find his Lord holding her in his arms, watching her sleep. When Jhiaxus looked up, he gestured for the drone to place the food on the table.
"Let her sleep." he whispered.
"As you command, my Lord." the drone said, in a low voice.
Jhiaxus smiled down at Eros. "Femmes like her are rare. More so than the greatest treasures in the universe." he mused. "But there is only just one you could ever offer yourself to. Only one in the universe and many other universes to come. She is Eros and she is mine...as I am hers."
The drone was silent, perhaps stunned by this confession.
"My Lord..." he began.
He silenced himself quickly, realizing the impunity in his approach, but Jhiaxus tilted his head to listen anyway.
"She... You are certain about her?" the drone asked.
Jhiaxus made a small, amused murmur. "More than I have been about anything."
O
Eros had found a holo-photo scanner.
Jhiaxus was amused that she wanted to scan various photos of them together. He was delighted by the attention, though he would not have admitted that aloud. Eros was genuinely happy, and he himself could feel his own spark lighten just being in her presence. He smiled more than he often did before meeting her. He laughed more and even felt no necessity in killing his drones when they made a mistake. Something in his spark hated the thought of ever putting a frown on Eros' face, so he sought to never again make her feel anything but happiness.
Later that day, Jhiaxus had a bath prepared and they spent their time cleaning one another.
"This planet has no one to claim it," Jhiaxus said, as Eros washed his shoulders. "Perhaps I could make it my own, permanently."
Eros smiled at him. "And what would you want this planet for?"
"I thought you and I could make it our home."
Eros looked a little surprised by that.
"It's free from the sight of war," Jhiaxus continued. "I have searched the entire perimeter from my ship on and it has remained untouched. With my resources, I can mass-produce enough enough Energon for us to live here forever. And I would be honored to have you by my side as my queen."
She was silent, resting her chin on his shoulder as she pondered this. Her fingers teased his chest a little, absently stroking.
Jhiaxus turned a little, staring down at her. "If you would desire such."
"I would be a queen?" Eros chuckled. "That would be quite a change."
"A queen who would not walk behind me, or in front of me. But by my side." Jhiaxus continued, gently touching her cheek. He placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. "For you would be my equal and I would have no other. Everything we have, we would share together."
The idea was tempting, but something troubled her.
Oh, right. It was her father.
Though Eros felt herself loving the mech before her, she couldn't turn her back on her father or her friends. Regardless of what some of them represented, she would not simply run away and hide. It was easy and the offer was so tempting, but it wasn't the right thing to do.
"I would love to do that, Jhiaxus," Eros said. "But to run from my father and friends?"
Jhiaxus' smile disappeared. He looked disappointed.
"If we run now, the fighting will never stop." Eros continued, "Maybe if I show them that Decepticons and Autobots can learn to get along the way we do, maybe they will see that this war is futile. It can stop and we'll all be able to live together the way we used to."
Jhiaxus didn't look convinced. "You're talking about trying to convince an Autobot army..."
"I can do this." Eros assured him. "Just give me a chance and I'll show them."
He sighed softly, but finally nodded. "Very well. If you have faith, I should do the same."
Eros smiled and kissed his cheek. "Thank you."
"And you wish to leave then?"
"...I don't want to, but I feel I must."
"...When will you go?"
"Tomorrow."
Jhiaxus reached back and held her hand in his. "Then may I ask something?"
"Of course."
"Will you bond with me?"
Eros looked stunned by that and he turned, facing her properly. He looked completely serious.
"I know what I ask is something extraordinary," he said. "I understand it would be wrong to insinuate such a possibility, but I know that you are the one I wish to share my spark with. This way, when you are gone from my optics, we will still remain together in some form."
Eros smiled and wasn't surprised anymore by her immediate response. "Yes."
Meanwhile, Specter had been monitoring the ship's received video feeds. Most of the time, Jhiaxus was able to track and pinpoint any feeds sent out by Autobot forces to allow him to stay one step ahead of everyone. Specter had found nothing of particular interest. Though he was blind, he was aided by a drone who played the video feedback to him.
One of the messages was a familiar voice of Ultra Magnus, pleading for the safe return of his daughter.
O
Upon the beginning of their bonding, Eros delved deep into Jhiaxus' mind and spark, seeing through a haze of shadows and obscurity. She could feel him trying to keep the more gruesome aspects of his mind away from her, but he couldn't help allowing some of them to slip through. After all, in the bonding process, memories and thoughts slipping to the other were uncontrollable, even to the most powerful of mechs or femmes. Eros wandered through a maze of stone and metal, passing through every dark corner of his thoughts.
She could see through ethereal screams and shouts Jhiaxus' many battles, his victories and his glorious moments in science.
Eros finally came to a path snared with old vines and webs. She entered the path and saw Jhiaxus as a youngling standing alone over a pit. She was amazed at how different he looked - she was so accustomed to the sharp contours of his jagged form and the commanding presence he had. But as a youngling, he looked small, frail and unsettled.
There was a mech standing behind him, but Eros couldn't see his face. He appeared to be a living shadow, enormous and frightening. All that she could see was his optics and sharp, gnashing teeth. When he spoke, it was in the most harsh manner she had every heard. This must have been the monstrous father of his memories. Perhaps this was just how Jhiaxus heard his father speak; in horrible, nonsensical words.
Much to her horror, she watched as the mech kicked his son into the pit.
It was to teach me.
Jhiaxus' voice was faint in their union. Perhaps he understood Eros' fear and sought to explain.
She peered into the pit and watched as the young mech she had come to adore in present form fought off turbo wolves with only his two servos.
The way of the warrior is never carved in soft roads, my love. Sometimes, we must walk through the most dangerous paths to shape ourselves for the present. This was the way I learned.
She could see the youngling struggle to climb from the pit, his fingers slashed by the sharp metal surface. His hands were soaked with his own Energon. He grunted in pain, attempting to climb the pit while his father looked on, shouting what she could only imagine were the most horrible things imaginable.
My fingers bled and I starved for days. Father would release many enemies for me to battle. He told me that if I wanted to get out of that pit, I would have to fight my way out. It was also a punishment if I desired to write poetry. A compulsive desire that I could not explain.
But eventually, I was wracked with another desire and that was to best my father.
Eros watched as Jhiaxus matured and developed into a warrior through a fast-forward of time before her optics. She saw a faceless femme who had long-since passed. Jhiaxus didn't know her because she had died shortly after he was born. But this is where his scientific mind had come from.
I came from a time where selective breeding was necessary. My father wanted the perfect offspring, so my mother had been selected. I knew little of her, but she had been an intelligent femme with a scientific mind that rivaled most of our kind. After they had bonded and I was born, father claimed he felt nothing after her death. There was no love the way there is today. Father held nothing for her, so he felt nothing in her death.
Eros could see a change in the memories. Jhiaxus was now standing poised over his father's corpse and the smoke surrounding him vanished. She could see the Energon-soaked being for what he was now; by all that was holy in Primus' name, this mech was monstrous and frightening to the optics.
Defeating father permanently was indeed a simple task once I learned the ways of the warrior. I trained under many worthy teachers, one of them being the priests of the Kaon Temple.
Eros knew of these priests through her history books. They were often called the Sons of Shadows by most and were believed to have trained at the very center of Cybertron itself. Many rumors spanned their existence and some of them viewed the masters of the temple as immortals.
Immortals is a bit of a stretch, my love. They were the wisest of all Cybertron, before the coming of the Primes wiped them out. They were my teachers along with my father. While he taught me the savagery of combat, they taught me to master the art of the sword itself. It was from my own body that I formed my weapons.
Eros watched the scenes change in a smoky swirl and she watched Jhiaxus sitting before a smelting pool. He let out a horrible scream as several hands carved into his back.
The Sons of Shadows believed that we must all endure excruciating agony before we transcend our existence. The swords we crafted had to become symbols of my suffering as well as my pride as a warrior. The suffering I could inflict on my enemies. It is their belief that the weapons of our own agony could be shared with our foes.
That was intense.
Eros respected Jhiaxus more for the trials he had to endure. His intensity nearly overwhelmed her, but she held on.
Jhiaxus delved into her mind and witnessed her own memories and thoughts. Most of what he witnessed was a happy sparkling-hood filled with life and color; not at all like his own dark, bleak existence that he endured for the sake of it. He watched her happiness with her friends and family and felt a little out of place in her own mind. He was a dark gray and white thing standing amid the joyful sprays of color and light.
He saw her with Ananke as a youngling, happily chasing a turbo-wolf pup.
A scene where she wept for the smallest things - the death of that pup and how unfair death was.
Eros felt emotions deeper than most Cybertronians he had met. She felt frustration because of the war she was forced to be a part of. Her continuous love for her father, despite his indifferent change in personality.
Then, he felt the death of her mother.
Jhiaxus had not been prepared to be struck with such emotion. He had never known such despair as he had not known his own mother and he felt no loss for the death of his father. He had no kin, so he didn't comprehend what it felt like to endure such a loss. It had been trivial to him.
Until now.
When bonding, their pain was experienced by the recipient. What he felt was excruciating sickness of his spark. He saw her tears, felt her rage and all her sorrow. Eros also felt anger at him. An anger that resembled a gradually dying flame in the corner of her mind.
I'm so sorry.
She didn't know why she was no longer angry with him.
Jhiaxus held her tightly to his chest, their sparks close to completing their joining. The sounds he made sent shivers through her body and she cupped his face, kissing him.
"My love..." he managed, through gasps.
Yes, I'm yours.
That was enough to send him over the edge and he called out her name passionately to the heavens.
O
Note - A. E. Waite suggested that this card is associated with attained knowledge. An infant rides a white horse under the anthropomorphized sun, with sunflowers in the background. The child of life holds a red flag, representing the blood of renewal while a smiling sun shines down on him, representing accomplishment. The conscious mind prevails over the fears and illusions of the unconscious. Innocence is renewed through discovery, bringing hope for the future.