Warning: Consensual touching

Jack didn't know what to do once they got to his room; he tried to think logically, but it didn't work. All he could think about was how jittery he was feeling and the uneasiness in his stomach. When he sat down on the bed, he found himself more relieved than he thought he should when Starscream didn't immediately push him onto his back. Instead the seeker only sat next to him, his moment of self-assurance switching back to something like embarrassment as his lip components pressed tightly together and his ridges furrowed.

"You know," Jack began awkwardly, the words spilling out before he could fully process them, "I noticed you haven't called me a pleasure bot for a while, did I finally get it through to you that I'm not one?"

"You've made it abundantly clear that you're not." Starscream retorted, neither confirming nor denying that Jack's fear and terror had affected him. "I'll show you mine though, if you show me yours."

Jack stared at him, but felt his faceplate heat when he heard the click of a panel and he found his gaze drawn to the seeker's lower region. He stared half-pressurized spike, his optics taking in the little details that he hadn't with Knock Out; Jack let the fact he was assessing the spike at his own pace, peering curiously at the biolights along the silver appendage and the ribbed edges create a chasm between this moment and that dark time in his life.

While his plating burned even more though as he now had confirmation about his earlier assumption, he hesitantly allowed his own panel to slide back, revealing the fact his spike was not inflating as it slide out from its casing.

"We'll have to do something about that, won't we?" Starscream mused and smirked faintly, his servos reaching up to rest on his chest plate. He leaned forward slightly with a knowing look in his optics. "I think I know just the thing; you liked it when I touched myself in the shower, didn't you?"

Jack was sure his face was nearly glowing with how much energon was heating it. "Yes." He admitted quietly. "You sounded like you were enjoying it."

The seeker nodded and tapped one claw against his plating. "We'll start with something like that; put your servos over mine and follow my lead."

Despite the situation, Jack wanted to make a crack about the seeker's questionable leadership skills, but that would only ruin the moment and this was something Jack wanted; he could hear somewhere deep inside his processor telling him not to let anyone else touch him, and he wanted to stamp out that voice which sounded just like Knock Out's.

The red mech wasn't here, and that gave Jack enough confidence to place his servos over Starscream's.

The seeker ran his servos over his chest plating, and Jack thought his faceplate couldn't get any hotter as he could almost feel the rebounding hum of the other mech's systems through the servos he was pressing into. When Starscream reached into one of the seams along his stomach, Jack's fans flickered on as the seeker groaned as the digit tweaked and fiddled with the bundle of wires there.

Starscream smirked at the reaction, and trailed his other servo down to his thigh, his thumb running along the opening that joined his hip to his leg and brushed down on the cables. Jack embarrassingly felt his spike begin to pressurize as the moan the seeker emitted went right to his lower region.

'Why does this keep happening? How is he able to turn me on so easily?' Jack wondered to himself, but as the servo running over the seeker's stomach moved back up to the chest and began to trail teasingly along the crevice in the chest plates, Jack started to get an inkling as to why. 'It's either that he's so shameless as to not care, or he's really self-confident-either way, I can't believe I'm actually admiring something about him.'

Jack sucked in a sharp breath when Starscream moved the servo from his chest to the purple mech's knee, and Jack's grip tightened on the servo in warning. He felt the other mech still, and Jack realized just how tense his own frame had gotten during the sudden movement. He loosened his grip, his faceplate now heated with embarrassment. "I don't want to stop, just give me a moment."

"You can take all the moments you want, it's not like I'm going anywhere." Starscream said dryly.

Despite himself, Jack let out a short laugh, which surprised himself just as much as the seeker if the look on Starscream's faceplate was anything to go by. Jack cleared his throat, his optics glancing away. "I shouldn't have done that," he said awkwardly, "this is just really…nerve-wracking."

"I bet." Starscream muttered, but shuffled closer to Jack. "Sometimes there's not much else to do about an awkward moment than just too…distract yourself." He said and meaningfully rubbed his thumb on Jack's knee joint.

The purple flyer closed his optics for a moment, venting deeply as he let the steady hum of his fans and the stroking sooth his nerves. While he still felt nervous about this whole thing, the fact he had a choice at all had him removing the servo he had on Starscream's, which was still planted on his knee, and tentatively touched the seeker's thigh with his own servo.

Jack knew the plating would be smooth, as he'd gleaned when he scrubbed down his back and wings, but this was the first time he was actually touching him. 'I'm really doing this.' He thought, a thrill going through him as there was no extenuating circumstances; no wash cloth, no pulls to move faster, no dead body to haul away, this was really own his own choice.

"You're smiling," Starscream said abruptly, another smirk crossing his lips, "is simply touching me yourself doing it for you?"

Jack felt the smile he'd unconsciously made twist into a grimace. "Okay, from now on, no more talking. That only makes this even more awkward."

Starscream rolled his optics, and had his whole body moving to the movement just to add to the dramatics. Jack found that the seeker was being a lot less caustic now, but he doubted very much that things wouldn't go back to how they were before this. This was, after all, just helping each other, as bizarre as Jack still found that idea.

'And the last thing I want right now is a relationship.' Jack thought, but a friendship wasn't too much of a stretch; he was dealing with Starscream fine after all. 'That's just because he thinks I've always been a mech though.' He added, but as he felt the seeker's other servo shift to grab his free one, he shoved the injection of reality aside for now.

Jack tightened the grip he still had on Starscream's servo with his other one, but the seeker did nothing more than just hover over his spike, while his free servo slide up Jack's inner thigh and dipped into the seam at the base of his leg joint.

Jack hunched over, a surprised cry escaping as he felt the tip of a digit run along the cables. Both of his servos tightened on the one in his grasp, and he was dimly aware of the digit freezing as he panted harshly against the strange contraction in his spark.

'Mine.' He could hear Knock Out whispering in the back of his processor, the memories of their time together bringing about a sense of shame that Jack shouldn't be doing this. 'Mine.'

'N-'

'Mine.'

Jack closed his optics as he gritted his denta, frustration welling up inside of him; he thought he was getting someone and Knock Out always managed to ruin everything. 'He's not even here and he-' The thought stopped him cold.

'Mine.'

'He's not even here.'

'Mi-'

'No.' Jack thought firmly, squashing the traitorous voice in his processor. 'I am not Knock Out's, I never was, and I never will be.' He added and smothered the whispering as he loosened his death grip on Starscream's servo. 'Starscream is not Knock Out,' he thought and released his grip the servo all-together, 'and I am going to enjoy this because this is my body and Knock Out can get stuck in the shadowzone for all I care. I hate him!'

For a moment, Jack shook as he felt his spark pulse and flux, but when the pain faded, he felt a sense of relief wash over him he hadn't experienced in a long time; he was alone, there wasn't any Knock Out in the back of his mind anymore. 'Does…this actually mean the constraint is gone?'

Jack looked up at Starscream, whose expression was bewildered, as though he wasn't quite sure of what was going on. The purple flyer fixed his dilemma for him as he managed a shaky but assuring smile, and grabbed a hold of the seeker's spike.

Starscream's optics widened as he opened his mouth, but nothing came out. His shocked expression slowly melted into one of confidence as he smirked back at Jack and placed his hands over the purple flyer's and began to move up and down.

Jack could feel the fullness of the spike in his grip and raised edges, but what he felt most was the fact the grip over his servo was not stifling. He braced himself against Starscream's shoulder once he caught the seeker glancing at his own spike, and nodded when his grip was secure enough.

The hand on his spike sent another jolt through Jack, but he was relieved both at the fact there was no further constrictions in his spark, and at the fact Starscream only grasped him as he stopped the movement on his own spike. Jack vented deeply, and after another moment of getting used to the sensation and figuring out what the pauses were actually about, the purple mech nodded and they both began moving.

'He does care.' Jack thought, a tad incredulously as it fully dawned on him. 'In his own weird way he really cares.'

Jack could feel hot ventilation wash over him as the seeker's entire form started to heat and his fans finally flickered on. He peered up and caught a glimpse of Starscream's scrunched up expression, optics closed in focus, denta bared and gritted while small grunts escaped as Jack felt his servo being pulled up and down on the spike more erratically.

Jack was almost knocked over as yet another strange sensation began to build up in his groin. He knew what was happening to the both of them, but the overwhelming feeling as he felt the overload hit had him doing something he'd never thought he'd do.

"Starscream!"

The sound of the name being screamed out drowned out all other sounds, and when Jack felt the warm, sticky substance spread over his hand, he dimly became aware of the grip slackening on his spike and the hazy feeling was soon replaced with overwhelming embarrassment once he caught sight of Starscream's incredulous expression and he felt the awkwardness of the situation make itself known again.

"Did I just…?" Jack trailed off, faceplate burning.

Starscream's expression slowly morphed into one of smug satisfaction. "Even when I haven't fragged for a while I still got it." He chuckled even as he pulled out a cloth from subspace. "Though I would have preferred an 'All Hail Starscream.'"

Jack grimaced. "You just made this weird."

"Oh, I made it weird?" Starscream raised a ridge as he cleaned off the transfluid on his servo. "Who just called out whose name again?"

Jack pursed his lips as he was handed the cloth and proceeded to clean himself up as well. "Point, but what you just said didn't make it any less awkward."

Starscream snorted as he inspected himself before closing his panel. "I expect you to get yourself cleaned up properly in the wash rack before you touch the crystals."

Jack huffed as Starscream got up and made his way to the door. "Of course, Lord Starscream." He said dryly.

The seeker paused in the doorway, and he smirked over his shoulder at Jack. "That also would have been acceptable, Shift."

Jack felt energon rush to his faceplate as the seeker laughed on his way out, and the purple flyer grimaced when he saw the transfluid that had seeped onto his berth. Closing his panel, Jack got up and set about cleaning off his slab.

Once he was finished, he stopped and blinked as it belatedly hit him just what Starscream had said. 'He did it again; he called me by my name.' True, it wasn't his real name, but it was still better than nothing and it left a warm feeling spreading through his spark. He shook his head; 'pillow talk' that consisted of snarking at each other was to offset the awkward, which Jack knew was likely to factor into his actions around the seeker.

'It was nice though,' he thought and smiled to himself as he made his way to the shower, for a round of cleaning up his plating and picking out those annoying pebbles, 'and best of all,' his spark soared as his smile widened, 'it was my choice.'

He was sure that it wouldn't take long for it to settle in that this could have been a mistake, that despair would wash over him, but for now, even just a moment; he felt like he was really making progress. 'And,' he thought incredulously, 'it's all because of Starscream.'

A/N: We've reached a pinnacle in the story, and though this may seem cheap, I've decided to end the story here. I'll be back with an epilogue for this, but because it's going to focus on Knock Out, Jack's story for the moment is at a close.

I left a lot hanging, and I'll resolve it, but for now there needs to be a break.