Alexis was going to be the death of him.

Now that Thundercracker had bonded to Alexis, now that she was his life mate, nothing would ever be able to separate or diminish the link between them. Only in death would they part, and even then, her death would mean the end of his life. A reason why many Decepticons did not take mates, or create such bonds as he had with the female.

And while her being exposed to his spark would prolong the human's short life, it would not allow them to escape the inevitable. But any time he had with Alexis, no matter how short, would be worth any unthinkable consequence.

They'd been on Earth for a few short hours. TC was unsure how Alexis felt about being back on her homeplanet. While he could get emotional impressions from the female, he could not read her unless he sparked her. Not that that was the reason he needed his energy to touch the female. But seeing inside her was unlike anything he expected or prepared for, each time different and new and illuminating, whether because of her emotional capacity, or the way she saw and experienced things, everything always leading to a pleasurable conclusion that left him burning for hours afterward.

Alexis didn't feel what he felt. But she was as addicted as he. And he knew it was only a matter of time until their connection broadened and deepened, allowing them to establish an unfettered unity that would transcend how the female saw and experienced and felt him when he sparked her, and allow her to retain more of what had occurred after.

He wanted her mind open to his. Wanted her to be able to sync with him. He wasn't disappointed in the difficulties between then, but perplexed. But she wasn't Cybertronian, and perhaps didn't even have the possibility to retain or perceive all that he was and had done in that human mind of hers.

Or maybe she didn't want to. Perhaps though, none of that mattered. For what he had with her now, already surpassed all that he had expected, and continued to every day. The Seeker didn't need things between them as if they were both Cybertronians. And while it was natural for him to desire such an outcome, it was no longer his goal.

A week and two days had passed since he bonded to Alexis, since she started sharing his room, since her life became more of his, and his became part of hers. He'd watched her sleep on many occasions, when he allowed her to sleep, had watched her wake more times than that. They'd touched, they'd nestled together and wrapped around, they'd talked and even began to speak of their future together.

It was still so very surreal. A part of TC was petrified of the idea that he was dreaming, or that he was stuck inside a shifter, everything just a fabricated representation of his deepest desires, of his needs.

Taking her to Earth though, had been a plan he had set in motion long before they worked together to end The Line, long before he left her on Refuge to leave for the Frintaw sector. A necessary trip he had to take in order to obtain the last components for his plan. What he did was dangerous, even suicidal. One did not go against Megatron, covertly or otherwise.

But that did not deter him. For he'd been determined to restore her planet. But the Seeker couldn't just restore her planet, not with the repercussions that would follow when Megatron got word. He had to protect it, guard it, make sure that no one ever did to it, what they had so easily done.

TC didn't do it for the humans though, didn't even do it for himself.

He did it for Alexis.

Thundercracker was restless. Inconveniently so. The kind of restless that needed the female beside him, talking to him, touching him, just near him. After traveling over Earth for a couple of hours, he had finally taken them back to Alexis' old home, a dwelling that he had made sure remained intact and unaffected, encased inside a preservation field.

They'd walked through her old home, then sat on the couch as Alexis told her son some stories, that not lasting long as the youngling showed signs of drainage. Alexis took Aaron to her old room and then managed to fall asleep with him.

Thundercracker wasn't angry. Not really. But sitting inside her house, alone and disregarded had allowed the restlessness to overtake him. Shutting off his optics, he allowed memories to play back that soothed and distracted and enticed. Memories that were leading to something all together different that made his compressed body twinge and his spark chamber hotly pulse.

Hands landed on his kneeplates.

His optics came back online. He found Alexis on her knees in front of him. She didn't say anything, just picked herself up as she positioned herself on his lap, her body moving against his as she curled as close to him as she could with his cockpit pressing between them.

He no longer needed a compression chamber to obtain the size he now was, thanks to Skywarp, as he had provided the schematics necessary to build a proto-compressor module that activated custom nanites that did the process smoothly and effectively.

The device was necessary if he wanted to be able to go wherever the small human went. And while he could have just as easily activated his holo-form, there was something about the way Alexis looked at him when he remained as he was, with scrutiny and desire and admiration, that he knew was going to lead to something physically involved, with flesh and metal and pressing and pushing and intimate discoveries of how different they were.

Alexis dragged herself away. Her hair was disheveled, her cheeks infused with color. She leaned back toward him, her mouth meeting his. They'd never kissed like this before. Not with her fleshy mouth pressed against his solid mouthpiece, his mouth opening to hers as tongue and glossa met for the first time. Her hands strayed behind his neckpiece, and as he reached around her and squeezed her closer, her fingers gripped the tops of his rising wings.

His entire body trembled. The Seeker parted from her, intakes at maximum. Liquid coolant tried to make up for the sudden burst of heat, making his body lightly convulse with desire, his systems going haywire until he compensated, sensation returning to his servos that quickly ensconced itself into a fire that ignited his spark and made his optics burn.

He'd always known that humans were highly sexual creatures. Led by their lust and controlled by their appetites. Yet TC once feared that his own passions for Alexis would frighten the female, or be more than she could understand. That was before he'd seen inside her, tasted her desire and seen the imagery of her half-realized fantasies that ended with meshed metal and flesh and the unknown, the echoes of her raw hunger an illumination of her willingness for him, no matter how he offered himself to her.

She was a wonder. And she was his.

"You're sensitive on your wings," Alexis observed. She was biting on her tongue, her hands still splayed behind his neckpiece, fingers dragging languidly down his backpanel as she watched him. She was far too careful, far too easy on him, and still TC was desperate for her touch, for those emerald eyes that glowed upon him with undeniable attention.

He could only nod his head and creep closer to her, his hand bunching along her side, twisting in her shirt until he tugged her forward, making her fall partially on her knees, her hand falling on his upper thighplate. Alexis' fingers gently moved as they traced a path along his body, until they stilled. Thundercracker knew what she wanted. The human's curiosity was insatiable. The Seeker's need to satisfy her an unparalleled inclination of half desperation that left him pining and so slagging wired that anything she asked he would have performed.

Her fingers moved farther down, stilling again along a specialized groove.

"Leads to my fuselage," he told her, the raspy tone of his voice making her pause momentarily as she gulped hard.

Her fingers continued to travel for several long minutes as he instructed her on his parts and components. Until he took her fingers in his hand, leading her to where there was the most sensory input.

He shivered all over again, nearly lost control when she came back to his wings. TC twisted around and she came closer, pressing along and under his tucked ailerons and flaperons, brushing over his folded stabilizers. While his wings weren't his most sensitive component, they certainly felt that way with the heat of her fingers splaying along every juncture, the pressure of the pleasure making him say things to the female. TC wanted her to grip tighter, to spread her fingers apart and to…

His subsystems momentarily crashed when her mouth made contact with the tip of his right wing, when she bit down, her moist tongue swiping down hard as she tested and tasted him. By then he was gripping to the couch's armrest, the female's tactile lesson on his frame not ending as he continued to inform her of where her hands were. Alexis would repeat what he said, his words echoing back at him with awe, with tangible desire.

Thundercracker turned back around to face her, took the female's hand in his own and above her head, and pressed her into the couch. He took her left hand and firmly placed it against his hipjoint.

"Continue," he rasped the soft command.

Alexis looked up at him for a moment, intentions unclear, then seemed to come to a decision that made her flush and her heart race even quicker. Her hand pressed along his chassis, going down, and down… and down.

"My interface cable does not reside here."

Her face turned scarlet. Alexis quickly pulled her hand back, trying to cover her face. She should have seen this when he sparked her, should have known. And yet he had to keep reminding himself that even if she saw, she didn't always remember. And the things she did remember, usually were items that he would have rather she did not.

Alexis dropped her hand, the warmth going with it. She looked up at him all bashful and embarrassed and innocent, and so terribly beguiling.

"Inside my sparkchamber," he gently informed her, truly trying not to become even more roused. Hoping what he revealed to her didn't upset or repel.

Alexis' mouth fell open, color painted her cheeks as her mind went through the implications of such placement. But she didn't look disgusted, only intrigued, which left him so dreadfully encouraged that instead of burying the hope away, Thundercracker drenched himself inside it like a hunter who had just made his first glorious kill.

"I have been formatted to your size. However, I am aware that," he paused for a moment, looked at her, then away, still a little unsure, still not wanting to see or feel any signs of disfavor due to their vast physical dichotomies. All he felt was the female's interest, her focus, her eyes drifting back to his spark chamber as she involuntarily stared. "That we are different, and that you may not… relish these differences. If you show me what you need, I can compensate, or even create what is necessary in order to…"

Suddenly Alexis got to her feet. She quickly ran her fingers through her hair. She stood, warbling a little in front of the sofa. His hand followed her own.

Aaron entered the living room. He rubbed his eyes, yawned loudly. "Mom, I'm hungry." The youngling's sharp eyes washed over Alexis and TC, his focus remaining on Thundercracker until Alexis went to him.

Alexis led him back to her room with a bowl of collected fruit and a water bottle. She didn't return for a good five minutes, long enough though for his intakes to settle into normal parameters, the air turning bitter without her.

When Alexis returned, she had sneakers on, her hair pulled back into a ponytail, a light jacket on.

"Let's go outside."

Alexis stared at her wrist. Her coolant band acted as many things, including a monitoring device of her son, making sure he was safe when she was not near him. Alexis took his hand, led him outside onto the porch.

They both sat down, each in their own chair. He frowned; he did not like such an arrangement.

Alexis scooted her chair closer to his own. "I just realized that I never thanked you. I mean for this. I mean, you did do this, didn't you?" Her hands motioned toward the ground. She stared at a patch of bright purple irises that almost glowed under the porch light.

"Yes."

"Why?" the female questioned, the one word breathless as if needing to know was a physical strain.

His answer was an obvious one, one that she had to be aware of. "Because what happened to your planet, I should not have allowed in the first place."

"But what does Earth matter to you?"

"It doesn't," TC told her frankly. He frowned but did not flinch under her curious stare. "But it does, to you."

There was a bout of silence after that. He felt a wave of emotion pour out of the female, nothing that he could pinpoint.

"I've never had someone restore a planet for me before," she suddenly said, her words articulated and filled with emotion. "I really don't know what to say to that."

"I didn't do it for your gratitude."

"That figures." Her mouth curled up, her tone suddenly light and playful.

"Nor to win your regard."

"Okay." She gave him an amused look.

"But if you want to live here... with me, with your son, I will make sure it is safe this time. I will build us a place to reside, away from prejudice, from preconceived ideas, where you and Aaron will thrive."

Her hand rested on his own before their fingers tangled together. "Then you definitely didn't have the idea of us living on this planet all alone."

"I know you would not prefer it that way. And while I would give this planet to you as a gift, I know it is one you need to share."

"What of Megatron?"

He motioned toward her. He needed her closer. Alexis got up and sat down on the porch in front of his legs, the back of her head leaning against his knees. He took her hair out of its restraint, then thickly wrapped the follicles around his digits. He took a deep breath of the female, his exhale turning shaky when she gripped to one of his legs.

No matter how many times Thundercracker sparked the female, he still trembled at her touch. Physically, they were still new and unfamiliar with one another. She shared his quarters, his berth, it was only a matter of time before they shared even more, the startling strain of tension between them going to give and soon. He was starting to feel guilty at his own pleasure, no matter what she told him. And he couldn't go many more nights of her stretched out on his berth without doing something. If he didn't have the ability to spark her, they would have already been tangled together. If her son wasn't there, they wouldn't have had to create boundaries. They wanted each other. She wanted him. And knowing that, feeling that, allowed him to neglect the always present inclination toward combined physical resolve.

He took a deep breath of air, ignored the rattling in his spark chamber, and the intimacy of her nearness. Alexis was still becoming familiar with him and what they had done, unaccustomed to having a lover.

TC told her what he had done, and about how he did it. Told her about the defensive orbital platforms, about what he had prepared for and what she would be responsible for.

She listened in enamored silence.

He almost forgot what he was talking about... twice.

They went for a walk after, traveling around the house only to end up in the backyard shed that was half the size of the home. There was a lot of junk in the enclosure, many tools and yard supplies, lots of marked boxes and an empty area in the corner that had small faded drawings and old posters of movies and strangely attired men, a couple of games, and a small cot that had a blanket on it with green turtles, and strange words outlined in pink.

She hung the small lantern on a nearby nail on the wall. "I had a thing for the teenage mutant ninja turtles when I was a kid," she explained as if that made anything clearer.

"Teenage what?"

"Turtles… Ninja turtles." She made a little face. "As in, man did I want to learn ninjutsu, karate, anything. So what did my parents do? Put me in ballet class." She chuckled at that.

Alexis sat down on the small cot, obviously waiting for him to join her. He had to tightly fold his wings to make it into the narrow corner. The Seeker sat on the cot, it creaked under his weight, but managed not to break.

She looked around the small area. "I used to play here as a kid. Even spent the night sometimes during the summer, but it could get really hot," Alexis felt the need to tell him. She put her hand around his own. "I always felt safe here for some reason, protected, as if no matter what happened to me out there, nothing could touch me in here. I guess it was my own fortress of solitude."

"But it's a storage compartment."

She laughed at that, gave him an odd look, and then suddenly turned his head more toward hers and kissed him quickly, softly, pulling away before he could react. Alexis took her jacket off, put it on the corner of the cot. She removed her shoes, her socks, then laid down on the slim cot, her knees bent up, her body bent on the side.

"I know we are different, TC," Alexis suddenly brought up again. Her palm lightly pressed against his backpanel. He leaned into her touch, then carefully began to turn to better see her. The Seeker didn't have much room, and with his stature the motion was awkward and fruitless. He had to settle for angling his head. Her hand returned, this time wrapping around his left forearm. He stared at where her hand rested, marveling at the pale skin and the gentle tempo of her life pulse that echoed against his flesh. "At least physically. This doesn't bother me, at all. But do I," she frowned, eyes mixing with sadness, "that is, do I make you uncomfortable?"

"Why would you ask that?"

"I don't know, I just seem to be stuck with that impression."

"The things I want to do to you are unfamiliar, and I suppose do create a sense of bewilderment in regards to what it entails. But that doesn't mean I don't want you anyway."

"Do I disappoint you?" she wanted to know, trying to hide the pained expression that traced across her face. "I mean you said when Cybertronians bond that they become telepathically linked, know each other inside and out and, while I feel different when I am with you, while you feel different when you are with me, I don't know what you are thinking at all."

"I feel different?"

"Don't you know that... I mean how I feel, when I am with you?"

"Not entirely. Just because I can see inside you when we spark, does not mean I see everything."

"Oh."

Alexis reached toward him, tried to get him to maneuver closer from where he sat perched on the edge of the cot, but there was still no room. She stood up in front of him instead, brought his hands up and placed her flat palms against his own.

She closed her eyes. Sighed with contentment.

"You feel this, right?"

"Your energy?"

Alexis opened her eyes. She smiled and nodded her head.

"Yes, energy," she said with unmistakable awe. "It's…"

"Arousing."

"Indescribable."

They both said at the same time, their words echoing through each other.

"While I felt something sometimes when you were near me, nothing like this." Her fingers wrapped between his own. She stepped closer, her voice lowering. "It vibrates through my skin, makes me aware of you on a level that, well, is probably not normal." Alexis seemed to light up. Her words sped out of her mouth, like they always did when she was excited about something. "And I do hear you, get impressions from you when we touch, I mean regular touch, not," she blushed, "when you…"

"Spark you?"

"Yeah, that." She grinned at him, the potent expression making him feel restless all over again; his digits twitched tighter around her fingers, suddenly feeling possessive.

He looked up at her. "And what do you get impressions of?"

She took a moment. Green eyes held ruby optics. She sighed with deep contentment. "How you feel, what you want. There is a lot going on below the rigid surface that you show the world."

"Rigid?" He repeated with offense, a heaviness settling on his flesh. He knew what he was, but for Alexis to think so...

"Stern?" she tried again, this time smiling cheekily, masterfully mollifying his transient stress. "Stolid?" she tried one more time.

He tugged on her arm and brought her to him. He flattened his hand against her hip, his fingers dipping under her shirt.

"Should I show you how solid I can be?"

Alexis gave him a look that showed she didn't find his sudden attempt at humor very funny, or that she'd heard it before. "I said stolid…" Her words crashed when he rubbed against her skin, moved his hand behind her lower back as he breathed her in, his nose pressing against her clothed belly.

"My turn," he commanded. Thundercracker was quite ready for his own lessons. She paused for a moment, looked around her and listened intently, as if they would be interrupted any moment. He then watched as Alexis unbuttoned her shirt, revealing a low tank top, and an area of lightly damaged flesh near her shoulder that remained from many years past.

His fingers lightly grazed along the marred flesh, a testament to her ability to survive. He continued to explore the female. All her curves, her shapes, her old scars, worshiping her with his touch as he began to learn her, finding out that while the cot was small, the wall beside it supported them both well enough.

And when the lesson happened to evolve and escalate, when fingers got exchanged for hands, when soft sighs turned to breathy moans, when mouths impacted and skin pressed, it wasn't just the Seeker learning her, but them learning one other in a training exercise especially formulated for beginning human partners.

He never expected them to have an extended "make out" session inside a cramped, awkwardly sized storage shed behind her childhood home on the planet Earth. "Making out" was yet another ridiculous, perplexing human phrase, one that he quickly forgot the absurdity of when Alexis took his face in both her hands and snogged him into a mindless puddle of pulsating Seeker.