A/N: this came out of literally nowhere. i just walked into my room and brain was like "hey remember tarn's tcog? yeah what if tikkl"

Summary: T-cog swapping isn't the easiest aspect of Pharma's day because Tarn is too sensitive. Two different scenarios.

.o

=Gargalesis=

"I will kill you if you do that again."

"Do what again?"

"You know what you did."

Pharma furrowed his brow in confusion. This was the second time he was replacing Tarn's worn-out transformation cog. Standard procedure. He tried thinking back on what he may have done earlier that day to piss off Tarn, but he couldn't think of anything in particular.

There was much more hardened goo crusted in the slot where his transformation cog was supposed to go, so he was delicately flaking it off with a steel sponge.

There was silence except for the soft scraping of the sponge, when Tarn bowed his body away from Pharma.

"Tarn, you have to stop squirming if you want me to get this done."

"Quit your incessant prodding and do it like you did it last time."

"I am doing it like I did last time! I haven't changed anything except that you abused this T-cog so much that it melted into your frame, and I'm doing my best to scrape it off!"

He scraped harder, which only increased Tarn's shifting. The medic could hear grumbling.

"It shouldn't even be painful. There's nothing in here that I could touch right now that would cause pain a tank like you couldn't handle."

The sponge was now able to make contact with the tank's bare metal, having scraped away all of the gunk. Tarn's squirming was explained by a sudden bout of laughter and arching to get away from the hands.

Pharma was disturbed. He'd never heard the mech laugh like this… it didn't seem right to hear a mech like Tarn laughing giddily like he was having a frolic in the park.

"Haha.. Pharma, stop!"

Pharma thought about it.

He decided to continue tickling Tarn.

It stopped when Tarn's unusual Voice ability caused tickling in his own spark, causing the jet to squirm uncomfortable before the inevitable forced cackling came out, joining Tarn's bewildering laughs. Pharma's face was a mixture of confusion and laughter, twisting and turning as invisible hands toyed with his spark in only the uncomfortable way tickling could.

He withdrew his hand from Tarn's body, and the laughter died down as well as the oxymoronic pain/pleasure prickling of the invisible touches to his spark.

"Next time you do that without putting anything in there to dampen my sensitivity, I'll kill you with tickles."

Given Tarn's ability, Pharma did not doubt that.

.o

=Knismesis=

When Tarn was reconstructed by Lobe, he was surprised how dull and insensate his body had become to the world. It was like someone had put a dampener over his entire body. He was surprised that he could actually take a hit for once—when he had just his body, even a minor punch caused denting. Now, his body was more likely to dent their fists.

However, his internals were still his originals.

Pharma scowled as he rifled about in Tarn's T-cog compartment. This was his first time replacing Tarn's T-cog, and it was taking more time than he'd expected due to Tarn's uncharacteristic display of pain. "I don't know why you're complaining so much. A tank shouldn't be this sensitive to me replacing your T-cog."

The truth of the matter was that he wasn't originally a tank, and while he had a body now, aspects of his original form still lay underneath the reinforced metal of his bigger and better body.

That included pain tolerance. Any pain that reached into where his internals lie would feel just as awful as if he didn't have that thick tank metal to protect him. That T-cog compartment in his side was his original T-cog compartment… Therefor he didn't have the pain insensitivity that an actual tank had.

When Pharma heard Tarn cry out suddenly, it gave him pause. Sure, that area was known to be a tender spot amongst normal bots, because the circuitry that ran through this area was highly sensitive to any flaws that may happen in a transformation cog, and report back with pain to let the bot know that something was amiss and needed to be tended to. It was disturbing to hear a warmech like Tarn make a sound of actual pain. His fingers were barely even touching any bare metal. The most one could equate to was tickling for a mech like this.

A tank was supposed to be a war machine, to take a hit in the T-cog and be able to continue forward without the issue of too much pain. A T-cog damaged would not be able to stop a tank, or so that's how it was supposed to be.

…He hadn't ever received a full body schematic of Tarn before.

He'd never needed to. He was normally so busy cowering in fear that he never bothered doing a general schematic scan of Tarn.

So he did. Quietly when Tarn hissed again in pain. He probably wouldn't notice the very slight tingle cross his entire body as Pharma initiated the brief scan.

Nothing looked particularly out of the ordinary. Tarn's model wasn't standard, and Pharma expected as such, given the modifications that Tarn displayed externally. It didn't seem to be wrong, and yet… it was.

It took Pharma a moment to process that there were several civilian-build internals where there should be war-build internals.

Was Tarn a convert?

IT wasn't unfamiliar to Pharma, per say, but it was rather uncommon to see a civilian turn into a war machine. Most mechs who were shoved into the war were given frame upgrades to protect their plating and sometimes weapons integrated directly into their skeletal system, such as arm blasters. But nothing to the extent at which Tarn was built.

The high majority of mechs—meaning most non-medics—wouldn't be able to tell apart this level of intricate fusion between war-build and civilian-build. They'd likely think it was a warbuild all throughout if someone dared to scan Tarn without his permission.

He withdrew entirely from Tarn's internals to pull out a pain dampener from his subspace. Tarn was looking away from Pharma, face in his hand with the other gripping tightly at the med berth. Pharma discreetly applied the dampener to the internal area while still close enough to the opening to be able to remove once the new T-cog was installed. The effect was near instantaneous. The tank's body relaxed, unclenched hand leaving finger dents behind in the table. A stuttered vent blew out air as though in relief.

"That would explain why your T-cogs run out faster than normal."

Tarn stiffened and snapped his head around to glare at Pharma. "What?"

Pharma hesitated. Tarn had never given Pharma permission to scan him, after all. "If your T-cog can't handle your strenuous activity, of course it's going to wear out faster. A T-cog from a miner isn't the same as a T-cog from a tank, you see, so the time it takes for one to wear out due to... ah, frequent usage would vary."

Those eyes analyzed, calculating, trying to decipher any hidden meaning behind those words. It almost took Pharma aback, the intensity of the stare. While Pharma said nothing, he felt Tarn might know that his secret was discovered.

After what seemed like an eternity under the scrutiny of the judge, jury, and executioner, Tarn looked away as his head rested back on the berth.

"Make sure to find better suited transformation cogs for me in the future then, Doctor."