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Chapter 132 - Threads
(LPOV)
Lena glanced around the corridors and almost kicked herself for doing it.
"You're still trying to be sneaky?" Sideswipe demanded of her, grinning as he walked past. "Sneaky trick straight from the predator, quit tiptoeing around and try to look like you know where you're going."
"Oh shut up Sides!" Lena laughed at the silver mech, his brother snorting in amusement.
"Hey, I'm just sayin'!" Sideswipe laughed, raising his hands in the air and not even turning around.
Lena laughed and shoved her hands into her pockets, walking to Jolt's quarters with her head held high... okay, admittedly taking Sides' advice and putting on the appearance that she not only knew where she was going, but that she belonged.
"See!" Sunstreaker bellowed from the other end of the corridor, "way better!"
Lena jumped about a foot in the air and turned to shoot a wry glare at the gold and silver mechs. They simply shot matching, shit-eating grins at her and carried on down the corridor on the way to their patrol duties.
Lena yawned and lightly knocked on Jolt's door.
"You know you really don't have to do that," Jolt stated behind her. Lena squeaked and jumped another foot in the air, turning around.
Jolt's holoform grinned at her mischievously. Lena glared at him for a second, only a second, that was about the total length she could manage to glare at him.
Jolt was just such an absolutely sweet bot. He made her laugh, let her cry when she needed it. Cuddled her without any pressure.
He was the first man... male... forget it. He was the first person she'd ever thought about having sex with for a long, long time.
He was addictive, and that was frightening.
Because now, now it was gonna hurt one hell of a lot to lose him.
But somehow, when their... when she was touching his spark, and his was connecting to whatever it was inside of her that he said was absolutely there, she could feel him. Feel his very soul. Connected so closely together, she felt that not only did he never want to lie to her, but he never would be able to; and connected so closely together, he'd lightly caress the fact that he never wanted her to go. He wanted her, however she chose to be.
It was so much like a dream, she was constantly trying to figure out if it actually was.
So Lena smiled up at his holoform as he opened the door for her, she quickly ascended the ladder Kae had so nonchalantly given them and smiled at him. He reached out and ran an extraordinarily gentle finger down her arm.
"Hey gorgeous," he murmured.
"Hey there handsome," she smiled at him. "D'you mind if I dispel with my armour?"
Jolt looked at her in shock, then in awe. He looked down, blushing slightly.
"I am honoured that you put such trust in me," he murmured, looking back up to catch her eyes with his optics.
That made stripping out of her own mental armour so easy. She'd thought her hands would tremble when she did this, but now...
Lena took her pyjamas off, right down to her birthday suit and felt no shame, Jolt was watching her with such awe it made her feel like the most beautiful creature in the world.
"Oh god Jolt, what the hell am I gonna do without you?" Lena murmured.
"Please don't say that," Jolt murmured, it was heartbreaking just how vulnerable his optics were in that moment.
Lena reached for him, and felt a surge of joy as Jolt pulled her close, his hands always so gentle with her. His spark reached for her, and she caressed it, relaxing into his touch the way she'd never been able to do with another.
Connected so closely, they knew each other so well.
Lena languished in the warmth of the bot, reaching for him, mind and... and soul.
They twined together, and Lena could feel him absolutely, knew his thoughts, saw his memories, cradled him though the painful ones and laughed with him in his joy.
She didn't know how long they stayed together like that. But what happened, happened so suddenly that it jarred her right back into her own body.
The weapons technology, it was in her mind now.
Oh god. No.
She didn't want to know it, she didn't... Lena stared at Jolt as he looked down at her with such caring worry.
"Lena?" he asked softly, worriedly.
She began crying.
"Are you alright Lena?" Jolt murmured worriedly, gently stroking her back. She couldn't stop, she couldn't stop crying, the soft keening turning into full out, body wracking sobs.
"Lena? Lena tell me what's wrong!" Jolt said a bit louder, cradling her. She could hear fear resonating from his spark, she wanted to make it better.
But she'd ruined everything. She knew it, and now she couldn't stop crying.
Jolt's spark began resonating terror, and without preamble, he cradled her close and fairly scrambled to his feet, running from his quarters and down the corridor.
(MPOV)
I vented a contented sigh as I came slowly online, cuddled against my Optimus.
::. KAE!.:: Jolt's voice bellowed over the primary. I was instantly alert.
::. Jolt! What's wrong?.:: I sent back worriedly. The bot was scrambling through the door to our quarters the next moment, Optimus online and watching with worry.
"Lena and I, we were together, but she got jumped back into her own body and she started crying and I don't know what's wrong and she's not talking to me and I don't know what to do!" Jolt babbled, completely terrified.
"Come here, Jolt," I stated calmly, crawling over my Optimus and sitting on the edge of our berth, holding my arms out to the bot.
He walked over and offered up a sobbing Lena.
I surveyed the scene for a half moment before gently collecting the woman, onlining my holoform in her same state of dress in my own hands.
I wrapped my holoform's arms around her and rocked.
"Lena," I murmured, "Lena tell me what's wrong."
"It's all my fault," Lena sobbed. "It's all my fault! I've ruined everything! You need to offline me it's all my fault."
Optimus jumped in shock, reaching for Jolt as he almost fell over, quickly settling the bot to sit on the edge of our berth with us.
"Lena," I murmured gently, rocking her. "You let me decide if you're supposed to offline, now tell me what you think is your fault."
"Jolt, Jolt and I were cuddling together the way we always do," Lena whimpered. "Except we were closer than we have been before, and I saw it..."
Jolt stared at her in terror.
"What did you see, dear," I murmured.
"The weapons information, I've ruined everything, it's all my fault," Lena began sobbing again. Beside me, Optimus sagged in relief, wrapping a gentle arm around Jolt.
"That was bound to happen eventually, nothing can be hidden between two sparks," he rumbled gently. Jolt nodded hesitantly, still resonating in fear.
"Make it go away, make it right again, I don't want to know it, I don't want to lose my Jolt," Lena sobbed in my holoform's arms.
"Lena," I murmured gently, carefully tipping her face up to look at me. "Lena that does not matter, the fact that you are so scared right now, that you feel so much grief is proof in itself that you can be trusted."
Lena looked up at me in shock.
"But what am I supposed to do?" she whimpered.
Optimus released a slow vent in thought. He glanced between the two of them for a moment before straightening in resolve.
I read his intent with some surprise and found myself smiling.
::. Bumblebee, will you come to our quarters for a moment?.:: he sent over the primary.
::. I'm on my way.:: Bumblebee sent worriedly.
::. Nothing bad, old friend, I simply need to borrow your skills as a scout for a moment.:: Optimus sent soothingly. I felt Bumblebee nodding, and after a moment he strode into our quarters, looking at us curiously.
"Is the connection present?" Optimus rumbled curiously.
Bee looked around for a moment and nodded, a shocked look in his optics.
"Yeah, not as strongly as you and Kae were right before she became a bot, but it's definitely there... and a heck of a lot stronger than yesterday?" Bee stated curiously. Optimus sagged in relief beside me.
"Thank you, Bee," he rumbled in relief. Our scout looked at us for a long moment before comprehension dawned in his optics.
"I'm gonna head out scouting?" he asked calmly, gesturing behind himself.
"Stay for a moment, please?" Optimus rumbled softly. Bumblebee nodded and came in a bit more, settling down on the bench and leaning back comfortably.
My Optimus turned and pulled Jolt a bit closer to himself.
"It would seem that you have found your spark-mate, Jolt," he rumbled gently, looking down at Jolt.
"I... I already..." Jolt started. "What...?"
"Perhaps a bit of history first," Optimus rumbled gently. I glanced at Lena and summoned a throw from my old quarters, gently wrapping it around her shoulders as I covered myself somewhat. Just a bra and panties, I didn't want her to feel uncomfortably naked in our presence.
"Prime?" Jolt asked softly.
"You may be surprised to know that our scouts did not begin as star-searchers," Optimus rumbled gently. "Instead, they found our mates, a truly gifted scout sees something that we cannot. Bumblebee, sees connecting threads wherever he goes, whether it is the magnetic fields between two objects, or what he says is a thread between two sparks."
"I figured out how to show you guys, if that counts," Bumblebee added calmly. Optimus looked at him in surprise and nodded.
Bee grinned and brought up a holoform, Optimus and I before I'd changed. I didn't see any connections.
"Now, this is what I see," Bumblebee smiled.
I felt myself jump in surprise to see a two toned silvery blue rope extending between the two of us, centred to our sparks.
"I didn't start seeing them for a long time, they appeared several vorn ago, around the time I fully switched my primary to scout." Bumblebee shrugged. He looked between Jolt and Lena and changed the holoform, Jolt standing on one side and Lena on the other. I noted with amusement that Bee had put clothes on Lena, she sagged slightly in my hand in obvious relief.
"Now, the connection between you two still isn't quite as strong as Optimus and Kae's before she became a bot, but it is about the thickness I saw spring to being the moment they stood in front of each other." Bumblebee stated calmly, modifying his hologram.
A thread, one that seemed to be growing slightly extended from Lena and Jolt, connecting each other. Green and gold. Complimentary colours between them.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Jolt asked curiously.
"Cause the first time I said anything about it, it freaked the pit out of the bots," Bumblebee snorted. "Of course that was pretty much because it was Roadrunner and Neutra, and nobody could even comprehend just how much they liked each other spark-deep."
"Roadrunner and Neutra!?" Optimus rumbled incredulously.
"I know right?" Bumblebee snorted. "Couldn't look at each other without fighting, but for some reason they just kept gettin' drawn together. And the connection just grew stronger. Dunno if anybody knew that they wound up accidentally bonding to each other." Bumblebee finished, pointing to the thread. "Of course between you two, you started out the same as Kae and Optimus, a thread connecting the two of you like this, but it has been getting stronger. Really started getting stronger about a month or so ago. And today it looks like this." he changed the holoform slightly, the thread seeming to have started weaving itself into an intricate braid.
"So..." Lena started softly in my hand.
Bumblebee looked at her with worried optics.
"I know it's hard to believe, Lena, and I know that humans really don't like having their mates chosen for them, by fate or whatever, that's why I didn't tell Kae and Optimus that they've been tied together since the first time they saw each other. Same goes for you and Jolt, I can only..." he crossed his eyes. "This is where the metaphysical stuff starts knotting my processors, I can only assume that the ties are the vestige of a spark-bond from the past life."
"But..." Lena frowned, she looked at Jolt. "I'm twenty-eight, if our sparks were dancing together through lives, wouldn't we be around the same age?"
I looked at my little-brother as he grinned, leaning forward.
"Finally!" he crowed.
Optimus, Jolt, Lena and I stared at him curiously.
"I'm sorry," Bee stated immediately, looking down. "It's just I've now got two human-bot connections in the same room, so I've been meaning to ask:" Bumblebee looked at Jolt. "Around twenty-eight annum ago, can you remember even the smallest twinge, a wrench, something in your spark that you couldn't understand, and then a little while later you felt happy again, even just the littlest bit?"
I looked at my Optimus curiously as shock began resonating through our joined sparks.
"Nineteen annum ago, I felt that," Optimus rumbled softly, looking at me.
"I did..." Jolt murmured in a confused tone.
"I knew it!" Bumblebee promptly stood up, threw his arms in the air and began doing a victory dance.
I watched my little-brother in amusement for a moment.
"Victory dancer needs to spill," I stated with a low laugh.
"Jolt and Optimus felt your previous lives end, and then knew when you were born," Bumblebee smirked. "Of course they didn't know that they knew, but they felt it! Which means my theory is correct. Hah."
I felt my Optimus' amusement as we watched Bumblebee dance around a bit more.
"So..." Lena started softly, sitting shocked in my hand.
"So it means that I'm right!" Bumblebee crowed, he crouched down a little to look Lena in the eyes. "Further proof, you've started feeling addicted to Jolt, being around him is like the greatest drug in the universe, 'cause not only do you feel better, a little more whole when he's near, but you can't help but feel like losing him is gonna hurt like the pit itself."
The way it was between Optimus and I.
I jumped about a foot in the air when a familiar sensation touched my hand.
Sparkflare.
"Lena!" Jolt stated in shock. She was grasping her chest with tears streaming down her face.
"Jolt," she whispered in a choked tone, reaching for him.
"Lena your spark just flared!" Jolt stated in a shocked tone, Optimus and I couldn't help but smile as the two of them reached for each other, their movements as automatic as ours were. Bumblebee was grinning like a mad-bot.
"Well, I suppose that leaves us with only one thing left to do," Optimus rumbled contentedly as Jolt accepted Lena into his hands and pulled her close to his spark.
The two of them looked at us in shock as I nuzzled into my Optimus.
"We should ask her first," I murmured with a snort.
"I believe that was the one thing left for us to do," Optimus murmured in amusement.
"No it's the one thing left for you to do, which if she says yes means one hell of a lot of work for me to do," I shot back at him with a low laugh.
"Really!?" Jolt demanded, looking between the two of us in shock.
"Really," Optimus murmured with a smile.
"You... you mean I-I can..." he stammered. I couldn't help but smile as the purest tones of hope began resonating through his spark.
"Human in the room needs translation," Lena called out in a wry tone. Jolt looked down at her and she gasped. Optimus and I smiled at each other at the look of love in his optics.
"Lena," Jolt whispered. "Lena Elizabeth Davies, know that in no way do I ever wish to put pressure on you. Know that you have become the most important person in the universe to me, and I would joyfully stand beside you and behind you to the end of days." I felt a small amount of amusement as my Optimus silently sent a suggestion of what to say.
"For the universe, Lena," Jolt whispered, "For the universe I would not change you, for my own selfish desires I would ask to change you to keep you forever."
Lena sat in shock in Jolt's hands.
I looked up at my Optimus in amusement as he shot me an innocent look. I reached for his spark with my own, letting him feel my approval that he would help another to snare the one whom they cared the most about.
He wound an arm a bit more closely around me, the two of us pressed tightly together.
"I mean you don't have to say yes or no now," Jolt added softly. "Take as long as you want to decide, I'm not going anywhere."
"Yes," Lena whispered. She turned and looked at Optimus and I, then back at Jolt. She looked at me again. "Kae, what did you say to Optimus, when he said that?"
I felt my Optimus shoot a wry look at Jolt. Our communications technician grinned.
"I said I would leave my body for a stronger one, for my own selfish desires I would change to keep him forever," I murmured.
"Good, what she said," Lena stated perfunctorily, grinning before she hurled herself to wind her arms around Jolt's neck.
He sat in shock.
"Jolt?" Lena asked worriedly. I scanned him for a moment and laughed.
"Don't worry about it, Lena," I laughed softly. "Give him a minute to online his processors and sync them. You just blew his mind dear."
"His processors are really quiet!" Bumblebee stated with a grin. "Right, I'm out."
"No speeding tickets," Optimus rumbled with a snort.
"Aaww..." Bee snorted before perking up and walking out the door.
Optimus looked at me curiously.
"You forgot the high speed chases," I told him calmly. Optimus scrambled to his feet and poked his head out the door.
"No high speed chases!" he rumbled down the corridor.
"Awww!" Bumblebee called back, trying to sound petulant, but anyone could hear that grin. "How about the races next month?"
"Are they legal?" Optimus rumbled with a laugh.
"Yep!"
"Then yes."
I began laughing softly as Bumblebee cheered, the sound of him transforming and squealing out caught my auditory receptors before Optimus was back beside me again, winding me into the circle of his arms and nuzzling at my neck.
"You realize you've just doubled my workload again, right?" I told him in amusement.
"Mmm, how do I make it up to you?" he murmured wickedly, a hand slowly creeping toward my spark chamber.
"Well, you hold off until Jolt and Lena have made it back to their quarters, I'm certain Jolt doesn't mind, but it is your own rule to not ooohhh..." I broke off as he pressed one of the connections on my side. "Your own rule to not scar the humans," I murmured with a snort, looking at a blushing Lena. She looked terrified. I thought for a moment and understood why.
"Does that ever stop?" she asked softly, looking between the two of us.
"Not appreciably, but then I've never actually wanted him to stop," I informed her with a low laugh, pinning my Optimus' hands as they began wandering again. "Between us human girls, Lena, they aren't like human males, where you marry them and they change, becoming wife beaters or rapists-"
"Which I wouldn't be able to do anyway," my Optimus murmured, nuzzling my neck again. "How could I raise a hand against such beauty?"
"He's..." Lena choked softly.
"He's always been like that," Jolt laughed softly, cuddling his Lena. "Listen to Kae's spark, she's actually struggling to not simply pin him down and interface the hell out of him at the moment." True. "I'm not like that, I mean, I could be if you really wanted but..."
Lena stared at her Jolt then back at the two of us as I held my Optimus tightly in check. I knew that the second she looked into his optics she would see the loving mischief dancing in them. My bot had such expressive optics.
"We all desire something in our males," I stated gently, looking at Lena. "I know it's hard to understand, sometimes, and I got a lot of flack from it as a human, but I do have one hell of a libido. You don't need to worry about Jolt jumping on you like Optimus does me, and if you don't believe me, I would suggest that the two of you return to your quarters and entwine again. Lena, we can't lie to each other spark to spark, when your souls are interconnected like that you cannot hide anything from each other, and you cannot lie, because the spark beside your own will see and feel it. I know it feels like a dream, but it's real, he's right there beside you."
Lena sagged in relief in Jolt's hands.
"Everything I felt..." she whispered, looking at him. "Everything I felt from you... it's true?"
"Everything," Jolt whispered. Lena crawled up his arm and cuddled against his cheek, awkwardly dragging her blanket with her.
"I love you," she whispered. I smiled at her.
"By your leave," Jolt murmured, looking at us. I risked freeing a hand to wave our permission to him. Jolt smiled and rose, carrying his Lena back to their quarters.
Optimus and I sat in silence for a long minute after the doors closed.
"I did something wrong?" he murmured curiously.
"Not really, Lena is somewhat more fragile about sex than most," I murmured. Optimus set his forehead down on my shoulder.
"I am a glitch." he rumbled flatly.
"No, there's no damage," I laughed softly. "However there will be if you don't do something about the raging lust you've gone and fired up in me again." I added with a smirk, dragging his hand to my spark.
"Oh thank Primus," Optimus rumbled, dragging me back onto our berth and pinning me with his superior size. I began moaning as he lipped his way down my neck, his hands drifting everywhere.
Because in the mornings?
Oh there was nothing that was going to keep our hands off of each other for long.