Epilogue 2: Further Contact.
A/N This chapter is a giftfic for Dendey, who is also known as CMO Wishmaster of the Nerdene Hyrde. Now she asked me for this fic, and I have learned that in general, what the CMO wants, the CMO gets, it's just far more comfortable for you if you do as asked from the start. Also, thanks to KD Zeal who helped beta read this and helped when I got stuck.
So, without further ado, here is the giftfic chapter.
Further Contact.
Prowl sat in the rec room, drinking his energon and watching the other, as he came in and spoke first to the Twins and gave a nod to Arcee, who was on her way out. As Barricade moved around to speak to Jazz, Prowl's optics followed him around the room, quietly admiring the smoothness of his movements, courtesy of his hydraulic joints, and the gleam of his paintwork, so similar yet subtly different to his own.
The Decepticon shield was gone from Barricade's armour, replaced by the Nevada county shield. Although Barricade had evidently decided his Decepticon affiliation was needless when there were no more Decepticons likely to come to Earth, he had also not taken up the Autobot shield.
Barricade was, Prowl thought, something of an enigma. It was loneliness and the fear of being alone that had originally kept the former Decepticon in their Base, - although Prowl hoped that it was now more than that - but it was his fierce independence that set him aside from the others. He accepted their hospitality, but did not feel bound by that to join their side, and Prowl respected that. Not only was it the more difficult choice for an individual to make, it meant that Prowl knew where he and the others stood with Barricade. He was no longer their enemy, but neither was he their bosom friend.
He realised that he had been staring at Barricade so long that the other had noticed. His time of being a guard/guide was over: he had no legitimate reason to be watching Barricade like a hawk.
He broke the optic contact with Barricade, walking and getting himself more energon, before heading into the chill-out room which was, as he had expected, empty at this time. The truth was, Prowl found – in fact, always had found - Barricade highly attractive. His independence, self-assurance and arrogance could be off-putting to some, but for Prowl, it had the other effect. Strangely, it just made the ex-Decepticon that much more desirable, but Prowl wasn't sure how to approach Barricade, and also feared that to admit his feelings would leave him open to the pain of Barricade's possible rejection.
He moved further into the chill-out room, so lost in thought that he didn't notice the other enter a few minutes later, he didn't realise he was no longer alone until Barricade put his hand on Prowl's arm.
"Why were you staring at me out there, Prowl?" the other black and white mech asked, as blunt and direct as always. The hand held his arm so tightly that he could not pull away, but not so tight as to cause pain.
"I…I apologise. I was preoccupied." Said Prowl.
"You didn't answer my question." Barricade said. He reached over and took the energon Prowl was holding and put it to one side. Then he locked his optics with Prowl's.
"Why were you staring at me?"
Prowl opened his mouth but no words came out. He couldn't tell the other his feelings just like that. He couldn't look away from Barricade's own stare, and he cycled his vents a little, searching for words. Something must have shown on his face or optics, for Barricade suddenly grabbed Prowl by the shoulders and pulled him forwards, bringing them into contact, chest to chest.
Prowl's hands reflexively came up but the push against Barricade's chest was half-hearted, and stopped entirely as Barricade moved one hand from Prowl's shoulder to delicately caress the edge of one of his doorwings. Prowl gasped, and Barricade allowed his mouth to curve in a knowing yes sensuous smile, a smile that Prowl foud way too distracting.
"Or maybe this is it?" asked Barricade. "They say you don't express your feelings, but you must have then, just like any mech. Happiness, sadness, fear, desire….." he tailed off, then spoke again. "Is that it, Prowl, do you want me? If I'm wrong, just tell me to stop, tell me to go, and I shall." Barricade locked his optics with Prowl's again, the look challenging, as his mouth widened in a grin.
'Pit! He knows, but how?' Prowl thought, his processors whirling, not just with the fact that Barricade knew, but that the other black and white mech did not seem to be rejecting the idea. In fact…he seemed to be…encouraging him? Challenging him? Maybe daring him?
Prowl didn't make any move or voice any word at first, and when he
did respond, it wasn't verbally. His hands moved from where they lay on Barricade's chest down to the junction of his body with his hips, the motion caressing.
It was the only answer Barricade needed. As one hand slid up and down the edge of Prowl's doorwing, the other moved up from the shoulder to pull Prowl's head forwards so he could kiss him. Dermaplates met and were pressed together as Barricade firmly initiated the kiss, his glossa probing the edges of Prowl's dermaplates. Prowl was quick to open them to allow their glossas to twine. One of his hands moved up, eager to examine the chassis both so like and yet unlike his own, as a passion-driven whine escaped his vocaliser. His hands tightened reflexively on Barricade's outer thighs, his digit tips catching onto the seams.
Once he and Prowl were fully engaged in the kiss, there was no further need to exert pressure on Prowl's head. Barricade kept caressing the doorwing with one hand while trailing the claws of the other down Prowl's back, the stimulation making Prowl shiver and twitch. The hand lingered briefly over the body/hip juncture but then moved down surely and then the hand curled itself around one side of Prowl's aft, the touch going from light to firm in an astrosecond.
Prowl's own hands had begun gliding up and down Barricade's plating, feeling the edges and seams so very different to his own. He found an exposed cable and stroked it, heard Barricade gasp in surprise and pleasure, and kept one hand caressing it while the other moved upwards.
"You like that?" he asked, a question he wasn't really expecting to be answered, at least not verbally, and then he squirmed at the aft-grab, but retaliated by grabbing hold of one of Barricade's shoulder-wings and stroking the glass. It was Barricade who broke the kiss at this point as he bucked and threw his head back, and Prowl took advantage of this to plant his dermaplates on Barricade's neck juncture and run his glossa over the seams.
Barricade's hand left Prowl's aft to mimic its opposite number on Prowl's other doorwing. He trailed his claws down the inner surfaces, drawing them towards the attachment seams and hinges. He lightly brushed the sensitive junctures with his claws, and Prowl squealed and bucked at the teasing caresses, his dermaplates losing contact with Barricade's neck. In an optic-shutter, Barricade moved his hand until it was under Prowl's chin, pushing the head firmly but not brutally back and to the side. Then Barricade bent his head to Prowl's neck seams, licking and gently biting, while still stimulating the back/door junctures.
Prowl cried out at the stimulation, and stuttered out something that sounded like "Oh, Primus, Barricade!" as Barricade's fingers teased and tickled at the hinges. Barricade's arms suddenly tightened as his leg whipped around to hook both Prowl's legs out from under him. Barricade pushed down as Prowl overbalanced, throwing his arms out in an attempt to brace himself for the fall but there was no need, Barricade was controlling their descent, his strong hydraulic joints taking Prowl's weight, his knees bending to lower them both, and he bore the Autobot down to the floor.
Prowl felt his back placed on the floor, then felt Barricade pin him there as the other lay atop him, holding his arms down with his hands. The hands moved to caress Prowl's palms, and Barricade bent to kiss Prowl again, firmly, hungrily, and Prowl responded in kind. As Prowl's hands pushed past Barricade's, and rose to squeeze and caress Barricade's shoulder-wheels, Barricade's digits went to rub against Prowl's neck joint as his legs squeezed one of Prowl's own between them.
Prowl twitched and his spark pulsed, and Barricade's pulsed in reaction. That combined with the stimulation already being given was all that was needed to send them both into overload, Prowl first, followed swiftly by Barricade. Cries came from their vocal processors, and Prowl's horn sounded, but the stimulation was not enough for them to lose control of the functioning flashing lights and sirens of their police vehicle alt-modes.
It was Barricade who came out from it first, and he grasped Prowl's head in his hands and gazed upon it, before Prowl twitched and began to come back online. Barricade loosened his grip and trailed a claw around the edge of each of Prowl's audio processors. Prowl twitched again in response, but reached his own hands up to the back of Barricade's head, his digits trailing up the back until they stroked up the sensor-spikes at the top of Barricade's head.
Barricade squealed, and his engine sputtered into life and began to rev, and he bucked on top of Prowl, his own caressing digits stopping, stalling, as the highly sensitive sensor-tips flooded his processors with pleasure. Lowering his head, he eased himself down on Prowl, carefully easing himself down until he could run his fingers and glossa over Prowl's chest clasps. Prowl moaned softly beneath him at this, managing to start his own engine, trying to match his rhythm as closely as possible to that of Barricade's engine, but did not stop his attentions to Barricade's head sensory arrangement, something Barricade was both pleased and annoyed about. Pleased because Primus! it sent such lovely sensations down him, but annoyed because that same pleasure was slagging distracting!
He was suddenly even more distracted when Prowl craned his neck up to lick over the sensors with his glossa too. Barricade froze as he tried to organise his processors to think around the flood of pleasure Prowl's glossa was teasing from his sensors.
"I can play dirty too." Barricade managed to hoarsely get out, reaching his hands up to grasp and caress Prowl's own sensor-horns. A gasp and a pause in the glossal teasing of his own spikes told Barricade that Prowl's chevrons were as sensitive as his own sensor-crown. Returning his glossa to tease Prowl's chest-clasps, his clever, sure hands busily rubbed and caressed the brow horns of the tactician, who was reduced to crying out and clicking like a sparkling, well beyond words.
As Barricade felt Prowl's clasps loosen suddenly, he brought one of his hands down to tug at his own clasps. He abandoned Prowl's sensor spikes only long enough to slide himself back up until their chests were level. It was all that was needed in their heightened state to trigger the automatic separation of the chest plates causing their sparks to rise towards each other. Their hands no longer hovered on the sensors, but roved over arms and shoulders. Then they both stiffened, as their sparks merged, clutching at each other, crying out, their engine revs climbing to an unbroken roar, the sound followed astroseconds later by their sirens sounding at full blast and their lights flashing, lighting up the room in surreal flickers of red and blue. Both Barricade and Prowl were totally unaware of this as they flew into full overload.
As they briefly came back online, Barricade carefully slid off Prowl, and carefully, tenderly gathered him into his arms. Prowl responded by resting one hand on Barricade's side and putting the other on his chest. He nuzzled into the other's shoulder, murmured something quietly that made the other chuckle a bit.
"Time to recharge. Maybe when we wake we'll do it all again." Barricade said. He relaxed one arm, bringing the hand round with one finger extended to trail a claw along the edge of Prowl's chin, and then up to trace around his dermaplates, then dropped the hand and put the arm back where it had been, around Prowl's chassis. Prowl smiled and snuggled further into Barricade's arms.
They stayed like that as they slid into recharge together.