TITLE: Random Intervals, 4
SERIES: Imperfection
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: R-ish for suggestive content
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money
Author's Voice of Warning (aka Author's Note):
English is not my first language; it's German. This is the best I can do. Any mistakes you find in here, collect them and you might win a prize The spell-checker said everything's okay, but you know how trustworthy those thingies are...
FEEDBACK: Loved
BETA: okamimyrrhibis

And now for a resemblance of smut... I barely make it past the R-ish rating, really. It's also the longest ficlet in the series so far.

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When Ironhide had constructed the simulation chamber, a lot of the soldiers stationed at the Autobot base had been interested in trying out the training programs. The mech had explained that simulators were something the Cybertronians had regularly used on their home planet, as well as on military vessels to keep recruits up to date. It had been easy enough to find a spare room that permitted mechs of all sizes to use it, as well as allow access for the humans.

Forty-five minutes.

The black figure moved with elegance and fluid grace. Larger than the average human, small for a Cybertronian, Will Lennox had employed his protoform alternate shape to confront what the training program threw at him. He had grown very much accustomed to the protoform. It wasn't a true mechanoid protoform, just a simulated one, and he was still a strange blend of flesh and blood underneath. He could bleed and had already done so when confronting the crazed Sector Seven experiment.

Sixty minutes.

Lennox was hardly tired. One level followed another. He had just beat five guys attacking him at once and they all sizzled out the same fashion as the first. Either Ironhide's program was sissy-stuff, or… Lennox laughed at himself.

The doors opened and the program froze, allowing the visitor safe entry. It was one of many safety features and it made sense. The chamber had no spectator rows, only cameras that allowed someone else to watch should the trainee choose to enable that function. If anyone walked inside, he needed to be safe.

Ironhide's figure was silhouetted against the glaring outside light. Blue optics glowed softly in a dark face and Will shot his friend and partner a smile. His protoform face was roughly molded after his human one, though no one could really say it was Will as a robot. He twirled the rod he had used to defend himself lazily between the fingers of his left hand, then transferred it to his right.

"Hey," he greeted the Autobot.

"Heard you were hanging around. Thought I'd come and see what you were up to."

Ironhide stepped into the room and the door slid closed.

Will smiled humorlessly. "I thought I'd blow some steam. But this program of yours sucks."

"Is that so?" Ironhide folded his arms and stared at Lennox with a frown.

The chamber was his baby. He had designed it. Insulting the simulations was an insult to Ironhide.

Will raised his chin. "Yeah."

"What level have you tried?"

"The first five. Child's play."

"I see. So you are looking for a challenge?"

Lennox twirled the rod once again and set the corners of his mouth. He was ready for a fight - a real fight. It wasn't the first time he and Ironhide went up against each other, but the last few times the mech had always managed to overpower him one way or another. He was just a lot more seasoned. He had experience and Will was still too set in his human way of fighting. That would change with more practice, something the simulator was for, too.

"Volunteering?" Lennox just asked.

Ironhide smirked.

"Choice of weapons?"

"Whatever becomes available," was the weapons specialist's answer.

Will nodded. Fair. He threw the rod away and waited for Ironhide to choose another program. It gave them a more natural setting, though not nature itself. An abandoned building with all kinds of debris and a lot of weaponry to choose from.

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The smirk on Ironhide's face was plainly visible. It was more of a shit-eating grin anyway. Blue optics glowed and Will was drawn between laughter and glaring at his partner. He was pinned to the ground, flat on his back, Ironhide's weight keeping him down. His hands were twisted over his head and held in a vice-like grip.

"Giving up?" Ironhide taunted.

Now Will glared.

It had been a tough fight, to their limits, and he knew Ironhide could have drawn blood, so to speak, but instead he had just bruised him a lot. Despite the protoform body, when he changed back to human he would show those injuries, even as minor as they were now.

"Yeah, I give up," Lennox growled.

"Good boy."

"Don't overdo it, Ironhide."

It got him a laugh.

As Ironhide released his hands, he trailed the free hand over the outstretched upper body. He was still straddling Will and in any other kind of shape – like a human body – their position would have been quite compromising.

Will caught the hand and his ice blue optics caught Ironhide's darker ones. No words were spoken, but something shivered through Will. Cybertronians had no physical intercourse, but there was something called the learning curve when it came to them understanding humans. Ironhide had already shown he adapted to his human partner's needs.

"Is this an offer?" Will asked quietly, breaking the silence.

"Would you accept?"

Instead of an answer, Will placed his hand on Ironhide's chest, watched the runes rise to the surface of his protoform skin and coalesce.

Ironhide's optics flashed with rising expectation.

Lennox smiled and did what was now becoming almost natural, like a sixth sense when it concerned sharing. The rush was amazing, flooding his senses, pulling him along a ride no human could ever understand or experience. His body and mind sang, reverberating with the energies of them both. Everything felt so much sharper, clearer, was so much stronger and filled with such… such energy, it was breathtaking and vitalizing in one. Will knew it was only moments in human time, but for a mech it was both intense and long, both rushed and deep. A part inside of him he had come to call the 'Allspark part' pulsed gently, adding to the sensation, and he knew that for Ironhide, sharing with him was different than with a 'normal' mech.

When he returned to the reality of the world around them, blue optics regarded him with a gentle light. He had reverted back to human again and his skin was awash with runes.

"That good, huh?" he murmured lazily.

Ironhide chuckled. "I hope for both of us."

"You gotta ask?"

Lennox got up and glanced at his bare arms. It was like looking at the surface of the Allspark, all cosmic code and Ancient Cybertronian writing. Ironhide ran a blunt finger tip over one arm, drawing pulsing runes in his wake.

"Don't have to ask," he finally said, sounding smug.

Will laughed a little. "I think I better keep these under cover till the tingles wear off." He pulled on his jacket. "Don't want Prime to have a pump failure."

Ironhide only smirked.

They left the training chamber not much later. Will went for a shower and lunch, Ironhide to check on his latest weapons tests. It came as no great surprise that they gravitated together again. Lennox still had his sandwich in hand as he walked into Ironhide's lab, and even their silence spoke volumes.

Leaning against the wall as he sat on the work bench, Will watched his partner work. He felt content. Calm. At peace. And so did the runes.

It was weird and he wouldn't have believed it years ago, but being with Ironhide, in a relationship that defied human definition, was like something he had always been looking for without knowing it.