TC and the Freeze

Part 3

Soft touches drew him out of the oblivion of an endless recharge cycle. Soft touches, certainly not the pinpricks of weight from the two humans who had decided his frame made a decent place for their own recharge. Soft touches but not hesitant and no where near his interface panel where he would expect such touches to lead. They were deliberate but not deliberately arousing, they had some other purpose.

Thundercracker felt his systems online one after another, the only hitch coming from the servos moving across his shoulders and then down one hand. There was no rush, no danger that his sensors could detect, so his systems took their time coming back to full power. One of the last systems to reach operational status were his optics.

The first image the drowsy seeker saw was a solid white shoulder. Shifting his vision towards the chest, encountering a wheel before shifting to a red chest plate. The seeker's data stacks seemed to be busy with other calculations and so couldn't give him an explanation as to why this red and white mech was pawing at him or designation. He didn't see a faction symbol on the grounder's chest plate so his optics traveled up in the hopes of recognizing the mech's faceplate. What he saw was a battle mask and a blue visor.

Battle systems, which hadn't even been in the startup queue, were shoved to the head of the line. The Autobot, who had been so gently pawing at him, held up his hands in the universal sign of I-come-in-peace as soon as he noticed Thundercracker's optics on him.

"I mean you no harm." The Autobot said as if his gesture didn't say as much.

"Leave," he growled pressing his cannon roughly against his enemy's head even though the weapon had failed to charge the first time.

"I disabled your weapons."

"I can still tear you apart with my bare hands." The seeker's weapon still failed to charge so he decided that the Autobot was telling the truth. White and red were medic colors so he probably knew how to do it. That just left him with a few questions like "how much time did it take him to come out of recharge," "how long was the Autobot fiddling with his systems before he noticed," and of course the all important one, "how did the slagging Autobot find him?" The whole fraggin' planet to get lost in, he couldn't be detected outside of a thousand feet due to the iron deposits, and the Autobot still finds him passed out in the first week.

"Please let me help you. I promise not to tell anyone you're here if you let me treat you."

"So if I tell you to slag off you'll tell all your Autobot friends where to find me." It was so easy to mess with do-gooders that it was a reflexive action by now. Even with the blast mask and visor the Decepticon could see he was having an effect on the other mech.

"No, no, that's not what I meant. I mean, if you do attack me I'll certainly call for back up but could you please allow me check for shorts under your dermal plating." The Autobot was begging to get under his armor. It might have been the way he'd just spent the last age but there seemed to be something obscene about the phrase.

"And what makes you think there's a short in my dermal plating?" Having the soft touch under his plating sounded even better than having it glide over the surface. So the seeker already knew that he didn't have a short, Starscream would have seem something as simple as that on the scan he did, but the soft touch didn't know what was wrong with him and was determined to find out. Sure Thundercracker could just tell him but where was the fun in that.

"You're recharging in a national forest in an area that your faction hasn't even been seen in. You couldn't come fully online when the boys were using you as a berth and when they mentioned the other robots, you didn't even do a cursory visual scan and see me standing at the entrance. Something's obviously wrong with you and I intend to find out what it is." The Autobot tried to say with the same ferocity as the infamous Hatchet…and failed.

Thundercracker started laughing and even when his companion's shoulders drooped, the seeker couldn't stop laughing. It wasn't until his systems started dropping back into recharge that the sound died away.

"This is precisely what I'm talking about. You're laughing in the face of an enemy and still falling into recharge." The Autobot stroked the seeker's face: a warm, soft gesture that the jet couldn't remember ever receiving. "Please let me help you."

"Fine, do whatever you want." To a Decepticon that phrase was all but an invitation to cross wires. To this Autobot though it seemed to be an invitation to continue what he had been doing before the seeker had awoken enough for it to be a consent issue. The Autobot wasn't even approaching his interface panel and yet it still gave off a low level static charge. Did the Autobot not know what his soft touches were doing to his patient?

"You don't have to be gentle. It's not like I'm fresh off the factory floor." The seeker said when he realized just how distracting the touches were becoming.

"I don't cause my patients pain." The Autobot said it as if he'd been insulted.

"I'm not talking about pain. I'm talking about being firm enough that I can tell what you're doing." It at least sounded like a reasonable concern instead of letting the medic just how good his touches felt, even against a half off line sensor net.

"Oh, I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions like that. There's just a lot of stress weakness in places you wouldn't expect battle damage." The poor mech couldn't even say it, that he'd thought the seeker was a masochist. Thundercracker wondered what it would do to him if he knew that during a Heat interface he couldn't even feel the pain. Pit, the way this Autobot was acting if he knew even a fraction of the seeker's interface history he would glitch up.

"You're looking for a short." The jet reminded him but mostly he was trying to keep from ex-venting in relief. The ambulance had increased his pressure until it was a firm presence against his side. Across his side and then against his wing had his mandible snapping shut unexpectedly.

"I'm sorry, did that hurt?" The medic pulled away leaving a mellow static charge on the surface of the wing. That was not what Thundercracker wanted right now.

"It's fine, keep going."

"But did it hurt? Pain is a system's way of processing damage." His hands still weren't on the jet's wings and the static charge was just sitting on the surface, frustrating the sensors as they tried to pick up more of the sensation.

"No, it didn't hurt and if you put your hand back I'm sure you'll figure it out."

The Autobot looked at him dubiously for a moment before lightly setting a hand back on the wing. Static gathered where the two plates gathered and as it leapt between it was the medic's turn to pull away as if injured.

"That's not a short, is it?"

"I thought medics were supposed to be intelligent." So much for Starscream's theory that he'd be dead to the world during the Freeze. Then again, how often was a seeker pawed over like this? If he'd still been in Heat he'd have forced a hook up as soon as he'd come online.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize how sensitive the wing was." The medic finally placed both hands on the wing and continued looking for the short while ignoring the increasing static charge. "I don't suppose you could think of something else."

"What makes you think it's my thoughts that are building a charge? You're the one giving me the best wing massage of my existence." Thundercracker nearly purred when the medic moved to the other wing to give it the same attention.

"I am? Couldn't you ask one of your colleagues for one?" The naiveté of the question had the Decepticon laughing again.

"And just who would you suggest I trust to give me a wing massage without damaging them?" It took a while for the medic to respond but while he was thinking he didn't stop the motion of his hands which had shifted to something less than professional and more than friendly.

"What about your wing mates? Being seekers themselves they would know how sensitive they are."

"Now I remember who you are. You're the arm of Defensor. You gesalt mechs always have funny ideas about what teammates should and shouldn't be. I'll let you in on a little secret. Starscream wouldn't give me a wing message if I gave him Megatron's head on a titanium platter and I wouldn't trust Skywarp to not use the opportunity for a prank."

"As an individual component my designation is First Aid, and yours?"

"Thundercracker, most notable contribution blowing out optics and audios."

"Ah, so you're the reason we have them stock piled in such numbers." First Aid's hands lingered on the wing, building a charge that seemed to distract both of them. "Could you turn over please?"

Instead of responding the seeker simply sat up causing the Autobot to flinch at the sudden movement. He ignored the show of weakness and settled on his cockpit with both arms braced to take some of the weight.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to react like that. I didn't expect you to move so fast." First Aid apologized as his hands started their search for the short on the back of his helm. The hands felt pleasantly cool against the helm, heated as it was by his processing components.

"So you wouldn't mind if I moved slow?" Thundercracker asked making sure to inflect the full implications of the question.

"Are you hitting on me?" The soothing hands stopped their journey from neck to back at their owner's shock.

"Is that so shocking? You're not ugly and I think I've mentioned how great your hands are." Probably miles away from romantic but he hadn't had any practice since he'd been a mechling. Besides he as a Decepticon. The medic certainly couldn't expect him to start spouting poetry or some slag like that.

"I'm your medic, it wouldn't be appropriate." First Aid finally said. It sounded like a weak excuse even to the medic but the hands resumed their search/message without further delay.

"Yeah and I'm your patient but only today." The seeker sat up ignoring the soft hands that tried to hold him down. He ended up kneeling next to the kneeling Autobot who now had those sinful hands clenched in his own lap as if he were afraid to touch.

"We shouldn't do this." The medic said softly keeping his visor turned to his lap.

"No one has to know. Hey," Thundercracker used a finger to lift the smaller mech's chin until he was fairly certain he was looking him straight in the optics. "If you don't want to do this we won't, but I want you right now. I want to interface with you slow, so slow I'll have your every sensor mapped out with my hands, my glossa, my vents."

It was apparently the right thing to say because when the seeker looked down he saw those sinful hands on his own thighs just barely pressing into the transformation seams. Looking up he had just enough time to realize First Aid had removed his blast mask before he was pulled into a passionate kiss. It was a new experience for the jet but then again so was foreplay so he decided to go with it.

Thundercracker reached for the back of his partner's neck, pulling him in closer, deepening the novelty of the kiss. A glossa darted across his lips asking for something more as one of the hands danced up to his hip seam and dug in, grazing against the components that allowed him to walk. He gasped at the sensation allowing the foreign glossa to dance across his own with a taste of static.

The seeker might have less experience with foreplay but he wasn't going to let the medic take command. His free hand reached up and grabbed one of the tires, squeezing him gently, enjoying the gentle give of the material. It was First Aid's turn to gasp and for Thundercracker to plunder his mouth. The hand on the medic's neck moved down, kneading at the jut of armor that would be the hood of the ambulance.

"Wait, wait," First Aid gasped breathlessly pulling away from the kiss but not the touch. "I forgot to tell you, my brothers…"

"Unless they're standing outside with their rifles to take vengeance against me for stealing your virtue I don't care." Thundercracker said doing his best to make the Autobot forget what he was thinking by using both hands to fondle the wheels, pushing gently into the wheel wells to see what reaction he'd get.

"No but they're in the bond," apparently the tires weren't enough to distract the medic so the seeker tried to kiss away the thoughts. The Autobot pulled away with a longing moan but it wasn't enough to distract the seeker from his self-appointed duty of distracting the medic. Since the lips were out of reach, he lay kisses down the exposed throat, toying with the exposed circuits.

"I mean that they can feel what you're doing to me." First Aid finally managed to say though his voice seemed higher than it should.

"Then I'll have to make sure they enjoy themselves." His hands moved down, leaving the wheels that weren't sensitive enough and searched for transformation seams and sensors that were.

"Now that I know you know what you're getting into." It was all the warning he was given before the Autobot's hands were everywhere. His helmet dropped to First Aid's shoulder while digging into the hip, trying to find a way to anchor himself to reality. They hadn't even plugged in yet and he already felt like he was going to burst. The impossibly talented hands scraped across the surface of the wing, pressing against the edge, discovered just how insensitive they were, and instead focused on the join where wing met back.

"I want to feel you, let me feel you." First Aid whispered directly into his audio, made easier by the fact that Thundercracker had yet to lift his head from the other's shoulder. The hands slowed, granting the seeker the processor space needed to process the Autobot's request. He wanted to feel the jet, a second level interface, not just energy swapping and overload but a data stream of emotions and sensations.

"Gesalt mechs," Thundercracker groaned it like a curse. The combaticons didn't bother but a seeker had to promise a second level interface as soon as he grabbed a component from one of the other gesalts. It was like it was impossible for them to overload without knowing what their partners were feeling.

"Is that a yes?' First Aid asked quietly brushing his fingers over the jet's panel but not opening it, no matter how desperately he wanted to feel the other.

"Sure, not going to last long without it." Thundercracker accepted, his panel sliding open with a second brush of the hand. The jet didn't fumble around looking for the medic's panel. He might have never been with an ambulance before but he'd been with enough different models to make a very educated guess where it was.

"Thank you," it was such an odd thing to say during an interface that the seeker's systems slowed to wonder what that was about. The click of course, signaled Thundercracker loosing control of the situation again. With the fresh thrum of energy it was slightly easier to think, at least now he could notice that he didn't have any of his firewalls up.

"Well slag," Thundercracker cursed as the data streams began equalizing their frequency. Reading the data stamp he tried hard not to cringe. This wasn't going to be a level two interface or even a level three where they would share a thoughts and maybe a few associative memories if one of the partners couldn't keep his thoughts on the here and now. No, the gesalt mech didn't even notice where the firewalls should have been and had dived right in for the fourth level, the might-as-well-be-bonded level where spark energies would leak into the connection and they'd have full access to each others hard drives. The effects would end as soon as they disconnected and they were guaranteed to overload as long as one of them did but still…that was being a lot closer to any mech than he wanted to be.

"Frag I didn't realize how sensitive your wings were." There should have been something wrong with hearing First Aid curse but the Decepticon was to busy enjoying the scrape of those sinful hands against the surface of one wing. They were at level two now, if they managed to overload before their systems came into total synch the seeker could dodge all those touch feelings associated with even temporarily bonding with the enemy, even one with such nice hands.

"Hm, I understand the lust but why are you embarrassed?" First Aid asked using one hand to lift the seeker's gaze to meet his own.

"You've got such great hands and you know just where to touch. I can't seem to find any of your hot spots." Lying was such an integrated part of his programming that the deception didn't even send a blip across the data stream. To keep up the pretense the seeker stroked along a seam. The feeling was good but it was no comparison to a pass of those hands across his other wing.

"You really enjoy that, don't you? Don't worry, I'll give you a hint when we get close." The medic teased pulling the seeker into another drawn out kiss. This was something the jet could certainly dominate at. First Aid was gently pushed onto his back as the larger jet finally took advantage of the fact that he was indeed larger.

"Don't need a hint, I can find it myself." Thundercracker growled letting his engine rumble for emphasis. That got a response from his partner's sensor net but it was too brief to pinpoint the hot spots.

"Well if you're certain," First Aid teased ending with a soft gasp. A sensor in the back of his knee was sensitive and Thundercracker made a note of the area but it still wasn't the all-sensitive overload with a touch spot that he was looking for.

"Quiet you," the seeker ordered before trying to kiss him into oblivion while increasing the energy flowing between them. He should probably increase the frequency as well to speed up their overload but it just seemed like too much effort, more effort than slowly working his way across his lover's chassi in exploration. Yes, that sounded much better than rushing.

"Is it because reaching a higher frequency is too much effort or because maintaining it is difficult?' Welcome to stage three where not even his thoughts were kept to himself. He could get defensive or he could get aggressive.

"Do you always diagnose during an interface?" He decided to ask as he took to nibbling on the tires to make sure that they were still as unresponsive as before.

"Well since I'm here I might as well." Normally he'd get defensive or simply beat the slag out of someone who talked to him like that but even a Decepticon couldn't grasp onto an angry reply when he felt the teasing, the feeling of camaraderie that was pouring through the hard line, and the apology that quickly followed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like it sounded."

"Don't be, relax," he whispered assuring him across the hard line that he had taken no hurt from the teasing. To further the point, Thundercracker took hold of one of his hands pressing against his chassi and brought it to his lips. Nibbling across the knuckles nearly triggered his own overload and had the Autobot's visor blacking out as he tried to keep from going over the edge.

"I found it."

"So…so you have," a minor glitch in the vocalizer was almost as good as having his name screamed for everyone to hear, or at least the rocks to hear.

"Now I should be embarrassed. Medics always have sensors along every micron of their hands." The seeker punctuated this by scrapping each knuckle with his teeth. He pulled back the energy flowing across the hard line to keep his partner from overloading. He liked the sensation of keeping First Aid right on the edge, wondering in a vague part of his processor how long he could keep his partner right here.

::If he keeps you like this for long, I'll push you over.:: Blades, and Thundercracker only knew it was Blades because of the hint of recognition from First Aid's side of the link.

"Tell your gesalt that I'm playing with you right now and they can talk later." The seeker said admitting to having over heard the gesalt communication without admitting to what he had over heard. Then because he was an evil Decepticon he nearly stopped the flow of energy as he sucked on each finger.

"Primus," First Aid gasped, his optics whited out but he held off overloading, sensing that his partner still wanted to play.

They'd synched. Now at stage four of the interface there was nothing secret between the two of them, including that the other four components of Defensor were very interested in what they were doing. First Aid felt a bit abashed now that Thundercracker could see just how closely they were watching but before he could try to form some sort of apology for his brother's intentional voyeurism, he felt the thrill of challenge from the jet.

Thundercracker decided that to keep the components of Defensor from going any deeper into his processor, he would just have to overload them all, at the same time. The gesalt had various opinions on the matter ranging from "oh Primus" to "bring it jet."

The blue seeker smirked at the ambulance beneath him, already looking completely fragged over without even overloading. His lips looked positively shiny where the paint had been scraped off revealing the unvarnished metal. His visor was dim, heading to black along the edges signaling a low power mode or a drain from some other system; like sensors and interface drives. The sound of his fans working on full speed drowned out any natural sound that might have tried to intrude. The hand that had been pressed against the jet had flopped to the side in the same power drain while the other was held tightly in the seekers hand showing just as much energy.

Thundercracker let the hand drop, enjoying the barely there recognition of impact as he shifted. Now the seeker positively loomed over his captive, his knees resting just under the Autobot's shoulders. He captured the image, knowing he could overload himself with that image alone, no matter whom his partner was.

"Do you know what I'm going to do to you?" Thundercracker rumbled as he prepped all of his systems for the final assault on his captive.

First Aid shivered because he did know; of course he knew with their systems tied so closely. The gesalt link tightened in anticipation until he felt that he was no longer First Aid but a part of a greater consciousness. The shiver grew as he felt the jet pick up his hands and set them against his turbines. He moaned, though he could no longer hear it, when the seeker reached into his systems operations and flipped off his audio receivers and gyrostabilizers.

"Boom," Thundercracker whispered across the bond and into the empty air just before he redlined his systems.

Sound, heat, vibrations, absolute pleasure ripped through First Aid's systems triggering not one but simultaneous overloads for him, his brothers, and even the gesalt consciousness. There wasn't a thought that wasn't shoved out of his data stacks by the overwhelming sensations flooding him from every sensor. Circuit breakers tripped one after another until his automatic systems triggered a shut down before the overload could cycle.

End Part 3