Notes:

I hope I didn't give anyone a heart attack when they saw the update notice for this. I have no idea how it's been four years since I updated. How did that happen? Well, diminishing writing mojo, and some one-offs and other stories that kept cutting in line. Rude, huh? I just want everyone who has commented to know that I really, really appreciate your support. And for all of you I told that this story was not dead and I was working on the next chapter? Look! Proof! :P WARNINGS: Enthusiastic size kink, minor objectification of chestplates, threesome, sparksex, and kinda twincest (Rumble and Frenzy aren't directly having sex with each other but are gettin' on someone else). Oh, also slight virgin kink and losing-of-virginity. (ok, this sounds like a really kinky fic when I list those all together...I hope you all aren't disappointed!) Also, to be clear, Rumble and Frenzy are "young", yes, but only in the great scheme of Cybertronian time, which means they're still millions of years old and are perfectly of age to make their own sexual decisions. Their comments about how Soundwave might react are not due to them being young creations but because of the particulars of carrier culture, where cassette creations' partners were usually strictly vetted by the creator/carrier.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Synergy: an interaction in which the result is greater than the sum of its parts.

Rumble and Frenzy weren't as agile as Ravage or the birds, and so when Soundwave left to join the ritual, they'd shared a long moment of A) feeling very vulnerable without their usual armor around all the larger mecha and B) not being able to fragging see. They shuffled their way to the far edge of the ritual space, where the grade of the land gave them a better view, and then climbed up two of the sturdier-looking trees, just to make sure.

What followed was, they agreed with much sniggering, a clusterfuck.

They'd heard the same orders about this little expedition as everyone else. Megatron had announced that the ritual was going on, made sure to get a few jabs in about Prime not doing his job for a few million years, and then (much to Frenzy and Rumble's surprise) went on to explain to everyone, in small words, that they were to attend, to follow all the ritual strictures, and to toe the ritual line. And anyone who messed up the ritual would be the saddest fragger in the solar system.

"I don't get it," Frenzy had said, trying not to squirm as Soundwave helped him release his plating. "We're gonna have all the Autobutts naked in one place! Have Astrotrain bomb the slag out of it from orbit, shoot the survivors, and we win! Why are we not doin' that, again?"

Soundwave had shaken his helm. "Lord Megatron: Lord Protector."

"What does that even mean?" Rumble groused.

"Lord Megatron, has sacred duty to protect the sanctity of a true ritual. Will only break ritual strictures if Autobots do so first. Will only break ritual strictures if ritual is not true and blessed by Primus." Soundwave lifted away a plate on Frenzy's back, and Frenzy shivered, from the sense of vulnerability as much as the wash of damp, chill air.

Rumble, waiting his turn, sat on the edge of the berth kicking his feet restlessly. "So we're gonna walk in there, unarmed and unprotected, and just what, trust that this isn't a trick?"

"Probability of Autobots using major religious ritual as trap: extremely low," Soundwave said, sounding much more serene than any of the cassettes felt.

"I still don't like it," Rumble said, and nodded when Frenzy chimed in with, "Me neither!"

"Soundwave, agrees. Situation: suboptimal. However-" Soundwave stroked a finger over the top of Frenzy's helm, accompanying it with a soothing pulse of his field. "-if ritual genuine...Soundwave would like all cassettes to take part."

Frenzy relaxed a bit, turning to look back at his carrier. "Why's it so important, anyway? We've done fine without all this religious mumbo jumbo."

A complicated tangle of emotions washed through Soundwave's field. Chief among them was frustration, but after a moment Rumble and Frenzy realized that it wasn't aimed at them. Their carrier paused, looking down at the piece of plating in his hands. "Religion...can be useful. Comforting," he eventually replied, quietly. "Can provide...commonality. Support. Reassurance. Belonging." He set aside the plate and turned his attention next to Frenzy's leg. "When done right. Soundwave...remembers. Temple ritual holidays:...happy times."

Frenzy glanced over at his brother in confusion, and Rumble shrugged. "But...you never went to Temple services back before we left Cybertron, boss."

Soundwave's hands stilled. "Soundwave...was angry. Also, fearful for cassettes."

Frenzy felt the need to wriggle but fought it. "Huh? Why?"

Another piece was lifted carefully away from Frenzy's thigh. "Soundwave, had petitioned Temple and government for sparking license for Rumble, Frenzy. Request, refused. Many times."

Rumble grinned. They'd heard this much, at least. "Yeah, and you went an' built an' sparked us anyway. ...oh. Woulda looked kind of strange for you to show up with extra cassettes then, huh?"

"Affirmative."

Frenzy frowned. "Well, I say good riddance to it. Stupid Temple, tryin' to tell you what to do. What gave 'em the ri-ahahaaa, that tickles!"

"Soundwave, apologizes," Soundwave said...then wiggled a finger against that exposed cable again.

"Aaaaahahah, boooossssss! Rumble, Ravage, help!"

Ravage didn't move from where he was ostensibly recharging at the end of the berth. Rumble helpfully leapt on Soundwave's back, tiny hands going for the neck cables that they knew were sensitive, and for a few moments there was flailing and giggling and Soundwave trying to be the stern innocent creator and mostly managing to knock the pile of removed plating on the floor and make Ravage slink off resignedly to find a quieter place to nap.

Rumble groaned as Soundwave's overload filtered through the bond with his symbiotes. He shivered, what he still wore of his shoulderplates chittering against his protoform.

"So," Frenzy said, shaking himself. His optics were brighter than usual, his digits tapping on his plating without him really seeming to notice. "This is happenin', then."

"Guess so," Rumble said, wincing in definitely-not-pain as secondhand charge filtered through his systems. ::What should we...frag...::

::Literally!:: Frenzy chimed in, optics turning to take in the orgy going on below.

::Not helping, Frenzy. What should we do, boss?::

Soundwave didn't even slow down his thorough fragging of the Autobot SIC, overload or no overload. ::All cassettes, enjoy blessed mecha. Ritual, true and blessed by Primus.::

"Whatever that means," Rumble muttered.

Evidently it meant more to Ravage and Laserbeak, as their replies were immediately affirmative and enthusiastic. Especially Laserbeak's, but then he'd already bought into the whole idea, beak to tailplates, if the video he was capturing was any indication.

::Cassettes...may return to dock,:: Soundwave offered, his glyphs stuttering a bit. Evidently that sexy little wiggle-arch the Praxian had just done had been a bit distracting.

Rumble and Frenzy looked at each other, then at the writhing chaos in the valley below. It looked like a battle, everyone grappling and moaning, except that nobody'd died. Yet.

It looked kinda fun.

It also looked like if they didn't watch it they'd get squashed by some grappling frontliners rolling around. And no matter how nice those grappling frontliners looked as they fragged each other senseless, that was still not a viable trade-off, in Rumble and Frenzy's opinion.

"Oh, hey, hello there," Rumble said, pointing. "Check it out."

Off to the side of the clearing, well away from the crowd and about a hundred mechanometers away from Rumble's and Frenzy's trees, someone was...self-servicing? It was kind of hard to tell...not because they couldn't see, but just because what they saw didn't make a whole lot of sense. The mech (green, nicely boxy...the jeep-alt tracker...whatsisname...Dog? Wolf? Hound!) was lying in the scrubby mountain grass, writhing in apparent enjoyment...but for no apparent reason. His hands were held up in the air above his pelvic span, and his spike...

"What...is up with his spike?" Frenzy asked, zooming in his optics. It was the weirdest thing... For a klik Frenzy thought that the Autobot was repeatedly retracting and extending his spike for some reason, because it looked like it was lengthening and shortening...but then he realized that no, the spike itself wasn't moving, and the tip looked all wrong, and- "What the frag!"

Frenzy watched, fascinated, for a long klik, but then the Autobot's head clunked back onto the ground, overload making charge snake over his frame, and then, appearing out of thin air...suddenly Hound had someone on top of him. That uppity noble spy, Mirage. "Oh...I get it," Rumble said, wiggling enough to make his tree creak. "Invisibility whatsit as sex toy. Kinky."

Rumble snickered, watching as the scout grinned and traced a gentle hand over Mirage's helmvents before the noble rose with a smile and sashayed smugly back to the main orgy.

"Huh," Frenzy said, eyeing the Autobot as he propped himself up on his elbows but settled back to watch the show with his shiny new white optics rather than making any move to join the rest of the Autobums.

"Y'know," Rumble said, eyeing Hound. "That windshield kinda makes him look like..."

"Mmmmyeah, was thinkin' the same thing," Frenzy said, grinning.

They both eyed the Autobot's chest and all the sexy angles that went with it for a long, thoughtful moment. And look, Hound was already all laid out like a buffet...

"...wanna?"

"Pit, yeah," Frenzy said. He grinned as they dropped from their trees with twin thumps. "Bet he's never had a cassette before."

"Heh, won't know what hit him," Rumble agreed. "Race ya."

The Autobot saw them coming, of course, because they weren't trying to be sneaky about it. He didn't seem worried, just laid in the spiky grass, panels still open and watching them come with a little smile on his face. It was a bit weird, just walking up to an Autobot. Not getting a running start to end in a punch, and not sneaking around trying to spy on, but just...walking up, like you would to a normal mech. Weird.

But those angles... Unf. Made a mech want to chew on the corners of that windshield.

::Say something, dumbaft.::

::Why me? You say something!::

::It was your-oh fine.:: "Yo," Frenzy said, stopping a few mechnometers away. "Wanna frag?"

::Wow, that was so smooth. How could he resist?.::

::Oh, I'm sorry, did you have a better idea, gearshaft?::

The Autobot was smiling, though. And not like making-fun-of smiling, but real happy smiling, like he was glad to see them. "Sure," he said. "So long as Soundwave's OK with it?"

"Hey, we're our own mechs!" Frenzy puffed out his chest. "We don't gotta ask for permission, you know."

Which wasn't totally 100% true, but Soundwave had already given them the OK, and this Autodork didn't really need a lesson in carrier culture for what they had in mind.

"Yeah," Rumble said, "don't worry about that." He wasn't sure when he moved, but now he was standing right next to Hound, his hands running over the top of that windshield, framing that nice wide box, and Rumble was not sorry in the least. Pit, the Autobot probably didn't even know how hot a nice, boxy chestpiece was to cassettes. "You just worry about us."

Hound smiled, chest pressing forward into Rumble's hands, his own hands coming up to trace a finger up Rumble's thigh, over his waist, and then back down again. Rumble shivered a bit. He told himself that it was because he wasn't used to being touched on unarmored inner plating. Which was true. But it was also the feel of the Autobot's field, hazy and warm and strong like triple-distilled high grade. Or like coming in to a warm washrack after swimming through the cold ocean. It felt good, in a way that was like and yet not like Soundwave. Maybe it was just that he was happy to see them, because that was kind of a novelty.

"I'm not worried," Hound said. "Should I be?"

Meanwhile, Frenzy had wriggled his way right between the Autobot's legs and was, as far as Rumble could tell, trying to decide if he should go for the spike or the valve first. "Vicious Decepticon warriors, yeah? Or haven't you heard?"

"I haven't forgotten," Hound said, leaning back a bit so Rumble could straddle his waist and be in prime chest-groping position.

"And we don't have spikes or valves, in case you're thinkin' about that kind of slag." They had long thought that durr, that should be obvious, but there'd been a slow but steady line of Decepticons over the vorns who had braved Soundwave's displeasure on the quest for a really tight valve only to be utterly disappointed and also viciously mocked.

The Autobot, though, just went, "Mmmhmmm, I kno-oh! Oh..."

Rumble craned his neck around and yep, evidently Frenzy'd decided on the spike. It was a nice spike, too. Just the right size for a cassette to wrap his hands around and go to town. Frenzy put his weight into it, rocking to slide his hands up and down the shaft while he leaned in. He grinned at Rumble, wrapping his mouth around the tip, and Hound's helm fell back, white optics flickering. Rumble was content to watch, circuits warming pleasantly, soaking in the shifts in the Autobot's field as Frenzy made him moan.

And those shifts felt nice. Hound evidently was smart enough to figure out what the cassettes got out of this and loosened his field, pushing a warm buzz of pleasure out to wrap around them. It fluctuated, cycling headily with the pace that Frenzy set. Rumble wiggled and let his own plating loosen, charge zinging along his circuits and zapping from plate to plate. It was more intense than Rumble had been expecting, but he figured that was the lack of exoplating. With everybody running around half-naked, everything felt that much more intense. Including the Autobot's hands cupping around him, trailing his fingertips with just the right pressure. Rumble barely had to press the spots he wanted attention on against those fingers, and boom, there they were, making his circuits sing. He rode the wave as Frenzy sped up, hands pull-squeeze-pushing, and the Autobot's fans went wild, blowing hot air as he groaned, light sparking in the darkness as he overloaded and charge leapt between him and Rumble and Frenzy both. It wasn't enough to tip either of them over, but it was a good start to the show.

Not that Rumble would tell the Autodork that.

The angle was weird, but the peeks he got of Frenzy continuing to work over the Autobot's spike were inspiring. And the Autobot looked like he was having a good time, but y'know, the spike was not where a cassette excelled, in Rumble's opinion. So he gave his handfuls of shiny windshield a final tweak and slid back. He nudged the Autobot's legs open wider and shoved his brother sufficiently to the side.

Frenzy shoved back with a shoulder. "Hey, watch it, loser. I'm workin' here."

"Well, make room, slagger. Let me show you how it's done."

Frenzy grumbled but moved over, half-straddling Hound's thigh to give Rumble room to slide up into reach.

That evidently got Hound's attention, and he blinked down at them, optics quickly going glassy as Rumble gave him a wicked grin and slid down further to get a good look at the goods. Yep, his valve was nothin' fancy, but on the plus side, also nothing Rumble didn't already know his way around. Especially when it was already glistening with lubricant.

Rumble grinned. If the Autobot thought that he was done just because he'd had one overload, he had another thing coming. Heh.

Rumble tucked his fingers against his palm and slid his fingers in, rubbing his knuckles over the innermost ring of sensors. Hound cursed, head thunking back on the ground, and Rumble grinned, licking around and then up the rim of the stretched valve until he'd reached the anterior node. His free hand found the posterior sensor node as well, rubbing it as Rumble's glossa flicked out, glossa and fingers teasing both nubs in tandem. "Ah!" Hound's hips jerked, but Rumble had his hand up his valve, he couldn't really move much.

"You like that, huh?" Frenzy asked, over Rumble's head, wriggling around so he could get more of himself into Hound's pleasure-soaked field. "Bet he can get his whole arm in you. Would ya like that?"

Hound's valve clamped down, and Rumble found himself wishing that he had a spike, just to feel what that valve felt like, squeezing tight around something more sensor-laden than just his hand. Rumble grinned, finding very little resistance as he worked the Autobot over, inside and out, his hand pushing further and further in until his fingers brushed the very edge of his valve. Hound squirmed and moaned and pleaded for more (without being asked to, even!), and his field was a heady, heavy mess that soaked into Rumble's plating, making his spark spin and his sensors ache. Only then did he spread his fingers, tickle an entire ring of sensors, pinch the posterior node, and lean in to suck hard on the anterior node.

The Autobot's spinal struts bowed in a way Rumble thought only mechanimals could manage, his vocalizer spiraling up, then cutting off and fritzing out completely before he slumped back to the ground.

Rumble's sensors sang as Hound's pleasure peaked. Cassettes didn't really overload the way bigger mechs did, their systems made much more for tactile stimulation, energy play, and direct connections. They were made to be part of something bigger, or at least part of a group. But that didn't mean getting a partner there wasn't fun.

"Wow," Frenzy said dreamily, from where he'd somehow managed to straddle Hound's thigh. He shivered, plating chiming delicately, then shook himself. "Well, that was hotter'n melted slag."

Rumble grinned, giving the valve sensors a little wiggle as he slowly pulled his arm out. The valve calipers twitched gamely, and Hound's vocalizer kicked back on with a little warble of feedback as Rumble shouldered in to plop himself back in the Autobot's lap.

Rumble ran his hands along the top of Hound's chest, sliding left and right to tweak the corners. "Yeah. That was fun. Y'know, for a start. Gotta do a little more if you really wanna get us off." Unthinkingly, he curled his fingers under Hound's chestplates in a lewd search for something more to make the Autobot moan. Though really, what did he expect, this busty Autodork to have the same hotspots as a carrier?

Then his fingers found hinges and that cluster of sensors that became really sensitive when a carrier was aroused, and the Autobot gasped, arching again almost enough to unseat Frenzy. "Oh!"

Rumble reset his optics. "Wait a minute..."

If it looked like a carrier and squirmed like a carrier when you tickled that one special hinge, then...

Rumble ducked his head down to look at the underside of Hound's chestplates and traced hesitant fingers along the seams of what, from that angle, was very obviously a cassette compartment door.

Frenzy nudged him with his foot. "What? What is it?" ::Problem?:: His glyphs were tinged with combat identifiers.

::No, idiot. What, you think he's hiding some sort of Primus-blessed missiles under his chestplates?::

::Could be. Who knows? Primus wasn't supposed to want us to exist, remember?::

Hound's vocalizer skritched with nervous static. "Um..."

Rumble ducked out from under that lovely chest compartment and straightened up, looking up at Hound just in case there was actually some kind of explanation for this slag forthcoming.

"Uh..." Hound continued, then fizzled out.

Frenzy looked back and forth between the two of them. "What?! What's going on? Why aren't we fragging anymore?"

Rumble ignored him. "You really are a carrier?"

Even the weird white of his optics couldn't hide the guilty look in Hound's optics. "Uh...I can...uh...that is...yes?"

"What?" Frenzy dove down, shouldering Rumble aside so he could get a good look. "Holy slag! Why were ya hiding it? And where're your cassettes?" His head popped up again, looking at Hound in horror. "Oh frag, don't tell me that the little red'n yellow ones're your-"

The look of horror on Hound's face was even better. "No! No. Primus, no. And I wasn't hiding it, I just don't have any cassettes anymore."

Rumble stared at him for a few astrosecs and then snickered. "Ya know, suddenly your thing for minibots makes a whole lot more sense."

"Yeah! We thought you just had a thing for small mechs." Frenzy chortled, fingers sliding down and under Hound's chest compartment again. "Lookin' for a little cassette action? Bet they were always a little too chubby for ya, hmm?"

Hound squirmed, his field embarrassed and not a little aroused by what Frenzy's hands were doing. "You watch? When we interface?"

Frenzy snerked and grinned. "Of course we do. We're spies, remember? Gotta collect all the information. Never know when it'll come in handy. Like now! We know that you like this."

Hound made a noise like a staticky TV on the fritz as Frenzy lavished attention on the upper right corner of his chestbox. With his tongue. And teeth.

Rumble was not to be distracted, though. "So, you're a carrier."

"...yes?"

Rumble leaned back, taking in the Autobot as if for the first time. It was like something slotted into place, and Rumble found himself smiling. And pushing right back into Hound's hands. "You're a carrier. So there's tons more fun things we can do than some fieldplay and fistfragging."

Frenzy's field perked at that, and then he was looking at the Autobot speculatively, and the Autobot himself was looking a bit hunted around the optics. "Um. What did you have in mind?"

"You don't have cassettes, right? So a little recreational slotting in won't hurt nobody."

Hound's optics went wide, shocked for all that Frenzy was working on getting wrists-deep under his plating. "...y...you can't be serious."

"Why not? Just don't extend your systems connections and we can't hack you. We'll just tuck up under your spark, all nice'n close...n' we can cycle each other into overload niiice 'n slow." Rumble plastered himself to the side of Hound's chest and gave a little pulse of field and spark in demonstration.

Rumble purred, running his fingers back and forth over the seams of that tempting, tempting chest compartment. "You're the only carrier we've met in forever that isn't, like, that idiot Blaster. For all we know, we'll never find someone to do this with." Rumble nuzzled under Hound's chin. "Y'don't want us to die virgins, do ya?"

Hound's optics went a little vague at that, and his helm wobbled over toward where his pauldron would have been, a thin whine making him sound much smaller than he was. "Soundwave would kill me."

"What the Boss doesn't know, won't hurt him," Frenzy said, wrapping himself around Hound's arm.

"Yeah, he's busy fragging your Second. He is really...uh...really distracted right now." And how. Wow, that'd been what...the third overload? And Soundwave felt like he was just getting started. "We won't tell him if you won't."

"C'mon...y'know ya wanna. To hell with all that tradition scrap." Rumble pushed himself up with the help of Hound's collar fairing, settling on top of Hound's chest compartment. "We wanna. Wanna get inside you."

Hound's fingers slid along Rumble's back, raising crackles of static. He sighed. "I...I can't. I...I really, actually can't."

Rumble and Frenzy stopped groping and just looked at him. "What, you mean can't or won't or can't?"

"Can't. I don't have docks anymore..." Hound slid back the glass on his chest, the whole front hinging in rather than out like Soundwave's did.

Rumble flipped down into Hound's lap to peer in, curious, even as Frenzy climbed his way up to see himself. Now that they were scanning him properly, it was easy to see what he was talking about. "...oh," Rumble said.

"Wow, that is ultra freaky and kinda disturbing," Frenzy said, his voice echoing inside Hound's chest as he leaned in for a closer look. And it was, Rumble agreed. The inside of Hound's compartment wasn't formatted for docking anymore. The connectors were still there, twinkling in the back, but there were no connection extenders and no housing to hold a transformed cassette stable while a connection was made. Just an empty space.

Hound's field flinched a bit, and Frenzy's hand flopped around to pat him on the shoulder, awkwardly. "I mean, no offense, but why the frag would you get rid of your docks?"

"I was injured. Lost...lost Skate and Kicker at the same time. I was in mourning, and injured, and the only medic I could get to wasn't a specialist in carrier frames and couldn't repair the damage to my docks. She ended up just cleaning me out, and I planned on getting them rebuilt later. But then the war just got worse, and not many cassettes survived, and it...it never seemed worth it."

Rumble realized that Hound's lap was not actually big enough for the both of them, that he was supporting both of them with hands on either side of them. His thumbs stroked over their sides. "I just kept going...moved on. Never really mattered until...now."

"Oh." Rumble and Frenzy looked at each other for a long klik.

Hound sighed, his compartment closing. "You don't have to stick around if you don't want to."

They looked back at him. "What, you want us to go?"

"No! No, I just...I know that kind of killed the mood."

"Well, yeah," Frenzy said, shrugging. "I mean, sad and all, and uh...sorry about your cassettes? But we're willin' to wait around. You still owe us one, after all. We can be patient. Kinda. If we want."

Rumble was still looking at Hound's chest. "N'yeah, see, I don't think this is a deal breaker. Ok, so we can't dock, but we can still fit inside. It's not like you're gonna run an obstacle course with us like that. We just gotta get there, y'know? Once all the spark pulsin' starts, we're just sittin' still anyway."

Frenzy joined him in looking at that lovely chest. He reached out and stroked that upper right corner thoughtfully. It'd be a little weird, but hey, what wasn't weird about this whole night? "Ok, yeah, I'm in. What the frag, right?"

The Autobot stared at them. "Y...you really want to..." Something wobbled in his field that felt suspiciously...sappy.

Rumble and Frenzy looked at him, wary. They did not do sap. If there was going to be sap, they were out of here, nice chest or no nice chest.

Luckily, Hound just half-sighed, half-laughed. "Soundwave will still kill me. I don't believe that I'm even considering this."

Rumble and Frenzy grinned, crawling up him to drape themselves over his lap and chest.

"So use your hologram thingy," Rumble said.

"It'll be worth it, and you know it," Frenzy added. In demonstration, they both went back to tweaking everything they could get their mouths and hands on. Four small hands traced along sensitive seams, dipping under remaining plating to stroke hot protoform. Frenzy plastered himself to the front of Hound's chest and pulsed his spark hard, the spark harmonics fuzzing through his field enough to make Rumble shiver and his spark ache.

The Autobot didn't stand a chance. His field melted with a sort of protective affection that Rumble and Frenzy only got from Soundwave and the other cassettes. That warmth reached out and synced with their fields just as they heard the almost-imperceptible whine of Hound's hologram generator starting up. Hound's big hands cupped around them, and Rumble and Frenzy found themselves pressing into those fingers greedily. "C'mon," Frenzy said, hands busy underneath Hound's chest, "C'moooo~n...aw, yeah, baby, that's what I'm talkin' about."

Hound slid his compartment open again with only the slightest of final grumbles about being the death of him. Frenzy just grinned and transformed, tossing himself as usual toward the beckoning darkness of Hound's chest. Of course, because this was Frenzy-and, as Rumble knew better than anyone, Frenzy thought ahead about as much as the average neutronium gnat-he expected the carrier's magnetics to guide him in the way Soundwave's did. Which would have worked fine, if Hound had actually still had the hardware for his magnetic guidance. Instead, Hound eeped and fumbled hurriedly to catch Frenzy before he whanged himself off the edge of Hound's chest compartment. In the scuffle, Rumble fell off Hound's leg and just stayed there, rolling on the ground, laughing.

"Careful!" Hound said to the cassette in his hands. "Careful. I'll get you there."

::Tired of careful, c'mon! Shove me in! Let's go!::

"Impatient," Hound said, with much less real anger than anyone usually used when calling them names, and it in no way stopped him from putting Frenzy in his compartment. Something that Rumble watched closely, fascinated, just because one didn't see a carrier putting a cassette inside by hand every day. And was that a little lewd rub to one of Frenzy's reels? Why yes it was. That and seeing Frenzy disappear into a chest that wasn't Soundwave's was a bit weird and a whole lot of kinky.

"That OK?" Hound asked, his hand coming back out empty.

::Mmmmmyeah...:: Frenzy purred.

"Me next!" Rumble said, leaping up to transform. Aiming to fall-because, unlike someone he could name, he was not an idiot-into Hound's hands. Those hands caught him, and Rumble found himself shivering a bit with a rustle of tape as one finger slid gently along his side as he was moved through the air. He was gently placed on the bottom of the compartment, leaning slightly on top of Frenzy.

::Kinky,:: Frenzy said, wiggling a bit so they skreeled together some, but it wasn't like kinky or piled unstably on top of each other was gonna hold him back. He revved up his spark, pulsing so hard and so close that he dragged Rumble's spark with him.

And it was so utterly weird, the position and the lack of connection but their fields still a half-meshing mess of excitement held inside Hound's field. Also weird was the fact that Rumble still found himself wishing that Hound had his connectors. That a friendly plug could slide into his port and their systems could sync properly... Yeah. Rumble had never realized that he wanted that in any fashion other than the creator-carrier relationship he had with Soundwave, but here, now, he really wanted it.

But, he had what he had, and so he just rode the wave of Rumble's sparkpulse, then added his own on the next cycle, pushing their energies outwards to fuzz up against Hound's. The Autobot's bigger spark was tucked up behind them, nothing but a few layers of plating in between. And wow, was that spark strong. It was like being locked in a frame with the Earth's yellow dwarf. Rumble's spark tangled with Frenzy's, the two of them falling into each other easy as anything, and they spread like solar panels, soaking in that bright, warm energy.

Hound's spark responded with something between a nova and a hot oil bath. It shone through them, mingled with them, washed over them, filling in all the nooks and crannies that they didn't know were there. With the half a processor he had left, Rumble tried to ask Frenzy...didn't it feel a lot different than Soundwave's spark? Was it supposed to feel like that? That...this...wow.

::You two are so beautiful, little ones...::

That spark expanded over them, wrapped around them, cradled them. The urgency of their cycling eased, because there wasn't anything to strive for. It felt like their every molecule was in contact with every molecule of Hound, energy and pleasure flowing from one to the other on the molecular level. Their sparkfields matched, synced, and resonated together, humming and sparking as their frequencies reached higher and higher registers and then easing down, purring into each others' sparks before starting the slow build all over again.

It was like...like a song. Like the waves in the ocean, pulling them along. Like a slow, lazy piston, where they were all three both the piston and the fluid being moved. It felt so good, and Rumble and Frenzy lost themselves in it, excited and peaceful and charged up and grounded all at once as their universe ebbed and flowed around them, safe and peaceful and filled with bright, sweet pleasure.

::So beautiful...::

Eventually that powerful spark receded, reluctantly, and Rumble and Frenzy reached after it on instinct but honestly couldn't find it in them to whine too much. They felt too good. Drunk, almost, like they'd drunk a whole cube of high grade.

::That was...it...that was wonderful,:: Hound said, his glyphs tripping over each other like they weren't the only ones with circuits fried. ::Thank you so much.::

::Guh,:: they replied.

Hound's compartment opened, and when he leaned forward slightly, Rumble and Frenzy didn't so much slide out of his chest as ooze out into his hands, their transformations loose and sloppy and tangled all up in each other. Hound laughed, setting them down in his lap and helping them sort out themselves out, nudging limbs here and there. "Are you all right?"

"Mmmmyeah...hey, did my eyes go all white?"

Rumble squinted at him. "Yeah, mine too?"

"Yeah. Weird! I didn't, like, feel anything at all. I mean, not in my optics or anything. From the way Screamer was squawking, I thought that this blessing thing was supposed to be a big deal!"

Hound chuckled, fingers tracing gently down Frenzy's back. "We used to say that true communion with Primus was like overload. And that the feeling of being blessed was like being a cassette, having one's spark held by the universal carrier."

"Whoa, whoa, I see where this is going, and lemme tell ya, you were not that good, ok?" Rumble said. He did, however, stay flopped over Hound's lap, his spark cycling with contentment and little zings of pleasure. It wasn't anything special, he told himself, he just didn't want to move. That's all.

It took him a moment before he realized that the splotch of darkness he was staring at off to the side was Ravage, lying on the ground not so far from them. Hound's hologram field was off...maybe it'd turned off during all the sparkfragging or something. Rumble just stretched contentedly, opening up a private line. ::Don't tell the boss, ok? Don't really want him to kill this one.::

Ravage's glyphs were the equivalent of an amused snort. ::I won't tell him.:: He stood, slinking off into the darkness. ::You'll probably still have to come to your Autobot's defense, though.::

Their Autobot. As they arranged themselves on top of that sexy chest for a little light recharge, big blunt fingers stroking up and down their backstruts, Rumble and Frenzy privately agreed that they kind of liked the sound of that.

Notes: I can't remember when I first got the idea of Hound being a carrier. I THINK that I had the idea on my own, due to his chest configuration, but I also think that the idea was floating around the TF Kinkmeme. I vaguely have the idea that Bibliotecaria_D was involved? It's been years, though, who knows? If it was you, consider yourself credited! :)

Also, a note on carrier culture in this fic: in case it's not clear...nice cassettes don't hop into the chest of just any carrier. A creator like Soundwave's duty is to protect his creations until they decide to bond with another carrier. Normally, back on Cybertron, before things went to hell, Hound would have petitioned Soundwave to court the twins, and there would have been a lot of invasive background checks and awkward chaperoned visits, and only slotting in once the twins and Hound had gotten through a few layers of courtship and the whole process had gotten Soundwave's approval. So yeah, this is a Very Naughty and Improper Thing that they are doing, and they all know it. Connecting and syncing systems is also usually a part of carrier/cassette sex, but though the cassettes are trying to pull a "oral sex isn't real sex!" by saying that slotting in without connecting isn't Real Fragging...a certain other carrier might not exactly buy this argument. ;P