A/N: I updated the story info in chapter 1 now that I know for the most part where the story is going. Most of it is probably blatantly obvious by now but I figured it would be nice to warn any potential new readers of the risk of three/four/moresome pairings in the fic *cough*
The outline of this chapter and the next was most generously supplied by Eowyn77 (she suggested a bunny and it took a rather large bite out of my behind, the fanged, furry menace X.x). It was supposed to have been just one chapter but at the rate it was going, it would have been way too much to finish in one week. So, 4k of chapter now and the rest in a week when I hopefully get Ironhide to cooperate and get the chance to brush up a little on writing conversations with more than just two people involved ;)
Dawn broke one hundred and sixty miles above Diego Garcia the following morning, white and cold and blinding, to burn away the dark of night and send thermometers slowly inching upwards again so many, many miles below on the flat, little island that wouldn't see actual sunlight for a good while yet. If he dropped fast enough, Will knew, he could easily catch up with it – race the sunrise, slide from light and to the shadow of almost-dawn and outrun it all – but it was an idle thought and forgotten a moment later as flawless expanses of alien metal moved in the thin air and made his wings and the glass of his cockpit shine with a cold intensity that stunned him.
He knew the theory, of course. He could access the internet. There was more than he had ever wanted to know about the atmosphere of their little home planet – or any planet, for that matter – but he was a Seeker now and Ratchet had been firm about it. If he was going to be let loose, he had slagging well better know what he was doing, and Will had agreed because there was little else he could do.
It was cold, it was bright, it was hostile, and space above was impossibly dark, and nothing in the massive bundles of data he'd gotten to sort through had prepared him at all for it. It was forty miles further up than he had ever been before and as optics adjusted and engines sang, there was nothing but the sheer joy of it all and the knowledge that this realm was indisputably his.
Satellites and a space station somewhere above him, humanity and ground-pounders left somewhere far below him, and even the thought of Soundwave up there, keeping an optic on him, didn't particularly bother his mood this morning.
The Seeker paused at the thought of that particular 'Con, a flicker of interest at the thought of something as strange as the communications officer, and Will strongly suspected that it was the wings more than anything that caused the interest.
A surge of temptation, the sudden urge to head straight up and find the dark 'Con against the background of space and stars and infinitely small flickers from satellites, challenge the flier-that-wasn't to keep up with a real Seeker without the use of pathetic, worthless Earth-based technology, but it was gone again a moment later as the Seeker was once more distracted by the sky above them.
Their headache, processor-ache, whatever it had been was long gone and all that had been left when they had come out of recharge had been the increasingly familiar instinct to fly. There was the nagging, vague feeling of too much energy slowly building again as well but it was still faint enough not to bother him and he was determined to ignore it for at least a little while – a moment of quiet before he got the joy of sorting that little headache out again. He had ignored the energy build-up, blocked any non-Autobot frequencies to keep Starscream from getting any ideas, and the Seeker hadn't even objected to any of it but just offered a content purr at the freedom of the sky.
It had still been dark when he had come out of recharge, it had stayed dark as they'd refuelled and taken off and it hadn't been until they were well into their steep climb that the sky had turned rapidly from darkness to dawn and then to sudden, blinding sunrise with a speed that had surprised him.
It was cold, it was bright, it was silent, but they weren't alone, not completely. Ratchet was watching, Will knew – the medic had been up by the time they were ready to take off and they had alerted him through their bond so he could keep an eye on things and not tear into them later for being reckless and impulsive. Ratchet was watching, Soundwave was watching, and the Seeker half couldn't resist the temptation and threw them into a sharp roll before it settled back into their usual, steady course again.
Showing off, Will had quickly realised, was a big part of Seeker culture and the Seeker's gleeful roll had reminded him of Ratchet's words now that his brain could focus on something other than stretching his wings again.
Is that what a mating flight is? he asked. Showing off?
He'd gotten more than a few mental images of peacocks waving their tail-feathers around and maybe it wasn't that far from the truth, everything considered. He didn't have feathers, true, but he did have wings and the Seeker did have a border-line unhealthy fascination with proving its superiority in the air.
Pride. Claiming. We show skills so our claim will not be challenged, the Seeker murmured and sure, it didn't have much actual experience to draw on but he got some pretty clear images of what it wanted, anyway. They had shown off a bit before. This wouldn't be that much different, just... a bit closer to ground, maybe. Close enough that the intended mate could actually see it... the intended mate and everyone else, for that matter. Why have to re-stake a claim repeatedly when you could just make sure to do it right the first time around?
Some of it came instinctively, some of it he was still unsure of at best, and he didn't want to think about how lost about the whole thing he would have been without their CMO around to fill in the blanks for him. The Seeker, however much it might be evolving, still had only basic programming to lean on. The rest had to be taught and Ratchet was, apparently, the only non-Decepticon mech around with any clue about what was going on... and even then, he could only explain and describe. He couldn't actually take to the sky and show how it was done, like a Seeker could have.
Then again, he knew what it was supposed to look like, didn't he? He knew enough about the bird-brains that he'd probably seen it at least a few times, what with their tendency to show off at the drop of a hat.
We prove superiority, the Seeker huffed, but for the first time Will got the impression that it was meant in good fun more than anything and not actually intended to be taken seriously. It was another reminder that whatever thing it was that he shared his brain with, it was learning, and learning fast, and a moment later he felt a flicker of smug amusement before they turned sharply in a half-loop and headed back towards the island again before they got too far out.
It felt strangely normal on some level. It probably shouldn't, with such a big change and such a short amount of time to adapt in, but maybe that was the Seeker at play, or programming, and it probably didn't matter that much as it wasn't like Will could do that much about it, anyway.
It felt strangely normal and still strangely not, with the constant presence of the bond with Ratchet in the back of his mind as he got used to it. The bond with Ironhide was there, too, but they were used to that, had made it a part of themselves, and now their focus was on the new bond and the small but distinct differences between it and the one with Ironhide. Both strong, both unrelenting, but the feel was different - cool against hot, and pliant against unyielding, however unbreakable both of them were. The need to claim dominance, to submit, to fight with Ironhide and... something else with Ratchet. If he had been human, maybe he would have used some kind of friendship to describe it but Seekers didn't have a word for that and so he settled for what the Seeker already called him - their kin, their bonded, and what he knew was a likely future mate to join the mech that the Seeker had already claimed.
Mate, the Seeker objected in response to anything but utter certainty of their future claiming of the medic, and when he hesitated, he felt it frown instead. You like. We like. We claim.
Flickers of memories, of the heating fans that had started on accord of Will, of the raw need for the human-like, gentle kind of physical touch that was so unfamiliar to Cybertronians and which only Ratchet had shown him so far, and still Will hesitated.
He was still tempted to argue that their resident terror of a medic was just a friend, Seeker-appropriate term or not, but then, it wasn't even true. Normal friends didn't do the Cybertronian version of the Vulcan mind meld, and normal friends did not ask for interfacing instructions unless they were the type of friends that came with some very intimate benefits. Ironhide was easy to put into a mental box - mate, future interface partner, need and desire and trust and want in the raw kind of way that characterised everything about his Seeker half - but Ratchet wasn't. Ratchet was something different and it was evidence of how much of his brain that had gotten tangled up in Seeker issues that it took him long seconds to recognise it for what it was - a strange kind of half-human, half-Seeker based attraction that drew as much from the human side as from the Seeker one.
Compromise, the Seeker explained with unusual patience as the penny finally dropped. We claim.
'We', Will realised a half-second later. It wasn't just randomly going after someone who happened to be able to kick its aft. It had put actual thought into it and had enough of a functioning sense of... whatever passed for logic with a Seeker that since it got to claim Ironhide, then Will should get to decide on the second mate and had based its suggestion on the only time it had seen Will react to anyone, rather than just be dragged along for the ride.
It could have gone after Optimus Prime but hadn't, because the mech wasn't even on the list of mates that Will would as much as reluctantly consider, and instead it had chosen a weaker potential mate because that was the one that the human side had reacted to and it had gotten enough of a sense of compromise and fear of Ratchet hammered into it that it was willing to go along with that in return.
It liked Ratchet, Will could tell as much – it respected the medic's ability to put it in its place and take control, and the sheer stubbornness it would have taken to survive as a medic for so long in a war as violent and brutal as that – but when it came down to it, its choice would have been Optimus Prime for status and strength and sheer, overwhelming power and it had chosen against it for the sole reason that Will would not have agreed.
Compromise, the Seeker repeated. They are bonded. Bonded are good mates. We claim.
Will was about to argue but the words died before he could even complete them, some objection or another that evaded him before he could grasp it, and it didn't even matter because he also realised with sudden, Seeker-sparked clarity that the argument had already been settled. He had asked for instructions in whatever passed for sex for Cybertronians, he'd followed up on that with a bond he'd suggested and agreed to and completed of his own, free will, and the rest... it was a formality, nothing more. Bonded and a very likely future interface partner...
The conclusion that followed made him groan and however much he suspected he really didn't want to hear the answer, he asked the question, anyway.
Does Ratchet know he's already a mate?
Bemusement followed from the Seeker – Ratchet knew Seeker-programming, Ratchet knew Seeker culture, so of course he would know about this, too – and only the fact that Will was in his alt-mode kept him from facepalming at that.
Right. Claim the medic for a mate without asking and assume he knew what he was getting into by agreeing to the bond, and maybe he did and maybe he didn't and frag it all to the Pit, but life had been so much easier as a human.
Waiting wasn't going to do any of them any good, and the Seeker obviously wasn't about to ask, so Will mentally steeled himself and cautiously poked the bond with Ratchet. Maybe he still had slagtastic control and maybe they would end up with Ironhide being an unwilling audience to the whole thing, but at least they got the added advantage of emotions and not just voice-only as the comm-link offered.
Will?
Something stirred in the back of his mind when Ratchet responded, a nagging drive to claim before someone else was stupid and suicidal enough to try and steal the medic away from his rightful Seeker mate, and Will didn't even try to hide it. There was curiosity from Ratchet, an unspoken question, and Will just pointed a mental finger at the currently offending bit of Seeker programming and let Ratchet work out the rest. He probably knew more about the stuff than Will did, anyway.
I'm sorry, he added with a sigh. I had no idea.
It took less than a second for Ratchet to do the math and Will wasn't sure it if was a good or a bad thing that the first emotion that followed was honest-to-Primus amusement.
Ah. I had forgotten about that part of it. You have nothing to apologise for. I should have warned you about it, I had simply forgotten about that particular part of their programming. They can have a very simplistic world-view at times and your Seeker is younger than most. The amusement faded a bit but still lingered and brushed aside the fear-dread-worry that had accompanied Will's discovery. It had already shown its interest in me. Among Seekers, the step from an attractive bonded you would like to interface with and to mate is very, very small. It could have been a problem if I had had an interface partner your Seeker would not have agreed with but we are all well aware of how attracted it is to Ironhide.
The Seeker offered a feeling of silent agreement – mates who had already bonded among themselves were a far stronger match than mates that had not – and then it settled down again with a pleased impression and wrapped its presence around both of the bonds in an equally silent claim of ownership.
Ratchet undoubtedly felt it but didn't remark on it as he continued.
The main question here is you, Will. We already know that your Seeker would in no way object to claiming another mate. The question that remains is you.
A silent alert let him know that he was getting close to the outer limit he had set for himself and he executed another sharp roll and felt g-forces make the world spin before they settled down again to circle the island far, far below in a lazy corkscrew pattern. He was evading the question, if just a little bit, and he knew it and sighed before he finally continued.
Me, the human, still has a problem seeing mechs as attractive on a physical level past the wicked weapons and the paint-jobs. My brain still thinks I'm human for the most part and that's not even getting into the fact that I still consider myself married and the thought of actual interfacing makes me worry about cheating on Sarah, however much I know that I'll end up trying it sooner or later. That said... he paused and shrugged mentally and hoped the emotion carried across to the medic. It took me a while to figure out but you're a lot more physical than the rest of the 'Bots around. I know you all like to rough-house and all and maybe it's a medic thing, but with you, it feels human. Actual physical contact of the nice kind. Maybe I'm a Seeker now but there's still some human parts left in there and as it turns out, I need those human things just as much as I did before.
And for a mate?
Will paused, wondered for a second how to actually put it, and then decided to settle for plain, normal and straight-forward. We're already bonded and I'd twitch at the thought of interfacing whether we were mates or not. Yeah, I know you can't just break a bond or kick out a mate again if you change your mind but I doubt I will. I trust you, I like you... if you're willing to deal with a pissy-aft, irrational piece of scrap metal, then I'm willing to give it a go. We're mostly there as it is, anyway.
How very romantic, Ratchet drawled silently and let enough emotions through that Will could pick up on the dry, amused sarcasm even if the voice hadn't told him all he needed. We may have to record this as a textbook example of the proper wooing of a bondmate.
I'm an Army grunt, Will snorted. And the first mate the Seeker and I could agree on was Ironhide. All the wooing you need to do there involves a trip to the shooting range and an offer to polish his cannons.
Or him making enough of a pest of himself that I decided to remind him of the natural order of life in the infirmary, Ratchet said dryly. To which his response was to let his cooling fans show me just how much he enjoyed that part of it. You're right. With that for a role model, I suppose it could be a lot worse.
The bond and Will's processors settled into comfortable silence as Ratchet let him consider that, and then he brushed against their connection again with a soundless sigh.
So what am I supposed to do now? Court the both of you? The Seeker doesn't know much more about mating flights than I do, Ratchet. It knows how to show off just fine but that's about it. I know we look like a Seeker and have that basic programming going on but we're still lost when it gets more complicated than 'fly' and 'mine' and 'mate'.
And even that was pushing it sometimes but that was mostly the Seeker getting used to the brave new world around it and Will couldn't blame it. He was lost enough when it came to his new body and the programming that came with it. What the Seeker was dealing with in getting used to an actual, physical world, he couldn't even begin to imagine. All in all, he figured, they were doing a pretty damn spectacular job with what they had to work with.
The offer of instructions stands, Ratchet replied. Extending that offer to include instructions in what I can teach you about Seeker culture and way of life would probably benefit all of us. I can't fly but I can still share what I learned from observing, mating flights and all included. Ideally, you would have a Seeker to teach you but...
But it was war and a ground-bound medic with a bit of experience in Seeker-matters was the best they could do and both Will and Ratchet knew that, too. Even the Seeker part of him didn't argue but settled for silent agreement and let Will convey their decision.
I'll have to learn, to all of the above, but not now. I know I'm mostly a Seeker now, anyway, but I don't want to give it any more of a hold on me right now than I need to. Not with Starscream out there looking to take advantage of it. I need the mating flight because I need to make sure we claim Ironhide right so there isn't going to be any kind of doubt that the 'Cons could exploit but the rest can wait. It'll have to.
Of course, there was also the very real risk that it wasn't going to be an issue after meeting the 'Cons on the account of him most likely being dead but then it wouldn't be a headache, anyway, so it wasn't something he was going to worry much about now. There were plenty of other issues to demand his attention. Ratchet had probably picked up on that, too – Will, despite the best of his efforts, still had more than a few issues with consistently shielding one bond and never mind two of the damn things – but he didn't comment on it and instead just sent an impression of hesitant agreement through the bond.
A very uncharacteristic hesitation at that but it made sense with the words that followed, careful and measured as he clearly kept a close eye or ear or spark or whatever on Will's reaction.
I wouldn't normally suggest it but Ironhide needs lessons almost as much as you do and the fact remains that he is not a stranger in my berth. If you are willing to go along with it without retreating to let your Seeker part take over, there may be a way to handle most of those problems, courtships included.
Images followed – of Ratchet's murmured instructions across their bond as they defied every law of gravity and physics, of the surge of Ironhide's emotions and attraction, of strength and trust and loyalty as his mind was his and the Seeker's and Ratchet's and Ironhide's and he wasn't even sure who was who and where and why anymore – and he shuddered in response and wasn't sure if it was in need or disgust or something else entirely.
Sure, why not? Let's just add a threesome to the list and have fun explaining that one to Sarah. That's just slagging peachy.
I sincerely doubt it would result in interfacing, Ratchet replied in a dry voice. And if it did, I could shield my side of the bond long before it became relevant. As for your human mate, she wasn't too pleased with the implication that she might be better served keeping an ocean between herself and you. You would be surprised at how... tenacious she can be.
As a matter of fact, no, I wouldn't. I married her, Will pointed out. I know the 'Iron Will' nickname that made the rounds before all of this but you gave it to the wrong Lennox. A pause, wondering about the words, then- Not pleased, huh?
Not in the slightest and saw fit to take it out on me. I explained the issue with multiple mates; she was quite vocal about you still being her husband, not caring in the slightest about said mates, and finding a way to make it work regardless.
Will nodded and couldn't quite keep the warmth and adoration at the thought of her from leaking through the bond. I'll talk with her.
Talk with her, make sure she understood the situation and knew what she was getting into, and selfishly hope that she would stick to not caring at all and that they could somehow still make it work, Annabelle and Sarah and everything, despite of the very real risks he would face whenever Megatron made his move.
Ratchet, bless his spark, said nothing about that, and finally Will nodded again, a bit of the uncertainty in his mind fading at that reassurance.
So, hypothetically... if you had to show us how to do this whole mating flight thing...
Hypothetically? Ratchet sounded amused. Hypothetically, I would tell you to keep your shields down around both of your bonds and then I would remind you that you would easily be able to time your descent so you would catch the sunrise when it reaches Diego Garcia, and that there is not a cloud in sight to ruin the view. Hypothetically.
Hypothetically.
Will watched the Seeker, the Seeker watched Will, and then the world twisted as they sent their alt-mode into a wing-straining turn and one hundred and sixty miles turned to one fifty nine, fifty eight, fifty seven as engines roared a furious challenge and they went straight down-
- And across their bond, he heard Ratchet honest-to-Primus laugh.