Starcrossed 32: His Creator's Triad
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Radiance watched from where he was reclining on the berth as Jazz came out of the washrack, shining after a polish rinse, and looked on with some bemusement as his mate started going over himself, examining down to the finest details of his armor. Prowl came upstairs a moment later and smiled when he saw their youngest mate.
"I tried to tell him he really doesn't need to worry about his armor, but..." Radiance shrugged.
Jazz chuckled and lifted his doorwings up, looking at Prowl. "Help me? I'm not used to preparing these."
"Of course," Prowl said smoothly and gave Radiance a smile. "Your creators may not care, but he does, and I understand the importance," Prowl flicked his own doorwings, drawing attention to the fact that he'd taken much more time than usual with his own finish.
"They're just my creators," Radiance said, but wasn't hiding that he appreciated the results, no matter what the reason for it. He looked down at himself, glancing over his own utilitarian finish. "Maybe I should wash."
"You have time," Prowl told him. "We are going to meet the creators of our triad-mate for the first time. There will never be a more important encounter between us, love. Even if we can not admit what we are in public, we know, and we would make the best impression on them possible."
"Perfect finish, proper manners, gifts and all," Jazz said firmly, a level of determination that was rarely displayed. "I do not care if they even understand the gestures. It is important to make them."
"Some things are simply going to be how they are done, how they have always been done, in the place that raised us," Prowl added, somber in tone but excited in field. He very much enjoyed seeing Jazz like this, excited to socialize and getting to show off a little of what he'd been bred to be.
Radiance hummed, stretched, and stood. "Since I feel like I need to be clean before I can even touch either of you without ruining your finish," he chuckled, and started for the washrack, then paused when Jazz crooked a finger at him, drawing him over.
"Kiss, lover," he purred, field humming in honest anticipation of getting to meet his mate's creators.
Radiance gladly obliged him, then straightened to claim a kiss from Prowl that came with a hand cupping the back of his neck to hold him there a bit longer in the flare of arousal, desire and nervous excitement.
"Should have seen me when I had gold inlaid in my armor," Jazz hummed, holding his arm out and examining his fingers.
"I prefer the doorwings," Radiance told him, nuzzling.
"One orn they will see both, the best of your original frame and this one," Prowl rumbled, anticipating that orn very much.
"Is there anything I should know, how to act?" Radiance asked as it really began to sink in just how close this came to a ritual for his lovers.
"You should act how you always act around us," Jazz said. "The point is for them to see how and why I-we-are a good match for you, and why they should accept a contract between us." He paused. "Or, well, why they should approve, in this instance."
"Don't worry, they're going to approve," Radiance said, and almost grimaced when he remembered the excitement that had greeted his casual mention that he would be bringing the lovers he'd told them about some 70 vorns prior over for them to meet, even though it was still more than two decades from being able to admit to anything in public.
"And we will keep glyphs such as contract out of the conversation," Prowl added. "Get yourself cleaned up and we'll polish you to a suitable shine to show off our care of you."
Radiance cocked his head, not having thought of it like that before. "It's demonstrating why you are the best choice, why they should give their creation away to you."
"Yes," Jazz affirmed. "Normally a first creation would be the one bargaining for a second, putting in credit offers while also winning the approval of both creators and creation. Each family decides differently, some place more value in the net credit gain, others take a creation's satisfaction with a choice more seriously." He reached a hand up to cover Prowl's. "Since your creators won't be wanting credits for you, we need to show that we increase the quality of your life."
"That will be no trouble to show," Radiance said, kissed him once more, and then left them to wash as quickly as he could before sitting for his mates to polish him thoroughly, getting each of them pounced before it was all over.
When they finally left, still with enough time to spare that Radiance suspected Prowl had actually planned to have enough time for the impromptu tumble into their berth and the following cleaning and repolishing, his armor was gleaming and perfect.
"Well, here we are," Radiance said as he transformed in front of the complex his creators called home. It was nicer than the one that Jazz and Prowl had originally lived in, but nothing compared to where they lived now thanks to Prowl's skill at investments. Both Prowl and Radiance had already grown accustomed to the intense audits of their finances since the couple was living so clearly outside their income and Radiance because of his close association with them. A small grin crossed Radiance's features remembering the first time he'd seen the auditor's face at Prowl's easy presentation of the finances, accounting for every credit and every credit originating clearly within his income. It baffled the auditor to see such good records and even though it created more suspicion to have it that flawless, it tapered off quickly when they began to investigate the rest of Prowl's existence and found that everything he did was to that exacting standard.
Jazz gave a nervous trill, soothed by a low rumble from Prowl, and settled himself into character. It wasn't much of an act, but the playful, lust-driven youth Radiance knew so well took a back seat to the more serious, poised and presentable adult he also was.
"You two are going to make me nervous," Radiance teased, chiming, bracing himself for the inevitable chastising, but before it could come, the door opened and a femme in Enforcer markings with bright blue optics and pastel trimming bounded out, trilling happily and pulling Radiance into a tight hug.
"Hello, sweetspark," she said, then pulled back to look at him, gasping happily. "You look beautiful!" Behind her, two other Praxians looked out the door.
"Someone did some good work on your finish," the other femme, black with gold and red trim and matching Enforcer markings to the one clinging to Radiance, observed. "Come in and introduced them."
"Hello, Radiance," said the third, giving his creation a warm smile as everyone entered, Jazz and Prowl walking at the back of the group. He gave his creation a one-armed hug, then glanced back at the newcomers. "It took you long enough to get them here," he teased gently.
"I had to be sure Brava wouldn't scare them away," Radiance teased back as they all entered the building and took a lift up to the apartment home he'd been raised in.
They entered a sitting room and the first femme came up, beaming. "I'm so glad you could both make it," she said, looking between them. "Believe me when I say I know the nightmare that scheduling around your work can be."
"Saxo, Pantera, this is Mira," Radiance said, gesturing to each of his mates as he named them, introducing them in turn.
"It is a pleasure," Jazz said warmly, and then looked to the other two creators. "You must be Contact and Brava," he said, identifying them correctly.
The black femme nodded with a bit of a huff, and Mira simply beamed and fussed until everyone sat down, each triad on a sofa designed for three. Light high grade and confections were passed around, the first course of many that Mira and Contact had spent orns putting together.
"I understand you've done very well investing." Brava's gaze locked onto Prowl. "More than well enough you'd be better off investing than working."
"If credits were my focus, it is true," Prowl consented smoothly. "I am not an Enforcer for the paycheck. It suits me too well to give up."
"Don't interrogate the mech," Contact said, smiling fondly, then caught Mira's hand as she started to rise to get another plate. "Sit down and relax," he trilled to her.
"I'll just be right back," she insisted.
"Mira," Radiance said, standing. "What do you want me to get?"
"There's a refill for the silver spread," she said, relaxing against Brava. "Thank you!" she called after him as he disappeared, then looked back to Jazz. "Radiance tells us you aren't Praxian, do you like it here?"
"I love everything about Praxus," Jazz said, and grinned. "Especially the mecha. Your creation is one of the loveliest I've ever met."
"We are very proud of him," Contact said, while Mira smiled brightly.
"You have every reason to be," Prowl spoke with the honesty of holding the opinion true. "He is an excellent officer and a very good example of the best in a mecha. You raised him well."
"You are flattering me," Radiance said, reappearing and setting the bowl down where they could all reach, then sat back down between his mates. "Stop that, it's my turn to show you off for a while, they already know about me." He slipped an arm around Prowl's waist. "He gets regularly audited because of his investment success," he said proudly. "And Saxo is one of the youngest agents in all of SpecOps."
"You enjoy that work?" Contact asked Jazz.
Jazz nodded, leaning forward slightly. "I'm good at it, and I've never hidden what I do from Pantera or Radiance."
"Never needed to," Radiance nuzzled him, earning a low purr from Jazz and an indulgently pleased smile from Prowl.
"So will there be a triad ceremony in our near future?" Brava asked bluntly after a moment.
"As soon as it is socially acceptable," Prowl nodded, going as serious as she had. "We're only standing on formalities at this point."
Brava raised an optic ridge. "Only on formalities?"
"We are not bonded yet," Prowl corrected himself.
Mira gasped excitedly, and only Contact's arm around her kept her from bouncing up to her pedes.
"Radiance," Contact chastised. "I distinctly remember telling you to keep us all updated, and believe I remember you saying you would."
"I intended to," Radiance said, looking properly apologetic, then leaned over to nuzzle Prowl. "We really were intending to take our time, but...well. That didn't go exactly as planned."
"Sometimes things happen when they are ready, rather when society or you are," Prowl leaned into the contact. "I expect he wanted you to meet us first."
"I would hope so," Contact said, giving his creation a fond look.
"Absolutely," Radiance promised them.
"And he looks very well, I have you both to thank for that, I believe," the dispatcher added. "I haven't seen him smiling this much in centuries."
"A crime that was to be rectified as soon as possible," Jazz said. "We plan to spend the rest of our lives making him smile."
"Well, not all of it," Prowl rumbled with a look for Radiance that left no doubt as to what he meant.
Brava smirked. "Good."
"Though he's usually smiling when we're done with him," Jazz purred, making their dark mate lift a hand to cover his smirk, his shoulders shaking in a chuckle.
"So when will there be little ones running around to spoil?" Mira asked excitedly.
"Not until we're ready," Jazz said, turning serious. "I'm going to be completely honest with you about who your creation has mated with, if he hasn't already told you."
"Your first sparklings," Contact said, nodding. "He's mentioned it."
"We do want creations," Jazz assured them. "But not yet, we all think it's best that I be older, likely much older, before that happens."
Mira trilled. "It's always best to be ready for sparklings," she agreed with a nostalgic look for memories of when they'd first brought Radiance home.
"Agreed," Prowl nodded. "They deserve a stable triad who's ready to devote all the time and energy to them that they deserve."
"You've discussed it though?" Brava persisted.
"I want to carry again," Prowl answered her before she could even ask. "So at least the first will be kindled."
"I would love to kindle," Contact said wistfully, visor brightening.
"Some orn, darling," Brava purred. "We'll get you good and sparked."
Mira trilled brightly in agreement. "It's tricky with work schedules, I expect you've already realized that."
"We're going to make sure we have the time to spend caring for him," Radiance said. "Finances won't be an issue. But that's so long from now, right now we're just looking forward to putting the courtship forms through."
"It will not be soon enough for me," Prowl rumbled, his engine purring with anticipation. "I'm looking forward to when he can actually move in with us, instead of being a permanent guest." He leaned against his lover. "I'm still trying to convince them that taking a three century leave of absence isn't insane when we're ready for a creation."
"Three centuries," Contact said, both optics ridges raising as his wings perked. "That would be quite the dedicated undertaking."
"It isn't as if we need the income, and what better a use of our time than to raise our creation?" Prowl purred, anticipating the event, even if he was the only one that took time off. "It is a long time from now, however."
"Pantera doesn't give himself halfway to anything," Radiance explained. "It's all or nothing." He smiled fondly at his mate. "In everything he does."
"As long as that applies to Radiance as well, I think we will get along," Brava said, offering Prowl her first smile.
"I would love to see the rest of your home," Jazz said, judging the timing of Radiance's creators' high grade to voice that request, focusing specifically on Mira. "I know Radiance had to learn his sense of aesthetics from someone, judging from what I've seen so far it was definitely one of you."
Mira perked happily. "His place is gorgeous, isn't it?" She offered Jazz a wink. "I gave him a few pointers."
"It shows," Jazz purred, rising, holding a hand out for her.
When they'd disappeared into the main hallway, Brava leaned forward and locked the remaining pair with her hardwired visor. "How stable is he, really?"
"Stable enough to do the Ops work," Radiance said, equally serious. "And you know the kind of standards they hold those mecha to. I won't lie, he wouldn't be okay without us, but unless the unthinkable happens, that's never going to be a problem. And that's the point of triad, isn't it?"
"It is," Brava nodded.
"Is he realistically going to be able to have another creation?" Contact asked softly.
"Not soon," Prowl responded, voice low. "However in a millennia he will be three times his current age and what happened to him before we were together will be very long past. We hope that time and care will heal the damage done to him."
"And you?" the mech asked. "Radiance warned us it wasn't a good topic around Saxo, but how are you doing after what happened in Polyhex? I know I wouldn't have been okay if something happened to Radiance."
"I am coping. The active hunt may have ended for us, but we haven't stopped looking," Prowl said the truth smoothly woven with a lie so he wouldn't have to explain his fragged creator coding. "So no, I'm not okay, but I will be before Saxo is ready to try again."
"I know it hardly means anything to say, but I'm so sorry for what you've been through," Contact said, then noticeably forced himself to brighten. "But I'm sure that isn't what you want to talk about, and I want to hear about you. Tell me," he leaned forward, doorwings showing how excited he was, "Has the triad coding activated?"
"Vorns ago," Prowl smiled warmly and pressed against Radiance with unabashed pleasure. "It's strong and stable in all three of us now. Saxo choose to have it installed and has taken to it beautifully. I never believed anything could feel that good. I'm fairly sure I was delirious with it the first few orns."
"Possibly more than that," Radiance teased him, humming happily at the memories.
"I remember those orns," Contact chuckled, looking at Brava, whose engines purred back to him. "At least, I have memories that I assume were during those orns, it got difficult to keep track of."
"You are still planning to go through the full formal courting, though?" Brava questioned.
"Absolutely," Radiance told her. "We always planned to do this the right way, it's just the order that's gotten a bit mixed up."
"Though I admit it will make the courting much more pleasant with this order. We all know it is going to end well. Much less stressful and much more enjoyable for all of us," Prowl added with a bit of a dreamy look himself before he turned his helm to claim a strut-melting kiss from his newest mate. "We can all enjoy the courting fully."
Radiance's engines revved unabashedly as he pressed Prowl back, then pulled away, grinning, and then saw the knowing smirks on his creators' faces. "What?" he asked, laughing. "As if you three were never this bad."
"Didn't say a thing," Contact chuckled. "I'm glad you won't have to go through the stress of a real courtship again," he added, turning serious. "It was hard to watch you going through those, sweet spark."
Brava hummed in agreement, then turned all of her intense focus on Prowl. "Though let me make a few things clear to you," she began.
"Brava," Radiance protested, then silenced after just one look from her.
She held her creation with a stare until she was sure he wasn't going to interrupt before turning that look back on Prowl. "I'm sure you've realized that Radiance throws himself completely into everything he does, whether it deserves it or not," she said. "And in the past, others have not accepted this about him and expected him to be less than what he is for their pleasure. I'm telling you now, I will not tolerate that from anyone."
"I have realized and it is a trait that I admire a great deal. Absolute commitment is too rare these orns," Prowl met her gaze with his own, steady and level. "I trust him, Brava. With Saxo, with my creations, with my spark. I have never left any mecha I loved enough to trust and I never will." He paused, cycled a gust of air and gave her a slight smile. "You are a good creator for caring enough to challenge me. I love him because of his commitment, not in spite of it. All three of us have functions that demand a great deal of our time and energy. We have found a balance and understanding of each other in it."
Brava tilted her head slightly, then nodded her satisfaction and settled back, Contact sliding an arm around her shoulders and giving her a lovingly exasperated look.
"You were thinking it too," she told him, a little smugly.
"I-well, I, yes," Contact admitted. "But I wasn't going to put it quite so..." He cleared his vocalizer out and leaned in to kiss his mate. "I do love you."
Brava grinned against him before they both turned back to the pair sitting opposite. "You've spark merged, then?" Contact asked, voice soft.
Radiance hummed in affirmative, armor rippling with pleasure in the memories.
"Several times now," Prowl nodded. "Always with the three of us."
"The most amazing feeling, isn't it?" Contact said, visor glowing warmly as he looked at his creation. "A triad merge."
"It is," Radiance said, smiling just as warmly back. "I can see why you wanted me to find one."
"And we're just so happy for you that you have," Contact said, trilling with real excitement for his creation. "All of us. And for you and Saxo," he added for Prowl. "You should hear Mira go on about it."
"She is very excitable," Brava chuckled, then looked at Prowl. "So tell us what you did before you met Saxo. Radiance said you've traveled all over the planet? Investing?"
"Investments were something I did on my own. I was a personal assistant of sorts. I organized events, personnel management, ensured my employers did not have to concern themselves with whatever I was charged with overseeing," Prowl nodded. "It was good, until I made the wrong enemies and had to find a new existence. Though that lead me to Saxo, and then Radiance, so I can't really complain about bad luck."
"I would hope not," Brava said, then both she and Contact looked up as the sound of laughter echoed in from the main hallway moments before Jazz and Mira came back in, both of them grinning.
"Radiance!" Mira said. "I demand to know why you haven't brought your mates home until now!"
"Weren't you just saying that you know what it's like trying to plan around Enforcer schedules?" Radiance countered. "It's hard enough getting part of an orn together, much less trying to match up with you three."
"Less time 'facing, more time visiting," she grinned at him, as Jazz unsuccessfully held a hand up to hide his own grin behind her. "Your mate is charming."
"He is also ours," Radiance rumbled, but the tone was playful. "You can't have him no matter how charming he is."
Jazz flashed him a grin to rival Mira's. "There's enough to share."
"You'd know that better than anyone," Mira teased, and Radiance could only chuckle and nod.
"You seriously want me to try to tell him we're going to 'face less?" Prowl raised an optic ridge at her, both serious and teasing all at once. "You only find him charming because he's well-satisfied."
"I can be sociable when I'm not well-satisfied," Jazz said, mock-insulted as he sat back down next to Radiance.
"Mira, darling, you remember what it's like being a new triad," Contact chuckled, welcoming his mate back next to him with a fond nuzzle.
"And you are the least sociable creature I have ever met when you're not well-satisfied," Radiance told Jazz, who just grinned and pulled him into a kiss.
"Your creator was telling me about you stealing the neighbor's cybercat when you were a sparkling and trying to hide it under your berth," Jazz said, and gave his mate a positively wicked look.
"Primus, Mira, you did not-" Radiance said, as his creators all started grinning.
"Oh, and he tried to convince us he was the one making those sounds!" Brava said, laughing.
"Whatever prompted such illegal behavior?" Prowl tried to keep a straight face and failed miserably.
Radiance huffed. "They told me I could see their cybercat anytime I wanted, which I still think counts as a blank offer to bring it home with me, because how else was I supposed to see it anytime I wanted? What if they hadn't been at home and I wanted to visit? It was a logical answer."
Mira giggled. "Only, poor thing, he was scared to get in trouble once we asked him if he knew anything..."
"I was going to return it," Radiance said. "It just started yowling on me!"
"So which one did you inherit the love of critters from?" Jazz managed between giggles.
Brava and Contact both looked directly at Mira.
"What?" Mira gasped with playful indignation. "I've only brought home a few..."
"Dozen," Brava filled in.
"We had to make a rule about bringing home strays," Contact added for Jazz and Prowl.
"You don't have any right now?" Radiance asked, looking around like he'd suddenly realized there was something missing.
"I found a home for the last one a few metacycles ago," Mira said proudly.
"Do you have any other good sparkling stories?" Jazz asked.
"Well, there was his first encounter with racing," Brava chuckled, grinning when her creation groaned. "Two metacycles into his mechling upgrades he decided he was ready for the mech tracks, rules or no rules."
"And how did that go?" Jazz asked her, ignoring the sideways shove he got from his mate.
"I made very good friends with some of the other creators while they were sorting the mess out," Mira said brightly.
"Darling, you make friends with everyone," Contact said.
"I crashed, okay?" Radiance groaned at the memory of it. "I got in the track, got in a race, and proceeded to create a pile-up. It was only when the medics were untangling everyone that they weren't out I was still a dependent and called my creators. You have no idea the kind of scene three Enforcers make when they think their only creation is about to deactivate."
"You've gotten much better," Prowl cooed.
"Got blacklisted from every track in Praxus for two centuries," Radiance muttered.
"Oh, or there's the time in school when he decided he needed to be the one making sure that everyone followed all the rules," Mira giggled.
"The instructors were not doing a good job of it on their own," Radiance pointed out, holding his hand over his face, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but there.
"I couldn't laugh too much, he got a little scuffed up for it," Contact said, but he was still chuckling.
"I could," Brava snickered. "He was being a bossy little thing, I woulda beat 'im up too."
"Brava!" Mira and Radiance gasped.
"He never stopped wanting to make sure everyone was following the rules," Jazz said fondly.
After that, Radiance banned the further telling of stories from his youth, Jazz promised to drop by sometime to hear them without his stuffy mates, Mira brought out the main dinner course, and the two triads relaxed into easy, amiable conversation until it got late enough that everyone agreed it was time to call it a night, and Radiance agreed to bring his triad back soon.
On the way to the door, as everyone gathered to say goodbye, Radiance slipped a hand onto the small of Jazz's back and faced his creators. "So you approve?" he asked.
"Yes," Mira said brightly, while Contact nodded.
"You're good enough. Just stay that way," Brava said sternly.
"We will," Prowl promised in reply, his field brightening with pleasure at the approval, even though he wasn't the one that needed to hear it the most.
Jazz all but trilled his happiness to have succeeded in gaining his mate's creators' favor, doorwings lifting in pleasure and flickering gratitude into his field where it was pressed against Radiance's. He thanked Mira and Contact for the dinner, all three of them for opening up their home, and promised once more that he would visit soon.
The door closed and the triad started walking to the road, Jazz leaning blissfully against his mate, purring and with an overcharged buzz. "I like your creators."
"As do I," Prowl leaned in from the other side. "They are good mecha."
"I'm glad," Radiance said honestly, smiling through his field. "And they liked you. I know they'll be happy to see you whenever you visit. Are you good to drive?" he teased Jazz. "Or do I need to call for an escort?"
"Like you? Lover, if you're worried, you could always overload me a few times, that would clear it out," Jazz purred, then straightened and spoke more seriously. "But I am good to drive."
"How much trouble can he get into between us?" Prowl purred, trapping Jazz between their frames and stilling them all for a moment. "If he starts to weave, we'll just get a room for a few joors to burn off the extra."
"I am not going to start to weave," Jazz said, rolling his optics.
"I think we will decide that," Radiance said, nipping at Jazz's neck as he and Prowl moved in around him.
"I want you two in our berth," Jazz said. "Don't you dare think about stopping along the way." He rubbed his hips against both of them. "I just got my mate's creators' approval, I want to celebrate properly."
"As do we," Prowl promised as he stepped into the transformation lane and led his mates home.