Thundercracker came out of recharge curled about Skywarp, holding onto him tight. Something was not right, but he couldn't figure it out at first. Then the low voices coming from the other end of the berth finally registered. His optics flicked down. Megatron. Always Megatron. The gunformer had Star wrapped in his arms, holding him too close. Thundercracker could not help the resentment that flared up. It only worsened when the words started making sense to his processor.
"So, your bond can extend to a fourth?"
He sent a subtle push down the trine bond, trying to direct his leader without saying anything outright. Lie, he mentally pushed. Lie to him.
Starscream brushed Thundercracker's thought away, as if it were nothing but cobwebs and dust.
"It's not something that has a limit," Starscream whispered back, "If someone was to bond with one of us it brings them into the full bond. You can't bond with one seeker in a trine, you bond with them all. Does that bother you?"
Megatron chuckled, a low rumbling sound of pleasure. "Hardly." He pulled Starscream closer. Thundercracker was hard pressed not to growl. The grounder was holding HIS trine leader far too close, and far too possessively. "It seems an asset. Skywarp is a wonderful Decepticon. And Thundercracker..."
"Thundercracker has always had a way about him, but he can be convinced." Starscream purred, "I'm sure of it. I can-I will bring him over."
Megatron chuckled again, kissing Starscream, "You're very convincing when you wish to be."
"Convincing...right. Is that the word you're using for it these days, mighty Megatron," Starscream gave a snort, then half a pout when their leader refused to grab the bait.
Megatron hmm'd, as if he was thinking. Thundercracker didn't even want to know where the ground bound mech's mind was going. Megatron casually traced the line of a shoulder vent and asked, "Praxians...they are very interesting. Are they the only possible result of a grounder and a Seeker sparking?"
"What?" Starscream gave a chuff. The one that always meant are-you-really-this-stupid? this-is-why-I-should-be-the-leader-and-you-should-be-MY-second. "No, not at all. It happens. Honestly more often than not it happens. Sometimes you get Seekers, or other flight frames. Shuttles if it's a bigger grounder. It just depends. Don't worry, I promise I've got up tight firewalls." He pounced on Megatron, chuckling when their frames clanged together.
The words that would freeze his spark were murmured so lowly he was not quite sure he had heard them at first. "You would make an exceptional carrier someday. Smart, swift, not quite as strong as I but close enough. The ideal Decepticon. If nothing else perhaps the sparks would inherit your looks."
"You think so?" Starscream's pleased reply bordered on tittering. Enough so that he ignored the dig about him being just-a-pretty-face. Being the entrusted carrier was a great honor among Seekers. The bearer of the trine's newspark had to be strong, swift, have the ability to protect themselves and the newspark should something happen.
Thundercracker was not sure if Megatron knew this and was flattering his trinemate, or if the grounder had just struck a lucky hit. He was leaning on the first. Megatron's flattery had come just too close to the ideal carrier for it to be coincidence.
It wasn't happening! He wouldn't let it happen. He would make sure the grounder's plans for Star never came to fruition. Within a week he had purposely gotten himself with newspark to put the idea out of Star's processor.
Thundercracker snapped awake, a whimper escaped his vocalizer before he could stop it. He was so wrapped in his own grief that he did not even noticing the two grounders already wide awake, and clinging to him. Not for a very long moment. Prowl's fingers had began to trace soothing little circles across his wing plates, working with obvious intent until Thundercracker finally calmed. It was the same thing that his carrier would have done when he was a bitlet. The touch snapped him out of it, brought him back to the present.
"It was just a dream," Prowl murmured, the look crossing his face was contemplative. "Wasn't it?"
The coolant ran in jagged rivers down his cheekplates, pooling at his chin to drip down his neck cording. He had not realized he was crying until Jazz pulled a rag from his subspace, and wiped the gathering moisture away. Jazz's fingertips lingered, tracing the path the tears had taken. Warm metal brushed his cheekplates in a caress. The touch grounded him.
It was easy to relax against them. Too easy. It made him feel like he was losing himself. What he was. His offlined trinemates. None of those thoughts made him stop. Deep down he knew he could not cling to the past forever.
He turned his head, catching Prowl's lips. They tasted nothing like Star's, and there was comfort in that as well. Neither were they replacements, he kept telling himself that.
"I did it on purpose, and lied to them about it." Thundercracker whispered, his face plate's pressed against Prowl's. He forced himself not to cringe, expecting rejection. He found only acceptance and love through the open bond. Mere days ago he would have rejected it out of turn. Fled. Instead he opened himself to it, felt their fields surround him in their warmth. It was not just about the sparkling, HE needed this as well. He needed them.
"Ya did what ya thought was needed," Jazz said, "Don't beat yourself up over it." His hands ghosted along Thundercracker's wings, along the edges, across the joints, and back again. The charge slowly built. Systems heating. Calming touches soon turned into something else entirely. The Seeker pressed himself into Jazz's clever hands, a moan working out of his vocalizer.
"Jazz," Prowl's voice was bordering on stern. "I think this may be something we need to…" He stopped, lip plates closing with an audible clink as he noticed Thundercracker starting to pull away. "I mean, it is understandable. You were doing what was best for your trine. Or at least what you thought was best. Just...if you ever feel that way with us, we want you to talk it out with us. Okay?"
Thundercracker gave a weak but hopeful nod, allowing himself to be distracted by Jazz's oh so clever hands.
"Now, Thundercracker." Prowl crooned, pushing him away from Jazz and onto the berth, nuzzling into the seeker's neck as he went. "We'll take care of you. Trust us and we'll always take care of you." His fingers drifted down, dipping into seams, plucking wires.
"What he said," Jazz leered, peering down at him. The polyhexian began to stroke the larger mechs wings with renewed intent. Acting as if Prowl hadn't had the gall to steal his toy.
"Open up." He murmured, tracing a finger across Thundercracker's interface panel. Lubricant already dripped out of the seams by the time the panel snapped open, his spike already pressurized. Prowl smirked, leaning down he swirled his glossa around the head or the spike, and watched Thundercracker's face-plates as he he took more of it into his mouth.
Thundercracker let out a hungry little whimper, arching up. The praxian between his spread legs obliged and drew him in deeper. This was...this was... Between Jazz's clever fingers on his wings and Prowl's mouth he could have died a happy mech. At least at that moment. "Please." He finally managed to beg. "Please," it came louder this time, and with a hiss of indrawn breath.
"Please, what?" Jazz murmured against his audial. Jazz chuckled, his hands never stopping, and lighting up every sensor across the seeker's sensitive wings. He touched the tips, scraping until Thundercracker whimpered again, energy crackling between them. "Please, what?" He repeated, his smile clear in his tone. His optic's caught Prowl's. "Perhaps we should give him what he wants, love."
Thundercracker whimpered when the warm heat of Prowl's mouth was removed from his spike, replaced by the cold air for a moment, before something equally warm and tight replaced it. He gasped as Prowl pushed himself down his spike. The Praxian was warm, and almost painfully tight; the valve clench around him, and then Prowl began to move.
Thundercracker gasped, grabbing at those pristine white hips. His fingers clenched, nearly to the point of denting. "Primus." He gasped, rolling his hips up to meet Prowl at the halfway point as he plunged back into the heat.
"Primus has little to do with it. Though Unicron may be owed a few cassettes as payment for this," Jazz laughed in his audial, charge zinging across his plating as he watched Prowl move. "Ah am the luckiest mech alive." He purred, and tilted Thundercracker's head, catching his lips. His fingers never ceased their movement, caressing sensitive plating, plucking at wires. "Beautiful. So fracking gorgeous. We're going to love you forever. Never let you leave our berth. Would you like that?"
Thundercracker let his head tilt back and shuttered his optics. He couldn't have answered if he'd wanted to. It was nearly unbearable. Jazz was a comforting warm spot behind him, still caressing the planes of his wings, pinching the ailerons until Thundercracker was gasping and arching into his touch.
"That's it." Prowl hummed, leaning over Thundercracker to catch first Jazz's lips, and then Thundercracker's again.
"It's okay, let us take care of you." Prowl whispered, turning his attention to the flier's shoulder vents, his glossa flicked out, sneaking between the small panels, against the planes of metal. Flitting across the small platelets until the Seeker moaned, and leaned into the touch.
Energy crackled across their plating, flaring out and dancing across the press of chest plates and fields until the blue mech cried out, arching between them.
They ended up in a tangle of limbs, too lost in the afterglow of overload to move. Silence filled the room, but for the pinging of heated metal. Prowl started to move, as if he wanted to say something, but Jazz shushed him with a simple touch to the lip plates.
::I know you want to talk about it some more, babe, but not now. It took a lot for him to share this with us. And we're not exactly innocent ourselves. We can't judge him when we're keeping secrets.:: Jazz glanced at the now recharging seeker. ::We've got to give him time before you start making plans for trine counselling.::
::I just don't want it to happen again. To happen with us.:: Prowl sighed down the bond.
::Have faith. It won't.::