Cajoling

[niyazi-a.livejournal.com]

PG-13
Bayverse, Sky and Ground AU
Skywarp, Starscream

“We need,” Starscream murmured, his arms thrown around Skywarp’s shoulders, his cockpit nestled between Skywarp’s turbines, “to open our own bonds.”  His voice barely registered from the deep darkness.  A faint glow of red from his optics glimmered in the edge of Skywarp’s vision.

Skywarp stirred, unhappy. Starscream had known he was awake, lying, still, disconsolate.  He had been as strong—as gentle—as he could for Barricade.  It had torn at him, taking every fragment of his self control, to keep his anger from the bond.  Not anger at Barricade, no. Not…really.  He was upset that the grounder hadn’t turned to him, asked him for help. 

But more, he was afraid that Barricade would think the anger directed at him.  Skywarp did not want to hurt Barricade: the grounder had been hurt enough. The only reason he had been targeted was because of the Quaterne. The thought tore at Skywarp, pulling him toward both despair and rage. 

“Not safe right now,” Skywarp muttered.  Barricade had pulled a late shift on Scan, and after promising until his vocalizer ran out of charge that he’d override-lock himself in and contact all three of them instantly if anything happened, and the berth in front of Skywarp seemed to gape like a hungry, cold loneliness. He trusted Barricade. He did.  Barricade would tell him this time.  Wouldn’t he?

Starscream’s long fingers walked their way down Skywarp’s chassis, riding a line between teasing and tentative. “He is as safe as he can be. As safe as any of us are.  And we need to trust.”  The talons stopped moving, testing, waiting for Skywarp’s response.

Skywarp squirmed.  Yes.  Exactly. Trust.  The precise thing he couldn’t manage to do.  “I do,” he said, but his voice betrayed him.  He turned his face away, ashamed, even in the darkness.

Starscream’s mouth traced a warm line along one of his folded wingflaps.  “As much as we can.  But this is precisely why we need to re-open our bonds. We must trust each other.” 

Skywarp half-turned in the circle of bronze arms. “You don’t think--?”

Starscream shook his head. “I think nothing. Only that they will strike and pry at any chink they can find.”  A voice deep with wisdom. He’d served on the Nemesis longer than any of the others: Thundercracker had been in charge of the small research station: Skywarp had flitted from place to place on IG assignments. Only Starscream, of all of them, had served on a warship.  Had led a warship.  And knew the violent pettinesses of warriors without codes.

Skywarp sighed, nodded slowly. “Yes. You’re right.”  A brief, faint flicker of a smile. “But aren’t you always?”

Starscream smiled back. “I am.” 

“And Thundercracker?”

“He agrees.  He suggested that we figure out an order, first.  Someone will need to support Barricade through it.”

“Yes,” Skywarp said, faintly. “I want to be there with him.  The first one.”

Starscream simply leanded forward to kiss the wingflap again. “He will want you there.”

“Will he?” The question quiet, deep pain, almost ripping itself from Skywarp’s vocalizer.

Starscream nodded, his mouth never breaking contact. 

“He didn’t tell me—he didn’t trust me then,” Skywarp whimpered.  He rolled farther over, one hand coming up to trace along Starscream’s arm .  Seeking comfort. 

“Give him a chance to redeem himself, Skywarp. Surely you can feel how terrible he feels about it.” 

“I—“

“You must give forgiveness if you hope to receive it.” Starscream said, lightening the gravity of the words by letting his talons skitter playfully up Skywarp’s chassis, teasing the black jet’s mouth. Skywarp let himself rise to the teasing, tipping his chin up, mouth opening to nip at the fingertips.

“How did we survive so long apart?” he murmured, sadness tinging his voice.

“We did not fully live during those times,” Starscream replied.  “And now that we live—as we should—I will fight with everything I have to keep it.”  His mouthplates ground for a moment, as if grinding up a kernel of anger.  As if to compensate for that slip, he shifted over, throwing his thigh over Skywarp’s pelvis, drawing himself up on top of Skywarp’s frame.  His mouth moved for a kiss, one that Skywarp returned slowly, almost shyly.  Skywarp’s body shivered. 

“We-we’ll be like this when we bond,” he whispered, an echo of memory long thought lost, of their days back in the Academy, bodies still seemingly too large and awkward to be managed, still too new to be entirely comfortable, inviting exploration.

“Yes,” Starscream said, curling to look down his body, their cockpits snugged next to each other, the glass cool and slick and soothing.

“You aren’t afraid?” Other long-buried memories bestirring, whispering like discontented ghosts. 

“Never,” Starscream said.  “You are Skywarp.  You love me as I love you.” 

“I hurt you.”

“Love is greater than pain,” Starscream said, wriggling his frame against Skywarp’s. Getting him used to touch, the idea.  Stirring old memories, blending them with the pleasurable touches of the present.

“I do love you,” Skywarp choked, his hands stroking over Starscream’s shoulders.  “I’m sorry I don’t show it.” 

“You do,” Starscream murmured. He wiggled down to lay his cheekflare on Skywarp’s shoulder, his mouth nuzzling into the black throat. “And you do show it.  But it is…wonderful,” Starscream’s voice bubbled, “to hear you say it.” 

“I’m sorry,” Skywarp said.  He caressed Starscream’s shoulder, talons teasing around the folded wings.

“No. You are Skywarp. Be Skywarp as you are.  That is who we all need right now.”

Starscream’s strange, quiet wisdom. Wisdom that had never broken, no matter how brutal Skywarp had been to him.  Never doubted, no matter how bleak things looked.  Skywarp’s arms crushed the bronze frame against him, his answer beyond words, beyond sound, beyond his capacity to express, crushing metal against metal.

But it was all he had, and trying and failing was suddenly more important than not trying at all.

 

 

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/__wilderness__/]

*bites fingernails* Please make everything be all right?

[shanfiction73.livejournal.com]

Skywarp grows, Starscream is awesome, and I can't wait to see how Barricade and Thundercracker deal with this lull in the storm. And what are the other 'Cons on the Nemesis thinking... I hope the Quaterne gets the chance to turn all of this backstabbing against Megs and Soundwave.

[ithilgwath.livejournal.com]

*hops on top of the snuggle pile* Yes, Starscream is always right, this is why you should listen to him more often Skywarp. *nods sagely* especially when he's petting and kissing you.