Sweet

[niyazi-a.livejournal.com]

NC-17
Bayverse, Sky and Ground AU
Barricade/Skywarp, Starscream/Thundercracker
Sticky

Skywarp edged nervously onto the berth. Barricade had been a bit on edge all day—Skywarp didn’t doubt that he could feel it through the bond—Starscream and Thundercracker were going to bond later in the solar cycle.  And while they were both adept at controlling their end of the bond with the grounder, you didn’t need a working bond with them to feel the nervous tension. 

And he wanted to be with Barricade for it, through it.  But he was afraid he’d…get out of his depth.  Afraid of hurting Barricade, unintentionally. Afraid of his clumsiness, his thoughtlessness.

Barricade was curled on his side, a datapad magnetized to one thigh, scrolling through a text, optics intent on the dim glow. 

Skywarp risked a brush on a shoulder tire. “Barricade?” 

Barricade twitched, startled, then softened. “Oh, sorry.” He managed a smile. “Got, uh…caught up, I guess.”  He flicked off the datapad, optics swiveling to Skywarp. “You…okay?”

Silly.  “Yeah.  I’m fine. Just…umm.  Later?” 

The grounder blinked. “Later ?” 

“Uhhh, Starscream and Thundercracker.”

Barricade nodded. “Yeah, I know.” He tilted his head, sitting up.  “Why? Something wrong?”

Maybe. Probably.  “I just…well.  You and I?”

“Yeah?” 

Was he...not thinking things through? Or was he trying to force Skywarp to say it?  “Well. We’ll be here, together and they’ll, ahem, be going through, ummm, that, and….”  He dropped his gaze to one of Barricade’s feet, shyly. 

“Oh.”  Barricade leaned over, adhering the datapad to the bulkhead.  “You…don’t want to?”

Skywarp ground his mouthplates in frustration. No, that wasn’t right at all.  Of course he did. He just…didn’t trust himself.

“I don’t want to hurt you, little spike, that’s all.” 

“You won’t.” Barricade stretched along the bond, pushing gently, awkwardly, against Skywarp’s wall. Skywarp lowered the bondwall, carefully, letting the thin gold trickle in, illuminate his darkness.  Barricade wiggled closer. “Hurt me more if you stayed away.”

“But…last time….” Skywarp stroked one talon along the small foot. 

“Was last time.” Barricade set his mouthplates, determinedly.  “Thundercracker’s right. If we let them win, they win.” He hesitated. “He…said it differently.”

Skywarp flared into a grin. “’The only way they win is if we let them’?” Words that echoed across time to him, still somehow pure, even after everything.  Thundercracker had always meant well…at some level. He’d always worked to make them stronger. 

Barricade nodded.

“He’s right,” Skywarp admitted. He reached another cautious hand out to Barricade’s shoulder. “And you’re right.” 

Barricade let himself be gathered into Skywarp’s long arms, face tilting up to nuzzle against the chassis. “Can we…can we go slowly?” A twist in the golden thread across the bond, of fear—fear of letting Skywarp down. Even now that was Barricade’s concern rather than his own damage. 

Skywarp crushed Barricade against him, resting his mouth on the top of the helm, Barricade’s crest scratching along his jaw. “Yes. As slow as you want.”

[***]

Starscream wriggled on the berth, radiating anticipation.  This was necessary, but also…wanted.  He’d had a taste of it through Barricade’s bond, and while he did not begrudge the little grounder anything, he was greedy enough to want the bond for himself. 

“Nervous?” Thundercracker goaded.

“No,” Starscream said.  “Excited.”  He purred. “Two of my favorite things, after all.”  Thundercracker and bonding.  And interfacing, but…he would not admit that.  It had been held against him too many times.

Thundercracker laughed, only the edge of nervousness in his voice.  “It won’t be like last time. I promise.”

Starscream reached up, stroking a hand around Thundercracker’s hip. “It is all right if it was like last time.”  He drew Thundercracker to the edge of the berth, feeling the nervous tremor through the hip joint. 

“I want it to be different,” Thundercracker said, pettishly.

Starscream pulled him closer, leaning to rub  his cheekplating against the blue hip. “Then it shall be different.”  He leaned back, inviting Thundercracker to follow him onto the berth.

Thundercracker gave a withered smile. “Is everything so simple to you, Starscream?” 

The bronze face under him grew serious for a moment, and then, “There is enough difficulty in the world. Some things are best uncomplicated.” 

Unlike the tangled web of the Quaterne. But Thundercracker knew what Starscream was offering—to sweep those tangles aside, to start as though anew.  A clean, pure history. 

Except both of them were products of those years.  That…could not be so easily undone.  Still, Thundercracker determined to try.

He dipped his head down, taking the kiss Starscream was offering, flicking his glossa gently over the lip plates, before letting his attention, and mouth, drift, his glossa trailing over the cheek flares, around the audio.  Starscream’s ventilations caught, thin and short, trying to hold himself still, concentrating his entire attention on Thundercracker’s exploration.

Still, Thundercracker realized, giving himself to Thundercracker. Still yielding, surrendering. 

He stopped.  No. This was the same. “You can,” he murmured, his voice already husky with desire, “touch me.” A statement disguising a plea. 

Starscream’s hands came up, gently, as if afraid of spooking Thundercracker, the talon tips skittering over the blue rib struts.  Thundercracker felt his sensornet ripple. He let his optics drift closed, his mouth parted, concentrating on the constantly stirring, moving points of the long, bronze talons.

He felt Starscream shift underneath him, rolling him gently to his side, arms and legs lacing between his: neither on top, neither on bottom, but side-to-side, gentle, hesitant equals. Both feeling their way along an unfamiliar path. 

For a long time, they lay like this, mouths, hands, legs, feet, meeting, touching, exploring.  Thundercracker felt Starscream’s toes curling over his heelspurs, palms slicking over his folded wings, flirting with his engines.  Thundercracker shivered, teetering on the brink of helplessness, knowing that Starscream wasn’t overstimulating him on purpose.

And it struck him, strangely, that he could learn from this: that Starscream was touching him the way he wanted to be touched—had wanted to be touched for all those aeons.  It made him ache, made each caress a gentle, blameless, bittersweet lesson.  

He quivered, his hands, usually so certain, suddenly trembling and timid across Starscream’s armor.  Starscream hummed, pleased, aroused, his EM field pulsing pleasurably against Thundercracker’s. 

“I suppose we should…get to it,” Thundercracker said, unsteadily.

“Yes,” Starscream said, dipping close for a kiss.  “I love you.”

The words were meant to calm, meant to soothe. They raised taut tremors in Thundercracker—the deep trust he was already given, without having done a thing to earn it. And behind that, the specter of what he’d had before, all unknowing. 

Starscream glowed as Thundercracker tipped back, opening the heavy armor over his spark chamber.  He could feel the wash of energy, even through the casing.  “I want to see it,” he breathed. “Please?” His optics flicked up briefly to Thundercracker’s face, before returning to stare, to devour, the spark chamber’s casing. 

Thundercracker’s talons squeezed into fists, balls of anger at himself for his hesitation. He nodded, grimly, and sent the command to open the spark chamber.  Starscream sucked in a delighted breath, as the orange light washed over him, gilding his armor, flickering like a caress made of light over Starscream’s chassis, glowing within his cockpit like a captured sun.  He reached one hand down, caressing the side of the chamber, grinning as Thundercracker whimpered, half in fear, half at the intense rush of pleasure. 

Starscream wriggled, the hand moving between their thighs, opening their interface hatches. One of his thighs gripped around Thundercracker, sliding his valve over Thundercracker’s spike.  Thundercracker reached a tremulous hand for Starscream’s shoulder armor, quivering as the valve cinched down over his spike, sending an entirely new spectrum of sensations washing over him. 

Starscream’s hand returned to the open chamber, trailing his talons over, and through the honey colored glow, clicking happily as Thundercracker cried out, softly, at the intense, tender touches. 

Thundercracker felt the valve begin to work along his spike, the mechanisms rippling up and down the sensors on his spike, pulling charge on it, milking his desire. “Not fair,” he gasped, his talons curling around the bronze armor. 

“No, it is not,” Starscream teased for a moment, before relenting, releasing his own armor locks.  His blue-white spark light poured from his own chamber, mingling, swirling, embracing Thundercracker’s bright, restless orange.  “But it should be.” 

Starscream leaned in, his mouth searching for a kiss, his hands curling around the blue frame.  Thundercracker felt the spark approach, could feel his desire flaring, washing over, overwhelming him.  He felt Starscream embracing him, his spark light embracing him, his valve embracing him, holding him, pulling him in.  He was surrounded by Starscream’s yielding adoration.  He could not refuse.  He could not hold back.  What he had wanted for so long…he could not hold back from now, despite his fears.  Thundercracker was many things, but he would not be a coward.

His own hands clutched at Starscream, his mouth tearing from the kiss to release a cry of sweet surrender.

 

Comments

[riventiana.livejournal.com]

Sweet indeed! I'm almost sheepish now for how much I disliked Thundercracker in the beginning. Somehow he's become one of my favorites, and I love him for how hard he's trying and how far he's already come. Suspect bonding with Skywarp will be much harder tho...