FIC: Voracity [5]
Title: Voracity
Pairings: Optimus Prime/Matrix/Starscream
Summary: Weeks later, Starscream's hunger only grows, and Optimus has to make a decision about how he wants this to proceed.
Notes: WARNING for dub-con.
Each time, it became harder to play the martyr role he had assigned himself. For practicality’s sake, and for secrecy’s, there was an arranged schedule Starscream and Optimus Prime adhered to, for what Starscream called their trysts and Optimus thought of as blackmail.
If he were honest with himself, Optimus would admit that it wasn’t blackmail alone that kept him from breaking their “agreement”. Few were likely to believe whatever Starscream said, and those that did were likely to place the blame squarely on Starscream’s head, rather than Prime’s. No, it wasn’t the threat of having their rendezvous discovered that worried Optimus Prime.
Starscream managed to disengage before the Matrix could take its usual hold on him, pushing up with the help of Prime’s shoulder under his hand until his spark was out of reach of the voracious artifact. He straddled the Autobot’s prone frame and sighed. Optimus had long since let his gaze go unfocused, dimly noting the way condensation pearled on shivering wingtips as Starscream fought to lower his temperature once more.
Optimus felt the Matrix shift in his chest, reaching, and silently despaired.
“Don’t look so morose,” Starscream chided when he noticed. “You look like a corpse.”
Optimus did not look at him. This was the seventh time. He could not still cling to his victimhood. Yet he tried one last time. “I feel like one.”
For a few moments, Starscream said nothing. Optimus felt those piercing red optics observing him critically, and did not bother to return the favor. There was little point in it. “Are you finished?” he asked tiredly.
Starscream’s reaching hand told him “no”, and Optimus resigned himself to staring up at the night sky while Starscream and the increasingly foreign object in his chest coupled around him.
It therefore came as an abrupt and unpleasant shock when he felt his spark brushed against by questing digits that found their way around the reaching Matrix. Optimus gasped, only instinct preventing him from jolting and accidentally impaling himself on Starscream’s hand. “Stop.”
Perhaps even more shockingly, Starscream did. Now, with Prime’s optics focused on him, Starscream kept his fingers still and did not try to go further. “Why?”
The Autobot leader stared up at the silhouetted seeker incredulously. He was asking why? “Don’t pretend, Starscream. I don’t want you touching me, and you know it.”
Starscream’s expression twisted into a frown. “I was only trying to help,” he protested. Optimus shot him a hard glare.
“I don’t need your pity, Decepticon.”
It looked for a moment as if Starscream would hit him for that - but the moment passed, and Starscream’s face was once again a strange, unreadable mixture of emotions. “You need many things, Autobot,” he answered. “But pity isn’t one of them. Frankly, I’d crush your spark myself if you ever sunk low enough for me to pity.”
And, strangest of all, Optimus Prime felt a little comforted by the sentiment.
“Still,” Starscream continued, “there’s no reason to be so hasty to reject an offer. Unless there’s something you’re frightened of?”
“I’m not taking that bait.”
“Pity.” The seeker’s free hand trailed lightly up and down the aerodynamic frame. Red optics dimmed. “I thought I made a rather attractive lure.”
“Now you desire my interest?” Optimus asked, and was pleased to see Starscream falter.
“Don’t assume things,” Starscream warned, suddenly very serious. His grating voice rasped at such a low frequency. “You aren’t fighting this, Optimus Prime. And, as inevitable as we both know my victory is… you are not well known for surrendering, even in the face of absolute defeat. I can only guess at what you want.”
“You don’t care what I want. Don’t pretend otherwise.”
Starscream shrugged. His fingers were growing restless again. “Still. I would guess that you want this, but cannot bear to admit to it enough to participate.”
“I’ve already told you my feelings on the matter,” Optimus reminded him. He was not at all surprised that Starscream’s reply was dismissive.
“I don’t believe you, Prime. But,” he amended, and withdrew his hand from inside the Prime, “if you are so against accepting my generosity, I won’t force it on you.”
“A benevolent gesture,” Optimus drawled, sarcasm thick and utterly useless against the Air Commander.
“Quite. Now then,” Starscream purred, optics alight again with hunger, “I believe I had some other business to attend to while you’re here…”
“Why?”
Starscream looked irritated again by this interruption. “That business was not ‘have a boring discussion with Optimus Prime’, I’ll have you know.”
“I know,” Optimus confirmed, and half sat up before Starscream’s hand halted his progress. He lay back again. “But surely this must concern you too.”
“I believe we’ve been over this. Multiple times, now.” Starscream’s tone was bored, and not a little impatient.
Optimus did not bother to appeal to Starscream’s reason. “So it doesn’t bother you, this hunger gnawing at your spark?” he prompted. To his relief, the seeker paused. Optimus used the opportunity to further his goals. “A hunger that was never there before? Your time would be better spent on other pursuits. When was your last attempt to overthrow Megatron?”
Starscream’s optics narrowed again as he looked down at his captured foe. “I don’t know, Prime,” he murmured, deceptively soft as his hands repositioned to hold Optimus Prime down by his throat. “Do your Autobot spies have nothing to tell you?”
No. Mirage’s reports contained nothing too unusual. But gossip amongst the Autobots originating from Mirage told of peculiarities about Starscream that most Autobots wrote off as a glitched bot acting under whatever twisted normal parameters he had. They laughed it off when Mirage told them how Starscream stalked the ruined corridors of the Nemesis now, when he normally kept himself in his quarters, or in the sky, and that Thundercracker hid from him, and Skywarp was nowhere to be found…
In this case, gossip revealed more to Optimus than the official reports did.
“How long can this go on?” Optimus asked. He received increased pressure on his neck as repayment.
“As long as it needs to.”
“Until you’re satisfied?” Optimus confirmed, heedless of the pressure on his neck. “What if that’s never?”
“Shut up!” Starscream lost his limited patience with a snarl, and released Prime’s neck long enough to strike him across the face. “And what of you, Optimus Prime?” the jet snapped. “Laying there like a rusting corpse around your precious Matrix, resigned to it, as if you were not capable of anything else!” Starscream swatted him again for good measure, and Optimus turned his head away with a grunt.
“Optimus Prime,” Starscream continued in a hiss, “Enemy of all who call themselves Decepticon, and personal foe of Megatron himself. None equal. Powerful enough to make life difficult for the Decepticons… even for I, Starscream.” That particular thought seemed to subdue the seeker’s earlier violence, and he paused as he stared down at Optimus as if seeing him for the first time.
The next instant, his sneer returned. “And yet here you are, playing the victim. As if we both don’t know how easy it would be for you to escape, and how much weight your word holds against mine, in the end. Don’t think me a fool, Optimus Prime! If you truly wished it, you would end this, and happily leave me… wanting. But you don’t. And you have the audacity to ask me ‘why’?”
Optimus had no response to that, struck dumb by Starscream’s uncharacteristic speech. The seeker, for his part, merely snorted after a moment, satisfied that he would not be argued with again for the night, and descended onto the ever-hungry Matrix once more.
Pairings: Optimus Prime/Matrix/Starscream
Summary: Weeks later, Starscream's hunger only grows, and Optimus has to make a decision about how he wants this to proceed.
Notes: WARNING for dub-con.
Each time, it became harder to play the martyr role he had assigned himself. For practicality’s sake, and for secrecy’s, there was an arranged schedule Starscream and Optimus Prime adhered to, for what Starscream called their trysts and Optimus thought of as blackmail.
If he were honest with himself, Optimus would admit that it wasn’t blackmail alone that kept him from breaking their “agreement”. Few were likely to believe whatever Starscream said, and those that did were likely to place the blame squarely on Starscream’s head, rather than Prime’s. No, it wasn’t the threat of having their rendezvous discovered that worried Optimus Prime.
Starscream managed to disengage before the Matrix could take its usual hold on him, pushing up with the help of Prime’s shoulder under his hand until his spark was out of reach of the voracious artifact. He straddled the Autobot’s prone frame and sighed. Optimus had long since let his gaze go unfocused, dimly noting the way condensation pearled on shivering wingtips as Starscream fought to lower his temperature once more.
Optimus felt the Matrix shift in his chest, reaching, and silently despaired.
“Don’t look so morose,” Starscream chided when he noticed. “You look like a corpse.”
Optimus did not look at him. This was the seventh time. He could not still cling to his victimhood. Yet he tried one last time. “I feel like one.”
For a few moments, Starscream said nothing. Optimus felt those piercing red optics observing him critically, and did not bother to return the favor. There was little point in it. “Are you finished?” he asked tiredly.
Starscream’s reaching hand told him “no”, and Optimus resigned himself to staring up at the night sky while Starscream and the increasingly foreign object in his chest coupled around him.
It therefore came as an abrupt and unpleasant shock when he felt his spark brushed against by questing digits that found their way around the reaching Matrix. Optimus gasped, only instinct preventing him from jolting and accidentally impaling himself on Starscream’s hand. “Stop.”
Perhaps even more shockingly, Starscream did. Now, with Prime’s optics focused on him, Starscream kept his fingers still and did not try to go further. “Why?”
The Autobot leader stared up at the silhouetted seeker incredulously. He was asking why? “Don’t pretend, Starscream. I don’t want you touching me, and you know it.”
Starscream’s expression twisted into a frown. “I was only trying to help,” he protested. Optimus shot him a hard glare.
“I don’t need your pity, Decepticon.”
It looked for a moment as if Starscream would hit him for that - but the moment passed, and Starscream’s face was once again a strange, unreadable mixture of emotions. “You need many things, Autobot,” he answered. “But pity isn’t one of them. Frankly, I’d crush your spark myself if you ever sunk low enough for me to pity.”
And, strangest of all, Optimus Prime felt a little comforted by the sentiment.
“Still,” Starscream continued, “there’s no reason to be so hasty to reject an offer. Unless there’s something you’re frightened of?”
“I’m not taking that bait.”
“Pity.” The seeker’s free hand trailed lightly up and down the aerodynamic frame. Red optics dimmed. “I thought I made a rather attractive lure.”
“Now you desire my interest?” Optimus asked, and was pleased to see Starscream falter.
“Don’t assume things,” Starscream warned, suddenly very serious. His grating voice rasped at such a low frequency. “You aren’t fighting this, Optimus Prime. And, as inevitable as we both know my victory is… you are not well known for surrendering, even in the face of absolute defeat. I can only guess at what you want.”
“You don’t care what I want. Don’t pretend otherwise.”
Starscream shrugged. His fingers were growing restless again. “Still. I would guess that you want this, but cannot bear to admit to it enough to participate.”
“I’ve already told you my feelings on the matter,” Optimus reminded him. He was not at all surprised that Starscream’s reply was dismissive.
“I don’t believe you, Prime. But,” he amended, and withdrew his hand from inside the Prime, “if you are so against accepting my generosity, I won’t force it on you.”
“A benevolent gesture,” Optimus drawled, sarcasm thick and utterly useless against the Air Commander.
“Quite. Now then,” Starscream purred, optics alight again with hunger, “I believe I had some other business to attend to while you’re here…”
“Why?”
Starscream looked irritated again by this interruption. “That business was not ‘have a boring discussion with Optimus Prime’, I’ll have you know.”
“I know,” Optimus confirmed, and half sat up before Starscream’s hand halted his progress. He lay back again. “But surely this must concern you too.”
“I believe we’ve been over this. Multiple times, now.” Starscream’s tone was bored, and not a little impatient.
Optimus did not bother to appeal to Starscream’s reason. “So it doesn’t bother you, this hunger gnawing at your spark?” he prompted. To his relief, the seeker paused. Optimus used the opportunity to further his goals. “A hunger that was never there before? Your time would be better spent on other pursuits. When was your last attempt to overthrow Megatron?”
Starscream’s optics narrowed again as he looked down at his captured foe. “I don’t know, Prime,” he murmured, deceptively soft as his hands repositioned to hold Optimus Prime down by his throat. “Do your Autobot spies have nothing to tell you?”
No. Mirage’s reports contained nothing too unusual. But gossip amongst the Autobots originating from Mirage told of peculiarities about Starscream that most Autobots wrote off as a glitched bot acting under whatever twisted normal parameters he had. They laughed it off when Mirage told them how Starscream stalked the ruined corridors of the Nemesis now, when he normally kept himself in his quarters, or in the sky, and that Thundercracker hid from him, and Skywarp was nowhere to be found…
In this case, gossip revealed more to Optimus than the official reports did.
“How long can this go on?” Optimus asked. He received increased pressure on his neck as repayment.
“As long as it needs to.”
“Until you’re satisfied?” Optimus confirmed, heedless of the pressure on his neck. “What if that’s never?”
“Shut up!” Starscream lost his limited patience with a snarl, and released Prime’s neck long enough to strike him across the face. “And what of you, Optimus Prime?” the jet snapped. “Laying there like a rusting corpse around your precious Matrix, resigned to it, as if you were not capable of anything else!” Starscream swatted him again for good measure, and Optimus turned his head away with a grunt.
“Optimus Prime,” Starscream continued in a hiss, “Enemy of all who call themselves Decepticon, and personal foe of Megatron himself. None equal. Powerful enough to make life difficult for the Decepticons… even for I, Starscream.” That particular thought seemed to subdue the seeker’s earlier violence, and he paused as he stared down at Optimus as if seeing him for the first time.
The next instant, his sneer returned. “And yet here you are, playing the victim. As if we both don’t know how easy it would be for you to escape, and how much weight your word holds against mine, in the end. Don’t think me a fool, Optimus Prime! If you truly wished it, you would end this, and happily leave me… wanting. But you don’t. And you have the audacity to ask me ‘why’?”
Optimus had no response to that, struck dumb by Starscream’s uncharacteristic speech. The seeker, for his part, merely snorted after a moment, satisfied that he would not be argued with again for the night, and descended onto the ever-hungry Matrix once more.