Fic: Relations 3/3
TITLE: Relations, part 3 of defnitely 3
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money
Author’s Voice of Warning (aka Author’s Note):
English is not my first language; it’s German. This is the best I can do. Any mistakes you find in here, collect them and you might win a prize The spell-checker said everything's okay, but you know how trustworthy those thingies are....
FEEDBACK: Loved
BETA: the incredibly fast okami_myrrhibis. Thank you so much!
Being with Will was different from being with someone of his own kind. Ironhide had been aware of the differences between them from the get-go. It was hard not to be. Will Lennox was human, was smaller, was an organic, had no clue about Cybertron, just like Ironhide had had no real idea about Earth. Cultures clashed, different minds met, and somehow, through it all, they had become friends. With the accident, that friendship had changed, had tightened, and the next step to sharing with the other had been almost natural.
But Will was still different. For all his shape-changing abilities, for all his protoform looks, he wasn’t one of them.
And Ironhide was slowly becoming aware of how much he in turn had changed because of it. It were small things, the way he looked at something, how he handled himself, how he let his mind wander when it came to the human. As much as they were different, they were a similar breed - warriors foremost.
The way he shared with Will was not like what he was used to either. He had only had one more than casual relationship and that had been Chromia. She was lost; he had no idea whether she was at all functional any more, and it hadn’t been a spark bond. That had never happened to Ironhide and Will wasn’t his bonded either. He was alien and new and still, now, familiar.
Nothing compared to this.
Not even Bumblebee’s semi-bond with Sam. Sometimes Ironhide envied his younger friend his connection. It was so much easier, he had less problems with inter-cultural clashes, and Sam just knew what his partner felt. Ironhide had never been much of a talker when it came to himself. Neither was Will. What they had shared already had been given freely, though it was hardly one’s life story. Tiny fragments of the whole pieced together over time became a picture.
Looking at the human stretched out before him, Ironhide let his optics linger on the lazily moving runes. Today they were mostly Cybertronian, with just a spatter of cosmic code and a few singular glyphs of ancient Cybertronian. The sun played over the tanned skin as it fell through the open skylight of the temporary home on Nellis. It was Sunday afternoon and everything was quiet; no interviews, no debriefings, no calls, no work at all. Lennox had declined going back to the Autobot base. It was so much calmer here, with people on weekend leave, families out and about, and Ironhide could only agree.
Will looked relaxed, totally at ease, and it was such a contrast to the normally tense and controlled behavior his human friend had adopted.
The past several weeks at Nellis had changed Will subtly. There was a new purpose in his life, a challenge, and Ironhide found that the challenge and purpose also came with an unexpected openness. Times spent together suddenly had new additions; they had started to experiment more, and Ironhide himself had been pestering Ratchet about the holo emitters until the medic had nearly blown a gasket.
But Ironhide was happy for his friend.
Too much had been thrown at him. Too much was still happening.
Like their compatibility.
Ironhide knew Will enjoyed it. He himself did so, too. But humans had different needs. Their interaction in that regard was drawn out, consisted of touching before and after the actual act. Ironhide found it messy, to say the least, with too much bodily fluids involved. He had downloaded and viewed all kinds of material on the subject and he wondered how the species had been able to procreate so successfully. The human body enjoyed the act, but the logistics involved, the very danger to the body as it heated up and almost went on overdrive, had Ironhide puzzled.
He couldn’t give this to Will and Lennox had never asked for it. It was probably because of the gender difference involved when it came to human copulation. Ironhide could download all the facts, but the understanding was lacking. So he kept back and watched.
Optimus had approached him about the unusual relationship. Ironhide had almost laughed at how his commander had tried to be discreet and still find out the truth about it all.
“We’re working something out between us,” he had only said.
“I see.” Blue optics gazed quizzically at him. “Does Will understand what this entails?”
“More than I do, Prime.”
That had gotten him the equivalent of a quirked eyebrow.
“Working on it,” Ironhide had only repeated.
And they were. A life filled with compromises because of their differences.
Checking his energon count he calculated he had enough for his hardlight hologram, and he transformed. It was easier to be on four wheels than two legs when it came to depletion problems.
Will had moved, tensing a little in alarm, when he had heard the transformation kick in. He almost knocked the holographic projection in the head when Ironhide appeared.
“Good God!” he exclaimed. “Don’t do that!”
Ironhide smirked. He and Will had worked on the projection and it looked more or less human now. There were still the unnaturally blue eyes, which the mech found he actually preferred. He didn’t think of himself as human and having the image look and feel so real… he wanted others to be reminded that he really wasn’t. Not that many saw this. So far, only Will had and he didn’t complain about the looks.
“What are you doing?” Lennox asked, eyes narrowing.
“What does it look like?”
“Solving another puzzle,” the human mumbled and lay back down again.
Ironhide was surprised, but then he chuckled. “Yes.”
“Do I have to move for that?”
“No.”
“Good. Puzzle and solve away.”
When Ironhide’s very solid hand touched the warm skin, Lennox jumped and bit back an expletive, shooting the hologram a dark look.
“You said…”
“I know what I said!”
Eyebrows rose in a ‘So?’
More grumbling, but Will let him continue to caress the warm skin, watch the runes. Muscles relaxed and the harder lines in Will’s face smoothed out.
“Nice,” he got as a comment after a while.
They rarely had such close contact. Even when working on the hologram, spending the nights at the base and in very close proximity to Will, he had stopped at becoming intimate. Human intimacy was something he was only just learning about.
Ironhide had no similar experience to compare this to. His metal skin wasn’t receptive enough. Jazz’s micronet might give the silver Autobot an edge when it came to experiencing human touch, but Ironhide had never seen any sense in it. The hologram was even less responsive, but he had had Ratchet work out a few problems and the medic had installed a new feature. It allowed Ironhide to switch on an additional, sensory booster, which enabled the hardlight projection to relay the sense of touch. Of course it drew more power, but if Ironhide played it well, he could use it for a good length of time.
Experiments. Compromises. They defined their lives.
A string of runes swirled around his fingers and Ironhide chased them over the tanned skin, amazed at the responsiveness of both the human and the Allspark part.
A sigh escaped Will.
Ironhide studied him. “Are you unhappy?”
Will’s eyes flew open and he twisted around again. “What?!”
“Your old life still weighs on you despite everything. I can’t change it, can’t help you.”
Lennox rolled onto his back. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Ironhide, wait a sec! I’m happy. I’m fine! This… between us… it works, okay? I’m not complaining.”
Ironhide was doubtful of it, but the human looked so sincere. His hand now rested on the warm skin of Will’s chest and he regarded the glyphs curiously.
“Humans get those moods, ‘hide. We’re just like that. It’s been a year since the accident. My anniversary, so to speak. It’s a long time, but not really long enough. Working through this… sometimes I get these moods and then… you just gotta let me run with it. What you do… it’s more than enough. Don’t work yourself in a knot, okay?”
Ironhide let a finger trace over a line of pulsing runes. They spelled ‘warrior’. They were always there, on Will’s skin, moving about, never at the same place. They reminded him more than anything that the human was more than a small organic. He was a warrior. He was his companion. They were equals.
Will didn’t withdraw, didn’t move away, made no attempt to stop Ironhide’s caress.
“We’re doing fine,” his human friend said softly.
Ironhide regarded him steadily. “Sometimes you want more.”
“So do you. We both need to compromise. We both need to grow into this. It’s still changing and has too many variables, Ironhide. I keep learning about myself, about you, and all of it takes time. And it’s me who has the more regular freak-outs.”
“You’re entitled to.”
“After a while it should stop.”
“There’s no deadline, Will.”
That got Ironhide a chuckle.
“The job helps,” Will went on. “A lot. I get to interact with other people, not just Sam and the unit. I get out, even if it’s just a few hundred miles around the corner.”
“You enjoy it.”
“Yeah.”
“You haven’t okayed any of them yet, though.”
Lennox sat cross-legged, looking at Ironhide’s hand on his forearm as the hologram traced the runes that seemed to eagerly swirl around his fingers.
“It’s nothing to take lightly, joining a special unit. And Epps has a very special unit. You can’t just transfer out of it after a few trial months. This is top secret stuff until your presence might one day be known to all of mankind. It’s a small step that the team is becoming more international already.”
And with the small steps came the larger steps in their relationship. Lennox felt free,; more free than anytime before. Something inside of him had broken open and finally blossomed, and looking into the fake blue eyes in a fake human face, he smiled.
“Would you feel more at ease if the hologram was female?”
Okay, whenever he thought he had Ironhide pegged, he got thrown for a loop once more.
“What? No!”
“Your society seems to have trouble with two individuals of the same gender being closer, being compatible.”
“Ironhide…!”
“By your definition, we are male.”
“Are you going into gender issues now?!”
“The definition of gender is ‘type’, ‘sort’ or ‘kind’. We are of a different kind, but your people keep referring to gender as something sexual,” Ironhide told him.
Will sighed. “We keep going back to the sex.”
“Your language is difficult to understand.”
“You downloaded more than just English,” Lennox pointed out.
“And each language has its obstacles. If it bothers you, I can change my set-up.”
“Good gawd!” Will groaned. “You sound like you’re nothing but a machine where I flip a switch and it changes programs!”
Ironhide regarded him seriously. “You keep many secrets already. Being seen with a male image of myself, touching you…”
“I don’t give a fuck, okay?” Will exploded.
Why was it they always ended up with him losing his temper over something menial?
“This isn’t… Listen, our relationship… is different from anything that could happen here on Earth, Ironhide. Or on Cybertron. That you’re male by our definition… hell, I don’t care!”
“You were never attracted to your own gender.”
“How would you know?” he challenged.
The inhuman blue eyes just looked back at him, no holographic muscle moving.
“Okay, so I wasn’t, but this… us…” Will failed at the words. “For me there’s no gender involved. Hell, the emotions involved are nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I’m not confusing you with a woman or a man or even a human being, ‘hide. I wouldn’t do this if I had those issues. Believe me, I’d never have started anything of the like if it grossed me out or made me sick or something.”
Will knew he had crossed boundaries with their relationship. Not just one or two; many.
“I’m not sick of your company either,” was the careful reply. “Not for selfish reasons either.”
Will smirked. “Long time no sharing?” he teased.
Ironhide glowered at him. He felt an alarm tingle through him, a first one. He had another twenty minutes left if he played it close.
“Ironhide? Don’t waste energon.”
He smiled. “So you are technopathic?”
“No, I can hear the alarm klaxons.”
The mech frowned. Will laughed.
“There was a flicker in your eyes. Very tell-tale. Switch it off. I’m done sunbathing.”
Ironhide transformed as he let the image disappear. His friend pulled on his t-shirt and stretched. It was easy to see how relaxed Will was and the runes gave it to him in writing, so to speak. Lennox placed a brief, firm hand against Ironhide’s leg, then gave it a pat.
Theirs was one of the strangest relationships, even compared to Bumblebee and Sam, who had less problems relating to each other on a more intimate basis. But it was working out.
Will smirked a little.
And the day the soldiers got wind of that little tidbit, information they weren’t privy to and wouldn’t find out about unless Lennox wanted it, life would become even more interesting.
For some reason, Will couldn’t care less. His relationship with Ironhide was a private matter and he wouldn’t reveal it to anyone he didn’t trust implicitly. Nor would Ironhide tell anyone about something he thought was only between them, least of all their human allies.
He sent a tingle over Ironhide’s skin and the blue optics narrowed, growing brighter, as they locked onto the innocent human ones.
“You are developing new abilities,” the mech remarked.
“Comes in handy,” was the casual reply.
“What for?”
“When I don’t want to spell it out.”
Now the light was even brighter. Will smirked, then let the protoform take the place of his human appearance.
“We gotta work on that foreplay,” he only said as sockets connected and energy flowed between the two different beings.
“I’m a fast learner,” Ironhide replied, tightening his hold, pulling him closer.
The rest was drowned in the pulse of pure energy that connected a spark with hybrid cells. Runes flared brightly and Will knew this was too brief, way too brief, but a relief nevertheless. Air hissed out of his lungs, or whatever doubled as lungs in this form, and he felt a massive arm around his waist, holding him up. His nerve-endings tingled and Will knew his optics glowed brightly with the overload of sensation and energy.
“Wow,” he only whispered roughly.
“Was it good for you, too?” Ironhide teased, but the unsteady edge told Lennox that his partner had enjoyed it just as much.
“Jazz is a bad influence on you,” the human hybrid replied. “You watch too many soaps.”
Ironhide removed his fingers from the interface sockets, running a hand over the smooth protoform metal.
“I keep learning interesting things.”
“From soaps?!”
The grin said it all. Will felt like slapping him.
“I think we should work off the energy,” he muttered.
He easily reverted back to his human form, feeling less shaky after a sharing than in his protoform appearance, and Ironhide transformed. He climbed into the cab, noting the lazily drifting runes, barely visible under his skin.
Satisfied, he mused.
Ironhide’s engine purred with the same satisfaction as they left the storage facility and headed toward the main gate. It was a nice day for a drive and Will felt it would also be a great day for a swim. There were bodies of water not too far away and he didn’t have to be back until Monday.
Yeah, that sounded good.
Really, really good.
* * *
Four months later the second unit stood. Banachek gave his approval, though that was only a pro-forma signature, and mentioned that he wanted to keep Will as a liaison to Nellis.
Lennox was speechless, but he accepted. Bowman would be his counterpart on the military’s side.
“So, what do you say, Major?” Banachek asked calmly.
“I’m no longer in the service,” Will replied automatically.
That got him a brief smile and raised eye-brows.
“Okay, I accept,” Lennox finally said.
“Good. Arrangements have been made. You still only report to Optimus Prime and myself, to clear that up. Captain Epps also requested that you take over the unit’s training whenever he is unavailable. I’ve heard it has happened already and it known as ‘confrontational training’?”
Will nodded.
“Keep at it. These men might one day be confronted with another Decepticon attack. I don’t want them shooting at friendlies or to freeze up because of the alienness of the enemy.”
“Neither do I,” Lennox replied.
Banachek gave him a nod, then took his briefcase and left. Will knew the man had a meeting with Prime about something. Lennox shuffled a few more files around his desk - in his own office, which Epps and the guys had arranged for him - then left he room and went looking for Ironhide.
He found his friend in the weapons shop where the mech was tinkering with something or other.
“Hey. Whatcha doin’?”
Ironhide looked down at him, holding one huge cannon in his hand. “Weapons testing.”
“Cool. Going to the range?”
“Later.”
“Call me?”
“Will do.”
Lennox gave him a brief smile, then sauntered off. He felt hungry and weapons testing meant a lot of time outside, probably several hours, so food was a good idea right now. He headed for the kitchen to see what the guys might have as leftovers. He was in the mood for pasta.
Fin for this one. More stories in the works ;)
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money
Author’s Voice of Warning (aka Author’s Note):
English is not my first language; it’s German. This is the best I can do. Any mistakes you find in here, collect them and you might win a prize The spell-checker said everything's okay, but you know how trustworthy those thingies are....
FEEDBACK: Loved
BETA: the incredibly fast okami_myrrhibis. Thank you so much!
Being with Will was different from being with someone of his own kind. Ironhide had been aware of the differences between them from the get-go. It was hard not to be. Will Lennox was human, was smaller, was an organic, had no clue about Cybertron, just like Ironhide had had no real idea about Earth. Cultures clashed, different minds met, and somehow, through it all, they had become friends. With the accident, that friendship had changed, had tightened, and the next step to sharing with the other had been almost natural.
But Will was still different. For all his shape-changing abilities, for all his protoform looks, he wasn’t one of them.
And Ironhide was slowly becoming aware of how much he in turn had changed because of it. It were small things, the way he looked at something, how he handled himself, how he let his mind wander when it came to the human. As much as they were different, they were a similar breed - warriors foremost.
The way he shared with Will was not like what he was used to either. He had only had one more than casual relationship and that had been Chromia. She was lost; he had no idea whether she was at all functional any more, and it hadn’t been a spark bond. That had never happened to Ironhide and Will wasn’t his bonded either. He was alien and new and still, now, familiar.
Nothing compared to this.
Not even Bumblebee’s semi-bond with Sam. Sometimes Ironhide envied his younger friend his connection. It was so much easier, he had less problems with inter-cultural clashes, and Sam just knew what his partner felt. Ironhide had never been much of a talker when it came to himself. Neither was Will. What they had shared already had been given freely, though it was hardly one’s life story. Tiny fragments of the whole pieced together over time became a picture.
Looking at the human stretched out before him, Ironhide let his optics linger on the lazily moving runes. Today they were mostly Cybertronian, with just a spatter of cosmic code and a few singular glyphs of ancient Cybertronian. The sun played over the tanned skin as it fell through the open skylight of the temporary home on Nellis. It was Sunday afternoon and everything was quiet; no interviews, no debriefings, no calls, no work at all. Lennox had declined going back to the Autobot base. It was so much calmer here, with people on weekend leave, families out and about, and Ironhide could only agree.
Will looked relaxed, totally at ease, and it was such a contrast to the normally tense and controlled behavior his human friend had adopted.
The past several weeks at Nellis had changed Will subtly. There was a new purpose in his life, a challenge, and Ironhide found that the challenge and purpose also came with an unexpected openness. Times spent together suddenly had new additions; they had started to experiment more, and Ironhide himself had been pestering Ratchet about the holo emitters until the medic had nearly blown a gasket.
But Ironhide was happy for his friend.
Too much had been thrown at him. Too much was still happening.
Like their compatibility.
Ironhide knew Will enjoyed it. He himself did so, too. But humans had different needs. Their interaction in that regard was drawn out, consisted of touching before and after the actual act. Ironhide found it messy, to say the least, with too much bodily fluids involved. He had downloaded and viewed all kinds of material on the subject and he wondered how the species had been able to procreate so successfully. The human body enjoyed the act, but the logistics involved, the very danger to the body as it heated up and almost went on overdrive, had Ironhide puzzled.
He couldn’t give this to Will and Lennox had never asked for it. It was probably because of the gender difference involved when it came to human copulation. Ironhide could download all the facts, but the understanding was lacking. So he kept back and watched.
Optimus had approached him about the unusual relationship. Ironhide had almost laughed at how his commander had tried to be discreet and still find out the truth about it all.
“We’re working something out between us,” he had only said.
“I see.” Blue optics gazed quizzically at him. “Does Will understand what this entails?”
“More than I do, Prime.”
That had gotten him the equivalent of a quirked eyebrow.
“Working on it,” Ironhide had only repeated.
And they were. A life filled with compromises because of their differences.
Checking his energon count he calculated he had enough for his hardlight hologram, and he transformed. It was easier to be on four wheels than two legs when it came to depletion problems.
Will had moved, tensing a little in alarm, when he had heard the transformation kick in. He almost knocked the holographic projection in the head when Ironhide appeared.
“Good God!” he exclaimed. “Don’t do that!”
Ironhide smirked. He and Will had worked on the projection and it looked more or less human now. There were still the unnaturally blue eyes, which the mech found he actually preferred. He didn’t think of himself as human and having the image look and feel so real… he wanted others to be reminded that he really wasn’t. Not that many saw this. So far, only Will had and he didn’t complain about the looks.
“What are you doing?” Lennox asked, eyes narrowing.
“What does it look like?”
“Solving another puzzle,” the human mumbled and lay back down again.
Ironhide was surprised, but then he chuckled. “Yes.”
“Do I have to move for that?”
“No.”
“Good. Puzzle and solve away.”
When Ironhide’s very solid hand touched the warm skin, Lennox jumped and bit back an expletive, shooting the hologram a dark look.
“You said…”
“I know what I said!”
Eyebrows rose in a ‘So?’
More grumbling, but Will let him continue to caress the warm skin, watch the runes. Muscles relaxed and the harder lines in Will’s face smoothed out.
“Nice,” he got as a comment after a while.
They rarely had such close contact. Even when working on the hologram, spending the nights at the base and in very close proximity to Will, he had stopped at becoming intimate. Human intimacy was something he was only just learning about.
Ironhide had no similar experience to compare this to. His metal skin wasn’t receptive enough. Jazz’s micronet might give the silver Autobot an edge when it came to experiencing human touch, but Ironhide had never seen any sense in it. The hologram was even less responsive, but he had had Ratchet work out a few problems and the medic had installed a new feature. It allowed Ironhide to switch on an additional, sensory booster, which enabled the hardlight projection to relay the sense of touch. Of course it drew more power, but if Ironhide played it well, he could use it for a good length of time.
Experiments. Compromises. They defined their lives.
A string of runes swirled around his fingers and Ironhide chased them over the tanned skin, amazed at the responsiveness of both the human and the Allspark part.
A sigh escaped Will.
Ironhide studied him. “Are you unhappy?”
Will’s eyes flew open and he twisted around again. “What?!”
“Your old life still weighs on you despite everything. I can’t change it, can’t help you.”
Lennox rolled onto his back. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Ironhide, wait a sec! I’m happy. I’m fine! This… between us… it works, okay? I’m not complaining.”
Ironhide was doubtful of it, but the human looked so sincere. His hand now rested on the warm skin of Will’s chest and he regarded the glyphs curiously.
“Humans get those moods, ‘hide. We’re just like that. It’s been a year since the accident. My anniversary, so to speak. It’s a long time, but not really long enough. Working through this… sometimes I get these moods and then… you just gotta let me run with it. What you do… it’s more than enough. Don’t work yourself in a knot, okay?”
Ironhide let a finger trace over a line of pulsing runes. They spelled ‘warrior’. They were always there, on Will’s skin, moving about, never at the same place. They reminded him more than anything that the human was more than a small organic. He was a warrior. He was his companion. They were equals.
Will didn’t withdraw, didn’t move away, made no attempt to stop Ironhide’s caress.
“We’re doing fine,” his human friend said softly.
Ironhide regarded him steadily. “Sometimes you want more.”
“So do you. We both need to compromise. We both need to grow into this. It’s still changing and has too many variables, Ironhide. I keep learning about myself, about you, and all of it takes time. And it’s me who has the more regular freak-outs.”
“You’re entitled to.”
“After a while it should stop.”
“There’s no deadline, Will.”
That got Ironhide a chuckle.
“The job helps,” Will went on. “A lot. I get to interact with other people, not just Sam and the unit. I get out, even if it’s just a few hundred miles around the corner.”
“You enjoy it.”
“Yeah.”
“You haven’t okayed any of them yet, though.”
Lennox sat cross-legged, looking at Ironhide’s hand on his forearm as the hologram traced the runes that seemed to eagerly swirl around his fingers.
“It’s nothing to take lightly, joining a special unit. And Epps has a very special unit. You can’t just transfer out of it after a few trial months. This is top secret stuff until your presence might one day be known to all of mankind. It’s a small step that the team is becoming more international already.”
And with the small steps came the larger steps in their relationship. Lennox felt free,; more free than anytime before. Something inside of him had broken open and finally blossomed, and looking into the fake blue eyes in a fake human face, he smiled.
“Would you feel more at ease if the hologram was female?”
Okay, whenever he thought he had Ironhide pegged, he got thrown for a loop once more.
“What? No!”
“Your society seems to have trouble with two individuals of the same gender being closer, being compatible.”
“Ironhide…!”
“By your definition, we are male.”
“Are you going into gender issues now?!”
“The definition of gender is ‘type’, ‘sort’ or ‘kind’. We are of a different kind, but your people keep referring to gender as something sexual,” Ironhide told him.
Will sighed. “We keep going back to the sex.”
“Your language is difficult to understand.”
“You downloaded more than just English,” Lennox pointed out.
“And each language has its obstacles. If it bothers you, I can change my set-up.”
“Good gawd!” Will groaned. “You sound like you’re nothing but a machine where I flip a switch and it changes programs!”
Ironhide regarded him seriously. “You keep many secrets already. Being seen with a male image of myself, touching you…”
“I don’t give a fuck, okay?” Will exploded.
Why was it they always ended up with him losing his temper over something menial?
“This isn’t… Listen, our relationship… is different from anything that could happen here on Earth, Ironhide. Or on Cybertron. That you’re male by our definition… hell, I don’t care!”
“You were never attracted to your own gender.”
“How would you know?” he challenged.
The inhuman blue eyes just looked back at him, no holographic muscle moving.
“Okay, so I wasn’t, but this… us…” Will failed at the words. “For me there’s no gender involved. Hell, the emotions involved are nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I’m not confusing you with a woman or a man or even a human being, ‘hide. I wouldn’t do this if I had those issues. Believe me, I’d never have started anything of the like if it grossed me out or made me sick or something.”
Will knew he had crossed boundaries with their relationship. Not just one or two; many.
“I’m not sick of your company either,” was the careful reply. “Not for selfish reasons either.”
Will smirked. “Long time no sharing?” he teased.
Ironhide glowered at him. He felt an alarm tingle through him, a first one. He had another twenty minutes left if he played it close.
“Ironhide? Don’t waste energon.”
He smiled. “So you are technopathic?”
“No, I can hear the alarm klaxons.”
The mech frowned. Will laughed.
“There was a flicker in your eyes. Very tell-tale. Switch it off. I’m done sunbathing.”
Ironhide transformed as he let the image disappear. His friend pulled on his t-shirt and stretched. It was easy to see how relaxed Will was and the runes gave it to him in writing, so to speak. Lennox placed a brief, firm hand against Ironhide’s leg, then gave it a pat.
Theirs was one of the strangest relationships, even compared to Bumblebee and Sam, who had less problems relating to each other on a more intimate basis. But it was working out.
Will smirked a little.
And the day the soldiers got wind of that little tidbit, information they weren’t privy to and wouldn’t find out about unless Lennox wanted it, life would become even more interesting.
For some reason, Will couldn’t care less. His relationship with Ironhide was a private matter and he wouldn’t reveal it to anyone he didn’t trust implicitly. Nor would Ironhide tell anyone about something he thought was only between them, least of all their human allies.
He sent a tingle over Ironhide’s skin and the blue optics narrowed, growing brighter, as they locked onto the innocent human ones.
“You are developing new abilities,” the mech remarked.
“Comes in handy,” was the casual reply.
“What for?”
“When I don’t want to spell it out.”
Now the light was even brighter. Will smirked, then let the protoform take the place of his human appearance.
“We gotta work on that foreplay,” he only said as sockets connected and energy flowed between the two different beings.
“I’m a fast learner,” Ironhide replied, tightening his hold, pulling him closer.
The rest was drowned in the pulse of pure energy that connected a spark with hybrid cells. Runes flared brightly and Will knew this was too brief, way too brief, but a relief nevertheless. Air hissed out of his lungs, or whatever doubled as lungs in this form, and he felt a massive arm around his waist, holding him up. His nerve-endings tingled and Will knew his optics glowed brightly with the overload of sensation and energy.
“Wow,” he only whispered roughly.
“Was it good for you, too?” Ironhide teased, but the unsteady edge told Lennox that his partner had enjoyed it just as much.
“Jazz is a bad influence on you,” the human hybrid replied. “You watch too many soaps.”
Ironhide removed his fingers from the interface sockets, running a hand over the smooth protoform metal.
“I keep learning interesting things.”
“From soaps?!”
The grin said it all. Will felt like slapping him.
“I think we should work off the energy,” he muttered.
He easily reverted back to his human form, feeling less shaky after a sharing than in his protoform appearance, and Ironhide transformed. He climbed into the cab, noting the lazily drifting runes, barely visible under his skin.
Satisfied, he mused.
Ironhide’s engine purred with the same satisfaction as they left the storage facility and headed toward the main gate. It was a nice day for a drive and Will felt it would also be a great day for a swim. There were bodies of water not too far away and he didn’t have to be back until Monday.
Yeah, that sounded good.
Really, really good.
* * *
Four months later the second unit stood. Banachek gave his approval, though that was only a pro-forma signature, and mentioned that he wanted to keep Will as a liaison to Nellis.
Lennox was speechless, but he accepted. Bowman would be his counterpart on the military’s side.
“So, what do you say, Major?” Banachek asked calmly.
“I’m no longer in the service,” Will replied automatically.
That got him a brief smile and raised eye-brows.
“Okay, I accept,” Lennox finally said.
“Good. Arrangements have been made. You still only report to Optimus Prime and myself, to clear that up. Captain Epps also requested that you take over the unit’s training whenever he is unavailable. I’ve heard it has happened already and it known as ‘confrontational training’?”
Will nodded.
“Keep at it. These men might one day be confronted with another Decepticon attack. I don’t want them shooting at friendlies or to freeze up because of the alienness of the enemy.”
“Neither do I,” Lennox replied.
Banachek gave him a nod, then took his briefcase and left. Will knew the man had a meeting with Prime about something. Lennox shuffled a few more files around his desk - in his own office, which Epps and the guys had arranged for him - then left he room and went looking for Ironhide.
He found his friend in the weapons shop where the mech was tinkering with something or other.
“Hey. Whatcha doin’?”
Ironhide looked down at him, holding one huge cannon in his hand. “Weapons testing.”
“Cool. Going to the range?”
“Later.”
“Call me?”
“Will do.”
Lennox gave him a brief smile, then sauntered off. He felt hungry and weapons testing meant a lot of time outside, probably several hours, so food was a good idea right now. He headed for the kitchen to see what the guys might have as leftovers. He was in the mood for pasta.
Fin for this one. More stories in the works ;)