Title: The Future...

Title: The Future...(2/3)
Author: dreamerchaos
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are owned by Hasbro. I'm only playing with them.
Summary: Sequel to my StarscreamxPerceptor drabble 'Home'.
My thanks go out to nova_myth, for our wonderful conversations about this drabble, and for inspiring me to continue. My thanks to kirin_saga, for being the first to point out that a continuation would not only be desired, but greatly anticipated. X3
Any and all mistakes are mine.
WARNING: Plug and Play! Fair warning. The whole business with ports and spikes.


I'm going to use the same glossary as nova_myth's for certain terms. Thank goodness for the glossary! I can never seem to remember any of this:

Klik = 1.2 minutes
Breem = 8 minutes
Joor = 1 hour
Orn = 1 day
Meta-cycle = 13 months - 1 year - 400 orns
Vorn = 83 years


6666666666666666

"When were you planning to share your little secret? Within the next vorn or two?"

Inside the lush chamber, walls mounted with invaluable artwork and meticulously arranged furniture, two mechs sat in the center, bent over an object in the center of the ornate table. They sit up straight in their seats when the Seeker bursts into the room.

Perceptor flinches, his back turned towards the Seeker; sensing the wave of anger curling against his back. Across from him, Red Alert's optics widen comically, shoulders lowering as he hides his face from the evident fury painted across the Trine leader's face. Between them, a mess of colored chips is laid out across the table, the microscope in the process of showing the red and white mech the rules of the complex board game.

"We'll finish our game later, Red Alert. Okay?" Perceptor assures the timid mech, trying but failing coaxing the trembling red and white mech to relax.

Red Alert bobs his head in agreement, quickly jumping to his pedes. "'K-kay." He stutters.

Perceptor sighs, frustrated and disappointed, the snail-pace progress that he has made with the mech quickly shattered by the Seeker's furious entry.

Starscream is not content to focus on Perceptor's frustration, but realizes the effect he has had on the red and white mech. When Red Alert tries to brush past the larger mech, Starscream captures him by the shoulder before he can escape.

"Calm down." The Seeker soothes, fingers cupping the side of Red Alert's helm. Sensing the fine tremble in the shorter frame, his hand brushing and capturing the slight waves of heat radiating from the short red horns.

If he is unable to calm the mech down, it won't be long before flashes of electricity will spark, indicating a nervous breakdown.

Red Alert bites his bottom lip, tilting his helm away from the soothing touch. "Please-" He whimpers plaintively.

Starscream releases a gust of air through his vents, realizing too late that he is merely causing the mech further distress. "Blitzwing and Astrotrain have returned from patrol." He advises the mech. "They'll more than likely meet you in their quarters."

Red Alert nearly breaks his neck nodding vigorously in assent. All but running into the door before it slide can open far enough for him to slip through and flee from the main chamber.

"Primus." Starscream laments in exasperation. "Blitzwing and Astrotrain's pet is a fractured one. How on Cybertron they manage to keep him in check is beyond my faculties."

"You certainly have not helped." Perceptor tries to pull tight upon the reins of his temper, focusing the frustration by hastily and with messy finesse shoving the board chips into their container. "You and I are both aware of his history; how he received a near-fatal blow to his helm during a Decepticon raid during the heat of the War, soon after losing close friends and allies during the siege. It's fortunate that the triple-changers stumbled across him in that alley in Kaon before he was sold for scrap metal! And all the progress we have made, and you have to go and burst your way into the room like some degenerate, raging...N-Neanderthal!...when you know how he reacts to raised voices!" He slams the container hard upon the table, chips bouncing inside the wide box.

"Yes, I know!" Starscream snaps. "I'm obnoxious. I'm an insensitive glitch. I received that message quite clear!"

Perceptor glares sullenly at the Seeker. "Well, I'm glad that we can agree."

"Don't try to distract me, Perceptor." Starscream warns. "I demand to know why you never deigned to inform me about the reproduction chamber you so inadvertently forgot to mention!"

"That...is not your concern."

"I am your lord and master!" The Seeker lives up to his name, the infuriated shriek causing the microscope to cringe back. "And as such, I should not be forced to chase after you in order to find answers for things that should not come as a surprise!"

Perceptor shakes his helm in stubborn refusal. "It's from a long time ago. It...doesn't matter."

The microscope gasps from the bite of cobalt fingers grasping his chin, forcefully turning his face up towards his master.

"That is not a sufficient answer." Starscream warns. "I am not in the mood to have my patience tested any further."

"And I am not inclined to dutifully spread my legs for you, or any other mech, simply to satisfy the edict to bear a sparkling!!"

"Are you repulsed by me?" Starscream demands. "Is that it? Does the idea of bearing my sparkling disgust you?"

"No!"

"Then why not!"

"Because I want this to be a gift of shared passion!" The microscope snaps. "Not a burden of duty!" Perceptor breaks, optics shuttered from the agony of admitting his fears.

Using the opportunity of surprise, his outburst startling the Seeker, Perceptor lays both hands against the mech's chest, pushing away. Turning until his back is facing, arms wrapping around his waist in a solitary, comforting embrace.

The silence is agonizing. After a long, pregnant pause, the microscope speaks.

"It was a long time ago. B-Before the War." Perceptor's voice is hushed. "I was fitted with the chamber in commemoration of the Unity ceremony that was registered to take place by the end of the meta-cycle. It was commanded by my superiors that I be United with Senator Decimus." *

Starscream jolts, remembering the Senator and his fellow dogmatic mechs, one of the most notorious responsible for the oppression of the lower caste and workers. One of the first mechs to be deactivated when Megatron's army seized Kaon, and thus decimating the ranks of the Senate nobility during the initial wave. "That overbearing, autocratic windbag?" He demands, unbelieving.

Perceptor barked sharply with dark humor. "You've met." It wasn't a question.

"You could say that." Starscream did not feel the need to clarify. Let the microscope makes his own conclusions. The Seeker wouldn't go into the gritty details of his and Soundwave's role in assassinating the entire Senate on the eve of Megatron's rise to power.

"The nobles said it was a great honor. A privilege." Perceptor shook his helm, disgusted by the recalling of memory. "What a stupid, senseless tradition. Enforcing one to bond with a mech whom they have never met while in person or in a distant relationship."

"If you were so opposed, then why did you not refuse?"

Perceptor looked over his shoulder, face revealing the agony of the retrospection.

"What other choice was I given?"

'Indeed.' The Seeker wonders in idle disapproval of his dull comprehension. 'You are not, and were not, dumb or blind, Starscream. You remember Cyberton and its 'Golden' Age. What else was there for this mech to do?' His CPU cuts down to the alloyed marrow.

"There were no options, Starscream." Perceptor strides a short distance away from the Seeker, idly stepping in front of the massive wall of windows, currently sealed tightly shut and denying access to the impressive balcony and landing pad. From his standpoint, the microscope can watch as the Seekers who share residence upon the expansive estate taking to the air. He recognizes the familiar forms of Thundercracker and Skywarp performing acrobatic loops and barrel rolls, soaring towards the stars with the bellies of their cockpits tapping together, no doubt teasing the other to keep up.

Further in the distance, Ramjet is leading the Coneheads in a practice formation, transforming seamlessly into his bipedal form while in midair. Falling gracefully to the estate grounds, the landing barely rustles the tall towers of crystalline fountains and gardens, Dirge and Thrust landing alongside their crouched leader after executing their own transformation sequences.

Using the luxury of the lens scope mounted upon his shoulder, Perceptor scans forward for miles and miles beyond the immediate grounds, directing his attention towards a stretch of land of interest. Focusing on that particular farthest stretch of tarmac, the expansive runway for incoming Seekers, sitting alongside the estate grounds, specifically situated adjacent with the jagged fissure that encompasses the fringes of the estate grounds, the obtrusive ravine providing minimal to zero access for standard or uninvited Cybertronians.

He can not decipher the words that are exchanged, watching while Blitzwing and Astrotrain are stepping off the tarmac's border, striding confidently away towards the stronghold after finishing relaying their report to a large security drone. More than likely sent from Lord Megatron, requiring a recent update on a small rebellion currently taking place on Charr.

'It all seems so simple now.' Perceptor wonders. 'What I would have given for a home and family such as this.' He can't help but to hate the depressing quiver of the thought, secretly despising the weakness and the Spark rending ache that the memories draw out.

"My family unit was a mere astro-inches above the middle caste." Perceptor continues his narration, staring into the reflection of his azure optics that coolly gazes back. "The only reason that I came into the Senate's attention was that my Sire was one of the founders of a prestigious laboratory and research facility that interconnected with the Academy."

"The Advanced Research, Engineering Technology and Medical Development Center." Starscream quotes from his CPU's memory banks. Recalling the infamous facility that was tragically destroyed during the war. So much technology and potential gone to waste, only to be burned to the ground because of a few stupid mechs who didn't know where to direct their cannon fire.

"Hmm." Perceptor hums in agreement. "The Senator hoped to ensure the future success and expansion of the facilities by arranging a Union between a popular State Senator and a honorably-mentioned technician currently employed within the facilities. To symbolize the union and trust between the Senate Council and the Scientific community. It just so happened that that technician was the only offspring of the facilities' cofounders."

"When were you informed of this Union?" Starscream dares to ask.

One of Perceptor's hands slides free from the loose embrace of his arms encircling his waist, hand resting upon the plating safely housing the reproduction chamber deep within and beneath the red chest.

"A joor before I went into surgery to have the reproductive chamber integrated into my systems."

A sharp hiss of surprise erupts through grit teeth, the Seeker snarling in rage. "You were forced to carry a chamber you never wanted in the first place? That is no different than rape!"

"It is...a bit different."

"How is that, my pet?"

The caress of that familiar appeal draws an inadvertent smile to the microscope's lips. His optics flicker up to meet the pair of crimson optics reflecting in the glass, catching the Seeker's gaze, the tall mech having drawn steadily closer during their conversation.

"I can not blame a sparkling that has yet to be created for the selfish actions of autocratic mechs who are more concerned with finances and reputation than they are concerned with the happiness and joy of a family unit and bondmate. To lay the blame on my offspring...I would be no more selfish than the mechs who decided my fate for me."

"Even while knowing that you would have to endure that Senator's touch?" Arms wind around the slimmer red waist from behind, cobalt hands overlaying his own black ones. "When you knew that you would have to feel him inside of you?" Starscream whispered in a hush against an audio receptor.

"It was my duty."

"But not your desire?"

"...No. Never my desire." Perceptor answers in affirmative.

"And what of me, then? What of my wants?" Starscream's hand coaxes the microscope to tilt his chin higher, cool lips brushing as the Seeker chases the flavor of the smaller mech's gasp of surprise. "I want this bond, Perceptor. A sparkling would be a desirable consequence of our union, but I will not force it. No matter how many others may wish for a sparkling to be summoned forth from this combination."

Perceptor's lips quiver, searching the Seeker's optics for any hidden agenda or confessions. "You would give me a choice?" He tremors.

"Always in this." Starscream agrees. Grinning devilishly. "I'm a rogue and a sneaky glitch, and I'm not afraid to stoop below many things to have my way - With you or any other mech - but with this I will not force you into making a decision."

He allows Perceptor to turn within his embrace, hands settling snuggly within the crook of the microscope's lower back.

Perceptor settles his hands against the warm thrum of the Seeker's chest, fingers splaying, absorbing the heat of the sturdy frame.

"A choice." He whispers the words, as if it were a prayer. "That. That's all I have ever wanted." The microscope swallows past the ball of lead that has settled inside his throat.

Starscream's cockpit hums at the warm presence of the mech pressed so deliciously close, fingertips idly rubbing up and down the smooth lines of red paint, deceptively short but deadly claws delicately scratching the sensitive plating.

Perceptor rises up on the tip of his pedes, arms slipping over the Seeker's shoulders and thrusters, fingers curling behind that dark helm. "Combine with me." The microscope whispers with unconscious seductiveness, words peppering Starscream's cheeks like miniature kisses.

He cries out in surprise as he is lifted completely off his pedes, spun away from the wall of windows, around and around until his back is pressed against a perpendicular wall. Belatedly he makes out the sound of an expensive piece of artwork knocked off a pedestal, crashing onto the floor and shattering into an irreparable mess.

His hands bind onto the smooth arch of the Seeker's shoulders, spread hip and thighs wrapped around the Seeker's waist, nestling his mate close. He arches into the sensual embrace with a low hiss of pleasure, sparks dancing along their plating as warming wires and flexible dermal plating meet.

"Is this okay?" Starscream insists on asking, one arm supporting the microscope's lower back, the other securing him around the shoulders.

Perceptor chuckles. Now who was having second thoughts? "I'm not stainless, Starscream." He whispers into the Seeker's audios. "I won't break." He promises.

Starscream quickly concedes to Perceptor's assurance.

The microscope's interface port snaps open not a moment too soon. The Seeker's spike delves home, both mechs sharing an open kiss and a sharp cry of surprise and pleasure as their bodies and energy fields intertwine.

Starscream's frame jolts, driving deeper, drawing a shivering cry. The microscope clings tighter, burying his face against the Seeker's neck.

"Are you sure?" Starscream growls.

"Y-Yes." Perceptor pants, his breath misting the plating of the mech's neck. "It's...just been a long time."

"And not the last." The Seeker swears in promise.

The microscope can't help but chuckle at the Seeker's unconcealed possessive tone. "No. Never."

Their synchronizing energy fields are beginning to meld, and the mechs find their bodies instinctively moving together, savoring the burn and charge of two forms dancing as one.

"Say you're mine." Starscream commands, never ceasing to move against and within his mate.

Perceptor bites his lip, broad-sided by both the dictation and a particularly forceful thrust. "A-Ah!"

"Say it!"

The microscope hangs on tight, shivering as sharp denta rake across the sensitive metal of his neck and collar. "A...ah!...A final s-submission, is it?" He whimpers, optics a cauldron of churning black and edging blue flames, the pulsing merged energy fields symbolized within the glass of his optics.

"Perceptor..." The Seeker snarls.

"Hush." The microscope dares to interrupt, soothing his partner with a hard kiss, entwining glossa together. Savoring the contact, Starscream pushes deeper, as if seeking to combine their bodies until not an inch is left untouched.

Lips separate with an audible 'pop', energon beading on their lips where the Seeker's sharper denta have bruised and pierced.

The image that Perceptor paints - Optics burning, glossa flicking out and lapping up the energon dotting his streaked lips, chasing the flavor - is enough to make Starscream dive in once again.

"S-Starscream!" Perceptor stutters once the Seeker finally allows him to arch back, vents seizing the chance to cycle fresh draughts of atmosphere.

Starscream purrs, turbines roaring, frame shaking, as they are both continuously assaulted by long drawn-out waves of gratification.

Perceptor cups the sleek lines of the Seeker's face with one hand, whispering against dark lips. "You don't need words to say it." He confesses.

Starscream is not allowed a chance to demand a clarification.

Perceptor's optics pulse once, then twice.

Between the scant space separating their chests, Starscream catches the sharp click of a release sequence.

With slow, climatic advancement, the microscope's chest plates begin to separate. From within the cradle of wires, the pulsing star of the mech's Spark burns nova-bright, alighting their combined forms captured within a rotation around a miniature sun.

In response to the microscope's release sequence, Starscream's lips pull back in a gratifying snarl, internal latches snapping open, chest plates separating and bearing his own Spark. The darker, rich wine-colored Spark pulses in compliment with its partner, two burning suns meeting and suddenly ablaze as one. "Yessss." The Seeker sighs in bliss, helm falling back in rapture.

Perceptor arcs back, vents dangerously close to overheating. The combined heat and electricity that showers in waves between them slips like rivulets of water across the core securing their Sparks, the microscope panting. He's never shared this sort of combination with any other mech or femme. Systems assaulted by a fresh stream of data, and he whimpers as the pulse of heat - The sheer essence and overwhelming presence of the Seeker - slowly floods his systems, curling into a churning ball inside the depths of the chamber. "S-Starscream-"

"Wait for me." The Seeker commands, feeling his own form beginning to respond in kind. The combination of body and Spark is quickly approaching its climax, system warning icons flashing in the corner of his optical screens. "Together. As one." He pants, fingers digging into the microscope's plating, and metal bends, leaving the faintest of imprints within the mech's flesh.

"Yes." Perceptor agrees, forced to turn his optics away from the union of their Sparks, the fierce light burning hot enough to temporarily blind his optical receptors. "Together." He breathes.

It is not a klik or two later that Starscream senses that the moment is ripe. Practically welding their lips together, he swallows the sharp scream that summons forth from the microscope, drinking the echoing cries, resonating his mate's shout as the connection between their Sparks emits a violent implosion of light and energy. The mechs' system energy fields shoot upward into critical levels, metal and wire jump-starting under the assaulting waves of fire and lightning.

Starscream catches the microscope's dead weight, reluctantly commanding their bodies to separate, spike returning into its chamber. He delves into the tangle of wires inside the depths of the inner seam of Perceptor's thigh, keying the hidden switch to seal the mech's port.

Their chests slowly seal shut, with almost reluctant endeavor, severing the connection of their Sparks.

Starscream chuckles at the dopey look on Perceptor's face, the poor microscope physically and mentally exhausted. Utterly drained, nearly drowsing like a sated feline within his arms.

He pats the drowsy mech's face, cupping the dark cheek. "MMmmm." Perceptor whines in exhaustion. "Starscream..."

"Shhh." The Seeker hushes, silencing Perceptor's desire to speak. "Rest." He instructs. He is quite capable and not opposed to hugging the mech close while the microscope regains his strength and wits.

:It's warm.: Perceptor whispers through a private comm link.

:Hmm?: Starscream inquires tiredly.

One arm, the other remaining slung weakly around the Seeker's shoulders, dropping down to rest over his chest.

:Right here.: Perceptor's message in brimming with awe. Excitement. Fear. Doubt. Resolve. Peace. :Its never felt this way before...:

Starscream does not need to inquire his mate about the meaning behind his message.

Instead he drops another, surprisingly chaste kiss for the usually brash and churlish Seeker. Their foreheads touch, sharing the moment in silence.

'It starts, then.' Starscream ponders in private. 'I have my mate. And soon...'

Soon...

That is all that needs to be said.

They both will wait.

Until the next appointment with Shockwave.

Let the meddlesome mech share the findings after he has run a fresh battery of tests.

It would almost be worth the mech having a standard facial schematic in order to memorize his expression.


TBC

* Note: Senator Decimus appears as the State Senator in IDW's Megatron: Origins. Go read. It's really enjoyable. And very enlightening about how and why Megatron came to be as the mech he is.

Author's note: Fwaaaaa...Smex of any kind, mech or otherwise, makes me flush red as a tomato. And here I'm writing it! XD