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“No no no!”
Orion Pax cringed at the screech. Even though he’d gotten used to it, it was always mortifying to have his work checked over by his friend. Though, calling Starscream a friend was a little shaky sometimes.
The seeker tossed the datapad back onto Orion’s berth. It clattered between them, angry red marks all over the third image layer.
“Uh...” Orion murmured guiltily. “That bad, huh?”
“You’re hopeless,” Starscream replied. “You should drop out of this class. And every science class.”
“What?!” Orion gasped. “I can’t! I need this to graduate!”
Starscream sighed dramatically. It had always been like this between them, ever since Orion had run into the seeker during his first year at the academy. Literally run into, with a box of his belongings on the first day or orientation. Orion’s smaller frame bounced right off the seeker, and though his possessions were scattered on the walkway, he picked up the datapad his victim had dropped first, handing it to him while still kneeling down on the ground.
It had apparently struck a chord with Starscream, since Orion learned later from Starscream’s off-campus roommates (two more seekers, much to Orion’s dazzlement) that the lack of screeching and beating him with the datapad indicated that Starscream liked him. Or at least forgave him. Or maybe he had a virus. Those two never seemed to be able to decide.
From that moment, Orion Pax and Starscream were what one could call friends. And Orion certainly considered them so, for all that they tended to argue. By his second year in the Academy, Orion was practically Starscream’s shadow. He didn’t mind the teasing he received from his peers for his association with the infamous upperclassman. Starscream’s companionship was worth it, he reasoned. And he certainly made academic life interesting. The little would-be archivist even harbored a bit of a crush on the mech, though he was always careful not to let it impact their friendship.
Which was why it was so confusing when Starscream leaned back on his hands, looked Orion up and down, and smirked in that spark-clenching way and said “Well. We’ve tried every other method of getting you to remember the most basic equations.”
“They’re actually pretty comple-”
“Shut up, I’m trying to help you.” Starscream’s optics flicked to the doorway and when Orion’s automatically followed - he pounced.
The small grounder’s surprised squeak was startlingly loud in the dorm room as his back hit the berth. Blue optics refocused on the seeker poised above him.
“Oh, that’s cute,” Starscream purred - and Orion felt like a bolt of electricity had jumped from Starscream’s hands to his shoulders and welded him in place. “You look like I’m going to rip out your spark and eat it.”
Utterly confused and startlingly aroused already, Orion could only manage “Well, you did dress up as a spark-eater at that party last-”
“We,” Starscream interrupted as if Orion hadn’t spoke at all, “are going to try a new method of learning. Very experimental.”
As innocent and naive as Orion sometimes was, he knew what Starscream had in mind. Or at least, he hoped he knew. He fidgeted. “... how experimental?”
“Brand new,” Starscream assured him. “You’ll be the first test subject.” His mocking little smile faded. “... if you sign the waiver, of course.”
Big blue optics blinked. “... Huh?” What waiver? Was Starscream actually planning to experiment on him?
The seeker’s sudden look of un-amused exasperation didn’t make matters any clearer. “Consent, you dolt. Are you giving me consent?”
“Oh... oh!” Orion gasped with relief, excitement, fear, and a few other emotions he couldn’t quite sort into their proper definitions at the moment. “Yes!”
Just like that, Starscream’s smirk was back. “An eager student,” he mused, clearly enjoying this game. One blue hand lifted from Orion’s shoulder to walk fingers down his arm, all the way to his wrist and finally settled on his upturned palm. The touches were ticklish, filament-light, and Orion trembled. Starscream ever-so-slowly pulled his fingers away from the little grounder’s hand, and the appendage followed, seeking more of that sensation.
“Basic theory first,” Starscream murmured. “Two charges, alike and unlike. Alike repels, unlike... attracts.”
“Starscream...” Orion arched up, already aching for more.
“Shh,” Starscream shushed distractedly and pushed him back down. His face looked distracted, far-off in thought. It worried Orion, enough so that he ignored Starscream’s gentle chide to reach up with his other hand and touch the seeker’s face.
It worked. Starscream blinked and refocused on the mech beneath him. “... Something simpler for you,” he decided, pushing half his face into Orion’s hand. He could feel the jump in the grounder’s energy field, and he made it worse by abandoning the mech’s hand to rub affectionately at one sensor nub on Orion’s helmet.
He certainly wasn’t expecting Orion to moan wantonly with flickering optics at the slightest touch... but he sure as slag appreciated it. “Pay attention,” he reminded Orion as he pet the sensor horn with one finger. “The magnetic field of one object,” the seeker murmured, red optics blazing bright above his... trainee, “can create a magnetic force on another object with a magnetic field. Are you listening?”
“Mmmmhm,” Orion hummed in utter bliss.
“It’s called magnetism. Simple enough for you, right?”
Orion hummed again and somehow, through the buzz of excitement and pleasure, understood his friend. Enough, at least, to shift his hand from Starscream’s face to his shoulder, then his wing. One pretty, shuddering wing, and suddenly Orion was paying absolutely rapt attention.
“Magnetism,” he murmured wonderingly and pet that wing with gentle, eager fingertips, over and over. “Got it.” Starscream crooned his approval, and after a minute or two of mutual teasing energy fields started to mingle, flickering against one another. Starscream’s internal cooling system switched on first, much to Orion’s pleasure. Some of that pride must have shown on his face despite his best efforts, because next thing he knew Starscream was kissing him senseless, evidently quite determined to wipe that look off his face.
Orion’s petting faltered, hands frozen in place, optics wide again as Starscream thoroughly debauched his mouth and drew small, happy sounds from him. Slowly, his optics dimmed and tension cables relaxed. The hand that had previously stroked Starscream’s wing drifted downward to grab the back of one red shoulder-mounted intake, the other hand gripping Starscream’s wrist as Orion tried desperately to kiss Starscream back. After a minute or two of this, the seeker pulled up, one hand splayed across the grounder’s chest to keep him from following.
Starscream licked his lips. “Huhn. Interesting.”
“Interesting...?” Orion repeated dazedly.
“More enthusiasm than practice,” Starscream clarified - a kind remark, coming from him, but Orion still wilted a little under it.
But Orion Pax was not a timid mech by any means. “Then...” he murmured, embarrassed but determined and looking Starscream directly in the optics, “I can only improve with more practice, right?”
Starscream looked stunned for a moment - then laughed. Not his usual mocking cackle, or the sarcastic and snide chuckling, but a genuinely amused laugh that had Orion’s circuits tingling. It trailed off soon enough, but the grin that replaced it as Starscream almost beamed down at Orion was equal parts thrilling and terrifying.
“More practice,” Starscream parroted. “Yes.” Despite Orion’s grip on his wrist, he easily moved that hand to place two fingers over the grounder’s lips. “Studying two things at once?” he teased. “I never took you for an overachiever.”
“...?” Orion couldn’t answer with Starscream’s fingers there, so he merely gave him a quizzical look. Starscream snorted, his own lips quirking up into a half-smile.
“Moron,” he cooed. “Come on. Open your mouth.”
Orion gave him a half-sparked glare for the name-calling, but he obediently parted his lips - only to give a soft, muffled, questioning protest as Starscream’s fingers slipped inside his mouth.
Above him, Starscream’s optics brightened. “Good,” and Orion couldn’t help but be a little pleased by the uncharacteristic praise. “Now we can teach that mouth of yours to be a little bit better, hm?”
“s’ffn,” Orion protested around the fingers, but Starscream merely smirked and wiggled them around a bit.
“Don’t get your bolts bent,” the seeker said. “You should be happy that I think you’re worth the training.” Oblivious to Orion’s increasingly narrow gaze, Starscream continued. “I mean, you’re pretty enough to be worth the time and effort I’m putting into-”
Orion bit down on the fingers in his mouth, and Starscream reared back with a squawk more of surprise than pain. He held the offended hand with his other, close to his chest.
“What was-?!”
Orion’s plating flared outward, puffing his lithe frame out. “You can’t just use me, Starscream!” He half sat up, as far as he was currently able to, and glared at his friend and possible partner. “I mean, I liked it for awhile and I know I don’t know much about any of... of this, and I don’t mind your bullying much, at least most of the time, but I won’t have you thinking you’re... superior to me, or can just use me however you want, even if you are smarter and prettier than...”
Orion trailed off, his bright optics dimming from their near-white back to a light blue that increasingly darkened as he realized he’d gone overboard. His spark was still spinning, but... he knew he’d ruined his chance. Starscream never tolerated negative comments about himself.
He would lose not only his chance to be with his beloved friend, but he’d probably lose the friendship entirely. The thought made him hurt down to his spark... and he regretted it. He felt a little angry, and betrayed, but... was that worth what he had just done? Ruining everything he had, just to maintain his pride?
“Starscream...” he whispered, cringing on the berth. Maybe, if he begged forgiveness, Starscream wouldn’t leave him entirely. He’d rather have that, than lose his closest friend. “I’m... I’m sor-”
“Be quiet.” Starscream’s optics were tracking his face and Orion grimaced, looking away. He knew it was over.. There was silence between them for a klik, then:
“It’s about time,” the seeker said haughtily, as if Orion had been keeping him waiting outside a club rather than telling him off. “I was beginning to think you didn’t have a spinal strut.”
Orion’s plating fluffed again. “You-!” But then Starscream descended again, and his mouth was too busy fighting with Starscream’s to form a proper protest or defense.
It wasn’t at all what Orion thought his first time would be. Of course, when he imagined it with Starscream as his partner, it was by no means... normal. There was always an element of danger with the war-builds, and an air of mystery with seekers - that was part of what drew Orion to that particular frame-class in the first place.
But this was... beyond his imagination. It was biting and licking and sucking in ways most Cybertronians would find obscene, but Orion could not. Starscream’s larger frame engulfed his, but their energy fields were equally forceful, pushing, pulling, absorbing, and mingling. It was chaotic, in the best possible way, and Orion didn’t know how he was going to make sense of any of this later.
And then Starscream had both hands on his sensor horns, and Orion stopped knowing anything at all.
He kicked in senseless writhing, turned his mouth away from the dominating kiss to bite at the seeker’s wrist joint instead. Apparently that was a good move, since he felt the vibration of Starscream’s engines go all the way through his frame and into the berth beneath them. It was like static in his processors, electrical feedback ringing through his audios. At that moment, Orion didn't care that they were making enough noise to wake Primus - or the neighbors, judging by the muffled banging on the closest wall - or that he was going to have scratches and dents that would be impossible to explain away.
All that mattered was the hot, crackling energy between them and Starscream’s optics, blazing red and flickering above him as fingers dove mutually into the gaps between white and blue and red armor...
Orion’s vision whited out and his sensors reset, leaving him utterly blind to the world outside his own overheated and buzzing frame. It felt as if he were just a spark floating in void... or, he blearily thought, like he was flying...
Sensor suites booted back up almost immediately, but sensory depravation made it seem longer. When Orion’s optics flickered back online, he was staring at... a face full of hot air and whirring darkness. He couldn’t quite bring himself to care.
Starscream’s chest-mounted fans slowed after a while and, slowly, the seeker pushed himself off of Orion’s sprawled frame. Still, Orion didn’t so much as twitch. He may as well have been strutless.
Starscream sighed and flicked his wings as he stretched, optics a satisfied dim, deep red. Orion watched him lazily, enjoying the vague floating feeling.
“You failed.”
Aaaaand there went that pleasant buzz, extinguished in an instant.
“Wh... what?” Orion stuttered, processors struggling to catch up. “Failed?”
“I didn’t stutter,” Starscream huffed. “You failed.”
Panic burned off the last lingering haze of pleasure and replaced it with horror. He must not have managed to reciprocate enough! And now, he was a disappointment. True, this had been his first time and there was a learning curve, but just the knowledge that he’d selfishly taken pleasure without giving it back... that made his spark constrict in its casing.
He was already reaching up to touch Starscream again, determined to prove himself, when the seeker interrupted. “You’ll just have to do a retake tomorrow.”
Orion stalled out. “... What?”
“I’m not repeating myself.” Starscream glared... but there was something different, something Orion couldn’t quite get with his processors scrambled like that. “I’ll be back tomorrow, and we’re going to go over it again, got it?”
“Over.... oh!” Orion gasped with realization. “You... you want to?” At Starscream’s exasperated-but-kinda-amused look, he reeled back a bit on his relieved excitement and nodded solemnly. “Of... of course. I’ll definitely succeed tomorrow.”
Starscream returned the nod. “See that you do.” He moved to rise and leave - but his legs malfunctioned, tangling with each other.
“Careful!” Orion lunged and grabbed Starscream’s arm before the seeker could go tumbling over the side of the berth - they both froze and stared at the other with large, surprised optics in different hues. Starscream’s frame was hot, and trembling slightly with the effort of keeping fans switched off.
“...” Starscream sneered and yanked his arm away, turning his head to break the stare. “I don’t need your help!” he snapped. The heat on Orion’s hand lingered and, as it faded, a grin grew on his face.
“Of course not,” Orion agreed. It was too much a temptation. He had to tease Starscream a little. “I wouldn’t dream of helping you... until after the refractory period was up.”
Starscream’s shocked expression when he whipped his head back around to stare with incredulous horror at Orion was worth the faceful of Starscream’s hand, and worth being shoved back down onto the berth hard enough to clang.
Starscream’s trembling wings as he fled the room were a welcome sight.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, partner!”
Starscream’s outraged and embarrassed shriek reached Orion just before the door closed, and hummed and stretched out on the berth, lifting one arm up to examine the paint transfers that would have to be corrected... eventually.
He was abysmal at science, after all, and there were many more tutoring sessions to come if he had any chance at all of passing.