wanna rub it too thin~. But I do miss being shiny…

[He lifted an arm to look at it in the sun wistfully]

What about you? I haven’t seen you around in a while, my conjunx~. Where’ve you been?

[It seemed Slipstream might not have heard. Rather than the blunder with Faultline, Vortex decided maybe he should keep his own secrets. He laughed, the upward lit of his visor just a little strained]

Polish would be nice, but I need to wait a little longer for my armor to fully grow back. Don’t—

He wondered if she knew…

Deciding it didn’t matter too much either way, the rotary mech stepped out of the forest and waved, seeming friendly. His frame wasn’t as mirror shiny as usual, though he no longer carried obvious signs of damage]

some good jumps and the water was pretty; when the neutral noticed the sounds of a seeker landing. He paused, then swept his rotors together and slipped between the trees to investigate.

Oh, Slipstream~. Though happy to see her, Vortex didn’t approach immediately.—

decacycle and a half, and Vortex really wanted in the sky again.

Next person to de-wing him was really going to have to work for it, as walking everywhere or doing little whirly hops like a proto-poultry wasn’t anything as satisfying as real flight.

There was decent uneven ground here to get—

[Maybe Overlord wasn’t a medic in any traditional or any other sense, but this was why the both of them kept up a healthy reservoir of nanites.

Getting fragged to pieces was only so fun as it wasn’t a permanent thing, and they could get back up, something close to good as new. It had been a—

She? Interesting! It might be fun to meet. Does she love fighting, too? What type of weapons? ✨

right handsome? Faultline~? You catch a deprived enemy in your hole, and you just let me go to go do it again~?”

with how I trapped him on a tiny platform way up in the air.”

A little defensive, Vortex didn’t like the implication that he’d attacked someone while holding every single advantage. That wasn’t true?

“I suppose you think you’re way better,—

“Kind of a design flaw, wouldn’t you admit? Medics with all the knowledge and, and intricacies of the frame, but with mind control coding that makes them unable to defend themselves? Besides, I know he can fight. You could guilt me that he’s a grounder, and that’d be more valid to the whole thing,—

Even cracked in a few places, from the cave in and Bad Apple’s fist, Vortex’s wrap around visor was able to glimpse glimmers of the giant mech’s huge feelers up below his head, and the rush of rocky tunnel all around.

The speed Faultline moved at was thrilling enough to distract from taphophobia.—

and morally p-pious, too? Ovvie my dear, we could, fffuck, we could steal anyone. This’s why you should come out with me… I find the most interesting people, and you embolden us to do everything we want with them ~. Our rules are better anyway.

nice little promises, but he didn’t acknowledge any of them, so they kind of count as null, don’t they?

[He giggled deliriously at Overlord’s declaration of jealousy]

Tall, dark,—

thoughtfully across his lower faceplate. He jerked forward and murmured endearments as Overlord’s torch melded and tempered the first rotor into a delicate whole]

Heee, heh, a cake… I do kind of eh, want him again. Share him with you… Sssharing would be extreeeemely fun. I made him some—

groaned and shifted as Overlord played his wounded frame with digits just as talented and knowledgeable as his voice]

Hmn. Ovvie… You’re slagging right. You’re so slagging right. I missed you…

[Servo fisted against Vortex’s throat to prop his head up, then unclenched to spread talons—

[Rare…

Frag… Sometimes Overlord knew exactly how to phrase things, perfectly, and anchor whatever reality currently was right down. Vortex watched his magnificent lover through the back of his visor as the triplechanger saw to his back, full lips prettily inflecting.

The faceless flyer—

Probably~. What’s yours like?

A different Vortex~?

Which Combaticons do you know, Waspinator?

that his reluctant captor showcased how attractive he could be.

“I’m sorry, by the way… For making this your problem. Maybe I’ll still make even with him. But, ‘Cons still..? What I did isn’t unheard of, right? Winner gets to frag the loser anyway they want..? I’ve lost before…”

they’d be less likely to catch on anything.

“‘S fine like this…” Vortex muttered. He imagined himself as a sack of too pointy dirt the altmoded ‘Con probably preferred couldn’t speak.

Of course it was after he’d talked himself down to the level of deathly sludge fluid—

the rotary mech’s tolerances were through the stratosphere, and he kind of just wanted out of here as fast as possible.

Instead of attempting to wriggle and roll over once Faultline was done and slithered in underneath, the Neutral angled what remained of his rotors upward carefully so—

Helm lowered, Vortex watched the larger mech bind him up quietly, his faceplates overheated enough they might be glowing, as he worked to keep his field below his plating and not make it too awkwardly obvious this was turning him on.

Everything would maybe hurt less laid on his front, but—

to gesture with it at the universe]

…Maybe we should show more of them our perspective.

The lil medic was horrified. Like a sheltered Autobot jus’ out of their academy that just eviscerated their first Empty, type of. And so was the other ‘Con that I blabbed it to, hoping he’d gut me. It’s just..!

[The Combaticon unsheathed one of his servos from the converted and mildly shredded pod—

Bad Apple. Cute, trusting enough that it’d already blown up on him before that I’fve heard. Uh, both the Decepticons and the Autobots are all broken up right now. So I ~. Knew that I could grab him up and there wouldn’t be any back up coming. And I did have a lot of fun with him. But now there’s…—

the radio mech: shocked that we, we two hurt each other for fun. They’re all like that.

[The red visor darkened completely as Vortex stilled under Overlord’s servos and lips, tried to calm and sort what he even wanted to explain]

My medic ‘friend’. I think you do know a little on him.—

He groaned at the gentler touches and slowly relaxed]

It’s… it’sfz xxso…

[His vox sounded like absolute slag so he clicked it through two resets]

It’s nothing that you’d uh, even count asz anything. But the fragging… I’d been learning all the rules. So m— Everyone’s /domesticated/. Like—

[An optic pinpricked online just to watch both his arms shake, talons latched into the firm recharge slab material just as deeply as he’d gorged his leg plates earlier.

Vortex couldn’t feel anything through the reattached rotor beyond its self-shanked base, but that was normal this early.—

but repair nanites had corrected a few less so out of alignment. He could smell Overlord’s heated exvents as he rapidly dragged them in. The longer his wing was held in place like that, the more it felt right, despite all the pain]

Frggj you’re gorgeousfxx