Chapter Text
Rodimus exvented heavily, his optics groggily onlined. His frame was warming, and the warning message pinged on his HUD and he dismissed it with a grunt. He sat up on his berth and put his helm in his servos. He wasn’t going to Ratchet, that much he knew right away. Not because he was embarrassed, he was never embarrassed. Okay, maybe not never. It was a pride thing, absolutely. He would never live it down if went hobbling over to the Medbay to ask Ratchet for some dampening codes to help him through his heat with as little discomfort as possible. He knew if he wanted to, he could hole himself up inside his habsuite for the duration of it, but would likely get an audial full from both Magnus and Megatron for skimping on duty for a week. He groaned and checked the time; he was to be on duty in a few hours. His options were either go to Ratchet and get a dampening code, ignore his whole situation and try to go about things like he wasn’t furiously leaking lubricant, get a partner, or just pass out in his own coding and wait a week. Rodimus knew which one sounded most like what he’d prefer. He got a message in his comm, it was from Drift.
Hey! We’re on for sparring after your shift today, no chickening out today! :3
Rodimus snickered at Drift’s message. Drift had started using Earth texting and it was absolutely hilarious to Rodimus in its absurdity. A new thought popped into Rodimus’ brain.
Drift might be down for helping me through my heat.
He shook his helm at the thought. Their relationship wasn’t like that, at least, not in the way Rodimus wanted and as far as he was concerned he’d much rather ask for a dampener from Ratchet then ask if he could borrow his Conjunx to ride out a heat cycle with his Amica, even if they had interfaced in the past. Rodimus figured that their relationship was complicated enough without adding this to Drift and Ratchet’s new Conjunx bond. Plus, he didn’t want to feel any guilt in Drift’s field when merging about being with him instead of Ratchet in that time, and he doubted Drift wanted to feel Rodimus’ own guilt in his field for asking him. He went back to the message and replied back.
I’m no chicken! :P See you then!
His armor flexed and he felt steam escape and he sharply vented. This was going to be a long week.
* * *
He pinged the door to open and walked onto the bridge. Almost instantly Thunderclash gave him a warm smile and waved to Rodimus from the other side of the room. In any other circumstance, his knee jerk reaction would be to squint at the tacky paint job having mech, but Rodimus found himself grinning and gave a slight nod, much to Thunderclash’s delight.
FRAG
Rodimus also internally grimaced when the flashy mech’s grin sent a jolt to his array. Before he could even think about entertaining the idea of having a horrible heat cycle with Blundercrash, Magnus gave him a quizzical look.
“What? I’m not late! I’m even… two minutes early!” Rodimus huffed at Magnus, who simply took a click to register what Rodimus had said.
“Oh, no. Captain, I was not-” Ultra Magnus rebooted his vocalizer. “I just was surprised you acknowledged Thunderclash just now, since you are often voicing your dislike of him.” Rodimus was thinking of a way to get him out of this conversation without saying Oh, well I’ve got an excess of lubricant and I mean… Thunders has GOT to be packing. I mean, size proportionally he’s gotta have a MONSTER SP-
“I apologize, it’s none of my business captain. Disregard my remarks.” Magnus quickly blurted out before Rodimus could continue his train of thought.
“Oh yeah, it’s no problem Mags.” He laughed nervously. Speaking of proportionally corresponding sizes- NO. He wouldn’t let his processor finish those thoughts, not when Magnus was right next to him. He fought the urge to shake his helm. This shift is going to be torture.
For the majority of his shift, he was fine dealing with the occasional biting back flirty comments because he couldn’t trust himself to stop once the ball got rolling as well as struggling to keep his spoiler from twitching and armor from bulging in places to vent out steam. He was certain if he didn’t die from embarrassment, he’d prefer it to having Magnus chide him for not getting a dampening code cycles ago. Just when Rodimus was thinking that it was going to be not that bad, Megatron walked onto the bridge. Which in and of itself usually sends a bit of an annoyed jolt into him, but especially now. Not that Rodimus didn’t like Megatron, far from it. In the past it was hard for him to get over feeling like he was being watched over like a sparkling whenever both Magnus and Megatron were on the bridge with him. But recently he found himself stealing glances more at Megatron and finding his thoughts wandering to him a little more than just being professional co-captains, or even as friends would be. With this… this was too much. He couldn’t keep his smirk from stretching across his face when Megatron took the bridge, and to make matters worse turned to Rodimus who couldn’t wipe it off his face fast enough and quickly turned around, only to meet optics with Thunderclash again who nodded in his direction. Rodimus violently scowled at Thunderclash and immediately stuck his helm into reports Magnus had handed him at the start of his shift. Anything is better than looking at anyone right now. He thought while exventing angrily as his armor struggled to flex, to let any steam escape. A warning message pinged in his HUD and he dismissed it outright and sent his datapad into his subspace. Yeah, lemme just vent out my heat steam and send everyone in a fragging heat induced haze on the bridge. Rodimus snorted to himself. Before he could add anything else to his internal sarcastic tirade, Megatron shifted next to him.
“Did you hear anything I just said?” He asked Rodimus, clearly exasperated. Rodimus sheepishly grinned.
“Uh, I was doing paperwork. You know, that thing that you and Magnus always get after me for not doing properly? I thought you both would appreciate that I was doing some!” He said in mock disbelief as he held up a datapad next to him. Megatron gave him a look, the kind that seemed to convey all of the needed disbelief of his statement.
“That datapad is from four decacycles ago. That’s also the datapad you filled out incorrectly and Magnus got after you for. If you’re seriously going to change anything about it at this point, you will absolutely send him into a tirade.” I highly doubt that, as funny as that sounds Rodimus thought as he looked over the datapad before dropping it back onto the desk. “I said that you could leave the bridge unless there’s other business you need to take care of here.”
Rodimus blinked. Oh yeah, if Megs was here it was because his shift was over. If Rodimus’ processor wasn’t so fried from trying to keep everything controlled, he probably would have bolted the second Megatron walked onto the bridge. But as Megatron was in next to him, he had completely forgot what he was supposed to be doing. He just stared at Megatron and for longer than he would have liked, let his processor wander for a moment before clenching his servos to attempt to focus. Megatron noticed his optics hazed over for a click and opened his mouth to say something and Rodimus saw a red blink in his HUD and before his panic could settle in, his spoiler jerked upwards, and a short burst of steam jutted out from the movement. Megatron’s optics widened and Rodimus felt his plating heat up further but from embarrassment, he stood bolt upright and headed for the door.
“Well, you know how I get when reading those thrilling reports! Don’t have to tell me twice to leave, bye!” Before Megatron could get a single word in, Rodimus was out the door and once he was sure no one was in sight he bolted straight for his hab and locked the door. Once the door clicked, he opened his armor and let a huge vent surge through him, the room got fogged up from the amount of steam. He then opened his modesty panel and heard the gush of lubricants hit the floor and he loudly whimpered. The room started spinning, he staggered towards his berth and fell face first into the sheets. He quickly wondered if anyone else on the bridge noticed his vent. No, probably not. Plus, his spoiler jerking up wouldn’t be that bad of a thing for someone to notice, he could just play it off as being excited to get off the bridge. The only one who knew what happened was-
Hey! Where are you?
Ah frag. Drift. Would it be so bad to be called a coward by one’s Amica for a day? Probably not, but Drift would likely worry if he didn’t say anything.
Are you alright? You don’t have to spar if you don’t feel like it today.
He groaned and rolled over on his berth as he figured out what to tell Drift. He absentmindedly dragged his servos over his valve and whimpered when he felt how swollen everything was and how much he wanted friction. He began circling his outer node and bit his lower lip as he tried to get one overload in after letting it go on for so long ignoring it. His armor pulsed again, and another jut of steam shot out and Rodimus whined as a sharp jolt of pleasure shot through him as he found his rhythm and pressure on his node. He felt his spoiler jump up as he increased the speed of his servos against his node and dug his pronged toes into the berth. He threw his helm back into the berth, clenching his denta to keep himself from making too much noise as he felt himself get closer to his overload. A message pinged in his HUD, which was quickly dismissed and ignored, he was too close. He could feel himself get closer, he dipped a servo into his valve lips and went back to his node before he felt the electricity crackling around his thighs and sharply hit his helm against his berth as he hit his overload. A silent moan hung on his open intake as he trashed his helm into the berth in frustration as charge began building again between his thighs. A warning message popped up and as Rodimus grunted, he opened it.
Low energon
OH FRAG. When did he last refuel? His optics got hazy as sleep started to chase him from a combination of low fuel and an overload. He started to sit up to look for energon in his hab, to be hit with an intense vertigo and immediately fell back into his berth. Oh whatever, I’ll just refuel when I wake up. Was Rodimus’ last thoughts before he fell into recharge.
* * *
Rodimus woke up when he heard the slide of his hab door open. He onlined his optics and tried to see who walked in. He shifted up and remembered three things at the exact same time. 1: He hadn’t refueled since hours, possibly a full cycle before he fell into recharge. 2: That the bot who had walked in was Drift, who he completely forgot to message back and was probably worried sick about him, and when he saw his face knew that was the case. 3: He was in the early stages of his heat, with his Amica, alone, after he determinedly decided against asking Drift for any help.
His optics met with Drifts and he saw the worry in Drift’s face shift to a different expression, one Rodimus hadn’t seen in a long time.
“No!” He yelled as Drift took a step forward and stopped. “I don’t want…I don’t want your help with this!” Rodimus pulled his pedes up to his chest as he scurried further on his berth away from Drift. He felt Drift’s field trying to touch his, it was full of understanding, compassion, and… Rodimus frowned.
“And I was going to get all mad at you for skimping on sparing, but I can see why.” Drift chuckled. He took a few steps forward, the confusion and caution from Rodimus’ field mixing into Drift’s field. “Hey, I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do. I’m not some animal.” Rodimus felt guilty that Drift said that.
“It’s not that!” His spoiler jerked upwards at his statement. “It’s that I’m not going to mess up anything between you and Ratchet. Don’t tell me it’ll be fine, and Ratchet will be okay with it, because I know he won’t be and I’m not going to ask that of you!” He tried to keep his tone even, but he heard his vocalizer shake a few times and saw the sadness and empathy in Drift’s face made him want to crumple in on himself further. “I just… Think it’s best if I just deal with this myself alright? And don’t tell Ratchet, the fewer bots that know about this, the better. I can only get so embarrassed in one cycle.” He muttered.
“Ah, it’s not that bad. I’ve walked in on you in more compromising times.” Drift smirked then blinked. “Unless someone else knows?” Drift’s fins twitched up in interest. Rodimus felt his armor redden and looked down. He felt Drift’s field get energized and curious as he sat on the edge of Rodimus’ berth. “Tell me. I’m not leaving until you tell me~” He sweetly demaned.
“Megatron… He caught me looking at him for too long and I vented steam out right in front of him.” Rodimus fell back into the berth. “So if you could bury me alive, that’d be great.” Drift laughed despite getting a glare from Rodimus.
“Not a chance, but hey do you need me to get you a dampening code from Ratchet? I don’t want you being miserable for the rest of this week.” Drift looked at his Amica with pure empathy seeping from his frame. Rodimus just clutched his legs closer to his chest. He tried his best to ignore the intense pull in his coding to pull Drift closer and frag whatever consequences, after all, it was probably just as hard for Drift to avoid.
“No. I can ignore this. I don’t need a dampening code. I just need to let some steam out in my hab and avoid Megatron this week. Or forever, that can be fine too.” Drift only snickered.
“You can’t avoid him forever Roddy, but I respect your decision. Just let me know if you change your mind about getting a dampener, I know it’s only going to make Ratty huffy when he eventually learns this happened.” Rodimus groaned and Drift shrugged. “It’s not like I can hide things from him forever.”
“I know, I just don’t wanna get a talking to from anyone about this. I can deal with ‘Rodimus, don’t throw yourself into the battle to keep others out of the danger, Rodimus don’t burn down the entire building with yourself in it, Rodimus don’t race down the hallway in your alt mode.’ But a ‘you never got a heat dampener after the war’? And from Ratchet? No way. I’d rather fight an army of sparkeaters.” Drift laughed again.
“That’s because you actual-” Drift clapped a servo on Rodimus’ thigh, who jolted upwards and his armor convulsed as a vent of steam shot out from his armor, and all of his armor started rattling at the foreign servo on his plating. Drift’s optics widened as the heat from Rodimus’ plating shot through his servo and then his optics met Rodimus’. Desperation flooded Rodimus’ field but he tried to reel in the desire before Drift noticed. Unfortunately, he knew Drift has sensed it, coupled with the steam in his olfactory senses and felt the desire start to come from Drift’s field again. Rodimus shrinked into his berth more as Drift leaned forward.
“Please go.” He barely let the words leave his intake and pushed a servo into Drift’s chestplate, the heat from his servo against Drift’s cool armor seemingly bringing Drift out of his stupor.
“Uh, right.” Drift blinked, his voice heavy with static. He made way for the door before repeating over his shoulder. “I’m serious about letting me know if you need a dampener.” Rodimus smiled, ease beginning to wash over him.
“Yeah, I’ll let you know.”