Archive of Our Own

[michael]

It was entirely too nice a day to be driving such an evil fucking car, and yet, here I was.

I glanced at the instrument cluster. The yellow vox-box mounted behind the steering wheel reminded me that despite the familiar coast-to-coast layout of gauges and interfaces and switch-pods surrounding me, I was not driving KITT. The NORMAL CRUISE indicator was illuminated, but I wasn’t a dumbass. KARR still had control, and I had the illusion of it.

Normally, on a day like this, I woulda rolled both windows down and slung my arm across the windowsill to work on my trucker’s tan, but like I said, I wasn’t a dumbass. I didn’t trust KARR not to snap his window glass shut and take my arm with it. Hell, I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw his keys (which crossed my mind as I watched the keyring swinging from the ignition cylinder as we dipped through a seam in the highway), but I didn’t exactly have a choice. He and I were stuck together, like it or not. At least for now.

KARR wasn’t the threat he used to be, but he was still a conniving bastard. I’d be stupid to forget that.

So, I sat, stiff as a goddamned board in the driver’s seat, my elbows locked straight as I kept my hands at nine and three on the wheel, road-blindness drying my eyes as the highway stripes streaked past. My foot was steady on the accelerator. The tach readout locked at 2500 RPMs; speedometer locked at fifty-five. No faster. I was used to being cop bait – KITT certainly drew attention just for being a sleek, sexy set of wheels – but KARR’s flashy duotone paint scheme meant he and I stuck out like a sore fucking thumb. You expected a car like him to blow through traffic. And he would if I let him, but I kept him tightly reined in.

He was frustrated, I could tell. He strained against my control. I watched him fuss with his gearbox, RPMs ticking to the right as the highway banked slightly upward, forcing him to downshift to keep our speed up as I toed into the gas pedal. Fifty-six, the speedometer read, and I backed off just enough to get KARR to drop that one mile-per-hour, though, honestly, I, too ached to put my foot in it and just run.

After a few minutes of tense conversation between my heavy hands and the steering wheel, KARR apparently had enough. “Knight,” he said, and I bristled at my name pouring from his vocoder. “You really should relax. It would be far more comfortable for both of us. You may even find my company at least somewhat enjoyable.”

“We talked about this,” I snapped. “Not a fuckin’ word outta you.”

“Why?” KARR had the balls to sound slightly hurt, but I knew better. “Then you can at least PRETEND I’m KITT? I don’t understand. What does he have that I don’t?”

He was trying to get a rise outta me, and it was working. “Shut it,” I said. My words were punctuated by the creak of leather as my jacket creased in time with the index finger I jabbed toward the dash.

“You’re not quite as easy on the optic sensors when you’re brooding like that, Knight,” KARR drawled. “And, besides that, I haven’t been briefed on our mission. Some partnership you and I have if you won’t even tell me what we’re doing. And here I was, looking forward to a jaunt on the open road, just you and me.”

“We’re not partners,” I snarled. “This is a one-time deal. Road test. That’s it.”

“Hmm. We wouldn’t be headed in the opposite direction of most traffic if this were a simple road test.”

He was right. The Five was jammed heading north, and here we were, barreling south. ‘Course, I wasn’t gonna give him the satisfaction. “This is the course Bonnie set for us.” I made a blade with my hand and gestured toward the stretch of highway spanning in front of KARR’s hood. “Straight to Carlsbad, then right back. Shut up and maybe we’ll get home without killing each other.”

“Does KITT find himself subject to such abuse,” KARR said, “or should I file a formal complaint with FLAG?”

“Shut the fuck up and let me drive!”

The Trans Am’s engine stuttered with laughter at that, but to his credit, he clammed up, for once. I shifted in the seat, trying to smooth my raised hackles. Goddamn it. I did need to relax. KITT would’ve already commented on my blood pressure and taken steps to calm me down. KARR, on the other hand, seemed to thoroughly enjoy the fact that he was getting under my skin, the bastard. And yet, I had nobody to blame for this mess but myself. I was the one who’d willingly taken the wheel, after all.

Dumbass, indeed.

* * *

“I need a favor,” Bonnie had said to me that morning, “and KARR could use an outing.”

In response, I’d sneered and leaned on KITT’s fender. Bonnie had incredible timing. She’d found me and my jet-black supercar outside the mansion, right before we’d had a chance to duck responsibilities and go for a joyride with no destination in mind, just me and my T-top, and I sighed inwardly when I felt my plans for a peaceful afternoon (alone with KITT) slipping away. Between missions, Foundation engagements, and other bullshit, he and I had hardly had a moment to ourselves for weeks, and I wasn’t gonna let it go that easy.

“That’s terrific,” I said through my teeth. “Let me know how it goes.”

“She’s asking for your help,” KITT interjected, unhelpfully.

“Oh, really?” I chewed my tongue, pretending to mull it over, and then, with a hand on KITT’s door, I glared at Bonnie and said, “Not only ‘no,’ but fuck no.”

“Michael, you’re the only one KARR has a shred of respect for. It has to be you. Nobody else can do these validation tests. Plus, he’s going stir crazy, and you know that’s a very dangerous thing for KARR to be.”

“He’s a big boy.” I adjusted the sleeve of my leather jacket, dropping my gaze. “He can handle himself around the proving grounds.”

“Highway,” Bonnie clarified. “He needs more miles on public roads before he can be approved for duty, and I’m not sending him out there alone.”

I scoffed. “Oh, because you don’t trust him, I’m the one who has to put my ass on the line and make sure he doesn’t kill someone?”

She sighed and cocked her hip, folding her arms under her breasts, and gave me a serious look. “Michael,” she repeated. “It has to be you. Please.”

“She’s right, Michael.”

I rounded on KITT. “You’re ok with this?” I snapped, incredulous. “Wow. Thanks a lot, pal.”

“Well, I’m not, but if you can handle me,” the black supercar said, “you can certainly handle KARR. What she says is true. You’re the only man in this organization that he respects.”

“I left my portable computer at the Carlsbad service center, and I’d really love it if you picked it up for me,” Bonnie said, as though she weren’t sending me on a goddamn suicide mission. “I’m not going to have time to do it today before the storm hits. I could send one of the other techs, but you might as well punch in and take KARR down so I can collect data from him. Call me when you get there, and I can tell you how to get it out of the locked cabinet.” When I didn’t say anything, she shot me an almost-pout. “Please, Michael. Just this once.”

“That’s what you said the last time I drove that two-ton killing machine.”

“You didn’t die, did you?”

“That’s not the point!”

“I’ll follow at twenty car-lengths,” KITT offered, but Bonnie shook her head.

“No. They need to go alone. We need to see him as he is, not when he knows you’re right there,” she said, then turned back to me. “Come on, Michael. Do it for me?”

I almost refused. KITT nudged me, attempting to offer support, but it didn’t help much. I shoved off his fender and stormed toward the shop without a word. Well, except for “motherfucker,” but I kept that to myself.

* * *

The skies over the Pacific had gotten awful dark by the time KARR and I pulled up to the Knight Industries-owned shop in Carlsbad.

That wasn’t abnormal. Coastal weather can be very temperamental. (“Like you,” as KITT would have put it.) But this … something felt different. Off. An energy hung low to the ground, a tidepool of unease that lapped at my ankles as I keyed my code into the pad mounted to the side of the shop. There shouldn’t be anyone inside – this five-bay garage only operated when Knight Industries couldn’t handle fleet maintenance duties at the estate shop or needed to work on something offsite. Today, it was mostly empty, aside from the usual automotive maintenance equipment in the usual spotless Knight Industries condition.

I stepped back as the garage door activated. Instinctively, I scanned the interior, feeling slightly put off, but that was probably because I knew the danger wasn’t inside the shop. It was in the idling machine behind the yellow scanner bar at my back. Once I was sure I wasn’t gonna get jumped, I pivoted on my heel to glance at the black skies over the Pacific, pointedly looking past KARR. Through a row of buildings, I caught a glimpse of pissed-off surf. “Storm’s coming,” I remarked to myself.

“Wonderful observation, Knight,” KARR replied, ever vigilant for an opportunity to get a jab in at me. “Your powers of deduction never cease to amaze me.”

“Shut up.”

He ignored me. “The inbound storm is quite severe. There are already flood warnings, which you’d know about if you’d bothered to turn on the radio during our drive. Or let me speak.”

I raised both eyebrows. “You know something I don’t?”

“There’s much I know that you don’t, Knight. It’s my duty to keep an eye on all environmental factors, including weather, but considering your stress level since we left the estate, I thought it wise not to bring it up.”

“Asshole,” I muttered as a sudden gust of wind buffeted my face.

KARR’s amber lightbar flared. “Come again?”

“Forget it.” I turned my wrist over and glanced at the time on my commlink. Early afternoon, still. The device’s indicator glowed red. That meant KITT had an eye on me. Not that he could do much from his post all the way back at the estate, but his presence settled me, at least a little bit. Never doing this again, pal, I thought at him. Then, I cleared my throat, straightened up, and told KARR, “We pick up Bonnie’s computer and then we get the hell outta Dodge. There’s your briefing. Got it?”

“Of course. If we hurry, we might return with time enough for you to play with your partner back at the estate just yet.” There was undeniable teasing in the two-tone supercar’s voice. I narrowed my eyes at him but decided not to read too much into it. He was just being a dick. As usual.

I squared my shoulders. “Stay out here and call Bonnie.”

“Out in the elements? You wound me, Knight.”

I rolled my eyes. “Just keep it in Park.”

“I understand. You’re afraid of being alone in a garage with me.”

“No, you’re pissing me off, and I’m being the big man here and walking away from the conflict. Now, stay.” I thrust a finger at him, then disappeared into the shop.

KARR left his engine running. I could feel his scanner tracking me.

There was more than enough room in here for me and KARR, obviously, something I’m sure he observed and cataloged as I moved deeper into the industrial space, searching for the locked cabinet where Bonnie’s portable would be stored. From behind, KARR’s scanner cast an oscillating amber glare across the polished concrete flooring, reminding me that I was very much not alone, and that I was being very carefully watched. It creeped me the fuck out, honestly, and my hackles raised even more when I heard the bicolor Trans Am’s engine rev up, accompanied by the chirp of rubber over concrete as he lurched forward.

“Defying orders now, huh? I’ll have to bring that up in my report,” I said in a low voice that I hoped conveyed more of a threat than I could find in me now. I turned back to face KARR. He’d poked his nose into the shop. Oh, boy, he was testing me, wasn’t he? Seeing what he could get away with before I did something about it. Well, he was about to get his answer. “Out,” I barked, leaning into another gust of wind as I started toward the garage door. “Call Bonnie and get out.”

KARR did not get out, and he did not call Bonnie. He engaged his rear axle with a clunk and advanced even further. “What’s wrong? Any car would kill to share a garage with such a handsome man,” he said, dangerously. “Barring that, there’s a storm coming, and you expect me to wait outside and take it? That hardly seems fair. You wouldn’t ask that of KITT.”

“You’re not KITT,” I fired back. “You remind me of that every goddamned second we’re together. Back up.” I could’ve kicked KARR’s bumper in if I’d wanted to. Well, not really – molecular bonded shell and all – but I was close enough that I could’ve at least landed a serious hit. His wicked turbines spooled beneath his hood, bound by the confines of his engine block. When he didn’t budge, something in me snapped, and I reared back and planted both palms on his hood, one on either side of that grotesque yellow scanner bar. I pressed my weight into them like I could get his two-ton frame to move by sheer willpower.

“All this time,” the Trans Am drawled, unphased, “and you’re still afraid of me. Shame. I really do think there’s something between you and I.”

“I’m not afraid of you.” I curled my fingers against his hood, all too aware of the heat radiating behind his bumper from his engine. “I just don’t trust you. There’s a difference.”

“Really?” KARR lurched forward again, forcing me to shove off his nose and stagger back to my full height. Raindrops had started collecting on his roof. Satisfied that he’d offset me, he went on. “Is that all that stands between us, Knight? A lack of trust? I don’t think that’s true. Admit it. You’re afraid of me.”

He thought a second, some hard drive kicking in deep inside him as he engaged Drive again and advanced into the shop, almost nailing me in the shins. Against my better judgement, I ceded my ground, snarling at the evil machine as he forced his way inside the shop.

“No, that’s not it,” he concluded, continuing his advance. “You’re not afraid of me at all. I think you’re afraid of the connection between us.”

My bloodstream lit with adrenaline. My jaw tightened.

“You sense it, don’t you?” Still, KARR pressed, and I realized, too late, that I was letting him literally back me against a wall. “You and I share something, and whatever it is, it’s far different than what you share with KITT. The very thought of exploring or even acknowledging it is what scares you.”

I lifted my chin and gave him a defiant look. The shop’s coast-facing façade strained under the pressure of the inbound storm as cloud cover finally snuffed out the sun over the beach, but I barely noticed the howl of the wind over the whine of KARR’s turbojet powerhouse. The security lights at my back offered muted artificial glare, mixing harsh shadows with the softer shade from the natural light filtering in. My ass met the far wall, cool, painted brick chilling me through my jeans, and I had awful visions of being turned into a pulp as KARR’s front end lurched into me, right below my knees. I gritted my teeth and prepared for the worst.

He paused just short of delivering pain.

“Tell me, Knight,” he said in a low voice that resonated through his chassis. “Is it really me you don’t trust, or yourself?”

I should’ve forced him to stand down. KITT and Bonnie were right; I was the only man KARR respected. He would’ve backed off if I’d told him to.

But I didn’t.

Though I knew he and KITT were identical in terms of size and probably even curb weight, KARR seemed … bigger. Always had. There was something about his commanding presence – both on and off the road – that made him seem larger than he really was. His hood seemed broader; his fascia appeared meaner than KITT’s, though, logically, I knew they were the same.

“Lost in thought?” he pressed, literally. “I’ll give you a penny. Or more. Just how much do you cost, Knight?”

He vented a bit more heat than he normally would’ve. Or maybe I was just more aware of it. Too aware. Lost for words, I wet my lips, trying to slow my breathing and exhale the adrenaline. It didn’t work.

KARR was really laying it on thick. He knew exactly what he was doing. And I was fucking falling for it.

“Hmm. That’s what I thought.” KARR came to some conclusion he didn’t bother informing me of. I got that invasive sort of feeling that told me he was noting my vitals, accompanied by the persistent back-and-forth sweep of his yellow scanner. He could probably tell that my pulse was up, and that a familiar burn had started deep in my veins, and that my deep-seated desires were getting the better of me, blossoming in the form of a familiar ache.

Just like I had every night, I thought of KITT.  

KARR caught me with the laser edge of his scanner. “I know about your ‘rendezvous’ with KITT,” he said, smugly. “Subtlety isn’t one of your strong suits. Or his.”

“That so?” I lifted my chin, defiant.

“It just so happens that it’s not one of mine, either.” His engine pitched higher, and he made his exhaust throatier, somehow. Bonnie had tried to explain that to me. Something about valves and chokes. Valves and chokes. That sounded vaguely dirty. I grinned at myself. Maybe the bastard was getting to me. Something about him was downright intoxicating, if not a little terrifying. My throat was bone-dry, and I swallowed against it, glancing warily at the storm whipping the beach.

KARR waited until my attention flicked back to him. His engine ran hot beneath his hood. He thrummed and vibrated at an almost sultry idle. And me? I could feel myself slipping. Giving in. Admitting something I hadn’t wanted to admit. The bicolor Trans Am certainly didn’t help with his next words, which were: “It’s proven extremely difficult to get you alone. And finally, here we are.”

I let the back of my head contact the wall, hooked a thumb in my belt buckle, and thought, Michael Knight, what the fuck are you doing? But unfortunately, it manifested as audible words: “Oh, fuck me.”

KARR revved up. “I intend to.”

I choked. Fumbled for an excuse to bail out of the situation, though … did I really want that? I turned my wrist over, subconsciously seeking out my watch and its blinking red light. I tapped its face. “KARR,” I hissed. “KITT can still—”

“That commlink comes off, doesn’t it?”

Slack-jawed, I nodded.

“Remove it. Now.”

I stopped short of saying ‘yes, sir,’ and unlatched the thing from my wrist. Let it dangle between my thumb and forefinger, then chucked it to the side. Heard it hit the concrete somewhere to my left. Wondered if it broke. Didn’t care. My hand was already at my belt. I felt lightheaded. Made sense. All the blood in me was pooling in my pelvis, and, goddammit, I wanted out of these jeans; I could feel my dick pressing against the seam, the zipper, and – good God, I couldn’t ignore the thrum of KARR’s engine against my legs, the sensation balling in the most sensitive parts of me, setting my nerves on fucking fire.

“Very good, Knight,” KARR said as I fumbled with my zipper. When had he shut the garage door? Guess I hadn’t heard it over the whine of his turbojet. Just him and me now. He rocked forward, just enough to knock against me again and bounce my ass off the brick wall. “You’re going to do everything I say. Do you understand?”

I gave a single, tight nod.

“Get on your knees.”

I whistled low. “Straight to business, huh?”

His scanner flared. “Do as I say.”

I did. It was a slow, almost excruciating process, mostly because I hadn’t quite got my zipper undone and it hurt  as the fabric tightened between my legs. KARR didn’t leave me much room, so I ended up almost straddling the apex of his front fascia as I sank to my knees before him. His engine vibrated through me. Only made me harder. I adjusted my stance, thighs grabbing the edges of KARR’s splitter, rolling my hips forward and planting my groin firmly against the splitter while I messed with the zipper and waited to see if he would allow me to finish exposing myself. He didn’t say anything, but watched me intently, his lightbar panning back and forth, faster, brighter than it usually ran, daring me to continue.

With a shimmy, I worked the waistband of my jeans below my hip bones, even as my hip flexors and upper thighs screamed in protest. Hell, I almost liked the pain. Complemented the resonance of KARR’s engine. He did, however, bow his front end slightly toward the ground, and I almost lost my balance. Involuntarily, I grunted, quickly spitting into my palm before dropping it to protect my dick from the sharp point of his front end as my other hand shot out to catch myself against his hood. My thumb pressed into his scanning mechanism.

KARR took it like he’d been shot.

His chassis jerked back as though struck. His RPMs ticked higher. “Knight,” he said in sharp tone. “Relax. I intend to pleasure you, not to hurt you. Though I did not give you permission to touch my scanner.”

I almost said something along the lines of you know you like it, but I knew it wasn’t my place. He had control, not me. I snatched my hand back. Flattened it on his bumper instead, hooking my thumb in his fog light bezel. When he didn’t rip my guts out, I let him take more of my weight, gingerly pressing my dick against his splitter. Waiting, even as my pulse hammered my groin, not quite uncomfortably, my waistband biting into my ass, wondering if I was welcome to slip into the gap between his fog light and bumper if he wanted me to reciprocate.

KARR’s suspension whispered as he rocked back on his haunches. Just slightly. I followed, my breath catching in my throat as the point of his front end ghosted across the sensitive underside of my dick. Oh. That was his plan, was it? I clenched my back teeth and lifted my chin, painfully aware of KARR as he let his front end dive downward again. I didn’t even mind the friction. KARR demanded pain.

“With me, Knight,” KARR instructed. I understood. He wanted me to match his rhythm. My thighs shook as I tried to keep enough distance between us to avoid complete pain. My hips rocked into him, following the slight downward motion of his suspension, straining on the way back up, but … fuck. Not quite what KITT would ask of me, but it worked. Nah. KITT would want me all over his scanner. That was his button. Despite the heat building between my legs, I felt kinda lost – what the hell was I supposed to do with my hands?

“Do not think of him.”

“Can you read my damn mind?” I gritted out.

“You have tells.” KARR didn’t elaborate. “Keep up.”

“KARR,” I strained. He hit me just right on the next stroke, and my brain short-circuited, and I had to wait for my nerves to settle before I continued. “Let me help you out too, huh? This isn’t always about one person. Or car.”

He snarled. Hit that sweet spot again. Made my dick twitch. My pulse probably matched his RPMs right about now, and I’d broken into a sweat, my chest slicking up fast. I lifted the hand I had braced against his front end and peeled my shirt off my chest, sloppily undoing the buttons and letting it fall open almost to my navel. What I really wanted to do was ditch the leather jacket, but some part of me knew KARR liked it. That was why he hadn’t asked me to take the damn thing off. Something I’d just have to deal with.

That was ok, though. I’d almost completely lost myself.

I kept up with KARR’s cadence. He was faster, rougher than KITT (but I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about him, damn it, so I focused on the flawless border between black and silver on KARR’s hide to distract myself). I followed him back down, still waiting for his response, which he never fucking gave. Slightly put off, I dropped my free hand to his splitter, using the momentum to anchor myself more firmly against him. Closer, closer. I was losing the ability to think rationally, as I often did during foreplay. Ah. That’s why I wasn’t quite building the way I wanted to build. This felt like fucking foreplay.

“KARR,” I said again, daring to let my touch wander closer to his scanner bezel. He seethed at me and knocked me a little harder than he probably should have, causing me to stiffen in pain as my core burned trying to keep myself upright. Breathless, I went on. “What are you afraid of, man?”

Then it hit me.

Every time I’d taken aim at his scanner, it’d been with intent to kill.

Until now.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” I said, voice thick. “KARR, come on. This isn’t gonna work. You know it. Let me—” I broke off, wincing as he nosed into me just right again, my dick swelling even further, as my abs involuntarily contracted. Collecting myself with a grunt, I gritted out, “Trust me.”

He snarled through his exhaust. “Trust YOU, Knight?”

“I’m at your mercy,” I said. He liked that. I felt his idle smooth out into a turbine purr. “I do something you don’t like, you throw me, got it? But let’s make this mutual.”

His amber lightbar picked up the pace. Daring me.

I ground further into him, widening my stance as much as I could with my shoulder blades against the wall and the thrumming machine between my legs. Slowly, I extended my hand toward his scanner bezel. Tentatively touched the composite lens. It was hot to the touch, almost too hot to do what I wanted to do. As I’d learned with KITT, I flattened the pad of a finger on the lens. Traced the contours of the assembly before picking out the brightest LED, following its side-to-side tempo.

KARR recoiled. His suspension creaked as he snatched his nose back, but he didn’t release his brakes. His RPMs picked up another couple grand. His engine torqued within its bay. I almost heard his chassis tweaking as his powerhouse strained against the motor mounts that kept it locked in place. Felt the shock when it slammed back home as he let off the throttle. His nose dipped lower again as he found an uneasy idle, and I shifted to accommodate him, my breath catching when his fascia matched my own stroke once more.

“Fuck,” I said, under my breath. For all the force he was exerting on me, KARR’s touch was feather-light against my dick, and it was driving me fucking crazy. At this rate, I wasn’t gonna last long at all. Guess we’d skipped the finer points of foreplay and gone right for the good shit, huh? My skin flushed, gooseflesh racing along my shoulders before descending into my thighs, pooling around the solid contact between myself and KARR’s splitter. In return, I kept my touch light on his scanner bar. As much as I wanted to dig into it, I had to keep myself in check. I wasn’t here to hurt him, after all, even if he wanted to hurt me.

“Keep up, Knight,” KARR said again. It wasn’t a reprimand. Encouragement, rather. His tempo had increased. I was sweating like crazy, and panting hard, like I’d sprinted a goddamn mile. Back and forth. My hips moving in time with his suspension (just like KITT) and KARR sensed my mind had wandered and lurched into me just to get my attention again and I gripped his scanner bezel with a finger slipping into the part of him where the seam of his hood jutted over the lens as I searched for any way inside him because if I couldn’t get my dick into him I had to do something—

And that was it.

Under any other circumstance, I would’ve felt a little embarrassed that I hadn’t been able to last longer, but a few things happened at once. First, KARR’s lightbar glinted evilly in the darkness of the shop, every nerve bundle illuminating as his engine twisted within its bay again. I missed my cadence on his next upward stroke and sorta ended up thrusting into his fog light bezel, slipping through my hand as I let him take me fully, and—oh, goddamn it. Inside him now, I couldn’t hold back. And it really didn’t help that he said, “That’s it, Mr. Knight,” and oh goddammit, he just had to throw ‘Mr.’ in there and my brain went blank as all the blood in me rushed between my legs and then I came, and I came hard. I’m talking bruise-to-the-hip-bones hard, my left hip slamming into his fascia as I lost control of myself and gave into the climax. “Fuck, KARR,” I snapped, gritting my teeth as my hips rocked, muscles heaving, giving the machine all I had with a grunt.

“That’s right, Knight.” KARR had slowed, too, finally, while my forearms buckled and I sorta ended up halfway on his hood, breathing hard. “Very good.”

Aaahhh, hell. My belly pressed into his bumper. I was damn near wheezing. Guess my stamina wasn’t what it used to be. He caught me, chassis flexing to accommodate my weight, while I was left wondering what the fuck I’d just done. KARR watched me in silence while I finally caught my breath, daring to rest my forehead against his hood while I came back to myself.

“How do you feel?”

The question was so absurd, so outta left field, I actually laughed. Well, coughed, more like, but it’s the intent that matters. I glanced down at KARR’s scanner, noting that it panned back and forth, smoothly, completely self-satisfied. “How do I feel?” I grimaced. “I feel like you kicked my ass.”  

KARR’s engine still thrummed. “I’m not through with you.”

My head shot up. “What?”

“I blew a fuse or two,” KARR said, “but they belong to inconsequential systems. Knight, I have yet to experience full Alpha circuit overload. And you’re going to give that to me.”

I huffed, outta breath. “You serious?”

“I believe my explicit instructions have been to ‘keep up,’ Knight.”

I laughed again, breathlessly. “All right, then,” I panted, mind whirling. He was lucky I was still (mostly) hard, but I wasn’t worried about keeping up. (His words, after all.) I gestured loosely at him, backing off to give him clearance. “Pop the hood.”

KARR snarled. “For what purpose?”

“If I’m gonna blow your Alpha circuit,” I strained, readjusting my leather jacket and tugging on my shirt to get some air over my overheating chest, “I gotta do it right, huh?”

KARR seethed at me.

“I don’t trust you,” I growled, making sure he saw me stroking myself again. “Do you trust me?”

At first, he did nothing. Then I heard the latch release, and the point of his hood was no longer flush with the rest of him. Smirking to myself, I purposefully trailed my fingers across his scanning mechanism as I found the gap between hood and bezel, running the pad of a thumb over the welds beneath his hood before I painstakingly lifted it and let KARR present himself to me.

For a minute, I just drank him in. He was similar to KITT, sure, but everything inside him was just different enough to make me pause. Top end of the engine was mostly the same, polished aluminum covers glinting tantalizingly as I left myself alone for a second and curled my fingers into the space between his radiator and his front fascia as I looked him over. Wires were neatly routed around the engine block. Cooling lines and rubber hoses. AC lines, brake lines, a couple belts, and – ah, there it was. A bundle of cables wrapped in bright orange wire wrap. A warning: HIGH VOLTAGE. Exactly what I was after.

“Don’t take my hand off,” I muttered, wondering if he heard me over the whistle of his turbines. Now this was something else. KARR, baring himself to me. “Fuck,” I said under my breath, and he hummed, but said nothing. Careful of his radiator fan, which I knew would slice me up without missing a beat, I let my free hand wander over that orange bundle, gauging his reaction. Yes. There. Like I’d pulled on his throttle body cable, his RPMs shot skyward again, his engine block seething heat.

“Mr. Knight,” he said – there it was again – and I sucked air through my teeth, my dick swelling up yet again, my body already gearing up for release. Not yet. “You’re wandering into dangerous territory.”

“What’ve you been telling me? Keep up?” I asked, trailing an index finger over the bundle of high-voltage Alpha circuit cables, the ones that fed directly into the back of his scanning mechanism. “Your turn, KARR.” I ran my hand back down and tilted my pelvis forward, letting the most sensitive part of me press against the most sensitive part of him. He shuddered, and if I hadn’t known better, I would’ve said he’d moaned.

I took the cable between my thumb and forefinger. Took myself with the other. Breathed in deep, and thought, Well, we’ve already made it this far, what the fuck have I gotta lose? And then, I gave him our new rhythm, both my hands working in time. He got the message but took a different approach this time – instead of flexing his suspension, he revved his engine and let it fall back to idle, although I reckoned that wasn’t entirely voluntary. The vibrations set my own nerve endings on edge again and my hips almost bucked without my say-so, but I gritted my teeth and doubled down.

The cables were hot.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. I was actively running my hands over parts of a vehicle that was still running and running hot at that. I felt my palm rubbing raw as I caught the edges of the wire wrap. “Knight,” KARR said, as breathless as a computer could sound. “Is that all you’ve got? You can do better than that.”

For a second, I was at a loss. Was I really about to wear my fucking palm to the bone jerking off a damn car? (And myself, at that?) But then my gaze settled on something mundane: KARR’s oil cap, settled in his engine cover, its chrome bright in the dim shop lights.

I reached toward it. KARR tracked me, his engine idling rougher when I undid the threads and exposed his fluids to the open air. I grinned wickedly, thinking, I’ll have to remember this one, and idly traced a finger around the circular filler neck and causing the machine beneath me to shudder violently before I dipped my fingers into the oil itself. It was hot, but not hot enough to burn, just enough to sting.

I snapped the cap back into place. Let the oil drip off my fingers, spattering across KARR’s engine cover.

Then I turned my attention back to the Alpha circuit cable.

Easier, now. Faster. KARR’s body creaked as I took the bundle of nerves into my slicked-up palm, readily gliding over the surface of the cable and feeling it warm even more beneath my touch. “Come on, Knight,” KARR said to me, and I kept at it, working myself into a lather again as I threw my knee up onto his bumper in part to give myself a better angle at the cable, partly to get myself into a better position to let the vibrations of his engine surge through me from dick to tailbone. He began to rock, now, spurred by the twist of his turbojet inside the engine bay. I flattened my hand and drove my palm along the oiled surface of the cable, putting more and more pressure on him with each stroke, letting my hand slam the back of his scanner every time I got near it. Oh, man. I couldn’t keep this up. Fresh off my last climax, I wasn’t too far from the second, and if KARR’s scanner was anything to go by, he was getting close, too – it was bright and hot beneath me, the LEDs pulsing as one instead of the sequential back-and-forth I was used to.

“Come on, KARR,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “Give it to me, man. Come on!” I was overheating again, as was he – but he didn’t have to deal with the feel of sweat dripping down his back, or worry about it plastering his hair against his forehead. But I felt what it did to him in the rush of coolant through a rubber hose to the left as his systems rallied.

KARR yelled something.

If there were words, I never put meaning to them.

I felt his voice rather than heard it as his engine once again twisted against its motor mounts, and I thought for a hot second that I’d really busted him up and would have to limp him home with his turbojet just resting on his subframe. He revved up, hitting redline and bouncing of his rev limiter over and over, drowning out my thoughts and my own grunts as the sensation finally set me on edge because I was still very much fucking his goddamn scanner with both my hand and my dick. I tried to hold it back, but I’d built up too much again, and then just like that I was curled in on myself and clenching KARR’s cables like my life depended on it, my hips grinding into his fascia as I, too, climaxed for a second time, letting myself go as I pumped into the Trans Am’s engine bay.

Through his intakes, KARR wheezed. Finally, as I stopped clenching every muscle in my lower half and caught myself, panting over the supercar’s blisteringly hot engine, too stunned with myself to say anything. KARR’s turbines spooled high for a heartbeat or two, and I heard something deep inside him clicking and whirring, rerouting his primary functions to a secondary or tertiary circuit, I’m sure. I hoped.

“Get off me,” KARR said after his engine fell back to rest, but there wasn’t any venom in his tone. Hell, it was almost gentle. I realized I was shaking with fatigue, my arms trembling as I backed myself from beneath KARR’s hood, and I probably looked like I’d jumped in the damn Pacific, all the sweat glistening on my exposed skin. Fuck it. I backed up to the wall, leaning heavily against it as KARR ran some kinda check on himself, and then, just as I was thinking I better clean him up before I returned him to Bonnie with my, ah, fluids all over him, he slammed his hood shut and panned his scanner at me.

“I understand why KITT likes that,” KARR purred. “Mr. Knight, I appear to have sustained damage to my Alpha circuit due to overload.”

I cleared my throat. “I take it I did good, then.”

“And here I was worried you were afraid of me,” KARR drawled as I gingerly fit my zipper together and lashed my belt back into place, watching him. “You and I, Mr. Knight – admit it. We were built for each other.”

* * *

Bonnie noticed I was limping. KITT probably did, too, but he was in stasis, his scanner bar dark as he slept. My injury wasn’t subtle, and by the time KARR and I had rolled up to the Knight estate after we’d surged back through the rainstorm now drowning the California coast, my hips had seized up, and I was in more pain and more tired than I wanted to admit. Specifically, where the splitter-shaped bruise had started blossoming across my hip flexor. I was gonna feel that one tomorrow.

I shrugged the computer bag off my shoulder and handed it to Bonnie. “Here.”

She took it and asked, suspiciously, “What took you so long?”

“I – had a little problem with KARR,” I said. I didn’t make eye contact. “We, ah. His Alpha circuit needs looked at.”

Both her eyebrows shot up. “His Alpha circuit?”

“I’ve blown a few fuses,” KARR supplied behind me. His front end was streaked with rainwater. I hoped it’d washed away the evidence, but the look in Bonnie’s eye told me she knew something was up.

“How did that happen?”

“Mr. Knight is a bit heavy handed,” KARR said, simply. “Although that may not be entirely a bad thing.”

In the background, KITT’s scanner slashed online.  

-END-