Work Text:
It started as Soundwave’s idea. The Third-in-Command was always overwhelmed with his work. Without the communication specialist keeping track of multiple departments through his surveillance work, the Decepticons would have fallen apart long ago to something as small as a clerical error, with no one else to get the catch and correct the innumerable mistakes made every single cycle. When Soundwave wasn't busy with the minutia of overseeing the entire Decepticon faction, he was busy overseeing rowdy cassettes pulling constantly for his attention that Soundwave acquiesced to time and time again. It was illogical, the time Soundwave put into the cause and into his companions when he could have spent that time sufficiently in recharge. But it wasn’t Shockwave’s place to argue with the stubborn Third.
The first time Soundwave had come to Shockwave's lab he had been pushed to the brink by some crisis or another. A meeting run long, perhaps, by Starscream’s meddling, as he was often guilty of. Poking and prodding at the beast that was Megatron until he snapped, violence in his action and words. While the immediate mess of a downed seeker was usually easy enough to clean up, the aftermath of the sudden greenlighting of various missions to patch over bruised ego often lead to just more work for Soundwave, more often than not.
Soundwave would enter, visor dim and servos shaky, overwhelmed not only by the sheer task load of his work, but the sheer volume of his cohorts thoughts and feelings that pressed against his processor in every waking moment. Shockwave would have been startled, perhaps to see the Third in such a state had they not been seeing more and more of each other as of late. Soundwave, seeking out the companionship of the one truly silent compatriot he had, the one mech's processor he could not hear and provided him a thankfully clear silence in an endless cacophony of noise. Shockwave, well, Shockwave tolerated the Third, for he was short on allies, and it would do little to shut the door on highly valued company.
When Soundwave arrived to him like this, in such dire straits, he would jump lightly onto Shockwave's lab table and transform into his alt mode: a boombox fitted with a cassette deck. There he would play light music for Shockwave as he worked. Thus the idea Soundwave had arranged to play out time and time again. When the war and his processor pushed him to his limits he would retreat to Shockwave’s lab and “assist” him for a few joors as a stationary music machine playing background music for Shockwave to work to. Shockwave wasn’t a huge fan of music but he appreciated that Soundwave always made his mixes for these times specifically to avoid the brassy drums and stringy rock guitars that he knew Soundwave and the cassettes enjoyed, instead opting for more lower, stringy melodies that were soft on Shockwave's audials.
This allowed for Shockwave to tune in and out of the music as he pleased, as work on his experiments continued. Soundwave, in turn, would be free to enter a state on the edge of recharge, aware enough of his surroundings and Shockwave to play music but able to relax into his given role as cassette player. It was the most respite Shockwave could give him while both remaining on duty, Well, until these sessions became something more…
Shockwave was nothing if not observant. He noticed when held or carried the boombox in his arms how it would seemingly warm up in his hold. He noticed when his digits hovered over the glass cassette opening, a slight rattle of anticipation, and as he slid a chosen mixtape inside, a shiver from the tape deck. He noticed when he pressed the buttons on Soundwave's tape deck, attempting to pause or skip a song, the traces of electricity that would stick to his fingers. Once or twice could be attributed to phantoms of the imagination, miscalculated observations on Shockwave's part. But as these sessions happened again and again and Shockwave observed the same phenomenon over and over, he could only come to the same conclusion. Soundwave liked being handled in his alt mode. Liked it to a great degree. Of course, further testing would have to be done.
It was on one of these days Shockwave found an opportunity. Soundwave had entered his lab moving more slowly than usually. He did not return Shockwave's greeting as he appeared to not have heard it. His pedes trudged along as his visor peered at the floor. He did not return Shockwave's greeting as if he did not hear it. He placed himself upon Shockwave's desk, shoulders slumping his frame forward. Shockwave regarded him quietly, Soundwave too tired to notice or too tired to care to return his gaze. Slowly, Soundwave’s entire frame began to shrink as he made his transformation into the blue boombox. With a click, the tape already inside started to whir and soft music started to play. Shockwave tinkered with the tools on his lab station but his mind was far away. He was far enough along in all his experiments that a break could be justified. And he had a new experiment to start. One that involved the very Third-in-Command before him. Still he let the cassette deck play through a few songs before approaching him. Best not to disrupt the routine too much, just yet.
When Shockwave did approach the stationary cassette deck, he placed his servo on the volume dial. He felt a slight shudder through the machine beneath him. Subtle, but Shockwave was sure enough in his observations to be sure he had not imagined it. He twisted the volume dial back and forth, the music lifting and falling in tone as he did so. Slight static interweaved through the docile tones of the otherwise sweet music. Shockwave hummed, placing the gun turret of his other arm on the other dial of the boombox, a signal dial for the cassette’s radio. He turned both dials back and forth rapidly. He felt Soundwave seize suddenly and shudder beneath his ministrations. Static crackled freely from his systems. “Shock-” A partial voice fragment lost in a sea of static and Shockwave's turning the volume dial low. Shockwave turned the volume up again and left the dials be.
“Que-query: WHAT ar-re you doing?” Soundwave's synthesized voice, strained from static, spoke from the boombox’s speakers themselves. Shockwave traced a digit down the speaker's mesh, feeling the electricity and static crackle as he did so. Soundwave gasped in surprise. “Ahhahh” the speakers crackled with more static and wanton noises.
“I'm simply curious about your alt mode.” Shockwave answered. “I didn't realize you were so…sensitive…in this form.”
Soundwave said nothing. Shockwave noticed he did nothing to transform and leave either. Shockwave placed a digit on his play button. Another subtle rattle from the cassette deck. Shockwave used his delicate fingertips to press carefully between all his buttons at an even pace. Play, pause, skip, skip, rewind. Soundwave shuddered beneath him, music skittering and stopping, but he seemed to be making a concerted effort to not make noise this time despite the whir of his fans beginning to sound.
“Excellent, Soundwave, I would expect nothing less from you.” The praise fell more easily from Shockwave’s vocalizer than he would have thought, but he felt the box beneath his digits warm slightly at his words.
Shockwave's lack of a second hand was quite a strain at times like this. Soundwave never really seemed to mind or see less of him for it but it limited Shockwave’s options right now, most frustratingly. As he sped up his digits on Soundwave's buttons, he brought his gun turret up to the boombox’s side, stroking the seams as well as he could. From the little whimpers coming from the speakers he could tell he was succeeding somewhere. Soundwave was getting charged, he could feel the electricity dance between his digits with every stroke of a button and every trace of a seam. He could feel the heat beating off the speakers near his optic casing where it had landed as he found himself leaning over the machine to more easily cradle Soundwave’s seams fully. He could hear the crackle of static in the speakers bounce off his audials. There was no music to speak of it anymore, Soundwave must have been too distracted to allow to play it anymore.
Shockwave removed his digits from the deck’s buttons, causing a groan to rise from the speakers. Gently he pressed on the glass cassette lid of the boombox causing the eject mechanism to trigger, opening the deck to the tape well. He rubbed a digit lightly along the open glass before sighting his sets on the contents inside. The tape made specially for him sat inside on the tape well. He wondered just how much Soundwave could feel. Surely, anything inside the cassette deck would be dangerous to touch, and for that reason would either be numb to his touch or…particularly sensitive. Shockwaves inched his servo inside the cassette deck, placing a digit on the inserted tape. It seemed Soundwave himself was holding his breath, as even his fans had stopped whirring in this instance. Shockwave grazed his digits over the rectangle of the tape, circling the grooves of the supply reel softly. His digits caught the inside of the tape’s reel and he circled his digit, pulling the tape back lightly. A high pitched synthesized noise shrieked through the speakers, startling Shockwave as pulled back suddenly, servo fully removed from the cassette deck.
The sound of metal folding onto each other echoed in the room as Soundwave micro transformed. The boombox of Soundwave’s alt mode remained, though slightly bigger now to make room for two stocky legs now sticking out of the end. Soundwave’s head and arms still remained hidden, transformed away. Shockwave observed, slightly concerned. Had something in his experimentation caused Soundwave to get stuck in a partial transformation?
“Soundwave?” Shockwave fretted, “Do you require medical assistance?" He asked, his one good servo placed on Soundwave's thigh.
“No.” Soundwave answered quickly though his voice sounded thick and heavy. “That was… wonderful.” Soundwave’s pede tapped at him lightly, when it found him Soundwave took his entire leg and curled it around Shockwave to pull him closer.
Shockwave looked at the leg curled around him and then to the boombox as torso that sat before him. “You….you liked it.” Shockwave said, audials twitching in answer discovered
In answer Soundwave's legs spread, panel springing back, revealing his valve, well lubricated from the touches Shockwave had doled out to him.
“Oh,” said Shockwave simply. He ran his hands up and down Soundwave's long, white thighs, observing as Soundwave twitched and writhed beneath him, all sensation.
Shockwave pulled back his spike cover, placing his fat spike into the folds of Soundwave's valve. He grabbed onto Soundwave's hips tightly, Soundwave flinching lightly at the touch he could not see. Shockwave thrust shallowly over the valve lips, feeling the warmth of the entrance as he glided by but refusing to penetrate. The feedback of Soundwave's speakers blared, whining in a desperate tone. As Shockwave rutted his spike on the outside of Soundwave’s valve, he brought his digits back to Shockwave's dials, twisting them both all the way down suddenly. Soundwave's scream crackled through the speakers, volume suddenly raised all the way up. The music from before swirled up as Soundwave’s synth voice broke in one sharp note, all sound ceasing in one sudden moment.
Shockwave groaned at the sound, taking his own spike in hand, pumping furiously. In just a matter of kliks he was arced back, transfluid flushing free from his spike in furious spurts, a larger dose than he expected. It appears he was just as affected as his partner was. When he returned to himself, he turned his optic to said partner who he had inadvertently covered in transfluid. He was still only half transformed, legs sticking out of a bulky boombox top, valve fully exposed.Transfluid dripped from the two twin dials, it coated the seams between his buttons, it covered the mesh of his speakers. It also painted the white of his thighs and a little even dripped until his still exposed valve. Shockwave took it all in greedily, hand still on Soundwave's hip.
“Oh, Soundwave. You look…optimal, like this.” Shockwave huffed as his fans whirred, cooling his own systems after the glow of his own overload. It was then he noticed Soundwave shaking slightly. Cautiously, Shockwave pressed a hand to the buttons still on the cassette deck. Electricity danced between his digits. “You're…you're still charged.”
Soundwave's frame grew slightly on the desk as he transformed fully into root mode. Flecks of transfluid flew off his frame onto the floor as his body folded away and into place. Even more was dumped on the floor as Soundwave stood fast, grabbing Shockwave and spinning him. Shockwave's aft hit the desk, positions suddenly reversed and it was Soundwave who was looming over him. The two stared at each other for a few minutes, optic to visor. Soundwave placed a hand to Shockwave's helm, cradling him in the way he always did when the two were intimate. He was pressing Shockwave down now, down on to the table, visor getting ever closer to that optic.
And soon Soundwave was slipping his still open, dripping valve onto Shockwave's still erect spike. “Ah” Shockwave said, his turn to be surprised. “Soundwave,” he said with some bit of difficulty as the mech above him began to move. “Our agreed arrangement was to find alternate methods of overloading to avoid sparklings.” And indeed that was the point of their trysts, as they had gotten closer and more intimate, neither had wanted to bring a sparkling into their war time activities. Both were busy enough as they were and Soundwave already had the cassettes to deal with it. Soundwave was the only one truly at risk of gestating a sparkling thus the avoidance of precisely this exact position.
“Solution simple: don’t.” Soundwave said darkly but Shockwave could hear the smug smile even behind his visor.
“Easy for you to say.” Shockwave grumbled to himself. He wasn't the the one with Soundwave's warm heat enveloped around his spike, Soundwave's pleased groans tapping on his audials, Soundwave’s transfluid caked chassis still taking up the entire field of Shockwave's optic as Soundwave rode him to Unicron and back. Shockwave's groans rose to match Soundwave's and his partner was no doubt pleased with the harmonic rhythm of the two's pleasure. Shockwave felt himself get lost in the movements of Soundwave above him, each rise and fall hitting nodes long left understimulated in Soundwave’s valve as he grunted. Each press into Soundwave’s hips piercing into his ceiling node again and again making Soundwave sing better than the music he brought with him. With one powerful arc of the hips, Shockwave met Soundwave at the apex of his thrust, spike nudging right into the ring of Soundwave’s gestation chamber. Soundwave's high pitched synth pierced the lab once again and Shockwave could feel his overload as his valve rippled over his spike. Soundwave slipped off him just in time for ropes of transfluid to paint Shockwave’s own torso, matching his paint with that of Soundwave's stained chassis. Shockwave continued to lay back for a few seconds, allowing his systems to vent once again. In that time, light music started to waft through the lab again.
Shockwave huffed, chuckling lightly. He sat up, noticing a blue boombox with cassette deck (and some regrettable transfluid stains) folded up next to him. “Come on now. We both have to clean ourselves.” Soundwave remained silent and still.
“This is hardly the time for-”
With a tick tick tick of a dial turning, the music rose in volume. Soundwave scoffed, shaking his helm slightly. He picked up the boombox with both arms, carrying it to the back where he kept extra rags and solvents. He felt the cassette deck warm up in his arms as he pressed the machine close to his body, ensuring not to drop him.