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"Easy there, boy.”
The low rumble of Gigantrex's voice pulls Red Blitz from his meditative state and he lets out an embarrassed laugh before pulling away into the other lane.
Being separated for so long must have left him even more tense than he'd realized given how close he'd been subconsciously flanking his captain's side, but then again, he'd also watched Gigantrex nearly swerve off the road not long after finding one another. It's not like anyone could blame him for becoming more insistent about sticking close after that. He had to be ready to nudge his Captain back into position and prevent any accidents.
Red Blitz tries not to think too hard about how Gigantrex's vocalizer continues to get glitchier the longer they're stuck searching for a good energy source. After all, there seemed to be a storm scheduled to roll in in a day or two. As long as he can keep the Captain safe and fed til then, they're in the clear.
Things will be fine.
They have to be.
Red Blitz kicks his engine up when he sees one of the tunnels Rock Crush had led him through up ahead and takes the lead.
“C'mon, we're almost there!”
Looking back every few seconds to make sure Gigantrex is following him until both of them are inside, they're both quick to shift into their root forms, though Gigantrex’s sheer height leaves him stuck sitting against the wall with a grumble.
“Sorry Captain, I've been trying to scout out a bigger spot but this should work for now. Humans don't come out this far from what I can tell.”
“It's… fine. Good work-”
All at once, Gigantrex locks up and grasps his wounded helm with a cry. Electricity crackles freely from it until his optics start glitching out, distorting his voice further.
“GaAaH!”
“Captain?!”
Red Blitz immediately darts to his side. It takes a moment for it to pass but Gigantrex looks visibly disturbed afterwards, pupils flickering back into view and darting around rapidly as if unaware of where they were until they land on Red Blitz. His Captain's frame starts to settle once Red Blitz places a servo on those trembling thighs and his spark lights up with a selfish type of joy despite the situation.
“Red…?”
No distortion. Red Blitz sighs in relief.
“Right here.”
Gigantrex's shaking servos go to cup his face as if unsure if he’s really there so Red Blitz lets himself leans into the touch, revving lowly at the attention. His first instinct is to go out searching for fuel while Gigantrex rests but with how frequently the glitching has gotten he doesn't want to risk anything happening while he's gone. Not to mention those traitors he'd called a crew weren't much help at the moment either. Maybe if they'd listened to him for once, then he could actually take care of their Captain right now the way he deserved instead of being stuck scrounging for enough scraps for both of them-!
The electricity that occasionally crackles off Gigantrex's body makes it all the way down to his servos until Red Blitz's whole body goes fuzzy for a moment. He doesn't fight it, doesn't question his captain's touch, just relaxes as the staticky sensation scrubs away the aggression building up in his proccesors.
Until he's being lifted up, that is.
“Wha-?”
Red Blitz squirms, engines revving even louder at the sudden change in elevation and becomes hyperaware of just how precarious of a position he's in when Gigantrex's pointer finger twitches. It dents the chest plating just under his engine hard enough for him to gasp in pain before it eases.
“H-Hey, easy with the grip there, Captain!” he half-jokes.
It's hard to read the large bot's optics.
“I bet you're hungry, huh? I-I can always see if I can find anything nearby-”
Clank!
Red Blitz's words die on his vocalizer as Gigantrex presses their faceplates together in a rough approximation of a kiss.
He's not sure how to react at first. Another crackle of energy passes through directly to his processors hard enough to force him to blank out, relieving him of the burden of choice. When he comes to, there's a thumb rubbing insistently at his interfacing port's cover, two digits wrapped firmly around his abdomen this time.
“You said you'd feed me, correct?”
“Y-Yeah?”
“Then open up.”
It's not a request. It's a demand.
Red Blitz shudders, but trepidation doesn't stop him from obediently snapping open the cover to reveal his modest spike. It's still Gigantrex he's dealing with after all. Wound or no wound, he knows he wouldn't hurt him too bad. Plus, Red Blitz would be lying if he said he hadn't been curious how close he could get to his beloved Captain now that things were escalating. There'd been moments on the Speranza when they were alone together where there'd been lingering touches between the two, where he'd sat in Gigantrex's lap while trying to ignore how heated his aft panel got at the direct contact but nothing more came of it, leaving the younger bot yearning for more every time he'd be sent away. Now though? Red Blitz laps up the attention, even spreading his (albeit shaking) legs in invitation.
“A-All yours...”
With wide optics, Red Blitz watches as the yellow framework keeping Gigantrex's faceplate in place unclasps to flare out like metallic orchid petals before his jaw properly separates. The jagged metal making up his outer denta drips with saliva as he takes a long, ragged drag of air through his manual intake valve, probably the first he'd taken in ages, before speaking.
“Good boy.”
Before Red Blitz can process the praise, he's brought to Gigantrex's mouth and the larger bot's glossa encases his whole spike.
“Fuck-!”
Red Blitz swears Gigantrex is trying to suck the spark outta him with how rough he's being, but that doesn't stop Red Blitz from rutting into the others' mouth until he's soaked in drool and his processors going haywire from pleasure. A mantra of pleas spills out like a prayer as his first overload starts to build up embarrassingly fast.
“Pleasepleasepleaseplease-!”
His vocalizer glitches out temporarily when he finally spills, the low rumble of approval from Gigantrex vibrating up his frame but he's only given a moment to recover before the Captain's hungry maw continues to devour every drop of fuel it can milk from him. By the third overload though, he's barely able to produce anything. That doesn't seem to deter Gigantrex, who abandons his spike and skips his valve port in favor of forcing Red Blitz's aft panel open with his glossa alone.
“Oi! Easy there-!”
There's an edge of fear lacing his words as Red Blitz tries to squirm away but it's to no avail. He'd rarely messed with his emergency valve to begin with, too shy to do anything that might make the others view him as weak if caught, though he doubts it would prepare him for being violated by a bot three times his size anyway.
“Hey, so. Crazy idea, but how about you let me down a-and I'll go get you some more fuel? Or maybe find one of the others? I bet I can-”
“No.”
Red Blitz catches Gigantrex's optics in time to see them glitch out again but they don't return to normal. Whatever stares back has his core stuttering.
“Dad…?”
“Stay still.”
It's all the warning Red Blitz gets before his aft panel's ripped open and he's being stretched well past capacity.
“Gah-! D-Dad, stop it! Please- I-I can't-!”
He's no longer dignified with an answer. When he tries to wriggle away, Gigantrex only grips him tighter, resting a thumb on his exposed engine until it starts to stutter and Red Blitz is forced to go limp. He lays there, too scared to fight back and left choking back sobs while Gigantrex bends his emergency valve out of place trying to breach his fuel tank.
This isn't the Captain. Whatever had wounded him had left a starving, desperate beast trapped in his father's frame but there's only so much Red Blitz can give.
Errors flood his HUD as Gigantrex finally forces himself all the way through.
WARNING! INTERNAL HARDWARE MALFUNCTION!
WARNING! FUEL TANK MALFUNCTION!
WARNING! FUEL TANK RUNNING LOW!
WARNING-
Red Blitz tries to send out a distress call or at least ping his location so one his crewmates can save him while he's still aware. It's a desperate last resort, one he didn't think would even work, but the moment he hears Cielo he immediately starts begging.
“HELP! HELPPP! PLEASE, Dad's trying to- GAH! FUCK-!”
Before he can finish, the pressure on his engine increases until it finally dents and Red Blitz can barely keep his processors online.
He hears his crewmates’ voices fade in and out, the incessant error noises piling up, then… nothing.
SYSTEM BOOTING UP…
“-itz? Hey, can you-”
“-ot this, I know y-”
SYSTEM BOOTUP FAILED
MISSING CRUCIAL HARDWARE
SYSTEM SOFT RESTART INITIATED…
…
SYSTEM RESTORED!
SYSTEM BOOTING UP…
“-it work this time? Hey, Red Blitz!”
“H… Hah? Where…”
Everything's dark at first but Red Blitz is hyperaware he's somewhere new. The metal under his servos, a scent not too dissimilar to a berth, the presence of multiple others around him. At least it's not the tunnels.
“Where am I…?”
“You’re actually up!”
“Easy on the volume Musclehyde, you heard Edo. He still needs rest.”
Red Blitz could practically weep in relief hearing Musclehyde's and Cielo's voices. He'd been found. He'd been saved. But…
“Guys? Why can't I see anything?”
“Huh? Edo said your optics should be working by now…”
“Just give it a minute. I'm surprised you even booted back up this soon.”
He goes to sit upright, pushing himself up by shaking arms only to fall back. He can't push himself up by his legs either, the limbs seemingly numb to him after everything so he goes to grab one, determined to pull himself up by it.
Smack!
Red Blitz's servo slaps the cold metal where his leg should be.
…Huh?
“Red, we can explain but you're gonna need you to calm down first-”
BACKGROUND REPAIRS COMPLETE!
RESTORING OPTICAL FUNCTIONS…
As his vision finally flickers on, Red Blitz finds there's… nothing there.
…
There's nothing there-
“What the FUCK!”
His vents immediately start to run ragged as he panics, cursing and revving while he scrambles to feel around for his missing legs as if they'd gone invisible and his processor just weren't registering them or something but there's nothing to find. No reassurance, no veil lifted on a cruel joke. A stutter in his engine is the only thing that forces him to control his intake after a few moments.
“Fuck… w-what happened?! My legs- they were just there! I know it-!”
Cielo cuts him off.
“We were hoping you'd know, given you're the one that called me screaming for help. The fact Edo was able to salvage what he could is- hell, we thought you were-!” She takes a moment to steady herself, getting visibly worked up before continuing. “...just what were you two even doing in there?! It looked like a massacre!”
Red Blitz's core flickers as everything that happened hits at once and refuses to look at either of them.
Musclehyde sighs before attempting to pry further in Cielo's stead.
“The Captain didn't say much either, just that he couldn't remember much after you brought him into the tunnel so we wanted to hear from-”
That gets his attention.
“Wait! You talked to Dad? Is he here?”
Both Cielo and Musclehyde look at each other with concern.
“Well…” Cielo starts.
“Yes and no. We got there as fast as we could but by the time we did, the Captain was soaked in fuel and handed you over like… this before running. Cielo couldn't find him or anything inside to reattach but we've-”
The back of Red Blitz's helm hits the treatment table, tuning out the rest of Musclehyde's words.
His Captain was still moving.
The thought eases his processors enough for him to temporarily shut back down.
It's the dead of night when Jun return to the car shop, Blue Cop and Peruru hot on his heels and both of them try to shush Jun when he starts to yell out for the others. Thankfully, Cielo's there to intercept while Musclehyde looks after Red Blitz's unconscious form. She can barely contain herself once she learns the news though; Gigantrex has been sealed! Not only that, but restored to his former self on behalf of Peruru's spear. Of course, now that he's back to normal-
“Are you sure it's a good idea to come out right now, Captain? It’s not that we don't miss you, but…”
There's a quiet pause. Then, Jun cuts in.
“Of course! You said Red Blitz got all excited when he heard you guys had talked to Gigantrex earlier, right? He's going to love this!”
Cielo shares a measured look with Blue Cop. They'd omitted the more intimate details of Red Blitz's damage when recounting it to the boy for obvious reasons, so of course he wouldn't understand their hesitation.
“Please…”
Gigantrex's voice rings out from the Metal Breath, getting everyone's attention.
“Keep an eye on me if you wish. If he doesn't want me, I'll leave, just… I need to see him. I need to know he's okay.”
Blue Cop sighs. Looks over at Cielo until she gives her reluctant approval before speaking.
“Very well.”
As Gigantrex follows both new and old teammates alike into the workshop, his gaze darts around, searching out that familiar shade of red until he notices Musclehyde guarding something and finally spots him. He's legless and completely passed out at the moment, but it's unmistakably Red Blitz.
Musclehyde turns to greet the group only to lock optics with their Captain before freezing. The immediate shift in his demeanor is as tangible as a blade to the throat with how he shifts to put distance between the two.
“Captain.”
“Musclehyde.”
“...I see you're feeling better.”
“And I have someone I need to personally thank for that. Would you mind?”
“Cielo, please tell me you didn't-”
“Not my idea.”
Gigantrex goes quiet as they debate as he watches Red Blitz start to get more restless the longer it goes on, servos twitching and engine revving unconsciously in his sleep. Before either of his crewmates can stop him, Gigantrex moves.
“HEY-!”
“Keep your voice down,” Gigantrex hisses out as he scoops up a twitching Red Blitz, holding him close to his chassis protectively before making himself comfortable in the corner of the workshop and sitting down with a dull thunk! so he can dedicate all his attention to the task at hand. His engine immediately revs to life to match Red Blitz’ own frantic pace before lowering in intensity and revving back up again, repeating the action over and over and slowing his engine with each round in order to subconsciously coax Red Blitz into following his lead before the small bot finally calms down. He even cuddles up into Gigantrex's servos with a tired huff before he's dozing back off again like nothing had happened.
Gigantrex doesn't bother to spare a glance upwards at the others until he's sure Red Blitz won't stir.
Five pairs of wide eyes greet him.
“... I'll be staying here tonight.”
Both Cielo and Musclehyde seem to be nervous but no one objects, only insisting that someone stay with him as well overnight. Blue Cop ends up staying behind while Musclehyde takes Jun and Peruru home and soon, it's just him, Red Blitz and the former Star Guardian.
Gigantrex doesn't bother making small talk, just silently watching over Red Blitz while running through hazy memories of the day before to figure out where to even start. Even if he couldn't remember the exact details after he'd made Red Blitz overload the first time, he does know how close he was to shutting down on the highway when Red Blitz had first found him. Insisted on taking care of him like the stubborn thing he is. Feeding him…
The taste of fresh fuel and biomechanical metal had been engraved into his processors and Gigantrex scolds himself internally for how the thought of another taste still makes him salivate behind his faceplate. The framing keeping it in place reflexively tightens.
He detects movement after a while and Gigantrex's optics flicker back into view in time to see Red Blitz stir in his arms, confusion etched into his every movement until he looks up. Gigantrex's core swells when Red Blitz immediately wails out in excitement and tries to push himself up into a sitting position to better look up at him.
“D-Dad?!”
“Right here, big guy.”
Gigantrex can see Blue Cop tense as he brings Red Blitz closer to his faceplate but ignores it in favor of rubbing it against Red Blitz's affectionately, engine purring in relief when he reciprocates without hesitation. No sense in hiding at least one of his desires anymore, it seems.
“Your head, i-is it-?”
“Fixed? More or less.”
“I don't- when did you even get here-?!”
“Earlier yesterday. It took some convincing to get them to let me stay, but your little human friend Jun took my side. Well, him and…”
It seems only now had Red Blitz become aware of another presence in the room. Immediately, he sputters in a mixture of embarrassment and fear until Blue Cop speaks up.
“I won't say anything to the others.”
Red Blitz relaxes at that before pressing himself flush against Gigantrex's chassis.
“Fuck, I… I'm so glad you're back.”
His little frame shakes slightly as he speaks until Gigantrex rubs his thumb in a soothing manner along Red Blitz's back strut, careful not to dip past his abdomen. A yawn escapes Red Blitz as he struggles to stay awake under all the gentle ministrations.
“Rest up. I'll be right here when you recharge and we can talk more then, okay?”
“Mmkay…”
Red Blitz mumbles something else before getting comfy again, holding onto Gigantrex's thumb like the older bot'll disappear again if he doesn't and Gigantrex's whole frame sighs in relief as he slips back into idle mode.
Neither him or Blue Cop truly slept that night.