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The Vosian was glossy, reeking of scented polish and fine paints and claws that had never been dulled by a cycle of work, unnaturally keen. Soundwave knew immediately that this would be its target. The wealthy elite only came to the Dead End for one purpose, to find the mecha who'd been chewed up and spat out by exploitative systems and to buy the last thing any mech in this place had left to sell, their bodies. There were those who worked in the interface industry in the cities and towers, but no bot here was a worker, they were defunct goods, at best. The towerlings knew this. Soundwave waited until its target was nearer, then stepped into the half-light of the edge of the alleyway. "Query: Looking for company, tonight?"

"Not usually. Tonight, I may need it. How much?" The Vosian's optics raked over Soundwave's frame with a hunger Soundwave hadn't anticipated, Seekers more often preferring fellow flight-frames. Usually it had to dip into the mind of its prey to discover their desires and mould itself to them, but that might not even be necessary with this one. Good. Seeing their rapacious thoughts only disgusted Soundwave.

"One night: 70,000 Shanix."

The Vosian smiled slickly, pressing a loaded credit chip into Soundwave's servo and their frame against its chassis. "Up front, I assume?"

~

The room, which was less of a hotel and more of a bolt-hole, was dingy and boasted a colourful bloom of rust patches and odd stains on the single berth. Starscream (as the Vosian had introduced themself) almost seemed to gleam ethereally, frame an unreal cutout in the grim setting. Soundwave had expected Starscream to take it to an inner-city lodging. Not in an area where their respectable peers would recognise them, but somewhere that wouldn't offend their sensibilities. It made Soundwave's job easier that they'd chosen a place no-one would notice a bot vanishing from.

Starscream pushed Soundwave against the door the moment it closed, grinding against its panel, soft derma on its mask, servos gliding up its waist to wind around its shoulders and claw at its backstrut. Soundwave reached for their mind, but there was a strange resistance. Starscream's touches became more insistent. Resignedly, Soundwave opened its panels, allowing Starscream to push it to the floor which was, mercifully, less rusty than the berth. "Please, be gentle," it said, playing into a common script in the absence of indication of what Starscream wanted to hear.

Starscream made no reply, one digit finding Soundwave's anterior node and rubbing deftly. It would be easy for Starscream to damage its array severely with those claws, but they were surprisingly careful. Yet, after half a klik, they snarled. "Why are you not lubricating?"

"Soundwave: Malfunctioning. Interface: May commence." Most clients took it dry, it hardly felt arousal during its work. Starscream's faceplates twisted with some indecipherable emotion and Soundwave tried once again to catch any opening into their thoughts, but none presented itself. If they had a mod, Soundwave would have to discretely block it.

"No, I... I can't wait." Starscream's wings tremble and they kiss Soundwave's chassis, then kiss it again and again with a shrill whine. Soundwave stares, at a loss. Whatever intel it might have gleaned for Megatron's cause might not be worth enduring this bizarre exchange much longer. Soundwave allowed its form to slip, dark tendrils coalescing behind Starscream, poised to snap their frame like a wire. "Open..." Starscream whispers, then glances up. Red optics met Soundwave's visor, and there was the hunger there again, but now Soundwave for the first time perceived it for what it was, and everything fell into place. It couldn't kill Starscream, not now things had become interesting. It opened its chassis and Starscream, as it knew they would, bit into its spark casing with starved desperation. Soundwave watched, intrigued as Starscream recoiled, face showing what Soundwave was able to recognise as horror, an emotion Soundwave had seen more than enough times to be intimate with it. Then the Seeker made a fascinating decision, and bit into its spark casing again, cracking the crystal with a strength no mortal mech possessed. There was no light in Soundwave, but Starscream's long, pointed glossa lapped at the shadow that oozed from its sparkless spark chamber, suckling on the incomprehensible something that was Soundwave's direct essence, an odd sensation. "So hungry... You have so much."

Soundwave stroked the back of Starscream's helm, pressing them into its chassis, and unfurled more tendrils, a glimpse of its true shape that its otherwise standard frame concealed. Starscream saw these, and when one ran the length of their array, they bucked back eagerly. Soundwave found Starscream was experiencing no such malfunction as it had, their array damp with lubricant. So, sparkeaters could experience desire. This warranted investigation. A tendril entered Starscream's valve, finding it tight and warm and pleasant, and so Soundwave added a second one. Starscream's wings hiked up in an expression of genuine pleasure as Soundwave pumped the tendrils in and out alternatingly. "Yes, fill me. The hunger... I need to be full. I need it." Starscream vented softly, pleading in between sucks and bites that did no harm to Soundwave, where it would have been fatal to any other bot. 

Soundwave wasn't sure what it was, only that it existed and was vast and ancient and alone, never had it met another being like it, who instead of light in their chest carried an endless tumult of fear and loathing and incomprehension and every thought and feeling (most of it terror) that mortal mecha felt around it. Starscream traced an impossibly sharp claw down its visor. "Let me see you." Soundwave let Starscream see it. It had no face, only a writhing mass of the same tendrils it was stuffing into Starscream's valve. Starscream kissed it, or tried to, twining their long glossa around one, letting Soundwave push others into their intake. Soundwave sped up the thrusts of its tendrils, the tip of a thinner one working its way in to tease and stroke their interior node continuously in a way no spike could have, while the first two tendrils continued plunging between enticing folds - Soundwave noted with surprise that it was enticed.

Starscream, too, noticed, a dampness on their knee alerting them to the lubricant coalescing like spilled mercury in Soundwave's valve. With a smile as sharp and lethal as their fangs, Starscream sank their spike into Soundwave just on the next thrust Soundwave made into their valve which had them nudged forward into its frame. Soundwave's vents stalled, which was almost amusing considering that they, like its valve and its frame, were only part of its disguise as a mortal Cybertronian. Starscream's thrusts were disharmonious with its own, slower and more focused. Their hips pulled back and snapped forward to their own time, heedless of whether Soundwave's tendrils were helping them forward or on the retreat. "We are alike, Soundwave." The sparkeater whispered knowingly, pulling down one of Soundwave's tendrils and mouthing it, licking the tip, the suckling it as they had done to its spark chamber. Soundwave slammed each of its tendrils as deep as Starscream's frame would take them, and released the dark something that was almost fluid, though certainly not transfluid and certainly nothing to do with the creation of life. It wouldn't feed Starscream like a spark, but their want for it permeated the room. It oozed from Starscream's valve and intake, and Starscream keened, swallowing as much as they could, drinking in Soundwave, valve spasming.

Starscream pulled out their spike and leant on Soundwave's frame, but Soundwave didn't mind. It hadn't expected an overload. Its tendrils retracted, stroking Starscream's wings. "Query: Elaborate."

The sparkeater only gazed up at Soundwave with a look that was all sharp denta and sharper optics. "Oh... You know."