A Favour For a Favour

Chapter One

A/N Happy birthday Dragonrosefang! I hope you like it!

Sam felt Starscream cradle him firmly but not too tightly in both his metal hands, pulling him up close to his fuselage, up to his chest, so that he could feel the heat of Starscream's engines through the Decepticon's metal hide. Sam had been getting chilled, so was glad of the heat, and he realised that this was quite deliberate. Starscream obviously wanted Sam to stay alive at least for a short time, but this realisation didn't reassure Sam in the slightest, it just made him wonder what nasty surprises Starscream was planning for him.

It wasn't too long before Starscream began to drop, and he landed in front of what turned out to be a large old warehouse: Starscream walked in and switched on some lights.

"This place was too small as a Base, but I'm glad Frenzy hacked into the electricity company and put this on the supply." He said. "My own private hidey hole, where I will not be disturbed." He crouched and sat, then pulled his cockpit canopy open. He lifted Sam, dangling the boy in one hand, holding him so he could look the frightened human boy in his big brown eyes.

"Now, human, if you do exactly as I say, you will not be harmed. In fact, I can guarantee your safety for a month if you do what I ask." He told Sam.

Whatever Sam had been expecting, a promise of safety for co-operation was not on that list: Sam blinked in surprise and a little relief, although he was still wary.

"You'll let me go back to my friends and family afterwards?" he asked. He didn't relish the thought of Starscream keeping him somewhere for the month in question, away from everyone he cared about. He still found it hard to believe that Starscream didn't have something nasty hidden up his sleeve – or more accurately, under his plating.

"Yes, yes, I'll take you back myself!" said Starscream. "Just do as I say and you won't come to any harm and you can go back and do as you please!" Sam couldn't help noticing that a slightly strident, almost desperate note had crept into the voice of the Decepticon leader: Starscream was anxious about something.

Sam felt himself descend as Starscream brought him down and pushed him under the raised canopy into his cockpit. The cockpit was at a weird angle, and as Starscream let him go, and grabbed for the pilot's seat to keep from slipping into the footwell.

"Climb in and strap yourself into the seat securely." Starscream said, pushing the canopy closed over Sam again. "I need you secure, not bouncing around inside loose."

"Uh….I hope you remember I'm in here and don't transform until I'm out." Sam said nervously

"I won't be transforming, just do it!" Starscream said. Sam again noticed a desperate edge to Starscream's voice. Puzzled, he managed to do as Starscream asked, firmly clicking the harness arrangement around him and pulling the straps to take in the slack: Sam had achieved his adult height but was taking his time to fill out, the general effect making him tall, slender, and wiry.

"I'm strapped in." Sam said, still wondering just what was going on here.

"Okay." Starscream said, altering his angle so he was almost lying down. It made Sam's position in the pilot's seat more comfortable as he was more on the level: as the cockpit was part of Starscream's abdomen at this point, it was slightly off shape, but it was still structurally sound and entire.

"Now, you can see there are lots of interesting buttons and levers and switches? See the screens and gauges? This may be the only chance you get to see inside the cockpit of an F-22, so have a good look and a good feel about. Examine everything as much as you want."

Sam blinked: this offer was again not what he had been expecting. Sam himself wasn't overly interested in aircraft, and thought that had Starscream just wanted to show off his internals, he might have been better asking Miles: his military aircraft enthusiast friend would give his eye-teeth to be in Sam's position right now! Sam almost said as much to Starscream, but then changed his mind: he didn't want Starscream taking him up on his offer, and rescinding the promised month's safety. Add to that the fact that Miles was as blissfully oblivious to the presence of the Decepticons as anyone else, if Starscream turned up on Miles' doorstep Miles might just panic. No, best to not involve Miles.

Still puzzled as to Starscream's motives, and wondering what Starscream would get out of it, Sam reached out and put his finger hesitantly on a switch. The cockpit twitched slightly and Sam pulled back.

"No, go ahead, don't worry about the movement, you're securely strapped in, keep going, boy!" Starscream urged him. Sam reached out again, running his fingers down one of the gauges, this time not pulling back as the cockpit twitched again. He reached for the switches again, this time flipping them and turning dials. He put his hands on levers and took hold of the targeting joystick, moving it up and down, side-to side, and round in a circle. He played with the targeting and firing buttons, and was startled as Starscream's engines, in the bodywork ahead of him, roared into life.

He pulled back his hands, hoping he hadn't touched the wrong controls. He was surprised to hear what sounded suspiciously like a disappointed whimper from Starscream, followed by "You stopped, don't stop, please!"

As Sam complied, he started to realise what was going on here. He had been doing much the same thing to Bumblebee earlier that day with the duster and polish. He almost laughed when he realised that Starscream had picked him up to help him achieve an overload. He grinned wryly: he knew Mikaela had bought herself a vibrator before he'd began going out with her, he's overheard her tell a female friend one day. He supposed he was currently fulfilling much the same purpose to Starscream.

He grinned and pulled back his hands, quite deliberately this time: Starscream cried out again.

"What's wrong now? Don't stop, keep looking, keep exploring!" the Decepticon leader wailed. Sam reached out with one hand, laying one palm against the dials. He wiggled his fingers a little, and Starscream gasped slightly.

"Hmmm, now what is my further co-operation worth, hmmm?" he asked, slowly drawing his hand down. "You like this, right, but I think the price may have just gone up." His other hand wrapped itself around the joystick again, and Sam tightened and loosened his grip.

"Impudent fleshling! I've promised you safety for a month! What more do you want?" Starscream said angrily. The effect he was aiming for was ruined as a needy keen escaped his vocal processor.

"Oh, not too much." Said Sam, not releasing his hold but not doing any more with his hands. "How about the same safety guarantee - you know, a month each - for Mikaela and Bumblebee?"

"Your mate I can do, but I'm not so sure about the Autobot!" Starscream said. Sam nodded: Ok, Starscream was trying it on. He had an answer to that: he released his hold on the controls. Starscream whimpered needily.

"I can say to Barricade that I want to deal with you and your mate personally, that he is to leave you to me, or he'll suffer the consequences, but I can't make the same demand regarding your Autobot friend without arousing Barricade's suspicion. What I CAN do is I can promise that he will not be in any danger from me." He whined again.

"Please, I'll do what I can, please!"

Sam nodded: he had gotten something out of Starscream and could see Starscream's point about Barricade: Sam had the impression that that one could be a law unto himself at times. The guarantees Starscream had made were enough. Anyway, he could no longer ignore or deny those piteous cries.

"Okay, Starscream." Sam said, and gently began caressing the controls. Now he knew why he was here he could make the touches far more specific, more stimulating, to drive Starscream to distraction. His fingers caressed gauges and stroked screens, and pattered gently along the cockpit fascia. He squeezed levers and ran his hands up and down the surfaces. Raising his hands he caressed the cockpit glass: Starscream jerked at that but the long moan he gave left Sam in no doubt that Starscream was enjoying the touches he bestowed upon him.

Lowering his hands again to the seat he sat in, he squirmed to rub his back and buttocks against the fabric. He stroked his hands down and along the edges of the seat itself. He used his feet to kick off his sneakers and socks, then stretched to let his toes caress the footwell surface. He returned his attention to the glassy canopy, stroking it with long firm strokes. He caressed the barely-visible seams of the cockpit wall, and noticed a seam that had separated slightly to allow the cockpit to lie along the abdomen. He grinned. Bumblebee sometimes had 'chinks' like this in robot form, and Sam knew exactly what to do with them!

Running his fingers along the edges increased the volume and intensity of Starscream's moans. When he slipped two fingers inside the seam, and found a sensitive wire to stroke, a scream of pure pleasure was forced from Starscream's vocal processor.

Sam was feeling giddy with it all. He pulled the fingers out again.

"Do you like that?" he asked the Decepticon leader.

"Ah! Augh! Y…yes….D-don't s-st-stop!" he gasped out only just coherently. Sam could hear Starscream's air intakes whooshing as his vents cycled faster.

"Ut-uh, not without the magic word!" Sam teased.

"Magic word? I don't know any magic word!" whined Starscream. "D-don't play g-g-games with me, it's not fair!"

Oops, there he went, making assumptions about the Cybertronians again, this time that they would understand euphemisms such as "magic word."

"Say please, Starscream, and then let me know exactly how much you want me to do that again. Beg for it." Sam said.

"Oh…you t-tease!" Starscream said, but something about the tone told Sam that on some level, Starscream was enjoying being told what to do like this. 'Well, whaddaya know, Starscream's a submissive!' Sam thought to himself. Sam was not naturally a dominant partner in his sexual encounters, but he was actually getting quite a rush from this. That he could make Starscream cry out, scream, and maybe beg? The power rush of that was undeniable!

"Go on." said Sam firmly, gently caressing the joystick with one hand-he didn't want to deny Starscream entirely, having got him excited to this level, that would have been unfair. "Do it, Starscream, say please, and beg for my touches."

Starscream let out a whine. "N-not f-f-fair! He complained. "S-Sam, don't st-stop….please! P-please keep on, touch me again, Sam, please!" cried Starscream. "Please, go in my seam again, please touch me, stroke me, I beg of you! I've done as you ask, now please!"

"Ahh, good Starscream." Sam said, still enjoying the heady taste of power this encounter was giving. He slid his fingers into the seams again, caressed and rolled and stroked the wires and cables he found in there. He used his other hand to caress wherever he could reach – the canopy glass, the controls, the seat, the walls. He slid his feet caressingly over the cockpit floor, writhed in the seat to stimulate Starscream as much as he could. As he did, Starscream's cries got louder and his engines sped up and roared. Then Starscream's engines began to stutter, then powered up into a high-pitched jet-scream. Another scream, this one from Starscream's vocal processor, joined it: he screamed so loud Sam was almost deafened. A burst of blue-white energy, seeming to come through the cockpit floor, washed over him but although it crackled, it did not hurt but just tingled, and made every hair on his body stand on end. There was a brief wave of dizziness, and then both the engine shriek and the screech from Starscream's vocal processor quieted and died.

'I think I may have found at least part of the origin of Starscream's name!' Sam thought to himself. His ears were still ringing, from both the screech and the jet-scream of the engines. Starscream lay unmoving around him, his panels dark and unnaturally quiet. Sam was beginning to worry when the panels lit up and Starscream quivered around and under him.

Sam felt Starscream stretch, then the canopy was lifted.

"You…..you can come out now, I will fly you back once I recover from that. Had I known how GOOD you were at that, I would have taken you from that scout of yours for my own purposes long ago. Hmm, now there's an idea…." Said Starscream.

Sam felt a brief flare of alarm as he hit the release of the harness: Starscream reached in and carefully scooped the human into his hand.

"You promised!" Sam reminded him. "You said you'd take me back. Renege on that and I will do NOTHING for you. Though I wouldn't object to repeating this exercise, say, once or twice a month, for the same price each time, hmm?"

Starscream raised his handful of human to optic level.

"You MEAN that?" Starscream said, a note of hope in his voice. "Won't Bumblebee be a problem?"

"I can work around Bumblebee." Said Sam, knowing he'd have to tell Bumblebee, and Bumblebee wouldn't at first be very happy, but Sam figured that once he climbed down off the ceiling, he might be okay about it, especially if Sam explained the bargains he had made. Besides, Sam was interested in seeing if this might lead to something else. It might be that Starscream might be open to some more suggestions after a while…suggestions that might benefit Autobots, Decepticons, and humans alike…like maybe treaties or ceasefires or something. After all, it would be on the basis of a favour for a favour, it might work. Of course, it also might not, but Sam figured it was worth a try.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Bumblebee and Mikaela finished giving their version of accounts, for once Starscream had departed with Sam, Bumblebee determined that the best course of action was to head for the Autobot base to get help.

"Okay, Bumblebee, I'll call everyone available with good scanners out to search. If you each take an area, we will probably find him soon. Try not to fret, Bumblebee, all we can do is our best and –"

He was interrupted by a comm call from the gatehouse.

"Seeker landing by the gates! It's Starscream, and he's got Sam!" Then a few moments later: "Starscream's gone and I've got Sam inside, he seems unharmed. I'm bringing him down to your office."

Bumblebee looked at Optimus with an equal look of relief and confusion.

A few minutes later, Ironhide walked in cradling Sam in his hands: Bumblebee rushed over to gather his human into his hands, humming happily and running his speaker over him, his special greeting for Sam. Then he lifted his head and held his hands out so he could look at Sam.

"Sam, you're all right! What happened?" Bumblebee asked him. Sam let out a slightly weary laugh – his exertions earlier had tired him.

"That's gonna be a long story, Bumblebee. I'll explain in a minute." He said. He looked at the others apologetically. He owed Starscream some dignity.

"'Bee, find us an empty room to go in and I'll explain. Sorry guys, but it's kinda personal business…."