"Magnus?" Cyclonus and Ultra Magnus were lying in a sated and somewhat damaged tangle on the floor of a practice room. It was the first he'd spoken since the session slipped from sparring to interfacing, and his voice sounded oddly uncertain.

"Yes, Cyclonus?" Magnus looked up--horizontally--and down--vertically--at his counterpart. Now that they were not, actually, interfacing or sparring or both, he was starting to think again about the many, many things he had to do. But Cyclonus' hesitant question threw him off of both topics. I wasn't not a tone of voice he heard from the Decepticon 2IC very often.

"Would you be willing to join Hot Rod and Galvatron and myself occasionally? Only when they want it, of course, but I would like to have you there." Cyclonus extracted a hand from--somewhere in between them--and stroked one of Magnus' shoulder pillars.

Magnus paused for a second, startled. "You're interfacing with them too?--Of course you're interfacing with them, forget I asked."

"Not always." Cyclonus kept stroking, gently. "Only when they ask. Would you consider it? Hot Rod was extremely embarrassed at the thought of asking you, and we did not think that Galvatron should make the approach. But they would like to have you with them."

Magnus drew back slightly. "I did not think that that was how Galvatron wanted me."

"As you may have noticed, the two desires aren't so far away from each other, for us." Cyclonus continued the soothing touches. "You will be safe with him, he gave his word--as safe as the Prime is." Cyclonus meant Hot Rod--the Unicronians had never quite switched back. "And he will be there."

"I don't share Hot Rod's desires, Cyclonus. What we do here," he made a gesture encompassing the practice room, "is not--that." However much Hot Rod seemed to enjoy his chains, Magnus couldn't help but shudder at the thought that he wore them for Galvatron, and the thought of being in them himself--even for Cyclonus, never mind Galvatron--was horrifying.

"You wouldn't have to." Cyclonus started petting him reassuringly with the other hand, too. "I don't think I would want you like that, anyway, and Hot Rod feels the same way. You can't enjoy each other properly if you're both restrained."

"Hot Rod--wants me to--while he's chained up?" Magnus found the thought more appealing than he wanted it to be. But still. Galvatron. "And Galvatron? What does he want from this?"

Cyclonus looked a little bit uncomfortable at the question, an expression that made Ultra Magnus decidedly nervous. "To please his Prime. He certainly would not mind interfacing with you for his own sake, but it was not his idea. It was Hot Rod's." Cyclonus paused. "And my own."

Which would explain some of the uncertainty, Magnus thought. He didn't know the details of Cyclonus' relationship with his Lord, but the broad outlines of it were blindingly obvious to all involved. "And you? Why do you want this?"

And Cyclonus suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "Because you are--important to me." Cyclonus paused. "I want to bring you to my Lord and show him how very--" Another pause: clearly this was difficult for him to express. "Very wonderful you are."

Ah. Suddenly it was all very clear, and it was going to be extremely awkward to deal with. "I'm flattered."

"So will you?" Cyclonus looked relieved and happy, and Magnus nearly just said yes outright.

"I--I'll have to think about this. And talk to Hot Rod. It's not an easy thing for me." He stroked one of Cyclonus' wings. "But you are important to me, too."

Cyclonus leaned up to give Magnus a gentle kiss--though only gentle by Cyclonus' definition of 'gentle'. "Thank you."