Contained
Inspired by this post, AO3 link here
Starscream looked up at Optimus with wide optics, pinned by the weight of the other mech’s gaze. The Prime had always been taller than him, but before, he had at least been able to stall him in a fight, to buy time to escape. Now that Starscream was barely taller than a human, though, he had to crane his neck to even look him in the optics.
The seeker didn’t stand a chance like this.
“Starscream,” Optimus began, his voice a deep yet toneless rumble as he leaned down slightly, but as the other mech flinched back, arms instinctively coming up to shield his face, his brows furrowed, his expression softening.
“I surrender!” Starscream cried, trembling. “I surrender, just please don’t kill me!”
Optimus nodded, and for a moment, Starscream slumped with relief, his wings drooping at his back.
But that relief was short-lived.
In an instant, one massive servo snatched him up off the ground, lifting him to the other mech’s face, and he felt his vents almost stop cycling in air, some ancient instinct rearing its head in the face of an enemy so much greater than him and pulling every cable in his frame taut, as if stillness might stop the Prime from seeing him. He didn’t dare to speak, not even to ask what the Autobot was doing.
“Hm…” The larger mech looked over him, seeming to consider something. “I think that might work to contain you.”
And with that, he was brought to Optimus’s intake, those jaws parting to reveal the damp cavern of his mouth.
It was only when his pedes were placed inside, almost instantly coated in lubricant, that he snapped out of his shock, thrashing in the Autobot’s grip as he was fed into the drooling maw before him.
“Wait!” he screeched, trying to pull himself from the other mech’s derma, “Wait, please, don’t do this, I won’t cause any trouble, please!”
The larger mech watched him struggle, seemingly uninterested in his pleas, and swallowed, tugging his pedes into his tight gullet. “You are known for your trickery, Starscream,” he responded, another gulp pulling him up to his knees in the Prime’s rippling throat. “I will not be giving you the chance to escape.”
A faint rumble echoed from somewhere below, and with a wave of icy dread, Starscream realized that it was the Autobot’s tank, clearly eager to greet its new meal.
“Please, please, I won’t run, I swear it, just please, please stop!” Optimus didn’t even bother to respond this time, his throat flexing to drag him in deeper. He was up to his chest in the Prime’s mouth now, and he put his servos on the larger mech’s face and pushed, desperate to wrench himself free from the other mech’s jaws, or to at least slow his descent long enough to convince the other mech to spare him.
He was pressed further in with the huge servo that had been cupping his back, and he screeched with unrestrained terror as those massive denta clicked shut behind him, sealing him in the dark cavern.
Swallow by swallow, he was squeezed down Optimus’s gullet, his pleas for mercy falling on deaf audials and his clawing servos unable to get a grip on the slick, slippery mesh as the hungry gurgles of the Prime’s empty gut grew ever closer. They were practically rattling through his plating now, so loud that he could hardly think anymore.
With a final gulp, he was pushed through the tank’s entrance, and as he was crammed into the more elastic space, he heard Optimus’s vents hitch at the sensation.
The mesh of the stomach wall at his back pushed up against him, something outside its confines pressing in, moving along the curve of his back in slow strokes. The Autobot was rubbing at him.
Or more likely, he was rubbing at his full belly, no doubt satisfied by such a large meal. Starscream began to shake, his vents coming quick and shallow as the reality of his situation sank in. He was nothing but food to the Prime, a tank full of fuel to be digested and forgotten.
The walls churned around him, the plush mesh glowing a dim blue that illuminated his surroundings just enough for him to see how his slime-covered surroundings undulated against his plating, eager to massage acids into him, to smelt him down for processing. The mere thought made him almost nauseous with dread, and as the stomach let out a satisfied groan, he tried again to plead for his life.
“Please, please, don’t do this!” He wracked his processor for something he could use, an offer he could make, anything at all that might save him. “I can get you fuel!” he bargained, shoving at the rippling mesh. “I, I know the locations of several mines– ones Megatron doesn’t know of, even! I can be useful, I’ll do anything, just please don’t kill me like this!”
All around him, the world seemed to freeze, the rhythmic whooshing of the larger mech’s vents hitching for a long moment, his tank losing some of its give as the Prime’s frame wound tight.
“You think…?” Optimus took a shaky vent, in and out, the servo on his slightly bloated middle curling protectively around the bulge of the tiny form tucked away behind his plating. “You think I’m going to digest you?”
His voice was quieter now, seeming almost small, and Starscream could have sworn he heard it waver slightly.
“You… you aren’t?” A flicker of hope broke through the all-consuming fear in his spark, and he stopped struggling, his limbs burning with exhaustion.
“No,” the Prime breathed, his body still rigid and tense around the seeker, “I would never. No one deserves that.”
The relief left Starscream dizzy, and he slumped into the cradle of Optimus’s innards. “Oh,” he mumbled, his venting finally slowing. “Then… what are you going to do with me?”
“You will be taken into our custody for the time being. It would be unacceptable for us to harm an unarmed captive, especially one who has surrendered.”
Starscream winced, reminded of what he had done to Cliffjumper, of how he had tortured Agent Fowler, and an odd ache settled in his chest. When he had been in the Autobot’s place, he hadn’t shown mercy. He had certainly never done something as absurd as reassuring a prisoner.
Why did that weigh on him so heavily now?
Optimus began to pet his swollen tank once more, and this time, Starscream leaned against the place where he felt the larger mech’s servo through the walls. The pressure was strangely soothing, a sign that he hadn’t been forgotten, that even as the Prime commed Ratchet for a groundbridge, he remembered that it was Starscream who sat heavy in his stomach.
Starscream couldn’t remember the last time someone had been so gentle with him.
The sound of the groundbridge opening was muffled slightly by the layers of soft mesh and tough plating all around Starscream, almost drowned out by the rhythmic pumping of energon through fuel lines and the sound of vents drawing air in and out, but even so, the seeker tensed as he heard it.
Would he be thrown into a cell once he was at their base? Optimus had said that he was doing this to keep him contained, so if they had somewhere to keep him locked up, he’d probably end up there instead.
He resisted the urge to cling to the soft stomach lining. He wasn’t a sparkling, and he certainly wasn’t going to do something so pathetic.
He wasn’t enjoying this, either. He just… would prefer to stay here, where it was warm and the rest of the Autobots couldn’t reach him, rather than some cold cell where they could.
He’d seen how Arcee looked at him when they fought. He wouldn’t put it past her to try to get revenge for Cliffjumper.
Starscream shuddered, curling in on himself.
A contemplative hum snapped him from his thoughts.
“We do not have any forms of containment suited for you at this size.”
He perked up slightly, but tried not to let his voice show it. “I suppose you’ll be keeping me here for the time being, then?”
There was a short pause. “I and the others could take shifts monitoring you,” Optimus offered, “so that you would not have to remain in my tanks.”
Starscream pictured narrowed optics glaring down at his tiny, helpless form. “No!” he exclaimed.
He froze, realizing what he’d just said. That was too loud, too vehement of a denial, he sounded too vulnerable. He couldn’t be vulnerable, he couldn’t be weak.
“I mean–! I hardly want to have you all gawking at me! And–” he wracked his mind for something else, some other reason that didn’t make him sound so… pitiful. “And the humans will probably be obnoxious, too! So I’d rather stay here!”
Optimus seemed to think for a moment, still absently caressing his belly with one servo.
“I understand,” he finally responded. “I suppose you could stay there until we have a proper cell for you.”
Starscream held back a relieved sigh, relaxing into the embrace of the other mech’s guts once more.
Slowly but surely, his optics grew heavy, the sounds of Optimus’s frame all around him oddly comforting, and the churning walls kneading against him beginning to relax the last bits of tension in his weary body.
As he let himself begin to drift off, one final thought came to him.
‘This isn’t so bad. Maybe… maybe I could be safe here.’
