I don't know. A short oneshot that hit me while listening to 'All My Days' by Alexi Murdoch.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
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The poplar under his weight hadn't made so much as a sound when he climbed into it. The powerful limb he had stretched out on held him without protest, and Prowl enjoyed it, every second of it. Out in nature, stretched out under the evening sky, the sun setting and casting its hot orange glow across the sweet springtime sky as it sank behind the trees.
Prowl loved these small woods, the trees standing strong and tall for him to sit in, to relax in, to forget the world for a few seconds. Clearing his processor for a bit, to think back on the last few years on this planet called Earth.
His trek around the universe to try and figure himself out had landed him here, with a misfit crew of repair bots. Luck, fate, he didn't rightly know. The black bot had gone with the flow of things, fighting what Decepticons popped up, saving those that needed saving, enjoying the new, exciting, strange world around him.
Earth became his home, and the repair bots, his friends. The human-no, techno-organic- Sari, had taught them what she could, and in that, they taught her. He did self defense training with her, teaching her how to protect herself. They grew close enough to be considered family, at least to him.
Prowl had grown attached to nature, and organics in general. Evolution, growth, carbon based lifeforms, no matter how simplistic and primitive, were fascinating. He watched the geese fly, watched the storms roll in, heard the world move and work around him, ever changing and not once, not even for a second, go silent.
Plants were one thing, but animals, they were another thing entirely. Birds swooped and flew. Deer ran and leaped, rabbits bounced and kicked. Hunter and hunted, predator and prey, life and death... he saw all of it, and it continued to fascinate him. One creature he had been interested in seeing were horses. He admired horses, their strength and speed... but he lived in Detroit, the city of cars and robotics. Police horses were for work, and to have him approach one, and possibly startle it... no, he'd have to look for horses if he wanted to see them.
And search, he did. Away from the city, somewhere that the skyscrapers were only a faint silhouette on the horizon, was an equestrian facility. A place called 'The Magnolia', with over a hundred acres for horses to roam.
Prowl watched the beasts, alone and sitting in the trees, whenever he could. For weeks, he watched them, searching for breeds to identify what walked in front of him, ripping up grass and running around. It was wonderful. It was perfect.
Then, all of a sudden, it wasn't. All of a sudden, a snapping twig gave him away, and he was looked at the barrel of a sawed-off twelve-gage shotgun. He had been found by the owner of the property. A woman in her late twenties, riding on the back of a stallion with a gun aimed at him, and a bit more paranoia than was normal for a human. She had found him.
Her name was Nell. She was friendly, she was odd, and she was, well, short. He liked her company, though. She wasn't perfect, not at all, but he enjoyed her company.
Then, Sari learned about Nell, and she told him how they knew each other. Friends, from years ago. Chance and luck seemed to run with them both. It felt too convenient at first. How was it that he was the only one to not know Nell back in the days when she would visit them? Meditation, training, nature... it kind of made sense. He had been busy. Too busy.
It was good for a while. The Elite guard had landed, Nell made new friends, and he would visit her at her home. She would visit, watch movies, play games, and avoid Sentinel Prime as long as she could.
He wasn't sure when it happened. He wasn't aware that it would come, but it did.
Prowl had, over the course of several months and learning about her past, her mother, her trans-gender identity, her true fears and what she believed in, fallen in love with Nell.
They hadn't know about Sentinel then. How unstable he truly was. How skewed his perspective was... Prowl tried not to think about it. He really did. The bot went crazy, the jet twins, and Nell, caught in the cross hairs of his faulty logic as it reached its peak.
That was months ago, and far from his thoughts. The ninja bot had fallen in love with a human being, and no psycho bot was going to ruin it, not so long as he could help it. Prowl had found what he had been looking for, and he didn't even know he had been searching. Love made him feel, in a way, complete.
The ninja bot wasn't new to this. He wasn't a novice. He had been in love before. Nothing that lasted, really. He wasn't a prude, either. Prowl was stoic, but by no means was he prudish. The bot had had a few flings as they were called. He simply put his love life on hold for a while... then Nell popped up. On hold, no more. Prowl smiled, thinking of her, thinking of how things were going so smoothly, how it seemed to work out for them both.
"Thought I'd find you out here." his audios picked up that sound he had grown to love. Nell's voice. Her real voice. The voice she had been born with and spoke with when it was only him around. He turned around on the limb, feeling it dip under him, then swung down to hang, knees holding him upside down. He was faceplate to face with Nell. "What, did spook you?" she asked teasingly.
He chuckled quietly at the woman. "No, Nell. You managed to sneak up on me, though."
She laughed, the horse under her hips snorting at him. "I sneaked up on the ninja?"
The black bot smiled and nodded. "Yes." he dropped down to the ground, standing straight. He towered over her, but not as much as when she was off the horse. Prowl leaned closer to her, visor shifted. "How did you know where I would be?"
She shrugged, the horse stamping and shaking her head. "You're always out here!" he sometimes liked to have her hunt him down. It was a game, and a teaching method. She loved to learn, and he loved to teach. Tracking, he was teaching her to track. She was quite good at it.
He smirked, hands on hips. "Perhaps I should try somewhere harder." advanced hide and seek, she called it.
"Yeah..." she grinned at the bot. "Race you back to the barn?"
No hesitation. "Absolutely." he bolted, startling the human and horse, who took off after him. He slowed down, of course, weaving around the two as they did the same. It worked, somehow. He, the ninja bot, and her, the human, they worked.
Prowl didn't know why it did, but having it any other way just wouldn't do. When he was with Nell, he felt like everything was in balance. Like everything clicked. Everything felt alright. It wasn't, he knew it deep down, that danger could rear its ugly, half blind head, but for now, he'd just enjoy the race. Prowl would enjoy every second he could with Nell.
The dark bot hoped that his partner enjoyed it as much as himself. Somewhere, looking at her grinning face over his shoulder armor, he got the feeling she did.
That made the whole thing worth it.
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Eh, it's not my best, but I had to get it down. R&R if you like.