Never Truly Alone
Grimlock was having something of a troubled day. Optimus had instructed him to go out into the world and... learn about it.
"Ratchet and wheel-jack created you as the first of a new generation of transformers..." the Prime had said. "The first Transformers ever born upon a world unlike Cybertron... but your strength and pride have so far blinded you to how beautiful this world is. And so, I ask you... no, I order you... go out and find that beauty."
Grimlock could have refused... Or at least he thought he could, but decided not to... too many of the Autobots aboard the Ark Were giving him distrustful looks these days... and some even muttering what they thought of him behind his back... and so he had walked out onto the Earth, where he knew what he was... The biggest thing around… And therefore king.
After about 30 cycles (minutes) of trudging along in T-Rex form Grimlock finally found somewhere quiet to properly 'appreciate the beauty of the Earth,' The Dinobot sighed, transformed to bot form, and sat down. It wasn't that he didn't consider the world beautiful… It's just that no one recognized him as beautiful. In fact, it was becoming quite clear to Grimlock that almost every Autobot back at the ark saw him as a big dumb aggressive lump of metal.
"Me Grimlock not a lump of metal…" He growled to himself… "Me Grimlock King!"
"What did you say…."
Grimlock almost drew his sword, springing to his feet as he heard the voice from above him… "who say that?"
As the Dinobot looked around he saw just who had spoken… A Human had.
Squinting in his surprise, Grimlock took in the organic creature, she looked dark in completion, with a noticeably, (though probably only notable to some humans) fleshy physical structure. Even as he looked down at her, Grimlock realized something… she was not running away from him, this human was brave.
"You noticed me…" she said, her voice full of dejection, "thanks for not running away."
Just managing not to scoff at the comment, Grimlock frowned at the human, who still refused to even flinch. "Me Grimlock never runs away… me Grimlock brave."
"That must be nice..." the human female said… "everyone else has always run away from me…."
Grimlock hesitated, his processors working overtime to figure out what the human meant. yes, he did not really care for humans, but any human who did run away from him had to be brave… and yet. "Human is brave for not running away from me Grimlock…"
The female snorted. After a fleeting moment, Grimlock narrowed his optics, finally beginning to understand. "Why human angry?"
"Maybe because you Grimlock doesn't know something wrong when he sees something wrong."
Grimlock knelt back down beside the human, his voice lower and softer than it had been in his entire life.
"If other humans think human… if they think you are wrong… then they do not understand what it means to be brave."
The human female looked up at the Dinobot for the first time… her eyes were full of some strange kind of lubricant "what does brave even mean?"
"To dare to believe in something greater… something better." Even as he spoke the words… Grimlock realized something… 'those very words were why he stood with the Autobots at all' if Optimus fought to keep his people alive and free… then somewhere inside him… Optimus Prime believed things could one day be better for everyone… "even me…" Grimlock muttered.
"What…"
Grimlock looked down at the human female again… and knew just what to say. "Brave human wrong… brave human king…"
"What?" This time the female was not snorting in despondency… but in disbelief.
"Brave human brave enough to talk to Grimlock… then brave human brave enough to have hope…"
"Hope in what?"
Grimlock locked his optics with the human's eyes, "hope to belong where brave human want to belong. Maybe it not happen easily… but if brave human can believe in who she is… she can show others how brave she is."
Over a full minute of silence passed between human and Dinobot. Then the human threw her arms forward and hugged Grimlock by the leg.
"THANK YOU… THANK YOU…! THANK YOU!" she cried; her eyes now drenched.
Not even bothering to look around to see if anyone was watching, Grimlock just nodded and let her hug him "what is brave human going to do now."
The girl looked up into his optics again, "go home to her family… give them a hug like this… and then show every wrong person she knows just how wrong they are."
Grimlock nodded with pride, knowing he was going to do just the same… and maybe, just maybe… thank Optimus for showing him earth.