AN: So you know how sometimes someone has a hiatus from their work and the author's note of why has some wild shit? Got married, cancer, divorced, had a baby, lost my fingers, and then bought a new house? Well, mine is that I got COVID twice, moved twice, and got a new job and a new boyfriend.

Occasionally I check the Miles Lancaster tag on tumblr and found a commission where someone asked for Miles and Ravage and it's adorable. I would definitely recommend going to look!

Anyway, to the story, this takes place right after the end of the last chapter/at the same time as the last chapter and shows Ravage's displeasure. A compromise is made at the end, at least.

Ravage continued to laze in the bed as she listened to Miles and Barricade pratter on. Barricade had obviously not bothered to learn very much about Earths' inhabitants despite being on the planet for years now, whereas Ravage had done her due diligence as soon as her escape pod had neared a satellite. She had admittedly skimped on the planet's lifeforms outside of humans but had rectified that quickly given how many of the tiny creatures Miles worked with.

The Allspark being mentioned made her sit up and turn her full attention to the conversation happening on the other side of the house. She had never talked much about her past or even of Cybertronians in general to Miles and he had been kind enough not to press with annoying questions. As far as she was concerned, he had learned enough about the war when Barricade first showed up. There was a not so small part of her that worried that once Miles realized just how big this all was that he would run screaming from her, especially if he ever learned of Mission City. To say she was pleased when the topic moved on was an understatement.

"You can be part of my family," Barricade said.

And there went all of the nice feelings she'd momentarily had for the idiot. Ravage hopped off the bed and ran to the kitchen, entering it to see Miles feeding a puppy and staring at Barricade with a baffled expression. The idiot obviously misunderstood the look on Miles' face because he told him he was welcome, as if it was some kind of honor to be lumped together with a mech who could barely do a toaster proud.

Ravage used her tail to grab Miles' phone off of the counter and the human nearly jumped out of his house shoes, obviously not having any idea she was there. Barricade didn't react at all, but that didn't mean he'd noticed her. She slipped the device in her mouth and connected to it.

"Absolutely not," Ravage used the device to talk out loud. "Miles will not be your family."

It would have been nicer to comm Barricade and show him how she really felt, because then she would have been able press her feelings into the databurst so he could get a quick glimpse of how stupid she thought he was and how much she detested him. The phone couldn't inflect the way she wanted or let Barricade receive how she was feeling, but it was the only way that Miles could keep up with their conversation and it would remind her to hold back from ripping the idiot to shreds. She didn't need Miles to see Barricade have another existential crisis, it might make the human care more for him or something as equally stupid.

"You already claimed him?" Barricade frowned at her, showing that he had at least studied humans enough to mimic how they moved.

"Hey," Miles protested. "I'm not-"

"Yes," Ravage interrupted him. "Miles is mine."

"It's his decision," Barricade pointed out. "If he wants to be my family then he can."

Ravage bared her teeth, displeased at the mere notion of Miles wanting to give his attention to a fool like Barricade. The mech had been there to see the Allspark be destroyed and yet he hadn't managed to figure out how screwed their kind was until she helpfully pointed it out to him. Miles didn't need to waste his time on an idiot like that.

"He should know everything first," Ravage countered. "Who would want to be family with a glitch like you?"

"Don't pretend you're not just as lost as I am!" Barricade snapped.

"At least I didn't take years to figure out what our reality was," she taunted.

The holoform's face went blank as Barricade stared down at her, "But you can't do much without Soundwave, can you?"

Hearing that name brought a fresh wave of grief that Ravage had to viciously shove down. It didn't surprise her that Barricade would stoop so low, because it was often the mechs who had barely been any higher than her in the class hierarchy back on Cybertron that treated her the worst. If he wanted to play it like that then there was no reason for her to hold back.

"Soundwave was always fond of you but I never could fathom why," Ravage commented dismissively, "You were never anything more than a young, idealistic brat with little room in his processor for-"

"Enough!"

Miles didn't scream, but it was the loudest Ravage had ever heard him get and the anger behind it stunned her enough that she actually shut up. Barricade was smart enough to not say anything either, so they both just stood there like idiots while took the puppy from Barricade and then put it and the one he had been holding back in the box.

"You don't actually hate each other," Miles said finally. "So-"

"I do hate him," Ravage insisted.

Miles sighed, "He came here just to find you. You, Ravage. Not some big number of the deceptions or whatever the hell you called yourselves to continue the war. Don't you remember what he said? He thought you were being held captive! He wanted to help you."

Ravage visited the memory file to find that Miles was correct, but in her irritation at another mech bumbling onto her newfound territory she had completely blown past that little fact. Barricade showing up at all had been enough to annoy her and put her on edge because she hadn't wanted any mech to intrude on the peaceful little bubble she had created with her chosen human, but then he had shown what an idiot he was and how little he had processed about everything being a complete waste and that had made her angry. She hadn't wanted him around and if it hadn't been for Miles actively extending an invitation then she would have chased the fool away, but it had been out of respect for Miles that she had done nothing more than ignore Barricade.

Now that Miles brought it to her attention, knowing Barricade had shown up with some stupid idea that he had to save her from humans or even possibly Autobots did warm her spark a little. It maybe even showed her that Barricade's comment about Soundwave had been because she had hurt his feelings and not because he saw her as below him. It had been a low blow, but given how she had treated him the entire time it was maybe even deserved.

Primus, was she actually reevaluating how she had treated Barricade and feeling a little bad?

"We could share him," Ravage decided.

She wasn't about to apologize, but she could at least let Barricade have some of Miles' time.

"Acceptable," Barricade responded instantly.

"There we go!" Miles grinned, and then he blinked and the grin disappeared. "Wait, what? Share me?"