Chapter Text
It had been, interesting to say the least, when you first met Prowl.
You had been on an unfortunately mandatory trip to one of the islands out in the lake for the ecology class you had signed up for. It was exhausting doing a major in biology and a minor in ecology, but waking up at six in the morning to go on a trip was even worse.
So you had been extremely exhausted, staying up until three in the morning the night before did not help at all, and had barely been listening to the supervising professor when she had discussed where you could and could not go on the island.
Blah blah, stay on the trails, blah, safety, I could get sued if you do not listen to me and follow the rules. Honestly, if she was just going to read the waiver you had signed before leaving the school word for word, then what was the point in signing it in the first place?!
You had followed the carefully marked trails deeper and deeper into the island with the rest of you class, sipping on some water as you walked. It had been a stupid decision to not stop at the campus coffee shop or grab an energy drink from a vending machine.
You were suffering.
Bird song floated in the air, other students were chatting with one another, the wind rustled through the leaves and made your clothes flutter around you. What usually would have brought peace to your mind only made the mild head ache you had even worse.
Waking up so early had made you grumpy, and clearly you had not gotten over it yet.
You occasionally had to stop and take a photo and write down some notes for your assignment. Something about examples of ecological processes and explaining what exactly was happening in the image. You had barely payed attention during the lecture and had instead been focused on catching up on the readings you had missed.
You sighed and continued to make your way deeper into the forest. You had left the path in favour of trying to find better examples to take photos of so you could get this trip over and done with.
I promise I will start this assignment as soon as I get back to my dorm, and I will catch up on all my readings. You lied to yourself.
Procrastination was the air you breathed. You loved feeling the stress as you rushed to finish your assignments and get the highest marks possible for your terrible essays and assignments.
Your friends were right, you really were a weird adrenaline junkie.
You phone snapped a photo of the object in front of you, a rotting log, and wrote down some notes in your journal. Before you could place your phone back in your pocket you heard a noise. It sounded metallic in origin and seemed to bounce off the trees.
It lasted for a couple of seconds as you remained frozen. What on earth had that been, and where did it come from?!
Curiosity had ensnared your mind as you hesitantly walked towards where you believe the noise came from. It almost reminded you of a dinosaur roar...
Could someone be filming some kind of Jurassic Park reboot here? You wondered to yourself, a bit of excitement racing through you. You might not have been a total fan of the entire series, but you did enjoy certain movies.
Nothing beat the original!
Bolstered by the mixture of curiosity and excitement, and the tiny bit of adrenaline that ran through you, you continued walking deeper into the forest, listening for the occasional roar that would help to guide your way.
Several times the metallic sounding roar echoed through the now silent forest, each one louder than the last. You were getting closer and closer to the answer of the mystery you had stumbled upon, and excitement raced through you once again.
Curiosity might have killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back after all.
Your pace picked up, speed walking through the woods and occasionally tripping over the random log or large stone in your way. A faint smile had made its way onto your face as you continued to rush forward, all warnings from the professor forgotten.
It was without a doubt the dumbest decision you ever made, but curiosity had always driven the bulk of your actions, it was why you wanted to major in biology in the first place. Studying organisms and figuring out how they worked was so exciting!
Finally, you broke out of the forest and found yourself staring at the large… crater?
What the heck?! You had done a case study on this specific location before and there was no way anything large enough to make that much noise could survive in it, there was not enough food to sustain it!
Another roar erupted from the crater in front of you. You had cringed back at the loud noise, curiosity and fear swirling in your mind. What the heck was going on in there?!
Don't do anything stupid you idiot! One part of your mind cried while the other begged you to check out what was going on.
Come on, what if someone is filming a super cool movie in there or something?! You have your phone so you can always call the prof if something goes wrong~
No you moron, just run away, it's not safe here!
You were so caught up in your internal debate that you had failed to notice the hairs on the back of your neck standing up, and the sensation of being watched rushing through your body.
You stepped closer to the crater, still unsure of your next course of action. You definitely wanted to figure out what was making that noise, but you did not want to get hurt because of your curiosity.
Hm, what on earth should I do?
Luckily for you, someone else had made that decision for you.
"I wouldn't recommend getting any closer." A soft, masculine voice whispered in your ear.
You screamed, sprinted to the tree closest to you, and hid behind it. Your heart pounded in your chest as you hugged your journal. Who was that, and when had he gotten behind you?! Once your heart began to calm down, and you stopped shaking, you decided to see who exactly had scared you.
Hesitantly, you poked you head out from behind the tree and stared at the…
Robot?
No... it was an Autobot!
The red emblem on his chest and his blue eyes, optics, glasses, whatever, proved it! This was so awesome!
Wait, he wore glasses...
It was the ninja Autobot!
This was double the awesomeness!
Ninja's were a-freaking-mazing, and you had quickly become a fan of this specific Autobot not long after he had made his first appearance in Detroit. The rest were a bit annoying, especially that little yellow one, but still! He was a robotic ninja, it literally could not get any cooler than that!
His name escaped you for a moment, you had taken the time to memorize all the names of the Autobots after all, but in your mild freak out you had forgotten it. How embarrassing!
Uh, what was it? Something that started with the letter P...
"Prowl!" You blurted out his name, blushing after you said it. Geeze, way to make yourself seem like a stalker. Granted he had snuck up on you for no reason and scared the life out of you...
The Autobot in question smirked at you. He could smirk?! Most of the times you had seen him he barely showed any kind of emotion, and now he was smirking!?
"I believe you dropped this." He held up his hand, servo?, and in it was your phone! You glanced down at your empty pocket. It must have fallen out while you were running to hide behind the tree.
You walked towards Prowl, any fear you previously had was washed away by your excitement. You held out a hand and the Autobot crouched down and dropped the device into your grasp. You quickly checked it over, and after finding nothing wrong with it put it back in your pocket and got ready to back up again.
Gosh, he was so tall! You were not short and were about the average height for someone your age, but you were tiny compared to the towering Autobot kneeling in front of you.
Manners! Where on earth are my manners!?
You almost forgot to thank him!
"Ah, thanks." You mumbled, looking to the forest floor so your blush would go unnoticed. You were not a shy person, but in the presence of such an important hero you normally social nature was subdued.
Once you were certain your blush had died down, you glanced up at Prowl and were surprised to find that he was smiling at you. Ohmygosh! He looks so cute!
The faint quirking of his lips, did he even have lips?, into a small smile made you want to smile in return, so you did. You stood there smiling at him until the Autobot shifted, standing up to his full height.
"You're welcome. Now I believe it would be a good idea for you to leave and rejoin your group." He said, smile fading back into his typical aloof expression. Wait, how did he know about the rest of your class?
You voiced your question to Prowl and watched as his expression shifted for a moment before returning to its blank state.
"I became aware of your 'class' not long after you arrived on the island. I decided to follow to make sure nothing bad happened while you were on this trip." He paused and you gestured for him to continue speaking.
"I noticed you were moving further away from the rest of the group and I decided to follow you-"
"So you were stalking me!" You shouted, pointing at the Autobot with a victorious grin on your face. You knew it! No one could resist wanting to get to know you because of how awesome you were!
Okay maybe you were exaggerating a bit...
Prowl was smiling once again and your blush returned at full force. You put your hand down and ruffled your hair in embarrassment, gosh, this was the perfect way to introduce yourself to him. "Uh, I mean-"
Suddenly a roar, this one without a doubt the loudest of them all, interrupted your conversation. That and the very distinct smell of... smoke?!
What the heck!?
Prowl's gaze snapped up to the top of the crater that you were in front of. Barely wasting a moment he gently scooped you up, ignoring your startled yelp, and jumped towards the landform in front of you.
He was aiming directly at the very top edge of the crater, but if he kept going in the same direction there was no doubt in your mind that he would...
WHAT IS HE THINKING?!
"We're gonna crash!" You yelled, clutching at Prowl's fingers as he held you against his chest. He either did not hear your shout or did not care as you both continued accelerating towards the harsh, jagged rocks.
You were going to die!
You yelped and pressed your hands up against your face, not wanting to see the cliffs as you smashed into them! A couple seconds passed and instead of feeling the harsh sensation of rocks digging into your skin, a soft buzzing sensation brushed over you.
What the heck was that?!
Your eyes cracked open and peered through the gaps between your fingers. The sight that greeted your eyes made you drop your hands and stare in awe. There was no way this was possible, but then again you had never thought that robotic aliens existed.
A holographic projection of the valley that sat overtop the actual valley was nothing compared to that.
Neither were the robotic dinosaurs currently duking it out in front of you!
A robotic tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops were fighting on the valley floor, flames gushing out of both of their mouths. Well that certainly explained the roars and the smoke. Now that your curiosity was sated you wanted nothing more than to get the heck out of there!
Prowl had other plans. He carefully placed you on a ledge on the downward sloping cliff and jumped down to the robotic dinosaurs below. Well, at least you had a good view of the action now.
You could not hear what exactly was going on down there, but you did hear one of the dinosaur robots, maybe I should call them dinobots, shouting the name "Grimlock" over and over again. Prowl did his best to calm them down, gesturing with his hands and speaking in what you assumed was a calming manner to deflate the heated situation.
Heh, heated.
After laughing for far too long at your stupid joke, you pulled your phone and took a couple photos of the encounter. Hey, if you got in trouble you wanted to have some evidence of what had happened.
Besides, you wanted something to prove you were not crazy!
Finally it seemed as though Prowl had managed to settle the two Dinobots down as they both went their separate ways. You put your phone back in your pocket and watch Prowl jump back up towards you.
"Well that was something." You said as the Autobot landed on the cliff beside you. "But why bring me here when you could've left me on the other side?"
"You were curious, weren't you?" You nodded. "Well, I wanted to help satisfy that curiosity, and possibly learn something in return."
"Uh, how about you ask me after I get back on stable ground?"
Instead of picking you up like last time, Prowl extended his... servo towards you. You stared at him, not sure of what to do. "It's alright, you won't hurt me." His tone was slightly teasing, and with a sigh you walked towards him. You would be safe, you would be fine.
Please don't let me trip or fall!
You stepped into his palm, sat down, and brought your knees up to your chest, looking like the epitome of awkwardness as you did so. Prowl carefully lifted you up against his chest once again before he lunged up into the air and through the hologram, just barely missing the lip of the crater as he did so.
This time you did not yell, but you could not stop the startled yelp from escaping you as he gracefully landed on the forest floor, back on the other side of the crater. You probably looked like a mess, with your tangled hair and the wild grin on your face, but at that moment nothing could bring you down!
"That was awesome!" You cheered as Prowl lowered himself to the ground so you could get down. Your legs felt like jelly and you nearly fell as you stepped out of his grasp but you managed to catch yourself just in time. After dusting off your clothes and patting down your hair you turned to face Prowl, a smile on your face.
"Alright, so what do you want to know?"
The next several minutes consisted of Prowl asking you about your program and the assignment you were currently trying to complete. Apparently he had been eavesdropping when the supervising professor had talked about the assignment on the dock and his interest had been peaked. Oh heck you still needed to finish your assignment!
You would finish it when you got back to your dorm, maybe.
You answered to the best of your ability and talked about what you were studying at university. You had discussed theories like the Gaia Hypothesis, how creatures adapted to their environments, and how organic organisms created the energy they used to move.
Prowl had only one response to everything you talked about. "Fascinating."
Once you had finished going over everything Prowl had asked you about, and the extra information you had added in, you could tell the Autobot was still wanted to know more. You certainly were not the best person to talk to about this subject, heck you were only in your second year of university, but you knew someone who was.
"Here's my professor's email, if you have any more questions you can always ask him." You quickly wrote down the email in your journal, tore the page out, and handed it to Prowl.
"If you want you can email him to see if you can drop in during a lecture. He likes it when people who aren't a part of the program show interest in the course materials, so you should be allowed to attend regardless of what the university itself says." Prowl nodded and accepted the slip of paper.
You were about to continue talking to the Autobot when all of a sudden your phone vibrated in your pocket. You pulled the device out and noticed a text message from one the supervising professor asking where you were.
Darn it!
"Uh, sorry Prowl, it looks like it's time for me to leave and meet up at the dock." You quickly pocketed your phone and began walking off back... towards your... class? Uh oh, you had no idea how to get back to the dock from here.
Darn it! Again!
"Hey Prowl, do you think you could give me a lift back to the dock?" You asked, a sheepish grin on your face.
A couple seconds later Prowl was streaking through the woods with you held in his arms. He ducked and dodged any incoming branches with moves that could only be described as being elegant, and awesome!
"So, I just realized that I never introduced myself." You said, or shouted over the wind rushing in your ears. You shouted your name to the wind and hoped he managed to hear you.
"It's nice to meet you." Prowl said, and you could hear the grin in his voice. For the rest of the short journey there was silence, but it was the comfortable kind. You found yourself relaxing in his arms. The warm metal felt nice against your back, even in the heat of the sun.
It was actually pretty comfortable.
Prowl stopped running once he reached the edge of the woods and stood silently behind the trees. Through the gaps in the branches you could faintly see the dock, and the hoard of students clustered in front of it.
Looks like it's time to go...
For what would probably be the last time, Prowl bent down and lowered his hand so you could stand on the ground in front of him. There was no hiding the slight amount of sorrow in your eyes as you faced the Autobot. Your eyes flickered towards the ground.
Hm, I just met him and I've already grown so attached...
Prowl called your name, causing you to glance up at him once again. The smile was back. "I suppose this is goodbye then-"
You cut Prowl off before he could finish. "Nah, I don't believe in goodbyes, I always like to think that the people I've met I'll see again." You paused, flashing Prowl a beaming grin as the sorrow in your heart faded.
"So think of this as more of a see you later."
Whether we meet up or if I see you while you're fighting crime and the Decepticons.
Prowl nodded, crouched down, and before you could even blink, vanished without a trace.
"Damn, ninjas are so cool." You smiled to yourself once more and then ran off to join the rest of your classmates. Some of them waved when they noticed you and when you glanced over at the professor you noticed the less than pleased look on her face, but even the thought of getting yelled at could not keep you down.
So with a grin on your face and a bounce in your step you ended your trip to what you would now call Dinobot Island.
Man, you could not wait to see Prowl again!