Chapter Text
The sound of the wind roused Julian from his dreams; it blew in fiercely from outside of his cliffside cave, circulating into the caverns he had dug out over the years where it whistled loudly and incessantly, practically wailing in its mission to keep Julian awake.
Julian grumbled and reluctantly rolled off of his stone bed to start his usual routine after spending however long asleep.
First, he made his bed, which only involved him brushing away whatever debris had gotten swept onto the weathered stone by the wind; Julian removed a few leaves and used his wings to dust off the surface. Satisfied with how it looked, Julian moved on to his second objective.
Making sure his cave and its connecting caverns were clean.
Julian went from room to room, plucking more leaves, twigs, feathers and rocks off of the floors and from the shelves that he had carved into the walls.
In some shelves, he found old bird nests, which he removed.
In others, he found bones.
Those he ate.
His jaws crunched through the brittle bones easily as he did one final sweep of his home before finally coming to a stop at the cave’s entrance where he finally swallowed the pulverized bone fragments.
He poked his head out from the mouth of the cave and looked up at the dark sky above, his antennae twitching as they braced against the buffeting winds.
“Ah,” he said, voice hoarse from disuse. “Damn.”
A storm was coming. A big one, judging by the massive, nearly black clouds that were rolling towards him; its depths lighting up with the occasional flash of lightning, the thunder too distant to be heard just yet.
Julian considered this.
It would be dangerous to head out today.
He glanced at his wings where they twitched restlessly against his back.
‘The last time I got caught up in a storm,’ he thought. ‘My ass got thrown into a lake.’
His stomach growled; the small bones he had eaten had apparently already been broken down to give his body what miniscule energy they could provide- though it was nowhere near enough to what he needed.
Just like that, his mind was made up.
Julian sighed and raised his wings. “A bug’s gotta do what a bug’s gotta do.”
He tilted forwards and let himself fall.
He grinned.
“And this bug’s gotta eat!”
His wings buzzed, the thin membranes flashing gold in the dim light as he adjusted his fall, turning it into a sweeping glide before he could slam into the ground. His wings swiveled and Julian kicked off of the canyon floor, leaving dust in his wake as he shot through the air quickly, his mind drudging up the memory of a cave he had visited right before he had slipped into hibernation.
Julian then thought of what exactly he would find in that cave. And upon picturing the clusters of colorful crystals, he immediately felt drool start gathering in his mouth as his mandibles snapped at the air impatiently.
“Rock candy,” he chittered excitedly. “Here I come, you delicious little bastards. You better have grown back by now.”
He had a good reason to worry.
After all, Julian had nearly consumed every crystal that had been in the cave when he accidentally discovered that they tasted really good and made him feel fantastic- having only stopped eating when it occurred to him that he wouldn’t be able to have more later on if he decimated whatever stock there was left.
Julian was shaken from his thoughts when his antennae twitched, the thin, metallic barbs angling themselves downwards, letting him know that he had made it to his destination.
He dropped down and landed heavily on his feet with a loud, echoing klunk.
His wings folded away behind him as he straightened up and dusted himself off, his claws easily scraping away the small pebbles that had gotten wedged in the cracks of his armor from his landing.
The sky rumbled overhead and Julian quickly scurried into the cave with a muffled curse just as the rain started to come down with a vengeance.
Once inside, Julian shook himself off and rubbed his hands together eagerly, his antennae already swiveling around, searching for that very specific pulse-
‘There!’
Julian tore through the cave at a sprint, vaulting over rubble and crawling up the walls, bypassing crevices and other natural obstacles, his stomach growling the entire time.
‘I'm hungry,’ he thought, vision narrowing to simply following the path his body knew to follow.
His antennae jerked one way and he followed; his antennae twitched another way and he reoriented; his antennae told him to go left, he went left-
Boom!
“Shit!” Julian yelped, throwing his arms up when the wall in front of him exploded, his wings reflexively flaring out in alarm.
“Is that all you got!?” He heard a gruff voice shout and Julian lowered his arms just in time to catch a brief glimpse of someone running past the newly made hole.
A big someone.
Julian slowly peeked out of the opening and watched as the mystery person- no, the mystery robot- turned the corner before he disappeared from sight, looking as though he was on a quest to cut a bitch judging from the swords he was holding in both of his hands.
“Ehhh?” Julian said, reaching up to scratch his head in bemusement. “Was that a goddamn samurai?”
His stomach growled again and Julian figured he could come back to eat his rock candy some other day.
After all, he could always track down the rock candy again- but a robot samurai?
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Julian told himself solemnly as he grabbed a random rock and began to take massive bites out of it. “M’k th’ mo’sht o’ it!”
The rock was devoured in record time and soon Julian found himself speeding across the thundering skies, getting completely soaked as he searched the dark canyon below for any sign of the robot samurai.
Lightning flashed and Julian was quickly able to spot the two figures that were running along one of the paths before the light faded away.
“There he is,” Julian chittered out loud, his voice nearly drowned out by the thunder that boomed all around him. “And he’s in pursuit!”
Julian dove down until he flew above the two, his eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness as he watched the robot in the front stumble into a dead end, where he was immediately cornered by the robot samurai.
“If you're thinkin’ about flying out of here-” the samurai began to say as he glanced up only to do a double take. “What the-?”
Lightning flashed and their eyes met.
‘Oh no,’ Julian thought, panicking. ‘I have been perceived.’
Julian decided that this situation now required a distraction. ASAP.
“Oh my god,” Julian gasped as he landed on a conveniently placed ledge and pointed down. “A bomb!”
What Julian didn’t expect was that there actually was a bomb and he stared at it with wide eyes as it suddenly began to beep rapidly.
“Scrap!” Someone shouted from right beside him.
“Ah shit,” Julian wheezed, stumbling backwards.
The bomb detonated just as Julian threw himself back into the air, wings flaring.
BOOM!
The shockwave from the blast caught on his wings, sending Julian spiraling down to crash into the dirt with a muffled groan.
From the corner of his vision, Julian saw a green light flare into existence before just as quickly fading away.
‘The hell was that?’ He wondered.
He laid there for some time, dazed.
Eventually, he shook his head and pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, only to wobble in place when the ground shook beneath him and he looked up to see the robot that the samurai had cornered earlier walking towards him with narrowed red eyes.
‘Oh fuck.’
“Your companions have abandoned you, insect,” the robot told him. “And I can see that you are neither an Autobot nor a Decepticon.” He kneeled down in front of Julian and forced him back to the ground by the back of his neck. “So why did you interfere with my hunt?”
Julian hissed at him, quieting when he felt the other’s sharp claws scrape against his throat in a silent threat.
“Do not test my patience,” the robot said coldly. “Answer me before I decide to snuff out your spark-”
“Alright already! I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” Julian shouted when the hand around his neck tightened.
They descended into a long, awkward silence as the robot waited expectantly for Julian to talk.
Julian’s antennae flattened across his head as his wings shifted restlessly on his back. “... ehh, I’m not sure what I can say. The truth is kind of ass-”
“Speak!” the robot snapped.
“Fine!” Julian snapped back. “I woke up fucking hungry, went out to find some rock candy, then I nearly got blown up so I came here to see what was happening, okay?!”
The robot made a face at ‘rock candy’ but didn’t press.
“That may explain your presence, but it still does not explain your interference,” the robot growled. “Why did you warn the Autobots of the explosive-”
The hand tightened and Julian could feel the metal around his throat beginning to strain.
He panicked.
“I didn’t know there was a bomb! I just said it to distract the samurai so I could leave!” Julian wailed, his wings buzzing frantically as he struggled against the robot’s hold that only kept tightening. “Stop it!”
Instinct took over and Julian transformed into his ant body and proceeded to snap his mandibles over the robot’s arm with a chittering shriek.
The robot glared at him, unimpressed, and shook his arm. “Release me.”
Julian hissed.
The robot brought up his other hand and began to push against Julian’s head with a disgruntled expression. “Enough. I believe you.”
Julian hissed again and clamped down even harder.
The robot grumbled, pulled out his sword, wedged it between Julian’s mandibles and began to wiggle it back and forth, prying off each of the serrated jaws until he could yank Julian away.
He held Julian up in the air by his antenna and stared at him. After a few moments, he released his grip and Julian crashed back down onto the muddy ground with a warbling sound.
“Do not get in my way again, insect. I am not one to offer mercy a second time,” the robot told him gravely before leaping into the air where he transformed into a jet and blasted off into the distance.
Julian laid facedown in the mud for a few minutes, the rain hammering against his back and wings.
And then he transformed back into his regular body, stood up, and stared down at himself.
He slowly raised his muddied hands up and made a face.
“... I feel sooo fucking gross right now,” he said calmly as lightning flashed overhead, illuminating his mud stained face and furious golden eyes.
Julian had started the day clean with peace in his heart and a growling stomach.
And now he was dirty, filled with an unholy rage, and starving.
“... clean yourself off first, then find food and then get your revenge,” Julian told himself as he grasped his antennae one at a time and sloughed off the crusting mud from the sensitive barbs, feeling himself calm down once they were able to stand up straight on their own.
He turned his attention to his arms, hesitating for a moment before holding them out. He watched as the heavy rain forced the largest of the clumps to slide off of the metal there; and then he watched as the rain simply dissolved whatever was left, though Julian gave his arms a cursory wipe just to be sure that all of the grime had, in fact, been washed off.
His legs came next and he spent an embarrassingly long time hopping around on one foot trying to get the mud off before he finally found a sizable boulder to lean on. Once the first leg was clean, he switched to his other one, waited for it to get washed, before finally twisting around to study his bug butt.
Thankfully, he only needed to wipe a few streaks off with his thumb, the rain having gotten rid of the worst of it while he had been busy with the rest of himself.
“Okay,” Julian breathed, feeling normal again. “Food.”
He flew back to the cavern he had left earlier and made his way through the winding tunnels until he came to a small pool of clear water- one that had a massive chunk of blue crystal growing out from its center.
His stomach gurgled, cramping almost painfully at the sight and Julian hurried forward, wings buzzing until he safely landed on top of the crystal.
“Finally,” Julian said tearfully as he hugged the crystal. “My rock candy.”
Julian’s mandibles snapped open as he leaned down to start crunching away at the blue crystal, eyes closing at the sweet taste that filled his mouth.
‘Fucking delicious.’
He ate and ate and ate.
By the time Julian felt satisfied, he had consumed over three quarters of the crystal and there was a noticeable bulge to his stomach, one that he patted with a sigh.
“That’s some good shit right there,” Julian said before letting out a quiet burp.
With a grunt of effort, he rolled himself onto his back and let out a jaw-cracking yawn.
‘... revenge later, nap now,’ Julian decided as he curled in on himself with a soft chitter, antennae twitching once before folding back to lay against his head comfortably.
He ended up napping for a week straight.