Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You were doing your job, munching away at the wiring in one of the Autobots' bases, but most of the time, you spat it out after gnawing on it for a while. You've made quite the nice snuggly little spot for yourself between the walls and wiring of the old abandoned base.

You weren't really a Decepticon nor an Autobot, kind of just neutral. Before, it was whatever side would feed you, but after one too many injuries and being yelled at so much, you thought it'd be better for you to be mostly left alone.

You curl up in your nice cozy nest, perfect for an Insecticon like you. Your wings wrapping around your body as you feel yourself melting into your nest.

It wasn't long before your peace was ended with a loud crashing noise, followed up by the cries of your fellow Insecticon.

You groan, forcing your body up and out of your warm cozy nest. You rub your optics and yawn. Come on, you were just about to sleep for another 10 hours! You peeled back the panels that led into your nest and crawled out.

You slump on over to where you heard the crash happen to see them underneath some boxes that fell on top of their poor moth aft, as the third and final Insecticon of your trio was trying to desperately take the stuff off the poor moth's as they squeaked and whined.

“Can't you HELP ME MAYBE?!” DeathSkull squeaks.

You swear it feels like both of your teammates had their processors bashed in when they were young, and now you have to deal with their sheer stupidity, which made you want to bash your own processor in. Maybe then you can truly understand them. Maybe it's from their pampered, spoiled lives they had before, because they're just so damn cute according to other cons.

Even if you feel this way, you of course help free your teammates from the boxes that hopefully you won't have to put back.

You grab their hand and pull them out of the mess they made. You help them brush off any debris on them making sure they weren't actually that hurt.

The three of you started to clean up the mess of boxes, putting everything back into place where it once was before the damn alarm started screaming in your audials. You suddenly drop the box.

Oh.

Dear.

PRIMUS!

You quickly cover your audials as you stumble into the security room as you desperately try to turn that horrendous alarm off. Your processor hurts, making you want to cry, and this stupid alarm won't turn off no matter what you do. You just give up eventually. Instead, you peeled back a panel in the wall and climbed back into your nest. You're too tired for this.

Chapter Text

You wake up and yawn, stretching your wings up and fluttering them back in. The alarm was off… You can't expand your belief to believe one of your teammates is smart enough to turn that damn alarm off.

That's not the only weird thing… talking not much, but it was still there, it didn't sound like your teammates… DAMN IT, of course the alarm would send a notification off to the Autobots. How could you be such an IDIOT?

Of course you're smart enough to make it so you have two ways out of your nest and climb on up and into the ventilation system, trying to stay as quiet as possible.

You've gone unnoticed, something that can't be said for your rat-brained lobotomite teammates who were already found. DeathSkull was basically just whining and crying, throwing quite the pathetic fit in your opinion, while Rootkit seemed off in his world slurping down the energon they gave him.

“I SWEAR THERE'S ANOTHER ONE OF US,” DeathSkull sobs, trying desperately to save themselves.

THAT LITTLE PATHETIC GLITCH IS SELLING YOUR AFT OUT. IF YOU WERE ABLE, YOU'D WRAP YOUR SERVOS AROUND THEIR PATHETIC INTAKE AND PULL THEIR DAMN HELM OFF!

You calm down shortly after your little reasonable hate rant in your processor. Now's not the time to let your silly emotions get in the way. You shift around a bit trying to get into a better position to hear just a bit better.

THUNG!

You dented the vent...

The only noise you can hear is DeathSkull's sniffles. Whatever Autobot was down there just starts shouting at you to get down. You don't know which one, nor do you really care as you slink back to where your nest is. You're guessing that they'll probably block off any and all the vents.

You ponder sitting in your nest, wondering what you could possibly do. If they've blocked off the vents, then you can't do anything… You could peel off the panelling and leave your nest that way, like how you normally do, but that's like a direct way into your nest, and then you'd have nowhere to hide.

You could just give up; you don't have anything to really fight back with or escape with, and you can't even refuel your tanks, or you could be stubborn and be an issue. Mmmmm, so many choices.

You were kind of hungry… When was the last time you ate, now that you think about it? Doesn't really matter now anyways. You're bound to be found; it's your choice if it's dead or alive.

You sigh, curling up… You could just go back to sleep… NO. Oh dear, Primus, you sleep so much, like at least sixteen hours every day between naps and dozing off. You could do something more productive with your time, maybe… You sit and ponder in your nest for quite a bit.

You hear metal tapping on metal. What was that noise? Because it's starting to drive you insane, and it's getting closer, and you're too tired; you don't even know how you're awake. You pull on your antenna. You almost didn't even notice that the panel to your nest was being pulled back as the light started to seep in. You freeze with fear. You've been a Decepticon for so long you don't even know what Autobots are like.

You get scooped up, sometimes you forget that Insecticons are rather small compared to other mechs. You kind of just give up now that they have you. You're tired and hungry; you might as well take a little nap, just a little one, not that long.

You get placed down next to your fellow Insecticons.

“Why does it look like that?” Ironhide pokes you. You're not that weird looking well, you don't think so. Ironhide put his weapon away, not viewing you and your plushy team as much of a threat.

“Don't say that, that could be considered rude.” The Perceptor murmurs before turning back to the Insecticons.

“So where do you three even come from?” A mech you'd later learn the name of, Perceptor who asked your two teammates, which was his first mistake.

“Ummmm, I don't know they probably know.” Rootkit is the first to respond to the questions, putting his third energon cube down before pointing to you.

“Uh huh, but they're recharging right now and can't respond.” Perceptor tilts his helm.

“See, we don't know where we're from.” Rootkit pushes his digits together.

“Ummm huh…” Perceptor thinks about how he should press further. The only one with information is dead asleep. You and your team shouldn't technically exist.

So what were you three doing here? How do you three even exist?

“We'll have to separate you three for further questioning. After all, you three are in an Autobot base without our knowledge as well as being Decepticon allies on top of not knowing where you came from as well as going against what we currently know about you Insecticons.” Perceptor rumbles on, “You three also don't necessarily act like Decepticons either, but there's a high chance I'm just generalizing how Decepticons act.”

Perceptor ponders you and your team could just be acting like this due to being caught, and since you were dead asleep, he couldn't take a good guess at your personality.

“We'll need to investigate further on you three and your origins and maybe biology if you'd allow me. I've never been able to do any type of research on Insecticons.” Perceptor enthusiastically says, not even realizing that could be off-putting to the already pretty shaken-up Insecticons.

“Sorry to cut you off here, Perceptor, but we still need to question the little intruders.” Ironhide glares down at your teammates.

“Ah, oh yeah, back on pace. Can you three—well, more like two? May you two come with me, please, so we can figure this out?” Perceptor tilts his helm.

“Do I have to?” DeathSkull sniffles, their wings fluttering and flapping softly.

“Yes? You guys are intruders in our base; the least you can do is cooperate with us and answer some questions.” Ironhide scoffs.

“I-I guess we could, but they can't.” DeathSkull points to you.

“We can just pick them up.” You get picked up like you were a wee cat.

You stir awake slightly, still mostly out; everything is blurred, your optics still heavy. It felt nice, maybe a bit too nice, in your sleepy state to just be kind of held and carried around.

WHICH IS WRONG! WHY DO YOU FEEL THIS WAY?

Chapter Text

You begin to awaken again, though this time it was on the cold metal flooring. Primus, your helm hurts, and your joints feel stiff, and the horrendous bright light above you didn't help. Nowhere to hide, nowhere to go—you were utterly helpless. You hated that feeling, but what mech didn't?

You peel yourself off the floor, groaning as you do so, and you flutter your wings awake. You were really hungry; your tanks were dangerously low, which only made you even moodier than you already are, and you can't really get any of those idiot Autobots locked in here so they could ask you questions like you'd ever corroborate with those THINGS.

It's not like you could escape if the door was locked from the outside, and peeling and digging the wall back wouldn't be the smartest idea. It'd take too long and too much energy, and all the room had was a table and two chairs on opposite sides of one another. You scoff you already hated this. You know what's about to happen, but you'd rather pretend that you're not about to be ripped into by some random mech.

Your antennae twitch when you hear someone or something going down the hall. You curl up in the corner, hoping whatever is passing by will just forget that you exist, crossing your digits, but of course you’re the unluckiest bug out there, as the noise stops right outside your door. You hear the code being put in and the door sliding open. You immediately tense up you’re ready to be the most defensive, off-putting thing ever. That way they focus more on your teammates rather than you.

You already know what you’re meant to do, go sit in the chair and be a good little buggy, but you’d rather not make that chair look more uncomfortable than you are right now. Perceptor looks down at you and your curled-up defensive state, knowing this will be a longer process than he’d like.

“May I ask you to sit in the chair so we may get on with this?” Perceptor tilts his helm.

“FINE,” you pout and basically stomp on over to the chair, which was as uncomfortable as you thought it was.

“Okay, first question: why are you and your team in our base?” The preceptor sits down right across from you.

“Because it’s easier than actually building a base.” You slump down; you feel your tiredness starting to come back for another round. You sigh.

“So you three are Insecticons, right? Are you three currently aligned with the Decepticon forces?” Perceptor was noting down your answers on his datapad.

“Yeah, there’s no other good way to put us other than Insecticons,” you yawn, putting your head down on the table. “And no, we’re not aligned with any Decepticons.” You flutter your wings softly.

“Are you always this tired?” Perceptor asked you he realized you fell asleep not long after darting around in the vents and then slept for a good nine hours, and now you were yawning and lying back down.

“Not always. I haven’t fueled my tanks in a while,” you mumble, smushing your face into the table.

“You know we have energon, right? I could go get you some so you can actually answer the questions without being miserable.”

“Mmm, no, I don’t fuel like that. I could show you how I fuel up if you’d like.” You slowly stand up, wings fluttering as you try not to giggle, as you already knew what you were about to do.

“Yes! I’d love to! I've never had a chance to study the fueling patterns of you Insecticons before. What do you need to fuel?” Perceptor, despite being so smart, this was going way over his head. We were so interested in you three he doesn’t even know what type of bug you were.

“Yeah, just stay there and I’ll-” You dive down onto Perceptor, sinking your fangs rather deep into his neck and you suck nice and deep.

Perceptor at first was just frozen like a deer in headlights this little Insecticon was draining him. Just as Perceptor was about to process all this happening, you slowly pull back, licking your derma.You giggle. You guess you could be rather moody when you haven’t fueled up.
You sigh before sitting back down; as Perceptor was in shock, it made it easier for you anyways.

“That’s how I fuel. Can I go back to my nest now, or like, do you have more questions for me?” You giggle a bit.

Perceptor stood up and left rather quickly, looking back at you, making sure to lock the door with his blood leaking out of your mouth and the sharp pain he felt in his neck. He needed to make sure he didn’t contract anything and get it fixed before anything could get in it, which meant he had to go back to the Autobot base and get it fixed by Ratchet. He quickly com-linked up to Ironhide to explain what happened.

“This is Perceptor to Ironhide. Ironhide, do you read?” Perceptor was a bit shaken up; he did just get bit by an Insecticon after all.

"Yeah, I read it. What is it, Perceptor?" Ironhide was shuffling and moving stuff in the base around.

“One of those Insecticons bit me. I have to go back to base to get this looked at. Hopefully I haven’t contracted anything.” Perceptor was applying pressure to where you sank your fangs in.

“Slag man, yeah, go back to base. I think I can keep an optic on those three.” Ironhide sighs.

You were bouncing off the wall you haven’t felt so alive in forever. You didn’t even take that much either, but damn did that geeky scientist have good energon flowing in him—delicately sweet, something you wouldn’t mind feeding on again. For once you’re your normal self before you realize something did that. The mech you just fed off of didn’t lock the door when he left, or does the door automatically lock? You decide to test this out the door just slid open.

You look both ways down the hall before sprinting full out, not even caring for your teammates you can always get new ones. You basically bolt for the exit, scurrying and scampering. You were out finally!

Before you felt it yourself being pulled back and up
You’ve gotten caught…

DAMN IT

You squirm around kicking around you don’t enjoy being held randomly like this, especially when you were about to escape. The only time you’ve ever enjoyed it was when you were tired. Okay, that was a one-time thing, and your processor wasn’t working right.

Ironhide held you up by your scruff before bringing you up to his face. “And where do you think you’re going?”

“Ummm, you know what, I don’t even have a good excuse for this one really.” You kind of just dangle there and shrug your shoulders.

“You’re not even going to try. Come on, give me something to work with here.” Ironhide huffs.

“I’m making your job easier, you can just throw me back into the room. You should be thanking me, actually,” you bite back.

“Thank you!? YOU JUST TRIED TO RUN OFF.” Ironhide yells.

“Yeah, and if I got out, then you would have one less inspection to worry about,” you mumble.

“Oh come on, we all know you’d just run back to the Decepticon,” Ironhide remarks
.
That remark makes you want to rip into Ironhide. You didn’t have the best time back with the Decepticons, something you’re not just going to spill on some random mech, especially an Autobot who just assumes things about you.
“Listen, I’d rather have all my plating ripped off before I EVER think about going back to the Decepticons, so don’t you EVER say that about me. I left for a reason,”

You snap back, your wings flared up in a defensive remark.
You despise how the Decepticons have treated you in the past, you and your teammates are rather used to being poked at due to them, but you stood out in your team, and not in a good way. Your teammates got coddled and loved for seemingly no reason other than the fact they were cute and also had more endearing personalities. You, on the other hand, hated the idea of being infantilized and coddled you had such a natural interest in everything around you, so much so other people viewed it as defiance or you just being noisy, or if you said something smart or suggested something, other people would say that “you’re kind of smart for an insect.” You used to never be allowed to express your anger either, or else that’s "typical Insection behavior." If you ever do anything considerably normal for an Insection, you're weird. The continued lack of seeing you for the mech you are is always something less, something under a tool to be used and then thrown away. That’s how the Decepticons treated you. It felt like you can’t do anything slightly out of line, or else you get ripped into. They have never physically harmed you, but still you’d rather not be called a Decepticon; you hate how your kind is called Insecticons.

Ironhide basically drags you back into the base, placing you back where you started, but hey, at least you’re fed, right?

Perceptor made it back to the main base safely by the time he got there, the bleeding had stopped, but he still wanted it to be looked at by Ratchet. Perceptor walked on into the medical bay before explaining what happened to him in depth.
“Okay, yeah, I can easily fix you up just maybe try to not get bitten again.” Ratchet remarks, “Just hop up here.” Ratchet pats the medical slab.

Perceptor hops on up onto the medical slab, shifting around a bit trying to get a bit comfortable. “Well, I didn’t mean to, I just got wrapped up in my work.” Perceptor laughs awkwardly. It's a bit embarrassing being bitten by some random Insecticon, knowing he’d probably have to speak to them again.

It’s horrible for him to even think about the fact that he's interested in you for scientific reasons. If you do actually feed off of a bot's energon, that has to give you a whole different track and how your frame processes it, Primus, and its effect on your frame. He couldn’t just not study you.

Chapter Text

You sit around now almost wishing you didn’t feed on that mech a few days ago so you could go back to sleep the lights painfully bright basically burning into your optics making your processor hurt you’re left either laying on your back and staring up at the buzzing lights or, pacing around the room both of them suck in your finest opinion. You’re left cleaning your wings and big optics, picking off any dirt in your bright plating. Primus, you could go for a nice cleaning right now, being submerged in nice warm water with a nice lovely scent, so nice without your annoying ass teammates.

Oh yeah, your teammates sometimes you wonder why you even took them with you. They're annoying, loud, and spoiled. But then you remember them begging you to take them with you how they begged and whined how for once they wanted to be let out to be treated like a normal mech and not like the weird pets they were treated as you know why they act the way they do but it still annoys you in some ways you’re lucky you were never some Decepticon’s pet you were always too aggressive too standoffish it was for the best.

You sigh, you don’t want to reminisce too long. Why would you, at this point you’re basically just sulking around there’s nothing to do couldn’t those damn Autobots do something with you instead of letting you sit around for days!
Just as you started to stand up and stretch your wings, you heard the door slide open thank Primus someone was here. You were starting to think that they had forgotten about you. It was the same red mech that questioned you before maybe he’d allow you to bite him, again maybe… you don’t even realise that you’ve just kinda been staring at him the whole time.

Perceptor clears his throat to get your attention “Can you come with me for a little?”

“Why?” you weren’t just going to follow the enemy just because he asked nicely.

“I want to run some studies on you and your behavior if you’d allow me to of course” Perceptor starts to inch closer to you.

“Well, what’s in it for me then?” you flare your wings up in a defensive manner “Hey stay over there I don’t want you getting to close to me” you scoff.

“Oh, right, of course, sorry, but I could allow you to go back to your nest if you allow me to study you” Perceptor takes a step back.

“Do I even have much of a say in this?” you crinkle up your face. plating

“Well, not really, but you do have more of a sway over how you’re treated”.

“Oh, how nice of you wow isn’t that just great you mean one of my basic needs?” You snide sarcastically thinking about your options. Your nest does sound nice, it’s dark, soft, and private all you kinda want right now you sigh you’ve been defeated somewhat… “I guess I could allow you to do some experimenting with me” you flick your wings and cross your arms.

“Thank you. I guess we could head back to your nest, and I can start asking some questions. Would you be fine with that?”.

You girt your denta you didn’t like this mech’s tone it was obvious that he must be talking down to you and it hit something deep in your spark that feeling of being painfully small or being seen as something stupid and soft two things you don’t view yourself as.

“Can you maybe not speak to me that way?” you grumble, flaring your wings out as you start to follow Perceptor down the hallway.

“Like what?” Perceptor looks down at you as he puts in the code to the security room the door wishing open.

“Nevermind it doesn’t matter anymore,” you scurry on over to your nest, your beautiful handmade nest you’ve worked so hard on; someone had already ripped off the metal cover to your nest, but you didn’t care that much, you curl up in the wiring, laying your wings flat out, finally back safe in your nest.

“So I was wondering how and why you’ve even built this nest of yours,” Preceptor crouches down, peering into your nest.

“I took a lot of the wiring and crammed it in here before molding it to how I like and then it’s in the security room just in case of something happening I’d know,” you flip on over to face the mech “happy now?”.

“No, actually, I have a few more questions if that’s alright with you?” Preceptor pokes you with his pen before you swat it away.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, what do you want to know exactly?” you grumble.

“So where are you three from? We haven't seen any other Insections other than the other three but you guys seem so different from, them” Preceptor explains.

“Well, if my processor severs me right we landed and ended up on an organic planet later on million of year later when the Decepticons saved us they called the planet Vertwell I don’t remember why we were there probably some type of research group probably but I can’t remember my life back on Cybertron or what I was like” you sigh before going back to molding your nest into a desirable shape.

“So you know where you’re from? The other two didn’t, why do you think that is?” Preceptor writes stuff down on his datapad.

“I don’t know I don’t remember a lot, only the important things I think those two thought more about surviving and so their processors just faded it out but that’s just my hypothesis” you spread out your wings before tucking them back in.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Preceptor glances down at you.

“What are you getting at here?” you clench your fist.

“Well, you fuel differently you already explain or rather showed, that.” Preceptor taps his pen against the datapad.

“Uh huh, what if that was like for show” you girt your denta your body tenses up.

“Was it?” Preceptor tilts his helm.

“No” you grumble.

“So are you?” Preceptor remarks.

“It doesn’t matter,” you flare your wings up.

“You say that a lot, you know,” Preceptor sighs.

“Uh huh, and what are you gonna do about it if I am” you fuss you were kinda hungry and you’re still not over that room they held you in.

“What if I allow you to feed on me but I get to maybe examine your feeding and how it affects your frame?” Preceptor asks sheepishly.

“Really?” you sit up a bit before giggling.