𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 ━ transformers

𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙴𝙴

Ironhide officially met Eleanor not too long after the FoodMart incident.

He had been forced to this. . . barbecue (or so the humans called it), and he was sitting inside, having been asked rather politely by the kind, blonde woman named Sarah if he would watch her sparkling for a moment while she had a moment for herself. And Ironhide, while he hated seeming like a babysitter or anything else degrading as that, could not stand the tired look on the woman's face, for he had been on the brink of exhaustion many a times in his lifespan, and relented, taking the child (Annabelle) inside and trying not to panic too much at caressing a weak sparkling such as herself.

The Eleanor femme walked in as he was trying to get a grasp on the sparkling while also attempting to control his waning emotions. He was not faring well, and when the femme walked in with her white rodent, Ironhide could not hide his displeasure at being found in such a mortifying position. However, at that exact moment, the rodent decided to use him as some sort of training course; Ironhide was thoroughly done.

"Shoo, you slaggin' rodent. I will terminate you," he said. At once, Ironhide grasped the hostility radiating off the strange femme's being. He turned to her, his irritation peaked, and continued, "Perhaps you should invest in an exterminator. It seems there's some unwanted vermin in this household."

Optimus would have his aft for speaking so bluntly to a human. Disrespecting them after they were kind enough to give us shelter, he would lecture Ironhide. It was all a bunch of scrap, Ironhide believed. What the humans were doing was keeping the danger they believe has invaded their home close to them. They wished to control the damage before their little subjects could become frightened of it -- to silence the scream before it became shrill.

He stared at the femme and waited for her to run off, as did most humans who came in contact with both of his forms, his harsh glare and brusque statements too much for their cowardly habits.

But this girl, Eleanor, did not cower down in fear like the people on the base did. She did not avert her eyes and mumble apologies for so much as glancing at him. She glared right back at him and said, "Perhaps I will. Or, you know, you could just leave on your own free will? Wouldn't have to waste my time with an exterminator then, would I?"

And there was a part of Ironhide that was irate. He wondered how such an inferior bag of flesh could dare and speak to him like that. Did she not know that he could incinerate her? Did she not know that he has killed more beings than the years she's been alive? Did she not know what a threat he was to her?

Nonetheless, buried underneath the rage and pain and sorrow, there was surprise. A little admiration. He walked away from her, abruptly, angrily, the small child in his hold. And he could smell the fear coming off of her in waves when he slammed the door, but he could only focus on the swirling pools of emerald that were glowing with wrath. He could only focus on the way she looked him dead in the eye, uncaring, and threw inquiry after inquiry towards him. She was fearless even though her body was shaking in terror at the thought of an army veteran sitting right across from her.

Ironhide had thought that the human race was full of weaklings -- full of creatures with washed out fires.

But at that moment, he had thought perhaps some flames still burned.