Ok, so imagine that Pax was raised out in the Wilds and he was raised by sparkeaters. I have this scene in my head where sparkling Pax is just running from one end of the den to the other and his adopted parents and some of his older siblings are either watching him (making sure he does not injure himself) or continuing to go about daily life (this happens often and there's still work to do). Some of the younger pups are tumbling after him because Big Brother looks like he's having fun and they want to have fun too.
Once he's older and can go outside the den, he runs around the large clearing the pack lives in. Some other pups join him, because
c) it's good stamina training so the parents approve.
The parents also encourage them to go and run for a few hours because it gets the pups out of the den, it's something productive, and they can get a nice nap in while they run around.
After Orion gets caught by Trion or somebot, he still has the crippling urge to just run. This scared the living Pits out of the archives at first because first of all, WHERE DID THIS FERAL DEMON COME FROM!?!?! Oh, Head Archivist Trion adopted him? Why!?
Secondly, they had thought a big, wild mechanimal had gotten into the Hall because Pax still had his claws which left long thin groves carved into the polished floors. He was also quiet as frag and could easily sneak up on unsuspecting archivists, interns, or innocent readers.
Once Megatronus got comfortable with the fact the yes, Orion genuinely wanted to help his cause even though he came from the high caste, and no, he wasn't going to sabotage it and he really thought Megatronus had the right idea, he would ask Orion to teach him how to move about just as quietly as him. Now I'm not saying Megatronus wasn't quiet already, because he was. It's just that he large even by cybertronain standards and the fact he was taught by civilized macha. Not someone whose survival depended on silent steps, he wasn't trained by somebot who walk freely amoung sparkeaters with no fear. But seriously, Orion could walk on gravel and not make a sound.
Megatronus and the other gladiators wouldn't care that he grew up with any cybertronian's nightmare (second to only Unicron) as family. He ate living creatures for fuel? Yeah, big deal, any miner had to drink engeron from the lines of their dead fellow in the event of a cave-in. He has claws and fangs, and his armor's sharp and pointed? Welcome to Kaon folks. He could easily blend into the shadows and scare someone? Boo-hoo, pay better attention to your surroundings. He liked to climb walls and hang out on the ceiling? Slightly less normal, but at least it was him and not a feral insecticon looking for a meal. If Orion wasn't working, sleeping, or hanging with his (very few) Iaconian friends, you could bet your bottom dollar he was either talking to Megatronus, Soundwave, Barricade, Breakdown, Starscream, talking to some combination of them, planning the next rally, editing Megatronus' poems, speeches, or any of his writing, he was in Kaon.
Because Kaon was much more accepting than Iacon. He didn't have to shrink on himself, making himself as small and unnoticeable as he possibly could in public, while trying not to spook patrons with his armor and claws. He didn't have to talk less to keep his fangs from being seen as often or have to tuck his servos away for fear of someone complaining he might break a datapad or something fragile. In Kaon, people just accepted he was from the Wilds and continued about their day. In Kaon, Orion could catch an electro-dove midflight with his bare denta (something he wouldn't even dream about doing in Iacon), and bots observe, nod in appreciation of a successful hunt, and continue on as Orion would scarf down the bird in two bites. He understands the importance of fresh food, not wasting it like his fellow upper castemates, good for him. The gladiators knew when Orion got his now dubbed 'zoomies' because if you didn't move out of the way, prepare to be a springboard for Orion to bounce off of. He was small, but when that mech built up momentum, he was a fragging force of nature.
As Optimus Prime, he still had the urge to run, to be free. He just put a stopper on his base instincts, shoved them way down, and went on leading. Much to Ratchet's annoyance. The medic had met with Orion through a meeting of the trainees of important political figures, the younglings who were learning under the guidance of their seniors. No one had wanted to talk to him at that meeting, or any of the following meetings so he just sat in a corner and listened. Ratchet keeps noticing that the understudy of Head Archivist Alpha Trion keeps being ignored, walks over to him, and sticks his servo out, saying. "Hey, I'm Ratchet. I'm training to be the OMC of Iacon. Who are you?"
During the beginning of the war, Ratchet made him go out into the crystal spires for a few days, because he was getting jittery, and a jittery Prime isn't idle in a war. One of the more, memorable, times was when he was caught by some Decepticons (Megs was with them too)
Decepticons: *doing recon in the Old Forest [a really old spire forest the Iacon council had nominated as a planetary treasure. Bots would come from all over to stand under its towering crystal trees]*
one vehicon: *raises his servo, stopping the others*
Megs: *over comms* /what is it?/
vehicon: /somethings coming, and fast. We should hide, it might be an Autobot or two/
Decepticons: *hides along the outer edges of the clearing, they breathe a sigh of relief as a zap-deer comes running out of the crystal tree line*
vehicon: that's odd, I could've sworn there were two-
Optimus-fragging-Prime: *also comes barrelling out of tree line; pounces on deer from behind. He manages to clamp his much bigger and sharper jaw around its throat and rips its neck in half. Then processed to gobble it down in a couple minutes*
one vehicon: *stumbles back, and steps on twig*
Op: *freezes and snaps his gaze up; growling. Stops as Megs slowly steps out hands out and open*
Op: *slowly creeps up to him; sniffs his servo before snorting a turns away, leaving the cleaning*
To be fair, he gets a massive scowling from Ratchet when he goes back to the war front. He shuts down his higher processing power when Ratch kicks him out of society for a few days, so that's why he came up to Megs and didn't shoot.
On Earth, the kids find out, and they (Miko) love the idea of Optimus running up and down the halls when no one's at base. They could also set up a race on an abandoned road for him. Once Op's secret is out, the children, plus Agent Flower and Mrs. Darby, convince everyone to a race. It's simply they will race each other and Optimus until they don't feel like it anymore. Optimus is the last to get tired, so for the next few hours, everyone's just watching Op run back and forth, wearing the biggest smile anyone had seen him with since the start of the war.
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