This does, without a doubt, happen in Rolling Storms. It may not be in any of the actual chapters, but it does happen.
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Standing in the Rain
It was noted that another bullet point had been added to the list of everyday behaviors that occurred in the Autobot base. The Dinobots played in the mud, Hound took as many long walks in Autumn as he could, Ratchet yelled at people for coming into the Med-bay for stupid reasons, and Jazz played music in the Rec room with Blaster every Friday night. Wheeljack's inventions actually worked very well every two weeks or so, the Aerialbots danced in the sky when it was really windy, Prowl holed himself up in his office on the days they practiced paintball as a training exercise, the minibots held movie night every other Saturday, and Shay quite often went outside when it rained.
That last one was the new addition to the Ark's habitual practices. More than once the young woman would take an umbrella, thick blanket, and a bucket out with her into the dreary world. As long as it was warm enough and there was daylight, she would fold the blanket and set it on a rock. The new umbrella Ratchet had gotten her (the medic insisted she stop trying to invite being sick) was positioned to cover the human and said cloth. A dented plastic bucket of scuffed orange plastic was placed with great care upon the muddy slick ground.
So it was just like that, one day when Sideswipe decided to invoke his curious nature and question why his friend would do this when most other humans avoided getting wet like it was the plague. Except children. They were apparently the exception to the rule and took great delight in getting soaked without regard for chilled bodies and the flu. Only a few yards from the base, he carefully picked his way around deep mud puddles as rain bounced off his armor in tiny patters. The front-liner easily found Shay sitting cross-legged upon her blanket and rock. The umbrella was tilted up just enough for light blue eyes to meet his optics while keeping the water off.
Sideswipe could be very sly when it came to speaking, but the race-car red bot could also be very very blunt. Today was one of those days were he was the latter. No need to stay out in the yucky wetness any longer than he had to.
"So...why are you collecting water when you're just going to dump it?"
A slim fingered hand came out from beneath the water shedder and carefully caught drop after drop of H2O in a rough palm, "It's the raindrops, Sideswipe. I'm collecting them."
Her hand tilted and the miniscule beads rolled off and onto the already drenched and porous ground.
"But whhhhhyyyyy?" Impatience, thy name is Sideswipe.
Without looking at him, she drew back her limb to it's security beneath the umbrella and watched the sky as it dripped down upon them, "Did you know that rain is recycled? It goes all over the world, sees everything and continues on it's journey. These drops in my hand have been to the ocean, possibly the Arctic, and maybe even the Tigris River. They could have been to Russia, the jungles of South America, Greenland, the Pacific Islands. Imagine all the stories we could learn from just one raindrop." Awe slipped into her normally inflection-less voice.
Sideswipe followed the woman's gaze to the stark and wet world above, and actually stopped to think about it. A single drop of water did go to just about everywhere. While he didn't pay much attention to Perceptor's lectures on all the little odd things about earth, he knew what the water cycle was. It was kind of strange to think that a tiny bit of liquid traveled all over one planet. He considered just how many stories one raindrop could have. It was mind-boggling.
The red and black Autobot smiled as he tilted his horned helm to his charge. Even though humanity fell short in some ways (as did Cybertronians), you had to give them their creativity and ingenuity. Stories from raindrops, who would have thought?
A moment of companionable silence passed save for the light pelting drone of the water and an occasional creaky branch, before he spoke again. "You know what I just realized?"
"Hmmm?"
"You are really odd. Even for a human." Sideswipe gave his infamous cheeky grin as she raised an eyebrow at his statement.
"You're just now figuring this out?" A dry question that didn't seem to really need an answer.
Her friend tried to defend himself, waving a servo in the air, "Well, most of the time you and Prowl kinda act similar, so you're sorta normal. And then you go and do something weird and I have to have you explain it."
She gave a quiet snort of amusement as Mother Nature continued to drip liquid on them from above. It wasn't very windy, so the mouse-haired woman stayed relatively dry. Quiet soon the battered bucket was full to the brim and Shay unfolded her tangled legs to stand. The routine was that she would pour it out so the water could continue on it's way and find more stories to pick up. Sideswipe frowned and then a mischievous look passed over his faceplates as deep blue optical sensors lit up.
"You know what you could do?" The woman paused and tilted her head in an inquiry, "We could put some on Sunny's berth. Think of all the stories we'd be giving him!" The last statement was so full of innocence it was hard to believe he was suggesting a prank.
Shay looked at him blandly before saying thoughtfully, "Hmmm, why not?" A very rare evil grin grew.
She carefully handed him the full container of rainwater and gathered her umbrella and now damp blanket. They plodded back into the Ark, dripping water and with mud underfoot. Sideswipe gave a cheerful hum.
"You know he's going to kill us?"
"Of course."
"I think Jazz is right. You are suicidal."
She rolled her eyes, "This was your idea."
"Yeah, but I can handle a punch from him. You, in all your squishy human-ness, can't."
"Don't concern yourself. I would never have agreed if I didn't already have a couple of backup plans and boltholes ready."
Sideswipe just laughed.
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Shay rarely pulls pranks and that's usually only when others started it first. This is one of the few times that Sideswipe managed to convince her to help. Also, while this conversation was going on in my head there was another part that involved worms and mud but I couldn't fit it in smoothly and left it out.
