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A red and blue semi and a pink all-terrain jeep pulled to the side of the road. Engines still idling with a low rumble. They waited a moment before transforming once they knew the coast was clear.
Elita was visibly irate, her face warped into a harsh snarl as she stood to her full height and looked around one last time to ensure they were alone. The tension that existed in the air was almost as thick as the smell of petrichor that permeated through the air.
Inhaled slowly, absently running her servo over the damaged ends of her audial, digits fiddling with the fraying, grayed wires. The sensory nodes were long dead, burned away from a blaster shot that had stopped Optimus’ spark. He still remembered her scream of pain and the way she dropped like a heavy sack—but he shouldn’t think about things like that right now.
Elita was already storming towards the tree line when he came back to himself and he idling followed behind. She was looking to slip between two closely spaced trees. Optimus wasn’t sure that she was going to fit through such a tiny gap. And his suspicions were confirmed when she wrenched them apart with a crack that sent a flock of birds flying into the atmosphere.
She clicked her glossa and her pale blue optics darted to the sky and a look of momentary worry crossed her face. Optimus took the chance to observe the sky as well. Dark clouds were gathering overhead. Heavy and threatening to burst. They pushed forward, roiling and uncurling as they spread across the sky.
When he looked back Elita was already weaving her way through the trees, rustling them and grumbling obscenities under her breath as she had to contort herself into positions not natural to her. Her helm turned and he saw the profile of her face. Her sharp chin, the slight crook of her olfactory unit that she always hated but he loved to kiss so much. The ever present down turn of her lips, even when she was happy. Optimus chuckled and she shot a bright resigned glare back at him. He followed her into the woods.
His ease of navigation only served to irritate her further it seemed. To be fair to her, she wasn’t used to getting through thickets such as these. Back on Cybertron the closest thing was the crystal forests. But they were virtually gone, now, and never encountered on a battlefield.
Elita’s irritation towards their failure of the mission was carrying over into this moment. She snarled as she kicked a tree out of her way. The trunk snapped easily and toppled to the ground. She stood there, servos clenched into a tight fist, seething with rage as she glared ahead. Optimus quickened his pace and caught up with her, placing a tentative but careful touch onto her shoulder. She jumped a wheeled around, relaxing when she saw it was him.
“Don’t do that, not now.” She said, shaking her helm and placing her servos onto her hips as she exhaled with a quick rise and fall of her chassis.
His mask slid away, allowing her to see his face. “It’s going to be okay.” He said softly, offering her a smile. But it faded with her next words.
“No, it’s not.” She said looking down at her pedes, kicking a twig she spotted a few feet away from her. The gathering of dead leaves from years past rustled and scrapped with their movements. “We could have used that energon.” She said softly. “It’s getting harder and harder to find. Each time we run out, we have to risk our lives getting more. I know it wasn’t a lot, but it would have been enough, now we don’t even have that.”
Optimus looked up at the trees, trying to think of something to say. But nothing came to mind, and even if it did, he doubted that his glossa would allow him to form the words properly. It felt dry and hardened, like a hunk of wood, in his intake.
Elita looked up to the sky. “I suppose the Decepticons don’t get to have it either, but who does that help?” She asked. She kicked another twig, this time with some force. “Blowing stuff up doesn’t help anyone.”
“At least we’re alive.” Optimus found himself offering. Elita looked at him. He couldn’t read her face. It was a cacophonous mixture of emotions that all contradicted one another. Appreciation, irritation, love, exhaustion, those were the ones he could define. But he didn’t have a word for those little infinities that glowed in the center of her optics. It was mesmerizing, everything creating and destroying all at one.
“For how much longer?” She asked. With that an oddly timed clap of thunder rumbled through the sky and she jumped. He walked towards her, reaching for her and she slotted into his arms looking at the sky with concern.
Her optics frantically searched, she was physically calm, but her mind was racing. Accounting all the possibilities that the sound could have come from. Storms were not common on Cybertron, most rain was heavy and acidic, but was never accompanied by thunder. He didn’t think even he heard thunder until he came to Earth.
“What the pit was that?” She asked. Her reaction was amusing and he enjoyed her weight leaning into him. He draped his arms around her and allowed them to loosely hang in a gentle embrace. She moved closer, just as the first hiss of rain enveloped them. She flinched as the first few drops hit her armor with a soft ding.
She was still used to Cybertronian rain, it seemed. Used to the bite of acid drops instead of the cold, sweet kiss of earth water. One arm detangled from around him and extended, palm cupped towards the sky. Her face softened to a curious glow and she smiled with the gentle giddiness of a sparkling as water pooled into the center of her palm. The smile faded slightly as she tilted her servo and let the gathered water run down her digits and onto the browned leaves below.
The small slice of forest protected them from both the rain and prying optics from the sides and above. But just beyond the forest line he could see the harsh downpour of rain, no longer single droplets but entire sheets of rain fell, hitting the ground in harsh hissing slaps that grew stronger the more water accumulated.
There was a flash of lightning as she huddled into him as thunder roared over them. Its deep bellow resonated under their armor. He smiled as she tucked herself against him and he molded against her, tightening his grip around her shoulders and resting his chin on the top of her helm.
They stayed like that for a long while, it could have been nano-kliks or it could have been joors. He didn’t care as long as she was with him, slotted in his arms he would be content. He felt their time waning, but they continued as the rain began to grow even stronger. No longer gentle, but harsh pellets of wet that collided into the forming puddles and caused them to splash, greedily existing in their small shard of eternity as they listened to the rain fall and rumble of thunder.
Her digits locked together behind his backplates and she pressed a kiss into his shoulder. The gentle shock of her warm lip components against his armor was a welcome one. He chuckled and kissed her forehead to which she hummed in response, with a contentedness he hadn’t seen from her since before the war.
But it didn’t last. It never did. Sooner or later the melancholy of their situation settled back into their bones and they were forced to part ways. She sighed heavily, her body resigning to lean into his. He strengthened his stance to support her.
She spoke into his shoulder. “We should return soon, to let the others know how we fared, they’re bound to know about the explosion by now.” She murmured into his shoulder. He tightened his hold around her as she moved to pull away, and with a huff of hollow laughter she settled back against his. Servo raising to trace the seam between his shoulder and chassis.
“Just a little longer.” He gently protested, looking down at her, trying his best “puppy-dog eyes” as the humans say. She rolled her optics but smiled and kissed his chin.
“Alright.” Then she pulled away from him. He was going to protest, but he stopped himself when he noticed her direction. She was not heading for the road, she was heading for the clearing, not a hundred feet in front of them. She stepped over a fallen tree and cursed. Then turned to look at him. “Well come on.” She said as she gestured for him to follow.
He felt a grin spread across his face and he stalked after her.
The rain washed over her. Rolling down her frame in heavy, shimmering waves. She smiled and turned in a small circle with her arms outstretched. He reached her and drew her back into his arms. She giggled. The sound was painfully youthful and it reminded him of a simpler time. When they were young and foolish, but so in love, and yet still so unaware of the pain that came with love and loss.
It was Elita who began their dance. Slowly swaying, gradually drawing him into her rhythm until they were waltzing to the sound of the rain, the only music, the one in their memories.
It reminded him of an orn not too unlike this one, far in the past. It was one he often revisited. When they were still new to their relationship. She had stayed over for the first time in his apartment, he slept on the couch, while she swore up and down that she didn’t care if he slept in the same berth as her.
He had been so afraid of her. Of that feeling. That ache that felt like it was eating him from the inside out but had no name for.
He had awoken to the soft pitter patter of rain hitting reinforced windows and a notification on his datapad signaling that all outdoor activities were to be stopped until the rain passed. As it had reached levels considered dangerous to even the most prepared of mecha.
They ended up trapped in his apartment for three entire orns. And he tried to impress her all those orns, with his adequate cooking skills and knowledge of archiverism. He still cringed when he inevitably thought about the time he went on a joor and half tangent about the change in architecture through the eons and how it could be observed and compared in the older buildings to the new. She had indulged him with a tired smile as he spewed jargon at her. But he made it up to her by letting her rant about how poorly maintained the ships at the docks were, and how she had to go in and fix them for barely compensating pay.
And then she turned his radio and dragged him into the middle of the living room and tried to dance with him.
To say he was bad at it, would be a very generous understatement. He couldn’t keep the rhythm to save his life and he was pretty sure he stepped on her toe-pedes a couple of times. He did more blushing and apologizing than actual dancing. She finally resolved to sway with him to a slower tune.
Only on the morning of the fourth was anyone allowed out of their habitation units. By the end he had fallen completely in love with her.
He grunted an apology as he stumbled and she giggled again. “You’re still bad at it after all this time.” She said with so much love in her voice his spark was aching just hearing it. Looking up into her optics burned his spark but he wouldn’t look away, not even for a nano-klik.
“It just doesn’t stick.” He laughed softly. They slowed to a stop. Elita reclaiming her spot in his arms. This time they were being openly drenched with falling sheets of rain. He kissed her audial. “I thought you didn’t like the rain.” He muttered, lips grazing where he had just kissed.
“I don’t.” She confirmed.
“Then why-” She cut him off with a peck on the lips.
“But it’s bearable when I’m with you.” She finished her statement and nuzzled back into his chest.
His spark swelled as they stood out in that storm, he rocked them. Time passed, he wasn’t sure how long. They stayed until they were both getting messages from their comms demanding to know where they were. And then they activated their commlink they got an earful from Ratchet, raving and angry for their lack of updates.
But for once they didn’t care, as they stood in the pouring rain.