Clutch Hound sketch cuz i can

So a few days ago I saw a jeep with a bunch of rubber ducks on the dash and I asked my coworker if they knew what was up with the duck thing. I’ve asked in the past but no one ever gave me a straight answer (no one I ever asked owned a jeep). BUT this coworker had family who DID. She told me that when you see a jeep you like, you’re supposed to give the owner a rubber duck to show your appreciation.

Which brings me to this:

It’s been a while since the Autobots first crashed on earth and everyone has gotten used to each other, so much so that a lot of kids (and some overzealous adults) have been sending in gifts for the bots (especially around Christmas) but one odd thing everyone aboard the Ark noted that when they got these gifts, there was always some rubber ducks sent to Hound. The first few times it happened everyone kinda laughed it off as kids just giving him things they liked, but… Hound kept getting ducks. He certainly wasn’t complaining! He loved nature and wildlife! But why always rubber ducks? He asked Spike and Sparkplug one day and Sparkplug told him about the appreciation tradition. Word quickly spread and some mechs (cough Sideswipe cough Sunstreaker cough) kept leaving the tiny-tiny little ducks everywhere for him to find (Prowl told them to knock it off after one falls in an energon cube and someone drank it, and Ratchet had to go into their tank and get it out). Hound took it all in stride and now has a sizable duck army to his name.

He likes to take his favorites on patrol with him to keep them close and if a Decepticon encounter comes up along the way, he stashes them somewhere unlikely to be harmed. If he can’t do that he tries to be as careful as possible during battle.

One day, he gets unlucky and takes a shot from a Decepticon. The hit was on his chassis and it was barely anything, grazed him really, but one of his rubber ducks wasn’t so lucky. What made it worse was that it was the first duck he had gotten. Melted and warped in his servo. For days after it was obvious to anyone with eyes Hound was depressed over the loss of his duck.

One day Hound goes back to his hab, opens the door, and his pedes (and some of the hallway, and the whole of his hab floor) are covered in rubber ducks of all kinds. Hound then hears someone approaching and turns to see Mirage… holding the once destroyed duck in his servo. Mirage tells him that he hated to see Hound so despondent over the loss of an item of “great sentimental value” and so had the ducks remains taken to Wheeljack where (under VERY STRICT supervision) he was able to remold the duck anew.

Mirage barely finishes his explanation when Hound’s lips meet his, one hand around his upper back in a hug, the other gently rubbing his digits over Mirage’s and the little rubber duck’s head.

Bonus (what would have happened if we left Wheeljack alone):