Real People Stop and Ask
Another day, another headache. C.B woke up after getting five hours of sleep, and got ready for the day on autopilot. Now he’s sitting on a box outside of the maintenance center, waiting for a space to open up inside for him. There are only three available work spaces in the center, so if more than three trains want to run maintenance at the same time, first come first serve rules apply. And today C.B was the fourth to arrive. So he sits on a box and picks at a piece of peeling paint on his knee.
I should probably get that touched up too. Finally the doors open and an old brake car rolls out, it’s one that C.B necessarily knows, but has met before. He waves to her, and rolls into the maintenance center where he’s shown to the empty work space. On the desk next to him Cecil is sitting, skirts hiked up to expose his knees, leg panels opened. A repair truck is welding something inside of his joint, and he waves to C.B with a tired smile.
C.B nods at him before he gets to work, pulling off his shoulder pieces and shirt, revealing his chest panel. He uses a flathead screwdriver to open it up with a satisfying click. There’s a mirror set up on the desk for the purpose of helping the trains do their own maintenance. He pulls it towards himself, angling it to get a good look inside of his chassis. He feels a rush of satisfaction when he sees the cogs and gears clicking calmly inside his chest, still not completely greased up from his last clean. Humming, he grabs an old grease rag and starts to carefully clean off the slight build up of oil. He shivers at the first touch of the rag against his sensitive insides, a feeling he never gets used to, no matter how often he does this. While he gently cleans off old grime he absentmindedly wonders how it’d feel to have someone else do this for him. How it’d feel to have someone else’s hands gently moving around in his chest, touching the gears and tracing the levers. He is abruptly pulled from his thoughts when he accidentally pinches his finger in his own machinery.
”Ow! Damnit!”
Cecil leans over to talk to C.B, taking care not to move the leg that’s being worked on.
”Are you alright C.B? Are you bleeding?”
C.B sighs, inspecting the fingertip that got pinched, not seeing any blood or wound.
”No, I just slipped with my finger a bit, all good. How about you? Getting new joints installed?”
Cecil nods solemnly.
”Yes, they’re trying a new kind that might not wear out as fast as my old ones. It’s going to be painful to get used to them though.”
C.B hums, wiping grease off of his hands, grabbing his can of WD-40 to start regreasing.
”Thank the Starlight that you have a big strong brick truck to help you out during the adjustment period then. He can carry you when you can’t walk, right?”
Cecil blushes and looks away bashfully.
”… He’s very nice to me.”
C.B smiles at his friend, reaching over to pat him on the hand.
”It’s good that you like him, because he likes you a whole lot! I’m happy for you Cecil! You and Flat Top!”
Cecil smiles softly, nodding thankfully to C.B before he winces at something the repair truck does to his knee. C.B finishes up with his maintenance and cleans up the work space before he leaves. He waves goodbye to Cecil and the repair trucks milling about, and starts on the short journey to the meeting place. He sees Dustin and Flat Top standing off to the side, deciding to roll up to them. Dustin smiles brightly at him, which gives him a little more confidence to talk to them, despite Flat Tops angry glare. When he stops in front of them, Flat Top starts to leave, in an attempt to get him to stay he speaks.
“Hey, I met Cecil in the maintenance shed, he’s getting new joints installed.”
Flat Top turns back around quick enough to cause the bricks on his shoulders to sway dangerously.
”What?! Is he alright, what happened to him?!”
C.B raises his hands in a calming gesture.
”He’s fine, the yard is just trying something new to see if it works for him! He’s still there, and he might appreciate your company?”
Flat Top doesn’t even bother responding, instead just rushing past C.B towards the maintenance shed. C.B and Dustin watch as he skates along the track, soon making a turn behind a building and disappearing.
“He really likes that coach, huh?”
Dustin nods.
“Yeah, he talks about him all the time, I’ve never seen ‘im like this.”
C.B looks at Dustin with an expression of mild surprise.
“Well that’s good, because I’ve never seen Cecil like this. I guess they work well together.”
Dustin is about to respond, but is cut off by Control calling for attention.
“This is Control, this is Control! Rockies and Dustin to track 3A, Rockies and Dustin to track 3A!”
Dustin says goodbye to C.B and hurries off, dropping a few pieces of gravel in his rush. C.B waves after him, trying to remember what he’s supposed to be doing for the day. A familiar voice calling his name distracts him from his thoughts, and causes him to turn around to look for the source of the voice. There’s Rusty, rolling towards him.
“Hey C.B! You’re with me and the coaches today! Our route is a bit steeper than usual, so we need a caboose, and you’ve been doing good this past month, so we thought that you might want to come along?”
Dinah and Pearl peek out from where they’re linked up behind the steamer, Dinah waving with a smile. An actual job! It’s been so long! C.B smiles and accepts the offer. He rushes to couple up behind Ashley at the end of the train.
The trip is easy, Rusty is a lot calmer of an engine than Greaseball ever was, so even though it takes longer than it would’ve with the diesel, it’s a lot nicer than with the freights. Ashley chatters about this and that with Buffy, occasionally asking for C.B’s input. Mostly he focuses on making sure to actually do his job, because Dinah is in the train and he doesn’t want to crash her, that’s his best friend! The landscape moves past, hills and orange trees fly by on his sides, and he takes a deep breath, enjoying the stillness. Suddenly he hears a familiar sound of something moving at an incredibly high speed. He looks behind and to his right, and there he sees them. Electra. And their components, but that’s less important. They make eye contact and C.B feels his heart skip a beat. Electra smirks at him before speeding up and surpassing Rusty without issue. As they drive past they shout to C.B.
”I’ll see you later Caboose!”
The coaches turn around to gape at C.B, quickly beginning to talk over one another to ask what’s going on. Dinah clears her throat from the front of the train, calling attention to herself.
”Haven’t you noticed that Ceebs hasn’t eaten lunch with us in a while? He’s been eating with Electra instead~”
The coaches gasp dramatically, again turning their heads to tell questions at the poor little caboose. Rusty mutters ”I knew something was going on!” under his breath, earning an offended scoff from C.B because no he did not! He continues to be bombarded with questions the whole way back to the yard, silently wishing for Rusty to speed up the whole time.
~~~
Back at the yard C.B disconnects the moment they’ve fully stopped and rushes off to get his lunch. He really wants to see Electra, for better or for worse. He wants to find out what that was about yesterday, where they about to kiss or what? It’s all very confusing to C.B. Soon the electric station comes into view and C.B feels a little like throwing up. What is he even going to say to Electra? Hi Electra, great to see you again, were you going to kiss me yesterday? No, that’s stupid. Hey Electra, I think you’re hot, wanna make out? No, that's even stupider! As it turns out, there’s nothing he can say, because all the words get stuck in his throat as he sees Electra. They’re standing and talking to Purse, one hand on their hip and the other waving around as they talk. C.B feels his mouth water at the sight of them, an unexplainable hunger gnawing at him. Killerwatt sees him before Electra does and nods at him in greeting. It’s hard to tell what the security truck is thinking, both with how seriously he takes his job and the massive shades he wears. KW keeps moving, not saying anything to C.B. He takes it as approval for him to go up to Electra.
Electra notices him the moment he starts moving forwards. They tilt their head and smile, and C.B feels lightheaded. How can one person exist like this, beautiful and dangerous and frustrating all at once. He wants to break something. Is this what being in love feels like? If that’s the case, then how does Dinah and Greaseball ever get anything done? Or anyone who has ever claimed to be in love, for that matter. C.B rolls up to the shining engine, and he feels like he’s floating. Electra puts a hand on his shoulder, leading him along, and he feels like he’s being shocked over and over the whole time.