Normal Folk Think You’re Just a Joke
On the way back to the meeting place C.B thinks about the lunch he just shared with Electra. It was stranger than it usually is, with Electra being quiet and weirdly smiley the whole time. And with the impromptu cuddle session, it really distracted C.B from the story he was telling. They were warm and he could hear their fans whirring. C.B already knew about the engine's purring thing, but he’s never heard an electric engine purr. Or had any engine purr at him specifically. It was nice.
As he rolls up to the meeting place, Ashley is the first to spot him, and she immediately shouts at him to come over to her and the other passenger trains. He sighs and goes over to them, allowing himself to be grabbed by Ashley and Buffy and dragged to a random box on the ground where they push him to sit down. Once he’s sat down the coaches stand around him with their arms crossed and an almost threatening look on their faces. Dinah rolls forward, and sternly leans down to be face to face with C.B.
”What happened? Tell us. EVERYTHING.”
He groans in protest, slumping in on himself and burying his face in his hands. Dinah refuses to take that as a response, grabbing onto C.B’s shoulders and shaking him back and forth.
”Come onnnn! Spill it!!”
He manages to shrug Dinah’s hands off of his shoulders and drags his hands down his face.
”Fine! We had a nice and normal lunch. It went as it usually does with me being the one who talks the most and Electra asking questions and clarifications. There! Happy now?”
Dinah looks at him with clear skepticism on her face, she’s always been able to tell if he’s not telling her something.
”Nope, there’s more. You’re trying to hide something from us.”
The other coaches gasp, as does Rusty who came up to them at some point. C.B glares at him, but he just shrugs in response.
”Fine. Electra was acting weird the whole time, and at one point they put their arm around my shoulders. And I moved closer so we were sitting close enough for our knees to touch. But that’s really it! I swear!”
Dinah shakes her head, making a ”more” gesture with her hand. C.B groans and buries his head in his arms again before mumbling the last bit.
”And they purred at me.”
Immediate shrieks of delight erupt from his interrogators. They all know the implication that comes along with an engine purring when alone with another train. Dinah and Pearl are the only ones out of their yards’ passenger cars who had experienced it, well they were, now C.B’s on the list as well. Rusty looks shell shocked, Pearl grabbing his arm and jumping up and down. C.B tries to no avail to get them all to keep it down, not wanting any of the other freights to notice that something is happening.
”Shhh! Be quiet!! I don’t think Electra knows what it means! I mean, I had to explain what the whole whistling business means to them before. They’re still young and they haven’t spent much time around other trains, and even less around other engines.”
The coaches settle down immediately, looking suddenly very empathetic. Buffy goes to hug C.B with a sympathetic grimace on her face, which he dodges expertly.
”What was that for? Why did you try to hug me?”
She looks at him with a frown.
”Well, I thought you might be sad, because you got purred at by an engine who might not even have meant it like that! I mean, I would be sad!”
C.B makes a face at her, somewhere between a grimace and a frown.
”You would be sad. I’m fine, it’s not that big of a deal to me. And either way, don’t hug me without asking first.”
Dinah shakes her head fondly at the two, remembering the amount of time it took before she was allowed to hug C.B without asking. Years. It took years of slow acclimation and gentle coaxing.
From across the yard the group can hear a whistle, one that is very familiar to Dinah. They look over to where Greaseball is standing with crossed arms. He skates closer pretty quickly, soon standing about two meters away from them.
”What are y’all congregating about over here? We have work to do ladies! And Rusty too, I guess. C.B.”
C.B gives Greaseball a tight lipped nod in greeting. He really doesn’t want the stupid diesel to find out about his daily rendezvous with Electra. That would just bring another headache and another reason for Greaseball not to trust him. C.B tries to communicate this with Dinah by making intense and borderline threatening eye contact with her. She just smiles and nods softly, because she already knew to tell the girls (and Rusty) not to gossip about this situation with anyone else. Because Dinah knows C.B and his worries, and she doesn’t want to stress him out any more than he already is.
Greaseball continues going on about whatever new mission the freight have gotten, preemptively apologizing to Dinah if he ends up being home late tonight. Rusty has quietly managed to get the rest of the passenger cars, as well as C.B, connected behind him. He waits patiently for Greaseball and Dinah to finish saying goodbye, something that includes a borderline obscene amount of PDA. C.B makes a face and covers his eyes with his hand. He’s always found excessive PDA uncomfortable and can’t imagine partaking in it himself. Even if it was with Electra. His mind wanders, imagining for a few seconds what it would be like to kiss Electra in front of others. Imagining the crackling of electricity between them, and the feeling of Electra’s lips on his own. But the thought of kissing Electra in front of a crowd makes a pit form in his stomach. It makes his skin crawl to imagine the stares, the people. Maybe any future kissing should be saved for when they’re alone. If they even end up kissing. Because what if Electra has been playing a game this whole time, tricking C.B into falling in love with them, only to at the last second tell everyone about how pathetic he is. That could easily be the case! But he doesn’t want that to be the case. He likes Electra, despite how stupid it is. They’re nice to him, they actively went to his home to spend time with him, they held him just an hour ago. And sure, it was just an arm over his shoulders, but it still counts.
At some point during his spiraling, Rusty had started moving. So when C.B comes back to the real world again, they’re out on the tracks, driving along a river. It’s honestly a beautiful day out today, orange trees, clear skies and the air is crisp with late fall cold. The coaches are singing some song about how fun it is to travel, probably something they’ve heard from some passengers. That’s how they hear most new songs.
They drive over a bridge, and C.B closes his eyes for a second, allowing himself to relax. He’s not needed right now, and when they do need him, they’ll let him know. So he keeps his eyes closed for a little longer, feeling the wind against his face and chest. It’s a beautiful late fall day.