Work Text:
“Hey, Electra!”
C.B.’s head shot up at Greaseball's shout and he quickly scanned the marshalling yard, until he spotted them. Electra, looking as radiant as ever, had just stopped short, presumably because of Greaseball, who was rolling up to them.
Feeling another argument coming, C.B. quickly got up and rolled over, as did most of the trains.
“What in the name of the Starlight have you done to your hair?” Greaseball said mockingly, indicating the back of Electra’s mohawk. C.B.’s heart skipped a beat when he saw that Electra was still wearing the braid he had put in their hair the day before.
“Just trying something different” Electra replied calmly.
“Forgot to take out your curlers or something?” Greaseball taunted.
Electra simply grinned. “I’m glad you’ve learned to look at my back as your rightful place.”
“Ha!” Rusty shouted as the onlookers burst out into laughter.
Greaseball looked furious, trying to come up with a good comeback. “Well, er, where else to stab you?” he said eventually.
“How savage” Electra replied in a dignified voice. “You should try to focus that energy into driving, perhaps then you’d actually complete a lap without crashing.”
“You crashed as much as I did” Greaseball retorted, getting into Electra’s face. Even without their mohawk, Electra was slightly taller than the diesel.
C.B. couldn’t help but grin proudly at Greaseball’s words.
“And yet I’m in pristine condition, while you seem to have some… scratches” Electra said, their eternal cocky grin on their face as they slowly traced a particularly visible scratch on Greaseball’s shoulder pad. Suddenly C.B. felt a twinge of jealousy of him.
Greaseball was fuming as he slapped Electra’s hand away. “Those scratches are the result of hard work, something I guess you know nothing about.”
Before Electra was able to respond, C.B. instinctively jumped in to defend his friend, forgetting for a moment that no one knew about their friendship and that they had agreed to keep it that way. “Like you work hard, all you do is boss the rest of us around!”
Greaseball looked astounded at this disruption, but Electra’s reaction was even more dramatic: their heart monitor stopped and their entire electric system flashed out for a second. The Components quickly grabbed their arms to keep them upright while they regained their composure.
It didn’t take Electra long to get steady on their wheels again, but when they did, their calm composure was gone and replaced by a wicked grin.
“Ha! You can’t even control your caboose anymore?!?” Electra cried out, laughing almost maniacally.
Greaseball looked too furious for words at this sudden humiliation. Glaring at Electra, he shouted: “I… I have better things to do than waste my time on an AC train!” before storming off in anger.
Immediately, C.B. tried to catch Electra’s eye, worried about them – but Electra rolled off as well without looking at him.
After a moment’s hesitation, C.B. went after them – the other trains were too busy talking about what had just happened to notice him, anyway. He had never seen Electra flash out like that. Was there something wrong with them?
Electra hadn’t gone far from the yard, standing amidst the Components.
“Electra!” C.B. called.
The six of them looked up at him approaching, and immediately the Components rolled away, for some reason grinning at him.
“Hello, C.B.” Electra said, surprised, a strange smile on their face.
“Electra” C.B. repeated as he reached them. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine” Electra replied, but C.B.’s eyes were drawn to the flashing lights on their chest. Electra’s heart monitor was showing an erratic heartbeat, much faster than it usually was.
“Your heart monitor isn’t normal” he pointed out. When Electra didn’t react, he went on: “Electra, I’m… I’m worried about you. Has Wrench checked on you yet?”
“It’s… it’s nothing” Electra said hesitantly but dismissively. “Wrench checked me, she told me so.”
A flash of anger surged through C.B. He had been terrified when Electra had suddenly blacked out like that.
“That can’t be right! Tell me if she isn’t doing her job right, I’ll crash her if she doesn’t!”
Electra’s eyes widened. “No, don’t!” they said, looking rather panicked.
C.B. opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly he was blasted away by a powerful lightning bolt. Scrambling back to his wheels, he saw Electra looking absolutely horrified.
“C.B.!”
Confused as to what just happened, C.B. merely stared at them.
“C.B., are you okay?” Electra asked frantically. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry!”
It took C.B. a second to realise that that lightning bolt had come from Electra, but, judging by the AC train’s panicked behaviour, it hadn’t been on purpose.
“You’re glitching” he told Electra, thrown off by the situation and most of all by the look on Electra’s face. “Please, you really need to get yourself checked out properly!”
“It’s nothing, it’s nothing, there’s nothing wrong with me” Electra assured him vehemently.
“It doesn’t look that way” C.B. said, concerned.
“No, it’s just… I’m dangerous. Perhaps it would be better if you would stay away” Electra reacted.
“I’ve made a career out of crashing trains, I can handle danger” C.B. said disregardingly. “Unless…” – his heart sank when he thought of it – “unless you don’t want me around anymore.”
“No!” Electra said immediately.
It didn’t fully convince C.B., a feeling of dread creeping through him. Did Electra know about his crush on them? Didn’t they want to deal with it? Was this their way of letting him down easy?
He let his eyes drop from Electra’s face, desperately trying to find something to distract him – and then he noticed that Electra’s arms were crossed again. They’d been doing that a lot lately, at least when it was just the two of them. It was a completely different stance from the flirtiness Electra had shown when they had first arrived at this part of the railway. Why? Were they afraid they were leading him on?
“I don’t want you to stay away,” Electra said, “it’s just… it’s for your own good.”
“I don’t care about my own good” C.B. replied harshly, which was true – otherwise he wouldn’t have been so good at crashing complete trains. He looked up at Electra’s electric blue eyes. The engine of the future was looking terrified, and he couldn’t take it. To hell with caution. Trying not to think about it, C.B. quickly rolled forward to put his arms around Electra.
It wasn’t easy to hug the engine of the future, with their electricity pulsating all around them, but C.B. didn’t let go, and gradually Electra stilled, finally putting their arms around him as well.
Slowly, C.B. felt the tension leaving his body as well. He had never seen Electra looking this frightened, and he was glad that, if nothing else, he could at least get them to calm down.
C.B. could have stayed like this forever, but inevitably the moment came where they broke apart.
“Thank you” Electra said softly. “For defending me.”
They did look calmer now.
“Thank you for defending my braid” C.B. replied.
“That’s what friends do, isn’t it?” Electra said hesitantly.
C.B. felt his heart break. Electra knew. Electra knew that he had a crush on them, and this was their way of subtly telling him they wanted to remain just friends. Trying not to show how much those simple words hurt, he nodded.
“I actually like the braid” Electra went on, a small smile on their face. “And it was a good way to put Greaseball in his place.”
But C.B. suddenly found himself unable to hold back his tears, and he knew he had to get away before Electra would notice.
“I have to work” he muttered, and he sped off, without looking back. He felt bad about leaving Electra behind like that, but with the tears streaming over his face before he had even reached his hideout, he didn’t have much of a choice.
Once alone, C.B. sank to the ground of his shed, desperately trying to keep the tears from flowing but failing hopelessly. What a fool he was, for thinking – no, for hoping – that a futuristic superstar like Electra could ever be interested in him. Electra was everything that he wasn’t. Electra was rich, hot, powerful, cool. C.B. lived in an abandoned shed on his own. Electra was adored by everyone they met, or envied at the very least. C.B. was distrusted and ignored, or, at most, pitied. Electra was high-tech, the top of the railway. C.B. was an old caboose, made obsolete by a train like Electra. Electra was everything. He was nothing.
“Hey, C.B., good luck!”
C.B. jumped at the sound of his radio in his ear, and, despite everything, his heart made a little leap when he heard Electra’s voice, wishing him luck like they always did when he had to work.
“Thanks” he replied, trying not to let his voice sound like he had just been crying.
“Are you free to hang out tomorrow?” Electra transmitted.
A sparkle of hope flared up inside C.B. So Electra had meant it when they had told him they didn’t want him to stay away.
He quickly wiped his eyes – even though Electra couldn’t see him, it helped him pull himself together – and took a few deep breaths to try and steady himself, hoping to sound like his usual cheerful self.
“I am!”