It was a slow day, and Rusty was lounging along a piece of track, occasionally getting up to skate a few metres and maybe do a couple stunts before sitting back down again, sighing dejectedly. Since Electra had left town, back on a world tour again, everything had become quiet and dull. Greaseball seemed less brash than usual. Rusty almost wished the diesel would pick a fight just so something exciting would happen.

He wasn't expecting it when a cheerful face popped into view, accompanied by a wide smile. "Hiya, Rusty!"

"Ah! Oh, CP... it's just you. You scared me!"

"Hahahah! Sorry, pal. Least I didn't scare you to death, ha!"

Caboose broke into peels of insane little giggles and Rusty made a sort of concerned frown. He didn't entirely trust CB, but had become fonder of the little red machine after he had seemed genuinely ashamed of his actions after the championship final. Caboose finally stopped giggling enough to grab Rusty's hand, tugging on his arm. "Come on, Rus! I got somethin to show ya.."

Rusty resisted being pulled to his feet at first, but after realising caboose wouldnt chuff off until he'd shown Rusty whatever it was, he sighed and got to his wheels, skating in front of CB and telling him to couple up. Caboose may have had his own little engine but Rusty just didn't feel comfortable being pulled by another engine. That was his job.

After a few misdirections from CB and a good half hour of skating down several miles of track, they finally came to what looked like a freight container, partially rusted and in questionable shape. It was red in colour and the doors were covered in stickers, badges, and name plates. Rusty didn't want to know whose.

CB uncoupled and skated in front of Rusty, turning to face him and grinning broadly. "Welcome to my humble abode! Come on in, pal!" The caboose did a quick spin and then pulled the door open, skating inside, into the gloom. Rusty looked around. He could just leave now. He wanted to say he and CB were on 'friends' terms, or at the very least friendly aquatinces, but he wasn't entirely sure of himself now. What exactly did the red caboose want to show him? Hopefully not his own nameplate, stuck up on the wall like a trophy. He gulped, a nervous hiss of steam rising from his valves.

With another pensive glance around, Rusty decided to give CB a little credit and skated inside the smaller engine's pad.

It was very dim inside, and as he skated forwards slowly Rusty could barely make out shapes across the room. Slowly, his eyes adjusted, the only light source being the sliver of daylight coming through the doorway. He could just make out a large board, filled with pictures of engines, all connected with lines of string and little pieces of newspaper clippings and scrawled writing. The majority of the photos were marked over with a red X. Rusty thought it best not to ask about it. CB's bed looked pretty much like a pile of scrap with a flatter sheet of metal on the top (trains didn't need blankets, after all) and... were those engine parts? Rusty was still making a nervous, low-pitched hiss when suddenly he couldn't see again. Someone had closed the door.

And when light finally came back in the form of a few half broken light bulbs, Rusty found himself facing CB, who was now standing between him and the door, grin wide as ever. "Uh..."

"Ya like it? It's pretty small but big and bold ain't my style, right?"

"W-what? Oh, yeah. Nice place you got here."

"Well it'd be nicer if I could actually see it through the steam, pal."

Rusty flushed red, fire blazing. CB was exaggerating, of course: Rusty was only letting out tiny streams, which were hissing out and quietly evaporating in the air. CB's comment at it, though, provoked a higher engine pressure and Rusty had to depressurise, filling the room briefly with thick clouds of steam. Caboose waved a hand in front of his own face to clear it, his grin not quite reaching his eyes. He skated closer to Rusty, uncomfortably close, until he leaned forwards, their fenders almost touching. "So. Wanna see what I ACTUALLY wanted to show ya?"

"Uhmm...uh...I...uhh..." Rusty rapidly backed away, but CB advanced towards him in turn, and Rusty suddenly found his funnel pressed up against a wall of corrugated iron. "I, uh...ah!"

CB was resting one hand on Rusty's chest plate, the other coming up to roughly grip his hair, pushing the taller engine's head back, preventing him from moving. "Oh, I've been waiting for you a long time, Rusty." The name was almost spat. Rusty hissed his fear, jets of steam condensing between the two engines. Caboose leaned in closer, the hand on Rusty's chest now gently tracing the joins in his metal, pausing at a valve control. "You...you're gonna kill me? Like all those other trains? Wreck me?" Rusty asked, his voice small.

CB laughed, the cold sound reverberating around the shipment container. "Oh, no. No, no, no. Not you, Rusty. You're much too special for that. I'm just gonna hurt ya. Really...really...bad." And with his final word he twisted the pressure valve, hard.

Rusty cried out, the sudden sensational overwhelming his circuits. The spike in pressure released billowing clouds of steam from his frame, covering both engines in tiny, shimmering droplets which ran down their faces like sweat. "Ah! Ha-ahh.." Rusty couldn't move. Almost didn't want to. Caboose's grin was illuminated in the low light. He'd just found another valve. This time Rusty nearly collapsed, the atmosphere becoming thick and steamy, humidity rising as swiftly as Rusty's now painfully obvious erection. CB snickered. Never took a lot to get a steam train going.

"As they say... anyone can do it to a steam train~" The red caboose purred, his voice low. He'd moved his hand to Rusty's throat, holding him up against the wall, the taller engine unable to move without CB choking out his filters. Rusty gave a breathy whine. "P-please..." His struggles were getting weaker again as his pressure lowered, and CB wasn't sure if the plea had been for releasing him or giving him release (if you know what I'm saying), but he DID know he sure as hell didn't care. Giving a third valve on Rusty's chassis a violent wrench, Caboose leaned forwards to capture Rusty's lips with his own, the steam train's imminent cry of mixed pleasure and pain cut off by CB's harsh metallic kiss.

The red caboose dug his nail into a join near Rusty's neck and heard his engine thrum, provoking another whoosh of steam and a strangled moan from his captive.

Rusty didn't know what to think. Sure, he was scared out of his wheels, but... some part of him found this hot. He vowed to someday find that part, violently remove it, and give it to CB as a parting gift.

Today, however, was not that day.