Here's a Thomas oneshot based on a request by tate310. It takes place after the Season 9 episode, "Toby Feels Left Out". Enjoy.
It was a sunny day on the Island of Sodor. Toby, with his faithful coach Henrietta, was going back to Tidmouth Sheds after taking some trucks from the quarry. When he arrived, he saw that James and Percy were already there.
"Ahh. Look at my splendid red paintwork, how it gleams in the sunlight," James boasted.
"Pah. It may be splendid now, but if you're not careful, you could get it dirty, like when you ran into those tar wagons," Percy retorted.
James' face went as red as his paint.
"Don't remind me of that!" he snapped.
Toby could see that an argument was going to break out between the two of them at any moment.
"Hmmm. What do you think I should do, Henrietta?" he asked her.
"Goodness knows with James," Henrietta said, "Why not try to calm them down before this argument escalates?"
Toby thought about what he could say to appease both of them. Having a good idea, he puffed towards them.
"Now, now, James. Percy. I don't want you two to fight over this," Toby said.
"But…," both James and Percy said at once.
"No buts, you two," Toby interrupted, "James, your red paint is rather splendid and it certainly stands out better than the black paint you had when you came here, but Percy is right when he says when you shouldn't take it for granted. I thought that you'd realize that after all the things you've been covered in."
James sighed, knowing that Toby was right. Toby moved on to Percy before James could ask how he knew about his black paintwork.
"And, you, Percy, while you're not vain like James is, you do like your paint being clean. Remember when we had that water shortage? You tried to stay clean by taking sugar, only to hit oily rails and barrel straight through the chocolate factory," Toby pointed out.
James laughed at the memory of Percy being covered in chocolate. Now, Percy was the one to be cross after being reminded of a messy accident. Toby looked sternly at him before he could say anything, though. Percy then realized that he and James would be back to square one had he said something. As much as he didn't want to, he decided to apologize.
"I'm sorry for what I said, James," he puffed.
"No, Percy, I'm the one who should be sorry. You and Toby have a point. I shouldn't take my red paint for granted. Did you know that the Fat Controller once threatened to paint me blue after I showered steam on his new top hat? It was before you came here, Percy," James replied.
"Blue?" Percy asked, "But there's enough blue engines as it is."
"One of the reasons I'm glad to have my red paint," James said.
"Just out of curiosity, what did you do to change the Fat Controller's mind?" Percy asked.
"I just took some trucks for him and didn't let them get the best of me," James answered.
"That makes sense," Percy said.
"By the way, Toby, how did you know about my black paint?" James asked.
"Thomas told me," Toby answered simply, "To be honest, I just can't picture you in something other than red."
"I can't, either," Percy said.
Then, they all laughed. Toby was glad that he had managed to settle this dispute. This made him glad that the Fat Controller wasn't going to put him in the new museum. He quite liked being useful and being here to help young engines settle their squabbles.