Sodor's Engines Writing Challenge #4
Prompt: Love is in the air! Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and an engine is thinking of romantic ideas ( for example a date or something) to do with their loved one. For Valentine's Day, but they can't decide.
Restrictions: No longer than five chapters. Pairings are recommended, but must be two non human characters and at least one must but a canon character. No humans may speak except paired characters' crew or the Fat Controller. At least one canon character must appear, even if it's just a cameo. OCs are also welcome. Story must have a romantic feel.
Word count: 2,071
Characters: Irenia (OC), Ryan (Canon), Alicia (OC), Emily (Canon, mentioned), Indiana (OC, mentioned), Irenia's siblings (OC, mentioned)
Note: Only OCs and plot belong to me, apart from Indiana who belongs to Saber the F4U Corsair. Everything else belongs to their respective owners.
"It's... Snowing?"
Of all the Alaskan Twelve, only one was awake at this time on a February morning - Irenia. While the snowfall was only light and didn't settle, it was still enough to make her nostalgic, and to make her miss her old railway even more than she already did. Not that she would ever admit it to anyone, even her siblings or her crew, but she wasn't very happy on Sodor. A thick fog of homesickness always clouded her mind, making her lonely and unreachable to others.
But one engine had made his way through that fog. And now the black and white engine was determined to repay is kindness, all his time spent on her when she was feeling low and all the preparation that went into her birthday party, and she was going to return the favour.
"So, what exactly are you intending to do?" The engine's driver questioned as he and her fireman got her ready for the day ahead.
"A party for Ryan's birthday." Irenia replied simply.
"I meant things like where will it be and who will be invited."
"I'll figure that out as I go along."
The engine's eyes glittered as her driver sighed in exasperation. Irenia's impulsiveness wasn't her best trait.
"If you insist." Her driver sighed. "We may as well get a move on then."
Careful not to wake any of the other engines up, Irenia slipped away from the roundhouse and towards the newly rising sun.
Irenia crept as quietly as she could along the rails of the Search and Rescue Centre until she came across a tiny shed near the shore where a small black steam engine was asleep.
"Psst." Irenia hissed. "Alicia, are you awake?"
The black engine didn't even stir, sleeping peacefully in her little shed.
"Alicia!" Irenia lurched forward, bumping gently but roughly into the sleeping engine, who jolted awake with a cry as she rolled hard into the back of her shed.
"Irenia! What was that for?" Alicia spluttered. "What time is it?"
"It's time to get going!" Irenia grinned.
"It's barely dawn! My crew aren't here yet!"
"So? We've got a lot to do!"
"You've got a lot to do you mean. I don't know why Emily and I agreed to this."
"Because you're my best friends?" Irenia fluttered her eyelashes at her.
"Just ask the guy out already. It'll be Valentine's Day soon." Alicia grumbled, closing her eyes.
"I don't like him in that way."
"But he does." Alicia pointed out with a tease.
"We're just friends." Irenia stated bluntly. "Now hush, or I'll start talking about Indiana."
That immediately made the Stirling go quiet, blushing gently as her crew arrived to fire her up.
"What about Emily? Why hasn't she been included in this wake up call?"
"She was up late doing something or other for the Fat Controller." Irenia replied. "We'll get her later."
"Fine. Any ideas yet?"
"About?"
"Anything to do with this party?"
"Not really." Irenia grinned sheepishly.
"You're a puffing disaster." Alicia sighed. "Good job you're not doing this alone."
Irenia rolled impatiently as her friend was warmed up, which gradually got on the black engine's nerves.
"Why don't you go on ahead?" She asked through gritted teeth.
"Fineeeee. I'm going to go up to Arlesburgh." The Alaskan engine replied.
The English engine bit her tongue as Irenia puffed quietly away. She knew something the black and white engine didn't.
Irenia rolled smoothly into the docks as the sun finally rose above the horizon, the seagulls wheeling and screeching overhead and the waves lapping on the shore. She let out a relaxed breath, finally talking time to slow down and let her thoughts settle in her mind, her eyes closing blissfully as she turned to daydreaming.
That was all until a ship's horn sounded.
Startled, the alaskan engine's eyes flashed open, quickly spotting a relatively small cargo ship pulling into the dock nearby.
What...?
Curiously, Irenia left her peaceful spot and puffed towards it, wondering what it was doing here at this time in the morning and with no engine nearby to help unload.
"Hello Irenia!"
The black and white engine jumped as another engine wheeshed to a stop beside her.
"H-Hi Ryan!" She stuttered, getting tongue twisted in the presence of the purple engine. As usual.
"Have you come to help with this ship?"
"Y-Yes." Irenia knew she couldn't provide an even plausible reason as to why she was there if he had asked, so she replied very quickly.
"Let's go then!" The purple engine smiled, whistling cheerily as he puffed off ahead. Irenia let out the breath she didn't realise she was holding in and soon followed him.
Despite being a tender engine and lousy at shunting, Irenia helped Ryan all she could as they prepared trains for other engines.
"Don't Duck and Percy usually do the shunting here?" Irenia asked from where she was sat out of the way as Ryan shunted the last truck into place.
"Usually. Both had other things to do." Ryan explained.
"The Fat Controller left you to do all this by yourself?"
"No. Alicia was supposed to be here too. Where is she?"
Asleep probably. Irenia thought grimly.
"I don't know." Irenia lied. "It's not like her to miss work."
"She's here now."
Irenia snapped her eyes to where Ryan indicated, and gave the incoming Stirling Single an extremely unimpressed look, one that Ryan couldn't see. However, to her horror, the Fat Controller was on Alicia's footplate. And he didn't look happy.
"There you are, Irenia!" He said, his tone making her boiler run cold. "I expected you at Brendam Docks by now!"
"S-Sorry Sir. I ended up helping out here." Irenia withered slightly under his gaze.
"Well, seen as you are already here, you may as well continue to make yourself useful here. Alicia will take over your job in the Docks."
"Yes sir."
Irenia waited until the Fat Controller had turned his back to stick her tongue out at Alicia, who was grinning wildly, which seemed not to affect the purple tank engine, who only smiled kindly to Alicia and the Fat Controller as they left.
"So much for party planning." Irenia barely heard her driver grumble.
Irenia sighed silently. Alicia had it all planned. She knew it.
After what felt like forever, but also no time at all, having been running all around Arlesburgh with trains for the other engines, Irenia rested as she took on water and coal, her eyes closed in bliss as the sea breeze ran over her aching axels.
All until Ryan shunted in beside her.
"You really like it here, don't you?" He mused as she opened her eyes.
"Yes. It reminds me of home a little." Irenia murmured back.
"Sodor isn't your home?"
Irenia flushed bright red as she realised she had said too much. She couldn't escape the conversation this time. He was looking at her curiously with an expression of mild hurt.
"Not really." Irenia admitted. "I miss the Chugach Mountains. I miss the cold and the snow. I miss it just being me and my siblings."
Now Ryan looked very hurt, his kind façade shattered, his eyes full of pain.
"Don't get me wrong." The Alaskan engine quickly added. "I'm grateful that the Fat Controller brought us all and let us work here, and that I met you and Emily and Alicia, but I miss the old times. I just wish I could go back but take our friends with us."
"Including me?" Ryan asked, a tiny hint of hope in his otherwise monotonous voice.
"Especially you."
Ryan smiled again, a smile that warmed Irenia up on the inside.
"Me too."
As the day went on, it was very clear to everyone, even anyone who just passed by the two, that things had changed between Ryan and Irenia.
Every time the purple tank engine passed her, Irenia grew a little bit hotter in her boiler, blushed a little bit more and became a little bit more distracted by his kindness and his warmth, but mostly his bright smile.
It wasn't until Alicia stopped a runaway truck that she had lost that Irenia stopped to recollect her thoughts.
"What's this?" Alicia teased as she put the truck on the end of the train beside Irenia. "Blushing? Distraction from your job?"
"Shush you." Irenia lowly hissed, wheeshing steam angrily at her laughing friend.
"Have you admitted you loveeee him yet?" She continued.
The black and white engine sighed, staying silent. However, as Ryan passed, whistling brightly to the friends, Irenia realised she couldn't take her eyes off him as he rolled by, her cheeks burning bright red again.
"Come on, Irenia. You can't deny it now." Alicia pressed, her eyes glittering.
"Alright, alright, you win." Irenia gave in before she had fully realised it herself. "I do like him."
"Tell him then!"
"I can't do that!" Irenia spluttered, suddenly feeling very rushed. "What if he doesn't feel the same?"
"Are you kidding me?!" Alicia groaned.
"No. I'm not." Irenia growled lowly. "I don't want to loose him as a friend."
Irenia had managed to stun Alicia into total silence, her jaw on her buffers in shock.
"What did you want anyway?" Irenia quickly changed the subject.
"Oh yeah." Alicia snapped out her daze. "I'm not strong enough to pull the freight at Brendam Docks. They sent for you instead."
"Oh."
Irenia gave one last glance in Ryan's direction before puffing away from Arlesburgh, her funnel swirling with thoughts.
"Will you hurry up!" Cranky snapped at Irenia as she rolled into the Docks, her mind elsewhere. "I've been waiting for you all day!"
"Well I'm here now." Irenia snapped back, not appreciating been taken out of her thoughts.
The crane just huffed, returning to unloading the ship in the Docks as Irenia coupled up to the train he was transferring goods to. Her mind wandered again, looking out over the sea, tracing back to Arlesburgh as she faintly heard goods clunking down onto the trucks behind her.
Maybe I should tell him...
"Will you focus?" Cranky snapped again as he put down the last bit of cargo on her train.
This time, Irenia didn't reply. An idea had bubbled in her boiler, igniting a spark of inspiration - and it was perfect.
A few days later, on a peaceful Tuesday evening, the black and white steamie quietly puffed into Arlesburgh Harbour, her wheels wobbling from nerves.
Good. He's not here yet.
She settled on the end of a quay, away from the noise and other engines, where she was able to try to collect herself before it happened.
"Irenia?"
The steamie instantly burst into blush as the other engine arrived.
"H-Hey Ryan." She managed to reply, words escaping her at the one time she didn't need them too.
"It was you who invited me here? What's wrong?" Ryan asked as he stopped on the line beside her, concern and kindness radiating from him as he looked over at her.
That sweetness...
"I need to tell you something." Irenia stated, trying desperately to hold herself together under the pressure.
"What is it?"
"I-I-"
Just when she needed to do it most, she found herself unable to speak, so many words swirling around in her smoke box but none of them coming out.
"I mean, in the last few days..."
She trailed off again, becoming even redder as his gaze grew more concerned. She couldn't take it anymore.
"I love you!"
The silence that followed made her boiler run cold with dread. She slowly looked over at him. Even in the dim light, she could see him looking utterly stunned. She couldn't see the blush that had spread rapidly across his face.
"Irenia..." He finally spoke, still not entirely over the shock.
"Y-Yeah?" Irenia immediately imagined a thousand nightmare scenarios.
"I love you too."
The new couple shared a broad and affectionate smile as Irenia wheeshed steam in relief.
"Please don't scare me like that again." She wheeshed weakly.
"I won't, I promise." Ryan laughed, before his gaze turned kind and soft again. "So, tell me about home."
Irenia didn't need telling twice, diving into all the lines their old railway had, all the people they knew, their old Controller and everything else under the sun. The two engines stayed there along into the night, the spark of love being all they needed.