It was still drizzling when Duncan went to go meet his driver, and he blinked to keep the rainwater out of his eyes as he pulled up to a station platform. Sitting on a bench, under the canopy of the frame around it, sat a young man. He was in a neatly pressed, seemingly new suit, and had a hopeful expression on his face. He turned to look as he heard Duncan pull in and grinned before springing to his feet like an overeager jackrabbit.
"Ah! You must be Duncan! Everyone's been telling me about you! Nice to meet you, Duncan, I'm Dane and I'll be your driver!" The man said, pointing a thumb at his chest. Duncan was a bit taken aback by how…excited the man seemed. Duncan certainly didn't get excited when something new happened, more annoyed and inconvenienced. So, to see this man so excited over something Duncan himself was dreading was a very odd thing to witness indeed. Though, whatever disgust and confusion Duncan showed in his face seemed to go unnoticed by Dane. Dane simply smiled down at Duncan and seemed to wait for a reply. Duncan gave a small sigh and closed his eyes to hide an eye roll.
"Hi," He said in a monotonal voice. "Nice to meet you…Dane."

Dane grinned back, pleased with the little engine's response. "Oh! Your accent; I didn't realize you were a Scot!"
Duncan had to fight off an unexpected cringe at Dane's attempt at small talk. "Yep." Duncan muttered back, wishing Dane would get on with this already.

"Well anyways, Duncan, I heard that you haven't been driven by a driver before," Dane said. Duncan was quite startled by this, and his brakes nearly slipped off in surprise. He didn't think Mr. Percival needed to be telling this lad anything about who had and hadn't driven him before, as frankly, it wasn't any of his business! Besides, Duncan didn't know a thing about him until now, so why should Dane know a thing about him? "Well, I have never driven an engine before, so I guess we're both beginners!" Dane said, pulling a goofy cheerful grin. Duncan was not amused by this attempt at comradery, and rather than chuckle at Dane's remark, Duncan opted to roll his eyes instead.

"Uh-huh," Duncan muttered, genuinely wishing to be anywhere but here.

"Well, I think I've wasted enough time rambling as it is, let's get to figuring this out. Time for you to be driven by a driver, Duncan!" Dane said with a smile. Duncan sighed and gave a slight groan.

"Joy…" Duncan growled as Dane clambered into his cab.

Further back along the line, Rheneas was sorting out some trucks when he heard someone else enter the yard and a whistle blow.

"Hey, Rheneas!" Sir Handel's voice called. Rheneas looked up at the little blue engine.

"Yea?" Rheneas asked, pausing after sliding the last of his trucks into a neat row. "What is it?"

"Have you seen that new engine we met at the sheds earlier? Where'd he run off to?" Sir Handel asked. "I think his name was Duncan or something, wasn't it?"

"It was Duncan. And he's off being taught how to be driven by a driver," Rheneas answered. Sir Handel pulled a puzzled face.

"He hasn't even been taught how to be driven by a driver?" Sir Handel asked.

"Nope."

"But I thought all engines were taught that pretty early on."

"That's what I said. But, not Duncan. He's been driving himself since his first day on Earth." Rheneas explained.

"Why?"

"No clue."

Sir Handel shook his head confusedly. "That new engine's weird…" He mumbled. "Anyways, isn't Duncan's driver a newbie?" Sir Handel asked, recalling meeting the driver in question and seeing how inexperienced he seemed.

"I think so,"

"That's gonna be interesting." Sir Handel snorted. "Figures, leave the doolally engine with the inexperienced driver. Cause that's gonna go so well."
Rheneas frowned slightly, "I don't think it's fair to call Duncan crazy. We've only just met him."
"Are you kidding me? We've known him for less than an hour and he introduced himself by mumbling and muttering at the speed of sound while looking everywhere but in our eyes. Lad's already acting barmy and we've hardly even met him."

"Well, I've just finished up my work here, and you don't seem to be busy, so if you want, we could go see how he and his driver are getting along."
"Yea," Said Sir Handel. "This ought to be good…"

Duncan wasn't happy at all as he felt his controls be fiddled with and switched. Duncan had operated on his own for years and years and having someone standing around in his cab, grabbing ahold of his controls was such a foreign feeling that it was very uncomfortable and irritating to him. Even worse, Dane wasn't lying when he said he was new to driving engines. Duncan hadn't even been driven before but even he could tell that Dane wasn't 100% sure of what he was doing. He may have shown confidence before, but Dane made up for that with inexperience. Duncan could hear him mumbling to himself from his cab, about which lever did what and reminding himself what each gauge should read. The poor lad had even come up with several acronyms to remember things by, as eye-roll inducing as that was for Duncan. He couldn't help but think that neither of them would have to worry about this if he'd just be allowed to go off without a driver like he had on his old railway.

Duncan flinched and jerked to the side a bit as he felt a hand pat his cab door.
"I think I'm getting the hang of this!" Dane's voice came excitedly from Duncan's cab. Duncan's face scrunched up and his eyes shut as he took a deep breath. Why was it so difficult for people to not take him by surprise? Or touch him without his permission for that matter. Duncan muttered indignantly to himself.

"And I think I'm getting annoyed with you." Duncan hissed under his breath.

"What was that? D'you say something, Duncan?" Dane asked. Duncan felt him lean out of his cab a little bit.

"Nothing. Just humming." Duncan said. Though he was genuinely growing quite frustrated with the whole ordeal. It was bad enough to be on a new railway, but having to have a driver was a whole new hell he wasn't pleased to be putting up with. Duncan began to bucket a bit, just to be spiteful, and he felt Dane stumble a bit in his cab.
"Woah! Easy there, boy! Rusty must've missed a spot when he fixed up these rails, we must've hit a rough spot."

Rough spot, indeed. Duncan thought to himself as he continued to bucket and bounce indignantly. He thought of how annoying this new railway was and everything else going on. From his embarrassing interaction with his fellow engines to having to have an overeager inexperienced driver, he was growing quite angry with his current situation. The more frustrated Duncan became, the more he bounced and rocked.

Meanwhile, watching from afar, Sir Handel and Rheneas had been observing how Duncan was doing, and weren't very impressed.

"Good Lord, the way he's jerking about you'd think he's got a bolt loose." Sir Handel muttered. "Look at 'im, bumpin' about like no one's business. Who's he think he is?"

Rheneas shook a little, "I don't know, but he's definitely never had a driver before and it really shows."

It was at this point they watched in surprise as Duncan bucketed forwards with a jerk and Dane stumbled from his footplate. Sir Handel looked confused.

"Bloody 'ell, what is he doing?" Sir Handel mumbled, glancing back at Rheneas.

"Does he not realize?" Rheneas muttered, glancing back at Sir Handel in equal confusion.

"Ay, bruv!" Sir Handel shouted. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Without receiving a reply, they both watched in surprised horror and realization as Duncan raced away, Dane running after him.

"Di-Did he seriously just—" Rheneas stammered, almost at a loss for words.

"Did he just fucking dump and ditch?!" Sir Handel cried. "Oh, what a jackass! I told you he was a basket case!" Sir Handel huffed to Rheneas before he hurried off to see the outcome of this. Rheneas quickly followed behind.

Both engines weren't too far behind and had caught sight of Duncan who was bucketing and swaying down the line.

"Oi!" Sir Handel shouted. "Any explanation for dumping your driver back there?" Duncan didn't seem to have heard him, and Sir Handel was about to shout to him again when Rheneas thought back to a conversation he'd had with Duke a while ago. During it they'd been discussing what to do when someone wouldn't listen, and Rheneas remembered Duke had said something about 'letting someone figure things out'.

"Let's go back." Rheneas said, slowing himself.

"Huh?" Sir Handel asked. "Go back?"

"He doesn't seem to be in any danger." Rheneas said. "If he gets himself into trouble, he'll have to figure his way out of it."

Sir Handel looked at Rheneas strangely for a moment, seemed to contemplate something, then sighed a little.

"Yeah," He said. "Let's go back. He'll have fun trying to find his way back to the sheds on his own." Sir Handel hissed, glowering back in Duncan's direction.

Duncan on the other hand, had been surprised when Dane had stumbled out of his cab, but his initial surprise had quickly worn off and he'd become quite deviously pleased with himself. He'd gotten exactly what he'd wanted to, to go off without a driver! He felt much better this way, being able to go off on his own rather than have some inexperienced lad manning his controls. Duncan grinned smugly and hummed to himself as he strolled along the line. He didn't need any silly driver to tell him what to do! He'd had plenty of people ordering him around in his life and didn't need to add one more to the mix, even if this one was pretty harmless compared to the rest.

"Stupid engine! I told you to get those trucks already! Get a move on you lazy arse, you've got work to do and we aren't going to wait all day for you!" A man shouted. Duncan shut his eyes as he saw the man throw something, which clanged against his boiler painfully, leaving a dent. A crowbar. It rattled to the floor as Duncan cringed and winced, but he quickly hurried along to get his trucks like he'd been told.

Duncan shuddered a little and tried to clear the memory out of his head, swaying up and down and side to side in an almost circular motion to ease his nerves. This 'rocking and rolling' seemed to soothe him and settle down his mind and so he kept doing it as he puffed along the line. Duncan was so distracted by his own thoughts and his fidgeting that he didn't realize he was coming up to a tunnel, and rocked himself up, his tall funnel hitting and knocking out the keystone. Duncan realized what had happened as it happened.
"Oh horrors," He gasped as the tunnel trembled and rumbled above him. Duncan shut his eyes as bricks and stone came raining down, collapsing and trapping Duncan in tight. Duncan's eyes shot open again and he had to force himself not to freak out as he also realized at that moment that he was apparently rather claustrophobic. Dane was horrified at the mess when he finally caught up with his engine.

"Oh no!" Dane cried. "Oh dear this isn't good at all,"

"Yeh think?" Duncan hissed unkindly. Dane frowned, seemingly a little hurt, before mumbling to himself again.

"Oh, Mr. Percival's gonna kill us," He groaned, putting his hands over his face. "What were you thinking, Duncan? You can't just go running off without me! You're lucky you didn't get far or you might have never been found! How'd you even manage to take a tunnel down?"

Duncan simmered, and spat out an answer without even thinking.

"Not my fault the stupid tunnel is so small! Tunnels should be tunnels, not rabbit-holes!" Duncan didn't even realize he was the one who'd said it for a split second, but it was too late to take it back now.

"The tunnel's big enough for all the other engines who pass through it! What were you doing?"

"Nothing!" Duncan said, his voice almost taking on a whine. He didn't want to admit that he'd been distracted and fidgeting and taken down the tunnel in the process.

"Well whatever you did, now we'll have to dig you out and send you in for repairs."

Dane groaned and pulled his gray hat off his head, revealing a mess of sandy blonde hair. He leaned against the part of the tunnel that remained standing, his face curled in frustration. Duncan started to feel remorse for leaving the poor man behind at the sight of this, having only seen Dane giving his goofy grin before this point. He felt even worse as he heard what Dane was muttering quietly.
"My first day and I already messed up this bad…"

Duncan wanted to apologize but felt a tightness in his throat and forced himself to look away. He wasn't going to let himself get attached to anyone. Not after what had happened last time he had. Duncan scowled to himself and said nothing.