A/N The opening scene was inspired by how you can be so distracted you forget to eat, which is how I view forgetting to get coal would be for an engine, kinda like. Food's fuel, like coal's their fuel.
One day, Erica found Thomas broken down on a siding. "What's wrong?", she asked her "brother".
"Little sister, I ran out of steam. I've been so busy, I forgot to get more coal. Just been run off my wheels all morning", he sighed.
She said, "What shall I do?", to mimic the Sodor engines' way of speaking.
Her "brother" said, "Shunt me to the nearest coaling plant would be the best, probably,"
The engines' drivers agreed with the plan and so it went.
After Thomas got his coal, he and his "sister" had some time to talk outside the coaling plant. Erica made an expression on her face that reminded her "brother" of his actual older sister, who was a kind-hearted and cheeky engine. She was always nice to her younger brother and they often got into trouble together. It made him get sad.
Erica asked her "big brother", "Thomas, what's made you sad? Just cry if you need to. It's okay if you do." She pressed his buffers with hers in an engine hug.
He told his "little sister", "You reminded me of my actual older sister." and began to cry, sobbing quietly and sniffling. "That expression on your face", he said in a sob-filled voice, his face wet with tears.
As Erica engine hugged her "brother", his driver comforted him, too.
"There, there", he said, as he gently dried his engine's tears with a cloth. "I know it's hard to remember her, so it's okay to cry."
"I shall always remember my siblings", Thomas sniffled.
His driver said as he continued to wipe the tears away, "I know you bonded with your older siblings that first summer. You just needed to let it all out when the memory of her was triggered."
After finishing his cry, Thomas had a drink and then Erica asked her "brother", "Can we play Hide and Peep, like we did the other day? I got a temporary driver today. My usual driver was very sick to his stomach, so my fireman took over. So, I got a relief fireman."
He told his "sister", "Whenever we're both free, like after our jobs are done." And they parted ways until then.
After their work was done, Thomas met his "sister" in Knapford for Hide and Peep. She hid behind some freight cars first and then he hid on a siding behind a stopped train. They had time for another round before it got too dark, so she hid in a shed and her "brother" hid behind a warehouse at the yard.
Erica said to her "big brother", "How long have you lived here?"
He told his "little sister", "Ever since 106 was built. My number was 105 when I was built at Brighton Works. He sighed, remembering. His driver gave the tank engine a caress on his cab for comfort. "For whatever reason, I was sent here and helped build the railway. I did things like shunt ballast trucks for other engines, like Edward. I'm an E2 class tank engine, even though I had some modifications."
His "sister"said, "I'm a US-built tank engine, S100 class. And as we're talking, I feel the need to tell you something. I hurt Percy's feelings, though unaware. He was doing some shunting with me and he messed up. I told him so and he was quite hurt. But I told him I didn't mean to hurt his feelings. I feel terrible when I do that. I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings. I just want to be honest. But I gave him a buffer press and told I didn't mean to hurt his feelings. His driver comforted him, too, until he felt better."
Her "brother" said, "He's easily upset. I get you feeling terrible about messing up. Maybe my messing up was different, but I've got a number of things I've felt bad about, even to go so far as feeling like crying when I forgot my first train, once I knew."
They parted for their sheds for the night.
A/N The reason I had Thomas be the one to run out of coal's his basis. However, I did once read a Rosie Angelina fic in which Caitlin ran out of coal because she forgot to get more and the other scenes came from my FanFiction buddy or just sounded good to me, like Hide and Peep, so just a bunch of different things inspired this one. I'll do something with the Steamworks next, since I had that come to mind as an idea for that, too. The scene of Thomas missing his siblings was inspired by my buddy here. Her class is what it is because it's a US-built 0-6-0 side tank engine. She's a coal one, though they could be oil ones, too.