A/N: Although the past few chapters have been about romance (including this one), the next ones will align more strongly with the patterns of regular episodes from the show—and by that, I mean they'll be more focused on daily life and teaching morals of the stories—but with some Hurt/Comfort scenes (going along with the other genre that this story has been given), so as to keep things interesting and spark character development.

Also, concerning buffer pressing (the engine equivalent of hugs in my Thomasverse), there are times where it could be considered more like the engines are holding each other, like what Edward and Eithne were doing in the previous chapter during their confession.

Michaela the Iridescent Engine was enjoying her life on Sodor very much. It had been three weeks since she and her crew had first arrived on the island, and bit by bit, she was adjusting to her job and the layout of the Little Western.

Today, however, Sir Topham Hatt had given Michaela another job to help her get used to a different part of the island. She was to help Philip and Charlie sort the trucks in the shunting yard at Knapford, since it was getting rather backed up from recent deliveries.

"Wait, wait, wait. Guys, where was I supposed to put these tankers again?" Michaela asked Philip.

But he was too busy laughing at one of Charlie's jokes and didn't hear her talking to him. "Hahaha… Eh, sorry. What?"

She angrily puffed up her cheeks and tried not to have a meltdown. "Where do I put these?"

"Oh, those? They go over—"

"Hey Philip, what do you call an alligator in a vest?"

"I don't know. What?"

"An investigator!"

While the two little engines burst out laughing, Michaela just groaned and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, there was a big yellow tender engine sitting right in front of her.

"Aaah!" she screamed, and immediately reversed.

"Woah, calm down, Michaela. It's just me." The engine gave her a comforting smile.

The iridescent engine stopped and stared at her for a moment. "Wait… I know you! I met you the day I came here to Sodor. Uh… was it Betsy?"

"Rebecca," she chuckled.

Michaela sighed sadly. "I knew that… or I did for a couple of days, at least."

"I'm sure you'll be able to pronounce certain things better in the future," said Rebecca. "And if you don't, remember that even the engines who have lived on Sodor for many decades all still struggle with one thing or another themselves, too."

"I sure hope I can overcome it… You see, it's not so much having a hard time pronouncing words or names that's the problem," Michaela explained. "It's actually remembering them, or anything else that people tell me, like a job I'm supposed to do. Apparently, my mind doesn't consider those things important enough to remember, even if they are and I consciously try to remember them."

She glanced over at the two boys, who were telling each other jokes as they absent-mindedly shunted trucks into what Michaela hoped were their proper places. "And names are very important. I can't remember what those engines' names are, and if I'm going to fully catch their attention, I need to remember what they are."

Rebecca cleared her throat. "Charlie, Philip! Michaela needs your help right now, so please listen to her and tell her where these oil tankers need to go."

"Oh, right! Sorry about that, Michaela," said Philip. "They go right over there," and he went to show her.

Michaela was surprised as she went to shunt the tankers where they belonged. "How'd you do that, Rebecca?"

"Like you said. You just need to get their attention focused on you." She smiled.

Just then, a dark green tender engine puffed into the yard, and Rebecca perked up excitedly. "Oh, that's Emily. You'll like her a lot. Emily!" she called to the engine.

Michaela winced at the shout, but didn't mind when Emily came over to say hello to them both.

"Emily, this is Michaela, the pretty rainbow engine that I was telling you about the other day," said Rebecca.

*"P-pretty…?" Michaela whispered, with a blush. No one had ever called her that before.

The more she thought about it, Michaela realized that some of the other engines did think that she was pretty, and her iridescent livery was indeed beautiful.

As the three girls chatted with each other, Michaela spotted the Fat Controller walking towards them.

"Oh, here comes Stout Topham Hatt." She realized too late. "Wait! I mean—"

Rebecca and Emily held back their laughter as Sir Topham came up to the iridescent tender engine.

"I'm glad to see you're making new friends, Michaela. You have done an excellent job assisting Philip and Charlie as well. Unfortunately, I've just received news that there is some confusion and delay back at Arlesburgh Yards and you're needed there urgently, now that things are under control here thanks to your efforts."

Michaela's face was a deep red as she tried to compose herself. "Yes, sir. I'll go there right away."

As the Fat Controller walked away, Rebecca whistled goodbye to Michaela, and Emily smiled at her as she began to puff over to the goods train she had come to collect. "It's so nice to finally meet you! If you ever have any questions or need some tips, I'm happy to help."

Michaela whistled as she watched her go, then she said goodbye to Charlie and Philip and promptly left Knapford.

She headed all the way up Duck's Branch Line to Arlesburgh, and when she arrived at the shunting yard, there was certainly a lot of confusion all around. Troublesome Trucks were scattered around and not at all where they belonged, and they were laughing loudly and singing rude songs as Oliver tried to shunt them all by himself.

"Come on," he groaned as he struggled to pull some trucks who had their brakes on. "What is it with you all today? Everything was going just fine this morning, until one of you brought up the engine who's not here right now…"

"We want Michaela!" the trucks shouted. "We want Michaela! We want—"

"Oh, Michaela! Thank goodness you're here!" Oliver sighed in relief when he saw the iridescent engine steam into sight.

He puffed over to a siding to rest as he watched Michaela take over again. "They've been complaining all day, saying that they wanted you to come back and teach them more songs… I just don't know what to make of it."

"Oh, well… I always sing to them as I work." She smiled. "Makes things easier on all of us, including myself."

"I'll say," said Duck as he puffed into the yard. "There has been confusion and delay here almost since right after you left. The trucks have been troublesome and gave Oliver a load of trouble each time I left to take care of my next job."

He sighed. "And that will never do. This is the Little Western after all, and there are two ways of doing things here on this branch line: the Great Western way…"

"'Or the wrong way,'" Michaela and Oliver finished in unison.

After a few moments of silence, the iridescent engine asked Duck, "So, are you dropping off a train, or picking one up, or…?"

"Actually, I have a piece of advice for you instead, Michaela..." Duck began, with a suspicious leer at the driver inside of her cab.

She finished shunting some trucks off to one side and puffed closer to him. "Yes?"

Duck glanced back at his own driver and narrowed his eyes, with a look of annoyance. "Don't ever allow your driver or anybody else to boil an egg on your whistle."

Michaela was confused. "Uh... okay?"

She gave Kennet a quizzical look, and he chuckled nervously and quickly hid something small and white behind his back.

Duck whistled and began to pull away. "Feel free to return the favor any time, Michaela."

His driver poked his head out of the pannier's cab. "Come now, Duck. You're not still sour about that, are you? It was just one time."

Duck sighed. "Yes, and it was absolutely humiliating. Try it again one more time, and I'm never letting you near my whistle ever again."

His driver pulled back into the cab. "Fair enough. It's annoying to have to travel all the way to the Steamworks just to get it cleaned out, anyways."

Michaela glared suspiciously at Kennet. "You weren't just about to... Were you?"

He laughed nervously. "Uh, n-nope. Definitely... ah, wasn't about to, no..." Kennet punctuated this with a crunch into the shell of the raw egg he had been holding.

Which he immediately regretted, and he covered his mouth as he went to go find a place to throw it up.

A few hours later, Michaela and her crew were back at Tidmouth Hault Sheds, and she listened to them talking as they cleaned her up for the night.

"Sir Topham Hatt says we're needed back at Knapford first thing in the morning again," Sam was telling Kennet. "The shunting yard got backed up again a couple of hours after we left, and they need our help until noon to straighten things up again. He says that things should go back to normal from there."

Kennet sighed. "With Philip and Charlie goofing off every minute or so, I'm really not surprised."

"They're hard workers when they're paying attention though, especially Philip." Sam paused to shake a pebble out of his boot. "Our engine is a hard worker too, though, isn't it?"

"'It's' a 'she'."

"Mia's a 'she'."

"Shut. Up."

Michaela's drooping eyelids flew open again with interest.

"What's going on? Who's Mia?" she asked them.

Kennet glanced up at their engine with surprise, then quickly lowered his head. "Oh, i-it's nothing, Michaela. Don't worry about it..."

Sam rolled his eyes and turned to face her. "We've been on the island for a few weeks now, and Kennet's already dating someone."

"What does that mean?"

Kennet desperately tried to shush Sam, but the fireman ignored his pleas and continued. "It means he has a crush on a girl he knows and likes a lot. Actually, no—he loves her."

Michaela was confused, but she pretended that she knew what he was talking about and snickered a little.

Kennet's face turned red as he tried to deny Sam's claim, but he only managed to stammer out a few syllables before ultimately giving up on speech.

Michaela tried hard to focus on her shunting as she gently pushed some coaches over to where Charlie had told her to put them, but her mind kept replaying Kennet and Sam's conversation with her from the previous night, making it very hard for her to focus. What was "dating"? What did Sam mean when he said that Kennet loved Mia? And what on earth was a "crush"?

She shuddered. I hope it doesn't mean that Kennet's going to crush this Mia person… But he's too gentle and kind. Kennet would never hurt anybody, she told herself.

Suddenly Michaela's mind went blank, and she stopped moving. "Wait… what was I doing?"

Kennet and Sam had been talking to each other and not really paying attention. "What's the matter, Michaela?"

"I… forgot what I was doing." She paused and looked around. "...I'll just start all over again."

But as Michaela got back to work, she found herself wondering what love was again.

Suddenly, Michaela spotted Emily resting next to the water tower up ahead and decided to ask her about it. After all, Emily had told her the day before that she would answer her questions if she had any.

"Emily?" she asked as she pulled up next to her new friend.

"Hi, Michaela. What's up?"

The iridescent engine's eyes focused on the ground. "I was wondering… What is love?"

Kennet cringed inside of her cab, but Sam began to sing, "Oh baby, don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more…"

"Love?" Emily was surprised, but she closed her eyes as she thought about it. "Hm… I think that love is when you care deeply about someone else, even more than you care about yourself."

"Ohh!" Michaela's face lit up. "I like that!"

Emily smiled. "Me too. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I just heard my driver and fireman talking about it last night, and I never knew what it was until now."

Said driver and fireman silently began to argue with each other through gestures over whether or not it had been a good idea to let Michaela talk to Emily.

The dark green tender engine gazed off into the distance. "Yes… It's a wonderful feeling, and there are different ways of loving people. You can love them as your friends, your family… or romantically."

"What does that mean?"

Emily blushed. "Um… It means that y-you… like a certain someone else very much, and you, uh… you love them? A lot? I'm sorry, I don't know how to explain it very well…"

Michaela smiled a little. "That's okay. I have one more question… What does it mean if you have a 'crush' on someone?"

"It's related to romantic love, I think. Where did you learn that term?"

"I heard Kennet and Sam talking about it. I didn't know what that meant, either."

"Oh."

Silence fell between them, to the point where Kennet and Sam's struggles to take control of their engine became louder than the two girls.

After a few moments had passed, Michaela mustered up enough courage to ask, "Hey… Emily? Have you ever loved someone like that?"

Just then, Thomas puffed by with Annie and Clarabel. "Good morning, Emily! Hi, Michaela!"

Emily whistled back in greeting, then she sighed and watched the little blue tank engine chug away. "...Yes, Michaela. Yes, I do."

It didn't take Michaela long to make the connection. "You like Thomas, don't you?"

Emily's blush deepened, and she squinted her eyes shut with embarrassment. "Yes… P-please don't tell the other engines. I don't want them to make fun of me for it."

"I won't." The iridescent engine smiled. "And I don't see why they should make fun of you. If you love someone, don't they know that that's a special thing, and they shouldn't tease anyone for that?"

Emily paused as she pondered Michaela's words, then she smiled. "You're right, Michaela." She whistled. "Well, I had better go, now. Thanks for talking with me! And believe me… one day, you'll have your chance to fall in love with someone, too."

Michaela whistled as she watched Emily leave. Now she was wondering who she would fall in love with, too, if ever.

But, although Michaela had told Emily that people shouldn't tease someone for liking someone else romantically, she couldn't help poking fun at Kennet one more time later that evening.

When Michaela's driver and fireman got out of her cab once they had reached Tidmouth Hault Sheds, she immediately began to chortle with laughter. "So, Kennet... you're in love with a girl you already met, like, a week ago? Ha ha!"

Kennet gingerly folded his arms with a pout. "It's not as serious as either of you think it is," he said with a pointed glare at Sam. "And I met her two weeks ago, not one."

"Even better!" Sam replied. "Once you pack in enough days of getting to know each other so much that you'll want to be together forever... I think I can hear wedding bells on the horizon," and he winked at Michaela with a mischievous grin.

The iridescent engine burst out laughing again, much to her young driver's chagrin.

But as he and Sam were about to walk away from the sheds, Michaela called out to Kennet, "Hey… I think it's nice that you have someone to love. And I really wouldn't mind it if you… what was it that Sam called it? A wedding?"

Kennet was surprised, then he chuckled and walked back over to her. He patted her bufferbeam. "I don't know if Mia and I will get married, Michaela. You were right, we only just met… but maybe we will if it works out."

He paused, a blush coming into his cheeks. "And… I really do love her. Mia's a wonderful person. Who knows, maybe one day I'll introduce you to her."

"I would love that!" Michaela smiled widely.

Kennet nodded. "Okay, well… good night."

As she watched him go, the Scottish twins arrived at the sheds and took their place in the berths in between Michaela and Duck.

When Michaela began to drift off to sleep, she couldn't have been sure, but she thought she saw Douglas watching her with a shy smile, then quickly look away when she accidentally made eye contact with him.

Emily's words echoed in Michaela's mind as she closed her eyes and began to dream. "One day, you'll have your chance to fall in love with someone, too."

*Michaela's love language is Words of Affirmation, so kind words that are spoken to her mean a lot. Harsh words also hurt her the most, as shown towards the end of chapter one during Michaela's flashback.