Gordon was not impressed the next morning, emitting an angry shout before kicking over a wooden crate. He hurt his foot on the crate and fell back while swearing loudly. He pointed at Percy and Thomas who were just arriving into the shed, an accusing finger focusing on the younger engineer - Thomas.
"You!" Gordon shouted. "You put that… that THING on my locomotive! It gave Henry a major fright when he saw it!" He gestured at the number four locomotive, which had a gigantic photo of Thomas's face attached to the front.
"What?" Thomas peered at the strange sight and found that he wanted to break up. It was a photo that had been taken half a year ago where he had made a ridiculous face into his camera. Truly a masterpiece.
Percy, who had also taken notice of the locomotive, emitted an incredibly loud laugh, clapping his hands together. "That's too good! Thomas, did you put your face on engine four? I can't believe you did that!" Percy combed his hands through his brown hair and kept laughing, so a lock of hair fell onto his face. "I'd think you'd put your face on engine one!"
"I didn't put it there," Thomas replied. He stepped closer to Percy to get further away from Gordon. "I'd put that one picture of Gordon when he sneezed on engine four."
Either way, Gordon grabbed Thomas by the shoulders and pushed him towards the locomotive. "Get it off of my engine." He was quite mad at what he was seeing.
"Get it off of your engine? But I didn't put it there!" Thomas argued.
"I'll get it down," Percy said and he went over to the locomotive but Gordon told him to stop.
"I don't want you touching my locomotive, Percy. It's much too big of an engine for you to handle. You'd probably hurt yourself."
Percy emitted a loud sigh and stepped away. "A steam engine is a steam engine is a steam engine, but I won't touch your silly tender engine."
"And that's how it should be. Thomas, if you don't remove that abomination from my train this instant, I will let the Fat Controller know that you're interfering with the safety of steam locomotives!"
"You know what?" Someone came pushing past Percy. It was Henry, clad in his blue wool uniform and already sweating. "I'll take it down. It scared me this morning but I guess it is funny. But don't do that again, Thomas." He climbed up and peeled the picture off carefully. He waved it around in the air a bit. "Maybe it'll look good in the break room?"
"Just throw it away, Henry." Gordon went climbing into the cab to get things ready. "We have an Express to pull! I'm engineer today, Henry is fireman. Edward will be the guard. Thomas, go with your friend and shunt the coaches over here. Where's Edward?"
"I'm here, I'm here," Edward replied and he was holding a set of keys. "I inspected my train already so I can safety spot you for coupling up. Thomas, Percy, you're working with engine six today. The Fat Controller has already briefed me and engine one needs to be cleaned and looked over so you'll probably shunt it over to the Steamworks. That, or Diesel and Paxton will come over. Pay attention to the radio."
They set off to do their work and got the assigned locomotives ready to go. As Percy climbed into the cab of engine six, he saw Edward motion towards him.
"And I'll be careful coupling up the coaches!" Edward said.
Percy scowled and shook his head, nudging Thomas a bit. He rolled his eyes.
"You make one mistake working with an American coupler, and no one lets you live it down!" He shook his left hand, which was lacking two fingers, the ring and little finger. "It's only two, I still have eight more fingers."
"Who's going to be our guard for today?" Thomas asked.
"I thought you checked the schedule. Oh! I think it's… Emily! Emily, are you the guard for us?" Percy waved at the woman as she approached and she waved back.
"Hi! Sorry I'm late, but Diesel was already out with Paxton and they just had to give me a hard time. Let me get ready and we can do our shove out of the station." She got situated and started to give car counts. "We can probably skip the safety stop for coupling up to the Express. I'm switching to using the radio."
There was no problem with getting the first jobs done and as soon as the Express was shunted and coupled up to engine four, the air brakes were connected and beginning to charge. Thomas got his engine to move back and watched as the Express pulled away. He glanced at Percy, who was carrying a tea thermos. Percy noticed him and gave a quick smile before focusing on his tea. Thomas was going to return the grin but he was nudged by Emily, who was looking over a sheet of paper.
"What's next?" Emily asked. "Wait, I think Diesel is taking engine one down to the Steamworks. We're going to be working the farm view ride, so we need to get coupled to the coaches. Annie and Clarabel should be arriving soon to get the coaches ready. It'll look a bit odd, I think."
"Most people expect engine one for the farm view," Thomas commented. "Engine six isn't standard. Philip and Sidney will probably come to provide assistance. It's funny how engine six isn't made for pulling trains but they still make it." He gave Percy a playful shove.
"It is my favorite engine," Percy replied and he rubbed his shoulder. "That was rather hard, Thomas. You might break my arm."
It was meant as a joke but Thomas did step back a little, not wanting to bump into his friend. It seemed like if he did Percy might just shatter, but Thomas was just being paranoid because after being given a warning or a suggestion, he did become hyper aware of things. Percy was actually incredibly husky in build, unlike Thomas who was a string bean.
Not that Thomas had a problem with how Percy was built. He thought it looked charming, in a way. He wanted to stand closer to Percy but the way the other was working, being a fireman, put Thomas at risk of getting hit with a shovel. But staring at his friend wouldn't get the jobs done. When they were coupled up with their coaches and the two car attendants were getting ready, Thomas watched as Percy got his tea thermos out and took a long sip.
"Cor blimey!"
It came as a surprise when Percy spewed water and leaned over the side of the cab, spitting and coughing. He looked at his thermos and took out the tea bag, and gave it a quick whiff. He handed it over to Thomas.
"Smells like pepper," Thomas said, and Percy nodded.
"Who would put bloody peppercorns in my tea?" Percy tossed the 'tea' out of the thermos. "I won't be able to get this taste out of my mouth. Who does this? Who?"
"Maybe it's whoever put my face on engine four." Thomas looked out the cab and saw Emily moving about. "But it can't be that bad."
Percy shrugged. "I just hope I can get actual tea, though. Wait. Gordon - Gordon usually takes tea from the box. He thinks I don't know but Emily tells me about it. Thomas, you don't think that Gordon got some of those peppercorns instead of tea? He'll think I was the one who did that."
"But you didn't," Thomas pointed out.
"Well, Gordon doesn't really listen to what I say."
"He listens," Thomas said. "Emily! We ready to head to the station?"
"Yes, Thomas!" Emily replied and they were off to get passengers.
They passed by James who gave a slight wave. He gave an odd look at the two in the cab. Percy leaned out the cab and gave James the finger using his left hand. He might be missing two but he still had the middle finger. James returned the lewd gesture.
"Percy! You shouldn't do that, a tourist could see you."
"But they didn't," Percy replied, and they both laughed.
Thomas enjoyed hearing his friend laugh and he could feel a blush in his cheeks. He didn't look at his friend as they were working.
"Percy?"
"Yes, Thomas?"
"Eheh… nevermind."
There was a stifling silence in the cab which was only broken as Thomas communicated with Emily via radio.