Authors note: I don't own any of the characters, they all belong to HIT Entertainment. And please excuse my poor english, I'm norwegian and didn't pay too much attention in my english class...

Playing with fire

Thomas chugged down his branchline as he suddenly saw a familiar figure coming towards him.

"Lady!" he beamed. "What a surprise!"

They both pulled to a stop to talk. She looked a bit shy and nervous with a light blush on her face, thought Thomas.

"Hello, Thomas!" she said with red roses in her cheeks. "I'm only on a short visit… umm… I really like the nature at Sodor. So I decided to take trip, nothing more. Ehrr…"

"Yeah, it's the best!" Thomas chuckled, noticing her shifty eyes, as if she was nervous about something. "You look anxious… is something wrong?"

Lady pulled herself together and sighed. Blushing even a bit more, looking uncomfortable. "No, not at all! Why do you think so?"

Thomas puffed. "Oh well… I guess it was all in my mind. But if there is ever something wrong… you know you can come to me to talk, right?"

Lady smiled shy. "I know that, Thomas. Thank you! I've gotta go now. Bye!"

Then she chugged away, leaving puzzled Thomas behind.

"Hmm…" Thomas picked up speed again. Soon he heard a familiar whistle as Edward caught up with him.

"Hello, Thomas!" Edward greeted. "On your way home?"

"Not yet, I still have a few more stops. Did you meet Lady too?"

"Yeah, but she seemed to be in a hurry." Edward said. "Do you know what I heard at the docks today? Salty told me a great story, want to hear?"

Thomas seemed as if he hadn't even heard the last sentences. "Did you notice anything strange?"

"Huh? About Salty? He's always a bit strange, but I didn't notice anything unusual."

"No! Not Salty. I meant Lady."

"Oh, her…" Edward puffed. "No, not really. She had a cute blush, but I didn't notice anything else. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, nothing…" Thomas muttered.

He wasn't able to let go of the thought, there seemed to be something bothering the pink, tiny female engine. He wanted to help, not only was she a good friend, but he had also a mild crush on her. Maybe, if he were able to help her with her problem… she would return his feelings?

As he backed into his shed later that night, his thoughts kept swirling around Lady. If she didn't want to tell, he wasn't going to push her. He was simply going to be there for her when she felt ready to share what was bothering her. Hopefully, she would visit Sodor again soon.

He grunted as he heard some diesels rumble past the sheds, but he knew that someone had to work the nightshifts and he was glad that it was diesels instead of him this time. He could enjoy a nice night's sleep, while they had to work.

His wish was granted. Only two days after he first had ran into her, he saw her parked on a siding on a hill overlooking the desert-like area by Vicarstown. He puffed up on the track beside her.

"Hi, Lady! Lovely day isn't it?" he smiled and looked down into valley, diesels were hurrying back and forth shunting and hauling and being overall busy. They were really useful engines, he gave them that.

Lady smiled and took a deep breath. "Hi, Thomas! Yeah, it certainly is!"

"If you're here for the nature, this is sure a strange place to enjoy it? I mean, it's all sand and dust here… and diesels…" he said as he looked down at the dieselworks.

"I think all nature is beautiful… and it's quite interesting watching the diesels work." Lady said with a peaceful smile.

"You think diesels are interesting?" Thomas snickered. "You're the only one who thinks so."

"All engines have value, Thomas." Lady said, making Thomas blush like a naughty schoolboy. He felt embarrassed that he had said something she didn't approve.

"I guess you're right. That was a rude thing to say." Thomas said looking down at the diesels. "Some of them are quite nice actually."

"All of them have their qualities, Thomas."

"Of course… though it can be hard to see anything good in some of them. Diesel 10 and Diesel…"

"… are also good at the bottom." She cut him off, making him blush in shame again.

"Such a shame it's such a long way down to that bottom…" he mumbled to himself.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Lady puffed, smiling as she looked down at the diesels working. There was an engine down there who was harder to pull her eyes from than the others.

"Who are you looking at?" Thomas wondered.

"Oh, no one special." Lady blushed, quickly moving her stare to another engine. "Just watching their activities. If you excuse me, I have to move on. Bye now."

Thomas stood there after she left, still looking down at the diesels. What did she find so interesting down there? A black shunter pulled some trucks to a siding, he looked up at the blue engine. Thomas whistled a greeting, but Diesel just snorted and continued working.

Mavis came out of the main shed, along with Den and Dart. The two males stopped outside, while Mavis headed off to the quarry.

Diesel 10 was lifting some scrap into a truck that was coupled to Paxton. Sidney pulled away one that was already full.

Salty backed into a berth. BoCo drove out of another.

Thomas just puffed backwards, he didn't find this as interesting as Lady.

"It's just diesels!" he sighed and chugged away. Then she caught a glimpse of Lady on another siding, not far away. She was still looking down at the dieselworks. Was she avoiding him?

He felt hurt. She had left him and just drove off to the next siding!

Sulking, he sped up down the line to do his job. But the thoughts bothered him all day.

Had he said or done something wrong?

He tried to think back. Perhaps it was his rude comment about diesels? He should have known that Lady did value all engines equally. Or was it his comment about the desert? If she really loved all nature, that might have been insulting. Or did she simply want to be alone? He couldn't understand why, but decided that he needed to respect that not all engines needed company all the time. Some even preferred to be alone. Like Diesel 10, who shut himself up inside his armored shed as soon as he was done with his work. But that engines was different from every one else, it would be unfair to judge all diesels based on Diesel 10's behavior. There was probably a good reason why the Fat Controlled had built a reinforced shed for the warship. He doubted that it was because Diesel 10 was such a nice, polite and hardworking engine… oh well, he WAS hardworking. Thomas had to admit that. But the armored shed was probably because the menacing diesel tended to be very aggressive.

"Why the hell am I thinking about Diesel 10?!" Thomas mumbled to himself. "Great… now I am swearing too…"

He shrugged the thoughts off, meeting up with Percy at Knapford station.

"You don't look very cheerful, Thomas…" Percy said worried. "You feeling ok?"

"Hmpf… yeah. It's just that… I met Lady." Thomas sighed and told Percy everything. "It looks like she is avoiding me!"

Percy chuckled. "Or maybe she has a crush at someone and wanted to admire that engine alone without you interrupting?"

"Don't be silly! There was only diesels down there!" Thomas huffed, but he had to admit his thoughts had wandered in the same direction earlier.

"So? Maybe there is a certain diesel who makes her pistons run a little faster?" Percy giggled.

Thomas gritted his teeth. He didn't like the thought at all. "You seem to know something about it? Who do you think it is?"

"Nobody in particular." Percy saw that Thomas was upset by the thought and decided to tease him a little extra. "Maybe a strong, shiny black shunter… straight from the wash… pulling a long train of coaltrucks… girls like badguy attitude…"

"Stop it!" Thomas shouted, making everyone at the station stop and look at him. He flushed red. "Sorry… I wasn't talking to you…"

Percy chuckled and puffed away. Thomas headed to the next station, the thought of what the little green engine had said bothered him. It couldn't be Diesel?!

His firebox cooled just by the thought. He wasn't able to let go of that thought, soon his mind started making up pictures of Diesel and Lady together… laughing together, shunting trucks together… kissing.

"ARRRG!" he sped up with tears in his eyes. "Not Diesel! Everyone else but him!"

That night, he was red-eyed and sniffled as he backed into his berth next to Edward. The older engine looked at him sideways.

"Is anything bothering you, Thomas? Have you been crying?"

"Yes… but I don't want to talk about it…" Thomas sniffled, the thought of Diesel and Lady made tears prickle behind his eyelids again. "Ok, ok… it's Lady, Edward."

Edward waited for the young engine to continue.

"I have a crush on her…"

Edward smiled calm. "Why is that making you sad? Did she reject you?"

"Worse!" Thomas sniffled. "She's dating Diesel!"

Edward jumped a bit, but kept his cool. "Oh… I'm sorry, Thomas. But nobody chooses who they fall in love with. We should be happy for them! Maybe this will make Diesel a bit friendly?"

"I know I should be happy for her, being her bestfriend and all, but I just can't stand the thought of Diesel touching her!" Thomas bawled, now crying so hard he was trembling.

"Oh, dear Thomas…. I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better." Edward said, feeling bad for the little blue engine. "Nothing hurts more than a broken heart."

Thomas whimpered, trying to calm himself down. "I would have been happy if it had been someone else she was dating… but that oily, greasy son of a…"

"Now now! No need to use foul language!" Edward said softly. "You just have to give it some time, your heart will heal, I promise."

"Edward, have you ever been in love?" Thomas asked, trying to get his mind off his own heartache.

Edward chuckled fatherly. "For someone my age, it would have been strange if I hadn't, wouldn't it?"

Thomas smiled through his tears. "That was a silly question."

Edward smiled back. "Just trust me when I say that everything will get better in time. You'll find someone else who will love you just the way you are, young one."

Thomas looked out of the shed, seeing the other engines arrive, backing into their berths. A long day of work was over. Two diesels rumbled by, Arry and Bert was shunting an old, rusty engine to the smelters. Thomas shuddered. Those two had a rather unpleasant job, bringing engines to being scrapped. Like grim messengers of doom… if they came to get you, it meant the end of the line.

He shook the thoughts off, looking back at Edward.

"Thanks for the talk, Edward. Good night."

"Good night, Thomas."

To be continued…