Sodor's New Worker (Semi-Hiatus Due to an AO3 rewrite)

Stargazers

   James was all but excited at the sheds, looking in the mirror to make sure that he looked nothing shy of perfect. 

"What..are you doing?" Thomas asked, coming up from behind him. "Find a stray hair?"

"No, you moron. I got a date with Vivian!"

"Vivian? Your baker girl?"

"Who else have I been talking to for the past almost...three years?"

"I don't know!" the smaller man grumbled. "I stopped caring about your love life a month after Mads left us."

"I-" James frowned. "It's Vivian. We're going star gazing tonight. She really knows a lot about stars and planets and all that..just like.."

"Just like Maddy, I know." Thomas spoke, rolling his eyes. "You seem to be comparing Vivian to Maddy a lot."

"Well, they're similar. Similar tastes in music, similar hobbies. They're both able to hold their own.."

"Are you sure Vivian's not some sort of rebound?"

"Of course not! I have my taste in women...I'm allowed to love again, Thomas. Maddy would want me to be happy.."

"I mean..I guess you're right. I still adamantly believe that you're making Vivian up, too."

"I'm not making her up! Why would I make up someone so kind..?"

"..Because you're lonely." Thomas said, the cheekiness in his tone subtle, but there. "Only you would be so badly in denial that you'd make someone up to mend that hole in your heart, wouldn't you?"

"I-"

"And she just seems so similar to someone you previously knew."

"She's 100% real and I'm going to prove it to you. She's going to come pick me up."

"Oooh! A girl who can drive. Now that's different." Thomas laughed.

"Quit being so rude to him, Little Thomas." Gordon sternly said. "He probably does have a date with a very real person, while you're sitting here with someone so completely out of your league I'm flabbergasted she chose you."

"Least I have someone, Gordon." Thomas huffed. "What do you have besides your express?"

"..."

   Thomas only laughed when Gordon decided not to answer him.

"That...aside..when's Vivian supposed to get here?" the bigger engine asked James, who was still making sure there wasn't a speck of dirt on him.

"In liiiiike..an hour and a half?"

"And you're already getting ready?"

"I want to look my best, thank you." James snapped. "You'd want to, too, Gordon, especially for a first date."

"Wasn't your first date with Ma-"

"A paintball fight, yes, but Vivian's more sophisticated than that. We'll try paintball for the second, if it goes well."

"If?" he heard Thomas snicker.

"Thomas if you say one more thing I'm going to exterminate you like the cockroach you are."

"I am no cockroach. That's Nate, at least he looks like one."

"You are so incredibly bold for a tank engine in punching distance." Nathan spat, not breaking his concentration from the Swap he inherited from Maddy when she vanished. "And if you say that about me, what about Percy?"

"Well, he-"

"Why am I just a cockroach, Thomas? If you're saying that because of my shape, that would make Percy a cockroach too."