"Man... I am beat-"
Daniel chugged backwards into the sheds, and reversed, right next to his friend Thomas. "Daniel! I'm so glad to see you!" Thomas exclaimed. Daniel smiled. "Me too Tom. Man, driving myself all the way to Manchester with Chris really drained me-"
Daniel could see that the other engines inside the shed where talking to each other. "What are you guys talking about?"
"Oh... we where just talking sharing our embarrassing experiences...and sad ones. We engines here talk about literally anything" Thomas chuckled. "You're right with that Thomas-" The red engine, with the number 5 on his tender, James, said. He looked at Henry. "So, Henry, share your most sad or embarrassing moment"
Henry sighed. "Well... it would have to be when I crashed with the flying kipper-"
"Yeah, that was unfortunate" Gordon said.
"What's yours James?" Henry asked.
"Uhh... I don't have one-"
"James, you where the one to come up with a sharing our experiences... share yours..." Edward said. "Uh... you first-" James said.
Edward rolled his eyes. "Well... it would have to be the time my side rods got stabbed up my side"
Daniel winced. "Dang..." He said. "How did your traction rods do that-"
"Crank pin broke..." Edward explained. "But... I pressed on. I didn't give up. If there's anything I learn from that incident... it's to never ever give up. So..." Edward looked at Daniel. "I know you're a kid in your human form... never give up little Daniel" He said. "I say that to Thomas a lot" He said.
"Thanks Dad" Thomas said rolling his eyes.
Daniel chuckled. "Thanks Edward. I won't"
Edward smiled, then looked at James. "James-?"
James looked over at Edward with a shocked looking expression. "H-hmm? Y-yes Edward?"
Edward sighed. "You're embarrassing or sad experience?"
"Ha! Oh right! Um..."
"Look, if you don't wanna talk about the time you crashed into those tank car-"
"Edward!" James yelled.
"Or the time I slowed you down after your breaks failed"
The look on James face, clearly spoke that he wished he could dissapear.
"Or the time you crashed into the back of Tidmoth sheds...or that one time you fell on your side because you let the trucks take you over-"
"That's enough Edward! Story time over!" James grunted then backed more into the sheds. Everyone laughed. Daniel was giggling at this. Hearing all the mess that James has gotten into sounded funny. Even more funny that he didn't want anyone to talk about it.
"Thomas has more embarrassing experiences than me" James. "Hey, don't you dare expose me now-" Thomas said. "Daniel shouldn't know about the day I nearly flew into the sky with a Jet Engine-" If Thomas had arms at this moment, he would of face palmed so hard his funnel would fly off of his smoke box. Daniel was intrigued into what Thomas was talking about. He giggled. "What's that about?"
"Nothing!" Thomas exclaimed. Gordon was sitting in his shed. He wasn't trying to be apart of the conversation, but he has to chuckle at how dumb Thomas was right now. "You dragged your tank engine self into this one Thomas." He said. Thomas blushed. James puffed a bit closer. "Tell him Thomas-"
"No... I won't"
"Fine... I will-"
"No! Don't embarrass me in front of Daniel!"
Daniel chuckled. "Don't worry Thomas. I won't judge."
Thomas sighed. "Fine. This one time I had to deliver a jet engine from Brendam Docks, I got mad at Cranky there. And... well... he got careless with his dumb hook. And he turned on the jet engine." Thomas said.
He could see Daniel looking suprised. "Woah..."
"I got turned into a bullet train for a minute." Thomas said.
Daniel giggled, but then he saw Thomas blushing. "Hey, that isn't embarrassing... that sounds pretty awesome! Wow... I wish I could go that fast-"
Thomas looked at Daniel, then smiled. "Well... it was pretty fun. I passed Gordon... oh boy did he look suprised. Flew right past him. You should of seen his face"
"Hey!" Gordon snapped. "This is your embarrassing story! Don't drag me into it"
Everyone laughed.
James then asked Daniel about something embarrassing or sad that happened to him.
Deep down.... Daniel has a lot... a lot.. way lot of sad things that happened. Some of them are still happening, and it's questioning him if he should even go back to his world. But... he really didn't want to talk about any of that right now. No one has to know. "No... I don't have any."
"Oh come on, everyone has had something sad or embarrassing happened to them. I've heard that humans have plenty" James said. "Hey... if he doesn't want to leave him-" Thomas said. James rolled his eyes. "Ugh, fine. I won't ask your crush."
Thomas blushed madly. "Stop James!" Thomas snapped. Daniel could only giggle.
"Well-" James yawned. "Time for me to hit the rail hay-"
"Rail hay? That's the best you could come up with?" Henry said.
****
After everyone was alseep-
Daniel wasn't. There was something on his mind.
His home life.
Yes, he is living perfectly find with Sean. And his two grandparents. But... they're kinda in hiding.
All of this was on his mind. Then he looked at Thomas. He had to tell him.
"Thomas?"
Thomas snorted in his sleep. "Tommy?"
"Hm?" Thomas opened one eye, then looked over at Daniel. "Yeah?" Thomas fully awake, and got adjusted. "What is it?"
"About earlier... when James was having us share our experiences...." He said. Thomas bobbed up and down. "Yeah, what about it?"
"I want to share it with you... and you alone...because I trust you-"
A small blush dusted on Thomas's face. It was barely visible in the sheds because it was dark. "Can it wait until the morning?"
"No... I have to tell you now.. please-"
Thomas could see something was on Daniel's mind. "Sure... what is it? Tell me"
Daniel bobbed up and down, nodding. Then he sighed.
Daniel:
Back in my dimension.... my father died. By a police officer. This was when I found out that I have my powers. My powers unleashed out of me body, as I saw my father dead on the ground. I accidentally killed the police officer. This is what Sean told me. I was knocked out, and Sean had panicked, and he dipped out of there with me. We both ran away from Seattle, and found our way out to the woods. We found a gas station... Sean was desperate, and he stole from it. I was very uncomfortable with that, but we had no choice. Long story short, the owner of them seems they don't like people like us... us... being people like me from my country. They locked us up.. and the man who was the husband to the woman who owned the store, slammed me to the ground.
So many crap me and Sean went trough. Getting warped in so many different shit. A weed farm... bad people.... nearly getting killed, my powers taking me over. I nearly died a few times. I was shot twice. Once by a man in the weed farm... and... and someone. I blanked out... I don't remember much.
Right now... we... we are technically still wanted. We tried to run away to the border to get to Mexico. But we where caught. We escaped and went right back to my grandparents and Chris. They kept us hidden for a lone while. 3 years. But... it's... it's still possible for all of this to catch back up.
Daniel looked over at Thomas after he was done telling him what's been happening to him, and he was shocked to see that Thomas was crying. "Woah- woah are you Alright?" Daniel asked. He didn't want to make Thomas cry at all.
"D-Daniel... y-you really are going trough all of that?" Thomas asked as he sniffed. Daniel sighed deeply. "Yes... Thomas. I am. Me and Sean"
Thomas looked down. "Someone shot... someone... someone shot you.... flatten my funnel I wanna tie them to the track and run them over like an 1800s steam engine" Thomas said as his voice changed to a really on edge sound. He sounded really fucking pissed. Daniel blushed at Thomas's compassion. "I'm scared to go back" Daniel said.
"Dan... you don't have to. You and Sean... are welcome to stay here for the rest of your life. Sodor... all of Sodor... I seriously mean ALL of Sodor would want you to say... I want you to stay. You don't deserve this life in your world. You deserve better than this"
Daniel looked at Thomas. "You mean it?"
"Yes Daniel... I want you to be happy... that life seems very stressful."
Daniel smiled, and a tear ran down his face. "If we where humans right now, I'd definitely hug you right now"