Ttte Fic - Tumblr Posts
Fellow TTTE author inbound!! This is so stinking cute, I’m gonna go read the whole thing as soon as I’m done with writing because inspiration has struck and I mustn’t be distracted by cute engines being cute!
Hold Me Fast ~ A 2 x 5 fic
There's another titter, and it seems Edward is otherwise amused, his own cheeks darkening as he sends a teasingly quirked brow the mogul’s way, “Does that surprise you, James? Truly?”
“No!” He blurts far too quickly, like he might be able to preserve some dignity, but it comes out louder and more abashed than he’d like. Because he knows deep down that it really doesn’t surprise him at all. And Edward’s laugh is light and sunny, his eyes softening all over again, “No… Because you’re… well you’re kind! And… and good. And I–”
“Mmmhmm,” Edward hums in that knowing way of his, his smile twitching at the corners, and James swallows, feeling smaller than he is. But it’s different. It’s not humiliating, like when he’s having whatever lesson he has to learn rubbed in his face, or when he’s so terribly sorry for the hurt he’s caused. It’s different, like a lot of things are with Edward.
And that’s just it, isn’t it?
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Wrote this because I couldn't get over how thematically delicious the ropes are in Old Iron, how opposites attract, and how Edward has always been there for James since day one, since he was sick, since he was a runaway, and they've been bound together ever since. With that long, slow-burning kind of love that they don't ever put a name to, but they know it's there, whether they recognize and understand it or not.
Oh fuck, oh fuck. I actually ship this pairing. As a serious ship? HELL NO. But as a crackship? HELL YES. 😎
Two idiots (In their own ways) accidentally fall in love with each other and just do shit together.
Ficlet: The One Where Toby is Shipped With, Oh God, I Can't Even Say It
Some good while ago now, I dared everyone to come up with a Toby pairing that I couldn't write for. And @houseboatisland justly took a shot and punished me for my hubris by prompting Toby/Diesel.
FML.
I've since played around with a long kinda angsty non-Sodor piece, an elaborate plotty rom-com where the coaches (knowing Toby has a terrible romantic weaknesses for Complete Dumbasses) set them up, and even this could in theory be extended to a lengthier exploration of how they bonded.
But honestly, I think this rather silly lil' foot-in-mouth first meeting pretty much nails it. I now claim a discharge of the debt.
Warnings for, well, a ship a lot of people will reckon is a NOTP, for mild swearing, a not-terribly-sweet meet-cute, and also this has not been edited at all. At allll.
(If you're wondering... in this 'verse, Henrietta would be partners with Elsie. Yeah, yeah, Diesel is surprised when he finds out, too.)
May 2014
"Oooh, you're here, you're here! Look everyone, it's him!!"
Diesel had never, in his seventy-odd years of life, been given such an enthusiastic greeting as he was by the Ffarquhar quarry diesel.
The bar wasn't even that high. A long time ago, he had abruptly found himself just too damn tired to play politics and be fake-nice and suck up, and since that fateful day he could count everyone who had ever smiled to see him on his six wheels, with a few left over.
And he had never seen anyone beam at him.
"So I'm in the right place," he rumbled, wary.
"That's right!" the other diesel sang. An 04 shunter with her wheels skirted, a very comely one too. Freshly washed, gleaming black fenders, eyelashes for miles. Really she would have been his type exactly... if he'd ever had any interest that way in female engines. "Driver! Toby! C'mon over, he's here!"
A bell clanged. It took Diesel a moment to realise that the bell was attached to an engine. It now clanged over, the strangest thing Diesel had ever seen on the rails. The smallest of the party, and boxy indeed, with a handsome curve roof, and... made of wood?
And in steam?
Diesel blinked as the apparition chuckled. "You could show some manners, Mavis."
"I am mannerly, you old bossy buffers!" The 04 smirked. "It's not me dawdling and making 'im wait!"
"Get on out of here."
"Oh, don't you worry, I will."
They both laughed.
" 'Thank you,'" prompted the odd little engine named Toby, " 'for coming to cover my work while I'm gallivanting off to the coast.'"
"Yep," said Mavis. " 'Thank you, O Cunning Liar of Legend, good luck, be safe, and I'm OFF, sucker!' D'you have a name yet, by the way?" she queried, abruptly changing tacks before Toby could even finish rolling his eyes.
"Mmm-hmm," thrummed the diesel. "It's 'Diesel'."
The 04 grinned with unbreakable good humor. "Well fine yeh old sad sack, you'll fit right in this pokey hole! Listen to the ol' stove-on-wheels here, he's a lot more bearable if you just pretend he knows everything about everything—mind our mobile crane coz she's a right rotter—and don't even bother fueling up at the shed, use the one down line. Manager insists it's all the same but he ain't the one drinking it, is he? Aaand I think that covers it."
"Thanks." It wasn't that he had come back for the (rumble, rumble)th time unprepared to encounter diesels. He knew the dratted island better than that. But in general the Sodor diesels despised him as much as the steamies, in fact usually they were even more suspicious of him. "Where are you off to?"
"Brendam! They're re-doing that rail overpass, so I'm to be the engine on-site for that project, and after that I'll be able to go down into the clay pits and help with the expansion down there. Just for the summer, of course. But I've never gotten to go so far for so long! Christ, I'm going to make such a hash of things," she finished, still elated.
The boxy steam engine smiled at her. "Probably."
"Oh, shuddup!" she scoffed, but then she caught his eye and her expression softened. "Toby..."
She paused, suddenly overcome with emotion, and Toby rolled his eyes again, this time very gently.
"Don't go thanking me now, Mave, your system couldn't handle it. And we can't have you breaking down on your big day."
"Aw, stuff it up your brakepipe, yeh old sod!"
They laughed together.
Diesel was just... there, he reckoned.
Which was just as well because, his mental faculties apparently not what they had once been, he was still trying to process the sight in front of him. This Toby was... a tram engine, he supposed? He had never seen any up close, but he knew that they were all electric. Except this one. Christ, was this some sort of frivolous new-build vanity project for the Sodor locomotive works, or was this an even-weirder-than-usual ancient curiosity of theirs? He was made of wood. Well-varnished wood, in a thick layer to protect it from the elements and grime, but also, he was a steam engine, he ran on a burning fire, how did that even work?
Diesel scarcely noticed that surrounding them was a growing crowd of quarry workers, who had gathered to see Mavis off with much heckling and many warnings that she was to help rebuild a bridge, not to have other engines shoved off it. But at the last moment before she sent down the tramway the jokes turned into well wishes, and Mavis roared off with her engine fighting a chorus of "For she's a jolly good felloooow—!"
Once the racket had died down, the foreman introduced himself to Diesel and Diesel to the men, and gave the engine his orders for the morning.
Diesel hoped his driver, and the Ffarquhar man he was training on his controls, were paying attention. He was not.
After the foreman had left, the steam tram looked over at him. "'Lo," he offered, a little wary, but not unfriendly. "I'm due out, but I'll be here to pick up trucks twice a day. Don't hesitate to ask if you need any advice, engine-to-engine, like... " He frowned a little, puzzled at Diesel's expression. "Well. Any questions, before I go?"
"Yeah." He couldn't help that it flew out of his mouth before he could check it. "Who the hell designed you?"
Toby whooshed heavily.
Then he told him to take a good look at the train Mavis had arranged and to prepare the rest just like it, and clanged away in a huff.
Diesel's driver was doubled over while Toby fussed about backing onto the stone wagons. "Very smooth, mate...!"
"Oh, sod off."