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Tassita was about three seconds away from ripping off the head of the next train that spoke to him.
He had known it would be a rough day fairly early on, when Orange Flash had bumped into Golden Eagle shortly after everyone had received their assignments for the day. They hadn’t been going fast enough to do any significant damage, just a slight dent and some scraped paint, but Goldie was still absolutely livid, loudly complaining to everyone that would listen about how much of an outrage this was, and how he’d have to spend the entirety of the day looking dinged up.
It was less the fact that Goldie had gotten bumped that was upsetting to Tassita, but moreso how loudly he’d been complaining about it. Sure, getting bumped, even a little, was always annoying, but Tassita would have at least been more considerate to the other trains, trucks and coaches around him.
And it wasn’t as though the trouble stopped when Goldie finally went on his way, either. Word spread quickly through the stockyard about the bump, and it seemed to be the only thing anyone was (loudly) talking about. It was the most excitement the stockyard had had since the World Champion Railroad Race over half a year ago. No one had even seemed to have bothered to check if Flash was okay (they were, Tassita had found, just a little sheepish).
All day, as they passed along the rails, carrying passengers to where they needed to go, they heard trains speaking to each other, just above a whisper, about the event, their voices drilling into Tassita’s head and refusing to leave him be.
It wasn’t that Tassita, as the quiet car, couldn’t handle loud sounds. It annoyed him, but he could tolerate it when he needed to. It was when there was too much of it that he couldn’t handle. A train’s horn being blown right next to him was always preferred to the constant rumble of trains speaking over and through each other, all trying to be heard.
The sheer mass of the sounds would run through Tassita, grabbing hold of his mind and squeezing as hard as it could, causing him physical pain. He’d push through it, of course, not wanting to cause trouble for the others, but his mood would grow worse and worse if he wasn’t given a break to cool down in some peace and quiet for a bit.
And by midday, it was starting to look as though things would only get louder, especially when Hydra, of all trucks, decided to stop by.
Now, Tassita wasn’t too keen on Hydra on a good day. Sure, he was cute, and has an undeniable charisma to him, but he was also the most insufferable person he had ever known in his entire existence. His jokes were stupid, his blatant flirting was horrible, and the guy’s only volume setting was loud.
Luckily, the looks and charisma usually made him tolerable on a good day.
Unluckily for them both, this was not a good day.
Tassita heard Hydra approach before he saw him. He knew it was Hydra because the other coaches knew well enough to leave him alone on a day like this, and everyone else was smart enough to know that maybe the quiet car wasn’t feeling super great on a day when people wouldn’t shut up.
Hydra, being a moron, of course, had no such considerations.
“Heya, Tass~” He greeted as he skidded to a stop beside him, grinning like an idiot.
Tassita decided that the best way to avoid murdering Hydra and potentially blowing up the whole stockyard in the process was to just ignore him and hope he went away on his own.
As expected, this did not work.
“Are you busy?”
Gritting his teeth, Tassita pointedly did not punch Hydra in the face, instead responding tersely, “Not at the moment. I’m taking a break.”
This, as it turns out, was the worst thing Tassita could have said. He knew it from the moment he saw Hydra’s smile grow bigger.
“Really?” He said, like it was the most fascinating news he’d heard all day, more interesting than even the bump. “I don’t suppose you’d like some company on this fine day, Tass?”
“Company is the last thing I need right now,” Tassita said, his voice straining with the effort to remain polite. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Hydra-“
“Did you hear about the bump?” Hydra interrupted, clearly not taking the hint to leave him alone. “Heard Goldie was pretty pissed at Flash.”
“Of course I heard about it, I was there.”
“You were attached to one of them??”
Tassita rolled his eyes. “No, I was just nearby when it happened. And it seems to be the only stars-damned thing anyone seems to be talking about today.”
Hydra’s eyes narrowed a little, finally taking note of Tassita’s tense mood. “Hey… are you alright, Tass?”
“Just peachy.”
“Are you sure? Because you seem grumpier than usual, and that’s saying something.”
“Why do you care?” Tassita snapped, surprising the both of them. “It’s not like we’re friends or anything…”
Hydra deflated a little, but he continued on, “Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t care…”
Just then, as if Hydra’s pathetically endearing face wasn’t bad enough, the other fuel trucks happened to find them, and Tassita knew this would end badly. It was too late to escape, though, as Porter, Lumber and Slick all rolled their way over, already teasing.
“Sorry, boys, didn’t mean to interrupt your little date~” Slick drawled as she wrapped an arm around Tassita’s shoulders, the sudden physical contact making him flinch.
“This isn’t a date,” he managed to grit out through clenched teeth. The trucks had been here for all of five seconds and he was already fed up with them.
“Sure it ain’t~” Lumber snorted, clearly not believing him. “We just stumbled upon you two making eyes at each other for no reason.”
Porter was clearly holding back his own laughter, though he had the decency to at least try to look sorry for it.
Hydra’s cheeks flushed as he elbowed Lumber in the side, “Guys, knock it off, I don’t think Tass’s doing okay right now-“
“Offended him that badly, did you?” Slick remarked. “Wow, Hydra, you’ve really gotta learn how to handle the fellas, they’ll never fall for you at this rate.”
“You say that as though you’re interested in men.”
Slick just shrugged, her arm still around Tassita’s shoulders. “Can’t be that hard to get one; Joule says Killerwatt has dudes asking him out all the time, and you know he’s not exactly known for being… personable…”
This conversation was getting to be too much. Tassita didn’t care about Slick’s girlfriend’s coworker’s rizz, or Hydra’s lack thereof, or even about the stars-damned bump.
He wanted to go back to his room and stay there for the rest of the day.
With a sudden jolt, he jerked himself out from beneath Slick’s arm, surprising all the trucks, and after taking a moment to straighten himself out, he snapped, “I’m going home now. Please don’t bother me.”
He’d hoped to just leave them before they could ask too many questions, avoid talking to them for a few hours until he could hear himself think again. But when Hydra reached out and gently grabbed his arm as he turned to leave, it was the passenger that broke the coach’s back.
“Don’t touch me!!!” He snapped, ripping his arm away and taking a stumbling step backwards.
Hydra looked shocked, confused, and a little hurt. “I-I’m sorry, Tass, I d-didn’t-“
“Starlight, just shut up!!” He was fully yelling now, and all the trains in the surrounding area were staring at him, but he didn’t care. It was all just too much for him. “I just need some peace and stars-damned quiet for FIVE. MINUTES. And yet that seems to be too much to ask!!! Just please, stars, just leave me alone!!”
And before anyone else could say anything to him, he skated off, trying to ignore the tears pricking at his eyes.
It was too much.
It was all too much.
Hydra watched as Tassita hurried away, his heart aching a bit at the sight.
Porter was the first of them to speak up. “We, uh.. we may have bungled that for you, buddy…”
“You think?” Hydra asked, mock incredulity in his voice. Porter, to his credit, looked away sheepishly.
Slick frowned. “What’s up with Mr. Librarian?”
“I didn’t get a chance to ask before you all showed up,” Hydra explained, not bothering to soften out the irritation in his voice. “He’s been stressed all day, from the looks of it… and I don’t think he’s in any mood to tell me why…”
Lumber looked thoughtful for a moment, then suggested, “maybe the other coaches would know what his deal with. They’re all pretty close, after all.”
Hydra considered this. “You know, Lumber, that might’ve been the best idea you’ve ever had.”
“What? That can’t be the best idea I’ve had- what ‘bout the one where we stacked on top of each other and-?”
“Yeah, no, absolutely not,” Slick chimed in, shaking her head. “You nearly blew Hydra up and Momma wouldn’t let us leave the stockyard for a month.”
“That wasn’t all my fault!” Lumber insisted defensively. “If Porter hadn’t fallen on his chassis like an idiot-“
“Wh- don’t rope me into this!” Porter protested, and he continued arguing with his siblings, but by then Hydra tuned them out, making his sneaky exit.
He was gonna do whatever it took to make Tassita feel better.
It wasn’t hard to find the other coaches. They tended to be near wherever Rusty was stationed during their breaks, partially because he and Pearl had been dating for a while now and partially because he was easily the kindest of the engines. The diesels and electrics had definitely gotten nicer since the championship race, but Rusty had been kind to them since even before then, so it wasn’t exactly hard to see why they were all still close buddies.
Hydra found the four of them near one of the platforms to the passenger station a short ways away from the stockyard. They weren’t carrying anyone at the moment, but Hydra had been around long enough to know that they’d probably be back in service within the next hour or so, only taking a break.
Pearl was standing next to Rusty, his arm wrapped around her waist and holding her close, listening intently as she, Dinah and Belle all chattered away about something Hydra couldn’t hear.
He wheeled his way over, smiling when the coaches and engine waved at him.
”Hey guys, what’s up?”
“Hey, Hydra!” Rusty greeted with a smile. “We were just talking about what happened to Flash and Goldie earlier. We heard Flash feels so bad about what happened that they’re gonna pay for Goldie’s paint job.”
”They shouldn’t have to,” Belle said, crossing her arms with a little huff. “It was only an accident, they didn’t mean to. Goldie needs to calm down a little.”
”True,” Pearl remarked, “but I think it’s less about Flash needing to pay for it and more that they want to because they feel bad and want to make it up. As annoying as he can be, Goldie’s still Flash’s friend, after all.”
Dinah turned to Hydra, asking, “Did you need something, Hydra? Or did you just want to hang out?”
Hydra gave the coaches a sheepish smile. “I was actually hoping you could help me with something, uh… do you guys know what’s going on with Tass? He seems more… stressed than usual…”
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t for the coaches and engine to all share similar looks of understanding and sympathy with each other. Clearly, he was missing something here.
Rusty ended up being the one to speak up. “Hydra, you know how Tassita’s always shushing people and trying to get them to quiet down?”
”Well, sure,” Hydra responded, confused as to how this was relevant, “Isn’t that, like, his job? As the quiet car?”
“I mean, it is,” Rusty conceded, “but he doesn’t necessarily have to tell anyone to be quiet. Like, that’s not his job, other quiet cars I’ve pulled haven’t done that; it’s just a Tassita thing.”
”Oh… okay… so why does he do it?”
”The thing with Tassita is that sometimes, sound is just a lot for him,” Dinah explained. “He’s told us before that sometimes, if there’s a lot of different sounds, they all gather in his head and refuse to leave, agitating him, giving him a headache and making it hard for him to be around other trains.”
Belle nodded, adding, “Like, when a bunch of trains are talking at once, it gets really overwhelming for him, and he struggles to do anything when things get too loud like that.”
”Like when everyone started gossiping about the bump today,” Hydra says, beginning to understand.
”Exactly!” Belle agreed. “We’ve been keeping our distance today because we knew he wouldn’t be in the mood for conversation.”
Hydra sighed, feeling guilty. “Wish I’d known that before I decided to bother him earlier…”
Pearl gave him a sympathetic smile. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. It took me a while to figure out how to not set him off myself. You’ll get the hang of it soon, you just gotta put the effort in to try.”
”I should apologize to him… but if he’s not in the mood to be hearing from anyone, I should probably wait until tomorrow…”
Dinah nodded. “That sounds good to me. He’ll probably be in a better mood by then.”
”Ugh, but that’s so far away,” Hydra grumbled. “I don’t know if I can wait that long.”
Rusty looked thoughtful, then, to Hydra’s surprise, grinned almost mischievously.
”Well, I can think of one thing that might work~”
Even a few hours later, Tassita was still doing less than great.
Somehow, he’d managed not to cry until he made his way to his room, alone and unable to be bothered by anyone else. Regrettably, the walls of his room weren’t soundproof, but at least he didn’t have to hear the sound of trains chattering at every waking moment.
After leaving a message to Control saying he wouldn’t be able to work for the rest of the day (Control was annoyed but didn’t argue, giving him the rest of the day off), he ended up taking a nap, pillows piled around his head to soften what little noise was audible through his walls.
When he woke up again, the day was winding down to an end, and he did feel a little better, though still not in the mood for company any time soon.
So when there was a quiet but unmistakable knock at his door, he couldn’t help but groan. Said groan did dash any hope of pretending he wasn’t in or trying to act as though he was still asleep, but he couldn’t help it. He was just so completely done with this day.
He couldn’t help but wonder if he could wait this visitor out, ignore them until they got bored and went away.
There was a second soft knock at the door, and Tassita knew he couldn’t handle waiting if this person kept knocking.
Groaning again, he rolled out of his bed and made his way to the door, plastering on his best look of disapproval and opening it up.
He wasn’t sure who he was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t Hydra, smiling sheepishly, waving in greeting, visibly holding something behind his back
Tassita crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, his eyebrows raised in a way that demanded to know what he was doing here and if he could maybe leave.
”I won’t keep you long,” Hydra assured him, and Tassita was surprised to hear how quiet and gentle his voice was. It was a volume he’d never heard the truck use before. “I just wanted to give you a little something, to apologize for stressing you out earlier. The coaches told me you don’t do great with a lot of sound, and I’m sure the gossip about the bump only made it worse, that me being so.. uhh...”
”Annoying?”
”Flirtatious,” Hydra landed on, “me being flirtatious probably made things worse, too.”
”Yeah, it did…” Tassita admitted, just as quietly. “If we’re apologizing, I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier. That… that wasn’t cool of me, you didn’t know any better.”
”Accept my apology gift and I’ll consider us even~” Hydra said with a cheeky smile.
Tassita rolled his eyes, but still held out his hand expectantly.
He knew what the object was the moment Hydra settled it in his hand, and despite himself, his heart skipped a beat.
”You got me ear defenders?” His voice was quiet, almost reverent, as he moved the noise canceling headphones around in his hands. They were teal, with his orange symbol placed on the ears. Had he had them custom made?
Hydra looked away sheepishly, blushing a little as he began to ramble, very unlike his usual confident demeanor. “When I talked to the coaches earlier, they mentioned you used to have a pair of these to help you cope when there was too much sound, but they accidentally got broken during a job and you hadn’t gotten around to replacing them. So I found these, added your symbol to the ears so everyone would know they’re yours, and, uh, yeah. Now your head won’t hurt the next time there’s a topic of hot gossip sweeping the stockyard.”
Tassita smiled a little. “Thank you, Hydra… that’s really sweet of you…”
Hydra only blushed harder. “No problem, Tass. Just wanted to make your life a little easier.”
A quick remark about how his life would be easier if Hydra just stopped bothering flicked to the end of Tassita’s tongue, but he swallowed it back. He really wasn’t that bad, once he stopped being annoying.
Clearing his throat, Hydra took a step back. “Well, I’ve got one more job to finish up before the day ends, and I’m sure you’d rather go back to your rest, so, uh.. yeah… I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
Tassita shook his head with a smile. “Goodbye, Hydra.”
Hydra gave him a little salute before rolling away, and Tassita shut the door behind him.
He let out a small breath before looking down at the ear defenders in his hands, turning them around, getting a better look at them, before finally slipping them onto his head and over their ears.
As all the ambient noise drowned out to nothing, Tassita took a moment to appreciate it.
Finally, a little peace and quiet.