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The temperature had been steadily dropping over the past couple of days as winter started to roll over the yard. And Hydra hated it. It was great for their systems. Carrying hydrogen meant it had to be kept cold, and that took a lot of coolant running through their pipes. But it sucked for them. The way they were built, they always ran cold, always felt cold. So with the weather getting colder, they felt colder and it had their limbs feeling numb.
Thankfully, their boyfriend was always so warm.
“Rus’,” they whined as they felt him start to pull away. “Don't leave meee. ‘S too coooold.” They wrapped their arms around his waist, holding him close. They buried their face into his chest.
The steam engine reached up his free hand to pat them on the head. “I know you're cold, Hydra, but I have work to do. I need to get up,” he said gently, pressing a kiss to the top of their head.
Hydra started to whine even more. Their grip shifted, pulling their arms in so they were pressed between them and Rusty; pressed right up against where the steam engine's firebox cracked in his chest. They knew it was the warmest part of him, and it felt so nice on their fingers. “If you leave, I'll freeze,” they pleaded quietly. Their eyes were still squeezed shut, wanting to go back to sleep. They knew they also had to get up, but they didn't want to because that meant facing the cold air.
Rusty sighed as he started to extract himself from his partner's hold despite their protest. “The sooner you're up and ready, the sooner you can wrap yourself in something warm,” he countered, finally getting away from the other and out from under the sheets.
Hydra grumbled, pulling their blanket closer. Rusty started to get ready, throwing small glances at his boyfriend to make sure they were getting up. After a few minutes Hydra finally rolled off the bed and joined him in getting ready for the day.
Hydra rolled over to Slick the moment he saw her in the yard. “How's it going, mate?” he asked, his usual grin plastered on his face. He held out his hand for a greeting but Slick only stared at it. He was about to drop it, expecting it to be a less friendly day for her, but before he could pull his hand back she clapped his hand and fist bumped him. On instinct he returned the motion.
She stuck her hands into her pockets as she looked him up and down. “Your hands are absolutely freezing. I could feel them through your gloves,” she commented, her gaze focusing in on just how many layers he was wearing.
Hydra’s smile fell just a little as he deflated, “The weather isn’t helping how cold I normally am.”
“You tried hand warmers before?”
The newer freight quirked an eyebrow, “What are those?”
She gawked at him, punching him in the shoulder. Normally when Slick punched one of the other freights, she punched hard , but she knew better than to risk it with Hydra. She didn't want to risk causing any explosions—especially ones that would involve her—so she pulled her punches with him. “How have you not heard of hand warmers? They’re these little packet things that produce heat. They’re great for warming up your hands,” she explained, motioning with her hands something small in an attempt to help him visualize what she was talking about.
“I haven’t been out of the research facility much during winter, so I haven't needed any. This is the first yard I’ve been placed at during the winter to see how I handle it,” Hydra off-handedly explained, folding his arms over his chest. While his chest was the warmest part of his body, it was still not that much warmer so the motion definitely wasn’t an attempt to warm up his hands. He turned his gaze to the engines and carriages milling about and picking up their jobs for the day.
Slick knows he’s only 3 years old and still a prototype, but being reminded of it and the test runs he's put through always catch her off guard. She also knew him well enough by now to know that he didn’t want to talk about it either. A small frown crossed her lips, “Right.” She’s about to explain where he could get some when an idea comes to mind that she thinks would be infinitely funnier to see play out. “Y’know. I heard for steamers, it’s pretty romantic to hold coals they had burned. That’s basically like a natural hand warmer. I’m sure Rusty would let you hold one of his,” she said, a sly smile forming on her lips as she elbows him.
Of course, to Hydra, the smile read as nothing more than teasing. He had been at Troubadour for almost 6 months now, and he liked to think he got better at reading others. However, one would think—even though everyone has forgiven her—he would know better than to give Slick the benefit of the doubt given the whole race fiasco that happened not even a month after he arrived. But the new tanker also liked to see the best in people. So he didn't question the suggestion. And if he was being honest, it did sound nice. Something warm to hold onto and was like a piece of his boyfriend.
He glanced around, spotting the steamer talking to the carriages. He glanced between Slick and Rusty, deciding it wouldn’t hurt. He hadn’t been assigned a job yet anyways… A smile returned to his face as he started for his boyfriend. “Thanks for the idea, Slick. I'll see you around,” he said over his shoulder, not even waiting for her response. For a moment, she thought about stopping him, but that was quickly forgotten as she got pulled away.
“Hi coaches,” Hydra greeted, a grin back on their face. They bumped Tassita's shoulder with their own, the carriage giving an amused yet annoyed eye roll. Hydra rolled past him to Rusty. “Hope I'm not interrupting anything,” Hydra said, snaking their arms around Rusty’s shoulders, leaning against him and reveling in the heat radiating from their boyfriend.
“Only a little,” Tassita said, arms crossed over his chest. “We were about to get going to collect passengers.”
“Would you mind if I joined?” Hydra asked, batting their eyes.
“You-”
“Sure!” Pearl interrupted, nudging Tassita.
“Great!” Hydra said, slowly letting go of Rusty and rolling back so they can couple up. As he pulls away, he starts shivering. He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes for a little too long.
“Are you okay, Hydra?” Pearl frowned, tapping his shoulder and making him jump.
“Wha- Yeah. Yeah, mate. Just a bit cold is all,” he said, straightening up and straightening out his jacket.
Rusty frowned as he looked his boyfriend over, “Maybe you should go home for the day?”
“No, no. I’m fine, Rus’,” he reassured, moving and coupling up to Rusty.
“Alright…” Pearl said reluctantly.
“If you're sure,” Rusty said, grabbing him and then the coaches. “It should be a short trip today anyways…” Hydra let out a small quiet hum, seeming a bit more subdued than usual.
Normally, Hydra would talk everyone’s ears off whenever they would go on jobs, but today they hadn’t. They had hardly even said anything after first asking to join them. Just a quick question or two about if Rusty was doing okay on fuel, which wasn’t unusual. They were usually a little over eager on singing the praises of their fuel source; only cutting back on it after Rusty had converted to using hydrogen and Momma had a discussion with them about boundaries. (That was a newer concept for them. They had never heard about boundaries like how Momma talked about them. The white coats didn’t care about them. If they wanted to run a test, they just did it, even if Hydra wasn’t happy about it. But they knew it was for the best. The white coats couldn’t have an untested explosive tanker on the rails.)
“Thanks for your help, Rusty,” Pearl said once they arrived back at the yard. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek before glancing at Hydra. She rolled over to them and grabbed their hands, feeling the cold through his gloves, “You should head to your shed and warm up.”
“I will. Don't worry,“ Hydra said, giving her a half-assed smile as they waved her off.
“See you around!” Belle chimed.
“Thanks, Rusty,” Tassita said as the coaches skated away.
Once they were out of ear shot, Rusty rounded on Hydra. “Are you okay? And don't bullshit me this time,” Rusty said, arms crossed over his chest. He was clearly concerned about how they were doing, but knew he had to push Hydra to get a real answer out of them.
“Jus’ cold,” Hydra mumbled, allowing their smile to drop and exhaustion to show now that the others were gone. They rolled over to Rusty and leaned against the shorter train. “I’m not used to being in a yard during the winter.” They grab his forearm, relaxing slightly as their hands warmed up even just fractionally.
Rusty startled at the cold, but didn’t pull away. “You’re definitely not okay,” he said, starting to pull them towards his shed. “I know you run cold, but Starlight, you’re cold.”
“‘S really just my hands,” they mumbled, not putting up a fight as the other started to drag them. As the two moved, they didn’t let go of Rusty for even a second. “You’re so warm…” they slurred, before a thought came to their mind and they perked up slightly. “You should let me hold one of your coals?” they said, tone more questioning than they meant it to be.
Rusty looked back at them with a slightly surprised look on his face as he pushed open the door, a small dusting of orange spreading across his cheeks. “What?”
“You should let me hold one of your coals,” they repeated quietly. “I heard it was romantic- and it’d be so warm.” They rolled towards the couch, pulling Rusty with them before flopping down and dragging him with them.
Rusty let out a startled yelp as he went down with them, moving so he didn’t crush them. He shifted, settling properly on the couch. He moved Hydra's head so it was laying in his lap and pulled the throw down over them. “Are you sure that's safe? Hydrogen is very flammable,” Rusty said, frowning down at them.
Hydra nodded, pressing their face against firebox. “The white coats tested me to make sure if anything hot came in contact with my chassis, it wouldn't burn through,” they mumbled quietly, moving to wrap their arms around his waist. “It'd just warm up my hands…”
The steamer ran his hands through their hair, a contemplative look on his face. “If you're sure you'll be fine…” Hydra nodded aggressively which had Rusty sighing fondly.
Hydra pulled back as Rusty shifted his gear enough so he could open his firebox. He stuck his hand in quickly and pulled out a small coal. Hydra ditched their gloves as Rusty handed the coal off to them. They held it between their hands tightly as Rusty wiped the soot off onto his pants.
Hydra started to relax. The tension they didn't know they were holding was leaving their body as they could start feeling their fingers. “That's so much better,“ they mumbled.
“I'm glad,” Rusty said, pressing a kiss to the back of one of their hands.
Hydra let out a hum as their curled up and started dozing off. Rusty stayed with them and couldn't help but start to doze off as well.
Hydra was startled awake with a slap to the face.
“See Lumber, I told you that'd wake ‘em.”
“I thought-”
Lumber was cut off as Hydra let out a loud groan of pain, the world finally catching up to them. They tried to turn on their side and curl up, but were stopped by hands on their shoulders. “Woah. Hold on there, mate. You’re gonna tear the hole wider,” Porter said, forcing the other to lay back down.
Hole? Hydra didn’t have the energy to voice their confusion, but didn’t fight the other beyond just giving him a puzzled look.
“Your tanker blew open and you caught fire,” Lumber explained when he saw the look on their face. Hydra went pale as they tried to sit back up again and get a look at their back. This time Lumber joined in on holding them down, “Don’t worry, you’re fine. The repair truck is on its way with those fancy white coats in tow.”
Hydra forced themself to relax. “What happened?” they asked, voice horse.
“Rusty said he woke up because your systems were going crazy letting out some kind of noise and you weren’t waking up. He was going to get Wrench, but he knew he had to get you away from everyone first, just in case,” Lumber explained. Despite the physical aching they could feel running through their body, hearing Rusty knew to get them away from others was both reassuring as it was a little sad. Of course, they pushed that sadness aside because they knew it was for the best. They were still a prototype and were dangerous. “When he explained to Wrench what was going on, they wouldn’t let him come and check on you in case you were leaking.”
“You’re a right fool, you know that? Holding a hot coal? Even I know that’s a bad idea. Worse idea for you ‘cause your fuel is explosive!” Porter said, punching their shoulder. They winced at the contact and got a mumbled apology from the freight.
“Yeah, okay, I’m stupid. I get it. I thought my tanker was secure…” Hydra said with a sigh, fighting the urge to curl up. “Did I start leaking?”
“Right… We’re not too sure what happened, but Rusty forgot the coal with you and-”
“You went boom!” Porter finished, doing a hand motion with the explanation. “Wrench sent for the repair truck right away. Rusty wanted to come check on you, but Wrench wouldn’t let anyone come near you just in case you were still leaking hydrogen, so Momma is sitting with him.”
“Why are you two here then?”
“Wrench couldn’t stop all three of us,” Lumber said with a smile.
“Three?”
“Slick decided to distract them so we could check on you,” Porter said, a small smile on his face at the fact their sister was willing to do that.
Hydra nodded, taking it all in. They moved their arm slowly so the other two wouldn’t stop them right away. They held it up, taking their guard off so they could check the gauges on their forearm; pointedly ignoring the fact the armor was singed. Their pressure gauge was low. The tank listed as empty, made sense given the two said it exploded… They wished they could check their tank over but it’s on their back and already wasn’t that accessible for them to begin with, but given how the other two wouldn’t let them sit up, they figured there’s no way they’ll be allowed to assess it. Their internal temperature was also much higher than they were used to.
Out of curiosity they put their hand to their chest. Trying to ignore the pain and focus on the feeling, it hit them that their hand was actually warm for once. “Shitty situation, but I’m so glad my hands aren’t numb from the cold,” they said, leaning their head back and looking at the sky above them.
Lumber and Porter exchanged glances before looking back at them. “They’re still pretty cold?” Lumber pointed out.
“They’re warm to me,” Hydra said, closing their eyes and just appreciating the feeling while they could. “Holding the coal close to my chest must have made my systems think I was in a fire, then just spiraled from there,” they contemplated, frown on their face. “It was sweet of Rusty to let me hold a coal, but risking blowing up isn’t too romantic…”
“That was supposed to be romantic?” Porter said with a laugh. “Nah, mate. Holding a coal someone burned isn’t romantic. But you know what is? Pinching steam ducts.”
“Or sticking your hand in the funnel. Surely that’s warm too, and it’s not like you’re holding something actually on fire,” Lumber added.
“Oh, or putting coal in his firebox… But you might not want to do that one actually.”
Hydra watched as the two continued to list off ideas. As they kept going, they started to get the idea that maybe the freights weren’t the best at giving romantic advice. Maybe next time he should ask the coaches.
It took about a half hour before the repair truck pulled up. The white coats shooed away Porter and Lumber—the two being reluctant to go—before the engineers started working on Hydra with anything urgent before lifting them onto the truck to take them away.
A little over a week after the incident, Hydra was dropped off by an engine from another station. They were almost as good as new, tanker replaced and reinforced and coolant lines fixed and rerouted. When they got back, Rusty wasn’t in, but Momma was. And she pulled them aside real quick.
“Now Hydra-”
“I know Momma. What I did was stupid and I could have hurt Rusty or literally anyone else here. We got lucky that Rusty got me away from everyone before anything happened. The white coats already gave me the whole lecture,” they said with a sigh, the guilt of what happened coming back to them. They had been thinking about what happened a lot over the week they were at the lab.
A look crossed Momma’s face, but Hydra wasn’t too sure what she was thinking. She placed a hand on their shoulders. “I’m not mad at you,” she started, which confused Hydra, but they didn’t say it. “Obviously you know now what you did wasn’t the brightest. But I know that you’re not going to do anything like that again. What I was going to tell you was that, if being outside in the cold is not good for you, you can take some time off.” Hydra looked up at her with surprise clear on their face. “Lumber, Porter, and Slick all told me it happened because you were trying to warm up. It’s okay if you need to step inside to try and warm up. Maybe you should even talk to the technicians about a safer way you can warm up that doesn’t involve holding a live coal.”
They looked a bit sheepish, shifting from skate to skate. “The engineers at the lab tried to make it so the coolant doesn’t circulate through my hands, so they shouldn’t be as cold… They also gave me some hand warmers,” they said, pulling out some simple little pouches with a gel and what looked like a coin in them. “I should be fine now.”
“Hydra,” she said sternly, giving them a look.
They ducked away, rolling back a bit and holding their hands up. “If I need to head in, I’ll say something,” they relented, not wanting to get another lecture from her. They knew she was concerned about them. They understood Momma’s lectures came from a place of concern for them whereas the white coats’ were focused on the success of the project, but they were mentally exhausted after the week back at the lab.
She sighed, knowing better than to push them right now. “Come here,” she said, holding her arms out. They paused for just a second before moving in for a hug. She may not be their mum, but it was still nice to have her support. She ran her fingers through their hair as they relished in the warmth. “Rusty should be back in an hour. The others should be in the freight shed if you wanna see them before he gets back.”
They nodded, reluctantly pulling away. “Thanks for the heads up,” they said, putting back on their signature smile and turning to rush over to the shed.
They pushed open the door and before they could even get a word out, Lumber and Porter were by the door, each slapping a hand on their back. “You’re not dead!” Porter cheered, “Was worried you wouldn’t show back up after they carted you off!”
Hydra let out a small laugh and shrugged off their hands, turning and rolling backwards. “Nothing can keep me down for long,” they said casually, their slow roll backwards stopping when Slick came up beside them and threw an arm around their shoulders. It was a little hard for her given the height difference, but she forced them down a bit.
“Glad to see your alive, green freak,” she said, grinning. The smile dropped only slightly as she whispered, “Sorry about… Giving you that idea. I didn’t expect it to go like that .”
“It’s alright,” Hydra said, keeping his voice down as he patted her hand. Much louder they added, “Oh, I was able to tell the engineers about the issues and they did some work so hopefully I shouldn’t be too much colder. At least not on the surface.” They knocked their hand against their chest, “Tanker’s still gotta stay pretty cold to keep the fuel liquid.” They shrugged off Slick’s arm. They moved to pull her into a headlock, giving her a noogie. She squirmed, getting free of their grip. “I also told them about the hand warmers and they sent me with some,” they said, pulling them out to show the other freight.
“So no more coal holding?” Lumber teased.
Hydra rolled their eyes, “No more coal holding.”
“Good. You gonna use any of the other romantic ideas we gave you?”
“I don-”
“I told you two, all those are shit. Hydra please tell me you're not gonna listen to them two. I know my idea was bad, but theirs are just dumb,” Slick complained, grabbing their arm and pulling them away from her brothers.
They let out a chuckle, letting her pull them away. “Excuse you. Our ideas were great,” Porter said with mock offense as he moved to tackle Slick.
“Yeah, if your bar for romance is in the scrap yard,” Slick said, fighting him off with a smile on her face.
Lumber came up behind and grabbed Hydra around the shoulders, “No. No. We know our little brother. Those are great ideas.”
Hydra smiled as they shoved him off. The freight couldn’t help it as they started to get a bit rough, bickering back and forth and shoving each other around. Hydra appreciated that they had started to include them in their roughhousing, but they made sure to be careful and duck away from them every now and then so they didn’t get carried away with them.
“I’ve been thinking through the ideas, and I don't think sticking my hands in Rusty's funnel would be all that romantic,” Hydra admitted with a laugh as they watched Lumber turn on Porter and pin him to the ground.
“It totally would,” Porter mumbled.
“Yeah yeah yeah,” Hydra said, waving him off. “I do gotta figure something else out though. I owe him after that fiasco.”
“Damn right you do,” Slick said, rolling over to stand by him and giving them a light shove.
They sighed, glancing at the shed clock. “I should head over to Rusty’s shed. I want to be there when he gets back.”
“Have fun!” Porter called, shoving Lumber off him.
“Don’t get into any trouble!” Lumber added.
“And try not to die again!” Slick said, rounding on her brothers.
Hydra left the shed, the sound of roughhousing picking back up behind him. He headed straight for Rusty’s shed. The door was unlocked as usual, so they let themself in. They glanced around the room, settling on rolling over to his kitchenette and trying to make some food since it was almost dinner time.
They had just under a half hour of time to cook before they heard the door open behind them and Rusty came rolling into his shed. “You’re back!” he shouted, slamming the door closed behind him and making a beeline for Hydra. Thankfully, the distance between the door and the kitchen gave Hydra plenty of time to set aside the spoon and brace for the hug they were pulled into. “I’ve been worried. You’ve been gone for a week,” Rusty said, holding them tight.
They returned the hug, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “I’m sorry. The engineers had to make sure everything was in good working order before they’d bring me back.” They held him tight, rocking side to side. Hydra twisted one of his ringlets around their finger, relaxing into his hold. Rusty held onto them tight as if the moment he let go they would be gone again. They held onto each other for a while, just reveling in the other’s touch before Hydra finally pulled away.
“I’m almost done making garlic noodles,” they said, rolling back and grabbing Rusty by the hand, pulling him over to the stove. They pulled some of what was in the pan aside—a portion for them that didn’t have any fish—before adding the fake crab to the dish and serving some for Rusty. They rolled over, holding out the bowl for him. “As a sorry for that whole mess.”
Rusty paused, looking up at them. “Don’t apologize for that. You didn’t know that holding a coal would cause that to happen.”
“Yeah, but I should’ve known better than to hold a live coal regardless.”
“Well, I should’ve known better than to even give you one.”
“Rusty…”
“Don’t. It’s on both of us. Got it?”
“Alright,” Hydra said with a sigh, looking down at their boyfriend with a fond smile.
“Now come on, before the food gets cold,” Rusty said, pulling Hydra over to the couch so they could sit and eat. They sat down next to one another, leaning into each other. Hydra enjoyed the warmth coming from Rusty and just the feeling of the other being next to them.