Thomas and Emily's Relationship
by AaronCottrel97 is a shipping fic that takes place in the Thomas & Friends universe, taking episodes from the series and mingling them with a written-in romance between Thomas and Emily.
One day, Thomas gets told by Edward about a new engine arriving on Sodor, and once he learns that said engine is a female steam engine, he becomes excited to meet her. He meets the new engine, Emily, at Knapford Station and is immediately stunned by her beauty. Simultaneously, Emily herself takes a liking to him as well, thinking of him as cute and almost handsome. They get into a bit of a misunderstanding when Emily takes Annie and Clarabel with her without Thomas's consent, but after she stops him from having a serious accident by pushing Oliver out of the way, they become firm friends. Over the course of the story, the two get to know each other more and more, and start to develop mutual romantic feelings for one another. The strong bond that they form goes through many different phases both good and bad, including a Broken Bird period for Emily, a Love Triangle that develops once Rosie and her crazy admiration for Thomas comes into the picture, more misunderstandings and many others.
This fic provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The episodes and specials used as chapters for the story are all expanded to include a few extra scenes, some of which involve Thomas and Emily having a romantic moment:
- The first chapter, "An Angel Descends on Sodor", which is an adaptation of "Emily's New Coaches", has a prologue where Thomas gets informed of Emily's arrival by Edward, and an epilogue where Thomas and Emily have a brief conversation at the end of a day after the latter's week of settling in has come to an end.
- "Thomas, Emily and the Snowplough" adds in a scene where Thomas puzzles over Emily's bossy attitude towards him, as well as a scene where Emily expresses guilt for her behaviour.
- "Don't Tell Thomas" is given an epilogue where Thomas meets up with Emily at Tidmouth Sheds and tells her what he thought about the surprise everyone prepared for him.
- "Emily's New Route" ends with Thomas and Emily spending the evening at Black Loch together as per canon, but they later on decide to have it be a place for them to have dates at.
- In "Halloween", after the Fat Controller sends 'Arry and Bert away to collect the iron from the smelters' yards as a punishment for scaring Thomas and Emily, some of the other engines laugh at Emily for being scared. Emily runs off crying and despondently calls herself various insults, while Thomas comforts her by reminding her that it's okay to be scared, and tells her about some of the times he himself has been scared before.
- In "Emily's Rubbish", Henry gets angry with Gordon and James for laughing at Emily when they saw her with Whiff, considering that the latter two have only recently been let out of the out-of-use siding after being kept there as a punishment for bullying her for a few years, and alerts Thomas about what they did. Thomas confronts them later on and lets them off with a warning only because they didn't insult or hurt her, and then meets Emily back at the yards, where she tells him that she now knows how Molly and Neville felt when she was rude to them. Thomas assures her that it wasn't her fault and that she only did it because Gordon and James pushed her over the edge.
- Affectionate Nickname / Embarrassing Nickname: Emily starts to call Thomas "Tommy" as a pet name at the end of "Emily's New Route". While Thomas does accept that it's a term of endearment, he feels embarrassed and mildly annoyed whenever it gets brought up, alongside feeling that the others would tease him relentlessly if they found out about it.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Just like in the series proper, Emily gets ignored by the other engines when they see her pulling Annie and Clarabel, but earns respect from most of them after her act of heroism with Oliver. Unfortunately, they all turn on her again after enduring two and a half years of her bossiness, deeming her as nothing more than a nuisance. But not long after that, she reveals to them why she had been so bossy, and they accept her as one of them again almost in a heartbeat.
- Almost Kiss: The main subject of the chapter "Close But No Kiss", where Thomas and Emily come very close to having a full-on romantic kiss at the washdown, stopped only by the intrusion of Bill and Ben.
- Another example occurs in "Emily's Winter Party Special", where Thomas and Emily nearly kiss under mistletoe at the Steamworks only for Kevin's shouting to ruin the moment.
- Always Someone Better: When Stanley arrives on Sodor to help with the restoration of Great Waterton while also doing most of Thomas's normal work, Thomas becomes too jealous of him for his own good and starts to wonder if everyone now likes Stanley more.
- Berserk Button: Emily does not like it whenever anyone makes fun of her wheels because of their size; she sees them as very special.
- Betty and Veronica: Once Rosie first appears and starts to follow Thomas around and emulate him, she becomes the Betty to Emily's Veronica, with her being the small, youthful and homely-looking tank engine whose feelings Thomas is oblivious to to Emily's large, mature and beautiful tender engine whom Thomas has known for longer and exclusively has feelings for. However, the love rivalry is for the most part a bit more one-sided than usual, as Rosie keeps relentlessly insisting that he will fall for her eventually, while Emily tries to deal with it sensibly, repeatedly attempting to convince her to give him some personal space and take the hint that he's not romantically interested in her, but each time to no avail.
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- When Thomas gets teased by 'Arry and Bert at the quarry about Emily's past screwups and mistakes, he gets so angry with them that he pushes them into a rock-blasting area, causing the explosives to all go off at once, and the diesels are both buried and severely damaged in a resulting avalanche.
- Emily gets angry with Thomas more than once throughout the story, but if pushed to her limit enough, she will not hesitate to bump him a few times in order to get him to listen to her.
- Big Bad Duumvirate:
- Gordon and James act as this for the first third of the fic, as they are the ones responsible for Emily becoming bossy and rude.
- 'Arry and Bert, to a lesser extent. Along with them being the ones to scare Thomas and Emily at the smelters' yards in "Halloween", they also tease Thomas by calling Emily names such as an "evil, criminal mastermind" and a "ruthless, heartless monster", which causes Thomas to retaliate by getting them buried in an avalanche, and once they are repaired, they try to scrap Thomas as payback after learning that the last remaining other engine of his kind, Emma, has been scrapped.
- Big Damn Heroes: The combined forces of Emily, Rosie, the Fat Controller and the Sodor police department ultimately stop 'Arry and Bert from scrapping Thomas, and as a punishment for trying to get rid of his no. 1 engine, the Fat Controller locks 'Arry and Bert up in a shed until further notice.
- Big "NO!": This happens twice in the chapter "Revenge of the Diesels":
- Thomas does this when he is informed that Emma, the last remaining other engine from his E2 class, has been scrapped and he now really is The Last of His Kind.
- Later on in the same chapter, Emily does this when Rosie tells her about Arry and Bert kidnapping Thomas in an attempt to not only scrap him but completely wipe out his class in retaliation for what he did to them earlier.
- Break the Cutie: It's safe to say that the normally sweet, carefree and chirpy Rosie is left feeling rather dejected after Thomas lashes out at her for supposedly getting all his siblings scrapped.
- Broken Bird: It is eventually revealed that Emily had been acting so bossy and controlling because she's actually quite sad, frightened and intimidated on the inside as a result of continuous bullying by a certain pair of engines painted red and blue.
- Broken Tears: Poor Rosie is left feeling very sad and hurt after Thomas angrily tells her to leave Sodor and never come back.
- The Bully:
- Gordon and James to Emily in the earlier chapters. Throughout a lot of her time on Sodor, they continuously direct numerous verbal and spiritual attacks at her, mocking the size of her wheels, telling her she doesn't belong on Sodor and scaring her into not telling anyone about it by calling her a "goody-goody telltale". Even after they spend time in the out-of-use siding as a punishment for it all, they still show some shades of this hanging around in view, particularly when they laugh at her for working with Whiff in "Emily's Rubbish".
- Thomas briefly becomes this to Rosie in "Every Rosie has its Thorns" after he learns about how his engine class is almost extinct and has been replaced by the engine class Rosie comes from. He bullies her much in the same way as the example mentioned above, shouting, insulting and hissing steam at her whenever he crosses paths with her. He eventually has a Jerkass Realization after Emily calls him out on behaving the exact same way towards Rosie as Gordon and James did to her earlier, and barely manages to stop Rosie from leaving Sodor on a ship after apologising to her.
- Chick Magnet: Thomas becomes the affection target for both Emily and Rosie, with both of them falling for him for the exact same reason - his goodheartedness, altruism and bravery.
- Crush Blush: Thomas and Emily do this quite frequently during some of their romantic moments, but it's especially noticeable with Thomas early on, particularly when she's complimenting him for something.
- Declaration of Protection: After Thomas is saved from scrap by Emily, Rosie, the Fat Controller and the police, Emily assures him that he needn't worry about it happening again because he's under the protection of both her and the Fat Controller.
- Determinator: Throughout most of the story, Rosie continuously and persistently tries to win Thomas over and fails to notice that he's not interested in her. It's not until late in the third act of the fic that she finally gives up and lets him be with Emily.
- Devoted to You: A big part of the romance Thomas and Emily develop for each other is the extreme dedication to each other that they develop; most of their actions come from wanting to keep the other safe and happy.
- Did Not Get The Guy: Rosie inevitably loses the love battle for Thomas between herself and Emily, since Thomas already had already fallen for Emily and only Emily right from the get-go. However, after she spends the night in a shed with Stanley and befriends him, it can be assumed that she's having another try.
- Distressed Dude: Thomas in Chapter 13, when he is kidnapped by 'Arry and Bert and nearly melted down.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Thomas takes multiple opportunities to admire Emily's beauty and gets mesmerised by it every single time.
- Entitled to Have You: For most of the Love Triangle segment of the story, Rosie is stubbornly adamant that if she tries hard enough, Thomas will develop feelings for her, despite the numerous times Emily tries to convince her otherwise.
- First Girl Wins: Since Thomas and the Magic Railroad is not canon in the author's universe, Emily is this to Thomas. She's the first female steam engine he sees and the only one he has a romantic interest in from the get-go.
- Foreshadowing: The narration at the end of "Love Can Forgive Anything" states that Emily is looking forward to staying in Tidmouth Sheds with Thomas and the others, but also mentions that there are two engines that she isn't looking forward to living with, and those two can sense it. It's referring to Gordon and James, as her move into the sheds has now given them the opportunity to bully and harass her even more.
- For Want Of A Nail: The events of "Misty Island Rescue" (here renamed to "Separated By the Sea") only happen because of Thomas's impulsive decision to go to the Search and Rescue Centre on the raft pulled by the first ship, rather than waiting for the next one. Emily rightfully calls him out on it later on, stating that the distraught emotions she felt during his absence were all for naught.
- Freudian Excuse: After a few chapters of build-up, "The Truth Beneath the Emerald" reveals to us why Emily became so bossy to begin with - it was all a result of Gordon and James continuously and relentlessly bullying her for the hell of it. Her first attempts to befriend them did not go well, with Gordon calling her "not respectable" for not having a dome and whistling to him at the station and James basically trying to get her to believe that he's handsome. When she called them out on their behaviour in those incidents, they decided to retaliate by verbally and spiritually attacking her and making her feel too scared to tell anyone about what happened.
- Get Out!: Thomas says this to Rosie after the Fat Controller informs him that his brothers have been withdrawn from serviced, scrapped and replaced by the class of shunting engines that Rosie came from. Out of paranoia that she will replace him, he decides to vent all of his distressed emotions onto her."You! You don't belong here! Get off this island now and go back to wherever you came from and never come back!"
- Green-Eyed Monster: Thomas to Stanley in "The Great Discovery", as in the original thing, getting riled up over him taking his berth in Tidmouth Sheds and doing most of his work.
- Hopeless Suitor: Rosie to Thomas. Despite this, she never stops trying to get his attention, backing her actions up with the belief that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Thomas, on the other hand, finds it hard to hold the same belief as he only feels annoyed by Rosie constantly following him around and copying his every move, along with the fact she is quite clearly trying to swipe him away from Emily. What's more is that Rosie doesn't even acknowledge how hopeless her pursuit of Thomas is until the chapter "Unrequited Love", when she finally realises how much Thomas and Emily mean to each other and decides to leave them be.
- Hypocritical Humor: When Thomas goes to look for Emily to try and comfort her after everyone betrays her and deems her as good as gone, he comes across Gordon and James and asks them if they know about her whereabouts. They tell him that she went in a direction that turns out to be the way to Black Loch, but while doing so they also tell him about the dejected state she was in and the very harsh "The Reason You Suck" Speech she gave them in retaliation for their bullying of her for much of her time on Sodor, which they brush off as "absurd lies".Gordon: She thinks we "ruined her life" and turned her into a "horrible, good-for-nothing engine", whom everyone has turned their backs on. What rubbish!James: And then, she goes on to call us the meanest, most insensitive engines in the world and says she hates us. When have we ever been mean and insensitive to anyone?
- Inelegant Blubbering: Thomas has a long, continuous, bitter cry after meeting his younger sister Emma for the first and only time before she gets scrapped. The event leaves him in such an emotional wreck that he is too distraught to do any work at all, and what's more, Emily, who is also quite sad after witnessing it all, ends up being taken off the hook so she can be with him and comfort him.
- Parental Substitute: Near the end of Tale of the Brave, Percy comes to see Emily as a surrogate mother and despite her lampshading the fact that they're engines, she begins treating him like a son.
- Rejected Apology: Even though Gordon and James apologise to Emily for bullying her, she refuses to forgive them.
- Take That!: Chapter 21 serves as one to Misty Island Rescue, due to the author's own dislike toward the Logging Locos.
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Emily considers being laughed at by Molly and Neville for working with Whiff this, seeing as how she had laughed at Molly and been unfairly angry to Neville upon their arrivals.
