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The air in the repair shed was so tense and thick that it almost felt like a physical object. Green Arrow and Golden Eagle were both sat on medical beds on opposite sides of the room, facing away from each other and looking at the walls closest to them. The only sound that could be heard was the both of them breathing heavily, and the occasional beep of a machine.
Although both of them had gotten in trouble and disqualified from the championships due to their own actions, the marshals had still let their scrapes and bruises get looked over by the visiting repair trucks. Thankfully, there wasn't anything severe, but they had been left in the repair shed alone for a few minutes before they could be officially let go, for whatever reason. They had spent the whole time there not looking into each other's eyes, or even glancing at each other at all.
In retrospect, both of them realised that fighting in the middle of the race was entirely pointless. It achieved nothing except cause the both of them to be disqualified, meaning neither of them had ended up even finishing the race in the first place, let alone been able to win. If both of them were honest, they did regret letting their emotions get the better of them, but that's how they tended to act in races anyways. The both of them were extremely competitive, somehow even more than some of the other engines in the yard, so them racing against each other made something like this happening almost inevitable.
The both of them continued staring holes into their respective walls, the tension in the room growing exponentially with every second they continued to sit in silence. Arrow began bouncing his leg, causing the back wheels on his skate to repeatedly hit the floor. The noise was grating to Eagle's ears, causing him to whip around for a second.
"Would you stop that?" he growled, before turning back around to face the wall. Arrow tapped his skate aggressively one more time, before obliging and sighing loudly.
The tension disappeared for a second once Eagle spoke, but the moment the silence returned it started to grow again. As much as they disliked each other in the current moment, this was getting them nowhere. At least in Eagle's sake, he'd rather be arguing than just sitting in silence for however long they had been. It was pointless. So, he decided to speak.
"Did they, uh, find anything bad on you that needs repairing?" He asked, feeling incredibly out of character. It felt less uncomfortable than the silence though, which was a plus. Arrow, seemingly caught off guard by how civil Eagle was being, didn't reply for a few seconds, almost like he was hesitating.
"Uh, no, I don't think so. You?" Arrow replied, sounding ever so slightly suspicious, and a little confused by the whole thing.
"Yeah, same here."
"Cool."
"Cool."
They resumed the silence again. It felt a lot more awkward than uncomfortable this time, which neither of them could say was any better.
"Why?" Arrow asked after a few seconds.
"What do you mean 'why?'" Eagle responded, with a slight edge to his tone.
"Why are you asking? It's not like you would care if they were that bad," Arrow said, in a way that made Eagle 100% sure he was rolling his eyes.
"What makes you say that?" Eagle asked, raising an eyebrow even though Arrow couldn't see his face.
"…We fought? Obviously you don't like me that much, you're literally the one who caused the repairs in the first place,"
"Am I not allowed to ask? Also you fought me too, don't try and act all high and mighty."
Arrow hesitated again, seemingly in thought. Eagle just sat there waiting for him to say something, not wanting to provoke him any further. They had fought earlier, many other times in the past and probably the future, but that didn't mean Eagle wanted a fight right now. No, now felt different, for some reason that he would probably confront later.
"Can't believe Momma won the race. I wouldn't have bet on that in a million years," Arrow spoke up finally, steering the conversation topic somewhere else entirely. Normally, Eagle would have been annoyed at him deliberately ignoring the question, but he found himself not feeling like that this time. He barked a short laugh.
"Right, do you think she'll win the final too?"
"Against Greaseball? You've got to be joking, she'll be left in the dust. I doubt she'll even make it that far, honestly."
The two of them laughed together for a few seconds. Even if they would never admit it, they were honestly both surprised that they were managing to have a civil conversation, especially after the events of the race. They recovered from the small laughing fit, both awkwardly clearing their throats.
"Listen, Eagle," Arrow spoke up all of a sudden, taking Eagle a little off guard. "I wanted to say something. About the race."
If he was trying to start another fight, Eagle was actually going to kill him. Weird, he'd never thought like that before. They'd probably go back to fighting tomorrow, maybe even today, but for some reason the whole air surrounding them had felt different. The repair shed almost felt like a seperate dimension, one where they weren't constantly at each other's throats. Huh.
"What? Spit it out," Eagle barked, trying very hard to hide his rising nerves. He didn't want Arrow to think he was a coward, he definitely wouldn't live that down.
"I won't say anything if you're going to get cocky," Arrow grumbled, rolling his eyes again as his anger seemed to start rising.
"Alright, sure. Just say it," Eagle replied. Arrow sighed; he almost sounded nervous, but Eagle was convinced he was just making that up.
"Fine," Arrow huffed, before inhaling and exhaling a heavy (and slightly shaky) breath.
"Sorry for costing us both the race," he mumbled, and Eagle definitely thought he was hearing things now. Arrow apologising definitely felt out of left field, but Eagle definitely wasn't protesting.
"I- what?" Eagle questioned.
"You know what I said, don't act stupid. I'm not saying it again," Arrow retorted, sounding almost embarassed? That was new, at least in Eagle's eyes, but he couldn't say he didn't like it.
"Yeah, yeah," he waved Arrow off.
"And, uh, for the record," Eagle continued, but he hesitated for a second. He knew for a fact that Arrow was raising an eyebrow.
"Hm?"
"It wasn't just you. I caused the fight too."
As soon as the sentence left his mouth, he immediately regretted saying anything. He knew Arrow would hold this over his head for the rest of his life. Surprisingly though, he didn't immediately start mocking him like he usually would.
Eagle took a second to glance over his shoulder, just to see if Arrow was preparing to do anything. Maybe he was going to try and fight him again, it would be beneficial to actually prepare to fight back and not be caught by surprise. He was surprised however, when he turned around to see Arrow staring right back at him, glancing over his shoulder in a manner similar to Eagle.
Upon seeing this, both trains whipped their heads back around, feeling embarassed and slightly flustered. They already felt vulnerable as is, the split second eye contact definitely didn't do them any favours. It was one thing being out about their feelings, actually looking at each other and remembering they weren't just talking to a stranger definitely did a number on them. Eagle would definitely lay awake thinking about this later (and Arrow most likely would be too, but Eagle didn't need to know that).
Before they could sit wallowing in their thoughts and stress any longer, the door to the repair shed opened, and a race marshal stepped through. Arrow and Eagle snapped their heads up in their direction, not glancing at each other at all.
"You guys are free to go. No funny business though, alright?" the race marshal explained. Both trains agreed, silently skating out of the repair shed without looking at each other once.
The moment they left, they fled in opposite directions across the yard. They'd probably go back to fighting tomorrow, but they knew they wouldn't stop thinking about their actually civil conversation any time soon (even if they didn't know or realise that the other was going through the same thing).