Once again getting closer

Tom's mother then returned to the front door where everyone else was still standing there, waiting for her. Josh and his mother's shoes were on, and Tom was waiting there, leaning against the wall waiting patiently.

Looking at them happily she realised that Josh didn't have his coat on, she wondered if they were carrying it but that turned out to not be the case.

"Josh, where's your coat? Please remember to not forget it." She said sweetly.

As she said that Tom looked over at Josh briefly and then remembered where Josh had left his coat and went to get if for him, he did this because he'd seen that Josh had already slipped his shoes on. Tom then returned quickly with the coat in his arms and gently shoved the coat into the open arms of Josh. Who then slid on his jacket and zipped it up hurriedly, Thomus the Bankengine was no longe visible.

The mothers who were meant to be saying goodbye had once again begun chatting, the front door was open and the cold breeze that was coming from outside blew against the four of them gently. The two boys looked at their mothers' and sighed in their hearts, they both knew it'd be a long time before they stopped chatting and actually began parting ways.

This in mind, Josh turned away from the women and instead looked at the boy in front of him, he hadn't taken too much notice before, but Tom was visibly shorter than him, by around half a head. Although he also had to include the fact he was wearing shoes and Tom wasn't. Josh was around 116cm and Tom was around 108cm.

Tom saw that Josh was looking at him and he in turn started looking back at him, after a while he felt somewhat confused as to why he was being stared at so intently, he then looked away and stared at the ground to the left of Josh, in hopes that Josh would also stop looking at him and instead stare at something else.

Instead of doing that, Josh kept looking at Tom and when Tom was about to turn to him and ask what he was doing, he tapped Tom on the shoulder and pouted.

"I'm bored… what do we do now?" He asked gently, not wanting to be too loud as to interrupt or alert the two women.

Tom who had turned to look at him after being prodded thought about what he'd just said and agreed with him, it had beef a few minutes and the women still looked as though they wouldn't stop talking, ever. They probably wouldn't stop even when the sun went down and it was time to go to sleep.

Tom got closer to Josh and spoke into his ear because he also didn't want to interrupt the mothers' conversation, not only that, but he also didn't want to have to repeat himself again and again due to his apparent habit of mumbling and talking inaudibly.

"Well, there's not much to do right now… I guess we could talk…" he spoke, his words came out still somewhat quiet and a bit slurred.

His words were a bit slurred, they came out somewhat mumbled, jumbled and mixed together, and were somewhat stumbled over due to his anxiety. Tom had always felt rather shy and anxious, even though he'd talked to Josh for quite a while and had played with him for a few hours he didn't feel entirely comfortable with him.

It wasn't that Josh himself was causing him to feel uncomfortable, it was more that any interaction with strangers, and people he didn't know well made him very nervous. He didn't want to mess up by saying or doing something wrong, he didn't want to be made fun of or ignored for being deemed weird or things like that.

He also didn't want to be disliked due to his timid personality but he couldn't help it, sometimes when he was having fun he could get over the majority of his anxiety briefly. That is, before his burst of excitement disperses, and then he's back to worrying about what to do and what to say.

Sometimes his nervousness wasn't as bad as usual and sometimes it was much worse, on this day in particular he didn't feel too anxious, this could've been due to only a single person being around, and the warm and friendly vibe the boy he was playing with gave off. He found a strange feeling of peace and happiness when being around the boy who he'd only met once, especially so as when he smiled.

Tom was then broken out of his thoughts by Josh who had just broken into a smile and had opened his mouth to talk to him.

"Well then, what should we talk about… hmm…" he closed his eyes shut and formed a pout on his face as if he was trying to think extremely hard.

The look on his face was both adorable and funny, causing the edges of Tom's mouth to curve up slightly at the ends. Josh then quickly opened his eyes and the smile he had just moments ago reappeared on his face.

"Ok, so…" Josh began as he kept talking about random things with Tom who had a small smile on his face and preferred to listen to Josh talk than talk himself.

Their conversation ran as long as their mothers' did and covered various topics from favourite foods to school and back to recent holidays. Thought their conversation they were both smiling happily and both seemed to enjoy their time together, Josh was doing most of the talking but made sure to include Tom.

The two boys after only meeting once seemed to already have become friends and seemed to like each other. The women who had both taken small peeks at the two small children throughout their own conversation were both happy to see they were getting along. This was especially true for Tom's mother, she was beyond happy to the point of tears, if anything, tears really might have began forming in the corners of her eyes.

Her smile had increased by tenfold and she looked to be giddy from happiness from viewing her son talking happily to a friend. She'd been extremely worried for the boy, whenever he'd come across anyone he didn't know well he wouldn't say a thing and would proceed to hide behind herself and her husband with an unapproachable expression plastered onto his face.

He wouldn't move from the spot until the person trying to talk to him left him alone and focused their attention on something else. This was one of the few times he had began talking to someone else of his own volition, he'd even seemed to become friends with the boy.

Tom's mother looked back at her friend after a few glances at the boys and smiled gratefully at Josh's mother for having brought her son here to become friends with Tom. Josh's mother caught the expression and smirked whilst bringing her hand up and forming a thumbs up sign, telling her friend that it was all good with her actions.