#crutchie being taken away has shook me a bit

[chainedspectre]

halfway through newsies and i was not prepared for the sheer use of the word crip jesus christ

#i feel like i should have been prepared for this #but i wasnt #typing this through santa fe btw #crutchie being taken away has shook me a bit #wasnt expecting the absolute aggression #newsies #crutchie #crutchie morris #crutchie newsies #tw c slur

[bitchiaintanonymous]

Here we are, back at it again by popular demand.... Okay, so no one actually asked for this, but it’s here so get ready.

Oh also, just so you know, this is sadder than the last one.... like a lot sadder.

But hey, go ahead and read on, I’m like, 99.99% sure you won’t regret it. Enjoy, I guess.

Trigger Warning: Mentions of Alcohol/Alcoholism, Mild Description of Gore, Mentions of a Car Accident, Harsh Language.

Hold Me, Set Me Free

It takes ten seconds for a life to be ruined.

It took one second for Race to leave his house. It took one second for him to decide to cross the street. It took one second for him to fall. It took five seconds for him to get back up. It took one second for the driver to look at his phone.

It took ten seconds total for the car to hit him.

It took longer for Jack to find out.

The past few hours seemed like a blur to him. He remembers leaving the trial, hugging Crutchie and watching him go with Snyder. Then getting a phone call from the very same man not even a few hours later. After that, he remembers feeling hopeless. So incredibly hopeless. A feeling, strong enough, that it made him run to a bar, successfully breaking his two year sobriety. Although after that, his memory gets a little… flashy.

There are things he knows for sure. Race called him… he didn’t answer. Race left a voicemail…several actually. They ranged from as old as only half an hour after Jack got to the bar, to as recent as the moment everything changed.

After that Jack got another call, one that he answered.

It was a hospital.

He should have answered Race’s call.

It’s a thought that repeated in Jack’s head while waiting for his baby brother to get out of surgery. He should have answered the call, he should have called him back.

He should have done something.

Instead he decided to make, arguably, one of the worst decisions he could have made. He drank. Two suffocating years of sobriety and he threw it all away just because someone’s words got to his head. He knew he shouldn’t have listened to Snyder, but after how the last trial went, he knew how close Snyder was to gaining full custody. No matter how hard Jack tried, Snyder had one thing Jack never seemed to have enough of. Money. He could see the jury was siding with him, and now Snyder was taking away one of the most important people to Jack. And he wasn’t even blinking an eye about it. Now the only thing Jack was sure of, is that all he has is Race.

... All he had.

But Race got taken too. Taken by Liam. Truthfully, Jack can’t even remember the last time he saw Race properly. They used to see each other everyday, but things had changed. Now they only seemed to communicate through phone calls. Yet, even then, Race seemed different. His tone was never as happy as it used to be.

And God, Jack should have done something.

“How’re you holding up sugar?”

Jack recognized the person interrupting his thoughts as Miss Medda Larkin, the head nurse in the New York Presbyterian Hospital, and the person who constantly checked in on him for the past few hours.

Jack shot out of his seat hearing her voice, “Is he out? Is he okay?” It seemed that no matter how much Jack tried to appear strong, the shake in his voice gave him away.

Medda seemed to have noticed that as her look of pity intensified. Any hope Jack might have had in that moment left when she shook her head sadly. “Sorry sugar, we’re not sure when he’ll be stable enough to be put in a room. Only time, and our best doctors, can tell that dear”

Jack sighed and took his seat again. He was ready to wait days if that’s what it took for Race to be okay. Hell, he was ready to wait years.

“However… we do have someone here looking for you. A young red headed woman.”

Katherine.

Jack subconsciously sat up at that. He didn’t know why Katherine had come, but truthfully, he didn’t want to question it. “Yeah I know her, she was my girlfriend… not too sure what she’s doing here though.” Jack saw that Medda looked like she was gonna send her away and elaborated, “We left on good terms. She can come in.”

Medda looked skeptical leaving the small waiting room, but a few seconds later Katherine walked in.

Jack had never really gotten over Katherine. He thought about her a lot. More than you should think about someone who broke up with you, but he couldn’t help it. Katherine was... everything. Feisty and witty, intelligent, drop dead gorgeous, and the more Jack thinks about it, the more he understands why she left.

Seeing her again was like everything Jack needed, and everything he was trying to avoid.

She looked frantic coming in, different than Jack had remembered her. “Jack! Hey... how’s Tony?”

If it were any other time Jack might have teased her about not being happy to see him, but all Jack could think about was Race. “He's... hanging in there. The doctors don’t know when he’ll be stable enough to come out.... He was taken a while ago.” He assumed. Jack doesn’t know how long he had been blankly staring at the wall in front of him, and he wasn’t about to think too hard about it.

Katherine just looked at him with concern. “And how are you?”

Stressed, angry, concerned, worried, frustrated, terrified.

“I’m fine.” he replied.

She looked like she was about to argue, but he cut her off before she could.

“I’ll be happy when Race is happy” And it was true, Jack would not really be fine until Race was safe.

She pursed her lips like she did when she was getting frustrated. “No one is asking you to be happy Jack. Just asking that you’re okay.”

Jack was getting frustrated now too. “I’ll be okay, when Race is okay.” His tone suggested that that was the end of the conversation.

For a second, it looked like she might drop the

subject, but then, suddenly, she scrunched up her face. “Is that… were you drinking Jack?”

Jack stared at her for a few seconds then let out a humorous laugh, “Really? You really want to do this, right now?” Jack bit out harshly.

Katherine didn’t flinch at Jack’s tone. If anything, she seemed to get more aggressive. “Yes Jack, really. You have a problem. We broke up what, three years ago, and you’re still going on with this bullshit?”

It hurt Jack that she thought he hadn’t changed, but at that moment Jack didn’t want to be hurt anymore. He focused on the anger. “One, you don’t get to do that. You broke up with me, you don’t get to tell me how to live my life. And not that I need to tell you, but if it’ll get you off my back, I was two years sober until tonight happened.”

A small part of Jack took pleasure seeing Kath speechless. Another part felt guilty for making her feel bad. He wasn’t sure which side won control.

Katherine looked like she had more to say, but thankfully, didn’t push the subject further. Instead, she surprised Jack. “You’re right…. I don’t have any right to tell you what decisions to make. And, if it counts, for anything at all… you seem like you really did change. I didn’t mean to hurt you… I’m sorry.”

Jack didn’t respond, although he knew Katherine didn’t mind. Even after three years, Jack could still tell when she got lost in her mind.

A few seconds of silence passed before Jack felt a hand on his. He froze before looking over at Katherine who looked like she was mentally telling him to accept the comfort. Jack didn’t know what to think. It baffled him that she held his hand like it was perfectly natural. Although… In a way, Jack supposed it was. Natural, just uncommon. Very uncommon.

He accepted the comfort.

A few minutes pass with them sitting in silence before a question surfaced in Jack’s mind. “Kath,” to her hum of acknowledgement he looked up from the ground “how did you know Race was hurt? I thought… after we broke up you took your name off his emergency contacts.” When Jack looked to Katherine he saw a guilty look displayed across her face.

“I did,” She spoke the words carefully, as if she were breaking bad news to someone “but that’s not how I knew… Jack… have you watched the news lately?” Jack didn’t say anything, just shook his head and motioned for her to continue. “What happened to Tony is there… All of it.”

Before he could think, Jack grabbed the television remote from the small table in front of them, and turned on the news channel. Katherine tried to protest and grab the remote, but Jack was already standing up out of reach, turning up the volume.

“-An accident involving 22 year old Anthony Higgins, who got hit by a car at the Fort Washington Avenue and West 176th Street intersection. Anthony appeared to trip and fall in the middle of the intersection, and that combined with the driver, who was said to be on his mobile device, resulted in this terrible accident.” Jack couldn’t focus. For a second he thought the television was off, but then he saw a video on the device playing. It showed police cars lined up around the crime scene, and Race being loaded into an ambulance. He looked terrible. His face was covered in blood and even through the sheet that was covering him, Jack could his right arm and leg busted. He could vaguely hear Katherine trying to get his attention, but he ignored her in favour of listening to the television once more.

“The young adult is said to be getting medical treatment at a nearby hospital, but the future of Anthony seems to be unknown-”

This time the television really did turn off, and suddenly Katherine’s face was in front of him, her hands on the sides of his face and her eyes filled with concern.

“Jack? Jack, c’mon snap out of it…. God I knew I shouldn’t have told you about that crap… Jack come on, you’re okay, Tony’s okay, he’s gonna get out of surgery soon and everything is going to be fine”

“You don’t know that.” The words came out a lot harsher than he meant them to, but Katherine didn’t seem fazed.

“I do. He’s gonna make it Jack. I know he is. What they were saying on there was-”

“The truth, wasn’t it? We don’t know what’s gonna happen to him… We don’t know if he’ll live or…”

“Hey. Don’t think like that. If there’s anything I know, it’s that Race is a fighter. And he’s a good one too.... He’s gonna make it Jack.” Her tone left no room for argument and she said it with so much certainty, Jack almost believed her.

“A fighter...” She had no idea how true that was.

“Well I wouldn’t say that. More like... a mouse you know? In a game of Tom and Jerry.”

Jack stopped at that voice. For a second he thought he was imagining it, but when he looked over Katherine’s red curls at that unmistakable smirk, he saw red.

He was sure he blacked out, or he skipped a period in time, because one second he was looking at the face of his brother's abuser, and the next he was being pulled off of a bloodied Liam. Jack didn’t truly know if he was the one that caused all that blood, but he sure as hell hoped he was. And judging by the bruising on his knuckles, he had a pretty good chance.

Before he could say anything about it though, he remembered the situation at hand. Race got hit by a car, because he was running from his house, and he was running, because of Liam. All at once Jack realized he felt angry again. Murderous.

And he loved it.

He also realized that security guards were holding him by his arms to stop him from getting to Liam.

Jack tried to pull his arms out of their grip, but they were prepared and just held his arms tighter. He heard a gruff voice speak behind him, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you boy.”

Jack didn’t have time to decide if that was a challenge or a threat because not long after, Liam was talking.

“You’re fucking crazy man! Do just fucking attacked people for no reason? I didn’t even do anything to you.”

Even with the serious situation at hand, Jack let out a laugh. A crazy, psychopathic laugh. “Didn’t do anything?! Didn’t do anything my ass.” Faintly, Jack could hear Katherine trying to calm him down, but he wasn’t going to stop. Not until Liam was either dead on the ground, or in a hospital room himself. “You hurt my brother. You’re the reason he’s not here by my side but rather in surgery getting treated because he got hit by a fucking car!”

It was Liam's turn to look at Jack in humorous disbelief. “Me?! He went out in the middle of the night on his own. That’s not my fault.”

Jack was about to fight him back on it but Liam put on a smug smirk and cut him off before he could even open his mouth. “Besides, last I heard, he called you... and you didn’t answer. Maybe that’s what got him so distracted before he got hit. I think, if we should blame anyone here, it should be you.”

He knows. Jack knows it’s his fault, he’s been telling himself that since he got the call... but at that moment, he can’t help but think otherwise.

Seeing Liam at the hospital, acting like the douchebag Jack always knew he was... Jack’s not so sure it’s his fault at all.

“He was only outside calling me because he was running away from you… So that pegs the question Liam.” He spit the name out like venom, and smiled at his next words. “Why was he running from you?”

Before Liam could give some bullshit excuse though, Jack heard another voice enter the room.

“Jack, can I talk to you? It's about Anthony.”

As much as he wanted to expose Liam for the terrible person he was, Jack knew he had to go with Medda. Race was his first priority.

Without taking his eyes off Liam, he answered, “Yeah, of course.” Jack didn’t stop glaring until the door closed behind him.

After it did, Jack finally turned to face Medda. Upon seeing her troubled expression he immediately started asking about Race. “Is something wrong? Is he finally getting out?”

Meddas face fell even more than it already was. She spoke her next words carefully. “Jack… sweetie, he… he didn’t make it.”

For a second, everything around Jack stopped.

For a second, he forgot all about Liam, and Katherine, and Snyder. He forgot about the custody battle, he forgot about the bar, he forgot about everything. For a second his mind was quiet.

And then that second passed.

Jack didn’t know what was happening around him. If he focused really hard he could make out a floor underneath him and hands on his arms, a voice talking to him, and a head of red hair. But realistically, he didn’t have the energy to focus on that. Medda’s words played on a loop on his mind.

“he didn’t make it.”

It takes ten seconds to take a life.

It took four words to ruin Jack’s.

... Sorry. Yeah, that was... something. Anyways, I hope you liked it, I know there’s a lot left hanging in the air, and I’m planning to make another fic related to this at some point in the near future. But if you want to see anything specific, just send an ask and I’ll see what I can do.

#Jack Kelly #Racetrack Higgins #Katherine Pulitzer #Newsies #Major Character Death #Medda Larkin #Crutchie Morris #Past Jack Kelly/Katherine Pulitzer #Original Male Character #His name’s Liam and he sucks #Mentions of Alcohol/Alcoholism #Mentions of Car Accident #Mild Description of Gore #Mentions of Abuse #I think #Harsh Language

[igottoomuchwriting]

Secret Agent Jack “Oblivious” Kelly

“What’s with that smile, Crutchie?” Jack asked as he walked into their shared apartment. Crutchie was sitting on the couch with his leg rested on the coffee table. He had been smiling brightly at his phone when Jack walking in, but didn’t even bother to look up from his phone.

“Oh, just my boyfriend,” he responded. Jack snapped his head up from his shoe laces and turned his head to look at his best friend.

“Yer what now?” Crutchie looked up from his phone with a confused look.

“My boyfriend?”

“Since when have ya had a boyfriend?” Crutchie just stared blankly at him before turning back to his phone.

“A while.”

“Okay,” Jack sighed. “Who is yer boyfriend?”

“Someone of the male species.” He obviously wasn’t going to give this information up, and Jack was actually shocked. His best friend had a boyfriend, didn’t tell him when he got one, and now won’t tell him who it is?

“Do I know them?”

“Oh, most definitely,” Crutchie laughed. “For a while, actually.”

“Then who is it, Crutch?” Crutchie said nothing. He stood up from the couhc and grabbed his crutch before turning and shooting Jack a smile.

“You’ll see.”

---

“‘You’ll see’?!” Jack almost screeched. David flinched at the noise, resisting the urge to kick Jack out of his apartment. “Who the hell just says ‘you’ll see’ and walks away?”

“Apparently Crutchie does,” David stated. Jack groaned and flopped down on the couch, throwing his head in David’s lap and covering his eyes with his forearm.

“How could he do this to his best friend?” David hummed.

Unknown to Jack, David knew who Crutchie was dating. In fact, everyone in their group did. Though, when Crutchie told the group chat, Jack had just turned off his phone to get on a flight, and by the time he turned it back on, the conversation had passed.

Jack was the type of person who would ignore past messages in a group chat if it’s not urgent, and no one had told him it was urgent. This resulted in everyone in the group knowing who Crutchie’s boyfriend was, and Crutchie had texting them in a secret group chat (that they deleted immediately after due to guilt) to not tell Jack.

With how much Crutchie was considered a ray of sunshine, he was a real asshole when he wanted to be

“I’ve got it!” Jack exclaimed. David jumped as his boyfriend flew from his lap, cursing in his head. If he continued with this, David was tempted to just break up with him.

“What?” David sighed.

“I’ll spy on ‘im! He can’t hide it too much, right?” David stared at his over-excited boyfriend with a look of disbelief.

“You cannot spy on Crutchie, Jack.”

“An’ why not?”

“That’s a breach of his privacy!” he clipped. “Not to mention, he may lose trust in you.” Jack glared at David, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I already lost my trust for him, so I believe this is only fair.” David stared at him in shock. His boyfriend, whose spirit animal is an over excited cat, thought that spying on his best friend was they way to find out who Crutchie was dating.

“In what world is disrespecting someone’s privacy fair?”

“My world, Davey,” Jack smiled. He leaned over and gave David a peck on the lips before leaping off the couch.

“I gotta go. Love ya!” With that, he was gone.

David took a deep breath and placed his head in his hands, letting out a deep sign.

This was going to be a while.

---

One thing Jack hated about Crutchie--probably the only thing-- was that he got up early in the morning. Very early. It’s part of the reason his nickname was “ray of sunshine”. Sometimes he made breakfast for the two of them, which Jack loved, but the only downside was that he didn’t know how to be quiet.

Jack groaned as he heard a pan drop into the sink with a loud crash. He may have gone to sleep at two in the morning, but that didn’t bother Crutchie at all.

Jack grudgingly sat up in his bed, though he kept his blanket cocoon wrapped around himself as he grabbed his phone and moved out of his bedroom.

He found Crutchie humming in the kitchen, cutting up broccoli as eggs fried in the frying pan behind him. There were two coffee cups set on the counter right next to some plates that Crutchie had already laid out.

Jack walked into the kitchen and grabbed the mug closest to him, making his way to the coffee maker. Crutchie turned around and gave him a smile.

“Good morning, grumpy pants,” he hummed. Jack glared at him as the coffee brewed, not answering the blonde boy. Crutchie laughed and shook his head. He stepped over to the stove, barely using the counter as support, sprinkling broccoli into the omlette as well shredded cheese. “Breakfast should be ready soon, so go and brood in the dining room until it’s done.” Jack nodded his head and quickly grabbed his freshly poured cup of coffee and the sweetner he needed before sitting down, tiredly staring at his phone.

It was nice to just sit in quiet with Crutchie, where neither of them felt the need to talk. It had taken years for them to get to that point of their friendship, but it was worth waiting for that to happen.

“Oh!” Crutchie yelled over the noise of the frying pan cooling down in the sink. “I forgot to tell you that I’m going out to coffee in a bit.” Jack shot him a confused look.

“With who?”

“Why does it matter?” he mocked. Jack got up from where he was sitting and walked over to Crutchie.

“Cause I gotta make sure that my best friend isn’ goin’ ta go out and get himself kidnapped.” Crutchie rolled his eyes at Jack’s antics. He has always been protective of Crutchie since they have met in high school, always checking in on him when he went on dates or when he was somewhere new that may not be 100% accessible to him. Jack walked out of the kitchen, omelettes in hand, and Crutchie followed in suite.

“I’ll be fine Jack. I know they aren’t going to kidnap me, they would have nothing to gain from it.”

“Kidnapping a cute blonde? I beg to differ.” Crutchie shot him a knowing look and Jack shut up.

“I’ll be fine Jack.”

Soon after Crutchie left, Jack franticly texted Race.

To raceSLUT: hey do u work today

From raceSLUT: yeah y?

To raceSLUT: crutch is goin to a coffee date and i wanna see who he is with

Race didn’t respond right away. He assumed he had either been at work already, getting ready for work, or distracted by Spot. He is rarely away from his phone.

From raceSLUT: jack r u askin me to spy on ur roommate???

To raceSLUT: yes

From raceSLUT: how much

To raceSLUT: are u askin for $$??

From raceSLUT: staring at ur roommate will take time outta my work day

To raceSLUT: u wont be workin anyway

From raceSLUT: “if your good at something never do it for free”

To raceSLUT: i will give u $10 if you never quote joker again

From raceSLUT: deal

Jack sighed and rubbed his face. Race was a douchebag sometimes, but he honestly was a good guy. Even if he drove Jack up the wall sometimes.

His phone buzzed unexpedicately.

From raceSLUT: i will revoke that 10$ if u txt spot rn that he is a short bitch

To raceSLUT: what? What r u 2 doing??????

From raceSLUT: dont question just do it

Not wanting to be out ten dollars, Jack opened up the text messages between his brother and him.

To lil’ bitch: just a daily reminder that ur a lil fucking bitch - ur loving brother

From lil’ bitch: Did race put you up to this

To lil’ bitch: whether he did or not doesnt mask the truth spottie

---

It turns out Crutchie had gone to get coffee with David. When Race told him that, Jack became a little bit pouty. He knew his boyfriend and his best friend were good friends and hung out with just the two of them from time to time, but everytime they did, Jack always got a little jealous. Not in a toxic way, no. He even talked to a counselor about it to make sure that he didn’t become so jealous that he was being controlling and toxic.

Everyone knew he loved both of them, and even though he got jealous, it was not just because David was hanging out with other people, but that the ‘other people’ were his best friend.

And he wanted to hang out with his best friend. But he also wanted to hang out with his boyfriend.

“Jack, this is why Crutchie and I never tell you we are going to hang out,” David sighed. Jack had went over the David’s house after Racetrack told him that he was the one Crutchie went out with coffee with. When he showed up, David had been laying down on the couch, reading, and Jack just walked over and laid down on top of him, burying his face in David’s neck.

“Let me brood in piece, Davey,” Jack mumbled.

“Jack, you’re laying on my book. I would let you brood in piece if you hadn’t interrupted my peace.” Jack lifted his head and smiled widely at David.

“I’m way more peaceful.” Before David could reply, Jack leaned forward and placed a kiss on his lips. David sighed into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Jack’s lower back.

A few moments later, they pulled apart.

“Seriously, you should move a bit so I can get my book. I don’t want to bend the pages.” Jack groaned and lifted his upper body off of David. He quickly grabbed the book and Jack laid back down as David checked the pages, marking his spot in the book.

“So,” David began, “how did you know that Crutchie and I met up together?” Jack hummed and placed a kiss on his neck.

“I had Race tell me who he went to the coffee shop with.” David groaned and smacked the back of Jack’s head. Jack lifted his head up and glared at David. “Hey! Why’d ya do that?”

“You dragged Race into your creepy spying?”

“It’s not creepy!”

“That’s exactly what this is, Jack.”

“Well, he still won’t tell me who he is dating, so I took matters into my own hands.” David threw his head back in annoyance.

“Won’t he be mad when he figures out?”

“Nah,” Jack hummed. “He threatened ta do the same thing when you and I got together.”

“You didn’t tell him we got together?” Jack awkwardly laughed and pushed himself up on his arms.

“Yeah, I uh, was nervous because you was the first boy that I have been with?” David just stared at him. He opened his mouth to respond, but closed his eyes, changing his mind.

“We can talk about that another time. But I still stand by that you should not be stalking your best friend.”

“It’s gon’ happen, Dave.” This conversation was getting nowhere. David loves his boyfriend very much, but he knew when he had to end a conversation before it became a fight.

David put his hand on the back of Jack’s head and pulled him back into the hug, humming.

“Alright. But can you please stop getting jealous when Crutchie and I hang out?”

“...that I can work on.”

---

It was rare that Jack’s whole friend group had a chance to get together. Everyone was pursuing different majors and had different levels of homework and tests that they had to do. They finally had a Saturday where everyone was free. What do the do with that free day?

Drink to forget in Jack and Crutchie’s apartment, obviously.

“Jack,” David groaned. Jack laughed and took another shot, Racetrack cheering him on. “Jack, you have work tomorrow. You are going to be hung over.”

“Oh, quit grippin’,” he mumbled. “I ain’t even tha’ drunk yet.”

“Yet-”

“He’s fine, Mouth,” Spot laughed. “Let the man be stupid, he’s a dumb shit.”

“I side with Davey,” Crutchie spoke up. He was sitting with Finch on the couch, legs thrown over the boy so that there was more room on the floor for people to sit. For some reason, most of their friends perfer sitting on the ground.

“You should take some shots, Dave!” Racetrack hollored. Jack cheered along Blink and Mush, trying to peer pressure his boyfriend. David rolled his eyes.

“I’m these guys’ ride, I can’t drink anything.”

“Leave ‘im alone, guys,” Finch laughed. Jack turned towards him and watched Crutchie shake his head at them and hide his head in Finch’s shoulder. Jack smiled at that. When he first met Crutchie, he was very against touch. It was mainly his leg, but he wasn’t very keen on people touching him in general, so to avoid this, he wouldn’t touch anyone else either. Now, he was loved leaning into all his friends, giving hugs, everything that he could at every chance that he got.

“Jack?” Crutchie broke him out of his drunken thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Can you go get me my phone? I forgot it in my room.”

“Why can’t ya get it?” He gave Jack a look as if he was the stupidest man in the world.

“I just got comphy.” Jack groaned but got up anyway.

It wasn’t hard for him to find Crutchie’s phone. He always kept it on his charger when he left his room.

Just as he took Crutchie’s phone off the charger it clicked in his mind that he could find who his boyfriend is. Crutchie didn’t keep a lock on his phone because he never felt a need to hide anything from anyone.

Quickly, Jack opened up his messages, just so he could find out who this mystery boy is, once and for all.

For being best friends with Crutchie for years, Jack realized that he had never actually looked at Crutchie’s phone. Maybe to play a game when he needed something to do with his hands while he watched TV, but that was about it. He never realized that Crutchie didn’t have names under his phone.

They were all fucking emojis.

There was a car emoji, some buildings and a sky line, pink hearts, red hearts, green hearts. He had so many messages too, so Jack couldn’t even narrow down who would be the boyfriend.

“Jack!” he heard Finch yell. “What’s takin’ so long? I’m gettin’ antsy!”

“It ain’t even yer phone, Finch!” Jack hollored back. He scrolled through all the texts with hearts in the name. One had pink hearts, one had red hearts, one had green hearts and a bird…

I wonder what mine is? His drunken mind decided to chime in. Giving up on his mission, Jack quickly whipped his phone out and texted Crutchie a meme that he has been waiting to show the boy, and waited for the text to appear on his screen.

When it did, Jack quickly clicked on the message and looked at the top of the screen. The only emoji there was an angry emoji with a cowboy hat on top of his head. He was mad but also… a little touched?

“Jack, did you pass out?” David called. Jack cursed and closed out of the message app, quickly rushing out of the room.

“Sorry, got distracted,” he hummed, tossing the phone to Crutchie. Finch caught it for him, as his hand was in Finch’s hair, lazily playing with his brown locks.

“It’s been five minutes but yer already behind, cowboy!” Race tossed him an unopened beer bottle, and the rest of the night was history.

---

Jack was losing his mind. It has been weeks of him spying on Crutchie, trying to find out who his boyfriend was, and he wasn’t anywhere closer to finding out. David had guessed that Crutchie knew what Jack was doing and was trying to hide anything that pointed to his boyfriend, but Jack shut that down. He knew that he had been sneaky enough where even if Crutchie had his suspicions, he wouldn’t be able to plant anything on Jack.

He was reaching the end of his line. He was so close to just beggin on his knees for Crutchie to tell him who his boyfriend is. He just wants to know who it is so that he can make sure that they don’t hurt Crutchie, and if he does, he knows who to hurt.

“You good, Jack?” Crutchie asked. Jack was lying face down on the couch and only gave a groan in response. Crutchie raised an eyebrow at his best friend.

With a sigh, he walked over to Jack and sat down on his legs, as Jack had left no room on the couch for him to sit.

“What’s bothering ya?” Jack turned his head so that he could see Crutchie out of the corner of his eye.

“Who’s yer boyfriend?”

“That’s what your upset about?” Jack scowled.

“Well don’ say it like that!”

“Jack, you’ve met him.”

“Well,” Jack sighed. “I still don’t know who it is!” Crutchie laughed and patted his back. Before he could say anything, his voice chimed. Jack recognized it has a bird chirp. It wasn’t long ago that Crutchie had changed his ringtone to that. Jack never really understood why, but he thought that Crutchie was just going through a phase that involved nature.

Crutchie started laughing hysterically and Jack looked back at him in concern.

“Good news, Kelly.” He hopped off Jack’s legs and grabbed his crutch, shooting Jack a smile. “He’s here.”

Jack shot up and stared at him with wide, scared eyes.

“He’s what?!” There was a knock on the door. Jack shot up and watched as Crutchie walked over to the door and open it up.

“Hey babe,” Crutchie warmly greeted.

“Hey.” He recognized that voice. Quickly, Jack marched over and looked over Crutchie’s shoulder to see who the mystery man is, once and for all.

“Finch?!” Finch eyes snapped to Jack’s, wide in surprise and confusion. “You’re Crutchie’s boyfriend?”

“...Yeah?” he asked, looking back at Crutchie, who still had a bright, mocking smile one his face. “I thought everyone knew?”

“Jack here missed the message of us announcing it,” Crutchie explained. He leaned into Finch, who immediatly wrapped his arm around his waist, while turning his body towards Jack. “We’ve been very obvious about it.”

Jack stared at the couple, processing everything he knew. What were the signs? Crutchie had said it was someone he knew. Were there signs that he should have noticed?

“The birds!” he exclaimed. This time, both Crutchie and Finch gave him a confused look.

“What birds?” Crutchie questioned.

“Yer name for him in your phone has a bird emoji, and yer text message ringtone is a finch noise!” Jack threw his arms in the air. “How did I not know?!”

“Jack,” Crutchie hissed, as if he had revealed something secret.

“Aw,” Finch cooed, pulling Crutchie closer against his body. “You has a speical ringtone set for me?” Crutchie mumbled something, but looked off to the side, avoiding eye contact with both boys.

“When did you guys get together?”

“A few months ago,” Crutchie answered, still looking down at the ground.

“Yeah, we texted the group chat about it. I thought you had seen it.” Jack gave him a confused look.

“I don’ remember seeing a text like that?”

“That’s because you didn’t.” Crutchie finally looked back up to his best friend. “You were on a plane back from Santa Fe, so you didn’t get the messages. When you had landed, the conversation was over, and you don’t like looking back through messages. Therefore, you missed the announcment.”

“Wait, so everyone knew?!” Finch and Crutchie both nodded their heads. Jack glared at the couple before grumbling and pulling out his phone. “I’m calling my fuckin’ boyfriend. Bastard held this information from me willingly.”

Finch and Crutchie watched him stalk away while holding the phone up to his ear. They distantly heard him scold David before he disappeared into the bedroom.

The couple looked back at each other for a split second before bursting out laughing.

“I’m glad he finally figured it out,” Finch mumbled, pressing a kiss to Crutchie’s forehead. The smaller boy smiled and nodded his head.

“Yeah. He ain’t the most observant, but I knew he would get it one day.”

“And if he didn’t?” Finch raised his eyebrow. Crutchie smiled and pulled him into the apartment, shutting the door behind him.

“He’d be very confused when I tell him I’m engaged.” Both men smiled wide, happy for a relationship and belief that this is the one.

#newsies #jack kelly #david jacobs #davey jacobs #racetrack higgins #spot conlon #crutchie morris #finch #finch newsies #javid #sprace #jack kelly x davey jacobs #spot conlon x race higgins #crutchie x finch #fluff #fanfic

[what-stop-the-presses-rly-means]

Bye, Bye, Sugar Blue Eyes part 2

Race x female reader modern au.

Warnings: some mild swearing

Part 1, x, 3, 4, 5, 6

-------------------------

Once we were in the office Jack handed me my food.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” He gave me a bit of a side eyed glance. “And don’t let Rider get to you. If you let them think that kinda behavior is allowed, they’ll keep using it. Ya just gotta find a good balance of sweet and spicy. Good cop, bad cop. Each one of those boys is different and it’ll take some time but you’ll start learning what works for each of them.” I nodded. David rolled his chair over.

“And don’t worry, you’re not gonna be alone in all this. It takes a village to raise a child. God knows what it takes to raise fifteen. We’ll all be here. Don’t hesitate to ask for help.” He smiled encouragingly. I nodded in thanks.

Jack pointed his fork at me. “So! You got any questions for us? About the job or about us? Don’t be shy, we’re open books.” I thought about it for a second. I looked up and saw a photo on his desk.

“I guess I’d like to know your history,” I said, nodding toward the picture. “How you all met and what made you decide to change your lives with this big decision.” Jack smiled and handed me the frame. From what I could tell, it was taken years ago. A young Jack stood in the middle, smiling brightly. He had one arm around Davey and his other around a red headed girl. She had her arm around a boy holding crutches. To Davey’s right there’s a blond boy, who had his arm around Albert.

“Most of us grew up in this very orphanage.” I gasped a little bit. That was new information. Jack continued, “All except Davey, here, and Katherine, the lovely lady in the picture.”

“Yeah, I met the fellas at a young age, doing a paper route,” Davey added. “When I found out they didn’t have families of their own I made it my mission to be a brother to them. Make sure they didn’t feel like they were different or weird.”

Jack chuckled. “Yeah, his ma made some damn good cookies for us and knitted us all hats during the winter holidays. She’s a peach.” They both smiled at the memory. “And my darling dear Katherine is the daughter of the chief editor of the paper we sold. We’d see her everyday we picked up the papers. I fell madly in love and snatched her up the first chance I got.” He showed off his wedding ring.

“More like he wore her down and she finally gave in to shut him up!” We turned and saw Albert walk in. He grabbed a nearby chair and plopped down in it.

“Either way, we got married at eighteen and have been happy ever since. She took over for her father at the paper. Does a pretty good job, too.”

“Eighteen, huh? That’s pretty young. No offense.” The room grew silent and I looked around. Everyone kept their heads down. I knew I made a mistake.

Jack cleared his throat. “Well, I said we were open books, and we are. So, yeah, um, we had been together for a couple years at that point and we knew we wanted to get married someday. And when I was eighteen I was working for their paper as a political cartoonist, which didn’t pay a lot but it was somethin’. So I was trying to put some kind of a life together. It’s just… I had never been adopted at that point.” My eyes widened. Oh no, what have I done?

“All the other fellas had moved on with their lives with their new families and I was so happy for them. And it’s not like I didn’t have a couple offers, but they all lived so far away. I had always wanted to run away when I was younger. I felt like New York had betrayed me. But once I had gotten a little older and had this job and a nice girl… I don’t know, I guess I couldn’t give that up. I had a long talk with Katherine and she agreed to marry me. We found a little apartment and it was tough for a while, but we made it work. And it’s fine that I never got an ‘official’ family, I already had one. That picture was taken the last time we were all together. Right after that, a nice Midwestern family adopted Race. And one by one, all the other guys moved away with their new lives ahead of ‘em. But we kept in touch. And Davey stuck around, becoming a teacher at a local middle school. So please don’t feel bad for me. I got everything I wanted out of life.” The other two nodded, smiling.

I looked down at the photo in my hands. “Who’s the guy on the right?” Jack peered over and smiled.

“Ah, that’s Crutchie. He was like a brother to me growing up.”

“Crutchie?” I quirked my eyebrow, making him laugh.

“Yeah, that’s the nickname we gave him since he had a bum leg as a kid. Most of the boys in the home got a gang name. We thought we were cool. But yeah, Crutchie moved out of state after he got adopted. He works with disabled children in his hometown and didn’t have the heart to leave them to help us out here. But he stops by during the holidays. Likes to freak out the kids with his prosthetic leg.”

“Was it a difficult decision to leave your previous jobs and lives to help out here?” I asked the other two men. They looked at each other for a moment before Davey spoke up.

“Well, in my case, not much has changed. My students were sad to see me go but they understood. Now I homeschool some of the boys who have learning difficulties. I’m still doing what I love and I get to do it with my closest friends. I couldn’t ask for anything better.” I turned to Albert, who sighed, looking down at his plate.

“Uh, yeah, it wasn’t as easy of a decision for me. I got adopted when I was sixteen. At that point I was desperate to be taken, desperate to be wanted by someone. So once this couple showed interest in me, I didn’t even think. They were so nice and loving and excited to meet me. The fact that they lived in Italy didn’t even faze me at first. In fact, it made it that much better. You see, my father was Italian and my mother was Irish,” he laughed, pointing to his bright red hair.

“They promised to show me where I was from. Teach me all about my heritage. So of course I agreed. But once it sunk in, I knew leaving my friends - my brothers - would be the hardest thing I’d ever have to do. And it was. I lived there for six years and it was more than I could’ve hoped for. I had a family that loved and cherished me. I met all of my extended family and they accepted me as one of their own right away. My Nonna would say things like, ‘Look at him! He’s the spittin’ image of my son!’ even though I looked nothing like him. And when they taught me to cook, she’d be the first to say I was a natural. They made me feel like I belonged.

“But when Jack called me, saying the orphanage was gonna be shut down, once again I didn’t even think. I said goodbye to my family so I could come back and help my other family. And I’ve been here for two years, sharing what I’ve learned with the boys. Some of them like to help out and I share my recipes with them. But I still call my parents and my Nonna all the time, and I visit on holidays. They make sure to tell me how proud they are.” He paused. “Sometimes I think we were all meant to come back here. That fate or whatever made sure we weren’t gonna be apart for too long. And maybe helping those boys is what we were meant to do all along. It sure feels like it.”

We sat in silence, taking it all in, before Jack spoke up. “Wow, Al. We get a female in the building and all of a sudden you’re some kind of philosopher? We should’ve hired her years ago.” Albert waved him off and went back to eating. I gaped at them.

“You all have such humble beginnings and heartfelt stories. You guys almost seem unreal.” Jack made some kind of noncommittal sound, deflecting the praise. “No, I mean it. You all either lived here or were very familiar with this place growing up and now you drop everything to come back and make sure the kids are taken care of and forge friendships like you all did. You’re solidifying their childhood and their well-being. Because anybody could’ve taken over the orphanage and treated those boys like the world has been treating them: like outcasts, delinquents, lost causes. But because you lived through it yourselves, you’ve made it your mission to not let it happen again. That’s incredibly admirable. So thank you. On behalf of every kid that gets pushed aside and forgotten, every kid that had to grow up too damn fast, every kid that you’re giving a second chance… thank you.”

The room grew uncomfortably quiet again. Did I mess up again? The first to speak up was Davey. He turned to Jack.

“You know, normally I don’t agree with your quick-witted judgement. I’ve always thought that you should really think something through before making big decisions. But this time I’m throwing caution to the wind and acting like you for a change. We don’t need to discuss the hiring choice for the nanny position. I think (Y/N) will be perfect.” My eyes widened as they smiled at me.

“Are you serious?”

“You will have to wait for the standard background check to go through and, you know, all of the proper legal documents to be put in place, but…” He stretched his hand out. “Welcome aboard.”

I may have squealed a little and I’m not ashamed. I shook his hand gratefully.

“You won’t regret this!”

Albert smirked a little. “Damn, she might not be replacing Race, but she sure could give Katherine a run for her money with a speech like that.”

“Don’t tell Katherine that,” Jack joked. “But I am glad that we’re making this official. We could really use the help and the boys… They need someone like you. It may be a little hectic at first, but you’ll get the hang of it. And it’ll be that much easier when Race gets back.” They all sat back to finish their lunches while I looked down at the photo still in my hands. The blond boy smiled up at me with the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen and I couldn’t help but smile back.

Tag list:

@axolotlwhizzy

#newsies #race higgins #race higgins x reader #mine #look! i wrote something! #bye bye sugar blue eyes

[datetheplants]

When the sun calls us deeper inside (JoJo De La Guerra)

Part 1 of the series However We Know

People always told him that he smiled too much. He liked to pull them in for hugs. He was there when Elmer called him in the middle of the night crying. He was the one who Jack relied on to drive Crutchie to the clinic when he couldn’t. He let Anthony hang off of him like a koala when he would whine about his essays. He was the one who brought Sean Conlon food that one time he didn’t leave the library all day and Jojo was sure he was going to be soaked. He wasn’t. 

JoJo didn’t want anyone to feel alone.

He jerked awake and realized he was gasping. His face was wet and Jojo curled in on himself. Something inside him was hurting. He could feel it. It was aching and he didn’t know why. It was there almost every night. It was there when he would lay awake after wiping his tears away. It was there until it wasn’t.

Some days he longed for something. Or was it someone? Or was it someplace? There are moments when he’d think that maybe it had something to do with why he would wake up crying and hurting in the middle of the night. He’d try to remember what he dreamed of but his fingers would just grasp at air. All he could recall was the feeling of being so alone and angry. It tore at him.

Some days he wanted to tell someone. He’d meet up with Albert and Anthony at their apartment and have their usual movie marathons. Anthony would fall asleep halfway through with his body draped across JoJo’s. Albert would turn to him and ask if he was okay. Maybe he knew something was off with him. Maybe he could see the bags under his eyes when he was not smiling so wide.

Those were the moments when JoJo just wanted to hold on to Anthony and tell Albert the growing ache inside him. He wanted to.

He didn’t.

It wasn’t until he called Albert on a Friday morning after he found out that his classes were cancelled. It took a while before the other line picked up.

“Hey, Al,” he greeted. “I’m free today and I was wondering if you and Tony are up to go to the movies? I was going to ask Jack and Davey too.”

There was scuffling from the other line and JoJo heard someone coughing.

“You okay, Albo?” he asked, worry already building inside him.

He heard more scuffling until Albert finally answered.

“Not feeling well, Jo. Have to pass. Head hurts. Can’t…”

He coughed again and it sounded bad.

“Can’t get out of bed.”

JoJo was already up on his feet, grabbing his keys and putting on his jacket. He was already out of his dorm when Albert burst into a coughing fit once more.

“I’m coming over,” he said.

There was groaning from the other line and he could hear words such as ‘don’t’, ‘sick’, ‘away’. He was pretty sure Albert was telling him not to come because he’ll get him sick. He didn’t care. Crutchie called him immortal many times because he rarely got a cold.

He got to Anthony and Albert’s apartment in 20 minutes, carrying a bag of noodles and cans of soup. He fished out the key the two has given him in case of emergencies and let himself inside. He would have thought that nobody was home if he didn’t hear retching sounds coming from the bathroom.

Albert was on the floor, bent over the toilet. He threw up again just as Jojo kneeled down next to him.

“Told you not to come,” mumbled Albert.

JoJo only rubbed his back and waited for Albert to finish. He helped him and carried his weight back to the bedroom. Jojo frowned at how hot Albert’s skin felt against his.

“You’re burning up,” he said.

Albert curled in against his pillows.

“I’m dying, JoJo.”

And it was just a joke because that was Albert. Even when he was sick, he’d clap back or say something funny. It should be funny. But it wasn’t.

JoJo could feel his chest constricting. He felt like he was suddenly carved out of his body in one swift motion. His hands shook as they grasped at the bed sheets and he could feel it again. The same ache from the many nights he lay awake on his bed, scared to go back to sleep. It was there again.

“I’m going to get you some water,” he managed to choke out before he strode out of the room.

It wasn’t until he was sitting next to a drowsy Albert after two hours that he placed a hand on his hair and threaded his fingers through the strands. It felt familiar.

“You okay, Jo?” mumbled Albert.

“I’m dying, JoJo.”

“I’m dying, JoJo.”

“I’m dying, JoJo.”

No, he wasn’t. He really wasn’t.

“You’s gonna’ be okay, Albie. I got you.”

Did he say that two hours ago?

“We’s gonna be back to our feet by morning.”

“I’m dying, JoJo.”

It kept ringing in his head over and over again.

“Hey, Jo,” croaked out Albert.

Albert held on to the hand that was in his hair. JoJo looked down at him.

“I’m gonna’ be okay,” he muttered. “Just a fever.”

He nodded.

“You okay, Jo?” Albert repeated, his thumb running over JoJo’s knuckles.

It took a moment. Maybe it took almost forever that he expected Albert to fall asleep right then and there, tired of waiting for his answer. But he could feel the body pressed against his legs. He could feel Albert’s warm hand in his.

“Do you…” he began. “I-I mean… have you ever felt like… something was taken away from you? A-And it’s just… it calls out for you everyday and you’re angry that you couldn’t do anything?”

There was silence. It stretched on.

“Yeah.”

That day, JoJo stayed with him. Anthony came home later in the evening and fussed over their sick friend. Albert flipped him off several times. It was like every other time they hung out. It was like everything was normal.

Albert was sick for two more days before he was back on his feet again. He came by JoJo’s dorm, his hat sitting backwards on his head and a warm smile on his face.

“Thanks, Jo,” he said. “For taking care of me. Tony would have been a pain in the ass and he’s not the one who is sick.”

“Don’t let him hear you say that,” chuckled JoJo.

“That drama queen already knows!”

Albert had hugged him before he left. It was just another ‘thank you’ and a habit. Everyone hugged each other but Albert had held on for a little bit longer and JoJo found he wasn’t exactly pulling away.

“It’s gonna be okay, JoJo,” said Albert.

It really wasn’t until JoJo jerked awake again from his sleep. No, he didn’t wake up from another bad dream. His phone was ringing on his nightstand. He rubbed at his eyes and fumbled across the bed. Jack was calling him. He picked up and let his head fall on his pillow.

“What?” he groaned out.

“Tonio’s in the hospital,” came Jack’s reply.

It took a few seconds before it finally sunk in. JoJo sat up and threw off his covers.

“Why?” he asked.

“Got into a fight,” answered Jack. “He was beaten up pretty badly, JoJo.”

He scrambled to get into a shirt and almost ripped his jacket from the hook.

“I’m coming,” he said.

He heard people talking from the other line.

“Are you sure, Jo?” asked Jack.

“Yes.”

He was in the hospital in just a matter of minutes. Albert had just rounded off a corner, carrying bags of snack when he saw JoJo.

“How is he?” he asked.

“Idiot already wants to go back to the bar and find the guy who beat him up,” answered Albert as they walked.

“How did he get into the fight?”

“You know him, JoJo. Half of what he says are stupid things.”

“Don’t let him hear you say that.”

“He already knows.”

And he knows that Albert is trying to make it light for him. He can see it and he could feel dread pooling inside him. He told himself that Anthony was safe. He’s alive.

Jack was in the room when they arrived and JoJo almost reeled back when he saw Anthony on the bed. He has seen him bruised because of all the stupid stunts he pulled. He has seen him with a black eye because he stood up against a bully in high school. He has seen him with a bruised lip because he fell down hard. Jojo has not seen him beaten up so badly that he internally winced when Anthony tried to grin at him. He knew it hurt.

“You’re an idiot, Tony,” he said.

“You should see the other guy,” said Anthony.

“I can’t because you didn’t put him in a hospital.”

“Shut up.”

They sat around him, careful to not make him uncomfortable or making him laugh too much because it hurt. He whined and poked fun at them. He flipped them off a couple of times with his good hand. Soon, Jack had to leave to meet up with Crutchie. Albert left to go to the cafeteria.

It was just JoJo and Anthony.

“Are you really mad at me, JoJo?” asked Anthony.

JoJo frowned. “He could have had friends, Tony. You would have been in a worse situation.”

“But I wasn’t.”

“You could have been killed, Race!”

Jojo was rarely angry, everyone knew that. He was the one who smiled too much. He was the one who gave out many hugs as he could. He was the one who tried to be there for everyone because he didn’t want any of his friends to be alone. Anthony was quiet, eyebrows furrowed. JoJo sighed and looked away.

“Race?” repeated Anthony.

He didn’t mean to say it. He didn’t even know where it came from or how it came to his mind. He didn’t know what he said and yet it rolled off his tongue like he had said it many times before.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It just slipped out.”

And Anthony smiled at him, as softly as he could. He held out his good hand to JoJo and he took it gently.

“I’m sorry, JoJo,” he said.

It wasn’t until he was back in his bed again, exhausted from his day. It wasn’t until he closed his eyes and dreamed once more that he remembered.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of fists up in the air.

Shouts of joy.

Shouts of anger.

Tight hugs.

There were hot days when they would lounge by the port, playing cards and tackling each other. They were just boys, too young to worry about what is to come. They were just boys who had to grow up too quickly.

There were cold nights when not one of them could leave the house, or even the bed. Winter took so much from them. The world took so many valuable things from them.

JoJo had clung on to a scared Albert. He was going to be okay until he didn’t get a chance to be. He was gone before morning came.

“I’m dying, JoJo,” he had whispered.

JoJo had clung on to a scared Race. He bled out on the pavement as JoJo called for help. He was gone just as the sun was rising.

“I’m sorry, JoJo,” he had cried.

JoJo had curled in on himself on the dirty ground. He was gasping for air. His chest hurt so badly. There were explosions all around him. There were bodies falling. There were men shouting. He was scared. He was angry. The world had taken so much from them.

He was gone, alone, after morning came.

He woke up that night and he laid awake in his bed for hours. He watched as his room was slowly filled with light. He counted his every breath until he felt himself slipping away from reality again. This time, he slept dreaming of warm summers spent with a family from a long time ago.

#newsies #jojo de la guerra #racetrack higgins #albert dasilva #race higgins #jack kelly #crutchie morris #crutchie #au #modern newsies #modern au #reincarnation #angst #fanfic #newsies fanfic #newsies au #angst fic #newsies fic #death #newsies musical #fic

[letsprayitwritesitself]

groundhog dave part 6 afternoon four

9th January.

He couldn’t keep his eyes open. Like gravity was acting on them, forcing his eyelids down, yet when he indulged in a long blink, they burned. He made himself focus, squinting into his laptop screen and trying to figure out if the mysterious characters that he himself had written the night before were actually words.

Oh yeah I’ll wake up early and finish it in the morning, Jesus, when the fuck has that ever worked for anyone, God Davey.

He really wanted a cigarette. It was Friday morning, and he’d overslept. Kind of. If you could call making it to work at 7:15 oversleeping. 

It was a budget proposal for a new feature he’d managed to dream up midway through a weekend. A dry, boring piece of documentation he had to present to his superiors before being able to paint the air with his gorgeous ideas and assurances of how the feature would better the show (make them more money.) But his boss, who he’d emailed with the idea that Sunday morning, had given him a deadline of first thing Monday, giving him less than a day to get it together.

Why couldn’t they just trust him and give him a blank cheque?

Like an idiot he had let himself sleep, as soon as the words on the page started to become meaningless literally as he wrote them, and woke in a panic after five hours, pulled his clothes on and ran to the station, where he slammed his laptop down on his desk and hurriedly tried to finish the damn thing.

So maybe when Sheila from casting had brought the new weatherman over, he hadn’t exactly... noticed. Not straight away, anyway. He was busy.

‘And Jack, this is David, he’s one of our roving producers! You’ll be with him on the Groundhog... David?’ 

‘Huh?’ He looked up and blinked.

‘This is Jack, the new weatherman. First day!’

He tried to think. Man standing in front of him. Sheila from casting. Report. Deadline. Fuck. Fucking work. 

‘What?’

‘I’m Jack.’ Jack held out his hand. Davey glanced at it. He reached out and shook it, as he did so letting his eyes drift back to his laptop screen. Was that number right? That date?

‘Hey...’ He didn’t mean to be rude. But how could he meet someone new when he was clearly tied up in this? He had already forgotten this guy’s name. ‘It’s nice to...’ That figure was definitely wrong. Shit. ‘Sorry. This is.’ He meant to say a whole sentence but the rest fell away as he tried to locate his other spreadsheet, that little attention he’d spared utterly swept away. He didn’t see Jack bite his lip, raise his eyebrows and nod, and he didn’t see Sheila purse her lips and turn back to Jack.

‘Let’s get you introduced to make-up.’

Some time later, when the report was fired off, and he had the brain capacity to think about anything else, this encounter would dawn on him as a slightly embarrassing asshole move, but not one that he really had the time or inclination to fix. He couldn’t be too unhappy if he wasn’t best friends with everyone at the station, right? That wasn’t why he was there. 

//

February 2nd. Time four. Continued.

On his way into the square he saw Spot and a brief flame of self-consciousness flared up. Spot had no idea that they had - because they technically hadn’t... But then Davey had definitely - Christ. It felt icky. Like he had no right to know what Spot looked like in the throes of passion, and yet, as he stared at him, that was all he could think of (obviously, and it got more difficult to push away the more he tried.) Spot glanced at him as he attempted to force his mind away, and they locked eyes. He was wearing his signature glare, so Davey looked away immediately. But then. He knew, or could infer, from the other night that Spot... liked him. In some conceivable way. So he looked back up. And it felt dumb, but he let a lazy smile cross his face, and nodded his head just barely. Spot’s glare softened. Flirting - check. Ish.

He crossed to the far corner of the square, and to Jack and Crutchie. 

He felt like he could recite the ceremony word for word by now and resisted the urge to prove it, watching with a distant enthusiasm that was alien but not unwelcome. Right on cue after the broadcast snow started to fall.

‘It’s snowing!’ And he let himself be taken in just a little by Jack’s dazzling, childlike grin.

‘We weren’t expecting any snow, huh?’

‘Not ‘til tonight. Thought we’d be back before it started!’

‘You think we should get a move on, Dave?’ Crutchie eyed Davey as he crammed his camera back in its case. 

‘I feel like by the time we get to the highway we’ll be stuck here, this snow feels serious. You know how long it’s meant to last, Jack?’

‘It’s hard to say. Could be a couple hours. Could be days.’

Helpful, was what Davey would have replied any other day. ‘I think we should wait it out. I don’t trust myself driving us three and this equipment in heavy snow, anyway. I’ve got the station’s credit card. Let’s get brunch.’

//

Diner. Fogged up windows. Steaming mugs of coffee. And a giant stack of pancakes with extra bacon, syrup, and several scoops of ice cream for Davey. Jack watched him tuck in, eyes wide.

‘Never woulda had you down as the type, Davey. You struck me as a black coffee, brown toast kinda producer.’

‘Treat yo self, right?’ Davey took a gulp of his third cup of coffee (this behaviour was  not Groundhog Day induced, this part was just Davey.) ‘Like, sucks that we’re stranded here, but bright side: amazing pancakes.’ Jack stared, expression a mixture of nervous appraisal and admiration. 

It struck Davey then that despite his feeling somewhat... closer didn’t feel like exactly the right word, but... closer to Jack after their two nights in the bar, to Jack he was still the same kind of asshole that had been in such a terrible mood the night they had arrived, as far as Jack was concerned, twelve hours previous. He had softened this a little, by admitting his assholeness and apologising, but there was only so much damage control that could be done in a morning. Plus whatever he did would be swept away by this weird fucking phenomenon. It felt nice to try, though. And if he thought about it long enough and wanted to feel a little humble, he might just say that Punx was the best place to recharge his batteries, get away from some of the pressures of Philly, and as such prove both to himself and others that he wasn’t actually a jerk.

But he wasn’t quite there yet.

‘You’re right.’ Jack sat back in his seat, leaning one arm across the back of the booth and wrapping his other hand round his coffee mug. ‘I’m glad you’re starting to warm to Punx. I gotta say I was a little antsy. The way you’ve been talking about this trip I expected this place to be, like, a big field with no hot water and a population of twelve.’

‘You mean you weren’t looking forward to it? Jack Kelly, eternal optimist?’ The sugar in his breakfast was starting to make him jittery, and that awareness that the day was bound to be erased gave him a little confidence in steering the conversation somewhere new.

‘It’s not that I wasn’t looking forward to it! Well. Okay. I wasn’t... But I’m the face on the screen, right? Had to pretend I was.’

‘So it’s an act?’ Wow, Davey. How to talk to your coworkers 101: resist psychoanalysis. But, he tried to remind himself, this conversation would be erased. It would disappear. Probably.

‘What’s an act?’

‘The whole... Chipper, happy weatherman thing?’

‘I mean - I really am a weatherman. That part’s not an act.’

‘Right.’

‘But - I don’t know! Like, if I’m not looking forward to something, does that give me the right to just walk around with a long face all the time?’

‘Is that what I do, then?’

‘No! Come on.’

Davey sat back in his chair. This was starting to feel like a segue into a conversation he had always wanted to have with someone, but had never been able to. A perfectly sensible question, one that everyone wondered but just seemed a little much to ask. He bit his lip. Go hard or go home. ‘What do you... think of me?’

Jack raised his eyebrows at the question and a jolt of anxiety burned in Davey’s stomach. This is going to get erased. And if not... you can always move. 

‘What do I think of you?’

‘First impression. Most recent impression. Whatever. Be brutally honest.’

‘Brutally? Davey, I don’t know you. Not really.’

‘You must have some... thoughts.’ This was terrifying. Eschewing social norms was exhilarating in a way but mostly just fucking terrifying. 

‘Can I ask why?’

‘No. Maybe later.’

‘Alright. Can I have amnesty for this? You won’t get offended?’

‘If I do, I’ll pretend I’m not.’

‘Right. So - alright.’ Jack leaned forward on the table and studied Davey. ‘You are very good at your job. I can tell. And I’ve seen pictures of you at the Christmas party, so I know that the person who it sometimes seems like you are isn’t necessarily... Okay. I get the... impression... that you think you’re too good for the role that you’re in.’ Davey started to regret asking but couldn’t push away his desperation for the answer. Jack continued. ‘And maybe you are too good! You probably are - but what have you done to show people that you can be a kick ass producer, other than complaining about it and expecting people to agree with you?’ He paused and sat back, picking at the label on his water bottle. ‘Not that that’s - this is only stuff I’ve thought about the past day or so. Like I say. I don’t really know you.’

The whole thing felt like a sucker punch - one he knew in the back of his mind he would be happy to have heard, but - god. 

‘Oh boy.’

‘I’m sorry, Davey. You did ask...’

‘I know. Haha.’ He let out a long, shaky breath. ‘So how do-’ This would disappear. He could get away with baring his soul to Jack a little, putting his pride aside. ‘How do you do it? What makes Jack Kelly... Jack Kelly?’

‘Never really thought about it.’

‘I just - like. I get anxious.’ He sighed. ‘I’m anxious now. There’s a little stopper in my head keeping me from saying everything I want because I’m that nervous about the outcome.’

‘Then don’t be!’

‘Ah, right. Problem solved.’

‘Okay, that was dumb. But what are you actually afraid of?’

‘I guess... Getting laughed at. Or fired. Or just going off the other way, like, what if I let myself relax and do something really dumb and don’t realise, and everyone is laughing at me and I’m just that dense that I think everything’s fine?’

‘You have to not care what everyone thinks! You have to, like, reconfigure your head so you can devalue other peoples’ opinions - not to nothing, obviously, but to less. Right? Like, I’m on TV. I’m not famous but I’m there, any every morning after my forecast I get a dozen tweets from - yeah, ok, some old ladies who like seeing me, but there’s always a few people trying to be assholes.’

‘But those people don’t have power over your career. Why shouldn’t I care what the people at the network think when they’re the ones who could make or break me?’

‘You should care what they think, granted, but don’t be scared of them. And listen - those people do have power over my career. No one’s trying to put a weatherman the people don’t respond to on TV. So that means that everything I do is kind of a means to try and get people to like me. That’s... how I’ve formed my personality. I mean, I’ve never really looked at it that way, but I guess it’s true.’

There was a long moment of silence as they both processed what had been said. As awkward and convoluted this conversation had felt for Davey, it kind of felt like invaluable knowledge. He was glad to have it.

‘So, fair’s fair.’ 

‘Huh?’ He blinked and stared at Jack.

‘My turn. What do you think of me? Since we’re playing this game.’

‘Oh.’ Another struggle against his internal resistance to being anything but placid. He could see why Jack didn’t like answering the question. It was hard. But Davey had appreciated the honesty, so maybe... ‘It took me a while to warm to you.’ 

‘How come?’

‘I started to think that maybe we weren’t compatible, like, in a professional sense.’

‘No?’

‘Because you’re so good at people, and I’m not.’

‘You’re fine at people.’

‘I know I’m being weird right now and I’m nervous that you’re judging me, but at the same time...’

‘Doesn’t mean we aren’t professionally compatible thought, right? The media needs introverts and extroverts - introverts to think and extroverts to talk.;

‘You’re right. You are right.’

‘Back to me. Didn’t like me at first?’

‘I thought you were cocky and - fake sounds harsh, but... Affected, maybe. A performance. The smiles, the happiness.’

‘To be fair, Davey, you only really see me on the news.’

‘Yes! So then Punx, which I was dreading, but you - I think I’ve started to realise that it is your personality. It’s not fake. It’s nice to, you know, bring the sunshine, as it were.’

‘Someone has to.’ Jack glanced down at the table then back up at Davey. ‘Can I ask you something?’

‘Sure.’

‘Do you think everyone at the station thinks I’m fake?’

‘What?’

‘If you thought that...’

‘No! Jack, I’m sorry - I didn’t mean... I don’t know why I said it.’

‘Cuz I asked.’

Davey’s stomach twisted and he felt like a dick for instigating this. It had been interesting to know what Jack thought but did that mean he had to air his own prejudices about the poor guy? He almost looked a little cut up.

‘Jack - everyone at the station genuinely adores you. You have to know that.’

‘Yeah, but if I’m fake, maybe everyone else is fake, right?’ He stood up, pushing his plate away. ‘Excuse me, Davey. I need to go take a walk.’

Ah. 

He watched Jack leave, a contemplative look of disappointment on his face Davey had never  seen before. What the hell had driven him to that kind of unwelcome honesty? He’d never expected Jack to actually take it to heart. 

It was fine. It was okay. The day was going to repeat. It had to. He could try again. 

He left too, heading back to the hotel despite it being barely eleven. If he could just sleep, work, watch Netflix, anything until the next day, it would be fine. He didn’t want to risk fucking anything else up.

The walk back was only a couple of minutes, but a little eventful by Punx standards. As he stepped out the diner a tiny dachshund sprinted comically down the street, and a little ways away about a minute later a delivery man stumbled down the steps of his truck, spilling the stack of boxes he was holding and sending the contents, dozens of cupcakes, flying down the road. Davey felt the tiniest jolt of guilt as he walked past but figured the damage had been done, and the bakery employees the cakes were destined for could probably help. 

And of course, if he helped, it would probably only happen again tomorrow.

Just outside the hotel he had to duck round a woman standing at the gate talking to Mrs. Bloom - or weeping, it turned out, clutching an A4 printout that declared “MISSING PUPPY.” He recognised it as the pup that had just flown past him and forced himself to stop and mention this to the woman. 

A ladder leaned precariously against the hotel, where a cleaner finished up one of the first floor windows, stretching out to get the last corner. Just as Davey got inside the door, the ladder slipped into the soft soil under the man’s weight and toppled, sending him flying hard onto the lawn. Mrs. Bloom rushed over to attend, and Davey, at seeing the man sit up and proclaim ‘I’m okay, I’m okay!’ decided it was fine to not intervene. 

This stuff had probably happened the previous versions of this day and would only happen again tomorrow’s version of the day - and Davey had his own shit to figure out. 

#newsies #newsies fic #davey jacobs #jack kelly #javid #ello friends its me again managed an update in less than a month this time #this chapter gave me so much gyp and honestly credits to the groundhog day writers i hella underestimated how much forethought u need #but thank u all for your patience i am still enamoured with this story even if i'm updating at the rate of a snail #OOPS GOT THE CHAPTER NAME WRONG FIRST ITS AFTERNOON FOUR HAVE EDITED LADS

[ostrich-on-a-rampage-blog]

If you want maybe for a part 3 you could have Miles looking for Jesse????

Gosh, this was asked for so long ago. I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long to get to this, but here it is! You can find all previous parts by following these links: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Jack frowned, immediately tearing his drawing into shreds. Once again, he had been mindlessly sketching and the careful shading had turned into familiar smiling eyes, a wide grin, and hair that never stayed put: Crutchie. It had been nearly three weeks since Crutchie had left. After you told him to, a bitter voice reminded Jack. “I don’t care,” Jack muttered to himself, “I wanted him gone. I didn’t want someone like him ‘round me.”

“Didn’t want someone like who?” Romeo asked, coming up to where Jack had been sketching at the dining room table.

“Nothing, Romeo,” Jack replied, stuffing the shredded drawing into his pocket before Romeo could see exactly what he had been working on. All the newsboys had been upset at Crutchie’s sudden disappearance, and had initially blamed Jack. Which, he supposed, had been fair. But, now the boys had basically moved on and Jack wasn’t exactly eager to remind Romeo of his missing brother. No, they would all just move on and never think of Crutchie Morris and his ridiculously sunny personality ever again.

“Whatever,” Romeo muttered, before gesturing to the front room of the Lodging House. “Some guy’s here. He’s asking for you.”

“Me?” Jack asked, tucking his pencil behind his ear and following Romeo to the front room.

“Yeah, you. And a Jesse. I told him we don’t have anyone named Jesse, but he refuses to leave.”

“Oh,” Jack said, stopping short. Someone was here for Jesse. Jesse, who he had sent away. Jesse, who he had yelled at, shouted at, turned away. Jesse, who had left without a backward glance. Jesse, who you still have feelings for, a small voice spoke up. Romeo glanced up at him in confusion, but Jack waved the younger boy’s concern away. “Yeah, I’ll talk to him.”

The man standing in the doorway was tall, much taller than Crutchie. He had dark brown hair and a firm jaw. He wasn’t smiling and his arms were crossed against his chest. “Are you Jack? Jack Kelly?” the man demanded when Jack approached.

“Yeah, I am.”

“I’m looking for my brother, Jesse.”

“I take it that you’re Miles?”

Miles looked taken aback. “He told you my name? What else did he tell you?” he asked, suddenly suspicious.

“Everything,” Jack confirmed.

Miles pinched the bridge of his nose. “Of course he did. Stupid kid doesn’t know how to keep a secret.” He sighed, before facing Jack once more. “Where is he? I’ve got to talk to him.”

“I don’t know.” Those three words felt impossible to say, to admit. He had spent nearly the entire time that Crutchie had been gone, trying to convince himself that he would not miss the boy, that he was glad his best friend–his love–was gone. And, now all those carefully constructed lies seemed to be falling, shattering, and Jack was left standing, his mind heavy with the knowledge. Oh, how he wished he knew where Crutchie was. But, what would he do if he knew? Would he actually ask Crutchie to return? Would the other boy even want to after what Jack had said to him?

“You don’t know? What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I–” The words lodged uncomfortably in Jack’s throat. It wasn’t guilt. Jack didn’t feel guilty. Not when Crutchie had deserved it. After all, he had been the one to betray Jack. But, maybe… “He left. We… sorta fought and he left.”

“Left where?” Miles demanded.

“I don’t know. He… wouldn’t tell me.” Jack glanced at his feet, before asking, “Why are you looking for him?”

Miles rubbed a hand across his face, suddenly haggard. “They’re tearing up the forest in Tree Gap. The Fosters sold the woods and they’re building a new neighborhood there.” When Jack rolled his eyes, Miles reached forward, grabbing Jack’s upper arm. “You don’t understand. The Spring is gone.”

“Gone as in…?”

Miles glanced at the newsboys curiously observing their interaction, before grabbing Jack’s arm.  Lowering his voice, he asked, “Is there somewhere more private that we can talk?” Jack nodded and led Miles outside, away from the other boys. Once they were out of earshot, Miles continued, “It’s gone as in we’re mortal. I need to find Jesse before he does something stupid, thinking that he’s still immortal.”

“How’d you figure that out?” Jack asked.

Sighing heavily, Miles explained, “Pa was in a hunting accident.”

Jack felt as if his stomach had dropped to the floor below him. It wasn’t as if he were particularly close to Crutchie’s family, but the other boy had told him stories about his brother, his parents, and Jack couldn’t bear the thought of Crutchie’s dad just being… gone. “He’s not–”

“No, he’s not dead. It was bad for a while, though.” Miles snorted. “Bad enough that we realized we weren’t immortal anymore. Where’s Jesse?”

Jack shook his head slowly. “I–I don’t know. He might’ve… He might’ve gone to the Arctic Tundra. That’s, uh, what he had told me last time we, uh, kinda fought.”

Miles eyes flared up with a myriad of emotions, the most prominent anger and… fear? The older Tuck edged closer to Jack, before suddenly stopping, and glancing up at the Lodging House. About ten different newsboys were posted at the windows, watching the pair. “Do you have somewhere even more private to talk?” he demanded, his eyebrows inching towards each other.

“Uh, yeah, the rooftop,” Jack offered, before leading Miles up to the roof. As soon as he got to the top, however, Jack regretted choosing the roof as a place to discuss Jesse’s whereabouts. An all-too-familiar crutch was propped up at the edge of the roof, and the sight of the object burned hot and painful in Jack’s stomach. “What did you want to talk with me about that the other boys couldn’t see?” Jack asked.

The first punch caught him completely off guard. Jack stumbled backwards, his hand immediately pressed against his stinging jaw. “What the hell?” Jack hissed, glaring at Miles, who simply glared back.

“You fought with my little brother? I had expected more of you, after the adoration Jesse rained on you,” he explained.

Jack noticed that the older man’s fists remained balled and lifted slightly, prepared for another attack. “Yes, we got in a fight. He left me for some girl in New Hampshire. I was upset, I yelled a little bit. It was never anything huge.”

“Then why did you run him off?” Miles challenged. “He could actually die now. Do you not get that?”

“I–that was the first fight. He left me for that girl. And then he came back, but I was his second choice. He always preferred the New Hampshire girl. I got mad. We both yelled a little bit. I told him to leave. I–I didn’t mean…” Jack trailed off, unsure of what he hadn’t meant. Because he had meant for Crutchie to leave. He had been mad. He was still mad. Are you? that familiar mocking voice questioned.

Miles shook his head, jerking his hand through his hair. “Don’t you understand? If he left for the Arctic Tundra, he will die. Jesse cannot survive conditions like that. He doesn’t realize it; he won’t realize it, until it’s too late. You’ve killed my brother!” Miles shouted, shoving Jack backwards, so that the younger boy fell to the ground, his elbows scraping roughly against the rooftop. For a moment, all was silent beyond Miles harsh breaths. The older Tuck ran a hand down his face, and Jack took a moment to just examine the older man. He looked beyond exhausted: he looked hopeless, and that scared Jack more than he cared to admit.

“I–I didn’t–” Jack tried to explain, hating the guilt that surged up within him.

“He said he loved you and now you’ve gone and murdered him!”

“He– He said he loved me?” Jack asked, softly. Suddenly, he couldn’t get Crutchie’s eyes out of his head, the way he had looked at him, pleaded with him, to just let him stay. And Jack had turned him away, had sent him off to his doom, if Miles was correct.

Miles rolled his eyes. “Yes. And now look what you’ve done. Why’d you even send him away?”

Jack shrugged, the motion heavy with regret and grief. “He wouldn’t let me drink from the Spring.”

“Oh, great,” Miles muttered sarcastically. “The kid finally wisens up and that’s what kills him.”

“I loved him!” Jack shouted, trying to get the older man to understand why he wasn’t in the wrong. He couldn’t be in the wrong. Crutchie was wrong. Crutchie was at fault. “I loved him and I wanted to live with him for forever. But he wouldn’t let me drink from the Spring.”

“Did you ever stop to think why he wouldn’t let you?” Miles demanded. “Because he loved you! He didn’t want you to suffer the way our whole family has suffered. Look, maybe you didn’t see it, but my brother loved you. That girl, Winnie, he knew her for two days. How long has he stayed with you? Winnie was a crush, a momentary fixation. You were different, Jack.” He snorted. “Not that that matters, though, if we can’t even find the damn kid.”

“We can find him,” Jack whispers, his chest tightening as the mistake pressed heavily against his shoulders. “I won’t stop until we find him.”

“That’s only if he manages to stay alive before we can find out where he’s disappeared to.”

#jesse/crutchie conspiracy theory #tuck everlasting #newsies #jackcrutchie #look we got some Miles #tell me what you think!!! #my fanfiction

[dont-sneeze]

JackCrutchie running into each other after two years of not talking at all.

So this was… weird… idk I had it planned out but when I actually wrote it down it didn’t work as well as I wanted it to. But I wrote it, so I guess I should share it.

Thanks for prompting!!

~~~~~

Jack fitted with the tiny version of his best friend’s crutch, the familiar feeling of the smooth wood running along his fingers. It had been warn down and kinda got a little gross over the past two years mainly because his hands were always covered in dirt and grime. But not drawing charcoal, not anymore, not after…

Jack’s last drawing that he ever did, that he planned on ever doing was of Crutchie. The last time he ever say the boy with angry, upset tears streaking down his face as he tried to make Jack understand.

It was all Jack’s fault.

Jack carefully studied the crutch that was no bigger than his pointer finger.

The Crutch he carefully carved out of wood to remember.

A crutch he hasn’t seen for two years, and wasn’t counting on ever seeing again.

Jack didn’t blame anyone but himself. If he wouldn’t have started that stupid fight, Crutchie would probably still be next to him, smiling like the sun, just like he always was.

He just had to go and ask Crutchie to stop being so independent. Back then, he didn’t think it was selfish. He just wanted to always be there for Crutchie and know when he needed help. But instead of calmly telling Jack he was alright, for some reason, the kid exploded. Jack remembered it like it happened two hours ago, not two years.

“Jack, You don’t understand! I can’t depend on you for everything because despite what you think, you won’t always be there for me, alright?”

“What, of course I will! Why wouldn’t I be?” Jack raised his voice, a little bit louder than Crutchie’s.

“Because one day, you’re finally going to wake up and realize that I’m /nothing/. That I’m not worth anything but a few pennies a day. And then you’ll leave. You’ll leave to Santa Fe and leave a crippled boy behind who has no idea how to survive in this city without you!” Hot tears now streamed down his face, and he let them, not caring about crying in front of Jack for once.

“Crutch, why would you even think that about me? I thought you knew me better than that. But maybe, if you, I dunno, take down your walls and actually let me in, you could understand that I’m not everyone else. I’m not gonna leave you.”

“Why should I trust you?” Crutchies voice was tiny. And that’s where Jack should have pulled him close, telling him that he was sorry, but he didn’t. Instead, he exploded, because Jack has the temper of the Delanceys sometimes and he hates himself for it.

“You’re right. You shouldn’t trust me. You’re just the only person I’ve ever truly cared for enough to sacrifice my life for. And I know that I let you get taken to the refuge, and I’m sorry we almost didn’t win the strike that I won for you, I’m sorry your smile is the only thing that lights up this dark cloudy life of mine that seems to have no purpose. So no, you have no right to trust me because clearly, I don’t care for you a single drop!” Jack was breathing hard, glaring at the stars shining above them.

“Jack, I didn’t mean-”

“I don’t care what you meant, just get out of here. Clearly you don’t wanna be up here with me if you can’t trust me.”

“I do trust you Jack!” Crutchie tried to convince him. “It’s just- you don’t understand!”

“I told you to get outta here!” Jack replied, turning to look at Crutchie with fire in his eyes.

“Jack..” but the look Jack was giving him made him back away and make the slow decent off the roof.

He wasn’t in the lodge the next morning. He didn’t come to the distribution center to get his papers. By night, the whole group was out looking for him. Two days later, every Newsie was looking, including Spot and the rest of the Brooklyn boys.

After a month with still no sign of Crutchie, Jack whittled a small Crutch out of wood, to remember. Remember how he messed up, how he wanted to get closer to Crutchie but instead it drove him away. So far away that he ran from him.

After almost two years, Jack gave up. He was never the same after that. His drawings for the paper were messy, and soon Pulitzer fired him. He was never that enthusiastic when hawking the headline, making his sales low and he hardly made profit. Just barely enough to get by.

So here he was, two years and five days later, Jack had just arrived in Santa Fe. He promised himself before that he would never come without Crutchie at his side, but now, he didn’t come to get a better life. He came to punish himself. He came to work and work and work until there was no work left inside him. He planned on making himself as miserable as possible.

“What can I get you, Sir?” Jack jumped, the voice seeming to come from no where. The cafe he had found was empty, and he was glad. He forgot there was people actually there who would serve him and such. Santa Fe was fancy.

“Sir?” Hearing a voice like that broke Jack once more, seeing how it sounded just like Crutchie. Truly it was a voice he would never forget in his life. But it wasn’t Crutchie’s voice., There was no life, no happiness, no sunshine that was woven into it. Just sad and grey clouds. Jack huffed, feeling like he could relate. But then he realized his waiter was still there, waiting for him to order. He shrugged, since he hadn’t even looked at the menu yet.

“Would you like me to come back?” His persistent waiter suggested, and Jack confirmed his offer with a nod. Honestly he would probably just get some coffee or something and then go see what the worst job in all of Santa Fe was, take it, and never speak to anyone or do anything else ever again.

“Alright.” The waiter turned and started walking back to the counter.

Before Jack could be pulled back under with his own thoughts, the sound of his footsteps made Jack look up for the first time. Because it wasn’t foot steps. It was only one, as well as the sound of a crutch.

His eyes were met by the back side of a small figure, and even though it had been two years, Jack still recognized the exact color of the sandy blond hair, a newsboy cap lazily resting on his head backwards, the same size of the fragile figure, even though this one looked to be even more skinnier, but the crutch was the exact same.

Crutchie had run away to Santa Fe. He’d most likely been there the whole time.

Jack quickly looked down once Crutchie got behind the counter. Would he even want to see Jack? Of all the places though, why run to Santa Fe? Didn’t he realize Jack would have shown up eventually and they would have run into each other?

But maybe, just maybe, Crutchie came there, wanting to see Jack again. Maybe he hated New York as much as Jack and wanted to get away. But why didn’t he say anything? Maybe he wanted to, but Jack had to yell at him, scaring him off. So many maybes filled Jack’s head, and soon he began to feel dizzy, not knowing which way was up.

“You ready?” Jack jumped once more when he heard the voice. Once again, he had been stuck up on. “Uh , yeah..” he put his voice a few octavos lower to disguise it. What if Crutchie didn’t want to see him? What if he got mad? “I’ll take the best coffee you have.”

“Anything else?”

“Um.” Really, it was now or never. If Crutchie wanted to blow up in his face, then let him, Jack deserved whatever punishment he was going to receive.

So why not? Nothing could hurt him more than he deserves. Still not looking up, he nodded, and placed his voice back to normal. “Yeah. How about a plate of you don’t know how incredibly sorry I am, and if at all possible, could I get a side of an acceptance of a terrible excuse for an apology?” Slowly, he looked up at saw the face he used to know so well. This one though, this one was empty, there was hardly a trace of sunshine or happiness.

“J-Jack?”

“Heya, Crutchie.”

The sound of a crutch clattering to the floor made Jack worried, but he didn’t even have another second to think about what happened when he was tacked in a hug. A hug so tight he felt like he could barely breathe but it didn’t matter because Crutchie was there, holding him and Jack was hugging him back just as tightly.

“Jack. I missed you so much.” Crutchie mumbled into Jack’s chest. “So so much.”

Jack ran his hand through Crutchie’s hair, his cap now on the ground. “You have no idea…” he didn’t realize the tears that were streaking down his own cheeks until they landed on the top of Crutchies blond hair.

“Took you long enough to get here.” Crutchie said after a few moments, wiping his own tears away, pulling back from Jack. Somehow, he was now sitting on Jack’s lap, leaning on the back of the table.

“Crutch- what are you doing here?” Jack asked.

“I… couldn’t go back to New York. They woulda found me- I didn’t want to leave you but I couldn’t go back so I came in in hopes that you would be here.” Crutchie was talking quite fast, and Jack hand to slow him down.

“Woah, Crutch, easy, what are you taking about? Who woulda found you?”

Crutchie shook his head and grabbed onto Jack’s shirt, pulling him close once more. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You’re here… I’m safe, I… Right? You’re gonna stay with me?”

Jack nodded, knowing that was the one thing he was sure of. “As long as you want me to be with you, I will be.”

Crutchie nodded. “I’m sorry…”

“Why don’t we talk everything through, all that happened, yeah?” Jack suggested.

“I…” Crutchie gulped. “Alright. Just, not now. I get off work in a little bit. Then we can go back to my place and talk?”

Jack nodded. “Look at you, even got your own place here before me.”

Without a word, Crutchie bent over, picked up his Crutch, and limped away from Jack back to the counter.

~~~~~

“It’s small, but it’s a place to live. I don’t need that much anyway…”

Crutchie unlocked the door to his tiny apartment and Jack walked in after. He was in shock. “You own this place?”

Crutchie nodded. “Yeah. A friend lent it to me when I was just getting on my feet but over time I slowly payed her back, and soon I payed enough to own it!”

“Wow… that’s incredible, you made that much that fast?”

“Well… I work three jobs.” Crutchie shrugged. “I got the extra money so why not?”

“Three of them? You gotta slow down kid, no wonder you look so thin, yous workin yourself to death.”

“I needed something to do here… I didn’t want time to think…” he comment as the ground suddenly grew very interesting.

“Hey…” Jack stepped towards Crutchie and put his hand under his chin, making him look up at him. “You wanna tell me what’s got you all bothered? Who they are and why you couldn’t come back to New York? Why did you leave in the first place?”

“It’s… not a happy story…”

“You not being by my side for two years is not a happy story.”

“I… the night that I ran off… I was gonna come back that morning. But… I… they found me sleeping in an alley… and somehow knocked me out… I woke up in an old house and figured out they had brought me to a different state… They kidnapped me because I was an easy target. They basically made me their slave. If I didn’t do what they wanted me too, well… they would beat me… they held me captive for a few months and I finally escaped. But I couldn’t have gone back to New York. They would have found me. And so I came here, hoping you would be here too. Or come here soon…”

“You could have written… or something?” Jack’s breath was tiny. The thought of whoever They were that Crutchie was talking about made him sick to his stomach.

“I really didn’t want to risk it… It was so terrible there… I’m sorry, Jack…”

“You’re sorry? Crutch you did nothing wrong! If anything this is all my fault! If I wouldn’t have… been so awful to ya, you woulda slept up on the roof with me and they never woulda found you…”

“It’s fine, Jack. It’s not your fault. I shoulda just slept in the lodge house. I was upset. I don’t really remember why though…”

“I yelled at you…” Jack replied quietly. “I yelled at you and told you to leave. I didn’t think you actually would…”

“I…” Crutchie sniffled, and pulled Jack close to him. “How long have you been here?” He changed the subject.

“Just got off the train this afternoon.”

“It’s a long train ride… you must be exhausted.”

“Ive felt more alive than I have in years. I can’t believe it…” he buried his face in Crutchie’s hair, the familiar feeling bringing so much happiness to his soul.

“I missed this… I missed you…”

Later that night, Jack was snoring lightly with Crutchie in his arms. They had stayed up late talking about the past two years until Jack had finally fallen asleep. Crutchie pulled out his journal, filled with entires to Jack.

“Dear Jack,” he wrote.

“I don’t have to ask how are you today, because I finally know for a fact that you’re okay. And you know that I’m okay. It at least, we will both be okay, soon really soon, seeing as you’re curled into my side right now. It’s been two years, and you haven’t changed a bit, and yet you’re completely different. You have the same soft eyes, comforting touch. But now everything is hesitant, you aren’t as physical as you once were. You’d always constantly have your arm around my shoulder, be kissing the top of my head, anything like that. Now it’s like if you touch me, you might break me. I have to inniciate the contact first. I don’t like that one bit Jack Kelly. So man up, and hold me like you haven’t seen me in two years and five days. And don’t think I haven’t been keeping track, because I have.”

Crutchie paused his writing. The train ride from New York to Santa Fe took five days. That meant…

“You left New York exactly two years after I disappeared. Why? I’m not that important to you. Am I? Is that just a coincidence?

Either way, you stumbled into my cafe, and somehow we were reunited and I’ve never been happier.

Jack, I never told you before, but I knew back then that I love you. And the moment I saw you tonight, I knew I still loved you.

So I guess this is the end of my letters to you, they’re embarrassing and sappy, but I did write them to you. So I hope you enjoyed them.

The End. Your Brother,Crutchie.”

He closed the book and put it on the table next to Jack. He slowly and carefully pried himself out of Jack’s grip. He didn’t want to, but it was early in the morning, time for work.

Crutchie had silently gotten dressed and was almost out the door when a pair of tired arms were wrapped around his waist and Jack’s head was resting on his shoulder. “You’re not leaving me… I just found you.”

Crutchie could tell Jack was still half asleep, and grinned. It felt great having Jack’s arms wrapped around him like that, and he really didn’t want Jack to let go. But he couldn’t do that. “I gotta go to work, Jack. But I’ll be back home tonight, alright? I promise.”

“Noooo….” Jack pouted.

“Yeeesss.” Crutchie replied. “I have to go to work, Jack.”

“Then take me with you. I’ve been without you for fifty years. No more.”

“You can wait for another half a day, Jack.”

“No.” And with that, Jack had picked Crutchie up and brought him back over to the bed. “I’m tired.”

“Then go back to sleep. It’s early in the morning.”

“You need to sleep too. I know you didn’t sleep at all last night.” Crutchie could tell Jack was waking up more now, since he was actually making sense.

“Nothing I’m not used to…” Crutchie replied. “Jack, please…”

“Alright. Fine.” He sighed deeply. “I’ll see you tonight then?”

“Yes, I Promise. And… I’ll see if I back take some time off tomorrow?”

“That would make me happy.”

Crutchie handed Jack the journal. “You can read this today. If you want.”

Jack looked at the title. “Dear Jack?”

Crutchie nodded. “Just because I never sent you letters, doesn’t mean I didn’t write them… I mean, most of them are boring and the same thing over and over again, but I wrote to you every night, hoping you would read them someday…”

Jack opened the book and read the first entry;

“Dear Jack,How are you?

…I’m not okay. I got to Santa Fe yesterday. I was hoping you would be here, but I haven’t found you yet. It’s a big town though, so maybe we’ll run into each other sometime. If you even want to see me, that is.

You were right though, Jack. It’s so pretty out here. I wish you were here to see it with me. Maybe you are. But if you’re still in New York, how are the other boys doing?

Jack I miss you. I miss you so much. I’ll miss you till the day I have found you again, or till the day I die. You’ve told me before that I’m your sunshine, well I didn’t realize till I was taken away from you that you were my whole world. You still are.

~Crutchie”

With tears in his eyes, Jack whispered the boy’s name, looking up at Crutchie. But he wasn’t there. He left without Jack even realizing. Jack looked back down and began to read the next one.

They really were all the same. Asking Jack how he is, complaining that it’s taking him forever to Santa Fe. Sometimes there would be a story that Crutchie would share about people he met, how happy he was when he finally payed off his house, Jerks at work he had to deal with, and an occasional joke he heard that day.

Jack was basically crying the whole time while reading it. Especially because each entry ended with how much Crutchie really missed him.

It took Jack a few hours to get through the whole book, since Crutchie wrote every single night for over a year and a half.

He reread the last part of the last entry several times.

“Jack, I never told you before, but I knew back then that I love you. And the moment I saw you tonight, I knew that I still love you.”

Now more then ever, Jack wanted to hold Crutchie and never let him go ever again.

~~~~~

“Jack, I’m-” The second Crutchie opened the door Jack had him engulfed in a tight hug.

“I love you too.” He mumbled into Crutchie’s shoulder. “So so much…”

“Jack…” It had been the longest day ever for Crutchie, just wanting to get home and get back to Jack. But somehow he had gotten the next day off completely, meaning the whole day could be spent with Jack.

When Crutchie pointed this out, hugging him back, Jack arms tightened around him even more.

Yeah, maybe the past years had been awful and lonely, but this moment, these moments made up for it.

#my writing #jackcrutchie #newsies #newsies fic #newsies fanfic

[thatnewsiesfandomgirl-blog]

FTTTO Chapter 4

Authors Note: So this chapter switches point of view a lot. Also this one is very, very, extremely long. Well a little hyperbole never killed anyone, all that aside enjoy.

Chapter 4:Now This is Weird

Mike’s POV:

I woke up before the normal, why? I couldn’t tell you. That’s just what my body wanted to do. Except it didn’t feel like I was in me bed. So I slow got up and rubbed my eyes so that I could see. But what I did see was not what I expected. I was in a large room, that had a large couch and two big chairs. It also had a very big black box, along with a lot of other expensive looking trinkets. I then looked down to see a bunch of my brothers and my real brother all laid about on the floor. But one caught my eye, Spot Conlon. I thought about maybe waking them up, but then thought better of it, because if I did I would have been soaked for sure. So I looked around the room some more. Examining all the little things that were there. I didn’t touch anything of course, i didn’t know what any of it did and I was a bit afraid to find out. I gave up on getting out of this room a while ago. The exits where blocked of. After a while of looking around I saw that Jack was walking out. When he got up and looked around he looked just as confused as I did when I first woke up. When he finally turned around and saw me he spoke,” Do youse have any idea what’s goin’ on here?”

I just shook my head and replied,” I don’t know, but dere’s no way out. At least not that Ise can find.”

Jack went silent, they way he normally did when he was thinking.

“First the strike, den dis. Can anything good happen to us?” I thought out loud.

“ Hey wes won da strike and youse gotta look on da bright side. No one’s hurt,” Jack assured.

“ I guess you right, but-” I started but jack quickly shushed me.

“Did youse hear dat,” Jack looked very serious when he asked me this.

I gave him a confused look.

“ I keep thinkin’ I’m hearin’ people talkin’ “ Jack said.

I didn’t hear anything, but I just went with it. After a while more and more newsies woke up,and they all asked questions similar to the one that Jack asked me when he first woke up. Once everyone was up Jack stood up on a chair and made a loud whistle to get the boy’s attention.

“Okay. So I know youse all are confused as to why wes all here or whats goin’ on,” Jack stated,” and I am too-”

This caused a small panic to erupt, but I had trust that Jack had a plan.

“But youse can bet dat Ise gonna find a way to get us outta here. Actually, dis seems to be someone's house. So someone's gotta come eventually,” Jack assured the group.

“ Youse guessed right,” said a mysterious voice that came from the part of the room where the exit appeared to be.

We all whipped around to find a group of three. A boy how was tall, skinny,piercing green eyes, and had silver colored hair. Which I didn’t know was possible. THen there was a boy and a girl who looked basically identical. Both having light brown hair that appeared to have some gold strands in it, especially near the end. They both had freckles, but they were more noticeable on the boys. They also both had hazel eyes, which also appeared to have gold in them.

Brooklyn’s POV:

To be honest that was probably the best dramatic entrance I have ever made, and I have made a lot of dramatic entrances. Immediately everyone in the room turned around to face us. Although all their eyes very clearly landed on me. I should have figured, I mean I was wear some rather short pajama shorts and a tank top. Which in their time could be considered naked. Fortunately for the boys Austin started talking taking all the attention of me, because let me tell you, if those boy looked at me any longer, someone was going to get a broken nose.

Austin’s POV:

I noticed that Ali was getting angry, then realized that it was most likely because she was wearing pj’s. This could get real bad real quick, so I decided to step in.

“ So as you could have guessed we are the owners of this house, well they are, I’m just visiting,” I say clearly. I thanked god that that got their attention off of Ali. It was at this point that I noticed Davey and Les. Davey had just lightly hit Les. Like in the way mothers do when their kids are misbehaving. God he was so the mom friend.  He also mumbled something around the lines of stop staring. To this Les retorted,” But shes got no clothes on.”

If looks could kill, Les would be two times over. I was terrified and she wasn’t even mad at me. So once again I stepped in.

“ Well in our time this is considered decent,” I blurted without thinking. I think only Davey caught on to my slip up with ‘our time’ and was about to say something until Albert stepped up and said,” Well then I’d like to see ‘er in whateva’s considered not decent.”

“ Well I’d like to see youse with a broken nose, but we all can’t get what wes wants. Now can wes,” Ali replied while cracking her knuckles and neck. She started slowly walking towards him. But it was obvious that he wasn’t backing down.

“ Whats a little goil like youse gonna be able to do to someone like me,” he taunted.

She continued walking towards him, her anger almost growing. It was at this point that me and Rocky started to sign for him to stop. Of course he didn’t. Now the two were in each others faces, please don’t kill the kid Ali. I know he was being very disrespectful, but you dont’ have to kill him.

“ God it’s a shame I have to watch another man die tonight,” I say remorsefully was I place my head in my hands. But I took it out and saw that some of the other newsies were now getting scared for Alberts safety. I watched Ali and Albert closely, and then I realized why Ali didn’t immediately swing. She was positioning herself, for what.I don't’ know, but it was bound to be really bad for Albert. I know she has taken like a decade of MMA and fighting classes, so she is capable of causing a lot of pain.

Then with in a blink of an eye she spun him around, pinned one arm to his back, and forcefully threw him on the wall. She got right up in his face and told him that this was just a warning and next time he will end up with a broken nose. She then proceded to walk away calmly, as if nothing ever happened. When she returned to her original spot eh found everyone once again staring at her, except Rocky who was just face palming. Once she took notice she this she angerly spat,” What?” but she also said as if nothing had just happened.

“ Why,” Rocco asked clearly distraught,” why are you like this.”

Ali just shrugged in response.

“ You had one job. Take care of them in case they get hostile, not be hostile towards them,” he added.

“ Hey. I my defense, he was disrespectin’ me. I just defended myself,” Ali said in a defensive tone.

“ Okay would anyone like to explain what is going on here and why you said in our time before this how mess happened,” Davey exclaimed while motioning to Albert, who just stood there in a state of shock.

Rocco’s POV:

Well shit. Now we have to explain, to the best of our ability, because Davey just dropped the question. Now or never I guess. Although I would prefer never.

“ Um… okay. So, um, you may or may have been transported into the future, 2017 to be exact, and before you ask. No we don’t know how this happened. Also we know who all of you are because someone made a musical about the newsboy strike of 1899,” I stammer out as fast as I possible could. Thankfully no looked like they got a word of that.

“ Do you mind repeatin’ dat?’ Jack asked.

“ Ok… so… um…,” I stutter,not wanting to say any of that slowly,” so… you-”

Suddenly I was pushed to the floor and Ali stepped up to take my spot and exclaimed,”Okay dis stutterin’ idiot ain’t gettin’ us anywhere. So youse may or may not have been teleproted into da year 2017. Also don’t ask ‘cause wes don’t gotta clue as to who's dis happened”

Everyone jaw was on the floor. “ Wha … but how?” Jack stammered.

“What did I just say,” Ali retorted.

“ Okay your bluntness isn’t helping,” Austin scolded while helping me up.

“ So yeah welcome to the future, I guess,” I added,” I guess since you’ll be staying here with us introductions are necessary. So this right here is my best friend Austin, but we call him Texas,” I say while motioning to Austin. “ And this is my twin sister, the girl of a thousand nicknames-”

“I don’t ‘ave dat many nicknames,” Ali interrupted.

“ As I was saying, my twin sister Brooklyn, or Ally Cat. Ali for short.”

“ Youse named Brooklyn?” Spot asked.

“ Yeah, but please call me Ali. My actual name brings up some… bad memories.”

“ Okay but if youse twins, den why don’t youse both have an accent,” Ike, I think, asked.

“ Our parents split when we were young, I went with our dad to San Fransisco. Which is where we are from now, and Ali stayed in Brooklyn with our mom.”

“ Wait, so your name is Brooklyn and youse from Brooklyn,” Spot asked.

Ali nodded, and Spot gave her a smile.

“ Of course da strong goil with da short tempa is from Brooklyn,” Race snarked, earnign an elbow from Spot.

“ Wait but if you stayed with your mom in Brooklyn, why are you here now?” Les asked. Davey shot him a look to shut up becasue he was being rude.

“ It’s fine. There was some recent events that occured that lead to Ali having to come here and live with me.”

“ Yeah, and comin’ here was da woist day of my life,” Ali whined,” Especially since I had to give up my crown.”

“ Crown?,” Spot questioned.

“ Oh. It seems that I left out one of Ali’s nicknames,” I said before Ali could respond for herself,” she is also known as The Queen of Brooklyn.”

During this ‘grand’ introduction Ali puffed her chest out and held her head up high.

“ But what’s a queen withouta king,” Spot asked with a smirk on his face.

“ A higher title,” Ali responded proudly, shocking Spot.

“ Back to the introductions,” I’m-”

“ Jack Kelly, and the rest of you are Crutchie, Spot, Davey, Les, Romeo, Specs, Mike, Ike, Race, Albert, and Finch,” Austin stated while pointing at each of the newsies when he said there name.

“ How do you know that?” Davey asked very concerned.

“ We now that because a person made a musical about the newsboy strike of 1899, and the people who portrayed you look a lot like you. If that makes sense,” Austin said.

“ It makes sense, but what’s a musical?” Race asked.

“ It’s like a play, but with a lot of singing,”Austin clarified.

“ Alright, enough with da chit chat. I’m starvin’ can wes go get some breakfast?” Ali begged.

“Well it is the time that we normally eat,” I said. It was already 9 in the morning.

“ And the sun rose this mornin’, are we done statin’ facts.” Ali responded sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes and made my way to the kitchen, and motioned for the boy’s to follow.

Ch. 4 End

#newsies #newsies musical #time travel #spot conlon #jack kelly #romeo #specs #crutchie #albert #davey #les #finch #race #fanfiction