Indigo Goes Girl Crazy

By ShoeGoil

Author's note: Usually I prefer to stay away from original characters when writing FF, or at least I prefer to focus on canon characters with some originals. However, for the Battery Park LH fiction contest I went ahead and wrote about my character, Indigo, a 16-year old newsboy, and threw in characters from the same LH. So I guess I'm apologizing ahead of time for all the poorly characterized OCs in this one. :-) At least it tied for first place! Yay!

All the newsgirls mentioned in this fic own themselves. And Disney owns Newsies, believe it or not.

It might have been the way Indigo sub-consciously tossed his shiny black hair whenever he was in a heated discussion about literature.

Or maybe it was the way his slender hands enthusiastically gripped his pencil nub when he wrote secret things in his journal in the evening while sitting in the library.

Then again, as cliché as this is going to sound, it might also have been the way his dark, almost purplish blue eyes would emanate a sort of vulnerable passion whenever he spoke to a girl, whichever girl he happened to be speaking to.

Whether one of these factors were the cause of Indigo's predicament, or all of them were, or any combination of these factors were responsible, what it boiled down to was trouble, pure and simple.

Trouble with a capital Jack, Skittery, and Mush.

"You need to lay your hands off our goils," Jack said one night when Indigo had been writing extra fervently in his journal. Jack poked Indigo in the center of his chest with a particularly agitated Pulitzer-Poke.

"But, I—" Indigo started.

"Yeah, you ARE a butt," Skittery said with a howl of a laugh, causing Mush to giggle.

"I didn't!" Indigo protested again, with a flash up angry eyes in the direction of Mush and Skittery.

"You did, but you won't," Jack said smartly. "At least not anymore. Or you'll be sorry you ever moved into this lodging house. Trying to get too close to our women…" Jack muttered as he turned away from Indigo.

Jack clapped Skittery and Mush on the shoulders, ushering them out the front door of Battery Park Lodging House. Indigo's dark, lake-y eyes looked back down on the journal that he had been interrupted from and pretty soon eager scratchings could be heard coming from his pencil.

The first person to find him at this task was Morning Glory, Skittery's on-again, off-again main-squeeze, though at the moment, she'd be the last person to call herself that. As she moseyed in from the cold hallway to the cozy library, she couldn't help but smile to herself. A spot next to Indigo on the couch was just the thing she needed. She touched his shoulder, causing him to lift his head with a start. Then his mouth relaxed into a smile of greeting.

"You sure look like you're writing something important," Glory said, mirroring his smile as she sank down into couch next to him.

Indigo nodded, and then continued to write. Morning Glory narrowed her eyes slightly. She was looking for attention, and wasn't getting it.

"What are you writing?" she tried again.

"It's a poem. Do you want me to read it to you?" Indigo asked then, looking back into her face.

"I'm not sure if you should," she murmured, all the while scooting closer to him so she could read over his shoulder, her brown hair just brushing against his shoulder slightly. "You know how poetry affects me…"

Indigo furrowed his eyebrows slightly. "I'm not sure what that means, but I'll go ahead and read it," he said, and cleared his throat slightly before starting.

"For you and I are like a knot pulled tight:

A mass of loop'd and tangled dirty thread.

And though you pull away with all your might,

The knot will only tighten, tangles spread…"

His voice cracked slightly, then he continued reading.

"Untie the knot? At one time, could be done.

My thread would have held only one small kink.

The ends would have remained as newly spun:

So long and straight, could knot a different link…"

He stopped reading, still looking at his page. Did Morning Glory detect a blush on his cheeks? She smiled deeper to herself, then urged in a low voice, "go on." She scooted closer to him on the couch. "It's a lovely poem. Keep reading."

"But now our threads entwine without an end.

There is no way to gently untie, so

You hack some painful chops? And then no mend!

A pile of lifeless threads, the fatal blow.

Don't tear your thread from mine, where it is sewn…" Clearing his throat, he turned to face her, and she had the distinct feeling that he meant the final line to be spoken directly to her. "A knot is stronger than two threads alone."

The way his deep, dark eyes stared down into her own eyes brought a pleasurable flush to her face. Glory felt her heart race as he looked at her like that, and though she knew for a fact that there was something very naïve about Indigo, she suddenly had the thought that she might like to alter the status of his 'experiences.'

"Is this moment Rogue-rated?" interrupted a voice at the library door. It was Rogue herself, and her voice was sharp with obvious annoyance at having run into the two of them looking so intently at each other. "I come for a novel, and instead get a sonnet reading."

Indigo looked toward the door, and Glory could've sworn that she saw him blush even deeper. "It's just a work in progress," he said with a little laugh. "Was trying it out on Glory."

"Well, it seems to be working just fine," Rogue said sarcastically. It's not that she couldn't appreciate a good love poem, either. Maybe she was just slightly annoyed that her own experiences with Mush hadn't evolved into any sort of deep intellectual connection. She couldn't help but dig Morning Glory a little deeper. "What's wrong? Skittery wouldn't read you love poetry, so you had to find someone else to do so?"

She didn't wait for a response from Glory, but rather continued on into the room and reached out to pick up a book off the shelf. Indigo wandered over to the bookshelf, Rogue very aware of the way he was reading over her shoulder.

"The Twilit Garden?" he said with interest. "That's one of my favorites!"

Rogue looked up at him, and she felt her face soften just slightly. "Is it? I've not read it yet."

"Oh, I know you'll love it," Indigo said excitedly. He tossed his hair out of his eyes as he reached gently for the book. "Do you mind? Can I read you a part?"

Rogue shook her head. "I'd rather you didn't," she said, though a smile was playing on her lips at his enthusiasm. "I don't like to be read to. It ruins the book." Though she wasn't quite convinced that that would be the case if Indigo read to her. After all, he looked so passionate about this book…

"Just the opening, then. I just have to read it to you. It won't give anything away, I promise," he assured her, flipping it open.

"Alright," Rogue consented, offering him a smile. She scooted closer, leaning over his shoulder as her eyes followed his reading.

"There is a garden at the edge of this town where the maidens come to wish for love. They pull the blossoms from the apricot tree a week after it begins to bloom in early spring, sprinkling the petals on the lush grass, forming the initials of the man they wish to marry. And as the sun sets and the garden darkens and cools, fading into the twilight, the white petals alone stand out against the darkness of the grass, the initials glowing as if calling out to the maidens' sweethearts. They say it works. They say you are destined to wed your sweetheart within the year. But I've been going through this custom every year for ten years. And though I have become as faded as the glow of the twilit garden, I remain un-wed."

Indigo turned to look at Rogue after he finished reading, and she quickly rubbed at her eyes with the back of her sleeve, embarrassed that he had caught her crying. "That's horrifically sad!" she said, though had certainly enjoyed hearing it. There was something very moving about the way Indigo had read.

"I know!" Indigo said, tossing his hair off his face again. "It gets me every time!"

Rogue laughed. "It's hard to imagine a boy getting upset about that kind of thing. I figured it was only the kind of thing poor girls like us worried about. You know, girls that don't have any worldly possessions to tempt a husband?"

Indigo laughed too. "Yeah, well…"

"Yeah, well, it's a little too sad if you ask me," said another voice from the Library door. Indigo turned to see ShoeGoil coming into the room, followed by Stress. "That bit about being an old maid is a bit too depressing for my tastes," Shoe said. Shoe herself was already twenty-five, much older than she'd prefer to be, considering her unmarried status.

"Nothing can be too sad," Morning Glory spoke up from the couch, tears rolling down her cheeks

"Glory?" Shoe said with surprise. "I don't think I've EVER seen you cry."

"That's because I DON'T cry, except when ol' Indigo here starts reading all of those pretty words to us."

"Well, I don't know if I can handle pretty words right now," Stress admitted. "I just talked to a pretty angry Jack. Seems that several of the newsies are getting pretty peeved at one certain little Shakespeare." She looked at Indigo pointedly when she said that.

"I didn't do nothing," he muttered, ducking his head as he handed the book back to Rogue. He turned to settle down into the rocking chair.

Shoe motioned for the other girls to leave. She wanted to get it straight with him that there was no reason for him to be seducing the other newsgirls, but she didn't want to embarrass him in front of them. Stress shook her head. She wanted to get him for getting her in trouble with Jack. Glory glowered at them. She was quite cozy hanging out with Indigo, and had no intention of leaving. Rogue's poison dart eyes made it clear that she had the same intentions as Glory.

Finally Shoe won out…maybe because her age made the other girls feel bad if they didn't give her her way.

"You didn't do nothing?" Shoe repeated finally, sitting down next to him. "You sure seemed to be doing something when I came in." Her voice was calm, but she spoke with an accusatory edge.

"What, so reading is a crime now?" Indigo exclaimed, a bit of his normally easy-going attitude sliding off to reveal an inner temper.

"It is if you're reading pretty words to distract those girls from where their real affections lie."

"Speaking of lying," Indigo said then, changing the subject, "Where IS that lying scoundrel, Jack?"

Shoe's eyes opened wide. "You oughta be glad Stress didn't hear you. She wouldn't take kindly to hearing you call her man a liar."

"Well, he DID accuse me of laying my hands on several of the girls in this lodging house. And I don't think laying my words on them is exactly the same thing." Suddenly Indigo's whole face seemed disheartened, from the way his bottom lip quivered to the way his deep blue eyes were opened wide in protest. He wasn't a bad kid at all, the way Jack had played him up to be. He seemed honestly and sincerely upset at the accusations.

Shoe's face relaxed and she touched his shoulder slightly as she said, "Hey, Indigo. It's alright. You're right. Jack just doesn't understand you. You are much more of an intellectual than him, you know that?"

Indigo shook his head. "Oh, no! That's not true at all!" he protested, his eyes widening even deeper. "How could you talk down on Jack? He is more of a man than I'll ever be." He lowered his eyes, looking down at his knees, and Shoe couldn't help but wonder why she had never noticed how sensitive he was, or how sweet…

She became aware of the fact that her hand was still resting on his shoulder, so she started to pull it away, only to have his hand reach up and take it into his. He looked up at her then, again with those dark, violet eyes, and Shoe nervously licked her lips. Suddenly he felt very close in proximity.

"Shoe?" he said quietly. "Can I…?" He leaned in close to her, not even intending to finish his question, when she shook her head, her eyebrows furrowing with confusion.

"Can you, wha--"

Indigo awkwardly leaned in further, his black hair falling into his face as his lips met hers in a short zap of a kiss.

A sound behind them in the library door caused Shoe to pull away with a gasp. Then she slapped him hard against the cheek before turning to see the wide shocked eyes of Locket and the amused eyes of Aki in the doorway.

"How dare you take advantage of me!" Shoe said with exaggerated annoyance before pushing herself off the couch and rushing out of the library, refusing to make eye-contact with Locket or Aki. Perhaps it wasn't quite evident if she was talking to Indigo at that point, or Locket and Aki. Though when people asked her later, she was quick to say she was talking to Indigo.

"What was THAT, Indigo?" Locket asked pointedly.

With a sigh, Indigo shrugged. "Girls are so queer. You never know what they mean. They say No when they mean Yes, and drive a man out of his wits for the fun of it."

Aki couldn't hold back her laughter anymore. "Of all the girls to lay your mitts on! Isn't Shoe like ten years older than you?"

"Well, I never woulda thought of it, if Jack hadn't come along accusing me of that kinda thing," he pouted.

"But why Shoe, Indigo?" Locket asked with surprise. "There's so many other girls that are available around here. What about Periwinkle? Or that Sissy girl? Or ……."

"Or us?" Rogue said from the door, Morning Glory with her, the both of their faces echoing the amusement of Aki's face.

"Or you? No, you girls aren't technically available," Locket said, before glancing quickly at Indigo. Noticing the blush on his cheeks and the way he wasn't making eye-contact with them, she said, "Indigo! You DIDN'T! Tell me you didn't make the moves on them, too!"

"I didn't! I didn't!" he assured her, his voice cracking on the second 'didn't.'

"He TRIED," Glory said with narrowed eyes, before laughing merrily.

"I didn't! I was just reading, and having a good time talking to friends. I don't move in on other guys' women. I swear, I don't!"

"Methinks thee doth protest too much," Rogue said with a slight smirk.

Indigo answered that comment with a worn-out sigh.

"It's alright," Aki said, clapping Indigo on the shoulder encouragingly. "Don't get your knickers in a knot. Nothing is solved and it just makes you walk funny." All the girls in the room started laughing at the uncomfortable look on Indigo's face.

"What's going on in here?" Periwinkle said from the doorway. "Am I missing a good laugh?"

"A great laugh," Aki said. "We've just learned the truth about Indigo."

"No! You didn't!" he started, but Locket clamped her hand over his mouth with a sweet grin and a bat of her eyelashes.

"Yes, the truth is, if it were up to Indigo, ANYwhere is paradise," she said to Periwinkle with a wink, but a second later she shouted, "hey!" before pulling her hand away, looking at Indigo with wide eyes. "The little monster LICKED my hand!" she said, with a look of disgust on her face.

"That's what you get for trying to figure me out, and getting me wrong!" Indigo said, gathering his composure as he stood up. Suddenly, he was no longer feeling over-whelmed by all the accusations. He casually walked up to the nearest newsgirl, Aki, and kissed her firmly on the lips, followed by a kiss each for Rogue, Glory, and Periwinkle.

"If it's up to me, EVERYWHERE is paradise," he asserted with a toss of his black hair, then picked up his journal and left the group of girls in the library to stare at each other dumb-founded.

At least now he was worthy of Jack's accusations.