Okay friends... this is fluff. It's really short. Fluff is not my strong suit but i thought this was cute.
This is a request from FuriedNight. Thank you so much for it! I still have two more from you, so I'm thinking they'll be done pretty soon... ish?
Anyways!
Please enjoy!
"Is it almost done, Jack?" one boy laughed as he squirmed a bit, moving around so he could get more comfortable. The sun was setting in the distance and the boy was itching to turn around and watch.
The boy sitting across from him on the rooftop just laughed as his friend moved around. "Hold still, kid! It's almost done," Jack assured, his pencil flying across his paper like his life depended on it. His grin was as blinding as the sun and no one seemed to mind. "Take a breath, sunshine," he laughed. "If ya keep squirmin' 'round I ain't sure I's eva' gonna be done!"
"But I wanna see the sunshine, Jack!" the boy whined. "That's the whole point!"
With a laugh and one final scribble on an empty page of a book that some of the other boys must've destroyed, he tossed the thing forward and leaned back against the railing of his rooftop. His own personal penthouse above the stinking streets of New York. "Alright, pal, I's done," he assured, raising his hands up slightly in surrender as the kid laughed and shook his head, turning to watch the golden sky fade into darkness before he fell asleep when exhaustion took him over.
The kid turned around quick in his seat and grasped onto the railing that had once been behind him, swinging his legs over the edge of the rooftop, content to just look up at the sky and take in the sun setting over the buildings and the people. Jack smiled as he watched the boy, so eager for the day's end, just waiting for a new one to start. He didn't understand how a kid who'd gone through so much could still be so hopeful and energetic and happy. It was so strange to Jack.
Getting up, the older boy smiled over his smaller friend. He slowly walked over to where the other boy was perched on the edge of the building and swung his legs over just like the other kid had. He swung an arm around the boy's shoulder, a grin still taking over his face.
"Where's the picture?" the boy said, expectantly. He didn't even have to look at Jack to know that the other boy didn't have it in his hands.
A scoff was out of his mouth before he could stop it, "You don' wanna see that, Crutchie. It ain't no good."
Rolling his eyes, Crutchie simply laid back, reaching his hand over his own wooden crutch and grabbing the old book. Before he knew it, he was gawking at the thing in his hands. He couldn't stop the delighted giggle that left him as the arm was replaced around his shoulder. "Ain't no good my ass!" he teased, slightly shoving the older newsie with his shoulder. "You pictured me!" he exclaimed, "Just like that!"
And in fact he had. The picture was of him, sitting on their roof, the sun setting perfectly behind him as he looked somewhere past Jack and off into the distance. Every detail was perfect, even down to the tip of his crutch being in the drawing. "Not many people can do what ya do, Jackie! You's can draw a picta' like those fancy cameras do! You's talented asshole!" the kid laughed.
The world was wonderful when the small kid laughed. Jack remembered when getting the boy to smile hadn't been so easy.
He'd been so hopeless when Jack had found him. They'd both been so young, so much younger than they were now. And it was all Jack could've done to scoop up the young boy who had been shivering and alone, leaning up against an old building. He took the kid home, after the boy- delirious and terrified- told him to leave him alone. The kid had practically begged him to not hurt him, and Jack had known right then that he needed to get him home.
The boy was a runaway, if you could call it that. With his leg all twisted up as it was, not too much running had been done. He was a child of few words and Jack had stayed up with him for so many nights just trying to understand why he refused to smile or laugh or tell them anything. They'd given him a crutch and a name and the boy had taken them without complaint but it wasn't until one night when Jack had introduced the kid to his own personal penthouse that he had actually started opening up. Jack would never forget when he'd tried to carry the kid up the latter. He told the boy to jump on his back only for the small kid to shake his head and start climbing by himself.
Looking down at the boy that he held so closely to his side, Jack couldn't help but chuckle a bit. The kid had come so far. He was outspoken and no one could shut him up, something Jack was sure he'd learned from hanging out with some of the other boys. Racetrack and Albert, for starters. Those boys never knew what was good for them. But Crutchie always had a way of putting them in their place. Crutchie always has a way of being in charge even if he wasn't.
"Do ya think that maybe one day, you'll go off an' be famous an' forget about us?" The question caught Jack off guard. He froze at the words. Famous? The kid really thought he was that good? First of all, he wasn't ever going to be good enough for someone to notice him and second... forget his boys? The ones who'd he'd raised and who'd helped raise him? No way in hell.
"What's got ya thinkin' like that, Crutch? I ain't neva' goin' no where without ya," he assured, giving the boy a shake before pressing a quick kiss to his hair. Crutchie learned even further into him. The world was slowly getting darker. No doubt he'd have the littles coming up for him soon. Either with nightmares that caught them after only ten minutes of sleep, or to sing them to sleep.
The boy in his arms shrugged a bit, a small smile still on his face. "You's done too much fer us, Jackie... ya deserve ta get outta here..." he answered quietly, clearly not wishing that that would ever happen.
The laugh that escaped Jack couldn't be helped much. "I can't leave the lodge without Racer runnin' ta me, cryin' ova' a lost bet, kid. An' Romeo would throw a fit! Poor kid wouldn't have no one ta tuck him in at night," he spoke lightly, though no truer words had been said. "'Sides, who'd put up with your ugly mug if I's left, huh?" he joked, laughing when he got an elbow to the gut.
"You're my brotha', Jack. The best friend I's got. I jist want ya ta be happy." The words were so sincere it was almost foreign to Jack. They lived in a house full of rambunctious teenage boys. Nothing they ever said to each other was really sincere. But all he could do was slyly look down at the kid before the younger boy could stop him, he was on his back, squealing and giggling with delight as fingers danced along his rib cage and his sides. "Stop it, Jack!" the child begged, tears filling his eyes as he laughed so hard. "Stop it! I give up!"
The laughs wouldn't ever leave Jack as long as the boy was still smiling. "I's happy right where I am, little brotha'. I ain't neva' leavin' you's."
And that was a promise Jack Kelly intended to keep.
So what do we think? Do I write some okay fluff? It's odd to me because there really was no story here. But it was fun to write. Very cute. Now I'm gonna go write some angst to balance myself out, haha.
This was the request: Just some plain old Jack and Crutchie goodness. Like they are the best bothers and best friends ever and I can't find enough good stuff about them anywhere!
Thank you FuriedNight! I really hope I helped you out here. But again, this may be the only actually fluff piece I've ever written.
All requests have been heard! If you think I may have forgotten one, please feel free to just remind me about it!
As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to tell me what you liked, what you didn't, what you'd change or what you'd improve by leaving me a review! Love ya, fansies!