A/N: Welcome to my late Christmas/Holidays Newsies fanfic! This is also a present to my secret budsie, Fansie Face! I hope this is along the lines of the prompt that you wanted … if not I'm terribly sorry… but hopefully this is good enough? I presume? I hope? Here's the prompt I was given and wrote this off of.
Jack's arrival at the lodging house for the first time, including a little bit of backstory if thought of and how the other newsies dealt with it.
I focused instead on one newsie and how he dealt with it. But the backstory is there! So here we go!
The first thing that Crutchie saw about the older boy was the way he held himself in a room full of strangers. It was with a distinct ruddy air that he collected about himself which made him, like any new arrival to the lodging house, intriguing. Those light blue eyes searched each boy around him. When they landed on Crutchie, the small dark haired boy smiled. Crutchie noticed the way the other shifted backwards slightly as if shocked to see a single smile, and then, slowly, smiled back.
Brown eyes met the blue and a form of understanding came across the both of them. Then blue moved from brown and continued around the silent newsboys. Brown stayed on the blue eyed one, still ever observing the characteristics of the older, looking up to him as a leader all of a sudden. Becoming a follower.
"Ise know it be Christmas an' all, but dis is a sorta present ta you all, I believe. Welcome our new newsie, Jack Kelly. He's 'bout 12 or so." Blackie, the current leader, came into view suddenly from the entranceway, and stood behind Jack with his hand on the smaller boy's shoulder. "Would ya like ta tell us a little 'bout yourself?" He wore a smile, as usual, in its old rustic way, kind and welcoming but echoing with some sort of distinct wisdom and knowledge.
"Ise…Ise 'scaped from da Refuge a little while 'go an'…" Jack stopped as gasps echoed around the room. Most didn't expect that. Crutchie marveled further at the older boy, he knew Jack had to be really strong to have escaped from that place… "Den Blackie found me an'… now I'm heah."
The silence continued as if no one had heard anything Jack had said. Crutchie still stared at Jack with something close to tears in his eyes. He wasn't the only one. But he was the only opne who wanted to befriend Jack at the moment. Slowly but surely, the black haired boy took his crutch from beside him on the bunk he had been sitting on and stood. Hobbling over to Jack, he looked up at him and then clasped him tightly around the waist in a hug. The other stiffened but Crutchie ignored it and smiled as he felt his crutch drop slightly from his grip.
Brown eyes met blue as the younger one pulled away. Brown eyes and a smile, then turned away as the other hobbled back. A smile that caused the blue eyes to dance slightly as if they had suddenly felt welcomed, watching as if those were the eyes of a new companion that he could trust. The same eyes looked up rather confused at green ones of the taller leader standing now beside them, seeing the smile across this boy's face as well.
"That's Crutchie. Probably our mos' optimistic boy yet." Jack watched in silence as the cripple sat back down, still with a grin that seemed to light up the room on his face. And Jack thought that Crutchie would indeed make a good friend.
The first thing Crutchie did as soon as Jack was welcomed by all the others who wore smiles now was to see how he looked, which was happy, and hobble quickly to be next to him again.
"So…youse name is Crutchie?" The older boy smiled gently.
"Yep. An' youse is Jack." The 9 year old said happily. "So, you wanna see what we'se do for Christmas?"
As the older boy could hardly say "no" to the enthralled child, he nodded slowly, looking towards Blackie for direction. The leader merely nodded to go with the younger. Crutchie smiled again and hobbled away, laughing as Jack struggled to keep up with him. He led the other into a different section where a pine tree was propped up. It had been provided by the newspaper, and to the boys it was quite generous. Crutchie thought it was marvelous, no matter how little was on it. Various things sat underneath in mostly paper bags, a few wrapped in newspaper. It was a few days before Christmas, but Crutchie was already extremely excited.
Blue eyes met brown once more, and this time they stared at the colors in the brown that appeared as soon as they seemed to beckon towards the rather skimpy tree. The blue eyes remembered days of old when trees were large and presents plentiful, wrapped in multiple colors and there was another pair of blue eyes beside these ones, unwrapping almost as quickly as presents were handed. Laughing came from that pair of blue eyes that looked up to this set. Voices of adults saying comforting things to the blue eyes that knew not much comfort in a rather broken household; something which reflected in the blue eyes now. The brown eyes noticed and turned to concerned looks of fear for the blue eyes, as if they knew of tortures long past.
"So youse all wrappe' these gifts?" Jack smiled gently.
"Yep. An' 'cause it's only two days befor' Christmas, Blackie says youse gonna get some too, just as soon as he goes out. No one heah gets left behind. Dat's part of the fun." The broken boy hobbled closer to the tree, analyzing the presents. "Wese are told not ta peek but we do it anywah."
"Is dere anyting ya do on Christmas other than that?"
"Nope. 'cept for da evenin' papes," and at this Crutchie let his face fall, "which ain't never any fun. But we gotta do it. Den we spend the rest of the night talkin' an' stayin' up all late. Last year was my foist year heah. It's loads of fun. Yet that's not just the only thing. Dey also gives us food. Lots of it."
After letting Jack look at it a few minutes more, Crutchie turned to leave when another voice entered the room. It was Buttons, who was a year older than him. A new smile lit upon his face as he looked at Buttons who had come up to Jack and was now asking multiple questions. Jack looked a little overwhelmed, or so he observed from seeing the way the older boy was smiling but appeared a little freaked out with his movements. Instead of trying to butt in, Crutchie simply let them talk for a few moments. When Jack came out of his conversation and Buttons bounced out of the room with a grin on his face now, Crutchie came up to him.
"Ya wanna see a place Ise go ta get some quiet? It ain't easy ta get up, but Ise found it and it's a lotta fun." Crutchie started to leave, yet Jack grabbed at his arm and he looked up it and at Jack, looking a little worried, "What's wrong?"
"Do ya…do ya evah get da feeling dat youse gonna be stuck back from where ya came?" Jack looked panicked.
Blue eyes searched brown, seeing the panic in them. It was a panic known to the blue eyes. A panic of fear. A panic that said clearly they did not want to be back where they had been. These blue eyes had seen much that often left scarring on them. Things that hurt them, they would forever hold that panic of wanting to get out and away from it all, as they had back then. The panic of seeing the fights take place. And blue eyes tried to comfort older, wiser, brown eyes, to tell them everything would be fine.
"Yeah." The dark haired boy looked away for a moment. He didn't want to tell everything to Jack yet Jack seemed to be one who would understand. "Let's go ta dis place, 'kay?"
The 12 year old nodded and Crutchie hobbled away, towards the stairs. Taking them as quickly as he could, knowing Jack was following him, he soon had them emerge at a ladder. Jack looked a little concerned for him when he began to go up, yet Crutchie ignored it. It was where he slept now anyways, he was used to it. Swinging his crutch up, he began to drag himself upwards. Once at the top, he breathed a little easier and hobbled over so Jack could finish his climb and join him. When he looked over at the older boy, he smiled to see that look on Jack's face. They were staring out at almost the entire city, and it was magnificent. Seeing everything where it was supposed to be, yet knowing they were part of it was all the better.
"Ya see why Ise do dis?"
"Youse sleep heah?" Jack had seen the bedsheets.
"Yes. An' youse can join me if ya want. They say it's kinda dangerous, but Ise love it. Even in da winter. Though, theyse gonna want me in the rest of it. Supposed ta get colder." Crutchie shrugged, looking once more out on the streets. "Ya said dat ya had sometin' 'bout yaself da you don't like. Ise don't like lotta myself. An' I had a bad family. Dat's what Blackie tol' me, but I didn' need ta be told. Ise knew."
It was then that he spilled out everything with his abusive parents, though abusive wasn't the word he used at the time. How family life had been so difficult. And it was then that Jack was forced to say everything about his. Yet his was better. He had a brother, who was younger, whom he protected. His mother was wonderful. His father was the problem. And yet he hadn't been tortured or picked on because of his leg since he wasn't a cripple. He had been beaten like Crutchie had.
The two formed a bond that night as they stood up there on the top of the lodging house like it was their tower and their land. They formed a tight one, a friendship that they knew was going to last. And soon when Blackie told them it was dinner, both came down. Both sat with the other newsies who talked to Jack a lot about what they thought was best for selling and telling him every bit of wisdom they knew so he would be perfect. When bed came, Jack declined the offer for a bunk in the house and followed Crutchie upstairs.
Christmas morning was frigid. The frost had covered the railing, and it was then that Crutchie knew he couldn't sleep up there anymore as winter was coming. Smiling, he looked over at Jack who was sitting up blearily rubbing his eyes. Groaning and standing, Crutchie walked over and grabbed his crutch, and then looked to Jack.
"Youse comin' or what? I've never known ya to be late ta Christmas."
"No, dat would be youse." Jack grinned, standing up. An even larger smile came across Crutchie's face, and he started down the ladder to the lodging house faster than ever.
Once both emerged in the small room where various newsies sat around and were already giving out presents, they were welcomed warmly. Crutchie hobbled quickly over to sit with Race and Mush and a couple other fellows who were busy giving out presents from beneath the tree and Jack sat down in the chair they'd all kept for him, crossing one leg over the other. As presents were handed out, Crutchie looked to Jack with a grin as he handed the present he'd gotten for him.
Blue eyes met the brown ones. The brown ones that now knew so much more than only a few years prior. The blue eyes that now controlled the place they'd feared a little in the beginning. Brown eyes alight with that same light that they had held so many years ago on that first Christmas, whereas the blue eyes held the same light now but back then had held the memories of a family that was only a family on that one day a year. Then brown eyes moved as they went to another who was now being handed a present. Blue eyes watched, lingered on the brown-eyed form for a few minutes longer, smiling now. And then moved from them and down to the present, which soon was unwrapped. And blue eyes beheld the small carving that had been made with the name "Jack" across it and the picture of a newspaper on it, with the words "Best friend" written below it. And no more did they hold the memories of the long pats but now of the recent past with their new friends.
A/N: I hope that satisfied all needs! I would say that at the end of this fic, the two would either be 14 and 17 as in the play, or maybe a year younger on each, not sure. But anyways, there you go! I hope you enjoyed and please, review, review, review! (That's not just to FansieFace in particular, that's really to anyone.)