Then Came the Fire

By: Laney S.

Author's Note: This is formerly my old story, Just to Love. It's the re-write under a different title. I began to pick the sequel The Edge of Tomorrow back up before I realized that I should be re-writing this story first.

Yes. I'm a very confused individual.

To let you know a little bit about this story: Is it a romance? Yes, but not until much later on and with much character/story development. Is there a Mary-Sue? No, but there is a girl in my story and like real people she does have her flaws. I don't believe in writing characters that are invincible and who fit in immediately. Is there an actual plot? Yes. Is it original? Perhaps not but I promise there will be some twists that you may or may not see coming. I also go to great pains to do a fair amount of research in this story so that it is fairly historically accurate. When does it take place? Roughly, two years after the strike.

Also, I wanted to make it clear that in my story, my original character Kid is not Kid Blink. I will refer to Kid Blink by his full name in this story when I do put him in.

Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies or any aspect of the film, those rights belong to Disney. I am merely borrowing the characters for entertainment purposes only and for no financial gain. I do, however, own my own characters and no one is to use them without my permission.

Chapter One

Why

The rain poured down like cold mini daggers. Each drop that hit Reina Townshend's skin made her shiver all the more and caused a fresh wave of goose bumps to materialize on her skin. She tried hard to keep her teeth from chattering but it was a losing battle.

She kept huddled in the corner of the abandoned house. The home was foreign to her but it could have been hers. It wasn't so terribly different from the house she'd lived in once upon a time. The only difference was that her home didn't have gaping holes in the ceiling. Reina looked down at her clothes. They were soaked through and through and clung to her skin. Her dress she'd worn had been nothing special. It wasn't made of silk or any other fine fabric and the color had been dull but now it looked downright like a rag. She moaned softly, silently wishing that it would just stop already. It had been raining for about three days straight now.

She sniffled and felt her nose begin to tickle inside. This was not good. She had failed to find any shelter in the last month since her parents had abandoned her and now it was going to catch up to her.

"I can't get sick," she told herself mentally and then she began to do the last thing that she could – cry.

Tears mixed with the rain drops and ran down her cheeks. She squeezed her eyes shut, not thinking and not feeling and just cried.

She didn't want to acknowledge that her clothes were now filthy rags. She didn't want to acknowledge that she was hungry and homeless.

Most of all, she didn't want to acknowledge that she was alone. It had been a fact that she'd been trying to ignore for almost a month now. She'd tried to push on and survive like she knew she should but there had been one tiny question nagging at her for quite some time now; why?

She reflected upon it and found that it only made the pain inside of her hurt more and she began to sob. She was crying so hard at that point that she felt she would either pass out or be sick.

"There one minute and gone the next..."

Her mind repeated that phrase like a song that would not leave her head. That certainly had been true but she'd been trying to ignore it. She had survived for the last month on her own by telling herself things like, "Doesn't do any good to wallow in sadness," or "Just gotta stay alive."

However, now in this desperate and dismal hour, she had given in to the negative thoughts that she had just barely managed to hold back.

"Stop it!" she screamed at herself. She didn't want to cry, what good did it ever do? It wasn't going to make the rain stop or find her shelter. She had to be strong now or she knew she would surely perish on her own.

"Why?! Why, why, why!?" she cried out loud as another round of sobs overtook her "What's the point…?" she wondered aloud. Her whole body trembled and she began to feel her vision swim in and out of darkness. This wasn't good. Against her questions and her broken resolve, Reina began to crawl towards the door, putting one shaky hand in front of the other until she could go no more.

"You can't die here," a part of her mind urged.

She moaned and collapsed onto her side, still softly sobbing, her body giving everything left that it had to give. This was the end.

"No! Get up!" her mind demanded.

"No," she whimpered aloud and tucked her knees into herself so that she was now lying in a small ball. "It's pointless," she babbled, now fighting a mental tug of war between two conflicting parts of her brain.

"You can't give up," her mind reminded her.

"Don't…care…" she moaned softly and allowed her tired eyes to close. They were sore and red after so much crying. On top of that, it was getting harder and harder to fight the impending darkness.

Reina's cheek rested against the soaked and damp wooden boards of the old tenement. She barely noticed how rough it was to the touch. She forced herself to open her eyes once more. They stared dully and lifelessly towards the door, leading to the gray, rainy outside world.

It wasn't long until after that, that Reina slipped into complete, welcomed, darkness.

***

The three young men scuffled into the old shabby house. They were all about sixteen to seventeen years of age. One was fairly scrawny and the other two were well built in terms of muscle. The first one, the scrawnier of the trio, had fire-red curls and eyes as brown as chocolate. His features were more boyish but he wore a tough look on his face. "This place is a dump!"

The second was tall with shaggy black hair that grew long on each side of his face. His eyes were his most striking feature as they were a shade of green that was lighter than most. They were set against pale skin and fine features. "I second that Figgy but we got our orders, come on now," he urged, thumbing at his nose. He spoke with a mild Irish accent.

"Kid can't ya make your own orders? I mean are you Spot's partner or-"

"That's enough Figgy!" the black-haired one known as Kid warned.

The third one spoke last, "Hey guys! Over here!" he had dark brown hair that was cut short with only a couple of bangs that poked out from underneath his brown newsboy cap. His eyes were brown though not as light as Figgy's but they set well on his face. He handsome and had a strong jaw and features that easily could have made him a model. He was known as Pretty Boy for just that reason.

The other two hurried over to see what their companion had found.

"Whoa!" Figgy said and immediately took a giant step back. "We can't mess with that!"

Kid kept silent as he observed the situation, already thinking things over in his mind.

"Think she's dead?" Pretty Boy asked and lightly kicked Reina's body with the toe of his shoe. Kid promptly socked him in the arm.

"Ow!"

"Don't ya got any respect!?" Kid roared and bent down closer to Reina. He brought the back of his hand close to her nose and found that she was still breathing.

"So, she dead?" Pretty boy asked, shuffling uncomfortably. Kid gave a quick nod and began to scoop her up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!!" Figgy yelped and ran over to Kid. "Kid what are ya doin?! Are you off ya trolley!?"

"I'm with Figgy about this. Spot ain't gunna like it," Pretty Boy warned.

Kid shook his head defiantly. "So we just let her die here? That's the alternative. You guys okay with that?"

The other two were silent until Figgy piped up, "Yep."

Kid shot Figgy a look that could have killed and even Pretty Boy gave him the stink eye.

Kid held Reina close to him snugly. "C'mon fellas. We've done our good deed for the day!" Kid said and headed for the exit.

Figgy rolled his eyes and followed his comrades. "I'm tellin' ya guys, Spot is gunna shit a brick."