I'm writing this as requested, from Question Time. I wrote it on my phone, because I've been super busy with all-day speech tournaments and practices. I feel really bad about not being able to update the most important installment in By Moonlight, so hopefully this is sufficient consolation until I can sit down at my computer and do By Moonlight justice!

In the meantime, enjoy this cute little one shot!

It was a warm evening. Jack had retreated up to the rooftop early, leaving the yelling, running, chaotic newsies behind him. He had just finished up a sketch of his dad, and gently rolled it up, feeling melancholy as he put it with the other sketches of his newsie brothers.

He heard a muffled voice coming from the stairs, followed by several furious "shhh!" sounds. Jack groaned. "What are you guys doing?" he yelled down, moving slightly to shield his pile of rolled up drawings.

The door was opened cautiously by Crutchie, the only one who regularly came up to be with Jack. The others were only allowed on the roof if they had a nightmare or couldn't sleep. Jack understood sleep problems. Boy, did he understand. But this was nothing like that. It wasn't dark-and not one of the boys was asleep, he knew that for a fact.

"Hey, Jack," Crutchie said slyly, hopping up and pulling his crutch up behind him to steady himself. "We were just talking-you still haven't shown us your drawings of us. Remember that night we did a Question Time? You promised you'd show them to us."

"Yeah!" came a loud voice from the stairs.

Crutchie glared back into the darkness. "So..." he turned back to Jack. "We decided it was about time you let us see them."

"Listen guys," Jack started, speaking loudly so they could all hear him. "I dunno if that's such a good idea yet..."

"Why not?" This time Jack recognized a defiant Race's voice. "We all knows you've got them. We all knows they's good. And they's pictures of us. We wanna see them."

"Yeah, but-"

"Listen, Jack," Albert called up. "If you don't wanna show us, that's fine."

"Well, good. Because I never-"

"But then we'd have to take them," Albert finished.

Jack glared at Crutchie, the only visible newsie, who shrugged as the newsies began piling into the roof, grinning triumphantly at Jack

"Are you crazy?" Jack exclaimed angrily, backing towards the corner where his drawings lay, holding out his arms as if he could keep all the boys away by a gesture. "What happened to the rules? What happened to my privacy? What happened to 'no one on the roof but me'? And 'no looking through my stuff'? Huh?"

"I guess that all disappeared when you decided to tell us you had drawn pictures of us," Henry called, amidst laughs of agreement.

Yeah, and Jack was sure regretting it now. He took a breath.

"Come on, guys." Jack tried to reason with them. "That night, it was late, we was all tired, I didn't know what I was agreeing to-"

"You stayed up hours after that!" Specs protested.

"And you knew exactly what you was saying!" Romeo added.

"Well...but still...I mean, hey, did you ever stop to think that I maybe just said that to shut you up?" Jack asked.

"Well, a promise is still a promise, Jack," Crutchie said, almost apologetically, "So we ain't going anywhere. We wanna see how you drew us."

There was a tense pause, the newsies on the stairs straining their ears for Jack's reply. Jack's mind was in a whirl. He hadn't thought about his promise in a while, hadn't prepared himself for their reactions. Would they like how he had depicted them? Would they think it was stupid? Well, they were pretty excited now, so...

"Well...okay. But!" he yelled into the outburst of excitement. The newsies surrounded him as he spoke. "But, I will hand them to you. You can't touch anybody's but your own..." Jack was good at making up rules on the spot. It was a helpful skill to have when he was the leader of a family of rowdy newsboys. "...and you can't keep them. You can look at yours, then hand it back to me." The newsies groaned a little but stepped backwards obediently, as one. Jack sighed in relief. "Good. Okay. Now, don't ambush me when I turn my back," he warned, going to look through his pile of drawings.

"Good idea, Jack!" Race joked, but none of them moved any closer.

Jack smirked and took a breath. He unrolled one of the drawings. "All right then. Um...Crutch?" He awkwardly handed the page to an eager Crutchie. Everyone else crowded around him. "Don't rip it!" Jack yelled as they jostled Crutchie, aiming for a better view. "And don't crumple it either!"

"Woah!" Crutchie breathed, gazing at the strokes that made up the depiction of his body. Jack had drawn him standing, leaning on his crutch, a pose he had often seen Crutchie in as the latter watched the younger newsies play. The others oohed and ahhed, quickly turning back to Jack to see whose drawing he would hand out next.

Jack gave out the rolled-up pieces of paper one by one, stopping for a moment each time to appreciate the happy, awed look on each of his brothers' faces as they saw the way he had depicted them in his art.

He had drawn some of them multiple times, when he had been thinking and worried about them. He didn't want anyone to feel any less loved though, so he kept the multiple drawings and gave out his best ones.

The newsies were calmer now, and slowly sat down in various places around the roof, leaning against the railing and each other. They showed each other the drawings of themselves proudly, admiring all. Jack watched from a distance, relieved that they were satisfied. He caught Crutchie watching him, and grinned.

After a few minutes, Jack felt a tingling in his fingertips, suddenly itching to draw. Glancing around-they still weren't done looking at their pictures-he slowly reached for a new piece of paper and a pencil. Jack sat down on the roof, against the railing. And then he was lost in his art again.

The scene in front of him unfolded on the page, one careful stroke at a time. Each newsie was formed, just as they were sitting. Once he had outlined all of them, he only had to glance up once in a while for reference on a facial expression or shadow. He didn't know how long he had been drawing. He thought this was one of his best pictures yet, now tackling the shading on their clothing with vigor. He finished with a few deft strokes for the sky, and, even though it wasn't there tonight, an enormous bright moon.

Finally, Jack set his pencil down and looked over the finished masterpiece. He sighed in content. It wasn't perfect, but neither were his brothers. He was satisfied.

Jack felt like he was being watched. Suddenly he snapped his head up. The newsies had surrounded him. The pictures were no longer in their hands-but Jack caught a glimpse of a perfect pile over in the corner where they belonged. The boys laughed when Jack finally noticed them standing around him. They must have been there for a while, Jack realized, and he hadn't noticed them.

"All right, guys..." Jack said, his heart still pounding from being startled by their presence. "Bedtime."

They glanced at each other and seemed to decide it wasn't worth it to argue. Jack got to his feet, still holding the new drawing in his hands.

The newsies filed past him one by one, some hugging him, some just grinning and pounding his back...all of them saying "Thanks, Jack." Jack was touched. He'd had no idea how much they would appreciate his drawings.

Crutchie was the last to go by. He hugged Jack, then hung back. "You'll still have to show Davey and Les theirs," Crutchie mentioned.

Jack had forgotten about that. "Oh. Right."

"Thanks, Jack. Really. I wasn't sure if you'd get mad or...I hope you didn't mind..."

Jack laid a hand on his shoulder. "Crutch. It's fine."

Crutchie smiled gratefully. "Oh. Well, good." He headed for the stairs.

Jack found himself counting down in his mind. Three, two, one, stop and turn around, he predicted, and sure enough, Crutchie did just that. Jack laughed in spite of himself. "What's up, pal?" he asked.

"Well, Jack...I was just thinking, it would be cool if you hung that up down in the Lodging House." He pointed at the drawing in Jack's hand.

Jack laughed again, this time nervously. "I dunno about that, Crutch...heh, I mean, it ain't that good..."

"Ain't that good?" Crutchie exclaimed in disbelief. "Are you kidding? That's the best one! It's got all of us-see, you even put Davey and Les in the corner there-you drew them perfect, even though they wasn't there!"

"I...well, it's not good enough to hang up and flaunt like it's some masterpiece..."

"But it is! Don't you get it, Jack? You'se an artist! When is you going to stop being so modest and-"

"I'm not trying to be..."

"Just get over yourself, Jack!" Crutchie said. The two stared at each other. Jack glanced at the drawing in his hand. He sighed. "All right. Fine."

Crutchie's face lit up. "Great! I'll go tack it up!" he exclaimed, subtly plucking the paper from Jack's hand and disappearing down the stairs.

Jack gazed after him. After a moment, he shook his head with a snort and went to the edge of the roof, looking out over the city.

Please review, as usual:)