Crutchie is flying. At least that's what it feels like. His eyes are closed and if he isn't flying, then there is no explanation for the swooping, tumbling feeling in his stomach and lungs and heart and head. He knows he must be up in the air, or else going crazy. And yet, when he opens his eyes, he isn't soaring high above the lights and buildings of dirty Manhattan, he is just on top of a building. The lights rise high above him and yet stretch below, he is suspended in them, with grimy streets in a grid below, and a few stars strong enough to outshine the smog above. Crutchie doesn't notice any of this, though, because he knows it by heart. What he does notice are the blue eyes so close to his own, the warm breath close enough to brush his lips, and the shy smile that matches his own. The faint blush on her cheeks. It is these things that show him he's not high above the clouds, he's right where he belongs. Her fingers intertwine with his and he swears that he knows they are both remembering back to the start, not living in the present but in the close past, the start of the night.
"I mightn't be able ta take ya 'round da park or nothin', Meg, but I'se kin show ya da whole city at once if ya like."
"Crutchie, ya know I don't care-"
"I wanna show ya! Ya kin see da bridge an' da park and' da river an' a lotta da city, even though we ain't super high!" His pretty factory girl gives a little smile and agrees.
"As long as it don't take too long. I do gotta git some sleep. I got work tomorrow." Their relationship wasn't exactly conventional, her having a home and family to support and him only himself living with the other newsies. Seventeen and almost alone, aside the other orphans. And now her. He smiled and took her hand and led her through the streets.
"Are we jist goin' to the lodging house, Matthew?" Just like he used her real name instead of her nickname most of the time, she used his.
"A special place." He didn't say anything else, just kept that small smile in place and enjoyed her apparent frustration in not knowing where they were going. He took her up the fire escape, and that was the last time she ever doubted his physical abilities. Crutchie was strong, since he only had the use of one leg, and he could scale the fire ladder as fast as anybody else, with her struggling to keep up. They made it to the roof, and she could see the mattresses kept there.
"Dis is where Jack an' I slept durin' da summer. I still do, but he lives wid Katherine now dat dey's married, so it's jist me." He said it when he saw her look at the two pallets with blankets and pillows.
"Why is there two, then?"
"Sometimes da younger ones git nightmares, an' I knows how ta help 'cause Jack hadda help me a bunch. But we ain't up here ta discuss my sleepin' habits, Meg! Look!" He turned her to face the city. Her face didn't change as she looked and he got a little nervous. "Ain't it nice view?"
"Yeah. Yeah, it is." She looked at him and gave a little smile. "I love it, Crutchie. Matthew. I love it a lot. Almost as much as I love you." And then she was close to him, closer than she'd ever been before, her eyes right in front of his, and then her lips were touching his and his eyes closed and his free arm wrapped around her waist and then, then he got why Romeo talks about kissing like it's the best thing in the world and why Jack says that kissing the woman you love feels better than selling a thousand papes, because he felt the same. He was flying, soaring because Meg loves him and he loves Meg, and she just gave him his first kiss and now he understands. And even if he hasn't really taken flight, it doesn't matter, because she was still right there.
And now she's holding his hand and they're sitting side by side on one of the mattresses and she's leaning against him, looking at the lights of the city on the buildings around them, and he can see he's not flying in the air, but the feeling is still there, in his stomach and lungs and heart and head, and he knows why now. He's not crazy, but he sort of is, because Crutchie Morris is in love and that feels like flying to him.
Crutchie is the most fun romance to write ever because he's so innocent and wonderful that he always ends up adorable. It's probably pretty bad that I find my own story adorable, but it was my Crutchie muse's idea because I apparently don't write enough with him. So two one shots featuring Crutchie were written!