This story (well only this chapter since it was all that was posted) might look familiar to a few of you. Well, that's because this had been released once already. However, it was taken down and given to me to finish and so here I am. The chapter is pretty much the same but a few things were switched around.

Disclaimer: Disney owns Newsies. Not me. Sorry?

WARNING: SLASH.

Chapter One: Bargaining With Satan

I sat at the dining room table, my feet drumming against the floor impatiently. My dinner sat in front of me, untouched. Usually, I never skipped a meal or even hesitated to devour any food in front of me, but my mind was elsewhere at that moment.

Recently, I had applied to become a foreign exchanged student, like I did every year, but my mom hadn't quite approved of me leaving yet. My country of choice was always America, and, thankfully, it was accepted-- But the hard part was that I had to get her to approve first. My mom... Well, she wasn't exactly the biggest fan of traveling.

In fact, she wasn't a big fan of anything really.

For about the fiftieth time that night, I glanced up at my mother, opening my mouth to ask her if I could go to America. Like I did for the other forty-nine glances, I closed my mouth before any words could come out and stared back at my plate. I had to chose my words carefully so as to not upset her in any way. I had become a pro at it really; carefully phrasing every sentence that needed to be said in a way that would please Her.

Ma was a very stern looking woman. Her hair, like mine, was black and curly, but Ma's was more frizzy and uncontrollable than mine-- like she was electrocuted or something. But it wasn't that "Haha-She-Looks-Like-A-Fucking-Troll-Doll" frizzy. It was that "Oh-My-God-I-Think-We're-Going-To-Have-To-Perform-An-Exorcism-She's-Possessed" frizzy.

Though very small (another trait I, sadly, inherited from her), Ma could intimidate the strongest man. My sister and I have decided that that was why she was still single. Well, that and the fact that she's Beelzebub in drag.

Our father seemed to be the only man who could get her to actually give a genuine smile. Much to our dismay, our father passed away shortly after Adelina (my aforementioned sister) was born, and we've been pretty much stuck with a bitter woman who glares at anything that moves.

My eyes cautiously drifted from my plate to Ma again. She tried her best to ignore me, but I could tell she noticed me when her nostrils flared the way they always did when she was getting annoyed. Slowly, I picked up a fork to take a bite of the salmon, but set it back down, not really hungry (plus, the salmon looked a bit dry).

Again, I glanced back up at her, causing her to slam the fork down in annoyance. The sharp noise caused my sister and me to wince.

"Anthony, just tell me what you want so we may eat in peace." She demanded, speaking in quick Italian (I'm the only one in my family that can speak English fluently... I can thank MTV for that).

Sitting up straighter, I looked back at my mother and spoke very cautiously. "Well... I got the results from the test back today," I paused, letting the words sink in.

Ma just nodded and waited for me to continue. Truth be told, I hadn't really thought of anything else to say. This was farther than I had ever gotten the previous years when I tried to talk my mother into letting me go to America for a year. My sister, being the smart little cookie she was, must've known this because she opened her mouth to say something.

Ma cut her off with a preemptive glare.

Adelina was a young, less satanic version of my mother. She looked almost exactly like her. Except, she inherited my dad's "tall gene". Fourteen years old and an inch taller than me. Taller than her sixteen-almost-seventeen year old brother. I had decided I was moving to Japan when I was older to live amongst all the other people of small stature.

"And well... Seeing as how I'm going into my last year of high school, this would be my last chance to join the program..." I said when I realized she wouldn't respond until I added onto my comment.

"Yes... Where did you want to go again?" She asked with raised eyebrow. I tried my hardest not to roll my eyes. Ma knew exactly where I wanted to go. We had plenty of talks about it before. I hated how she'd always play stupid when she didn't want to talk about what was going on. I didn't say this, of course, in fear that she'd "bust a cap in my ass" as they often said on MTV.

"The States," I said anyway, just to please her. That's how it was with my mom. If she wasn't pleased, you weren't pleased. Simple as that.

"No," Ma said and tossed her hair over her shoulder before grabbing her fork again.

"Ma! Honestly, I'm not twelve," I said, acting as if I took no notice to the tone in her voice. "It's not like I'm going to be unsupervised." It was rare for my sister or me to even dare contradict my mother (especially while she was feeding...), so Adelina and her both looked quite surprised when I did.

She wasn't quite so evil until I daringly "came out of the closet" two years ago. Ever since then, she had been sheltering me... Like it was the world's fault her only son was committing such a blasphemous crime.

"I said no," Ma repeated, narrowing her eyes as if challenging me to push the subject.

"Come on, Ma... Please? It's only for a year."

"No."

"I'll write every two weeks."

"No."

"Every week?"

"No. Damn it, Anthony! I'm not going to let you go to America. Now eat."

"Why can't you treat my like an adult for once?" I glared down at my plate before shoving it roughly aside and causing potatoes to spill onto the table, feeling the need to cause an inanimate object serious pain. Looking back on it, it wasn't exactly the most adult act I had ever done but, dammit, I was pissed.

What's the worst that could happen in America? Why couldn't she just trust me? I'd be living with a responsible family for a year, attending school, and learning about a whole different culture... that basically fed off of sex and drugs.

She slammed her fork back down against her plate again and glared, causing me to shift in my seat uneasily (I swear I saw sparks falling from the tips of her hair).

"You want to be treated as an adult?" She demanded, her voice eerily calm and her brown eye twitching insanely.

I just sat there in silence until she, somehow, managed to glare ever colder. I could tell she was expecting an answer.

"Yes," I said, not sounding very adult-like whilst doing so.

"Fine. You can go. I will expect a phone call every week. " She said, her voice dripping with malice as she grabbed her plate. Ma looked back up at me before adding "Now eat."

I nodded and pulled my own plate back toward me before taking a bite of potatoes. For some reason, I wasn't very happy about going anymore... Ma always had a way of making people feel guilty when they did nothing.

But, of course...

My mother was Satan.