Spot Conlon had been having a bad day.
He'd had to quell another potential uprising among his ranks, he'd gotten involved in three different physical altercations – coming out the victor in all of them, though, thank you very much – and become the unofficial referee for three more, and he'd barely made a penny. Not exactly the best day ever.
He had several methods of dealing with stress. Sometimes he'd go to the nearest pub and get good and smashed. Sometimes he'd find an abandoned building and see how many windows he could destroy with his slingshot before the bulls told him to knock if off. Occasionally he would go swimming, or go for a run that would only end when he felt ready to collapse.
But he wasn't sure any of those methods would work today.
Today was going to require something a little stronger.
It was for this reason that Spot was now climbing up the fire escape of the Jacobs' apartment building. David would be home from school by now, probably doing his homework. Perfect.
As Spot reached the window, he glanced inside and saw David sprawled on his bed, looking less than enthralled with the book lying open in front of him. After a couple of seconds, Spot rapped gently on the window pane.
David jumped, startled for a moment, before realizing it was Spot. At this, his face broke into a crooked grin that made Spot smile for the first time that day. The Brooklyn boy tapped his hands against his thighs impatiently as David rose, crossed the room, and opened the window. "Hey."
Spot climbed through the window without saying a word and flopped down onto David's bed. At one time this would probably have seemed rude, but after three months of dating, David knew Spot's behavior too well to misinterpret his actions. "Rough day?"
The blond nodded silently. David promptly sat down on the bed beside him and wrapped an arm around Spot's shoulders. Spot instantly leaned into him, wrapping both his arms around David's waist and resting his face in the crook of the brunet's neck.
"Want to talk about it?" David asked gently.
"No." Spot tightened his embrace and maneuvered himself so that he was practically sitting on David's lap. He felt David's arms around him, rubbing small circles on his back in a way that always made Spot relax. Slowly Spot's muscles began to relax, as he concentrated on David's hands on his back and the way he could feel David's steady pulse.
He realized that David was in a rather uncomfortable position, so he shifted until they were both more or less lying down, Spot curled into David's chest with his face buried in David's shirt. One of David's hands began to gently card through Spot's hair, while his other remained on the blond's back. Spot smiled a little and nestled closer to David.
They stayed like that for a long time, neither of them saying much. David briefly talked about how school had gone that day, and his voice, as always, had an extremely calming effect on Spot, but for the most part they just lay there in silence, enjoying each other's company and the feeling of, just for a little while, being completely isolated from the rest of the world.
Gradually Spot became drowsy, and as he drifted off into a peaceful doze, he idly wondered – not for the first time – what would happened if word got out that the leader of the Brooklyn newsies liked nothing better than a good cuddle.
