Author's Note: Okay, here it goes...the first FanFic I have attempted in months. Sure, I have a few stories in the making, but this is the first one that has really made it out of my head in such a long time! This is actually the first one-shot I have ever done and is the product of me feeling extremely melancholy, sitting down in front of the computer and typing away! Yes it is depressing, yes it is short and yes there are many grammatical errors (I am doing this on WordPad, gimme a break!). Anywho, hope you enjoy! Oh, and I realize no newsie is really mentioned, so use your imagination! Read, review and enjoy!

Carryin' the Banner!

Sweet Tart

Disclaimer: I own no Newsie (sadly) and the name of the fic is a nod to the Aerosmith song for my own personal motivations. Don't sue me!

She loved everything about him; the way his hands seemed to dance as he told a story, the way his mouth twisted into that crooked, mischievious grin every time he got one of his crazy half-baked schemes...she especially loved the way he looked at her; his deep, soulful eyes revealing to her his every wish, his every dream yet hiding behind them a thousands secrets and tiny wounds. She thought that she could save him. She knew he loved her back, in his own little way, and she'd stand by him, despite his faults...

The way he hit the bottle; taking solace in the feeling of the cold drink sliding down his throat. Gone all night, sometimes gone for days; she'd lie awake, holding a candle in her hand and looking forlornly out the window, counting down the minutes 'til he'd be back in her arms. She'd make little promises to herself, little lies...this time he'd quit, this time he'd be back for good...but the drink was ruining him from the inside out, dragging him down, down, down...

The nights he spent in prison, the nights he spent in the arms of some nameless girl with crimson lips and wide-spread legs, the nights where he'd drink until the face of the woman he loved; her sad, pleading eyes, pleading for him to come back to her; would disappear into the night like faint smoke from his cigarette.

He wished that she would leave him. She deserved better and he knew it. He hated hurting her, he hated dragging her down with him, but it became a compulsion, an addiction. He couldn't stop. He couldn't bear to hurt her, couldn't bear to lose her, to set her free. And she couldn't bear to leave him; because in her mind, he was still the man she fell in love with.

He was still the man who held her close, whispering in her ear as they swayed in time to some sweet, non-existent music; a breeze of autumn wind swaying with them, rustling through the trees and wrapping itself around the couple in a promise of a million happy nights like this one. She knew that deep down, somewhere far beyond the tight grip of a shattered past and a broken future was the man she loved, the one who gently caressed her face and softly kissed her lips, the one that looked her in the eye and promised himself, his body, heart and soul, to her.

He would always be that man in her eyes and she would always love him. Even if it destroyed her.

And that's all she wrote! See, quick and painless! Feeling generous? Review!