Disclaimer: I still own nothing.

The poker game was being held in an abandoned warehouse in Manhattan just across the Brooklyn Bridge. Newsies had been leaving Brooklyn to arrive at the game for several hours. Sparks had decided to wait for Owl who was forced to wait for Spot to finish up so business with Flips. As a result, the four of them were walking to the game together in an awkward group. The moment they walked through the door, Owl was overwhelmed with the amount of newsies in front of her. The only time she had seen that many newsies was at the rally at Medda's during the strike. Owl turned to Sparks only to find that she had already made a mad dash to the closest poker table.

On her other side, Spot put his arm around her shoulders, making it blatantly obvious to every newsie in the building that she was his property. Owl was torn; part of her was proud that Spot Conlon wanted the world to know they were together while another part chaffed against his misogynist attitude. For the moment, she ignored it as he led her to greet the other leaders.

Victor, the leader of the Bronx newsies and her older brother, smiled widely when he saw Owl. He opened his arms and swept her up in a hug, "Little sis!" She gave him a grateful kiss on the cheek when he set up back down.

Cowboy nodded at her, "Good to see you settling in."

Spot sat down and pulled Owl into his lap possessively as he began to talk shop with Jack and the leader of Queens, a young man by the name of Chance. Owl turned to her brother, "How's Amber?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Fine. Don't got many friends but at least my girls ain't plotting to jump her."

She blushed sheepishly. "I tried to talk them out of it but she did hurt a lot of people. You can't blame them for hating her."

Owl was distracted from his response by a commotion that was starting at one of the poker tables. She instantly recognized Sparks' voice among the raising voices and glanced apologetically at Spot, conscious of the fact that if she hadn't made him allow the girls to come, this wouldn't be happening. "I'll handle it," she said as she stood up from his lap.

Spot shook his head warily. "She's my newsie, I got it."

He made his way to the table and Owl followed close behind. As they got closer she recognized another newsie who was involved, Racetrack. He and Sparks were screaming at another newsie who Owl didn't recognize.

"Sparks," Spot barked, his eyes narrowing menacingly. "What are you doing?"

Sparks' eyes bounced back and forth between Owl and Spot. Owl nodded her head in Spot's direction indicated to Sparks that she should answer. "This kid accused Racetrack of stacking the deck," Sparks said angrily.

No one took poker more seriously than those two. Owl resisted the urge to smack Sparks for causing a commotion for that as Spot shook his head. "Owl, take her to another table."

Sparks glanced at Owl who held out her hand. With a scowl she took it and they walked to an empty table and sat. Owl knew that it would take her a moment to calm down and she bit her nail absently as she waited. After a moment, Sparks spoke softly, "You know, since you started dating Spot, you listen to him a lot more than you used to."

Owl's eyebrows arched suspiciously. "What?"

"You used to challenge him all the time," she said with a roll of her eyes.

A laugh floated from Owl's mouth before she could stop it. "Because he made stupid decisions," she joked.

"He still makes stupid decisions."

"Like stopping your fight?"

A slow smile spread across Sparks' face, "Fine, he makes one or two good calls."

Owl laughed, "I'm glad you think so." She knew this was stemming from Sparks' feelings of neglect. She sighed, "I just don't want to fight with him all the time. But I do think some of the things he does is stupid."

"Oh?" she asked curiously. Owl never spoke about her problems with Spot, not since they officially started dating.

"The way he is so overprotective of us girls. He seems to think none of us can take care of ourselves. It drives me crazy."

Sparks shrugged. "I've just never known him not to be like that."

"When I was in the Bronx, none of the girls had selling partners. Did you know I could make almost twice as much selling alone? And with a regular selling spot? Not just selling where today's partner does."

She scoffed. "You know that's never going to happen in Brooklyn."

Owl nodded, "I know."

They were interrupted from further conversation by the arrival of two newsies they had never met. It was instantly apparent that they were brothers. The taller of the two had a rusty red hair nearly shaved down to his skull. He had dancing green eyes and a smirk was playing on his face. The other one was the more attractive of the two. He had a mop of dark brown hair arching sexily in every direction. His eyes were a deep sultry green with long full lashes. He gave Owl a smile that sent shivers of anticipation through her veins.

"What are two beautiful lasses like yourselves doing here?" the taller of the two asked in a thick Irish accent as he sat in the seat next to Sparks.

Owl resisted the urge to look at Sparks, knowing that she would burst into childish girly giggles if she did. Instead she smiled as the shorter man spoke. "Ignore him, he don't know how to talk to girls." He slide into the empty chair next to Owl.

She nodded slowly. She had never seen a more beautiful man in her life. She didn't even think men could be beautiful but this one was. "I kinda got that impression," she said lamely. She heard Sparks snickering next to her and elbowed her. "Who are you?"

The short one spit in his hand and held in out in typical newsie fashion, "Me name's Sean. This here is me brother Patrick."

Owl reciprocated the handshake and introduced herself. After a second nudge Sparks spoke, "I'm Sparks. You all ain't Irish by chance?" she asked with a grin. Owl knew for a fact that Sparks was just dying to meet the Irish man of her dreams.

The two brothers chuckled and Owl was shocked by how attractive Sean looked when he was laughed. Most people looked like complete idiots when laughing. "We have a wee bit o' Irish on me mother's side," Patrick joked with a wink at Sparks. It was obvious to everyone that they were as Irish as they came.

Sparks seemed to melt under his smile and giggled. "I'm Irish," she offered.

Owl rolled her eyes and poked playfully at her friend. "They couldn't tell from your freckles or flaming red hair." Sparks blushed prettily while the two boys chuckled again.

Sean smiled at Owl, "What about you, lass?"

Drawn into his charming emerald green eyes, it took her a moment to realize that he had asked her a question. "Me?" Owl squeaked, earning a sharp jab in the side from Sparks.

He laughed pleasantly, as if he was used to girls falling to pieces around him. With his looks, Owl reasoned, he probably was. "You aren't Irish," he said.

She shook her head. "No. My mother was Hungarian."

"And your father?" he asked with his charming Irish voice. He put his arm against the table and leaned against it and Owl was shocked at how toned and muscled his bicept was. She shook herself mentally. Spot, her boyfriend, had amazing muscles as well, she reminded herself.

"Never knew him," she said, answering his question.

"I'm sorry, dear. That must have been hard for you," he said as he looked deep into her eyes. Owl was drawn once again into his eyes, marveling at how green they were. She had never seen anything like it.

After a moment, Owl realized how crazy she must be, staring at a man she just met. She cleared her throat nervously. "I had my brother."

Sean nodded in understanding. "After me parent's died, me brother was all I had." Owl glanced over and saw that Sparks was deep in conversation with Patrick. Maybe he would turn out to be the man Sparks had been waiting for.

"So you two are newsies?" Owl asked curiously. She assumed that they would be considering where they were but one never knew.

He nodded. "We just joined with Manhattan."

"Oh? Why not Brooklyn? That's where most Irish go." Everyone knew Spot was Irish and Irish newsies generally went with him. Vic was Hungarian and most _ newsies went to the Bronx. It was just how it was and was probably how it always would be.

His eyes lit up, "Is that where you are?" Owl nodded with a smile. "We thought about it but we heard some things about Spot Conlon that changed our minds."

"Did you hear that he hated _ stealing his girl?" a steely cold voice said from behind them.

The blood and color drained from Owl's face as she turned and saw Spot glaring behind them. He refused to look at her, instead focusing all of the hate and malice in his glare on Sean. Owl opened her mouth but didn't know what to say. Sparks saved her by saying, "Spot, this is Sean and Patrick. They're from Manhattan. Sean, Patrick, this is Spot Conlon."

An evil smile crossed his face. "I'm the leader of Brooklyn." He glanced at Owl and the flash of jealousy was so intense that she couldn't help but look down, ashamed. "I'm also the one fucking Owl."

"Spot!" Owl exclaimed as she looked up in horror, her face flaming bright crimson in embarrassment. Hot salty tears sprang to her eyes and it took all of her willpower to keep them from falling down her cheeks. Never in her life had she been so embarrassed. She glanced at Sparks whose mouth had fallen open in shock.

Sean stood and smiled hardly. "I didn't mean to poach your girl. I was just introducing meself. She looked lonely sitting here all alone."

It was a challenge and everyone within hearing distance knew it. Spot's icy glare ran up and down Sean, sizing him up. Owl bit her lip and noticed to her great relief that Flips was standing behind Spot. Hopefully he would be able to calm Spot down. She glanced back at Spot and saw he was gripping his cane so hard his knuckles were turning white. She put her hand on him in an attempt to calm him but he angrily pulled his arm from her grasp. "Owl, go say hi to your brother. He misses you. Sparks, make sure she doesn't get sidetracked on the way there."

As much as Owl wanted to protest, the only time she had ever seen Spot this angry was when Bliss had hurt her. She opened her mouth but one glance at Flips' ashen face convinced her not to. Sparks, terrified, grabbed her hand, "Come on, let's go."

They quickly made their way over to Vic, very well aware of the fact that nearly every newsie in the place was subtly watching the drama unfolding. With all of the eyes on her, Owl was too scared to cry or even open her mouth to say anything to Sparks.

When they reached his table, Vic shook his head, "You really messed up, Mariska."

Owl sighed and wondered just how badly she had messed up and if she would be able to fix it.