"Ew! This stuff is gross!"

Roars of laughter erupted from behind Midnight. She glanced over her shoulder to see a bunch of boys crowded around little Shrimp, who had her nose crinkled in a rather disgusted manner. Midnight had to chuckle; the small girl was holding a glass of beer in her hand. She was about to turn back around when another voice blared over the others.

"Shrimp! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" yelled the girl in question's older sister.

"Gin! They promised to give me a quarter if I took a sip of it!" she whined. Gin glared at the boys around them, some of whom were still holding in their giggles, and pulled her sibling aside. Midnight watched intently from where she was sitting on a small armchair in the lodging house living room.

"Shrimp, it's not worth the quarter," she said, kneeling down in front of the little girl so she was at eye level. "Beer is not a good thing."

"Yeah, and it tastes disgusting too."

Gin smiled slightly. "I'm glad you think so, but that's not quite it. Alcohol can turn normally good people into very bad people."

"But I only had a sip!" protested Shrimp.

"I don't care. You have any more sips and I'll make sure you really regret it, understand?" The little girl nodded, and Gin stood up. "Good. Now why don't you go find Les and beat him at a game of jacks."

Gin glanced up and looked around. Her eyes caught Midnight's for a moment, and they stared at each other. A certain understanding passed between them, and Midnight smiled kindly. Gin returned the gesture and walked away.

Midnight understood now; Gin had to suffer through her parents' deaths, but still had to be strong for her little sister. She had to be a sister, a mother, and a father for her. It had to get hard to be all three, and so it was probably a good thing Gin had Flirt. Someone had to be Gin's big sister. Midnight looked down at the glass of weak beer she held in her hand; it seamed less appealing now- tainted, almost. She set it down on the coffee table next to her.

"What, so you're too cool for this party that you wont even drink the beverages I provided?" Midnight looked up, and sure enough, the hostess of their little soiree walked up and sat down next to her. "It's your party! Why are you just sitting here?" Pink asked her.

"It's not my party, remember? It's Blink's." She gestured over to where Blink was talking and laughing with a few other newsies. He was wearing a rather obnoxious pink paper tiara.

"But we had the party for you, remember? Come on, come mingle with me." She grabbed her friend's wrist and attempted to pull her up from where she was sitting. Midnight stayed seated, and she became acutely aware of someone watching her. She scanned the room quickly as Pink rambled on. There, in the corner, listening to his girlfriend ramble on with about the same level of concentration as Midnight currently held for her friend, was Skittery.

Of course. Who else would it be?

He stood there, leaning against the wall and holding Abigail's hand. His eyes were glazed over as though he was deep in thought, but he blinked back into reality when he felt Midnight looking back at him. Suddenly, everyone else in the room was gone, and she saw only him. He nodded at her slowly, acknowledging her. She nodded back at him, and her heart was pounding in her chest.

Then, just as suddenly as it had been built up, the wall that they had created around themselves came tumbling down. Skittery broke eye contact with her and looked down at his girlfriend, who was acutely aware of who he was looking at. Abigail glared at Midnight and stormed out of the room. Skittery glanced back and forth between the two of them and sighed, running after Abigail.

"…Midnight? Are you coming or not?" She looked back up at her blonde friend, letting her brain catch up for a second. Taking a quick sip of her beer first, she nodded and stood up, following her friend around the room.

She smiled politely at her friends, and listened to Pink socialize, but wasn't really listening. Why was he looking at me? she wondered. She had just assumed that Abigail and Skittery were all patched up, and that he wouldn't need to defend himself against accusations of cheating. Which was, without a doubt, exactly what he would be doing at this very moment. Swearing to her that he never was with me. Even after the fact, it was hard to be the 'other woman.'

She was standing there with Pink, Swifty and Kid Blink when a strange cry exploded from a nearby room. Everyone fell silent; it was hard to tell if that cry had been human or otherwise. A series of doors slammed, and then, a fury of red hair (one that Midnight had become especially used to seeing) appeared in the room and seamed to be making a beeline for their group. Midnight had hardly even realized that this redheaded person was Abigail and that she was coming towards her when Abigail struck out at her. Being the true girl that she was, Abigail grabbed for Midnight's hair, pulling her to the floor and screaming obscenities at her.

"You dirty little whore! How could you?!" she screamed, accenting her anger by banging her foe's head on the ground at every punctuation mark. Midnight regained enough of her composure to draw back and aim a fist in the general direction of Abigail's head. She had meant to strike her jaw, but instead she felt that bone-crushing contact at her opponent's nose. Abigail was off of her in an instant.

Midnight sat up and watched as Skittery picked up Abigail and stood her up, getting some of the blood that was gushing out of her nose on his shirt. "Get out, Abigail," he told her calmly. He stood there straight, waiting for her to catch up to what was going on.

"You'll regret this. I'll make sure you do," she swore as she walked out, clutching her hand to her nose.

Everyone in the room stood there and watched her leave. No one spoke, and no one was quite as stationary as Midnight was. Skittery took her hand and helped her up, motioning with his head to follow him to the roof. No words were spoken, and Midnight followed, dumbstruck.

--

"What was all that?" Midnight finally found her voice.

Skittery sighed. They were up on the roof, and neither had said anything for a few minutes. They just stood there, looking in their respective directions- Skittery at the floor, and Midnight at Skittery.

"I told her. I told her everything."

"Everything." Midnight repeated the word, as though she didn't understand what it meant.

"Everything. You, me, New Years, the alley, Valentines, Swifty… Everything." He looked up at her, almost reproachfully. "And I told her that I wouldn't be seeing her anymore."

"So, you… you want- er, you chose… or rather, you didn't want…" Midnight stumbled, still processing the information.

Skittery finished the thought for her. "I want you," he said, taking her hands. "I chose you."

And with that, he kissed her. But it wasn't the same sort of kiss that she usually got from him. Instead of being fueled by lust and mad with passion, this kiss was tender and short. A peck, rather, as Skittery stroked her cheek with her thumb. And it was one of the single happiest moments of her life.