Chapter title: Interlude: War Declared
Notes: You can blame misprint for this pairing. The utterly adorable fencing scene in "It Just Won't Quit" made me fall in love with the idea of this pairing. So, yeah, it's all misprint's fault.
I have an inexplicable fondness for Jake.
This interlude is not connected in any way to the "world" of the previous sketch. I'll clear this up ahead of time: each of the interludes will be connected to each other, like real chapters usually are, lol. None of the sketches are related to each other, though. And none of them relate to each other. Wow, that just makes it more confusing. I won't even go into my convoluted reasoning for the way I set things up. Yowser.
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"Hey, you! Come back here. Thief!"
It was his now. No one could take it from him.
"Skittery."
Clutching the precious burden to his chest, he ran quickly through the streets.
"Skittery."
The sound of footsteps behind him got closer.
"Skittery!"
"Give back the chocolate, boy!"
A hand clutched at his shoulder.
"Aaaah!" He bolted up in bed. "I didn't do it!"
Someone-- probably Race-- snickered. "Keep tellin' us that, Skitts. Maybe someday we'll believe you." Skittery blinked and glared sleepily in the direction the voice had come from. Beside him, Kloppman snorted and moved away from his bunk, poking awake the few boys who were still sleeping. "Jack, you owe me now." Yep, it was Race all right.
"Why's that, Racetrack?" Jack looked up from washing his face. Water dripped off his nose.
"I bet you a nickel he'd say that three days in a row. That was number three, so pay up."
"Damn, I forgot. I'll pay you after I sell my papes."
Skittery groaned and rolled out of bed. "You guys are bettin' on me?" He stumbled over to wash up, grabbing a towel. "Don't you have better stuff to do? Or am I just that wonderful?" He ducked the towel Jack threw at him.
"About as wonderful as sellin' in Spot's territory is!" shouted Jake from across the room. Most of the room burst out with laughter and hollers; Itey fell off his bunk, clutching his sides. Skittery glanced around and spotted the towel Jack had thrown at him crumpled on the floor. He grabbed it and tossed, but it unfolded and drifted to the floor before reaching Jake.
Race chuckled. "We can't help you're so damn predictable. If I was bettin' on you all the time, instead of horses, I'd be livin' the high life."
"What I want to know," Blink said, reaching around Skittery for a bottle of shaving cream, "is what you're dreaming about." He waggled his eyebrows, leering. "Get caught by some girl's pop or somethin'?"
Grimacing, Skittery shoved Blink. "Nah, it's not like that." He avoided looking towards where he knew Bumlets was getting dressed. He was the only one who knew what Skittery dreamed about and was probably smirking worse than Jack at the Delancey brothers. "Why would I dream about what happens to you all the time?"
"I never get caught!" Blink shoved him back.
"Hey, guys, no need for that," Crutchy spoke up. "It's Valentine's Day, after all. Love and stuff, right?" He gave them both a cheery grin.
"Right, Crutchy. Love and stuff." Blink turned to Skittery, batting his eyelashes. "And I looove Skitts."
Skittery snorted, but couldn't help a grudging smile. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered. He snuck a glance toward Bumlets as he started pulling on his own clothes. The dark-haired bastard was smirking.
It wasn't his fault he had dreams about chocolate. Chocolate was nice. Not as nice as a dark, warm form pressed against his in the back at night, or melting kisses, but that was beside the point. It really was.
He sighed.
It was hard to stay annoyed when he happened to love the guy. And Bumlets knew it.
"Ahem." Skittery looked up, startled, and Race smacked him lightly on the side of the head. "You plannin' on joining us some time?" He gestured to the door. Already, most of the older guys had left, leaving the younger, slower ones to scramble to catch up. Skittery looked at his hands, which held one sock and one shoe.
He flushed when he realized that he had been sitting there, staring at them, his thoughts on Bumlets. "Yeah, I'm comin'," he mumbled quickly, shoving his bare foot into the sock and shoe. Maybe if he hurried he could still get a decent spot in line. He jumped up and strode toward the door, knocking against someone in his rush.
Something was pushed into his palm. It crinkled when he tightened his fist around it, so he loosened his grip and held it up. It looked like just a crumpled bit of paper, but it was smoother and whiter than the rough paper he usually had to mess with. Carefully, he smoothed out the creases.
The paper was cut into a heart. A lopsided heart, but the shape wasn't hard to figure out-- the shop windows were full of them. And something was written on it. The careful pencil lines spelled out "I love you." No other words, not even a name.
Skittery jerked his head up. Bumlets lounged against the doorframe, watching him silently. Everyone else was gone. "You?" he asked, holding up the Valentine. Bumlets grinned. "But I . . . we--"
"I know," Bumlets said. Then he winked and slipped out the door.
Skittery stood, staring after him in shock. He looked down at the crude Valentine again and blinked. They had come to a silent agreement not to bother with this stuff; they didn't have enough money to waste on frilly, pink and red hearts and candy. But Bumlets had done something anyway.
And Skittery hadn't.
For a heavy moment he felt guilty. Then his eyes narrowed. There was no way Bumlets was gonna get away with giving Skittery something and not get anything himself.
In fact, he was going to get his lover something even better. Gently folding the heart, he tucked it into his shirt pocket, then dashed out of the Lodging House, grinning wildly.
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studentnumber24601--You know me too well. I mean NO, I am absolutely not going to do a cute and fuzzy Jack/David scene. *shifty eyes* I'm glad I made you "awww".
Chronicles Bailey--Yay! I'm glad you liked. Hopefully you'll read and like(or at least tolerate) the other chapters. *grins* That was one of my favorite lines to write.
Jinx-- Hehe. Isn't Itey/Snitch adorable? There probably won't be any more in this story, although… *looks thoughtful* But I do believe there is more Itey/Snitch sometime in my future. I'll think of you when I write it, lol.
Thumbsucker Snitch-- Once more, I wish you a happy birthday :) *sends you a singing Snitch-o-gram* Someday…someday I'll do Skitts/Snitch, I believe. Comfort your Skitts!muse with that.
AaronLohrLover24—Thanks! Here's one of the new pairings. Who's next? You'll see… *winks* Enjoy!