New York Royalty
By: PrinceOfNewYork
Chapter Sixteen: Talk
Summary: In the world people are viewed in several different ways. Some are leaders, some are followers, some are somewhere in the middle, and some just get power through possessions. The concept of royalty can take on more than just one form.
Disclaimer: Most of these guys are mine, except for the few that ain't. And, if ya don't know which ones those are then you better go watch Newsies again.
A/N: Alright, this is my first shot at a Newsie fic, but I've been messin' with this character for over a year now, and it's about time she had her story put down (before I completely forget it all!) Thanks a bunch to all of ya who read this! Also, thanks again to Ambrlupin for loaning Red to me! She played a HUGE part in helping me with this chapter (namely, she helped me write it!) so I think her a ton for loaining mer her character. Also to all of you reviewers out there, thank you for reading this story! I hope you keep readin' because it's only gonna get better! Now... enjoy the chapter!
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Avalanche sighed. There was only one thing keeping him from the front door, and that was, "Prince… I'll be back, dun worry!"
"At least tell me where ya goin'?"
Avalanche sighed again. "Brooklyn. I'm goin' ta Brooklyn, okay?"
"Why?" Prince asked standing up straight, and putting her guard down.
Avalanche smiled. "I'll tell ya when ya oldah."
Prince got an irritated look on her face. "Come on Avie, jus tell me, or I ain' movin'."
Avalanche walked forward. He came down slightly just to her eye level. "It's leadah business, an' yes you are movin'."
"No, I ain't –AVALANCHE!" Prince screamed as she was suddenly lifted off of her feet.
"You're bein' childish," he said as he carred her over to a chair and sat her down. "Now look, I gotta go ta Brooklyn an' have a woid with Red. I won't be gone long but while I am gone, Dash is in charge. And if he has ta leave… you're in charge."
Prince liked the sound of that. She nodded. "Deal."
Avalanche nodded in return. "Good. Den I'll be back latah." He turned away from her, and smiled. "See ya latah!" he called before he walked out the door.
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Brooklyn was mostly quiet, which was new. Usually it was bursting at the seams, loud and annoying to those who weren't used to it. Then again, Brooklyn also had a way of surprising a person, which made it not so odd after all. Avalanche was slowly approaching the lodging house. He looked up at the door, an unreadable look on his face. He walked up the stairs and knocked. He never found it polite to just burst into someone else's lodging house.
The door opened just a bit and a laugh was heard as the door was flung open. "Snowball!"
"Evenin' Red-head," Avalanche said with a smirk to his friend. "How ya been?" he said. He hadn't seen Red in a while... he'd missed him. And it seemed to Avalanche that something was different, or missing, he wasn't sure which.
"Im alive." Red grinned wryly, gesturing inside. "Come on in. What about you? Still rollin' along?"
"Same as usual," he said with a smile. Always with Red and the 'Snowball' jokes. "And what, if I may ask, is happenin' in da lovely city of Brooklyn dis evenin'?" he said gazing around the lodging house with a curious eye, and the ever cat-like smirk. It seemed oddly empty for such a usually rowdy lodging house.
"I kicked everyone out." The Brooklynite smirked as he shut the door and plopped up on a tall chair, "It aint healthy to crowd me. I tend to start knockin heads togethah."
"Ain't it the truth? Felt a little stir crazy myself... got lost in Queens, so I came to Brooklyn," he said with a smirk, making an obscure reference to Prince.
"Kinda like dat...little goil I sent you. Cept it was da uddah way round." He regarded the other with half-veiled eyes of emerald. "How she doin?"
Avalanche raised his eyebrows in slight surprise. Apparently, Red didn't forget much. He took his hat and coat off and put them on the back of a chair he was going to sit in. "She's doin' alright... she's still alive. Half froze when I found her though..." he shrugged a little. "And she's stubborn as a mule," he said more to himself than to Red.
"Hm." Red snickered, "Sounds a bit like someone I know," he brushed a strand of his crimson hair from his face, grinning.
"Speakin' of you," Avalanche said with a smirk as he crossed his arms, "how is dat little Spot kid? I ain't seen him in ages... he comin' along alright?" After that Avalanche seemed to get deeply interested in his finger nails.
"My replacement?" He raised an eyebrow, a proud smile drifting across his face. "My son? ...He's doin alright, bettah den alright." He grinned a bit and spread his arms. "Notice anythin missin?"
Avalanche nodded absent mindedly before he looked up from his hand, and finger nails which had had all of his attention. He looked a bit bewildered until he figured out what the Red-head had just said. "Oh, heh, sorry..." he looked him up and down once. "What, you dye ya hair again or somethin'?" he asked with a straight face, though it was a joke, but it was hard to tell.
Red shook his head, "And you are a leadah, how, again?" He snorted, "I give your observational skills a 'sorely lacking' rating." Honestly. There were only three things Red always had on him. His cane, his slingshot and his...
Avalanche only laughed. "You mean dat hunk a metal that you always had around your neck? The key... yeah, foist think I noticed when you answered the door."
Rolling his eyes, the leader of Brooklyn chuckled. "Gave it to da kid the othah day. He doesn't understand what it means yet, though." He felt a little weird without the constant weight around his neck, and his hand brushed against the cane at his side absently.
"I take it he ain't takin' ovah for ya yet though, is he? He's a bit young. Though I suppose a key ain't much, less ya from Brooklyn, and ya know what it opens," he said with a small shrug. "But soon I assume..." he said nodding. He had no doubt that Red knew better than He did when Spot would be ready to lead.
"Naw, not yet. Alex, you know I wouldn't just up and leave a kid in charge." He shook his head, "In a while, maybe." Oh who was he kidding. "Soon. Spot'll be a good leadah, da best Brooks has evah seen." A small smirk split his face. "Bettah den me."
Now he had Avalanche's attention. "Bettah den youse? I'd like ta see a leadah dat could top youse Red-head," he said with a smirk. He leaned forward slightly. "But I'll take ya woid for it. Dis Spot kid must be somethin' real special."
Red waved him off, "I ain't dat special, Snowball." His face grew serious, and he sighed. "Dere's just one thing im worried about." He pursed his lips, playing with the golden tip of his cane.
Avalanche saw the serious look on Red's face and thought that he ought to join him in the serious conversation. "What's dat?" Avalanche asked with a slight nod to his head.
"What happens when I don't come back." He licked his dry cracked lips.
"What, you ain't nevah comin' back?" he asked. He couldn't help but laugh a little as a smile broke his serious face. "Sorry, I find it hard ta believe that youse could leave Brooklyn, let alone New York forevah... no mattah what the coicomstances were. B'sides, youse got pleanty of people ta watch ovah dat Spot kid if somethin' were ta go wrong. Jus' b'cause we ain't... uh... Brooklynites like yaself dun mean we dun mean we dun care about youse, or about what happens heah," Avalanche reminded him. "You trust me, everythin'll be jus fine."
Slipping off the stool, Red paced a bit. "I dunno, Alex. I might not be comin back." He paused, his back to the other. "...And it means a lot to me that you guys would keep track of Spot foah me." He smiled a bit, "He is like a son to me, and I don't want him to do it alone." All of a sudden the smile was gone. "Alex...There's something I've kept from you," Red said quietly.
This came as no surprise to the Queens leader. His expression didn't change from the neutral one he often had with a slight smile. Avalanche had kept a few things from people too... it wasn't uncommon for a newsie. "You wanna tell me what it is?" he asked quietly. And as always, Avalanche accepted a no in this situation.
Red licked his lips as he turned to look at him, taking a deep breath. "I'm sick, Alex." He bit at his lip, "That's the truth right there, why I'm pushin Spot at such a young age. I'm sick."
Avalanche's first impulse was to ask him if he had a cold, but the look in Red's eyes told him it was much worse than just some common cold. "With what?" And to think he'd come here for a completely different reason... but he was going to listen.
"Viral pneumonia." His voice was soft, "Easy to keep from my kids, all I have to do is send them out foah a few hours." He sighed, pacing a bit. "But I wanted to tell you."
"Wull I'm glad ya did," he said nodding slightly. Though Avalanche was worried for his friend now, he kept his usually optimistic out look on life, as he had since he was a kid. "Guess you'll just hafta get better," he said with a shrug. "I ain't seen nothin' yet dat can beat you Red," he said with a smirk. "An' I find it hard ta believe dat somethin' like dis could stop ya."
Red laughed, he couldn't help it. "I nevah said it would, Snowy!" He shook his head with a grin, "I nevah said it would...I just wanted to let you guys know that if you mess up while I'm gone, I'm gonna soak all a ya with in an inch of ya lives, and roll you down a hill." His lips betrayed him and he smirked. He could just see it now.
"How did I know dis name was gonna come back ta haunt me someday?" he said with a sigh. He laughed just the same a long with his friend. "But we'll keep a close eye on Brooklyn for a while, promise. Okay?"
Red turned and held out his hand to the other. "Promise me, Alex. This borough is my life."
Avalanche nodded and took Red's hand. "Swear," he said shaking it firmly.
A smirk slid across his face. "Well then..." He let the other's hand go and skipped around to his bar. "Care for a drink, oh wintery one?"
Avalanche chuckled. "No, that's alright," he said shaking his head slightly. "I'll be fine..." he said turning him down and relaxing on the stool once again.
"Suit yourself." He got himself a drink and leaned against the counter. "So...why did you come ovah heah, Lanche?"
"Talk," he said simply. This was true, but there were specific topics in mind. And Avalanche could appear to be a terrible liar when he wanted, to, and right now... he was the worst liar in all of New York.
"Ahuh." Red raised an eyebrow. "And...we would be talking and discussing topics such as...?"
"Last wintah," he said finally hitting the topic he'd come for. "That goil... the one you said you remembered comin' by... she's da topic," he said.
Red took a sip of the drink, "You didn't fall in love with her, didja, Alex?" he asked seriously, although he was smirking like mad, his tone teasing.
"What? No! She's thoiteen! Me fallin' in love wit' her... no," he shook his head. "I was curious... what all ya knew 'bout 'er," he said.
Red frowned a bit, "Me know bout her?" He tapped his fingers on the table top. "Well, not much. I knew she came from 'hattan, was apparently lost -you have no idea how long it took to get that out of her- and I sent her on to you. Why?"
"Curious," he said honestly. And this was the time that Avalanche was the best liar in New York. "See, we cain't get much outta her concoinin' her past, but she seems ta want ta hide da fact dat she's a goil... for some reason," he shrugged. "But I've been tellin' da leadah's dat she's a goil... so dat if she's evah in trouble you'll know a head a time. I'm kinda keepin' my eye on dis goil. She's different. Wanted ta warn ya dat if ya evah see a boy dat looks like a goil from Queens... it's a strong possibility it's her. She goes by Prince now."
Red raised an eyebrow, nodding. Leader business was something he took seriously, and this was pretty much leader business. "I heah ya, and i'll keep an eye on her foah ya too, when I can spare one from Spottie." He regarded his friend with a small smile. "Prince, eh? ...Prince of New York?"
"Well we couldn't exactly call her King," he said with a smirk. "And I appreciate it. Goil's a bit noivos when she ain't around me, so she's around me a lot," he explained. "So I appreciate any help ya give me."
He was quiet for a second, considering something. Finally he said, "I think I'll take dat drink now."
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And thus ends this monday's chapter! I truely hoped you enjoyed it. And if you'd like to know more about Red and Spot relationship I suggest you look into Ambrlupin's "For Brooklyn." It's a hit! Anyway, see ya friday!