Immediately upon leaving the lodging house, Racetrack dropped Blink's hand, completely terrified of exactly what had happened. He kept walking, and Blink followed him, not saying a word. When they finally reached a distance that Racetrack thought was safely far away from the lodging house, he turned to Blink.

"So," he said flatly, trying to contain the conflicting emotions he was feeling. "We should, you know, um," he trailed off, not sure how to say what it was he was feeling.

"You were holding my hand," Blink said, sounding confused. Well. More confused then normal.

"Uh... yeah," Race said. "I didn't mean to. It just seemed to distract her."

Blink made a face. "If you say so," he said. "I mean... I guess. Did it?"

"Well, you were all hypnotized looking until you I did and then you were fine, so..." Race shrugged. "I dunno? Sorry. I won't anymore."

"No, it's okay," Blink said. "I mean, not okay, I mean... I didn't like it," he said. "I didn't mind, though. It's better than being sucked dry by that freak."

"Yeah," Racetrack said. "But at least now we know what will keep her away from us. Just in case, you know, we have to do it again." Racetrack wasn't sure why the prospect of holding Blink's hand again was making his heart beat just a little bit faster. "So," he continued, trying to bring his thoughts back under control. "We should go talk to Spot, and Brooklyn. Mary has taken over the lodging house, and we're going to need help."

Blink nodded. "I don't get it," he said. "She's like... she's so beautiful she's not attractive, she's just creepy. Maybe she's not even human. Maybe she's from another planet."

"I don't think so," Race said.

"Well, she ain't human!" Blink insisted. "Humans don't suck people's guts out or make 'em forget their friends." Blink looked over at Race suddenly, a little nervous. "Uh, Race... if something happens..."

"Blink?"

"You won't forget me, will you? Like Pie forgot Bumlets..."

"'Course not," Race said. "And nothing's gonna happen."

"What are we gonna tell Spot?" Blink asked hesitantly.

"Well, we can't tell him she's from another planet, he'll laugh us outta Brooklyn," Race replied after a moment's thought.

"Then... what are we going to do?" Blink repeated.

Racetrack sighed. How had he gotten stuck being the brains of the operation? "We go back in," he said finally. "And we watch her. We know how to stop her, so we can keep her from hurting any of the others."

"You mean we gotta hold hands with the other guys if she starts in on 'em?" Blink asked. "'Cause... I mean, it's one thing with you an' all, but, uh, the other guys... They maybe ain't so understanding."

"Yeah, but we can't let 'em die," Race said. "I mean..."

"Yeah," Blink agreed. "Okay. So let's go in. I'm ready." He took a deep breath. "We'll be okay, right?"

"Yeah," Race said, as they walked in. and in the front room, there was a card game going on. Mary was dealing, with Specs, Dutchy, Jack, and Skittery playing.

"Hello, boys," Mary Sue said, smiling brightly, the slight point to her teeth being the only thing that upset her otherwise perfect smile. "Why don't you join us? The other boys have been telling me how much you love cards."

"She's as good as you are, Race," Skittery said glumly. "Princess here's been cleaning us out all night. I mean, I don't mind or nothin'." He shot her a quick smile, which became wider at her beam of approval.

Racetrack glared at her. There was no way this girl could beat him at cards. "Deal me in," he said firmly.

This was a matter of honor, after all.

Race sat down and cracked his knuckles. He watched her deal the cards, and had to admit that she seemed to know what she was doing. She didn't look down at her hands the whole time, just have him that steady, irritating smile. And every time he almost started to think the smile was just a little bit pretty, he looked over at Blink.

Blink smiled back at him encouraging, and he snapped out of it. Every time. So, as the hand really began, he was feeling a bit better. And his cards... Well, they weren't great, but they weren't bad. He could work with them.

Racetrack did his best to keep himself from showing any emotion. He knew that he had a good poker face, one of the best. It made him excellent at bluffing, and adding that to the amount of cheating that he did, it was why he was so good at poker.

But still, he had to admit that Mary was pretty good at poker. But there was no way that he would lose to her.

"Gosh, Racetrack," she said demurely, "you sure are good."

"Yes, I know," he answered, and looked smug. Smug enough that he risked a glance directly at her, into her eyes... Her deep, perfect, beautiful blue eyes...

Blink's hand landed on his shoulder, gave it a gentle squeeze. He let out a breath. That was a little better... Yes, definitely.

"You okay?" Blink asked, leaning over to whisper in his ear.

Well. He had been until he felt Blink's breath on his ear. He swallowed hard. "Fine," he mumbled quickly. "Yeah, fine."

"Where'd you learn to play poker, Mary?" Race asked, trying to regain his composure.

Mary teared up, and placed a hand on her forehead. "My mother, you know," she said, her voice filled with emotion. "She took me to live with my uncle, and he spent hours gambling. And then when his debts ran up too high, they wanted me to…" her voice trailed off, and one of the other boys patted her shoulder gently.

"To what?" Blink asked. Race grinned to himself a little bit; Blink's lack of subtlety could be endearing.

"To do horrible things," she said. "I... I can't think about it..."

"You think she's gonna faint again?" Race mumbled.

Blink laughed. "What do you mean, horrible things?"

"Blink!" Jack snapped. "They made her... you know... do things at night."

"Night? When did you sleep then?"

"Blink!" Jack sounded kind of strangled. "That ain't the point. They made her do, you know, those things. That people do. At night."

"Oh." Blink paused, thinking about it. "Oh."

"I thought you were running from your fiance," Racetrack said suspiciously.

Mary Sue pouted demurely. "He was one of... one of..."

Jack glared at Race. "You know, I know you cheat, but this is low, even for you. Just play the damn game."

"Sure," Racetrack smirked. "Call."

He laid his cards down on the table.

Mary smiled and did the same, as did the others. Only she and Racetrack had cards worth looking at, though; Racetrack had a flush with spades, and it included a King. Not a bad hand at all. Mary, however, had a full house; it was all low cards, but still beat his flush. He stared.

"Oh, tough break," she said, and batted her eyelashes.

He chewed on his lip for a moment, before saying, "You cheated."

"I did not! How... How dare you dare you?" Her big eyes glistened with what looked like tears. "After all I've been through..."

"Yeah, Race, how dare you?"

"I'll bet you anything she did," he mumbled. "Come on, deal the cards and I'll prove it."

She smiled winningly at him, and Racetrack felt something, but Blink placed a hand on his shoulder, and he steeled himself against her wiles. He was not going to let her win.

"So your uncle taught you how to play?"

"I... it's too hard to talk about, Racetrack," Mary said, lowering her eyes. "But yes, my brother did teach me how, in between..." her voice caught, and she looked up at Jack for protection.

"What's it matter where she learned to play, huh?" Jack demanded. "She's better than you!"

Racetrack opened his mouth to snarl something, but Mary cut him off. "Oh, don't say that... How could I ever be as good as Racetrack?" She smiled at him again, batting her eyelashes. Her long, gorgeous, thick...

Blink gave Race's shoulder a squeeze again, from where he was sitting at Race's side. Race tried to get himself back under control, but those eyes were just…

Blink ran his finger down the length of Race's arm to his elbow. The world came back into focus. Race shot Blink a grateful look, and Blink winked at him.

Racetrack called again, and this time his cards beat out Mary's, but just barely. He smirked triumphantly. But as Race watched, Mary's cards flickered slightly, and instead of the two pair she had before, it was a full house again.

Racetrack reached for Blink's hand, not even realizing what he was doing, and as soon as he felt the warm, callused hand against his own, the cards flickered back to what they had been. Well that was definitely weird.

"I guess I won this round, Mary," he said.

She actually looked a little surprised herself. "I... I guess you did." She paused, then looked at the other newsies at the table, and sniffled obviously. "My... my fiance, he used to... when I beat him at cards, he'd beat me so badly... I always had to pretend to lose, no matter what."

"Race, you're makin' her feel bad!"

"I am not!" he yelped. "I was just playing cards like always!"

"Ain't what it seems like to me. Why you always gotta be so mean to Princes, huh? Ain't she had it hard enough?"

"All I did was play poker!" Racetrack protested, and Blink squeezed his hand.

"You shouldn't play with us anymore, Race" Dutchy said. "You're just ruining everything."

"What?" Racetrack protested. "I've been playing with you guys for years."

"Well, maybe we don't want to play no more," Specs added, standing up angrily.

To Race's surprise, Blink stood up too, very abruptly. "Fine," he snapped. "Race doesn't want to play with you no more anyways." He yanked Race's arm to pull him up. "Right?"

Race really didn't know what the hell Blink was doing, but he didn't think arguing was a great idea, either. The longer he played cards with Mary, the harder it was getting to keep his head together.

"Uh, yeah!" Race yelled. "Bye!"

Blink dragged him outside, slammed the door behind them, and all the way down the block and into an alley.

"Um, Blink, what's—"

But Blink pushed him against a wall and kissed him.

"Blink!" Race started, pushing Blink away. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"If you don't know, I ain't doing a good job of it, am I?" Blink answered, and gave Race a grin. And for a second, Race had that same fuzzy feeling he got when he looked into Mary's eyes, like the world was losing focus around him. But the difference was, when Blink was smiling at him, it felt right. It felt warm.

"Oh. Okay, then," Race agreed, and wrapped his arms around Blink's shoulders.

Fifteen minutes later, they were sharing a cigarette, sitting against a rough brick wall. They'd really only stopped kissing because Race was pretty sure if they kept it up, he was going to want to do something else, and, well… He just didn't know what the hell any of it meant. Blink didn't seem to mind, though.

Actually, Blink seemed kind of smug.

"So…" Blink finally said slowly. "Um. About that kissing thing we just did? You liked it, didn't you?"

"Yeah!" Racetrack said immediately, then realized he sounded a tiny bit too eager. "I mean... it was... I don't know. I ain't queer, or nothing."

"Sure," Blink nodded. "Me neither."

"Right. Absolutely not."

"Right."

There was a long pause, and finally Racetrack looked over at Blink, who shrugged.

"Okay, I am," Blink said.

"Yeah, me too." Race nodded. "I didn't want to say so, or nothing. I never knew you was..."

"Race," Blink said, grinning a little. "I felt the exact same! I didn't know no one else around here was queer... let alone you..."

"Wow," Race said. "That's really... convenient."

"Let's not think too hard about it."

"That's like your motto or something, ain't it?"

"You calling me dumb?" Blink demanded, sounding a little offended.

"Yeah," Racetrack said. "But it's kinda sweet."

"Hey. I was the one who figured out to kiss you an' all. If I'd left it to you, you'd still be playin' cards inside."

Race smiled. "Okay, so I'm the brains and you're the…heart," he said. "Yeah?"

Blink shrugged. "I dunno what that means," he said. "But I'm gonna kiss you again, okay?"

"Fine by me."

"So, what do we do now?" Blink asked.

This time, Race was pretty sure they were really done kissing. They had problems to solve, after all, and murders to prevent. "What, you ain't tired yet?"

Blink laughed. "No, I'm... I meant about Mary."

Race sighed. "I don't know. She's scary. And we can't always run away from her and... and... And kiss for an hour."

"Well, we could," Blink said. "It was fun."

"Well, yeah. But people are dying! I don't want our friends to die."

"Well, I ain't kissin' them like we been kissin'," Blink said defensively. "I mean, what are the odds that every guy in the lodgin' house is queer?"

Race considered that for a second, then shook his head. Something else he decided it was easier to not think about. "But we have to stop Mary from killing anyone else."

"Oh," Blink nodded. "We should... we should go back in then. Make sure everyone's okay."

Race nodded, and grabbed Blink's hand and pulled him toward the lodging house. As they reached the door, he let go of Blink's hand. There was shouting coming from inside. It sounded like a fight had broken out.

Race pushed the door open in time to see Specs with Dutchy in a headlock, punching him in the stomach. He stared, and gaped, and took a deep breath. "If I can't have her," he yelled, "nobody will!"

Dutchy 's response was to stomp on his foot and elbow him in the stomach. Specs let go, inhaling sharply, and Dutchy took the moment to swing around and hit in him the jaw.

"Boys!" Mary cried from the sidelines. "Don't do this!"

Her hands were clasped in front of her, and Racetrack couldn't tell whether it was because she was praying for them to stop or because she was secretly delighted to have two boys fighting over her like that.

Specs had managed to get back on his feet, and he lunged after Dutchy, who managed to step aside and push him toward the stairs, where he collided with Skittery, who took the opportunity to push Specs back towards Dutchy.

"No, boys, don't!" she shrieked delicately. "Please!"

"Look!" Specs yelled, pulling away from Dutchy for a moment. "You have to choose one of us!"

"But how can I?" she asked. "Specs, you're so strong and handsome and rugged--"

"He is?" Blink asked Race.

"--and Dutchy, you're so sweet and kind and gentle. How can I choose between the two?"

"Like this," Race said casually. "Eeny, meeny, miney, mo--"

"Race, stay outta this!" Dutchy and Specs yelled in unison.

Specs turned to Dutchy. "You low-down, yellow, rat-bas—"

"Oh, no!" Mary wailed. "All this fighting, it…it reminds me of my uncle…" She put a hand to her brow and slumped daintily to the floor. An instant later, both boys were at her side.

"That's disgusting," Race said, but no one heard him.

And he wasn't surprised when, the next morning, Specs and Dutchy had both vanished – and Mary Sue was more radiant than ever.

AN: So. Um. It's been a year, huh? Well, you know, life is what happens when you're busy making other plans, and whatnot. I'd say we'll try and be more timely, but I'd probably be lying. (It wouldn't have taken so long if we hadn't had to edit out some, ehrm, naughty bits in order to keep it ratings appropriate, and on plot target...stupid plot.) Anyway, thanks for waiting, and thanks to everyone who voted for us in Stress's fanfic contest. :)