Sweetie and Doll Face

disclaimer: you all know the drill. i don't own them, i wish i did, blah blah blahhhh

"Hey Flame! Wait up!"

Flame stopped, sighing to herself, but didn't turn around. What in the world could he possibly want now?

"Flame…hey…I"

"What do you want Conlon?" she asked, turning around to face him. She noticed immediately there was something different about his eyes. There was a look in his eyes that she didn't recognize, there was no anger or coldness is his eyes, he almost looked nervous.

"I um just…well I just wanted to um…just wanted to say…" Spot began to stutter. His mind couldn't stop racing, what the hell was he doing to himself? She had been mad at him hundreds of times before, and had always gotten over it quickly, so why was this time so different? More importantly, why was it so hard for him just to say he was sorry and he didn't want her to be mad at him? As prideful as he was, he was more than willing to apologize for something if he knew he was wrong.

"You just wanted to say what?"

"Just that I..I'm glad you made it home ok last night." Well, it wasn't exactly what he had wanted to say to her, but he knew that was probably the best he was going to get out.

"Um, thanks." Flame said, looking at the ground "I mean, I've walked further at night before but…um yeah thanks."

"Oh I know you have" Spot said quickly, trying to say something that would explain what he was trying to say "I just worry, you know? A girl such as yourself walking around New York alone at night, something really bad could…"

"A girl such as myself?" Flame spat defensively "I can take care of myself, thank you very much. Believe it or not, not every girl is like those pathetic, wimpy, obnoxious girls that you hang around all the time!"

"No, that's not what I meant by…"

"Save it Conlon! I don't need your pity." And with that, she stormed away, leaving Spot feeling very confused.

What he wanted to say was that he cared about her, a lot, and he was terrified at the thought of something happening to her. Why was it so easy for him to talk to other girls? And why was it so easy for other boys to talk to her?

'Dam' he thought to himself 'this girl is going to be the death of me.'

By the time Flame had sold all of her papes, the sun was beginning to set. She knew that Spot would be expecting her back at the lodging house soon, and she wasn't sure how she felt about seeing him right now. There was something about him today that she couldn't figure out, it was like he was trying to be nice to her. It wasn't like him at all, he was never like that. And the thing that scared her the most, she liked that he was being so nice to her. But it was so wrong, this was Spot Conlon, she hated him…well she thought she did. Besides, did it really matter if she did like him? He could get any girl he wanted, and they all threw themselves at him. The best thing she could think of was to get him completely out of her head, she had plenty of other guys that wanted to be with her anyways.

As coincidence would have it while lost in thought Flame had wandered toward the Manhattan lodging house, where Race was outside smoking a cigar.

"Hey there" Race said, approaching her and kissing her "I missed you last night, none of us even saw you leave"

"Yeah sorry" Flame said, trying to think of a good excuse "I wasn't feeling that great…so I figured I might as well leave you guys to have your fun"

"Well I missed you a lot. I was really hoping that you were gonna, you know, spend the night."

Flame grabbed Race by the shirt collar and, kissing him so hard that his cigar dropped to the ground, began pulling him towards Brooklyn.

"Well, there's always tonight" she said "And you know, being the only girl newsie in Brooklyn has its perks. I have my own room."

Pulling a more than willing Race behind her, Flame pushed all thoughts of reason out of her mind. Her brain was screaming at her that this was a terrible idea, but she didn't stop to think.

One way or another, she was going to get Spot Conlon off her mind.