Author's Note: I should probably explain before the start of the fic that my version of Ice is an expansion upon the canon character and thus thinks in a different way than she would if I were to strictly adhere to authorial intent. She has the same personality that she does in my other fics with her here except she's a girl in this one.
Ice watched the other Jets rush off in the directions she had indicated for a moment, dully satisfied that it looked like their search for Tony would be performed with much less needless posturing than the events that had led to it and was thus much less likely to go very badly like they had.
Although, knowing them and their history… had she really ever been proud of that stagnant history and optimistic about what it would lead to? those days felt so long ago with the days and weeks and years that had followed running together as tightly as the Jets, like they, like the gang, were fighting to not allow anything that could challenge their fiercely defended, blood stained status quo… they would somehow manage to find a way to make this go badly as well.
Satisfied… at least, as satisfied as she could be with two pointless deaths in the extremely recent past, one of whom was her friend, danger looming over another friend of hers, and a gang of perpetually riled up, desperate to prove themselves to everyone and no one at the same time guys to lead and attempt to manage, Ice contemplated the question of where she should look for Tony out of the areas that hadn't been covered yet.
…No one had volunteered to search the little known and oft forgotten space under the highway, she realized, and in fact its absence from their plans thus far would be conspicuous were it not for the travesty of Riff and Bernardo's deaths that they had just witnessed and participated in there.
He might have gone back there, though, in spite of the danger of the coppers coming back; he had almost as little self preservation instinct as Anybodys, and the deaths of his best friend and the man he had killed there had definitely hit him hard.
Having made her decision, Ice started to hurry back to the site of their unsurprisingly ill fated rumble, imbuing far more haste into her steps than she normally did but still not reaching the frenzied desperation of her fellow Jets, and stopped in her tracks after a few paces at the brash but strangely nice voice of Anybodys behind her.
"Hey! What about me? Ain't I more than chopped liver now that you're the leader a the gang?"
Ice turned around to face him, pleasantly surprised that he was asking her how he should coordinate his actions with those of the rest of the Jets instead of just unhesitatingly running off into danger like he usually did and had done by spying on the Sharks.
She had grimly guessed that he was doing something like that when he hadn't rejoined the rest of the Jets after the rumble and was just relieved at this point that he hadn't tried to fight a Shark or even multiple Sharks by himself.
"Right, you need something to do too. Keep slippin' in and out of the shadows, maybe you'll find Tony in one a them."
This was… fine, this was fine, Anybodys really was impressive in his shadow related prowess among other things and would probably be able to keep himself from getting hurt like Riff and Bernardo had, even though he was the last person you would think would be good at staying hidden among them.
He hadn't even been able to resist the urge to reflexively respond to any mention of marriage or romantic relationships by any of the Jets even when they weren't talking to him and the conversation wasn't about those topics with a resolute, slightly desperate declaration that he would never participate in either of those institutions before he had in fact started participating in the latter with Ice with a stolen kiss behind the gym during a dance.
And yet he was, as he had said, "large with shadows" and good at silently spying on even the conversations that would be the most emotionally volatile for him, even conversations where members of a rival gang that he hated with a fervor that Ice had never reached for any rival gang even in the early days where she had been, if not starry eyed then maybe street lamp eyed about being in the Jets planned to kill the member of the Jets that he considered to be his best friend.
Ice knew without having to ask that Anybodys' zeal for slipping in and out of the shadows had far more to do with him being proud of a skill of his than enjoying using that skill that was downright paradoxical for him to have, even as his eyes blazed with charming enthusiasm and he flashed her a wide grin that was unfettered by the recent deaths and the danger Tony was in.
"Right! I'll have 'im back at Doc's in no time!"
He spun around abruptly, charging with a spring in his step in the direction opposite to the one Ice had been heading in… towards Shark territory, she realized with some added worry and no added surprise… before turning around and doubling back just as quickly to kiss her, even more passionately and alluringly than usual, smiling against her mouth in spite of the circumstances as she kissed him back.
Or maybe because of them… he had never liked Riff, especially after he had kicked him out of the gang after Tony had drifted apart from it and whenever he insulted him or alluded to the fact that Tony considered him and not Anybodys to be his best friend.
Now, because of his untimely death and Ice's not particularly desired ascension to the position of the leader of the Jets in its wake, Anybodys had regained his long longed for position as a member of the gang, just as Ice had agreed to do for him in the event that she became its leader even though she couldn't really relate any more to wanting to be a Jet so desperately.
So desperately that he had even been willing to prove himself to the rest of the Jets besides them with comparatively more passive and less masculine spying rather than fighting, not that the latter would have ever allowed him to win the Jets' favor no matter how good he was at it, with how they saw it as being irrevocably exclusive to the domain of those who had been born as men and the one woman they had deigned to recognize as manly enough in her cool, confident collectedness; Ice.
Anybodys was obviously masculine too; or, at least, it was obvious to her, but his particular heart on sleeve wearing, passionate, intense in all emotions instead of just anger machoness would unfortunately never have done him any favors with any of the Jets besides Ice and Tony when all of them besides… well, just Ice, even if Tony pretended otherwise to be kind… saw him as a girl.
They would hopefully be at least a little more accepting and a little less terrible towards him now that he had proved himself in a way that didn't challenge the support role that women and those they saw as women besides Ice were limited to in the Jets, at least…
Anybodys pulled back slightly, his characteristic cocky grin a little wider than normal and his hands even lower on her back than usual, to the point that they were barely still on her back.
"This is so excitin'! I'm finally back in the gang and you're finally leadin' it!"
His far greater enthusiasm was infectious as always, and, for the moment, Ice was almost excited about her unexpected promotion, even with how chaotic the circumstances surrounding it were and with the upcoming high times she would now have to attempt to guide the Jets through relatively unscathed instead of just observing things and minding her own business as was her preference.
She nodded in agreement, finding herself giving a slight, rare smile and tightening her hold on him, which only increased the size of Anybodys'.
"You've more than earned it, buddy boy, with your fighting and your spying."
Anybodys stood even taller at her praise and the use of that term of endearment that had carried over from the days when their relationship had been platonic… she never would've thought that she would end up calling a boyfriend buddy boy, but it made him so happy… and leaned in even closer to her, smiling flirtily and speaking in a voice that was quiet by his standards but still a bit loud for how close his mouth was to her ear, not that she wasn't used to that at this point.
"Thanks, daddy-o!"
After a quicker but not less passionate kiss, he lingered with her for a brief moment before abruptly whirling back around, charging in the direction of Shark territory, again with that spring in his step, and throwing a grin and wave at her behind him, which she returned more calmly.
Ice watched him unhesitatingly disappear into an alley, a not insubstantial flicker of the boost to her usually sullen mood he inspired in her remaining in his wake, before turning around in the opposite direction to go look for Tony under the highway.
She probably wouldn't be the one to find him; Anybodys was better at this type of thing than her and possibly all of the rest of the Jets in spite of his immense preference for fighting and other more macho ways of proving himself to them.
In fact, his opposite choice of direction to hers was really putting a damper on her confidence that Tony would be where she had chosen to look.
Still, with the whole gang looking for him, he was in… relatively good hands.