Author's Note: This fic is based on a headcanon I have that Anybodys was hanging out with Tony before the scene where Something's Coming happens and then slipped into the shadows when Riff showed up so he wouldn't have to have an unpleasant and adversarial interaction with him, and Tony forgot he was there in all the drama of his interaction with Riff and his fantasies of something great coming for him. I can back this up with evidence from the text, that being that a gesture Anybodys does at one point in Gee, Officer Krupke! where he reaches into the sky while he's pretending to be insane with the other Jets is really similar to a gesture of reaching into the sky Tony does during Something's Coming. Plus I like the idea of Anybodys' talent of slipping in and out of the shadows being incorporated into the story a little more often.
Also I'm pretty sure that the songs in West Side Story are diegetic because Madam Lucia reacts to I Feel Pretty like it actually happened as a song in universe.
...
Despite the frequent disparagement of those with jobs by most of the other Jets... the Jets as being high and mighty and inherently lacking the diehard loyalty and passion that the gang lifestyle cultivated, Anybodys was enjoying helping Tony unpack the shipments of coca cola that Doc's shop had just received.
It was a nice, steady, repetitive task, something where he could get some excess energy out and work towards accomplishing a goal while talking with his friend at the same time.
He still didn't appreciate that Tony had left the Jets for this job no matter how many times he explained why he had done it to him, especially considering that Ice had a job but hadn't left the gang and Riff had kicked Anybodys out of it after Tony had left because he had been the one who had let him into it in the first place... he hadn't gotten his rightful place in the gang back yet, but he would soon... but his frustrations with him didn't lie with his job per se.
They lay with his belief that Jet life was apparently too stagnant and needlessly violent, which was funny considering that he hadn't gotten any further than where he'd been with them with this whole job thing and there wasn't anything in Doc's shop that was anywhere near as exciting and fun and easy to prove yourself with as fighting even if it was a nice hangout spot.
Anybodys wasn't gonna bark up that particular tree with him today, though, like he had done many times before, he was gonna pick a smaller battle that would hopefully lead to him eventually winning the war and getting Tony back into the gang, both for his sake and so he could let him back in.
"So, Tony, are ya thinkin' a goin' to the dance tonight? I think all the guys're coming."
Anybodys dropped the box of soda bottles he had been carrying onto the growing stack of them in the basement of the shop and quickly spun back around, looking up at him hopefully to see his reaction.
He paused, holding the one he had just picked up slightly above the one below it as he contemplated this, the look in his eyes even more far away than usual.
"There's a dance tonight? What for?"
This was good, he seemed receptive to the idea.
Anybodys was tempted to gloss over the part about how it was being hosted by those no good social workers from atop their perch that sat far above the real world to the point that they couldn't see what it was like down there anymore to try and cool down the raging inferno of tension between the Jets and the Sharks, as if a simple dance or anything besides the Jets resoundingly clobbering those interlopers of their hard earned turf and sending them back to where they came from could achieve that.
Tony didn't like the fighting and the tension for some reason, or, at least, he thought he didn't but he did still deep down because, as he had said when he had been in the gang, when you're a Jet you're a Jet all the way.
It would probably be best for Anybodys to let him in on that part, then, because if he got blindsided by it he might leave before that boiling pot of gang loyalties and dancing that seemed more like fighting worked its magic on that inner Jet he still irrevocably had deep down and got that much cooler, much more steadfast version of him to come back out swinging.
Anybodys ascended the stairs to the basement, moving back to the boxes.
"The social workers think it'll make the Jets and the Sharks play nice with each other, can you believe that?"
He watched Tony with bated breath as he processed this, casting his gaze downwards and shrugging a little after a moment before picking up the box all the way and starting to take it to the basement.
"That's something they could stand to do, the Jets especially. It sounds like something I don't need to be a part of; I've made my peace with them already, and I don't need those feelings to be dredged back up."
...Yeah Anybodys should have just told him that it was a dance for fun with no ulterior motives involved in its creation...
...But those feelings of being a Jet, being on top of the world with brothers around to support you were still there by his own admission, probably really close to the surface and just waiting to spring back into the light... they were never far from Anybody's mind, certainly... and he just had to figure out how to clear the way for them.
"What, are you afraid you can't handle it no more afta so much time on the bench?"
Tony looked back out of the basement door at him with that infuriating look on his face that Anybodys knew meant that he thought he was in possession of the all mighty truth that those he had left behind weren't enlightened or something enough to understand, like a teacher telling their students how it made sense that there could be letters in math or that they should treat everyone the way they should be treated even if they were trying to steal their hard earned territory, their only source of security in the world besides each other, away from them.
"That's not it, Anybodys, you know tha-"
He trailed off a long moment after Anybodys had already processed the sound of heavy, commanding footsteps approaching the alley they were in and figured out that they probably belonged to... god dammit, why couldn't it have been any other Jet besides Riff?
Anybodys quickly found a suitable cluster of shadows cascading off of a fire escape to slip into.
He did not want this nice if not motivated hangout with his best friend to turn into him having yet another extremely unpleasant interaction with the guy who delusionally thought that he was Tony's best friend instead of Anybodys, who didn't deserve to be the leader of the gang, so for once he was grateful for his talent of slipping in and out of the shadows.
Tony didn't even seem to have noticed that Anybodys had slipped into the shadows or remembered that he had been there as he greeted Riff, which was... wow that hurt even worse than Riff rejecting his plea to be let back into the gang even after how skillfully he had clobbered that PR... he was pretty sure that one had been Pepe? in the fight between the Jets and the Sharks that had happened earlier today.
He felt even more ignored and rejected as Tony called Riff his best friend... he hoped he was just doing it to emphasize how much he didn't want to hurt his feelings or something, because there was no way Riff was his best friend when the methods he used to try and get him back into the gang were way more like harassing guilt trips and way less likely to work.
Even beyond that, Riff had never been as loyal to Tony as Anybodys was!
Riff had gone back to trying to convince Tony to go to the dance, doing a way less good job of it than the case Anybodys had been building and would have continued to skillfully construct if he hadn't interrupted them.
He was even going for the trying to get him back into the gang card when convincing him to just simply come to the dance hadn't worked out for him yet, which was stupid because the power keg environment of the dance on its own would probably be enough to get him back in if he could just get him there.
It was like there was all this kindling that had built up in the time Tony had spent away from the Jets, not fighting for his brothers or having them fight for him in turn as was the natural state of things for him as a Jet, and the dance would be the lit match that would set it all ablaze if one of them could just get him there!
...Huh, being on the same side as Riff on something that wasn't wanting prosperity for the Jets felt really surreal...
The conversation had veered off into the land of abstraction and metaphors, stuff that couldn't be pinned down or relied upon, that Tony loved so much, something about him having dreams about reaching out for something, and Riff was still pushing the larger issue of his status in the Jets when that clearly wasn't what he was talking about, when saying that what he was reaching out for might be at the dance was so obviously the better strategy there...
...Okay, good, he'd finally gotten him to agree to come to the dance, not without a little more guilt tripping, and now he was making that really good point about how what he was reaching out for might be at the dance, after he had already made the sale, when it would have helped him before.
Why was Riff the leader of the gang...
Anybodys hoped that Tony would remember that he was there and they had been hanging out once Riff had left... he hoped that he had never forgotten that and he had just been distracted with Riff's intrusion into the alley, really, and that he hadn't just been ignoring him and wasn't ignoring him now, which would be even worse.
Those hopes were swiftly dashed against the rocks of Tony's apparent apathy towards him as he started singing as if no one was around... it wasn't unusual for Jets to sing, but it was usually to rally themselves and each other to clobber some interlopers on their turf, not in this slow, contemplative way where he was clearly acting as if he was singing to a higher power or something.
Plus, if he'd wanted to duet with Anybodys, he would have done something to let him know that he remembered he was there and wasn't ignoring him or forgetting about him.
Anybodys had never gotten to participate in any of the songs the Jets had done, he reflected bitterly, even though he was just as passionate and loyal if not more so than the rest of them... they had just yelled at him to beat it and kicked him out when he had tried... and now he was missing out on this one about how something great was coming that Tony was singing, because nothing had been coming for him for a while, no matter how valiantly he fought and how skillfully he spied on their enemies for the Jets.
From Tony's overly hopeful, slightly manic tone and the stuff he was singing about like miracles and celestial bodies, Anybodys was worried that he was gonna be his usual hopeless romantic self at the dance and somehow manage to ruin this golden opportunity for reintegrating into the gang by making some girl into his something that he thought he was coming, the something he was reaching for in the sky like a mental patient.
Funny, Tony thought that he was dodging a bullet by trying to remove himself from the Jets for some reason, but he still believed in putting himself in the direct line of sight of the ultimate metaphorical gun of romantic relationships.
Being in one of those was way more dangerous and way less enjoyable than being in the Jets, and yet here he was, reaching out for a vague something that was coming that knowing him would probably end up being the former instead of the latter.
He had never listened to Anybodys when he had told him how bad of an idea they were, just like he hadn't listened to his attempts to get him to rejoin the gang or to go to the dance and Riff's way worse and less skillful efforts in the name of the latter mission had been the ones that had ultimately succeeded.
Maybe Riff really was his best friend, if he couldn't even acknowledge that Anybodys was still here with him.
Maybe Anybodys hadn't lost an ally in the Jets when Tony had left the gang like he had thought.
Maybe at the dance he would hang out with Ice instead of Tony.
Anybodys stalked skillfully through the shadows to get out of the alley the same way Riff had left as Tony was wrapping up his song, hoping for a call from his friend for him to come back that never came.