Newsies Imagines

Overheard and Undeserved (Davey Jacobs)

You are leaning up against a brick wall, just starting to feel the heat of the morning sun through your shirt, when you finally see him. A bag full of newspapers is looped loosely around your arm- you got out here a while ago, but you figured you'd wait for your selling partner to show up.

At last, he's here, glancing over at his younger brother every few seconds to make sure he's not going to run off or potentially become an even stronger version of Jack Kelly than he already is. At some point, Davey Jacobs is going to have to give in to the truth that everyone already knows- there simply is no containing Les, no matter how much you wish you could.

You raise an eyebrow at Davey when he finally makes his way over to you. "Took your time getting here. The morning's almost over."

Davey rolls his eyes. "It's barely dawn. Most of the customers aren't even awake yet."

You grin. "Ah, but we are. That's the difference."

Les chooses this moment to pipe in helpfully. "Davey was awake earlier, but he took forever to get ready so he could fix his hair or something."

The younger boy scrunches up his nose as if he couldn't possibly understand why someone would want to spend longer than a second on his appearance. Davey reaches into your bag to grab a pape so he can swat Les on the shoulder.

"Hey, keep that to yourself. And I didn't take that long."

Les scampers away, both to avoid the blow and go talk to some of the other newsies.

Davey looks abashedly over at you. "I'm going to kill him one day. It might be soon."

You laugh at the blush starting to color his cheeks. "If you did, we'd be out of our best source of entertainment. And you'd better be paying for that pape, the things aren't cheap."

Davey gives you a look before tossing the newspaper back to you. "I'm going to go get my supply. Don't leave without me."

You watch as he heads around the corner, money already in hand. You don't know how to tell Davey that you could never, would never leave without him, because even though he's supposed to be your best friend you still catch yourself running his name through your head late at night when you should be sleeping.

You've been crushing on Davey for a while now, despite your best intentions. You can't help it, though- Davey might be the only person here who makes you feel good, like you're someone worth seeing as more than just another newsie. The other boys at the Lodging House are wonderful, of course, and they've looked out for you when no one else would, but they never make your heart skip a beat like Davey.

Sometimes, like today, you could almost kid yourself into thinking that he could like you back. Davey seems closer to you than any of the other newsies, even Jack, despite the fact that they worked together on the strike. Time and time again, he says that you're his best friend, the one person he can turn to when everything gets bad. And, for a bunch of kids who are one step away from the streets if they aren't already there, bad things happen almost all the time. It's a good thing that you've got Davey to pull you out.

Davey's got his papes by now, and is jogging back over to you. He grins when he reaches you, looking out at the city in front of you. "Looks like it's going to be a long day. You ready?"

You smile back at him. "Always am."

Davey was right- it was a long day. Either people were just as down on their luck as you were, or the headlines just weren't that interesting no matter how much you embellished them, but it's late by the time you finally finish your sales. You say goodbye to Davey at the door of the Lodging House, and retreat up to your bunk to take a break for a while.