Here I am, at 00:27/12:27 am, starting a new chapter that I have no plan for. This is supposed to be right after Jack and David's date night, then the day Race goes off to Sheepshead. I came back now at a more reasonable time. Hopefully you're reading this soon after I'm writing this right now. Plan? What plan? Enjoy! :)
David has never felt euphoria like this before.
Being with Jack...this is something new. He likes it. A lot. With Jack, he feels loved, appreciated, wanted, and more. Jack did return to the lodge though. David understands.
'But one day you will stay here,' David told Jack. 'You will.'
Jack smiled at him, amused. 'Oh yeah?'
'Yeah.'
David knows for a fact that he won't be able to sleep.
It can't be more than an hour since Jack left, but David is already counting down the time until he sees Jack tomorrow. Carrying the banner.
David smiles to himself.
It's been a wild week. But he wouldn't want it any other way.
David yawns. Surely it's past midnight. He heads down from the roof finally. He should get some sleep. The circulation bell is going to ring at the same time it always has, no matter how much sleep David has had, so he should probably try to get more than less.
If I even can sleep, David muses, crawling into bed. After tonight...I don't know if I will ever go to sleep the same way ever again. He can't stop thinking about Jack.
He still can't get over how he is now dating Jack Kelly. The crazy thing about being in love with him is knowing that he is loved back.
Eventually, David closes his eyes, with Jack gracing his mind, and falls into a deep sleep.
----------------
Bright and early in the morning, David leaves with Les (after making sure Les has eaten breakfast) to go sell papes. Hopefully he'll make it before the circulation bell starts ringing. In the distance, he hears something.
See the headline,
Newsies on a mission;
Kill the competition;
Sell the next edition,
While we're out there:
Carrying the banner through it all!
David chuckles. Only the newsies. Do they do this every day?
To his satsifaction, the Delanceys are no where to be found this time.
Maybe it's because of when Jack soaked them up real good, David reasons. When he was a scab. But Jack's past that.
And there he is. Front and center.
David smiles.
"There's Cowboy!" Les shouts excitedly. He runs toward the group of newsboys dancing through the streets.
Jack's back is turned toward them. When he turns around, an amused smile comes up on his face when he sees Les running toward him. "Hey kid!" he laughs when Les hugs him around the waist. Then Jack looks up and sees David and his smile grows bigger.
"You should have heard Momma and Papa after you left with Davey last night!" Les gushes. "First they couldn't stop talking about how you were making history leading a strike, and now they won't stop talking about how Davey and I are friends with the leader of the successful strike!"
"Is that so?" Jack chuckles.
"Yeah!"
"Well," he looks David in the eye. "I couldn't have done it without Davey here."
David's heart flutters.
"You know, those words were mine," David plays along.
"And they was beautiful," Jack tells him. "They'se the reason why we had a strike in the first place."
"You got that right."
"Hiya, Davey!" Crutchie greets him brightly when the rest of the newsies catch up with them.
"Hi, Crutchie."
"Hi Davey!" Mush says next, patting him on the shoulder. Then more newsies come. Blink, Race, and the rest. All very handsy still--seriously, newsies hands are everywhere, all the time. David's gotten used to it. Now he can't imagine a non-handsy newsie.
"We heard about you and Jack last night," Blink tells Davey, wiggling his eyebrows.
"You made 'im real happy, ya know that, right?" Mush adds.
More people come, adding in more things.
"Okay, okay!" Jack breaks it up. "Settle down, settle down. We don't wanna miss the circulation bell, now do we?"
"When the circulation bell starts ringing, will we hear it?" Les repeats from a couple days ago.
"Atta boy!" Race jokes, then pats Les's head.
David could be imagining it, but Race seems a little subdued. But it's so subtle, that maybe he is just imagining it.
Except they actually hear the circulation bell, and should probably head there sooner than later.
Davey puts down the coin. "Hundred papes." Now he says it so confidently. He sees Jack give him a smile from a far. David turns to look at Jack and smiles back fondly.
"Ya ready?" Jack asks, shuffling his papes, as David walks toward him with his papes.
"Ready as I'll ever be," David replies, putting his papes over his shoulder like Jack does. Les trails behind them.
They walk in comfortable silence for a few minutes. That is, until Jack starts shouting headlines, real, and fake. Mostly just exaggerated ones. David shouts some too. He's learned that headlines don't sell papes. Newsies sell papes. And in order to sell papes, there needs to be a catchy headline. And if there isn't one, you make up your own, and hope the person your selling to is gullible enough to buy the nonsense spewing from your mouth. Of course, no one has put that exactly into words, but, well, some things are learned from experience, and others get lost in translation. But it's the unspoken language of the newsies, and David considers himself newsie enough.
After a while, Jack says. "Hey Davey, I don't know about you, but I'm getting kinda hungry."
"Me too."
"Tibby's, then?"
"Is this a second date?"
Jack chuckles. "If you want it to be, then definitely yes."
It didn't take too long to walk to Tibby's. So much has happened in that place. They had their first discussion with Denton there. They celebrated there when The Sun wrote about the first of the strike news that was huge. They learned that they lost Denton in their fight there.
Except now, Denton is nowhere to be found. So now David can have a new memory of this place today. Hopefully a good one.
By now, the staff knows them and gets them set up at a table quickly, and their order quickly. Les is outside, selling his last papers. David feels his face go a little red when his and Jack's leg brush against each other. David flushes more when Jack puts his hand on top of David's.
"Hey, Jack," David starts after their food arrives. Jack looks at him intently. "Last night..." he pauses. He wants to get the words right. Before Les comes back. "Last night was the best night of my life. True, winning the strike was amazing. Spending time with you when I first met you was great too. But last night...I'll remember for the rest of my life. Not because we saw Medda. True, that was an awesome performance. But...it was afterwards. When we were up on the roof. You...you made me feel special. No one's done that before. At home, Sarah's the perfect daughter, and Les is the youngest child. Meeting you was the best thing that happened to me. I never would have met you if I stayed in school; and if I just stayed in school, nothing would ever change. I'd been in the same loop day in day out. You brought something new. Something unexpected. And you make time for me. Pay attention to me. When we were on the roof last night, I knew. I knew that you were the one that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. So...thank you. Thank you for being you, and thank you for choosing me."
Jack caresses David's face. "I love you, Davey. I love you more than words can say. You're the voice of reason when I lose sight of reality. You've been a constant. And you've been my best friend. And now you're more. So thank you for choosing me."
Les comes back in, satisfied with selling the last of his papes.
David and Jack exchange glances, breaking apart. They both love the kid. But he really has some odd timing.
As they leave, Jack tells Les to run ahead.
"What was that for?" David asks as Les scampers ahead.
"This." Jack grabs David's hand and pulls him into a little secluded alleyway. Then, he pushes him against the wall gently with the other hand. He kisses him.
Their foreheads are pressed together.
"I love you, Jack."
"I love you too, Davey."
And then he kisses him again.
I'm sorry if this was bad. I had no plan at all. And now I learned my lesson haha. Well, I also kinda needed a filler before things...escalate.
I like the concept that the newsies know what they're doing when singing and dancing, at least part of the time. And the concept that maybe they do it all the time instead of just this one random week. No matter what, I love it how individual people, or stories, or movies, or whatever have their own interpretion of characters in a musical and if they know that they are in fact in one.
(I wish I could be in a musical.)
This was my attempt at Javid fluff. I hope it turned out alright.
I have an honorable mention from 92sies that didn't make it in here. When Jack says that he and Boots will go to Brooklyn, he adds, slinging an arm around David, "and we'll take Davey with us to keep us company" and David looks at him and is Just DoneTM and there's some snickering in the backround and it's definitely a Javid Moment.
I spend more time writing these author notes than the actual chapter. Sometimes, that is. It is in this case. I should probably work on that.
Why the heck is this so long?? There is absolutely NO PLOT.
Revised? Kind of. 2000 words? Almost. (*quiet voice* Hotel? Trivago.)
Well, I think I have blooming Javid covered. Ready for Sprace? Here it comes!! :)
Please, no homophobia, profanities, hate etc in the comment section.
Best,
~Your Beloved Author (who literally was ONE WORD from finishing this author's note aka the freaking word AUTHOR with ONE MINUTE left of the LAST SONG of the GAY PLAYLIST (Gaylist??) when SOMEONE OPENED THE DOOR and they had to shut the computer--*sigh* it's okay though, but it would have been better if the timing of someone entering the room was delayed by at least one minute)