Romeo was woken up the next morning with a start to a banging on his bunk and a lot of voices around him, one quite near him.
He rolled over and stuck his head on the safety bar. He opened one of his eyes, knowing it would be too bright to open both of them.
"Morning Jack," he said once he'd gotten somewhat used to the light and figured out who was standing in front of him.
"Morning Romeo," Jack replied. "Good to see you've finally decided to wake up."
"I thought it was about time you were all blessed with my awakening," he joked with his trademark smirk on his face.
"Stop flirting with me, I have a boyfriend."
Romeo rolled his eyes and climbed down the ladder of his bunk to start getting ready.
"Hey Romeo, have you seen my cigar?" Race asked once he reached the bottom.
"Albert has it. I heard him yesterday saying that he was going to wake up early so he could take it before you wake up," Romeo explained.
Race nodded before running off in the direction of the stairs to try and find Albert.
Once all the Newsies were ready they met in the living area of the lodging house like they did every morning before they left to go to the distribution centre.
They tried to leave multiple times but people had forgotten their bags, cigars, shoes (Romeo didn't understand how you could forget a shoe but wasn't surprised since he knew what Specs could be like.), hats and anything else that could have been forgotten.
Once they finally got around to leaving, the one person Romeo did not want to see that early in the morning came up to him.
Romeo lacked the capability to function like a human being until ten o'clock earliest, and that was if he wasn't woken up unwillingly like he was most mornings.
He didn't trust himself to not admit his crush to Specs there and then so he picked up the pace of his walking so Specs might leave him be.
"Hey," Specs shouted trying to catch up with him. "Romeo, wait up."
Romeo turned around to face Specs and walked towards him.
"Hi. How are you?" he asked, trying to make sure he doesn't blush.
"I'm okay. Are you feeling alright? You're quite red," Specs asked putting his hand to Romeo's forehead.
"I'm fine. Just a bit warm," he mumbled, looking down at his clothes.
"Okay."
Specs wasn't stupid, he knew something was wrong with Romeo but he seriously doubted that he was warm.
The early-winter, late-autumn was starting to set in and Romeo was still wearing his summer clothes.
Not that he had winter clothes or summer clothes, he just stuck his extremely thin and worn out jacket on over his normal clothes.
The pair walked side by side to the distribution centre, Romeo took as many opportunities as possible to peek a glance at Specs.
Once they arrived, Romeo went over to Crutchie who was sitting on his own.
"Why are you on your own?" he asked while he sat down beside him.
"Jack's just waiting for Davey," he explained. "He said he had to help his mother with something so he's going to be late."
"Relationships, am I right?" Romeo joked, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, sure," Crutchie replied laughing at Romeo.
The pair laughed and stayed sitting there while they waited for the headline to be put up.
~~~
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