Oooooh here we are!!!
This is December 25, 1899, based off of real events. So the thing is, I'm looking at two articles about a newboys' annual feast and one was printed December 1st, and one is based on Christmas Day; so I'm combining the information from both for this Christmas Day.
This is the moment when everyone is still happy and well.
This? This is going to be fluff.
Enjoy! :)
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In the Newsies' Lodging House of Duane Street, Kid Blink raises his glass in the air, smiling grandly, other hand enclosed with his lover's. "Here's a toast to all of us newsies gathered here tonight, who have made the most of this year in the best way they can, and will make the most of any!"
All the newsies raise their glasses and cheer. "YEAH!"
It was in the first days of August when the strike ended. That was four months ago, nearly five. And in that time, life has gone back to as normal as it could have been. Eventually, all the scabbers were forgiven, and now it hardly matters who was a striker and who was a scabber back then; just as long as they are a newsie now.
There have got to be at least 200 newsies in this hall right now, (never mind how many newsies are still outside), from all over the city, waiting for the feast to begin. While it's mostly Manhattan and Brooklyn newsies, there are newsies from every borough; all smiling and laughing and talking together. The boroughs haven't truly been united since the rally at Irving Hall on the 24th of July. It's nice seeing everyone getting along.
Kid Blink is just so happy that they all accepted him back. He had been worried that they wouldn't take him or David Simmons back. Luckily, they warmed up to him again. Maybe Mush had some say in it. No matter what, he's glad to be back.
Beside him at the table, Mush squeezes his hand. Blink squeezes back. They exchange glances, smiling. They think they're being subtle, but anyone looking at them can tell that they're staring at each other lovingly. And everyone just smiles.
And then, all the pies are brought out, getting the newsies to cheer. The superintendent knows that they all eat pies before the dinner; this has been a tradition for as long as each and every one of them has been a newsie. They all reach over their plates full of turkey, and each take a slice of pumpkin pie, ready to dig in.
All except Kid Blink, because his place at the table doesn't have utensils.
"We can share," Mush tells him cheerfully as he notices the absence of utensils at Blink's plate.
"Nah, it's okay," Kid Blink tells him, ready to just use his hands for his pie instead.
Suddenly, someone puts a fork beside his plate. "It's not good to do that. Not healthy."
Kid Blink looks up, but really, he doesn't have to--he would recognize the voice of Racetrack Higgins anywhere.
And it's not like they were on the best terms during the summer, so Kid Blink freezes a moment, holding his breath in anticipation for what Racetrack has to say.
Racetrack elaborates on what he said, as if to justify those words and why he felt the need to give Blink a fork. "Who knows how dirty those hands of yours are? That could be the bet of the ages."
Kid Blink relaxes a little, then chuckles. "Thanks, Race."
"'Course. There was an extra one by my plate anyway." With nothing more to say, Racetrack goes back to his seat, with Spot Conlon on his left, smiling fondly at him.
Kid Blink smiles as he looks at them together.
And really, Race giving him a fork to eat his pie with shouldn't feel like much, but to Blink, it is. During the Irving Rally they had argued over who really should have won the bouquet of flowers, or the floral horseshoe, and then there was when he was accused for scabbing, (which is a mess of its own), and they really haven't had time to make up since. They had been close up until that point. Blink hopes that they can become friends again.
"Race and Spot are so cute together," Mush murmurs in Kid Blink's ear. "Sixteen, and already like that."
Blink doesn't have to ask what Mush means by "like that." They're holding hands, cracking jokes, laughing. They look truly happy together.
"Yeah, well, we were like that when we were their age too," Blink says. They look at each other, and he smiles. "And there's still no one I love more than you."
If it were just them, Mush would have kissed Blink right now. But instead, he presses their foreheads together, making their noses brush. It's the closest they can get to public affection with what seems like nearly a million prying eyes.
"I wonder how Jack and Davey are doing," Mush comments as they turn back to their respective pumpkin pies.
"Me too," Kid Blink agrees before he takes a bite of his pie, glancing around the room, trying to find Jack and David.
There, on the near opposite end of the table. They look happy together. Jack is staring at David, looks absolutely smitten. Kid Blink grins and focuses on his pie.
"I can't wait for when it's all over and it can just be us," Jack murmurs in David's ear. "I can't show you how much I love you when everyone else is here."
"Well, the faster you eat your pie, the faster you'll eat the turkey, the faster we can get out of here and the next 200 newsies can come in and we can go anywhere, so you may wanna stop yakkin' about how much you wanna kiss me and eat your pie."
"I never said-!"
"Shh." David puts a finger to Jack's lips and looks him right in the eye. "You were thinking it."
At this point, Jack is half convinced that David can read minds.
Meanwhile, Race and Spot are planning out their day at Sheepshead tomorrow.
"Where would I be without you?" Race asks randomly, grinning.
"Probably literally livin' at Sheepshead."
"Hey." Race shoves Spot's shoulder gently. "I was asking a rhetorical question."
Spot laughs. Race laughs with him.
All over the table, newsies are talking, having fun.
Skittery is giving Tumbler more of his pie, claiming that he can't eat all of it, and loving the way that Tumbler's eyes light up when he gives him more pie.
Crutchy and Boots are talking about their ideal selling spots.
Itey, Dutchy, and Jack Sullivan are teaching each other words in their native languages, grinning when someone gets it right, laughing when someone gets it absolutely wrong.
Bumlets is trying on Specs' glasses, laughing at how weird the world looks.
Morris Cohen and Henry Butler are talking with Dave Simmons, as if nothing happened went down between them during the strike.
"Watch this!" Jack whispers to David, and before David can stop him, Jack is standing up, smile wide, glass raised high above his head. "I got a lil' toast for all of us too, everyone!"
Everyone looks up at Jack, curious to what he has to say.
David just hopes that Jack has at least some idea of what he's doing.
"Kid Blink was right," Jack starts, "we have had to make the most of this year more than any other. The price of papers was too high and the amount of good headlines was too low. Summer was somethin' that no newsie will ever forget, with all its hardships, and all of its wins." He looks around at everyone. "And we did it. Every single one of us. We are the ones who striked against the World, and we were the ones to prove that we was a force to be reckoned wit'!"
That gets newsies to cheer.
"I don't know what the future is gonna hold for us, but I know that we can handle anythin'." Jack holds his glass out. "Here's to us, the newsies, ready to face it all."
All the newsies raise their glasses and cheer.
David smiles up at Jack. David knows when Jack rambles, but this time his rambling actually went somewhere.
Jack sits down again. "How was that?"
"Charismatic," David responds in a dry tone, but still smiling.
They both laugh.
And so everyone finishes their pie, and finally touches the turkey on their plates, and the feast continues on.
It's true, they don't know what the future is going to hold. But they'll face it together.
For now, though, they'll enjoy this moment, a moment of peace and harmony, a moment where all is right in the world.
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Aaaaa so how was that?!
That was very sweet in my opinion.
So yeah, I'm doing a thing where I'm including Jack Kelly and David Jacobs as well as Jack Sullivan and Dave Simmons, which is kinda tricky and trippy, but I'm trying to make it work.
I just need it to be Jack Kelly and David Jacobs as Jack and David in this story, not Jack Sullivan and Dave Simmons. But I don't want to erase Jack Sullivan and Dave Simmons, who were an actual part of the strike. So ... everyone is kinda coexisting right now haha.
Oh, and Jack Kelly was a newsie in 1905. He's in an article. Was he a newsie six years earlier? I don't know. The thing is, the newspapers from back then are the only sources we have, and unfortunately, papers back then weren't the keenest on exact/accurate details, so I just need to work with what I got.
Is it true that Spot Conlon and Racetrack Higgins were the same person? Possibly. That's the thing, we actually don't know. But do I love writing Sprace? I think that's obvious by this point haha.
So I took information from an article written on December 1st; and the other from December 25th; both taking place in the lodging house on Duane Street; both talking about an annual feast. The first one is where I got the detail about the newsies always eating their pies before turkey, and how there were a thousand newsies being brought in 200 at a time, and how the strikers and scabbers were together "in peace and harmony," which I like; and the second one is where I got that Kid Blink delivered a toast.
I feel bad because I'm like "I am trying to be historically accurate as possible" and then I'm like "it's okay if I bend a detail or two-" so yeah haha I'm still trying to find a balance between historical accuracy and creative writing.
Rhetorical question became a term "sometime before 1686" according to my google search haha.
I love how I said that this wasn't going to be based on 92sies or Livesies in particular but I literally introduce Racetrack Higgins with a quote he says in the movie haha.
Speaking of Racetrack Higgins, I wanted to show that there could possibly have still been tensions between Racetrack and Kid Blink, because while everyone had a grudge against Kid Blink during the strike, Racetrack had a lot of more personal reasons to hate Kid Blink. So I wanted to show them reconciling at least a little.
I wrote Blush :)
I think I got every newsie in there, whether characters we know and love (once again, more 92sies based haha) as well as real newsies. Because of the time skip when they're all adults, this is the last time we'll see them as happy kids.
The thing is, writing this was an experience, because it's based off of historical canon more than movie/musical canon, so it feels a little less like writing movie/musical fanfiction, and most of this was written at midnight so my mind was kind of in a weird state, and I got strong vibes of old dining rooms and history we'll never be able to touch and seeing things through the lense of a black and white or sepia camera, and I don't know, it's just a vibe. Because these were real people with real lives and it's just so, so cool.
I think I finally ran out of words to say, at nearly (now over) 2000 words haha.
I hope you all want to read more :)
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH EVERYONE!!!!! :)
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Please, no homophobia, profanities, hate etc in the comment section at all times.
Best,
~Your Beloved Author (who wishes these newsies could all stay happy forever)