A/N: Modern AU because for some reason some Newsies getting tied up in Christmas lights seemed appropriate and it's also a new Christmas idea I haven't done yet. Other oneshots are coming but Christmastime is here and I like to post a Christmas oneshot or two during this season.
I could create a part two if anyone wants....because this one seems like it might need a part two. Or a how this whole thing went down sort of deal...although I will admit that some things are better left unsaid. :)
"So, Mr. Kelly? Where's my cookie dough for my sugar cookies?" A young female reporter asks as she tilts the chair that the boy who she's interrogating is sitting in.
"What cookie dough?" he asks with a bit of a whine in his voice. The young female reporter raises an eyebrow.
"Might I remind you that I'm a reporter. I'll get the answers to my questions one way or another," she quips as she tugs on the item that binds him to the chair in her small, slightly ink stained fingers.
"Yeah, but you ain't a cop," the boy replies quickly.
"Like that's gonna stop me," she says with a bit of a snappish air.
"Still ain't gonna get me to break," he states matter of factly. A minute later, a young man followed by another young woman is brought into the room.
"No...no way. I'd rather die with this terrible tragic secret than let it slip between my foolish lips. If only my lady love would grace me with one of her kisses before I am executed," the young man cries out rather loudly and dramatically. A hand sweeps across his forehead and the young women stops behind him, not entirely sure what to do with the sudden outburst. She looks to the other young woman in the room, who merely points the dramatic young man into a chair.
"If you want to live without the disappearance of a batch of cookie dough on your conscience, I suggest you sit down," the first woman says and the young man flops into the chair.
"A perfect place to keep my secrets and...."the young man pauses for dramatic effect, "die. My lady love, would you do me the pleasure of allowing me to feel my lips against yours before I perish?"
The girl who had accompanied him stands in the doorway completely shocked. She looks down at the floor before making some comment about looking for a sweatshirt and running out of the room.
"Ace, are you gonna untie me now since it's obvious that I would NEVER steal your cookie dough?" the boy currently tied up asks.
"You don't get to pull the Ace card right now, Kelly," she says plainly, "What happened to the cookie dough?"
"Laffy Kathy's onto us, Jacky. We're done for!" the other boy seated in the chair cries out. The young woman bites the inside of her cheek.
"Katherine...or Ace, but....not....Laffy Kathy. Unless you want this interrogation to go way longer," Katherine retorts, tugging on the item in her hand again.
"Depends on what's involved in this...interrogation," he says as an easy smirk flicks across his face. Katherine suddenly feels a blush spring up to her cheeks and the other boy chuckles,
"Fraid you walked right into that one, Plumbs."
"Nobody asked you, Race," Katherine replies moodily before turning back to Jack in front of her, "So, the cookie dough?"
"Is that your idea of a softball question? Cause that hits a little too close to home," Jack replies snarkily. Katherine rolls her eyes and grinds her teeth together in frustration.
A tall young man with dark hair pokes his head in.
"Ummm...Katherine? What's happening?" he asks.
"Davey, don't worry about it. He deserves it. He stole my cookie dough," Katherine replies.
"Am I seeing this right?" Davey starts, half ignoring what Katherine had said, "You've got him wrapped up in....Christmas lights?"
"Yes, it's the only way he'll talk," Katherine cries out frustrated, sneaking a look at the lights sending a gorgeous glow onto Jack's face.
"Enjoying the view?" Jack asks playfully, catching her staring, and Katherine turns back to Davey, who she can tell is half trying to stifle a laugh. He calmly excuses himself, leaving Katherine with Jack and Race. She is seriously outnumbered.
"Elley!!!" she calls out into the apartment. The younger of the two Kelly siblings pokes her into the doorway.
"Yeah?" she asks while holding something in her hand. Katherine immediately becomes fixated by the object in her hand.
"Is that a sugar cookie?" she asks Elley, who quickly closes her hand around the cookie.
"Well ya see, Katherine. This is the only surviving sugar cookie which means it has to be protected at all costs," Elley says, moving to hide it behind her back and then proceeds to stick it in her back pocket, "By the way, don't look at the..."
"WHAT KIND OF ABOMINATION EXPLODED IN THIS KITCHEN????" The voice of Davey Jacobs cuts through the apartment sharper than a nail poking a hole in a tire.
"Ummm....I'll be right back," Elley squeaks before hurrying to the kitchen to calm him down. She hurries to see Mush already trying to calm Davey down. As he's talking to him, she notices him stealthily swiping a glob of cookie dough from the island counter with his finger.
"Davey...you know I wasn't around to see the cookie dough fight happen. I just heard it. I was playing video games with Blink," Mush is trying to explain to the older Jacobs boy. Les, the younger of the two Jacobs brothers is also trying to sneak a glob of cookie dough away under the watchful eyes of his older brother. To Les' chagrin, Davey catches him as the massive glob of cookie dough on his index finger is halfway to his mouth.
"No! No! No!" Davey scolds and Les frowns at him.
"Awww, come on. Everybody else is doing it," the younger boy whines as his brother starts to drag him over towards the sink.
"And if everybody was jumping off of a burning building..."Davey starts but Les stops him,
"That's different. They're doing it to survive." With that, he sticks his cookie dough covered finger into his mouth and eats the cookie dough off of it.
"No!" Davey cries out as Les pulls out a clean finger. He yanks his hand out of Davey's wrist and walks over to the sink with a prideful look on his face. He rinses off his finger and purposely splashes water onto Davey's pants.
Meanwhile, Elley confronts Mush.
"Drop it in the trash can, Myers," she says and Mush hides his hands behind his back.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Ells," he replies as a small blush creeps up into his cheek. Elley, knowing him too well and knowing all of his little ticks that indicate when he's lying, shakes her head.
"Yeah, I think you do. The cookie dough on your left hand on your index finger," she replies but Mush shakes his head.
"Ells, I think you're seeing things," Mush says in an attempt to appease her. It works until she points to the obvious finger swipe mark left in the cookie dough on the counter.
"How do ya explain that?" Mush sighs for a split second before acting like he's suddenly remembering something.
"Ya know. I just told Blink that I was gonna ummm....find his toothbrush...I'll ummm be right back," he says but Elley grabs his sleeve before he can go anywhere.
"Nah, you're coming with me," she demands instead as she pulls him towards the interrogation room.
"Where are we going?" Mush asks with a tiny bit of fear in his voice.
"To interrogate you," she says replies before shouting out, "Kath! We have ourselves another scheming cookie dough thief."
"Bring him in. We have a chair open for him," Katherine calls back out. Elley pulls Mush further into the room as he continues protesting.
"I never would..."he starts but she cuts him off.
"No...don't say that. I saw you do it. There's no way you didn't," she snaps before gently pushing down into the chair and pulling up another strand of Christmas lights plugged into the wall and not so tangling them around Mush.
"Ow! Is this really necessary?" Mush asks with a whining tone.
"Absolutely. Now put your arms flat on the arms of the chair. No funny business," Elley instructs but Mush merely places his elbow and upper arms on the chair, trying to slouch and mess up the tangle of Christmas lights trapping him. Elley groans loudly.
"What?!" Mush asks, "Isn't this what you wanted?"
"Your forearms, genius. And your hands," she says.
"What? So you can hold em?" Race calls out and Elley rolls her eyes.
"No! So, I can tie em to this chair with the Christmas lights so he can be questioned," she explains exhausted by these boys and their nonsense. She hadn't even gotten to the questioning yet. It's going to be a long interrogation session.
"Elley," Katherine starts, "Can you get your brother to talk? Because I can't. He's either whining or shamelessly flirting with me or avoiding my questions or doing all three at once!" Elley lets out a long sigh as she not so gently wraps Mush's arms around the chair, causing the boy to flinch and complain as she does so.
"Easy, Ells. I didn't murder anyone," Mush protests at the girl wraps the strand of Christmas lights tighter and tighter around his wrists before tying the end around her own wrist.
"How am I supposed to know that?" she asks frustrated. Mush pouts at her and a shocked expression scrawls itself across his face, darkening his features in a way that for the briefest instant, Elley wishes she could kiss away. Before she can dwell on the feeling any longer, Mush interrupts,
"Would this face murder anyone? Would this strong able body want to waste his energy and strength on something so heinous as murder?" Elley bites her bottom lip and looks over at Katherine for any ounce of sympathy.
"Well, would you rather deal with him?" Katherine asks, gesturing to Jack, who's still staring hopefully up at Katherine for some kind of puppy love.
"Aaaaacccccceeeeeeee," Jack whines and Elley turns back to Mush, who's staring at her with his bright brown eyes.
"Oh fine. I give up on Jacky Boy over there. He's all yours, Kath. I'll take this mushy boy," Elley decides.
"I'm turning to mush pretty quickly with how tightly ya have these Christmas lights tied around my wrist," Mush whines. As he's whining, Crutchie, Davey and Jojo all enter the room.
"This one is the only one who doesn't have some amount of sugar in his body" Crutchie announces proudly as he gently waves a large rubber shark toy forward, "but he does have this."
"Ummm...okay," Katherine says clearly confused and then shaking her head. Albert, Skittery and Kid Blink soon enter the room and all three of them are bantering about something. Race spots Albert and leaps up from the chair to race over to him. Before anyone can stop him, he leaps onto Albert's back.
"Run, my valiant knight! We must escape from this dungeon before they imprison me for good based on my dashing looks alone!" Race cries out before his index finger to the doorway. Flavi walks to the doorway only to see Albert hurrying out with Race.
"Race? Where are you going? I'm pretty sure no one's questioned you yet," she says as Race and Albert run by.
"Ah! My beautiful lady love! Come join me! We must escape to the hills where we can seek refuge from this terrible place. The dragon with the auburn curls is after me once again and she'll be after you too if you don't run away with me," Race continues dramatically. Flavi cocks an eyebrow at Race.
"Katherine isn't a dragon, Race. Now, I'm supposed to ask you some questions about some missing cookie dough," she says, trying to be diplomatic about her task.
"I'm afraid that spending all that time in that terrible dungeon has ruined my memory. But a kiss from you might bring it back, lady love," Race replies and shoots her a wink. Flavi feels a blush creep up onto her face and turns to Albert, who's still having his argument with Skittery and Kid Blink.
"Well if you haven't poked the cookie dough in the first place, then it wouldn't have spurted onto the stove," Albert shouts at Kid Blink.
"Oh right and like you didn't try to scoop it up," Skittery argues just for the sake of arguing.
"I didn't try," Albert snaps back moodily, "I did and I did it very well. I beat you two and Race to the cookie dough. I also got it cleaned up before Jack found out."
"Which he just wanted to cause trouble because it was Katherine's cookie dough," Kid Blink argues, "Besides, I was in the middle of the thirtieth level of Dancing Ducks and Jumping Jellybeans. What was I supposed to do?"
"So you admit you were playing that ridiculous game," Skittery says before whispering to Blink, "Now tell me how you got to level 30 because I'm still stuck on level 4."
"Not you too!" Albert cries out in disbelief, "You could have been playing a flight simulator or a freight train simulator or something a little more epic than that...thing."
While they're arguing, Race tries to make a break for it. He slips off of Albert's back and tries to run for the window with the fire escape underneath it but Flavi grabs his wrist.
"Flavi!!!" Race whines, "Please just let me make my famous escape this once."
"First of all, you're pulling a Jack by escaping on the fire escape and second of all, you still haven't been questioned," she insists before trying to pull him back towards the room where Katherine is interrogating Jack. Race sighs dramatically.
"Fine. Anything to please my lady love," he groans as she takes him by the wrist and pulls him back into a chair. Finding her own strand of Christmas lights with which to tie him up, she starts wrapping it around Race once he sits down. She tries carefully not to hurt him as she wraps it around him.
"So, since Jojo is sugar free, are we letting him question people?" Davey asks.
"Any able body who has no sugar and is going to be working towards a common goal of figuring out who started this can be questioning someone. Besides, I think it's going to take a whole team to get this little flirt to stop his antics and actually answer my questions," Katherine states. Davey coughs awkwardly and Jojo gently whaps him with the rubber shark.
"What was that for?" Davey asks.
"It's love. Let it happen," a new voice says, causing Davey and Jojo to jump.
"Romeo...you can't help. You took a swab of the cookie dough right out of the sink! I saw you!" Davey exclaims.
"I saw it too," Elley calls out as she manages to pull the sugar cookie out of her pocket. Jojo gently whaps Romeo with the rubber shark.
"What's with you and the rubber shark? Did you steal that out of Elmer's collection of pool toys?" Romeo asks.
"I didn't steal it. Elmer gave it to me because I didn't have any pool toys of my own," Jojo says, "Elmer and I have a great friendship. I wouldn't steal from him and he wouldn't steal from me."
"At least one of them isn't corrupted," Elley murmurs to Flavi, causing the quieter girl to giggle softly before looking at the three boys tied up, "Then there's some of them that can't be saved." Flavi's giggles grow a little bit louder.
"Lady Love? What's so funny?" Race asks the young girl and she turns around trying her best to hide her smile behind her hand.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it," Flavi says, "What you should be worried about is where that cookie dough is."
"I've already told you my conditions for revealing to you where the cookie dough is," Race says, "All you have to do is kiss me."
"Personally, I would prefer it if the gentleman kissed his lady love first," Flavi replies gently but with an authority that tells Race that she's not changing her mind. Race makes some sort of upset noise in defeat and Elley slowly starts to pull Mush closer to her by the Christmas light strand.
"What are you..?" Mush starts to ask but Elley interrupts him.
"Where....is....the....cookie dough?" she asks him harshly and Mush blinks up at her innocently, "I'm gonna get you to break one way or another."
"Oh really??? How??" Mush asks challenging her and she bites her lips for a second.
"Give im a kiss!" Race shouts.
"No!" Jack cries out from his chair before turning back to Katherine, "Ya know, pink and yellow really light up your face nicely, Ace."
Albert hurries over, steals the rubber shark out of Jojo's hand and slaps Jack across the face with it.
"Stop flirtin and tell her where the cookie dough is," he says loudly causing the general chaos happening in the room to stop for a brief moment. Jojo steps forward and crosses his arms.
"I'm cookie dough free so I will talk to him about his cookie dough. My innocence enough will get him to break," he says before grabbing the back of chair and looking right into Jack's eyes, "Did you...or did you not steal the cookie dough?"
"Ooooooo, are we questioning Jack? Can I help? Jack, did you tell Katherine that you were the first one to slip some cookie dough out of the kitchen?" Les asks as he sprints into the room excitedly bouncing up and down on his toes.
"Actually....it was Albert," Jack says trying to shift the blame onto the redhead smirking at Katherine as he says his next words, "I would NEVER touch my precious Ace's cookie dough."
"Awwww, come on. It wasn't me...it was Skittery because he got upset that there was sweet stuff being made that he didn't know about and don't even get me started on when he and Race got into the icing. Specs was only too happy to help out," Albert says, continuing the tall tale.
"Why do I feel like this is a game of Telephone gone completely wrong and no one even has an estimate of what the actual story is?" Davey asks to Crutchie.
"Maybe because it is," Crutchie replies with a nonchalant shrug.
"You boys got into the icing too!" Katherine cries out before turning to Jack, who's biting his lip to keep a smirk from spreading across his face.
"Well...it was on the counter and it was sugar and Mike and Ike said they hadn't eaten breakfast. Bumlets, Pie Eater, Dutchy, Hot Shot and a bunch of the other guys were all in the same boat so...ummm...some stuff happened," Mush elaborates.
"And you said you were playing video games," Elley says, tightening her hold on the strand of Christmas lights tying Mush down.
"Alright," Katherine says, "Is there anyone outside of this massive fight who can tell me the real story?"
A soft cough sounds from near Jack and everyone swivels to see Jojo politely waving his hand.
"I believe I can shed some light on the true culprit in this crime. I do believe that all three boys tied up in the chairs are not the instigators and that they....were set up," Jojo says, gently folding his hands in front of him.
"And????" Elley asks.
"My detective agency will seek out the culprit," Jojo says.
"Who's in this agency?" Katherine asks with some concern.
Jojo gestures to Elmer, Buttons and Henry standing in the doorway before raising up his rubber shark.
A/N: So, how's that for a cliffhanger? You guys want a part two? I'm kinda feeling a part two.
For not having written Newsies in awhile, I feel like this is fairly good. Not my best work but not bad. I've missed getting to write things like these oneshots and I'm excited to see what else I get to do with this book...there's a lot in store so stay tuned for that.
I'm also gonna try to release War Wonders soonish. I really just need to develop a plot for it. Is anyone gonna be upset if I include some Lara Croft esque pieces to it? I think it could make it more interesting.
Also, if you requested a oneshot, I'll hopefully start work on it soon. It's hard to kind of feel motivated to write sometimes but I'm working on it. (I also had a crazy semester this past fall because I was taking Calc and a grand total of 14 credit hours so I kinda had my hands full. I'm hoping to be able to write some more this semester because I managed to pass Calc.)
I've also been doing a lot of Star Wars stuff too but I still love my Newsies and I have more Newsies drafts than Star Wars drafts so umm...you know where my writing passions lie. :) I really like writing Star Wars but it can be a bit overwhelming because it's such a massive story.
Anyways, stay tuned for some cool Newsies content and Star Wars content.
Thank you so much for reading, voting, commenting, or doing whatever it is you do!! I hope you all enjoyed this oneshot and that it brought you some joy. There's a lot going on in the world right now and I would be lying if I told you that it wasn't weighing heavy on me sometimes. Despite that, I'm gonna do my best to put out some fun Newsies and Star Wars content when I have the time to bring us all some joy and just allow us to escape to a different world for a little bit. Thanks so much to all of you for being as supportive as you guys have been during my time away. It really means a lot to me. Thanks so much for putting up with my crazy writing ideas and fangirling. :)
See you around, friends!! (Probably in a part 2 for this oneshot)
-Aisling Kiley