In Between 'Hattan and Brooklyn || A Sprace Story

Chapter 16 - "You Have to be Okay."

- Chapter 16 - I Don't Think Race Thinks Breaking is Acceptable (at least for himself to break) -
Warnings: Abuse, crying, pain, soaking
(Made by me ^)
Third Person POV

Race cringes in pain every time the cloth touches his cuts, before snapping and pushing Cloth away from him.

"Race-" Cloth starts.

"No." Race stands up. "I have things to do." He tells them.

JoJo sits him back down, making sure he didn't hurt Race anymore than he already was. "Not right now, you don't." He responds sternly. "The only thing you need to do is heal."

"And check up on Lucky, Crutchie, try to find Jack, see how all the other Manhattan boys are doing." Race stares up at him, glaring slightly at him.

"No." Spot steps into the room.

Most people look at him, Race included.

Cloth runs a wet cloth over a cut on Race's arm. "Race," he starts softly. "We need you to take both of your shirts off." He tells him.

Race's eyes widen. "No. I'm not revealing my whole past to the Brooklyn Newsies." He states, immediately trying to pull away again.

Spot locks eyes with Red, nodding to him.

Red nods.

Red leads every Newsie that wasn't a Manhattan Newsie, Spot, Ace, Hotshot, Patch, or Cloths out of the room.

"It's just us now..." Cloth tells Race softly, squeezing his hand gently. "Everyone has a bad past. We won't ask questions of judge." He assures him.

Race stays silent.

A leader would be able to do this.

A leader wouldn't be so scared.

A leader wouldn't have been so weak and gotten so beat up.

A leader wouldn't be so scared of them.

A leader shouldn't be so sensitive.

Race was snapped out of his thoughts by someone.

Spot was bent down in front of him, his hands holding Race's as he stared into his eyes. "I know what you're thinking right now. Get those thoughts out of your head, because every leader thinks them and they aren't true." He tells Race.

Race bites his lip. "But you don't know my past..." he responds softly.

"But I know what you're thinking and I know your past is far from sunshine and rainbows." Spot responds. "I may not know your full past, but I know it to an extent and that enough is horrible." He says. "I know those thoughts are wrong. Get them out of your head." He tells him.

Race sighs deeply, but nods.

Spot stands up again.

Race hesitates, but starts trying to pull his shirt off.

After some help from Specs, he did get it off.

Race heard scattered gasps that had tried to stay silent, but they still were loud enough for him to hear them.

Race bites his lip. It's alright.

You're okay.

It'll only hurt for a bit.

It'll feel better.

"Ow!" Race cries out in pain when Cloth starts cleaning some of his injuries.