Newsies one-shots

I've lived || brotherly relationships

Because I'm nearly at the 8K READS or already just got there, I decided to do something fluffy for a change. It's not what I'm best at, but we'll see!

Thank you all so much for the support! Love you lots!

~ F

PS. Sorry for not updating in a while, but I got busy at school and I didn't have any inspiration. It's vacation now, so I can write more and you can always sent me a request as comment or just in the private chat. Or you can just message me if you want/need to talk. ;)

It was hot. Really hot. So it wasn't that weird that the group had decided to go out to the lake in the forest to cool down. And even though not everyone could come, Crutchie and Davey because they were the responsible 'adults' and had to go to work and the others were either away with their families or had 'private matters' (*cough* Mush and Blink *cough*). That left only Jack, Elmer, Albert, Finch, Henry, JoJo, Romeo, Specs and Race. Jack and Specs had driven the group there in two cars, them being the only ones actually having their drivers licences. And if Jack, Race, Henry and Finch had sung along with let it go a little too enthusiastically, no one would ever get to know.

"Are we really doing this?" Race asked with a little bit of fear in his eyes but there was also a smile of excitement on his lips.
"Hell yes!" Albert came running past them as he yelled and took the leap of faith. Race watched at the spot where he had disappeared in the water that was a long way below them. The rope which Albert had used to swing himself further in the lake came swinging back, nearly hitting Race in the process. Jack was quick enough to catch it so it would actually injure someone. The blond looked back down at the lake, locking eyes with one of his pseudo brothers. Specs looked at him with a smile and nodded, confirming that it was actually save. Normally Race would've been the first one to do something impulsive, but something about the height made him a little more conscious of the dangers. It was just him and Jack left on the top of the rock, Jack always being the 'older brother' as he often called himself had stayed behind until everyone of them was down.
"Come on, Racer. They did it and so can you. I can hold your hand if you'd like." Jack smirked at his own comment as he handed Race the rope.
"Yeah, in your dreams." Race stuck out his tongue as he took a few steps back, creating a little more space to gain speed.
"WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG?" Romeo's voice sounded from the lake which made Jack laugh. Race took a deep breath and ran forward, holding the rope tight until he came to the point that it didn't go any further and he let go. The fall only took a few seconds but to him it felt like an entire minute before his feet touched the water. While he was under he could hear someone else diving into the lake. Deciding he had been down long enough, Race swam up and took a gasp of air as soon as his mouth was above the surface. Laughter filled his ears as soon as his brain got back to the pressent, having shut down momentarily at the massive amount of air that had filled his lungs. 
"What's so funny?" He asked with a confused look on his face. No one answered him except Jo Jo who pointed at Elmer. Said boy looked just as confused as Race. On the first glance nothing seemed wrong, but when Race looked a little longer he noticed that there was a tiny frog clinging to the youngest boy's hair. Race burst out laughing at the moment he saw it, not caring to tell Elmer why he was laughing. The even funnier thing was that Elmer, even though loving animals in general, was scared of frogs. It was one of the weirdest phobias in their friend group, the weirdest being Les's fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of his mouth. A gasp at Race's left let Race know that Jack had finally decided to not live as a fish and swim up to get air. 
"Why is everyone laughing?" Jack asked Race as he wiped the water out of his face with his right hand. 
"Look at Elmer." Race whispered, not wanting the other boy to hear it. Jack took a look at Elmer, but instead of a laugh a sigh escaped his mouth. 

Jack was very protective, although it may not always seem so (we're totally ignoring that one time where he nearly gotten Davey in the hospital because he wanted to try out his electric fly swatter...). Knowing that his pseudo brothers all knew about Elmer's fear of frogs, but still didn't do anything to help him or at least warn him made him disappointed in them. There normally would be at least one of them who would help the boy out, but it seemed like all of the responsibility had stayed in Manhattan. Jack swam up to Elmer, who wasn't that far away luckily and cautiously brought his hands up to the boy's hair. 
"What are you doing?" Elmer questioned.
"Stay still." Jack told him and the boy did so. Jack got the frog with relative ease and trapped it in his hands. 
"Wha-" Elmer was about to ask while turning his head to look at Jack when the frog escaped from Jack's hands and leaped into the water, swimming away as fast as if he was a gazelle being chased by cheeta. Jack looked from where the frog had disappeared out of sight to Elmer, who had paled so much that he looked like a corpse. His eyes were wide with shock and fear as they filled with tears. Jack took the boy in his arms, keeping the both of them with their heads above the surface with his legs. He was lucky that Elmer was a light weight, because the boy wasn't swimming himself anymore so he had to swim for two. 
"Do you want to go to the shore?" Jack whispered in the boy's ear. He got a small nod and the moving of the boy's legs as confirmation, but the boy never let go of the oldest. 

Meanwhile the rest of the group had already shifted their attention away from the youngest and oldest to the two red heads and two of the brunettes. Albert was sitting on Finch's shoulders in a less deep part of the lake with Jo Jo sitting on Henry's shoulders opposite of them. They were preparing for the 'most epic chicken fight ever' as Henry had called it.
"3... 2... 1... START!" Romeo counted down with already a hint of mischief in his eyes. 
"In the right corner we have team Red." Specs started his commentary with a small smirk. "Big muscles but not much upstairs." A loud and offended 'HEY' came from Albert making the already laughing viewers laugh even harder. "In the left corner we have team Brown. They have the muscle but how they wish to have the height." Another 'HEY' sounded but this time from both of the smaller brunets. 
"Team Red is closing in on team Brown." Race continued the commentary as Specs was trying his best not to die of laughter. "Team Red has a little trouble in their coordination, but meanwhile Jo Jo has trouble reaching Albert because he's simply too small." 
"This is going to be an interesting match. On who do you place your bets?" Specs stepped back in once he was done laughing and pointed his imaginary microphone towards Romeo, who was still looking mischievously at the four.
"My beds are on me and Race." Romeo whispered into the microphone and winked at where a camera would've been if it was an actual interview. As if on cue Romeo started to rise into the air and Race emerged on the place where Romeo had been standing, the other boy now being on his shoulders. They charged the group screaming a war cry at the top of their lungs while Specs stood there laughing, not bothering to commentate since no one would actually be listening. The fight went on for several minutes before a blur of blue, brown and yellow passed Specs. Barging into the fight came Jack with a now calm Elmer on his shoulders. In contrary to the entire fight that had passed it had ended pretty fast, Jack and Elmer being the ones left standing while the other's were laughing in the water.
"Not fair! We were already tired from the fighting!" Finch complained but there was a smile on his face that betrayed his fake anger. 
"Okay, I know how to make it up to you. I'll buy you all ice cream on the way home." Jack told them as if he hadn't already been planning on doing so. The group cheered as they began scattering in different groups, deciding to spend the hour they had left just hanging around.

They drove past a McDonald's on their way back and true to his word, Jack bought them all a McFlurry. Instead of eating them in the car Jack and Specs had decided to drive them to a field just outside of New York where they could all sit around and watch the sunset. 
"I never want this day to end." JoJo sighed from where he was laying with his head in Henry's lap, said boy mindlessly playing with the other's hair. The others hummed in agreement, for as far as they were awake at least. Elmer and Romeo were leaning heavily against Specs, both of the leaning boys were asleep, Albert was curled up against Finch's side, trying to stay warm in the slowly lowering temperature and Race was sitting with Jack on the hood of the car, Jack's arm wrapped around Race's shoulder in a side hug while the blond boy was nearly dozing off. Jack sighed and looked at the group of boys in front of him. He couldn't agree more with JoJo. Today had been an amazing day and he just hoped that they all could come next time. 
"When I die, at least I've lived." Jack said to no one in particular but got more than one agreement in return.

Sorry, it turned out a little shorter than I was hoping for.

~ F