Throughout It All

16 | After All These Years | July 20, 1914

Sorry for the wait haha. I'm making up for it with five chapters released at once.

Okay, yes, we will move away from July 20th at some point, but there's just a lot happening in this one day, okay? haha

This ... woah. 

Enjoy! :)

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They can all see how Sardinia Frank is related to Kid Griffo. They have the same warm brown eyes. But while Kid Griffo's eyes have the look of a trapped animal, Sardinia Frank's eyes are full of confidence and strength, determination to stand his ground. And he is so, so much taller than Kid Griffo.

He has a smile on his face looking at Kid Griffo and Chick Tucker, but once his eyes fall on everyone else, his expression turns into a question mark and distrust.

Mush steps forward. "We knew Dave Simmons, back when we were all newsies, and, um..." he swallows. "We knew Kid Blink too." He shakily holds out his hand. "I'm Mush."

Sardinia's eyes widen with recognition. They all guess he's heard Mush's name over the years. And slowly, the distrust fades away, and he shakes Mush's hand.

He opens the door wide. "Come on in."

And so the seven of them walk in. For the five, this is when it finally all comes together.

Sardinia closes the door behind them all. These people do love sealing away from the world. That means either they have a reason to hide, or something to hide from. And knowing their complicated past, and complicated present, it's easy to say it's both.

"Hey, love?" Sardinia calls to another room, never taking his eyes off the still-strangers in his house. "Come 'ere for a moment."

A man comes into the room. He has the same face as the Dave Simmons they knew, but where there was once edginess and constant wariness in his eyes, there's easiness and even loving happiness. "Yes, dear?"

That's when he freezes when he sees all of them.

For a moment, none of them says anything.

Who should speak first? What should they say? What can they say? Should they bring up what happened fifteen years ago with their strike? Or talk about Kid Blink? One would think that by now they would know what they should say when they show up seemingly out of the blue; but they still haven't found a good way to warm people up to the idea of why they came.

So Mush acts first rather than speaks first. He walks up to Dave Simmons, and hugs him. "I missed you."

Dave is still frozen, like he doesn't know what to do. And then he relaxes, and hugs back. "I missed you too."

Of course, the others realize. While they all had once held a grudge against Dave for betraying the newsies, Mush never gave up on him, just like he never gave up on Kid Blink. Throughout it all Mush believed in them.

Seeing this makes them realize once again that they should have done more. They should have been more open and forgiving back then, they should have pushed to interact more over the years, they shouldn't be near strangers now because of years of no communication. But it's too late for all of that. So the next best thing is to work with what they got: the present.

"So." Race sticks his hands in his pockets, trying to start up a conversation. "You ended up being into guys in the long run, huh?"

Spot elbows him, disbelief in his eyes. "You have got to be kidding me."