Work Text:
Albert’s hat
It was a quite normal morning at the newsboy lodging house. Some boys tumbled into the bathroom sleepily, rubbing their eyes and yawning while others tried to wake up the younger kids, curled up in their bunk beds. All the beds were occupied during the winter. No one wanted to sleep on the streets in the biting cold, so most young kids had to share their bed with another child. But that wasn’t the only problem: Lesser potential customers walked the streets and those daring enough to face the icy wind, rarely stopped to buy a paper from one of the freezing newsies at the side of the road, so naturally the mood in the lodging house was tense, but Jack Kelly, the leader of the boys, tried his best to keep the moral up.
Albert sighed. He had been looking for his hat all over the house and was slowly losing hope of finding it before the newsies had to leave for the distribution centre.
“Hey, Red! Why the long face? Missin’ something?” His best friend, Racetrack Higgins, asked him with a shit eating grin when he finally gave up and came down to join the rest of the newsies, waiting for Jack to decide who should sell with Crutchie that day. Because of his bum leg, Crutchie always got more sympathy from the passers on the street than the rest of the boys, so whenever the sales dipped, Jack would assign someone to work with him, to up their income as well.
“Come on, give it back” Albert demanded, stretching out his hand.
“I don’t know what you are talking about” Race replied smugly while playing with his cigar.
“You know exactly what I am talking about.”
“Whoa, calm it sweetheart. I didn’t take your hat, but I’m pretty sure I saw little Mason messing with your stuff while you were still snoring.” Race stuck the cigar between his teeth again.
The red-haired boy rolled his eyes “I’m gonna kill him.” He mumbled under his breath while marching over to the little boy to retrieve his hat.
Race’s eyes followed him and on his lips played an amused smirk. Obviously the threat was empty. Even if he would never admit it Albert loved Mason and would forgive him everything.
“Alright guys, listen up!” Jack’s voice commanded silence from the room, causing Race to shift in the beat-up armchair he was sitting in. “Elmer is going to sell with Crutchie today.”
Elmer grinned, knowing he could need the extra money, as he was horrible at luring the people into buying a pape. He couldn’t lie if his life depended on it. In other corners of the room you could hear groans.
“Let’s hope the headline is good, boys; Yesterday evening I heard something about a fire in the Bronx.” Jack announced as they left the building, earning cheers and scattered claps from the crowd around him.
The headline wasn’t good. Not in the slightest. The Bronx fire didn’t even make it on the front page. Instead, the bold letters on the blackboard proclaimed: “New Senator In New Jersey Senate”
“Who would want to read about that?” Buttons asked with a bitter voice, receiving no answer, but some baffled head shakes.
“We aren’t even in New Jeresy” complained Romeo with his arms crossed. “Why would they report this crap here?”
“Hey,” Race nudged Albert, who finally got is hat back and was now throwing a coin in the air again and again, while following it concentrated with his eyes. They stood a bit away from the group, near to the distribution window, so they could grab their papers as quick as possible. Albert simply looked at him with a questioning expression, before turning his attention to the coin again. “I bet I can sell my papes faster than you”
Albert’s coin came to a halt. “You really think so? The last few times I always won.” He said in a challenging voice.
“Yeah, because I always let you win. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
Albert snorted. “Sure.”
“Well, I won’t go easy on you today, princess. So, what do you say? Do you back out or are you in?” The blue-eyed boy asked with a glimmer of mischief in his eyes, as the window opened and he slapped his money on the counter.
Albert quirked his eyebrow “Princess?”
Race simply took his papers, winked cheekily at the boy and strutted out of the gate.
By the time they reached their usual selling spot it began to snow. Thick, white flakes fell from the sky and soaked trough the boys thin clothing, but that didn’t stop them from shouting absurd headlines to attract the attention of the few people hurrying through the snow to get to their destination.
“Corrupt politician found dead in Hudson river” yelled Race and a man came over with an interested look on his face. “Page three, Mister” Racetrack said while pocketing the money the man gave him and tipping his head in thanks. Albert frowned and opened the paper in his hand,
“’Ex-New Yorker politician’s ashes scattered in Hudson river’? That’s a bit of a stretch.” he shot Race a sceptical glance, but the boy just smirked at him.
“Fine, if you wanna play it that way” Albert resigned before screaming: “Dead bodies paralyze railway traffic!”. He failed to mention that they weren’t human bodies, but birds’ transported there by a fox, and so people hurried to purchase the story from him.
As the time passed on the two boys came up with more and more ridiculous headlines and after a few hours each of them only had two papers left. The only problem was, that it had gotten dark and the paving stones under their feet were covered with fresh snow, so no one wandered around on the streets anymore.
“Well, I guess it’s a draw.” Albert admitted, pulling his thin jacked closer around him.
“Yeah, let’s go home.” Race agreed. His curly hair was full of snow, his cheeks were flushed red from the cold and his entire body shivered, but his blue eyes still radiated mischief and liveliness. Albert thought he looked perfectly beautiful.
A cold impact on his right shoulder and a loud laugh ripped him out of his thoughts. With a glare towards Race, who was still giggling, he immediately he crouched down to form a snowball of his own to return fire. What he didn’t expect was Race snatching his hat and running trough the snow towards the lodging house.
“You are dead, Anthony Racetrack Higgins” He shouted with a hoarse voice, running after him, but the grin on his face betrayed his words.
Quickly he caught up with his best friend, grabbed the cap out of his hands, while pulling Race’s precious cigar out of his pocket as well and ran as if his life depended on it.
Laughing and panting they both ran through the alleys of New York. They didn’t notice the cold wind stabbing in their faces or their lungs burning and begging for air. The only things they noticed were the snowflakes surrounding them and the laughter of their best friend.
As they were nearing the street of the house, Race caught up with Albert. He tried to retrieve his cigar, but Albert held his arms in the air, making it impossible to reach it.
“Oh, come on, hand it over!” Race demanded, trying to bring his arms down.
“Nope” was the only answer he got, accompanied with a sassy grin playing on Albert’s face.
As he tried to move away to resume running to the building at the end of the street, Race shoved him against the alleyway wall, still trying to fetch his cigar from the boy’s hands.
With Race’s eyes fixed on the item in his hands, Albert stared at his face. He had always loved Race’s thousand freckles; they littered his features like stars scattered all over the night sky. He also loved his lips that always had a slight, barely noticeable, upwards curl which would prompt little dimples to appear on his cheeks. He practically loved every aspect of his face. But not just his face, but Race all together. He adored his laughter and dumb jokes and gambling habits. He loved how he would try to cheer him up if he had a bad day and how he would always challenge everybody with sassy remarks. Those thoughts were nothing new for him, but as it crushed down on him so suddenly, he couldn’t ignore the voice in the back of his head anymore that always said “You love Racetrack Higgins.” It was the simple truth.
As he let down his guard the boy in front of him snatched the cigar out of his hands with a triumphant “Ha!”, but Albert couldn’t care less, because he still stared at him blankly.
“What’s wrong, Red?” Race asked and waved a hand in front of Albert’s face. “Are you so shocked that I-“
He never finished the taunting sentence as Albert grabbed his collar and crashed his lips onto Races’, who was far too dumbfounded to respond to the kiss. Quickly Albert caught himself and let go of his shirt. Muttering a quiet ‘sorry’, that sounded angry at himself, he turned to leave, but Race finally registered what just happened and stood in his way. The red-haired boy immediately looked away, not wanting to meet his eyes, however the boy had other plans and kissed him so suddenly, that Albert stumbled back.
Instantly Races’ hands went into Albert’s flaming red hair, knocking Alberts hat into the snow, whereas Albert pulled him against his chest with one hand on his cheek and one on his back to keep him as close as possible.
After what felt like hours, they parted, hair messy and their breath irregular, but with huge smiles on their faces.
“You have no idea how long I wanted to do that” Race finally broke the silence.