#britsies

Flash warning

Jack: Don’t you mean talk dirty?

AKA: me planning out headcanons because I want to make this into a fic. Also this is pure angst, you have been warned.

Race gets back to the lodging house first. Of course he does; the combination of long legs and adrenaline means he can run really fast when he needs to. There’s nothing he wants more than to smoke his cigar, but he lost it in the fray and even if he hadn’t, he isn’t sure he’d be able to light it with his shaking hands.

Albert doesn’t speak for a long while. There are a million thoughts buzzing in his head as always but for the first time he can’t form them into words. He just sits on his bed, holding onto Race’s hand for dear life. (Race is secretly grateful for this; he craves the touch just as much as Al.)

Henry can’t stop moving. Even though his ribs ache and it hurts to breathe, he fears the breakdown that will come once he stands still. Instead he floats between the newsies, checking in to make sure everyone is doing okay — or as okay as they can be. He needs to be useful right now or else he’ll completely shut down.

Finch is inconsolable. He can still hear Crutchie screaming his name. He could have turned back. He should have turned back. But like a cowardly little bird, he flew away. The others try to tell him that it’s not his fault, that there was nothing he could’ve done. He doesn’t believe them.

In spite of everything, Specs is thanking the world for small miracles. His glasses didn’t crack; his bruises are only minor; and as Romeo lies sleeping in his lap, he makes a vow to get up as soon as possible the next day and check in on Crutchie. He charts his course through back alleys and fire escapes to make it to the Refuge window without being seen. Right now though, he rests, carding his fingers through Romeo’s hair. Things are going to be okay, Specs would make sure of it.

Tommy Boy won’t let anyone touch Splasher. He finally got the poor boy to stop wailing in agony, and he wasn’t about to let some pair of untrained hands slip up and cause Splasher to end up in more pain than he already was. Instead, Tommy Boy gently wipes the blood from his friend’s brow and whispers soothing words. He places his rosary around Splasher’s neck; Tommy Boy has no idea if Splasher is Catholic or even believes in God at all, but he says a prayer of the two of them all the same.

No one hears from Elmer for a frighteningly long while. An unspoken trepidation that he had been arrested passes through the boys until Jojo silently appears at the doorway with Elmer in tow. He holds a prayer book, his face puffy and red from crying. What he’d said to the sister was right, it had been bound to rain sooner or later. He just hadn’t expected the torrential downpour of his own tears to finally bring him back to church.

Davey and Les come home to a terrified mother and a proud father. Sarah bandages them up, listening to Les’s every word about how things had been going so great until they hadn’t. Mayer jokes that now he and Davey have matching wounds. Davey doesn’t say anything. He can’t stop thinking about Jack.

*not my video*