#emphasis on the garbage

another!! garbage!! oc fic!!! ft rory’s amazing oc sparky!!!

tw - transphobia, not-very-well-written violence

mid-september was bugs’s least favorite time of the year, he decided. it wasn’t quite october so it wasn’t exactly cool, and it was just after august so some of the heat from summer was still there. as a newsie, you learn to deal with it, especially since new york isn’t exactly known for its consistent weather.

bugs was walking home from selling his last paper, taking care not to talk too much so that his customers didn’t hear his clearly high-pitched voice. he was lucky he was small, so he could almost pass for a younger boy when he did have to speak.

bugs had kept his head down and his eyes trained on his well-worn boots that he didn’t notice the two figures ahead of him. he slammed directly into them, and sputtered out a quick apology before looking up.

oh.

none other than oscar and morris delancey were staring back down at him, giving him a look as if he were a rat. honestly, that was probably what they saw him as. a street rat.

oscar’s glare broke into a small smirk. “hey, morris, looks like the little newsie’s lost,” he sneered.

“i’m not los—“

“whaddaya say we give ‘er a hand?”

“‘him’, not ‘her’,” bugs spoke up. bad choice.

morris looked confused for about half a second, before realization and then disgust spread across his face. “ohhh, I see. you’re one of those things.”

“i’m not a thing!” bugs exclaimed, stomping his heel down on morris’s toe. he tried to run for it, but only ended up getting grabbed by the arm and dragged into the nearest alley. oscar threw him roughly onto the ground before kicking him in the stomach. bugs curled into himself, trying his damndest not to cry. he would not cry in front of the delanceys.

he felt himself being dragged up again, and before he could register anything, the air was forced from his lungs as his back hit the brick wall.

“where’s jack now, huh, girlie?” oscar asked, giving a sick laugh. morris had come up by this time, and threw one punch to bugs’s face and one to his ribs. bugs grit his teeth to keep from crying out. apparently the delanceys had enough, because oscar dropped him onto the ground, and gave him another quick kick to the stomach before leaving with his brother, both of them laughing.

bugs pushed himself up to lean against the wall, although with some difficulty. after sitting there for a few minutes, he managed to stand up.

it took longer to get to the lodging house than he would have liked. the others were definitely worrying by now.

as he opened the door, he disregarded the bombardment of questions from the other newsies and went straight to sparky, wrapping her in a hug and allowing himself to break down. the newsies went quiet, wondering who the hell they needed to kill.

sparky’s heart broke as the small boy began sobbing into her shirt. she looked at the others and gave a signal for them to give them some space. once the others were gone, she looked down at bugs and just held him tighter.

“hey, it’s ok. you’s home now, yeah?” sparky said quietly. “you’s safe. ain’t nobody gonna hurt you now,” she said. she was vaguely aware of the newsies snickering at how soft she was being from behind the door, and promptly flipped them all off.

once bugs’s sobbing reduced to small sniffles, he pulled away from her. sparky smiled. “there he is. you wanna tell me who did this to ya?” sparky asked.

“delanceys,” bugs said, almost inaudibly, but sparky heard it loud and clear. if she was being honest, she kind of knew it was the delanceys. who else would take the time to soak a goddamn kid so bad? except maybe a bull. it didn’t make her any less furious though. sparky stood up without saying a word, only stopping when bugs grabbed her sleeve.

“stay?” he said quietly, and sparky’s heart shattered all over again.

“yeah. i’m not goin’ anywhere, kid,” she said, ruffling bugs’s curly, rust-colored hair. “now, lets go get you taken care of, and if you want to you can tell me what happened, ok?” she said. bugs nodded, and sparky smiled softly. the two headed into the small bathroom, bugs still leaning on sparky slightly.

——————————————————————————