Newsies One-Shots

Chapter 22 - Jack and Crutchie

Self Care Days With Jack and Crutchie
Ship - Jack and Crutchie (brotherly)
Era - Modern
Triggers - Overworking.

Jack was positive that he'd absolutely lost his mind.

For starters, he'd been studying. Sure he'd studied before but never as intensely as he had been the previous few weeks.

Secondly, he hadn't spent any time with the Newsies. He'd ben cooped up in his room at home and cooped up in the library at school during lunch.

"Heya Jackie," Crutchie said in greeting as he sat down beside his older brother.

"Hey," Jack replied.

He went to pull the younger boy into a hug but stopped when he saw the frown on his face.

The smile dropped from Jack's face. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Is everyone okay?"

"We're all fine," he told him. "But you're not. You've been in here all the time and you've been working ignoring us all."

Jack looked down at his lap in shame.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I shouldn't have ignored you all."

Crutchie sat down beside him and warped an arm around his shoulders. "Don't be sorry, you haven't done anything wrong. We're just worried about you."

Jack looked up at Crutchie and felt tears starting to well up.

Crutchie frowned and kissed Jack of the forehead.

"Why don't you come eat with us all and this evening we can watch a movie or a show or something," he suggested. "Or if you want, we can just talk. Whatever you want. No matter what, I'll be here for you."

"Can we stay here?" Jack asked timidly. "I don't wanna see the others yet, they'll be angry with me."

Crutchie looked at him sorrowfully but nodded nonetheless. "They won't be angry but I understand. We can stay here as long as you want."

Jack nodded and leaned his head onto Crutchie's shoulder.

"Can we watch a bad rom-com and make fun of it? Then maybe actually watch a movie," Jack asked.

"Whatever you want," Crutchie told him.

~~~

That evening, Jack tried to escape to his room and study but was stopped by Crutchie.

"You've studied enough for now, come on. I have some of your favourite movies out." Crutchie pointed to the boxes of DVDs lying on the small coffee table. "You can pick out the one you want to watch, I got all the cheesy rom-coms we own out."

Jack picked out one of the movies from the pile and moved to put it in the DVD player.

"No," Crutchie told him. "You've to relax, I'll do the disk."

"I'm right here, I'll do it," he tried to reason with him.

"Jack."

"Crutchie."

An intense staring contest ensued between the two boys, neither of them won.

While the staring contest was going on Jack slipped the disk in behind his back.

"Well, it's done now so," Jack let his sentence trail off as a grin made its way to his face.

"Jack Kelly," Crutchie shouted. "You're meant to be relaxing."

Jack did as he was told and curled his feet up under him.

He pressed the button on the remote to start the movie.

The boys stayed there for the entirety of the movie, snacking on popcorn and any sort of treats they could find.

After the movie finished Jack helped Crutchie clean up, much to Crutchie's disagreement.

They had put all the dishes in the sink to be cleaned when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him.

"Thank you," Jack whispered.

He turned around and returned the hug to Jack. "Of course, sometimes we just need a bit of looking after."

~~~
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