Newsies One-Shots

Open Eyes - Felmer

A/N Dear Tilda Fenech, today is going to be a good day and here's why... I listened to The Great Gatsby. My life is forever changed. Forever. Oh my God. My girlfriend told me I'd make a great Jordan Baker. Life is good.

Elmer downed the glass of water and cradled his bruised chin in his bleeding hands. The glass felt surprisingly cool and nice against his chapped lips and the water numbed the pain a little. If he closed his eyes, he could still see his attackers towering over him, wanting to punch and kill him...

Elmer blinked rapidly, trying his hardest to get the visions out of his head. He slammed the glass back onto the table and stood shakily, feeling an urgent need to run until he thought better of it. He didn't think that'd be any time soon. 

He ran as fast as he could out of the deli into the dark streets of New York. His blood-soaked black hair bounced under the equally blood-soaked newsie cap he was wearing. The cool breeze whipped the cap off his head. He didn't bother to retrieve it. He ran until his legs became numb and tears began to leak out of his warm brown eyes.

Thoughts came rushing back from Elmer's past: his dad hitting him over and over, his mom standing there worriedly as 13-year-old Elmer came out to her, his dad telling him to get the hell out of his house, spending four weeks alone on the streets in the snow, Jack finding him roughed up on the streets near Queens, and Finch leaning down from the top bunk in the lodging house to check on him all through the first night there. He loved his best friend. After all, Finch had been there through the highs and the lows of Elmer's rough life. He'd told jokes to him when he was crying, woken him up from the recurring nightmares that haunted him... and now here he was, at his absolute worst, without Finch.

But Elmer couldn't go back to the Lodging House, not like this. Jack would kill him and the Delanceys, after all. While Elmer hated those boys, he also didn't think they deserved to be put through hell.

He coughed, tears leaking and cleaning the blood off his bruised, battered face. He just wanted Finch. He wanted to get the chance to tell him that he wanted to be more than friends. He wanted to hold him and tell him how much he loved him and appreciated everything he'd done.

Elmer fell to his knees on the cold cobblestones, smiling through his tears. He could just make out Finch's face in his blurred memory. He found comfort in the thought of the huge blue eyes of his best friend, and he grinned his signature grin even wider.

But Finch never saw Elmer as anything more than a friend. Finch just knew that Elmer was his closest buddy, his partner-in-crime, his forever friend. He didn't see what Elmer had in store. He didn't know that Elmer loved him. But Elmer knew, and that was enough.

Elmer wondered if he just closed his eyes, would Finch come running and open his?