Newsies Oneshots 2.0

Show and Not Tell-Jatherine

This is basically Jack showing Katherine his art studio that I curated in my head:)

And, you know...a dissection of Jack's background. I feel like we don't see very many stories where Jack is a homeless teenager, which he is in a way. Even if he has the lodge, he still has to pay for stay there nightly. If he doesn't make enough and no one can cover him, then he's on the streets.

I like to think that's what happened to him after he escaped the refuge. And that's how the newsies know who the best seller is—by how long they can stay off the street.

There's also a few reasons this is Jatherine and not Javey: 1) Almost every character in newsies has some semblance of understanding to what it is like to be poor as a child, including Davey (even though some people write him to be rich which just confuses me and I'd love to pick your brains about it). But Katherine doesn't because she didn't grow up that way. I'd even go as far as to agree that Pulitzer actively helped her out with a few payments, if she's not still living with him.

2) I want to give writing Katherine a try. I don't write her almost at all (unless Sarah is involved). The last time I gave her actual moments of my time was in the 50s AU story, and she was hated for a majority of the story💀. I figured I should try again.

3) There's maybe two straight oneshots in this entire series. It's not that I'm hiding under a rock and think straight people need more representation, but that I've realized writing straight romances is as awkward for me as reading them is, and I want to change that.

Anyway, that's it. Prepare for the hurt comfort we all crave. Enjoy!!!

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Humble didn't cut it. It just simply wasn't.

When Jack looked at Katherine for the first time, she thought he was bone-headed, arrogant, and plainly not worth her time. He was thirsty for a drink Katherine didn't have in stock, and he kept coming back despite the deliberate and continuous denies from her. Admittedly, he was persistent and ambitious—that said a lot about a guy.

So persistent, in fact, he stayed when she dubbed them friends, stayed after she admitted to lying to him—he even stayed when Katherine accidentally ruined a very important portrait, and didn't fill his one-bedroom apartment with fury and shouts like her father did. He was patient, kind, and allowed her to help him fix her mistake by becoming his temporary model for a few projects. It was open, and vulnerable, as if Jack was seeing every part of her for the first time.

It was then that, despite the factions of herself that Jack made list of, that she didn't know him at all. She knew he was an artist trapped in a world that couldn't appreciate him for who he wanted to me, like all artists. She knew Jack seldom took pride in his ability, tasking it as a hobby he used to get more money on the side of his steady income as a stage manager under Medda's theaters. But she never saw him.

She didn't see Jack the same way he saw her, past his hair and his sickeningly charming grin; past his bold personality and his even louder side for justice. She knew that was him—he was pretty hard to miss—but she was never allowed to see past that, no matter how hard she tried to kick down that wall. It seemed like Jack would always put a brick back in any hole she made.

So no one could blame her when he asked her to join him for a trip to his rented art studio the Monday she had off from work. Naturally she said yes because what was this but an opportunity not to be wasted.

The uncertainty on Jack's face was clear, though his voice remained steady and clear as Katherine made note of her own excitement. He hadn't cleaned the studio in-ever, not that he planned to—it was his own, and he could arrange it however he wanted. If he decided to put a bucket of melted old crayons in every corner, Katherine would just have to deal with it. Not that he can say she would mind; Katherine never minded him.