AN: I feel like this isn't that great and the title is pretty bad, but I tried. This was requested by DesiTheHistoryGirl (by the way I think it's awesome that you two are requesting stories for each other) so I hope you like it!
Ally ran down the sidewalk while attempting (unsuccessfully) to shove her long, dirty blonde hair into her newsboy cap. Of course, she wasn't a newsie, but she looked the part whenever she could. After all, she spent most of her time with the newsies anyway, and she couldn't stand all of the dresses her parents forced her into every time she was around them. Which wasn't nearly as much as they'd like. They were always pressuring her into being the perfect young lady, and she was much more comfortable with the newsies. Which was why she was currently running towards the lodging house and away from her own house. When she got there, she didn't even bother to knock before walking in, surveying the boys lounging around in different parts of the room, talking and doing different things. Crutchie, who was talking to Jack, noticed her first, and chuckled. Ally frowned and walked over to them.
"What is it?" She demanded, and Jack looked up as well, holding in a laugh.
"Your hair... it's kinda..." Crutchie tried to tell her that she had just walked around in public with half of her hair messily shoved in her hat, and the other half sticking out all over the place. Jack, however, had no problem breaking it to her.
"It's a mess."
"Wow, thank you so much Jack."
"You're welcome." The older boy smirked and Crutchie rolled his eyes at the two of them.
"Here, let me fix it." He said, taking the cap off of her head and putting her hair back into the hat neatly.
"Thanks." She said and they looked at each other in silence for a minute before Ally grinned and ran off, most likely to go beat Race in a poker game. Jack raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, Crutch, is there something going on between you two?" He asked.
"What? No, we're just friends. Nothing like that." Crutchie assured him, a little too insistently, in Jack's opinion.
"Oh, really?"
"Yes really, Jack." At this point they both knew that he was lying.
"Uh huh. And I really believe you." Crutchie sighed.
"Jack, leave it."
"Okay, fine, I'm leaving it."
"Thank you."
oOo
A few days later, Ally headed back to the lodging house after one of the most boring dinner parties her parents had ever forced her to attend. She hadn't even bothered to change out of the dress she was stuck into. She'd left as soon as all of the guests that she hadn't bothered to learn the names of had gone. When she walked into the lodging house, Crutchie was the only one in the room.
"Hey Ally... why are you wearing a dress?" He asked looking up. Ally realized none of the boys had ever seen her in a dress before.
"I came straight here from a dinner party, where is everyone else?"
"Depends. Davey and Les had to go home early, a lot of the younger guys are still out selling, Race went to Brooklyn and we all know he won't be back for a while, and Jack..." Crutchie hesitated. "Well, who knows where Jack is, he could be on the roof or halfway across the city."
"Um, okay. And what are you doing?"
"Mostly nothing."
"Mind if I keep you company?" She sat down on the old couch next to him.
"Sure." They immediately started up a conversation and they were still talking when Jack came down from his place on the roof about an hour later. He saw them and stopped on the stairs, grinning. He had seen Ally go inside earlier, and figured something like this would happen. He turned and went back up the stairs before they noticed him, thinking about how long it would take them to finally figure out that they were good together, because everyone else already knew.
