One-Shots!

Newsies: Nightmares Suck

A/n: I can't believe all the attention this book is getting! It's at 2k reads and 100 votes?! You guys are awesome, I love reading comments and stuff it's the greatest thing EVER! Thank you all! (I don't really like this chapter, but I was having a lot of trouble writing it) Italics is nightmare, normal is not.

Tw: Abuse, homophobia, nightmares, violence, implied death?

"Night Jack" Crutchie kissed Jack lightly and covered his head with a blanket. He drifted off to sleep within minutes.

Crutchie looked around the room he was in and curled into a ball on reflex. The memories flooded back and he tried to block them out. He was in his bedroom from when he was fifteen and living with Snyder. He reached for the door knob and found it locked as usual. His worst experiences in foster care all happened with Snyder so it wasn't unusual for his nightmares to bring him back. The door slammed open and Crutchie flinched, he backed into the corner and held his hands in front of his face.

"Useless!" Snyder slammed the door behind him and stomped into the room "Why can't you get anything right?" Snyder was holding a book that must have been left on the table. "I've told you a million times I don't want to see this stuff"

Crutchie froze when he remembered exactly what happened next. Snyder shook the book and a bookmark fell out. Race had given it to him at school, it was rainbow colored with a smiley face on the top. "No" Crutchie reached out to try to grab it before Snyder could see, but his hand was kicked away.

"What is this?" Snyder asked. He backed Crutchie farther into the corner until his back was pressing against the wall.

"It's nothing" Crutchie reached out to try to grab it, but Snyder was too tall. Crutchie buried his head into his legs and tried to ignore Snyder's yelling. Just when Snyder was about to kick him again something in the dream changed. Instead of hurting Crutchie, Jack was there. Crutchie watched in terror when Snyder pulled out a knife right when the knife was about to pierce Jack's heart the room went black...

Jack woke up to the feeling of someone tossing and turning. With some difficulty he blinked the sleep from his eyes and sat up. Next to him Crutchie was shaking and crying in his sleep. Jack could catch snippets of what he was saying "No- stop! JACK" Crutchie's eyes shot open and he sat up in bed. He blindly reached to the right and let out a sigh of relief when his hand made contact with Jack's shoulder. Jack pulled Crutchie into his lap and started whispering nothings into his ear in an attempt to help.

"Charlie, shh- it's okay. You're safe" Jack rocked him back and forth. He knew from experience Crutchie needed a minute to cry and lock away the memories, Jack was happy to help however he could.

After a few minutes Jack had almost fallen back asleep and Crutchie's sobs switched to occasional tear running down his face. He pulled away from Jack's shoulder and wiped the tears off his face. It was only a dream.

"You good?" Jack asked sleepily. He was starting to drift back to sleep, but he wanted to make sure Crutchie was okay.

"I'm fine Jack. Go back to sleep" Crutchie brushed Jack's hair out of his face.

"Nuh" Jack shook his head and pushed himself further down the headboard. He nuzzled against Crutchie's shoulder. "Nightmare?"

"Yeah," Crutchie agreed "I'm fine now"

"You sure?" Jack asked. His voice was muffled from Crutchie's shirt and he wrapped his arms tightly around Crutchie's waist.

"I'm fine now" Crutchie promised. As long as Jack was safe and there, Crutchie would be fine. "Go back to sleep"