Holding On To You
Requested Crutchie #10
Warnings: sad Crutchie, implied Delancey violence, small mention of blood, precious Crutchie :)
“I thought if I left on my own it won’t hurt as bad."
~
The day started like any normal day at the lodging house with all of the Newsies getting up and ready for the day. It was Y/N’s turn to sell with Crutchie today so the two got their papers and started to make their way to Crutchie’s regular selling spot. As they walked, the two had large smiles.
“I’se the luckiest guy to have you,” Crutchie said as he looked over at the other.
“And I’se is the luckiest person alive to have you,” Y/N smiled as the couples’ cheeks turned a dusty pink.
The two eventually made it to Crutchie’s selling spot and stood on opposite sides of the street. Throughout the day Crutchie would look over at Y/N to make sure that she wasn't in any danger. The entire day he saw her smiling at her customers until later in the day after lunch. When he looked over at her to see if she had sold all her papers like he had, Crutchie found himself frowning. There was a boy who seemed to be flirting with Y/N and she was smiling and laughing with this boy.
Crutchie looked away and started to walk in the opposite direction of Y/N and the lodging house. He wanted to try and clear his mind before going back to the lodging house. Why was Y/N letting that boy flirt with her? Was she going to leave him? Of course she was. Why would she stay with Crutchie when there was another boy who could be a better boyfriend than him? All these thoughts ran through Crutchie’s head as he walked throughout Manhattan.
The boy poor didn’t even notice the Delancey brothers following him. That was until they spoke up.
“Hey Morris, it looks like they let the crip finally walk by himself,” Oscar laughed as they came up to either side of Crutchie.
“I wonder what we should do with him,” Morris said as he took a hold of the crutch. After leaving Crutchie in an alley bloodied and bruised, the Delancey’s started their walk home.
Y/N had noticed Crutchie was gone once the boy she had been talking with had left. She frowned but figured he had gone back to the lodging house and didn’t want to disrupt her work flow. Once she had sold her last two papers, Y/N walked back to the lodging house. When she got inside she noticed Crutchie was nowhere in sight. She wondered if he had just gone up to the roof or to the bedroom.
“Hey did Crutchie come back yet? He left before I’se did,” Y/N asked Albert as she walked into the room more.
“No not yet. Why, how long did he leave your guy’s spot?” Albert looked up at the girl.
“Over an hour ago. Normally it only takes him forty-five minutes to walk from there to here,” Y/N sighed as she started to get nervous.
“Hey why don’t the two of us and two others go out and try to find him alright?” Albert said, setting his hands on the girls shoulders. Y/N nodded her head and the two got went to get a few others.
“Racer, Elmer, come help us find Crutchie. He should have been back by now,” Albert called out to the closest two boys in the room.
The four left the building going in pairs. Y/N went with Elmer and Race went with Albert. The two pairs went all over the city, peaking through alleyways, walking the sidewalks and even asking some of the nicer looking people on the streets if they had seen the boy with a crutch. Elmer had his arm wrapped around Y/N’s shoulders to try and keep her calm. The pair to find Crutchie was Race and Albert. The two boys helped get Crutchie back to the lodging house and sent Finch out to find Elmer and Y/N. The boy quickly found the two other Newsies and brought them back to the lodging house.
Between Finch leaving and returning with Elmer and Y/N, the other boys had all helped clean Crutchie up. They had cleaned up the blood and bandaged up the boy as he told them about what the Delanceys had done to him. When Y/N had gotten back to the lodging house, Albert sat her down on the couch downstairs.
“We just wanted you to be warned, Y/N. He doesn’t look too good. He never passed out but he still looks like hell,” Albert said as he sat next to you.
“Worse than when he got out of the refuge or?” The girl looked up at Albert and Race who had just walked into the room.
“A little bit better than that or about the same. Depends on how you look at it,” Race said.
The girl nodded and stood up and walked up the stairs to see her boy. Y/N stopped and took a deep breath before entering the room. She walked over to his bed and sat on the chair that was next to his bed. All the boys had already left the room when the girl had gotten back to the lodging house.
“Hey darling. How you feeling?” Y/N asked as she grabbed the boy’s hand.
“Just fine,” the boy responded but refused to meet the girl’s eyes.
“Why’d you leave today? I’se thought we were walking together?”
“I’se didn’t like seeing you with whoever the boy flirting with you was,” Crutchie said as he shifted in the bed and wincing as he did so.
“What do you mean?” Y/N eyebrows were furrowed as she racked her brain trying to think of who could have been flirting with her that day.
“I’se didn’t want to see you two laughing with each other and you dump me because you deserve someone better than me. I thought if I left on my own it wouldn’t hurt as bad. But it still hurt,” Crutchie said as he looked at the blanket over his lap and picked at the loose thread.
“Crutchie honey, you got the wrong idea. I was just trying to sell my last few papes and the guy told me a joke. There was no flirting at all, I promise. Crutchie I love you and don’t want to have anybody else,” Y/N said as she finally got Crutchie to meet her eye.
“You mean that?” Crutchie whispered as he laced their fingers together, never breaking the eye contact they now held.
“Yeah. I love you and I only ever want to see you happy,” Y/N said as she pressed a kiss to the boy’s forehead.
“I love you too Y/N,” Crutchie whispered, smiled. “Can I kiss you?”
“Always.”
The boy pressed a soft kiss to the girl’s lips before pulling away.
“That was the first time we said ‘I love you,’” Crutchie said before kissing the girl again.
