I'm sorry you guys. I never meant for this to be so long and be so boring... I'm really really long winded sometimes and honestly I could have probably made this one storyline into an entire book by itself. There's so much left unsaid for the sake of brevity and ugggghhhhhhhh I feel like I'm a failure as an author.

FORGIVE ME FOR NOT BEING INTERESTING OR FUNNY.

-:-:-:-

It wasn't a long way from the Lodge to the hospital, and thankfully, you were able to find your way to an area you were familiar with fairly quickly after leaving the Lodge (you hadn't thought that one through very well when you ran off oops). Your destination was only a short walk away from the Lodge. Since the sun was now firmly in the sky, the streets were bustling with people on their way to work.

You spotted some of your new friends on your way, waving as they yelled out some pretty phenomenal headlines.

"EXTRA, EXTRA! Rabid child mauls local woman! YOU HEARD IT RIGHT HERE!" Finch yelled, making some sales with the extraordinary headline.

"Dentist fired for putting teeth back into patients' mouths!" Specs called into the crowd, tricking a group of well-dressed men into taking a few papes off his hands.

"Oh, hi Whistles." Elmer said, waving at you, a lugging a full stack of papes around. You felt your face heat up at the nickname. You'd have to tell the boys to just call you by your actual name; you couldn't handle your heart fluttering every time someone tried to get your attention. Wait, what?

"READ ALL ABOUT IT! Crazy doctor claims tobacco is bad for ya health!" Race screeched in a voice that was abnormally high for a boy, waving his cigar around like a crazy person.

"ALL DOGS OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED TO BE GOOD BOIS." JoJo bellowed, earning many confused stares from the passers by.

You shook your head and smiled, continuing on your way. You wove your way through the ever thickening crowd of people, eager to carry out your plan.

Your excitement grew as you caught sight of the hospital building.

Sadly your jumbled thoughts did not help your gracefulness one bit, and you ended up tripping over your own feet, crashing into the crowd in front of you and causing some people to drop the items in their hands.

You were then on the receiving end of a couple curses and many glares.

You apologized profusely, smiling sheepishly before taking off once again. You genuinely did feel bad, but nothing could bring your mood down today. Not even grumpy old men on their way to work.

You carefully jogged the rest of the short distance to the hospital, keeping your mind focused on the task at hand rather than what went on inside that building. Eww...

Instead of heading through the entrance doors, you took a turn into the alley next to the building, heading towards the garbage bins.

You reminded yourself to be especially careful to not impale yourself with a discarded needle or something if the like; going back the the Lodge with a giant hole straight through your hand was not an ideal situation, especially since you were just starting to heal up from your last escapade.

With as much agility as you could muster, you picked your way across the alley and through the piles of discarded items, in search of a very specific item.

You knew the nurses occasionally threw crutches away when they broke or became too worn to be comfortable for the patients. You'd seen them do it yourself. The question was, would you be able to find a crutch in decent enough shape?

Not wanting to plunge your hands straight into hospital waste and sickness, you picked up two thick wooden rods and began carefully digging through the soiled bandages and other nasty garbage with them, being exceedingly cautious to not let any of the waste get on your hands or clothes. This was easier said than done, and a couple times you almost ended up with a bloody cloth in your face.

On the bright side, you did not end up covered in blood after you searched through all the trash.

On the not so bright side, you didn't find any crutches.

"Dang." You mumbled, Backing away from the hazardous garbage. You tossed away your trash-digging rods and crouched down.

Ok... time for plan B.

...

You had no plan B.

You mentally scolded yourself. How could you have just assumed there would be a usable crutch back here? And how could you not have thought ahead to the likely scenario that you wouldn't find what you needed?

You let out a frustrated groan, running your hand through your hair.

You took a deep breath and forced yourself to calm down. Getting all worked up wouldn't change anything. The best way to handle the situation would be to think it over, like a legitimately intelligent person.

You couldn't find a crutch and there was nowhere else near here that you could scavenge one. Buying one was obviously out of the question. What options did that leave you with? Give up...

Your eyes drifted over to the discarded wooden rods.

Or make one.

You smiled. You weren't beaten just yet.

-:-:-:-

"CRUTCHIEEEEEEE!" You cried, bolting back into the Lodge. All the boys, which was a lot more than you remembered, stared at you in surprise.

Wow. That's a lot of people. all staring at you. This was very awkward.

Why did you have to be so weird?

"(Y/N)!!" You heard from over near Crutchie's bed. You thought your cheeks would split, you were smiling so wide.

You ran over to him, bursting with excitement. He was sitting on his bed, tapping his good foot on the floor. Your mood, however, turned dim once you caught sight of the genuinely worried face Crutchie wore.

"(Y/n)! Oh thank goodness, you're alive! You just ran off without sayin anything and Jack didn't even know where you was going and you didn't come back for so long it gots dark and I thoughts you got soaked or killed or- just... don't ever do that to me again."

You looked down in shame. You gently sat down on the bed as well.

"I- yeah. Yeah you's right. I shouldn't have done that, especially without tellin no one. I didn't realize how worried... ughhh I's so stupid."

There was an awkward pause between the two of you. Well, he wasn't saying you were wrong... ouch. You took a deep breath.

"I promise it ain't gonna happen again." You said, upset at seeing Crutchie so distraught.

"You promise?" He asked, sounding like a small child.

"We can spit and shake on it." You said, spitting into the palm of your hand and holding it out to Crutchie. He looked down at it, a little confused and a little grossed out, but he then shook his head a bit and spat into his own hand. You shook his hand firmly, communicating your sincerity through your strong grip.

"Look, I knows that what I did was... not good, but I did have a very good reason for going out." You said, your excitement from earlier seeping back into your demeanor.

Crutchie raised an eyebrow at you, smiling softly.

"I wouldn't expect no less of you. Whistles."

Whoop. There goes your heart again. Dang it, Crutchie, you're just too darned adorable. Your face felt hot. Was this normal? Did the hospital trash get you sick? Hehehe... moving on.

"What was this good reason?" Crutchie asked, tilting his head to the side, still smiling at you, a slight pink tint to his cheeks.

You said nothing, you just smiled and bolted back to the front of the Lodge where you dropped the crutch in your excitement to see Crutchcie. You grabbed it sprinted back to him, gaining a few stares from the boys as you passed. Once you reached the bed, you plopped back down next to Crutchie and handed him your gift, beaming.

Cruchie's smile, however, dropped in an instant.

"Oh. A crutch." He murmured to himself, gazing at the crutch in his hands with misty eyes.

"Yeah! I figured- Hey, what's wrong? Do you not like it?" You asked, worried. Did you do something wrong? Make him uncomfortable somehow?

"No... it's fine." He tried to smile at you, but his bottom lip quivered.

This stupid, stupid, sweet baby angel.

"Yous gotta stop sayin things is fine when they obviously ain't." Crutchie looked down.

"Please... tell me what's wrong." You said softly. Crutchie glanced back up at you, but kept his head down. He took a shaky breath and placed his hand on the crutch you had made for him.

"This... this crutch. It's a constant reminder of how weak I is. How I has to be a burden to everyone around me. How... how I's never gonna be healthy or whole." Crutchie said, tears sliding down his cheeks.

Your eyes widened and your heart sank. Like heck you were going to let this sweet boy feel like a burden.

"Crutchie." He kept his eyes averted.

"Crutchie, look at me." He looked over in your general direction, but wouldn't meet your eyes.

"Your disability is a part of who you is, but it don't define you. Not even close. And your crutch ain't a weakness or a sign of brokenness; it's proof of your strength and resilience 'cause it proves that you is not helpless." His eyes snapped to yours, surprise clear on his features.

"You can stand. You can walk. You can stand tall and walk on and take on anything that comes your way. And hey, if someone gives ya a hard time, you can just give em a good wack with ya crutch." Crutchie didn't laugh, but there was a hint of a sparkle in his eyes once again. His features crumpled a little bit once again and he stood up, leaning heavily on his new crutch and wobbling away a bit. Even though he wasn't quite used to the new crutch yet, you could tell that it was a lot of help to him.

"But them bullies. They gaves me my nickname. Crutchie the Cripple. And it ain't meant to be a nice name..." Crutchie murmured, still walking away, sounding defeated, but at the same time... a tiny bit hopeful.

You trotted around in front of him, making him halt in his tracks. You looked him dead in the eyes, his warm brown eyes meeting your gaze.

"So what? You could be called Crutchie or Bob or Junkyard Jimmy for all that it matters." You said emphatically, speaking with your arms like you do when you're especially passionate about when you're talking about.

"Words only hurt you if ya let 'em. You could let 'em hurt you, or you could take that name and wear it with pride. Break down your mountains, don't let them break you." You shouted. Crutchie was staring at you in awe, mouth slightly agape.

You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, taking a moment to calm down a little.

"We's all gots different challenges, this is yours. Yet here you are, standing. Right in front of me."

You looked back up into his eyes and smiled, letting a few tears leave a salty trail down your face. Crutchie stared at you a second longer before looking off to the side and letting out a little puff of air in disbelief. He took a few wobbly steps back and dropped back down onto the bed, still in shock.

The Lodge was completely silent. Every single one of the Newsies were listening in on this conversation. You felt a little awkward, but you shrugged it off. You said what needed to be said.

"Do you... do really believe all that? I means... We only just met." Crutchie all but whispered. The sound was quiet, but it seemed to break the spell you were under.

You felt shaky all of the sudden, so you sat down on the bed as well. You didn't trust your voice to answer, so you simply nodded in response.

"But why? I'm nothin special and you're..." he trailed off, the tips of his ears turning red.

"Crutchie." You said, voice breaking on the one word. His gaze snapped up to you.

"You is so, so special to me. I knows we only just met but... I feels like..." you halted, trying to come up with the right words.

"I didn't expect... I never thought I'd ever meet someone like you. And then... there you were." You chuckled softly.

"Sure, you was a little bloodied up. But that night, I found... I found..." your head was a mess and your words were failing you.

"YOU FOUND TRUE LOVE IT WAS TRUE LOVE, LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT, YOU DENSE, ADORABLE HUMAN BEINGS NOW KISS!" Race yelled at the top of his lungs, climbing up onto Albert's shoulders.

You choked. Everyone stared at him. Albert dropped him.

Race stood quickly, brushing the dirt off and looking around, a little embarrassed.

"Hey, we was all thinkin' it."

Your face was so hot it felt like it was about to burst into flames. You desperately attempted to avoid eye contact with Crutchie.

"We don't knows that for sure! You coulda ruined their entire relationship, you absolute-" Mush started, but was cut off by Race.

"Hey! Don't blame me for readin the signs! They was so obviously in love it was almost painful!" Race defended himself.

After that, the entire room bantered back and forth about the principals of the incident, some taking Race's side, some taking Mush's, and some just trying to calm everyone down.

You desperately wanted to get away from it all, but at the same time, you wanted to see what Crutchie's reaction was.

Because as much as you tried to deny it, Race was right. You did have feelings for the boy you saved in the alley. You wouldn't go as far as to say you loved him though. Not yet. That would take time, but you knew you would very much enjoy the journey of slowly falling for Crutchie.

But you needed to know how he felt...

After a moment of debate, you tentatively peeked over at him.

His entire face was a bright rose and he looked incredibly uncomfortable, as though he wanted to be anywhere but there.

You looked away quickly, stomach sinking. sighing softly, you started to get up.

A hand caught your wrist, holding you in place. You sucked in a quick breath and looked back.

Somehow, it was possible for Crutchie's face to get even more red. He looked like an adorable tomato.

"Crutchie?"

"Please Whistles. Don't go. I- er... well... Race was- no, I means..."

You laughed lightly at how flustered he was, feeling your heart jumping around in your chest like a shooting star.

"I ain't goin nowhere, Crutchie." You said, sitting back down to emphasize your point. Crutchie was so surprised that he let go of your wrist and stared at you in shock.

"If you wants me to stay, then I's staying... and I..." You coughed.

"I'd like to see if Race was right..." you mumbled, looking away.

...

It was silent for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Were you wrong? Were you just so desperate that you misinterpreted his friendliness for something more? What if your friendship never recovered?

Just when you were about to give up hope, you felt someone gently loop their pinky with yours.

Your head snapped to your hand then up to the owner of the pinky.

Crutchie was turned away from you looking down at the floor, but he was smiling, a light pink painted across his cheeks. You felt your own cheeks heat up as well and you looked away, trying to keep your overflowing emotions inside so you didn't ruin this moment.

The newsies were still arguing, completely oblivious to the fact that the answer to their oh so important question was right in front of their faces.

You didn't mind; it allowed you to relish this perfect moment.

You had had so many hurts in your past. So many times when things just didn't go your way. But there were also the good moments, shining like stars in the darkest of nights. Finding Crutchie was one of the brightest in your sky. And if life brought you Crutchie...

Well, then you couldn't wait to see what the future held.

-:-:-:-

And that's the end of this storyline. :) Thank you so much for sticking with it, even though my updates are so haphazard!

Also, if you want to see the process for how I put this art piece together, go check out my Randomness book. I'll be posting some progress pics there. Thanks again for reading!