- Chapter 99 - A Fight Amongst Allies -
Warning: Fighting, yelling, crying, angst, injuries, fighting
Canon Era
Third Person POV

A/N, ahhhhhhh!!!! Chapter 99!! That's crazy to me that I've gotten this far in this book. Thank you all for sticking around, your comments and such are greatly appreciated (:

Most of the boys had seen it coming when they got news of the Borough war.

Race had gotten quieter and usually looked sad.

Ike never spoke of the Borough War or really any other boroughs, especially not Brooklyn.

Knobs and Boots were sticking with each other for the time being and barely spoke to anyone other than each other, Race, Ike, and Specs, though Race rarely spoke.

The air in the Manhattan Lodge was different after the Borough War started.

Jack was furious a lot of the time, though he still cared for all of the Newsies.

Lucky didn't understand what was happening; all he knew was that he wasn't allowed to see Tumbler.

Something had happened between Jack and Spot.

A fight.

And from what everyone else knew, it was big.

No Manhattan Newsie was allowed to go to Brooklyn. None of the them.

Being Jack's Second, Race was in a difficult situation where he wanted to be there for his boyfriend, but he had known Jack longer and stayed with Manhattan, instead of running to Spot.

Ike, Boots, and Knobs were in the same situation, but they all also stayed with Manhattan.

The others in the Lodge tried to help them, but three out of the four of them refused to talk about the Borough War.

"Why do we need partners?" Blink had asked.

"Brooklyn's dangerous and because they're liars who don't respect turf, we need to take precautions to be safe." Had been Jack's response.

Specs had looked over at Race when Jack said that, finding him with his head down, staring at his lap as his lip quivered and he tried not to cry.

Specs frowns at the memory. "This is a mess." He whispers to Blink.

Blink nods, a sad look on his face. He sips his water.

As the Third and Fourth of Manhattan, they were the only other two who had been in the room for that discussion.

The two boys heard talking.

They look over to where it was coming from.

Mush, Crutchie, and Albert sat with Race, trying again to get him to talk.

Blink and Specs' frowns deepen.

They had been trying to get him to talk for days.

Race barely mumbled anything and that was only usually around Jack, and maybe Crutchie.

Ike, Mike, Boots, and Finch sat on the floor across the room from those four, playing a game.

Ike and Boots were finally smiling and laughing again; thanks to Mike and Finch and a little bit of help from a few other boys.

Knobs was upstairs, writing in his journal and, sadly, probably crying.

Blink smiles slightly at the group, while Specs kept his eyes on the four boys at the table across from them.

Race was just staring at his lap.

He didn't have his cigars; he had accidentally left one in Brooklyn the day before the fight and he refused to touch the other ones.

Race had bandages all up his arms from him digging his nails into his arms.

"Racer," Crutchie starts quietly. "What if we played Poker?" He asks softly, brushing some of Race's hair behind his ear so he could see Race's blue eyes.

"Spot and I played Poker..." the blue-eyed boy's voice was so soft, Crutchie could barely hear it. "And Jack and I." His eyes filled with tears.

"Not Poker." Albert coughs dismissively. "What Crutchie meant was- uh..." he trails off, looking to Mush for help.

"Old Queen!" Mush blurts out.

"Yeah!" Albert nods quickly. "Old Queen! He said the wrong word." He forces out a weak laugh.

Race looks up at Albert and Mush.

The two boys force themselves to smile, but their smiles were weak, fake.

Race's bottom lip quivers and tears flood his blue eyes as he lays down, his head in Crutchie's lap.

Tears slide down the sides of his cheeks to his ears.

Crutchie frowns as he looks down at him. He starts playing with his hair. "It's okay, Racer..." he whispers assuringly. "It's all gonna be alright."

Mush and Albert's shoulders sag in defeat.

The door to the Lodge opens.

Everyone in the room looks up at it.

Jack stood in the doorway, a blank expression on his face.

Race gets up and quickly runs up the stairs, almost tripping a few times.

Jack's brown eyes follow him as he goes.

Jack looks at the other three boys at the table.

Mush's gaze falls at the ground.

Albert couldn't meet Jack's eyes.

Crutchie was frowning.

Ike looks at his cards, suddenly feeling sick inside. He sets them face-down on the floor in front of him. "I think I need to go to the bathroom for a while." He mutters, feeling like he was gonna throw up.

Ike quickly gets up and leaves, most of the people in the room watching him go.

Boots bites his lip, staring at his lap to avoid looking at or acknowledging Jack.

Jack sighs, shutting the door to the Lodge and running up the stairs to go to his penthouse.

Mike frowns, picking up Ike's cards and looking at them. "He would've won, too..." he shows them to Finch.

Finch frowns.

Specs makes eye contact with Blink again, sighing.

Blink shakes his head, looking down at his water.

Later

Mike sat with his boyfriend in his lap, on the couch, watching a few boys silently play a card game on the floor.

Out of nowhere, they heard yelling.

"What are you talking about?!" It was Jack.

"You've told me nothing, Jack!" Race shouts. "All I knew was that one day I was happy with Spot and everything was great and then something happened between you two and now I'm not allowed to see the love of my life!"

It was obvious Race was crying; they could hear the pain in his voice.

Mike and JoJo share a concerned look.

"What's happening?" Elmer whispers, his eyes wide as he listens.

"He betrayed us, Race! His boys beat up Davey and Les and he's refusing to admit it!"

Some of the boys in the room, Boots and Ike being a pair, share a look.

They'd never do that... Ike thinks to himself.

Boots was thinking the same thing, something's really wrong.

"They'd never do that, Jack! I know the Brooklyn Newsies!"

"Apparently, you don't know them well enough! They're liars and scabs and NO ONE in Manhattan is going anywhere near them!"

Knobs, who was listening from another room with Specs, felt his heart shatter.

Specs practically saw the hope drain from Knobs' eyes.

"That's FINAL!"

In the private room where Race, Blink, and Jack were, Race was stunned to silence and Blink had been silent the whole time.

Jack was breathing hard and he looked angry and hurt.

Race was having difficulties breathing. His head was spinning and he felt like he was either gonna throw up or pass out. Tears were streaming down his face.

Jack's eyes soften. "Race-" he starts.

Race shakes his head, quickly turning to leave the room. "I need space; I'll be on the fire escape." He says quickly, his voice coming out in barely a breath.

"Race," Blink starts softly. "It's raining." He reminds him.

Race ignores him, leaving the room.

Blink heard his sobs as he quickly ran away from the room.

Blink didn't know how to feel as he looked over at Jack.

Jack had sat on the floor with his back against the wall, his knees against his chest and tears streaming down his cheeks.

There were certain fights that tore the Lodge apart;

- Jack and Race
- Jack and Crutchie
- Race and Crutchie
- Race and Albert
- Mike and Ike
- Davey and Jack (even though Davey doesn't live in the Lodge)

Of course, any fight in the Lodge hurt everyone, but when these people fought, it was devastating to everyone.

Blink mutters a quick "I'll leave you be" to Jack as he exits the room.

And Jack was left alone in the silence.

About a day later

Knobs had been confused about why Jack had called him to the living room until he saw Jack with a letter in his hand, looking madder than he had been in a while.

Knobs froze, his light brown eyes widening.

"What is this." Jack's voice was furious and his question was more of a statement, like he knew what the letter was.

Knobs trembled a bit. "A letter...?" His voice was soft.

"From Dice, huh?" Jack questions, looking furious.

Everyone else in the room was watching them in stunned silence.

"How would you know that?" Knobs questions him, gaining a little confidence.

Jack stops.

Knobs' eyes widen in realization. "You read it!" He exclaims. "Are you kidding?! That's private!"

"You're a traitor!" Jack accuses. "We're your brothers and you're choosing Brooklyn over us!" He exclaims.

"Because I'm trying to figure out what happened since you refuse to tell us!" Knobs shouts. "I'm trying to fix this!" He grips his hair tightly, his knuckles turning white. "Give it to me now!" He holds one of his hands out to Jack.

"I told you there was to be no contact with Brooklyn." Jack states, looking slightly hurt and still furious.

Knobs scowls. "He's my freaking boyfriend, Kelly!" He shouts.

Most people in the room were stunned that Knobs called Jack by his last name; he never did that, so that gave them an idea as to how mad Knobs was.

And Knobs didn't get mad.

"You're acting like a child!" Knobs shouts at Jack.

Knobs quickly grabs his journal, before jumping and snatching the letter from Jack, running out the door to the Lodge.

Boots shot up, shoving Jack out of the way and standing in the door. "Knobs!" He shouts.

Knobs ignored him, continuing to run.

Boots looks back at the boys in the Lodge, before looking at Jack. He bites his lip, before taking off after Knobs.

Stunned, Jack watches them.

Tears sting his eyes and he quickly runs upstairs.

The other boys just stayed in the room, silent in shock.

In Brooklyn

Dice stood silently leaning against a wall on the Brooklyn dock.

Brooklyn had gotten quieter when the turf war started.

Spot barely left his room, though they had gotten him to come out onto the dock with them.

The dock was wet because it had just been raining and the sun was hidden behind clouds in the sky.

Dice looked up when they heard pounding feet on the dock. Their eyes widened when they saw their boyfriend running down it, tears streaming down his face, his journal in his hand, a letter, and his eyes red.

"Knobs!" Dice exclaims, drawing everyone's attention to the two of them.

Knobs chokes out a sob, running into Dice's arms. He grips Dice's shirt and cries into their chest.

"Shh..." the blonde-haired Brooklyn Newsie whispers, rubbing Knobs' back. "I got you. You're safe, love." They whisper.

Boots stops halfway down the dock when he sees Knobs in Dice's arms.

He smiles slightly, but still looked troubled.

Red's eyes widen in shock.

Boots looks in his direction, his eyes falling on Red. He gasps. "Red!" He exclaims.

Hotshot looks between Red and Boots as Boots grabs Red, cutting Red off before he could ask if Boots was okay with touch today.

Hotshot looks back at the end of the dock.

Boots' head was against Red's chest, still hugging him when he noticed Hotshot looking for Ike. He frowns. "Ike was upstairs when the fight between Knobs and Jack happened." Boots informs Hotshot quietly. "He's not coming..."

Hotshot's face falls, but he nods.

"I'm sorry." Boots whispers, clinging to Red.

"I love you so much." Red whispers.

"I love you too." Boots whispers in response.

"He's being stupid!" Knobs sobs into Dice's chest. "He won't tell us anything and he won't let us come see you." He cries. "I can't do it. I love him, but I can't, Dice. I need you." He sobs, clinging to his lover like they were gonna fell apart.

"I'm sorry." Dice whispers. He looks over at Spot.

Spot was watching them.

"What even happened?" Knobs whispers, tears still streaming down his face.

Spot swallows hard when all of his Newsies look over at him. "Jack- um... he came accusing me of my boys hurting Davey and Les and he wouldn't listen to me..." he informs them quietly, staring at the ground. "When I defended you guys, he declared a Borough war and banned me from seeing Race." Spot explains quietly.

Knobs and Boots stop, their eyes wide and tears still on Knobs' cheeks.

"He was protecting us." Knobs whispers, slightly shocked.

"But Spot asked all of us." Ace points out, his eyes wide. "And we'd never do that, especially not lie to Spot about it. We know what'll happen and we know what Spot's like." He says.

"But you know who'd frame us?" Smokes speaks up, looking at Boots.

Realization dawned on Boots. "-

Elsewhere

"What if we went to Brooklyn?" Davey suggests.

Jack's eyes widen as he opens his mouth to disagree.

Davey stops him. "I'll be able to recognize the ones who hurt me and we can put an end to this so everyone can be happy again." He tells Jack.

Jack didn't like this idea and Davey could tell.

"Come on, Jack." Davey uses his puppy eyes.

"But they broke Les' leg and hurt you badly, Davey." Jack whispers, looking heartbroken.

"But what if it was someone framing Brooklyn?" Davey asks him.

Jack looks down at his hands.

"You didn't think about that, huh?" Davey asks, seeing right through Jack.

"I have to fix this." Jack whispers.

A bit later

"Where are we going?" Ike asks for the fiftieth time.

Davey shoots him a look.

Race recognized the place. "Brooklyn." He breathes, his eyes wide.

Ike looks over at Jack, his eyes widen.

Jack nods, biting his lip.

Davey smiles.

"What?!" Ike exclaims, a grin forming on his face. "Really?!"

Jack nods, swallowing hard. "I realized something and how I have to fix my mistakes." He informs them.

Race and Ike share a look.

Davey saw the excitement in their eyes, causing him to smile.

He squeezes Jack's hand.

Admitting he was wrong was hard for Jack, but Davey was gonna let him know that he was proud of him.

In Brooklyn

Ike runs down the Brooklyn dock.

Race looks back at Jack.

Jack nods.

Race bites back a grin as he turns and starts running down the Brooklyn dock.

The Newsies on the Brooklyn dock look up when they hear running.

Hotshot's eyes widen as Ike tackles him down in a hug.

Spot's eyes widen. "Race!" He shouts.

They grab each other in a hug.

"I love you so so so so so so so so so so-" Race went on for a while with 'so's. "-much."

Spot chuckles, holding him close. "I love you too." He whispers.

After about ten minutes, they pulled away and Spot walked over to Jack.

Jack cringes when he looks Spot in the eye, feeling the shade in him. "I'm sorry. I was wrong and I was worried about Davey... and Les." He adds. "I'm sorry."

A smile sets itself on Spot's face as he spits in his hand and holds it out.

Jack smiles, spitting in his hand and shaking Spot's.

Race, Boots, Ike, and Knobs share grins.

2722 Words
Sorry this gets worse writing wise as it goes..
17.2k reads, people!! AHHH!! That's crazy to me (granted, I do have almost 100 chapters hehe.)

What do you want for the 100th chapter?

1. The Origin of Spralmer - Canon Era (Request)
2. Pretty Boy; Spralbert - Modern AU
3. Ralbert angst with a happy ending - Modern AU
4. Ikeshot death angst - Canon Era
5. Ralbert angst - Canon Era
6. Almer (though I need ideas)

(I think Ralbert is very fitting cause it was also the ship I did my first one-shot on, but I like all of these ideas. (Some more than others lol))