Blush is here. :)

Enjoy! :)

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Race actually slept well last night for once. That's a first.

It was probably his talk with Jack.

He's feeling a lot better now.

And because he made a promise, he's going to bind safely today.

"Hi, Race." Kid Blink jumps down from his bunk before Race can move. "How're you this morning?"

"Fine," Race mumbles. He knows something's up. "Jack told you what happened last night, didn't he." Not a question; just a statement.

Blink looks away for a moment. Then back at Race. "You know that there are people here who care about you, right? Like Mush and I. We ain't ever going to fully understand like Jack can, but we'se here for you, okay?"

Race takes in a deep breath. "Yeah. I know." Finally, he sits up in his bed. "So. Just another regular day carrying the banner, huh?"

Blink grins. "Only fifty cents per hundred."

And so the morning routine continues, all doing their own things.

Race just finishes wrapping the bandages around his chest. He can breathe, and it's not too tight. He examines himself in the mirror with his shirt on. Yes, it's going to work.

"Hey, Race?"

It's Mush.

Is he going to give the same little talk that Blink gave to him?

"Here to tell me the same thing Blink said earlier?" Race asks, not looking behind him.

"What? No. I'm actually here to talk about Blink."

Race turns around. "Oh?"

Mush rubs the back of his neck. "I've been trying to ask him out on a date for a while now, but then this week's been crazy, and now I don't know."

"You know that if you asked him to go to the ends of the Earth with you, he would say yes?" Race asks him. "And now that the strike's over, and our lives are going back to normal, it should be easier. Why don't you just ask him if he wanted to go to Tibby's or Jacobi's with you? It shouldn't be too complicated. It'd be like a we-won-a-strike celebratory dinner that also works as a date. Blink would really like that."

"You think so?" a smile tugs at Mush's lips.

Race grins. "I know so."

"Thanks Race!" Mush full-on smiles now. He glances over in Kid Blink's direction. Race can see the palpable love and affection in his eyes.

Race wishes that he had someone to look at him like that.

"Okay. I'll ask him now." Mush starts walking over to Blink. Then he turns around and says, "Race, whenever you'll need help getting a date, Blink and I are here for you, got that?" And continues on.

As Mush and Blink start talking (in which the conversation began with a peck on the cheek from Blink), Race plays back that last sentence in his head. Whenever you'll need help. Not when you need help, but when you will need help. There's a difference.

Mush knows that Race has no one at the moment.

And he said it in the most polite way possible.

Race sighs.

Yep, this is his life.

He glances back at Mush and Blink, just kissing right then and there. He smiles. How can he be jealous when he's so happy for them?

Yesterday, Race said that he would be at Sheepshead the next day. He might forget a lot of things that he's said, but Sheepshead is something he won't forget any time soon.

What he didn't plan on, though, was Spot waiting outside for him.

"You're late," Spot calls out to him.

"Am I?" Race smirks. "Or are you just early?"

"I think I have a better sense of time than you, so I say you're late."

"So you decided to come here early when you know that I'd get here late?"

"I-" Spot has nothing to retort back with.

Race loves it when he wins like this.

"Come on." He walks past Spot through the entranceway. "Let's go gamble."

It was a lot of fun. Race has more money than he started with, and he only needs to sell a couple more papers before he can call it a day. But now they can sell back the papers they don't sell to people, so if Race isn't in the mood to sell, then that works to. But where's the fun in giving up the chance to put up a show fo the people he's trying to sell to?

As they leave Sheepshead, Spot asks, "That was a lot of fun, yeah?"

"Oh yeah."

"And you're coming back tomorrow?" a statement in the form of a question.

"...Yeah?"

Spot smiles. "Great. See you then."

"Y-yeah," Race stutters, then blushes a little. "Gonna be great."

And so they part ways.

Race silently curses himself. Why did Spot have to win this round of who can make who more flustered? He got the final word in it too.

He pauses.

Is this a normal game for people to play?

Race begins his walk home, happy from the day.

He timed it right so when he gets back he'll take the bandages off, and it should be okay today.

So maybe there was a good reason that Jack gave him strict rules for binding.

He puts a little skip in his step when he's back in Manhattan. He's just really giddy.

He reaches for his cigar in his pocket. It's not there. He must have dropped it somewhere.

He shrugs. Whatever. He'll steal another. He's just really at ease in the moment.

Race gets a little more paranoid when he hears footsteps behind him. Whoever it is is trying to be silent, but whoever it is is a fool; Racetrack's senses are too good to miss something like this.

He keeps walking as if everything is normal. No reason to give the person behind him any idea that Race knows he's on to them.

That doesn't mean that it doesn't make him uneasy.

Can't Race just have one good day where nothing bad happens?

Now he doesn't know what to do. Does he lead this person all the way back to the newsies lodge? What if the person attacks him before then? Should he start running now? Just because he isn't binding too tightly doesn't mean that he's not binding. Until he makes a decision, he's just going to keep walking, hoping that everything will be alright in the end.

There's one thing that he can rule out, though: he knows that this isn't his over active imagination.

"Cowboy's not here to protect you, now is he?"

Race stops walking, paralyzed. Now he knows who is following him.

Or more accurately, who are. The Delanceys.

And the odds aren't in Race's favor.

---------------------------------

Well that wasn't a light and fluffy ending.

I'll give you a light and fluffy ending at some point, I promise.

I literally have no clue if I'm doing the pacing right. Because I'm planning out future chapters and I'm like "this is kinda fast?" not to mention what it's been like so far. So if you can keep up with all that's happening as my mind jumps around through points of time and infodumps, then great haha.

I'm pretty sure this isn't a Race has ADHD if you squint kind of situation I hope it's prominent enough.

Spot and Race banter. Yes. Just yes.

I don't know why, but I had no freaking clue where and how to fit Blush into the story. I kinda forced it in here, but Blush is fluffy and cute and fun to write so I needed it somewhere .

So how does one resolve a cliffhanger? By reading to the next part to find out. ;)

Please, no homophobia or transphobia, profanities, hate etc in the comment section.

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (who really wants pronoun buttons/pronoun bracelets)