I'm not really sure what this is.

This was inspired partly by "Family Ties", a piece uploaded here earlier in the week and which I highly recommend, but also from a realization I had while reviewing the aforementioned piece. And what was that realization? Well, you'll see.

Enjoy!

-Marcelle

No one had ever asked Jack Kelly to be a big brother.

He'd never been awarded the position, nor had it ever been offered to him. Jack Kelly had become a big brother simply because it was what needed to be done.

The newsies had no leader, not anymore. Whoever they had once depended on had deserted them, there one morning and gone the next as though he had never existed, had simply vanished from existence altogether. Jack couldn't even remember what they had called him.

All he remembered was the desperation, an empty lodging house filled with boys who were convinced they had nothing left in the world. He was nine years old, forced to accept that abandonment was simply the reality they had been given. But that didn't mean Jack was going to let the newsies suffer for it.

And so he had stepped up in those first few dark days, had managed to dry the tears of some of the younger boys and get the rest of them to trust him simply by being there when he was needed. He comforted, he settled disputes, he gave every spare penny he had to a boy who would otherwise have to make do with even less.

Jack Kelly slowly became the big brother of every newsie in the lodging house, and he embraced it like nothing he ever had before. And eventually, the boys let him into their lives.

Jack had been the first name a seven-year-old Crutchie had cried for when he had a nightmare.

Jojo had drawn Jack a picture on any scrap of paper he could find before he turned ten.

Buttons had never confided in anyone about his old job at the factory until Jack had coaxed it out of him.

Finch always came to Jack first and foremost for an opinion on his newest slingshot.

Racetrack, who never seemed to depend on anyone, let Jack bandage his arm after a scrape with the Delancies.

And Romeo, the youngest of them, refused to fall asleep until Jack had told him a bedtime story.

It was during one of those stories, the one about a boy who could fly and an island where no one ever grew up, when the realization of his role snuck upon Jack with a newfound importance.

He glanced down at Romeo, the little boy's hand curled around the fabric of his shirt and his face a reflection of the calm that comes with trust. Romeo, five year old Romeo, trusted Jack Kelly enough to fall asleep in his lap without a second thought. It was a strange notion, almost surreal in the way that Jack had never thought it possible. But the more he considered it, the more he knew it to be true. He was finally making a difference.

The rest of the boys had finally seemed to leave the past as well, had begun to abandon any doubts they had once had about Jack. They were opening up to him, accepting him as a new part of their lives, one that actually had meaning.

They were his brothers now, but no longer by necessity. They were his brothers through bond. And when Jack looked around in the dim light of the lodging house, when the rest of the boys were getting their well-needed rest, he saw the faces of people he knew were now his responsibility.

It was true, no one had ever asked Jack Kelly to be a big brother. But he was, that much was undeniable.

Jack Kelly became a big brother because he would never have done anything else.

Well, I hope that wasn't too terrible. It was simply a little drabble-y thing I wanted to play with, and I really wanted to upload something. Don't forget to review! Prompts would be so nice, I need them. Thanks for reading!