Hey, my name´s Laura and I am about 20 years late to the party, but in my defense, I was only born in 91. ;)
I do have to say I got hooked by the musical, so my stories are more based on that than the movie, which is why Sarah isn´t really featured in this one.
But I´ve seen the movie now so that might change, anyway.
I hope you enjoy my little story! =)

Oh and thank you so much to my awesome beta Kelsey 3

It´s a cold day in mid October, the rain is drumming against the windows and Jack has, as so often, joined the Jacobs family for dinner.

It has become a habit, sometimes he has to stop himself from automatically walking home with Davey. In the beginning he had tried to fight the comfortable feeling that was setting in, but he loves the atmosphere of a family and soon Jack had found himself wanting to go as often as possible.

With Davey´s father losing his job they don´t have much money left for themselves, but his friends mother still cooks the most delicious things Jack has ever eaten and sometimes he feels bad for the other boys that are stuck with the terrible food at the lodging house.

But, for the first time in a long time, he is happy. He loves that Mrs. Jacobs is so caring, he loves chasing Les around the apartment and playing cards until late at night with Davey.

Davey.

Sometimes Jack finds himself thinking about how his life would be now if he had never met Davey.

Certainly a lot less annoying. He thinks and smiles, looking over at his friend. With his book smarts, Davey could annoy the hell out of him within the shortest period of time, but still, Jack wouldn´t want to miss him for the world.

"Who are you dreaming of, Jack?" Davey´s voice brings him back just in time to notice that everyone is getting up. Jack shakes his head and gets up to his feet.

"Thank you for the food, Ma´am." He says politely when Mrs. Jacobs gathers the plates. She smiles and waves her free hand at him.
"Of course dear, and I told you not to call me that. You're family."

Jack can´t help but smile and his heart warms at her statement. He has been an orphan almost as long as he can remember. Sometimes he has dreams, dreams of a woman that vaguely resembles his mother, but he can barely remember anything about her, so he´s never sure. All he knows is that he wakes up panting, his sheets drenched with sweat.

"And you´re staying the night." She calls from the kitchen, causing Jack to look up. "It´s bad out there. Les can sleep with me tonight, you can share with Davey." She disappears before he can protest and Jack looks over at Davey, but his friend just smiles at him.

"You heard her." He says. "I´m going to get Les into bed and help my mother clean up. You can go up to my room."

Jack wants to protest, wants to say that he can help, but Davey just shushes him away with a gesture that reminds Jack about how alike his mother and him are. Mrs. Jacobs was not only smart, but just as kind as her son and Jack thinks that he might have never felt more at home than right here.

When Jack gets upstairs into Davey´s room he sits down onto the bed and looks around. Maybe they could play cards for a while? For some reason, Jack couldn´t define, Davey was beating him most of the time, which always resulted in Jack throwing cards at him to distract him, and by that point they should both be annoyed with each other, but they would end up laughing instead.

Jack smiles at the memory of it and gets up, determined to find the cards, because he can't spot them at their usual place on the desk by the window. He walks over to the door to ask Davey where he put them when he hears voices downstairs.

They belong to Davey´s parents. Jack frowns, when did Davey´s father come home? He hadn't been there for dinner. The voices grow louder and harsher, but Jack can still barely hear what they're saying, it doesn't sound like they´re chatting about their day though.

Jack knows he´s not supposed to eavesdrop, but after so many years of living on the street, it´s sort of a habit. He sets a foot into the corridor, ready to move over to the stairs, when the arguing voices grow even louder and then a door slams shut.

Jack stops in his tracks and waits, but there´s nothing but silence for a minute.

What just happened? He thinks, obviously confused. Did they fight? They were never fighting, they are both such kind hearted people that Jack can´t imagine a single reason why they would fight.

He doesn´t know for how long he stands there, not daring to move, until footsteps on the stairs bring his body back to life. He manages to get back into the room before Davey appears in the door frame.

The first thing that comes to Jacks mind is that he looks... wrecked. He can see that Davey´s hand is trembling as he reaches for the door knob and that his eyes are filled with tears. He looks like he´s trying really hard to hold them back and Jack doesn´t know what´s going on. He wants to ask, wants to do something, because he hates seeing Davey sad, but he doesn´t exactly know what he could do.

Before his brain manages to come up with something, Davey changes into his night clothes, turns the light out and climbs into bed.

Jack just stands there for a while, confusion clearly visible on his face.

"What da hell?" he murmurs quietly after a while and turns around, just to find Davey facing the wall.

He´s ignoring me.

Jack contemplates just leaving, because honestly, anything is better than stupidly standing in the middle of a dark room, but it really is cold and wet outside and he doesn´t really fancy walking back to the Lodging House in this storm.

"Are you going to keep standing there stupidly the whole night?" Davey's voice sounds quiet, as if he´s trying to control it, and Jack immediately feels his chest tighten. He slips out of his vest and his pants with a sigh, leaving them in a pile on the floor, before he climbs into bed next to Davey.

Jack´s staring at the ceiling and Davey is still facing the wall. It feels weird, and Jack doesn´t like it. Davey and him are never weird around each other, not after everything they´ve been through with the strike.

After a minute or two, Jack hears a sniffle, and he can´t take it anymore. It´s like his body is acting of its own accord, like it was programmed to protect his friend.

He wraps his arm around Davey´s torso and pulls him close until they are pressed together. Davey makes a startling noise, but relaxes as soon as he feels Jack´s chest against his back.

They stay like that for a while, just listening to each other's breathing, and Jack thinks that Davey might have fallen asleep, when the other boy speaks up.

"Jackie?" he asks, and Jack smiles, nuzzling into Davey´s neck. Usually he doesn´t like being called Jackie, it sounds too girly, but Davy had kind of caught him off guard that one time when he had said "If you can call me Davey, I can call you Jackie, it´s only fair."

It had become a thing between them, nobody else is allowed to call him Jackie, and for most of the other boys Davey is either Dave or David.
"What is it?" Jack asks as he wraps his arm a little tighter around his friend.

He had comforted some of the other boys, had cheered them up and even hugged them, but this is different. It physically pains him to see Davey sad, it feels like his body is aching to touch, to hold the other boy.

Sometimes Jack even feels the need to kiss it all better, which is a whole new thing to deal with and something that confuses the hell out of him.

"Thank you." Davey´s voice is quiet, but it floods Jack´s body with a warm feeling that makes his skin tingle, and moments like this make him think that maybe this isn´t something has to deal with, but something he can live with.

Then Davey grabs his hand and intertwines their fingers, making Jack´s heart skip a beat, and yeah, he can definitely live with this.