Dish!
Hokay, so since this is vaguely set in the NMSN universe, some people might be wondering Why I'm posting Dish here, not to newsies_msn. The reason is simple. Dish doesn't have a place in my plans for NMSN. Dish is something that spawned out of our actual livejournal conversations.
And then, crazynluvinlife and I decided we should co-write Dish. So this was formed.
Title: English Homework Fandom: Newsies Warnings: Excessively cute, slash, and AU. Rating: It's light and fluffy, so I don't see why there should be any restrictions.
Ducks was hunched over her English assignment, writing furiously. She stabbed her pen to the paper, and sat back satisfied. “Ok, so what do you think?” She pushed the paper across the table where a blond haired boy sat, rolling a marble between his two hands.
“Huh?” He looked up at her with his blue eye, clearly having not been paying attention.
Ducks sighed. “Just read it, Blink.”
They heard Blink’s front door open and close quickly, and both heads turned to the living room door, through which Mush shortly came.
“Sorry I’m late.”
"That's okay, Mush," Blink replied. "Ducks was just attempting to make me try to read her writing."
"Hey!" Ducks protested. "Just because I was writing fast doesn't mean my writing is any less legible than yours!"
"I was just bugging you."
"I know, Blink."
"Right, so," Mush interrupted. "What are we working on today?"
“That assignment on underage drinking for Ms. Jones.” Ducks answered, when Blink’s blank face said all he knew.
“Ah, ok then,” Mush sat down, grabbing the piece of paper from the desk to read what had already been done.
“Oh is that what we’re doing? Ok then. I think it’s a good thing. There: assignment done” Blink grinned at Ducks, who just sent him a look.
"You're going to fail English, and I refuse to be held responsible," Ducks muttered, watching Mush's face as he read to see if she could tell what he thought of what she'd written.
Mush's face evidently showed that it was obvious that what Ducks had been writing hadn't actually been her English assignment. Mush wanted to be polite, though, so he tried not to sound awkward when he spoke next.
“Well, Ducks, this is certainly a… unique… piece of writing. But it’s not…”
“The English assignment,” Ducks finished Mush’s sentence. “I know. It’s something I had to get out on paper, though.”
“Your friend sounds like she needs to sort this out. She can’t go on without sleeping.” Mush said, completely ignoring the fact that they had an English assignment.
Blink grabbed the paper from Mush, and read it, looking up after.
“Who’s she crushing on?” Blink asked the direct question, making Ducks search for an answer.
Ducks looked down at her hands and mumbled something quietly, but the sudden red her face turned made things really obvious. At least to Mush. Blink, however, didn’t quite understand yet.
“Wait, is it Spot and Race? Who’s crushing on Spot and Race?”
Ducks stopped looking embarrassed long enough to give Blink a ‘You’re crazy’ look. “No one, as far as I know.”
Mush hit him upside the head, albeit lightly, causing Blink to look even more confused.
"I'm confused!" Blink stated, as if this was not already obvious.
Ducks began gathering her things.
"I need to help cook dinner. My mom's expecting me. See you later," she headed for the door, but Mush got up and blocked her exit.
"You don't have to be home for another three hours yet, Ducks."
Ducks sighed, and nearly had to be pushed back into the room by Mush, she was so reluctant.
"Ducks, why didn't you tell us before? You'll be dead on your feet soon if you can't sleep" The amount of concern in Mush's voice caught Ducks off surprise, and when she looked at Blink, she could see a lot of concern in his eye.
"It's not that bad, really," Ducks protested. "I mean, I used to keep myself awake thinking about why grass isn't indigo, so at least now I'm just an imsomniac, and not mentally deranged as well. Besides, I don't want to interfere."
"Interfere? Ducks, you’re already practically like a third party. We always get grouped together for class projects, and the amount of time we spend together, I'm surprised there haven't been rumours already," Mush said to her. "It's still no reason to not sleep. It’s unhealthy to not be sleeping. I don't want to hear that you've fainted in gym class or something."
"I'm not in Gym class," Ducks said weakly, but she was blushing again, and it was obvious she'd gotten the point.
"Why are you always hanging around the gym then if you don't do gym? Every time Mush and I go, you're there as well" Blink looked like he was trying to figure something out.
Mush just facepalmed at his statement.
Just then, Blink's door opened again, and the three saw Blink's mom walk through.
"Hey kids," she greeted. "Oh! Ducks! Adriana! Just the girl I needed to see. My friend gave me a recipe for an excellent pasta dish, but I'm a little confused as to how to cook it, because some of the directions are in Italian. You want to take a break and translate for me?"
"Sure, Tracy," Ducks replied, glad of the excuse to leave the awkward situation. She went off with Blink's mom toward the kitchen.
Ducks' leaving, in reality, turned out to be just the opportunity Mush needed to explain to Blink what was going on. As soon as the door closed, Mush turned to Blink.
“You really are oblivious you know?”
“Yeah…I’m still confused though,” Blink looked so cute as he said this that Mush couldn’t help but smile.
“And this is why we love you. Now Blink, Ducks is talking about herself in that letter.”
“Wait…if Ducks is talking about herself, then who does she like? It’s not Spot and Race is it? She did help set them up, but Race is like her brother or something! That’s just disgusting!” Blink looked shocked.
Mush took a breath before explaining to Blink. “No, she definitely does not have a crush on Spot or Race. Blink, Ducks has a crush on us. She likes us. That’s why she went bright red, and attempted running.”
“Oh!” Blink went quiet thinking. “So that’s why she’s always at the gym then?”
Mush nodded, glad that Blink was understanding.
“So,” Blink said, looking strangely thoughtful, “why is this a problem?”
"Because she's not sleeping! Loss of sleep isn't healthy!" Mush said, sitting down in the armchair.
"Yeah, but what are we supposed to do about it? I mean, we could include her in the relationship, but..." Blink trailed off, unsure of where to go with his sentence.
"Well, why not?" Mush hated the dilemma they were in, but quite honestly couldn’t see the problems.
"I can't think of any good reason why that's a bad idea. But she didn't tell us, so is it really what she wants?" Blink looked unsure. He’d known Ducks quite a long time, and yet still he didn’t always know what she was thinking.
"Of course it's what she wants. She's just confused because she doesn't want to interfere." Mush sounded slightly defensive. It was clear he wanted to make a go of it.
"Then we'll have to convince her she's not interfering." Blink agreed with Mush, but still they had the dilemma of Ducks’ own objections.
Mush suddenly looked devious. “Blink! Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked.
“I think I am, Mush. But... how do they get the fortune into those cookies?” Mush facepalmed, and there was a pause before Blink spoke again. “How do you convince a girl that you're interested in her?”
Mush shrugged. “Um... how should I know?”
"Flowers?" Blink asked.
Mush shook his head. "What if she's allergic?"
Blink frowned, "don't girls like chocolate?"
"So we could get her chocolate later, but what do we do now?" Mush indicated the urgency he felt the situation had.
"We need someone who knows what girls like,” Blink mused. “Hey, I could ask my mom! Wait, Mom's talking to Ducks. Do you know anyone who might know?"
"Well there's Ducks, but that doesn't help. Um... what about Spot?" Mush suggested. It was well known within the group that if there was a relationship question, Spot probably had the answer.
"Hey, yeah. Spot knows a lot about relationships. I'll call him!"
"Can I listen in?" Mush asked.
"Um, yeah. the cordless is in my room."
The two hurried upstairs into Blink’s room, and Mush flopped onto the bed whilst Blink grabbed the phone. Blink came and lay next to Mush, holding the phone so they could both hear as they listened to the ringing, hoping Spot would be home.
“Hello?” Spot answered, wondering who was phoning him when he knew that Race was at work.
“Hey Spot. Listen. How do people get a girl to know that they’re interested?” Blink barely gave Spot a chance to register who was on the phone before delving into the problem.
“Um... I thought you were dating Mush?” Clearly it was a confusing situation.
“He is. We just want to know,” Mush clarified for him.
“Well, that would probably depend on the girl,” Spot said, relaxing back into the chair in his room.
“Um.. well, it’s Ducks,” Blink answered, wondering how Spot would react.
Spot sat up slightly. “Ooh, now this just got interesting.”
Mush shifted slightly so that he could talk into the phone easier. “If Ducks thought she was interfering in our relationship, and we wanted to show her that there's nothing further from the truth, what should we do?”
“Wait, are you asking how to show Ducks you're interested, or how to show her she's not interfering?” Spot still couldn’t figure out what, exactly, Blink and Mush were asking.
“Um... both.”
“We know she's interested, but she doesn't want to interfere.” Blink added, clarifying Mush’s very vague statement.
“So we need to show her that we're interested, and she's not interfering,” said Mush.
“Hm.” Spot took his time thinking before he answered, “well, she's a lot like Race, so why don't you just give her a big hug and tell her everything will be okay?”
“That could work,” Blink said
“Yeah. Thanks Spot,” Mush added quickly after.
“Its alright. Let me know how it goes. I want details,” was Spot’s reply.
“Sure thing,” Blink answered before hanging up.
It was only a few seconds after they’d hung up that they heard Ducks’ voice from downstairs. “Um guys? Where did you go?” She asked.
”To use the phone,” Mush called back.
They heard footsteps on the stairs, and soon Ducks was standing in the doorway. “Who were you calling?” She asked.
“Spot,” Mush answered.
“Um, why?” Ducks asked, because she was naturally inquisitive, and calling Spot didn’t seem to have anything to do with the English assignment.
“We needed to ask him something.” Blink was the one who answered this time, looking vaguely uncomfortable.
“What?” Ducks asked, still trying to assume that Blink and Mush had forgotten about the note she’d written and that this was all related to their homework.
Mush was looking vaguely uncomfortable too, now. “Um.. something,” he replied. Ducks looked confused.
“It doesn't matter,” Blink cut in before Ducks could ask another question, “Eecept that the answer was good.” He walked over to the doorway, and pulled Ducks gently into the room before continuing, “listen Ducks, I know you think you'd be interfering if you got involved with us, but me and Mush just want you to know that we like you. Really like you. We're practically a threesome anyway.”
“Basically,” Mush concluded, “you wouldn't be interfering.”
Before Ducks could protest, Blink pulled her into a hug. As Ducks pulled back from the hug, Blink dipped his head, and caught her lips in a kiss. As he pulled back, she stood there, looking slightly stunned and staring up at him.
“…Blink? Mush?” Were the only words that could be uttered from her lips.
Mush came up behind her, and held her in a hug between the two of them. “Ducks, you could never interfere with our relationship.” He said, placing a kiss on the top of her head.
Needless to say, it was a good thing the English assignment wasn’t due the very next day.