Chapter Text
“Jet?” newsie leaned forward, staring wide eyed at the two kids “i thought you said you couldnt leave your town? Who’s that?”
“Thats- its complicated.” jet crossed her arms “we arent allowed to leave the town. But we did.”
“Arent you gonna get in trouble?” newsie had moved so she was sitting on the floor of the car with the other two “you have to go back at some point-”
“No. no we arent going back. Not unless we are forced to.” the other kid newsie didnt know stated, their eyes watery “and no one can force us anymore.”
“We were hoping to stay here” jet told newsie, but had kept her eyes on the other grabbing their hand. “We can be killjoys too right? I dont think you guys said any rules-”
Newsie thought for a moment “well to be a killjoy you have to be nice. And cool. And you are both of those things. I think party knows the rules- im new to being a killjoy as well. We can learn together!”
“Newsie?” she could hear someone, tommy she thought, call her name. “You good out there? I didnt think the boxes were too heavy-”
All three of the kids froze.
“Im fine- got distracted i’ll be there in a minute-” newsie called out, her voice shaking slightly. She then whispered “dee and tommy are really nice, i think they’ll let you be killjoys.”
“But what if they send us back?” the other asked suddenly.
“Ghoul, ghoul look at me” jet mumbled, grabbing both their hands “we arent going to go back. Not now, not ever. Not even if they try to make us.”
“Dee’s not gonna send you away” newsie said with more confidence than she had “they took me in the other day, and i was allowed to stay.”
The three got pulled out of the conversation by a familiar fire truck red haired boy running up.
“Dee-” party was panting “dee said we have to go inside for dinner- who are they- jet how are you- whats happening-”
“We want to be killjoys.” jet sat up straighter.
Party gave a weird look, then remembrance flashed in his eyes “Oh! Right! Well i dunno we have a lot of killjoys already.”
“i'll give up my place as a killjoy so jet could try being one-” newsie cut in “we can trade every other day!”
“Thats not how it works once you’re a killjoy you stay one-”
“Well who says thats how it works we never wrote down any rules or nothing maybe you are just being rude-”
“Fine we can all be killjoys-” party gave in, also sitting in the back of the truck “but if we have a big group we’re gonna need a leader. I ca-”
“Cherri can be the leader!” newsie grinned “he’s super smart, right?”
“What no-”
“I agree, cherri should be the leader” jet was also grinning.
“We can have a vote when we get inside-” party protested. “But tommy’s gonna go mental if we dont get these boxes in there.”
The group got out of the back of the truck, party helping newsie lift the boxes that she needed as they went back inside to face dee and tommy.
To say that the two adults were surprised to see more kids was an understatement, though cherri and chimp seemed excited to see jet again. Once the boxes were set down dee cleared their throat, looking over the two kids.
“Right, im assuming one of these trouble makers offered you a place to stay?” they asked, smiling fondly “im doctor death defying, these kids are my midnight runners.”
“We’re trying to set up a radio station!” hot chimp interrupted, bouncing on her toes.
“We’re just here to be killjoys” ghoul spoke up, glancing around the room “it seems more fun than just being a joy-”
“. . .a ‘killjoy’?” dr death looked over at cherri and party who smiled innocently back at dee “can anyone explain to me where that came from or?”
“Its because we’re super cool! Shinier than normal joys!” show pony was on tommys shoulders. “And party said thats a cooler name!”
Dee gave a confused look to tommy who just laughed. “. . .killjoys it is then. Me and tommy need to talk, can you guys try to find these two some new threads?”
“Oh! I can!!!” show pony scrambled down, running to a back room.
“I never got your names” dee said after a moment, causing jet to speak for both of them.
“Im jet star and thats fun ghoul.” she looked proud of the names, her arms crossed but a grin on her face “we didnt like our old names so we picked new ones.”
Dee smiled slightly at the names “okay, well you should get to the backroom before pony picks you out a clown suit or something.”
The rest of the kids raced to the back room, party saying something about the fact he could get there faster than jet before the chaos.
“Okay- okay stand back everyone-” show pony commanded, the room getting a little crowded. “I found some really shiny jackets for the two of you-”
Pony handed over the jackets, one blue and one green. Jet took the blue one, grinning at how it looked, while ghoul tried on the green one. All while this was happening, pony was digging around for something else in the desk next to the closet door.
“I found it party!” party went over to where pony was, taking the paper out of their hands.
“Okay- listen up everyone” party’s voice echoed slightly at the end, for the first time ever the kids going quiet. “We’re the first killjoys, yeah? We need to write down rules for it so everyone knows what happening.”
“I think the first rule should be you have to be cooler than cherri-” kobra said softer, mischief behind his voice.
“Hey no wait a minute why do i always get targeted-”
“We need a group name first. Something to write on the front of the rule book.” jet said matter of factly “i think we should be the orbiting killjoys.”
“. . .i dont know what that word means does anyone else have any ideas-” party spoke after a moment of silence. Everyone else was quiet as well, thinking.
“The fabulous killjoys.” newsie broke the silence, sitting on the ground. “We could be the fabulous killjoys.”
“Thats a dumb name-” cherri protested.
“You’re a dumb name!” newise and cherri continued to argue while pony wrote down ‘the rules of the fabulous killjoys’ on the first page of paper in glitter pen.