Chapter Text
It was unusual to get any sort of unannounced visitors from Brooklyn, which is why Jack noticed a very haggard looking Hotshot standing in the middle of the lodging house with a blanket wrapped around some sort of bundle right away.
When he saw Jack he breathed a sigh of relief and marched right over to him. “This is Racetrack’s fault and Racer is your fault, so here. Get him killed and I rip your throat out.”
“Wha-“ Before he could finish Hotshot shoved the bundle into his arms and ran out the door. After a horrifying second Jack realized that whatever was in there was very much alive.
“Racetrack what did you do?” He carefully set it down and prayed it somehow wasn’t a kid. It had to be. That moron had gotten some girl in Brooklyn pregnant and now-
He was almost thankful when a pair of buckteeth sunk into his hand.
“Mother-“ Jack reeled back only to have a tremendous rabbit jump out of the blanket and charge directly at him. “What the hell?”
The noise seemed to attract a small crowd.
“Jack?” Davey came around the corner with Elmer and Racetrack in tow. “Is that a rabbit?”
Elmer gave a small gasp and ran over. “It’s a Flemish Giant. My uncle owns a few of these.” He gently pet the top of its head. Jack couldn’t help but be pissed that the thing allowed it. “They’re delicious.”
The rabbit let out a vicious growl and pulled away.
He drew his hand back quickly. “They’re also usually a lot calmer.”
“Yeah well, maybe it’s in heat or something.” Jack checked out the blood on his hand and sighed.
The rabbit practically snarled at him.
“Maybe. More importantly, why is it here?” Davey raised an eyebrow.
“The hell should I know? Hotshot said it was Race’s fault and took off.” Jack gestured towards the door.
Racetrack visibly paled. “Oh fuck.” He hurried over to the rabbit and lifted it up as it growled at him. “I’m actually sorry man. I didn’t…Shit.” Once in his arms the rabbit rubbed his chin on Racetrack’s arm while still making angry little noises.
“Why are you apologizing to a rabbit?” Jack can’t remember the last time Racetrack actually apologized without being told he should.
“Because it’s Spot.” He said simply.
Jack stared for a moment before bursting into laughter. The others did as well.
“Very funny, what’s up with the rabbit?” Davey asked.
“It’s Spot.” His face was the picture of seriousness.
“Racetrack I-“ When Jack took a step closer the rabbit proceeded to try and spring from Racetrack’s arms. Presumably lunging for his throat. “…You ain’t playin are you? Why the hell is he a rabbit?”
“There was this lady down by the docks sellin’ stuff about two days ago. She said they was potions and I thought it was funny but Spot took her serious for some reason and wouldn’t even talk to her.” He glanced away. “So I uh, I bought somethin’ and dared him to drink it.”
“And he was dumb enough to?” Jack did his best not to flinch as he was growled at.
“Well he didn’t wanna be a chicken about it and the lady promised it wouldn’t kill him.” Race explained.
“Somehow that ain’t comforting.” Jack had seen Racetrack talk people into ridiculous stunts before; he was actually pretty good at it.
“It had hearts on the bottle and everything! I thought it was just liquor. Then nothin’ seemed to happen.” He readjusted the ra-Spot. “Well I guess it just wasn’t fast actin’.”
“Hearts? Was it a love potion or something?” Davey looked downright concerned. What kind of love potion would turn you into a rodent?
“Wait are we just gonna roll with this? Since when are potions a thing?” Since when would Davey believe this? Since when was Jack believing this?
“Well there aren’t any witches in Manhattan because it’s illegal but Brooklyn kept the practice legal as part of them agreeing to join the city.” Davey explained.
Jack stared wide-eyed. “….the hell?”
“Did you really think that everything that went down on Coney Island was normal? Pretty much everything magic in the state comes out of Brooklyn. It’s their main export.” He continued.
“How the hell do you even know that?” Jack sighed, why did he even doubt any of this? His life was already so goddamned weird that somehow missing outright witchcraft was only a drop in the bucket.
“My mother grew up there.” He shrugged. Spot’s ears twitched and he looked over. “She moved to Manhattan after she got married.” Spot made a huffy noise and went back to looking uninterested.
“Do you think she’s got any way of fixin’ this?” Racetrack had the decency to look sheepish as he scratched the rabbit behind the ears.
“I think your best shot is the woman you bought it from.” Davey shrugged.
“Or hoping it wears off.” Elmer added.
“Hoping?” Race winced as another growl emanated from the rabbit.
“Well it sounds like all she did was promise it wouldn’t kill him. He’s not dead.” Elmer didn’t realize that he absolutely wasn’t helping.
“He can’t be stuck like this. He’ll kill me. Everyone in Brooklyn will kill me.” Racetrack sat Spot back down on the table in a panic. “How do we fix you?”
He stomped his back feet with a loud thumping noise.
“I don’t think he can answer ya.” Jack couldn’t believe he was dealing with this.
“Two stomps for no one for yes?” Elmer offered.
“Perfect! Spot can ya understand us?” Racetrack asked.
There was a singular thumping noise.
“Are you gonna soak me?” Ha asked and gently tugged on one of the bunny ears to try and be playful.
Jack sighed. “Racetrack ask something more important.”
There was a more forceful thump as Spot slammed his feet into the table and growled.
“He used both feet so I’m gonna say that’s a no.” He laughed nervously.
Spot lunged forward and bit down on his sleeve.
“See? Didn’t even take off a finger!” Racetrack carefully scratched the top of his head.
The rabbit growled and stomped twice.
“Okay okay. Do you know how ta fix this?” He asked.
No response.
“Spot?” Racetrack sounded worried, it was something Jack quietly realized he only really heard in fall when kids started to catch the yearly bug that went around.
He stomped once, still biting down on the sleeve.
His eyes lit up with excitement. “How?”
“It’s gotta be yes or no.” Jack reminded. “You need to guess.”
“Will it wear off?” Elmer asked.
The rabbit made two quick thumps.
“Shit.” Racetrack sighed and carefully tugged his shirt away.
“Lets try narrowing it down.” Davey tried not to grin as he bent slightly to address the rabbit. “Is it something that’s used in fairytales?”
Spot growled as he stomped out a yes.
“There are plenty of curses and people getting turned into animals in stories, it might have a grain of truth in it. Is it something we would know?” Davey was in full investigation mode.
Yes.
“Snow White?” Elmer asked.
No.
Davey thought for a moment. “Beauty and the Beast?”
A noticeably hesitant no.
“So maybe it’s similar?” Davey snapped his fingers when he put two and two together. “Maybe it’s like that newer version of the Frog Prince?”
“Newer version?” Jack raised an eyebrow.
“Well she didn’t kiss the frog to make it a prince in the original story, originally-“ Davey started to explain.
Jack almost hated to interrupt him. “We can have a literature lesson later, so what about that one?”
The rabbit, Spot. The Spot rabbit, looked at the four of them and seemed to contemplate his answer. His ears laid back flat and he stopped moving entirely before hopping off the counter and making a break for the door.
“Catch him!” Racetrack took off after him.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Davey sighed.
They couldn’t catch up to him but thankfully the door out to the street was closed. Spot was gnawing and scratching on the corner of the door when Jack managed to grab him. Somehow he wasn’t expecting the scream. He didn’t even think rabbits could scream.
“One of you take this jackass.” He practically tossed him into Racetrack’s arms.
Mercifully, the screaming stopped right away. It just seemed to be Jack he couldn’t stand.
“What the hell is your problem Conlon?” Jack ought to tie those big stupid ears into a knot.
“He probably decided he’d rather be a rabbit forever than risk kissin’ you.” Racetrack laughed and Spot made a little noise in what was likely agreement.
“Feelin’s just about mutual. So how are we gonna do this? Just pass him around?” He ignored the hateful growls from the rabbit formerly known as the king of brooklyn.
“Well usually it’s royalty or some fair maiden in stories.” Davey reminded them.
“We’re more likely to find royalty.” Racetrack snorted.
Jack glanced over to Davey with a grin. “So how was it royalty gets that way?”
“Well at some point someone claims themselves to be a king or queen and everyone else rolls with it.” Davey continued. “In other-oh.”
They both turned to look at Racetrack and if the frantic attempts to run from Spot were any indication he caught on to their plans for the self-titled King of New York already.
“Wait.” Racetrack’s face quickly went red. “No way. He’ll kick my ass even harder if it works!”
“Racetrack-“ Davey started.
“He’ll bite my tongue off if it don’t!” He looked down at the rabbit and then up at them repeatedly.
“Jesus we’re askin ya to kiss him not make out with him.” Jack laughed knowing Racetrack probably wasn’t wrong.
“It’s a medical thing. Don’t worry about it.” Davey assured him. “We won’t say anything.”
Racetrack lifted Spot and stared at him. “This ain’t gonna work…” He bit his lip. “I guess it won’t hurt to try.”
He gets an ear-twitch in response.
Racetrack sighed and started to head to the stairwell.
“Where you goin’?” Jack watched as Racetrack tried to balance the rabbit in one arm.
“Penthouse, if I’m kissin’ a rodent might as well pretend it’s romantic.” He grinned brightly.
Jack snorted in laughter even though he was decently sure Race just wanted to hide.
They wait a minute for him. Then five. Then ten.
“You don’t think Spot tossed him off the building did you?” Davey eventually asked.
Jack paused. “Wait here.” He climbed up to the roof and had to resist the urge to whistle.
Racetrack was practically lying on top of a mostly human Spot. Mostly human as he has these big dumb bunny ears and, from what he can see at that angle, Jack guessed a tail. Racetrack tugged on them as he kissed him, eliciting a contented sigh from the former rabbit.
Hateful bastard would have taken Jack’s fingers off if he’d tried that.
When Racetrack trailed his lips to Spot’s neck his arms seemed to give out from under him and he fell back against the rooftop. Judging by how funny Racetrack found it and how red Spot went it was probably some rabbit thing that wasn’t out of his system yet.
Jack didn’t mean to laugh but it was just too funny to see the leader of some of the toughest newsies around with bunny ears. He honestly hope they never wore off.
Almost immediately Spot’s ears were flattened back and he slammed his foot into the rooftop as he scrambled to sit up. “Whose there?” He demanded. His eyes were wide but nearly every muscle in his body was on a hair trigger ready to soak whoever had seen them.
“Jack probably.” Racetrack was a lot calmer about the whole thing.
“Jack indeed.” He climbed up to be a bit more visible. “Congrats and all but I gotta warn you Race, he bites.”
One of Spot’s ears perked up out of curiosity. Jack hadn’t exactly advertised that the general rule on relationships at the lodging house was ‘don’t get caught by anyone but us’ so he’d likely expected some sort of fallout due to being caught with another guy.
“Hot.” Racetrack grinned as Spot immediately hit him in the shoulder.
“Idiot.” Spot whispered, probably not wanting to let Racetrack joke himself into more trouble.
He was obviously still nervous and Jack felt bad enough to give the grouchy bastard a break. “Just clear out before sunset. Crutchie and I have plans for tonight.”
“Thanks for the heads up I’ll be sure to sleep somewhere where they make less noise than the two a you. Like the bowery.” Racetrack stuck his tongue out and Spot seemed to relax. Not completely, but he didn't seem like he was about combust anymore.
“Oh? Not Brooklyn?” Jack raised an eyebrow and grinned.
“I do have ta sleep at some point.” Race winked.
“Yeah well, have fun with bunny boy. I’ll go tell the others neither of you are dead.”
Surprisingly, it was Spot that spoke up. “…Thanks.” He didn't specify what he was thanking Jack for but Jack suspected it wasn't exactly for not letting Elmer cook him.
Jack couldn’t resist, he knows he’ll get his ass kicked for it later but it was too tempting. “No problem, bunny boy.”
He ducked back inside just in time to avoid the bottle Spot grabbed to fling at him as Racetrack fell over laughing.