Chapter Text
Newsie took a deep breath, straightening her bow tie. She wasnt wearing a dress to this, even if it was real which she doubted, but cherri convinced her to put on something formal. Black long sleeve, a white bow tie, should be good enough to get him off her ass. Its not like party was really dead anyway. She refused to believe it.
She had been in this business since she was 17, had faked her death more than once. That had to be what had happened. Even if it had been two months of radio silence, even if everyone really believed it. Thats what made him a good spy. He could pull off stuff like this. But she knew better, party was still alive somewhere. Even if today was his funeral.
Even if newsie knew party was still alive she still cried. She cried when she thought about it too hard, she cried when she realized he could be gone for good. That was the reason she was even coming to the funeral, the reason she was getting out of bed at all. If he was really gone she wasnt going to make the mistake of missing the funeral. She wasnt going to have to live with that.
The ride to the church was silent. She hadnt been in a church since she was seven, but there was a time for everything she guessed. Newsie tried making small talk with cherri in the car but he wouldnt engage, just staring at the road not paying attention to her. If party was still alive newsie swore to everything she could she was going to kill him for this one.
Sitting in the pews of the church was like hell. No one had found a body so the casket in front of the room was closed, so much for closure. Newsie felt like she was going to scream, holding cherri’s hand tight to ground herself. The others from the team were sitting in the same row, kobra was spacing out staring at the carpet, jet was staying silent, even ghoul was quiet for once in his life. Everything felt wrong.
Newsie was able to breathe for a moment before hearing something creak above her.
She glanced around before her eyes met cherri’s. He had heard it as well.
Her heart was beating fast. She had crawled through enough vents to know that sound. Someone was up there. The problem was she didnt know who. It could have been someone from the gang that, supposedly, killed party. Now that was the worst case scenario but newsie had learned to just assume the worst and not get caught off guard. Her and cherri shared a silent conversation and she excused herself from the area, heading to the bathroom of the church. The place she knew had an entrance to the vents.
Crawling through vents in a stuffy church on the day of your friend and coworker’s funeral was as fun as it sounded. She kept inhaling dust but she was trying very hard to make no sound, so coughing was out of the question. If newsie was wrong about this she knew she wasnt going to live it down with cherri. But it was just her luck when she saw someone ahead of her.
Newsie tried hard to not be caught off guard in most situations. It was one of her biggest fears, being speechless and not being able to communicate with people she had to out of shock. That went out the window when she registered the shoes that were on the person in front of her. Mother fucker.
The first mission newsie had ever been on she did it with party. The two of them were on a stake out, and yeah it ended with newsie having to chew her way out of bubble wrap and party having to use a battery and tin foil to start a fire in a strange apartment building in the middle of the city but that wasnt the interesting part. The interesting part was when they were sitting in the car together waiting for their opportunity to move.
Party had seemed annoying at first. Scratch that, he was still annoying but before not in a redeemable way. He had sat with his shoes on the dash of the car scrolling through his phone, which it might have been newsies ocd but the very act of him doing that made her skin crawl. The dirt could get in the ac vents and- newsie had to take a deep breath and refocus. There were shittly painted snakes on the soles and edges of his shoes, she wanted to ask but never did until the team was put together and kobra had teased him about it.
The snakes on the shoes in front of her were faded but clearly there.
That bitch has some fucking explaining to do.
Newsie moved faster and she could see that stupid red hair as party turned to face her. He looked surprised as newsie scowled.
“Fancy seeing you new-”
“You are an absolute mother fucker!” newsie yelled not caring if the people below could hear her. He put up his hands in fake surrender which made her even more pissed.
“Can we talk about this when im out of the not very well held up vents-” party tried, shifting to sit facing newsie the best he could. Newsie just continued towards him, on a blood path at that point. “These vents might not hold both of u-”
Party couldnt finish the words before the ground fell out from under the two of them.