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Newsies x FirstPrince :: The crossover absolutely nobody asked for, or needed, ever

Welcome to the billionth instance of "I can't leave anything well enough alone". Today I present to you a rambly deep dive into two of my biggest obsessions ever, RWRB and Newsies the Musical. This is all very much inspired by Michael Ahomka-Lindsay and Ryan Kopel's performances of Jack and David in Uksies last year (aka, giving them the massive romantic tension the fans wanted, thanks guys 💖). I feel like FirstPrince is very Jack Kelly/Davey Jacobs-coded and it's taking a lot not to cook up a Newsies AU right now, so... here's some thoughts.

(Please note newsies has been a stagnant obsession for like six months and I'm a bit rusty on character analysis. Lil rwrb bonus chapter spoilers ahead‼️)

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Jack and Alex are charming, they're lovable, they're smart and they seem to know exactly what they're doing. Jack's an artist, Alex is not, but artist!Alex would be really fun.

The thing is that Jack and Alex are similar in the sense that they have this need to protect others and fight for what they believe in. They give and give and give and never take, and they're living on this...survival instinct, almost? Jack, to quite literally keep surviving, and Alex, to keep his head above water while juggling law school, pressures of being FSOTUS, his anxiety and very unresolved divorced parents issues. And they're both sticking their heads in the sand. Jack has Santa Fe, Alex has throwing himself into every extracurricular and then an incredibly hard career path. By the end of Newsies, Jack has this realisation that Santa Fe is not much more but a fantasy/coping mechanism.

(and yes, okay, that's mostly so he can stay with Kath and his friends in a very Disney ending, but that's to unpack another time)

Alex realises in the bonus chapter that law is what he wants to do, and his dreams are the same, but he finally realises that he doesn't have to go at a million miles an hour to pursue them. He can want a break, want a smaller life.

The point here is that both of their Santa Fe's are just this desperate need to prove themselves, and to go somewhere/do something where they feel useful and in control of their lives. Where they can make something of themselves that feels right.

(Plus,"I Never Planned on You" is such a queer coded song and I will take no criticisms on that. You can't just sing "Girls are nice, once or twice, til I find someone new, but I never planned on someone like you..." and then be a pin straight guy??? Jack is clearly bisexual. But I digress.)

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Then there's Henry and Davey. They are these very uptight, untrusting individuals who are seemingly quite naive to some of the realities of the real world.

(Davey is not stupid, but he's pretty far removed from the Newsies he's infatuated with at first. I think Henry's are more mundane, like navigating independence. He's sheltered, but he's more aware of a lot of issues than Davey is initially.)

They're reserved, and they don't want to be the one to take action. Davey doesn't want to go on strike, doesn't think it'll work. Henry doesn't want to let himself love Alex, doesn't want to go public, is convinced it will ruin things.

But then, then, at the absolute lowest point, they gain this fiery determination. Davey hunts Jack down after the failed strike and convinces him to keep going (See "Watch What Happens (Reprise)"). Henry, after Alex flies to Kensington and they hash it out, realises that Alex is everything he's fucking wanted and if Alex is going to keep fighting, then so will he (I'm thinking primarily book!Henry here, see the morning after scene where Henry comes back from the run).

(Plus, the cut song "The Truth About The Moon", is incredibly Henry-coded, if you ask me. And while we're at it, "Then I See You Again" is also such a FirstPrince song.)

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All this being said, I think that going the Jack/Katherine route could work well too. There's the obvious parallels between Henry and Kath here; writer, sheltered, rich, carving their own path away from what's expected of them, dickhead families. I haven't put so much thought into that rn though, my first thought with this AU had to be Javid. Of course, there are inconsistencies in characterisations both ways, but what I'm trying to say is that a Newsies AU would be so much fun and I'm so tempted to write it.

(see more rambly thoughts in the tags :) )

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Thinking about Alex and Henry writing letters to each other for their whole lives. Paper letters, so their words can be treasured without the risk of their privacy being violated.

Thinking about them being kept carefully in keepsake box(es). Handled often. Thinking about these boxes being found a few generations down the line in the old Texas house.

Thinking about a great-grandchild taking the tattered letters to a restorer, working with them to piece together a story – the story of two people deeply in love, through all circumstance – and perhaps falling into rabbitholes. Comparing the years and years of online records of these two influential men, with their great-grandfathers, who passed back and forth the dumbest of inside jokes in otherwise serious letters, and made plans to dance in their kitchen every Friday night like it was a ballroom, and were the first to greet their newest neighbours, and began a new line of people; determined to love, to care, to make change.

(And thinking about maybe the great-grandchild and the restorer falling for each other, too. 😋)

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a heart that's broke is a heart that's been loved

FirstPrince | NR | 893 words | 1/1

Throughout his life, Alex has been thrown into a lot of things he wasn't prepared for, so one would think 50 years would have been more than enough to prepare for this moment.

Of course, it isn't.

Because Henry is dying.

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Or, Alex and Henry grew old together, and the worst thing about loving someone is facing the inevitable moment you lose them.

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the stars shine down on you - FirstPrince

G | 1/1 | 2,330 words

“Who are you?”

“My name is Henry, Protector of the Cosmos.”

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A Mario Galaxy inspired AU where Henry is Rosalina, David is a lost Luma, and Alex is the human that finds him.

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RWRB but Henry is the body double of the Prince of England, not the Prince himself (the "Angus" from the bonus chapter of this AU, if you will). Prince Edward really is a stuck-up, one dimensional dickhead, but Henry– Alex finds that Henry is a far more interesting person to be around.

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resisting the urge to start ANOTHER fic, because "why did you invite me to your wedding" by kevin atwater would make a phenomenal firstprince au fic

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we'll grow together (so don't you give up)

FirstPrince | 950 words | 1/1

You're tired now, lie down

I'll be waitin'

To give you the good news

It might take patience

And if you don't wake up

I'll know you tried to

~ What They’ll Say About Us, FINNEAS

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Henry has cancer. He and Alex discuss the future they might never have.

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let's fall (let's shock them all)

FirstPrince | T | 1/1 | 1,538 words

Of all the places, Alex is going to die in a Waterstones.

He came to London with June and Nora to sightsee, avoid getting crushed on the subway, and try to convince June the tea time alarm is real. Not get lost in a bookstore, then fall in love.

Or, a bookstore meet-cute AU (but it's more of a meet-disaster, and Alex is a ridiculously hopeless romantic.).

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all will be as it was before

FirstPrince | T | 1,259 words | 1/1

Henry passes away at 74.

Alex dies a decade later, and oh…what a joy it is to see his husband again.

(FirstPrince reunite after death, and it's very sappy.)

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god, it's just not fair of him (to make me feel this much)

FirstPrince | T | 1/1 | 4,299 words

Alex has spent most of his life loving Henry. Since he first learned of the Fox-Mountchristen’s plan of returning home to Wales, he’d given up hope of it ever amounting to anything.

Until he receives an email.

A little gift fic for @theplayfulfairy 🫶

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Can't stop thinking about Vampire FirstPrince

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ACD but he runs one of those tiktok accounts where they serenade people on dating apps with personalised songs via voice message

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Thinking about rwrb (crack genre) au ideas I'd read/write, and just hear me out for a second here: Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing With the Stars. The one you go for determines whether Henry somehow ends up on SCD, paired up with a rather attractive American latin champion pro dancer, or Alex ends up on DWTS after a lost bet with June and Nora, paired up with an annoyingly handsome British ballroom champion pro dancer.

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I think I'm gonna reblog all my fic ideas and thought dumps over here from now on. Just so I don't lose them in the billion and one general reblogs I have there.

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Cwtch!

It can mean a cubbyhole or a cupboard, but it's usually used to mean a cuddle, especially with those you love. It's a Welsh word, and it's one of many words I tend to forget are not English ahah. It feels like home.

open tag because I'm awfully low on people to tag I'm afraid (my lovely moots are all tagged above) 😭

Quick ! Think of a word you like ! 

Not necessarily your favorite word, it doesn’t even have to be a word you usually like ! Just a word that right now, at this moment, you look at and think “ooh what about this one”.

It can be a word you find funny, pretty, strange, scary, anything really ! You don’t need to tell me why you choose that word (though I’d love to know if you want to tell me), just give me a word ! 

(It’d be lovely if we made this into a chain but there’s no pressure <3)

uhhhhh sanguine? (literally the only word that popped up into my head rn but it’s prettyyy and sounds like summer to me in some inexplicable way 😌✨)

oh sure! Tagging @daydream-of-a-wallflower @silence-between-seconds @re-is-back-in-black @jaaklops @annotated-catastrophe @vintagetee13 @cherryswift13 @dandelions-fly-in-summer-skies @lost-in-reveriie @moonlightt444 @art-of-fools @good-oldfashioned-lover-girl @addsalwayssick @miseryoforpheus @justafanbutcurious + anyone else who’d like to join in :)

(but no pressure ofc <3)

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Songs that I would kill to see inspire cathartic FirstPrince fanfics

(A little ramble about songs that inspired fic ideas! New Year's fast approaches and I intend to write more next year, so maybe I'll have a proper go at these sometime. But until then, I'll let these stew here. Bonus chapter spoilers [ish?])

Photograph (Cody Fry) – Specifically as the "In February 2026, a flu sweeps through Park Slope." section of the bonus chapter. Henry-centric, one of those character deep dive type things. Henry pacing the house, thinking about all the time they've spent together over the years. Henry watching Alex in that window seat, thinking about all the man has done for him. Pure tooth-rotting fluff. Almost frustratingly sweet.

You Are Enough (Sleeping at Last) – Love love love this song and I think it'd be really nice to see it as a "It's 2025, and Henry has a bad day." fic. Specifically the end of the excerpt where Henry tells Alex "You don't have to do it, you know." Alex grappling with the idea that he doesn't always have to keep giving and giving and giving.

Je te laisserai des mots (Patrick Watson) – Typical, and this is just a personal comfort song, but since Henry knows French... I always imagine a little drabble where Alex has a bad day or he's ill or he has trouble sleeping and Henry is singing softly to him to try to help him sleep. And alright, maybe Henry isn't really the best singer but he can still hold a tune well in my heart ok

Soulmate Song (Carson James Argenna) / Run Away With Me (Ben Fankhauser) – I think these two could fall under the same premise. An AU maybe? Same forbidden romance aspect as canon, obviously, but different stakes. Alex-centric; Alex would be the one asking to run away. Very Crowley in Good Omens-esque. Very sweet, a little desperate. I would love to see them actually run away together.

Grow As We Go (Ben Platt) – I think it would make a good exploration of their relationship in terms of grief and struggle. Seeing each other at their lowest and still promising to be there, still staying, still supporting in their own ways. Maybe a 5+1 or a two chapter, one of each of them dealing with their own struggles?

Honourable mentions (aka, I can't always explain my reasoning for these, they would just make sense):

Simply The Best (Billianne)

Better Days (Dermot Kennedy)

Pointless (Lewis Capaldi)

i don't want to watch the world end with someone else (Clinton Kane)

Forever You (Dennis Van Aarssen) (Dennis is like my favourite singer ever so I might be biased but this is such a good song for them imo)