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littlestarbigsky · 6 days ago

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chetcherrycola au but Soda or Cherry or both of them are mermaids

I'm sorry this is such a bad idea but you must hear me out-

late night post !! heyyyy y'all (or good morning bc im assuming thats when most of you will see this lmao)

okay okay im intrigued here- i think the fact that i went to florida right before i wrote this is definitely helping. soooo for reference im kinda looking at this with an h20: just add water kinda storyline (where if water touches their skin then they turn into a mermaid) but make it chetcherrycola :))

cw: blood mentioned (cherry gets a cut on her head, but it's nothing too serious)

hope this is okay🩷

no one was ever supposed to know.

soda had been raised in and around the water, going to the lake with his brothers over long weekends, camping out on beaches in the summertime with his daddy, flipping off the diving board at the community pool. he was so comfortable in and around the water that chet and cherry couldn't even be properly shocked the first time they saw his tail: the palest blue at his hips fading to a perfect lilac at the fins.

"someone's gonna see you!" cherry whisper-shouted as she carried the picnic basket with soda at her side, looking at the ocean wistfully, his feet inching right up to the surf, backing up just before he could get them wet.

"don't worry, i'm careful," soda laughed easily, his head falling back happily, golden curls catching in the summer sun.

chet walked next to them, a few feet further inland, firmly planted so that the water wouldn't even come near him. a quiet heaviness that they all carried but never talked about, but knew better than to bring up anyways. besides, soda was enough of a fiend for the water for all three of them.

after a few more minutes of walking, their cove loomed into view. their little private slice of beach was a small lagoon guarded by rocks in the sand that shrouded them from the curious eyes of tourists and kept them safely hidden from anyone finding them by accident. soda had scouted the location carefully, a place without lots of rocks in the water, small tide pools for chet to poke around, and sunny spots for cherry to lay out in.

soda was positively shaking with excitement as the promise of the ocean dug deep into his skin like claws. he could feel something in his legs trembling, aching to release a part of himself that had been tucked a way for just a little too long.

chet felt the excitement and laughed quietly, "go get 'em, fish boy. we'll set up."

soda shot a grateful smile back at them and tore down the coast, his shirt flying up like a white flag as he splashed into the shallows and dove.

cherry leaned over and rested her head on chet's shoulder as they watched soda's tail materialize where his legs had just been, blue and purple and perfect. chet tensed slightly as soda disappeared under the waves for longer than either of them would have been able to, and cherry just slipped her hand into his and squeezed getnly.

"he's okay, baby," she whispered, tilting her head up and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "him and his stupid fish lungs."

chet tried to bite back the smile creeping across his face at the joke, but his voice shook anxiously as he said, "fish don't have lungs..."

cherry rolled her eyes playfully as she pulled him by the hand to a patch of sunlight for them to lay in while soda swam.

it wasn't long before soda pushed himself into the shallows, his tail flopping uselessly on the sand behind him, and called to them, "you two gonna be any fun today?"

cherry giggled, she always did, and pushed herself off the sand and hurried out to him. chet, just as they knew he would, sat up and hugged his knees, feeling out of place and uncomfortably aware of his lanky limbs. soda laughed freely as cherry dove into the breaking surf behind him, red hair rippling behind her perfectly.

the two of them swam and laughed and ducked under waves for what felt like hours, soda's bare shoulders burning slightly in the sunlight, cherry's freckles growing more and more bold as her nose scrunched under the sun of a hundred laughs.

it happened so fast, they barely even had the time to be scared. the ocean wasn’t kind enough to afford them the luxury of panic.

soda felt the water change in the way his scales rippled, the places it pulled, harder than before. he was just turning to pull cherry out of the way, when she dipped under, and the look in her eyes made his blood run cold.

chet was standing up at the shore. soda didn't have time to look back before he dove down.

the water had gone cold and harsh and wrong, the current pulling at his tail despite how strong of a swimmer he was. one of his sides crashed against a rock, but he pushed the pain down and continued swimming. he kicked right along with the current, knowing it would lead him to cherry, and his eyes fell on her in seconds. she wasn't fighting, her body limp and sinking. soda surged forward, catching her around the shoulders and hauling her up. his lungs may have been prepared for hours under the crashing surf, but hers weren't. with a huge kick with his tail, he felt them break out of the current, fresh, beautiful oxygen just inches above them.

chet watched them break the surface, his stomach turned to lead, his head aching with memories of lungs full of water and arms grabbing at any part of him that they could. as soda brushed cherry's hair away from her face, chet saw blood spilling from a cut near her temple. he wanted to run, to splash out to meet them and pull cherry into his arms, but his knees felt like they'd buckle if he took so much as a step into the water.

"chet!" soda shouted from the water. "grab towels, she's freezing!"

soda carried them up the shore as far as he could before he effectively army crawling to get them in and doing his best to drag cherry with him. chet sprinted down, scooping cherry into his arms and wrapping the towel around her. he carried her up onto the soft, drier sand further inland and laid her out gently. the blood had dripped down her face, blending with her hair, and her eyes were closed, but chet could hear her pulling in shallow, tense, breaths.

"cherry," chet pleaded, his heart hammering in his throat. "c'mon baby, i know you're in there."

soda was next to them in moments, tail gone and replaced with trembling legs.

"she's breathing," chet gasped, his heart racing far too fast for the rest of his body to keep up. he tugged his t-shirt over his head and balled it up, pressing it to the cut on cherry's head. "cut doesn't seem too deep but we have to clean it up to get a better look at it."

"i hit the same rocks..." soda's voice faltered terribly, his hands brushing the tender skin along his ribs where the skin had rubbed raw. "w-why's she bleeding so much?"

"head wounds always bleed like crazy, the blood doesn't necessarily mean anything," chet explained. he looked pointedly at their bags and back at soda. "go get a few more towels, we gotta get her warm."

soda scurried away, and chet turned back to cherry, shaking her shoulder and hitting her face gently to try and bring her back.

cherry came to with a gag, and chet barely had time to get her on her side before she was coughing up mouthfuls of saltwater and sand, her breath coming in deep heaves. soda fell to his knees next to them and pulled cherry upright to help her breathe easier, wrapping her in every towel and blanket they had.

it didn't happen fast, there were coughs and wretches and tears to get through before she could calm herself down, but her breathing gradually evened out. she fell limply into soda's chest, little whimpers falling from her lips as chet held the t-shirt to the wound on her head to staunch the bleeding.

she looked up at chet with pleading eyes, "i... i wasn't fast enough."

chet's eyebrows furrowed, "baby, what do you mean?"

"i..." cherry paused to caugh, the sound rattling in her chest angrily. "i felt the current... i tried to get away from it but i wasn't fast enough."

"honey..." soda cradled her in his arms, pressing her ear to his chest. "you couldn't have known. currents like that... they don't warn you most of the time. i barely noticed it before you went down."

cherry bit the inside of her cheek and mumbled out, "'m sorry. i didn't mean to scare you."

soda's heart ached, "oh, babydoll, no. don't be sorry. you're okay, i'm okay, nobody's mad. it's all gonna be just fine."

chet leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead, glancing at the cut before pulling the t-shirt back, "you scared the dickens out of us, but we're okay. you don't ever gotta be sorry."

cherry didn't seem totally convinced, but she did finally feel safe. her heart slowed back down, her head throbbed, but the bleeding stopped. she felt herself drifting, exhaustion sitting deep in her bones.

"...love you."

they both kissed her head and squeezed her gently.

safe. held. theirs.

#this scratched an itch in my brain i fear #happy summer babiesss #cherry valance #chet baker #sodapop curtis #the outsiders #the outsiders musical #star’s writing

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littlestarbigsky · 6 days ago

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THIS. wasn't funny.

The Curtis brothers feeling guilty and spoiled just for grieving their parents because none of their friends got to have parents like that in the first place.

#ohhhh man im gonna have a breakdown over this #this was so sick and fucking twisted #darry curtis #sodapop curtis #ponyboy curtis #the outsiders #star’s reblogs

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littlestarbigsky · 7 days ago

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I'm obsessed with your Ace and Darry stories 😭 could I request one where Darry comforts Ace during a tornado? They have to go to the tornado shelter which is dark and cramped and has Ace getting flashbacks? Just cute big brother Darry coded?

Thanks!

Tornado Warnings

Thank you so much! I know this was from a couple weeks ago and I'm sorry this took so long but life got really busy and I just haven't had time. But I finally finished it! I hope you like this! Also, small TW for some implied and referenced sexual assault. If you are sensitive to that stuff, please stay safe!

The humidity was worse today.

It was the first thing Ace had noticed when she’d stepped outside of her house. The sky was quiet as well, darkened, like a monster lying in wait. It put her nerves on edge and made her brain feel fuzzy.

She’d had an easy enough time walking to the DX, though her tank top was entirely soaked and stuck to her back once she got there. It wasn’t uncommon in the glare of the Tulsa summer. But today felt… different.

“Hey Ace, thought you woulda slept in.” Steve said from the counter, hardly looking up at her from his magazine.

“Yeah, I thought you would stop runnin’ that fat mouth but I guess some things never change.” She quipped.

“Jesus, you’re on one this morning. Soda’s out in the garage, go bother him.” She nods, sticking her tongue out at him before heading into the garage. Soda was slid underneath a car, humming to himself, with a screwdriver in his mouth. Ace kicks his foot, effectively scaring him.

“Hey! I coulda dropped that down my throat you know!”

“You would have been fine.” She says, barking out a laugh.

“What are you doin’ here Ace? You usually don’t come in until later.”

“Why does everyone think I’m just some good for nothin’ bum who sleeps past two everyday?” She kicked him again before he could answer. They settled into a comfortable silence that had been practiced many times before. With Soda saying which tools he needed and Ace handing them to him without a word.

“Does the sky seem… wrong to you today?” She asked, unsure of herself.

“Wrong?”

“It just seems like something is gonna happen.”

“My Momma used to say that tornadoes always happen after it gets real quiet in the mornings. Maybe that's what it is.” A thrill of fear ran through Ace at that. A tornado? She’d been in a tornado one time in her life.

She can’t remember what happened but she knew it was bad. She could remember trying to get to the storm cellar but not being able to. She distantly remembered something about a guy too. She also remembered that she had managed to black out before anything happened. At least she thought that nothing happened.

She shook her head, trying to physically clear those terrible memories.

“A tornado?”

“Maybe.” He licked his finger and put it into the air, laughing when Ace kicked him again. “You don't’ gotta be scared Ace. Darry’s home today and our storm cellar works just fine.”

“I ain’t scared.” She resists the urge to kick him again but doesn’t for fear it might actually make her look scared.

“Just sayin’.”

They spend the rest of his shift mostly messing around, Ace pushing the anxiety about the tornado to the back of her mind. Outside was getting worse, the hot sticky stagnant air now whipping around and raining. They were in the middle of trying to throw circus peanuts into Soda’s mouth when there was a loud crash against the windows of the DX. Apparently the sign had been ripped off the front and blown back against the windows. Ace nearly jumped out of her skin, remembering the storm cellar in the Curtis home.

“I gotta go.” She says, dropping the circus peanuts and running out into the storm.

“Ace, wait!” She didn’t know who had yelled that at her but she didn't’ care. She was running like a bat outta hell down the street where the wind had picked up so much that it was hard to see straight in front of her. It was only three blocks to the Curtis home. Three blocks. She told herself, pushing through the wind. Not that she could even really feel her feet touching the ground. Ace didn’t think she’d taken one breath since she ran out. Not that she could really feel much of anything right now.

She ran up the steps of the Curtis home, slipping in and slamming the door behind her, panting like she’d just run a marathon. The storm cellar. The storm cellar! She had to get to the storm cellar.

“Soda? That you?” Darry came into full view then from the kitchen. He was still in his work clothes and he looked tired. Though his eyes softened when he saw her. “Hey Ace… you’re bleedin’.” She brought a hand up to her face, which came back streaked with blood. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” The words felt thick in her mouth, like it wasn’t her saying them.

“Alright,” He said, like he was talking to a wounded animal. “It’s gettin’ pretty bad out there, so lets go down in the storm cellar just to be safe and I can clean ya up down there, okay?” She nods and lets him take her by the elbow, guiding her down to the storm cellar.

They sit in the dark for a little bit, with nothing but the wind whipping outside and rattling of the windows upstairs. The cellar is cramped but there is a small cot for a bed and some other pillows on the floor. With the fact that Darry isn’t saying much, Ace is left to her thoughts. She wishes he would say something but Darry was always the Curtis that was the most comfortable with silence. Soda would talk your ear off under the worst of circumstances and it was best not to get Ponyboy going on the movies currently in the theaters.

Ace wants to reach out or grab Darrys shoulder but she can’t get her hand to move. The wind whipped outside and Ace flinched violently, suddenly brought back to the only other tornado she’d been stupid enough to get caught in.

Ten years old and shaking. Still washing in the remnants of summer with her torn tank top and fading plaid shorts. She is on the way down to a communal storm cellar with various other adults from her Gram and Gramps neighborhood. The storm cellar was like the basement… but worse. Ace had been looking around for Steve but couldn’t seem to find him anywhere. Usually if she found Steve, it meant she could be safe. She couldn’t find him.

She tried to stick close to her Gram but Ace had gotten lost in the sea of adults. Before she could go in, she figured she should watch the people as they walked in. Maybe catch sight of someone she knew. She took a seat on the ground in the corner, her knees drawn up to her chin. She tried to make herself as small as possible, imagining herself as an ant looking through the rest of the big people. That’s when she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder.

“Hey pretty girl, what are you doin’ down here all alone?” Ace didn’t answer, her tongue felt heavy in her throat. She didn’t know this man. Seeing the silence, the man spoke again. “Such cute little shorts you’ve got on.” He began to stroke her thigh, grabbing at the button on her pants. “Everyone… is gone, just you and me.”

Ace quickly realized she was alone. The rest of the crowd had gone into the storm cellar, the tornado warning blaring down like it was from God himself. The door had been shut behind them, nobody remembered where she was, nobody would hear her if she cried out. That’s when the man had grabbed her.

Ace doesn’t remember much after that, mostly flashes of terrible things.

A hand on her mouth, her tank top strap ripping, hair being pulled, bruises on her ribcage and thighs, musky cologne in between rough kisses, trying to scream, the fight draining out of her, and wishing it would stop. Praying it would stop.

But she can’t really remember. Why doesn’t she remember? Should she want to remember?

But in the darkness of the Curtis storm cellar, the muffled whipping of the wind and Darry’s heavy breathing, Ace can’t help but feel like it’s happening again. She knows it's stupid, somewhere in the back of her mind, she knows it can’t be happening again, but her body doesn’t seem to agree.

Ace screws her eyes shut, tears leaking out and down the sides of her face, her breathing out of control. His hand was over her mouth so that she couldn’t scream and now she can’t breathe. Not with his hand over her mouth. She tried to scream for help that night. Didn’t she? Underneath his hand she had screamed for her Gram, Steve, her Gramps, Two-Bit, or even Sodapop. One of them would save her and if they couldn’t, they would try. Her body shook involuntarily wishing that his hands would just get off of her. She couldn’t seem to get them off. Too weak, too stupid, too small-

“Ace… baby you gotta look at me…” She couldn’t hear him over her own harsh breathing. “Ace!” Her eyes snapped open at that, looking up at Darry’s worried face. She can’t breathe.

“Dar… Darry…” She says shakily through gasped breaths.

“I’m here Ace, I’m not goin’ anywhere. Just breath, in through your nose, out through your mouth.” It was something his Momma used to say whenever Sodapop or Ponyboy got too worked up. Ace guessed that Darry had started using it too.

“I can’t… I just… I can’t-”

“Yes you can.” He interrupted, taking one of her shaking hands and pulling it to his chest. “Feel my chest and breath with me.” He started to over exaggerate his own breathing, willing Ace to breathe with him. Slowly, after some time, she begins to calm down. Enough to start hearing the wind outside instead of her heartbeat thundering in her ears again. It wasn’t happening again. Why did she think it was? How could she be so stupid-

“Ace? You okay?” Darry asks carefully, like he’s talking to a hurt animal. She puts a hand on her neck, feeling the air enter and exit her body in a more controlled way.

“I- I think so.” She drops her hand from his chest. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“I don’t think anything is wrong with you.” Darry gives her a questioning look and she can sense that he’s about to push. Darry was never one for unanswered questions. “What were you thinking about baby?” She looked at the dirty carpet then. Stained from Soda’s various snacking adventures and Ponyboy’s smoke breaks. Shame seemed to flood her body. Why did it seem so hard to tell Darry? What would he think of her?

“I’m sorry.” Ace couldn’t help the embarrassment that flooded her body.

“Hey now, none of that.” He was being gentle and that’s what made it all the worse. Darry wouldn't love her, not after this.

“I… It felt like the last time I was in a tornado.” She offered softly, still looking on the floor.

“Okay.” He said, obviously wanting her to keep going. “Ace… It’s like I always tell my kid brothers. There is nothin’ you can say that would ever make me walk out on ya.” She sniffles at that, trying discreetly, to wipe the tears off her cheeks. He picks up the first aid kit and pulls out some supplies. “Can I at least clean your face up?” She nods and he starts. “What happened to your face?”

“I don’t know.” She says honestly. “I was runnin’ over here and somethin’ musta happened.” She sniffles again and Darry smiles gently.

“Yeah, something.” He starts scrubbing the blood off and Ace can tell he’s trying to be soft, though it is pretty rough. Darry was big and that tended to make it a little hard for him to be soft.

“I couldn’t- I didn’t make it into the shelters at the last tornado… when I was ten I mean.” She says feeling like she’d admitted something dirty.

“What happened?” She wrestles with her hands in her lap, still not making eye contact. She was grateful that Darry was doing something instead of looking at her. His eye contact could be pretty intense.

“Some guy… a guy from the neighborhood found me.” He keeps silent, getting to the blood that had dripped down to her neck. “It was just… just us and he did…” She feels something of a sob bubble up in her throat but manages to push it back down.

“It’s okay, just take your time. I ain’t never gonna be mad atcha if that’s what you think.”

So she admitted all what that man had done under bated breath. She even admitted how scared she’d been. Darry looked more and more murderous by the second.

“I don’t even remember it Darry.” She cried, bringing a hand up to wipe at her eyes. “Not all the way at least.” He set the towel down and put a hand around her shoulders, pulling her close. “Should I want to remember it? Is it bad that I don’t?”

“No, it ain’t bad to wanna remember Ace kid. It happened to you after all.”

“I just don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Hey,” He said gently, shaking her a little bit. “I meant what I said before. Nothing is wrong with you. You got scared, people get scared all the time. It’s a completely normal thing, especially when something like that happens to ‘em.” She tried to nod, more tears falling from her eyes.

“You ain’t… You don’t…” She couldn’t get out what she was trying to say but it was something along the lines of asking if he still loved her.

“What that guy did was not your fault. I will always love you Ace, nobody is ever going to change that.” Ace couldn’t help grinning at that, the smile dropping as quickly as it came.

“You sure?”

“Yes, I mean c’mon, you’re like my baby sister or somethin’.” She smiled again and he pulled her deeper into his side. It was like a breath of relief, he wasn’t going to hold this against her.

She couldn’t help the next thought that came. “We need to call Soda and Steve. They probably got caught at the DX. We gotta make sure they’re okay.” Darry smiled.

“If I know anything about them, they’re probably more worried about you. Runnin’ out like you did.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s okay, let’s give ‘em a call, okay?”

“Okay.” He goes to help her up, a genuine smile on her face. All… if anything, was forgiven. Ace would always have her big brother, no matter what.

READ THIS ON A03

#the way you got their dynamic perfectly #ugh i love everything about this #the outsiders #darry curtis #ace the outsiders #the outsiders musical #fics i looooove #star’s reblogs

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littlestarbigsky · 9 days ago

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i firmly believe angels fly every time brody laughs

#thinking abt the theatre podcast #and how hard he laughed after he had to summarize the wizard of oz #and people made him laugh so hard when i met him at stage doo #he has the best laugh :’)#i looove him #brody grant #the outsiders #the outsiders musical #star is talkin

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littlestarbigsky · 10 days ago

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i feel like i haven't really talked about it much on here lately but i lost my dad unexpectedly two and a half years ago, aaaand here are some thinky thoughts about darry and his dad bc he's all ive been thinking about today

be gentle with your friends who have lost parents, days like today are hard /gen

cw: mild emetaphobia warning

darry threw up the first time pony accidentally called him... that. pony hadn't even meant to, he probably didn't even know it happened at all.

the kid was sick, again.

the doctors had tried to figure out what was going on with him, but really the only explanation they could give darry and soda was that he just wasn't coping well with losing his parents. he was just emotionally zapped, and his body wasn't coping well.

they were sitting in pony's bedroom, soda propping their little brother up against him while darry tried to spoon soup into his mouth. he hadn't eaten anything solid for two days, they were lucky if they got water in him most of the time. soda had even managed to get a few sips of apple juice into him, but even so, pony wasn't getting any better.

"c'mon, baby, please," darry pleaded, something burning behind his eyes as he held he spoon out, carefully keeping it from dripping onto pony's pajamas.

pony just turned his head away from the spoon, his body shifting to curl closer to soda. he was caught halfway between sleeping and crying, so exhausted and disoriented that it seemed a wonder that they were able to get him sitting up at all.

"pony, please," darry begged, his voice breaking. "you're not gonna feel better if you don't eat anything."

"don't want it, daddy," pony mumbled.

darry and soda's eyes went wide. it felt like a twenty pound weight had dropped right into his stomach. soda didn't hesitate, he grabbed the bowl of soup and cradled pony closer as darry pushed himself off of the bed and hurried out of the room.

he barely made it to the bathroom before the bile rushed up his throat and a sob caught in his lungs becuase that's his baby brother, not his son. and maybe pony was too out of it to understand what was going on, and maybe just imagining darry was their daddy was just his brain comforting him in the only way it knew how, but god, it hurt.

because darry could remember nights when he had been young and sick and their daddy had tried to get him to eat. how he'd been able to hold darry in his lap and feed him soup, how it had felt like being held by a superhero. how he had whispered, "c'mon, junior, two more bites and we can have a sleep, sound okay?"

pony probably didn't even know he'd said it, and they'd never remind him of it, but it burned into darry's brain like a brand.

my irl favorite person ever (who tumblr isn’t letting me tag booooo) is writing this fic on ao3 and it’s kinda along the same lines as this,, yall should check it out🥹

#i know in my heart the curtis boys call their dad daddy #bc that's simply a southern thing to do #not a damn word #happy father's day ig #i don't have a dad lol #but darry is the best older brother #(i've cried over him three times today)#darry curtis #ponyboy curtis #sodapop curtis #the outsiders #curtis brothers #star’s writing

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littlestarbigsky · 10 days ago

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Could we perhaps get migraine ponyboy w his brothers ??please and thank you I love your writing

omg guess who gets chronic migraines (it’s me) so this ask had me soooo excited

hope this is okay🩷

he knew it was coming.

it always snuck up on him, even though he could feel the change in the season, the way the air thickened with moisture and there was more sweat on the back of his neck.

pony’s head always acted up when the summer started, he saw it coming from a mile away.

but that didn’t make it any easier when he found himself curled under their heaviest winter quilt to block out the light, even though he was dripping with sweat. the quilt was lined with wool, and pony swore he could feel the individual threads sticking into his arms and face like needles.

although, needles wouldn’t quite do it justice.

it hurt to open his eyes, even with the blanket covering him. his eyes were so dry, his head was in so much pain that he wasn’t sure if he’d ever leave his room again. it was like someone had stabbed a white-hot poker through the front of his skull and left his brain to burn like a roast on a spit.

there may have been tears on his face, he wasn’t even sure he was breathing. he couldn’t move or make any noise. it was him and the dark and the pain.

he wasn’t sure how long he was there for.

after what might have been twenty minutes, or maybe three days, he really wasn’t sure, the mattress dipped somewhere near one of his knees.

“pony…” the voice was quiet as anything, so soft he couldn’t tell which of his brothers it was. “it’s dark out, you can take the blanket off now.”

jesus christmas, he’d really been down for that long?

slowly, a set of hands lifted the blanket up and off of pony’s face, careful not to let the harsh fabric drag across his skin. he damn near cried of relief the second he felt the cool air of the rest of the house against his skin. he was suddenly very aware that he had sweat through his t-shirt and that the sheets beneath him were damp from all the time he had spent curled up and hiding. his bedroom was almost completely dark, except for dim light creeping in through the window from the streetlight down the road.

“jeez, kiddo, you’re a mess,” it was darry’s voice. he shifted closer on the bed, very intentionally not touching ponyboy, but leaving himself open if pony decided he wanted it.

pony still felt like he’d never open his mouth to speak again, the situation only got worse as a sob forced its way out of his throat. the sound cut deep into pony’s brain like a hot knife, the feeling of the pain in his mouth lingering like open sores. he could feel himself getting worked up, and evidently, so could darry.

“hey, don’t you get all upset now,” he hushed, leaning back on his hands. it was becoming increasingly clear that he wanted nothing more than to gather his baby brother in his arms and hold him until the pain subsided, but he kept his distance as long as pony wanted to hold it.

“can you take a deep breath for me? just one, i promise it’ll help.”

pony couldn’t understand how it was supposed to fix anything, but as the pain in his head stung like a brand, he drew in the biggest breath his lungs could muster, and blew it out. he couldn’t feel much of a difference in his head, but crying suddenly felt less necessary.

“good, you’re doin’ so good, baby,” darry scooted closer as the door creaked open behind them.

“hey honey… i’ve got somethin’ for you.”

soda sidled into the room, a bowl in one hand and a glass of water in the other. he set both down on the bedside table and knelt down next to the bed. he reached up and brushed a few strands of pony’s hair back from his sweaty forehead. pony was expecting pain to follow the touch, but nothing came, just the roughness of his brother’s hands, callouses on his hands from years of reins in his hands.

soda reached over and grabbed a rag from the bowl, it dripped with water as soda wrung it out. he brought the cloth towards pony’s face and whispered, “this should help some.”

the cloth was cool against pony’s skin, soda’s hands gentle as he ran it over pony’s face. soda knew exactly how soft he needed to be when pony felt like this, he knew exactly how to take care of him in a way that didn’t make anything worse. it wasn’t that darry didn’t know how or didn’t want to help, soda was just familiar.

after the cloth had passed over pony’s face a few times, he could feel some of the pain ebbing.

“you think you can take some medicine, baby?” darry asked, his voice still that perfect, comforting whisper. “i’ll measure some out for you, it’ll help, i promise.”

pony gave what he could of a nod. his breath felt heavy in his chest as soda helped him sit up and settled him against his chest. soda’s arms wrapped around him protectively and securely as darry moved to grab the bottle of aspirin, the pills locked in a drawer. the sound of the pills rattling in the bottle was grating to pony’s ears, soda just held him closer when he flinched.

darry came back over with two pills in his hands and sat close to them, pony’s glass of water with a bendy straw. pony weakly lifted his hands and haphazardly tossed the pills into his mouth, taking small sips from the water. it burned in his throat and ached all over, but as soda pressed a proud kiss to his temple, he felt something in the white hot mess of his brain cool gently.

“alright honey, i think it’s time you get some rest,” soda whispered.

pony didn’t try to stop them as they pulled off his jeans and t-shirt and replaced them with a set of soda’s old pajama pants, much too long and tied tight at the waist, and one of darry’s sweatshirts, the high school emblem faded on the front.

“you think that tea mama used to make would help?” soda asked gently as they eased the covers over him. he didn’t wait for pony to answer, just pushed himself up from the bed and brushed back some of pony’s hair. “i’ll get some goin’ for ya.”

the door clicked shut behind soda and darry sighed, brushing his thumb under pony’s eyes and wiping away the few tears he’d let escape.

“i know, kiddo, i know it’s lousy.”

pony sniffled lightly, the only response he could really give. darry made a move to get up, but stopped dead when he saw the look in pony’s eyes; helpless, pleading, exhausted.

“you want me to stay until you fall asleep, baby?”

pony just reached up one arm, just like he had done countless times when they were little. darry lifted up the covers and curled around his baby brother, pony still slotting in next to darry just like he was always meant to. darry pressed pony into his chest, a gentle hand in his hair and the other rubbing gentle circles over his back.

by the time soda came back with the tea, both of them were asleep, darry holding pony so close that it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.

they couldn’t take away pony’s pain, even if they saw it coming, but they could hold him until it was better. they always would.

#ponyboy curtis #darry curtis #sodapop curtis #the outsiders #the outsiders fic #star’s writing

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