Storms
A/N: Thank you so much for reading. Please review! :)
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own The Outsiders. Just the plot here. 3
Summary: Darry isn't afraid of storms. But maybe he should be. One-shot. Brother fluff. **Outsiders Challenge**
Ages:
Ponyboy: 6-almost-7
Johnny and Sodapop: 9
Dallas: 12
Darry: 16 1/2
Third Person POV (**April, 1960**)
Darry Curtis isn't afraid of storms. But maybe he should be.
Ever since he was a little kid, Darry had loved the rain. He used to watch the lightning flash at night when he was little. He even enjoyed the fresh smell of an approaching thunderstorms. Storms had never scared him.
But maybe they should have.
Ponyboy Michael Curtis came into this world like a storm. Already by six years old, he had suffered multiple asthma attacks due to his chronic condition. He was small for his age, quiet, and then would sometimes suddenly hit you with a blast of thunder. Like a few months ago when he was recommended to skip second grade the next school year. Everyone was proud, excited, and shocked. Ponyboy loved to read and was at the top of his first grade class. Darry wished school came as easily to him and Soda as it did to Ponyboy. He knew that Soda was sometimes secretly jealous of Pony's brains, though he tried to hide it.
"Ponyboy! Soda! Come say goodbye to Mom and Dad," Darry called to his younger brothers who were currently running outside in the rain. Soda splashed his foot into a puddle before looking up at Darry with a disappointed expression.
"Ponyboy, I thought I told you to at least put a coat on. Get inside 'fore you catch your death," Darry lectured. The two younger boys unhappily filed into the warm house.
Mrs. Curtis kissed her youngest boy on the forehead, then Soda, and much to her eldest son's chagrin, Darry's cheek. He blushed profusely, but smiled at his mother.
"I love you, Mom."
"I love you too, boys. Goodbye," Mrs. Curtis called in a warm voice. "Be safe." She was slightly worried to leave her babies, sixteen and all, completely alone for the weekend.
"Stop mother-henning, Laura. They'll be okay. Be good, boys," Mr. Curtis grinned as him and his wife left their younger sons in the hands of their older son, hoping all would emerge unharmed.
oOoOoOo
"Darry?" Ponyboy asked quietly as the three brothers silently watched TV. "I don't feel very good."
"Where does it hurt?"
Ponyboy pointed to his stomach and then his head, frowning in pain. "An' my nose is stuffy," he pouted.
Darry reached over to Ponyboy and felt his forehead for a fever, expecting to find it normal and cool, but was slightly alarmed to find him burning. Not too warm, just a low grade fever, but it was still concerning for the older man.
"You probably caught a cold being out in the rain. Go to sleep on the couch. You'll feel better by morning," Darry assured him. Ponyboy tiredly curled up in a ball, hoping to feel better in the morning like Darry had said.
oOoOoOo
He didn't feel any better by morning. When Darry took his youngest brother's temperature the next morning, it was 101.3 degrees.
"Is Ponyboy gonna be alright, Dare?" Sodapop questioned him as he came out of Ponyboy's room after taking his temperature.
"Yeah, Soda. He just has the flu. Don't worry," Darry assured the middle Curtis confidently.
oOoOoOo
There was a meadow just outside of town that Mrs. Curtis would bring her kids to when they were younger to play. Sometimes, Mrs. Curtis and Ponyboy would lay and point out shapes and figures in the white, fluffy clouds.
"It looks like a parrot." Ponyboy could barely see the cloud because of how bright the sun was, but he could make out a body and a beak. His mom didn't say anything.
"Mom?"
Ponyboy turned to look at his mom and saw blood covering her body. There was so much blood that you couldn't even see where it came from. Bloody streaked down her face and her arms.
"You killed me! Why? I hate you! I never should have given birth to you!" Her coarse vice rang out in a angry shrill.
"Ponyboy!"
Pony shot up in bed, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. He was gasping for breath, every square inch of his body convulsing with fever-induced chills. His vision swam with dark spots threatening to consume him, and he thought that he might throw up or pass out, maybe both.
Breathe, breathe.
He heard his eldest brother's comforting, strong voice through the dizziness.
"Your inhaler, Pony. I have your inhaler."
Darry was able to maneuver the inhaler into Pony's mouth as he tried to catch a breath. He shot the tasteless powder into his mouth, praying that it would work. Slowly, Ponyboy was able to pass air into his lungs again, but he couldn't stop shaking. He was still covered in sweat, but his bedroom was freezing!
"You can come sleep with me, Ponyboy," Darry offered. He picked up his sweaty youngest brother and carried him into his room, but Pony was asleep before Darry even reached his room.
oOoOoOo
"Darry? I can't sleep."
After a long day of taking care of one sick kid and a rowdy nine year old, when Pony knocked on Darry's bedroom door at eleven o'clock at night, all Darry wanted to do was fall straight back asleep. But his brother needed him. Darry thought that he had probably had a nightmare like the night before.
"Come lay with me," Darry offered kindly in a sleepy voice, pulling back the sheets. Pony eagerly climbed into his older brother's bed.
A few minutes later before anybody could fall deep asleep, Ponyboy sneezed forcefully twice, waking Darry from his light slumber. Darry comfortingly smoothed the auburn haired boy's hair back as Pony mumbled in discomfort. Neither one got much sleep that night.
oOoOoOo
The next day, late at night, Mr. and Mrs. Curtis came home to a tired Ponyboy, who's fever was at 99 degrees by now, a energetic Sodapop, and a completely wore out and exhausted Darry.
"How did your weekend go, Darry?" Mrs. Curtis asked as she sat down next to Ponyboy on the couch.
The three brothers glanced at each other before Darry responded, "Everything went great."
Well, basically.
*** Thank you to judges FrankElza, ForeverMandi, and BBFate. And thank you to all of the participants: Teeloganroryflan, MyCookieGirl, and GreaserG1rl201.
P.S. Happy Valentine's Day.
Do it for Johnny lovelies,
- Alee XxX