Hey everyone.

This first chapter is just a prologue. If I get any interest, I will continue.

Thought I would play around with something new! Let me know if you like it.

xxR

The house was quiet, something that was strikingly uncommon in the Curtis household. Darry was looking at the bills he was now responsible for in the two weeks since his parents had died and was wondering what he was going to do to keep the family afloat. He would have to start roofing full time. Soda would have to work more at the DX, which he would't mind. Somehow he was going to have to try and convince him to stay in school. It would be an impossible battle, most likely. Soda was too helpful for his own good. He wanted to help Darry as much as he possibly could, more now that Mom and Dad were gone.

Gone. He couldn't believe it. They were just laughing on the couch two and a half weeks ago about how Soda was just a lovesick puppy dog, with too much of a romantic heart for his own good. Mom told him to lay off, let him fall in love. She was always standing up for Soda's heart. Even more than Sodapop himself.

Soda was out with Two-Bit and Steve, who were attempting to get his mind away from Sandy breaking up with him for the third time this month. Mom would have had a field day with that one. She never liked Sandy, but she never told Soda that. Dad would be trying to soothe her, since she would, no doubt, be pacing the living room talking about how she was going got give that girl a piece of her mind. Darry would be drinking a beer with his dad and Pony would be sitting on the couch snickering.

Pony boy, what was Darry going to do about the kid? He was so sad. Even Soda was having hard time getting though to him. Darry had never been as good with him as Soda or Johnny had been anyway. He didn't know how things were going to be now that he was going to be the man of the house. Right now Pony boy sat in his and Soda's room with a book. He was probably not focusing on the pages, instead thinking about Mom and Dad, Darry thought.

Darry didn't hear the door open until the high pitched voice rang out,

"Dare?" her voice was full of concern. Darry sighed. This was a conversation that he wasn't looking forward to having, but he knew that it was coming. Darry didn't even want to think about Katherine, when he was thinking about the future.

She was supposed to be his constant. She was supposed to be the one thing that was always going to be around, there for him, near. Now, though, Darry realized, that wasn't going to happen.

"Hey Kit. In the kitchen." He put the bills in the top drawer, reserved for papers, and went to the cabinet to grab a few glasses. Kit would need something to drink. She always did. She had this adorable quirk of not knowing what to do with her hands unless it was tucked into his or had a glass to hold. Darry was a little concerned that this could be dangerous if the contents were alcoholic, but she rarely ever drank the contents, unless she wanted to. Mostly she just rolled the glass back and forth between both of her hands.

She walked into the kitchen looking like she was going to say something as soon as she turned the corner, but one look at Darry's face was enough to convince her to just sit down and accept the orange juice he poured for the both of them.

"What is it Darrel?" Darry winced. She never used his full name. Only when something was serious and scary did she call him Darrel. Lately he had been hearing it more than he was okay with. She had a sixth sense the it came to him. She always knew when the wrinkles in his forehead went from concern to anger. When his smile went from happy to taunting. When his eyes went from awake and alive to droopy and ready for sleep. Darry breathed in slowly.

"I can't go to the U, Kit." Her face fell. She knew why. She didn't need some explanation about money or death or anything. She knew. She knew and she couldn't change it. Darry couldn't take it anymore. He covered his eyes. Tears were forming, as much as he wanted them to stay in.

Not going to the U meant the end of everything that had planned. He was going to work his ass off. So was she, but they were going to make the life they wanted. They were going to get the white picket fence. That is what the U meant. It meant marriage. Jobs. Babies. All of it.

"Dare." He voice was sad, broken. "Oh Darry, love, I'm sorry." She knew how hard it was for him now that he was taking on all of the bills and all the responsibility for the family. She just didn't really let herself believe that it was going to get to the point where he was going to have to give up on his dreams. Sure the University of Oklahoma wasn't Harvard or anything, but it was something. Something that they were going to do together, with hard work, determination and a whole lot of love.

She keeled down in front of him placing her hands on his thighs, comfortingly rubbing them back and forth. His breathing was hitching and she could sense the sobs that were about to break through. He finally let loose when she sat herself on his lab and wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her face into the space between his neck and his shoulders. She couldn't help her tears from falling too.

Katherine Hayes had seen Darry cry three times in their 3 year relationship. Once when he thought he got so blackout drunk he cheated on her (which he didn't, because even blackout drunk Darrel Curtis was a sweet, upstanding, faithful man). Once two weeks ago when he answered the phone to the news that his mother and father died in a car accident, and right now. She knew it wasn't just that he wasn't going to go to school. It had always been a possibility that he wasn't going to make it through school or even TO school because of the money. There was something else that was going on in his brain.

"Darry, what else?" She was worried. Kit grabbed his tear stained face and held it up to hers. He tried to look away. He didn't want to make it final. He didn't want to crush the dreams they built together. "Darrel. What. Is. It." She punctuating every word with a kiss to either cheek.

"You don't deserve this life Kit." He looked into her eyes. There was a sadness in them that even to this point she hadn't seen. It was defeated. He was giving up.

"What the HELL does that mean Darrel James?" Darry winced at the the use of his name.

"It means that you shouldn't be with a man who can't give you everything you should ever want in life. YOU, Katherine Louise Hayes, you deserve more than a boy who can't go to college, or pay the bills. A boy who has to care for his brothers and who can't, as much as he might want to, be with you. I can't..." his breathing was hitched, "I... can't..." he broke down. Kit felt the anger bubble up in her. She was not going to accept this from him. Not Darrel Curtis. He didn't give up on anything. He was Superman.

"NO!" Kit yelled and punched the side of her fist into his chest. "NO! NO! NO!" She yelled as she stood up, and Darry followed her actions, taking the beating she was now starting to give him.

"Darry. NO! I will NOT give up on this. On us. I love you." She was sobbing now too.

"You have to Kit." He found her eyes. She didn't understand. "You have to," he said desperately. "For the boys. You have to." She gasped, then was silent.

"Oh, no." She sunk onto the floor. Her skirt billowed out around her. Recognition was dawning on her face. "Oh Darry." She looked into his eyes. tears spilling out for both of them. Mutual understanding dawned. She couldn't be the reason that the boys split up. She would never forgive herself. She realized in that moment that she had to step aside and let him be the man that he needed to be, to make sure that all three of them would stay together. She loved Soda and Ponyboy just as much as Darry did. She was like the older sister they never had. Hell, the boys always thought she would one day be their older sister.

She reached her hand out to his. He took it, albeit hesitantly, but once they touched a spark ignited. All the love they had felt for each other came bubbling up. He pulled Kit into his lap and tried to calm her down, stroking her hair and kissing the side of her neck. She knew that she had to let this happen, as much as she didn't want to. She had to allow her love for the boys to overtake her love for Darry. It was the hardest thing she was ever going to do. He was her everything.

After was seemed like an hour, she stood up, wiped her skirt off, and headed to the door.

"Will I ever see you again?" Darry's hear broke all over again. She was holding onto his hand like her life depended on it.

"I don't know." She looked at him sadly. He turned away. "I will do whatever you want me to do Kitty." he said her nick name affectionately. He would give her that. She was doing the one thing he would never be able to to for her. Let her go. "I'll always love you."

Kit couldn't take it anymore. The tears started again. Slowly this time, leaving trails down her cheeks. "You know I will never stop loving you Dare." He hoped that she was just saying that. He didn't want her hanging on to the idea of them forever, like he would. He stepped towards her now, trying to memorize her eyes, the plumpness of her lips, the quirk in her smile, and even the sadness in her eyes. Slowly he reached down, grabbed her chin and gave her a farewell kiss.

It was hard, but soft. Loving and passionate. It was their entire life they had planned in one movement, the fleeting dream of what they were going to be two weeks ago before the world descended into chaos. It was the punctuation to their perfect romance. Darry thought it was a period, a final act, but somewhere in Kit's mind she knew it was a comma. There was no way that their love could be temporary.

Both of them didn't even register that Soda and Ponyboy both heard the entire exchange. Soda having ditched out on Two-Bit and Steve, walked straight into the two of them holding on to each other like their lives depended on it in the kitchen, and Pony, who was confused as to why he could hear two people sobbing and went to investigate. They made their way back to their room after witnessing Kit and Darry's goodbye kiss. Soda sat numbly on the bed, Pony at his desk.

Pony boy broke the silence first. "He did that for us?"

"Yeah." Soda said, without making eye contact with Ponyboy. "Yeah, he did."