Groan! Not another OC fic! Except I think (hopefully) this one's a little different. This is actually more of a one-sided romance. I noticed there really hasn't been a lot of Two-Bit fics in a while, so I decided to post one. Short prologue.

Keith Mathews never remembered any sort of love like this, no, not since December 26th 1965. He usually went by his sobriquet, Two-Bit, for a long time. Back in the days, in the times of the cowboys and Indians, he called it an alias. Two-Bit Mathews, shooting up the wilds of Oklahoma; it had a nice ring to it. That was something he did love, when he used to play with Darry and the other kids. Of course, that was long before 1965.

When he thought about it, it could have been long before that. It might have been. There was Kathy, she was nice enough and had a great body, though nothing much else to her. Every date ended in a tasteless make-out session. Some times a fight. The latter was often about how he wouldn't grow up and keep a job. During these rants, he often failed to mention that she still lived off her allowance.

Kathy was probably the longest girl he ever had, and was he ever glad when she broke up with him. To him, she was just another toy to play with until he grew tired of. No, they never even really reached stage two. He knew his place in the hierarchy of love. He was at the bottom with all the womanisers. He was a womaniser. Charming, considerably handsome and never held a serious realationship.

There was also Sarah. She was a cute little thing, but with a loud mouth and a temper Two-Bit couldn't put up with. When the guys had asked her why they broke up, Two-Bit had responded with a cheeky grin: "I fucked her out."

No, love never had a real meaning to him. He liked woman, or their bodies, and could beat the tar out of any other guy who dared eye at one millimetre of his current girlfriend. Two-Bit remembered that Wayne guy, who dared cop a feel with Carol Wilson, how he couldn't see out of one eye for more than a week. How he told the teacher he couldn't write because of his crushed phalanges. If anything, Two-Bit provided him a reason not to do his assignments. Not that he did his assignments anyways. Two-Bit couldn't say much for himself either.

He had watched lovers in the park from his old Studebaker, watched how they would passionately kiss. They were third stage lovers. He could tell, from the way they would hold each other. He envied them a little. He never felt anything like they did.

The only thing he would call a true love was his beer and his cigarettes. A cheap and bitter love. They were his soul and only thing he could return home to. Until Mary Hanson.

She was pretty thing. Light brown hair, bright green eyes and a very nice body. Not the most perfect face, sharp and angular. The thing he liked most about her was her scent. Like flowers, he assumed, but he didn't know too much about perfume, so he couldn't tell that well. Semi-voluptious. He didn't complain, though. Man, was she smart. Just listening to her was pure awe. When she spoke, she used those big words he didn't really know what they mean, but she made them seem so interesting. He had looked them up in the dictionary. Tried to use them around the gang. Damn, that Ponyboy's too smart for his own good.

The gang. They didn't know who was the girl that's been keeping Two-Bit from his normal variety of girls he picked up at Buck's. All they knew was that she was pretty, not beautiful, and very smart. Two-Bit wasn't ready to tell them who she was either. They would probably laugh, something he could bear, but deep inside he'd feel ridiculed.

The thing was, this girl; Mary Hanson, was a teacher. His English teacher to be exact. The only human being in the world to know of this scandoulous lust was his own flesh and blood, Ruth. The little sister. He didn't mean her to know, he wished she didn't.

How she had found out, it had took him very long for him to figure it out, but it had been simple for her to find out. Just the simple action of snooping around his room and finding a crumpled assignment with a K.M added to a certain teacher's signature. When she had confronted him, he had turned slightly red (a trait that wasn't rare to a red-head) and she squeezed it out of him. She had been slightly ashamed. Her own brother, a Mathews, was in love with a teacher. What a shame.

Steve had nearly found about this silly crush once. They were hanging around at the bowling alley while Soda was knocnking down pins in the five-pin. Steve started talking about how what a, to put in nicer terms, an ugly bitch to have failed him, even when he told her about how his father wouldn't let him get that car until he brought home an A in that class.. He was smart, but English was always a struggle for him. Two-Bit had automatically defended her. Steve had snorted and replied, "What, you in love with her?" before going up for his turn.

Two-Bit instantly put up a front and tried to reason, leaving Ms. Hanson out of it. The subject had been left untouched, and never again mentioned.

Mary Hanson, or Ms. Hanson, did know Two-Bit. Pitied him more than anything. To her, he was just another dumb-looking hood who would die young, but not before reaching a mile with his rap sheet. He liked her a lot. The way she would incorperate humour into the lessons, how she would express herself with her hands with vivacious gestures. He looked forward to her lectures.

Two-Bit didn't know a whole lot about love, but he sure as hell knew that feeling deep inside him was definitely not a simple attachment.

Review? Do not worry. Ms. Hanson is not a fifty-year-old woman.