Hi guys. Thanks to anyone who read, commented, or simply enjoyed the last chapter. And of course, a special thanks to those who commented and faved. I really appreciate it. It truly made my day!

Rated T: Again some Dally/Johnny, but the rating might go up soon.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Outsiders.

Turn of Events

Chapter 2: Inquisitive Little Punk

Johnny followed Dally into the small apartment. The blonde fumbled for the light, revealing its cramped and dingy condition. Empty beer bottles lined a termite-eaten dresser in the right corner of the room. A filthy ashtray sat atop a wobbly side table below the shelf. The walls were ugly, gray stucco, the ceiling was low, and the lone small window had no curtains, but cardboard covering it. The window was above a lumpy double mattress, whose bed frame was supported and reinforced by a complicated and intrinsic series of bungee cords. There was no carpet on the floor space, but rather an old, navy blue towel laid down to keep feet warm. It was a better alternative to stepping on the cold slate in February.

All in all, it was a pretty standard cheap guy's apartment. The look of confusion on Johnny's face was not due to its dirty condition, but rather the fact that Dally was here and not by Buck Merril's place.

"Why are you staying here?" The boy asked in a low voice, his eyes continuously scanning the room. The thumping from the club two stories below and the waster people on the landing made him feel edgy and uncomfortable. "What about your room at Buck's?"

Dally pulled open the lowest drawer on his dresser, extracting a first aid kit that seemed to be in too-good condition to be allowed in the apartment. He chucked it unceremoniously on the table, which creaked and rattled upon impact. "I told you, I'mma explain. But first we gotta clean you up. You really look like shit."

"You mentioned," Johnny said wryly.

Dally hooked the leg of one of the two equally crappy chairs by the side table with his foot and pulled it out. "Sit."

Johnny sat. "Where did you get that first aid kit?"

"Man you're really fucking inquisitive today, Johnnyboy."

"What's 'inquisitive'?"

"Means you ask a lot of goddamned questions." Dally replied, taking the seat opposite Johnny and flipping open the first aid kit. "Ponyboy made me learn the word. Wouldn't stop flappin' his yap until I got it."

Johnny raised an eyebrow so it disappeared under his shaggy black bangs. "So…where did you get the first aid kit?"

Dally smirked, grabbing an antiseptic and gauze. He began blotting Johnny's forehead where he'd hit the mailbox; his last injury. "If you were anybody else, I'd kick your ass. But okay, 'bout a week ago I fucked a nursing student right here in this room. She brought some of her medical crap thinking we was gonna play 'doctor', or something. But then when she left, she forgot to take her shit, so now it's mine. Looks like it's coming in handy for you and your messed up face, though."

"You brought a nursing student back here?" Johnny asked in awe. He remembered some of the nice nurses from when he was in the hospital, as well as how nice they looked. "Golly, and she must've been some kind of Soc too, huh. But what about Sylvia?"

"What about her? That broad's not my ball 'n chain."

"Well, was she good? The nursing student, I mean."

"Eh, I had better." Dally shrugged. He scrunched up his face, carefully putting the finishing touches on the bandage on Johnny's forehead. "She had these nasty-ass shark teeth though. Ya know big front ones? I was so scared she was gonna fuck up and bite my dick off."

The tan boy winced at the sound of that. He didn't want to let it on to Dally that he had no way to relate to that kind of fear. He'd never been in a situation remotely close to culminating in a bad blowjob, let alone a good one. Girls always saw him as a little boy; younger, even, than Pony. He'd never even had a girl before. He kept his mouth shut, not wanting Dally to think he was a loser.

Dally was giving Johnny a hard look, as if he was having trouble deciding what to do next. "Um…okay, you gonna have to take that shit off. There's glass everywhere and I dunno where to start."

"Take what shit off?"

"Your shit. Your jacket, shirt, jeans…At least start with the jacket."

"Oh," Johnny stood up and carefully slid off his jeans jacket. With the piece of clothing removed, it exposed a torn up elbow where the Socs had nicked him with a glass bottle.

The blonde reached up and grabbed Johnny's wrist, pulling him closer and positioning him so he was right under the light, the injured elbow level with his face. Johnny felt himself start to sweat, elated by that simple touch. Why was he feeling like this when his friend touched his arm of all things? But he was also very nervous as Dally had stood him between his legs to get a close look at the elbow. He trembled as Dally inspected the superficial glass scratches, his face inches from Johnny's skin. He could even feel his towheaded friend's breath on his bare arm.

"Stop shaking so much, would ya?" Dally asked. "I gotta get this out."

The smaller youth took a deep breath. "Yeah, sorry."

Armed with a pair of tweezers, Dally extracted the biggest pieces of glass from Johnny's elbow. As he held the younger boy's arm steady, he could clearly feel his body temperature rise. Why, was Johnny nervous that it might hurt? That was odd. Johnny generally took the concept of pain with a stoic look despite being so wide-eyed and scared all the time. "Where'd all this glass come from, Johnnycakes?" He asked. Dally's soft side—or the facsimile of a soft side that he had only for Johnny—was showing itself as he tried to distract the boy from any pain.

"Those Socs were throwing their empties at me." Johnny replied, grateful to have something to say.

"They were?" He had removed the biggest pieces of glass relatively painlessly as Johnny was talking. "Get the fuck outta here, that's dirty!"

"I know,"

"Why don't you tell me everything that happened to you after you left the Curtis'."

Johnny relayed everything that happened to him upon going to the lot, including hoping that the Socs might crash with Dally's truck, who he thought was a Soc at the time. All the while, Dally extracted the big bits of glass from Johnny's head, neck and arms. Johnny fell silent at the end of his story just as Dally asked him to keep his head down. He wanted to give Johnny's hair the final once-over.

"I think I got all them big pieces," Dally announced, running his fingers through Johnny's thick, greasy, black locks. "Ouch! Fuck, no, I missed a piece." He looked down at his own fingers; a small shard was embedded in his middle one.

Johnny felt his face grow scarlet as Dally, under the pretense of checking his hair for glass, stroked his head. He closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation. He'd always enjoyed the feeling of fingers running through his hair, with the light scratches of fingertips on his scalp and the gentle tugging on his locks. Once, his mother had stroked his hair for hours until he fell asleep. He must have been about six or seven years old at the time and he enjoyed it immensely, but she hadn't done it since. And another time, he had earned a touch in Windrixville. That first night at the church had been a difficult one, with the fear of the unknown and the horror of murdering a Soc eating away at him. But Ponyboy was there, and despite all the fear and anxiety, a caress from his friend was unbelievably soothing.

All too soon for Johnny's liking, Dally disentangled his fingers from the younger boy's hair. "All clean, Johnnycakes." The boy's heart sank a little. He wanted Dally's fingers back in his hair. "You're gonna have to take your shirt off now. I dunno how much glass got under your collar."

He understood that Dally was right, but it didn't make him feel any less self-conscious as he tugged his tight, black T-shirt over his head. Johnny was uncomfortably aware that Dally's eyes were on his naked upper body. He hung his head, shaggy bangs covering his eyes, and turned his body slightly away from Dally's unwavering stare.

"C'mon shy-guy. Lemme take a look." Dally reached out and pulled Johnny closer so he was directly under the light. Despite his dark features, Johnny's face was burning and his cheeks and ears were noticeably pink. "Spin," Dally ordered.

Johnny stood with his back to the blonde. Goosebumps popped up all down his sides and arms as Dally palpated his shoulders and spine. He heard Dally hiss as he circumvented the burns on his back; an eternal reminder of the church fire. Dally's touch was softer and more gentle than what would be expected from a hood. He ran his fingers down Johnny's sides, hips, and eventually his lower back. The dark boy shut his eyes tight. To his horror, his jeans had grown very tight in the crotch area. Why was this happening? Dally was a boy! And his idol! And a boy! Boys weren't supposed to get a stiffy over some other boy! That was just crazy.

"Dally," Johnny began, his voice squeaking. He needed something to distract himself from what was happening in the southern hemisphere. "You never told me whose truck that was, how you found me and where we are."

"Inquisitive little punk," he muttered, pulling out a piece of glass lodged inches from a particularly aggressive burn. This drew a hiss from the younger boy. "Well, a few weeks back, me and Buck was playing Buck's cousin in a rousin' game of blind-man's-bluff. The rat was drunk off his ass and high as a kite; must've owed us each a good grand by the end of the night. He told me he couldn't pay. But he insisted I come to his downtown club. His family's owned this building for years, I guess. Told me I could come for free anytime I want, and have a standing room. Sweet deal, huh."

The stinging pain of the glass shards on his sore back combined with Dally's story killed Johnny's situation instantly. "And the truck?"

"Also the cousin's. He said I could borrow it too." Johnny nodded but he didn't believe it.

Dally slowly ran his fingertips across Johnny's shoulder blades and up his neck. The lightness and achingly slow speed of the touch sent a pleasurable jolt from Johnny's back around to his chest, and down to his groin. Johnny chewed his lip fiercely, hoping the self-inflicted pain would kill the trouble that was rising once again. He dropped his chin to his chest, greasy hair covering his eyes. He had to stop this nonsense before Dally made him turn around!

"And that's what I did earlier tonight," Dally continued, moving on to long strokes down his friend's back, searching for any glass he might have missed. "I borrowed the truck. I was with Buck and his cousin on the Broken Arrow Expressway when I saw them Socs from town drive by. They was piss-ass drunk by the way they were swerving, and…I dunno, I just had a bad feeling. You know that weird feeling? What's it called…" He paused, his hand low on Johnny's hip, which made the tan boy squirm. "A premonition."

"Did Pony teach you that word too?"

"Fuck off," Dally said playfully, biffing Johnny on the hip. "And stop wriggling around like a worm, okay, punk?"

"Okay,"

"Anyways, they know to look for you in the lot. Them Socs, I mean. They know to look there after the thing with Bob and all. And that spooked me a bit." His hand was still resting absentmindedly on Johnny's hip. He was tracing small circles on the smooth, tanned skin with his thumb. It felt so good to Johnny that his chest absolutely ached. It ached, but in a good way. He was sure Dally wasn't paying attention to what his hand was doing, but Johnny couldn't focus his racing mind on anything else! "…and I knew I'd hafta go check on you." Dally was saying. "It took some convincing to remind Buck's cousin that he owed me his truck. I actually had to kick him out right there on the Expressway."

He said it so nonchalantly, although kicking another person out into traffic in the dead of night was a sure was to get the TPD on your ass. And Dally didn't need any more run-ins with the fuzz. "You kicked him out onto a fast road?" Johnny asked, his voice at least an octave too high.

"Well sure. But I did it for you. And good thing I did. You sure needed me, huh? Now turn around, Johnnycakes, lemme get the glass off your front."

Johnny panicked. "Uh no. You know what? My front looks pretty good." He babbled franticly, not knowing what Dally would say or do when he saw his crotch. Because there was absolutely no way he would miss the straining erection in his tight jeans.

"C'mon now, turn around."

Dally looped his fingers through Johnny's belt loop, and seamlessly pulled his small body until it faced forward. Johnny had his eyes closed tight. This was going to be humiliating. A hundred beatings from his old man would be better than this. He opened one dark eye and peeked at Dally, and there it was. The blonde was staring at his offending member looking stunned. And Dally had been in the cooler; not a heck of a lot could stun him.

A ringing silence filled the room and time seemed to slow to a standstill. Johnny prayed for the moment to pass painlessly. Oh fuck, his mind screamed, what's he gonna say?

Thanks for making it all the way down here! I'll update soon. Please review if you have the time, thanks!