By the way, this fic doesn't have anything to do with Come Home Soon, Johnny. My buddy was like... "Wait, isn't this in the chsj-verse?" And I was like "Oh shit! I didn't specify." Then we took turns making fun of me. XD

Woot, chapter two! And it's about twice long as chapter one. Bahahaha.!

Oh yeah, I don't own shit! And there's SLASH! So if you don't like slash, LEAVE PLEASE! THANKS!

Ponyboy flicked the pickle against the side of the jar, removing the excess of stinky vinegar. He had to admit, he felt alot better. He'd turned on a fan and a small lamp, and was now munching pleasantly on the salty delight.

Ponyboy jumped out of his seat. The grandfather clock had chimed five times. Soon after, Darry's alarm clock could be heard blasting a random radio station. Darry emerged from his room, cursing the early hour. He looked into the living room and saw the lamp on. Figuring someone had come to sleep on the couch, he turned away and went to the bathroom to shower.

Much more awake, Darry stepped into the kitchen to begin breakfast for himself, his brothers and whoever was camping on their couch, supposing that the visitor stayed that long. Darry flipped on the kitchen light and illuminated the room. The couch was bare, and Darry whipped his head around. Finding the "visitor", he fought back a laugh. Ponyboy was leaned over the table, a half-eaten pickle in hand, snoring quite loudly.

Darry disposed of the the shriveled snack and put the pickle jar back where it belonged. Easily picking him up, Darry carried the younger Curtis back to bed. Ponyboy curled up next to the wall, shivering. Suddenly feeling very corny and not caring, the elder grabbed a spare blanket from the chair and wrapped the youngster in warmth.

Beaming like a proud parent, Darry had to admit he did feel very fatherly towards his youngest brother. Watching the boy who could so easily be his son, Darry's eyebrows furrowed together as the sleeping boy's eyes snapped open violently. Ponyboy barely acknowledged the fact that the last time he recalled falling asleep, it was at the kitchen table. He quickly rolled over Sodapop, paid no notice that Darry was even in the room, and in a full-on sprint, ran to the bathroom.

Ponyboy closed the door, and relieved his bladder. Darry heard his brother sigh in relief.

"Ponyboy?" Darry knocked softly on the door. "Are you alright?"

Ponyboy gasped quietly. He didn't know Darry was awake. "Yeah, I'm okay." He shrugged to himself, at least it explained how he ended up in his bed. "I really had to pee. I didn't know you were awake, Darry." Hopefully his brother had been asleep when he awoke unpleasantly up-chucking. The lastthing Ponyboy needed was Darry flipping out and rushing him to an emergency room, somewhere.

"Yeah, it's Monday, remember? Work and school, today." Darry reminded his son-like figure as he came out of the bathroom. Ponyboy nodded and made a move to walk to the kitchen. "Why don't you head back to bed, you look beat."

Ponyboy smiled a little, Darry had been more compassionate lately. Nobody knew why of course, but the first person with a complaint could get used to a nice bloody nose.

Rolling over a still comatose Sodapop, Ponyboy let out a tiny grunt when his head bumped into the wall.

"What? What happened?" Soda yelled, his eyes flying open. Ponyboy couldn't help but roll his eyes. He then got quite comfortable despite his previous attempts, and he discovered that on his left side, it didn't hurt too bad.

The soft snoring of Sodapop lulled Ponyboy into the limbo between being asleep and being awake. When six o'clock rolled around, Ponyboy woke up to soft tugging of his sleeve.

"Wake up, baby." A soft, warm voice floated into Ponyboy's ear, making him crack one eye open to stare at his boyfriend.

"Clear!" The doctor on-call yelled to the attending nurses.

"Clear," Someone replied, and the sound of electricity could be heard throughout the room.

A very young Ponyboy Curtis was resting his head on the wall, hearing but not seeing, everything the professionals were doing.

Very suddenly, the long drawn out beep stopped, along with what Ponyboy was sure was his own heart.

And then, as quickly as the beep stopped, it started again, and again, and then again.

It didn't falter, it didn't beep continuously, it was beeping about every second. Johnny Cade was alive, and Ponyboy Curtis was bawling like a baby.

"Johnny! You know you gotta watch it!" Ponyboy said, getting up out of bed, almost not even angry with Johnny.

He barked a laugh. "I don't think I would even if Darry was here."

"You sonofagun." Ponyboy laughed. "You wouldn't take that risk."

Johnny looked at him unbelievably. "You know I would. I want them to know. I don't think they would care."

Ponyboy sighed in defeat. "I know, but we still have to be careful."

"I know, I know." Johnny smiled. "But we don't have time to be careful right now. You're gonna be late for school."

The younger boy rolled his eyes at his boyfriend. "Alright, but you gotta promise you'll be here when I get home. It's been over a week since we... yanno? I figured we could go over the hill tonight."

Johnny's dark-skinned cheeks tinged purple at all the memories from the back seat of the car over the hill.

Okay, so maybe it's obvious that I adore the father/son-like relationship that Ponyboy and Darry have. Since their parents are gone, I feel Ponyboy needs a father figure, and we all know Dally's not gonna do it. XD

I also loveeee the potential that Ponyboy and Johnny have.