Hey all. As you may have noticed, I've been away from the writing desk for a while. My apologies, life has been pretty hard lately. So this is a jump back in. If you find yourself not liking this chapter, at least read the next one, as it is more business as usual, I suppose. Thanks to those who showed an interest in this last year. Hope the wait hasn't put you off.

Disclaimer: The usual.

On with the show.

Pony's POV

"Alright! Rise and Shine! Out of bed."

I blinked awake, more than used to Will Reilly's wake up calls by now. He seemed to get great joy out of waking us up every morning with a bright smile and loud tones. Next, he always pulled blankets away as he worked across the room to open up the blinds to the east morning light. Still, every morning it seemed to be a surprise to Rye, who groaned loudly from where he was shifting in the hammock.

"Don't groan at me," Will chided lightly, patting Rye's head. "You're missing out on the day! It's nearly noon already."

Usually "nearly noon" was closer to nine than noon, but when you were up before six every morning, it would seem like noon. I sighed and sat up, yawning for a long moment before stretching. I glanced at where Will was making his way from the room, even though Aries and Rye had yet to move.

When Rock, Layne, and Darry had sat down to set up this vacation, it had come to their attention that there was not going to be enough room for us to stay in Rock's single bedroom apartment comfortably. Will Reilly was his best friend, as well as gang second in command, so it was an easy enough arrangement for the pair of us to sleep across the hall there. At the time, Rye – Will's youngest brother – was supposed to be staying with their other brother, Joe. Plans changed just before we got here, and that extra person made for close quarters, but we made it work.

Like the bedroom. Rye was in the hammock that hung low over the bed. I would have been claustrophobic, if I had been the one sleeping on the bed, but Aries seemed to like the confined position if his deep sleeping was anything to go by. That left me the cot by the window, and I thought it was the best place to sleep in the room.

I sighed and kicked my feet over the side of the bed, figuring that it was time to get up and going for the day. Rye glanced over at me, and shifted so that he was on his side, watching me as I stood and stretched.

"You goin' on a run this morning?" He yawned.

"Yeah," I replied.

Every morning, Aries and I managed to get out and take a run around the neighbourhood. The first few days that we had been in the city, Rock and Will had accompanied us everywhere. It was for protection, I was sure. Rock ran a gang on the west side of the city that was both prominent and feared. I didn't think anyone would ever take a hit at Rock, but Will was his shadow, regardless. To have the pair of them run with us made me feel like we were part of some army, like we were part of Rock's gang, even though we would only be there for a few weeks. It had the effect of letting everyone know who we belonged to, and now we just ran on our own without incident.

"Well, good luck with that," Rye offered, turning back over.

Rye was like a cat. Every way he moved was naturally feline. He wasn't the kind of guy who did much, but he still was fit and ready to spring into action every time he had to move. But mainly, it was times like this when he had one hand thrown over the side of the hammock that he was most cat like.

I glanced down at Aries and sighed. He was more like a dog.

I shook his shoulder slightly and watched as he blinked and rubbed his nose into the pillow instead of getting up. He was like that every morning. I shook his shoulder again and watched as he opened an eye, looking at me like I had done something mean to him.

"Wanna go running?" I asked and he nodded, sitting up just enough so he was shy of hitting Rye with his head.

"Time'sit?" he asked and I shrugged.

"Probably nine," I replied, tugging a shirt on, and leaving the room.

The apartment was set up well. Rye's room was right beside Will's. Across the hall was the bathroom, and down the hall was the main room and the kitchen. I liked it, but I couldn't imagine trying to fit the four of us in there, let alone all our friends. The kitchen would have made Layne happy, though. It was big and open, and there was a table that was huge enough to fit enough food to feed all of us – something Layne always complained took up all her counter space.

Will Reilly was standing at the stove, frying eggs, and cooking toast like he did every day. He wouldn't last long in our house. Darry didn't like anything more than toast and coffee for breakfast on week days, and Layne agreed with him. Will had the philosophy that if he cooked it, it had to be worth his while to eat it. I still hadn't gotten used to eating before a run, though, and neither had Aries, so he was only cooking for Rye and himself. The smell of bacon usually was the best way to get Rye moving before noon hit.

I'd really gotten to know everyone well since we's been here.

I sat down at the table anyways, reaching for the glass of juice waiting there for me. Will turned from the stove and smiled a little, dumping food onto plates as neatly as possible.

"Only another week in our fair city," he commented, bringing up the countdown every day like he was keeping a personal tally.

"Yeah," I replied, taking a sip of the juice.

"Any plans for what else you want to do during the week?" He asked and I shrugged a little.

During our time in New York, we had been all over the city. We had seen the Statue of Liberty, we had been to Coney Island, we had been to all the different museums, and art displays around the city, until we had run out of things to do. For the last week, we had done very little beyond hanging out in the park and going to work with Will. He worked with Rock as a property broker. I didn't quite understand what he did, but it had something to do with selling property to places for parking space. With how crazy it was for cars here in the city, I could imagine that there was a need for places where you could just put your cars.

When we didn't go to work with Will and Rock, we had the option of going to work with one of Aries' other brothers. Tatton was the District Attorney. He constantly took on cases that were all very high profile or full of people who were yelling and screaming at each other. I thought it was interesting to come and watch, but it was definitely not the job for me. Aries seemed to be put off by it, too. He made Perry Mason look tame.

Tell was the one with the worst job, in my opinion. He worked as a doctor at King's County Hospital. Usually when we went with him, it was on his clinic days when he worked on files and took appointments. The last time we were there, he had been called into an emergency room shift because of a bad accident. It was insanity, pure and simple, with Doctor Tell in the middle of it all, acting like it wasn't bothering him in the slightest. I didn't think I could ever stomach the smell of blood after that again.

The best time we'd had going to work with one of Aries' brothers was when we went with West. He was a boxer by trade, which meant that when we went to work with him, it was to the gym where he goofed off until it was time to get in the ring and act like he was actually a professional. He was powerful – I remembered that from when he had fought in Tulsa four years ago, but to see him actually in a structured fight was something else entirely.

Today, I was hoping we would just have the opportunity to hang out with Rye. He was aspiring to be an artist, and we usually ended up hanging around and painting with him. Aries didn't think much of the painting, but he usually enjoyed the time to sit and work on his physics. He had yet to tell Darry and Layne, but he was leaning towards Harvard for their Physics program.

I wanted to sigh every time I thought about that. Until this summer, I had thought there was some way to get him to come to Edmond with me. But he had a passion for numbers, and it was probably for the best that he followed that. I had seen what happened to people who had to give up their dreams. Sometimes it worked out, like how it worked out for Darry. But with Aries...I guess I always knew that he wouldn't be able to stay in somewhere as slow as Oklahoma forever.

"Ponyboy?" Will prompted, and I shook myself from my thoughts.

"I think today Rye was planning on showing me how to work with dots," I replied and Will nodded.

"Well, try to get out and enjoy the sunshine at some point, alright?"

I nodded, looking up as Aries came from the bedroom, moving towards the table, and looking as composed as if he had been up for hours. The cowlick on top of his head ruined that illusion.

"Morning," Aries offered, sitting down beside me at the table. "It looks like a nice morning for a run."

"Yes, it does," Will sighed. "Too bad some of us have to work to keep you all fed and happy."

Aries glanced at the plate beside him, making a face at the food. I guess fed and happy went together.

Rye stumbled out a moment later, still full of sleepy feline grace. He sat down at the table and had his mouth full a moment later, looking for all the world like he was starving.

"Please, try to chew," Will sighed, looking amused as Rye wolfed his food down.

"I am chewing," he replied, gulping down some juice to force the food down.

Aries and I watched for a full minute, before we both got up to get dressed into something that was good for running. We were out the door a few minutes later. The gang didn't live close to anything green, but that didn't mean there wasn't scenery. The buildings and the people on the streets were all part of the view.

Aries was the first to push the pace, always hitting his stride after only a few minutes. I lagged a bit, but soon we were running side by side, avoiding people on the sidewalk, and pausing for the odd car or intersection. By the time we had been running for half an hour, we decided to loop back. It was getting to the point where we were both getting tired and hungry.

When we walked back into the building, both Aries and I were sweating. The heat in New York was less than in Oklahoma, but it was a wet heat that pushed down on you like nothing else.

Aries sighed, leaning against the wall as we waited for the elevator.

"The humidity is still killing me," he offered, and I smirked a little.

"Well, I'm sure you'll get used to it."

"Eventually," he concurred, stepping onto the waiting elevator. "Until then, I will curse the day I ever stepped foot in Oklahoma."

I nodded. He had been on about how Oklahoma had ruined him for a few days now. I think he was trying to convince himself that he wasn't homesick. I sure was. I called home every couple days because of it. Aries hadn't talked to Layne once. I knew that was hard on both of them, but at the end of the summer, it was going to get that much harder with Aries going to Harvard.

When the elevator dinged, we nearly walked into the serious face of Tatton. He nodded in greeting, reading something on the folded newspaper in his hand.

"Never invest in anything as problematic as Oranges, Coffee, or Cotton," he advised, stepping around us onto the elevator.

"Only if you can't manage probability," Aries replied, stepping off the elevator behind me. "Why're you here?"

"Why do you think?" he asked as the doors closed.

There was one answer to that - Justice and Law. Tatton was the DA, but he was also a father to twin nearly- three year old boys. Sometimes, it was hard for him to find someone to watch the boys, so his head babysitter in those situations was Rye.

When we walked into the apartment, the twins were sitting at the kitchen table, eating eggs and drinking juice. They both looked up and smiled.

"Unk Aries!" They called, waving their spoons. "Pinny!"

I still wasn't sure what to make out of being called 'Pinny' but it could have been worse.

The twins were one of the parts of New York I had never expected. In my life, there was only ever Charlie, and that was all the interaction I had with little kids. This summer changed that for me.

Justice and Law were a lot like Tatton and Tell because they were both so different from each other. The way Tatton described it was that Law was predictable, and Justice was not. That was why I wasn't surprised when Law hopped down from his spot on his chair and came straight over to Aries. He wrapped his arms around his legs and stepped onto Aries' shoes, fully expecting that his uncle would walk around the room like that.

I watched as Aries ruffled his blonde hair, and rested a hand on the small boy's shoulder as he started moving across the room with delighted giggles following after him. I sat down at the table beside where Rye was busy drawing a picture with a blue crayon, and Justice was placidly eating his toast. Aries hoisted the other little boy from his legs, and tossed him into the air before setting him down beside his brother, and disappearing down the hall.

"Now, see, this is a Pony," Rye said, showing Justice the picture he had been drawing. "And so is that."

I shook my head when he pointed at me. He had been trying really hard to get the two little boys to say my name properly.

"No!" Justice shook his head. "He's a boy!"

Rye glanced over at me and shrugged. He wasn't about to correct that.

"Hungry?" Rye asked and I nodded. "Will left you guys food under the plates over there. Better get it while it's warm."

I nodded again, getting up and helping myself to a plate. For being one god-awful morning person, Will sure could cook like no one else.

Aries came back and sat down with his own breakfast, picking at it as unenthusiastically as he always did. Rye spied him from under his long, sandy brown bangs, and looked back at his new drawing carefully.

"Layne called while you were out," he commented and Aries sighed.

"I know, I should call her. I know, I have been a jerk for not talking to her, and I know what you think of that. Can we please drop it?"

Rye sighed. "I'm on your side, man. I know it is going to be rough going to college if you can't get through a summer without her."

Still, I really thought he should have talked to her, but Aries wasn't wired that way. For him, any connection made it too hard. Cold turkey was just easier on him. And if my family was anything like his, I would be that way, too.

"Unk Aries?" Justice asked from across the table.

"Yeah?" Aries asked tiredly.

"We go park today?" He asked in his innocent little kid voice.

Aries sighed, running a hand through his hair and nodded.

"Yeah, we'll go to the park today."

I sighed a little. Well, it looked like our quiet day at home was turning into anything but. But that was alright with me. In another week, we'd be home again. I'd soak up all the park time I could get between now and then.

The front door opened again, and I wasn't surprised to see both Will and Rock wander into the room, arguing about something. They were always arguing over something, but that was probably what made them such great business partners.

"I just think that if you move the couch back where it was, you'll have more room," Will commented.

"But with the way it is, I fit in both end tables," Rock pointed out, looking over at us. "Good morning boys."

"Unk Rock!" Justice waved.

Rock frowned a little, just like he did every morning he was greeted that way. But he waved dutifully and the boys were happy with that.

"But what good are the end tables if you are tripping over them all the time?" Will reasoned.

"I don't trip over them."

"But I do," Will argued back, pouring them each a cup of coffee.

"It's my couch."

"Fine," Will offered, taking a sip of coffee. "But don't complain if I never come to visit."

"You live across the hall."

Rock rolled his eyes a little, taking a sip of his own cup. That was usually how a lot of their arguments ended. They reminded me of people who were dating. Will was like the tiffy girl friend, and Rock was the boy friend who always just rolled his eyes. It was kind of...sad.

"The kids are going to the park today," Will declared and Rock nodded. "So you and I don't have to worry about them."

"I worry regardless," he replied, not caring who heard him.

"You should be worried abbat the Henderson contract," Will offered with his Irish lilt coming out a bit.

"Bill Henderson thinks I'll stab him if he doesn't do what I say."

I glanced over at Rye and Aries, and wondered if they were the only ones who didn't worry about Rock stabbing them if they caused him grief. While he was a nice enough guy, I had heard the stories about him, and I had seen the way he handled a kitchen knife. It was enough to keep me on my toes.

Aries sighed, giving up on his breakfast, and getting up to put his plate in the sink, even though his brother gave him a look for leaving most of his food on the plate.

"You better be more enthusiastic for dinner," Rock warned, and Aries sighed like he did every time his brother warned him like that. "I'm serious. If Laynie comes down on anyone, it's going to be all on you, kiddo."

Aries nodded and headed down the hall. We heard the shower a moment later and Rock picked up the morning paper.

"Says here they're still working on the bridge. We'd better take Queens."

"It'll be tied up," Will sighed, moving around the room to grab his coat.

Rock nodded, tucking the paper under his elbow, and turning his attention to the table.

"You boys behave for Pony and your uncles, got me?" Rock asked, causing both boys to nod in unison.

"And your uncles better behave in return," Will directed, tapping Rye on the back of the head.

Rye just shrugged. "That's why you're sending me with two babysitters of my own."

Will grinned and shrugged when he looked over at me. I smiled a little in return, mostly to rub at Rye. Yeah, I could already tell it was going to be an interesting day.

Any comments are welcome and flames are accepted.

See ya in the funny papers!

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