Disclaimer: Still don't own The Outsiders

Two-Bit watched as Ponyboy played outside, jumping from one activity to the next every five minutes. Currently he was trying to recruit Steve and Dally to help him dig up the backyard to search for dinosaur remains that the latter told him about which, of course, everyone else knew was a lie but Pony was too young to understand that there wasn't actually anything in their backyard. And anyways their new puppy, that they had named Elvis for their favorite singer, was already making a mess from digging and Darry didn't want or need his baby brother and Dally and Steve making an even bigger mess.

Shrugging, Pony grabbed his coloring book and took the container full of chalk that Johnny offered him and he attempted to draw the picture in his book on the sidewalk, with Johnny watching him. After about five minutes Ponyboy gave up, instead practicing his writing by writing down the gang's first names. When he was finished he excitedly called them all over. The only things they saw that he did wrong was a backwards S in Soda's name, which Soda thought was cute and Steve thought it was funny since Pony made the S in his name correct, and a few small spelling errors. Overall, they were all proud of him, even Dally.

"Wow. Great job Pone!" Darry praised, making Ponyboy beam.

"Yeah Pone. There's no way I ever woulda been able to write all of that when I was your age," Two-Bit joined in.

While the rest of the gang went back to what they were previously doing before they were called over, leaving Ponyboy by himself, Pony could faintly hear some yelling a few houses down. He knew that it was Johnny's house. He remembered all of the times that the gang told him to ignore the yelling and the house itself but it seemed that the longer he'd listen the yelling would become louder and more intense. He turned to glance at the gang but they weren't paying attention.

Pony looked back at Johnny's house when he heard some 'bad words.' He couldn't keep ignoring it. He wanted to go over there and see what was wrong since no one ever told him why they yelled. Ponyboy figured it was a good time to sneak over since the gang weren't really paying attention and, at least in his innocent child mind, he thought that he could quickly go over to the house, see what was going on and get back home before anyone even noticed he was gone.

Picking up one of his chalk Pony rolled it down the street, where the Cade's house was a few houses down from his own, for an excuse if he were to get caught. When it stopped rolling he quietly ran after it, not that anyone would hear him anyways with the loudness of Johnny's parents obnoxious tones cranked up even louder. When he got to their sidewalk he stopped and stared with his wide, frightened green eyes as an angry looking man stumbled his way out of the rundown house, cursing to himself.

Suddenly he was walking closer to Pony, glaring viciously at him. "Get out of my way you damn brat," he grumbled coldly with hateful eyes. Pony hastily scrambled away from him as he got into his car, speeding away with the tires squealing so loudly that Ponyboy had to cover his ears.

"Kid? Come here." Pony hadn't even noticed Dally crouched down beside him looking at him with concern evident in his eyes. Before any tears could leak out of his eyes Pony reached out to hug Dally. He didn't want to try in front of him, he wanted Dally to think that he was a big boy and tuff.

Dally lifted the kid up. He knew that Ponyboy wanted to cry and soothingly rubbed his back.

Finally, Pony let out a quiet sniffle. "Why are Johnny's mommy and daddy so mean?" he questioned sadly.

"Uh.." That was all he could say. How was he supposed to explain to a four year old about Johnny's alcoholic, heartless, messed up parents? It was truly the first time that Dally was ever stumped. Dally glanced back to the Curtis' driveway where the gang was standing, watching the two curiously. They didn't all go over there because they didn't want to overwhelm Pony. He looked back down at Pony who still looked a bit shaken. He tentatively started walking back towards the gang, purposely trying to avoid the question. Pony noticed this but didn't ask again. Maybe he was supposed to ask someone else? Johnny? They are his parents, Pony thought reasonably. Ponyboy sighed and rested his head on Dally's shoulder.

"Is he okay?" He heard Johnny ask Dally rather nervously.

Dally nodded. "Yeah. He's fine." They all heard an edge in his tone but chose to ignore it for the time being.

"Hey Pone why did you go over there? You know you aren't supposed to go anywhere alone." Darry hated to chide him but he couldn't just ignore the fact that Pony disobeyed him. Even Soda looked flustered at the situation at hand.

Wordlessly, Pony pointed to the chalk he had rolled down the sidewalk that was now ruined from being cruelly ran over by Mr. Cade.

Frowning, Two-Bit stared sympathetically at Ponyboy, asking, "Wanna go to the park for a bit kiddo?"

Seemingly forgetting the whole situation, Pony turned to look at Darry. "Can we?" he asked excitedly.

Darry nodded, grateful for Two-Bit's distraction. "Of course we can Pone." Pony happily grinned up at his oldest brother, wriggling out of Dally's arms. Once he got down Dally immidiately grabbed his hand as they began their rather short walk to the park.

Once they were halfway there they heard the familiar jingle for one of the many ice cream trucks that came around. Of course Pony had gotten excited and asked if he could have a quarter, and as soon as he got one from Steve he tried to run to the truck but was held firmly in place by Dally. He didn't want Pony over there by himself, even if it was just a few feet away, he knew that some 'ice cream men' really didn't have any ice cream at all but all they wanted was some poor innocent kids to kidnap. Not on Dally's watch, at least for Ponyboy, as he wasn't concerned at all with the other kids whose parents were actually dumb enough to let their children, no older than six, run off to a suspicious looking van by themselves.

"Morons," he grumbled to himself. As he and Pony got closer to the truck, he could see the ice cream and let out a relieved sigh that he didn't even know he was holding in.

When they got as close as they could get, Dally felt Pony tugging on his pant leg. He looked down at him, almost immediately knowing what he wanted. "Do you want chocolate, Pone?" Pony never did like talking to strangers which, especially in a situation like this, Dally was grateful for. His response was green-grayish eyes lighting up and a fond nod. Ruffling up the four year old's hair he stood back up, still keeping a firm grip on the little one's hand, and ordered him his chocolate ice cream cone.

Pony reached up for it, practically jumping, as soon he saw it.

"There you go buddy," Dally handed him the cone, almost losing his hold on Pony's hand, and walked back to the gang.

"What?" Dally looked at Two-Bit who was staring intently at him, with his eyes drifting back and forth between him and Pony's ice cream.

"Where's mine?" Pony giggled as everyone else rolled their eyes, annoyed.

"You're too big," Ponyboy teased. He didn't know that there really wasn't an age limit it was just something he assumed since he never saw his brothers or the rest of them get ice cream.

"Yeah Two-Bit. You are too big for ice cream," Steve joined in, in more of a mocking tone. "And aren't you a bit old for Mickey Mouse too by now? It's for kids." Steve informed him, being sure to emphasis 'kids.'

Two-Bit let out an exaggerated gasp. "I'm still a kid!" he argued back.

"Last time I checked being eighteen makes you an adult. And the only adult here that should be watching that damned mouse is Darry and that's only because of Pony."

Two-Bit waved him off. "You're never too old for Mickey." he stated brightly. "And at least Pony has a good taste in TV. My sister hates Mickey Mouse." He shook his head. "I'm telling you guys, she had to have been adopted."

"You were there when she was born!" Steve countered back.

"Are we going to the park?" Dally glanced down at Pony who, by now, has finished his ice cream. He also noticed the bored expression on his face. He usually thought it was funny when the gang would bicker but Steve and Two-Bit almost always seemed to argue about Mickey Mouse. Ponyboy was even starting to memorize their arguments so he usually knew what was coming next.

"Yeah Pone. Let's go." Dally got Johnny's attention who got Darry's and Soda's attention to let them know that they were going to the park and that Pony wasn't kidnapped by some deranged 'ice cream man.'

"Well at least I," Two-Bit cut off his retort, finally noticing that everyone had left. "Ah see what you did Stevie? You scared 'em away."

"Me? You started it." Steve turned around, walking to the direction of the park, knowing full and well that was where they went. Two-Bit hurried to follow him, not wanting to get left behind. They saw a couple of Socs go towards the same park but didn't pay any heed to it, seeing that they had a little kid with them around Pony's age.

When the two got there they weren't surprised to see Dally picking a fight with some Socs, it happened almost every time they went to the park. There were three of them but they were small and Dally had a blade on him. They weren't worried about him what they were worried about, however, was a Soc that was lurking near the swing set, where Pony was happily swinging away. As soon as the Soc got close enough Johnny noticed, stood up and ran toward, with Steve and Two-Bit backing him up, since he was a bit bigger than the ones that Dally was still terrorizing. Johnny was a bit surprised that all it took was a simple hard glare and the Soc hurried away from Pony. But he figured that it also could of been that the Soc realized that the greasers were surrounding every corner in the park, albeit farther away. Johnny walked up to Pony, who was oblivious to the Soc since he was behind the young greaser.

"Hey Pone. Having fun?" He walked behind him and lightly pushed him a bit higher, eliciting squeals from the child.

"Higher Johnny!" Pony shrieked. Johnny obliged, pushing him slightly higher, not wanting to push him to high and have him fall off.

Just as Johnny was about to step to the side Pony shouted for him to push him even higher, causing Johnny to laugh a bit.

"Pone if I push you any higher you'll end up on the moon!" He giggled. Johnny smiled sweetly at him.

Two-Bit walked up to them with his usual care-free grin plastered on his face. "Hey Johnny, Pony wanna play some football?" Once again Pony happily squealed his excitement and stopped swinging his legs as Two-Bit lifted him up. They ran to the gang who were walking to the lot. Once they got there everyone was already bickering about who the team captains would be, eventually deciding on Darry since he was always one and Soda so he'd shut up.

"Okay Soda I'll let you pick first," Darry told him before he started to complain about that too.

Smirking, Sodapop dramatically clasped his hands together. "Okay.. I pick.." Steve stepped forward a bit, figuring his best buddy would pick him. "Pony!" Steve awkwardly stepped back as Two-Bit laughed loudly at him.

Pony skipped toward his brother happily, especially since he's never been picked first before. Soda crouched down to high five his little brother.

Darry cracked a grin at the scene and started picking his own team. "Dally."

"Steve."

"Johnny."

A slight mumble of "Why me?" Then, "Two-Bit."

They were going to play to twenty since it was getting late out. When the game was halfway over Soda's team was surprisingly winning by only two points.

Two-Bit ran down to where the touchdown point was, waving his arms around like crazy. "Darry give me the ball!"

"You're not on my team!" Darry yelled back, passing it to Johnny who caught it and began running before being lightly tackled by Steve.

Darry got the ball again, looking to pass it to Dally but it was intercepted by Steve who quickly passed it to Soda and he hurriedly leaned down, handing it to Ponyboy before tackling Darry, keeping him pinned down to the ground as Pony ran closer to their touchdown.

"Run Pony, run like you've never ran before!" His team cheered him on until he scored them their winning touchdown. Darry flung Soda off of him as Two-Bit and Steve ran over to Pony. Soda ran over to them to when he got back up.

"Good job Pone!" Two-Bit praised.

"I knew I made the right decision by picking you!" Soda smiled at his brother.

Steve was tossing Pony up and down, eliciting giggles from the child.

Dally watched them wondering whether they were doing this to keep Pony from questioning them about Johnny's parents or not. Whatever it was, he was grateful.

Just a quick A/N here, if anyone wants to request an idea for chapter just review or pm me. And chapter 13 will be up tomorrow.

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