Happy Halloween!

Okay I think lion won. But I absolutely adore the idea of Pony dressing up as Soda or Darry! So cute! Maybe in another chapter? ;)

Also I'm sorry that this jumps from one thing to the next so quickly. I had to rewrite this chapter and forgot what was in the original. I tried though.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Outsiders.

Ponyboy Curtis excitedly ran downstairs to check the time. He smiled wide when he saw that it was 2:36 in the morning. That meant it was officially Halloween, the day he'd been waiting for since last Halloween. Ponyboy couldn't wait to wear his costume and get candy. Quickly he ran back upstairs, almost as if he never even left at all, and into Soda's room. He could have went into Darry's room but the door was closed which meant nobody was supposed to go in, opposed to Soda who always leaves his door open. Though Darry would let them come in only if it was important, he just wanted some time for himself.

Ponyboy pushed the door open, jumping up onto his brother's bed as he usually does when he goes in. He crawled over to Soda and leaned down by his ear.

"Soda! Wake up!" He watched as Soda woke with a start. Blinking several times, Sodapop groaned from being waken up so abruptly. He could tell by the lighting in the room that it was too early for it to be morning. Rubbing his eyes he glanced down at his little brother.

"Whatcha need Pone?"

"It's morning! We have to go now before all of the candy is gone!" Ponyboy told him, tugging on his arm.

Even with it being so early, or late, Sodapop still couldn't stifle his laughter. Of course Pony's already worrying over the candy. "Pony, trick-or-treating doesn't start until six."

Pony looked at him before counting on his fingers. "That's only five hours away!"

Soda laughed again. "Sorry kiddo. Six tonight. You still have a while," he said while yawning, reminding him of the time. "And you still have to go to school tomorrow. The sooner you go to sleep the quicker six o'clock will come," he added on when Pony pouted at the mention of school.

Ponyboy sighed. "Okay," he said in a practiced dejected tone.

Soda, not wanting his brother to go to bed upset, continued, "Going to school on Halloween is the best! You don't learn anything new and you get to wear your costume and your teachers give you candy!"

"They do?" Ponyboy questioned, his previous excitement returning.

"Sure they do! They give you a little bag filled with it!" Pony's grin made Soda grin and he decided to get him to bed before he got too excited to sleep or got upset again. "C'mere kiddo. You can sleep in here tonight."

After about five more minutes they were both settled and fast asleep.

xxx

Around seven in the morning Darry walked into Soda's room to wake him up for work, only to be halted by the sight of his two brothers all snuggled up together, the two always managed to make him smile no matter what. Finally he shook Soda's shoulder only to get a snappish groan in response. The eldest brother sighed, mentally preparing himself for the battle to come.

"Soda just get up. You need to get ready for work."

"I'm not going today. It's Halloween." Came the mumbled reply.

"What is it with you and not going to work on Halloween?" Darry questioned.

"More people seem to like pulling more tricks at the DX on Halloween. I don't wanna be there for that. . ." Soda sat up carefully, as not to wake his younger brother.

Darry grimaced, remembering last years 'little prank'. He didn't want his brother there for that. "Fine. You should probably call Steve and tell him that you're not going in today."

"Sure." There was a somewhat peaceful silence until Darry left, reminding him to go to the store and some candy and help Pony with his costume, which Soda waved off stating that it would be an easy day.

After Sodapop heard the door close he got up go set Pony's costume out and putting the face paint that came with it beside it. Even if Pony insisted that he could get the costume on with no troubles there was no way he'd be able to do the face paint without leaving a mess.

Eventually when Ponyboy woke up he immediately wanted to change into his costume, which Soda let him do. He was going to wait until ten minutes before they left to put the paint on him.

When Ponyboy came back into the room Sodapop grinned wide at him, leaning down to fix the tail on his costume. When he stood back up his happy grin was replaced with a mischievous smirk.

"Time for a picture Pone!" He knew it wouldn't embarrass him now but when he got older. . .

"Okay!" After he got his picture, that took three takes since he was so excited.

"Okay Pony, lets do your face paint," Soda told him, picking up the tan paint that would make his brother's costume more adorable, or intimating like a real lion in Pony's mind.

xxx

When they got to the school Soda walked him inside then went back into the car to do the grocery shopping.

Sodapop hoped that there wouldn't be a lot of kids at their house so they could have some candy left over for themselves.

He grimaced at the absence of raisins. There were going to be some irritated kids tonight. . .

Shaking his head he picked up anything that was chocolate not wanting to give bad candy to the kids and risk the house getting egged. He should know. He and Two-Bit did it all the time.

Sodapop averted his eyes from the candy to the end of the isle where a buggy was rolling carelessly down to him. The blonde raised an eyebrow, moving over to the side.

A cackle could be heard from the isle next to his and he smirked, knowing who the owner of that laugh was. Two-Bit.

Two-Bit ran into the isle with Soda, staring intently at the candy. Soda rolled his eyes, stealing the buggy Two-Bit pushed, placing the packages of candy in it.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" Soda asked, but he was relieved for the company.

"Naw. I heard there was gonna be three big tests and I didn't want anything to do with those cursed things." Two-Bit shrugged lazily. "Man we should get me a costume. I could use some free candy tonight."

Chuckling, Soda shook his head. "Good luck with that." He then pushed his buggy up to the counter to pay for the candy as Two-Bit swiped some for himself, hiding it in his leather jacket. He ran quickly to catch up with Soda.

"What?" Two-Bit asked when he heard Soda's sudden laughter. Soda just gave him a knowing look.

"Oh I see how it is. I try and get some more candy for your kid brother and you mock me." Two-Bit tried hard to keep the smirk off of his face.

"You and I both know good and well that you did not get that for Pony." Soda glanced down at his watch to check the time. It was almost time for him to pick up Pony. But he had just enough time to drop the candy off at home and then get to the school.

xxx

As the duo walked to the school Two-Bit would look at the houses to check out the decorations. There weren't many scary ones which disappointed him but pleased Soda. He didn't want Pony to get scared and Two-Bit didn't like the same old boring decorations.

They waited by the stairs, bored. That was until Two-Bit spotted an abandoned mask on the ground. Smirking he picked it up and put it on his face and turned back to face Soda, who simply grinned and shook his head with an amused smile.

"Two-Bit get that off your face man. You don't know where that things been."

"Damn are you trying to be my Mom for Halloween or somethin'?" They both laughed, only calming down when they heard a bell ring and kids suddenly running around everywhere.

"Soda you were right! All of my teachers gave us candy! See?" The two looked down at Ponyboy to see him holding out a big bag filled with four other smaller bags filled with candy and some small toys. Soda patted Pony's head.

"I told you. Aren't you glad you came to school today?" His only reply was Pony eagerly nodding his head.

"Hey aren't you gonna share that?" Two-Bit asked him, feigning a pout. Soda rolled his eyes and Pony searched through his bag, finally pulling out a tiny box of raisins.

"Ah kid! No one wants raisins!" Shrugging, Ponyboy dropped the box back into the bag. He looked back up at Soda.

"How much longer till six?"

"You still have four hours to kill kiddo. How about we redo your face paint a bit, okay?"

Ponyboy smiled, tugging on the two older greasers' hands, trying to make them hurry up.

When they finally got back home they were greeted with the familiar faces of Johnny, Dally, and Steve reclining on the couch.

"Man we have got to start locking the door," Soda joked, shaking his head.

Pony, who the gang minus Two-Bit and Soda couldn't really see, ran into the bathroom not wanting them to see him in his costume until Soda redid his face, which would only take ten minutes.

"Alright Pone. You're all ready. Again." Pony smiled, rushing out into the living room.

"Rawr!" he tried sounding like a real lion, which made them all laugh on the inside but they feigned fright so that he'd be happy.

"Ah! There's a ferocious lion in the living room!" The gang stared at Johnny, finding it different and out of character for him to act like that bit Ponyboy seemed to have that kind of affect on everyone.

"Johnny it's okay I'm not a lion!" Pony assured happily, overjoyed that they, in his eyes, fell for his trick.

"Oh Pone you sure got me!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! I've never been so frightened before!" For the next few hours the gang talked about what they'd do at the end of the night long after Pony went to bed, like watch a horror movie or tell ghost stories, while Soda made an earlier than usual dinner for Pony before they went out. He didn't want him to just fill up on candy and call it a night.

"Sodaaaaaaa!" Pony called out to his brother who was washing the dishes so Darry wouldn't have to.

"Yeah kiddo?" he responded, turning around to look at his brother.

"Darry's home! Can we go now?"

Soda grinned and nodded, placing the last dish with the rest. Pony happily ran back into the living room, watching as Darry filled a large bowl with candy. He also made a sign that said 'please take one' which caused Two-Bit to tsk and shake his head.

"Don't be that house Dar! Besides no one will listen anyways." Darry rolled his eyes, keeping his sign with the bowl.

Ponyboy quickly grabbed himself a handful from the bowl before Darry took it outside and placed it on a chair on the porch with the sign taped on the top of the chair.

"Oh great. . ." Steve muttered when he saw a group of kids coming up to the porch, actually taking just one piece.

"Soda!" Pony complained when he saw the kids. He wanted to go out too but they had to wait for his brother to get his shoes on.

"Sorry Pone. Lets go." Soda took Pony's hand and followed the rest of the gang out. Quickly enough though Pony was in front of everyone with Dally staying the closest behind him making sure he didn't run off.

The first couple of houses were boring, as Two-Bit would call it but the next house had a few kids standing by the porch, keeping a good distance with weary expressions.

The house had the most realistic cobwebs anyone had seen all day covering the railing on the stairs, there were realistic skeletons that anyone over the age of ten knew were fake but the younger kids couldn't tell.

"Want me to go with you kid?" Dally questioned Pony who nodded hurriedly. He didn't want to go through there but he wanted the candy.

Dally held Pony's hand and guided him through up the stairs rather quickly and grabbed him some candy from the bowl that was sitting on the ground. There wasn't a sign that said how many to take so he grabbed a handful. He then led Pony back down the stairs and back to the rest of the gang.

"Wow Pony. We haven't even been out here for an hour and you already look like you need another bucket!" Steve commented, amazed. Pony smiled, idly swinging his bucket carefully so his candy wouldn't fall out. Darry silently groaned, thinking about how he would have to check every single piece of candy in his bucket to make sure it wasn't tampered with or expired.

So far it had been a great night for Pony and the gang didn't even have to look out for Socs since they actually stayed on their side of town for once.

Around nine o'clock Darry checked his watch, gawking at the time. It was way past Pony's bed time. He had to get them home.

"C'mon guys. Time to go home."

"Aw! One more house Darry?" As much as he wanted to say no he just couldn't. He gave in and Pony rushed to the house, got his candy and ran back to Darry quicker than a minute.

"Alright. Lets go home and get you in bed."

"Aw you're not even gonna let him have a little candy?" Soda questioned.

"I don't want him to get too hyper. You know Pony one piece is all it takes."

xxx

Back at home Steve wanted to share a 'horror story', which really wasn't all that scary, to the rest of the gang. Ole Sleepyhead. Soda and Darry were reluctant to have it told to Pony but Steve said it wasn't that bad. But by the time he was done telling it Pony was clutching onto Soda with all his might. Soda sighed and lifted Pony up, first taking him to the bathroom to put him in his pajamas and then to wipe the face paint off of him, then grabbed one of his many favorite books and read it to him, hoping that it'd put him to sleep. Soda got his wish and Pony was out within the first ten pages.

"Hey Darry look! One piece left. I told you they'd take it all!" Two-Bit complained. "Now I'll have to store up on candy the hard way. By taking my sister's."

Steve shook his head. "It's just candy. You'll live."

Two-Bit cocked an eyebrow and rolled his eyes. "Never say those words again!" And with that he ran out the door, going to his own house.

Darry sighed at all of the ruckus and picked up Pony's bucket and took it to his room. He needed the quiet. He poured all of it out and shook his head. He knew Pony got a lot but this was going to take him at least an hour to check all of the candy. Before he began he noticed that some of it was the candy from their own house. Laughing a bit he still checked it over before placing it back in the bucket.

It was going to be a long night.