The Outsiders Imagines & Preferences

{Pref.} What They Were Like Babysitting You When You Were Little

Info: Platonic. Sibling!reader. Reader is the youngest.

Warnings: Mentions of abusive/neglectful parents on Johnny and Dally's parts.

Darry has always been very responsible. It probably just comes with being the eldest of four siblings, and inevitably taking the role of the leader among them. By the time you were old enough to be left alone with your brother(s), Darry had lots of babysitting experience from looking after Soda and Pony, and handled it like a pro. He read to you a lot and played with you, so the time until your parents got back always went by before you even knew it.

Soda is a great big brother and loves you dearly, but he's also very chaotic, which is why he did not get to babysit you often. When he did it was always fun for the both of you, even if the house was a mess afterwards more often than not. Soda would always engage in the wildest of games with you, and with no one around to stop you, things tended to get a little out of hand. Luckily there were never any serious injuries.

Since Pony isn't that much older than you he would have only been left alone with you for more than a few minutes in absolute emergencies, in which he would have taken his responsibility for you very seriously.

Johnny had to look after you a lot from an early age, though most of the time it was more of a "our parents are fighting again and yelling at me to shut the crying brat up, so if we don't want to get the shit beat out of us we better get out of here until they calm down"-thing than normal babysitting. He always tried everything he could to keep you calm and happy, playing with you to distract you or humming a lullaby to get you to take a nap.

Dallas and you were definitely left to your own devices a lot when you were small, so wether Dally liked it or not, which he decidedly didn't, he had to learn to look after you early. While he was far from happy about it, he didn't want to let that out on you, and took care of you to the best of his ability. Since he didn't really know what to do with you, he usually just ended up dragging you along to whatever he was up to. He was also extremely overprotective and never let you do anything yourself; his favorite phrase when babysitting you was "You're too little to do that."

Two-Bit had to babysit you and your sister quite often because of your mom working full-time. His favorite way of keeping you occupied was, of course, sitting you in front of the TV and watching Mickey Mouse with you. He was also more than willing to indulge whatever games you wanted to play, and since he never put away your toys afterwards, your mom often came home to find the house a mess, her kids happily asleep in the middle of it all. Also, it's a good thing Two-Bit wasn't old enough to drink beer yet back then — he would have totally given baby-you some.

Steve pretended like he hated babysitting you, and he did find it a little annoying sometimes, but in truth he didn't mind all that much. Since you constantly followed him around like a lost puppy anyway, he usually didn't even have to be told when he had to look after you, because he was already involuntarily doing it. He did have a bit of a tendency to just let you do whatever, unless it put you in direct danger, like letting you climb on the back of a chair to get something from a shelf. If you fell he'd comfort you, but call you an idiot at the same time. He low-key tried to ignore you until you annoyed him enough to convince him to play with you.