The Outsiders Imagines & Preferences

{Pref.} During Christmas Time

Info: Platonic. Sibling!reader. Reader is implied to be short in Dally's part.

Darry is working extra extra hours because he wants to be able to buy you guys presents; at the same time he wishes he had more time for you, after all the holidays are supposed to be all about family. All that stress makes him irritable at times, but telling him to take it easy will just make him feel worse for making you worry about him. The best thing you can do is silently help where you can, and feed him cookies — just shove one into his mouth when he's about to start yelling, and run; that way you'll be out of earshot when he's done chewing and he can calm down by himself.

Sodapop is in charge of baking, with some help from you and Pony. He tries his best to take some of the stress from Darry's shoulders (with mediocre success) and is also the one to get everyone into the holiday spirit; it's safe to say he's the number one Christmas fan in the family. He's constantly humming Christmas songs under his breath and wants shiny Christmas decorations everywhere.

Ponyboy's favorite thing about the season is curling up somewhere with a soft blanket and a nice hot drink to read, while the smell of fresh Christmas cookies drifts through the house. He doesn't care much about decorations in general, though he will help put them up if asked, but he loves having candles everywhere because everything always looks so much prettier by candlelight. Also spends a lot of time helping you make handcrafted gifts for everyone.

Holidays are a difficult time for Johnny. It's hard to be cheerful when the festivities just serve as a constant reminder of how little the both of you matter to your parents, but he tries for your sake. You spend even more time at the Curtis house during Christmas time than you already do normally, helping with baking and making Ponyboy read stories to you. It's also very likely that the two of them will drag you to church to attend a Christmas service.

Dallas pretends like he couldn't care less about Christmas, but deep down he always gets as excited for the holidays as a little kid. Of course he'd never admit that, so you serve as his excuse for participating in all sorts of holiday activities. Baking cookies? He had to, because you wouldn't stop whining about it until he agreed to do it with you. Putting up decorations in the Curtis's living room? Well, you said someone had to help before Darry gets a heart attack by trying to do everything at once, but aren't tall enough to be much help yourself. Snowball fight? Yeah, you started it. You see right through him, and make him do everything with you without even listening to his halfhearted complaints. You should, however, keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn't accidentally set the Christmas tree on fire with his cigarettes, because yes, he has to be smoking even while decorating the tree.

Two-Bit's favorite thing to do during the holidays? Sing Christmas carols until people are threatening him with murder. It's like he instinctively knows which one will annoy whoever he's around the most, and there's no stopping him unless you gag him. The only person who he never manages to annoy this way is your mother, who'll just start singing along. But, horrible singing aside, Two-Bit is a joy to be around during the holidays. He'll help you put decorations everywhere, and I mean everywhere — from bed to car, nothing is spared. He leaves the baking to your mother, sister and you, but is constantly shoving the Christmas cookies you made into his mouth and never shuts up about how good they are.

Steve isn't nearly as big of a Christmas fan as Soda, and sometimes gets annoyed at his best friend's extreme cheerfulness. He can, however, easily be consoled with all the wonderful baked goods that come with the holidays. If you baked Christmas cookies and suddenly half of them are gone and you're wondering who the thief is, it's Steve. It's always Steve. Sometimes it's him and Two-Bit together, but Steve is the one you really gotta watch out for, unless you want to have to bake again a day after having done so because literally everything is gone.