Stay Gold || 'The Outsiders' One Shots

He's home

He's home

- Soda, Steve, Darry, Pony + Two-Bit -

Word Count: 4,265

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This one shot uses the (not canon) storyline where Soda goes off to fight in the Vietnam war, however he's sent home after suffering a life threatening injury.
I decided to write this because I find this whole concept extremely interesting, and YES, S.E Hinton took it back that Soda died and said that he in fact did not die, so we can all breathe

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It was completely silent.

Too silent for Pony's liking.

Supper in the Curtis household usually consisted of light-hearted chitchat and casual conversations. Questions of "how was your day" or "how was work?" Or "got any plans for tomorrow?"

But not tonight.

Tonight was different... Extremely different.

The three of them were there, sat around the table, eating in silence, and it felt odd.

Because for the last half a year, it had only been two of them, for the last six months, Soda hadn't been there.

He'd been fighting.

And he probably would've stayed on fighting, if he hadn't been gravely wounded and had had no choice but to return home.

He'd only gotten home that morning, and it had seriously been the best morning of Pony's life, and even Darry's life.

Darry had worried himself to illness after hearing word that his little brother was injured and would be returning home when he was well enough to travel.

He had hardly slept for weeks, and could be found pacing the living room at 3 o'clock in the morning for absolutely no reason other than to try and still the panic he was feeling.

Pony had fared a little better, he at least managed to get a bit more sleep than his eldest brother, but he was still worried sick, because they didn't know how badly Soda had been injured.

All they were told was that it was bad - bad enough for him to be sent home and never to return to the front lines.

They had gotten the call one afternoon after Darry had gotten home from work, and the eldest sibling had been as white as a sheet when he put the phone down, losing all sense of balance and crashing into the wall beside him, sliding down to sit on the floor.

He was still there when Pony got home from school, and it had scared him to death.

They had a right to be scared, for the injuries had been close to life threatening.

Seeing Soda for the first time that morning had left Darry with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, and it was still there as he tried to keep down his food.

Soda's face was white, the colour that used to be there completely gone now, and he was so pale he would've blended right in with a pile of snow. If it hadn't of been for the cut across his face that is.

The gash stretched from the corner of his right eye, across his nose, down his cheek, just missing his mouth, and ended just under his chin on the left side - he would carry that scar for the rest of his life.

He hadn't spoken about what injury had been life threatening, but Darry was determined to find out eventually, because he just couldn't bear not knowing.