Dallas Winston Has A Sister? (Outsiders Fanfic)

Lovebirds and Rainbow Pancakes

        Soda was the first one up in the morning, and as he was heading into the kitchen to start breakfast he noticed Pony and Tara sleeping on the couch.  Pony was slouching, half sitting up and half lying down, with his arm around Tara's shoulders.  She had her head resting on Pony's bare chest, he had pajama pants but no shirt on, and she was curled up next to him.  The sight made Soda smile, they looked so cute and happy together.

        He quickly mixed up some pancake batter, and then scrutinized the dark cream colored batter.  They had run out of food coloring after he used it up on a burnt batch of rainbow chocolate chip cookies last week, so he began searching the cupboards for something else.  Raisins, gross.  Chips, too crunchy.  An open bag of M+M's, perfect.  He dumped them in and mixed it up, leaving the batter swirled with color and dotted with delicious chocolatey rainbow specks.

        Darry would probably get mad at him for making such a mess of the kitchen, there was flour coating the counters and M+M's spilled everywhere, along with batter dribbled on the stove, but Soda didn't care, it was Darry and Pony's turn to clean up after breakfast anyways.

        Darry came into the kitchen and glanced at the colorful pancakes and then gave Soda an odd look.  "I hope they're edible," he says and starts making a pot of coffee.

        Soda just grins and starts pouring the batter onto the griddle in tow lopsided heart shapes.  He flips them over to cook the other side just as Pony comes into the kitchen rubbing his eyes, Tara behind him stretching and yawning.

        "You two looked so cute cuddled together on the couch this morning," Soda commented, just to see what they would say.  But before either of them has a chance to say anything, Two-Bit, Steve, Johnny, and Dally come in.

        "Am I just crazy or are these pancakes filled with candy?" Two-Bit asks.

        "Both," everyone says unanimously, grabbing plates and pancakes and sitting down.

        As Pony reaches for a pancake, Soda shoves a plate with the two messed up heart shaped pancakes at him and grins.

        "I made something special for you lovebirds," Soda says.

        Pony rolls his eyes and sighs but grabs the plate anyways, and Tara remarks, "You'd better watch what you say, Soda, or this heart'll end up on your face."  Pony just grins, he knows how much Tara hates pet names.

        Soda sticks his tongue out at Tara, and she grabs a different pancake off the quickly dwindling stack on the table and throws it at him, hitting him in the face before it lands in the remaining batter.

        "Hey!  I was gonna eat that!" Steve shouts, irritated.

        "You'll live," Dally replies boredly and then turns to his sister and says, "But you might not if you keep not coming home.  You could have at least called me if you were staying here for the night," he says accusingly.

        "Sorry," she says sarcastically, and Dally just shook his head, not feeling like arguing with her. 

        Ponyboy smiled to himself again, one of the things he liked about Tara is that she wasn't afraid of Dally like everyone else, though sometimes it might do her some good to be wary of him.  Soda saw Pony smiling as he glanced at Tara, and that couldn't help but make him smile too.

        "Lovebirds," he whispered in Steve's ear, and Steve cracked up laughing, spitting out bits of chocolate cake.

        Johnny made a face cause he was sitting right next to Steve, and Two-Bit remarked, "Steve, the food's supposed to go in your mouth and down, not up.  Unless you're standing on the ceiling or something."

        "Shut up and eat, Two-Bit," Darry said good-naturedly, but he half meant it.

        When they were done eating, Soda, Darry, and Steve left for work, leaving Pony to clean up the kitchen by himself though Tara, Johnny, Two-Bit, and Dally were there.  Darry had at least apologized for not being able to help clean up otherwise he'd be late for work, but Soda, who had made the kitchen look like an exploded bakery, just grinned and told Pony to Ponyboy to have fun cleaning on his way out the door.

        Eventually Tara and Johnny came in to help, and when they had halfway finished, they gave up and all headed to the movies.  There was a new Paul Newman one playing in the theater, and even though Pony had already seen it, they all went anyways.