The Outsiders: Imagines & Oneshots

Guilt Ridden

Imagine: Darry is beating himself up about Pony running away and he leans on you, his girlfriend of two years, for comfort, reassurance, and help.

Y/N ⇄ Your Name
L/N ⇄ last name
e/c ⇄ eye color
h/c ⇄ hair color
h/l ⇄ hair length

⇓

Darry had been having a hard week. You knew that for sure. Just last night, you'd sat for two hours with your legs crossed with Darry sitting in your lap, bent over so you could massage his sore, overworked back muscles.

You had always told Darry that he worked too much. You always offered to help, to take on a job and give at least half of your cut to the Curtis brothers—but Darry wouldn't let you. He was determined to keep you from taking on his burden until it was smaller—maybe just the two of you.

But all this to say—it didn't surprise you show up at the Curtis house after a frantic and barely intelligible phone call from Sodapop telling you (in bits and pieces) that Darry needed you badly right then only to find Darry curled up in a ball, sobbing on the floor.

"Darry?" you asked. You approached him the way one would approach a wounded and trapped animal. "Darry?"

The eldest Curtis brother didn't look up. He just said, his voice muffled through his curled position, "It's my fault, Y/N. My fault."

"What is, Darry? What's your fault?" you ask softly, crouching down beside him. You pull him into a partial hug.

"P-P—" he starts, then begins to shake violently, his sobs procuring hiccups and gasps for air from him.

Soda, his eyes red-rimmed and glassy, kneels down and joins you in cuddling Darry. "Pony."

Your stomach does backflips. "My God... What happened?"

Soda opened his mouth to explain, but Darry looks up. "I-I'll tell her, Soda," he said thickly. "It's my fault he ran away."

"Pony ran away!?" you gasp.

Darry nodded. Tears still streamed from his eyes. He scooted on the floor closer to you, unfolding a little from his ball.

"Oh, come here, baby," you croon. Darry obliges without his usual stubbornness. The hits you even harder than the fact Darry is crying does.

You've seen Darry cry. He can't cry in front of anyone else. Before, he used to cry to himself, alone, at night when Pony and Soda were sleeping. The only reason you convinced him he could cry in front of you was because you'd woken up one night beside him as he wept.

But Darry was always stubborn. He had to hold the burden by himself, he had to be in control, he had to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders. The fact he wasn't being stubborn now made the reality of the situation fall on your shoulders like a 350 motor.

"Shhhhh, shhhhh," you cooed, bringing Darry into your lap like the night before. Despite the fact that Soda was standing there, Darry let you do it. "What happened, baby?"

Darry sucked in a shaky breath. "Well...Pony came home late—really late. It was two in the morning when he got home and y-you know how his curfew's twelve. I was scared out of my mind about what could've happened to him... But when he did get home, I was wound up tight as a wire spring...and then Pony kept using those same old excuses—you know, the "I forgot" and all that..." He swallowed harshly and blinked away more tears. You rub his arms comfortingly and Soda looks at the two of you, worry etched across his face. He's biting his lower lip.

"Darry, if you don't want to continue—" Soda starts.

Darry pushes on with the story. "I started to yell. I was angry...and so afraid...so, so afraid...," he whispered, losing himself in his regret. He looked up at you and Soda with wide, sorrowful eyes. His voice is just barely audible. "I-I slapped Pony. I hurt him. I hurt my kid brother." Once again, he burst into tears.

You pull Darry close. "Oh, darling..."

Darry's arms uncurl from around his own legs and wrap around your body. You let him cuddle his head into your shoulder. His fingers wrap themselves into your h/l, h/c hair. His body shakes with his now quiet sobs.

≌

You slept with Darry that night and for the next five following nights, comforting him and holding him. Though his tears weren't present all the time, he was beating himself up horribly over Pony. He was a nervous wreck about what had happened to Pony and Johnny, scared stiff that something would happen to them because they'd killed that Soc.

That first night, Darry said, "Y/N? C-can I tell you something?"

"Anything, Darry," you'd replied.

"Whenever I get mad...whenever I yell...I'm always just so worried about him and I can't express in any way but yellin' and hollerin' and Pony doesn't know that, and..."

"And?" you prompted.

But Darry had exhausted himself so much with all his bawling, he'd just passed out midsentence. You'd sighed and smiled at him and wrapped your arms around him and snuggled close.

≌

Darry told you when they went to the hospital that if something had happened to Pony, he'd never forgive himself. He was crying the whole way to the hospital, and it got so bad you forced him to pull over so you could drive instead of him that way he wouldn't get you, Soda, and himself into an accident.

When Darry and Soda saw Pony, you felt Darry relax beside you. They dashed forward. You hung a distance back, waiting, knowing a brotherly moment had come. And you wanted to see what Darry would do.

Ponyboy flashed you a quick smile, but his real attention was on Soda and on Soda alone. He allowed Soda to swoop him up in a big bear hug without so much as a second thought.

"Oh, Ponyboy, your hair..." Soda lamented, "your tuff, tuff hair..."

Darry leaned against the doorway. From his posture, you knew he was about to start bawling. His voice was choked and husky when he said, "Ponyboy..."

Pony let go of Soda. He stared at Darry. You stayed behind, but you caught sight of tears running down Darry's cheeks in the reflection of the glass windows and doors of the hospital. The sight seemed to shock Pony to the core. Likely, he hadn't seen Darry cry in a long time, especially if Darry only let himself cry under the cover of night in only your company.

Darry looked down when Pony didn't do anything and began turning away, back towards you. You felt your heart break.

"Darry!" Pony suddenly screamed and ran at him. The youngest Curtis brother wrapped the oldest around the waist and was squeezing him hard. "Darry, I'm sorry..."

You watched as Darry stroked Pony's hair, his body shaking from the effort to keep from just all-out bawling in the middle of the hospital. "Oh, Pony, I thought we'd lost you...like we did Mom and Dad..."

You smiled. Pony was home, and safe in Darry's arms.

≌

That night, Darry pulled you into his bedroom and hugged you as tight as Pony had hugged him. "Thank you," he whispered into your hair.

"What for?" you asked. "I didn't bring Pony back to ya."

"But you sure did help me," Darry mumbled into your hair. He started to press kisses, one right after another, to your mouth and the two of you flopped onto his bed. You passed out on his chest the moment his body hit the soft mattress.