𝑀𝑦 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑆𝑘𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑎 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑡 🌻 Johnnyboy One Shots

In The Still of the Night

word count: 2211

status: edited

Ponyboy's POV
I had never been down this route before. The pitch dark soil caught in my shoes, but I still kept my pace with Johnny. My heart was hastening as we skimmed down a smaller trail of bushes that led to a pack of cargo trains lined up on the rails. The night was pursuingus in the dark, tantalizing our feet and forcing heat in our lungs like rapid waves of catching your breath.

As soon as we swifted past the men beaming their flashlights around, Johnny pulled himself up after me, panting for air as we snook inside on our throbbing feet. My mouth was dry from the hot midnight air, and our bodies were close in a spooning heat against the wall of the freight. His dark umber eyes darted to me at the sound of leaves shuffling; he was still so alert. Johnny tugged on the seams of my coat, shoving me behind the open entry where the moonlight leaked in.

Suddenly his jet dark locks blended with the darkness of the freight, his palpable eyes coming close again. I wasn't new to this engagement, this heavy thump in my chest as we got on our rears and sat down, not bothering to separate an inch apart.

"That was close." he muttered. I could hear a note of relief in his whisper clear as day, watching as the flicker of lights died in the distance outside of the freight. I shuddered at the touch of Johnny's hand on my shoulder pulling me back in. "Not yet." he whispered again, not seeming to notice that my hand was loosely grasping his fingers.

"Johnny..." my voice hung in the air, realizing Dally's gun was slipping out of his pocket.

He tugged me back close, as if to make sure I was there and not still gazing outside. At the look of my cautionary eyes, he glanced down and pressed the gun back into his jeans, causing it to stick out of the material. "You tired?" he voiced, the soft words like a feather on my cheek.

I couldn't dodge the question, I knew I was tired from the moment I sat beside Johnny on the freight. The moment I ducked my head out into the moonlight, I knew I couldn't be any more worried or scared sick than the feeling I held in my stomach after my eyes met with a pool of blood. This sick feeling, this drained and cold feeling. Johnny killed him. Johnny really killed him, all over a fountain, all in one night, all in a few minutes.

Soon I would probably be back home, getting interrogated. Darry and Soda would be home to remind me I was still a kid, that I was going to grow up one day and write about sunsets perhaps. I could feel the ice packets seizing my skin with a frosty bite as Soda's hand grazed through my hair, his dreamy voice capturing every word I had missed since I had left.

"This is temporary..." I turned around to Johnny. "Right?"

His raven bangs curled close to his eyebrows as his eyes filled with this look I had never seen before. Johnny gave a soft, harmless nod. "It's okay." he whispered, quiet again, like a hush. I felt myself doze off, as much as I didn't want to give in to sleep.

"Are we sleeping here?" I muttered, bending my head into the wall.

"Yeah." Johnny cleared, bringing my head away from the hard metal. "It'll do you no good in staying up the whole night. You blacked out, Pony."

In part, it was like Johnny allowed me to give in, to rest, to lull me down and be my pillar. What was rest going to feel like without my brothers? What was I going to dream about with Johnny beside me, and what about if he gets tired and we dream in unison?

"Relax now." he laced an arm around my neck, patting my head down on his shoulder. "We'll be there soon."

"Hm..." I groaned half-consciously, picking up the lingering smell of the fountain water in my hair. Two-halves of a minute passed and I stretched my limbs to adjust, but my hand crossed Johnny's knee.