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I opened my eyes sleepily as a sudden noise startled me awake. I wasn't sure what it was at first. Ponyboy was fast asleep under my arm, not a hint of a nightmare to be seen. I lay there, confused for a moment, and closed my eyes, intent on finding sleep again before I saw a sudden burst of light through my eyelids and opened them once more. Then a loud roll of thunder sounded almost instantly.
A storm. Practically overhead from the sounds of it. That was what had woken me up. I was about to simply roll over and go back to sleep, when I sat up, suddenly thoughtful. Careful not to disturb Pony, I slid out the bed and exited the room quietly. I padded down the hallway and paused outside the other bedroom, listening hard. I didn't hear anything at first. Then a quick flash came, following by a long crash, and beneath the thunder I heard a faint gasp.
I instantly opened the door and stepped inside.
"Darry?"
No reply. I walked in further and the next flash showed me the bed was empty. I was panicked for a second, wondering where the hell he could be, when a sharp hiss accompanied the next roll of thunder, calming me. He was definitely in the room.
"Darry?"
I heard him sigh.
"Over here."
I walked around the bed to find him sitting on the floor between his bed and the wall, farthest point in his room from the window.
"Ya okay?"
He didn't answer, so I made my way closer to him and crouched down, reaching up to flick on the bedside lamp. He flinched at the sudden light, glancing up at me quickly, then bowed his head, embarrassed. His pupils were blown so wide that very little blue was left.
"It's okay, Dar," I told him gently.
Ever since we were kids, Darry had been terrified of storms. He'd often go running into our parent's room as soon as the thunder started. As he got older, around ten or so, he had managed to resist the urge to flee into the unnecessary safety of our parent's bed, and stayed in the room we all three shared. He'd often end up cowered under the bed or in the closet, unless I awoke and managed to convince him to climb in with me. Once he'd reached teen years, he began to handle it better. He knew his fear was irrational, that the thunder couldn't actually hurt him. It got to the point where if he was asleep, the sound of far-off thunder wouldn't disturb him at all.
However, the loud crashes right above the house were obviously harder to ignore.
"It's okay," I repeated, lowering myself to sit beside him. "Don't be embarrassed, Dar. Come here."
I held out an arm, but he refused.
"I'm fine, Soda," he almost snapped, staring hard at a point on the far wall.
A sudden clap of thunder made him flinch, and almost subconsciously he was leaning against my side. I wrapped my arm around him tight, pulling him flush against me. Thankfully he seemed less stubborn than has been known, and didn't try to pull away. He simply hid his face in my shoulder and let me rock him slightly.
"It's okay, Darry. It'll be over soon."
There was no point saying anything else. He knew it was just a loud noise. He knew there was no danger. He knew that his fear was unfounded. But a phobia was a phobia and he couldn't help that every sharp crack across the night sky had him jumping, had him breathing heavily, had him clutching my shirt like a child to a teddy bear.
"Darry? Soda?"
My head snapped up at the sleepy voice in the doorway. Ponyboy stood there, yawning slightly.
"Everything okay?"
"Everything's fine, Pone," I told him. "Go back to bed."
He blinked at me tiredly, then his gaze fell on our older brother, who hadn't moved from his huddled position.
"The storm?" Pony queried.
I nodded.
"The storm."
"Oh. Okay."
He turned and wandered back down the hall, mostly likely back to bed. I turned my attention back to Darry, just muttering soothing words and rubbing his back gently. I wasn't aware of anything else until the comforter landing on my lap made me jump, jolting Darry up from my shoulder. We both gazed down at the duvet Pony had dragged in from our room, then I looked up at him now tugging Darry's blanket closer to us.
"We don't need both, Pony."
"Yeah, we do," he answered, lifting a corner of the blanket over the pair of us on the floor and busying himself with it in the corner above our heads. "We need one to sleep on – and one for the roof."
I simply gazed at him for a moment, then grinned. This was something we used to do way back, when Pony was real small and wouldn't sleep at night.
"You're building a fort?" Darry asked dubiously.
Ponyboy looked down at him.
"Sure. Remember what you always used to tell me, Dar? ‘A bedroom fort is the bestest place to sleep in’."
Even though I couldn’t see it, I was almost certain Darry was rolling his eyes. Ponyboy finished attaching the blanket to the closet, then dropped down to his knees and crawled under it so he was in with us. He crawled into the small place on Darry's other side, between him and the bed, forcing both me and Darry to shift over to make room.
"Ya guys don't have to be here," Darry spoke up suddenly. "I'll be fine on my own."
"Don't be silly, Dar. Ya'd never leave one of us alone if we were afraid."
"But it's just a storm," he added bitterly, frowning slightly. Like I said, he knew his phobia was irrational and it had always bothered him.
"Everyone is afraid of something, Darry," Ponyboy said quietly. "And to us, it doesn't matter what your phobia is or why ya scared. All we care about is that you are scared. And we'll do anything we can to help, even if it is something as simple as not leaving you alone."
Darry turned to look at him with surprised eyes and Ponyboy just sent him a soft smile. Then another flash of lightning and the inevitable roll of thunder following had Darry pressing hard against me once more, hiding his eyes. I cradled his head in my arm as I ran my hand through his hair soothingly.
"Remember when we built a fort on Christmas Eve?" Ponyboy asked.
I grinned.
"Yeah. We wanted to stay awake to see Santa."
"Except we all fell asleep."
"Was that the time we had two forts, as the guys stayed over too?"
"No, that was for your twelfth birthday, remember, and Two-Bit and Steve made a fort in the living room after seeing ours."
"Then Dally pulled it down."
"With Two-Bit still inside."
We chuckled and Pony and I continued reminiscing, talking about some of a favourite memories, until he said suddenly:
"Soda. Listen."
I cocked my head, listening hard. The storm had moved on, the time between light and sound longer, and the thunder not so deafening.
"What? Do you mean the rain that's stopped?"
"No," he whispered. "I mean, that."
He indicated towards my shoulder and I realised that there was something missing from my auditory senses. To be replaced by something much more satisfying. Darry's gasps of fear had stopped and his heavy breathing had slowed. To be replaced by the soft, light sounds of someone sleeping deeply.
"He fell asleep?" I asked, surprised.
Pony grinned at me.
"He fell asleep," he confirmed.
I couldn't remember the last time that happened. Sure, he may have slept through a mild storm if he was already asleep. And he may have slept after a storm had passed. But to fall into a restful sleep while a storm was ongoing… never in my lifetime.
Together, we managed to shift so I could gently ease Darry off my shoulder until he was laying on the floor, curled up on the comforter Pony had brought in. We lay either side of him and I threw an arm over his stomach as Pony rested his head on his shoulder.
"Night, Soda."
"Night, Ponyboy."
"Sleep well, Darry. We'll still be here in the morning."