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When the two of them had learned that Dallas wouldn’t be going with them to the Night Double it didn’t bother them one bit, hell if anything it would be one less painful watch of him attempting to stir up any issues. Besides the two of them could talk to one another without Dally rolling his eyes and complaining about them ‘whispering like a bunch of school girls’
“You weren’t kidding about not spending money on taking me out,” Johnny rolled his eyes as he slinked under the chain linked fence after Pony.
“You shut it,” he playfully nudged Ponyboy as the two of them started the walk home.
The movies weren’t all that interesting, first one was alright, second one was some sappy and overly banal romance. The two of them had settled for huddling together talking about random nonsense. Johnny preferred it that way anyhow, he liked to just sit and talk with Ponyboy.
He stared down at his shoes, kicking a rock along the sidewalk as he and Pony made their way down towards the Curtis household. Johnny had both hands shoved deep in his Jean jacket, glancing over at Pony for a quick second. Pony wasn’t paying much attention, he was looking up as the stars began to shine in the dark. Johnny smiled a bit and pulled his eyes back to the sidewalk.
They arrived at the front of the gate, Pony swinging it open and holding it while looking back to Johnny.
“You crashin’ here?” He raised a brow at him. Johnny leaned back, peering down the street in the direction of his own house.
“Nah, I’m all good,” he shrugged, turning his head back to Pony. He watched as the other boy stayed still, still holding the gate open.
“C’mon,” he jerked his head in the direction of the front door, “Soda’s out with Steve, we both know Dally and Two tagged along,“ he could tell that there was another reason he wanted Johnny to stay. As much as he tried to hide it, his eyes kept flashing up to the right side of his face above his eye. He furrowed his brows confused before a shock of pain went through his face. Ah. He brought his gaze back to the sidewalk with a sigh, recalling meeting up with Pony halfway to the drive-in sporting a new set of cuts and bruises from his dad. He cringed at the memory as he returned to look at Pony.
“All right…” he mumbled, he didn’t like the idea of mooching off of the Curtises, they already had it hard enough supporting three boys and then some. Hell at this point Darry had become a caretaker of six boys instead of two. But it was hard to say no as he watched Pony grow more and more concerned at the idea of Johnny going back home. He pulled his feet from where they felt glued to the ground and followed behind Pony.
He watched a smile spread across his face, washing away whatever worried look was on it before. He pushed open the door quietly and glanced around for any sign of Darry. The two quietly took off their shoes by the front door and moved over to the kitchen, Pony pulled opened the fridge which revealed two saran wrapped plates.
“Pone? That you?” A voiced called from the bathroom. Darry poked his head out, toothbrush hanging out of the corner of his mouth.
“Oh, hey Johnny,” he smiled as best as he could at the boy before directing his attention back to Pony, “dinners in the fridge, if you hungry. Johnny you can help yourself to anything in there,” he waved his hand in the general direction of the open fridge as he ducked back into the bathroom. Pony spoke a soft ‘thank you’ as he turned towards the fridge.
“You hungry at all?” Pony bit on his bottom lip as if he was deep in thought staring at the plate in the fridge, “think I ruined my appetite with all the popcorn,” he grumbled in annoyance before turning his head to Johnny.
“nah man I’m all good,” both hands had returned to his pockets, lifting one up to wave it off as no big deal. He was met with an unconvinced look from Pony.
“Really…you ain’t hungry at all?” He gently pushed the fridge closed, taking a step closer to Johnny, “cause I swear you mentioning s’mthin about being hungry at the drive in,” his push was gentle, knowing Johnny wasn’t real comfortable with any confrontations. Hence, Johnny averted his eyes to stare at the wall.
“I’ll be good man don’t worry about me,” he tightened his jaw and swallowed hard as he heard the floorboards creak, signifying Pony was getting closer to him. He finally pulled his eyes back to look at Pony only to be met with him squinting at him.
“Fine,” he huffed and turned on his heels, “but if you do get hungry you can eat my portion from dinner,” he maneuvered around the kitchen table and made his way down the hall to his and Sodas room. Johnny followed a bit, smiling at the fact Pony was didn’t press the issue anymore. He was a little hungry he wouldn’t lie, but he was already crashing here for the night, he didn’t need to go ahead and take their food too.
The second they entered his room Pony grumbled at the sight of an untouched pile of homework sitting on his desk. Johnny snickered and made a b-line for his bed. Turning as he reached the end of it and falling back onto the mattress. He closed his eyes as he heard Pony pull back his desk chair and sit down to sift through the work he had. He never got how after a full day of school and full night of movies Pony could still come home and sit down to do homework. Going to school for a full day was already enough to get him tired.
The two of them sat in a comfortable silence as Pony started making his way through his work, beginning with the subjects his cared for less in order to have enough time to go over and correct them with Darry. Johnny rolled over on his side and cracked open his eyes to watch as Pony worked, the desk was right next to the bed so he could look up and have a perfect shot of his face. He smiled as he noticed Pony was making the same concentrated look as earlier. He was biting his bottom lip a bit and squinting his eyes at the paper. The lamp next to them coated the room in a soft yellow hue. Showing, despite how hard he tried to deny it, how truly green his eyes were. After a few moments of simply watching him work he noticed Ponys face flush and begin to become redder and redder.
“Whatchu’ lookin at Johnny?” He mumbled, still scanning through what he was reading on the paper. Johnny smiled a bit and propped himself up on his elbow.
“Just watchin’ you work,” he stated simply before reaching out and yanking one of the pillows down so he could lay his head down more comfortably. Pony hummed and quickly jotted down something before he turned in his seat to look down at Johnny. He blinked a few times as if he was collecting his thoughts before resting his head in the palm of his hand.
“The second movie we watched,” he started cautiously, “you think we’re s’pposed to be acting like that?” The second he finished talking his jaw was clenched tight. Johnny raised a brow and titled his head into the pillow.
“Huh? Like—“ he paused recalling the movie of the very overly romantic and cliche love story, “—oh..uh,” he scrunched his face up and rolled onto his back, “I don’t think so? Should we be?” He turned his head to look at Pony who was equally confused. He shrugged, now pulling himself to the edge of the chair.
“I mean I told you I don’t think I need to be all like—“ he paused, both of them cringing at reliving the memory of being torn from their conversation by a very sloppy make out scene, “…that but I’ve never seen a couple that don’t act…something similar to that,” he looked down at Johnny who nodded in agreement. They sat in silence again both opting to look at the ceiling or the bed as they thought.
“I mean…” Johnny felt his face heat up as his throat tightened, “we could always kiss and see how that feels,” he slowly looked back over to Pony who was staring wide eyed at the blanket. His face was just about as red as Johnnys if not redder due to his skin being paler. He opened his mouth to speak but shut it, clearly at a loss for words.
“We don’t have to—“ Johnny quickly spit out his words holding his hands up in surrender, “—I just thought that it was something that we could see cause it’s not like we’re a couple but also we’re not just friends it’s,” he was cut off by Pony putting his hand over his mouth. He had slid off the chair and was now sitting on his knees next to Johnny on the bed. He watched as a grin split across his face and he laughed a bit.
“Glory Johnny I just needed a moment to pull my words together no need to freak out on me,” he laughed a bit more as he pulled his hands away from Johnnys mouth. He rolled his eyes and shoved him a bit.
“Shuddup, I got nervous,” he mumbled clearly embarrassed as his ears began to heat up.
“Aw cmon Johnnycakes, you ain’t gonna kiss me now cause I embarrassed you?” Johnny sat up with his eyes wide and smacked him again.
“You keep teasing me and I won’t,” he narrowed his eyes at him only for Pony to adjust himself to sit criss cross. Patting both of Johnnys knees so he’d sit the same. He rolled his eyes and followed to sit the same way, his eyes trained on the wall to give himself a moment to cool his flushed face down. He felt Pony move closer so that their knees were touching on another. He finally looked back only to be met with Pony staring at him.
“Glory your eyes are pretty,” he quickly covered his mouth with his hand as Pony had a soft pink flush across his face. He now blinked and looked over at the wall.
“Well thanks” he mumbled and scrunched his nose up like it was going to do something to calm the blush down. Johnny smiled a bit and removed his hand from his face, resting them in his lap. Pony also had his hand in his lap he slowly outstretched his finger and interlocked their pointer fingers together, Pony got the idea and opened his hand fully so they could hold hands.
“So…” Pony strung out the ‘oh’ as the two sat there, “we just supposed to kiss?” He started to rub his thumb against the bones of Johnnys hand.
“I dunno,” he shrugged and mumbled as he looked down at their hands. Pony cracked a smile, ducking his head down to catch Johnnys eyes.
“It was your idea Johnnycakes,” he pulled his head back up as Johnny followed his eyes.
“Didn’t think you’d actually agree though,” he kept their eyes locked together as they returned back to silence. Both gently staring at one another, every now and then they would squeeze the other’s hand. After what felt like hours Johnny huffed.
“Fuck it,” he mumbled and leaned forward, pressing their lips together. It wasn’t anything crazy, certainly wasn’t anything like whatever the hell was going on in the movie they watched, but it was a kiss. It was something so simple but one their lips connected he felt as if something erupted up from his stomach and to his throat. He pulled away and opened his eyes around the same time Pony did. He swallowed nervously as he felt Pony squeeze his hand like his life depended on it.
“Lord, I think I might throw up,” not exactly the first words you want to hear out of someone you just kissed. Johnny felt his throat close up and what felt like bowling ball roll down to his stomach. Pony locked eyes with him and widened them quickly realizing his mistake.
“Not like that!” He held up his free hand in a quick reassurance. “It was..it wasn’t bad! I just—“ he groaned as he tried to put his thoughts together. He took a deep breath and finally collected himself, “when I say throw up I mean the sensation of it..made me all dizzy n’ warm like the..” he glanced down to his lap as he thought, “..you know like—“ he snapped and looked back up to Johnny, “—oh! Like the butterflies in your stomach saying, made me all queasy inside,” he smiled a bit as Johnny let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“Jeez,” he let his hand slip out of Pony’s hand while he fell onto his back, “don’t go scaring me like that, thought you were realizing you was sick at the thought of me.” He looked up at the ceiling as he could almost hear the eye roll Pony did.
“Please—“ Ponyboy flopped next to him, “I could never get sick of you Johnny,” he bumped their shoulders together before turning to look at him. Johnny met him as he turned his head and smiled a bit.
“You know I was feeling the same way too..felt like my stomach as about to burst into flames,” he smiled as Pony snaked an arm under Johnny, hooking the other one over his chest, hugging him.
“Guess kissing you was pretty nice…took way to much energy,” he sighed before resting his chin on Johnnys shoulder. Johnny smiled slinking his own arm under Ponyboy.
“So a full day of school, movies, and homework ain’t got you tired but one kiss from me does?” He raised a brow and Pony shrugged.
“‘s the kinda effect you have on me Cade,” he smiled as Johnny snorted and laughed a bit.
“You’re gonna give me a big head if you keep talkin like that,” he smiled a him as Pony shrugged, adjusting his head to a more comfortable position against the pillow. He opened his mouth to answer only to be cut off by Johnnys stomach letting off a low whine. He sat up almost immediately and narrowed his eyes.
“I knew you was lying,” he grabbed Johnnys hand and yanked him up despite his protests.
“Awe cmon Pone, you know I don’t like takin food from you guys,” he whined as he was torn away from comfort of Pony’s bed.
“You know that none of us mind, hell I think Two-bit eats at least twice the amount of food as you do and we still fix him up a plate when he comes round,” the two quickly made their way back down to the kitchen where Ponyboy pulled out the plate of off from earlier. Johnny watched as he pulled off the cover and headed towards the oven to heat it up.
“I can just eat it cold Pone,” Pony turned to him and looked down at what looked like a plate of chicken, potatoes, and corn.
“You’re gonna eat cold chicken?” He titled his head as Johnny hoisted himself up onto the counter next to the sink. He nodded and held out one hand to take the plate. Ponyboy wordlessly handed over the plate before jumping up next to him. They sat in comfortable silence, Pony resting his head back on the cabinets while Johnny sat eating a cold dinner. Johnny glanced over at Pony who returned the look. They smiled at one another, Pony shook his head with a laugh at the sight of Johnny hunched over eating cold chicken.
They barely registered Soda quietly getting back home and slipping off into their room. Forcing Johnny out onto the couch. It was fine, he knew Pony would sit with him for a little while claiming he would head off to his room in a bit only for Johnny to wake up to him asleep in the arm chair.