Chapter Text
Rumble was getting big, much bigger than expected, especially for a mutt. He was getting nosy, too. His current task, which he took extremely seriously, was sniffing Ponyboy’s face, and then the floor on which he’d just vomited on.
“No, no..” Ponyboy whispered, shooing him away, “Don’t…don’t eat that.”
It was the middle of the night, and he hadn’t made it to the bathroom, only to the hallway between the kitchen and living room. That meant that Rumble, who usually slept soundly at Scout’s side next to the couch, was all up in his business.
“Pony…?” A sleepy voice echoed, and he looked up to see Sodapop standing over him, “Oh, baby, what happened?”
Pony shook his head, “Nothing. I’m okay. Go back to bed, you have to work in the morning.”
Soda didn’t listen. He hauled Pony up by his shoulders, ordered him to sit down at the kitchen table, and cleaned up the mess. “We gotta call someone, we just gotta. You’re gonna die from this, one of these days.”
Ponyboy buried his face in Rumble’s fur. The shaggy, shedding dog was table-height from the top of his head, and still growing by the day.
“He didn’t get any, did he?”
Pony shook his head, “It didn’t burn this time.”
“Good!” Sodapop exclaimed, then quickly shut up at the sound of someone moving around, “Good.” He whispered, “I’m gonna take this out real quick so it doesn’t make the whole house smell.” He lifted the big black bag out of the garbage and tied it up, then hauled it as quietly as possible out to the cans near the road.
On his way back in, he forgot to shut the door.
“Let’s go to bed, alright?” He hugged Ponyboy, following him slowly up the stairs and leaving Rumble all alone on the first floor.