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The fire crackled, illuminating the two boys beside it while its embers flew before fizzling back to the ground. Tonight was deadly silent in the lot which was unusual for the two of them since they could usually talk for hours without fail. This was because of two reasons; they had already ran out of topics for the night and Johnny was desperately just trying to stay awake.
The two were already huddled closely together because of the cold which only got worse as the fire began to dim. Johnny's eyes eventually gave out and fluttered shut as he lied his head on the younger boy's shoulder. He felt safe with the other, like he could spend every waking hour with him and never get bored. But those thoughts scared him. He knew what people thought about two boys getting close to each other in such a way.
'Filthy fucking faggots' is what Johnny's dad would call them. That scared the boy more than anything. He could imagine how worse the beatings would get if his father found out he was a queer. So he pushed those thoughts deep down inside and tried to forget about them so nobody could figure it out.
But it was hard to ignore with this angelic creature against him as he slowly drifted off to sleep. His reddish-brown hair looked perfect slicked back along with his greenish-grey eyes the he didn't understand why the other hated so much. He could stare into them for days. He wish he could do more, say more, but for now he'd have to settle with just being his friend.
_
Ponyboy was frozen. His heartbeat reaching a new level of speed he didn't even know was possible. All this in reaction to his best friend slightly leaning on him and sleeping. If the boy was awake, it'd be obvious how Pony was feeling with his skin flushed red from the neck up, his eyes blown wide and breaths escaping his plump lips in quick succession. Pony knew he was whipped for Johnny. The way his big, sad eyes hid behind his overgrown and ratty black hair all the way to his shy, puppy-like demeanour that he knew was easily hidden by his carefully crafted tough persona.
He'd felt like this for a little while, just after his parents died. The two of them got closer after that since Johnny was a good listener and really cared about what he was saying too, none of that fake pity bullshit. It made him feel seen. Like he wasn't just some little boy most of the gang treated him like all the time. It really wasn't his fault that he fell so hard.
Hesitantly, Pony raised his hand and placed it in Johnny's hair. He tensed up further when the boy stirred in his sleep, nuzzling further against Pony and sighing. Once Pony knew he wasn't waking up the tension left his body and he continued to stroke the brown eyed boy's sightly greasy hair.
With the fire almost fully out, Pony relaxed against the other, now feeling a wave of tiredness crash over himself as his eyes closed and his heart slowed down, not even thinking about his brothers and the consequences of staying out too late.