𝐃𝐄𝐉𝐀 𝐕𝐔, 𝐉𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘

one

"car rides to malibu"

'y'know, im gonna go to california one day, johnnycakes." dal says one day, startling johnny out of his space out. still, johnny smiles curiously and brushes past the fear of who was calling his name because it was just dally, dally who wouldn't lay a finger on him. "oh yeah?" he says, raising an eyebrow as he props his feet up on the seat, curling into himself comfortably.

"yeah, and i'm gonna bring you with too." dally speaks with a firmness to his tone, like it was a fact set in stone and there was no changing it; not for anything or anyone. johnny cracks a smile so wide his cheeks hurt. "you better, dal, if you leave me here with my folks, i'd kill you." the threat is empty because they both know johnny wouldn't even think about doing such a thing.

still, dal laughs and, in turn, johnny lets out his own giggle, reaching out to turn up the radio. it's some silly song that he know the lyrics too, causing the younger to gasp and turn it up as loud as it'll go and start singing it. dally casts a look, one that johnny didn't catch, before barking out more laughter and starting to sing along.

in that moment, in dal's car that's nearing its end, johnny realizes he's never felt more (in love) happier and for just a second, he forgets about his abusive parents back home, the sunsets he watches with pony, the violence he'd been subjected to by the socs and all there was was dally and him and happiness.

"strawberry ice cream, one spoon for two."

they eventually stop, or rather the car stops, but johnny's happiness doesn't. the place they stop at, though, is a breaking down ice cream shop with a giant ice cream on the sign that makes johnny grin and turn to dally. "can we get ice cream?" he asks with pure glee in his voice, knowing dally wouldn't say no. the man sighed heavily but still nodded and got out of the car.

johnny cheered inwardly. they walked up to the woman, who was what someone would consider pretty, at least in johnny's opinion, if they were into women, then they ordered a single strawberry ice cream. only one spoon was available, though, so they just ended up swapping the spoon, with johnny having it the most.

oddly enough, dally felt a horribly strong urge to grab johnny's face and kiss the melting ice cream off his lips. he forced himself to laugh at whatever joke johnny had just made and tightened his grip on the left over straw he was tapping against the table. he didn't end up leaning any closer to johnny than he had to until after they finished eating.

"And trading jackets
Laughing 'bout how small it looks on you."

when they were back in the car and had been driving for around thirty minutes, johnny started bouncing his leg, causing dally to look over and place a calming hand on his thigh. (johnny felt like he was being split in half for a split second, then he felt his lips twitching upwards slightly) "what's wrong, johnnycakes?"

"'m cold, 's all." he manages, but the second it's said dally pulls into an emptying parking lot. johnny fears for a second that he's about to get smacked, but he just about laughs at that because dally wouldn't ever hurt him. instead of hitting the brunette, dally takes off his jacket and passes it to johnny, who in turn also takes off his jacket, his mind automatically viewing it as some sort of payback, so he didn't owe dally.

"wow, this looks really good on me," dal snorts as he puts on the boy's jacket, which looked like it belonged to an eight year old when put on him. johnny broke out into loud laughter and leaned into dally closer, his hair brushing against the others skin every so often. dal laughs and johnny swears he feels a phantom ruffle of his hair.

"it looks amazing, dal," he manages before they're both a laughing-crying mess. they stay in that spot for thirty minutes, laughing their lungs out.