Au where Johnny went home with Pony in the book
Ponyboy's P.o.V.
"Pony! Come on man wake up!"
My eyes snapped open and I saw Johnny shaking me.
"Jeez what time is it?" I sat up, rubbing my eyes.
"I don't know man. I fell asleep too, listening to you ramble on and on..." he sighed lightly.
I stood up and rubbed my arms. "I guess I should get home. Gosh what's Darry gonna say?"
"You go on ahead. I think I'll stay all night out here. Who'll care anyway?" Johnny curled up in a ball and wrapped his arms around himself.
Gosh but it was cold. I looked down at him in sadness. "Oh Johnny I'll care. Why don't you come home with me, and you can sleep in the couch. It'll be a whole lot warmer, you know?"
Johnny looked up at me. "I don't know Pony. I don't wanna bother Darry. He works too hard, and he don't need any extra weight on his shoulder.
I grabbed his hand a pulled him up. "I don't want you out here in this freezing weather Johnnycakes. You'll freeze to death, and I can't live without you." A blush tinted both of our cheeks as we began walking.
"Well thank you. That's awfully sweet." He smiled at me.
He had smiled at me lots of times, but for some odd reason, I felt as if I enjoyed it more this time. It sent my heart fluttering and made my stomach turn.
I decided to ignore the feeling.
The walk to my house was short, but it felt like forever, since it was so cold. As soon as we walked in the door, Darry was yelling at me. "Where the hell have you been?"
I gulped lightly. "Johnny and I were talking and we fell asleep at the lot." It sounded stupid, even to me.
Darry obviously thought it was stupid too. "You what?"
"Johnny and I both dropped off on accident. I'm sorry." I gave him a pleading look.
"It's fine Pony, lets go up to bed." Sodapop yawned.
"No it's not fine! You realize that you put you and Johnny in danger?" Darry almost started shaking.
Johnny stepped forward. "I-I'm fine Darry, he didn't put me in any danger."
That made Darry even more mad, but i wasn't prepared for what happened next. Darry stepped forward, and pushed Johnny so hard he flew into the wall.
Everything went quiet. Johnny's eyes were wide and he began breathing heavily. Once I saw his eyes water I was pulled out of my state of shock.
"Oh my God!" I yelled, dropping down beside Johnny. "You hit him Darry! You hit him!"
Darry put his hand over his mouth. "Johnny...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."
He swallowed hard and nodded. "I-I know...it's o-okay. I-I'll just--"
"What did he do to you? He's never done anything to anyone and you hit him!" I cried out, gripping into Johnny's hand.
"I'm so sorry." Darry whispered, but I didn't care.
"He was worried about coming over here because he said he didn't wanna bother you. He was about to sleep outside in the freezing cold because he didn't want to put any stress on you..." I was saying it more to my self at the end.
Johnny was so sweet, and my brother took out his anger on him. I felt like crying.
Carefully, I helped Johnny stand. He was shaking so bad he couldn't even walk on his own.
"Come on Johnnycake..." I mumbled and walked him to my room.
As soon as we were alone I hugged him. "I'm so sorry Johnny..."
He hugged me back. "I'm fine Pony, it didn't even hurt. Just spooked me a bit."
I dug my face into his shoulder. "B-but now Darry is no better than your own dad and--"
"Stop." He pulled me back and gripped my shoulders. "Darry will never be like my dad. He's done so much for you and Soda and the rest of the gang...where would you even be without Darry?"
I bit my lip and looked down. "I-I guess you're right."
"You just scared him. He's never once shown fear, but I could see it when he pushed me, and I could see how much relief was there when we walked in." Johnny rubbed my arms lightly. "He loves you a lot Ponyboy, I promise."
"I'm sorry I freaked out." I sighed. "You just don't deserve to be hit under any circumstances and..." I shook my head. "You just wanna go to bed?"
"Yeah...that sounds nice." He turned to walk to the door but I stopped him.
"Hey Johnny?" I quickly pulled him in for another hug. He yelped quietly but once he realized what was going on, he wrapped his arms around me as well. "W-why don't you sleep in the bed tonight? Soda can take the couch."
I waited for a protest, but it never came. Instead, Johnny just smiled lightly and nodded. "Yeah, alright."
We both moved to the bed. He curled up into my side and sighed in content. "Thank you for caring so much about me Pone..."
I draped and arm around him and smiled. "I'll always care about you Johnny. Please don't forget that."
He looked up at me with his big black eyes. "I won't." His arms snaked around my waist and he took a shaky breath. "P-Pony...I lo...I-I lo--"
"I love you too Johnny." I smiled. "I love you a lot."
"You do?" His voice came out a whisper.
I kissed the top of his head and nodded. "I do, now let's get some sleep."
