THE OUTSIDERS IMAGINES AND PREFERENCES

Darry - "Cuddle Buddy" (C)

"Fine. But you owe me a whole night of cuddling."

The lights were almost blinding as they flashed in and out of my field of vision. The pounding ache in my skull caused by one too many beers the night before didn't help matters, and neither did the blasting of a multitude of different noises in my ears. People, drunk on booze. Flashing lights of the club. Flashers. What some people called music. They all mixed together to add to my painful headache and the fact that I just wanted to go home.

Darry and I had never been huge fans of the clubs downtown, especially when they had more of a resemblance to the "roaring 20's" than to the 60's, our current decade. I'd only come to satisfy Darrel, who'd come just to satisfy Soda, and so on. Two-Bit, of course, was at the root of the whole outing that included everyone in the gang except Ponyboy and Johnny. They'd refused to come.

So here I was. Sitting alone on a barstool on a Saturday night while the rest of the gang was around doing who-knows-what.n I'd assumed pool, and my guess was confirmed when my companions staggered over while trying to mark each other with the blue chalk that was supposed to be used on pool sticks.

"Hey, darlin'," Darry slurred as he practically fell onto the stool beside me. "What've you been up to?"

I smiled and shook my head at how obviously drunk he'd gotten. "Oh, y'know...kissed that guy right there until he started making moves to get me to go home with him."

I gestured at a random guy across the room in a blue polo shirt, certain it would be obvious I was joking.

"He did what?!"Darry shot to his feet, his hands already formed into fists as he glared past Steve and at the guy I had pointed out. My eyes widened as he turned to me and I realized he hadn't caught that I'd been speaking sarcastically.

"You cheated on me with a Soc?" he muttered, not so much mad as in disbelief.

I jumped to my feet beside him and put both of my hands on his shoulders. "No, Darry, I would never. I was joking when I said that."

"Really?"

"Really," I nodded. "I'm sorry, it seemed like it would be funny until I said it."

It probably would have been funny if Darry hadn't been too drunk to realize I wasn't being serious. I'd rarely ever seen him get drunk before at all - I was surprised he'd picked up more than a single drink - so I wasn't used to how he was acting.

I was about to continue to apologize when Darry wrapped his arms around me, kissing my forehead in the split second before he did.

"I love you, (y/n)," he mumbled into my hair. "I love you so much."

I gave a confused look to Sodapop and Steve, who'd been standing behind Darry. I definitely wasn't complaining about how much affection he was showing, but he almost never showed affection in public. It just wasn't like him. Not to mention the fact that a few seconds ago he was worried I had cheated on him with some Soc.

'He's wasted,' Soda mouthed when I tried to pull away and Darry didn't budge.

'Obviously,' I mouthed back.

"Darry, let's get you home, love," I spoke gently, rubbing his back as I did so.

When I managed to pull him off of me, I noticed he was frowning. "No...no, let's stay here."

"I thought you didn't like these types of places."

"I like home less. I'll have to parent my kid brothers and go back to work and-"