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Bored…

Bored…

Bored…

Sodapop repeated that same word in his mind in between throwing a football up in the air and catching it as he sat on the couch in the living room of the Curtis house. The first three days of being grounded hadn't been so bad. He had an excuse to leave the house…his job at the DX gas station. It was straight there and straight back as Darry had ordered but at least he could still get out of here for a little while.

Unfortunately the new schedule had been posted and Soda had the rest of the week off. It was now Saturday, his third straight day of being cooped up in the house and he still had one more day to go before his punishment was over. He was close to pulling his hair out at the thought of it being so close, yet so far.

He still thought Darry's punishment; one week of being grounded was a little harsh. You would have thought that no one had ever accidentally driven threw a guy's fence during a drag race before.

The only thing that was stopping him from going completely crazy was that Ponyboy too had gotten in trouble and grounded, so he had some company. He had been caught along with Johnny sneaking into the Nightly Double. Apparently Dally's old trick of going under the fence to avoid paying had finally been found out.

The two of them hung out for hours the two previous days, playing an indoor game of football, listening to the radio, cooking up weird things in the kitchen, and yes they did go outside but never past the front porch. Pony was handling the predicament a lot better since his hobbies included reading and drawing. Hell, Soda even gave drawing a chance the other day and it wasn't so bad but he couldn't do for hours on end like Pony could. He just didn't have the attention span.

He wanted to be out, he hated being inside all day. It just wasn't for him, outside was where all the action was. Then at that moment he thought about Steve, his partner in crime and wondered what he was planning to do for the weekend.

Just then, Ponyboy came out of his room. Like he said, Pony had been handling it better but looking at him now Soda could tell he was tired of being in the house just as he was. He was probably thinking about Johnny and Two-Bit and what they were up to. It was still summer and there were plenty of things to do.

"Maybe I should call Steve and ask him to drop by for a little while." Sodapop said to himself out loud.

"No friends over, Soda." Ponyboy said as he sat down in the recliner. "Darry said so."

"Darry said so." Soda responded in a mocking voice. "Darry would only find out if you told."

"What if he comes home early and sees Steve here? He could ground you for more days, and probably blame me too."

Soda sighed as he looked at the clock. It was a little past twelve. He then reached up and grabbed his DX hat that was sitting on the coffee table and pulled it over his head.

"So, any ideas on what we can do today?" Soda then asked.

Ponyboy looked around as he thought about. He had been though every book that was worth reading and knew Soda wasn't about to crack open a book. The two of them had pretty much done everything there was to do.

"Not really." He finally answered.

"What a big help you are."

"Hey, I don't here you comin' up with anything."

"Shut up." Soda playfully responded as he tossed the football at him. "You're supposed to be the smart one."

Ponyboy didn't respond to that as he grabbed the remote and flipped on the television. There wasn't anything particularly good on and he finally settled on some news channel. Soda didn't pay any attention to it as he layed down on the couch and wiped a little bit of sweat from his brow. Pony lit a cigarette and offered one to his brother who declined. He knew he wasn't supposed to smoke in the house, but Darry wasn't home so he felt it didn't matter.

"Hey, go make me something to eat." Soda then spoke.

"Go make it yourself." Pony responded.

"Come on, Pony. Show your older brother the respect he deserves."

Pony couldn't help but grin a little as he got up and headed to the kitchen. He then realized just how hot it was in here, even with the windows open. Then at that moment he got an idea. He grabbed a cup and filled it up with water before slowly walking back to the living room. Soda was paying him no mind for a moment before looking up at him and seeing the look on his face. That grin meant he was up to no good. He should know, his little brother picked it up from him.

"What are you doing?"

"Showing you the respect you deserve."

After that, Ponyboy took the cup and threw the contents right into Soda's face before he could have a chance to move. Soda sputtered at sat up and rapidly wiped at his face with the sleeve of his shirt which was drenched as well. He obviously wasn't mad, and to be honest the cold water felt good in his heat he was more surprised as he looked up at Pony who was now laughing.

"You little shit!"

The cigarette fell from Ponyboy's mouth as he quickly took off running as Sodapop leaped off the couch in pursuit. Pony tried to make it to his room but couldn't close the door as Soda tackled his legs and they began to roll across the floor, wrestling.

"How do you like that?" Soda asked as he locked his brother in a headlock. Ponyboy elbowed him the ribs, not hard enough to really hurt but enough for him to get out of the hold. He quickly jumped on Sodapop and the wrestling continued.

Soda managed to push Ponyboy off him who then quickly jumped on his bed and grabbed a pillow. Swinging it like a baseball bat, Pony made contact with Soda's head and it knocked him loopy for a moment before he grabbed a pillow of his own and returned the favor. The two of them continued beating each other with the pillows as their 'fight' spilled back into the hallway. They were getting feathers everywhere but they really didn't seem to notice as they battered each other.

The pillow brawl reached the kitchen as they continued swinging wildly at each other, feathers flying in every direction as they made contact. Soda swung but hit the phone instead which fell to the floor with a loud bang but the brothers ignored it as they continued on back to the living room.

Ponyboy finally nailed Soda in the groin with his pillow causing his older brother to groan but surprisingly it didn't even slow him down. He reached out and pulled the pillow from Pony's grip and grabbed him around the waist, pulling him up and carrying him over to the couch before slamming him down.

The air was knocked out of Pony and then again as Soda jumped on top of him and held his shoulders down, making him unable to move.

"Holler uncle." Soda commanded.

"Nope."

"Fine, I ain't getting up until you do."

Ponyboy continued to squirm under him but just then a loud commercial came on the television causing Soda to take his attention away from his prey. It was the opportunity Pony needed as quickly lunged up his lower body up causing Soda to fly head over heels off him and on the floor. Ponyboy quickly pulled off the couch cushions and threw them at Soda before getting to his feet, only to be tackled right into the recliner which tipped over, sending them both to the ground.

They continued wrestling around on the floor, rolling and rolling until they bumped into the coffee table which had the lamp on it. The lamp fell over and broke into pieces which caused the brothers to stop for a moment, look at each other and then continue.

Ponyboy was finally able to gain the advantage as he sat on Sodapop's back and twisted his arm behind his back.

"Ready to give up?"

Soda gritted his teeth but didn't respond, he knew how to use his larger size to his advantage and was able to get out of it and pull Ponyboy over and underneath him. Unfortunately for Pony, Sodapop knew his weakness and began took full advantage of it.

"Ack! Soda, you're cheating!" Ponyboy yelled out in between laughs as Soda tickled his sides and ribs.

"I didn't see any rules." Soda responded as he continued. Ponyboy grabbed onto his hands and managed to buck Soda off of him and began returning the favor, knowing he was ticklish as well. The two of them were getting tired but refused to give in to the other when suddenly a smell got their attention.

"What is that?"

"Something's burning."

The two of them then looked over and saw the rug had smoke coming off it as a tiny fire had been started from the cigarette that had landed there.

"The rug is on fire!"

The fire alarm then began going off as they both jumped up and ran to the kitchen, getting two glasses of water that they quickly poured over the fire which luckily put it out.

"Darry's gonna kill me." Pony muttered. It really wasn't that bad, it could have been a lot worse as Soda looked over the burn that it was now in the rug. He then shrugged and tried to make light of it.

"Well, I guess it's going to be another week for you, little buddy."

"What? Maybe I'll tell him that it was your fault."

"You were smoking! How is it my fault?"

"You ran after me-"

"What the hell is going on here!" Another voice boomed causing Sodapop and Ponyboy to jump and then turn around to see Darry standing in the doorway, a look on his face that held both anger and disbelief.

The house was a wreak. There were feathers everywhere, the cushions to the sofa were off, the lamp was broken, furniture had been turned over...Darry took a deep breath and began shaking his head. Maybe keeping the two of them cooped up in the house together wasn't the best idea.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?"

Neither could respond. They both looked around the house, Soda looked down at his feet and saw one of the managed pillows and slowly bent down to pick it up. He stared at it for a moment before flinging it at Darry's head.

It bounced right off and the three of them stood in there silence. Nobody moved or spoke…Ponyboy was wide eyed as he couldn't believe that Soda just did that. Darry just looked at his brother, his face stern and emotionless as what looked to be a staring contest was now taking place. Just a few seconds later...

Darry's façade finally cracked and a held back smile appeared on his face as he slowly shook his head. He then picked up the pillow and threw it back at Soda with more force.

"You two get this mess cleaned up."

Darry walked to the bathroom to take a shower as he overheard Sodapop and Ponyboy arguing and blaming each other. He laughed a little to himself when he closed the bathroom door...with brothers like them life sure never got boring.

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Author's note-

This is going to be a one-shot, however if you liked it and want to see two of your favorite Outsiders characters go at it in a similar fashion, (example: Darry and Ponyboy or Dally and Johnny, etc) leave it in the review section and I'll be happy to write it and continue on. You can be as specific as to what you'd like to see happen as well…just throwing it out there.