I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)

Ponyboy groaned, opening his eyes to a blinding light. The light was giving him a headache, and he didn't like it one bit.

In the distance, he saw fur. Only a little bit; it looked very soft and cuddly, reminding him of when he slept at night. But only when he slept alone; when he used his teddy bear as a reserve for when somebody wasn't there to cuddle him.

The light was starting to fade now; rather than a powerful painful white light, it was fading into a relaxing golden purple light, a lot like a sunset. The air also seemed to change; before it was thin, making Ponyboy feel like he was suffocating, but now it made him feel as if he was gently floating like a feather that had just fallen from an eagle's wing.

Looking straight ahead, Ponyboy noticed that the slightly furry object that he had laid eyes upon before was coming closer to him. He couldn't explain how weird it was; even though the object got closer and closer to him, he still couldn't figure out what it was. That was until he felt a soft hand brush over his knuckle; he knew who had just touched him: it was his mother.

But since this was just a dream, Ponyboy wasn't that bothered by the touch; his mother was just another person – she wasn't dead nor was she alive; she was in Ponyboy's mind, and so he didn't think it was strange when he saw the golden haired woman fade off into the sunset, away from him forever.

Ponyboy felt another touch, and when he looked down he saw his teddy bear staring back up at him. Again, since it was a dream, Ponyboy wasn't awestruck at the fact that his teddy bear was walking and talking like a human.

"So, what are you gonna do now?" the bear asked, tapping its foot on the ground which didn't exist; not in the normal world anyway.

The teddy bear's voice sounded a lot like Two-Bit Mathew's voice; it was deep but not very deep, with a heavy southern drawl to it.

"What do you mean?" Ponyboy questioned, picking the bear up and looking into its shiny black eyes.

"When you wake up, what are you gonna do?" the bear repeated in the same tone, showing no emotion on its fluffy face.

"Continue with life I guess," Ponyboy answered, looking around the world which he had created in his mind. "I'm gonna go explore this place."

He set the teddy bear down and started to walk on the bright emerald grass; before he had been standing on nothing, but after the bear had appeared next to him, the nothingness faded into a dark green river, and had since: merged into an endless field of emerald grass.

Everything in his world seemed endless, but because this world was in Ponyboy's mind, he knew that there must be so much more in his world; after all, his mind was endless, yet there was so much inside it; so much to be explored.

"Hey, what are you gonna do about your brothers?" the teddy shouted as Ponyboy began to stroll through the many apple trees that had grown while he had his conversation with his teddy bear. "Darry held you before you passed out; they must have forgiven you a little bit."

"Who's Darry?" Ponyboy called to the teddy bear, clear confusion evident in his small voice. He couldn't remember who Darry was; in his tranquilized daze the only things he had on his mind was his friend, who was a talking teddy bear, and the scene around him; which consisted of a golden purple sky, a field of emerald green grass (and the grass was literally everywhere!), a surrounding of apple trees and a small azure stream which glistened under the light orange descending sun.

Instead of getting an interactive answer, which Ponyboy was expecting, he was answered with silence. But it really was silence; there was no gust of wind, no birds chirping, no people speaking inaudibly – it was literally silent. So the boy turned around, but when he did, he was horrified.

His teddy bear, which he had named Teddy, was now actually showing emotion, but instead of a happy expression, the teddy wore an angry countenance, and it was scary. Its black eyes were now lit up in rage, and its thick arms started shaking like a serial killer waiting to murder his or hers next victim.

"…Teddy?" Ponyboy gulped, backing off even further.

"Darry does everything for us, and this is what you give him in return? You're real selfish, Ponyboy, you know that?" the teddy shouted, beginning to stomp towards Ponyboy. The teddy bear's voice had now changed to Sodapop's, and these were the exact words the teenager had yelled at Ponyboy when Ponyboy had been suspended.

Ponyboy swallowed, but he slipped on something and fell into the small azure stream, but the stream was now expanding into a river. The river formed into a sea, and the sea formed into an ocean. The water in the ocean began to whirl around, dragging Ponyboy down into the cold, dark aqua environment. As he slowly sunk to his fate, he passed many things; many things that he didn't understand.

They were memories: some were of his mom and dad, some were of Darry and Soda, some were of the gang, some were of him at school, him arguing with socs, him spending time with his grandparents when he was just a little boy…these visions passed by his green-gray eyes. He saw his teddy being passed into his arms by a beautiful woman with golden hair, and as he sunk lower, the face was revealed to be his mother's.

We're losing him!

A low annoying sound continued to beep in Ponyboy's head. He wondered what it was, but at the same time, he wanted to concentrate on the memories that were passing through him.

Slowly, he started to remember everything; him getting in the fight at school, Darry and Soda arguing with him, him calling them names, Darry and Soda ignoring him, the chocolate cake, Dally and Tim hitting him with their stolen car, and eventually Darry holding him while he and Soda tried to keep Ponyboy awake. Ponyboy wanted to be in Darry's arms again, since the water and memories that were drowning him were very uncomfortable.

1…2…3!

Numbers. Ponyboy didn't like to think about numbers since he didn't like doing math; whenever he couldn't get a question right, Darry would yell at him for not paying attention in class. It wasn't that he didn't pay attention; some things just passed through his mind, a little like the memories that were flowing through him while he sank lower in the ocean.

Wait, wait, we're getting something!

Suddenly, Ponyboy was back on the emerald green grass, staring at the beautiful sky with eager eyes. His teddy was next to him, and it was smiling at him; which Ponyboy was happy to see since the teddy had either shown no emotion to him, or had been angry.

"You're an okay kid," the teddy said, its voice having now been changed to Steve Randle's.

"Yeah…" Ponyboy responded, watching as the world around him slowly began to disappear. The boy watched as the apple trees disappeared, leaving everything looking plain. Sometimes it's only the little things which make a big difference.

There was a large ocean to the left of the young greaser, but now it started decreasing in size until it just became a small azure stream. The stream soon merged into the grass, taking away some of the magic from the world.

Soon, the grass started fading, until eventually Ponyboy and his teddy bear were left sitting on nothing. The only thing that was left of this world was the golden purple sky, but even that was starting to vanish.

"Why's everything going?" Ponyboy asked the teddy bear, who was now standing up.

"Well it's not like you can stay here forever, unless you have a valid reason. All good things must come to an end – I thought you would've known that by now," the teddy replied, his voice now very deep; it was a mixture between Dallas's and Darry's.

"Where's everything going?" Ponyboy questioned, resting his chin on his hands, which were folded on his left knee.

The teddy bear didn't say anything, and instead pointed a finger at the center of Ponyboy's forehead. The teddy's paw briefly brushed against Ponyboy's forehead, but instead of feeling a rather rough furry touch from the teddy bear's paw, Ponyboy felt a soft palm touch his head, as if it were a person touching him and not a teddy bear.

He glanced up, and he could swear that for a second, the teddy bear had transformed into a beautiful golden woman who was very familiar to Ponyboy, but when he blinked he saw the teddy bear staring back at him again.

"C'mon little buddy, get those greenie-gray eyes open for me," the teddy smiled, holding his paw out to Pony.

Ponyboy held onto the paw, and even when the golden purple sky started to form into a blinding white light, Ponyboy didn't let go.

XXX

"Your brother is awake; you can come and see him now," a black-haired nurse announced to Darrel and Sodapop Curtis.

The two greasers took no time in jumping up and rushing to their little brother's room; they had been there since the day before, and were desperate for him to wake up.

Ponyboy was sitting up in his hospital bed when his two older brothers came in and sat down on wooden chairs that were on either side of his bed. He remembered drowning in the ocean, and the memory of them ignoring him faded back into his mind. What if they hadn't forgiven him?

"Hey, little buddy," Soda started, resting his hand on Ponyboy's knee.

Since he was still wary about his surroundings, Ponyboy gently pushed Sodapop's hand off him. Sodapop and Darry took this as a sign that Ponyboy was mad at them, when in reality he was just confused and slightly scared.

"Come on, it's okay, we ain't mad at you no more," Darry soothed, pulling the blankets over Ponyboy in an attempt to comfort him.

"Where's Teddy?" Ponyboy asked, holding his arms out for his little friend. Darry and Sodapop looked at each other, wondering why Ponyboy had become reliant on something that he hadn't spent time with since his thirteenth birthday.

"Uh, he's at home," Sodapop answered, rubbing Ponyboy's back gently as he little greaser sighed.

"I wanna go home," the youngest Curtis whimpered, snuggling down in the scratchy bedsheets. He hated hospitals; their beds were nothing compared to his and Soda's bed at home. Well, now it was just Soda's bed, since Sodapop had forced him to move out of the room. "I guess you're mad now. Sorry for being stupid."

"No, that wasn't your fault," Darry said firmly, gripping onto Pony's shoulder. "We shouldn't have ignored you; you needed us and we just left you on your own."

Ponyboy nodded, agreeing with Darry. Sure he had messed up, but he knew that he wasn't the only guilty one; Darry and Soda had left him on his own while he was in need of them.

"Yeah, you did leave me," Ponyboy smiled, repeating Darry's words. "And I hope this means that you never do anything like this again. Sure, I messed up, but do you know how many hurtful things you say to me all the time? I never ignore you or Soda, and I just hope it never happens again."

Darry and Sodapop were speechless, but they both nodded in agreement; their baby brother was right.

And they would also make sure that nothing like this ever happened again; they almost lost their baby brother, and they weren't prepared to let that happen anytime soon.

After a few hours of the three Curtis brothers talking things over in the hospital, Steve Randle and Johnny cade walked into Ponyboy's hospital room.

"Johnny wanted to see you," Steve stated, as if he wasn't bothered. But then he added, "I'm glad you're okay, kid."

Ponyboy remembered the teddy bear, and how in Pony's dream the teddy had referred to him as 'kid' at one point, like Steve always did.

"Just telling you that your chocolate cake ingredients are okay," Johnny grinned, chuckling as Sodapop threw a paper cup at him. Ponyboy smiled, settling down against his pillow. He felt tired, but the color of the sky that was radiating through the window caught his attention.

It was golden purple, like in his dream, and the orange sun was beaming down on the grass, making it look like a thousand emeralds had been dropped from the evening sky. Steve pulled the curtains, shielding Ponyboy from the beautiful sky.

"I guess all good things must come to an end at some stage," he mumbled to himself, remembering Teddy had said something of the sort in his dream. But looking at Darry and Sodapop and the rest of the gang (Two-Bit and Dally had slipped in while Ponyboy was gazing out of the window) made him realize that beautiful things always come to an end, but the most beautiful and good things are the things that people see every day; such as family.

Darry, Sodapop and the rest of the gang realized that too – in their own ways of course.

XXX

"Why is there never anything good to watch on Thursday nights?" Darry cursed, switching from channel to channel on the TV.

"Well it's Friday tomorrow, so at least we'll be okay then," Ponyboy laughed, giggling as Sodapop tickled him.

"Yeah, yeah," Darry smiled, settling on watching some programme that was aired in the previous decade.

The three brothers had apologized to each other; Darry and Sodapop had both apologized to their baby brother while Ponyboy had apologized to the two of them. They promised to look after Ponyboy properly now, which Ponyboy had been thrilled about, until they started coming up with rules that were just a little too 'overprotective' for Ponyboy's liking. Still, he'd promised himself that he'd take it until they reached an extreme limit, such as making him wear childish clothing, but he doubted they'd go that far…

"You know, I never did make you both that chocolate cake," Ponyboy declared as the credits for the show rolled up on the screen. Sodapop had fallen asleep with his head leaned on Ponyboy's shoulder; Ponyboy had been sitting on his lap, but was now being used as a pillow.

Little did Ponyboy know that Darry was still awake, and was shocked when the man spoke.

"Little man, you know what? You're even better than chocolate cake; you're my baby brother, and you and Soda will always come first," Darry smiled, reaching out to ruffle Ponyboy's hair.

"You...got that right," Sodapop mumbled into Ponyboy's shoulder, fixing the boy into a more comfortable position. "You're even better than chocolate cake."

"Ditto to both of you," Ponyboy chuckled, but he did mean it.

Sometimes, you might think that chocolate cake is rarer than your family, because you see your family all the time while chocolate cake may only come once in a while. But when somebody goes in your family, they're gone for good, while chocolate cake will be there forever; no matter what happens, you'll always be able to restock your chocolate cake.

"And really, who needs chocolate cake while you've got family?" Sodapop asked both of his brothers, who glanced at him before jumping up.

"I don't know; I'm pretty hungry!" Ponyboy laughed, racing into the kitchen.

""Hey, I wanna die the chocolate cake!"

"Over my dead body, Sodapop Patrick Curtis!"

"Oh Darry! Soda spilt flour all over the floor!"

"I did not; it was Pony, Darry!"

"Clean it up!"

Don't get them wrong; they'd always love chocolate cake. But they'd always love each other more.

AN: So that's the end of this short story. I really hoped you enjoyed it :) Also, I think the dream turned out quite well – please tell what you think! I haven't really written anything like that before, so I'd like to see your opinions on it :) Hope you enjoyed the ending, and thanks to everybody who has favorited, followed and reviewed this story; I can't thank you all enough :D