Chapter Text
Ponyboy doesn't ask for the pain to stop, not anymore. Doing so has never once caused it to lessen, and to feel his heart splinter and break apart in his chest is something he is well acquainted with.
But this is enough, they are enough, his brothers who sit at his either side, steadfast, unmoving pillars supporting him where his legs cannot. Their arms brush each other's, and it's enough.
They don't talk, which is fine by Pony. His throat is raw and scratchy from crying, and he cannot think of anything that has been left unsaid. No words are needed, though, and that's all he can ask, that when the waves of anxiety, of helplessness, fear and dread at what the future holds, crash over him again, eroding away the shores of his mind, they are there.
There is nothing that can be done beyond that, no one can take this from him. There is a weight bearing down on his shoulders, a boulder he can't shrug off, and no amount of cliched reassurances will change that.
And maybe it will pass, as they all say, something so easily uttered by people who don't truly understand, but that is not the case now, and certainly not tonight.
He is grateful they allow the silence to be, the darkness to remain without seeking to drive it away. Sometimes things just hurt without making you stronger, there doesn't always have to be a deeper meaning, and there isn't now, at least none that Ponyboy can see.
But now, as he struggles to think of anything else, to tame the thoughts that have him looking at the bruises on his knuckles with a longing to darken them, only if for tonight, he finds himself grateful that he does not have to face this alone.