#smokinrat

"Rodger, go finish that machine, Tisha is on the other one, I'll take [insert reader] back to the elevator. Tell us when you're almost done."

Sprout ordered, Rodger nodded and hurried to Shrimpo's unfinished machine. The sound of Tisha's machine being completed echoed throughout the floor.

Throwing their good arm over his shoulder, Sprout helped [insert reader] back to the elevator as fast as he could. Joining the crowd of other toons at the elevator doors. The group stared at the gash with sympathy, it wasn't unusual to see someone hurt - but it was still upsetting.

"Sprout if you need me to I can heal them--"

Cosmo was quickly cutoff as sprout took out 100 tapes, messily held together by a rubber band before he threw them on the ground. He took out the first aid lended to him by Dandy, waiting for it to unlock after he gave up the 100 tapes. As soon as he heard the click of the latch, he threw the lid open and immediately started looking for gauze, bandages, disinfectant, and anything else he would need to treat the gash.

Rodger shouted for everyone to get to the elevator, announcing his near completion on the machine. The elevator door opened a second later, everyone rushing in as the timer went down. Sprout huffed, annoyed, before deciding to break one of Dandy's rules - taking his medical equipment into the elevator to continue his work on [insert reader]. Shrimpo sprinted into the elevator, panting in frustration. Rodger and Looey made it to the elevator at the same time, just seconds to spare.

Sprout finished patching up [insert reader], putting his equipment away once satisfied with his work. The sound of Dandy's shop rising through the hatch echoed throughout the elevator, causing sprout to snap his head in his direction and lunge towards the unsuspecting flower. Fueled by his rage, Sprout leaned over the items dandy had to offer - grabbing him by the collar as he stared deep into his eyes.

"The fuck is your problem? You find it amusing watching toons get hurt? Toons that used to be your damn friends?? I swear, Dancifer, I'll rip those petals off your head if that's what it takes to put you in your place."

The elevator went silent. Sprout had never done something that rash before - the closest he got was when he death-glared Shrimpo for insulting Cosmo's baking, but he had never been physical before. After a few more seconds of silence Dandy cleared his throat, attempting to take Sprout's hands off his collar.

"Sprout, you know I don't control them, I have no involvement in what happens on those floors."

More silence. It felt like breathing too loud could get you executed. Sprout's hands shook as he held Dandy's collar, it looked like he was contemplating going through with his threat to rip off Dandy's petals.

"Take us back up. We're done for now."

Sprout's words were stern, he stared into Dandy's eyes, daring him to object. Without another word Dandicus nodded, pushed a button, and pulled the lever to his shop; hiding under the elevator tiles as the team was sent back to the main floor.

Once they arrived at the top of the building the toons filed out of the elevator. Nobody said anything until Sprout had gone around a corner and into his room.

"Jesus, what was that? I've never seen him that pissed.. that was terrifying."

Connie was the first to say something, everyone else nodded and started adding in their own opinions.

"Well it's nice to know he cares about you"

"I HATE WHEN PEOPLE HAVE FAVORITES"

"Shrimpo, nobody mentioned favoritism.."

"I HATE THAT YOU'RE ACTING LIKE WE WEREN'T ALL THINKING IT"

"Alright, I'm going to go make dinner, you guys can deal with this."

"I HATE WHEN PEOPLE DON'T ARGUE BACK"

"Shrimpo, why don't we just calm down-"

"I HATE CONDESCENDING TONES"

As [insert reader] walked away from the inevitable argument Shrimpo was going to cause they debated checking on Sprout. Even though they were still deciding whether or not to do so their feet automatically started walking towards his room. Rounding the corner they looked at the scratched out toon-tags on the walls, messy name tags now covering them instead. [insert reader] remembered the evening they spent getting rid of the dehumanizing numbers & replacing them with their own names. Soon enough the red crayon spelling out "Sprout" came into view, strawberries and hearts decorated the empty space on the name tag. [insert reader] hesitated for a second, waiting to find out if they could hear anything on the other side of the door. Unfortunately for them Sprout, ever so attentive, had noticed their shadow outside his door and gone to let them in before they could knock.

Door open, Sprout looked down at [insert reader], lips sealed as he seemed to try and figure out what to say.

"I'm, uhm, sorry - for freaking out.. I didn't mean to get that upset I kinda just, uh, started saying - or rather yelling - what was on my mind..."

A few more awkward moments of silent passed, Sprout nervously scratched the back of his neck before looking back at [insert reader].

"Did you want to come in..?"

Sprout's bed was covered in a freshly washed flannel blanket, the warm fibers providing comfort as [insert reader] sat at the edge of his bed. They waited for a conversation to start, debating if they should be the one to start it. Sprout was seemingly doing the same, fidgeting with different things around his room as he avoided eye contact and pretended to clean.

"I hope my outburst didn't put a dent in our friendship, I apologize if it did."

His apology was short, it was obvious he was still embarrassed from it. [insert reader] continued to sit there, Sprout stopped fiddling with the gifts he'd received from kids over the years; his hands dropped to his sides as he turned around to walk towards [insert reader]. Once in front of them he dropped down to his knees, his head still reaching their chest, and he enveloped them in a long hug.

He didn't say anything, and neither did [insert reader], they just sat there together - awkward silence slowly becoming comfortable.

"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you.."

Sprout realized what he had said and straightened up, leaving the embrace. All of a sudden the silence was awkward again; Sprout seemed to be searching for something without getting up, only his eyes wandered the room. He stood up, patting [insert reader] on the shoulder, his hand lingering longer than expected.

"You know I love you.., you being here! You know I love you being here, with me, just like.. uhm, yeah, but I really ought to help Cosmo with dinner, and uh, uhm, yeah. So, yeah, I'm gonna get going.."

With that he left his room, keeping the door cracked for when [insert reader] wanted to leave. As much as Sprout liked the thought of [insert reader] being in his room he'd hoped they would follow him out of the room, maybe even make a conversion (or confession) out of his slip up, but sadly they did not. Instead, [insert reader] stayed sitting on his bed, staring at a messy stack of papers hidden behind all Sprout's fan-mail.

As [insert reader] stood up from Sprout's bed for a closer look they noticed a small detail, but it made quite the impactful difference. All those papers were addressed to them.

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Y'all like my little signature/banner thing ❤︎

(you better, took me an hour to make since i had to do cartwheels in order to avoid paying for premium stuff)

This took SO LONG, I rewrote the ending like 5 times, and finally settled on this. If you guys like it enough for a part 2 lmk :3

Also I’m sorry if I didn’t get the summary fully correct — basically I heard “Curtis sister who starts trying to be more like the rest of the gang (going to rumbles, hanging around people like Curly, etc.) because she thinks she’s old enough, but after they scold her and say she can’t because she’s the youngest & a girl (it is the 60s) she starts to feel down.” If this isn’t what you requested feel free to correct me on anything, and I’ll edit it for you!

Reader is around 11 - 12

(Y/n) felt her hair being pulled from behind as she stumbled backwards. She had gotten herself involved in a rumble, one that had turned out to be a lot more violent then she’d expected. She had gotten too confident, and put herself in a position where she was in danger, and now she was paying the consequences. It had only been a week and a half since her run in with the Timber Tigers, but after the first few days she had grown restless. Darry had been keeping a closer eye on her, and made her curfew 7:30pm instead of 9:00pm, she had tried to fight it, but it was pointless, because in the end Darry overruled her.

As a last resort she started talking to Curly Shepard, which, in hindsight, wasn’t the best idea. (Y/n) knew she wasn’t supposed to talk to him, — hell, even Pony wasn’t supposed to hang around Curly — but she didn’t see any other options. School was one of the few places Darry couldn’t stop her, so every lunch period she tried her luck by leaving the middle school’s campus and walking to the gas station that was near the high school. She knew this was where Curly spent his lunch period thanks to the office secretaries who had been gossiping about some of the trouble he had started there.

The first time she’d tried talking to him he was with friends, so it wasn’t as easy. “Hi, Curly” (Y/n) said, hoping to start some type of conversation, “Uhm, hi, (Y/n), why are you here?” He responded, he started looking around, looking for any adults that might’ve come with her. “Awh, is Curls your babysitter or something, sweetheart? You need help with your homework?” One of Curly’s friends cut in, gaining the hilarity of their friend group, “Nah, Thomas, I bet she needs Curly to hold her hand as she crosses the street!” One of the others replied. “Curly, why didn’t you tell us you worked with preschoolers? We would’ve loved to help out!” The one named Thomas joked, he reached for (Y/n)’s hand and smiled at her before continuing, “Do you need help calling your mommy to come pick you up?” The guys behind him lost it, leaning on each other to stop themselves from falling over. (Y/n) yanked her hand away from Thomas, leaving him to turn around and face a royally pissed off Curly.

The boys laughter died down as they saw what was about to happen, even Thomas’ demeanor faltered as he looked Curly in the eye. “Look, man, it was just a joke I swear-” Before he could finish his sentence Curly had punched him in the gut. “Try to make a fool out of me again, and I won’t be as forgiving.” He warned, his eyes were filled with fury as he peered down at Thomas, who was now doubled over in pain. Curly stepped around him, and grabbed (Y/n) by the back of her neck, the two of them walked away from the group, and over to a beat up truck that (Y/n) could only guess belonged to one of the boys.

“Why are you here?” Curly asked, (Y/n) shifted under his gaze - worried that he was going to call someone. “Answer me, tyke.” He snapped, “I just wanted to do something that was, y’know, cool, or adventurous.” She answered while avoiding eye contact. “God, you sound just like Pony.” Curly sighed, but (Y/n) could tell he didn’t mean it as an insult, or a bad thing. “You wanna do something ‘cool’?” He asked with crossed arms. (Y/n) looked up and nodded, hoping that this was their chance to be accepted by Curly, “Fine, but if you get caught or anything I ain’t gonna put my ass on the line for you, got it?” Curly questioned, (Y/n) nodded, “Yeah, but I won’t mess up, I promise.” She said. Curly turned and jerked his thumb to the store, “Go get me a pack of mints, without paying.” He directed. When (Y/n) stood there for a moment he sighed, “Steal them, kid, how dum-” He started, but (Y/n) interrupted him, “I know what you mean! I just haven’t ever done it before, so I don’t really know what to do..” She defended. “Well we all start somewhere, just stick ‘em in your back pocket, and cover it with your shirt.”

The bell rang as (Y/n) stepped into the gas station, she weaved through the small isles before finding the mints she was sent in for. Checking around her she quickly grabbed them and stuffed them in her back pocket. As she was leaving the clerk shouted out to her, “You sure you’re not gonna buy anything?”, (Y/n) looked back with her best smile, “Oh, oh no, I was just looking for something & it wasn’t there.” She responded, hoping it sounded convincing. “I could help you look for it, we might even have it in the back-” He was cutoff by the bell above the door, “That’s okay! Thanks for the offer, though.” She answered while walking out the door.

She walked over to Curly, who was standing back near his friends, “I got them.” (Y/n) pulled out the Altoids from her back pocket and handed them to Curly. “Wow, you actually did it, not bad, kid.” He praised. (Y/n) smiled, happy that she’d pulled it off, and even happier knowing she got away with it. “You know, you’ve got a lot of potential, if you wanted to come back tomorrow you could.” One of them offered; Y/n grinned, standing up straighter, and agreed. As she walked back to the school she thought about everything, and if what she was doing would really be worth it. She cut herself short, however, and instead took notice to making it to math on time.

As (Y/n) walked home she kept readjusting her bag, feeling uncomfortable and nervous. She felt like Darry would somehow know, he’d know about her trip to the gas station and her stealing something, stealing for Curly Shepard no less. As (Y/n) walked through the back door she listened for footsteps, but didn’t hear anything besides the hum of the fridge. She placed her bag next to one of the chairs at the kitchen table, hoping to get a snack & start on homework before anyone else got home, along with settling her nerves in the process. Unfortunately, she couldn’t even have that and heard Ponyboy & Johnny enter through the back door - talking about the rumble on Saturday. “Hey, (Y/n), when’d you get home?” Pony asked while putting his bag down near the door. “Oh, just now, what were you saying about a rumble though?” She asked, hopeful that they'd share some details with her. “Nothin’ much, we’re just facing off against the socs’ again, apparently they've been messing with the Brumly Boys, and y’know, standing up for each other & all, so we’re gonna help them out,” Ponyboy explained while cutting himself some cake. “Why? You’ve never had any interest in it before.” He asked while offering Johnny some of the food. “Oh, no reason, I just thought I might go is all-” (Y/n) was cutoff by Pony looking at her like she was crazy.

“What?? (Y/n), you can't go, it’s too dangerous, you’ll get hurt, or-” “Pony, the entire point is to get hurt!” She cut him off, worried that this would be his reaction, and slightly hurt that he thought she couldn’t do it. Pony stopped talking, and just shook his head and sighed “It’s not like Darry’ll let ya go anyways.” He and Johnny left after 15 minutes, saying they were going to the lot or somewhere else. (Y/n) hadn’t been paying attention, she was focused on how she was going to convince Darry to let her go, she sat at the kitchen table trying to think of a plan, or some other way she could end up at the rumble. After a good 8 more minutes of brainstorming she thought of something, she could tell him she was studying at the library - then go to the rumble & stick with Shepard’s crowd. She thought it was foolproof, and that it’d be easy to stay out of Darry’s sight, she was dead wrong.

Friday came and went quickly, (Y/n) found Curly at the gas station again, hanging around him and his friends for that afternoon - skipping class. It was the first time (Y/n) did something like that, and when she got driven home she felt nervous enough to puke. Sneaking in through the backdoor, even though nobody else was home, and trying to make it look like she’d been home for longer than she had. Before sitting down she looked over at the phone, they would've left a message because she skipped school. (Y/n) hopped over her schooling & shoes, grabbing the phone to rid of the message. She succeeded in doing so, and was proud of herself for catching one of the smaller flaws in her plan.

Soon enough it was Saturday morning, and (Y/n)’s nerves were through the roof. Her leg bounced as she sat at the table, she found herself trying to do anything she could to make time go by faster without having to talk to her brothers. She just hoped that Ponyboy hadn’t told Darry about her sudden interest in the rumble, but he hadn’t questioned her about it so it was unlikely he knew. As it drew closer to 7:00pm (Y/n) got more and more excited, all they had to do was sneak out of the house a few minutes after the gang left, meet up with Curly at the lot, and sneak back home a few minutes before the gang. It seemed so simple, and yet things went so wrong.

7:00pm finally rolled around after a long and awkward day of trying to avoid her brothers & the gang. She did feel a little bad for lying to Darry, he seemed to trust that she’d stay home, but she wanted - no, needed to prove she was tuff, and that she could handle herself. She waited until they walked down the street & they were no longer in sight before bolting out the front door and taking a different route towards the lot. She got there a little after they did, walking around towards the Shepard’s crew to find Curly.

“(Y/n)! (Y/n), get over here.” Curly said from a few feet behind her, she turned around and jogged over to him; “See, Tim? Darry never would’ve let her come if she wasn’t able to handle herself.” Curly claimed, (Y/n) did her best to avoid direct eye contact with Tim, he’d come over to their house before, in fact the entire Shepard gang had visited the Curtis house in the past, but that time he’d been in her territory - this time she was stepping into his environment, she had no power over what happened.

“Look at me when I’m speaking, kid.” Tim demanded, (Y/n) hadn’t even noticed that he was speaking, she looked up at him and it took almost everything in her to not immediately look away again. “Has Darry prepped you for this yet? You know any of the rules, or who you’re gonna go for first? How do you throw your punches? Do you actually know how to fight??” Tim bombarded her with questions, and she kept getting cutoff before she could answer, “Tim, slow down, you ain’t even given her a chance to answer you.” Curly interfered. (Y/n) did her best to remember all of Tim’s questions and answer them in order, “I wasn’t prepped for, uh, for the rumble, uhm, I- I didn’t know there were certain rules.. I don’t know who to- who to go for.” She started looking around her, suddenly worried about Darry’s where-a-bouts. Curly set a his hand on her shoulder and gave it a small shake, “You’re okay, kid, I know Tim looks like he lives under a bridge and eats snails for breakfast-” A quick smack to the head from Tim periodically cut Curly up, “BUT, if a certain someone would let me finish speaking, I can tell you he ain’t gonna do anything to hurt ya. Not like anyone here would let him if he tried, anyway.” Curly smiled at (Y/n) and patted their back.

“Okay, kid, now that you know I won’t eat you alive,” A quick side-glare to Curly, “try answering my questions before this thing starts.” Tim said. (Y/n) breathed deeply and started over, “I wasn’t prepped for this, I didn’t know there were certain rues, uhm, I don’t know who I’m gonna go for, Steve, Dally, an’ Two-bit taught me how to throw a punch and defend myself, but not really a fighting style.” (Y/n) finished and looked between Tim & Curly. “Okay, in that case Curly here is gonna team up with you to help ya take people down. I’m surprised Darry didn’t give ya a run down... but basically you can’t pull a weapon or anything - this is a fist fight. And you’re smart enough to know that you’re supposed to beat people up, don’t ya?” Tim asked, (Y/n) nodded her head, her plan to work alone and prove herself wouldn’t work out, but participating was still a step up from staying home.

The three of them looked over to the center of the lot where the soc’s started to line up. “Alright, let’s get this shit started.” Tim muttered as he walked up to the front. (Y/n) walked around with Curly, wary of Darry & the rest of the gang who were standing closer to the other end of the lot. When (Y/n) looked back she saw Tim pummel a guy right in the nose, and things were off. Curly called her name and she ran after him, he immediately targeted a soc with blonde hair and rings on his hands, knocking him to the ground. “(Y/n), grab his rings for me, and kick him while you’re at it.” Curly instructed before slugging the soc in the jaw. (Y/n) bent over and started slipping rings off his fingers and sticking them in her pockets before stomping on his hands. As soon as Curly got off him he ran back towards his car, cursing them out & pushing people down in the process.

(Y/n) turned away from the soc to look at Curly, only to see he’d run off and was fighting someone else. (Y/n) debated between running to help or finding someone to fight on her own. Before she could choose she felt her hair being pulled from behind, stumbling back and falling to the ground as a result. She looked to see the person responsible and saw the soc who’d gotten punched in the nose by Tim. He grabbed her wrist as tightly as possible and was about to do god knows what before he was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground by Tim. Standing beyond him was none other than Darrel Curtis, a look of shock, fear, and anger written all across his face. He jogged towards her and shook her shoulders “What the hell are you doing here?!” He shouted, looking around before sighing in relief at the sight of the soc’s retreating. People started cheering and yelling in excitement. but instead of celebrating Darry grabbed (Y/n)’s wrist and started pulling her back in the direction of home.

“Darry! Where ya goin- is that (Y/n)??” Two-bit interrupted his own sentence and stared in disbelief and hilarity. “When did she get to come out here?” He asked, “She didn’t. I never gave her permission, she snuck out.” Darry answered, disappointment filling his voice. Tim came in next to Two-bit, confused, “Whadda ya mean you never gave her permission? Curly said-”  “I said I didn’t think she’d be able to come out without his permission!” Curly defended. “Well why were you talking to her about it at all??” Darry started to raise his voice, Tim hit Curly on the back of the head, “Oh you’re in for it, you ass.” Tim looked back at Darry and started apologizing, asking if there was anything he could do, an saying he never wanted or planned for (Y/n) to get hurt. “I know you didn’t, Tim, there’s nothin much you can do I’m afraid, just keep an eye on that one.” He stared at Curly as if he was about to kill him. “I will, trust me. Good luck with the little one.” Tim said. (Y/n) cringed at being called ‘the little one’, it was as if all of this was for nothing, it’d been more trouble than it was worth.

“Dammit, (Y/n), sit still.” Darry ordered as he disinfected her cuts. (Y/n) did her best to stop moving, trying not to upset him even more. It stung as the little bubbles sizzled into her scratches, but she did her best not to move as Darry asked. She didn’t even notice the tears welling up in her eyes and slipping down her face until Darry sighed and wiped them away with his thumb. “I know it hurts, but if you didn’t sneak out in the first place I wouldn’t need to be cleaning your cuts would I?” He asked, “I’m sorry, I really am sorry, Darry- I just wanted to prove I can take care if myself, I- I never wanted to cause trouble, or make problems. I just want to be like the rest of you guys, I-” (Y/n) took a shuddery sigh as tears continued to roll down her face. Darry pulled her close to his chest and ran his fingers through her hair while she cried into his shirt.

“I know you didn’t want to cause trouble, you’re not like that, but if you want to hang out with the rest of us just ask. You can’t do stuff like this, and for several reasons. First of all, you’re younger and smaller than the rest if us - that puts you in more danger. Secondly, as unfair as it may be, you’re a girl, people may not be as open or accepting to the idea of you doing the things we do cause of that. Thirdly, I never gave you permission. You put yourself in a danger by going to that rumble.” He finished talking and let everything sink in. “I’m glad you’re safe, that’s the most important thing to me, but you’re still going to have consequences, understand?” He asked, (Y/n) nodded into his chest, not wanting to have to look him in the eyes yet.