Guess what it is!! Another steveboy ask 🥹🫰
On the very unlikely chance they started dating or crushing on each other pre-canon how do you think they started dating, the gangs reactions, yk that kinda stuff! ^•^
Yippeee!!! This is a great ask :3
How they started dating:
Ponyboy started crushing first. He was 12 when he got cornered by some older Socs and middle-class kids a few blocks away from the DX. He was sure he was gonna get beat, but Steve had been passing by and chased them off with his switch, that was the start of Pony's hero-worship. Of course, Steve is still...Steve, so Pony was torn between thinking he's the most annoying asshole on the planet, and crushing on him big-time, but he couldn't stop seeing the good things about Steve. How he'd give Pony a free Pepsi if he went to the DX while Steve was there, how he wrestled with Pony without being as scared to hurt him as the rest of the gang was, etc. What really hammered the final nail in was when Steve taught him to drive after his parents died. Steve - hard-ass, rude, short-tempered Steve - took 3 hours out of his day, for 4 days a week, every week for a month, all so he could teach Pony to drive because his father can't do it anymore. He was rude and they fought a lot, obviously, but Steve never said something that crossed a line, and they both kept showing up.
Steve started crushing when he was teaching Pony to drive. Pony was annoying, yeah, but spending all that time alone with him in close proximity helped him see Pony as more than Soda's tagalong brother. Pony was witty, a quick learner, focused when he had to be, and grinned instead of chickening out when Steve got the idea to take them both drag racing after a lesson. He tried to deny it for a few weeks, but then he let Pony drive them around town. Pony had this wide grin, and was blasting the radio and laughing as he went far over the speed limit. Steve was doomed from the start, and he couldn't deny it after that.
Mind you, they probably have some deep talks in the car that help make their bond more than just surface level. Pony develops a small fear of driving, especially around the area his parents died, and that prompts many panic attacks that Steve helps him get through over the course of the lessons. They also talk about how they used to treat each other, and they make amends. Sometimes Steve comes to the lessons bruised or beat-up or tired because of his dad, in which case Pony drives them down to the movie house or Dingo so they can get some food and Steve and relax a bit.
Now, neither of them are subtle. Like, at all. Pony knew something was up with Steve but because of his inexperience he didn't really know what, but Steve knew the signs. When Steve finished teaching Pony to drive, he had Pony drive them both of them away from the more populated areas until it was mostly field. Then Steve took the reins and drove them down empty roads as fast as he and the car could handle. When he turned to look at Pony, Pony was looking at him with this starry-eyed gaze, and he was leaning over the console and was so close to Steve, and, well, no one could blame Steve for pulling the car over to the side of the road and kissing Pony. By the time they got back home, they'd talked it out and were dating.
Realistically, Steve and Ponyboy probably manage to hide their relationship for a while. At least until post-canon. Ponyboy is known to be a good liar, and I'd be willing to bet that Steve isn't half-bad at it either, considering his father's short temper. At the very least, he can act when necessary. It helps that the entire gang is still wrapped up in grief and such when they get together, and any closeness they observe can be explained away by Steve using his dead mother (my headcanon, since I don't think Steve's mom was ever mentioned in canon) to connect with Ponyboy.
If the gang DOES find out pre-canon, the order would go Johnny, Two-Bit, Dally, Darry, Soda.
Johnny and Two-Bit find out because they're closest with Ponyboy and Steve (other than Soda), and they aren't working their ass off to pay off the funeral debts like Darry and Soda are. They'd definitely notice how Pony and Steve talk about each other more gently now, and how any insults they throw at each other lack the tense undertone they used to have. Of course, their minds don't immediately jump to Steveboy being queer. But in Pony and Johnny's case, Pony can't lie to Johnny for long, so he ends up telling Johnny himself after talking about it with Steve. Steve doesn't tell Two-Bit, since ideally one of the first people he'd want to tell is Soda, but Two-Bit has his suspicions for a while, and eventually becomes fully confident when he walks in on them cuddling and asleep on the couch while everyone else is out. Two-Bit is the second-to-last person officially told.
Dally is the last person officially told, but he starts figuring it out around the same time Two-Bit solidifies his suspicions. He would've caught on sooner, but he's not around them as often, but once he really sees Steveboy interacting with each other after getting together, he figures it out quicker than Two-Bit. That man lived in New York, he knows what queer people look and act like, and to be honest he doesn't give a fuck. The rest of the gang have their own private moments of 'is queerness okay?' but Dally's met guys in jail who were great guys locked up for sodomy, and has ran into a drag bar or two while trying to escape the cops, so any homophobia he may have had left him ages ago (ofc its still the 60s so he's not modern day progressive but he's better than the rest).
Darry finds out on accident, but really, it's his house! He was gonna stumble upon steveboy sharing a kiss eventually. They'd done everything right - confirmed that no one would be in the house, shut the curtains, kept the TV on low so they could hear anyone coming up the porch, all that. But Darry'd gotten rained out of work and Steveboy didn't really notice the rain so they didn't think about it, and the sound of the rain covered up Darry's footsteps until it was too late.
Soda finds out last, but is the third person to be officially told. He didn't catch on or stumble across them - Steve just wanted Soda to be one of the first to know, and Pony shared the sentiment, so they sat him down and told him.
I think the reactions would be mostly the same as I described for post-canon, except Pony is still 13 here so Soda, Darry, and Two-Bit get a little wary about the 13 going on 16 thing, but that's mostly because it's a gay relationship. If they were straight, they wouldn't have batted an eye. Once they see how happy Pony and Steve are they get over it. If they find out post-canon, Two-Bit is a little shocked on how long they'd really been dating since he couldn't be sure if they were crushing or dating, but Darry and Soda are upset. Pony and Steve probably waited until at least a year or so after canon, so they've been dating about two years at that point, and the older Curtis brothers are not happy that they've been left out of the loop and that Pony and Steve were running around under their nose.
