#thingverse

Pale skin painted and stretched over foreign limbs that he doesn't know how to move correctly, an ill-fitting body and no time to correct his mistakes as screams and shouts from the child's parents outside the door, red hot fire and he's running- scrambling with all four gangly limbs out back into the snow- cold panicked running, sharp teeth cutting the insides of his cheeks and metal tags bouncing against his chest, phantom burns flaring up through his body making him stumble. He needs to get away-

He drags pure oxygen into his foreign lungs and all he can taste is metal, so far out into the cold that he can no longer see the glow of the fire- he's alone, he's not supposed to be alone, why is he alone? Who was supposed to be with him?

The pale skin stretched across his arms is stained in red and he can't remember how he's supposed to look but he knows it's wrong.

Ponyboy is asking questions about Dallas's home life and his family, what they were like. Dallas is evading them, saying he's happy where he is. Ponyboy blushes and Dallas leans in close to his face.

They jump apart as the sound of a helicopter approaches, along with shouting. They rush over to investigate the commotion.

Darry is standing at the front with the rest of their crew behind crowded him, Dallas and Ponyboy push their way to the front to see the Shepard siblings us boarding the helicopter, Curly and Angela are shaking and Tim has blood on his clothes.

Darry tells them to leave. They're unknowns from a different research base and his group has been burned before.

Dallas speaks up, one hand on the back of Ponyboy's neck comfortingly as he vouches for the three. Ponyboy is worried, Tim greets Dallas as a friend. Soda reasons with Darry that Dallas was also originally a straggler from another base, and that their parents had never turned outsiders away.

Ponyboy presses into Dallas's side at the reminder of their late parents.

Darry reluctlanty allows the Shepards in, telling Ponyboy and Sodapop especially to keep away from them.

Tim nods at Dallas in thanks but they don't interact any further.

Two-Bit leads them to his sister in the medical ward to get checked out and warmed up.

Cuts to that night, Ponyboy and Dallas curled up in Dallas's bunk, awake but silent as they listen to Two-Bit's drunken snores. Ponyboy looks over at Dallas, who's staring at the ceiling, thinking. Ponyboy taps on his cheat and Dallas's eyes snap down to him. Dallas smiles and tugs Ponyboy closer, wrapping his arms around him and planting a kiss on his forehead. Ponyboy feels safe.

Problems start to arise just a few weeks alter, after the Shepards have been let out of quarantine, when Curly gets into a fight with Bryon and Mark that sets both Dallas and Tim on edge.

Tim hates Mark and makes no efforts to hide it.

"What was your family like? Do you remember any of them?" Icy wind bites at Ponyboy Curtis's cheeks, the heavy winter coat protecting most of his body from the chill of antarctic air. Each step is heavy as he trudges through the snow, the path they'd walked just an hour before already half filled with snow again.

"I did, I met them once. I ain't know much about them though." Dallas Winston's voice is playful, he's walking a step in front of Ponyboy, making it easier for Ponyboy to walk. He'd glanced over his shoulder to respond, heavy toolbox in one hand and the other tucked in the pocket of his large brown coat.

"You ever think about finding them?" Honestly Ponyboy was bored, they'd spent the last hour and a half diagnosing a radio tower that'd been knocked around in the blizzard that'd only just barely ended. He was curious, but the thought of Dallas leaving made something in his chest hurt.

Dallas seems to read something in his tone as he sets the toolbox down and turns around, leaning his face in so close to Ponyboy's that he can taste the jerky on his breath. Dallas's light blue eyes staring into Ponyboy's with something intense bared for him. "I am perfectly happy exactly where I am. I ain't gonna leave ya anytime soon Pones." Ponyboy's face heats up, butterflies in his stomach fluttering up his throat, and a smile breaks out on his face that's reflected with Dallas's sharp teeth.

💜💛

I really need to finish this au lol

I forgot this in my drafts.

1. The Socs don't make an appearance in the series because they are summer only staff, they get to go home and be warm and with family the rest of the year.

2. Dallas, Tim, and Mark are all pseudo siblings from the same pod, while Mason was unrelated (Tex was not a Thing, but was part of the station Tim destroyed upon being woken up, when Dallas and Mark got their bodies)

3. Things reproduce asexually in this au, so Angela and Curly are Tim's parthenogenic banies/clones.

4. Two-Bit has suspected Dallas of being a Thing since he was the only one to come back from the trip to check the other base, but never said anything because he didn't want to be right and Dallas never causes any problems.