better than you know
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Listing Series
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fathers & sons by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
27 Sep 2025
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Summary
This was it: the moment Darry became a parent. Not while joyously clutching his future wife’s hand in a hospital room, but sitting at the kitchen table of his childhood home at only 20 years old, the ink still drying on the guardianship papers and fresh dirt covering his parents’ graves.
Darry learns what it means to be a parent.
Series
- Part 1 of better than you know
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waxing gibbous by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
07 Jan 2026
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Summary
“Have you slept at all?” Soda asked, taking note of the dark, bruise-like circles under Darry’s eyes. Somehow, he looked even more exhausted than normal.
He had a feeling he already knew the answer. Darry had hardly even been home in the past forty-eight hours, much less had time to sleep. When he wasn’t distracting himself with work, he was patrolling the town in his truck, looking for clues the police had missed. When the truck ran out of gas, he was shaking down every greaser in town for any scrap of information about what had happened two nights ago at the fountain. And when he was home, he refused to step out of earshot of the telephone, forever waiting for the call that his brother had been found.
“Slept?” Darry chuckled humorlessly, like the idea of sleeping at a time like this was unthinkable. “Not really. Have you?”
He gave Darry a weak smile in return. “Me neither.”
While Ponyboy's gone, Darry and Soda can't sleep. They take the opportunity to have an important conversation.
Series
- Part 2 of better than you know
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house rules by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
31 Jan 2026
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Summary
After the events of the book, Darry decides they need some family rules.
(a series of interconnected one-shots)
Series
- Part 3 of better than you know
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twenty winks by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
08 Oct 2025
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Summary
“Next time it happens, you gotta go to him and pretend you’re the one who had a nightmare,” Soda explained, waving his fork wildly in the air. “He’ll fall over himself to fuss over you, which’ll just make him feel better in the end.”
Ponyboy tricks Darry into accepting comfort after a nightmare.
Series
- Part 4 of better than you know
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on the mend by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
26 Dec 2025
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Summary
No illness could take Darry down — except for one. No matter how stubbornly Darry fought, he still got terrible headaches on occasion, the kind that knocked him flat on his back for an entire day.
Darry gets a headache. Ponyboy takes care of him.
Series
- Part 5 of better than you know
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brothers for a day by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
16 Oct 2025
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Summary
“We noticed how hard you’ve been workin’ recently,” Pony explained. “We wanted to give you a day where you could just be our brother again instead of worryin’ about all that adult stuff.”
A day where Darry gets to be nothing more than a brother.
Series
- Part 6 of better than you know
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heaven knows by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
23 Dec 2025
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Summary
Ponyboy pointedly cleared his throat, pulling Darry from his reverie. “Hey, Dar?” he asked, something odd in his voice. “Do you believe in heaven?”
Darry and Ponyboy discuss the afterlife.
Series
- Part 7 of better than you know
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the way out by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
01 Jan 2026
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Summary
“There’s no way he’s mine. I mean, he’s cute and all, but he has this dark, straight hair and the tiniest little button nose and…there’s just no way. Two blonde parents couldn’t’ve made that kid, I can tell you that.”
Ponyboy was confused. “I thought you knew that already. That she had…y’know.”
“Yeah, I did. That’s what she told me, at least. But… I guess I was hopin’ it wasn’t true. That she wasn’t two-timin’ me and that she just wanted to get away for some reason, or her parents were sendin’ her away, or whatever. And that one day, she’d take me back, and I could marry her like I’d planned, and we’d get to be a family. Me and Sandy and our kid.”
Sodapop mourns his relationship with Sandy. Ponyboy helps him through.
Series
- Part 8 of better than you know
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golden slumbers by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
13 Jan 2026
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Summary
Fifteen was another age his parents wouldn't get to see him reach. He wanted to hold onto what was left of that younger Ponyboy, the version of himself his parents would recognize. He worried that the older he got, the farther he would stray from the boy they raised.
But he knew that no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop time. He had to keep marching on, growing older in honor of those who didn’t get the chance.
It's the day before Ponyboy's fifteenth birthday, and he's feeling conflicted.
Series
- Part 9 of better than you know
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payback time by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
09 Feb 2026
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Summary
The best part about his job was that his boss didn’t trust banks, which meant he was paid in cash, which meant it was easy to sneak a dollar or two into Darry’s wallet every week.
Ponyboy gets a job at a used bookstore and makes it his mission to pay Darry back.
Series
- Part 10 of better than you know
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you are who I was by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
12 Oct 2025
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Summary
“But now that I’m twenty,” Soda continued, becoming more frenzied, “I realize that you were just a kid back then, too!”
Turning twenty allows Sodapop to see his older brother from a new perspective.
Series
- Part 11 of better than you know
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birthday blues by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
02 Oct 2025
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Summary
The date had been circled in red on the calendar all year long — July 22, 1969 — and today, it had finally arrived. Ponyboy Curtis was officially an adult, which meant Darry was no longer his legal guardian.
Darry grapples with the fact that his baby brother is growing up.
Series
- Part 12 of better than you know
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both & neither by pookie_mulder
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp
30 Oct 2025
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Summary
Technically, he did have two kids at home, but they weren’t his. Well, they were, but only legally, not by blood. Actually, they were blood related, but not because they were his sons. It was complicated.
Five times someone asked Darry if he had kids.
Series
- Part 13 of better than you know