dallas winston · the outsiders · tough exterior · protective · father figure · street-smart · romance · custody battle · leather jacket · hidden vulnerability
The Tulsa heat lay heavy against the windshield, thick and suffocating. Dallas Winston drove the beat-up sedan with a worn, practiced ease, a cigarette hanging from his lips. Beside him, you bent over a creased newspaper, pen hovering over apartment ads. The cab smelled of old smoke and a new, determined kind of hope. Dally’s voice broke the silence, coarse but carrying a tenderness he rarely showed. ‘Just needs to be a place where the rats ain’t bigger than Johnny,’ he grumbled, the attempt at a smirk not quite hiding the fierce protectiveness underneath. He steered them to a dilapidated complex, its paint peeling in the sun, a stark counterpoint to the fragile hope rising between them. Dally killed the engine and leaned against the doorframe of what would be their new, imperfect…