1 - 20 of 41 Works by RunningOnSunshine
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Death Smelled Like Sugar by itsmarmieee, RunningOnSunshine
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
15 Jun 2026
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1919
Darry’s finally home from his time in the Great War, but life doesn’t look like it used to for the Curtis brothers and their friends in the North End of Boston.
The Spanish Flu stole their loved ones and left Pony and Johnny with lingering ailments. Darry’s suffering from the aftereffects of a war that killed his friends and left him traumatized, hardly able to work under the stress. Soda’s torn between his brothers in what seems like a constant battle at home. Two-Bit, Steve, and Dally are doing what they can to try and keep their friends afloat after what’s clearly been the worst year of their lives.
Life’s not all bad with their lives on the harbor—they still have each other, after all.
But even that safety is threatened when the molasses tank looming over Boston bursts, flooding the city and taking lives with it.
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The Curtis gang in the 1919 Great Molasses Flood.
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Independence, Missouri
1851Everyone has something to run from.
Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Darry Curtis from their life of poverty, a rough city, and memories of their late parents.
Keith “Two-Bit” Mathews, from a life spent too long at the bottom of a bottle and a house fire he was too out of sorts to do anything about.
Steve Randle, from his father, who has kicked him out for the final time.
Johnny Cade, from his abusive father and uncle, memories of his negligent late mother, and a half-world of his heritage between the Lakota and the white settlers of the trading post.
Dalton “Dally” Winston, from a murder that no one else will truly believe was in defense of Johnny Cade.
Free land in Oregon starts to sound more and more appealing. A new life. Atonement. Everything else they’re looking for.
It won’t be an easy journey, though. They might not all come out the other side. But this ragtag bunch, both old friends and new, is determined to get their last chance at a new start before it slips away from them for good.
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The Curtis gang takes the Oregon Trail.
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The Papers Say It's Doomsday by RunningOnSunshine, the_projectionist
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders: The Musical - Jamestown Revival & Levine/Rapp, The Outsiders (1983)
22 May 2026
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September, 1968
The Curtis gang is gathered for the anniversary of Dally and Johnny’s deaths when unexplained counts of violence begin bursting all over Tulsa.
The five of them are no strangers to nightmares, but no amount of trouble or grief could’ve prepared them for the end of the world. All around them, through an unexplainable, contagious sickness, people are turning into mindless, deadly monsters. And while the Curtis gang is together, all of their loved ones are not.
How can you find and protect everyone you love when the very world you know has ended? Especially when sometimes, the real monsters are the people you thought you knew.
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After an argument and a downward spiral of comments, Ponyboy learns from Darry that there was once a fourth Curtis brother.
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Sodapop, This House Ain't a Home Without You by RunningOnSunshine
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
11 May 2026
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Ten years ago, the Curtis parents died, leaving their three sons to the system.
Three years ago, Darry turned eighteen and brought Ponyboy home for kinship placement.
One week ago, Darry turned twenty-one, so he could finally begin the process of adopting Ponyboy.
For years, Darry has searched desperately for Soda, blocked by closed records, misplaced files, and every obstacle the system could throw in his way.
When a new caseworker enters Pony's life for the adoption process and Darry finally learns that Soda was adopted three and a half years ago and now goes by Patrick “Paddy” Collins—a boy with a new name, a new family, and little memory of the seven-year-old life he’d once had with Ponyboy and Darry, the Curtis brothers have to navigate reunion, heartbreak, and building up a relationship again with the brother they’ve been missing all these years.
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One-shots following my "Sodapop's Baby" fanfic.
Raymond Curtis is growing up! His life is anything but normal with the Curtis brothers, the gang, and his nanny raising him, but he is loved beyond belief.
Series
- Part 2 of Sodapop's Baby
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You're as Pretty as a Picture by RunningOnSunshine
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
31 Mar 2026
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Darry never found the tears to cry for his parents, as much as he desperately wanted to. Until almost two years later, when he hears his mother's favorite song on the radio.
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Galveston, Texas, 1900
Ponyboy Curtis and his family live in the island town of Galveston. Life has been rough waters since his parents died in a maritime accident eight months ago. But his brothers are trying. Life's alright with Johnny Cade at his side and the rest of his gang to back him up, especially when "wharf dogs" like them are targeted by the east side "stockings," the rich kids from the Silkstocking District.
Galveston is built to weather storms. But even then, they'll never see a hurricane in their lives. It just isn't a possible phenomenon. Ponyboy and his family have enough storms to weather in their own lives, all meteorology aside. Galveston is the fastest-growing southern city in the country. There's nowhere to go but up. And Ponyboy has great expectations as a boy who lives in what is soon to be Texas's greatest city.
Until a hurricane catches the island off-guard, and, separated, the Curtis gang has to fight for their lives to not only save themselves, but get back to each other again. If there's anyone else left alive.
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A historical survival fic based off of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
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Ponyboy is the youngest of the seven princes of the Curtis line. Born without the ability to utter a sound and plagued with prophetic visions, he is mistrusted by all but his family.
When his six older brothers are cursed into swans, the evil deed is framed on Ponyboy. Exiled from his own kingdom, Ponyboy only has a certain amount of time to break the curse before his family is doomed to remain swans forever.
Medieval Outsiders retelling of Grimm’s fairytale “The Six Swans”
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when your legs don't work like they used to before by RunningOnSunshine
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
09 Mar 2026
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Fifteen-year-old Ponyboy Curtis had the polio virus when he was three. He lived, and the only way it altered his life afterward was by the leg braces he's had to wear ever since.
But when he starts getting unusual pains and weakness that he hasn't felt since those harrowing weeks as a toddler, the Curtis brothers have to navigate a new, terrifying syndrome that even the doctors can't properly define.
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Ponyboy gets post-polio syndrome.
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Sixteen-year-old Ponyboy Curtis has been exploring the cave systems of Kentucky all his life. He's the best cave guide around, and he knows he's about to find the next big tourist attraction.
But when a cave accident traps his foot, half-burying him 60 feet under the ground and 150 feet through a long, impossibly tight passageway, rescue is more than difficult when you've wedged yourself so far down into a cave. Only his brother, Sodapop, and a reporter come to town to report on the incident, Johnny "Skeets" Cade, can reach him.
A nation-wide media explosion ensues, only endangering him further. In a race against time, the Curtis family and their friends are desperate to find a way to save their youngest in time.
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Heavily inspired by the true story of Floyd Collins. Takes inspiration from both the musical and the true story. Historical notes at the end of each chapter.
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Those Who Go by RunningOnSunshine
Fandoms: Tex - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
29 Jan 2026
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Rewriting Tex from Mason's POV.
All Mason McCormick wants to do is become a basketball star, do well in school, get a scholarship, get to college, and leave Oklahoma. But Pop hasn't been home in four months, the money has run out, and Mason is left to figure out how on earth to take care of his fifteen-year-old brother, Tex, when Mason himself is only seventeen.
There are those who go and those who stay. If Mason doesn't do something quickly, he's afraid he's doomed to be the latter.
(Some of the Outsiders characters will make cameos.)
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There Were Kids Trapped in a Fire (and a Couple of Heroes Came to Their Aid) by RunningOnSunshine
Fandoms: Tex - S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
27 Jan 2026
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Mason and Tex McCormick, along with their friends, decide to play in the old, abandoned church on Jay Mountain, even after their teachers tell them not to. But they're adults, and what do adults know? There's no harm in a little bit of fun.
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Mason and Tex are the kids in the church fire, and Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally come to their rescue.
(Although this event is referenced in my fic "Those Who Go," it is not necessary to read that to enjoy this fic on its own!
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Ponyboy told his brothers he was heading for the Dingo. He ends up not going after a turn of events, narrowly missing being at the location when it was bombed. But his brothers had no reason to believe he wasn't there. No reason to believe he wasn't dead.
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Based on the detail in That Was Then This Is Now that the Dingo was bombed.
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Two Children and a Twentieth Birthday by RunningOnSunshine
Fandoms: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
22 Jan 2026
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Two officers stand in the living room, looking uncomfortable and out of place. Darry’s brothers sit together on the couch, practically crumpled over each other, Ponyboy clutched in Soda’s arms as they both shudder with sobs.
The sounds tear at Darry’s heart, sending it to the floor as he rushes over, checking them for injuries, bandages, anything that could have warranted something like this. He doesn’t understand. Nothing adds up. “What’s wrong?”
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Darry is the last of the brothers to learn about the accident that took their parents' lives.
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When the Curtis brothers' truck ends up in a snowy ditch during a blizzard on the coldest day of the year, they have to survive the night.
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Ponyboy wants to be the dungeon master in a Dungeons and Dragons one-shot. The gang plays, rules are out the window, and Ponyboy is at his wit's end.
(I know DND wasn't invented in the sixties, but let's just pretend.)
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The Curtis gang watches the moon landing.
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Sometimes, Ponyboy hates how meticulous he is.
He shouldn’t know exactly how old Johnny Cade was when he died. But he does. He’s done the math. Johnny was 16 years, 7 months, and 1 day old when he took his last breath in that hospital bed.
Ponyboy has been counting down the days to today. The day he turns 16 years, 7 months, and 2 days old.
On February 23, 1968, Pony is officially older than Johnny ever will be.
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Sodapop’s always been told he looks just like his mother. It’s usually just in a passing comment. He’s never actually been mistaken for her.
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Darry hallucinates during a high fever, mistaking Soda for their mother. Soda uses the mix-up to learn the worries his big brother has been bottling up.