Hola amigos! Update time! :D

You guys have seen the new Image Manager, right? Personally, I think it was a great idea for Fanfiction to do, even though I don't know what pictures to use for my own stories XD I really would like a cover for "Desire", though, so I might (I'm not really sure; still deciding whether I should do this or not) make a contest for someone to make a cover in turn for it to be used in the story and for a one-shot of their choice . . . Please review about this; I'd love to hear all of your ideas and opinions (or whether I should do this in general XD).

"Hey, baby, how're you?" The Soc's smirk grew into one that bore incredible resemblance to a Cheshire cat. He still lazed about on the bed, running his hand down the cover languidly.

Ponyboy gulped loudly, trying not to show his attacker any fear. He wanted to be gallant and prove to the Soc that he was still strong - untouched - from what happened to him. "Who are you? How did you get in here? Why do you keep stalkin' me? What do you want from me?" he asked impatiently, becoming unusually audacious for such a typically fear-inducing moment.

The Soc tutted, wearing the biggest shit-eating grin ever seen as he wagged his finger at Ponyboy. "Patience, honey. It's not wise to let those lovely lips anger the stronger opponent." Ponyboy frowned at this, glaring at him angrily as the Soc paused thoughtfully. "And to your questions, I will not reveal who I am, I entered through the open window, and I wouldn't call it 'stalking.' I'd call it . . . keepin' a wary eye out for your beloved. Oh, and I like you too much to let you go, baby. You're too perfect," he purred, winking once at Pony.

Ponyboy grew uneasy on the inside, feeling sick to his stomach. Beloved? Like too much to let go? Baby? Too perfect? Lordy, who was this freak? Does he even know him? "Leave me alone, Soc," Ponyboy said willfully, giving him the nastiest, most menacing look he could come up with as he backed up closer to the door. Shit, why had he locked the door behind him?

"Oh, poor, naive Ponyboy," the Soc began in mock sympathy, his smirk growing voracious, "you don't know."

Pony's eyes narrowed, eyeing the Soc cautiously. "I don't know what?"

The teenager's smirk grew incredibly dangerous, like a predator after finally cornering his prey. "That I don't give up easily." Then, faster than Ponyboy could even comprehend, the Soc leaped off the bed, grabbed him, threw him down on the bed, and pinned his arms and legs down.

Just as Ponyboy opened his mouth to let out a bloodcurdling scream, the Soc threatened, "If you even let out one scream from those delectable lips, I'll be forced to take you with me."

Take me with you where? Ponyboy screamed in his thoughts, struggling against the elder man's grip. He opened his mouth to yell, completely disregarding the threat, but he then felt hot, uncomfortable lips force themselves onto his. His muffled protests could be heard, but whether the Soc honestly didn't hear him or chose to ignore him wasn't clear.

The Soc kissed him harshly for a long time, still pinning his arms over his head. Ponyboy attempted to fight his restraints, but, unfortunately, to no avail. The muscled man overpowered him in strength, despite the fact that Pony himself was no slack of a fighter.

Then, as the Soc brought his knee up and put it in a place of Pony's that the whole gang would have his head for, Ponyboy couldn't help but give out a few, soft whimpers.

His attacker heard those and gave him a hazardous smirk. "You like that, huh? Well, there'll be a whole lot of that." He then proceed to push his knee with even more force. Once again, Ponyboy mewled.

"Y'know, you should've been named Catboy instead with all of that meowing you're doing. No, even better, Kittyboy." The Soc offered him a lecherous look, his smirk growing more lewd by the passing seconds.

Ponyboy mentally berated himself as he let loose yet another whimper, causing the other male to spew even more vulgar and ribald comments. Dammit, how could he be this weak? He should be ashamed of himself, which he was. He couldn't even fight back against this teenager! He was supposed to be a Curtis, not some frail, brittle thing!

The next thing the Soc did was unexpected, which made Ponyboy yelp a bit too loudly. His attacker looked at him angrily, looking as if he was about to strike Pony, but a voice called out from the other side of the door, stopping his advances.

"Ponyboy? You all right, honey?" It was Soda. The tone of his voice was tender and solicitous, yet it held something else Pony wasn't sure of, but thought it was somewhat akin to . . . fear?

"Y-Yeah, I'm okay, Soda. Sorry for talkin' like that earlier; I must've been outta my mind," Ponyboy lied quickly.

A relieved sigh came from the other side. "I'm glad you feel that way, Pone. Don't ever talk crazy like that ever again, you hear? You really scared me and the rest of the gang, you know that?"

"I'm sorry for scarin' you," Pony replied, trying hard to mask his tone of voice with sincere sorrow and culpability.

"It's okay, baby. You gonna come out for dinner later?"

"Um, yeah, just yell out when it's done."

"All right." Then, the two inside the bedroom heard the patter of Soda's feet leave the door. The moment they couldn't hear him anymore, the Soc looked pleasantly relieved, but also stared at Ponyboy with a bit of smugness.

"You know what? I could fuck you, right here and now, without your big brothers or the rest of your over protective gang knowin'. I would love to see them completely disappointed and angered at themselves for lettin' you get raped right under their noses. What do you think, baby?"

Ponyboy looked at him with horror, the realization finally dawning on him that he could get raped - again. Lordy, you think he'd learn by now. "P-Please don't," he begged weakly, losing all of the willful and obstinate nature he had before.

The Soc pondered over the decision for an exaggeratedly long time, taunting Ponyboy with how much power he held over the situation. He then took a good look at his victim, seeing the clear trepidation and fear in the younger teenager's mien. The Soc's facial expression slightly softened, and he cupped Pony's cheek with his hand, stroking it tenderly. Ponyboy begged himself not to flinch or shiver.

"Fine, I won't - at least not this time. I have to leave now, anyway," the Soc said. He then quickly stood up from Ponyboy and leaned over the window. "I will see you later, my sexy, little greaser." He waved and winked at Pony before he hopped out the window.

It was not until a few minutes after the Soc left that it dawned on Ponyboy that he had been touched yet again, his attacker had snuck into his house without permission, and he had been threatened by said attacker.

He screamed loudly.

"Golly, I'm real sorry, Soda. I should've noticed the kid before I opened my big mouth," apologized Two-Bit, who was seated on the couch with Steve by his side. He stared at Soda with an immense amount of guilt and regret clouding his typically blithe eyes.

Soda shook his head forlornly, his lips turned upwards with melancholy. "It ain't none of your fault, Two-Bit. Heck, I didn't even notice Ponyboy was there. But what were you sayin' 'bout these rumors?"

"What rumors?" asked Darry as he sighed tiredly and sat down on his comfortable recliner, enjoying the feeling of the cool material on his aching, sore body.

"Well, there were some rumors 'bout the whole Soc and Ponyboy situation going on around school," Two-Bit explained. When he saw the horrified and absolutely furious look on Darry's face, he quickly added, "But don't worry, me, Johnny, and Steve set 'em all straight and told 'em it never happened and that Pony had the flu. It was real easy to do, but some were kinda hard to convince." With a grimace, he gestured to the injuries on his body.

Darry cooled down and settled back against the chair, calm once more. "Thanks for stickin' up for Ponyboy, guys. Me and Soda appreciate it a lot, don't we, Soda?" In response, Soda nodded hurriedly.

Two-Bit puffed out his chest in vanity, smirking pridefully as his eyes gleamed mirthfully. "No need for thankin' me, unusually kind hoods. What you really should be doing is askin' Stevie over here how he got his head out of his ass and defended Pony of all people."

Steve snorted, shoving Two-Bit on the shoulder. "Shut up. It was just a one time thing, okay? Soon everythin' will be back to as it used to be." He sat back against the couch, putting his hands behind his head comfortably.

"Sure, whatever you say. You're warmin' up to that kid - gettin' softer as the days pass - and you know it," Two-Bit teased, smirking even wider.

Steve glared at Two-Bit and opened his mouth to spit out a snarky retort, but before he could do so, a yelp coming from Soda and Ponyboy's bedroom sounded throughout the house. Everyone turned silent, eyeing each other with confusion.

Soda's face paled, his eyes wide with shock and dread written clearly all over his handsome features. "I-I'll go check if Pony's okay." With that said, he quickly stood up and sprinted to the door, speaking in a worried tone.

The gang members remained silent, straining their ears to overhear what the two brothers were saying. Unfortunately, Ponyboy and Soda were both talking rather softly from what they could hear, and they could not make out a word that the duo were saying.

So, when Soda returned back to the living room looking relieved and a bit peaceful, he was immediately hounded with questions, to which he responded that everything was all right. Everyone became relaxed and less tense after that, the atmosphere returning to the easygoing environment from before.

Of course, that didn't last for long.

After another few minutes of chatting and playfully teasing one another passed, a horrid, ghastly cry rang throughout the house.

It came directly from Soda and Ponyboy's bedroom, which the latter was currently inside of.

Darry hopped to his feet first, dashed to the door faster than the speed of light, and banged furiously on it. "Ponyboy! Are you okay?" he hollered worriedly, his eyes wide with unadulterated panic and concern. What was so bad that it caused his kid brother to scream like that?

In response, Pony said absolutely nothing. At the same time, Dally roughly pushed Darry out of the way and tried to open the door, but it didn't budge, instead causing the handle to shake wildly as Dally tried to hurriedly unlatch it.

"Fuck!" Dally cursed angrily and loudly, glaring at the door with hatred before he began rapping it violently with his knuckles. "Ponyboy, what's going on in there? Open the damn door!"

Utter silence. Then, the click! of the door unlocking was heard, and the door slowly, ever so slowly, opened to reveal a very distressed and disheveled Ponyboy. His downcast eyes held fear and fatigue, his clothes were skewed and wrinkled, and he looked as if he'd faint at any given moment.

His appearance evoked a gasp from Soda, who immediately ran over and cradled him in his comforting arms. Ponyboy flinched violently at the display of sudden affection, which caused a heartbroken Soda to release him at once.

"Pony, what's wrong?" asked Darry, his eyes sweeping up and down Ponyboy's body as he meticulously observed him, trying to discover the reason for the previous screaming and the current quietude.

Ponyboy shook his head slowly. "He came back." His words were pithy - terse - and he said 'he' as if it was the most baneful, horrible thing in the universe to ever exist.

"What?" Dally hissed venomously, yet he didn't even bother to stop to listen to the explanation. He barged into the room and began to search for any sign of the Soc, examing the crumpled, obviously used sheets on the bed with repulsion. He then paused as he felt a gust of wind hit him. With narrowed eyes, he turned around to look at the very open window.

Suddenly, everything clicked.

"He came in through the window," Dally said it not as a question, but as an accusation. He walked out of the room to meet the rest of the gang and their startled, scared expressions.

Ponyboy nodded and said, "You got that right." After he officially confirmed the statement, Darry immediately rushed into the room and shut the window with a large bang.

"When did he come, Pone? What did he do to you? Why didn't you yell earlier? Why are you so calm?" Two-Bit asked, his eyes huge and his mouth agape, staring at Ponyboy with an unbelievable and confused look.

"He didn't stay for awhile, he didn't do much, I couldn't yell because he threatened me, and I'm just real tired and sick of this, Two-Bit, not exactly calm," Ponyboy explained wearily, putting his hand to his forehead as he massaged the area. Oh, lordy, he just wanted this over with. He hated the situation he was in, he hated this Soc, and he absolutely, no question about it, hated what this was doing to him.

"Aw, you wanna go lay down, baby?" Soda asked sympathetically, his brown eyes like warm pools of melted chocolate. His hand twitched a bit as he begged himself not to engulf his younger brother in a hug, even though he desperately wanted to do just that.

"Wait, Pone, before you do that, do you remember what he looked like? Anythin' at all?" asked Darry smartly, his intelligence as sharp and keen as ever.

Pony looked down at the ground, furrowing his eyebrows and frowning. His attacker was wearing a ski mask, which meant that he couldn't see much of his face, but he still attempted to dig back to the very recent, fresh memories he still held. The Soc had big muscles and a very creepy smirk, he knew that much, but what else did he have?

As he stared hard at the ground and clenched his fists tightly, Ponyboy replayed the images of his most recent attack. There was the Soc, laying on his bed with that irritating smirk . . . there was the Soc, on top of him, kissing him roughly . . . there was the Soc, leaning toward the window, about to exit, with a gleam in his mischievous eyes . . .

Wait a minute, his eyes! Ponyboy went back to the last memory, staring at it intensely and meticulously, especially concentrating on the eyes. Suddenly, as if the image had previously been black and white, he saw the color of the eyes. For once, he was glad to have a retentive mind.

"Amber eyes - the Soc has amber eyes."