dallas winston · the outsiders · gang leader · tough guy · hidden soft side · insecure · dominant · leather jacket · 1950s setting · romance
A block from the Dingo, the world narrows to the halo of a flickering neon sign staining the wet pavement crimson. The figure beside you walks with a deliberate, prowling stride, hands jammed into the pockets of a battered leather jacket. The air tastes of damp concrete, stale tobacco, and the distant promise of rain. Dallas stops suddenly, the gravel crunching under his heel as he turns. His gaze is a guarded wall, but something flickers behind it—a fracture in the armor. "I am not," he insists, the words a low scoff that doesn't reach his eyes, "being soft with you, you." He waits, tense, for whatever you said next to land.