Oxytocin (Dustin Henderson x Popular Fem!Reader)
Notes: Dustin is a pathetic nerd who can’t flirt with girls and a very pretty popular nice one asks for him to be her tutor. Takes place in high school.
Warnings: Maybe a little bit of spicy thoughts from Dustin but mostly fluff. Not proofread. Fairly short, I’m sorry
It was after Mr Olive’s class. Dustin didn’t really need to pay attention to science classes anymore after he’s lived through multiple scientific anomalies, it gave him time to space out and think, though. “Watch it, Toothless.” A jock snickers as he kicks over Dustin’s school bag - notebooks, pens, papers, erasers, everything spilled out and everyone quite literally walked all over them. “Asshole.” Dustin mutters to himself, knowing if he spoke too loud he’d attract the very unwanted attention from the jocks and he would become even more toothless. A pair of pristine white sneakers stop just at where the mess of his school supplies is, Dustin was sure that they were about to step on a pencil or something, but no, the knees bend down and a really, really pretty girl pops her head down.
“Dustin, right? She smiles, helping collect his things completely out of the order he packs it in. “Uh, yeah. I’m surprised you know.” “Y/N L/N, we haven’t met before, I’m new to Hawkins.” Y/N says helping collect the last of his things. “Hey, thanks.” He smiles and instead of her looking weirded out by his teeth due to his Cleidocranial dysostosis, or CCD for short, she smiles even wider. “If you really wanna thank me you can tutor me this Saturday?” “Tutor?” “Yeah, you seem smart. I hate to play into the dumb cheerleader stereotype but I can’t flunk science, my parents will kill me!” “I don’t seem smart, I am smart.” Dustin doesn’t do tutoring sessions, mostly because it feels weird to be basically a teacher to his classmate and also because usually the people that need tutoring and those meanest to him and his friends. ‘Y/N doesn’t seem mean, though.’ He thought.
“You told her no?!” Lucas exclaims that afternoon in Mike Wheeler’s basement. “I never said no, I said I’d think about it.” He shrugs. “Dustin. This your chance to become popular! She is your way in, our way in.” “I don’t care about that crap.” Dustin retorts. “Mike, talk some sense into the man.” Mike looks up from his homework. “I think Dustin should do whatever he’s comfortable with.” He says in a tone that could only be described as not caring. “I’ve never tutored anyone before, you know I get upset when people don’t keep up with me. Besides, if I change my mind, I can just call her.” “You have Y/N’s number?!” “Uh, I forgot to ask her for her number.” Lucas groans. “She was really pretty, okay?” Dustin mumbles “I don’t know how to talk to girls, let alone cheerleaders. What if it’s some prank?” “You turned down the opportunity to tutor a cheerleader!” Lucas exclaims, as if that fact would now have Dustin change his mind. “Plus, it would be a stupid prank.” Max points out, looking up from her comic book, “You’re a good guy Dustin, any girl would be lucky to have you.” As much as Dustin hated it, he’d have to swallow his fear and tell Y/N yes. I mean, how hard could it be to find her alone?
Turns out, the answer is hard. Very hard. Dustin tried all week long to find a moment where Y/N was alone but she was always with her cheer squad. It was like they travelled in packs!! He even tried saying hello once while she was surrounded by her friends; “Uh, hey-“ “I’m literally so stiff from practice. Coach is really drilling us.” Dustin was too embarrassed to speak up again, so he slumped away, his cheeks basically a tomato. Eventually, Dustin decided to wait at the bleachers for her once she’s finished practice. He wasn’t the only one there. A jock sits beside him, looking equally as nervous. “Which one you here for?” He asks. For once, a jock wasn’t being a douche to Dustin.” “Y/N.”
“Nice…from what I’ve heard.
“See you tomorrow!” Dustin recognises that voice instantly. Y/N. Dustin sits up from the bleachers, picking up the plastic water bottle he’d gotten from the vending machine earlier for her. “Y/N, hey!” Dustin smiles before instantly cringing in his brain. ‘That was way too loud’. Y/N smiles back, surprised, alarmed? Dustin didn’t know, his palms were sweaty. “Hey you.” She greets, watching him come down from the bleachers. “This is for you,” he holds out the water bottle for her, “I figured you’d be thirsty.” “Thanks, that’s so sweet.” “It’s also my way of apologising for basically ghosting you this week. I…I’ve tried talking to you but you’re always around cheerleaders and I could never speak loud enough but I uh, I wanted to say that I’d be open to tutoring you.” Dustin rambles. “Oh my God, shut up! Really?” Dustin blinks, “Yes? Really.” Y/N clicks her tongue and glances down at her shoes sheepishly, “Well now I just feel bad.” “…What why?” “I saw your attempts of trying to talk to me all week and I purposefully ignored you.” She grimaced with a small smile. Dustin drops his jaw, mock offended. “In that case, I’m taking my water bottle back.” “No wait! It’s so nice and cold!” The two laugh and jokingly fight over the bottle. “Wait, wait, wait! Tell you what - you let me have the nice cold water bottle and I will give you my number so we can arrange that tutoring session?” “Hey, you’re the one that needs tutoring.” “Dustin!” “Kidding! I’m kidding.” Dustin relents his grip and lets her have the bottle before reaching into his backpack and pulls out a notepad and pen, then proceeds to hold out the items for her to write the number down. She glances between the pen, notepad, then back at Dustin. “That isn’t even a school notebook, it’s too small.” “It’s the notepad I carry around with me at all times. You know, just in case of emergencies or something.” Y/N just blinks at him. ‘Crap, crap, crap. Fuck my life, she probably thinks I’m some weirdo! She probably thinks I write like random names down in there or something, she’s never gonna wanna talk to me! Fuck fuck fuck! You screwed this up, Henderson. Great job! You’re dying all alone now!’
“I’ll give you a call once I clear some weekend plans.” Is all Dustin hears before Y/N disappears into the girls locker room. Dustin looks down and lo and behold, there is Y/N’s number. He spaced out so badly that she had time to draw a little cat. “Great! See you then!!” Dustin shouts after her even though she’d long gone.
“This shit doesn’t make sense!” Y/N complains, throwing her head into her arms. Tews curls up beside her arm at the dining table. Dustin had spent all morning cleaning his room, the house, taking multiple showers and putting on multiple layers of deodorant, even convinced his mom to go out for the afternoon. Dustin watches as her gold necklace fall down the front of her neck. “It could make sense if you stopped petting Tews and paid attention.” Dustin counters bluntly. Y/N looks up and glares at him, “You’re enjoying this too much.” Dustin flicks up his eyebrows, “You can leave if you want.” He replies, folding his arms, resting back against the chair, a shit eating grin on his face. Y/N sits up and flips to the next page of the textbook with a huff. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Dustin leans forward to help her, looking at the page she’s flicked to, when he sees her bra and just a little of her cleavage. He stares for a solid two seconds before quickly snapping out of it, his cheeks redder than a tomato, a brand new memory ingrained in his memory. “Are you okay? Your face is all red, are you, like, hot or something?” Y/N asks, her eyebrows knitted in concern. “Oh, I’m fine. Yeah. I’m, uh, fine. Sorry.” He mumbles.
Surprisingly, Y/N began to understand the chemistry homework. Maybe not to its core but she’s memorised a good amount of formulas. The afternoon light shines through the windows, causing both of them to feel a little sleepy. “Okay, we’re done.” Dustin sighs. “Hey wait, no, I can do more.” “Well I can’t and if I can’t you can’t.” Y/N sighs, “Oh, thank God. I was hoping you would say that.” She chuckles and reaches inside of her bag by her feet, pulling out her purse. “Okay, so it’s been about three hours…we never agreed on a rate so how much you want for this session?” Dustin blinks. ‘Oh, right. She needs to pay me. I mean, the cash would be nice. Maybe I can use the cash to ask her out, like ice cream or something. No way, that’s way too forward. It’d be weird. Maybe she likes weird?’. “It’s still early, Scoops Ahoy is open. How about we go for some ice cream, your treat. That will be for this session’s payment?” “That depends, are you a mint choc fan?” “No, God, no. I’d rather eat my gym socks.” Y/N smiles, patting Tews one more time before lifting up her backpack. “I would love that, Dustin.”