— ᨳଓ . Does Love Heal All Wounds? - part 1, dustin henderson x gn!reader
a/n: this is part 1 of a series i will be starting based off of this request. i really loved the req sooo i'm not too sure how many parts i'll make, i think i'll just keep going until it feels right... >_<
content/warnings: angst + fluff, steve's a butthole, fighting/arguing, bunch of cursing, descriptions of blood and dustin's s5 wounds, death and vecna
wc: 1.5k
part 1
❦︎𓆪⋆.༻༉‧₊˚.
"I thought tonight, of all nights, maybe you'd give it a rest." Jonathan's voice is firm against Steve.
"What're you talking about?"
"'What're you-' What am I talking about? This bullshit, macho competition for Nance's attention. Ever since I got back from..."
You slowly start to tune out their bickering as much as physically possible. With the way they have been acting, it's hard to tell if they know the world is ending. Their top priority, no matter how important the current circumstance is, is winning the impossible battle over Nance. Which, it's ironic, because no one is as irritated as Nancy herself.
You're confident that you're a close second to her, though. The headache their arguments are putting over you is not pairing nicely with the tight knots twisting in your stomach. There's a bigger problem on your hands than them two right now; Where the hell is Dustin? Last anyone knew, he was en route to the Sqwuak. It's now hours into the crawl and he still hasn't shown.
You've tried to surpress your concern, but it's slipped a couple times. You and Dustin have had an ongoing, secret relationship for two years now. You've kept it concealed for so long, but seeing the lack of concern on everyone's faces has gotten you close to cracking. Steve especially has driven you to the edge. He's been unbelievably dissmissive to the guy who's supposed to be his best friend, and especially now, he's revealed he could not give less of a shit about the kid's whereabouts. God, what is his problem? It gets you hot thinking about it, and you're suddenly tuned back in to the fighting going on in the front seat.
"No, you're the one who's got-"
You decide to interject. "Hey, assholes. Please remember there are bigger problems than your love triangle? You're driving me nuts."
Steve turns back towards you, a sour look on his face. "How about you stay out of it, stop complaining, and keep doing goddamn Henderson's job for him?" You scoff at Steve's remark.
God forgive me when I throw him straight into a Demo's mouth. "Can't do that until you fix this busted ass van..." You murmur under your breath, slouching back down into your seat. Of course, Steve doesn't hear, because he's already back to defending his spot in Nancy's life.
You glance over at the tracker, seeing the connection to Hop on the flip side continue to descend.
You zone back out again for what feels like ages, but is probably only 3 minutes. You snap out of it when you finally hear the van start up again. You internally celebrate, but it gets promptly interrupted with the shock of hearing the guys' voices settle. Because it doesn't sound like a natural end to their argument. It sounds more like they got distracted by something. You look up and see them both glaring out of Steve's window.
"You've got to be shitting me..."
Steve's words make your neck slowly crane forward to see out of his window, in between his luscious locks of hair against the seat.Your jaw goes slack, and your ass gets brutally hit by the force of your plummeting heart.
In the middle of the street stands Dustin, balancing his bike beside him, blood running down his face. His nose and mouth are gushing blood so horribly, you can barely make out where his facial features lie beneath the crimson coating.
You're moving before doubt can catch up to your reasoning. You crawl over the middle console, gripping the steering wheel to pull yourself from the back of the van to the front. You pull your legs up and throw yourself over Steve's lap. He braces himself further against his seat, trying to create some space. "What the hell!? What are you-" He cuts himself off with a loud groan, one prompted by your knee going straight into his crotch while you were pushing yourself up. "Oh- sorry!" You call out before swinging the door open and sprinting against the asphalt.
You take Dustin into your arms, holding him in an iron grip. You feel his arms weakly come around your torso, his fingers digging into the fabric of your shirt. Steve mumbles a few insults about you as he recovers, before he joins Jonathan in watching the scene unfold in front of them. They give eachother a puzzled look before turning back to watch you two. You lift off of Dustin, resting both of your hands on his upper arms.
"Dusty, what... what the hell?" You say gently, your voice laced with concern. "How did this happen?" You ask, wanting to tuck his hair back but finally becoming aware of the eyes boring into you.
"Bike crash... flew straight into a pole."
He gives you one of his token sarcastic smiles, before wincing at the pain in his lips. You frown. He doesn't usually lie to you. To the others, sure. But you? This is... odd. You give him a look, a "the bullshit isn't gonna work on me" face, which is met with him limping over towards the van. Nothing. You sigh, pivoting on your heels to walk beside him.
"I've been working the telemetry tracker... come in the back with me, I'll wipe you off." I say, bracing his walk towards the van to hopefully avoid as much pain as possible. As soon as he's by the window, it's like a switch has gone on within Steve's ego. He goes on this whole spiel, sarcastically summing up the night's events to Dustin. Mentions of the van's breakdown, seeing Jessica and 'charming his way into a jump', Dustin looking like Rocky Balboa, and a whole bunch of other blood-boiling remarks.
"So, out of all the crawls, this was the one to miss." Dustin tries to talk, but Steve cuts him off. "Well done, Henderson. Really, well done."
"You know what, Harrington, what the fuck is your problem?"
All eyes in the van turn towards you.
"We are diving head first into death on a regular basis and all you've done for days is start fights and bitch in people's faces. Your best friend is hurt, was MIA for hours, and instead of showing even an ounce of concern, your instinct is to, what, exactly? Bully him like you're in school? Is being mean distracting you from the fact that, if in these last few hours something seriously, irreversibly bad would've happened to him, you would've been stuck with the fact that you didn't care? That you weren't worried? Now's not the time for this shit, Steve. Fight later. This might be dark but seriously, we are in a bad position and any of our moments together could actually be our last. So, for the love of God, please start acting right, because I promise your ego is not going to stop Vecna, for fuck's sake."
You huff out a breath and grab Dustin's hand, pulling him through the van and back into your guys' rightful seats. "Now, let's get going. Finding Hop and El is the priority." The front of the van is viciously quiet, and me and Dustin have settled into our usual spots. He has the smallest smile displayed on his face, his eyes big and glossy and drop dead gorgeous, despite the blood underneath them. You pull out a first-aid kit, dipping under his arms where they're extended to work the tracker. "Try to keep working while I wipe you off, ok?" You whisper ever so gently, a striking contrast to the way you were just growling at Steve. He glances down and smiles, giving you a quick nod before going back to rebooting the tracker. Everytime he jerks or lets out a small wince, your heart feels like it's cracking. You don't clean it up entirely, but you can't handle seeing him in pain any longer.
Before slipping out from under him, you glance up to make sure nobody's watching. The guys are murmuring about the Upside Down, Hop, something about Mike... doesn't matter, they're distracted. You look back to Dustin, pressing a soft kiss to the side of his lips where the worst gash had appeared. His eyes flutter shut, as this has been the first moment of relief in his whole day. He returns the favor, leaving a blood stain on your cheek as he lifts his lips off of it. You both conceal your giggles as he wipes it off, letting you sit back into your respective spot right after.
You sigh when he looks away, a soft pit landing in your stomach. Your guess was Andy, especially after the snake incident. Most likely, it was more than just him. It hurts really bad, knowing nobody was there to save Dustin. You turn your back to him, packing away the first-aid kit and silently pledging to yourself that you two won't be apart until this whole mess is over.
❦︎𓆪⋆.༻༉‧₊˚.
⊹ ࣪. part 2 coming soon !!















