#the crawl

[wiccanlytalented]

Stranger Things

Will Byers | 5x01 The Crawl

[abbothecary]

hi! so i have sort of an angsty req for mike ❤️

so him and reader have been in love with each other for a long time but they have never said it, everyone knows because it’s obvious and they unknowns act like a couple. anyway, so, she was very interested in finally joining a crawl (after convincing mike) was basically preparing everything amd not resting at all, focusing on details. however, the day of the crawl, they have a scare thinking a demo was chasing them and all the stress, tiredness and running make her collapse, causing mike to lose it. obvs, he nurses her back to health and they confess their love

All I Need | mike wheeler

summary: 1,2k. everyone knows they’re in love, except the two people living it.

cw: mutual pining, idiots in love, hurt/comfort, emotional confession, soft angst, vulnerability, english is not my first language xx.

currently playing: all i need (radiohead)

By the time Dustin says it out loud, everyone has already known it for months.

“You know you two act like a married couple, right?”

You’re crouched on the floor of the Wheeler basement, surrounded by maps, half-empty cans of Coke, and notebooks filled with frantic handwriting and red circles around places that probably don’t exist anymore. Mike is sitting across from you, legs crossed, elbow on his knee, chin resting in his palm as he watches you talk with your hands.

You stop mid-sentence and Mike groans.

“Dustin.”

“What?” He shrugs. “I’m just saying. You plan together, you argue like an old couple, you finish each other’s sentences, and Mike looks like he’s about to pass out whenever she’s in danger.”

“That is not true,” Mike snaps a little too fast.

You don’t look at him. If you do, you’ll smile, and if you smile, it’ll give everything away.

Everyone knows. You just don’t say it.

You and Mike have been orbiting each other for so long it feels inevitable, like gravity, like if one of you stopped, the other would shatter.

You sit too close. You share glances across rooms. You fall asleep shoulder to shoulder during stakeouts, your head tipped against his collarbone like it belongs there.

But neither of you says the word. Love.

Joining the crawl was supposed to be different.

You’d wanted in for months, really in. Not just planning from the sidelines, not just being the one who noticed patterns and drew maps while everyone else ran headfirst into danger. You wanted to be there.

It took weeks to convince Mike.

“You don’t have to prove anything,” he’d said, pacing your driveway, hands tugging at his sleeves. “You already help. You’re already… you already matter.”

“That’s not what this is,” you’d insisted. “I can do this. I want to.”

He’d looked at you like he was afraid of losing something precious, which maybe he was.

Once he said yes, you went all in. Too all in.

You barely slept the week leading up to it. You stayed up late double-checking supplies, rewriting plans, memorizing escape routes. You skipped meals without noticing. Your hands shook from too much caffeine and not enough rest, but you brushed it off every time Mike asked if you were okay.

“I’m fine,” you kept saying. “Just focused.”

The day of the crawl comes heavy and humid, the air thick with that awful, electric feeling that always means something bad is waiting. You’re already tired before it even starts.

It happens fast, too fast.

One second, you’re moving through the abandoned stretch near the tunnels, heart pounding but steady, Mike right behind you like he always is. The next, there’s a sound.

It’s wrong. Wet. Too close.

Someone yells. Dustin swears.

Then you hear it, that low, distorted shriek that doesn’t belong to this world.

“Run,” Mike shouts.

You do.

Your legs burn almost immediately. Your lungs feel like they’re collapsing in on themselves, your breath coming too sharp and too shallow. Adrenaline pushes you forward even as your vision blurs at the edges.

You trip, catch yourself, and keep going.

You can hear Mike calling your name, panic threaded through his voice, closer than the others, always closer.

Then your body stops.

It isn’t dramatic. There’s no pain and no scream, just a sudden, terrifying weakness as your knees give out and the ground rushes up.

Mike doesn’t remember dropping his backpack or shouting at everyone to keep moving. He only remembers you.

Your body crumpling like you’ve been unplugged from something essential, your skin clammy and your breathing shallow as he drops to his knees beside you.

“Hey, hey, look at me,” he says, hands shaking as he cups your face. “You’re okay. You’re okay.”

You don’t answer.

His chest tightens so hard it feels like it might split open. For one horrifying second, he thinks you’re gone, and something in him snaps.

He gathers you up without thinking, arms tight around you as he runs, shouting directions and barking orders, terror bleeding into every word. He doesn’t stop until you’re safe and hidden, the others standing guard while he lowers you carefully onto the ground.

He presses his forehead to yours.

“Please,” he whispers. “Please wake up.”

When your eyes finally flutter open, he lets out a sound that’s halfway between a laugh and a sob.

You wake to warmth, to Mike. His jacket is draped over you, his hands gentle as he presses a bottle of water to your lips.

“Slow,” he murmurs. “Just a little.”

Your head throbs and your body feels heavy, like gravity has doubled.

“What happened?” you ask.

“You collapsed,” he says, voice tight. “You scared the hell out of me.”

The words hang there.

You try to sit up and he immediately puts a hand on your shoulder.

“Nope. Not happening.”

You blink at him. “Mike—”

“You didn’t sleep,” he cuts in. “You barely ate. You pushed yourself until your body literally shut down.”

There’s something raw in his voice now, anger edged with sharp, unhidden fear.

“I almost lost you,” he says quietly.

Your throat tightens.

“I didn’t mean to,” you whisper. “I just wanted to help.”

He laughs once, broken. “You think that’s ever been in question?”

Silence stretches between you, thick with everything unsaid. He exhales and rubs a hand over his face.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he admits. “And I hate that you don’t see that you’re already enough, that you don’t have to keep proving it.”

Your eyes burn.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t want me there,” you confess. “Afraid that if I didn’t try harder, if I didn’t keep up, you’d—”

“Stop,” he says immediately. He looks at you then, really looks at you, like he’s memorizing your face. “I’ve been in love with you since before I even understood what that meant.”

The world seems to tilt.

“You what?”

His voice shakes. “I love you. I always have. And when you fell today, I realized I can’t keep pretending this is anything else.”

Your breath stutters and tears spill over before you can stop them.

“I love you too,” you say. “I just didn’t want to ruin what we had.”

Mike leans forward, pressing his forehead to yours again, softer this time.

“You are what I have,” he says. “You always were.”

When he kisses you, it’s careful and reverent, like he’s afraid you might disappear if he isn’t gentle enough.

For the first time in a long time, the fear eases because you’re here and he’s holding you.

And neither of you is pretending anymore.

[6000yearstogether]

Bylerween Day 1! The Crawl!

Trying out new styles

[ibelievehawkins]

WE ARE DOING CRAWLS

So this theory is not based on my own thoughts. But unfortunately I can't credit the person saying this. I saw on Twt someone say, they took 38 crawls to find VECNA.

38 days later from the finale is the Superbowl

The crawls all consist of attempts to find Vecna and defeat him. We as a fanbase are also trying to find Vecna, we are trying to find clues of what is going on. We are doing this in all kinds of different directions.

The crawl has everything that we needed to get the hints, the WSQK radio, maps, dialogue about signals.

The crawl is the only registered episode

This could be the first real hint. They registered this one first and as the only one. At least when I am typing this.

With everything that is going on around the Superbowl, I think it might be true and not a coincidence that the amount of crawls is equal in days to the Superbowl.

[actuallyathena05]

chapter one…

the crawl

[deanismysavior]

S5 Is Mike's Closet: An Episode By Episode Breakdown into Mike's Indirect POV

Episode 1: The Crawl

Hi everyone, so I have a bit of a theory I'm going to work through during my s5 rewatch pre-finale, because I think the implications of this theory are huge for not only Byler, but Mike's arc this season.

Although s5 opens with Mike feeling more like a leader again, more like his old, authentic self, he still seems, more or less, sidelined again this season, and yet somehow, is present in the majority of the scenes. What if I told you all I think this is intentional?

I recently posted an analysis on Mike's indirect POV within the context of Kali's speech to Hopper, how although the conversation was not expressly directed at him, because he was in the room, it still applied to him. After I made this realization, I decided to go back, scene by scene, episode by episode, and watch everything again. And only 1 episode into season 5, I already have a motherload of evidence that points me toward believing that this theory and analysis could be correct.

Before I get into full scene breakdowns, I want to pay direct attention to the line Mike says when delegating their roles for the crawl. He says, "Lucas, we'll take our usual observation post," which literally, in text, sets Mike up to be an observer, which becomes important for later analyses.

Now that we have the basis for our theory, that Mike is still acting within each one of these scenes, that these scenes apply to Mike, let's get into the actual text.

Scene 1: Dustin's Hellfire Shirt

We know how important costuming and symbolism is in this show, and the Hellfire t-shirt, quite literally in text, is supposed to convey non-conformity, something that Eddie established in s4 when he claimed that conformity was "killing the kids."

After Eddie's death and surrounding scandal, we know that Hellfire has become a thing associated with satanism and danger. While everyone else in the group has let go of Hellfire, Dustin hasn't, attempting to live up to the promise he and Mike made Eddie last season to take on the club's legacy after Eddie graduated.

While Dustin, lives by this promise, Mike does not. He's trying to stay as normal as possible, once again.

While Dustin has his encounter with Andy and the bullies, Lucas, Will, and Mike all walk up to defend him. I want to expressly call out Mike's line here, which we all know and love for its cringiness, but I'm going to put a pin in it for later because I think it might be saying something important given the context. When Lucas says he would kick Andy's balls so hard they would pop like water balloons, Mike says, "I say kick away. Stop this mouth breather from reproducing and further infecting the would with his unique brand of idiocy"

The scene after shows Lucas, Will, and Mike all following after Dustin, concerned. And the dialogue is as follows:

Mike: You've gotta stop provoking them man.

Dustin: Oh, so this is my fault? For what? Wearing a t-shirt?

Lucas: You know it's more than just a t-shirt.

We've already established that the t-shirt is a symbol of non-conformity, but I want to draw your attention back to this line in s4, where Eddie references what Dustin and Mike were both wearing when he met them.

Here, Eddie says that while Dustin was wearing a Weird Al t-shirt, definitely not something that screams fitting in, Mike was wearing the "clothes [his] mommy bought him from the goddamn gap"

But while Dustin continues to where the t-shirt in s5, we see Mike revert back to dressing like he used to in prior seasons, preppier sweaters instead of the loose, relaxed look of Hellfire

In other words, Mike has regressed. He has gone back to conforming and trying to blend in, which is further indicated through the dialogue in the remainder of the scene

Dustin: I can't be like you guys and turn the other cheek while they spread their bullshit about Hellfire, about Eddie.

Mike: Eddie never gave a rat's ass about what those mouth breathers were saying about him and you know it. You know what he would care about is finding and killing Vecna

Dustin: Do you seriously think I don't care about that, Mike? Really?

Mike: I think you're fighting two battles and you need to be fighting one.

This especially feels like an interesting bit of dialogue. It feels to me like Mike is both saying this to Dustin and to himself, that Mike is throwing himself into focusing on Vecna to avoid the other internal battle going on within him. He's not paying attention to it because he can't face himself and the truth of his feelings.

Will: Mike's right, Dustin. What if you get hurt, like seriously hurt?

Lucas: You're drawing attention. Remember what Hop said. We need to keep our heads down.

Will: Follow the rules. Blend in.

Mike: Stay focused on our next crawl.

This bit of dialogue all messages the same thing. Don't stand out. Don't be different, or there will be consequences. Mike is signaling to himself here that he needs to stay focused on the crawl so that he doesn't risk outing himself and having to deal with the consequences of being authentic.

Dustin: Do you even hear yourselves right now? Blend in? Follow the rules? That's not what we've ever done.

Mike: (under breath) Jesus Christ.

Maybe it's a stretch, but invoking Jesus here almost seems like a subtle callback to "Fruit on pizza? That's blasphemous." At the very least, it calls attention to the conservatism and conformity that have an influence on Mike.

Dustin: We stay true to ourselves. We're supposed to stay true to our friends. We stand up for what's right, no matter the cost.

Lucas: You're not listening to us

Dustin: No, you're not

Will: Dustin!

Dustin is presented as pushing his friends away, as picking unnecessary fights, but on a textual level, he is doing what the others are too scared to do, to stand their ground and be authentic like Eddie was. And so, Dustin operates here as an enemy to Mike's closet, insisting for him to be true to himself while Mike still chooses safety and conformity.

And because I said I would come back around to Mike's comment to the bullies, I think there was intention about giving him a line about "Stop[ping] this mouth breather from reproducing," it's to further introduce the idea that Mike is influenced by the roles of the traditional American family: grow up, get married, have kids, and live a white-picket-fence lifestyle. I'll address this idea again in a later scene.

This narrative thread of Dustin's Hellfire shirt and his insistence on continuing Hellfire is once again brought up during the conversation between Mike, Lucas, and Will at the lunch table where Lucas claims Dustin "lost his damn mind" and that he's been talking about going out and "finding the lost sheep" again, a term that was once used to refer to both Dustin and Mike.

I think this is important to note in terms of not just Mike's wardrobe change, but his personality changes, how it seems that whoever he spends the most time around seems to drastically influence his sense of self. In this way, Mike is still the lost sheep looking for guidance and struggling with the balance of social acceptance and authenticity.

Scene 2: The Crawl Plan

There are a few key moments in this scene that I want to call too. Structurally, we are seeing Nancy and Mike both being portrayed as leaders here, initiating the plan of the crawl. But there seems to be dissatisfaction with this crawl in relation to the other party members.

When it's brought up that zone G1 is incredibly "Un-Vecna-y," the scene cuts to Dustin in which it says:

Dustin: Big Buy? What are the chances Vecna's shopping for Lucky Charms?

This is a direct foreshadowing to Will's coming out speech in which he uses "Lucky Charms" as one of the ways in which he is "like" all of his friends, with a direct pan on Mike's face before it cuts back to Will when he says it. Aside from the fact that this line once again ties Will and Vecna together, it's also worth looking at the symbolism of "Lucky Charms" in that the branding for Lucky Charms, even in the 80s, was riddled with rainbows. This brings queer-coded subtext to the forefront of this scene.

While Dustin is not shopping for Lucky Charms, it seems like Will, and in relation, Mike, who Dustin directs this question to, are shopping for Lucky Charms.

Later in this scene we see Will collapse against the tree during one of his visions, and he says:

Will: I just had this crazy feeling and then the sky was spinning...I don't know I guess maybe it's nothing, right?

Lucas: I don't know

Will: Maybe I just get nervous sometimes before crawls

Lucas: Yeah, I...I get nervous too. But the sky doesn't spin for me

Then Lucas looks at Mike, directing his next question toward him

Lucas: It ever spin for you?

Mike doesn't answer him, but instead purses his lips and says, directed to Will

Mike: Maybe he's close

This is so incredibly pointed. Once again, their friends are functioning as a way to illustrate that they are unlike Mike and Will. Lucas's sky doesn't spin when he gets nervous, but Will's does, and so does Mike. And we know this because of that line of dialogue, "Maybe he's close," meaning that the sky spins for Mike when Will is close to him.

Though Mike can't express this directly, as the narrative is still functioning as a closet for him, it can be expressed indirectly and through the dialogue of others.

Scene 3: Mike and Holly Heart-to-Heart

This was one of my favorite scenes we got from this episode because of both the emotional and narrative work that it's doing. Not only is this a big brother moment, but I think for a lot of this scene, Mike uses Holly as a stand-in to speak to a former version of himself, an attempt to rectify the preservation of his own innocence by preserving his sister's.

The scene begins with Holly expressing that her "mystery friend" Mr. Whatsit is "only trying to help"

Mike: Help? How?

Holly: By protecting me. He says there are monsters in Hawkins, and they like to eat kids like me.

This, to me, feels like a very direct callback to the atmosphere of the town when Will went missing in season 1. There was a lot of speculation that he was potentially killed or hurt by people who believed Will was gay, that he was pushed into the quarry or took his own life as a result of the homophobia rampant in Hawkins. The "monsters" in this scene are supposed to be representative of the "monsters" of the town Mike dealt with growing up, the bullies who talked about Will, and him, because of their preconceived notions about queerness.

I think this is especially a relevant take as we note that Mike and Holly are sitting beneath a wall with rainbow art, and while we know Holly supposedly has a crush on Josh, she is consistently paired with rainbows, just as Will had been textually in earlier seasons. This brings the line "kids like me" to mean something different than just it being about being a nerd. Whether or not Holly herself is queer, the symbolism behind why she is being targeted is there in the design and in how it relates to both Mike and Will.

We then get Mike switching into his protectiveness and introducing his character, Mike the Brave

Mike: Monsters aren't real, Holly

Holly: I don't believe you

Mike is in denial here. He's trying to protect Holly, but also protect himself. Monsters aren't real because they don't apply to you. Conform and you will be okay.

Mike: I know you're scared because of everything that's happened. With the crazy stories people tell, I mean, I get scared sometimes too.

Holly: No you don't

Mike: Are you kidding? Everyone in Hawkins is scared shitless, and anyone who says they aren't is full of it. Like that mouth breather in your class...What's his name again?

Holly: Derek?

Mike: Yeah, Derek. He probably wets his bed every night.

This is also a direct callback to Mike's season 1 bully, Troy who made fun of Will for being gay and whom El made pee himself. He was also the bully that showed up at the quarry to get revenge on Mike, getting him to jump off of the cliff into the quarry. I actually believe this whole scene is a callback to the implications of the quarry and how it still affects Mike.

Mike: You know who I turn to when I get scared?

Holly: *shakes her head*

Mike: Mike the Brave. He goes on these adventures called dungeon crawls.

Holly: What's a dungeon crawl?

Mike: Basically, he explores these underground worlds where he fights monsters, evil wizards, sorcerers and stuff. But Mike the Brave is never scared. So whenever I'm feeling frightened or nervous, I just imagine that he's at my side, and I feel better. So maybe the next time you get scared, you don't need this Mr. Whatsit. Maybe you just need Holly the Heroic.

These lines have so many implications. The first one, as pointed out by others, is that Mike talks about "fighting sorcerers" in his dungeon crawls. In this way, Mike views that in order to be the Brave leader and the man he's supposed to present as, he needs to fight off any feelings he has for Will.

I'd also like to point out the idea that if Mike is actually talking about himself, then this comparison about not needing Mr. Whatsit the "mystery friend," and instead needing Holly the Heroic, the woman figure in his life, this also plays into the idea that he feels the need to conform to traditional roles and standards for masculinity. Not needing another man, but instead a woman.

Before this scene ends, after Mike gives Holly the figurine of Holly the Heroic, the scene extends over Mike and Holly while Will starts talking in the next shot.

Will's voice over Mike: It was this weird feeling. Like something I really haven't felt before.

Will: Mike thinks it could mean that maybe Vecna's close, that he's finally re-emerged

We are meant to tie these scenes together, to tie the dialogue together, to tie Mike to Will's words. Acknowledging that the weird feeling that Mike has never felt before is his feelings for Will.

This scene is then followed by Will seeing Robin and Vickie together, allowing the narrative to pull in the comparison of the feeling never experienced before into the dynamic of a canon queer couple on the show.

Scene 5: The M*leven Rooftop Talk

We've talked about how this scene sets up Mike and El's relationship ending, but I think I have some new insights to share about this scene.

The scene itself starts by focusing on Dustin, and as I illustrated from my analysis of Dustin's earlier scene, we are meant to see Mike and Dustin in tandem with Mike representing the closet and conformity while Dustin is representing non-conformity.

El: Do you think Dustin is okay?

Mike: I hope so. He was acting weird today.

El: Weird how?

Mike: Just angry, scared, reckless. Not himself

I think this is a really interesting bit of dialogue coming off the introduction of Mike the Brave. "Angry, scared, reckless" are all descriptors that easily could have applied to Mike when he was going through his own level of survivor's guilt in season 2, believing El might be dead and having to contend with that loss while also re-introducing Will into the narrative. "Angry, scared, reckless" also feels very much like season 1 Mike who was willing to jump off a cliff to save his friend with the weight of knowing that was where Will's body was recovered. Mike the Brave is not angry, scared, and reckless. He does not let his emotion influence his decisions in the same way s1 and s2 crashout Mike did.

El: Hopper's the same, not himself

Hopper is another character we know is actively dealing with the grief of having lost someone, of survivor's guilt. And this shows up in his attempt to sacrifice himself

Mike: Maybe it's just getting to us, you know? Being stuck in here, not knowing where Vecna is, no end in sight. I mean, we really need to catch a break. And maybe we will. Because earlier, Will had a feeling.

This whole bit is so loaded. And I think it could have many possible meanings. "It's getting to us," -- quite literally getting to Mike and El's relationship, the staleness of it, the lies between them. Mike is not himself with El.

But also, "Maybe it's just getting to us, you know? Being stuck in here" can also refer to Mike's own struggle with his proximity to Will over the past 18 months. When the Byers were in California, Mike had space to not confront his feelings about both El and Will, but now that he and Will are literally living in the same house, there is no escaping how he feels differently and more about Will than he does about El.

El: If Will has a feeling--

Mike: Then it means something. So...So, maybe tonight's our break. Maybe even our last crawl. We find Vecna and we end this once and for all.

If this is not so incredibly breakup coded, I don't know what is. Mike is acknowledging that Will's feelings, that his feelings for Will mean something. And tonight is the "break," the "last crawl" for his relationship with El, essentially saying that their relationship is on it's last legs because Will is involved and Mike can't ignore Will's feelings or his own.

El: And then what happens?

Mike: You mean after you totally demolished Vecna? In my campaigns, if the party wins, then they all live happily ever after.

El: Happily how?

Mike: Well, usually what happens is the party doesn't return to their local village because too much has happened. They've seen too much. So, they travel to a faraway land, a...a peaceful land, somewhere beautiful with like three waterfalls or something, and they all start again, together.

I think here, Mike is actually foreshadowing El's ending. She cannot return to the local village (Mike) because she has seen too much, but she will travel to a faraway, peaceful land. This to me represents both El's arc into independence and Mike's continued use of the fantasy of a traditional, hetero-normative lifestyle to ignore the blatant closet he is hiding in.

El: Do you think that could be real for us?

Mike: Yeah, of course. I mean not the three waterfalls part. But the other stuff, yeah, of course. If Vecna's gone, what's stopping us?

Many people pointed out the comparison of Will as Vecna as expressed in Sorcerer, meaning, if Will's out of the picture in this hetero fantasy, what is stopping us? But I think it's also fun to note that while the "three waterfalls" are not realistic for Mike and El, Mike can't shut up about Will taking out "three, to be exact" of the demogorgons.

The scene then cuts to Lucas calling Mike and El "lovebirds," and while I don't necessarily think their expressions are signifying that they have already broken up, the lack of love on their faces is supposed to create a sense of cognitive dissonance between what we see and what we hear.

I'd also like to note that the very next shot we get of Mike is him dressed in camouflage immediately after having a conversation about his hetero fantasy ending. Like, let's be serious.

And that immediately cuts to our final scene I want to discuss here.

Scene 6: Signal

During the preparation for the crawl, we see Robin on the walkie with Steve trying to find the signal.

Robin: Harrington, you getting any signal? Tag is active

Steve: Yeah, just give me a second. Hey does anybody know how Henderson's wheelie thing works?

Robin: Uh, any ideas?

Will: There's a safety lock. Look for a small switch under the wheel.

Steve: Safety lock, real necessary. Okay, getting a signal. It's pretty quiet though.

Despite the fact that Steve and Will have never really spoken to each other on screen, Will is the one to step in here, which is intentional to not just set up his independence narrative with Joyce, but when we read this as a scene shortly following the conversation between El and Mike, it sets up another dynamic about signals.

The subtext here is that the signal between Mike and El is there, but quiet. And the one helping them find that signal? Will.

Steve: How am I supposed to monitor the signal and drive?

Will: I can do it. I...I can monitor.

Not only is Will the one that finds the signal, but he monitors it, much like how we saw him repair the relationship between El and Mike in s4.

When we compare this to Mike's position in the crow's nest as he's watching Hopper, this dialogue takes on another meaning to. When Hopper goes into the upside down, he says:

Mike: He's flipped

Joyce: Jonathan, signal?

Jonathan: Snagged it

Quite literally, when Mike "flips," when he switches teams, when he interacts with Will instead of El, no longer is the signal quiet. It's snagged, easily.

This concludes my full analysis of Mike Wheeler's indirect POV in The Crawl, but expect that I will be back with more episode-by-episode breakdowns.

Thanks for reading!

[dustins-wife]

Hiii, Ive started reading your blog and I LOVE IT, it's very hard finding Dustin fics lately and finding an account with such an amazing writing is like finding a treasure. I was wondering if you could please write something in such reader is Eddie's sister that he swore to take care of after he was gone and she gets some of the exotic matter on her eyes during vol 2 which leaves her temporarily blind. If you are not comfortable doing so it's ok, I've just been thinking a lot about it. Please and thank you 🌞

-♠️

thank you!! and this is such a good idea!!

EXOTIC MATTER

with dustin henderson ⋆˚࿔

⋆˚꩜｡ pairing ; dustin henderson x eddie munson's little sister reader

⋆˚꩜｡ tags ; angsty fluff, set during season 5 (events from ep.5 Shock Jock), dustin comforting reader, reader becomes blind, jonathan being a hero, implied jancy, mentions of death, dustin plays guitar, basiclally the whole cast mentioned once, dustin blaming himself for everything, use of y/n

⋆˚꩜｡ author's note ; tried my best to write the events as close as detailed and close to canon as i possibly could, sorry if it’s not very accurate 😭 teared up while writing this btw. ALSO how do you guys feel about me putting these stories on ao3?? cause i’ve been thinking about it

⋆˚꩜｡ word count ; 2.029

back to my masterlist? — follow my spam blog @dustins-wife2

꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦

Eddie’s death came like a car running high-speed into a deer in a dark night, the deer in this case being Dustin.

Just a few hours later, before going into the upside, Dustin and Eddie were sitting in the grass, touching up their weapons before battle. The sound of crickets faded into the background as silence reigned over the scene.

"Henderson promise me something.” Eddie breaks the quiet, not looking up from his hands; he was playing around with his rings.

“Yeah, anything.” The curly head turned to the older boy holding the makeshift shield he made for “bat-tle” with the lid of a trash can with some spikes attached to the outside.

“If..” Eddie gulps “If anything goes wrong tonight, promise me you’ll take care of Y/n for me.” 

You were his little sister he’d give his life for. He has been your best friend since you were a child, always trying his best to take care of you when your parents couldn’t, before moving to Wayne’s house.

Dustin stayed quiet for a bit, trying to process the words of his friends, the idea of him dying feeling absurd. A lump forms in his throat, slowly nodding his head before answering “Yeah. I will. I promise i will.” 

“But you’ll survive tonight, you’re gonna rock those demobats.” The boy smiles, trying to change the grotesque subject.

Those words rang in his head while he watched his best friend die in his arms that same night, tears running down his cheeks, some falling on the lifeless body’s face he was holding in his arms.

A year has passed since that moment and Dustin always kept his promise. He never left your side, even through his grief, he always checked up on you, occasionally visited your house when uncle Wayne wasn’t there, you two became pretty close friends.

You were also the only person who was able to make him smile through such dark times. 

Hanging out with him became the norm; at his house, caring for his hair as he practiced on his guitar in comfortable silence, reading comics laying next to one another, not sharing a word for hours and enjoying the comfortable silence of eachother’s company.

One day you got curious and asked him how your dear brother passed away, since no one was able to give you a straight answer.

He then explained to you about everything that has been going on in Hawkins in these years; Vecna, the Mind Flayer, the upside down, demogorgons, the military base, Jane, everything that has been kept away from you and many other citizens.

That’s how you became part of a group that was trying to defeat Vecna and started to join in on Crawls. Some of these people were already familiar to you, like Lucas and Mike, hearing your brother mention them once or twice.

A few months later, the group was in the upside down to search for Mike and Nancy’s little sister, Holly. You are all divided into groups, you being sorted with Dustin, Steve, Nancy and Jonathan. Dustin finds out that the upside down has a circular wall going around it and that probably in the center of the circle, Hawkin’s Lab, there’s a shield generator.

So off you all go to Hawkin’s Lab to turn off the generator, as you were walking there, everyone felt unsure about Dustin’s plan, no one truly trusted him, especially Steve, which was weird because him and the older boy always have had a strong relationship, but recently it felt different. Even at the church when Dustin explained his thought process to you all, the tension between the two of them was powerful.

You decide to approach Dustin, who was walking by himself. 

“Hey” you step next to him with a slight smile. With hearing the sound of your voice, Dustin slowly turned his head towards you.

“Hey” he said unamused, cuts and dried blood still on his face from “crashing into a pole” with his bike and totally missing the crawl.

“You..think there’s gonna be a generator?” you ask, fidgeting with your hands “Not that i doubt you or anything, i trust you obviously…” your voice trails off, hoping he got the point

“If my calculations are correct, then yes, the circle around the upside down is most definitely caused by a generator in the origin point.” He stays quiet for a few seconds, a glimpse of guilt across his eyes “It’s..I understand if you don’t trust me with this shit. I killed your brother, I wouldn't trust myself either.”

“Dustin, don’t say that. Eddie’s death wasn’t your fault, it was a fatal casualty that you had no control over.” you don’t stop looking at him, until you do, your eyes running over the path in front of you. “You’re the smartest boy I know, I trust you.”

You both share a small smile, before stopping in front of the lab.

The 5 of you decide to divide into groups to explore the whole place; Dustin and Steve explore down stairs, while you, Nancy and Jonathan explore upstairs. 

Before you could go and follow the older duo upstairs, Dustin grabbed your shoulder. “Don’t get hurt, yeah?” He looked at you with care, and a slight edge of fear, his thumb rubbing your shoulder gently.

“I’ll be careful.” You smile, putting your hand on his, before following Jon and Nance up the stairs.

It didn’t take long for the three of you to find a door that led to a staircase with something that looked like solidified white goo dripping everywhere. Jonathan highlighted how the air was clean, sporeless. 

“Whatever this is, Vecna’s had something to do with it.” Said Jonathan looking around, flashing his light. Everywhere you turned felt like you were in the aftermath of Chernobyl’s explosion, except instead of burning, everything started melting. Including the bodies of different men you found molded into the ground and walls.

Jonathan finds the door to the roof access, and at the top of that flight of stairs, Nancy found, flashing her light towards it, the shield generator.

“Guys look!” The older Wheeler called towards me and Will’s brother, she then proceeded to show that the air showed a pattern in the sky whenever she flashed her light at a certain area. Promptly, Jonathan took a pipe and threw it against the thicker air, causing it to light up with a few blue lighting shocks, revealing its spherical shape, then resting.

“Dark magic..” said Jonathan, eyes wide, looking at that spot. 

At that moment, the walkie-talkie you were using to keep in contact with Steve and Dustin went off, Dustin’s barely audible voice came out of it, calling your names. Even though it was barely recognizable from the static, your head snapped as soon as you heard that tone, launching yourself towards the walkie-talkie Jonathan was holding.

“Dustin? It’s Jonathan, I can't hear you well. We found the shield generator.” Dustin’s voice could hardly be heard but you could feel something was off.

“He sounds panicked.” You say, worried “Maybe he found something?" 

“It’s probably just his broken walkie-talkie” said Jonathan dismissively, putting it down and looking back up at the generator.

After a bit of thinking, Nancy decides to do what she does best; shooting.

A bullet to the mass caused a chemical reaction out of it, a bright blue light shot back out of it, going across the whole upside down. 

That’s the last thing you saw before passing out. The energy of the explosion being too strong it knocked you and the other two to the floor. making the three of you pass out at the spot.

It must’ve been a miracle, because just in time Jonathan and Nancy were able to wake up as the floor under you was sinking into that white goo you saw before. You didn’t wake up, slowly sinking down. 

Jonathan picked you up, throwing you over his shoulder like a potato sack and grabbing Nancy’s hand before making a run towards the exit as the floor under their feet melted with every step. Speeding down the flight of stairs they bumped into Steve and Dustin who were climbing up.

“Down! Go down!” Jonathan yelled, having you still slanted across his shoulder, holding you by your hip.

“Y/n! How’s Y/n?!” Dustin screamed in panic, before Steve grabbed his arm and pulled him down the stairs that were insanely unstable.

Once you got to safety, Jonathan placed you carefully on the floor, the gooey substance was all over your clothes and hair. Dustin kneeled next to you in a panic and grabbed your torso, holding it up against himself, getting his clothes even more dirty with the medium.

The room was quiet, everyone stood around, looking down at your body. Dustin’s eyes were filled with tears.

“Is she dead?” Dustin looked up at Nancy and Jonathan, a waterfall threatening to break out of his eyes, before looking back down to check your pulse.

“She got hit with the same energy we did. We woke up a few minutes later, maybe she–” Nancy started before getting interrupted by your heavy breathing, your mouth gasping for air as you opened your eyes.

“Thank fucking god.” Steve let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Y/n! Y/n, can you hear me?” Dustin said between tears, he watched as your eyes cluelessly looked at the ceiling above you.

“Dustin?” You mutter out, scared. Your vision is obscure, even though you’re sure you’ve opened your eyes.

“It’s me, I'm here. I’m right here.” His hand went up to caress your cheek.

“I-I can’t see..” you let out, tears falling out of your eyes before exploding into a sob.

It was quiet, only the sound of your quiet sobbing filling up the hallway they were in.

“It’s okay..it’s okay, feel me, I’m right here.” His hand goes to yours, gripping it tightly. “Can you feel my hand?” His voice was shaky with tears

Your fingers interlink with his as you nod. 

“Good, good...” Dustin muttered, squeezing your hand. Dustin’s tear streaked face looked up at Nancy and Jonathan once more. “What you teased was not the generator, it was something called exotic matter. High chance it got into her eyes, blinding her.” He looked back down at you.

“Permanently?” Jonathan asked, melancholically. 

Dustin shook his head slowly “I-I don't know, i hope not.”

⊹₊˚‧︵‿₊୨ᰔ୧₊‿︵‧˚₊⊹

After you all got back to Hawkins and Dustin explained what he saw, forming a new plan, he sat next to you on one of the couches in the secret basement of The Squawk.

“Hey.” He says, grabbing one of your shoulders, indicating you to lay your head on his lap. “I’ve been doing some research on exotic matter and similar states of matter, your blindness definitely isn’t permanent.”

“Hey.” You say, recognizing his voice obliging to his request, feeling subsequently, his hand on your cheek as he caressed it. “That’s amazing news.” You give him a tender smile.

“I’m sorry.” He breathes out “I should’ve told you to come down stairs with me and Steve, I should've been faster to warn you about the exotic matter–” You shut him up by putting your hand on his chest, slowly rising up his neck to find his cheek and caress it.

“Dustin, I'm alive. That’s all that matters. It’s not your fault the matter got in my eyes.” You smile gently, he smiles back, even though you can’t see it, and puts his hand on yours. You already missed seeing his face.

“I love you.” Dustin mutters, squeezing your hand.

“I love you too.” You mutter back “I wish I could kiss you.” You say with a simper.

“Do you want me to kiss you?” Dustin’s lips turn in a half-smile.

“Yes.” You say, your hand falling to his neck as you sat on his lap and pulled him in. 

His hand found your waist and squeezed it before leaning in and gently pushing his lips against yours for a few seconds. 

You hug him tight, feeling his arms wrap around your body as you embrace eachother.

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