Chapter Text
dustin probably knew what he was getting into when he found an interdimensional alien and decided to keep it, yet he did it anyway. and he screwed up this time, badly.
all to impress max mayfield. the new girl who didnt even know anything about the upside down, looking back on it, there wasnt all that much of a point trying to look cool for her validation.
and now hes got to deal with the consequences. how fun.
it wasnt all that fun scrubbing his cats blood off of his rug while listening to his asshole half brother blast metal from his room.
his “brother” billy (dustin wouldnt even consider billy family. he was practically a stranger) moved in with dustin and his mom, along with his equally cunt of a father, neil hargrove.
and jesus christ, dustin wished his mom would notice how horrible they are so they could get the boot back to california. its clear both billy and dustin would prefer it that way.
hiding everything from billy was, hard. hiding ANYTHING from billy was hard, the brute always felt the need to stick his nose in dustins business. or somewhere it doesnt belong.
hes lucky he had some years here in hawkins before billy moved in, even with dustin himself moving in later than the rest of the party. at least he can have some friends before billy tries to tell him he cant see them anymore. which wouldnt work, by the way. billy realistically will not stop dustin from seeing his friends, he wont let it happen.
he subconsciously groaned as he started scrubbing the floor roughly, before sighing and giving up for a moment before realizing he cant just leave the floor like this. not with billy home. he moaned even louder and rubbed his face with his arm wiping off some sweat. back to scrubbing.
thankfully enough, it was easy to hit dart into the bunker, with billy off looking for mews with his mom. which was pretty lucky, but considering billy had nothing else to do, he took the opportunity. while they were looking around at loch nora, dustin geared up and risked his life batting dart into their bunker.
cleaning wasnt all that much easier now, as it seems billy got bored so he came back home. jackass.
mews was already buried, and he was almost done. but he still needed anyone to answer, but nope. everyone was fucking MIA. and there was no way in hell he was doing this alone. (or with billy.)
“this is dustin. again. does anyone copy? this is a code red, seriously.” he was about to open his mouth again until he heard the beep of the walkie, someone was coming through, and it was so unexpected he kinda jumped.
“ could you please shut up? ” he had heard the young tone of a girl, along with the default static of the walkie. erica.
dustin perked up as he paused scrubbing, and wiped some sweat off his forehead.
“erica? erica, is lucas there? where is he? can you-“
“ dont know. dont care. ” he heard the annoyance peeking through her tone, and he held back a grumble as erica wasnt working with him.
“is- is he with mike then?” dustin sat up, staring at the scratches on his wall, also thinking of a way to cover that up while speaking to erica.
“ like i said, i dont know, and i dont care. ”
jesus christ. dustin huffed, continuing to try and talk to the girl who wasnt bothering to listen to him.
“please, tell him its super important. please tell him that i have a code-“ dustin spoke steadily, making sure to emphasize his words so erica would just understand. even though hes pretty sure she wont.
“ code red? ” erica finished for him, and dustin could already see her rolling her eyes. but she was getting it.
dustin smiled and nodded, as if she was there speaking to him while he thought she was going to actually try and help, even with the snark tone in her voice.
“ mhm. i got a code for you instead, ”
dustin stopped smiling as he listened carefully, mindlessly staring at the wall as erica talked down to him.
“ its called code shut. your. mouth. ” erica emphasized her words as dustin heard the short twist of a knob and then radio static as he slumped down.
“.. erica?” dustin stammered. no response. what a joke. he groaned and rested his head against his wall as he closed his eyes. where the hell was everyone? so much for getting any help from erica. he doesnt know what he expected from a nine year old.
he listened closely to the metal music blasting through the thin walls house as he sat there for a moment, then just thought screw it, and he moved his chair back against the wall and just kept his cleaning supplies hidden as well, standing up and rushed out of his room, not caring much for taking his gloves off, and actually threw an extra pair in his bag. hopefully there would he someone wearing them with him soon.
he gulped as he walked through the living room as he glanced from the front door to billys door, before billy came out of the kitchen and looked him up and down. fuck.
“where the hell are you going?” billys face twisted in a scowl as his words spat out of his mouth calmly, leaning on the wall next to the door as he towered over his little brother.
dustin gulped, keeping a mirrored look as he maintained eye contact with billy.
“mikes house. you know him, you saw him when you picked me up.” billy raised a brow, even though he knew who dustin was talking about.
dont act like this, dustin thought as he stood his ground and didnt move. billy didnt either, still blocking the door.
even though billy had seen enough, he continued racking his eyes up and down dustin, his gaze finally landing on his gloves for a few seconds before back to his eyes.
“and do what? clean his house up for him and his family?” billy leaned down and grabbed dustins hand, bringing it up to the brunettes own face as if he didnt know he had the gloves on.
“no.” dustins voice raised no higher than a whisper, and at the same time he felt his knees almost shaking as billys face didnt change at all.
“you better not be lying to me.” billys eyes became half lidded as he looked completely uncaring, but dustin knew that just meant how much more explosive he was. billy leaned down so he was eye to eye with dustin.
“im not, ” dustin felt the urge to back away, and cower, but billy huffed in his face and moved back up to be looking down at dustin as he gave him an unimpressed look.
without any more words, billy roughly pushed himself off the wall and stormed to his room.
“dont fucking make me come and get you,” billy shouted so dustin could hear, and slammed the door to his room.
dustin removed his eyes from the wall and looked to billys room as he let out a massive sigh of relief, but jesus christ billy knew how to intimidate him.
he quickly ran out the door and picked up his bike that was just laying on his lawn as he jumped on it and started pedaling away from his house before billy changed his mind.
hes lucky he doesnt live all that far from mikes house, and hes glad billy could tell he wasnt lying about going to mikes. his half brother is like a fucking lie ditector, and dustins pretty good at lying. he has no clue how billy can even tell.
even though he doesnt really like lying, especially not to family, he lies to billy for both of their own goods. even though he doesnt like billy. but then again, mostly for himself. and if he rarely lies to his mom, its for HER own good. telling her that mews was spotted in loch nora was probably the best thing he could say.
he might as well be dead in a ditch if he was entirely honest to billy. letting that douche have free reign over his social life and general day-to-day life? no thanks.
and he shivered thinking of the consequences if billy decided he wanted dustin home at any moment in time, billy would burn the whole town down looking for him if thats what it would take. and he would only go looking for him if he really needed to, or out of spite.
he pulled his bike into the wheelers drive way as he just set his bike down, uncaring as he jogged up to the door. he quickly stuffed his rubber gloves into his bag, before he heard mrs wheeler shouting for a moment before mikes dad opened the door and dustin looked up at him with clear annoyance. he started talking as soon as he saw the door open, not wanting to waste time.
“your line has been busy for over two hours , mr wheeler. do you realize this?” he seethed and glared at mr wheeler, who also looked just as unhappy as dustin.
“oh, i do realize.” mr wheeler almost grumbled, and nodded his head as he leaned against the door frame, looking bored.
“is mike home?” dustin sighed, starting to subconsciously tap his foot. he didnt get confronted by billy for this.
“no.” dustin sighed, for the 8th fucking time today, where the hell is everyone? where is mike?
“no? well where the hell is he?” dustin shook his head, this was unbelievable. the one day he needs anyone, theyre all gone. doing god knows what.
he sees mr wheeler huff before shouting out, “karen, wheres our son?”
dustin grumbled, the old bastard probably knew where he was and was just pressing his buttons.
“wills!!” mrs wheelers voice rung through the house and out the door, hitting dustins ears as he rolled his eyes.
“wills.” mr wheeler turned back around to face him, and parroted what his wife said back to dustin.
dustin scoffed, “nobodys picking up there.”
he saw mr wheeler going to close the door so he hurriedly started talking again.
“nancy, what about nancy?” dustin chewed on the inside of his lip as mr wheeler clicked his tongue before turning his head around. again.
“karen, wheres nancy?” he has to be fucking kidding.
“ allys!!! ” mrs wheeler yelled back, voice high pitched and annoyed. mr wheeler sighed.
“allys.” dear god.
dustin sourly smiled as he closed his eyes, nodding as he felt impatience build up in him.
“our children dont live here anymore. you didnt know that?” mr wheeler had an eyebrow raised as he looked even more miserable than he did when he first opened the door, and dustin knew he was only half joking.
dustin looked up at mr wheeler with a dull look, with lidded eyes, one that matched billys.
“seriously?” dustin flatly mumbled out, as if he was holding back screaming at mr wheeler. he was forcing himself to stay calm.
mr wheeler didnt even give him an answer, just raised both his brows. “am i done here?”
dustin glared at him crudely and didnt bother holding back his look of resentment as he looked mr wheeler up and down judgingly.
“son of a bitch, youre really no help at all, you know that?” dustin sneered and kept uttering curses under his breath as he heard mr wheeler remind him of his ‘language.’ what bullshit. dustin was almost like billy at the moment, wasnt he?
much like his interaction with erica, it was useless and provided him absolutely nothing he could work with. who the hell even was ally? he kicked the dirt while rushing to his bike and picked it up again, anger still residing in him.
he turned his head at the sound of gravel rustling, just to see steves car pull in as dustin let out a relieved snit, backtracking to follow the cars movement.
he saw a pissy steve walk out, mumbling something, and a bouquet of red roses in his hand as he went over his apology for nancy, before rolling his eyes and continuing to talk to himself.
too bad, so sad. dustin noticed he hadnt locked his car doors, so dustin smirked a little before walking right up to steve.
“hey. steve.” dustin spoke loud enough and steve shot his head in dustins direction and immediately squinted his eyes, looking at his face intently. what the hell?
dustin stood right in front of steve as he looked dead in his eyes, and steve rose an eyebrow.
“are those for mr or mrs wheeler?” steve didnt even really know this kid, only seeing him around from nancys brothers little party. but he looked familiar.
“..no?” steve lifted his flowers and looked at them before diverting his attention back to dustins glaring face. he almost felt uneasy looking at this kid without being able to know where he saw someone similar to him. with those same icey blue eyes and a mess of curly hair, and the same detesting stare. did he have like, an older brother or something?
“good.” dustin spoke in a dissatisfied manner, and still stared steve down. this kid needs an ego check, jesus christ. he watched as the brunette then snatched the roses out of his hands in an instant and turned back around, walking to steve's car.
“hey, what the hell? hey!” steve grumbled as he bent down quickly to pick up a rose that fell from the bouquet as he stared up at the young teenager who looked back at steve with a look that held no room for argument, opening the car door, not caring all that much for what steve had to say.
“do you still have that bat?” dustin turned around with his hand resting on the opened car door as steve let out an little laugh, this was unbelievable. and also, those were fucking nancys flowers he just took. he looked back at dustin, who was serious.
“bat? what bat?” steve was speaking fast as he was annoyed, and shrugged as he watched dustin turn to face the road with an irritated look before turning back to steve.
“the one with the nails.” dustin explained smoothly as he was started to shift a little closer in the car, as steve looked dumbfounded. how did he even know about his bat?
“why?” steve looked around a little, certainly uneasy now as he was in the presence of a kid who he saw once, maybe twice, looked eerily familiar, and was getting in his car without letting steve have a say.
“ill explain it all on the way,” dustin raised his voice, and pointed in the car, insinuating steve to get in the car before he finally lowered himself and sat in the passenger seat.
before he could close it steve rose his eyebrows and his eyes darted around, “now?”
steve saw dustin slump in the seat from disappointment, and turned his head in steves direction.
“now!!” dustin shouted at him as he slammed steves car door, and steve gulped as he ran up to the drivers side and opened the door as he practically jumped in, and started the car as he heard the tires screech from him pulling out so fast.
he was diverting his attention from the road to dustin constantly, as he stayed silent.
he can't believe he was letting himself get bossed around by a 13 year old.