#&. v / arc. iv ( dustin henderson. )

[scoopstrooptm]

@harringtontm sent a meme: ❝ it isn’t fair, your age…having to deal with all of this. ❞ — from steve for dustin : ' )

       At a certain point in the last couple of days, Dustin had run out of tears to shed — or at least they'd stopped falling. But that hadn't stopped the upset still leaving him in a chokehold, causing his bottom lip to wobble every now and then, giving him an almost permanent redness around his eyes, making his breath hitch ever occasionally when he spoke. The time itself had passed in a bit of a blur; Dustin could only remember flashes from the last two days. He remembered Steve pulling him away from Eddie. He remembered seeing government cars and helicopters piling into Hawkins. He remembered reuniting with Lucas and finding out what had happened to Max, even if he hadn't yet found the courage to go visit her at the hospital himself. That was where Eddie should have been, after all. That was where Dustin had promised to take him, in those final moments together under the stormy, reddened skies of the Upside Down.

       Dustin was pretty sure Steve hadn't left his side ever since then — it had either been him or Robin close by, keeping an eye on him. They'd told his mom that they'd all been caught up in the earthquake and had been lucky to get out alive — explaining his limp after falling through the trailer gate after Eddie — and that it had left him feeling shaken. They couldn't tell her the truth. She could never know what or who he'd lost. She'd been worried enough about a killer being on the loose in Hawkins as it was. Like the rest of this town, she'd never believe that Eddie was innocent.

       The silence between them this morning had been comfortable, sat on the bench outside on the front porch of his house, waiting on an update via the radio from Erica after their latest trip to the hospital. It was a surprise when Steve spoke. It felt like they'd barely said anything to each other over the last two days. Just having Steve around, someone who knew what had really happened, keeping him company, had been enough.

       “ I just keep thinking that... if I'd gotten him to the gate in time, if we'd gotten him through, then he might have been at the hospital with Max right now. ” It was nice to speak the thoughts out loud to someone, even if Dustin's eyes watered a little as he said it. “ There might have been a chance. ”

       He quickly rubbed his eyes, letting the quiet fall between them again. It stretched on a little while longer. “ You never got to play D&D with us. ” Dustin turned to look at Steve. Maybe it wasn't the most important thing to be thinking about right now, but there'd been a time not that long ago when all he'd wanted was for Steve and Eddie to stop being jealous of each other and just hang out. He turned the radio over in his hands. “ I really wanted you to play. I kept telling Eddie that one day you'd turn up to Hellfire when we needed a sub, and he never believed me. ”

[scoopstrooptm]

tag drop pt. 2