stranger things imagines.

know it all: dustin henderson.

dustin henderson always knew how to soothe y/n l/n just right.
it wasn't a rare occurrence that the girl stumbled upon something that scared her or something that made her eyes prick with tears,
but luckily dustin was a boy who knew almost everything.
so it wasn't a difficult job to explain just what she had seen was something usual and not at all scary,
or using simple words to explain the movements of life that did not warrant tears.
and y/n was comforted every time.
including today.
"it's just, like, i see things in the dark. i'm telling you, dustin, there's not an explanation for this."
"you see what in the dark, exactly?"
dustin asks,
not bothering to pick his head up from the homework beneath him.
y/n sits beside him with her head lying to his shoulder.
"things, i don't know. something like...silhouettes."
dustin is silent for a second.
until he turns his head to face her and smiles.
"so you do have an explanation."
"can i tell you?"
y/n sighs with a playful eye roll.
"yes, you can tell me. know it all."
after he chuckles,
dustin offers her an explanation,
"your eyes and brain are just adjusting to the dark. also, keeping you prepared lest there be danger around."
"i love that you make sense of everything. what an easy life to live, not being superstitious or anxious."
dustin shrugs his free shoulder at y/n's comment.
"just takes a little deep thinking, is all."
the girl presses a kiss to his cheek that fills his existence up on warmth.
he leans a little further into her embrace at this.
"does it take deep thinking to finish this algebra work?"
y/n now asks in the tone of a joke.
dustin snickers when he says,
"the deepest of thinking."
like always,
dustin has finished his homework for the night and is able to pack up for an evening of relaxation.
but y/n has fallen behind in his company,
considering how easy it can be to distract her,
and is packing it up to be done tomorrow morning before class.
which,
like always,
dustin will help her complete it in the empty hallways.
"you never finish your work. why don't you ever finish?"
dustin asks her with a gentle smile against his lips.
"because i find talking to you much more entertaining. is that such a crime?"
"no, but your grades are."
y/n guffaws at his light jest then gives his arm a slap.
"you're awful."
"i'm only kidding,"
dustin recovers.
he knows he doesn't have to do this as often as he does,
considering y/n makes it known when her feelings have been hurt.
but just in case he ever goes too far,
dustin always ends his jokes with clarification.
"i know. now...are we finished? can we do something fun now?"
"what would you like to do?"
y/n looks at her hands and begins toying with them,
which can only mean one thing.
dustin makes a show of groaning in protest.
"come on! dustin, it's the perfect time to do it."
"i just don't see the point in scouring the woods for something we know isn't there."
y/n draws up an eyebrow.
"but we don't know. we have never looked. you're just taking the word of some small time reporters."
"y/n,"
dustin warns with a finger pointed in her direction.
"don't start."
"dustin henderson, the boy who knows it all. but...what's that? he won't investigate himself? he's believing hawkins reporters? why...i never thought i'd live to see the day he's been quieted by the media."
dustin knows what y/n is doing,
but he'd be damned if it doesn't work every single time.
he jumps up from his seat and declares,
"let's go. we're finding this damn thing."

a shoe.
that's all it is:
a simple sneaker.
mysterious disappearances had been happening all over town as of late,
but everyone just blamed it on the suffocation this place provided.
runaways weren't something unheard of and it quickly became the only possible explanation for these absences.
until a week ago,
y/n heard that one of the kids who had left hadn't left by choice after all.
but instead,
had been taken by force.
her proof?
a shoe left in the woods that was rumored to have blood on it.
where y/n caught wind of this information,
dustin has no idea.
he never really paid much mind to the announcements of who had runaway,
considering it was happening in mass lately,
but y/n was on the case like her life depended on it;
once she sinks her teeth into the flesh of something unresolved,
she is relentless.
she doesn't give up until there's an answer.
it's why her and dustin get along so well.
y/n needs an answer for everything and dustin has it.
but this?
it is something beyond his area of expertise.
maybe if she had asked him why a single shoe had been left in the woods with blood,
he could've answered with the possibility of:
kids being where they weren't supposed to be.
but actually searching for this piece of evidence?
it is something else entirely and it makes his skin crawl.
but if it means proving y/n wrong,
that he will not be stilled by hawkins reporters,
then maybe it will be worth it.
and maybe y/n can find closure for whatever reason she has for being as concerned with this as she is.
"will you hold my hand? i can't see."
y/n requests now that they stand at the edge of the woods,
mere seconds away from entering.
"i thought you could see in the dark,"
he teases while reaching over to place his guiding hand into hers.
"i said i could see things in the dark, not that i could see clearly in the dark."
"mm, my bad."
y/n mocks his words with gibberish,
but it's enough to ease her nerves for the time being.
and dustin can tell the girl is rather frightened;
that is why she asked for his helping hand.
but if she is not willing to tell,
dustin will not ask.
he has never forced y/n to speak about something she didn't want to and he surely won't start now.
"okay...where to, sherlock holmes?"
y/n takes in dustin's question and combs through her memory.
where had they said a sighting had been?
she remembers at the sound of dustin's flashlight clicking on.
"you've got your compass?"
"do i have my compass?"
dustin repeats in a manner that's sarcastic as he pulls out his compass.
"of course i do."
"of course you do...come on, it's this way."
hand in hand,
dustin and y/n make their travel to where this mystery is supposed to be.
"so, say the shoe is actually out here. why wouldn't the cops have found it and taken it in already?"
"because, dustin, they weren't looking for it."
dustin doesn't believe it,
but for y/n's sake,
he'll play along.
"okay...and who's to say someone hasn't moved it since?"
"that's why we're going to find out. the reporters said the search was inconclusive, right? but if this was a rumor...why make it about some useless shoe? no, there's truth to this. i can feel it."
dustin goes to speak,
his mouth even opens as though words are on their way out.
but nothing comes.
he's stuck between making a joke out of this suddenly creepy situation and asking her why she cares so much.
sure,
y/n has always had a thing for the unknown and what can be done to make it known,
but this...
it's something odd.
dustin has never seen her eyes this bright with hunger or felt her cling onto him this tight.
"y/n...whose shoe is this?"
the girl pauses for a moment.
"i don't know."
there's a catch in her voice,
like something has piled up in the midst of her throat.
dustin has known her long enough to know what this means.
and that is scarier than this entire adventure alone.
"you're lying...why are you lying?"
when y/n doesn't reply,
dustin rips his hand out of hers and demands an explanation.
"you've forced me out here in the dark, you won't even tell me why, but lying about it? y/n...this isn't funny anymore."
"i think it might be my sisters."
the silence envelopes them.
her sisters?
what about her sister?
before dustin can ask,
something catches y/n's attention.
dustin's flashlight has landed on something just inches away from where they stand.
"oh, my god,"
y/n whispers in unison with dustin.
for the first time ever,
he doesn't have an answer for this.
there,
in the path of his light,
rests a dusted over shoe with blood splattered all over it.
even on the sole.
"y/n?"
he asks through his drying mouth.
y/n finally speaks again after moments of painful silence,
but it's words that make the hairs on his body stand.
"it's hers...her initials are on the tongue."
and with a stick,
to keep the scene from being tainted any further,
she peels the tongue of the shoe back to reveal the initials of her sister,
who has been missing and by the looks of it,
might just be dead.
***
dustin is losing his grip on the world he once knew.
y/n sits before him in a shivering mess of confusion,
and all he can do is stare.
he knows he should be doing more.
his limbs are practically screaming at him to move and do something,
but he is frozen solid.
all he knows of y/n's sister is that she was eighteen,
only a few years older than y/n herself. 
dustin hadn't even know the girl was gone,
much less murdered.
stop,
he reprimands himself for the thought.
it hasn't been proven yet.
she could still be a runaway.
and why hadn't y/n told him that her sister had left,
had been declared a runaway?
why hadn't she confided in him like she always did?
then in the darkened hours of the night,
y/n finally speaks,
"do you hate me?"
"hate you? why would i hate you, y/n?"
"because i dragged you into this without telling you why. i didn't think we'd actually find it, i just...i wanted to try so i could stop thinking about it all the time."
dustin's once frigid body melts over at y/n's voice.
how raw it is,
after finally finding a piece of someone she loves dearly,
but the signs are pointing in all the wrong directions.
dustin comes to her side and wraps her tightly into his arms.
"no, i don't hate you. i wish you would have told me, though. that's all."
"i should have. i'm sorry. i just don't know how to talk about it without sounding insane."
dustin plants a gentle kiss to her temple in hopes that it will ease her and slow his racing heart.
"tell me...maybe i can help."
"my sister hated home, we all did, but she wouldn't have left like that. not the way everyone swears she did. so, after the cops declared her a runaway, i had to find something more to prove them wrong. i could feel it, dustin, i knew something was wrong."
y/n's voice begins to catch.
he remembers the first signs of it now:
so unaware of why,
dustin allowed her to spend the better half of her nights in his room when she asked,
being able to sleep soundly knowing she was both protected and cared for.
but he never knew her grief ran this deep,
he never knew he was comforting her from a wound this large.
especially when he just assumed y/n sought him out because of her unsteady home life.
now it seemed something sinister lingered in this tale,
something he never anticipated.
"so i found and read her journals. everything was just as normal as it could be for the l/n family until about two weeks before her disappearance. she kept saying these-these weird things, like, "i'll never be able to escape. it's coming." as if she knew she was being..."
"hunted,"
dustin finishes for y/n.
she nods her head.
"something or someone was coming for her and i think it might've been the same for those other kids. my sister was having hallucinations, but she details them as if they were real. but they can't be? i-i mean it's impossible that this thing was hunting her. it had to be someone, right?"
dustin takes the time to send a quiet prayer that the cops run a test on the blood and it's only an animal.
he doesn't want to see his girlfriend go through this all over again.
"what did she think she saw?"
dustin asks.
y/n rises from her bed to find the journal tucked away in her desk drawer.
when she retrieves it,
dread settles in dustin's chest like an anchor.
"you recognize this?"
y/n asks after taking note of dustin's horrified expression.
"y/n...this is vecna."
"like vecna from-from your game?"
dustin can only nod his head in reply.
"she didn't know anything about that. why would she...why did she think this was coming after her?"
"maybe it was, y/n,"
dustin whispers,
as though maybe the softer his voice is,
the less of a possibility it will become.
but when y/n informs dustin on the rest of her sisters diary entries,
he recognizes it all too clearly.
dustin thought will byers was the only victim of this otherworldly, evil existence.
but it seems it is bleeding into hawkins all over again.
and this time,
it's haunting the girl he loves most.
"dustin...what do we do?"
he goes to say the first words that come to mind:
i don't know.
but he has never said them before and won't start now.
not when y/n needs him the most.
so dustin takes both of y/n's hands into his and he says,
"we're going to find this bastard and bring your sister home."
***
the cops end up telling y/n the blood on that one shoe is,
in fact,
her sisters.
and though it should have filled her up with terror,
it brought a sense of relief.
she had been right after all and was one step closer to finding her best friend after years apart.
"do they suspect foul play?"
dustin asks when y/n relays the news.
"they wouldn't say, only that they'll look into it."
"they definitely suspect something then,"
steve suggests.
after dustin vowed to help y/n in this mission,
he had to recruit the help of his very best friends who cared for y/n like a sister,
and who knew just the same about this game of theirs.
his attention is focused on all the evidence being presented before them:
every single missing kid,
the drawing of vecna,
y/n's sisters condition that consisted of nosebleeds and flashbacks to her greatest traumas,
being paralyzed as she was brought to a cruel world where someone was haunting her.
but why is there no body?
amidst dustin's pondering,
he found that having y/n's hand locked with his own keeps him from becoming untethered and losing himself completely.
then,
a voice that dustin wasn't expecting finds itself hanging in the air.
"y/n? can i talk to you?"
the entire group looks to see max mayfield standing in the doorway of mike wheeler's basement.
"yeah,"
y/n says,
pretending like nothing in this scenario is odd.
she is much too occupied with this newfound evidence to care about max's reappearance.
and when they're alone,
max admits that what her sister had been saying is true.
"how do you know?"
y/n asks.
"because what's happened to her before she disappeared? it's happening to me."
dustin watches y/n from across the room,
taking note of every quirk in her eyebrow,
every blink of her eyelids,
every shift in her posture.
then when her eyes lock with his,
he can see the panic in them.
whatever max has told her is something she doesn't understand and is terrified by.
dustin hopes it's something he can soothe,
like he has always been able to.
when they return,
he's grown eager to find out.
which is why he is quick to her side,
snaking an arm around her waist to enclose her into safety.
y/n mollifies at this action and finds it easier to say,
"we have to save max."
"what? no, no, that's not at all what we agreed on,"
max protests.
question and confusion flies around until y/n answers it all with,
"my sister is gone already. there is nothing i can do from-from this side. but you are still here. i won't let what happened to her...happen to you."
"we don't even know that she's dead yet, y/n,"
dustin whispers at her side,
turning his head away from everyone to ensure their privacy.
"i don't know if she's alive either. but max is...this doesn't have to be any harder than it is."
dustin let's his eyes gloss over this angelic lover of his,
and he makes his decision when he sees the set of her lips;
she is not backing down,
so neither will he.
"okay...okay, max is priority right now."
"helping you is our only chance at finding my sister. so, please, let us help."
max surrenders to y/n's request and accepts support.
dustin thinks it might get easier after this,
but there's a heaviness weighing his chest down.
dread is clawing at him from the inside out and he isn't sure why.
it isn't until the rest of the group disperses and he is left alone with y/n that he realizes why.
dustin cannot ensure y/n's safety during this whirlwind of a ill-omened time and that is what scares him the most.
"i can't let anything happen to you...you know that, right?"
y/n gives him a soft smile that shines light on her saddened eyes.
"nothing is going to happen to me. you can relax."
"i don't know that, y/n."
hearing the words come from his mouth,
after nearly a lifetime of hearing just the opposite,
makes y/n quit with her fumbling and think about the emotional turmoil she is putting her one love through.
"i'm not saying we should stop this. i want to find your sister as much as you do, believe me. i just...i wouldn't be able to live with myself if i let something happen to you."
y/n meets dustin where he's standing and encloses him into a hug.
her hands meet at the nape of his neck and her head rests gently on his shoulder and it's comfort enough.
dustin revels in the scent of her shampoo,
the feeling of her skin to his,
the passion she provides.
"i won't let anything happen to you,"
he promises all over again,
though his words are brought forth by an unfurling need to protect.
"i love you."
dustin closes his eyes and lets the words make their travel into his heart.
"i love you too, y/n. i always will."
***
the past few weeks slide by the group quicker than they could have ever expected.
one event led to another,
another crucial piece of information unveiled,
until finally they are here now:
still so lost in what they didn't know,
but having enough to fight.
each and every day though,
dustin wakes up and hurry to y/n's side.
whatever she may need,
dustin made sure she gets.
but this is not to say dustin's needs are unmet.
he feels every bit as loved by y/n as he had before.
and when they aren't plotting or warding off whatever evil lingers in their town,
they find themselves wrapped tight into one another's arms without much else to say.
though the kind embrace is enough;
it surpasses the weight of any words.
"are you feeling okay?"
dustin asks y/n as they hang back around steve's car,
giving max a moment to deliver a letter to her deceased brother.
y/n shrugs.
"yeah. i'm okay...you?"
dustin can tell the stress of these last few weeks has been weighing heavy on her,
so he gifts her something in hopes of brightening her spirits.
even if it's just for a split second.
"here. i made you something."
dustin pulls out a cassette tape with the words:
y/n's mix.
written on the front in his scrawl.
y/n can't help but to smile.
"thank you, my love."
"i know these past few weeks have been hard on you. and i remember you saying music helps you a lot so...here's all songs that remind me of you."
"like what?"
y/n muses.
"like, take my breath away."
dustin answers with a grin.
y/n laughs then begins singing the song in a whisper,
reaching for dustin and playfully dancing with him.
in a time so grim,
she has found light in her love.
until it all comes crashing down by the sounds of steve's yelling for their attention.
the group scrambles and finds max is in the midst of the very trance y/n remembers reading about in her dear sisters journal.
the reality of it all makes y/n nauseous and she finds herself immobile.
was this what her sisters final moments looked like?
her absorbed thinking is wasting max's precious time,
until she's snapped out of it by dustin's calling.
"what do we do?!"
the words make dustin and y/n look up at one another,
as though their wide irises might hold the answers.
then something clicks for the both of them.
y/n rushes to her feet and finds the very cassette tape that max has kept in her possession since the beginning.
when she comes hurling back with the song playing,
dustin needs no further instructions.
he and y/n work perfectly alongside one another without having said a word.
when the headphones are finally placed onto max,
the entire group holds their breath.
prayers are said in silence,
begging for max to come back down.
then finally,
she does.
dustin and y/n sigh in relief then hurry to find one another.
their racing hearts are synchronized with one another.
"y/n...i saw her. your-your sister."
y/n untangles herself from dustin's arms and finds herself locking eyes with max.
she goes to speak but the knot in her throat is swelling too quickly.
when max doesn't say anything further,
it confirms y/n's greatest fear.
y/n stumbles back as the shock of misery hits her.
she's dead.
she's really dead.
perhaps after all this time,
y/n knew it deep down.
but confronting it was not something she could have anticipated.
dustin catches her before she falls,
then slowly sinks to the ground with her in his arms.
"i'm sorry. i'm so sorry, y/n,"
he whispers with his head pressed to hers.
he's trying to take half of her hurt,
trying to solve this for her,
but he's coming up empty.
y/n grabs a handful of dustin's sweatshirt in her hand to keep herself grounded.
then,
a fleeting voice is carried with the wind and settles within y/n.
but it cannot be real,
so she won't open her eyes to face this harsh reality.
then she hears it again.
what a terribly vivid hallucination.
"holy shit...y/n, it's her,"
dustin relays.
y/n's eyes open quickly to reveal her sister climbing out of the trees,
limping with only one shoe.
***
y/n's sister has returned home and is now safer than she was before she left.
with a new outlook on life,
this older idol of y/n's decided to make some changes in their home life and it had never been so peaceful.
y/n actually began looking forward to going home after the days end.
dustin was eventually invited over for the first time in all their years of dating,
and it was clear to see how much had changed with this older sisters return.
tonight,
dustin sits on the edge of y/n's bed as she pops in the cassette he made for her.
then when the music begins with its sweet melody,
she finds a seat next to him and becomes lost in the sea of his arms.
"i owe you everything,"
she whispers against his chest.
dustin kisses the top her head before he speaks,
"i'm just glad you're happy."
"are you?"
she asks,
picking her head up to look at him closely now.
of course he has an answer,
"yes, i am happy. especially with you."
dustin rests his lips onto y/n's to prove his words are true,
but she knows dustin henderson has never given a false answer.
so she melts away beneath the promise of his kiss.
dustin and y/n have triumphed through things that might have swallowed one whole.
it is a wondrous thing to be loved without conditions.
y/n l/n has found the greatest answer in dustin henderson.
and it's that with this love,
creation is in the palm of their hands.
dustin is overcome with enamor for this heaven sent girlfriend of his.
what happened has seemed to bring them closer together,
if possible,
and now their love is ever so bright.
"i adore you,"
dustin says.
y/n's next words are interrupted by the quick opening of her bedroom door,
where her sister stands with a maternal look on her lips.
"the door stays open. we discussed this."
even through this insanely annoying rule,
y/n smiles that it's her sister here to boss her around.
so she smiles and nods in understanding.
then when she's gone,
y/n turns to the saint beside her and says,
"so tell me, dustin..."
"oh, god. here we go."
—
an
i know this doesn't exactly follow the plot of s4 but i twisted some things to make the imagine more interesting.
just wanted to clarify !! <33
love you all
-e