Title: Darkly Dreaming Debster
Author: Sita Moonlight
Rating: M
Summary: A series of one-shots set during various Debster-centric situations in canon and AU universes.
A/N: Heavy subjects in this fic so be forewarned. I've kind of been interested in exploring some heavier/darker subjects recently in my one shots, don't know where it's coming from but hope you all are up for it.
Innocent
Summary: The last thing 19 year old Dexter wants to do is go with 16 year old Debra to a party, but it looks like he doesn't have much of a choice. Some unexpected things ensue, leading to consequences, one way, or another.
Did some things you can't speak of
But at night you live it all again
You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now
If only you had seen what you know now then
Wasn't it easier in your firefly-catchin' days?
And everything out of reach
Someone bigger brought down to you
Wasn't it beautiful runnin' wild 'til you fell asleep
Before the monsters caught up to you?
It's alright, just wait and see
Your string of lights is still bright to me
Oh, who you are is not where you've been
You're still an innocent - Innocent by Taylor Swift
Dexter doesn't want to go to a party with Debra. The last thing he's ever been interested in is partying. At nineteen years old, he's more interested in his studies, or hunting trips with his father. He's so close to his first kill he can feel it - although Harry claims he's not quite there, yet.
He can't wait for the day that Harry tells him he's finally ready. He can practically feel his knife sliding into his victim, feel the blood drip as it costs everything around it, smell the coppery tang in the air as it permeates the atmosphere around him.
So no, Dexter isn't interested in partying. He's never been very interested in the high school or college experience. He's barely even interested in women, although a few have been interested in him. He'd only slept with one woman, a girl he'd met in his biology class, only the month prior, and although the experience had been pleasurable on a basic biological human level - it lacked what Dexter was really looking for - what really excited him - the hunt, the chase, the kill. The experience with the woman he'd slept with had also left him feeling bare - like she could see he was empty inside. The whole thing left a bad taste in his mouth, and Dexter was loath to try it again anytime soon.
So chaperoning Debra to a high school party really isn't on his list of things he'd like to do on Saturday night. In fact, he has a paper that's due Monday - which he tries to use as an excuse as to why he can't go - but it's to no avail. Harry doesn't want Debra to go to a party alone, and he knows he can't stop her as he has to work, so Dexter is stuck being Debra's chaperone as she inevitably gets drunk and makes out with some guy in the corner.
At sixteen Debra is wild, and the complete opposite of Dexter. So it's not surprising Harry is making him tag along, but it's annoying. It's not as if he can stop her from doing what she's going to do, but Harry is having none of it and he threatens to not take Dexter hunting the following afternoon if he doesn't go with her to the party. And although Dexter knows he can go hunting alone, there's no doubt in his mind that Harry will lock up any weapons they use for hunting if he doesn't go with Debra. The whole thing will be an even bigger hassle than it's worth, so he's stuck accompanying Debra to her party.
Miserably he follows her out the door that night, her in her short shorts, six-inch heels and barely there top, her face covered with heavy makeup, while Dexter trails her in his boring collared shirt and plain slacks.
"Can I drive?" She asks him and he shoots her a look. She's insane if she thinks he trusts her with the keys to his car.
"No." He answers matter of factly and she shoots him an annoyed look.
"God Dex, you're such a fucking stick in the mud." She comments as he unlocks the doors of the car and they both slide into their seats.
"Sorry."
"No, you're not. You're fucking boring and can we just pretend we don't know each other tonight?" She turns her head to look at him as he slides his keys into the ignition.
"Dad wants me to keep an eye on you." He comments.
"I'm sixteen, not five." She shoots back.
"You were better behaved when you were five." He tells her and she slaps his upper arm in annoyance.
"Fuck you."
"You're lucky I'm tagging along with you instead of Dad. I didn't want to do this, you know. Do you think I have any interest in a bunch of high schoolers who want to get drunk and smoke pot?" He asks her as he steers the car onto the main road.
"Stop acting like you're so much fucking older. You're only nineteen." She shoots back.
"Deb, I didn't have any interest in partying when I was in high school."
"You didn't have any interest in girls either. I've never seen you with one, except for at prom. Is there something you're not telling me?"
He shoots her a glare before focusing his attention back on the road, "Deb, I'm not gay."
"Have you even been with a girl before?"
"Yes, okay? Not that it's any of your business. I don't have to sleep with half the cheerleaders… or football team in someone else's case, to be heterosexual." He comments.
"Fuck you! I did not sleep with half the football team!" She shouts.
"Sorry. One-fourth of the football team?"
She smacks his arm again and he turns his head, smirking at her as they stop at a red light.
"You're an asshole." She comments.
"What are big brothers for?"
Huffing she turns in her seat, facing forward and crossing her arms in front of her chest, "Please don't interact with me tonight. You're embarrassing, geeky, and fucking annoying."
"You know I'm doing this for you." He says.
"No you're doing this because Dad threatened you with something."
He doesn't respond to her statement and the rest of the car ride is filled with silence until he arrives at the house party ten minutes later. He parks across the street from the house, and Deb is out of the car and running across the road before he can even ask her to wait.
He barely suppresses an eye roll before he gets out and slowly makes his way across the street and into the house.
Just as suspected the house is crawling with teenagers, and the rooms reek of pot. The majority of them hold red plastic cups, no doubt filled to the brim with alcohol, as they laugh drunkenly at each others stupid jokes.
Dexter has never understood the appeal of getting wasted, flirting, and sleeping with random people. The only times he's ever attended parties has been with Debra, and he knows if given the choice, he wouldn't have attended any.
Speaking of Debra, she's nowhere to be found as he wanders around the party. He manages to find a case of canned beers and he grabs one and stands in the corner, trying not to look as out of place as he feels.
A couple of drunk girls try to hit on him, but he awkwardly rejects them, and they inevitably wander away from him after a few minutes.
An hour passes and he starts to feel fidgety, wondering when Debra will want to leave. He still hasn't seen her. Sighing, he makes his way further into the crowd. He finally spots her in the corner of the living room making out with who he assumes to be her boyfriend of the week.
The guy is tall and muscular and Debra is splayed on the jock's lap in a very public display of affection. He has no doubt in his mind that she's drunk. He debates leaving her alone, but he really wants to leave so he approaches her and taps her on the shoulder.
She pulls her lips away from the guy and turns around, only for her gaze to narrow into a glare when she spots who is disturbing her make out session,
"I told you to leave me the fuck alone." She says.
"Hey babe," The guy under her slurs. "Who the fuck is this geek - want me to -"
"He's my brother." She cuts off her drunk boyfriend, still glaring at Dexter. "And he's going somewhere else."
"Deb," Dexter sighs. "Another half hour, then we're going."
"You feel free to go, I can find my own ride home later."
"Yeah, I'll drive you." The guy under her offers, and Dexter shoots her a look. The guy is obviously three sheets to the wind, and he can only imagine how safe that would be for Debra. Something about the guy feels off to Dexter too. Then again, he has never been a fan of jocks, or the boys Debra tended to date, so that could explain the feeling currently assaulting Dexter.
"I'm driving you." Dexter tells her.
"Go fucking mingle then!" She glances at the clock on the wall. "It's only been a fucking hour! Go talk to some girls or something!"
Exasperated, he tells her, "Half an hour, Deb." Before making his way back through the crowd and away from her. He finds another corner to isolate in as he miserably waits out the next thirty minutes.
Thirty minutes on the dot and Dexter is making his way to the living room again. Typical of Debra, when he gets there she's gone. Sighing in annoyance he makes his way around the first floor of the house before walking out the back door. Teenagers are everywhere but Debra is nowhere to be found.
He circles back inside and to the front of the house where a set of stairs lead up to a second level. Taking them one by one, he finds another group of people upstairs, several waiting for a restroom, and a few sitting in a room with the door open looking to be playing some kind of drinking game. However, Debra doesn't appear to be among them.
He does, however, notice someone he does recognize in the room, one of Debra's good friends since they were children, a boy named Ben who lives down the street from them.
Approaching Ben, he taps him on the shoulder, and when the boy sees him he gives him a big drunken smile, "Dexter!"
"Have you seen Deb?" He asks the brunette floppy-haired teen.
"Oh she disappeared with Chris a few minutes ago. This is his house. I think they're in his bedroom, it's the door across from the bathroom." Ben tells him.
"Thanks." Dexter says, walking away before Ben can engage him further in conversation. It's not that he dislikes Ben, it's just that Ben talks too much and he is not in the mood.
Annoyed, he makes his way toward the bedroom. Of course, the door is shut which can only mean one thing. He debates knocking on the door before deciding he really doesn't want to know what is going on behind that door, as he can only imagine it's something he doesn't want to see.
On the other hand, he really doesn't want to be stuck at this party for another several hours.
He's standing in front of the door contemplating what action to take when he hears it, a noise, from inside the room. It doesn't sound like a noise of pleasure though, it sounds like one of… distress?
Immediately he pounds on the door, a sick feeling starting to make its way through his body and into his stomach. Dexter doesn't care about many things or people in his life except for his favorite pastime, but with Debra, that's always been different.
There's music pounding through the house and no one responds from the other side of the door, no one in the hallway even pays him mind, too drunk or self involved to realize something serious may in fact be going on.
He twists the knob but it's locked. And that's when he hears it, a voice, definitely Debra's, somewhere between a sob and a yell as she says, "Get the fuck off me!"
Thankfully the doorknob looks cheap and Dexter uses his strength, and sudden anger to turn it with all his might, breaking it and releasing the door from its locked status.
He bursts into the room, finding the guy from earlier on top of a half-naked Debra, apparently forcing himself on her.
Anger hot and white burns through him at the sight. And the darkness that he's come to know as his Dark Passenger rears its ugly head. He doesn't think, he just acts.
He grabs the guy off of his sister and pushes him against the wall, fingers wrapping around his neck as he starts to squeeze. The jock doesn't have time to say anything, but his hands immediately move to the hand around his neck, trying to take in sweet air as Dexter joyfully chokes the life out of him.
Dexter has never taken a life before, but he wants to, desperately. Combining that with his anger around what he's found, and this moment is perfect for pure and utter destruction.
However, a voice and a hand on his arm, shaking him, snaps him out of his darkest fantasies when he hears her voice, Debra, tearfully yelling, "Dex! Dex! Stop!"
Using all of his internal strength, he manages to gather what he has inside and pull his hand away. Chris, Dexter assumes, falls to the floor, grabbing his throat as he gasps in much needed air.
Debra is crying and she looks at Dexter tearfully as she scrounges around for her discarded shirt, pulling it on, "Let's just go, Dex, okay?"
He finds himself nodding, although still staring at the terrified boy, cowering on the floor. He's always been awkward, quiet, has kept to himself, but there's a much darker part of him most people don't get to see. This.
"If you ever touch her again -" He finds himself saying.
"Dexter!" Debra cries, cutting him off. "Can we just go? Fucking please?"
He ignores her for the moment, "Stay away from her." Is all he says and the boy looks up at him, frightened and near tears as he nods. Dexter turns around, letting Debra guide him out of the room.
She doesn't have her shoes and Dexter doesn't ask her where they went as she walks on shaky legs down the stairs. He stays close to her lest she fall. He unlocks the car for her and when they're both inside, Dexter turns to her.
"Deb, are you okay?"
"Can we just fucking go?" She asks, tears gathering in her eyes as they start to spill over and down her cheeks. That's when Dexter notices her makeup is smeared and she has a rip in her shirt. His hands tighten around the steering wheel angrily, but all he does is nod as he drives them back home. If he thinks too much about what just happened, he fears he'll get back out of the car and finish what he started.
The drive is done in silence except for the sound of Debra's sniffles. When they arrive home, he realizes Harry's car is still gone, and Debra is out of the car and heading inside before Dexter even turns the engine off.
He follows her inside and watches as she immediately runs into the bathroom and shuts the door. He hears the water start, and he debates whether or not to knock on the door before deciding to leave her to have a few minutes alone. He thinks about going into his bedroom, but he finds himself worried about her and what he'd just essentially stopped from happening. He can't even think the word - of what the boy was attempting to do to Debra - it makes him sick to contemplate what would've happened if he would've gotten there a moment too late.
Rape, the word reverberates through his brain. The guy was attempting to rape Debra. The thought makes him angry once again. He often struggles with his Dark Passenger - his need for blood, and boy, is it strong tonight. He's lucky he didn't kill the guy, as he was definitely close to taking his first life, and in front of Debra, nonetheless.
Still, if it would've happened, he wouldn't have regretted it.
He's standing in the living room, still lost in his own thoughts when he hears a door opening. Debra emerges from the bathroom, wet from the shower and wearing a long t-shirt and sleep shorts. Her makeup has been scrubbed from her face and her skin looks red, making Dexter wonder how hot the water she'd been showering in had been.
Her eyes are still wet and when they meet Dexter's more tears spill over. He doesn't know what to say so he only takes a step closer to her.
"You saved me." She tells him, and he swallows.
"Deb…"
"Dex, I was dizzy so I just wanted to lay down…"
"You don't have to tell me-"
She cuts him off, "I guess I drank too fucking much and I smoked some weed and I got dizzy, so he took me too his room and then - I couldn't fucking - he wouldn't get off me."
"Deb." He says her name so softly, it's almost a whisper. He almost doesn't want to hear this, because if he does, he fears what his reaction will be.
"But you stopped him." She says, even more tears spilling over as she looks into his eyes, and although he's known her his whole life, he has the sudden realization they're the same color as his own. "Thank you." She says, before stepping forward and wrapping her arms around him.
Almost of their own accord, his arms wrap around her as her cries become louder, her whole body shaking as she sobs into his shoulder. He's never been good at this, at comforting others, but this is Deb and he's known her and cared about her his whole life, and if he was capable of love, he knows he'd love her, so he holds her as she cries, gently stroking her back.
When her sobs finally start to die down, she pulls away, sniffling. Her tears are still coming but she's not as hysterical as she takes a step back. She looks embarrassed suddenly, and he wishes he had the words to tell her not to be. Debra often has put up a tough front, but underneath she's always been fragile.
"Dex… can I…?"
"What?" He asks her and she looks away, still embarrassed.
"I'm scared to go to sleep alone." She wipes at her eyes and Dexter is reminded suddenly of an eight year old Deb, scared of the monsters under her bed.
"I can sleep on the floor in your room if you want me to."
"You don't have to." She shakes her head, cheeks tinged slightly pink as her tears start to dry.
"It's no big deal." He tells her, and he means it.
After they both get ready for bed that night, Dexter lays on her bedroom floor as he tries to fall asleep. He can hear her tossing and turning in bed, but he doesn't say anything. It's her who breaks the silence after several minutes.
"Dex, are you awake?"
"Yeah."
"Can you… not tell Dad about this?"
He turns onto his side and he can make out the shadow of her form in the dark on the bed, covered with the blanket as the streetlight from outside illuminates her shape.
"I won't tell Dad." He assures her.
"You know what I realized tonight?"
"High school parties are lame?" He suggests, trying to go for levity despite the heavy situation.
"No, that there's only two fucking men in my life I can trust, you and Dad. But Dad's never around and he never wants to spend time with me, so that just leaves you." She says softly.
"Deb…"
"No, Dex it's true." She says.
"First of all, Dad loves you very much, so stop acting like he doesn't want to be around you. Secondly, you'll find a guy who respects you one day. You're a good person, Deb. Better than anyone I know." And he means it. She is better than anyone he knows. Much better than he is.
"Then why do I keep choosing these assholes?" She asks him.
"You're only sixteen. There's time, okay? Just promise me you'll be careful next time, okay?" He says.
Suddenly her voice comes out harsh, "Are you saying what happened is my fault?"
"No, Deb! Not at all. That was not your fault. It was his. I just don't want anything to happen to you. If something were to happen to you…" His voice trails off when he realizes how honest he's being with her, uncomfortable with the heavy emotions sitting inside of him and in the room.
Dexter has always been uncomfortable with emotions, often choosing to think he doesn't have any. But right now there's no doubt he has them as he swallows down the uncomfortable feelings swirling in his chest.
"What?" She asks, prompting him to continue.
"I just don't want anything to happen to you." He says and he notices her turning her body, facing him as she peers down at him from the bed.
"Dexter."
"What?"
"I've never seen you get like that…. like you got tonight with Chris." She tells him.
"He was hurting you."
"You could've killed him."
He stays silent at her words, not knowing what to say. Not only could he have killed him, he wanted to.
"I don't know if this is weird," She says. "But you make me feel safe."
"Deb, you're my sister, I'll always keep you safe." He responds before saying softly. "Go to sleep."
He sees her nod in the dark, and then it's silent as they both attempt to fall asleep.
Little does Dexter know what the future holds for them. Of just how much they'll mean to each other, of how much they may already mean to each other.
Little does he know about Harry's impending death or how his and Debra's dependence on each other would only grow stronger as the years passed.
Little does he know about a sister who would fall in love with him; about one who would find out his secret and do everything to protect him.
Little does he know about feelings so deep within himself, love for her so deep, it would always be more.
Little does he know it would all begin tonight.
A/N: IDK what I think about the end of this but I'm going with it. Please be kind and review. I appreciate it.
