71- Bullies and Brothers

Summary: Dustin's getting bullied. He did nothing wrong. Well, except tell Steve about the bullying.

Requested by: Sharon cantu

Dustin sighed as he pulled his notebooks out of the trash.

Funny, Gavin.

For the past three weeks, Gavin has been bothering Dustin.

Teasing him, pushing him around, and dumping most of his things into the garbage.

Did Dustin tell anyone?

No.

First of all, Dustin's dealt with this kind of thing before. He was fine.

And second, everyone was dealing with their own thing.

Max was grieving and wanted to be left alone, Lucas was trying to go out for basketball, and Mike was writing letters to El.

Dustin didn't want to bother anyone.

He supposed he could tell Eddie, but he didn't want to seem like a loser who couldn't defend himself. Eddie dealt with bullies everyday with ease.

You might be asking, was he going to tell Steve? Or why hadn't he told him yet?

First answer, no. Second answer, he didn't know exactly why.

Maybe because it was why he didn't tell Eddie. He didn't want to be seen as a loser who couldn't defend himself.

Whatever it was, Dustin wasn't telling Steve about the bullying.

So, Dustin just stood there and took it.

Whatever Gavin called him, he ignored.

Whenever Gavin pushed him around, he let him and when was done, he'd get up and dust himself off.

And, whenever Gavin dumped his stuff in the garbage, he dug it out, like he was doing now.

It wasn't so bad, Dustin's dealt with worse bullying.

Meaning Troy.

He literally had him at knife point.

No bullying could get worse than that.

Dustin was slightly wrong.

It had been a regular day.

Gavin was being... Gavin.

But apparently he bother Dustin more than Dustin had thought.

Because Dustin snarked off at him.

Yeah, not good.

You see, Gavin had this mullet type of hairstyle, but it was spiky in the front. It was a terrible haircut.

But Gavin thought it was awesome.

So, when Gavin pushed him and made fun of his cleidocranial dysplasia, Dustin decided he couldn't take it anymore.

"At least I don't have that mop you call hair. Seriously dude, I wouldn't be caught dead with that on my head." Dustin snided and turned to walk away when a firm hand came down on his shoulder.

Dustin winced, knowing he made a mistake.

There was no one around, Dustin stayed after school to make sure the meeting room was ready for the next campaign.

He turned and was met with the angry eyes of Gavin.

"Whatcha say, mutant?" Gavin sneered.

"Nothing!" Dustin tried but it was too late.

Gavin's fist came in fast.

Steve impatiently tapped his fingers on the wheel.

Henderson was late.

He was almost never late.

And the one time he was, he had a very good reason for it.

He got caught up in talking to Eddie about DND.

Okay, so not a great reason, but Dustin was still super sorry about it.

So, why was he late now?

Steve knew he wasn't talking to Eddie, Lucas had told him that he had been sick the past couple of days.

But then, he saw the tip of that hat, walking out of school towards the road. The opposite direction

"Henderson!" Steve called and climbed out his car.

Dustin stopped.

Crap.

He forgot Steve planned to pick him up today.

"Yeah?" he yelled, not turning around.

"Where are you going?" Steve was coming closer.

"Uhh, I forgot you were picking me up." Dustin told somewhat of the truth. "Sorry I was late, I was checking the meeting room."

"That's fine, ready to go?" Steve was right behind Dustin now.

"I think, uh, I think I'm just going to walk home." Dustin muttered.

"What? It's okay if you don't want to hang out but at least let me drive you home." Steve walked around Dustin to face him.

Dustin wasn't looking at Steve but could feel him pause at the sight of him.

"Dustin!" Steve yelped and held Dustin's chin up so he could see his blooming black eye better.

'And he claims he's not a mom.' Dustin thought.

"Who did this to you?" Steve's question snapped Dustin out of his daze.

"Uh, a door?" Dustin tried.

Steve looked unimpressed.

"Hhm. And how did the door give you a black eye shape like a fist?" Steve crossed his arms.

"It was a door knob! I was picking up a pencil and I it was in my way-" Dustin rambled.

Steve held up his hand. "Okay that was just sad and pathetic. How about we go get in the car and you can tell me who did this to you."

Dustin sighed but followed Steve to the car.

Dustin climbed into the passenger seat but winced as he sat down. Which of course, Steve noticed.

"Did they get your ribs too?" Steve asked as he started the car. "Oh man, Dustin."

"I'm sorry." he whispered.

Steve paused.

"For what, exactly?"

"For this." Dustin gestured to his black eye.

"What? No! You have nothing to be sorry for. Well, except for not telling me about this guy."

Dustin stayed quiet.

"Please Dustin? Please, tell me who this guy is."

Dustin sighed.

"Gavin. His name is Gavin." he mumbled.

Steve gestured for him to go on.

"He's bothered me before but it was never this bad." Dustin said.

"Wait." Steve stopped him. "He's bother you before? How long has this been going on?"

Dustin hesitated before he spoke, "Three weeks."

"Three weeks!?" Steve exclaimed. "It's been going on for three weeks and you didn't tell me!? Why, Dustin? You know I would'be helped you the best I could."

That's when it him.

The reason he didn't tell Steve.

Dustin didn't know if he would help or not.

Okay, he should rephrase that.

He knew Steve would help in the back of his brain, but while they'd knew each other for a year or so, he was new at this.

New at having a brother figure that would help him out.

Sure, Steve helped Dustin out at plenty of stuff but bullying had never been on that table.

Bullying had been apart of Dustin's life for as long as he could remember. Everyone said to ignore it and they'd give up eventually.

They did not give up eventually.

His friends were always willing to help out if he was being bullied but there was something about having someone older helping him with this.

"Dustin?"

"Hmm?"

"You good?"

"Yeah, just thinking." Dustin answered.

"You gonna tell me why you didn't tell me?" Steve prompted.

"I didn't know how'd you react." Dustin told him.

Steve glanced over at him in confusion.

"I didn't know if you would say, shrug it off or something." Dustin evaluated.

"What? Did you really think that?" Steve asked.

"I don't know! I've never really had a brother before!" Dustin exclaimed, then paused, realizing what he said.

The two always thought of each other as brothers, but never really addressed it. They didn't have to, but now that it was said outloud, Dustin was nervous.

"You think of me as a brother?" Steve asked.

Dustin took a deep breath. "I mean yeah, you kind of save my life multiple times and all."

Steve smiled.

"I think of you as a brother too." he told Dustin. "And for the record, I'll always be there for you."

It was Dustin's turn to smile.

"Thanks Steve."

"No problem." Steve responded. "Now let's get home so we can clean that eye."

Dustin smirked. "Going straight from brother to mother I see."

"Hey!"

Both were smiling though.

And if Gavin showed up to school three days later with a matching black eye like Dustin's?

Well that was nobody's business.

AN: Hope you liked it, Sharon cantu! Requests are open everyone!