Ashes Falling Upwards (stranger things, Will x OC/reader)

Dart

"How bout this, Ash? I'm thinking for lunch we...Ashie?"

"Huh?"

Ash blinked, then looked over at her friend. "Sorry, give me a sec?"

"For wha—"

Erin followed Ash's gaze down the hall to where Dustin was speed-walking towards them. "Oh. Yeah, fine."

Ash thanked her, then went to meet him halfway. He stopped, panting lightly and said, "AV club. I have to show you something."

"How important is this?" she asked, painfully aware of Erin watching them.

"Very. I have something you won't believe."

Ash sighed. "Okay let me just..." she turned, then jabbed a thumb towards Dustin, making her best, I've gotta go with this guy I met yesterday instead of you, sorry, face. Erin gave her a sarcastic thumbs up, then turned and stomped away alone.

"This better be good."

He scoffed. "Believe me, it is."

And with that her lead her to the AV club room. When he opened the door she was surprised to see not only the Party but Max as well, all standing around one of the ghostbusters traps.

"Are you finally going to show us what's so important?" Max asked incredulously as Dustin walked around the table, grinning, to click open the trap with a dramatic flourish.

Inside was a tiny green...thing. It looked like something along the lines a slimy, bumpy tadpole with legs. It was crawling around the box, chirruping gently, leaving a trail of slime through the slime already coating every side of the box.

In short, weird and disgusting. Ash had never seen anything like this.

But that sound, it was strangely familiar. If she was right, then that meant that this...

"His name is d'Artagnan," Dustin said, reaching into the box to gently pull the creature out. "Cute, right? Dart for short."

Ash shuddered. Both at the idea that someone could call that thing cute and also at the way its chirruping sent awful chills down the back of her neck.

"And he was in your trash?" Max asked.

"Foraging for food." Dustin grinned at her excitedly. "Wanna hold him?"

"Noooo, nope, no way." She backed away quickly but he advanced on her, holding out the slimy thing like a cute puppy.

"I don't want to—oh god he's slimy!" She yelped as he dumped the creature into her hands. She danced around, holding it away from her for a few seconds before dumping it Lucas's hands.

"Ugh, he's like a living booger!" Lucas immediately passed it to Will, who in turn passed it to Mike. Instead of passing the burden of holding the living booger to Ash, the boy held it up in the light, examining it carefully.

"What is he?"

"My question exactly," Dustin agreed, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a pile of library books. Mike put Dart down in a ring of rope on the table. "At first," Dustin started, "I thought it was some sort of pollywog—"

"Pollywog?" Ash interrupted.

"It's another word for tadpole," he explained quickly.

"But aren't tadpoles aquatic?"

He nodded. "Most. But Dart isn't. He doesn't need water."

There's no water in the Upside Down either. If it really is from there, then that would make sense. She opened her mouth to say something, but the look on Dustin's face stopped her. What if she was wrong, and they had to kick Max out and examine it, only to find it was some weird, endangered frog? This is something he's passionate about. I can wait a little bit, right?

"But aren't there non aquatic pollywogs?" Lucas asked.

"Terrestrial pollywogs? Yep. Two, to be exact." He flipped open one of the books to a marked page, laying it out for everyone to see.

"Indirana semipalmata," he flipped to another marked page, "and the Adenomera andreae. One's from India, one from South America. So how did one end up in my trash?"

"Maybe some scientists brought it here and it escaped?" Max tried. "Or—"

"Wait," Mike interrupted. "Do you guys see that? It looks like something's moving inside of it."

Leaning closer to Dart, Ash was surprised to see he was right. Inside of Dart, near the top of his tail, the skin was bulging and ripping, like something was trying to force its way out.

"What is it..." Ash grabbed the light, pulling it over Dart so they could see him better, but the moment she did he shrieked in pain, scrambling to escape it. Everyone yelled and jumped back, and Dart took the opportunity to make his way towards the edge of the table, heading for freedom.

Ash released the light, running around the edge of the table and bending her knees to gently catch Dart as he fell. Lucas was right. He really did feel like one big booger. She quickly straightened and deposited him in Dustin's open hands, wiping her own on her pants with disgust.

Oh wait, it's gone.

She hadn't noticed it before, since it had been so weak, but going from holding Dart to not holding him had finally made her realize. The feeling from the Upside Down. Dart gave it off.
So then what was he? Was he related to the Demogorgon? Or was he a part of whatever shadow monster was attacking Will? Or, even worse, was he something completely new that no one here had ever dealt with?

"There's another thing," Dustin added. "Reptiles, they're cold blooded. Ectothermic, right?" They nodded. "They love heat, the sun, well Dart hates it. It hurts him."

Because he's used to living in the Upside Down, where there is no sun! There's too much proof now, I have to say something.

"Umm, Dus—"

"So if it's not a pollywog or a reptile then..." Lucas murmured.

"Then I've discovered a new species." The boy absolutely beamed at Dart, patting him gently in the back while the pollywog made a purring noise.

Ash took a deep breath. She hated ruining his excitement, but this was more important.
"Dustin, listen, that—"

Brrrrrrrrrrrrring!

The bell sounded, making them all jump and scramble for their things.

"Wait—Gahhh!" She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation as they filed out the door into the hall. It was like the very universe wanted him to not know about this.

"Ash?"

She turned, surprised to see Will was still there.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Did that thing...seem strange to you?"

"I think it's from the Upside Down," she said plainly, deciding to just get it out of the way instead of dancing around the subject.

He blinked. "Y-yeah, I do too."

"So what do we do?"

He sighed, sending a nervous glance around her towards the door. "I—ah, I can't really be late for class again, so..."

"Oh! Right!" She gestured towards the door and he walked over, running his hands over each other awkwardly. "We can tell him after school, does that sound good?"

"Yeah. Yeah, let's do that."

She gave him a supportive smile. "Let's run, then."

And with that they turned out and jogged off opposite ways towards their respective classes.