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Keller woke up with a groan, bringing his hand to his face to wipe his eyes, whimpering when the bruises throbbed. Standing up, stretching out the soreness from his bones, Keller gently pulls his shirt off his body, minding his head and face.

Looking down at the bed behind him, sighing loudly at the mix of blood, mud, and grime on the sheets. Pulling them off and putting them in a pile by his attached bathroom door.

Moving to peel off the rest of his clothes, walking into the bathroom and getting a horrendous look in the mirror of his own face. Dark circles under his eyes, angry cuts from the rings he was punched with, his top lip torn and more dark angry bruises over the rest of his body.

It truly looks like the boy was run over and left for dead- 'Well, the ran over part isn't true' Keller thinks.

Stepping over to the shower, getting in and turning on the water. Uncaring of the freezing water smacking him right away, it wakes him up and he really just wants to rid his body of the blood and filth sticking to his skin.

After scrubbing himself raw from how crusted the blood was, and over looking any hickies left over on his body from the previous nights with...

Keller stops, the water had stopped running off his body was turning red again. Reaching up he feels his lip, it's really torn, he's going to need stitches.

"Shit." Stepping out of the shower, lightly dries his hair off, slipping on black boxers with lipstick marks printed into them and throws on a black fitting shirt. Opening up the cabinet grabbing his supplies and putting them on the counter, grabbing the thread and needle.

Keller breathes in, he knows this will hurt like a bitch but he can't go to a hospital. They'll ask too many questions, cause problems, they always do. So, Keller wipes the sterile liquid over the thread, needle, and his lip for good measure. Keller stops, listening closely to the sounds in the house.

Dustin can be heard snoring lightly through the wall, his mom not in the house having a business trip for work. Keller is safe, he can do this. He just can't be loud, no pained sounds will pass his lips, they'll wake Dustin and he'll have that pre-teen to deal with.

Grabbing his upper lip putting some gaze to hold it out from his teeth, Keller jams the needle in. Threading it through the cut and pulling it together again, he does this a total of four times and ties it off to hold it. Moving his lip to test how it feels- 'tight, stinging, but it'll heal and leave a wicked scar' the thought making Keller smirk - 'the babes love scars.'

With that thought, Keller throws his Sherpa jacket on, trying not to dwell on who gave it back to him, picking up the disgusting bed sheets and old clothes and throwing them in the washer.

He checks the time - 6:00am - walking to Dustin's room, fondly looking at the boy he considers a little brother. An annoying shit head little brother, but a brother none the less. He walks over to the boy's bed brushing hair from his forehead, placing a soft kiss to it and bidding him a quiet 'Good-Bye, see you after school' and walks out the door, headed for school.

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It was now 5pm,

Keller was walking out from detention, he got a total of three days for calling out a perverted teacher that was staring at a young girl's cleavage, holding a cigarette in his mouth, pulling out and flicking the lighter. But before he could touch the flame to his cig, he heard yelling.

Keller sighed out, closing the lighter, keeping the unlit cig in his mouth, he follows the sound.

As he got closer he heard whimpers along with loud thumping sounds that Keller knew all too well.

Taking larger steps to hurry his march towards the sound, Keller rounds the corner stopping his approach. Just a few feet from Keller are three figures surrounding another.

Eyeing up the letterman jackets on two male figures holding someone against the wall and the third, the presumed Leader, in the middle rearing back a nasty punch.

Keller takes the cigarette from his mouth and places it behind his right ear, looking behind the blonde leader in the middle he can only see a mop of dark curly hair.

Keller takes a deep breath through his nose, bringing his fingers up to his mouth, and blowing an ear piercing whistle.

Instantly catching the attention of the jocks, the blonde one-  'Jason' Keller recognizes that blonde q-tip now - turning his body towards Keller, angry eyes scanning his tall muscular form.

Jason was known for causing trouble, always picking on the nerds of Hawkins High and even some of the Jr High kids. Jason always got away with it since his daddy was rich; it enraged Keller beyond belief, so bad even Billy had to hold him back from a fight with the jock.

Keller shakes the thought of Billy from his head, refocusing on Jason's tensing form.

The jock calls out,

"Nothing to see here, Harvick! Keep moving."

"Doesn't look like anything to me, Jasy"

Keller smirks, stating in a singy-song type voice, dragging out the nickname. Crossing his arms and leaning back slightly, looking relaxed which was the opposite of how he felt.

Jason's figure tenses, the other jocks' hold on the unknown person loosens and their eyes watch the taller boy's form- 'Fucking guard dogs'

The Harvick boy knows exactly what he is doing.

Baiting Jason to a fight is probably not the smartest thing to do, especially because he is still healing from- yeah that. It's becoming more of a stupid idea because there are three of them- Keller looks at the mop of hair still being held to the wall, seeing the blood the figures shirt tells Keller they wouldn't be of any assistance - and one of him.

"We're just teaching this freak his manners!"

Keller's smirk falls just a bit- 'freak' - he knew what that term attributed to.

"Y-yeah! Manners!" called one of the guard dogs.

Stepping to close the distance between him and the three Jocks; Keller's lips turns up into a menacing smile causing the stitches on his lip to pull painfully. The boy doesn't mind, even when he darts his tongue out tasting metallic and feeling it coat his teeth once more; it fuels the rage he's had since that Sunday night.

His smile still showing, teeth staining red making him look rabid, no, feral.
It causes the three boys to falter, not as sure in themselves as they once were.

Keller feels his pulse quicken, muscle start to tighten in anticipation. Fists clenching and unclenching at his side, shoulders squaring towards Jason leaning forward to towering over him slightly.

"Listen here, three stooges-" Keller starts, no longer smiling, voice strong and filled with anger, "-you're going to let the Mop Head go," looking towards the goon on the right then the one on the left, "...and you're going to walk away..." looking straight into the eyes of Jason, "...or I'm going to beat the shit out of you three."

Jason's guard dogs drop their hands from the Mop Head, moving to Jason's sides.

Keller does give them credit even though their faces show the fear bubbling within, they're still loyal puppies.

Jason's face is red, Keller could almost picture him as one of those cartoon characters Dustin watches with steam coming out of his ears.

"Why are you protecting the Freak, Harvick? You got something in common with him?"

Keller is moving before the Jocks could laugh at Jason's little jab, his ringed fingers punching his jaw so hard that Jason falls back. The two goons catching him, eyes shooting back up to Keller as they struggle with Jason's sudden dead weight in their arms.

"Leave." Keller growls out, gritting his teeth.

The jocks scramble to drag Jason away as fast as possible, rounding the corner Keller had come around in the first place.

Once the bright green jackets disappeared, Keller turned his attention to the slumped figure on the ground. Taking in the bloodied white shirt and the tore jean jacket, the figure's head is slumped forward face hidden behind the wild mane.

"Hey, bud. Are you alright?" asks Keller while shaking his right hand out, trying to rid the stinging from the ringed fingers, moving to crouch beside them.

No response.

"Shit-" moving his hand forward to push the hair from the person's face, catching the familiar nose, cheeks bones, and pink lips.

"Munson?" Keller sighs out heavily, "why were you here by yourself, you know these assholes search for people like us-" the boy speaks into nothing.

A loud car pulls into the school parking lot, it's headlights flashing over Keller and Munson's figures. Keller quickly covers Munson's body with his own, merging their shadows into one while trying to catch a glimpse of the car.

Keller's breath stops, thoughts frantic- 'loud car, was it blue? sports car? Billy?-' Keller winces as he takes a sharp breathe, holding his side.

Keller turns his head to look out of the corner of his eye, not wanting the car to see his face just in case it really was his Billy.

The lights pass over them, Keller is quick on his feet, pulling his body back and takes a breath. Grabbing the unconscious boy, arm wrapping around Eddie's side by his arm pit and the other scooping under his knees. Picking him up and standing with a grunt of pain as the weight of Eddie's body applies pressure to the bruises.

Looking around once more, for danger and finding none, Keller starts walking towards the back parking lot of the high school knowing that's where Eddie's van is.

As Keller walks he can feel Eddie's face rubbing against his left shoulder, leaving some blood behind on his shirt. Keller doesn't really care about the stains, he knows tricks to wash them out, he's worried that Eddie hasn't said a word or a sound for that matter.

Once at the van Keller hooks his arm better under Eddie's arm, grabbing a fist full of his shirt to keep him pressed against himself to keep steady. Putting Eddie's legs on the ground and using his free hand to grab the keys from Eddie's jacket.

He feels Eddie wobble a bit as if trying to walk for the first time, legs steady then his knees buckle causing Keller to press Eddie closer.

"Mun-Eddie, it's Keller? Uh- Keller Harvick, we have history class together-"

Eddie grunts a little and relief floods Keller's stomach- 'He's alive, he's okay, I won't get pinned for his death, thank god'

Moving Eddie over to the passenger side door was a bit tougher, because he kept pushing against Keller's ribs, and now that Keller thinks about it some are definitely broken. Eddie pushes harder against Keller, making the taller boy let out a whine of pain making Eddie stop fully.

"Hey, hey, let me get you in the van okay? I'll drive, you're okay- you're safe, Munson. I-I promise."

"...okay..." Eddie croaks, his breath hitting the side of Keller's neck, still leaning on fully leaning on him.

Opening the door and setting Eddie inside wasn't too hard for Keller, quickly jogging over to the driver's side, jumping in and taking off towards the trailer park the Munson's call home.

The drive over wasn't so bad, Keller liked the tape Eddie had in his player, humming along to Ace of Spades as it plays quietly. But one thing Keller could not ignore was that Eddie had the worst smelling van in the universe. Keller swore that it smelt worse than the time that someone vomited on King Steve's shows at a party- 'Ha! Vomit on Steve's loafers, hilarious.'

"Where are you taking me?"

"Jesus Christ!" Keller yelped jerking the wheel in fright causing the whole van to tug to the left, "fuck me! Munson you scared the shit out of me!"

Eddie's swollen face has a stupid smirk on it and his eyes are watching Keller after the boy's dramatic reaction.

"If you want me to fuck you, you'll have to wait till my face is pretty again" Eddie giggles, wincing a bit at the sting from his face.

Keller's face is dusted rosy, he's never had someone tease him like that. Billy never joked with Keller like that, even when it was just them only rough touches with hidden meaning. It's strange, but not unwelcomed, it causes the Harvick to huff out a laugh and flash a genuine smile to Eddie before looking back to the road.

"Humor's intact, must mean they didn't rattle your brain too bad."

Eddie hum's in agreement, smiling softly, still looking at Keller taking his savior and the dark bruises on his face then the torn top lip. Causing him to wonder how the Harvick got them, smile dropping at the thought of Jason causing some of them.

"Where are we going Keller?" Eddie whispers with a frown on his face, still eyeing the bruises.

"Your house. I figured-"

"No!" Eddie cuts off Keller, "No, please I can't go home to my Uncle looking like this," throwing his hand up to gesture at his bloody and bruised face.

Keller understood what he meant, the memory of when he came home with bloodied knuckles and a black eye floods his mind. The look on the Henderson's faces forever in his mind, but that never stopped him from getting more and causing worse. It just meant that Dustin was his own personal nurse, always there for the patch work . Keller would tell him how the fight went, Dustin rolling his eyes at the older boy when he said, "You should see the other guy," with a big smile.

Keller quickly glances towards Eddie, then focuses on driving

"Al-alright, do you have anywhere else I can take you?"

Eddie is silent for a few beats leaning his head against the cold glass of the window, not responding.

"I have a place." Keller shakes his head lightly, knowing that there's only one place to go and he's going to get an ear full.

Flipping the van around, Keller starts heading home.

Dustin's going to fucking skin him

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So, I guess I'm going to focus on this book??? Also the timeline is really fucked. The mall did burn down, Billy wasn't flayed to death, Eddie is here, Steve and Robin are friends and the kids are not in HS yet, they're still in 8th going into 9th.

I'm also, probably not going to mention season 4 for a long long time or probably at all. This is more of an after season 3 AU where the kids meet Eddie early but no upside down shit. I want to create my own story line without focusing on the Suffer Brother's truama and pain they caused.

Anyways, I did make a Pintrest board for this book as an asthetic type beat, and the face claim is not really there yet. Keller is more of a 10 Things I Hate About You Health Ledger mixed with 80's Johnny Depp, so a badass asshole with a softer inside than the tough outside. I also made the Book cover, I know I'm shocked too.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I hope my inspiration will contiune on to make more.

Byeeee

- K

P.S. Keller would def jam out to the 1975, just saying.

Pintrest Board:

https://pin.it/6YiengV

Spotify Link for Keller's music:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5NLdKGVY2Y1vhCeZpi87QC?si=g_ukUT7LQH203GnOAvCLGw