Chapter Text
Steve had been looking forward to this lunch for weeks. Life had a way of pulling people apart the older they got — jobs, relationships — and he and Dustin had felt that distance more than most once their road trips slowed down and they settled into adulthood. Phone calls was almost all they had these days but on this occiansion is wasn't enough. Not for this. Some conversations needed to happen in person, face to face, where he could actually read his expressions instead of guessing through static.
He pulled up to the private research building on the edge of the city, received his visitor badge at security, and went through the whole decontamination song and dance. Airlock doors hissed open and closed behind him. He stood still whilst sterile lights scanned him for contaminants he didn’t even understand. It was ridiculous, really — he wasn’t going anywhere near the actual labs. He was just heading to Dustin’s office like every other time. Still, protocol was protocol.
By the time he stepped into the quiet, climate-controlled hallway, Steve’s stomach was already twisting with a mix of nostalgia and excitement. Dustin’s workspace was buried deep in the facility, far from the public eye. The kind of place where they worked on things the rest of the world would never know about. Steve had never asked too many questions. He wasn’t sure he wanted the answers or if he would even understand them.
He rapped his knuckles lightly on the door marked Dr. D. Henderson and pushed it open.
Dustin wasn’t in his office.
Steve stood in the doorway for a moment, blinking at the empty chair behind the cluttered desk, a flicker of disappointment settling in his chest. Had he got the day wrong? was Dustin to busy for him? Instead, a young woman in a crisp lab coat came briskly down the hall and spotted him.
She offered a warm, professional smile. “Mr. Harrington? Hi. Dr. Henderson’s still in the lab, but he said you’d be fine joining him there for lunch today.”
It was… out of the ordinary. Dustin had always kept him carefully away from the actual lab spaces before. Steve offered a polite smile and fell into step beside her as she led him deeper into the facility. They made light small talk — the weather, how long the drive had been, whether he wanted coffee — but Steve’s mind was elsewhere. Something about the sterile white hallways and the low hum of machinery felt heavier than usual. Like he was crossing a line he wasn’t supposed to.
He told himself it was fine. It was just a lab, and Dustin was an expert it would be fine.
Dustin looked up imedaitely as the assistant swiped her keycard and the heavy lab door hissed open, a grin stretching is face, Steve couldnt help but return.
Steve thanked the assistant and stepped further into the lab. Dustin was already there, perched on a stool near a cluttered workbench, takeout bags spread out like a makeshift picnic. The smell of warm Thai food hit Steve immediately — coconut curry and lemongrass — his favourite.
“Sorry about dragging you in here, man,” Dustin said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m stuck monitoring this batch for the next few hours. Can’t leave the room. Hope you don’t mind.”
Steve shrugged, dropping into the chair across from him. “It’s fine. Beats eating alone in your empty office.”
Dustin split the containers between them . They fell into their usual rhythm — catching up on life the way only old friends could. Dustin’s wife had just landed a big promotion. Steve’s wife was deep into her health phase, full of green smoothies and early morning runs. They traded stories about the rest of the party: Mike’s latest drama, Lucas coaching basketball, Hopper’s quiet retirement up north. Surface-level stuff.
Eventually Steve stood, stretching his legs after sitting for too long. The lab was bigger than he expected — sterile white walls, humming machines, and rows of sealed containment units glowing faintly under harsh lights. His eyes drifted across the room until they landed on several large vertical tubes filled with something… strange. Pink, fluffy, almost cloud-like. It shifted lazily inside the glass, catching the light like cotton candy made of something unnatural.
He wandered closer without thinking, curiosity getting the better of him.
“I wouldn’t get too close,” Dustin said sharply.
Steve startled at the sudden warning. His shoulder bumped one of the tubes — just a graze, barely anything — but it was enough. The container wobbled violently on its stand, then tipped.
Time slowed.
The glass shattered against the floor with a sickening crack. A thick plume of shimmering pink particles exploded upward in a swirling cloud, catching the air currents like smoke. It was beautiful for half a second.
Then Dustin lunged forward and slammed his palm down on a large red emergency button.
A piercing alarm split the air. Heavy metal shutters slammed down over the windows and doors with a resounding clang, sealing the lab completely.
Steve’s heart hammered against his ribs as the pink smoke continued to billow, thickening around them. There was no escape. Whatever the hell this stuff was, they were both trapped in it.
Steve staggered backward, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the thick, shimmering pink cloud still drifting lazily through the air. But Dustin just shook his head, his face tight with stress.
“There’s no point,” he said, already pacing in a tight circle. “The filtration system’s locked down. We have to wait for it to neutralize — it bonds with carbon dioxide in the air. Takes a while.”
Steve watched the smoke swirl under the harsh lab lights, catching on every breath like glittery smoke. His pulse was kicking up. “Well… as long as it’s not carcinogenic, I’m sure my wife won’t mind me bringing some weird lab smell home,” he tried to joke, but it fell flat even to his own ears. She would mind. Who knew what this stuff could do?
Dustin didn’t laugh. He kept pacing, running a hand through his curls, his expression growing more strained by the second.
“That’s the least of our problems with this shit,” he muttered.
Steve’s stomach tightened. “What is it?”
Dustin stopped pacing. For a second he looked genuinely cagey, like he was weighing how much to say. Then he exhaled sharply and met Steve’s eyes.
“It’s… a powerful aphrodisiac. Way beyond that, honestly.” He rubbed the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable. “It’s basically inhaling sex. Once it hits your bloodstream, it doesn’t fuck around.”
The words landed like a punch.
Steve stared at him, waiting for the punchline that never came. The pink smoke continued to drift between them, innocent-looking and deceptively pretty. He could feel the air growing thicker, warmer against his skin. A faint, sweet scent — something like honey and musk — was starting to settle in his lungs.
His mouth went dry.
“You’re telling me we just got dosed with… what, magical viagra gas?”
Dustin let out a hollow laugh that didn’t reach his eyes. “Something like that.”
Steve swallowed hard. A low heat was already licking at the base of his spine, subtle but undeniable. His mind flashed — unbidden — to Dustin’s hands, to the way his friend’s body had filled out over the years, to the intelligence in his eyes that had always done dangerous things to Steve’s focus.
He shoved the thought away immediately, guilt slamming into him like cold water.
What the fuck, Harrington? You have a wife.
Steve tried to stay calm. He really did.
But the air in the sealed lab was growing thicker by the minute, warm and heavy like a summer storm rolling in. The pink smoke clung to everything — his skin, his clothes, the inside of his lungs. Every breath pulled more of it in, sweet and cloying, settling low in his gut like liquid heat.
He could feel sweat sliding down his spine. His shirt suddenly felt too tight, too warm. He rolled his shoulders, trying to shake it off, but the movement only made him more aware of the way his body was waking up — blood rushing south, skin flushing hot.
Dustin was still pacing, but slower now. His lab coat was unbuttoned, cheeks flushed, curls sticking damply to his forehead. Steve couldn’t stop noticing. The line of Dustin’s jaw. The way his throat worked when he swallowed. The rise and fall of his chest as his breathing grew heavier.
“Fuck,” Dustin muttered, dragging a hand down his face. “This is bad. This is really fucking bad.”
Steve took a step back instinctively, but the room wasn’t big enough. The distance between them kept shrinking. Whether it was him moving or Dustin — he couldn’t tell anymore. One minute there was a room between them, the next Steve could smell Dustin’s skin mixed with sweat and that goddamn pink haze.
His heart hammered against his ribs. Guilt twisted sharp in his chest — Sally. You have Sally — but the thought felt distant, drowned out by the roaring heat crawling under his skin. His cock was already hard, pressing uncomfortably against his jeans. He shifted his weight, trying to hide it, but Dustin’s eyes flicked down for half a second and Steve knew he wasn’t fooling anyone.
“Is this normal?” Steve asked, voice rougher than he wanted.
Dustin nodded once, jaw clenched. Sweat glistened at his temple. “Yeah. It’s… intense.” His voice had dropped lower, almost gravelly. He took another step closer without seeming to realize it. “We should… we should stay on opposite sides of the room.”
But neither of them moved apart.
Instead, Steve found himself drifting nearer, drawn like a magnet. The air between them crackled. He could see the rapid flutter of Dustin’s pulse in his throat. Could see the way Dustin’s pupils had blown wide, dark and hungry.
“Steve…” Dustin’s voice cracked with warning and something else. Want.
Steve’s back hit the edge of a counter. No more room to retreat. Dustin was right there — close enough that Steve could feel the heat rolling off his body. Close enough to almost taste the salt of his sweat. Close enough that when Dustin exhaled shakily, Steve felt it against his own lips.
His hands flexed at his sides. He should push Dustin away. He should say something about their wives, about how wrong this was. But all he could think about was how good Dustin smelled. How badly he wanted to grab him by the front of that lab coat and—
“Shit,” Steve breathed, voice wrecked. “Dustin, I—”
He didn’t get to finish.
Dustin closed the last inch of space between them with a low, desperate sound and crashed their mouths together.