YELLOW, mike wheeler. (DISCONTINUED)

sixteen, the gate.

mike and eleven slowly approached each other, their eyes glistening with tears.

"eleven."

"mike," she gasped as mike engulfed her in a hug.

"is that..." max trailed off and lucas nodded.

mike pulled away, "i never gave up on you. i called you every night. every night for..."

"353 days," eleven finished for him. "i heard."

"why didn't you tell me you were there? that you were okay?"

"because i wouldn't let her," hopper stepped in. "the hell is this? where you been?"

"where have you been?" eleven asked him back before he pulled her into a hug.

"you've been hiding her," mike realized. "you've been hiding her this whole time!"

"hey! let's talk. alone."

hopper and mike walked to another room and y/n can already hear the screaming in a distance.

"hey," she smiled as she embraced eleven in a hug.

eleven pulls away and sees the bright pink bandaid y/n had on for a few days. she frowned, knowing that was her doing. y/n notices and quickly assured her, "it doesn't hurt that much anymore, el."

eleven nods and went to hug dustin and lucas.

"we missed you," lucas said.

"i missed you, too," eleven responded softly.

"we talked about you pretty much every day," dustin mentioned and they pulled away.

eleven looked at dustin weirdly before touching his mouth, "teeth."

"what?"

"you have teeth?"

dustin and lucas chuckled.

"oh. you like these pearls?" dustin purrs and eleven jumps slightly at the sound as lucas and y/n just shook their heads at him.

"eleven?" max walked towards her, giving her a smile and reached out her hand to her, "hey. um, i'm max. i've heard a lot about you."

eleven ignores her and walked past her.

-

"it's not like it was before. it's grown," hopper sighed. "a lot. and, i mean, that's considering we can get in there. the place is crawling with those dogs."

"demo-dogs," dustin corrected.

"i'm sorry, what?"

"i said, uh, demo-dogs. like demogorgon and dogs. you put them together, it sounds pretty badass-"

"how is this important right now?"

"it's not. i'm sorry."

"i can do it," eleven says.

"you're not hearing me," hopper shook his head.

"i'm hearing you. i can do it," she insists.

"even if el can, there's still another problem," mike said. "if the brain dies, the body dies."

"i thought that was the whole point," max furrowed her brows.

"it is, but if we're really right about this... i mean, if el closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army..."

"will's a part of that army," y/n finished for him.

"closing the gate will kill him," mike concluded.