The Long Game━ (l. sinclair)

the spared group

"We talked about you pretty much every day," grinned Dustin, inadvertently showing off his dazzling new front teeth Eleven frowned at Dustin and prodded a thumb at the glinting incisors.

"Teeth."

"What?"

"You have teeth?"

Sam, Lucas, and Dustin shared short laughs, and Dustin turned back to Eleven with an exaggerated raise of his brows. "Oh, yeah, you like these pearls? Grrr."

Eleven looked startled at the sound that left his mouth, a strange feline purr, while Corey simply blinked in disbelief and mild exasperation, Dustin's idiocy astounding him.

"Eleven?" Max called, stepping forward to join them with a welcoming smile. She extended a polite hand — it was the most civil she had ever acted towards another person that wasn't Sam, and her smile was a tad strained unlike how it formed naturally around the blonde, but she looked excited to finally meet the infamous teen superhero her friends had apparently taken into their custody the year before. "Hey, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you."

Eleven glanced at her, then looked away and pointedly pushed through the small gap between her and Dustin, allowing herself to be pulled into a tight embrace from Joyce as the yelling down the hall finally began to simmer down.

"Hey sweetheart," Joyce started, and both women were crying into one another in the next breath.

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"It's not like it was before," Hopper sighed as they had all reconvened around the kitchen table. They were discussing the Gate, the same Gate that El was now convinced she was able to close herself. Sam bit at her ring fingernail nervously, not sure if she felt the same yet. "It's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."

"Demodogs," Dustin interjected, turning his head nonchalantly as if to make a brief comment and then be forgotten about, but stalling when Hopper's affronted glare fell on him and locked Dustin in place.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, uh, Demodogs," he explained, like Hopper the Grouch would be impressed with his invention. "Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass—"

"How is this important right now?" Hopper snapped, glare hardening on the poor boy.

"It's not. I'm sorry," Dustin immediately said, looking down.

"I can do it," El announced again, for the millionth time.

Just like every time before, Hopper met Eleven's stare over the table from where he leaned against the kitchen counters. He shook his head firmly. "You're not hearing me."

"I'm hearing you," El disagreed. "I can do it."

"Even if El can," Mike spoke up from next to Hopper — ever since earlier their discussion Mike had been latching onto the police as if searching for comfort, "there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies."

Max's eyebrows furrowed. Confused, she questioned, "I thought that was the whole point?"

"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," Sam worked together in quiet voice.

Lucas sucked in a sharp breath from next to Sam. He realized, "Closing the Gate will kill him."