What do you think? I think you're an idiot. (Dustin Henderson x Reader)

30: Eleven's reunion.

Y/n's pov

Eleven's eyes scanned our small group of shock-ridden faces until they landed on Mike who was behind Hopper.

Mike stepped out from behind the chief, his eyes swimming with tears.

Eleven's eyes quickly started to match his as they both silently cried and softly smiled at each other.

They slowly and shakily walked towards one another before stopping, gazing at each other.

"Eleven." Mike's voice barely mumbled out in a strained whisper.

"Mike!" She gasped tearfully as they collapsed in a long awaited hug.

It was so purely adorable and happy, that I almost cried.

I heard Max slightly shuffle her feet from beside me, and I glanced at her to see her eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"Is that...?" She whispered to Lucas and I, who were beside her.

"Eleven." I whispered with a soft smile.

Dustin and Lucas nodded along with me, both too shocked to speak.

I looked forwards once more to see Mike and El pulling away.

"I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for-" Mike started.

"353 days." El finished for him. "I heard."

"Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?" Mike asked gently.

Before El had the time to form a sentence, Hopper stepped forward.

"Because I wouldn't let her." He said.

Mike turned on his heels to face Hopper.

"The hell is this? Where the hell have you been?" Hopper asked.

"Where have you been?" El asked as Hopper pulled her into a hug, to which she gladly accepted.

Mike's eyes suddenly went wide with realization and I could tell it wasn't going to be good.

"You've been hiding her! You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike gasped in anger.

Everyone flinched at Mike's sudden attack on the man who was about 10 times his size.

"Hey!" The cheif yelled, slightly grabbing Mike's shirt.

But Mike kept up the fight as everyone watched.

Mike was yelling at this point, and Hopper had had enough of it.

"Hey, hey! Alright! ENOUGH!" He yelled.

Mike's fighting died down, though his anger remained.

"Enough. Let's talk. Alone." Hopper said to Mike.

We all watched in surprise as Mike stormed off down the hall with the chief following him.

There was muffled yelling coming from the room they had gone into, but we payed it no mind.

I stood in the open entrance that lead from the living room to the kitchen, trying to process what had just happened.

I watched as Lucas and Dustin flung themselves onto El, embracing her in a big hug.

"We missed you." Lucas said.

"I missed you too." El replied softly.

I smiled at how much her vocabulary had grown since I last saw her.

"We talked about you, pretty much every day." Dustin said.

She pulled away to look at them, but her eyes widened when she saw Dustin smile.

She reached up to Dustin's mouth and grabbed a hold of his front row of teeth.

Dustin pulled back, confused and slightly weirded out.

"Teeth." El said.

"What?" Dustin asked.

"You have teeth." She repeated in more detail.

"Oh, you like these pearls?" Dustin asked, making the "rrrr." Sound he often made.

El's eyes went wide and she looked at him in concern.

Lucas rolled his eyes at Dustin.

"No one likes 'those pearls', Dustin." Lucas stated matter-of-factly.

"Y/n likes these pearls." Dustin said, wiggling his eyebrows at Lucas.

They both let out a small chuckle as my cheeks grew hot.

"El?" Max asked from in front of me.

The two happy boys parted for Max who approached El with a shy smile.

"Hey, um, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you." Max said, extending her hand.

El's eyes flickered from Max's hand to her face, but her eyes widened when she saw me standing behind Max.

She pushed past Max and I hadn't realized I had started to cry until I rushed forwards to hug her.

El's hand gripped tightly onto my back with her face in the crook of my neck.

"Hi." I said, letting out a sigh of relief.

El began to cry into my shoulder, so I pulled away to wipe her tears, lightly smudging her black makeup.

She looked so much older than the last time I had seen her.

"Hi." She said to me, a smile on her face.

"Your hair. It's so long and pretty." I said, lightly tugging on the ends of it that weren't gelled back to her head.

What used to be a clean shave, was now a brown curly bob.

"Pretty?" El repeated as I wiped some tears that were falling down her face.

"Yeah. Pretty." I said, pulling her back into a hug.

I hadn't realized how much I had missed her, and how much of a weight was lifted off my shoulders from the relief of seeing her again.

"I missed you a lot, El." I said, sniffling.

"I missed you too, y/n." El said.

At that, I let her go to Joyce, who wrapped her in a warm hug.

Dustin came up to me, looking concerned and he wiped my tears gently away from my face.

"Are you okay?" He asked, pulling me into a short hug.

"All good." I said sincerely with a smile and a sniffle.

I caught the end of El's and Joyce's conversation and El had asked to see Will.

"Hey." I said, placing a hand on Max's shoulder, startling her a bit.

"Oh, hey." She said.

"Don't worry about it. She just needs time to warm up to you." I said, referring to El.

"Okay." Max said, hesitating before pulling me into a hug.

She gripped onto me tightly and I hugged back.

It seemed like she hadn't gotten a good hug in a very long time.

After a few minutes, El and Joyce came back out and El stared at the piece of paper that I had written "CLOSE GATE." On.

A look of realization sprawled across Joyce's face and she asked "You opened this gate before, right?" While pointing to the piece of paper.

El looked up.

"Yes." She said quietly.

"Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" Joyce asked.

"Yes." El answered.

Word count: 1053