𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐔𝐄! ✽ 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻

47

𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐀𝐍 𝐅𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐀𝐒 she watched mike step towards the front door. "eleven," he sighed.

"mike," she whimpered. the young girl's breath caught in her throat as they both enveloped their arms around the other. both blood and tears streaked down eleven's face.

steve placed an arm over dani's shoulders, noticing that she had begun to get tear-eyed at the scene before them. steve had yet to meet eleven, but between sherrie, will, and the rest of the boys, he had come to know of her. he didn't believe sheridan when she told him there was this bald-headed girl who had crazy mind powers; he thought she had just smoked a little too much. but here she was, reuniting with mike.

"is that..." max muttered. dustin and lucas shook their heads in reply.

mike held eleven at arm's length. his lips curled into a smile despite the tears flowing down his cheeks. "i never gave up on you," he declared. "i called you every night. every night for-"

"353 days," eleven finished his sentence. "i heard."

"why didn't you tell me you were there? that you were okay?" mike questioned. dani could hear the tinge of pain in his voice.

"because i didn't let her," hopper stated. the red-headed girl's brows bowed in confusion as she sniffled. mike turned around to face the man. jim strode forward towards eleven, disregarding mike. "the hell is this? where you been?"

"where have you been?!" eleven challenged. without another word, hopper took eleven in his arms, their indifferences melting away. his hand glided up and down her back. he planted a kiss atop her head.

"you've been hiding her," mike interrupted. "you've been hiding her this whole time!" using all of the force that he could muster, he shoved the tall man.

"hey!" hopper yelled. he spun around, taking the collar of mike's shirt into his fist. "let's talk. alone." the wheeler boy pried the man's hand off of him and stormed down the hallway.

eleven stayed in the living room. dani could see that she was choking back tears. even through overhearing the scene that was unfolding between mike and hopper in one of the bedrooms, dustin and lucas stepped forward to greet their friend. she took them in her arms instantly. "we missed you," lucas proclaimed.

"i missed you, too," the girl responded.

"we talked about you pretty much every day," dustin mentioned with a giggle. eleven pulled away from the boys, and took extra time to examine the curly-headed boy. her hand clasped his face, her thumb wiggling between his lips into his mouth. sheridan stiffled her laughter with her hand. she leaned into steve, making sure she wasn't the only one witnessing this. "teeth," eleven muttered. dustin ripped himself from her grip.

"what?"

"you have teeth," she answered. dustin smiled brightly once he realized what she had been referring to. he glanced over at lucas.