Stare. [Steve Harrington x Reader]

Chapter Six: Concussion

Sunday, November 4, 1984

We all watched as Eleven and Mike walked up to each other.

"Eleven."

"Mike." They both hugged one another and I couldn't help but feel happy for them. Eleven started to cry as they both held each other.

Mike pulled away and said, "I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for-"

"353 days. I heard." El said with a smile, shaking her head.

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

Hopper answered him for her. "Because I wouldn't let her." Mike turned around to look at him and Hopper walked over to El. "The hell is this? Where have you been?" Hopper said, bringing her into a hug.

"You've been hiding her." Mike said, a look of shock on his face. "You've been hiding her this whole time!" He yelled, pushing Hopper in the back.

"Hey! Let's talk. Alone." Hopper said to Mike. They went off to talk in the other room and not even a second later I could hear Mike yelling at Hopper.

Eleven walked over to Dustin and Lucas and hugged them both. "We missed you." Lucas said to her.

"I missed you, too." She said.

"We talked about you pretty much every day." Dustin said and they pulled away. El looked at Dustin, shocked, for a second before grabbing his face and saying, "Teeth."

"What?" Dustin questioned.

"You have teeth."

"Oh." Him and Lucas smiled at each other. "You like these pearls?" And then made a strange noise which surprised Eleven.

Max walked over to the three of them. "Eleven?" She said to her, smiling. "Hey. Um, i'm Max." She stuck out her hand for Eleven to shake. "i've heard a lot about you." Eleven looked past her and then walked away. What was up with those two?

She walked over to Joyce and hugged her. "Hey. Hey, sweetheart." She said to Eleven. She broke away from her and looked over at me, which I smiled and waved at her, and she did the same back before turning to Joyce and asking, "Can I see him?" They both walked down the hall to Will's room.

I sat down on the couch, letting out an exhausted sigh. Steve sat down next to me, he leaned forward. "You doing okay?" I asked, leaning forward too.

He looked over at me and then smiled. "Yeah, I'm doing just fine, all things considered. How are you doing?"

I swallowed, briefly looking away from Steve. "I don't know, I guess I'm feeling nervous. It feels like the calm before the storm." I looked back at him, my eyebrows furrowed. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared.

Steve slid his arm under mine and placed his hand between my hands, which were clasped together, and interlaced his fingers with mine. "Don't worry, I'll be right here with you."

I smiled before looking down at our hands and felt my face warming up.

Joyce and El came back out to look at the message that Will had given us in the kitchen. I heard Joyce say, "You opened this gate before, right?"

"Yes." Steve and I both got up to go listen closer, which made the others follow too. Our hands still interlocked together.

"Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" Joyce asked her. El looked up at her.

We all stood around the table again. "It's not like it was before. It's grown." Hopper said with a sigh. "A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."