S O F T C O R E // Steve Harrington X Reader // Stranger Things

17. The Gate

We had a chance to defeat this thing. Close the gate. We could. "Eleven." Mike said as she walked over to him.

"Mike." She said enforce they hugged. I was happy for them.

"Is that..." Max started and I saw Lucas, Dustin and Hunter nod at her.

"I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for- -" He started before she cut him off.

"353 days. I heard." She said to him, she was always there with him.

"Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?" He asked her and there was probably a reason for that.

"Because I wouldn't let her. The hell is this? Where you been?" Hopper said as he started to approach her. I was quite liking this new look that El had going on.

"Where have you been?" She asked him before he hugged her.

"You've been hiding her. You've been hiding here this whole time!" Mike shouted out. He wasn't happy at all.

"Hey! Let's talk. Alone." Hopper said before he took Mike into another room.

"Protecting her! Protecting her!" He shouted at her and I went over to El.

"It's good having you back." I said before hugging her. I then let go of her so that the others could hug her.

"We missed you." Lucas said to her.

"I missed you, too." She said to the three of them.

"We talked about you pretty much every day." Dustin said to her as they pulled away.

"He's not joking either." Hunter said and I smiled at the four of them.

"Teeth." She said to Dustin.

"What?" He asked her confusedly.

"You have teeth." She said to him and Lucas smiled.

"Oh. You like these pearls?" Dustin asked before purring. I shook my head with a smile on my face.

"Eleven? Hey. Um, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you." Max said as she she stuck her hand out. El just walked past. She went to Joyce.

"Hey. Hey, sweetheart." Joyce said as she hugged her. "Hey." She said to her.

"Can I see him?" She asked Joyce. Him had to be Will. That's when she took him to see him. We all stayed in the other room. When they came out they went to the kitchen.

"You opened this gate before, right?" Joyce asked her and that's when we all started to walk in there.

"Yes." El answered.

"Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" Joyce asked her and I looked at El. I was hoping she could close it. Well there was a lot to catch Dad up on. Mom still couldn't know about this. That's when we started to come up with a plan.

"It's not like it was before. It's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs." Hopper said to us, this had to be logical.

"Demo-dogs." Dustin corrected.

"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper asked him.

"I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass- -" Dustin started to explain.

"How is this important right now?" Hopper asked him and I looked at Dustin.

"It's not. I'm sorry." Dustin said to him. He then looked back at the table.