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"eleven?" mike murmured, wondering whether or not his mind was playing tricks on him, like it had done so many times before.
the girl smiled as she stepped forwards, wrapping her arms around him. "mike..."
the duo embraced one another in a tight hug, clearly not wanting to let the other one go. a tear rolled down eleven's cheek as she held mike, almost disbelieving the fact that she'd finally been able to hug him again.
"is that...?" max asked quietly, to which lucas nodded, confirming that it was in fact the girl who they thought had been missing, or even dead, for almost a year.
mike finally pulled away from eleven, keeping his hands on her shoulders as he spoke. "i never gave up on you," he smiled, pausing for a moment,"i called you every night. every night for—"
"353 days." el added, her smile faltering slightly at mike's realisation. "i heard."
"why didn't you tell me you were there? that you were okay—"
hopper's voice interrupted their heart-felt reunion as he revealed the truth to the young boy. "because i wouldn't let her."
maddie turned to look at steve, who shared an equally confused expression—he'd been told about eleven from dustin, but his best guess had been that she was dead. instead, hopper had been hiding her.
hopper walked over to el, pointing at her all-black outfit and slicked hair, "the hell is this? where've you been?"
"where've you been?" eleven snapped back, staring up at the older man, before softening her expression when he pulled her into a hug.
"you've been hiding her. you've been hiding her this whole time!" mike yelled, shoving hopper as hard as he could.
"hey—! let's talk. alone." hopper demanded, grabbing mike's shirt before he could push him again, and taking him away to a separate room.
after watching mike and hopper walk into the room, eleven quickly approached dustin and lucas, who happily accepted her hug.
"we missed you." lucas told eleven as he pulled away from their group hug.
"i missed you too."
"we talked about you pretty much every day." dustin smiled, before quickly looking at eleven in confusion as she brought her hand up to his face, prodding a finger in his mouth to touch his teeth.
"teeth."
"what?" he asked her, clearly confused.
"you have teeth."
lucas and dustin looked at each other, smiling. "oh, you like these pearls?" he laughed before purring, which caused a startled eleven to step back.
