FOREVER FRIENDS || dustin henderson

the gate

"eleven" Mike said, walking up to the girl who just walked into the byers house
"Mike" she said as she got pulled into a hug
"Is that.." max said
Lucas and Dustin both nodded in response
"I never gave up on you." Mike told her "I called you every night. Every night for--"
"353 days. I heard" El told the raven haired boy
"Why didn't you tell me you were there?" He asked "that you were okay?"
"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper told Mike. "The hell is this? Where you been?"
"Where have you been?" El asked back.
Hopper hugged El, and she hugged him back
"You've been hiding her. You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike yelled, shoving hopper
"Hey!" Hopper yelled back, grabbed mike by the collar "let's talk. Alone."
So they went into Wills room to talk.

* * *

El hugged Dustin and Lucas at the same time
"We missed you" Lucas told the girl
"I missed you, too" she replied
"We talked about you pretty much every day. Tristan really wished he could've met you" Dustin smiled.
When Eleven pulled out of the hug, she noticed that Dustin had teeth. She shoved her fingers in his mouth and felt around. "Teeth" she said
"What?" He asked
"You have teeth" she said to the Curly haired boy
Dustin chuckled. Lucas smiled at Dustin proudly
"Oh, you like these pearls?" Dustin purred, which clearly startled the girl.
"Eleven?" Max said walking up to her
"Hey. Um, I'm Max. I've heard alot about you" max told her, putting out her hand to shake it but Eleven just ignored her and hugged Joyce.
"Can I see them?" El asked

Joyce brought El to Wills room where Will and Tristan were sleeping
"They're not doing well" Joyce told her
"I know" El replied "I saw."
"What else did you see?"

El walked up to the Cardboard that said Close Gate.
"You opened this gate before, right?" Joyce asked the girl
"Yes" El confirmed
"Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" Joyce asked
"Yes" El told her

* * *

Hopper sighed "it's not like it was before. It's grown. Alot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there that place is crawling with those dogs"
"Demo dogs" Dustin corrected
"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper said
"I said, uh, Demo dogs. Like, Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass--"
"How is this important right now?" Hopper asked Dustin
"It's not. I'm sorry"
"I can do it." El told her father
"You're not hearing me" hopper said
"I'm hearing you. I can do it." El told him

"Even if El can, there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies" mike told everyone
"I thought that was the whole point" max said
"It is, but if we're really right about this... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayers army..."
"Will and Tristan are apart of that army." Lucas said
"Closing that gate will kill them" mike added
Dustin sighed. The thought of Tristan dying Scared him to death. He was already scared enough for the poor boy and his cousin.

Joyce walked into where Tristan and Will were sleeping
"He likes it cold " Joyce said as everyone followed her
"What?" Hopper asked
"It's what they kept saying to me. He likes it cold." Joyce told hopper, closing the window "we keep giving it what it wants."
"If this is a virus, and Will and Tristan are the hosts, then..." Nancy started
"Then we need to make the hosts uninhabitable" Jonathan finished for Nancy
"So if he likes it cold.." Nancy said
"We need to burn it out of them" Joyce said
"We have to do it somewhere they don't know this time." Mike told Joyce
"Yeah, somewhere far away" Dustin said

* * *

"Steve. You need to stay here with the kids" Joyce told her nephew when he tried to go with them. He groaned but went back inside.

"Take Denfield, then you'll see a large oak tree. You're gonna swing a right. That road is gonna dead end. And it's about a five minute walk from there." Hopper told Jonathan, putting the cousins in the car
"Okay. Denfield to oak tree. Swing a right. That's it." Jonathan repeated "But it's channel 10, right?" He asked
"Channel 10. Listen... You let me know when that thing is out of them" hopper told Jonathan