brutal ━ mike wheeler

ten. closing the gate

TEN━━━━
CLOSING THE GATE

stranger things;
season 2 ep 9

ADRIAN WATCHED FROM THE sidelines as Mike and Eleven slowly approached each other. He watched as the two of them muttered each other's names. And he watched as their bodies collided, grabbing onto each other like it was their last time ever seeing each other. He felt weird. Not only did he feel like he knew El, but he also couldn't help but feel. . . envious. Max stood directly beside Adrian, her eyebrows pushed together as she stared at the two people in front of her. "Is that..." Max trailed off, turning her head slightly to look at Lucas. "Eleven." The boy confirmed in disbelief.

After what felt like years, the two finally pulled away. Adrian took this as an opportunity to get a good look at the girl. She had short brown hair that was slicked back, dark eyeshadow on her eyelids, and around the bottom of her eyes. Despite the heavy makeup, she had kind eyes that were lined with tears, one even falling down her cheek as she looked at the taller boy in front of her. She looked. . . oddly familiar, almost completely identical to someone he knew.

"I never gave up on you." Mike smiled at the girl, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. "I called you every night. Every night for-." Before he could finish, the girl in front of him cut him off, shaking her head as she did. "353 days." El finished, nodding. "I heard." Mike's jaw dropped slightly and he furrowed his eyebrows, looking at her in confusion. "Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?" Mike asked her, his voice cracking ever so slightly.

"Because I wouldn't let her," A voice interrupted from behind. Seemingly everyone turned to look at the owner of the voice, revealing it to be Hopper. He walked up to the girl and looked at her with a mixture of shock and relief. "The hell is this? Where have you been?" The chief asked the girl. "Where have you been?" She shot back with a more hateful voice. Despite this, the two of them hugged. From the side, Mike looked between the two of them in shock. "You've been hiding her." Mike realized, glaring at the older man. "You've been hiding her this whole time." He brought his hands up and shoved him, Hopper grabbing him by his upper arm to stop him.

"Hey! Let's talk. Alone." Mike swallowed thickly, his glare never wavering as Hopper took him to a different room to talk. This left El in the room, looking at the people in the room, some of which had no clue who she was. El eventually walked up to Dustin and Lucas, pulling both of them into a hug. "We missed you," Lucas admitted, a ghost of a smile resting on his lips. "I missed you, too." El smiled. "We talked about you pretty much every day," Dustin said with his usual goofy smile, and El tilted her head at him.

"Teeth," El said, almost in a questioning tone, as she stuck a finger in Dustin's mouth and touched his teeth. "What?" Dustin looked confused, not understanding what she was saying. "You have teeth." She repeated. This got him to understand and he turned to Lucas, both of them smiling at each other. "Oh. You like these pearls?" Dustin asked before purring, causing El to crane her neck back in surprise. Lucas sighed and shook his head as Max grabbed ahold of Adrian's wrist, dragging him behind her as she walked toward El.

"Eleven? I'm Max, I've heard a lot about you." Max stuck her hand out, waiting for her to shake her hand. However, El paid no mind to her and instead stared at the boy beside her. When Adrian realized she was looking at him, he noticed a look of recognition in her eyes. "Hugo," El said through a breath. Adrian raised an eyebrow at her, eyes darting to the side for a moment before he looked back at her. "No... My name is Adrian." He corrected. Where the hell had she gotten Hugo from?