𝙊𝙡𝙙 𝙁𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 ━━ Steve Harrington

V

Mike and El were catching up quietly by the door, voices too low for Y/N to hear. Instead, Y/N looked towards the now broken window, peeking out to see a few more monster bodies lying dead on the front lawn. Y/N were far enough away that she couldn't hear the two of them, but Mike' response to whatever Eleven said was loud enough for everyone in the room to catch, voice tinged with confusion. Y/N turned to watch the exchange, arm brushing up against Steve as he took half a step forward to get in hearing range.

"Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?"

"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper stated, stepping forward to wrap El in a tight hug, "The hell is this? Where have you been?"

"Where have you been?" El snapped back, but returned into the hug, all of the tension in her body melting away at the simple touch. Mike, however, looked less than pleased. Y/N could see the moment Mike realized what was going on.

"You've been hiding her." Y/N looked to the other kids, but it seemed that Mike was the only on that figured it out. Y/N looked back to Mike to see him raise his hand to hit an unsuspecting Hopper, "You've been hiding her this whole time!"

"Hey!" Jim quickly spun around to grab Mike by the collar of his shirt, "Let's talk. Alone"

Hopper dragged Mike off towards the bedroom, leaving El standing awkwardly in front of everyone. El watched them go, not even paying attention the Lucas and Dustin who had just stepped up to her. It wasn't until they wrapped her in a hug that she did, flinching slightly at the contact. She was quick to hug them back though, a blissful look on her face.

"We missed you."

"I missed you, too."

"We talked about you pretty much every day," Dustin said as the two of them stepped back from the girl. His smile was taking up his whole face, and El seemed to zero in on his mouth.

Her hand came up to poke at his mouth, and Y/N had to force down her laugh, "Teeth."

"What?"

"You have teeth." Dustin smiled in understanding, showing them off.

"Oh. You like these pearls?" He then decides to purr, even though everyone has been trying to tell him it wasn't anywhere near as cool as he thought it was. El looked startled by the action, leaning away from him slightly. Y/N had to bring her hand up to muffle her laughter.

"Eleven?" Max stepped forward, giving El an awkward smile as she thrust her hand out in front of her, "Hey. Um, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you."

El barely even let her finish before she was brushing past Max, going straight to Joyce who wrapped her up in a warm hug. Max looked lost, but when her eyes met Y/N's she went over to stand next to her.

"Don't take it to heart," Y/N whispered, "She probably isn't a fan of new people after everything that's happened to her."

Max nodded but didn't look convinced, watching El and Joyce walk towards the bedrooms.

With not much else to do, Y/N moved to the broken window, picking up the large pieces of glass while everyone else moved to do their own thing. Thankfully it was almost all large pieces, but there were some small pieces that couldn't be picked up by hand, so Y/N grabbed a piece wood to push the glass up against the wall so no one would get hurt.

When Y/N turned back around Joyce and El were back, standing at the dining table. Everyone moved forward to hear what they were saying when they heard Joyce mention the gate. When El confirmed that she could, in fact, close it, Lucas left to go get Mike and Hopper to fill them in.