hello everyone! this is just a short mil even one shot because I wanted to pump this idea out as soon as I got it. I hope there aren't too many typos as I only edited it once. forgive me if there are!

His voice. His laugh. They were sounds she could never forget, not in a million years. Eleven turned around and headed back down the hallway she had just passed. Her sneakers squeaked on the floor of the school as she got closer and closer. The same sneakers she had been given when she stayed at the Wheeler's house. Her heart started to pound as the sound of his voice became clearer. 353 days. She had seen him in the nether for 353 days. It was time to see him in real life.

Her knees started to shake as she stood in front of the doors to the gym. It had been almost a year since she had last been in the building. Since she had last seen Mike and escaped from the Upside Down. Everything looked smaller and duller. Then again life without him was dull. It was boring and nearly pointless. The week she had spent with him was the week she had been truly alive for the first time. She wanted to live again.

There he was. Standing in the middle of the gym. He was taller and even more handsome, if it was even possible. Not much about him had changed, yet he was still so different. So grown up. Though she had seen him every day it had merely been a projection of the real him. Every muscle in her body felt like jelly at the sight of him. He was there, and so was she. He wouldn't disappear if she tried to touch him like he did in the nether. Mike was really in front of her. He was smiling and wearing a sweater that looked absolutely adorable.

Then she saw her. The redhead. The person he was smiling at. The relief and adoration that had filled up every bit of her suddenly drained before it was replaced by jealously and envy. She was beautiful. With hair down to her waist and freckles. Freckles. This girl was Jane's opposite and Mike was smiling at her. She suddenly forgot the devotion he must have had to call her every night without any sign that she was alive. The only thing she saw was Mike smiling at another girl the way he used to smile at her.

Anger took over control of her body. And anger was not an emotion she was good at dealing with. She easily lost control and let her negative emotions get the better of her. With a simple nod of her head the girl was sent off her feel and crashing down on the floor. The last thing she saw before she turned her back was Mike reaching down to help her and asking if she was okay. The hurt was only magnified at how quickly he went to her aid. As she turned her back to the scene and walked down the hall away from the gym she felt as if she was saying goodbye to him all over again.

She wiped both her bloody nose and tear-filled eyes as she walked away. Eleven had been hurt in more ways than one could imagine. Poked and prodded, hunted, and starved. But her past pain was nothing compared to what she felt at the sight of Mike with another girl. It was internal and she felt it in every inch of her body. In every cell of her existence. It was a feeling she didn't fully understand and didn't want to. Like she had been torn apart from the inside out and was beyond repair. She suddenly regretted not listening to Hopper and staying inside.

"El?"

She stopped dead in her tracks. Her body refused to take her any farther. Oh, how she had missed him saying her name. The rational part of her brain told her to run. That she needed to hide before he got the chance to see her and go back to the cabin and hide for what felt like the rest of her life. But she couldn't make herself move her feet. At the sound of sneakers on the floor heading towards her she slowly turned around. Her heart struggled to decide between desperation for him and hurt at what she had just seen. His expression was one she couldn't read well. Then again reading facial expressions wasn't something she had excelled at in the first place.

"Eleven?"

He now stood in front of her only a few feet away. Mike starred down at her as if he couldn't quite believe she was really there. It was a feeling she understood. After seeing only a version of him in the land in between it was strange to see him in full saturation. Her fingertips were itching to reach out and touch him. But a part of her brain held her back. What if he disappeared.

"Mike."

His eyes searched hers for only a moment more before he wrapped his arms around her in a bone crushing hug. Eleven hardly acknowledged the pain as she buried her face in his neck. The familiar burn of tears ignited in her throat. Though she had seen him in the nether practically every day it was incredibly different than seeing him in real life. She could touch him, talk to him, smell him, be with him. For 353 days they had been together but separated. Finally they were just together.

"I can't believe you're here." Mike said. His voice was shaky and weak as if he too was fighting off tears. "I can't believe you're alive." He pulled away so he could look at her. His hands remained on her arms and held her tightly. "I thought they found you, that I would never see you again."

Eleven could only imagine how angry Hopper would be with her when he returned from work to find the cabin empty. Not only had she broken the Not Stupid rules but she had been seen. It was a rule so out of the question of breaking that it had never been discussed. He could yell and scream at her all he wanted. It was worth it. Everything was worth it because Mike and Eleven were together again and she intended on never having to separate from him ever again.

"I called you every night." He told her. "This whole time I called you every night."

"I know."

His eyebrows met in the middle of his forehead. It seemed that his elation of their reunion was beginning to be replaced by his confusion from her sudden appearance. "Where have you been?"

More than ever she felt a wave of tears threatening to break loose. Eleven's bottom lip trembled as she tried to fight them back. "I'm sorry, Mike."

One of his hands moved up to rest on the back of her neck. "Why are you sorry?"

"He told me I had to hide." She explained. "That it wasn't safe for me to see you. But I couldn't stay in there anymore."

"Eleven, who?"

"Hopper."

Mike's expression morphed from confusion to anger while Eleven's stomach took a nosedive. Part of her had expected him to be angry when he found out. But expecting it didn't make seeing it any easier. She felt a shadow of the hurt she had felt when Mike yelled at her after she interfered with the compasses almost a year before. "You've been in town this whole time?"

"I'm sorry." It was the only thing she could think to say that might make him feel better.

"I'm not mad at you." He told her. "It's just… he knew how much I missed you. And he never thought to tell me that you were okay? He was always checking in on me and it didn't occur to him once?"

The joy that she was really with him and the guilt that he was hard made it almost impossible to hold back tears. Her vision started to blur as fat droplets formed in her eyes. Mike put his thumbs on her cheeks, ready to catch her tears once they fell. "I told him to check on you because I couldn't." her voice came out shaky and pathetic sounding. Like a scared the little girl she thought she grew out of being.

Mike opened his mouth to reply but she instead heard Will's staticy voice saying. "I found him." As he held up his supercom Elven wondered who the 'he' that Will was referring to was. "Where?" Mike replied into the speaker. Moments later the static returned with Will's answer. "Boys bathroom, science wing."

Mike's eyes met hers once more. "Okay, I'm coming." He said before reaching for her hand. "They're going to be so excited to see you."

If Hopper were there he would have shouted in protest. 'It's too dangerous' he would have told her 'it's bad enough that Mike saw you, but now three more people?'. But Eleven smiled and followed him as he started towards what she assumed was the spot Will had said. Hopper would have to suck it up. She was going to see her friends. She was with Mike. Any danger she had been threatened with over the past year faded away until it was no longer a thought in her