back at it again with another chapter. I think I actually know how I want to continue this story so stay tuned for updates I suppose. hope you like this chapter!


Mike felt a headache pounding in his brain before he even opened his eyes. A pained groan escaped his lips and he turned over and hid his face in the pillow underneath him. Flashes from a particularly vivid dream rushed through his mind like a tsunami. Demogorgons littering the lab and killing everyone in sight. Killing Bob. The Mind Flayer taking over Will's body completely. His heart to heart with Max on the Byers front steps. Eleven walking through the Byers front door. Curls on top of her head escaping the gel that pushed them down. Hopper telling him that she'd been with him the whole time. He groaned again and wished that for once he would be able to escape the pain of missing her for just one night.

As he floated more and more into consciousness he could hear voices somewhere in the distance. But it wasn't the familiar sound of Nancy or his mom he usually heard early in the morning. With his face still buried in the pillow he listened closer to the slightly distant voices.

"No work?"

"Nope, I'm staying home today kid."

"Special… occasion?"

"Definitely."

Mile bolted upright in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. There wasn't much inside the small room other than the bed. There was a dresser with a radio and a folded bandana sitting on top, children's books, and a collection of VHS tapes. Tossed onto the end of the bed next to his feet was a black men's blazer and a tissue covered in black eyeliner. Images of Eleven from his dream flashed through his mind once more. If he stayed in that bed forever he would never have to face the possibility that it had simply been a particularly creative dream and he, for whatever reason, hadn't fallen asleep at home.

"Can I wake him up now?"

"Let him sleep a little more."

"I want to see him."

He would be able to recognize her voice anywhere. Mike eagerly pushed himself onto his feet and hurried the short distance from the bed to the kitchen. His eyes landed on Eleven just in time to see her jump out of her chair. In a second she was in front of him and had her arms wrapped around his waist. She looked different from the night before, sporting her curly hair and baggy flannel instead, but there was no doubt it was her. Mike was only partially aware of Hopper's presence until she pulled away from him and they both headed over to the table. His cheeks flushed pink when he remembered how he had broken down crying at the mere mention of the Snow Ball. Once they were sitting Hopper reached behind him and grabbed a plate that he set down in front of Mike.

"When was the last time you ate?" he asked when picked his utensils back up.

Mike shrugged his shoulders. "Haven't really had the time." He mumbled. The truth was he had no idea. He had been so worried about Will, and then with everything that happened at the hospital, that things like eating and homework hadn't been a fraction of a thought for a couple days. But it wasn't until he started cutting into the first piece of Eggo that he realized how hungry he really was.

"How is Will?" Eleven asked, a deep crease settling in her forehead as she looked up at Hopper.

"Joyce said he was okay when I called her this morning." Hopper said in between bites. "He had a few nightmares last night. But no more of those… what do you call them?"

"Now memories?" Mike finished for him.

"Yeah. I'm gonna go over and visit as soon as I get someone to come over here."

The worried expression on Eleven's face turned to one of annoyance. "Don't need a babysitter." She said, stabbing a piece of waffle a bit aggressively.

"After this-" Hopper waved his fork around the room to indicate the mess she had made, "and you going AWOL me yes you do."

"AWOL?"

"Missing."

Eleven made an annoyed noise and shoved the Eggo into her mouth. Mike wondered if things between them got so tense often. They both had tempers like firecrackers so he figured it was safe to say that it wasn't uncommon. The air around them turned slightly heavy and if Mike wasn't so happy to just be next to her he would have been squirming in his seat.

A minute or two passed before she spoke again. Her eyes were fixed on her plate and she was turning her fork between her fingers. "You don't want me alone with Mike." She said just loud enough for them to hear.

Mike didn't dare look at either of them. His cheeks felt as red as the table top they were eating off of. In his peripheral vision he could see Hopper set his fork down before rubbing a hand over his mouth. Mike could practically hear the gears turning in his head as he tried to think of how to reply to her. "Look, kid," he said eventually, "I'm trying to do what's best for you, okay? Sometimes that means things you don't necessarily like."

"Like not seeing him for 353 days?"

If she wasn't talking to Hopper, and if things weren't so awkward, Mike might have laughed. Yet another thing he had missed in the past year was the development of her feisty attitude. He would have been fine with someone coming over to keep an eye on then but he didn't dare say it out loud and interject in the conversation. How often had they had a conversation about her seeing him? The way they both acted after she said it gave him the impression it was often. Mike snuck a glance at Hopper who seemed, for a moment, stumped.

Hopper rested his elbows on the table on either side of his now empty plate. He closed his eyes for a minute or two and Mike imagined he was trying to think of what to say to her. "Alright, what about this, how about we compromise. Remember what that means?" Eleven nodded so eagerly that her hair fell down into her eyes. "I'm going to go to Joyce's house for an hour and then I'm coming right back. You two can stay here if you answer when I radio immediately and you clean up some of the mess."

Mike glanced over at Eleven just in time to see her frown at the mention of having to clean up. Under the table he bumped his foot against hers to get her attention. When her eyes met his her expression fell neutral once more. Like many times before Mike was sure they had a silent conversation simply by looking at one another. After a moment she looked back at Hopper and mumbled a quiet "fine."

"Good." Hopper said, picking up his plate and bringing it over to the sink on the other side of the counter. Once he was in the other room Eleven let go of her fork and put her hand on top of his. There were a million things Mike wanted to say to her, but none of them with Hopper standing a few feet away. So he simply settled for holding onto her hand and smiling at her. When the water stopped running he didn't bother pulling away from her.

"I'm going to get dressed and go." Hopper said as he headed into the other room. "Finish eating so you don't get hungry again and waste food."

When he disappeared into what Mike assumed was a second bedroom down the short hallway Eleven picked her fork back up. "He doesn't like wasting." She said before stabbing one of the remaining pieces of waffle.

Mike's stomach was now too full of butterflies for him to be particularly hungry. He hadn't realized how asleep his mind and body had been until he was one again next to her and felt fully alive once more. Still he forced anther bite down his throat to keep from getting scolded from Hopper. "I still can't believe you were here the whole time." He said quietly, his mind thinking back to the countless nights he had longed for her so badly he could feel his heart breaking.

Eleven turned towards him in her chair, her knee touching the side of his leg. "He said I would see you soon. But soon never happened." She told him, turning her fork over a few times. "I thought I would go on Halloween. I had a costume."

Mike grinned at the thought of her dressing up for Halloween. "Hopper told me you were going to be a ghost." He said. "We can do something really special next year to make up for this year."

She shifted in her seat slightly. "What happened on Halloween? You said you had a bad day."

He thought back to Halloween night and how miserable the day had been. He remembered calling Eleven on his supercom and how convinced he had been that he had heard her thanks to Dustin's bad connection. "Me and my friends went to school dressed up but we were the only ones. It was really embarrassing." He began, already feeling his cheeks go red at the mere memory of the day. "Then we went out at night and Will had a pretty bad episode. I went to his house afterward and he told me about how he saw the monster."

"Halloween doesn't sound that fun." She said with a small frown.

"It usually is." Mike assured her. "It's usually the best day of the year. This one was just not so great." He bumped his leg against hers. "Next year we can wear really cool costumes and watch scary movies and eat a lot of candy."

She perked up slightly, a smile once again spreading on her face. "Can we go to the theatre?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah of course."

Hopper's footsteps reappeared from down the hall and soon he was standing in the living room once again with his shoes on. He reached over to a police radio Mike hadn't noticed and turned the volume knob all the way up, then pointed a finger at Eleven. "I'm expecting a sixty second reply." He said, his tone sounding almost jokingly stern.

"Yes sir." Eleven replied with what Mike was pretty sure was sarcasm.

He crossed the room and ruffled Eleven's already crazy curls before taking a step back and looking between them. "You're sure you guys will be okay by yourselves? Last night was pretty crazy, if you need someone else here just say the word."

Mike looked at Eleven, who definitely had a more stressful night than he had. He still had no idea what had gone on at the lab and although he was incredibly curious to find out he didn't plan on asking her if there was a chance she wasn't ready. For someone that had just revisited their own personal hell she seemed pretty chipper.

Eleven spared a glance at him before answering Hopper. "I'm fine." She said, sounding incredibly sincere. "You can go."

He held his hands up and started toward the door. "Alright, fine, I'm going." He said, grabbing his jacket off a hook next to the door before reaching for the handle. "But you two better be decent when I get back."

Warmth engulfed Mike's face and he looked down at his plate while the front door opened and shut. Hopper's footsteps, the sound of leaves and twigs crunching under his shoes, faded away as he got farther from the cabin. Mike's mind flashed back to the hours he had spent alone with her in her basement, where they would talk about everything and nothing with such few words. She was so different from the scared little girl that he had found in the woods, yet the same dimple scooped in her cheek when she smiled at him.

"The day is boring here." She said, pushing her now empty plate away from her and resting her elbows on the table. "Work is longer than school. Not as much to do here as your house."

"Have you ever gotten to leave?" Mike asked, suddenly aware of just how small the cabin was and trying to imagine spending almost an entire year inside the walls.

"Sometimes I go outside when he's home. But only on the porch." She sighed quietly and gazed out the window above the sink. "I hope I get to leave soon."

"You will." He reached for her hand and laced his fingers through hers. "And I'll come visit you during the day so you won't get bored."

Eleven looked back at him and smiled wide enough for her teeth to show and her dimple to appear. "Really?"

"Yeah of course." Mike said. "I'll come straight over after school every day if you want me to."

She smiled even wider before scooting her chair closer to him and wrapping her arms around his neck. Mike turned towards her and wrapped his arms around her waist, the side of his head resting against hers. He had longed for her all year and dreamed so many times of getting to see her once again that he wasn't entirely convinced that he wasn't dreaming.

"I missed you." She said, turning her head to rest her forehead against his neck. "I was scared if I had to wait to see you too long you would forget about me."

"I would never forget about you." Mike said immediately. "Even if I had to wait five years to see you I still wouldn't forget about you."

"I didn't want you to not know it was me. I have hair now."

Mike smiled, gently pulling at one of her curls. "Yeah. I like it though."

She pulled away, her arms still around his neck, and bit down on her lower lip. Though he could tell she was suddenly worried about something she still looked adorable. "Are you sure?" she asked, sounding uncertain. "About that girl?"

"About Max? Absolutely." He pushed one of the longer curls that hung in her face to the side. "I didn't even really want her around. But I don't know, she's alright. She came to check on me last night before you got back."

A flicker of something he couldn't quite identify flash across her face. "I saw her sitting with you." She said quietly.

"Yeah, she made me feel better because I was so worried about you." He thought back to what Max had said about her family and was once again baffled that she was the only one to figure out why he was so bothered by her addition to the party after knowing about Eleven for a day. She was definitely more observant than he gave her credit for. "I thought they were trying to replace you so I was really mean to her. I was being stupid."

"You think I can see them soon?" she asked, looking hopeful once more.

"Yeah, of course." He said. "Do you have a phone? Do you wanna call them?"

Eleven nodded and pushed her chair out, crossing the room and going over to a phone Mike hadn't noticed on the wall close to the police radio. As she went through the mess in the living room she frowned down at it and mumbled something about cleaning it up to herself. Mike picked up the receiver, dialing Dustin's number first. He and Eleven pressed their heads together so they could both listen at the same time.

The line rang a few times before background noise crackled in the speaker, followed by Dustin's voice. "Hello?"

"It's Mike." He said, glancing at Eleven who now wore a wide smile. "Did my mom buy it last night?"

"Yeah, she seemed pretty distracted so it kind of went right over her head." Dustin said. "How's Eleven?"

She leaned in closer so she could speak into the phone. "I'm okay."

From the other line Dustin let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, good."

He gushed on the phone about how cool her entrance was the night before and how glad they all were that she was back. Eleven mostly listened with a smile on her face as he told her about all the things they would do once she was able to leave the house. Once they got off the phone with Dustin they called Lucas and had an almost identical conversation all over again. Twenty minutes later Mike hung the phone back up on the wall and turned to face Eleven who was looking down at the mess they stood next to.

"You don't have to help clean." she said. "I made the mess."

"Of course I'll help." Mike insisted.

She didn't require much persuading. First they put the boxes of old newspaper articles back in the crawl space under the floor. Something in her body language changed, became tenser, when they started picking up the papers. He didn't have the chance the read one of them to try and figure out what might have been upsetting her. Once all the boxes were put away she lifted the furniture in the air with her mind while he swept up the glass underneath.

"What happened that you were so upset?" Mike asked as he swept underneath the floating couch.

"It was when I went to school." She said quietly. "When I came back he started yelling, and I yelled, and he called me a brat."

A frown settled on his face and he stepped out of the way so she could set the couch back down. "Why?"

"Said I needed to learn consequences." She crossed her arms and flopped down on the couch once it was back on the floor.

Mike came over and sat down next to her, leaning his arm against the back of the couch and facing her. "Are you still mad at him?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "A little." She pulled her legs up and turned towards him. "He lied about mamma. Told me she was gone."

"Hopper told me about her." Mike said. "He told me that she was sick."

Eleven nodded, her hand reaching for his and her head leaning against his arm. "Papa hurt her because she wanted me back."

Mike could tell that whatever had happened from the time she left the house to when she showed up at the Byers was sitting heavily with her. Her gaze became somewhat far away when she started talking about her mom and she seemed like a reflection of the scared girl in his basement from last year. A totally different side of her than the one that was ready to face off the Mind Flayer the night before.

"I met someone else too." She said, tilting her head up to look at him. "Sister."

He had to keep his mouth from dropping open. "You have a sister?"

She nodded. "Mamma had a paper about her and I found her in the city. But she was… different."

"Different."

"She was in the city with other people who went after men from the lab. They kill them."

Mike tried to think of Eleven hanging around with someone who killed for the sake of revenge alone. Even thinking about her getting mixed up with such people made his heart start to pound. What if they tried to get her to do the same? If she stayed with them too long would she have? "I'm glad you came home." He said, only expressing a fraction of the thoughts running through his head.

She picked her head up again, a smile replacing the solemn expression on her face. "Me too."

Eleven inched towards him on the couch and Mike felt his heartbeat start to race. The expression she wore was one familiar to him. He had seen it the night she came back home after the interaction with Troy and they were alone and before she left with Hopper to go back to the lab. Everything in him itched to hold her, his lips longed to kiss her. But he was well aware that she might not fully understand how important something like that was. Though he never once regretting kissing her at the school he forced himself to hold back and let her make a move if she wanted to.

She stopped moving towards him on the couch when their knees touched and the distance between them was only a few inches. Her eyes fluttered shut only a moment before she closed the gap between them and pressed her lips against his. Fireworks went off inside him and he felt every cell in his body short circuit. Her eyelashes tickled his nose and he could feel her curly bangs brushed against his forehead.

The kiss only lasted seconds but Mike still felt like he was on cloud nine. When she pulled away he could feel a wide and probably dorky grin take over his entire face. Eleven let out a quiet laugh that sounded like heaven and he knew if he died right there he would have died happy.

Neither of them said much afterwards. They never really needed to. They held onto each others hands, fingers playing with the others sleeve, and wordlessly smiled at each other. The minutes ticked passed and he would have been happy sitting there with her forever. Out of nowhere a light beeping sound came from the other side of the room that he didn't identify as the police scanner until she got up and walked over to it.

She picked up the receiver and held it up to her lips. "I'm here." She said, leaning against the wall and looking at Mike from across the room.

"Good. You kids better be behaving yourselves." Hopper's voice said from the small speaker. Mike watched her roll her eyes while her cheeks turned pink. "Did you clean up?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'm on my way, I'll be back in ten minutes."

She set the receiver down and came back over to the couch, hanging her head over the side and crossing her legs underneath herself. "I want it to be you and me more."

Mike ran his fingers through her hair, pushing it back off her forehead so he could see her better. "I'm not leaving as soon as he comes back. And I'm coming over tomorrow whether you want me to or not."

She reached up and gabbed his hand, squeezing it lightly. "I want you to."

"Good."

They talked about everything they wanted to do in the future while they waited for Hopper to get back. He told her about all the movies he wanted to show her and all the places around town he would take her once she was allowed out. Mike promised that as soon as he was able to talk about her to people who hadn't met her last November he would never be able to shut up about his amazing girlfriend. She told him that she wanted to meet more people so she could have more people to talk about him with, which he was sure wasn't the only reason but he appreciated.

When Hopper walked through the door they both perked up and bombarded him with questions about Will. He assured them that he was fine, mostly resting, and that he had asked about both of them. He took the armchair next to the couch and fiddled with his hands in his lap.

"So," he began, his gaze fixed somewhere between them, "now that things are different we're going to have to set some ground rules."

"Now?" Eleven asked, already sounding annoyed.

"No, not now." He answered. "Now he has to call home and ask what time he can stay until because I'm not planning on getting in trouble with his family."

While Mike called his house number he was vaguely aware of Hopper and Eleven chatting quietly behind him. Though he was incredibly tempted to listen in he did his best to tune them out and press the phone close to his ear. It rang longer than usual, considering his mom was either on the phone or near the phone, before it finally picked up. "Hello?"

"Nancy?"

"Mike thank god." His sister breathed. "What's going on, is everything alright."

"I'm fine." He said, already fed up with her worrying. She had just stopped being a helicopter sister when Halloween rolled around. If the depression that settled inside him at the end of last November wasn't enough Nancy had seen just what they had faced in the school and became overprotective in a way she had never been before. "I was just calling to check with mom what time I should come home."

"Soon, preferably." She said. "I'm worried about you, Mike. I just need to see that you're okay."

"I'm fine. I'm with Eleven." He told her in hopes of communicating how much he didn't want to go home.

"Yeah, I know, but just come home soon please? Last night was… a lot."

It took Mike a moment to realize that he and Eleven weren't the only ones who'd had a hard night. Nancy had gone with the Byer's to exorcise Will and he could only begin to imagine what that was like. He'd barely even spoken to anyone else once Eleven came back. Including Nancy. He was suddenly overcome with guilt in the same way he had when he spoke to Max on the front steps of the Byer's house.

"Yeah, alright." He said after a moment had passed and he gained some clarity. "I'll come home soon."

"Okay. Come straight to my room when you get here."

"Okay."

They said their goodbye's before he hung up the phone and Mike returned to his spot next to Eleven on the couch. He told Hopper that his sister wanted him home soon, already regretting saying goodbye to Eleven. The room fell silent again and, even with Hopper sitting across from them, his hand was itching to hold onto hers.

"Alright, let's talk." Hopper said before things got too awkward. "I'm going to be lenient with you two because I trust you and you guys were alone for a week and managed to survive." He leaned his elbows on his knees. "But I can't let you guys do whatever you want."

Eleven pulled her knees to her chest with a quiet groan.

"You guys can see each other often as long as it doesn't get in the way of other things." He turned more towards Mike. "At some point we're going to have to tell your parents about you two so they can be in the know." It was then Mike's turn to groan. "And when they do know I'll be in contact with them to make sure that you don't get distracted with school."

"I won't." Mike said, though he wasn't sure how true it is.

"And it won't be so common that you two are alone together." Hopper continued. "I gave you a pass today because of what happened yesterday. But you guys are just kids and you need to be supervised."

Though it would have been nice if they were able to do whatever they wanted Mike knew that was incredibly unlikely. As long as he was able to see her regularly he would be fine with the situation. He was just glad that she was back in his life again. It was all he'd wanted for almost a year. Now that he had her back he almost didn't know what to do with himself.

"I'm sure you got lots of homework to make up after everything so why don't I drive you back now?"

Mike wanted to ask for more time but he knew that Nancy was worried, and if he didn't leave then he might never have. He nodded his head and before either of them ahd the chance to stand Eleven spoke up. "I'm coming too."

Mike couldn't tell if Hopper even planned on trying to argue with her on the matter. Either way he nodded and told her to put her shoes on. She practically jumped of the couch and ran into her bedroom, coming out less than a minute later with sneakers and a bright smile on. Her hand grabbed onto his as they followed Hopper out the door and down the steps. He heard her take a deep breath of the fresh air and tried to imagine, once again, being stuck in a small and stuffy cabin for almost a year.

When they reached the truck they climbed in the backseat. As they drove to his house Mike told her about some of the things she had missed during the year. How Will ahd wanted to meet her so badly after all the stories they told him about her, that Troy had stopped picking on him and his friends as much ever since that day in the gym, and that he hadn't taken down her blanket fort.

His stomach sank to the floor when Hopper's truck parked in his driveway. Mike dug through his pockets and found a scrap of paper before reaching for the pen in the dashboard and using his leg as a surface to lean against. He scribbled down his phone number as legibly as he could before handing it to Eleven. "You can call me whenever you want. You remember what time I get home from school?"

"Three-one-five."

"Yeah, right." He said. "And if someone else answers just tell them you wanna talk to me and I'll pick up the phone."

She offered him a small smile but he could still tell she was dreading saying goodbye as much as he was. "Okay."

He locked his arms around her waist and pressed his head against hers, not caring at all that Hopper was sitting only inches away from them. There were hundreds of things sitting at the tip of his tongue begging to jump out into the air and tell her, but he managed to keep them inside and just hug her.

Mike only pulled away when he heard her sniffle so he could make sure she wasn't crying. Though he could see tears forming in her eyes they seemed determined to stay put. He squeezed her hand one last time before reluctantly grabbing the door handle and hopping out of the car and heading up the walkway to his front door. At the sound of the engine roaring to life he turned back around in time to see Eleven sitting in the front seat with her face pressed against the window before the car drove off down the street.

A paranoid worry made itself at home in his mind as he opened his front door and stepped inside. A worry that the moment they were separated something awful would happen to her and they would once again be kept from her. The best he could do to console himself was say that she was only going back to Hopper's cabin and try to ignore all the ways his mind counter argued.

When he reached Nancy's room he spotted her sitting on her bed with her blankets wrapped around her shoulders and her eyes closed. He knocked on the open door and her eyes immediately snapped open. She pulled her legs closer to her to make room for him at the end of the bed. Mike sat facing her, his hands in his lap and his leg bouncing up and down.

"How's Johnathan?" he asked, an indirect way of asking if his suspicions of the change between his and Nancy's relationship were true.

"He's alright." She answered, leaning back against her headboard. "Probably glad to have Will back to normal. I was thinking of going to visit them tonight or tomorrow morning. Do you wanna come?"

"Yeah sure."

She started picking at a loose thread on her comforter. "How is she?"

There was no need for her to explain who she was talking about. Even thinking about Eleven while being separated from her once more made his throat start to burn and his eyes begin to water. He looked down at his hands, determined not to cry. "She's okay." He said quietly.

"Are you okay?" she asked, moving towards him.

Mike didn't know how to answer. He was beyond relieved that she was alive and close by and he felt like complaining about anything would have been selfish. But he didn't think he'd ever be fully relaxed without her in his sight. No one who worked in the lab when she was there had been seen in months. But that didn't mean that they weren't out there looking for her. What if one day she was in danger and being taken away and he was completely clueless sitting at school.

The mere thought made the first tear escape and start to roll down his cheek. Mike quickly wiped it away in hopes of preventing Nancy from seeing it but she had a good eye and quickly pulled him into a hug. For once he let her fuss over him.

"I can't lose her again." He said, his voice stuffy as he began crying for the third time in 24 hours. "I just can't."

"You're not going to lose her." she said, rubbing his back in an attempt to soothe him. "Hopper's cabin is less than fifteen minutes away. And I saw a phone there."

Mike wiped his wet cheeks with the sleeve of his sweatshirt. "But what if something happens? What if someone finds out about her and they take her away?"

Nancy hesitated for a moment, likely thinking of the best way to word her response to calm him down. "That's not gonna happen. Only ten people in town know about her. And they all care about her. We're all gonna keep her safe, okay? You're not the only one looking out for her."

Though her words made sense the emotional part of his brain didn't fully believe her. He'd seen first hand how quickly and easily she could slip away from his life. But he didn't want to talk about the possibility of that awful night repeating itself so he wrapped his arms around his sister and cried until his body was unable to make any more tears.