•••

THEY WERE ON YET ANOTHER BUS. Five was exhausted from using his powers and was slightly embarrassed by it.

He was lying down on the bus bench with his head in Levi's lap, the blue-eyed boy tracing his finger lightly along Five's features while El sat in the row behind them, looking out the window.

Before they got on the bus with the last of their money, Eleven had to reassure Five that it was okay he couldn't teleport them the whole way back to Hawkins because she didn't want the boy to hurt himself, he had never teleported that many people at once and she knew he wouldn't make it far if he tried bringing them home.

Levi looked down, smiling softly at Five who was cuddling Ben close to his chest since Twelve let him, glancing towards the comic hanging out of Five's bag that Levi put in there.

Moving carefully to not wake the sleeping teen, Levi plucked the comic out of the pocket, leaning back with a sigh.

He stared at the cover, the picture of heroes reminding him of Dustin, making his heart clench. As he remembered what Richie told him, the boy curiously opened it, seeing a folded piece of paper fall from in between the pages.

Twelve furrowed his brows, picking up and unfolding the paper, feeling his lips twitch into a smile and his heart swarm with warmth as he read it.

'Hey, little dude, I just wanted to let you know, me and Eddie are here for you, and I'm not really into these chick flick moments but I care for you, blah blah blah. You have a lot of people who care for you according to Felix, not counting me or Eddie, but anyway, you're going to be okay.

Ps. And if someone messes with you, call me and I'll kick their ass.

*** *** **** ;) '

•••

"My back hurts!" Five complained, trying to rub his back to relieve some of the pain as they walked through the dark and silent woods.

Eleven didn't look up at the whine, just raising an eyebrow while watching her white converse stomp on the crunching leaves."You're fault. You tired yourself out, we could've ran."

Five rolled his eyes, "It got us out faster." he shrugged, mumbling under his breath, causing El and Levi to share a glance.

They walked in silence for a few moments before Five finally questioned, throwing his hands up in the air. "So when we get there, what's the plan?"

Eleven continued walking, looking around the woods cautiously, "I close gate. You and Levi stay."

Levi shook his head vigorously, "I can help."

The three stopped in the middle of the woods, the only light source coming from the moonlight leaking through the tall trees.

El placing her hands on the boy's shoulders looking into his eyes. "I know. But I need to do this. You need to stay with Dustin."

Levi wanted to protest and say he was going to help her whether she liked it or not but he couldn't help the growing excitement in his belly when he heard he'll be able to be with Dustin.

And so he nodded with a sad sigh and continued to walk through the dark woods until they saw a house light coming from behind some trees, hearing something growling near it.

El shared a nervous look with the two boys before they inched closer. Levi's breath hitched as he saw what looked to be a Demogorgon but not quite.

It screeched, causing El to glare at it, the monster's neck snapped before crashing through the window of a familiar house.

"Ready?" El whispered, clutching Levi's hand in hers as Five stood on the other side of her.

Levi nodded and they started to walk towards the house, the girl's nose started bleeding as she used her powers to unlock the front door from the inside.

Levi swallowed as the door opened, they all walked into the room, and everyone in the room froze as they saw who was there.

Hopper and the others slowly put down their weapons as Levi let out a shaky breath as he connected eyes with Dustin's teary ones.

Mike and Eleven were crying and hugging, but Levi couldn't focus on that as he quickly ran towards Dustin and wrapping his arms around the boy, sighing into Dustin's shoulder. "Hi."

Dustin exhaled sharply, slowly reciprocating the hug not believing the boy was actually there. Feeling a tear fall down his cheek, Dustin squeezed the boy tighter against him.

"Are they?" Levi heard a new voice say but he didn't pay any mind as he pulled back and looked down slightly, now just a little taller than Dustin, something he grew slightly happy about.

"You're okay?" Dustin said, furrowing his brows looking at the boy in confusion, where had he been? Where had they been?

"Yeah."

Twelve turned his head when he hears Hopper talk in a worried and stern tone. "The hell is this? Where've you been?"

"Where have you been?" El snarkily asked back, looking at the man glaring as she pulled back from Mike's embrace.

Hopper wrapped one of his arms around Eleven, holding her close as Five inched closer to the man.

"Sup old man, no hello to your favorite?" Five smiled at the guy as Hopper put down the gun in his hand hugging Five too.

"Incoming." Five mumbled, feeling a small smile graze his face.

"HOP!"

Hopper let out a chuckle as Twelve came barreling in, wedging himself between the other teens as he hugged the man who kissed his forehead.

"You've been hiding them." They heard Mike say in realization and anger, making the four break the hug.

Hopper grabbed Mike by the shoulder as the boy began to shout out in rage, leading the angry boy away to talk.

As soon as they left, El, Five and Levi pulled Lucas and Dustin into a group hug.

"We missed you guys," Lucas mumbled.

"We missed you too." Five said, squeezing the boy tighter.

"We talked about you pretty much every day," Dustin added.

The group broke the hug with big smiles, looking at each other in silence, Lucas, and Dustin wondering what happened to them and why they are dressed like angsty teenagers.

"Hey, I'm Max." Levi turned to the new voice, seeing a girl with red hair and freckles on her face, her blue eyes shining like his as she smiled somewhat shyly but still held confidence as she took them in.

The boys and girl in front of her seemed very different from how Lucas described them as."I heard a lot about you guys."

El glared at her and walked past her towards Joyce as Five just smiled awkwardly at the redhead before walking towards Joyce as well. Levi furrowed his brows, looking at the girl's hair, he had never seen red in real life, only blonde, black, and brown.

Lucas and Dustin shared a weird look as Twelve took a piece of Max's hair in between his fingers, staring at it for a second before observing the girls face again.

"Really pretty." Was all Levi said, before leaving to hug Joyce.

Dustin and Lucas shared a look of disbelief, looking towards Max to see if she thought Levi was weird or if she was uncomfortable but were surprised when Max just blushed and laughed.

"He's weird," she said, Dustin clenched his hand in a fist wanting to scold the girl for saying that, but relaxed when the girl finishes. "But I like him."

Lucas chuckled at his crush's response, "He has that effect on people," Lucas said.

Levi smiled at Jonathan as Joyce leads Eleven towards Will's room, the teen smiled back at the boy. Twelve looked towards the person next to Jonathan, he waved shyly while blushing, Nancy chuckled a little. "Hey, Levi."

Still blushing the boy looked to the last teen in the group, Levi's cheeks flushed even more at the unknown boy who was REALLY pretty, but not as pretty as Dustin.

Nancy bit her lip to hold in a laugh at the boy's face, "Levi, this is Steve."

Levi nodded rapidly, swallowing harshly, "Hi, Steve!"

Before the blue-eyed boy could embarrass himself, even more, Dustin came up to him, leaning to whisper. "Can I show you something?"

Levi took his eyes off Steve who smiled at the two boys knowingly remembering what Dustin told him back on the tracks about how he liked someone. At first, the older boy thought it was Max but Dustin accidentally slipped and said 'he' which caused Steve to bug him and so Dustin eventually confessed that he, in fact, liked a boy.

Levi looked at Dustin with furrowed brows, before smiling softly. Letting Dustin grasp his hand, the boy led Levi to where his backpack was lying in the corner of the living room, away from others' eyes.

Dustin sighed, unzipping the bag, he pulled something out. "I took care of him while you were...uh...gone." the boy said, holding out the teddy bear plush with trembling hands.

Butterflies flew around in Twelve's stomach as he grinned widely, slowly taking Klaus in his hands, brushing the fur, before looking up at his crush with teary eyes.

"Thank you." Levi choked out, wrapping his arms around Dustin, squeezing tight. He missed Klaus, he was glad Dustin took care of the bear when Twelve left it for him.

The two pulled apart, staring into the eyes of each other, slowly leaning in but were cut off when they heard Joyce and El in the kitchen.

The two boys looked at one another, blushing madly before walking to the kitchen where everyone was gathering around watching Joyce and El as Dustin and Levi moved to stand by the table where a paper on it said 'CLOSE GATE'

Joyce spoke to the girl, pointing to the paper. "You opened this gate before, right?"

"Yes." Eleven sighed, glancing towards Levi, who stood on the opposite side of the table with Dustin next to him, everyone else behind them.

"Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?"

"Yes."

•••

"It's not like it was before. It's grown. A lot. And, I mean that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs." Hopper sighed, looking around the group that was circling the kitchen table, his hands on Levi's shoulders as the boy stood in front of him.

"Demo-dogs." Dustin looked up at the grown man from his place by Levi as Twelve stared at his crush, confusion was written all over his face as he mouthed the words 'demo-dog' over and over again.

"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper raised his brows at the young boy who was standing way too close to Twelve for the older man's liking but he didn't question it.

"I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgan dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass." Dustin stuttered while Twelve smiled at the boy.

"How is this important right now?" Hopper squinted his eyes, shaking his head.

"It's not. I'm sorry." Dustin bit his lip, turning away in slight embarrassment, feeling himself relax as Levi grabbed his hand gently tugging it to hold it close to him which meant Dustin was standing closer to Twelve, much to Hopper's dismay and El's, Five's, and Lucas' amusement.

"I can do it," Eleven stated, sharing a look with Five as they both catch Mike's and Hopper's disapproving looks.

"You're not hearing me," Hopper said.

"I'm hearing you. I can do it." El nodded her head.

Levi bit his lip, looking at Five pleadingly across the table, the green-eyed boy looked at his best friend shaking his head.

"I can help," Levi whispered.

"No!" El, Five, Hopper, and Dustin exclaimed, looking towards the boy as if he was crazy.

"I told you. I do it." El glared at her brother who sighed, looking down at Ben and Klaus in one of his arms and the other hand holding Dustin's hand close to his chest. He wished he could do more. He could help. He was strong, if not stronger than Eleven.

"Even if El can, there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies." Mike commented.

"I thought that was the whole point." Max furrowed her brows, looking at the raven-haired teen in confusion.

"It is, but if we're really right about this...I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army..."

"Will's a part of that army." Lucas continued, realizing what his friend was saying.

"Closing the gate will kill him." Five sighed, rubbing a hand over his face as Levi looked down, basically feeling the sadness and determination radiating from Joyce.

Everyone was quiet, trying to think of solutions to help Will. Levi flinched as Joyce suddenly popped up out of the chair she was sitting in and walking towards the room where Will was.

The group looked at each other confused before walking behind the woman to see what was wrong.

"He likes it cold," Joyce said when she noticed the group was behind her, Levi looked at the unconscious Will lying on the bed, taking in the boys unhealthy pale complexion.

"What?" Hopper asked the woman softly.

Levi shivered, looking towards the open window, before watching the woman again as she speaks. "That's what Will kept saying to me." Joyce nodding along as thoughts zoomed into her head. "He likes it cold."

Joyce walked over to the window, closing it, looking over her shoulder to explain to the group. "We keep giving it what it wants."

"If this is a virus, and Will's the host, then..." Nancy said, catching onto what the woman was saying.

"We need to make the host uninhabitable." Jonathan continued.

"So if he likes it cold..."

"We need to burn it out of him," Joyce said, trying to keep the waver in her voice steady.

"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time," Mike added.

Dustin nodded, "Yeah, somewhere far away."

Five looked at Hopper with a knowing glance.

•••

Levi hugged Hopper tightly, sighing as he feels the man reciprocate the embrace. "Be careful." the boy whispered.

Hopper sighed, kissing the boys forehead. "I will."

Twelve pulled back, straining his neck to look up at the man.

"You be careful too, okay?" Hopper raised his hand to ruffled the boy's curls but quickly realized he couldn't because of the gell holding them so he just patted the smiling boy on the shoulder.

Levi glanced down, before hesitantly gazing back to the man. "I...love you, Hop."

Hopper let out a breathy chuckle, ignoring the pressure building behind his eyes. "Love you too, kid."

Twelve grinned so widely it made his cheeks hurt before running off to say goodbye to El.

"You okay?" Five asked Hopper after he saw what happened, walking closer to him.

Hopper looked down, clearing his throat. "Yeah."

Five clenched his jaw, glancing towards where Eleven and Twelve were hugging. "Is...it okay? For him to say that?"

"What do you mean?"

"To like...get close to you? Is it okay? Like...I don't know, are you ever gonna send us away or something?"

"Why would I do that?"

"It's just... I don't like them...getting close to people. Even after almost spending a whole year with you, we're scared that one day you'll want us to leave. And it would all be for nothing, they got close just to get their hearts broken, and I don't want that for them. They deserve to be happy. We deserve it."

"I would never leave you, kids."

•••

A/N) we're so close to the end of season 2, only like 1 or 2 more chapters. Are you excited? I have so many plans! I'm also working on other books too, which include Marvel, some slashers, twilight, maybe a DBH one idk. I have been really inspired lately and really want to get stuff out there, but i really hope u are enjoying what I put out because it means everything to me.

i love u <3