"Why would you tell him! A stranger! You put the entire party, no, the entire world in danger!" Mike ranted on after the pair of girls showed up, Peter accompanying them.

"He isn't gonna tell anyone!" Max rolled her eyes.

"You've known him for two day!" Mike threw his hands up in disbelief, "How could you do this?"

"She didn't." El cut him off, eyes turning her way, "I told Peter."

Mike gapped at her, "El, what were you thinking?"

"Peter is friend." El said back, looking back at the shy boy, who stood in the doorway of the basement.

"He isn't your friend. He's a danger to you, to all of us. He could tell everyone." Mike ranted on in disbelief, waving his hand around.

"Stop talking about me like i'm not here." Peter cut off, uncrossing his arms as he rose his hands, "I don't know what you think you know about me, but I would never put El, Max, or any of their friends in danger."

"We don't even know you!" Mike hollered his way.

"Oh, yes you do." Peter rolled his eyes.

"He is related to Mr. Clarke." Lucas spoke up, getting a look of disbelief from Mike, "I'm just saying!"

"Not just anyone can know about El and Will!" Mike continued on in distress, waving his hands around to express his agony.

"He isn't just anyone, he's mine and El's friend." Max rolled her eyes, "We already made sure he wouldn't tell anyone. It was El's decision. She can tell anyone anything she likes, it's her secret."

"It's not just her secret when everyone is in danger now!" Mike gave a insane look her way.

"Friends don't lie." Peter stated, Mike's head turning his way, "I'm not gonna tell anyone. El is my friend, so is Max. If i'm such a monster, why'd I protect them yesterday from Heathers parents knowing about El?"

Mike looked over at her in questing.

"Said I was from in-appleless." El explained with a raise of her eyebrows, "Friend from camp."

Mike gave Peter a look as the boy sighed, "Indianapolis."

"You can trust him." Max spoke up again, looking to Lucas, "Tell him!"

Lucas rose his hands in defense, "Mike, if they say so."

Mike signed as he looked over at Peter. The Clarke boy looked at Will, "We're here for Will. You're just wasting time on helping him by yelling at me."

Mike huffed as he sat down, Peter following to get between Max and El.

"I didn't think it was anything, at first. I mean, I think I didn't want to believe it." Will began to explain, sitting high on his chair, "The first time I felt it was at Day of the Dead."

"Power went out that night, too." Mike spoke up.

"And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelsons farm the next day." Will went on, twisting his fingers as he spoke, "Then again yesterday outside Castle Byers."

"What does it feel like?" Max asked him between a mix of curiosity and not wanting to know.

"It's almost like... you know when you drop on a roller coaster?" Will asked the party, making sure to look at Peter to include him.

"Sure." Mike agree.

"Yeah." Max right after.

"No." El admits.

Peter hesitated, feeling terribly outcasted as was with the close knit group, "Like your heart sinks right into your gut?"

Wills was taken back by his blunt and aggressiveness, "Yeah, like everything inside your body is just sinking all at once, but this is worse. Your body... it goes cold and-and you can't breathe. I've felt it before, whenever he was close."

"Whenever who was close?" Max asked. El looked at Peter, watching as he pulled the skin around his nails, little bumps forming along his arms.

"The Mindflayer." Will admited.

El took her eyes away from Peter, "I closed the gate."

"I know, but... what if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?" Will looked over at her with fear and worry dancing within his hazel eyes, "I need paper, and maybe a pencil."

Mike grabbed a thing of paper from behind him.

"Does a crayon work?" Peter asked, pulling one from under his shoelaces.

"Why do you have a crayon in your shoelace?" Lucas gave him a crazy, slightly judging look.

Peter exhaled, "Because a pencil would stab me in the foot. Duh."

El rose her eyebrows as Peter passed the crayon to Will, watching as he made a large scribble on the paper, "This is him. All of him. But, that day on the field, apart of hm attached itself to me."

Will rubbed his hand across the mindflayer drawing, the black left over color spreading across his palm, "My mom got it out of me and Eleven closed the gate. But the part that was still in me, what if it's still in our world?"

Will flipped the paper, slapping his palm down on the clean side to make a black smudge, "In Hawkins."

"I don't understand. The Demodogs died when El closed the gate." Max looked up from the paper, "If the brain dies, the body dies."

"We can't take any chances." Mike looked her way, "We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayers back."

"Seems like he never actually left." Peter was attempting to agree with him, but it came out like he'd been correcting him.

"Yeah. And if he is, he'd want to attach himself to someone again. A new me."
Will looked around at each of them.

"A new host." Lucas confirmed.

"How can you tell if someone's a host?" El spoke up. Peter took a second before realizing what she said, their eyes locking as his widened in panic.

"You know it isn't your fault." Peter had to say to El as the pair lingered behind slightly, "You couldn't have known, about the gate. It's not like you purposely shut him out here with us instead of in the, whatever his home is called."

El frowned, "Should have known."

"How could you? You were just trying to save your friends and Hawkins." Peter reassured her, throwing a friendly arm around her shoulder with a small shake, "Now you'll just do it again."

"Hey." Mike called to get their attention, "Stop messing around, this is serious."

Peter and El walked forward more as Max watched Billy through some binoculars, "I don't know. He looks pretty normal to me."

"Normal? How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?" Lucas gave a look of disbelief.

"He wasn't normal yesterday." Peter spoke up in agreement, "And yeah, the whole shirt this is really giving him away."

"I guess it's a little weird." Max admitted.

"More then a little." Mike cut in, "He was in a tub with ice. The Mind Flayer likes it cold. Plus everything El saw."

"But he's lounging at the pool, which is, like, the least Mind Flayer thing ever." Max explained with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Not necessarily." Will spoke up.

"Oh, not necessarily, lovely." Peter mumbled.

"The Mind Flayer likes to hide. He only used me when he needed me." Will looked down the line at each of them, "It's like... like your dormant. And then, when he needs you, you're activated."

"Okay, so we just...wait until he gets activated." Max nodded in confirmation as she stared over at Billy.

"No. What if he hurts someone?" Mike spoke up.

"Or kills someone." Will added.

"We can't take that chance." Mike agreed, looking back at Billy, "We need to find out of he's the host."

Peter looked his way when he stood up, jogging past Max. El looked around Peter, "Where are you going?"

"I have a idea. Boys only." Mike called as he pulled Lucas and Will off with him. His eyes met Peters, "Party member boys only."

Peters shoulders dropped as he looked at El, "Just the three of us again."

"Don't like it?" she gave a frown of her eyebrows.

Peter snorted as he put a arm around both of them, "Are you kidding? Love it!"

•

kylie speaks

god rewatching to
write makes me remember
how much i can't stand s3
mike oh my god like even
when he'd not being a jerk
he still just makes me SO
mad. i have a mike book
up and it's for s2-s3 and i'm
good for s2 but idk what i'm
gonna do when s3 roles around
lmao.

i wanna make a tiktok of
peter and el. do we have a ship
name for them? eleter? clarkpper?