SEVENTEEN: FIRST BLOOD

ELEVEN WAS MISSING AND DANIEL WOULD BE LYING if he said he wasn't a little glad she was gone. Sure, they were worried and all, but Daniel had Mike back and that was what he cared about the most. However, he had to pretend he was sad for the sake of Mike who was actually upset about the girl's disappearance.

Currently, Daniel was slowly walking down the stairs to Mike's basement where the other boy was looking down and fiddling with some toy. Mike looked up when he heard footsteps. His face was hopeful at first, but it soon fell once he realized it was just Daniel.

"Oh, sorry, I just, I thought, nevermind."

Daniel sighed, sitting down on the couch next to him, "I know it sucks, but she'll come back, I'm sure of it. She has nowhere else to go, we're the only people she knows will keep her safe. That's you, okay? She'll come back." Daniel hated how fake he sounded. He didn't believe a word of what he was saying.

His eyes flicked to where the fort that sat in the corner usually was, Mike had destroyed it. He remembered how many times he and Mike spent the night in there and it stung more than he thought it would knowing the boy destroyed it because of Eleven.

"I know, but still," was all Mike said, leaning his head on the other boy's shoulder. The moment was over too soon as Dustin, Lucas absent.

"She's not here?" Dustin asked right away.

Mike stood up, sighing to himself, "I just, I can't believe she didn't come back."

"She's gotta be close," Dustin suggested.

"Yeah, I doubt she would leave Hawkins," the curly-haired boy added, still sitting on the couch but now leaning against the armrest.

Mike began pacing, "She said it wasn't safe. She just messed up the compasses because she wanted to protect us! She didn't betray us."

Daniel scrunched his nose at this, "Did she give Lucas a head injury to protect us?"

"Really, Daniel?"

"Yes, really," he shrugged somewhat unapologetically. Sure, Mike could spin it however he wanted, but she still hurt Lucas.

"Mike, calm down," Dustin interceded, "Daniel, stop."

Mike, however, continued. "I shouldn't have yelled at her. I never should've done that."

Daniel scoffed, standing up from the couch and taking Mike's wrists in his hands to stop him from pacing. Looking him in the eyes, he said, "You have every right to say what you said. She was deceiving us and I know it sucks that she's gone because she was somewhat helping us, but you have to accept that what she did was fucked up and we all just need some time to cool off, okay?"

"Thank you!" Dustin exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air, "You, Lucas, and Eleven were all out of line yesterday, but that doesn't mean it was anyone's fault, got it?" Mike, resigned, looked down and nodded.

"But, I hate to say it, but Mike," Daniel raised his eyebrows, his hands still clinging to the other boy, "You pushed him first."

The other boy nodded, "You know the rule, whoever draws first blood. . ."

Mike ripped his arms out of Daniel's grip, the calm mood instantly is gone, "No! No way! I'm not shaking his hand."

"You're shaking his hand," Dustin insisted, his voice stern, which Daniel was thankful for.

"No, I'm not."

"Mike," Daniel got his attention, the Wheeler boy's face instantly rid itself of any anger as he looked at the curly haired boy. "I know you don't want to, but we can't find will if the four of us don't fix this rift between all of us. I know having to swallow your pride sucks ass, but can you just do it? For me?"

Mike sighed and wow, Daniel was so in love with this boy. It was insane how much he felt for Mike Wheeler. Funny that all it took for him to realize that was for Will to go missing, not that he was happy about it. This was all happening too quickly, but at the same time, he had always known.

"I'll shake his hand," Mike muttered, "After all, I don't wanna be banished from the party."

Daniel smiled with relief, finally, they were able to get to a good place. Everything with Mike felt so tense lately, he was so terrified that at any point Mike would tell the others about him.

Dustin reached to grab his jacket, "All right, we're gonna go find Lucas and then we're gonna find Eleven! Let's go!"

"Hey, Dustin, can you give us a minute? Sorry, I wanna talk to Mike about something super quick," Daniel asked. The curly-haired boy nodded and left up the stairs.

"What's up?" Mike asked with a furrowed brow as soon as Dustin was for sure gone.

"I, uh, fuck, I don't know how to say this. Um, you know that thing I told you about? The uh, liking boys thing?"

Mike nodded, "I haven't told anybody, I swear!"

"I just, I'm so scared, Mike. If anyone finds out, if my mom or someone finds out, I don't know what's gonna happen but I know it won't be good. Having you know this thing about me has made my anxiety ten times worse and I just need to know, know for sure, that you will take this to your fucking grave."

"Daniel, you're scaring me," Mike grabbed the boy's hands like he always did when the other was scared, "I get that you're scared, something as big as this is scary, even I know that. You have to know that when you told me that, I swore on my life I wouldn't tell anybody. It's not my secret to tell. You're my best friend in the whole world, Dan, I would never ever do something like that to you."

God, Daniel could just kiss him.

So he did.

It was brief but sweet. Daniel noticed that Mike kissed back, but not for long before he pushed the other boy back.

"What the hell, Daniel?" He exclaimed, wiping his mouth. Daniel couldn't see his own expression, but he had a feeling he looked like a kicked puppy. "Just because I'm okay with the way that you are, doesn't mean that I'm-I'm like you!"

Daniel immediately stumbled into a flurry of apologies, "I'm sorry, I-I don't know what I was thinking, I shouldn't've done that, that was so wrong, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Mike."

Mike sighed, Daniel was shaking. "No, I-I shouldn't have yelled, just, let's just go find Dustin and get Lucas, okay? We can forget about this." Forgetting sounded absolutely wonderful.

The boy nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat, "Yeah, yeah let's do that."

The two boys ran up the stairs, Daniel saying hi to Mister and Misses Wheeler as the three of them left. When Dustin and Mike got their bikes, Daniel stood there awkwardly.

"Dan, get on mine," Dustin said and Daniel obliged, staring sadly at Mike without the other boy noticing.

They rode to Lucas's house where the boy answered the door with a bored look on his face.

"What do you want?" he asked, his voice harsh as his eyes landed on Mike.

Mike said nothing at first, so Dustin hit him in the arm. Daniel did his best to stifle a snicker, despite being sad about the day's previous events. Eventually, Mike sighed, "I drew first blood so. . ." he held out his hand.

Lucas stared at it for a moment before the dark-skinned boy opened the door wider for the three boys to come in and go into Lucas's room. The air was still tense, but it was definitely better than before. The three watched as Lucas paced back and forth, created more tension even though Daniel thought they just got rid of it.

"Okay," he finally said after a few minutes, "I'll shake. On one condition. We forget the weirdo and go straight to the gate."

"Here we go again," Daniel sighed, sharing a look of mutual annoyance with Dustin.

"Then the deal's off!" Mike exclaimed.

"Fine!" Lucas shouted back.

"Fine!"

Dustin, thankfully, cut in, "No, no, not fine. Guys, seriously? Do you even remember what happened on the Bloodstone Pass?" Daniel had no idea what he was talking about and neither did Lucas or Mike apparently. "We couldn't agree on which path to take, so we split up the party and those trolls took us out one by one. And it all went to shit! And we were all disabled! So we stick together, no matter what!" Ah, so it was a D&D thing which explains why Daniel has no recollection of it.

"Yeah, I agree. But this is the party, right here in this room," Lucas began, "Even Daniel."

"El's one of us now," Mike argued.

Daniel scoffed and Lucas had the same idea, "Um, no, she's not! Not even close! Never will be. She's a liar, a traitor!" The boy one-hundred-percent agreed with this, but he wasn't about to get yelled at for saying so.

"She was just trying to keep us safe!" was Mike's argument, which in Daniel's opinion, wasn't a very sound one. "She didn't mean to hurt you, it was an accident!"

"An accident?" Lucas's voice was filled to the brim with complete disbelief.

He clearly wanted to say more, but Dustin cut him off, "All right, accident or not, admit it, it was a little awesome."

"Awesome?" the boy repeated with a wild look on his face.

"Yeah, she threw you in the air with her mind!" Daniel would admit that concern for Lucas's health aside, it looked pretty badass. It did make him slightly scared of Eleven and what she could do.

"I could have been killed!" Lucas yelled.

"Which is exactly why we need her!" Mike exclaimed, jumping back into the conversation, "She's a weapon! Do you seriously wanna fight the Demogorgon with your wrist rocket? That's like R2-D2 going to fight Darth Vader." Yeah, Daniel didn't get the Star Wars references, he typically stuck with Marvel. "We're no use to Will if we're dead."

Lucas was practically seething now, "If you three wanna waste your time looking for a traitor, go ahead, 'cause I'm not spending any time on her anymore. No way!" Daniel wanted to agree with him, to look for the gate with Lucas, but he couldn't stand to have Mike be any more mad at him. Thus, he remained silent against his best wishes. "I'm going to the gate. I'm gonna find Will."

God, this group was a mess.

( note! )

lmao i bet y'all thought i was really gonna let daniel be happy