fic: 1985
Fandom: Stranger Things
Characters: Mike Wheeler, Eleven, Jim Hopper, Joyce Byers, Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Will Byers, Jonathan Byers, Nancy Wheeler
Pairing: Mike/Eleven, Joyce/Hopper
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Placing: 2 years in the future based on season 1
Sumarry: It takes over a year before they can finally lure her out of her hiding place, and even so it wasn’t because of their tireless attempts.
Also posted on AO3 and FFnet.
Series of oneshots about that 1985, focused on the children, lots of fluffy promised.
January
It takes over a year before they can finally lure her out of her hiding place, and even so it wasn’t because of their tireless attempts. No, what brought her back and straight to Jim Hopper’s house was as simple as biology can be.
Perhaps he wouldn’t even notice that she was there, so quiet she was she could have gotten in and out without any alarm, but Hopper had a dog who was rather worried at the bathroom door, and when the sheriff of Hawkins went to check it out, he found bloody clothes on the floor and a scared and dirty girl in his tub.
“I’m hurt,” she told him with teary eyes. Her voice cracked from lack of use, and she still talked quietly. It took him only one extra look around to know that he wouldn’t be able to solve her problem.
“Hi, El,” Jim said, blocking the door so the dog wouldn’t come in sniffing everything. “Look, I’ll call Joyce, okay? She can help you better.”
Which was true, and practical. Luckily, Joyce was home that day and it was only a matter of minutes until she came to the rescue.
“Hi!” Joyce greeted sweetly, and there was something about the woman that always brought a sense of lull in Eleven, as if things would be okay eventually. “I’m so glad to see you again, look how much you’ve grown!”
Joyce sat by the tub near Eleven. She guessed she had changed, all right. She still was wearing Nancy’s clothes, though they held a little tighter in a few places now, and her hair was certainly longer - last time she cut it was when she still was an experiment -, but that was about it. The woman turned on the hot water.
“Jim told me you said you are hurt, where are you hurt?” she asked, and Eleven hesitated a bit before relaxing her legs and holding her stomach under the turbid water.
“I’m bleeding,” said the girl, and Joyce nodded as if it explained everything. “My stomach hurts.”
“First of all, let’s change this water, okay?” Joyce said, getting up and helping Eleven to her feet under the shower’s warm water. “But I will let you know already, you will be alright.”
She said that with a nice, sincere smile that even though there still was a pain in her belly, and she still was bleeding, Eleven believed her.
They emptied the tub and filled it again with hot water. Joyce told her that whenever she got like this, it was always good to have a hot shower, it eased the pain.
“Whenever?” echoed Eleven, and Joyce nodded. The bleeding would happen every month now, and the first months were tough, but she’d get used to it, like every woman does. It meant that she was turning into a woman now.
“And a rather beautiful one,” added Joyce, washing Eleven’s hair. The massage was one of the best things the girl felt her whole life.
“Beautiful,” wondered El, looking up at the roof. Joyce hummed in response.
“You still have the same clothes Mike gave you,” said Joyce, and at the mention of Mike’s name the girl stiffened a bit. If Joyce noticed, she didn’t say anything. “What do you think of calling Nancy tomorrow and all three of us go do some shopping for you? Maybe go to a hairdresser, get you a pretty haircut…” Eleven shook her head, and held on to her locks, which made Joyce chuckle. “Don’t worry, no one is going to shave your head again, sweetheart, not if you don’t want to. We just need to take a couple of inches here, so it can grow with some strength and it can shine.”
“Hair can shine?” asked Eleven, clearly confused, and Joyce nodded again.
“It can,” she assured. “Remember Nancy?” Eleven nodded. “She knows all kinds of tricks to make your hair look pretty. I don’t know anything, I’m raising two boys, but she…” Joyce tickled El’s waist, making the girl laugh. “Is a specialist.”
They decided to set the shopping for the following day, and Hopper said that he’d pay for anything that Eleven would need. For that first day back though, Joyce brushed El’s hair and gave her a hot bag to press on her stomach after she took a couple of painkillers; she explained what was going on and what were pads and tampons, and also a little bit of the implications that monthly bleed would have on the girl.
Joyce also said that since it was such a delicate time for Eleven and she had just gotten back, Jim should do everything the girl needed, which was actually El’s favorite part. Joyce promised to come back the next morning.
“Do you want me to tell the boys that you’re back?” she asked at last, proving that she actually noticed the girl’s reaction whenever the boys were mentioned, and Eleven shook her head no. “No? Okay, I won’t tell them yet. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
And she did. The next day, Joyce and Nancy showed up early, and El was greeted with warm hugs and excited smiles.
“Are you feeling better?” asked Joyce, and Eleven nodded. They loaned her some clothes and then off they went downtown.
“Will you ever tell us what happened?” asked Nancy turning around on the passenger seat to look at El, who was in the back seat. The girl didn’t answer. “We thought you were dead. Well, Mike thought you were trapped in the Upside-down, and spent months trying to figure out a way to bring you out, but the government closed all the breeches, so we wouldn’t have much progress. We had to let it be, but it was hard, especially on him. You made quite the impression.”
At first, they thought that Eleven wouldn’t say anything about it, the girl only looked outside the window. And then-
“I missed the Snow Ball,” she said. "Is Mike angry?"
Nancy chuckled.
"Mike? Angry at you?" She said as if it was the most absurd thing she'd ever heard. "El, that's not even possible."
At that, Eleven looked back at Nancy, big brown eyes genuinely surprised.
"But I broke the promise," Eleven said, her voice small in comparison of her eyes. "Twice."
"Hey, it's okay," Nancy reached and held El's hand comfortingly. "He knew you wouldn't be able to come, he was aware. Eleven, he's not angry. And he'll be so happy to know that you're back."
"They all will," Joyce added, looking at El through the rearview mirror.
"Besides," continued Nancy. "There's always the Spring Ball in May."
Eleven frowned, and it made Nancy chuckle again, as if she knew something that El didn't, which was probably the case.
They parked downtown and did all the shopping by foot. Even though Hopper had been nice enough to give a fair amount of money for Eleven, Joyce also used their time to teach the girl a thing or two about saving money. They bought a couple of dresses, some shirts, tops and jeans, two winter jackets, and then Nancy helped El choose some panties and bras.
After that, they went to the hairdresser, and even though Eleven was a bit scared of having all her hair cut off again, both Nancy and Joyce made sure to be very specific of what should be done, and cared to keep the girl distracted. The final result was simple waves loose on her shoulders. Nancy suggested some bangs covering El's forehead, and the rest of the hair was adorned with a red ribbon that matched the top she was wearing under the jeans jacket (that was actually Nancy's), and for once Eleven really liked the person she saw in the mirror, as if she was one step further from the person she used to be.
"Beautiful," she said enchanted, and behind her the hairdresser smiled.
"Beautiful indeed, young lady," he exclaimed, ushering her out of the chair.
They had lunch near there - burgers and fries, greasy the way El liked them - and then they went to the ice cream shop before they'd head home, three generations of women having fun together. It was maybe too cold to have ice cream, being the end of January and all, but a couple of scoops wouldn't hurt anyone.
"This is so different from my usual day with the boys," Joyce was commenting as they entered in the shop, plenty of bags in their hands. "This is nice," she looked at Eleven. "I hope you don't get tired of me, because I'd like to do this thing often."
Eleven smiled.
"Me too," she agreed, because it was true. Joyce was nice to her and taught her things she would never have figured out alone. And Eleven was eager to learn more.
Nancy chose her ice cream first and said that she'd take the bags to the car and wait for the others outside, but she had barely left the shop when two bikes stopped in front of her.
"Jesus Christ, Mike!" She exclaimed jumping back, and then she immediately frowned thinking about who was inside the shop. Her brother and Lucas were there on their new bikes - they both had mowed lawns from spring to fall last year to afford the bicycles - and it still felt weird to look up at her little brother. He grew a good foot and a half the past months.
"I was looking for you," he said, ignoring her startled face. "Mom wants to know if you're going home for dinner."
"I am," she answered quickly, wanting him to leave.
"That's a hell lot of shopping you did," Lucas commented, eyebrows raised, and Nancy looked at the bags in her hand.
"They're not for me," she said. "They are for a friend."
"You're friends with Will's mom now?" asked Mike suspicious. "Because mom said you were going out with her."
"And I did. I am," Nancy answered, and then she realized that she didn't need to tell him anything. "Since when are you so nosy?"
"I'm your little brother, that's what I do," Mike replied, and Lucas laughed. His laugh was interrupted, though, when the door of the shop opened and he saw who was getting out.
There was a pause in time and the air stilled when Eleven looked at Lucas and then at Mike, her eyes going wide in her known 'what-the-hell-now' expression. Lucas's eyes went from El to Joyce, Nancy and then Mike, and he poked his friend's arm insistently, but Mike's eyes were on El and El only and there were a million emotions going on in them, so many that Eleven didn't know how to figure them out, and it even felt a little overwhelming for her.
It lasted forever and a second only.
"Hi, Mike," she greeted, and he blinked. He was taller now, but she had grown too, a bit. His hair was different too, shorter. He looked different, but managed to still look like her Mike.
Suddenly, he dropped the bike and closed the couple of steps between them. Eleven only had time to open her arms so her ice cream wouldn't be mashed between them before he wrapped her in an embrace. She missed him so damn much. It felt nice.
"You came back," he said, his voice muffled by her hair. "I knew you'd come back."
She lifted her head to look at him better.
"You're not mad at me? I broke the promise," El said, because despite what Nancy said, she still needed to hear it from Mike. He was the first person who taught her what friendship was, and she felt like she'd ruined it somehow, even though she was certain she had done the right thing.
Mike shook his head.
"Don't even worry about it, El," he answered, and okay, it was a good enough reply for her. For now, at least.
Perhaps her Hawkins friends had more faith in her than Eleven herself, but she was glad they did. This friendship, this bond she shared with the boys was what kept her sane while she was gone. Now that she was back, she would make sure to enjoy every moment.
February
She spent a ridiculous amount of time sitting in Hopper's living room making cards because, apparently, Valentine's Day is a big deal. It's a hell of a job, because crafts were never her thing. Hell, she'd barely had time to be just a kid growing up, so the overload of information she got about "social skills" and "mainstream knowledge" the past three weeks still make her a little dizzy (Sometimes it just felt like the others were messing with her, but they were her friends, right? And friends don't mess with each other).
By the end of the afternoon, there was a mess of colorful papers around the living room and a pile of poorly made cards for every person in Eleven's life who was important for her. Nancy used a lot of emphasis on saying that the whole point of Valentine's Day was to tell the people she liked how much they mattered for her, so El should at least try to make something nice.
"Wow, kid, how many people you know?" Asked Hopper when he got home. There might be a chance that the dog slept on top of some glitter and stickers, and she did not want to know how to remove everything from its fur. Jim sat on the couch by her side and picked one of the cards that still was unfinished. "Ha, I hated to make those when I was a kid," he said, and then looked at Eleven. "But I loved to receive cards, 'specially from the cute girls."
Eleven smiled. All she wanted, really, was for her friends to enjoy the cards she made for them, because it took a lot of time and effort to make them.
Jim reached for another card, the one on top of the pile of 'ready-for-tomorrow', but El put her hand on top of them. She suspected that he had seen his name on it, though.
"Tomorrow," she said as he raised his hands up, as if surrendering, and he nodded.
"Okay, fine," he replied, leaning back a little. "Gee, kid."
He looked down then and saw a lot of ripped paper by her side on the floor. He could make out some Ms and Ks, which made him look at the coffee table and the card Eleven was making now. It was a blue and purple heart-shaped card with one name written in capital letters - MIKE - and nothing else, a white crayon held tight in her right hand.
"You know, cards aren't the only thing you can give out on Valentine's Day," Hopper said, trying to distract El. She looked at him expectantly, probably waiting for him to give her a solution, and he sighed. "Chocolates are always nice."
"Nancy said that girls don't give chocolate, they just receive it," she said, and he smiled.
"Okay..." he thought for a second. "You can hang out, it's nice. Watch a movie. No, you need money for this, and you're all fourteen. Go to the park! Hmm ... I'm not very creative, actually. Stick to the cards."
Eleven sighed and looked down at her card.
"I don't know what to write," she admitted, and Hopper put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
"You will figure out," he assured, and she sighed. "Why don't you go do something else for a while and then come back to this?"
That was actually the best idea he gave to her, so El nodded and got up. She took her pile of cards and left it in her bedroom, and then she got a broom to clean the living room; she organized the things she was using for the cards on the coffee table, put on a jacket and then called the dog to stay with her outside so she could clean its fur.
She sat on the back porch with a hairbrush. The sun was almost gone by the time she started to have some progress removing all the stickers from the dog, and the lake looked so pretty from her angle. It hadn't frozen during the winter, and the water was calm and transparent. It was nice.
Suddenly, Eleven got up. She knew what to do. She dropped the brush and rushed inside the house again, the dog tagging along just behind her. Jim was on the same spot watching TV.
"Can we invite some people over tomorrow?" Asked El, and Hopper looked at her frowning.
"We'd have to clean the house," he answered, and she shrugged.
"If we clean the house...?" She poked and they exchanged a glance for a few seconds.
"...Then yes," Hopper said slowly, already sensing that he'd regret it.
El practically ran to the other room, got the broom again and dropped it by his feet, and then she got the phone.
"What are you doing?" He asked, looking from the broom to Eleven. She looked at him with those big brown eyes like the puppy that she was, that way he couldn't say no to.
"Get started," she told him. "I will make some calls."
He opened his mouth to protest, to say that they hadn't decided anything, but he gave up. El already had dialed the first number and, on the other side, someone already had picked up.
"Joyce? Oh, hi Nancy! Are you busy tomorrow?" Eleven said excitedly. There was no way in hell that he'd stop that.
Eleven made Jim rent a movie (Star Wars), had him dig out his old turntable from the basement because the Byers would bring some discs, and actually had him going to the kitchen to help her bake a red velvet cake and cookies. All of that on top of the cleaning of the previous night.
They had done so many things that Jim really thought that El wouldn't have the energy to host a bunch of people, but apparently he had forgotten how it is to be young, because after a shower the girl was a hundred percent ready.
Before the first guests arrived, Eleven approached him. She had put her hair in a ponytail and had chosen one of her most "average" outfits - jeans, boots, the Super Bowl tee that he had gotten her when they went to watch the game, and a jacket - which surprised him, considering how girls liked to look all fierce at Valentine's Day. Not Eleven's case, it seemed.
Hopper doubted that he'd ever get used to it.
"This is for you," El said, taking a yellow and pink card from her jacket, the one he had seen the previous day.
He took the card and right at that moment they heard the sound of a car parking, so Eleven ran to the front door and Jim used that moment to see what she had written.
The front of the card had a drawing that wasn't there before; it was him, her and the dog. Family, she wrote. He opened it. To Hopper, it read inside Thank you.
Hopper smiled and closed the card quickly. That little Eggos lover, she knew how to hit him right in the feelings.
Hopefully, the arrival of the Byers with Dustin was a good enough distraction for him not to get all teary-eyed in the middle of the kitchen. Besides the discs, Joyce also brought an casserole, which made Hopper frown.
"Don't worry," said Will. "Jonathan made it."
Well, that explained it.
Eleven gave them their cards and got a few cards herself. Jonathan went further and gave her his Ramones jacket (apparently, she was into punk, which Hopper wasn't a fan of and hoped would be just a phase), but Dustin and Will didn't have anything big for Eleven.
Lucas and Mike came with Nancy, who also had brought food and baby Holly. El gave them the remaining cards, leaving Mike the last one, and she didn't wait for him to read it like she had done with Joyce and Dustin. No, she went to the back door, to the back porch.
Mike opened his heart-shaped card. Follow me, it read, and he frowned as he looked up from it, looking for Eleven. He saw her standing at the back door, and when their eyes met, she smiled and stepped back, letting the door close in front of her. He smiled and followed her instructions.
Once he opened the door, it seemed like the world burst into movement: the sun was shining in shades of red, El was leaning against the fence facing him, and the lake… it was splashing and bursting like a water show. It was silent and precise, hypnotic even. Breathtaking. And she was making that happen with her mind and hands.
El smiled when she saw the look on Mike's face. She was getting stronger, and using her powers was getting easier too. Not very, but she was getting good at this. She turned around, fingers moving as if coordinating the water's movements, and wow, that looked awesome! It even made him smile.
"Amazing," Mike breathed, stepping closer. He stood by El's side, his arm touching hers even if there were so many layers between them.
He looked at her enchanted, but then he saw her nose bleeding, and Eleven lost her balance. Mike caught her easily as she collapsed on his chest, and the water of the lake came down with a splash. El held his arm; she was leaning heavy against his chest.
"Did you like it?" she asked looking up at him, her voice a little hoarse.
"Yeah, it's incredible," he said, his eyes still on the lake that started to calm down again. "Did you show them?"
She shook her head.
"It's my Valentine for you," she said, standing straighter. Mike's eyes widened.
"You did that for me?" he exclaimed, and she nodded. "Damn, I really need to step up my game, I only brought you chocolate."
El smiled.
"Chocolate is good," she assured. She was feeling better already, and she wiped the blood with the back of her hand. "I'm stronger now. I can do it again," she told him already turning to the lake, but Mike held her waist.
"No, it's okay," he said quickly. "I already have the memory, it's cool enough."
Eleven looked at him and smiled. She liked the way he thought, he took care of her even when he didn't need to. She was holding his jacket with both hands, and he still was holding her waist, his grip steady.
There was a bit of a fire in Mike's eyes that El recognized, one that said that he'd do it again, he'd kiss her, except that this time she'd be ready, and she'd be able to enjoy it.
She stepped closer, tilting her head, and he leaned in, his arm going around her waist, and their noses touched, and-
"El, come tell the people about how you decided to be a baker," Hopper interrupted, making the kids jump a foot high and at least three feet apart. He didn't even look bothered by their flushed cheeks and guilty expressions. "They are so impressed by your cookies, I can't wait for them to see the cake. Come on, you can't be outside, you gotta be a good host."
El looked at Mike, who just smiled sweetly, and then Holly came running to her brother's arms, so their opportunity really had passed, but they'd have time again, she was sure.
She followed Jim's lead and went back inside. It was her idea to call that many people, though she was hoping on Joyce being a good enough distraction for Hopper so she could stay with her friends more freely. Not today, it seemed. But it was okay. From across the room, she exchanged a look with Will, and he shrugged. They would find time to put their plan in action soon. Together.
Characters: Mike Wheeler, Eleven, Jim Hopper, Joyce Byers, Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Will Byers, Jonathan Byers, Nancy Wheeler
Pairing: Mike/Eleven, Joyce/Hopper
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Placing: 2 years in the future based on season 1
Sumarry: It takes over a year before they can finally lure her out of her hiding place, and even so it wasn’t because of their tireless attempts.
Also posted on AO3 and FFnet.
Series of oneshots about that 1985, focused on the children, lots of fluffy promised.
January
It takes over a year before they can finally lure her out of her hiding place, and even so it wasn’t because of their tireless attempts. No, what brought her back and straight to Jim Hopper’s house was as simple as biology can be.
Perhaps he wouldn’t even notice that she was there, so quiet she was she could have gotten in and out without any alarm, but Hopper had a dog who was rather worried at the bathroom door, and when the sheriff of Hawkins went to check it out, he found bloody clothes on the floor and a scared and dirty girl in his tub.
“I’m hurt,” she told him with teary eyes. Her voice cracked from lack of use, and she still talked quietly. It took him only one extra look around to know that he wouldn’t be able to solve her problem.
“Hi, El,” Jim said, blocking the door so the dog wouldn’t come in sniffing everything. “Look, I’ll call Joyce, okay? She can help you better.”
Which was true, and practical. Luckily, Joyce was home that day and it was only a matter of minutes until she came to the rescue.
“Hi!” Joyce greeted sweetly, and there was something about the woman that always brought a sense of lull in Eleven, as if things would be okay eventually. “I’m so glad to see you again, look how much you’ve grown!”
Joyce sat by the tub near Eleven. She guessed she had changed, all right. She still was wearing Nancy’s clothes, though they held a little tighter in a few places now, and her hair was certainly longer - last time she cut it was when she still was an experiment -, but that was about it. The woman turned on the hot water.
“Jim told me you said you are hurt, where are you hurt?” she asked, and Eleven hesitated a bit before relaxing her legs and holding her stomach under the turbid water.
“I’m bleeding,” said the girl, and Joyce nodded as if it explained everything. “My stomach hurts.”
“First of all, let’s change this water, okay?” Joyce said, getting up and helping Eleven to her feet under the shower’s warm water. “But I will let you know already, you will be alright.”
She said that with a nice, sincere smile that even though there still was a pain in her belly, and she still was bleeding, Eleven believed her.
They emptied the tub and filled it again with hot water. Joyce told her that whenever she got like this, it was always good to have a hot shower, it eased the pain.
“Whenever?” echoed Eleven, and Joyce nodded. The bleeding would happen every month now, and the first months were tough, but she’d get used to it, like every woman does. It meant that she was turning into a woman now.
“And a rather beautiful one,” added Joyce, washing Eleven’s hair. The massage was one of the best things the girl felt her whole life.
“Beautiful,” wondered El, looking up at the roof. Joyce hummed in response.
“You still have the same clothes Mike gave you,” said Joyce, and at the mention of Mike’s name the girl stiffened a bit. If Joyce noticed, she didn’t say anything. “What do you think of calling Nancy tomorrow and all three of us go do some shopping for you? Maybe go to a hairdresser, get you a pretty haircut…” Eleven shook her head, and held on to her locks, which made Joyce chuckle. “Don’t worry, no one is going to shave your head again, sweetheart, not if you don’t want to. We just need to take a couple of inches here, so it can grow with some strength and it can shine.”
“Hair can shine?” asked Eleven, clearly confused, and Joyce nodded again.
“It can,” she assured. “Remember Nancy?” Eleven nodded. “She knows all kinds of tricks to make your hair look pretty. I don’t know anything, I’m raising two boys, but she…” Joyce tickled El’s waist, making the girl laugh. “Is a specialist.”
They decided to set the shopping for the following day, and Hopper said that he’d pay for anything that Eleven would need. For that first day back though, Joyce brushed El’s hair and gave her a hot bag to press on her stomach after she took a couple of painkillers; she explained what was going on and what were pads and tampons, and also a little bit of the implications that monthly bleed would have on the girl.
Joyce also said that since it was such a delicate time for Eleven and she had just gotten back, Jim should do everything the girl needed, which was actually El’s favorite part. Joyce promised to come back the next morning.
“Do you want me to tell the boys that you’re back?” she asked at last, proving that she actually noticed the girl’s reaction whenever the boys were mentioned, and Eleven shook her head no. “No? Okay, I won’t tell them yet. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
And she did. The next day, Joyce and Nancy showed up early, and El was greeted with warm hugs and excited smiles.
“Are you feeling better?” asked Joyce, and Eleven nodded. They loaned her some clothes and then off they went downtown.
“Will you ever tell us what happened?” asked Nancy turning around on the passenger seat to look at El, who was in the back seat. The girl didn’t answer. “We thought you were dead. Well, Mike thought you were trapped in the Upside-down, and spent months trying to figure out a way to bring you out, but the government closed all the breeches, so we wouldn’t have much progress. We had to let it be, but it was hard, especially on him. You made quite the impression.”
At first, they thought that Eleven wouldn’t say anything about it, the girl only looked outside the window. And then-
“I missed the Snow Ball,” she said. "Is Mike angry?"
Nancy chuckled.
"Mike? Angry at you?" She said as if it was the most absurd thing she'd ever heard. "El, that's not even possible."
At that, Eleven looked back at Nancy, big brown eyes genuinely surprised.
"But I broke the promise," Eleven said, her voice small in comparison of her eyes. "Twice."
"Hey, it's okay," Nancy reached and held El's hand comfortingly. "He knew you wouldn't be able to come, he was aware. Eleven, he's not angry. And he'll be so happy to know that you're back."
"They all will," Joyce added, looking at El through the rearview mirror.
"Besides," continued Nancy. "There's always the Spring Ball in May."
Eleven frowned, and it made Nancy chuckle again, as if she knew something that El didn't, which was probably the case.
They parked downtown and did all the shopping by foot. Even though Hopper had been nice enough to give a fair amount of money for Eleven, Joyce also used their time to teach the girl a thing or two about saving money. They bought a couple of dresses, some shirts, tops and jeans, two winter jackets, and then Nancy helped El choose some panties and bras.
After that, they went to the hairdresser, and even though Eleven was a bit scared of having all her hair cut off again, both Nancy and Joyce made sure to be very specific of what should be done, and cared to keep the girl distracted. The final result was simple waves loose on her shoulders. Nancy suggested some bangs covering El's forehead, and the rest of the hair was adorned with a red ribbon that matched the top she was wearing under the jeans jacket (that was actually Nancy's), and for once Eleven really liked the person she saw in the mirror, as if she was one step further from the person she used to be.
"Beautiful," she said enchanted, and behind her the hairdresser smiled.
"Beautiful indeed, young lady," he exclaimed, ushering her out of the chair.
They had lunch near there - burgers and fries, greasy the way El liked them - and then they went to the ice cream shop before they'd head home, three generations of women having fun together. It was maybe too cold to have ice cream, being the end of January and all, but a couple of scoops wouldn't hurt anyone.
"This is so different from my usual day with the boys," Joyce was commenting as they entered in the shop, plenty of bags in their hands. "This is nice," she looked at Eleven. "I hope you don't get tired of me, because I'd like to do this thing often."
Eleven smiled.
"Me too," she agreed, because it was true. Joyce was nice to her and taught her things she would never have figured out alone. And Eleven was eager to learn more.
Nancy chose her ice cream first and said that she'd take the bags to the car and wait for the others outside, but she had barely left the shop when two bikes stopped in front of her.
"Jesus Christ, Mike!" She exclaimed jumping back, and then she immediately frowned thinking about who was inside the shop. Her brother and Lucas were there on their new bikes - they both had mowed lawns from spring to fall last year to afford the bicycles - and it still felt weird to look up at her little brother. He grew a good foot and a half the past months.
"I was looking for you," he said, ignoring her startled face. "Mom wants to know if you're going home for dinner."
"I am," she answered quickly, wanting him to leave.
"That's a hell lot of shopping you did," Lucas commented, eyebrows raised, and Nancy looked at the bags in her hand.
"They're not for me," she said. "They are for a friend."
"You're friends with Will's mom now?" asked Mike suspicious. "Because mom said you were going out with her."
"And I did. I am," Nancy answered, and then she realized that she didn't need to tell him anything. "Since when are you so nosy?"
"I'm your little brother, that's what I do," Mike replied, and Lucas laughed. His laugh was interrupted, though, when the door of the shop opened and he saw who was getting out.
There was a pause in time and the air stilled when Eleven looked at Lucas and then at Mike, her eyes going wide in her known 'what-the-hell-now' expression. Lucas's eyes went from El to Joyce, Nancy and then Mike, and he poked his friend's arm insistently, but Mike's eyes were on El and El only and there were a million emotions going on in them, so many that Eleven didn't know how to figure them out, and it even felt a little overwhelming for her.
It lasted forever and a second only.
"Hi, Mike," she greeted, and he blinked. He was taller now, but she had grown too, a bit. His hair was different too, shorter. He looked different, but managed to still look like her Mike.
Suddenly, he dropped the bike and closed the couple of steps between them. Eleven only had time to open her arms so her ice cream wouldn't be mashed between them before he wrapped her in an embrace. She missed him so damn much. It felt nice.
"You came back," he said, his voice muffled by her hair. "I knew you'd come back."
She lifted her head to look at him better.
"You're not mad at me? I broke the promise," El said, because despite what Nancy said, she still needed to hear it from Mike. He was the first person who taught her what friendship was, and she felt like she'd ruined it somehow, even though she was certain she had done the right thing.
Mike shook his head.
"Don't even worry about it, El," he answered, and okay, it was a good enough reply for her. For now, at least.
Perhaps her Hawkins friends had more faith in her than Eleven herself, but she was glad they did. This friendship, this bond she shared with the boys was what kept her sane while she was gone. Now that she was back, she would make sure to enjoy every moment.
February
She spent a ridiculous amount of time sitting in Hopper's living room making cards because, apparently, Valentine's Day is a big deal. It's a hell of a job, because crafts were never her thing. Hell, she'd barely had time to be just a kid growing up, so the overload of information she got about "social skills" and "mainstream knowledge" the past three weeks still make her a little dizzy (Sometimes it just felt like the others were messing with her, but they were her friends, right? And friends don't mess with each other).
By the end of the afternoon, there was a mess of colorful papers around the living room and a pile of poorly made cards for every person in Eleven's life who was important for her. Nancy used a lot of emphasis on saying that the whole point of Valentine's Day was to tell the people she liked how much they mattered for her, so El should at least try to make something nice.
"Wow, kid, how many people you know?" Asked Hopper when he got home. There might be a chance that the dog slept on top of some glitter and stickers, and she did not want to know how to remove everything from its fur. Jim sat on the couch by her side and picked one of the cards that still was unfinished. "Ha, I hated to make those when I was a kid," he said, and then looked at Eleven. "But I loved to receive cards, 'specially from the cute girls."
Eleven smiled. All she wanted, really, was for her friends to enjoy the cards she made for them, because it took a lot of time and effort to make them.
Jim reached for another card, the one on top of the pile of 'ready-for-tomorrow', but El put her hand on top of them. She suspected that he had seen his name on it, though.
"Tomorrow," she said as he raised his hands up, as if surrendering, and he nodded.
"Okay, fine," he replied, leaning back a little. "Gee, kid."
He looked down then and saw a lot of ripped paper by her side on the floor. He could make out some Ms and Ks, which made him look at the coffee table and the card Eleven was making now. It was a blue and purple heart-shaped card with one name written in capital letters - MIKE - and nothing else, a white crayon held tight in her right hand.
"You know, cards aren't the only thing you can give out on Valentine's Day," Hopper said, trying to distract El. She looked at him expectantly, probably waiting for him to give her a solution, and he sighed. "Chocolates are always nice."
"Nancy said that girls don't give chocolate, they just receive it," she said, and he smiled.
"Okay..." he thought for a second. "You can hang out, it's nice. Watch a movie. No, you need money for this, and you're all fourteen. Go to the park! Hmm ... I'm not very creative, actually. Stick to the cards."
Eleven sighed and looked down at her card.
"I don't know what to write," she admitted, and Hopper put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
"You will figure out," he assured, and she sighed. "Why don't you go do something else for a while and then come back to this?"
That was actually the best idea he gave to her, so El nodded and got up. She took her pile of cards and left it in her bedroom, and then she got a broom to clean the living room; she organized the things she was using for the cards on the coffee table, put on a jacket and then called the dog to stay with her outside so she could clean its fur.
She sat on the back porch with a hairbrush. The sun was almost gone by the time she started to have some progress removing all the stickers from the dog, and the lake looked so pretty from her angle. It hadn't frozen during the winter, and the water was calm and transparent. It was nice.
Suddenly, Eleven got up. She knew what to do. She dropped the brush and rushed inside the house again, the dog tagging along just behind her. Jim was on the same spot watching TV.
"Can we invite some people over tomorrow?" Asked El, and Hopper looked at her frowning.
"We'd have to clean the house," he answered, and she shrugged.
"If we clean the house...?" She poked and they exchanged a glance for a few seconds.
"...Then yes," Hopper said slowly, already sensing that he'd regret it.
El practically ran to the other room, got the broom again and dropped it by his feet, and then she got the phone.
"What are you doing?" He asked, looking from the broom to Eleven. She looked at him with those big brown eyes like the puppy that she was, that way he couldn't say no to.
"Get started," she told him. "I will make some calls."
He opened his mouth to protest, to say that they hadn't decided anything, but he gave up. El already had dialed the first number and, on the other side, someone already had picked up.
"Joyce? Oh, hi Nancy! Are you busy tomorrow?" Eleven said excitedly. There was no way in hell that he'd stop that.
Eleven made Jim rent a movie (Star Wars), had him dig out his old turntable from the basement because the Byers would bring some discs, and actually had him going to the kitchen to help her bake a red velvet cake and cookies. All of that on top of the cleaning of the previous night.
They had done so many things that Jim really thought that El wouldn't have the energy to host a bunch of people, but apparently he had forgotten how it is to be young, because after a shower the girl was a hundred percent ready.
Before the first guests arrived, Eleven approached him. She had put her hair in a ponytail and had chosen one of her most "average" outfits - jeans, boots, the Super Bowl tee that he had gotten her when they went to watch the game, and a jacket - which surprised him, considering how girls liked to look all fierce at Valentine's Day. Not Eleven's case, it seemed.
Hopper doubted that he'd ever get used to it.
"This is for you," El said, taking a yellow and pink card from her jacket, the one he had seen the previous day.
He took the card and right at that moment they heard the sound of a car parking, so Eleven ran to the front door and Jim used that moment to see what she had written.
The front of the card had a drawing that wasn't there before; it was him, her and the dog. Family, she wrote. He opened it. To Hopper, it read inside Thank you.
Hopper smiled and closed the card quickly. That little Eggos lover, she knew how to hit him right in the feelings.
Hopefully, the arrival of the Byers with Dustin was a good enough distraction for him not to get all teary-eyed in the middle of the kitchen. Besides the discs, Joyce also brought an casserole, which made Hopper frown.
"Don't worry," said Will. "Jonathan made it."
Well, that explained it.
Eleven gave them their cards and got a few cards herself. Jonathan went further and gave her his Ramones jacket (apparently, she was into punk, which Hopper wasn't a fan of and hoped would be just a phase), but Dustin and Will didn't have anything big for Eleven.
Lucas and Mike came with Nancy, who also had brought food and baby Holly. El gave them the remaining cards, leaving Mike the last one, and she didn't wait for him to read it like she had done with Joyce and Dustin. No, she went to the back door, to the back porch.
Mike opened his heart-shaped card. Follow me, it read, and he frowned as he looked up from it, looking for Eleven. He saw her standing at the back door, and when their eyes met, she smiled and stepped back, letting the door close in front of her. He smiled and followed her instructions.
Once he opened the door, it seemed like the world burst into movement: the sun was shining in shades of red, El was leaning against the fence facing him, and the lake… it was splashing and bursting like a water show. It was silent and precise, hypnotic even. Breathtaking. And she was making that happen with her mind and hands.
El smiled when she saw the look on Mike's face. She was getting stronger, and using her powers was getting easier too. Not very, but she was getting good at this. She turned around, fingers moving as if coordinating the water's movements, and wow, that looked awesome! It even made him smile.
"Amazing," Mike breathed, stepping closer. He stood by El's side, his arm touching hers even if there were so many layers between them.
He looked at her enchanted, but then he saw her nose bleeding, and Eleven lost her balance. Mike caught her easily as she collapsed on his chest, and the water of the lake came down with a splash. El held his arm; she was leaning heavy against his chest.
"Did you like it?" she asked looking up at him, her voice a little hoarse.
"Yeah, it's incredible," he said, his eyes still on the lake that started to calm down again. "Did you show them?"
She shook her head.
"It's my Valentine for you," she said, standing straighter. Mike's eyes widened.
"You did that for me?" he exclaimed, and she nodded. "Damn, I really need to step up my game, I only brought you chocolate."
El smiled.
"Chocolate is good," she assured. She was feeling better already, and she wiped the blood with the back of her hand. "I'm stronger now. I can do it again," she told him already turning to the lake, but Mike held her waist.
"No, it's okay," he said quickly. "I already have the memory, it's cool enough."
Eleven looked at him and smiled. She liked the way he thought, he took care of her even when he didn't need to. She was holding his jacket with both hands, and he still was holding her waist, his grip steady.
There was a bit of a fire in Mike's eyes that El recognized, one that said that he'd do it again, he'd kiss her, except that this time she'd be ready, and she'd be able to enjoy it.
She stepped closer, tilting her head, and he leaned in, his arm going around her waist, and their noses touched, and-
"El, come tell the people about how you decided to be a baker," Hopper interrupted, making the kids jump a foot high and at least three feet apart. He didn't even look bothered by their flushed cheeks and guilty expressions. "They are so impressed by your cookies, I can't wait for them to see the cake. Come on, you can't be outside, you gotta be a good host."
El looked at Mike, who just smiled sweetly, and then Holly came running to her brother's arms, so their opportunity really had passed, but they'd have time again, she was sure.
She followed Jim's lead and went back inside. It was her idea to call that many people, though she was hoping on Joyce being a good enough distraction for Hopper so she could stay with her friends more freely. Not today, it seemed. But it was okay. From across the room, she exchanged a look with Will, and he shrugged. They would find time to put their plan in action soon. Together.