Season Three (Stranger Things ff) (Season One & Two Trilogy)

Chapter Six: E Pluribus Unum

You, Mike and Max walked up to Nancy and Jonathan who were at the kitchen counter. Will was with them.

"Okay, can you guys settle an argument
for us?" Max asked them. "Who do you think should decide El's limits? Mike or Eleven?"

"The way that you frame that is such bullshit" Mike said.

"It's not bullshit, Mike, this is your whole problem" you said. "And it's also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass"

"El dumped you?" Nancy asked him.

"Yeah, because she is conspiring against me" he turned to you and Max. "They're corrupting her"

"No, enlightening her" Max corrected him.

"Fact is, she's not yours. She's her own person,
fully capable of making her own decisions" you told him.

"She's risking her life for no reason" he said.

"For no reason?" Nancy told him. "Mike, the flayed are out there doing God knows what. And El's not stupid. She knows her abilities better than any of us"

"Yes, thank you" you told her.

"And she is her own person" Mancy went on.

"Exactly"

"With her own free will"

"Boom"

"El has saved the world twice, and Mike still doesn't trust her" Max said.

"You wanna talk about trust, really? After you made Eleven spy on us?" Mike said.

"Wait, what?" Lucas asked joining in on the conversation.

"Oh, she didn't tell you this?" Mike asked him.

"No"

"Your girlfriend and our best friend used El's powers, to spy on us" he said.

"No, no, no, we did not make her" Max said.

"It was her idea" you explained.

"And why are we even talking about this, seriously?" Max said.

"Yeah, who cares?" Will said.

"I care, I guess girlfriends don't lie, they spy" Mike said.

"We were just joking around" Max said again, rolling her eyes.

"Wouldn't it've been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?" Mike said.

"Seriously, Mike?" Nancy said. Even she thought he was being over dramatic.

"I'm just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is with Eleven's powers" he said. "In fact, how careless all of you are. You're treating her like some kind of machine when she's not a machine, and I don't want her to die looking for the flayed when they've obviously vanished off the face of the Earth. So can we please just come up with a new plan because I love her and I can't lose her again"

Your mouth immediately dropped open. Mike loved her. You knew he was crazy about her but not love. He looked at him with widened eyes, everyone did and he realized what he said, but he didn't seem like he regretted it.

"What's going on?"

You all turned and you saw El coming out from her room. You closed your mouth back and tried to act natural.

"Nothing, nothing" Mike said quickly. "Just a family discussion"

"Oh" she looked over at you and you nodded. "I found him"