promise → mileven

two → good night

hawkins, indiana. 1984, june 18th. friday, 3:21pm. wheeler residence.

to be honest, mike was kind of disappointed that they made el stay in an extra day in the hospital. sure, he wanted them to make sure she was ok, 100% ok and ready to leave the hospital, but it also meant he had the time to become excited for her arrival. and excitement became nervousness and soon he was worrying about what it would be like to have her living with them. one thing, though, he knew for sure. his little heart was going to burst with happiness.
she was ready to be discharged at 10 am sharp- however, while they signed the documents and discussed details of her discharge, it became noon, then they stopped for an hour for lunch, and soon enough it was the early afternoon when the wheelers and the byers finally made it into their cars and drove over to the wheeler residence.

joyce, karen and nancy were all busy preparing a feast as a celebration for el's return. meanwhile, el, mike and will were in the basement. will and el were sitting by the table, sharing a box of crayons. will's drawing was that of the thessalhydra in d&d, while el's drawing of her friends was more of a stick figure scribble, but you could still make out who were certain figures on the paper. mike was carrying things between the basement and his room- his mom didn't have the heart to break it up after seeing how heartbroken her son was.
but now that the girl he loved oh so much was back, he had things to do. he had to make sure she had a place to sleep.

he had come downstairs to grab a duvet for the upper part of the bunk bed - where she would sleep for the next two weeks. suddenly, will's mom called out to him for something. the boy ran upstairs and now they were finally alone.
he placed the scrunched up, faded pink duvet on the couch and made his way over to eleven.
"uh, i, um, im glad you're back" he stuttered, trying to think of what to say.
"me too" she answered in a barely audible whisper.
"can i, uh, kiss you?" he then asked, mentally cursing himself for being so blunt. good job, mike, you're real smooth.
she didn't even answer, she just closed her eyes and leaned forward a bit. mike stepped in to fill the gap but he rushed too much and clumsily connected their lips a bit too forcefully, eliciting a laugh from eleven. "try again" she encouraged him, and his time, he leaned in gently, not letting his nerves get the best of him.

he'd watched a few romantic movies with nancy, but nothing could compare to the feeling of having their lips collide softly, her now grown-out short hair grazing his forehead, the heat of her breath on his face. they had been kissing for a little while when they heard the soft patter of footsteps on the stairs. they both looked at the lanky boy on the top of the flight of stairs. will's face had an 'i thought so' look on his face while he made his way down the stairs
"don't worry, i won't tell them" his expression softened into a smile, and for some reason, mike knew he could trust him.

"and then you should've seen the look on dustin's face when he realized he'd lost the campaign" lucas was describing a campaign they'd played to eleven, who was listening to the boy with interest.
the wheeler and the byers family was currently sitting around the dinner table in the wheeler's house, complete with the addition of dustin, lucas and hopper. they'd decided not to invite anyone else, not wanting to toot the horn about eleven being back. even though the custody of the girl was now in joyce's hands, they all had an unsaid agreement that the laboratory could probably find a loophole into gettig the girl back if they wanted to.
so there they were, savoring the delicious food karen and joyce had made together, the adults conversing about this and that, jonathan and nancy making heart eyes at each other, while the boys and el pretended to not notice the twomand talking about what had happened while el was gone.

she felt so happy to be back, the boys were talking as if she had never even disappeared and now she was back together with mike and nothing would ever seperate them. she still felt an inkling of fear of the upside down; but this she urged herself to push into the back of her mind.
later on that night, they were all immersed in a game of scrabble- their parents wouldn't let them play d&d, knowing how long their campaigns took and "hey,  eleven can learn new words like that!" they'd suggested
so there they were, together again in the basement, one of the boys on all four sides of the table and el sitting next to mike. she didn't know quite enough words yet to play, and she needed to ask mike what a word meant pretty much the whole game, but he didn't mind. el was back, and nothing could change that.

everyone had now retreated to their own homes, leaving el and mike sitting in the middle of his room. they weren't doing anything much in particular - he was sorting through some of the random papers that had been on his desk from the last school year and she was watching him intently.
"mike." she said, eyes not looking away from what he was doing.
"yeah, el?" he asked, turning around to face her.
"am i gonna go to school?" she asked, now looking at him.
"uhh, i don't know. if you want to, you can, but i heard mom and joyce talking about how it would probably be easier for you to just stay at home for a few years so you can learn everything we've learnt so far" he explained "most likely, you'll start high school with us"
"high school?" she furrowed her brows, trying to piece the two words together. she knew what they meant seperately but she couldn't imagine what they meant together.
"is that a school for tall people?" she asked, still confused on the subject. she became even more confused when mike erupted in laughter.
"no el, it's not. high school is a place where you go when you're fourteen or fifteen. it's four years and once you're done with it you don't have to go to school anymore, but mom wants me to go to college- oh! college is a school where you can pick what you want to learn so you can get a job. a job is what you do to earn money." he quickly got into the habit of explaining certain words to the girl, and although it was a little tiring at first, he didn't mind doing it for her. he didn't mind doing anything for her.
"you can also drop out of high school. it's when you just stop going. but i don't think joyce would be too happy if you dropped out."

eleven had been listening to his monologue for a while, enjoying the sound of his voice. after a while, mike noticed she was getting tired when she suppressed a yawn.
"let's go to bed el" he said, planting a soft cotton shirt and a pair of shorts in her hands. he was about to leave his room with his own pjs to give her some privacy when he noticed the confused look on her face. had she never worn pajamas  before?
"they're pajamas. they're these comfortable clothes you wear to bed" he smiled, and then walked out of the room.

he'd never realised how much eleven had really missed out on, from habits that almost every human being considered normal, to essential parts of an a american kid's childhood. h.a.l. hadn't only used her as a test subject and human weapon, they hadn't only deprived her of normal, healthy, human relationships. they'd also deprived her of the customs that everyone had, and replaced them with sterile, routinely habits that were barely enough for human survival. he was angry- no, more than that. furious. they were gonna pay

when he got back into his room, el was sitting on his bed and patiently waiting for her friend to get back. he smiled at her innocence.
"no, el, you sleep on the top bunk" he explained, patting the mattress.
"i wanna sleep with mike." she explained, nestling around in her spot.
"okay, okay. but don't let mom or nancy see us" he gave in, turning off the light and crawling into his covers, beside el.

"mike" she tapped his shoulder a few minutes later.
"yeah, el?" he asked, turning around from the wall to face the girl.
"give me a goodnight kiss" she asked, yet again closing her eyes, his own widening at her request. he had no idea where she'd learned the concept of a goodnight kiss, but leaned in anyway. it was short and sweet, but mike still fell asleep with el resting her head on his chest, his heart beating wildly and her taste on his lips

omg two chapters in two days, am i superwoman or what? jk jk, but i am proud of myself 😜
i've added a playlist section to the beginning of this book, so if you guys want to, pls go comment cute/angsty/whatever songs that you think would fit mileven or this story. or just songs you like to listen to while reading this so far.
i've been thinking of doing a timeskip to when they start highschool after the two weeks at the wheeler's house is over (or maybe even sooner) because i feel like 15-16 year old mileven would be more suited to the ideas that i have for this story. also, i wanna write more mature scenes (no plans for smut so far but we'll see).
another thing i have to add is that i drew the eleven on the top! the text that's cropped off says eleven but i've erased it and started drawing a mike next to her (albeit a super feminine one bc i suck at drawing lol). i'm probably going to draw the whole gang lol. do you guys want me to post it once its done, or maybe even progress photos?
i'm gonna stop rambling about myself now before this gets too long. i'll try to update sometime before this weekend bc thursday - sat/sun is usually pretty busy for me but we'll see! till next time!