golden - eleven hopper

xv. Cycle of Life or Death

( Stranger Things, Season One )

The Bathtub

Chapter Fifteen: Cycle of Life or Death

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!!"

In the basement toilet, the water was running from the tap and a bottle of face soap was half open, dripping slightly onto the edge of the sink. Clearly, whoever had opened it wasn't very careful in using it. Eva stood in-front of Eleven, a soft wash cloth in her right-hand, gently wiping her face to get rid of the dirt on her face. Over her time in the woods, she had collected a layer od dirt on her cheeks and forehead. It slowly came away, revealing El's face.

"There, that's b-b-better," Eva said quietly, slowly moving her hand away from El's face. Eleven's eyes flickered open, and she turned to look at her reflection in the mirror. For a moment, Eleven merely stared at herself. She liked how she looked freshened up from her time outside, but quickly looked at her hair and her eyes softened. For the short time, she liked having hair, she liked looking pretty, she loved feeling like a normal girl, like Eva.

"Y-You look p-p-pretty," Eva smiled. She didn't notice El's expression change, she had never been very good at that. However, she had been looking at Eleven the whole time.

"Pretty?" Eleven repeated. While she didn't particularly understand what it meant to be 'pretty', she recognised how different she felt without hair, did that still mean she was pretty? El looked over at Eva, hoping she would perhaps explain more.

"Yes, v-very pretty," Eva nodded. Silence came over them both, while Eleven looked back at her reflection in the mirror. Eva felt a little awkward. She struggled to know what to say, she thought perhaps El was sad, she quietly cleared her throat, "El?"

"Yes, Eve?" Eleven responded almost casually. She looked at Eva with a faint smile.

"I-I'm happy you're h-h-home," Eva smiled, hoping that if El was sad, her words would provide comfort for her. Eva had truly missed Eleven, in the short time their friendship had began, Eva had felt a connection to her. She was going to become one of her best friends, she just knew it.

"Me too."

Before the two girls could even consider talking about something else or consider leaving the toilet, the door was dramatically flung open. Eva's heart rate quickly shot up in shock, staring at the perparator, Dustin, who was stood with his face as white as a sheet, "guys! It's Lucas! we think he's in trouble!"

They rushed back over into the main area of the living room, where Mike and Via were having some sort of bickering session, the Supercomm held tightly in Mike's hand.