Eyes wide, Eleven spins slowly as she trails after Max through the automatic doors.
“Stay close, okay?” Max says over her shoulder, long hair swishing over her back as she marches into the building like she owns it. “It's really loud in here, it'll be hard to find each other if we get separated.”
Eleven nods, eyeing the blinking lights strung along the ceiling suspiciously. She trots up to Max's shoulder and hovers so close the buckles on the straps of her overalls brush Max's shoulder blade, and she sees Max press her lips together so tightly they turn white before she looks away, red hair tickling Eleven's nose.
“It's busy in here today,” Max says, raising her voice a little even though Eleven is right behind her. “Usually it's not this crazy. We might have to wait for a machine.”
Eleven shrugs. She's never been to the arcade before; usually she's happy to tag along with whatever her friends are doing, clutching Mike's t-shirt on the back of his bike or hovering carefully, powers ready, from the ground as the boys and Max compete to see who can climb a tree the fastest in the forest she called home for months, but the loud, unpredictable noises and flashing lights had always made her give wide berth to the party's favorite spot in town. She could handle it – after what she's lived through she's pretty confident she can handle anything – but Hopper had sat her down and explained that she didn't have to handle something, if she didn't want to. Just because someone asked her to do something or go somewhere didn't mean that she had to do it any more, unless it was Hopper and chores for some reason, and the memory of flashing Christmas lights and demogorgons and the crashing, deafening sound of the world crumbling around her as they ran for their lives in the middle school hallways had made her decide that the arcade was something she didn't want to handle. She'd been perfectly happy not facing this obstacle for the months she'd been, at long, long last, allowed out of the cabin and into the real world, but then Max had casually asked her one night at one of their frequent sleep-overs why she never joined them at the arcade, and her hands had slowed in Eleven's chin-length curls at her answer.
“That's great, Ellie,” she'd said with a smile in her voice, and Eleven had glowed at the compliment and the nickname. “You definitely don't have to go anywhere you don't want to. But don't you like video games?”
Eleven had shrugged, eyelids fluttering a bit in pleasure as Max's strong fingers had massaged the back of her head. “Yes. I like Mike's games. But the basement is safe. No demogorgon.”
“But there's all kinds of games in the arcade that you can't get on the console,” Max had said, and Eleven had perked up. “And you're really good at video games, you picked up on them so fast and you can even beat Dustin and Will sometimes. And Mike, but he just lets you win most of the time.” Eleven had frowned at that. “If you ever want to try it, I can take you without the guys so that there's not so much pressure.”
Eleven had tilted her head, considering. “Just us?” She'd looked over her shoulder, searching for Max's smiling blue eyes.
“Just us,” Max had confirmed. “We can just go for five minutes, see how you feel, and leave if you want. No pressure, I just don't want you to miss out on one of the few awesome things in the real world.”
Eleven thinks there are countless awesome things about the real world, but she's starting to doubt the arcade is one of them as she looks around warily now. It's not as overwhelming as she'd thought it would be, but the air smells like burnt popcorn and the colours on the patterned carpet clash so bizarrely it hurts her eyes more than the flashing lights. She lifts her sneaker uncertainly off of a sticky patch on the floor and looks at Max, and the redhead lifts her eyebrows, concerned.
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ElMax/Henclair OneShots (Elmax Manly)
أدب الهواةa lot of Elmax because thare is not a lot of henclair and mabey some byler and milevan i like them to but after season 3.
