"steve?"
"yes, kiddo?" steve ruffled el's curly hair, making her giggle and sit next to him on the couch.
"christmas." she looked at him with her big honey eyes, putting her elbow on her leg and her head on her hand.
steve sighed. whenever el asked a single word, that meant she was asking what it meant. "it's a holiday. families gather together, have dinner, give presents to each other, uh, decorate their christmas tree-"
"christmas tree?" she furrowed her eyebrows, tilting her head a little.
"yeah, uh, it's a tree you put inside your house, and you decorate it with spheres, christmas lights, and a bright nice star on the top."
"do you do that with your family?"
steve winced, bumping his shoulder against el's arm. "i do it myself. my parents are normally in a business trip or something, i don't even care anymore."
"that's sad."
"you get used to it, after a while."
"but you shouldn't." el pouted, scooting closer to steve and putting her hand on his shoulder. "we can decorate christmas tree together."
"are you sure?" steve raised his eyebrows, surprised by her suggestion.
"yes." el put her head on his shoulder, smiling. "like a family."
"like a family." steve nodded, smiling widely before turning to el to tickle her, making her laugh.
"time to go kid." jim closed the door of his office at the police station behind him, took his hat and put it on, grabbing el's jacket as well and giving it to her as the girl stood up from the couch, followed by steve. "thanks for taking care of her."
"no problem, we had a great time." steve smiled, ruffling el's hair again as she grinned.
"can we have a christmas tree?" eleven looked up at jim expectantly, who frowned in confusion. "christmas is in two days."
"i don't know, kid. a christmas tree wouldn't fit in our cabin." jim said, making el pout. "who told you about christmas trees?"
"steve." el responded, simply. "can he do it with us?"
"we'll see, kid, we'll see." hopper shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. "but don't get your hopes up, we probably won't be able to. maybe next year, when we get a new house."
"next year?" el's eyes opened widely, and her eyes went from jim to steve, who raised his shoulders, and then back to jim. "but- i want a christmas tree this year." her eyes started to get watery, and her lower lip started to tremble as well.
"i'm sorry, kid, it's probably not the best idea right now. we can do cookies, though, and get fat together, doesn't that sound good?"
"i guess." el shrugged. "what about steve?"
"he can cook with us, if he wants to." the pair turned to said boy. "today, at my house, at six?"
"i probably won't be able to, mike needed me for something at his house." steve said, and kneeled in front of eleven when he noticed the way she lowered her head. "hey, i can go tomorrow, watch tv and maybe play something, okay?"
"okay." she was sad, jim and steve could tell. but how could she not? her past christmases she didn't even know what that was, and now, in her first actual christmas, she wouldn't be able to do anything normal people do with their families.
"goodbye, steve." jim waved, before opening the door of the police station and exiting, followed by el.
"what did you even need me for?"
"christmas is in two days, and i, i kind of need your help." mike winced, pacing around the living room in front of steve, who was sitting down in the couch eating a hamburger. "i don't know what to give el. i want it to be special, to make her happy."
"mike, you could give her a sock and she'd treasure it as if it was made of gold." steve smirked, noticing the goofy smile on mike's face as his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "but, i have something that may help you out."
"what is it?"
"she wants to decorate a christmas tree, but a big christmas tree won't fit in her cabin." steve took another big bite out of his hamburger before speaking again. "and i'm gonna go to her house tomorrow."
"but how does that help me- oh!" mike gasped, taking a hand to his forehead. "oh! i could give her a little tree to decorate!"
"i could take you tomorrow, but now, we need to get you that tree."
when eleven heard someone knocking on her room's door, she stood up as fast as she could from her bed, almost falling off it as music blasted all over the place.
she opened the door so fast that it almost hit her forehead, and gasped at the sight of not only hopper and steve in front of her, but mike as well. "mike!"
she launched herself at the lanky boy, hugging him tightly as he tried to keep balance, laughing. "hi, el."
steve coughed behind them, separating the pair from the hug that had already lasted enough. "uh, mike, don't you want to show el the present you brought for her?"
"present? what present?" el questioned mike, looking up at him to the eyes with a wide smile.
"well, steve told me that you couldn't have your own christmas tree." mike said, walking to the living room with el by his side. "so i brought you a little something. but close your eyes." el squealed, making mike laugh.
mike put his hands on el's eyes, making her giggle and steve and hopper chuckle. "don't open them until i count to three, okay?"
"you should count to tree." steve winked, laughing.
"shhh! she'll know what the present is, steve!"
"i wood shut up, but i don't want to."
"fuck off." mike flipped steve off, but he just cackled and fixed his hair passing his fingers through it.
"are you gonna count or not kid?" jim huffed, and el giggled by his side.
"uh, yeah, yeah." mike nodded. "one, two-"
"tree!"
"steve!"
el opened her eyes, her jaw dropping at the sight of mike smiling and standing next to a little tree that was barely a foot tall. "i know it's just a little bonsai tree, but i thought that it could work? it's not much but i knew you were upset and i wanted you to be happy, it's your first christmas after all and i also brought some spheres and a star." mike looked at the floor shyly, then at eleven, who was still gaping at the tree. "do you like it?"
el didn't say anything, she just opened her arms and ran to mike, hugging him tightly with her head on his chest. "thank you."
mike smiled tenderly, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on top of her head.
"so, are we decorating this or not?" steve wondered, grabbing the small spheres from the counter.
hopper walked over to his record player and turned it on, and with that, the four of them began to decorate the little bonsai tree.
el hummed to them, and decided not to use her powers at all to decorate that thing, even though she knew it would be much easier.
the four laughed a lot in the process, like when steve tripped with the lights and almost fell on his face, or when mike's sweater tangled with el's bracelet.
finally, steve turned off the dim lights of the place, and hopper turned on the christmas lights that hung from the tree, which they had placed on a corner of the house.
el gasped, bringing a hand to cover her mouth as her eyes watered a little. mike looked at her, a big smile plastered across his face as he watched in admiration how happy the girl was.
he looked down to see her hand hanging lose, and with a deep breath, he raised his pinky so that it would touch the back of el's hand.
her smile widened unconsciously as she passed her hand behind mike's, so that their palms could touch. the two extended their fingers slowly, and finally intertwined their hands.
el let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding, and with her usually bold impulsivity, decided to rest her head on mike's shoulder, who forgot how to breath for a second.
she couldn't help but allow some tears to fall, feeling extremely overjoyed. this is everything she had ever wished for, she just didn't know. but if she had to do everything she'd been through all over again, she wouldn't hesitate to do so.
why? because they made everything in her life worth it, and she couldn't have asked for a better dad, or a better mike, because her family was just like that little bonsai tree. not perfect, no, but special in its own weird and marvelous way.
1500 words.
not sure how i feel about this one and i was going to post it on christmas but hey why not now it's november after all. ;))
and add me on zepeto! my code is VZDBNL
hope you guys like it, i don't really know what i'm doing with this book so...