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married
When Mavis woke up, she was quick to race to the kitchen to make two extra egos before running back to her room to give them to El.
"Here, breakfast" Mavis smiled as she looked down at the photo El was looking at, which made her frown.
"Oh that's my Mom and Dad, they use to be married but once he got taken away my Mom didn't want to be anymore," Mavis said sadly while sitting next to her on the bed.
"Married?" El asked as Mavis nodded her head, the soft curls around her face bouncing as she did so.
"Yeah, married. It's when two people love each other a lot and want to spend the rest of their lives together" Mavis went along while El watched her with curious eyes before looking back down at the picture.
"Because... pretty?" El asked while pointing to Sarah, who indeed looked pretty.
"Well, yeah sometimes people get married because someone is pretty. But, usually it only counts when you really like who the person is. You know, like, how they act" Mavis said as El squinted her eyes and nodded her head while biting the ego.
"Listen this is gonna sound weird but I'm gonna take you to Mike's house and you'll need to go to the door. His Mom will answer and you just need to say that you need help and you're lost. She'll get you help but whatever you do, you can't say anything about how you know us" Mavis nodded as El started at her with an odd look on her face.
"We'll just meet again, at Mike's house. No big deal" Mavis shrugged with a winning smile back at the girl.
"No," El simple said while looking up at her, which shocked Mavis.
"No?" Mavis asked with a look of worry on her face.
"No. Mav" El said one last time while looking back down to eat her egos.
"You don't want us to get help?" Mavis asked her so she could understand better, El shook her head.
"You're in trouble... aren't you?" Mavis asked as the air seemed to thicken around them on the pink bed, new sun shining in on their eyes.
"Well, I'm in trouble too, with the police, so I understand. Who... who are you in trouble with?" Mav asked her as El swallowed.
"Bad" she simply said as Mavis frowned her eyebrows.
"Bad? Bad people?" she questioned, confusion filling her eyes like contacts would a blind person, as El nodded.
"They want to hurt you?" Mavis asked again as El toyed with the sleeves of the pink sweatshirt before holding a finger gun to her head, then to Mavis, before dropping her hands.
"Understand? Mav?" El asked as Mavis stared silently before she suddenly reached for the bald girls hands, making her jump back.
"I'm not gonna hurt you" Mavis shook her head as El hesitantly put her hands back out as Mavis grabbed ahold of them.
"I won't let the bad people hurt you, understand?" Mavis asked as El blinked before she looked down at hers and Mavis's hands, letting her fingers run over her wrist before looking back up at her eyes.
"Understand" she nodded as Mavis stared at her for a second longer, suddenly she heard her name being yelled from upstairs.
"I'll be right back," she said while running down the stairs and seeing her Mom with a cigarette in her mouth, pulling a grey jumper on.
"I'm going to the facility to see your Dad," she said as Mavis nodded her head as Sarah gave her a weird look.
"Didn't school start already?" she asked with a sniffle to her nose, clearly showing the type of drugs she'd gotten into last night.
"I'm not going today... I was sick last night" she said as her Mom scoffed before leaving the front door as Mavis run forward to lock it quickly, heading back down to bring El down.
"This is our TV, when my Moms not home I watched The Blue Lagoon because I think Brooke Shields is really pretty" Mavis laughed as El looked over to the family wall of photos.
"That my cousin Suize, she lives far away but comes down once a year for my birthday," Mavis said as El stared at the photo.
"Pretty," she said as Mavis shrugged but nodded, before El look back at Mavis's unaverage-sized eyes.
"Prettier," she said while pointing at Mavis, making her smile slightly before El looked at a photo of Sarah and Stephan.
"That's my parents before they got divorced, what are your parents like? Do they live nearby?" Mavis asked, just fishing for information as El ignored her and look down at papers, making Mavis gasp and hurry over.
"Those are just papers from the police station, just warning my Mom that if I do something bad again I could go away for a long time. Somewhere people say is scary, can't imagine it's any scarier than where I already went through" Mavis said as El frowned in confusion.
"Bad?" El asked as Mavis sighed, knowing she'd have to talk about it eventually.
"I just did some stuff I shouldn't have and threatened some people I really shouldn't have. Really messed up last time, we had to go to court and everything" Mavis sighed while quickly tucking the papers away while El watched intensely.
"Cool," she said before smiling widely as Mavis did back.
"Yeah.. cool" she grinned.
"Those are the science fair trophies... we usually get first every year but last year we got third. Mr.Clarke said it was political though" Mavis shrugged while El looked at each of the trophies in the clear case. Her gaze falling on the photo of the group from a year or two ago. Els's lips became a gapped while she pointed to the photo of Will, making Mavis blood run cold.
"You know Will? Did you see him last night, on the road?" Mavis asked as she heard the phone ring from downstairs, making them both jump.
"Um I'll be right back, here you can draw. Will always liked doing it.. these are some of his if you need inspiration" Mavis said while slapping a pencil and paper in front of El while pointing at her wall that had three of Will's favorites drawing on. Mavis ran halfway down the stairs before jumping over the staircase the rest of the way down.
"Hilton residents, how can I help you?" she asked into the phone.
"Mav! It's Mike, are you okay?" he asked as Mavis frowned her eyebrows.
"Mike? How are you calling me? Are you home?" she asked confused while twisting the cord around her fingers.
"No, I asked Mr.Clarke if I can borrow the phone in the office. Why didn't you bring El to the house this morning?" Mike asked as Mavis sighed and heard something fall from upstairs.
"Just... we'll talk after school. Please don't tell Lucas, he'll be so mad at me. See you soon" she said while hanging up the phone and running back upstairs.
"El? Are you alright? What fell?" she asked confused while looking around, seeing everything perfectly fine.
"Fell," she said while looking down at the photo of Sarah and Stephan.
"Oh.. that's okay. What did you draw?" she asked while sitting next to the girl and looking down at the photo of clearly two girls, who both had pink lines around them.
"Who are they?" Mavis asked confused as El pointed to one and then to herself before pointing to the other drawling and then to Mav.
"That us?" she asked with a small smile as El nodded.
"Married" she nodded as if it was the most normal thing, Mavis laughed while looking at the photo again.
"Are you out of your mind?" Lucas asked a few hours later as they all stood in Mavis's room, looking at El who was sitting on Mavis's bed innocently.
"Jesus Mike! I told you not to tell him!" Mavis said, slapping him upside the head.
"I didn't! I told Dustin" Mike said while raising his hands in surrender.
"Who told me! You're out of your mind!" Lucas yelled at his best friend as she groaned loudly.
"She knows about Will!" Mavis shouted as Mike's body stiffened.
"She-she knows about Will?" Mike asked while Mavis quickly grabbed the photo.
"She pointed at him! Out of this picture! She knew he was missing I could tell" Mavis said as Lucas gave her a look.
"You could tell?" He asked her in disbelief.
"We have a connection! Do you honestly think it's a coincidence that we found her on Mirk Wood.. the same place where Will went missing?" Mavis asked with wide eyes.
"That is pretty weird" Dustin nodded along with her.
"And she says bad people are after her... maybe these bad people are the same ones that took Will," Mavis said as Mike looked toward El again.
"Then why doesn't she tell us?" Lucas asked annoyed while pointing toward the innocent girl before storming toward her.
"Do you know where he is? Do you know where he is?!" Lucas yelled while grabbing onto Els's arms roughly, causing Mavis to grab his hands and push him away before standing protectively in front of El.
"Stop Lucas, you're scaring her!" Mavis shouted at him as she pointed her finger his way.
"She should be scared! If you know where he is tell us" Lucas demanded while looking past Mavis to El.
"El, it's okay we just want to find him" Mike reassured the girl whose lip trembled after Lucas shouted at her before she grabbed upwards toward Mavis's hand, who was stand standing in front of her.
"This is nuts! We have to take her to your Mom" Lucas said while he glared at Mike.
"No, Eleven told Mavis telling an adult would put us in danger" Mike argued back as Dustin rubbed his face.
"What kind of danger?" Dustin asked as his blue eyes widened and looked between the two.
"Her name is Eleven?" Lucas asked in disbelief.
"El for short" Mike added, making Mavis groan and slap her forehead with her free hand.
"Mike! What kind is danger!" Dustin yelled back, becoming impatient.
"Danger! Danger!" Mike yelled back as Mavis raised her hand in the gun way that El did to her as she raised it toward Dustin and then to Lucas, who slapped her hand away as El glared at him afterward.
"No! No! No! We're going back to Plan A! We're taking her to Mike to tell his Mom!" Lucas yelled while swinging Mavis's bedroom door open before it slammed shut right back, making him frown in confusion. Trying it again, it slammed even harder shut as the few makeup items and perfume fell off Mavis's dresser. The four all looked back to El with wide eyes as she had blood dripping down her nose and standing behind Mavis, who started to breathe heavily as she realized the small girl in front of her was the one that did it.
"No"
••••
this was the softest thing and maybe El was out of content but she literally made it clear she wants to spend the rest of her life with Mavis.