A.N.: Hi my unknown friends. :)
I'm going to get rid of some ideas here, and THIS IS ALL FILLED WITH SPOILERS ABOUT SEASON TWO, obviously.
I apologise for the short chapters, but not for the cheesiness. ^°
Mostly it's about how things might develop directly after the gate is closed. Tell me what you think, okay?
xx
(1)
Hopper
It had taken quite long to get her out of there, when everything was done. She wasn't unconscious, but very weak. She'd literally saved the world mere minutes ago. She'd literally closed the gap between two dimensions.
And now her limbs seemed to ache, and dry blood stuck to her earlobes and nose and upper lip. She was pale and her entire body was shaking.
"You did amazing, kid.", Hopper murmured again, feeling like he ought to say so once more.
"Thanks.", Eleven responded, voice a little dry, but contented.
She had ended it, had purposefully ended what she'd accidentally begun. She hadn't let her fear get the best of her, not now. Not ever again, he thought.
She was so strong, his little girl.
Because that's who she was. And it didn't matter that they'd been fighting, and that he hadn't been good enough at this whole parenting thing with her... He would make it better.
And there would be better rules for the two of them from now on, he decided. More fitting ones. He knew that Joyce might offer to adopt her into the Byers family... Or that there could be other people able to take care of her. But he wouldn't let it come to that. No, Eleven and he were a team now, a family. Not the ideal family, perhaps, but the best both of them could possibly get.
"You okay, El?"
"Tired.", she replied, her eye lids drooping closed every few seconds. But she kept walking down the stairs, her little hand in his, and even when she was barely capable to hold herself up, she looked pretty cool in those weird new punk clothes.
"Come here", he finally demanded, and picked her up in order to carry her for the rest of the way. The last thing they needed was a completely deadbeat Eleven to fall down the entire grey stairwell of this freaking old government mansion. Hopper silently wondered what that Wheeler boy would say if he'd hear about such an accident. He'd probably attack him again. Physically, and all.
Shaking his head, Hopper contemplated when the opinions of some thirteen-year old had become important to begin with.
And then he looked down at the dizzy bundle of black-clad superhero in his arms, who was currently leaning her head against his shoulder in quite the comfortable manner. And Hopper remembered when.
(2)
Steve
The lights had become brighter for a few seconds. That's when it must have happened.
At first he'd thought that something was wrong with him: that his injuries or the weird, poisonous gasses down in the tunnels had made his head spin.
Optical illusions, he thought, that's what this stuff is called...
But then Steve Harrington saw that the kids had turned around, too, and that everyone else was also watching the car's head lamps become these intense, star-like reverberators. And then it was silent, and everything looked quite normal in the matter of seconds. It was so silent, in fact, that no one could tell yet if it was the calm before, or after the storm. At least Steve couldn't tell.
Had they made it? Had she made it? That little magician kid with the eyeliner, had she just saved all of their asses?
"So,... what's going on?", he asked into the quiet, and met first Dustin's, then Mike's eyes. The former was slowly starting to beam at him, the latter looked still terribly anxious. Poor kiddo, that Mike, - it was pretty obvious to everyone how close he and that girl, Eleven, were... Even before today, he'd heard so from Nancy often enough.
Nancy.
Even if they'd survive this, he'd have to give her up after tonight, wouldn't he?
His eyes started to prick at the thought, right when Lucas, Dustin and the redhead started to hug and grin at each other, looking all hopeful. Only Mike seemed a little nervous, still.
"Seems like it worked, right?", the girl, Max, asked. "She did it?"
"Let's find out.", Lucas prompted, getting into the back of the car. Steve breathed one big mouth full of fresh night air in, before quickly opening the left front door of the car. This time he'd be the one driving, he determined.
