Kiss
"What's it called?"
Mike looked up from the scale model of the Ecto-1 he was currently working on, giving a questioningly look at his companion. "What's that, El?"
"What you did at school," El's vague reply didn't give much to work off of. A lot of things happened at school when they were there during the assembly, and also when the bad men and Demogorgen had threatened them.
Mike offered her a half-smile. "You're gonna have to give me more than that."
El lowered her eyes, and he could tell she was mulling over whatever it was she was trying to say. Before it registered in Mike's mind what she was doing, El leaned over the coffee table and pressed her lips to his.
Mike felt his whole body lock up at the touch of her lips. El didn't dive in like he had during their first kiss. Her movements were slower, more precise like she'd been contemplating just how the action should play out. By the time Mike's body had caught up with his mind, El was leaving his space and he followed her lips for a brief moment.
He met her gaze, a pretty blush stroking her cheeks. Mike felt heat rising into his own cheeks accompanied by a bashful smile El's way.
"What's it called?"
Mike swallowed hard. "That is called a kiss."
"You kiss when you like someone?"
"Yeah. It's a way of showing that person um…" Mike stumbled on his words. How would he explain matters of the heart when he didn't quite understand them himself? "…how much you like them."
The corners of El's lips curved just so, and Mike found himself being kissed again by the girl he was head over heels for. This time he didn't freeze up. He rose higher on his knees to deepen the kiss. His insides were doing somersaults at the thought that this was really happening. Just a couple years ago, girls had cooties and were dumb; now he couldn't imagine this girl away from his side ever again.
The kiss was simple and sweet, and they broke the connection, all goofy grins and red cheeked. El's eyes shined with a gleam that Mike had never seen in her before.
"I like you very much, Mike."
"I like you a lot too, El."
This time they both leaned in for one more kiss.
Strokes
With El's hair longer, Nancy picked up a brush for her to use. The poor girl was clueless on how to take care of her hair. Nancy couldn't imagine living her whole life with a shaved head. A girl usually prided herself on her hair, and to have that right taken away was wrong.
Nancy patiently showed El how to use the bristly contraption. "You start at the top and stroke down. See?" Nancy demonstrated on her own head then handed El the brush. "Now you try."
El eyed the brush warily.
"Go on," Nancy chuckled at the girl's suspicious expression, "it won't bite."
El hesitantly accepted the brush. She sunk the bristles in her hair at the top of her head, just as she observed Nancy doing, and stroked downward through her ear-length locks. A small smile crossed El's face as she stroked her hair a few more times, seeming to understand the concept.
Nancy was happy to help her new 'sister', and she found the girl many times in the following week walking the house brushing her hair.
One night Nancy descended the stairs to the basement to ask Mike a question, but stopped short at the scene she walked in on. El sat on the couch, crossed-legged; Mike on the floor in front of her, nose planted in a history book, studying. In El's hand was the brush Nancy bought her a week ago, and the girl was stroking it with much care through Mike's hair.
Nancy smiled, quietly watching the two kids oblivious to her presence. El looked so relaxed and content running the brush gently through Mike's hair. Never in a million years would Nancy have ever imagined her brother in their basement with a girl letting her brush his hair. She crept back up the stairs, not wishing to disturb the peaceful moment between them.