Author's Note: Y'all are so nice! I went on a trip and didn't check my email until yesterday afternoon, and then I got all of your kind words and it made my day! Thank you so much! All the love really keeps my writing, so if you want me to update sooner then pretty please follow/favorite/review! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!


Mike was still buzzing with El's kiss as he ran to his first class, which was science with Mr. Clarke and Dustin. He barely felt his feet touch the ground as he made his way to the classroom. He threw open the door and it banged against the door, making him jump.

"YAH!" Mike yelped.

"Are you alright, Mike?" Mr. Clarke asked.

"Oh, um, I'm fine. The door just… startled me a bit." Mike patted the door awkwardly.

Mr. Clarke gave him a strange look, but luckily Dustin waved him over before Mr. Clarke could question him more.

"Mike!" Dustin yelled. Mike quickly walked over to him as the room filled with people. "Sit here!"

Mike sat in the seat next to Dustin, slamming his books down on the desk, as the other students started to file into the classroom. He didn't open his textbook though, all he could do was tap his foot erratically. He couldn't stop smiling.

"Mike!" Dustin hissed, trying to keep his voice down so Mr. Clarke, who had started the lesson, wouldn't notice. "Are you spacing out? Mike!"

Mike shook himself out of his haze and turned to look at Dustin. "What?"

"What's wrong with you?" Dustin whispered.

"It's nothing!" Mike whispered back. All he wanted to do right now was to slip back into his daydream, into reliving that semi-kiss over and over.

"You can't lie to me, Mike, I know you! What happened?"

"It doesn't matter." Mike said.

"Liar. What happened?" Dustin asked.

"I'll tell you later."

"Tell me now!" Dustin hissed.

"No!" Mike said.

"Come on, Mike, tell me!" Dustin said.

"Mike?" A voice came.

"Fine, fine. She kissed me!" He shouted, then quickly clapped his hands over his mouth, realizing how loud he must have been. Every single head turned to face him simultaneously, all with similar shocked expressions.

"How… nice Mike, but that wasn't the answer I was looking for. The question was how many types of strata are there and what are their names?" Mr. Clarke said.

Mike quickly answered, his embarrassment raising to color his cheeks. He slid a little lower into his desk, wishing he could disappear. Or better yet wishing school was over so he could see El.

"She kissed you? Holy shit!" Dustin whispered.

"On the cheek." Mike mumbled, blushing.

"Still, that's great!" Dustin said. "See, I knew she liked you too!"

Immediately Mike felt crumpled like a tin can someone had stepped on. Did she like him too? For most people, after that the answer would have been obvious. But El wasn't most people. She probably hadn't understood the meaning that a kiss held. Even a seemingly innocent one on the cheek.

"Ugh." He groaned, and quietly hit his head against the table. He was frustrated, but he didn't see the point in drawing any more unnecessary attention to himself. "She probably doesn't even understand what a kiss even means."

"Mike," Dustin said. "I think you need to give El a little more credit. She understands more than you think, even if she just understands it in a different way than we do."

Mike considered. El really did understand many things deeply, even if she didn't understand all of it. Dustin's words rang true. "Why are you always so right?" Mike asked.

"Nah, I'm not always right, I'm just less of a dumbass than most of you guys, so I always say the obvious and you think I'm right." Dustin smiled.

"Well then." Mike groaned. He slipped back into his daydream, while Dustin returned to the discussion, taking notes on two pieces of paper because he knew Mike wouldn't be paying attention to the lesson today.

In Mike's daydream, when Troy interrupted the picnic, Mike told him off. He called him all the names that he'd been wanting to since Troy started bullying him and his friends. Troy tried to hit Mike but he fought back. Troy couldn't get in a punch, but Mike was on fire, throwing punches and generally being a badass. Then Troy and his cronies ran away scared, leaving Mike alone with El. She smiled at him, told him how brave he was, but he just shrugged. It was nothing, he said. But you saved me, I have to pay you back, El said. Then she kissed him, this time on the lips, and Mike felt the electricity of it course through him.

"Mmm…" He murmured sleepily, still in his daydream.

"Mike?" Said a voice. "Mike? Mike!"

Mike jolted off of his desk, looking up into the eyes of Mr. Clarke. "Yeah?"

"Are you alright?" Mr. Clarke asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." said Mike. "Um… can I use the Heathkit Ham shack during lunch?"

"Of course. Any reason why?" Mr. Clarke asked.

"I… promised to try to talk to someone." Mike answered, not seeing the point in lying.

"Would you be referring to the girl who kissed you?" Mr. Clarke raised an eyebrow.

Mike blushed hard. "Uh… um…. Well-"

"You don't have to tell me, I'm just teasing you." Mr. Clarke patted Mike's shoulder, then handed Mike the keys. "There you go. Now, you should run to your next class. You don't want to be late."

"Thanks, Mr. Clarke!" Mike smiled as he gathered up his things and ran to his next class.


Jonathan picked up Eleven 4 minutes and 16 seconds after Mike left. Ever since Hopper taught her about numbers and their relation to time, she counted when she had to wait for something. She was sitting on the curb, counting on her fingers, when Jonathan rolled up in his car. El smiled and skipped over to the car. She loved skipping, when Will got out of the hospital, it was one of the first things he taught her, besides how to make an Eggo by herself. Mike didn't know that she knew how to make one on her own. She kept it a secret because she liked it better when he made them for her. For some reason, they tasted… sweeter.

She wasn't as surprised as she probably should have been when she opened the passenger door and Nancy was there.

"Oh, El, could you sit in the back today?" Jonathan asked.

El nodded and closed the door on Nancy, who was insisting that she could move to the back instead of El. El knew that Nancy didn't really want to move, she had spotted Nancy's hand inching closer to Jonathan's on the armrest. She sat in the back seat as Jonathan drove her home, watching conspiratorially as Nancy's fingers flickered uncertainly above Jonathan's hand before quickly, like she was trying to sneak up on him, she grab his hand and laced his fingers with hers. He looked at her across the console, surprise written over his face. Nancy looked very pointedly ahead, blushing furiously. Jonathan tucked his chin in, a secret smile on his face.

They were driving down the street to Joyce's house, and the houses zipping by, reminding her of the bike ride with Mike, and then the kiss. El bounced in her seat, trying to smother her giggles with her hand. Jonathan turned his head and looked at her curiously. "Are you alright, El?"

"I kissed Mike." Eleven murmured, just loud enough for Jonathan and Nancy to hear.

"YOU DID WHAT?" Yelled Jonathan, slamming the brakes. The car skidded for a moment, then came to a stop. Both Nancy and Jonathan leaned over the console to look back at her in shock, their fingers still locked together, just much more awkwardly because of their new position.

"Oh my god. Oh my god!" Nancy said. "Really? On the lips?"

Jonathan shook his head. "Dear lord please no." He muttered.

"On the cheek." Said Eleven, blushing.

"Oh thank god." Jonathan said.

"Hey!" Said Nancy. "What, is my brother not good enough for your sister?"

"It's not that!" Jonathan insisted.

"Then what is it?" Asked Nancy.

Jonathan sputtered for a moment before coming up with a response. "They're too young." He said solemnly.

Nancy raised an eyebrow. "Are they now? El, tell Jonathan this isn't the first time you two have kissed."

"Wait, what?" Jonathan said. "You two have kissed before? When?"

"At the last Demogorgon attack." El said.

"You-you're still too young!" Jonathan said.

El frowned and shook her head. "No."

"Jonathan, they're thirteen." Said Nancy, exasperated. "Your brother is too protective of you, Eleven."

"I am a perfect level of protectiveness! And thirteen is too young to kiss."

"Then what would be an appropriate age to kiss?" Nancy leaned a bit closer to Jonathan, fluttering her eyelashes.

"Uh…" Jonathan swallowed uncertainly. "Fifteen?"

"We're older than that." Nancy said.

"Well, yeah…" Jonathan stuttered, burning red.

"Then why haven't you kissed me yet?" Nancy asked.

Jonathan was so red that El was afraid his face was going to burn off.

"Kiss her." Commanded El.

The two teens jolted apart, having completely forgotten that El was in the car with them.

Nancy nervously tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, blushing hard as she realized how ridiculously bold she had just been. "Um… Jonathan? Are we almost there?"

Jonathan started the engine again and drove the two minutes it took to finish the journey to the Byers' house in awkward blush-filled silence.

"I like Mike more than a friend." Eleven announced.

Jonathan groaned. "How do you even know about this stuff?"

"Nancy." El said.

"What?" Jonathan asked. "Nancy!"

"She had questions! I had answers!" Nancy said.

El's eyebrows furrowed. "I don't understand. Is something wrong?" She asked.

"No, no, it's fine. You would have learned about it anyway, but... I don't know. You aren't as little as I wish you were. You and Will are getting too old to protect all the time." Said Jonathan. "But that doesn't mean I can't try!"

They pulled up into the driveway, and Jonathan stopped the car.

"Chief Hopper will be here to practice math with you in an hour. Will you be okay alone?" Jonathan asked.

The first month that El had come to live with them, she and Will both couldn't be left alone in the house. They saw the Demogorgon in every shadow, heard his strange gurgling in every little creak of the old house. Now they both were fine with being alone, but Joyce and Jonathan still checked to see if it was alright every time they left them by themselves.

El nodded and pushed open the car door. Jonathan waited in the driveway as she went up to the house and unlocked the door with the key she wore. It was on a pretty pink ribbon that Mike had gotten Nancy to give her. El loved it to pieces because it was pretty and it reminded her of Mike.

Once she got inside El locked the door behind her and went straight to the window. She liked to watch people drive away for some reason, it gave her a sense of closure.

She watched as Jonathan started the car, and then Nancy said something. He frowned and turned off the ignition. El could feel him mustering his courage, then he gently touched the side of Nancy's face. El could see the surprise in Nancy's eyes, but she didn't pull back. In fact, she leaned closer into Jonathan. Jonathan swallowed once, then pressed his lips firmly against Nancy's.

Knowing they couldn't hear her, El clapped her hands and squealed excitedly. They both seemed to melt into the kiss, which quickly grew more heated. Jonathan leaned back and Nancy crawled forward, but the kiss ended abruptly when Nancy's knee hit the horn, releasing a startling honk. Both teens jumped away from each other, then looked at each other and exchanged a good-natured laugh. Nancy grabbed Jonathan's hand again, and Jonathan brought their entwined hands up to his lips, brushing his lips against her knuckles gently. Nancy blushed and Jonathan re-started the car, and they drove off to school. (Author's Note: Haha they didn't drive to school. Innocent lil' El thinks they did though. I might have to write some Jancy smut to go with this lol)

El walked to her room. It used to be Will's but everyone had insisted she should have her own room, so Will and Jonathan now shared. Sometimes though Will would sneak into her room at night and teach her how to play D&D. It still confused her, but she couldn't wait to surprise Mike when she was able to finally play with him and everyone else. El loved her brothers. She really did.

Not the way that she loved Mike though. She loved Mike more than a brother, more than a friend. She loved Mike more than she loved Eggos, and wanted him to know. She wanted him to know like Jonathan wanted Nancy to know he loved her. She wanted him to kiss her again, she wanted to hold his hand, she wanted to go to the Snow Ball with him. She wanted to feel sparkly forever.

But how would she find out if he wanted to feel sparkly too?


Author's Note: Thank you guys for beings so patient and supportive, I hope you enjoy this nice long chapter. Please review/follow/favorite if you did, and I'll see you next time!

Kisses,

Chattre