[A/N: Hi cuties, just a request. If you don't plan to review, please don't read. I'm not obligated to write as you aren't obligated to leave a comment but given that I do this to entertain you, then I as many other authors deserve a few words for the story we are giving to you. Have a great day.]
Stranger Things belongs to The Duffer Brothers and Netflix. I own nothing.
oOoOoOoOoOo
Rated: K+. / Romance - Family. / (Eleven & Mike), OC.
xx
MOM
September 2nd, 2001.
Life is perfect just the way it is.
Eleven was leaning on the threshold between the kitchen and the living room watching her family just talking and relaxing while she dried her hands on the apron.
That Sunday, El spent the whole day cooking and frosting cookies for Luke to share with his classmates on the next day, as it was requested by his future teacher on the PTA meeting a couple days earlier before the first day of school. She thought it was a good idea, besides if Eleven learned something from Mike's mom was that the best way to get to people's hearts was by feeding them. Want people to like you? Throw food at them.
So after cooking a ridiculous amount of cookies with Mike's help, now she was looking at her boys spending time together.
El got lost in the moment and the scene in front of her; looking at Mike sitting on the carpeted floor and reading the list of school supplies while Luke, their four year-old boy, showed his dad he had everything settled for his first day of school. The list wasn't long, after all Luke was about to start kindergarten but it was extremely cute to see his excitement.
That huge smile just like his father's on that glowing chubby face filled with so many freckles, – even when people said he looked exactly like her since he had her eyes, her button nose, and her hair –, all of him made their parents melt by watching him grow every day a little bit more and their hearts burst into waves and waves of pure love.
Their first son so big but yet so little. Every day more independent but so fragile still; the first miracle their love had created now there ready to explore the world outside the house and ready to make friends on his own.
She sighed again, she knew it would be hard spending the day without Luke chasing after her around the house while doing 'the claw' Mike taught him, or playing hide and seek with him and then finally 'find' him hiding in the same place where he always hides: the towel closet. Yes, it would be really hard missing him but she smiled too because it only meant that her first baby is growing up and also enjoying the freedom and the life she couldn't enjoy when she was his age. Besides, she wouldn't be totally alone.
She rubbed her stomach, the tiny bump with the twelve weeks old baby they were expecting in February, their second baby. Along with Mike and Luke, he or she was another reason to smile every day.
Suddenly, as Mike reached for his son to clean the ink stain Luke made on his cheek with a pen and Eleven watched as they played and shared time together, both so cute, so close, the boy looked back at his mom and beamed. Honey eyes connecting with hers, his smile big and wonderful filled with shiny white baby teeth.
"Mommy is spying on us, daddy." Luke whispered pointing at her with his finger. Mike turned to her and smiled. His eyes sparkling, the love in his chocolate orbs overwhelming.
"Aren't we lucky?" he said and then kissed his forehead before standing up. "I'll help mom, son, keep playing."
Eleven knew what Mike meant and went to the kitchen as far as she could so Luke wouldn't hear them and sighed; she took off the apron and put it back in the drawer when she felt her husband's hands wrapping her body and hugging her from behind. She could feel Mike's smile when he rubbed her tummy as he kissed her neck; she loved being pregnant for a million reasons and having his hands on her tummy was one those reasons.
"I love you." Mike whispered. She knew he didn't just say it because he felt like it, (well, yes) but also becasue he was comforting her; because he knew how she felt, how nervous she was, how scared she felt for what they were about to do. He knew it was going to be hard for her.
She smiled and then sighed again.
Mike noticed of course, how couldn't he? He knew her like the back of his hand. "You okay, baby?" he asked in a whisper, his love unconditional.
El doubted whether to say yes or not. She didn't know how she felt, she sighed once more.
"Everything will be okay, baby. It's the right thing to do." Mike assured her and she turned around facing him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Eleven leaned and pressed their foreheads together enjoying the moment and how he was looking at her. It was almost like when they kissed for the second 'first' time, except there was no music playing.
"I'm nervous, he is so little but, you know…"
He nodded. "I know, El, I know."
The situation in which they were into was one they had been preparing for since the moment Luke was born. Both have been talking all those years about the issue they had ahead so many times they lost count and every time they talked about it the result was different. Sometimes they agreed it was something they should do; sometimes they agreed they would do it only 'if necessary' and then immediately realized it was going to be. In fact there was a time before Luke was ten months old when they decided they would talk to him when he was old enough but then, one day, Luke simply left them without any choice. It had been so sudden, everything they talked about and planed had been completely erased and their fears and worries came true, making them walk into a territory they weren't ready to explore quite yet.
It had been pretty innocent, really, but it shook them to the bone.
That day was especially hot even for the first days of June and they decided to use the kiddie pool on the back yard. It had been a beautiful Sunday, so bright and warm and it was going to be the first time Luke would be in the water only for fun, – aside from how they played with him when they gave Luke a bath –; so both Mike and El were super excited to see him enjoy a nice afternoon playing with mom and dad in the water at the same time.
That day, as a plate of chocolate biscuits and a jar of cold lemonade (great memories, by the way) were waiting on a table just a few feet away, Mike and El were enjoying every bit of their baby boy as he kept laughing.
She was sitting in the pool with the water to her chest and holding her baby boy trying to keep his tiny hat on while Mike, also sitting next to them, played with some rubber colourful fishes, filling them with water and then squeezing them so the water came out from its mouth and splashed all of them at the same time. Luke loved those rubber fishes; he couldn't hold back his beautiful laughter.
"Wanna try and splash dad, sweetie?" El asked her son, holding him still and taking one of the fishes next to her.
"Like that time in the fair, El, remember?" asked Mike, remembering that time during winter in 1991 when he was back home for his Christmas break and the entire party went to a fair in Indianapolis.
In one of those games they had to splash some water with a toy gun and keep the water flow steady and directly to a plastic frog's mouth until the bell rings. That night Mike won a musical teddy bear he gave to his girlfriend and Eleven slept with it during the entire time Mike was in college.
"Yes how could I forget! Oh, I would love to take him to a fair like that someday, see if he likes cotton candy as much as I do."
Mike smiled, delighted by the beautiful woman he married and he leaned to kiss her softly. She hummed in his mouth, those delicious lips as tasty and sweet as the cotton candy she ate on that fair. That one cotton candy he bought her and, somehow, she ended up eating seven.
"Think he'll eat as many as I did?" she whispered on his lips, she couldn't stop kissing him.
"I am sure he will."
They both laughed remembering the way the candy salesman held his mouth open as Eleven kept stuffing her face with one cotton candy after the other and thanking Mike for buying them. They spent a couple of seconds kissing when Luke made his presence known again and they smiled at each other then pull apart.
"Okay, son, here. Look at me." said Mike and kissed their little bold miracle's forehead and leaned on his level pointing at his open mouth.
El held the rubber fish in front of the baby so he could squish it and then the water went out of the fish mouth directly to Mike's who made funny noises and faces, making his son and wife laugh hard.
They kept playing with his son, throwing water with the fishes and helping Luke to swim and jump in the water, enjoying a perfect family moment when the inevitable happened.
They couldn't quite explain it in that moment and yet they knew exactly that was bound to happen one day but, they weren't ready, none of them.
After playing, Mike and Eleven were sitting next to each other just talking and sharing a bunch of kisses while holding their little boy, helping him practice how to walk with the support the water gave to him as he floated when they suddenly heard him laugh at something. They looked at him and found him staring at something but when they turned, they could only see the back of the house and the table with the lemonade jar and biscuits so they figured Luke saw a butterfly or something. They both went back to their conversation, reminiscing about that day in the fair when Eleven ate all those cotton candy sticks but then, fast and unexpectedly a little brown ball came flying right in the middle of them towards their son and he just took it and ate it with no second thoughts.
But, as far as they knew, biscuits don't usually fly and, if they had any doubt of what had just happened while they looked at their baby eating the chocolate biscuit unbeknownst to his parents shock, he finished his biscuit and pointed at the table, opened his hand and another little brown ball flew right into his tiny palm. He smiled proudly to his mom and dad and then, just like that, he ate another biscuit.
That day was the day when Luke Wheeler showed mommy and daddy how he truly was their special little one.
That was the first day of the many that followed; every day as he kept growing up, as he became the cutest boy they had ever seen, he also showed his parents how he could reach for so many little objects in the table without being anywhere nearby, or how he could grab his pacifier if it fell down without leaning and inch, or how he could take of his blanket without touching it if he was too warm. He could even make the lights in the house blink all at once every time Bananas in Pyjamas started.
That day had been the first day in which the decision Eleven didn't want to take had revealed to both of them and now, a day before his first day of school, they had reach the moment when they would have to talk to their little boy and tell him about a part of her life she had buried a long, long time ago.
It was time to tell Luke where mom came from.
"Baby, relax." whispered Mike in her ear. His arms wrapped around her body and she didn't know when she buried her face on his chest. She took a deep breath; she could always find comfort in his arms no matter what.
Eleven sighed; her voice muffled in his chest. "Do you think he'll be afraid of me?"
She knew it was probably a stupid question, after all she shared the same abilities her son had showed them at the moment, (although Luke didn't know that; she never used her powers in front of him. In fact, as far as he knows, mommy's name 'El' was short for Eleanor since she didn't like her whole name). Anyway, she couldn't help but being afraid and, at the same time, she didn't want to be so stressed because that would only hurt the baby inside of her, and that got her even more worried.
"Honey, listen to me." said Mike holding her face in his hands so she would look at him and pay attention to what he had to say. "I'm gonna be next to you the whole time and as soon as you feel like it gets to hard, all you have to do is nod and I'll continue. He is smart, he will understand."
"I just… I just need him to understand that he can't use his powers in front of people, nor even talk about them. And, what if a kid is mean to him and he can't control it?"
The thought of their son being in danger because of his powers scared them beyond imagination itself. They couldn't even think of losing him and, at the same time, they would never refuse him the chance to live like a normal kid; they would never take his life away from him like Brenner did to Eleven.
Mike kissed her and she kissed him back, taking his lips as a courage elixir and filling her heart with the glow and warmth he could only give her. Her husband's lips, the same lips she could never get enough from.
"That's why we are telling him the truth, El. Have faith, we can do this." he said when they pulled apart, filling her with hope, always shining like the sun when it cuts through clouds of storm.
Eleven finally nodded and smiled at him, marvelling with his deep chocolate eyes. "I love you, Mike."
His smile was everything she needed. "I love you too, El."
El leaned for another kiss filled with love and gratitude because he is always by her side, because he always supports her no matter what and then she took Mike's hand and they walked back to the living room where Luke was doodling, practicing his alphabet and numbers like they taught him.
"Luke, come her for a moment. Mom and I need to talk to you about something important." said Mike sitting next to his wife on the couch.
The little boy turned to his parents and nodded, leaving his paper sheet and his pen on the coffee table and stood next to them, smiling the entire time.
Eleven looked at him, the last time she would see her son looking at her as the mother he always knew because, after their talk, she'd become someone else. She wouldn't be just 'mom' anymore; she would become 'eleven', the number, again. She took a deep breath and felt Mike hand holding hers.
She smiled, she could do it.
"Sweetie, come here." said the young woman and took his little hand. Mike helped him climb to his lap so Eleven had him close.
"What is it, mommy?" his beautiful eyes noticed something wasn't right.
Eleven took a deep breath. "Sweetie, tomorrow you'll start kindergarten, right?" she asked and he nodded, although he wondered why mom asked something she knew already; El continued. "Okay, so you know dad and I are both so proud of you; you are so smart, so caring and we know you are going to make tons of friends. We are completely sure everyone will like you because you are such a special little boy and… Well, you know you are not only special because you are our son, but also because –"
"Because I can do magic?" asked the kid, helping mom finish her sentence.
Both Mike and El couldn't help but snicker. It wasn't exactly what they were expecting to hear but his innocence certainly helped the situation and also eased the tension. She nodded.
"Yes darling, because you can do magic." El replied and took his hands, stroking the back of them with her thumb. "Luke, do you remember how when we visit grandma and grandpa Wheeler, or when we go to the park, dad and I ask you not to use your magic because not all kids can do magic and they could be jealous?"
Luke nodded. Just like they explained that not everyone have the same possibilities, or how some parents can't buy things to their kids that his own parents can and that's why he should share his toys if someone wanted to play with him in the park because not everyone can afford them; they also explained that some people can get jealous and be mean with him because of that so that's how they told him not to use his magic in front of others, because that's something they wouldn't have no matter how much money their families have.
"I remember. You want me to show it tomorrow?" he asked, thinking it was time for him to show everyone what he could do. He was a little stunned when mom and dad looked at each other and then said no.
"No, sweetheart, in fact that's the one thing you can never show to anyone that isn't daddy and me." Eleven sighed; she knew she wasn't making any progress. "It's hard for us to tell you this, we know you can't always control it but maybe that's because you never had to. Here at home is okay, maybe in front of grandma and grandpa Hopper but tomorrow, at school, we need you to keep it a secret."
The kid lean his head to a side, he didn't understand. Until that moment his parents had never, ever, told him not to do something. Sure, they sometimes asked him not to grab the scissors or not to play with his food, they told him not to eat candy when dinner is almost ready but that was it; yet it was something on mommy's tone and daddy's eyes that warned him something was wrong. Very wrong.
He couldn't help but ask. "Why?"
His innocence only made it harder. How could they explain the reasons behind it? Eleven looked at Mike and he shook his head, not knowing what to say. Luke stared at his hand and El leaned and kissed them softly.
"I love you so much." she whispered, kissing his knuckles. "Because…" because the world is a beautiful place but is also very dangerous; because it is as filled with good people as is filled with horrible, mean ones. Because their family and friends, themselves, they have all seen what evil and selfish purposes could cause. Because they faced horror and fought against it but, how could she explain to a four year old boy all of that when that little boy believed that B1 and B2 were gigantic bananas and who existed in real life?
How could they explain how complex society is, how people fears what they can't understand, how they usually hate someone who's different without any other reason?
Luke looked at his mom with the same puppy eyes Eleven used so many times before when she was a kid and he looked down at his own chubby, freckled hands in his mother's ones; he frowned at how strange she was acting and how worried his parents looked. How odd it was that they asked him to never use his magic when he loved it so much. Suddenly he thought about those old black and white movies his parents and his uncles like to watch and he remembered one where a bunch of people in a village wanted to hurt a group of kids who could do stuff like he did. He remembered the word those people yelled at those kids.
What Luke said next broke their parent's hearts into a million pieces.
"I'm a monster."
That. That was the one thing neither Mike nor El never wanted to hear.
They looked at each other dumbfounded; shocked at their son resolution and how sad it was to hear him said it with his sweet, innocent voice. His eyes so big rapidly filling with tears; his lips quivered and it was the saddest look they had ever seen before.
Eleven felt like a monster her entire childhood, Mike also saw how she blamed herself for the things that happened in the past and it took him years to convince her she wasn't a monster of any kind. That the only monsters were the man behind the lab and the last thing they wanted was for their child to think he was one.
"No, sweetie, you are not a monster, you hear me?" said Eleven taking his face in her hands, she wasn't as calm as she wanted to be. "You are not a monster; don't you ever say something like that again."
Mike caressed her back in an attempt to calm her down and also put a hand on his son's curl, playing with them and kissing it.
"Son, listen to mom. Listen to us." he asked, burying his fingers in his son's hair. "Mom and I love you more than anything in the world. You and the new baby mean the world to us and we will always be proud of you. What we are trying to say is…"
He couldn't think of anything else, even if they had decided that Eleven should be the one to talk to the kid because it was her life after all, Mike realized she couldn't really talk about it when Luke suggested he was a monster too. He told her he would carry on if she couldn't do it, he told her he'd step up if she needed and only by looking at her El nodded and agreed to what Mike had in mind.
He took a deep breath and looked at his son.
"Luke, have I ever told you about the Princess of Hawkins?" asked Mike to his kid.
If there was something Luke loved even more than his Bananas show and his Play Doh set, were his dad's bed time stories. The boy shook his head and looked at his daddy with interest given that that was a Princess they never talked about before. El looked at him too, always holding Luke's tiny hands.
Mike continued.
"Well…" he said taking another deep breath and praying for the message to be clear. "Once upon a time, before your grandparents were born, a little girl, a Princess was a prisoner in a place she couldn't escape from. This Princess lived far away from other kids, from her family; she didn't even know how the sun looked like."
The boy paid attention to him. "Like Rapunzel?"
Mike and El smiled at him; his innocence always melting their hearts.
"Yes, sweetie, just like Rapunzel except…" Mike looked at his wife as if asking permission; she nodded. "Except she didn't live in a tower; she lived in a lab and she didn't have long hair. In fact, she had no hair at all."
The little boy looked at his father and Eleven immediately clarified what her son had in mind. "The lab where daddy works is another kind of lab, darling. Daddy does good things for people; but the lab where the Princess was prisoner was a place where they took everything away from her, even her hair and her own name."
Luke couldn't help but think about his parents and how they both always supported him and helped him and loved him no matter what, which made him wonder why the Princess had to suffer what the bad people did to her.
"But, why didn't her family helped her?" asked the boy. In his head, the family was something everyone had and no one, not one child, should go through the things his parents told him about.
"Because when she was a baby, a very bad man took her away from her mom. He took away her family and also her name; he even labelled her as a thing with the number 011 instead. Then when her mom was this close to rescue her that same bad man and many others caught her and hurt her. They took everything away from the Princess because she could do things no other kid could."
They both looked at their son, their voices as sweet and soft as never before, trying their best to tell such horrible story in a way it wouldn't scar their boy for life.
Luke looked down at his own hands again, playing with his fingers and in his little head he placed two and two together even when he still didn't know what math was. Mike said it before, he is a very smart boy and his answer was the proof.
"The Princess did magic like me, didn't she?"
Mike nodded firmly and Eleven felt hot tears in her eyes and a lump in her throat.
"Yes, honey, she did." answered Mike. "That magic or powers she had were all this bunch of especial abilities the Princess was born with. She barely knew what she could do because the bad man did everything he could to control and make sure the Princess not only didn't use her powers much but he also kept her from really knowing what she could do. All he cared was for her to do things he wanted to do."
The little kid was afraid to know the answer to the question he did next. "What… What did he want the Princess to do, dad?"
Mike sighed.
"To hurt people, sweetheart."
Eleven let Mike tell the rest of the story while she kept caressing her son's hands as he kept telling him everything. It was his story too, what brought them together.
She didn't say much else, she just let him be the one to talk and while he did, while Mike kept telling his son all those awful things those terrible people did to her (disguised under a cloth of fantasy because his son was only four years old); El could see once again what made her fell in love with him.
It was far more than the help or the life or the love he gave to her; it was seeing that Mike really understood everything she'd been through and yet, in his own words as he kept telling his son about the Princess who found a real monster and she had to kill people in order to survive; Eleven could feel in his voice and his eyes that he never, ever, judged her.
Yes, she knew that because he was the one who spent so many nights telling her that she wasn't a monster and that she did what she had to do because there was no other choice, that she had to put her life first but even then, even after everything he told her, Eleven saw as clear as never before that Mike understood exactly how big was the weight in her shoulders and how big was the guilt she was carrying on. Because he felt her pain as his own.
There, as Mike kept talking, she could also see how important it was for him to give her the life they have now; how big it was for him to make her happy and give her the world every single day because he needed to compensate and heal all those years of constant abuse she had to go through. Because maybe until that day as El heard her story told as if it was a fairytale, she hadn't fully understand really how terrible was the beginning of life; even if she was the one who had to live through that, she realized that hearing it from outside like he did, was even more terrible.
All those years of torture, pain, tears, hunger, cold, loneliness, yelling, beating; all the nights she kept locked while crying her eyes out, all of that was a punishment because she was born with a gift she never asked for. She thought that no matter how much she explain Mike what she had to deal with he would never understand half of the abuse even if when he tries, but now she realized he understood how big and disgusting it was. He understood everything probably more than she did and it hurt him too. But then, no matter how horrible and how scary it was, he told their son how a tiny group of kids took over the risks and fears and helped the Princess so they could save her from the bad men who wanted to hurt her. Eleven saw once more and also as if it was the first time, how big, shiny and overwhelmingly pure was the love Mike had given her from the moment he set eyes on her.
It was amazing; after all those years, after a wedding, a son and a baby on his way, her husband Michael Wheeler – the most wonderful man ever existed – could make Eleven fall in love a million times stronger than she felt already.
She couldn't add anything else to Mike's story because he was telling it with the years of practice of being The Dungeons Master had given to him. The week that changed her life forever told as if it was another bed time story so Luke could see that, even if it was nothing wrong with him, it truly was necessary for him to keep his abilities (his magic) under control and secret because no one knows if there is someone in the shadows waiting. They could be there, lurking, hiding…
Of course they never meant to scare him, they wouldn't pretend for Luke to live with fear, in fact Eleven saw in his bright honey eyes that the sadness he originally felt for the Princess had turned into admiration when Mike told him she saved those kids too with her powers because, even if those powers had to be kept a secret, those powers also made her unique and she was a wonderful girl for reasons beyond her abilities.
When Mike finished his story El realized that the mother of all truths was just around the corner, but it was okay. She saw how relax and happy was Luke because the story ended with the Princess and the Paladin kissing.
"What happened next, dad? Did the Princess, I mean the Mage and the Paladin got married?" asked the little boy, always ready for more. The anguish and fear of someone taking him away from mommy and daddy was far away and he finally understood why he should keep his magic to himself. He also understood that not everyone was evil because then, the Princess would still be a prisoner.
Mike looked at Eleven and she smiled, she was ready. He nodded.
"Yes, sweetheart. They got married and lived happily ever after because they had a beautiful boy whose freckles drive his mommy crazy and he has his daddy's smile; that boy also loves to draw and practice his alphabet and numbers and he is a big fan of a show with gigantic fruit wearing human clothes. And you know what? The Princess and the Paladin are about to give his son a little brother or sister soon."
The boy smiled but then he frowned and turned his head as if he just realized something.
Eleven and Mike looked at each other, her breathing was heavy because of what she was about to reveal as she rolled up her sleeve. She usually doesn't hide her tattoo because not only she learned to ignore it but also because it was so blurry it was hard to tell what it was if you don't know those are numbers; but that day Luke was about to learn that that thing in mommy's arm is not a freckle of any kind.
The puzzle pieces begun to join and form the big picture his parents had put in front of him and Luke looked back at his mom and dad. His mom and his dad who play Dungeons and Dragons with his aunt and uncles are also the Mage and the Paladin when they play. His mom and dad also had a son – him – who practices his alphabet and his numbers in his notebooks and he also loves a show with gigantic bananas so much that he doesn't even eat bananas because he doesn't want to murder B1 and B2's family. And his mom and dad are also about make him a big brother in a couple of months.
"Darling…" Eleven called and Luke put the eyes he inherited from her on the arm she had uncovered and he saw, as if it was crystal clear, that the weird freckle in mommy's arm are actually numbers. Numbers on her skin like the Princess from the story had.
His eyes went huge, the image falling heavy on his head and he finally knew that the fantasy, the monsters, the courage and love, everything they told him a minute ago was really the story of his own parents.
"Mom, dad… You…"
His eyes filled with hot tears and when they nodded, the little boy hugged his parents with all the strength his tiny arms had. He never wanted to let go.
Even when he was still very young to feel anything else than a knot on his tummy and a lot, a lot of questions, with the years that followed and as he kept growing up, Luke Wheeler would eventually understand a lot better the look on his parents faces and how big was the love they held for each other. His mom and dad who had saved each other in many ways and loved each other from the moment they met; his mommy and his daddy who told him the truth and their story, their families story, in order to protect him from the evil in the world so nobody could ever take him away or take advantage of him because of what he could do.
After a couple of minutes of tears and hugs, support and unconditional love, Luke promised he would never use magic in front of anyone that isn't mommy and daddy and grandma and grandpa Hopper. After a couple of minutes when the three of them were relax Luke asked why didn't his nose bleed when he uses his abilities and they explained that maybe it was because El's nose doesn't bleed anymore, and probably he was stronger too. When Luke felt better he simply climbed off from his parents lap and went back to the coffee table and back to his notebook.
Mike and Eleven felt like they could breathe again. He placed his arms around her shoulders and the other on her belly and she rested her head on his chest, knowing he was the one and he will always be.
Suddenly an idea popped in Luke's brain and he turned back to his parents.
"Mommy, the number in your arm, does it hurt?"
Eleven shrugged and Mike smiled and did the same, both quite comfortable with the questions he will inevitably have.
"No, sweetie, it did hurt when they put it there but it doesn't anymore. Besides I learned to ignore it; it brings back the darkest period of my life but that's all behind now. The happiness you, the baby, daddy and everyone had given to me if far greater than this tattoo." El answered and Mike kissed her forehead as a thank you for what she said and the love she gave him in return.
Nevertheless, the kid paid attention to the pen in his hand and then at his parents and how they started sharing kisses and, with the idea he had now much more clear, he went back to his parents and started doodling on his mother's tattoo without asking.
"Hey, what are you doing, son?" asked Mike in between giggles, looking at his little boy and smiling.
El giggled too, looking at how concentrated he could get while her son wrote on her skin, but they weren't ready to hear what he said once he finished.
"Daddy turned mommy's number into a name. Daddy you gave mommy her name, right?" asked the boy remembering how in the story the Paladin turned a label into a one of a kind name for a one of a kind girl.
Mike and El nodded and Luke finished his drawing with the brightest smile. "Now I do the same."
Eleven raised her arm and both her and Mike started welling up when they saw how his innocence closed the final door, sealing the past where it belongs so it never comes back. Because Luke, with his imagination and creativity, found a way to turn that number tattoo into something else, just like he learned from his dad.
He drew two tiny lines in between the 11 number, then he shaped the 0 and finally he drew a final letter 'm' next to the zero; and just with that Luke wrote in one word what Eleven was for him, what she would always be.
'Mom'.
oOoOoOoOoOo
Hello everyone and welcome back to my series of one-shots! As explained in the last two chapters I was leaving this one on hold because I wanted to focus on the my other story PROM NIGHT (which is published and finished with 7 beautiful chapters; if you wanna read it just check my list and you'll find it but remember to review it.)
Okay, as for this one some of you already know that I publish here one-shots from their life as teenagers, in college years, adulthood and parenthood. Also, if you guys have any request, you can ask for it on the comments.
Announcement: I will write another separate story aside from this one soon but, this time, I wont leave Weird Stuff paused. I'm gonna published a chapter here and a chapter on the new story once it starts, meanwhile please read here and enjoy and most of all review because I will ONLY continue as long as I have feedback. I'm serious.
I do want to leave you guys the chance to choose what chapter is next. I'm going to leave a list with the title of the chapters and the year in which they take place as the only clue and you guys can vote in your review which you wanna read next. I'll put together the results from your votes with the Spanish version's votes and then we'll have the next chapter. (I have to write it first, so do it quick because the more reviews I get the faster I'll write).
: MINE - 1984
: DANCE WITH ME - 2006
: LEMONADE - 1988
: WHY ME? - 1997
: EVERY DAY, EVERY HOUR - 1989
: PROMISE - 1993
: STAR GAZING - 1986
: MY GIRL - 1993
: PRIORITIES - 1990
: THE ONLY ONE - 2007
: YOU - 1984
: A LITTLE FREEDOM – 1984
That said I hope you guys enjoyed this one and please leave a comment! Happy new year and I know it's a happy one because we finally have a new teaser, a poster and a release date. This is so exciting!
Until next chapter!
