I'm lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, at about 2:30am. El has to stay the night, since Hopper didn't want to bother us in the middle of the night to come and get her. She's sleeping in the basement, and all I can think about is how lonely my bed is without her.

We've never slept in the same bed before, but I know that if she were to sleep with me, I would sleep like a baby, and maybe even my nightmares would disappear.

So now, in the middle of the night, I have found myself staring at my plain white ceiling, studying every crack and every mark so closely that if someone were to wipe the surface of all it's imperfections, I would know where to place each one off by heart.

I do this every night, in hopes that eventually sleep will take me. In hopes that one night, I will actually be able to sleep soundly.

I'm startled by a sound at my door, a small knocking sound, and I get up to answer it. I find Eleven in my doorway, who is dressed in one of Nancy's night gowns.

Her hair is a little messy, and I assume she has been tossing and turning, unable to find sleep, just as I have not been able to either.

She looks at the floor, clearly embarrassed to be knocking at my door so late at night, and when I study her face in the dim light of the hallway, I notice shimmering streaks of tears on her cheeks. My heart breaks in two at the sight of her, at how broken she looks so late at night.

She looks up at me with glistening eyes, her pink lips pursed and her eyebrows raised. "M-Mike," she starts, her voice shaky, my name escaping her lips in a mess of sounds, "can I s-sleep with you tonight?"

I'm a little taken aback at her request, but nevertheless, I move out of the way to let her enter. She shuffles into my room, clutching at her clothes as she stares at the floor. I watch her walk inside, and she stands embarrassed in the middle of the room. I shut the door and walk over to her, admiring how innocent she looks in the light of the moon, which creates a sort of halo around her head. An angel. Even the moon agrees with my description of her.

Even though she's come out of her shell so much more over the past year, she's still the sweet, shy girl that she was when I first met her. She's still a little jumpy and hesitant to interact with new people, but she's very comfortable around us, which is another thing about her that elates me. But even now, she looks exactly like the scared little girl we found in the woods that night.

I carefully brush my hand passed her cold one, to which she let my fingers intertwine with her own, holding fast to my hand as she looks up at me. I look down at our hands, admiring how small her hand is compared to mine, and how easily they fit together, like two puzzle pieces made only for each other.

I look back up to El's eyes, looking down at her whilst she stares up at me. The dim light of the stars from outside my window casts an angelic glow over her pale skin, making her look as though she was of another world. As though she were some ethereal creature too beautiful and too pure for this world.

I pull her into a tight hug, and she wraps her arms around my torso, holding onto me as though I was her last source of oxygen. I hold her for so long, and after a short while I feel her start to sob against my chest, her whole body shaking, her crying muffled against me.

I don't think my heart can break anymore than this, thinking of everything that she's been through, and everything I've just thrown on too of her only hours ago.

I was so caught up in my own problems, I didn't even realise that El could be drowning too. It's awful to think that maybe she's been bottling everything up, trying to hide it all from me.

I pull back to look at her, and I notice that her face is all red and her eyes are puffy. I wipe the tears from her cheeks ever so gently, I don't want to scare the small, broken girl in front of me.

"Eleven," I start, and I notice my voice cracking, "please don't cry."

This only causes her to sob more, and she lifts her hands to her face and frantically rubs at her eyes with the heels of her palms. "M-Mike," she tries to speak through her tears, "I don't want to see you be in pain any longer."

I was wrong, my heart just broke even more, disintegrating in my chest.

"El..."

She stops my words with a kiss, her lips pressed against mine pleadingly, as though she were begging me for help. For security.

Her hands are holding onto my face, and it takes me a moment to gather my thoughts before my hands fall to her waist. I kiss her back, and it's an amazing feeling, to be kissed by her in the light of the moon. And maybe I'm too young to understand what a kiss like this means, and maybe I'm too naive to even try to fathom what love is, but right now, in this moment, I don't care because this means everything to me.

It means everything to me to be kissed by El, and to kiss her back while she holds on to me, and while I hold on for dear life to her.

Slowly, she breaks away, looking to the ground as she let's go of me hesitantly. The feeling of her hands leaving my skin leaves me somewhat distraught, I hate the feeling of having touched her for so long, and becoming so addicted to her that when we part, I feel like dying. I wonder if she feels the same way.

I look down at her, watching her as she slowly looks back up at me with pink cheeks. Her sobs have slowed, and I realise it was our kiss that calmed her. It was my lips that brought an end to her suffering just now. Perhaps someone does need me.

"Maybe you should get some rest, El," I offer quietly, my voice a croaky whisper. Eleven nods in reply, slowly shuffling over to the other side of the room to climb into my bed. She swings her leg over the side and gets in, watching me the whole time, clearly embarrassed.

I smile at her as she sits on my bed, waiting for me to climb in beside her. I walk over and get in under the covers, El following suit. We lie down facing eachother, one of her hands are resting just beneath her cheek. I pull the covers further up over her, then shifting myself to be just a little bit closer to her.

El does the same, moving closer so her body is nearly touching mine. I hesitate for a moment before pulling her closer, wrapping my arms around her body protectively. She then wraps her arms tightly around my torso, her head resting just against my chest.

I move one of my arms up to smooth her hair, and I do that for a while before I eventually hear her breath slow. She's asleep, and she seems to be sleeping well.

I lean down and kiss her softly on the top of her head, whispering the words, "sweet dreams, El."

I shut my eyes, Eleven still in my arms, and I don think I've ever been so calm in my life.

And eventually, I start to drift off into sleep, ever so easily, ever so calmly. And I think that tonight, I might just sleep soundly.