Feeling a bit better today, though still not back to normal. Having a chicken soup IV seemed to have helped (joke)

353days: The following may sound harsh but it's really not intended that way. Maybe every story makes her not-lesbian because nobody really believes it? When I watched season 3, in no episode did Maya Hawke play her character as a lesbian. No lingering looks at other girls, nothing. But she gave a heartfelt speech in s03e06, when she and Steve were bound together and lying on the floor. And she tells him at the end that she used to be obsessed with him. So her then saying she likes girls came over as contrived.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against gay angles in shows but it has to believable, especially in its buildup. And for that, I see Will as the one, especially after Mike yelled at him "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" Sure, it could have meant he didn't like girls "YET", but then again... That's why I think that the lesbian angle for Robin was thrown in because if they had planned it from the beginning, they would have hinted at it through her actions.

That's just my opinion on this.

Oh, and the following chapters aren't written yet, only parts of them. Certain plot points I thought of and have then written out to have them available. I still have to write everything else ^^

Alright, enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters and I write for my own pleasure and that of the readers.

"So, you ready for this?" Mike asked as he unlocked the door.

"Yeah." she nodded but he could feel her apprehension.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." she tried to wave it off as they walked towards the changing booths. "I feel a bit scared about going under water. It reminds me of the tub."

"I see." he nodded and took her hand. "I will be there with you the entire time. If you feel uncomfortable, we can stop."

"It's okay." she released a big breath. "I can do this. I really want to learn swimming."

"Mike?" a male voice startled them.

"Jeez." Mike groaned in shock. "Mister Brown, what are you doing here on Christmas Eve?"

"I told you to call me Martin." the man laughed. "And I could ask you the same thing. When I agreed to let you do your swimming exercise during closing times, I didn't mean you can bring others with you."

"Mister... Martin, this is my girlfriend El." Mike introduced her. "She's on visit from Chicago for the next two weeks and she never learned to swim, so I offered to teach her. And I thought that it would be easier when the pool is empty."

"Hi." El waved shyly at the man.

"And don't worry, I pay the money for her day ticket." Mike added.

"That's very nice of you." Martin smiled and offered her hand to El, which she shook. "Don't worry about the money Mike, I know you would never misuse your privileges. Unlike Jennifer."

"What did she do?" Mike asked.

"She let her friends come in before opening time." Martin explained. "The only reason I didn't fire her is because they paid for the days they were here and because I wouldn't be able to find someone else to work her shifts."

"I see." Mike chuckled.

"But don't tell her the second reason." Martin whispered conspiratorially. "Alright, I'm out, my wife is waiting."

"Bye, Martin." Mike waved him goodbye.

"And no funny business in the water!" Martin shouted with a huge smile on his face, leading to Mike spluttering, his face turning red.

"I like him." El giggled when they were alone.

"Alright, these are the changing booths." Mike showed her a row of doors. "You go in there, change into your bathing suit and exit on the other side."

"Wanna share a booth?" she smiled lovingly at him.

"I would love to." Mike nodded and opened the door. "But unfortunately, these booths are so small that I have trouble moving in there even when I'm alone."

"Too bad." El shrugged with a glint in her eye and walked into the booth, pulling her pants down to reveal her slip before she closed the door.

"You minx." Mike whined and entered the adjacent booth where he quickly discarded his clothes, already wearing his swim trunks.

He exited the booth on the other side and waited for El to come out of hers. He sat on one of the small benches and saw her feet and lower legs, watching how the socks came off before her slip fell to the floor. His mind filled with images of her naked form and he felt his manhood reacting, quickly pushing those images out of his head and thinking of something dull to avoid an erection at this moment.

"How did you manage to change that quick?" El asked, coming out of the booth.

"I already wore my swim trunks under my clothes." he explained, giving a breath of relief when he saw her.

"What's that relieved look?" El had picked up on it.

"I'm relieved that you are wearing a bathing suit instead of a bikini." Mike smiled.

"You don't want to see me in a bikini?" she looked disappointed.

"No, no, no." Mike quickly said. "I mean, yes, I do want to see you in a bikini but not today because I wouldn't be able to teach you swimming."

"I know, I'm just messing with you." El giggled and walked into his arms to give him a kiss.

"We should get started." Mike hummed as his hands found her behind, gently squeezing it.

"Then you should let go of my ass." she looked at him expectantly.

"But I don't want to." he whined.

"Mike, swimming." El ordered and took a step back. "You can touch my butt later."

"I'll hold you to that." he winked. "Alright, first, we take a shower to get water on our bodies. Women is left, men right. We meet at the pool."

El walked into the showers that Mike had shown her. It was a large room with tiles on the floor and walls that contained several stalls, separated by thin walls with curtains to block the view of anyone walking outside. She walked into one and let the waters run, not bothering to close the curtain since wasn't naked anyway and even if they were, she had no problem with Mike seeing her bare. Once she was done, she walked into the pool area, finding Mike standing next to a large body of deep water, his body glistening from the drops of water.

"How deep is it?" El asked, her apprehension coming back.

"This one?" Mike pointed to the pool in front of them and she nodded. "Ten feet. But we won't use this one, we'll be using that one over there."

He pointed to a second pool, this one more elaborate in its shape. He led her around the straight one, it's serene waters not moving and saw the second, the water not as dark as in the other pool and the floor much easier to see. It was also bigger than the first one and had a round-shaped building sticking out of it at one of its edges.

"This is only four feet deep here." Mike said and jumped in, the water only reaching his upper abdomen. "Perfect for learning how to swim."

"Okay." El nodded and sat down at the edge of the pool to put her legs in first before she slid into the it, the water reaching her chest.

"Now, there are several styles of swimming." Mike began to explain. "The one I learned first, and the one we should concentrate on for now is called the breaststroke."

"The breaststroke?" she giggled.

"No, it doesn't mean that I'll rub your breasts." Mike laughed. "Although..."

"Mike, later." El laughed with him.

"Okay, this is a breaststroke." Mike said and showed her, pushing his arms in a circular motion and following that with his legs.

"I can't stay afloat." El complained as she tried to copy what he did, her legs always lowering to the ground.

"Okay, let me help." he said and stepped next to her. "Just do the technique, I'll move with you."

He put one arm under her groin area and the other under her chest, holding her up in the water so she stayed horizontal. While El did the technique Mike had shown her, he walked sideways to always stay with her. At some point, he lowered his arms slightly without her noticing and El kept swimming, her ability to do it rising by the minute.

After roughly an hour, which was interspersed with breaks, his arms didn't even touch her anymore, even though he still kept moving to make her feel safe. El giggled when she realized that she could do the breaststroke and once he heard her exultant whoop, Mike stopped moving and pulled his arms back, letting her swim on her own.

El was shocked at first when he suddenly disappeared from her side but when she realized that she kept swimming, she laughed heartily in exultation, proud of herself at how quickly she had learned. Mike smiled and gave her two thumbs up, kneeling down so only his head was sticking out of the water. El took the invitation and swam over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck after reaching him.

"I did it!" El shouted excitedly. "I can swim the breaststroke."

"I'm so proud of you." Mike hugged her tightly and gave her a kiss.

"So, what other techniques can you teach me?" she asked as she pulled away and stood up, hopping excitedly in the water and noticing his gaze. "Eyes up here, Wheeler."

"The don't hop up and down." he poked out her tongue, causing her to laugh.

"Honey, more techniques." she ordered.

"Okay, this is known as freestyle or the crawl." Mike said and swam a lap back and forth. "This is what I usually do when I do my swimming. The arms alternate while your legs perform a flutter kick. Your face is in the water when your legs kick you forward and you have to turn it to a side to breath when your arms move."

"Is it easier or harder than the breaststroke?" she asked.

"It's a bit harder to learn but once you have it down, it makes swimming easier and it's also the fastest type of swimming." he explained. "Then you have the backstroke, which is almost the same, except you're on your back and your arms move into the opposite direction than with the crawl."

"Those are it?" she wanted to know.

"No, there are more but when you do swimming for fun, you rarely need more." he shrugged. "I can do the butterfly stroke but I find it very taxing compared to the others."

"Can you show me?"

"Okay, look." he said and did a few butterfly strokes, his legs kicking like a dolphin while his arms moved in a fast forward circle. "And as a lifeguard, I also have to do the sidestroke, with which I would pull someone through water."

"What if the person is very heavy?" El asked, watching as he showed her the sidestroke.

"The water usually helps to carry a heavy person." Mike shrugged. "But so far, I didn't have to save anyone."

"Okay, let me try freestyle and you tell me if I'm doing it right." El said and kicked herself forward, trying to copy what Mike had done.

"Close your fingers, don't spread them out." he advised and she did. "Good. Don't forget to do a full rotation with your arm to pull yourself forward."

"Like this?" she asked, doing as he told and managing to move forward.

"Yes, very good." he nodded proudly. "You're a natural."

"No, I probably look like an idiot." she blushed at his compliment though she had to admit that it came easy to her once he had explained how it worked.

"Wanna do some laps in the other pool?" he asked. "You can stay in the outer lane, so you can always hold yourself up if you feel you need a break."

"Sure." she nodded and followed him to the other pool. "Do we get in the same way?"

"Well, I usually jump from the starting block." he pointed to several raised marble blocks. "And this water is a bit colder than in the other pool, so you may want to get in using the ladder, just to be sure that you don't get shocked by it."

El watched him as Mike climbed onto the block and bend from the hips until his hands touched the block. She stared at his behind that was raised in the air and stretched his trunks in a to her eyes most pleasing manner. He jumped into the water, diving under and staying there until he resurfaced in the middle of the pool where he began to kick his legs and rotate his arms. She wondered how he would turn around but before she could worry that he might swim headfirst against the other end, he did a roll under water and kicked off the edge again.

El watched him and couldn't stop staring at how his back muscles moved. She felt heat move down to her abdomen, her teeth biting her lower lip at the thought of those arms holding her, caressing her and doing more than just that. She climbed into the pool and began swimming laps in the lanes, using the breaststroke first to get a feel for it and then switching to the freestyle, though her ability and speed was a lot less than what Mike was doing.

Little did she know that another set of eyes had watched from the moment he stood on the block.

"That was fun." El said as they were walking towards the exit, Mike carrying the small duffel bag with their towels and swimwear.

"Wanna do it again?" Mike asked. "The pool usually opens at nine in the morning, but it's closed during Christmas, New Years Eve and New Years, so we'd have peace and quiet."

"Gladly." El nodded. "I feel better already. Swimming is so much more fun than running and so much better on my feet."

"You run?" he looked at her surprised.

"Yeah, when I heard you were swimming, I applied to the track and field team at my school and got in." she nodded.

"That's amazing!" he gushed.

"I blew them out of the water, so to speak." she giggled proudly as they exited the building, seeing a girl standing on the parking lot, doing what looked like stretching exercises, currently doing a hip-bend which pushed her butt upwards.

"Stacy?" Mike called over, the girl standing up and turning around, revealing a partially zipped down sweater top with not much underneath. "What are you doing here? You know the pool is closed, right?"

"Oh, hey Mike." Stacy waved. "I'm doing a run."

"Aren't you cold?" Mike pointed to her chest, the outlines of her breasts visible and both Mike and El could see her shiver slightly.

"No, it feels good." Stacy tried to lie but El didn't believe a word. "Well, gotta run."

"That bitch." El ground her teeth and as she watched Stacy move away, she flicked her head slightly and watched Stacy stumble, although she was able to right herself without falling.

"Honey, did you do that?" Mike asked, referring to Stacy's stumble.

"Mike, she wants you!" El huffed.

"What?" he smirked. "No, she doesn't."

"She does." she repeated vehemently. "Nobody in their right mind would run with showing cleavage in ten degree weather with a minus ten windchill."

"Did you just quote the weather channel." Mike chuckled.

"Mike, I'm serious." El hit his arm. "She's trying to take you away from me."

"Honey, if there's one thing I can promise you, no women will ever take me away from you." Mike smiled lovingly at his girlfriend, pressing her kiss to her lips which she returned even though she tried not to.

"Good." she tried to made a mean face, failing miserably. "If she's successful, I will hurt you."

"Come on, lets get home, I think mom will have finished making lunch soon." Mike laughed, taking her hand and leading her their bikes.

They rode the distance to his house, putting both bikes into the garage and walking into the house, finding his mother in the kitchen, tasting the soup from a ladle and nodding. Mike led her upstairs and both changed out of their winter clothes, Mike using the bathroom before both walked down into the dining room, where Ted was busy setting the table.

"That smells delicious, Karen." El commented when she sat down next to Holly.

"Wait until you taste it." Ted smiled at her and went into the kitchen, returning a minute later with the pot, which he placed on a wooden board in the middle of the table.

El waited until Karen had ladled soup onto every plate, beginning to eat when everyone else did too. She felt an explosion of taste in her mouth, humming loudly in appreciation. The soup wasn't watery but not too thick, it tasted like goose without meat and its content of various vegetables added another kick to it.

She saw Mike take a bun from a bowl next to the pot and rip it apart to put the pieces into the soup and biting into them. She copied him, taking one for herself and dunking it into the soup to let it soak before biting into it, humming again at its good taste. Karen smiled at her, feeling her cooking ability validated and noticing a particular attachment to the young woman in front of her, given how her effect she had on Michael had caused Ted to become a better husband.

After dinner, Dustin arrived and together, they retreated down into the basement to watch the movies Mike rented. As they watched It's A Wonderful Life, Holly joined them, sitting in El's lap who caressed her hair and grinning at Mike, feeling loved and accepted. They followed that with a board game that Holly could play before the little girl had to go to bed, leaving the others to watch the second movie. They chose Gremlins, El wondering why Steve had called it a horror movie until the cute mogwai had turned into the monsters the movie was named after.

"You know, those rules are kinda stupid." El remarked.

"Why?" Dustin wondered. "Don't spill water on them or let them get into a bathtub and don't feed them after midnight. And no sunlight if you want to keep them."

"But what about time zones?" El retorted. "For example, when it's after midnight here, it's still before midnight in California."

"It's best not to think about these plot holes." Mike chuckled. "There are movies which would make you crazy."

"Like?" Dustin asked.

"How in some action movies, the characters shoot hundreds of bullets but never reload, like in Scarface?" Mike laughed. "Or that they can beat each other up and then the winners are not even out of breath after?"

"You can be trained." Dustin argued.

"Buddy, Troy ran nose-first into my fist, have you any idea how much that hurt my fingers?" Mike looked at him. "No amount of training makes your knuckles harder."

"And don't forget how every bad guy in those movies can't hit shit." Dustin laughed, accepting Mike's arguments. "They all shoot at the hero and nobody hits while the hero picks them off one by one."

"Can we watch some of those movies?" El asked.

"Sure, we can go to the video store and get more when we return these ones." Mike agreed.

"Well, was a fun movie night." Dustin said and got up. "Time for me to leave."

"Already?" El asked. "We have another movie."

"Saw it already." Dustin told them. "Have fun with it or watch it tomorrow or on the 26th."

"Bye Dustin." Mike waved as his friend exited the basement through the outer door before turning to El. "So, wanna watch a movie or do something else?"

"Something else." she nodded and threw herself at him, pressing her mouth on his.

"IT'S CHRISTMAS!" a shriek roughly woke them up before a blond bundle of energy jumped into their bed, landing partially on Mike who yelled in pain before rolling out of the bed and falling to the floor.

"Mike, are you okay?" El asked concerned while Holly kept hopping in joy.

"She landed on my testicles." Mike whimpered, his body in the fetal position with his hands covering his private parts.

"Oh no." El couldn't help but giggle.

"It's not funny!" Mike groaned, trying to straighten his posture but failing miserable.

"What's with the yelling?" Ted asked, entering the room through the open door and seeing El and Holly in bed and Mike on the floor. "What happened?"

"Holly jumped into bed and landed... awkwardly on Mike." El explained.

"Oh no." Ted winced, feeling the sympathy pain. "You're going to be okay, son."

"I don't think so." Mike was almost crying. "I'm dying here."

"Give it a few minutes." Ted chuckled. "Holly, leave them alone for now and get dressed."

"I wanna see what Santa got me!" Holly whooped.

"First, get dressed, then we'll have breakfast." Ted said. "I saw quite a few presents under the tree but we only unpack them tonight."

"Okay." Holly nodded sadly and climbed off of the bed. "Mike, why do you sleep on the floor?"

"Are you kidding me?" Mike looked aghast at his sister, who seemed genuinely unaware that she was the cause for his current predicament.

"Did El push you out?"

"Yeah, I pushed him out, he was hogging the covers." El nodded, a giggling Holly leaving the room and closing the door.

"Very funny." Mike groaned, still feeling a lot of pain when he heard noises from the bed. "Are you laughing?"

"No." she giggled before letting out a loud laugh.

"You're so lucky that you're a girl, you don't have this problem." he harrumphed, managing to sit up.

"I am lucky to be a girl, otherwise, you and I wouldn't be here right now." El smiled, pushing herself to the edge of the bed where Mike's head was to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"True." Mike agreed and managed to fight himself to his feet, even though he had trouble straightening himself out. "Wow, that hurt."

"You know, until now I was never really sure if you meant it when you said that I could put own any guy with a kick down there." El giggled.

While Mike was in the bathroom to do his morning routine, El pulled the covers over her head, yawning deeply in an attempt to get back to sleep, Mike's sisters antics having her woken up way too early for her liking. She heard Mike return and peeked out of the covers, watching wide eyed as he dropped his shorts, his manhood visible for a second before he turned his back to her to grab a pair of boxers to wear. That second was all it took for El to feel herself get aroused, wishing for his hands and mouth to be on her.

"Michael, El, breakfast!" Karen shouted, putting a damper on any such plans.

"Why do you people hate sleep." El huffed and got up to get to the bathroom as well.

When she was done, she found the bedroom empty, Mike already having gone down to help his mother set the table. She dressed quickly and joined them, attempting to take the eggs to the table but Mike quickly took them himself, winking at her as a reminder at her failed attempt to balance one on a spoon. As he walked past her, she smacked his ass, causing him to yelp and his parents to look at him funnily as he put down the cooked eggs on the breakfast table.

"So, El, how did the swimming lessons go?" Karen asked after they had begun eating.

"I learned a lot." El smiled happily. "Mike's an amazing teacher."

"Actually, she's quite the natural." Mike interjected. "I showed her how to do it and after a few minutes, she could do it herself."

"That's great." Karen congratulated her. "So, are you going to do it again?"

"I'd like to." El nodded. "It's easier to learn when there's nobody there and I could use the practice."

"So, you're willing to get up at six in the morning?" Mike looked at her.

"Why do you hate me?" El gasped.

"She's really not a morning person." Mike explained with a chuckle. "The only reason she didn't threw Holly out the window is because Holly likes her more than me."

"It can't be that bad." Ted smiled at his son's tale.

"Oh, you have no idea." Mike shook his head, completely serious.

"Mike, you need to laugh, otherwise they think it's true." El whined.

"Well, it is." Mike argued.

"Not to that extent." El moped.

"Remember that sleepover we had once when you punched Dustin?" Mike grinned.

"Hey, he stepped on my hand." El defended herself. "And I only hit him in the leg."

"He was walking with a limp for the entire day." Mike added.

"He was exaggerating." El huffed.

"He was crying after you did it." Mike gave one last detail.

"Yeah, he was." El laughed.

"You too are so cute together." Karen gushed.

For the rest of the morning, El spent the time with Holly, watching Christmas cartoons with her while Mike and Ted went outside to shovel snow from the sidewalk and the driveway. Once they were done, El and Holly joined them outside and together, after Ted had returned to the house, they build a giant snowman, El using her power in an inconspicuous way to get the smaller body parts up.

Mike put Holly onto his shoulder, allowing her to complete the snowman with twigs for arms, two Oreos as eyes and a carrot as nose, the only things lacking the shawl and a top hat. Holly whooped at the view that her vantage point gave her, her tall brother laughing with her as she ate one of the Oreos and complained that the snowman was now half-blind.

El watched this with affection, feeling sad at her own past without ever having had that kind of fun or companionship, other than the few times she was allowed to interact with Kali when she was little. Mike noticed her melancholic state and took her into his arms, wrapping them around her and holding her tight. Holly demanded to be set down and as soon as she was on the ground again, she wrapped her arms around El as well, not knowing why the pretty woman was sad but simply thinking that she needed the hug.

After some more time in the snow, they returned back into the house, drawn by the delicious smell of cooking poultry. El's mouth salivated at the scent and she looked into the kitchen, seeing Karen mash potatoes while the goose cooked inside the oven and a pot of red cabbage boiled on the stove, next to a smaller pot with the sauce.

"Can I help with something?" El asked.

"Nonsense, you're our guest." Karen shook her head.

"But I want to, I don't want to feel like a burden." El argued.

"Fine." Karen smiled. "Do me a favor?"

"What?" El wanted to know.

"If my brother ever does something that makes you mad, don't break up with him but call me. I will make sure he'll never does it again." Karen joked.

"I doubt he will ever do anything like that on purpose." El smiled.

"I don't doubt that." Karen smiled right back at her. "I can see with every look how much he loves you."

"I love him too." El said with determination. "I can't imagine a life without him."

"Okay, lets make the dumplings." Karen changed the topic.

"What do you need me to do?" El asked.

"Take some of the mashed potatoes, pour flour on it and begin rolling it into a snake." Karen told her, showing her with the mashed potatoes she had in front of her. "If the snake is too brittle, add more flour until it's smooth. Then cut it into smaller pieces."

El began to do what Karen had shown her, having a lot slower progress than Karen. When she felt that her snake had the right consistency, she cut it apart and dunked the pieces into the hot water on the stove where Karen pulled them out again with a skimmer, letting them drop off before putting them into a bowl.

Mike entered the kitchen, raising his eyebrows at his girlfriend, and quickly running out of the kitchen before coming back with a camera and snapping a quick picture of El with flour on her face. He then grabbed the plates and brought them to the dining table, where the women then placed the pots before Ted brought out the goose.

"Wow, that looks good." El commented on the bird.

"Dig in!" Karen opened the meal and Mike ladled a dozen dumplings on his plate, adding a generous amount of red cabbage and sauce and receiving one the bird's legs from his dad.

El wondered if he had taken more than he could eat but Mike began ravenously eating as if he had been starving for a few days. He ate everything he had on his plate faster than El did her portion, which was maybe half of his and to her surprise, he even took seconds, making her wonder where all the food was going. Remembering the pizza night, he would probably add another inch in height.

El had to admit, the food was delicious. The dumplings in particular were easy to eat, being soft, almost spongy in their texture and melting in her mouth. It invited to take one after another, even to wipe the plate clean of sauce and before she knew it, she had eaten twenty of them, feeling as if her stomach was expanding into her chest.

"I'm stuffed." El whined and leaned back. "This is way too delicious."

"Told you." Mike winked at her and ate even more of them, adding another piece of meat.

"Do you have a second stomach?" El marveled at her sweetie.

"No, just hungry." he shrugged and finally pushed his plate away after eating the last dumpling.

"Given his growth rate and his exercise, it's no wonder he eats a lot." Karen chuckled and began to clean the table, Mike immediately getting up to help her.

As El watched him move, she couldn't help but picturing his naked body from the morning.

Filler chapter again. Sorry about that. Christmas will continue in the next chapter. ^^

Still...

Review please :)