Hey guys! I'd just like to take a second to thank you guys for your follows and favorite and reviews, I really appreciate them. I'm going to start replying to the reviews. The more feedback I get, the more motivated I am to write, so all the support is appreciated. I have no plans to stop any time soon, and I have plans working for many chapters in the future. Just let me know what you guys think, I love hearing your opinions and criticisms.

I only got one review last chapter:

Bruh: Don't worry, I plan to shift focus really soon. I really liked this Max / Lucas storyline, but in the coming chapters there's gonna be a lot of Mileven. That's what most people like :)

It was July 9th in Hawkins, eleven o'clock in the evening. Max was currently spending the night with Lucas, unknowing to Lucas's parents, or hers. Jonathan and Nancy were together in Jonathan's room, getting down to business. Will was sleeping, after tossing and turning for a long time, thinking about the possibility of Hopper being alive. He was still questioning Mike's decision.

Joyce was sitting in the living room, drinking alone. She had tried to exchange some words with her sons, but with no success. So she had let them go and told herself that she would try to talk to them in the morning when they all had clear heads.

And El was sitting on the couch, alone, in Mike's basement. She was going to be spending the night alone; Mike's parents were growing suspicious about Mike sleeping in the basement all the time. So he had told El that for just this night, he was going to sleep in his own bedroom, upstairs. And for once, El was okay with that; that meant she finally had a chance to read through the magazines that Max had given to her.

So she had settled down, the stack of magazines beside her on the right, a bag of chips on the left. And on the table near the couch was a small reading light illuminated the room in a warm, majestic glow. She turned the first page of the first magazine. And taking a deep breath, she began to read.

Susan was sitting in the armchair in the living room of her house. Neil was in the bedroom. And there was no way in hell that she was going to sleep with him tonight; not after what had happened. It was late, and her mind was still whirling, not knowing what to do.

Her daughter had run away. Her husband was in their bedroom, stirring, probably thinking about Billy. Neil had struck her own daughter, and he probably would have been hit too, if she had said something.

She had to admit that although he was her stepson, Susan was not entirely broken about the loss. A connection had never formed between them; to Susan, Billy always felt like a stranger to her in the household. But obviously, even though it seemed to her like he just served as a means for Neil to let his temper out, Billy had meant more to him than met the eye. Or at least that was what she was lead to assume. And this whole situation was tearing her family apart mercilessly.

And she didn't know how to stop it.

The following morning, Joyce awoke with a goal in her mind. A goal that she would not shy away from, and a goal that she was determined to complete before the end of the day. She was going to have a proper discussion with both her sons about the idea of moving, and she was going to do it well; she was going to convince them that this was the best thing that she could do for them, herself, and the family as a whole, even for El.

She dragged herself out from under the sheets and shuffled to the kitchen to make some breakfast. She figured she would make something nice for Jonathan and Will, and maybe put them in a better mood before she tried to talk to them. She was shocked when she came out of the hallway and saw both of them seated at the dining table, with bowls of cereal in front of them. They were both looking at Joyce.

"Uh…" Joyce started. She did not expect this. "Good morning, guys. How'd you sleep?"

Jonathan was poker-faced. "Not well."

"Oh, that's too bad, sweetie," Joyce tried to console him. "Is something on your mind?"

Jonathan laughed dryly. Will was still emotionless. "Yeah, Mom. Yeah, you could say that."

Shit. Joyce clenched her eyes shut, knowing that she not have asked if something was wrong. Of course, there was something wrong, for fuck's sake. "Okay, yes, but… did anything else happen since...since yesterday?"

"Have a seat, Mom," instructed Jonathan, motioning toward the third chair at the table. "Will and I have some stuff we want to say to you."

Without speaking, Joyce slowly and cautiously moved to the seat and sat down. She was about to make a move to grab some cereal, but realized that she wasn't feeling all that hungry; quite the opposite, actually. So she folded her hands in front of her and looked at her two sons, eager and nervous to hear what they had to say.

"Will and I think that moving is not in the best interest of anyone in this family, including you," Jonathan started. "For starters, I'm going into my senior year of high school, and that is something I'd really like to do in my hometown, with Nancy."

"And I'm going into high school next year," Will spoke for the first time that morning. "That's something I'd really like to do with my friends, and with Jonathan, at least just for the ninth grade."

"I think it would be best for Will to go through high school here, in Hawkins. With the people who know what he's been through, what we've all been through. What if something happens, and the only people we can talk to about it are ten hours away?"

"But you guys don't even know where we're moving yet," Joyce countered.

"You told me it was far," Jonathan shot back. "What qualifies as 'far' to you, Mom?"

Joyce pondered the question. "I was hoping to stay within a five hours driving distance, at least."

"Five hours? Are you hearing yourself, Mom?" Jonathan's voice was rising. He was becoming angrier; not for his situation, but more El and Will. There was no way he was going to put them through this. No way.

"What if something happens with El? What if something happens in Hawkins, and El is five hours away? What are we gonna do?"

"Nothing is going to happen, sweetie, the gate was closed, and-"

"That's what we said six months ago, and look where we are now."

Joyce cringed at the statement. She did not need to be reminded of what had happened five nights ago. "I know, but El's powers are gone, and she isn't any more help then Mike or Lucas or-"

"She's more of a help here then she is in fucking tin-buck-two with us!" Jonathan yelled.

"Jonathan, calm down-"

"This is insane, Mom! Do you have an idea how-"

"Jonathan!" Will said loudly. It was not a yell; just a loud voice. Jonathan's voice immediately ceased. "You need to calm down. We wanted to talk to Mom, not just yell at her."

Jonathan looked embarrassed. "Okay, yeah... yeah, sorry." He licked his lips and eased back into his chair, which he had at some point stood up from.

"Mom, all we're saying is, for us, and especially El...especially-" he enunciated that word strongly. "-El, we think that it's… it's best that we stay here. At least until we're out of high school."

"That's four years from now, Will. Maybe, even more, depending on when we move," Joyce pointed out.

"What's so wrong about that?" her younger son replied. "Why can't we stay here for four more years? What's the rush?"

Joyce massaged her temples. Her patience and motivation to hold this conversation was dwindling. "Guys," she said, still holding her fingers to the side of her head. "I...cannot live in this town anymore. Silence. She continued. "This house is falling apart, and with El moving in, we'd literally have nowhere to put her."

"Me and Jonathan could share a room," Will suggested. Jonathan nodded his head, although he knew that he would be kissing any sleeping with Nancy in their house away. But for this cause, it was worth it.

"Will, Jonathan is almost eighteen, he needs his own room to sleep in. And your rooms aren't big enough for two people. On top of that, I'm probably gonna lose my job soon. We're almost the only store left in downtown, and every day we are having a new sale. What happens when I get laid off?"

Jonathan and Will were quiet. They knew she was right about this. "I can't provide for three kids on the money I'm making right now, let alone if I downright lose the job."

"I can help. I've been helping since I was fifteen, Mom," Jonathan said. He was grasping at straws now, and he could tell his Mom knew her was too.

"Jonathan, you need to be focusing on school. You're going to college soon. You can't be working overtime every night to uphold a responsibility that isn't yours."

They seemed to have reached an impasse. Every point that they had made so far had been logically countered by Joyce. "But Mom," Will said quietly. "What about El?"

Joyce's eyes betrayed her feelings toward this. Pity, anguish and hurt spread across her face. "I know that this is going to be hard for her, but-"

"Mom, it's going to destroy her."

Joyce felt herself starting to tear up, especially when she saw Will doing the same. "Do you think this is what Hopper would want for...for his daughter? For us to drag her away from the only family she ever had? From me and Dustin and Lucas? From Max? From Mike?"

"I know it's hard to accept, but…" Joyce paused. "I think that if Hopper is watching over me right now, I think he would want El to grow up in a place where she can have support from as many people as possible, in as safe a place as possible. Hawkins… I don't think that Hawkins is safe anymore."

"So we're just going to leave the others?"

"We'll be within driving distance, like I said," Joyce said sharply.

Jonathan and Will eyed their Mom. "I'm done with this conversation," she said. She needed to place her foot down here, and she knew it. "We can come here once a month if you like. They can come to our new house for a few nights. They can stay the entire Thanksgiving weekend with us, if they are allowed. But I am still your mother, and as your mother, I am in charge of your lives. And what I think is the best thing for us to do is to move to a new house to a new town, get a fresh start, and try to heal. This is for all of us."

She stood up. "Do I make myself clear?" Her tone was gentle and nice, yet firm. Joyce was an expert at using that tone. Will nodded.

"Yes," Jonathan replied, meeting her eyes.

"Good," she said. "In the meantime, I want to invite El to live with us. I want you boys to go the Wheeler's house today, and talk to both of them."


Mike walked down the stairs of his basement and saw El on the couch, reading a book. He couldn't tell exactly what she was reading. As he came closer, he realized that it was a magazine. "What are you reading?"

El jumped out of her sitting position on the couch. "Oh, my God," she gasped. "Mike, you scared me!"

"Oh, shit, sorry, El. I didn't mean to, I just came down the stairs and-"

"No, it's okay Mike, don't worry. I'm… I'm fine. I was just reading…" her eyes flitted to the floor. "I was reading some magazines that Max lent me."

"Oh, cool," he said, already losing interest. He figured they were probably some girly things with makeup and stuff like that.

His attention turned to something else in the room, but El didn't see nor care what it was. She took advantage of the opportunity and snatched up all the cosmo magazines and put them back in the bag, which she threw under a blanket in the corner of the room.

"How'd you sleep?" El asked.

Mike's attention returned to El. "Eh...not so great."

El's face became concerned. "Why?"

"I wasn't down here with you," he said with a smile. El grinned and moved toward him. She stood up on her tippy toes and pecked him on the lips, then hugged him.

"Thank you for letting me stay here for so long," she said, her face buried into his shoulder.

"It hasn't been that long," Mike said, rolling his eyes.

"It's been five nights, Mike."

Mike pulled out of the hug but kept his hands on her shoulders. "Really? That many?"

"Yes," she replied, with a light laugh. "I counted."

"Wow," he said. "It hasn't… it hasn't felt like that long."

"Mm-hm," El murmured, settling back into the hug, which Mike returned. They stayed like that in the middle of the room, wrapped in a tight embrace that neither wanted to break.

El's mind drifted to an article she had read in one of the magazines. She had read only read one of them and half of another, but she had already gained a decent amount of knowledge, at least she hoped so. She wasn't sure how much there was to learn. There were a lot of magazines... she had no idea that this sex stuff was so in depth.

A lot of the things she had read in it seemed slightly… strange. She didn't dislike the idea of doing anything that she read, but she just felt that she wasn't quite ready. And she was afraid of what Mike would do if she did something that he didn't like.

But she had read some stuff about kissing, which was something that they already did regularly. So she was eager to try to apply some of her newfound knowledge. She shuffled her feet so that Mike's back was to the couch, and she moved forward suddenly and pushed him over onto the couch.

Mike was surprised, but pleasantly so. "El, what are you-"

Before Mike could finish the question, El had closed the gap between them and had gently moved his body to a lying position. Mike stopped talking, and now was anticipating what was coming next. Now that he was lying on his back lengthwise across the couch, El lay on top of him, so that he was bearing her full weight on his body.

And she moved her mouth to his, and then they were kissing. Dopamine exploded through El's brain, the feeling of being so close to the boy she loved putting her in a sort of trance. She tangled one hand his hair and she rested the other on his chest. She moved her head ever so slightly in a sort of up and down motion, increasing the friction and sensation of her lips on his. It was amazing.

She opened her mouth ever so slightly and grabbed Mike's bottom lip in hers and gently sucked and nibbled it, and when Mike gave a sigh into her mouth, she knew she was on the right track. She felt Mike's lips part slightly as well, and his tongue drew a gentle line across her lips, asking for permission to enter.

Eager to comply, El let her tongue slide out and they met in the middle, and a flurry of sparks seemed to radiate from the where they touched and flew through both their bodies. She pulled her head away from Mike's face and moved her attention toward his neck. She remembered reading about it, and she remembered when Mike did it to her, and it had felt so good. She wanted to return the favor.

She latched her lips onto the skin and tangled both her hands into his mound of hair. Running her fingers through it she continued to apply a light and loving suction on the skin, mixed with gentle strokes of her tongue. Mike let out a faint grunt of pleasure and started to run his hands up and down El's back.

"Jesus, El…" he breathed. El smiled and shifted her focus to another place on his neck closer to his jawline. He suddenly felt one of Mike's large hands find a resting point on her ass. As soon as his hands touched it, faint chills ran up her body. She moaned at the sensation, but did not break away from Mike's skin.

Realizing that El was enjoying what he was doing, he gave a light squeeze. "Yes, Mike…"

He could feel his confidence growing, and wanted to make a bolder move. The testosterone was imparing his judgement, for better or for worse. He was about to slide his fingers under the waistband of her pants, but the moment was ruined when his Mom yelled down the stairs at him. "MIKE!"

El sat up, still straddling Mike's hips. "WHAT?" Mike called back up the stairs.

"WILL IS HERE!" Mike was incredulous. What was Will doing here? And by himself? He had never told him that he was coming… that meant something was probably wrong.

"Okay, let's see what he wants," Mike grumbled. He knew that he had promised Will that he would be fairer toward his other friends and not prioritize El so much over them, but he was incredibly pissed off that they had been interrupted. Who knows where the would have gone if her Mom's shriek hadn't broken them up. "Stay down here, my Mom is still upstairs."

El nodded, and Mike made his way up the creaky wooden stairs. He turned toward the door, and saw Will standing just inside the doorway. "Hey, Will, what's up?"

Will was quiet for a second as if processing what he had asked. "My, uh… my Mom wants you and El to come back to our house with us," he said. "She wants to talk to you guys about… something."

"What is it? Is something wrong?'

"No, no," Will said. The family had collectively determined that they were not going to tell El that they were moving out of Hawkins; that would be a bridge to cross later. Right now the only concern was getting El to come live with them. Not that they thought it would be difficult. Everyone involved knew that El couldn't live in Mike's basement for the rest of her life.

"So nothing is wrong?" Mike said, still a little bit concerned.

"No, nothing is wrong. Can you just get El and we'll meet you guys around back? My brother is waiting in the car."

"Okay."

Thanks for reading guys! Review please, I'll try to get the next one out as soon as I can, but the more reviews the quicker it'll come. And drop a follow if you're enjoying, this story is not stopping any time soon.