Happily Ever After

by ishiptoast

"Hopper, what does marry mean?" "Well, it's something people do when they really love each other and want to spend their lives together." He sees the twinkle in his daughter's eye and hurries to add further clarifications. "But ONLY when those two people are adults and are mature enough to do so." Or, the one where El learns about marriage over the course of her life.

6. 1989

A/N: Last short one I promise! Next one is the banger.

1989

It's not that they didn't talk about marriage. When your life is constantly in danger, having something to hold onto is a necessity. Mike and El talked about coming home to each other, spending their lives together, and only wanting to be with one another all the time. But formal conversations about marriage just weren't the norm for them. Then again, there wasn't too much about their relationship that followed "the norm". Not many people met the love of their life at 12 years old, after all, only to face constant peril and separation over and over again. Now a couple of freshly graduated 18 year olds, they didn't exactly have their futures set in stone. But all either of them wanted was to be together.

With the threats in Hawkins finally subsiding (for good, El pleaded intensely) she could actually afford to think about the future at all. For most of her life danger loomed over her and those she cared about, and all she could focus on was her anxiety and the burden of keeping everyone safe. With Vecna destroyed and the upside down closed off from them forever, El was determined to live out her happily ever after. Didn't she deserve it? Didn't they all deserve that?

So, one night, after Mike got home from work and the two were eating dinner, El brought up the subject of marriage. If the grin on Mike's face was an indication of how he felt about it, not to mention the way he kissed her, El felt good about their prospects.