Mouse Trap
Summary: Eleven has a nightmare while at a sleepover with Dustin and Lucas. The boys comfort her. Oh, and Steve is there too. Set after S2 but Mike and El haven't blown off the Party that much. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any Stranger Things characters. If I did Max and Eddie would still be alive.
Eleven was dominating. Who knew she would be so good at Mouse Trap?
Dustin and Lucas sighed getting beat for the fourth time. They didn't even know why they didn't stop playing after the second game, like Steve had done.
The trio was sitting in Steve's living room, having a sleepover. Most sleepovers were at the Byers or Steve's now adays. The whole Party was supposed to have a sleepover this weekend, but Will didn't feel great, so Mike decided to stay with Will over the weekend. And Max was forced to do this last minute "Girls Weekend" with her mom.
So, Eleven, Dustin, and Lucas pursued the sleepover. They had been playing a bunch of board games, while teaching El how to play them. Now the boys were regretting even mentioning Mouse Trap, while Steve was making desert (Eggos), and Eleven was smiling as if she was on top of the world.
"Good game El," Lucas congratulates her. Eleven gave him a small "thank you" smile, which widened when Steve walked in with the Eggos.
"Well look at it this way guys," Steve said setting down the Eggos. "The others don't know that she is good at Mouse Trap." Dustin and Lucas laughed and Eleven looked confused.
While Dustin and Steve explained to Eleven what Steve had meant, Lucas looked for a movie to watch.
Once he'd settled on Star Wars III, The Ghostbuster's, and The Goonies, he turned to the others and asked which one they wanted to watch.
"Ooh, I real-" Dustin started to say when Lucas interrupted, "Not you! El has to decide." Dustin shot Lucas a grumpy look at Lucas.
"It's fine, Dustin. You can choose." Eleven said quietly.
"No, you can El." Dustin insisted.
After explaining all the movies to Eleven, she chose The Goonies. They popped it in the VCR, and pressed play.
Halfway through the movie, Steve decided to go up to his room and told the kids that he had to do some work, on what nobody knows, and that he'd probably fall asleep there, so come get him if they need him. And with that, he stalked to his room across the house.
The movie ended, and the kids decided to sleep on the floor, with Eleven in the middle, the two boys on either side of her.
Lucas and Dustin were already snoring by the time El drifted off, thinking of the amazing day she had just had.
Eleven was in back in the lab, wires hooked to her head, which was shaved again.
"Alright Eleven," a cool voice said. "Try again." Concentrating as hard as she could, she tried to crush the Coke can in front of her.
But she couldn't. This was the first time seeing and trying to crush the can. She looked up fearfully to the man looking at her through the glass.
Papa sighed. "Let's take a walk." he said standing.
Eleven followed Papa down two long hallways. She'd never been to this side of the lab before. "You need to try harder, Eleven" Papa said as he walked, not looking at her.
"Yes Papa." Eleven responded. They kept walking. When they stopped, Eleven was in front of a small door at the end of the hallway, facing Papa.
"If you don't," Papa continued. "Then I'm afraid I'll have to do this again." Eleven looked at him in confusion, then shouted out as two guards grabbed her arms and threw her into the closet-like room behind her.
"I'm sorry Eleven," Papa said. "But look at it this way. You are learning a valuable lesson. You are trapped, like a mouse being trapped by a cat. I am the cat, and you are the mouse stuck in the mouse trap. I will always overpower you, Eleven."
"NO PAPA!" Eleven yelled as they locked the door. Screaming and pounding on the door, thinking that he was right, she was the mouse trapped in the mouse trap and he was the cat that would always overpower her.
Eleven kept screaming Papa's name, which quickly turned into just screaming at the top of her lungs. She just kept screaming and screaming, but then...
Eleven woke up.
Lucas and Dustin woke up to screaming. Both shot straight up looking around to find the source, only to look down to find it.
Eleven was thrashing, tears streaming down her face. Lucas and Dustin glanced at each other before Dustin started gently shaking her. Lucas was wondering what El had dreamed about, while Dustin was wondering where Steve was, until he remembered that Steve's room was across the large house, and that he was a heavy sleeper when he wanted to be.
They both yelled her name in attempt to wake her up.
Suddenly she shot up, sweating and sobbing. The boys immediately started to try to comfort her. The hugged her gently, saying soothing words.
After long minutes of getting El to calm down, El turned her head toward Dustin. "Dustin?" she asked weakly. "Lucas?" turning to see Lucas.
"Yeah, it's us" Dustin assured her. This led to her to escalate into more sobs, clinging to Dustin with Lucas rubbing her back.
The boys started to gently lay her down. They soon were all laying down/
Eleven soon calmed down. She still clung to Dustin, and Lucas sensed that she wanted him to continue to rub her back.
"I'm sorry." Eleven said softly.
"Don't apologize. It's ok." Lucas assured her.
"Promise?"
"Promise." Dustin said.
El soon got into a comfortable position. One hand was clutched to Dustin's shirt, while the other was holding Lucas's hand, which rested on her hip. Her body, still leaned toward Dustin, but her shoulder was open, leaning toward Lucas.
"Thank you." she gratefully said.
"No problem" Lucas told her.
"Now go to sleep." Dustin said gently.
El closed her eyes, breathing deeply. Dustin and Lucas share a look before following what Eleven did.
Soon they were all sleeping peacefully.
Steve woke up to the sun shining in his face. He groaned and looked at his clock. 8:57. He rolled out of bed and sleepily went downstairs. He was not expecting what he saw.
Eleven, Lucas, and Dustin were all curled up in the positions they fell asleep in.
Steve looked around for a camera. Once he found one, he took some pictures of the kids. He knew it was creepy, but it was too cute to not take pictures. Also, it could be potential blackmail.
Steve headed into the kitchen to make eggs and bacon.
He didn't know if it was the smell that woke them up, but soon three 13 year olds trailed into the kitchen groggily.
"Morning" Steve got mumbled answers in return "How did you sleep?"
Lucas and Dustin, sensing that Eleven didn't want other people to know of last night, said, "Good." while El nodded her head in confirmation.
"Well, that's good." Steve responded, while everyone sat down to eat.
The breakfast was enjoyable. Not just the food but the conversation as well.
The day went on like this. laughing, playing, games, talking. Soon Eleven forgot about her nightmare. She was on top of the world.
*1 WEEK LATER*
All of the Party was at the Byers having a sleepover with Steve chaperoning.
After a chaotic game of Operation, Will went to find another game.
"What about Mouse Trap?" he asked. "El you haven't played that before, right?" Eleven innocently shook her head.
"We'll teach you." Mike said smiling. Steve, Dustin, and Lucas looked at each other, trying not to laugh, knowing that they were about to get dominated.
Four games later, El smiled at her fourth victory. Maybe she had been like a mouse in a mouse trap with a cat looming over her, but not anymore. She was not trapped anymore.
She was right at home.
AN: Hope you liked it! I really needed an Eleven, Dustin, and Lucas moment since we haven't had much of that since S1. And we didn't actually get a lot of it in S1. So here is an Eleven, Dustin, and Lucas moment!
