I do not own Stranger Things or any of the characters.
Beginning Again
Thirteen sighed heavily, wrapping his arms around Max, Max's lips meeting his in the middle. After a few seconds, Hopper honked his horn impatiently, and Thirteen sighed pulling back.
"I wish one of my powers was to turn back time," Thirteen said. "I miss spending the weekend with you already."
"So do I," Max sighed. "I'll see you at the arcade tomorrow."
Thirteen smiled, nodding, and kissed her again before walking back to the truck. As he got in, Hopper glared at him. "It's fine. We didn't do anything bad."
"I thought we had a three inches rule," Hopper said as he began to drive.
"Would you have followed that rule with your girlfriend at our age?"
Hopper grumbled irritably, but didn't respond.
"I talked to Eleven, too," Thirteen said. "Back on Friday. She agreed to try and tone down the making out."
Hopper glanced at him and sighed. "I'm lucky you're so mature mentally."
"I don't know about that," Thirteen said. "Bouncing back and forth between fourteen and about eighteen is both annoying and dangerous. But I do understand why you have the rule and try so hard to enforce it."
Hopper sighed, nodding and they fell silent until they got home. Thirteen made sure to enter first and called out their return to Eleven and Mike. After about thirty seconds, both emerged from Elleven's bedroom, and I take a quick glance at their memories, finding that Mike was resisting having to tone down his time with Eleven. Eleven understood, though, so it shouldn't be too bad. Hopper started dinner, with Thirteen helping, as he'd used mind reading to learn how from Mike and Max's mothers and was teaching Hopper, as well as practicing himself, and Eleven and Mike sat at the table, planning out a new campaign for Dungeons and Dragons. Thirteen didn't play often, and Max never did, but Thirteen admitted that it was fun in small doses. Though he'd take spending time with Max anywhere, though usually at the arcade, over it any day. Once dinner was ready, they all ate before Thirteen and Hopper settled in to watch TV and Mike and Eleven went back to her room, mostly following the three inch rule.
Thirteen smiled as they took the seats they definitely didn't pay for, Max slipping her hand into his as Thirteen accepted the candy Mike had brought with him.
"We missed the previews," Lucas complained quietly.
"Still made it, Fart Face," Max teased him, using an insult Lucas's little sister had called him on their way into the town's new mall.
"I'm impressed you're here at all," Lucas said. "I would have thought you and Thirteen would have gotten lost looking for someplace less crowded."
Thirteen snorted. "Why? We have nothing to hide."
"Besides, it's dark in here," Max said. "And no one but you will be paying us any attention."
Lucas made a gagging noise as he went to take a drink of water, and Thirteen used his telepathy to squirt Lucas with a few drops, Lucas immediately putting the water down and glaring at the screen just as Day of the Dead began to play. However, barely a minute into the movie, the projector lost power, the frames splitting and slowing before going dark. Then, the mall's power cut out altogether. The entire audience groaned and shouted at the now dark screen, but Thirteen simply grinned as Max squeezed his hand. He turned his head and leaned over, Max meeting him with a kiss, and after about a minute, the movie flickered back on as the power returned. They continued for a few more seconds before separating just as the audience's cheers began to die down, both grinning like the children they were as they settled in to watch the movie they'd snuck into through the back of the ice cream store, by way of making one of its employees, Steve Harrington, let them through the employee access door.
Thirteen grinned as the small toy robot walked out of the closet, parts of it lighting up as it spoke in a distorted voice, heading for Dustin. Eleven covered her mouth to stifle a laugh, beginning to control a few other toys, each getting more and more, all of them swarming toward Dustin at a crawl. Thirteen added a dinosaur toy that shot disks, targeting Dustin to hit him in the chest each shot, Dustin looking around at the toys in confusion and fear. Then, they turned the parade of toys to the door, working them out of his room and toward where they wanted him for their surprise welcome home. Finally, Max passed a nod down the line.
"Now," Mike whispered, Thirteen and Eleven both instantly stopping the toys, Eleven having a trail of blood from her nose but Thirteen having trained his abilities enough to finally not get a bloody nose for a little while.
They all crept out, getting behind Dustin before blowing into their party horns. Dustin screamed instantly, spinning around and spraying Lucas in the eyes with a can of hairspray, causing Lucas's shrill, girly scream to join Dustin's. After a few seconds, Dustin calmed himself and they all grimaced, welcoming him home in a much less excited manner than they had been expecting. He cheered, hugging them all before Max and Thirteen took Lucas to the sink to wash the hair spray out of his eyes. After a few minutes, Lucas stood, gingerly wiping his eyes.
"Better?" Max asked.
"It still stings a bit," Lucas said, blinking several times, then pointed to a zit on Max's forehead. "Is that a new zit?"
"What is wrong with you?" Max almost snarled.
"I was just asking!" Lucas said then continued to shout in pain as Max shoved his head back down under the faucet.
Finally, Thirteen pulled Lucas's hand out to his side, putting some dish soap in his palm. "Wash your eyes with this."
Lucas complied, then held his face under the water to rinse it off before standing, still squinting. "Better, but still painful."
"And's it's going to be for a while," Thirteen nodded. "Come on. Let's go see what Dustin's been up to."
The other two nodded, and they headed for Dustin's room where he was showing the others a couple of things he'd made at his science camp. Currently, it was an unassembled radio tower in a duffle bag.
"I can talk to my girlfriend whenever and wherever I choose," Dustin said.
"Girlfriend?" all of them asked together.
Dustin nodded and began to pass out pieces of the radio. "Her name's Suzie and I met her at science camp."
"Wait, so her name's Suzie?" Mike asked as they followed Dustin out of the house.
"Suzie with a 'z'," Dustin nodded.
"Girls go to science camp?" Will asked.
"Suzie does," Dustin said. "She's a genius."
"Is she cute?" Mike asked.
"Think Phoebe Cates, only hotter," Dustin said.
"I call bullshit," Thirteen said.
"No bullshit," Dustin grinned. "You'll see."
Thirteen smirked, glancing at Max, who looked skeptical.
"Since I'm not Mormon, her parents won't approve," Dustin was saying, explaining why he didn't use a radio to talk to Suzie, instead of his radio, which they were hiking to the top of an annoyingly high hill to set up. "It's all a bit...Shakespearian."
"Shakespearian," Max repeated.
"Yeah, you know," Dustin said. "Romeo and Juliet."
"Ah," Max nodded, rolling her eyes.
"Star-crossed-lovers," Dustin said.
"I get it," Max said.
"When's the double-suicide happening?" Thirteen asked. "Just so I know how long I have to practice making people see me in a black tie."
"Hah hah, very funny," Dustin said, throwing him a scathing look.
"Hey guys," Mike called after them. "This is fun and all, but, uh..." he tapped his watch.
"I have to go home," Eleven said.
"But we're almost there!" Dustin said.
"Curfew," Mike shrugged before he and Eleven turned and started back down the hill, hand in hand.
"Good luck," Eleven smiled.
"What about you?" Dustin asked.
Thirteen checked his watch. "I got time. My barriers move faster than Eleven walks."
"Good," Dustin said. "Oh, and, curfew at four?"
"They're lying," Lucas said.
"It's been like this all summer," Will said.
"It's romantic," Max said.
"Well, it's bullshit," Dustin said. "I just got home. Well, their loss, right?"
"That remains to be seen," Thirteen said. "Onward to Dustin's imaginary girlfriend."
"She's not imaginary!" Dustin argued the others laughing as they continued to walk.
"I could have a curfew, too, if you prefer," Thirteen muttered to Max.
"Not yet," Max said. "Let's give Dustin a chance, first."
Thirteen grinned, only to stop as he felt a spike of apprehension, or fear maybe, from Will. He turned, frowning at him as Will held a hand to the back of his neck, staring back the way they'd come. "What is it?"
Will turned back to him, then shook his head. "It's nothing. Come on."
He jogged past Thirteen and Max, and Thirteen frowned for a moment before shaking his head and following with Max. Finally, after what felt like five hours of walking, they reached the top of the hill. Dustin began to chug the last of his water instantly, and Thirteen shook his head.
"You're going to make yourself sick, Lucas," Thirteen said, taking a small drink from his own bottle before passing it to Max, who did the same.
They got to work quickly, Thirteen doing most of the manual labor using his powers with Dustin doing anything that needed to be done carefully. Once it was finished, Thirteen lifted it upright onto its base, and Dustin hooked up the radio to the antenna.
"Suzie, this is Dustin, do you copy?" Dustin asked. "Over."
Static. Dustin scratched his forehead and began to try to call again. Nothing. On the fourth repetition, Thirteen sighed, sitting down. After a couple minutes, Max sat beside him. A few repetitions later, they were passing the time by kissing, at least until Lucas told them to knock it off. Finally, however, Thirteen sighed, glancing at his watch and standing.
"Dustin, I'm really sorry, but I gotta go," Thirteen said. "Curfew's in an hour."
Dustin sighed, nodding. "Alright."
"I'm going, too," Max said. "Is Kali giving us a ride?"
"Yeah," Thirteen nodded. "She just got back from her trip to her parents graves, so she'll be waiting at the bottom of the hill, as planned.
Max nodded, and Thirteen formed them a barrier skateboard, Max standing in front of him and Thirteen holding her from behind. Both said goodbye to the others before Thirteen pushed off the ground and they sped off, streaking back down the hill and toward the road. Both cheered as they raced along, and Thirteen carefully sped through the small stretch of woods between them and the road before slowing them to a stop by the car. They climbed in and Kali grinned at him, passing him a napkin for the blood leaking from his nose.
"Someone's gotten good," Kali smirked. "Been training?"
"As much as possible," Thirteen grinned. "How's your telekinesis coming?"
Kali shrugged. "It was never great, but it's getting there. And no more nosebleed from simple illusions under five minutes."
"Awesome!" Thirteen grinned.
"Thank you," Kali grinned. "Nice to see you again, Max."
"You, too," Max said politely.
Kali took the hint and started driving toward Max's house and ignored Max and Thirteen making out in the back seat until they got there, then gave them a few minutes extra before clearing her throat and intentionally projecting Thirteen thoughts and memories bout other things boyfriends and girlfriends did together once they got older. Thirteen said nothing about it until Max was inside the house, then glared at her.
"You're not helping me behave like my actual age when you do that," Thirteen said.
Kali laughed. "You're going to learn eventually. Better to get used to thinking about it now than later."
Thirteen rolled his eyes and Kali drove them home, both walking in just as Hopper was leading a terrified Mike out of the house, Mike asking question after question about his grandmother. Thirteen sighed, not even having to read Hopper's mind to know more or less what had happened and what was about to happen. he and Kali walked inside, finding a worried Eleven.
"There's something wrong with Mike's grandmother," Eleven said.
"I'm sure it'll be fine," Thirteen said. "Get some sleep, and give him a call tomorrow."
Eleven hesitated, then nodded, and Thirteen and Kali gave her a hug goodnight before both also headed to bed. As they lay there, Thirteen sighed, the exact thoughts he'd been struggling to block out, the ones Kali had been trying to jumpstart, invaded his head. He groaned miserably, rolling onto his side and curling into a ball, trying and failing to block them out.
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