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Words w/out AN: 4591
Pairing(s): Mileven, Lumax
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the social system: chapter eight
El and Mike actually studied.
After kissing him, El didn't know how she had it in her. She figured she would be too busy, too obsessed with Mike, but she mustered up whatever strength she had left to study, considering her dad was just down the hall.
And considering she was never the best at studying in general, trying to settle down and do just that after what happened between her and Mike felt impossible.
After a gruelling hour of studying calculus, El felt like she was marginally better at factoring so she considered her efforts not wasted. Mike had to leave, saying he needed to clean up his basement to have everyone over. He offered to give her a ride to his house if she wanted to hang out while he cleaned up.
And as much as El wanted to go, she refused his offer saying Hopper would give her a ride. El needed some time to prepare for it. She still needed to do some more homework and call Max.
Wow.
She needed to call Max immediately and inform her of everything that had just happened. And also to invite her to Mike's thing, but still.
Mike had got up, stating he needed to leave. El had frowned but helped him gather his books. He lingered at her door, out of sight from Hopper, before he placed a tender kiss on El's cheek.
El had blushed and had half a mind to pull him in for a proper kiss, but maybe she shouldn't rush into things. So, she let him exit her room. She walked him to her front door, watching as he gave another nervous handshake to her dad before getting in his car and driving away.
El wanted to immediately go to her room so she could call Max, but Hopper had motioned for El to come sit beside him on the couch.
"Hey, kid." He said when she sat down.
"Hey." El replied. "What's up?"
"Tell me about the Wheeler kid."
"He's nice." El said immediately. "Pretty funny and really smart. I like him."
"You know I'm asking because I care, right?" Hop said. He didn't seem angry or mad at El for having a guy over without asking him. El was thankful for that.
"Of course." El nodded, happy her dad seemed to like Mike. "He's a good guy."
"But if he hurts you at all, I swear I will not hesitate to lock him up." Hopper threatened, only half-joking.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you will." El laughed, standing up. "Oh, just so you know, I'm going over to his house later tonight."
Hopper raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't he just here?"
"Yeah, but now we're hanging out with all of his friends to play some board game or something. Max will be there, too." Hopefully.
Hopper shrugged. "Who's gonna be there?"
"Me, Mike, Max…" El said, listing the names and holding up a finger for each one. "And Lucas, Will and Dustin."
"Will Byers?" Hop asked, although he probably didn't need to. There was only so many Will's in their small town.
El nodded. "I think so. You know him?"
"I went to high school with his mom." Hopper said, staring off.
El frowned. There was probably something deeper that he wasn't talking about, but El didn't pay too much attention. She needed to go and talk to Max.
"Well, I trust you." Hopper said, looking back to her. "Just be careful."
"Don't worry." El said. "Max'll be there to keep me out of trouble."
Hopper gruffly nodded, turning his attention back to the TV and El took that as her cue to go back to her room.
She closed the door and picked up her phone from on top of her nightstand. Quickly finding Max's contact and calling her.
El put the phone on speaker mode before tossing it onto her bed. She walked up and grabbed her English homework. Ever since she became partners with Mike in English, and consequently, friends with him. She had been making an actual effort to do their English homework. And since she was actually enjoying the book, now, it made it even easier to answer all of the questions.
She heard the phone's dial tone twice before Max picked up.
"What's up, loser?"
"You're free for the rest of the day, right?"
"Yes…?" Max said cautiously.
"Great." El said. "I need you to come with me tonight."
"What? Where?"
"To Mike's house."
"Mike's house?"
"Mike's house." El nodded, although Max couldn't see her nodding.
"And why would we be going to Mike's house?" Max asked in a suggestive voice.
"Because he invited us."
"Ah, and you need a wingman to help you suck some face."
"Ah, about that…"
"El Hopper. Tell me right this instant what you are on about."
"Mike came to my house today." El squealed, unable to contain her excitement anymore.
"Oh my god." Max said. "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner? What'd you do? Did anything happen?"
"Yes." El whispered a smile quickly growing on her face. "We kissed."
"Eleanor!" Max screamed. "Are you dating now? Was it good? Did he use too much tongue? Did you use too much tongue? My god El, I've told you never use too much tongue-"
"What? No!" El interrupted. "There was a perfect amount of tongue. Jeez."
"Okay, just making sure…"
"And yes." El giggled. "The kiss was good. Very good."
"Well, are you guys dating now, or what?"
"Uh…" El thought. Were they dating? "I don't know. My dad came home and we got interrupted. We never really had a chance to talk about it."
"He met your dad! Right as you guys were making out? That's hilarious. You need to tell me all about that."
"I will later…" El said, embarrassed.
"But you guys need to figure out what's happening between you two."
"I'll talk to him about it tonight, then. When we're at his house. You are coming, right?"
El heard Max sigh from her phone.
"Lucas will be there."
"Fine." Max said. "I guess I have time to go."
El huffed. "So, you wouldn't have time if Lucas wasn't going?"
"Uh, I'm going through a tunnel. Crrrrssh. I think- breaking up- Crrrrsh. Pick me up on your way to Mike's!" Max said, promptly and obviously hanging up the phone.
El glared at the phone laying on her bed. Max was a real nuisance sometimes.
She turned back to her homework, deciding to complete whatever English she had left before getting ready to meet Mike. He had sent her a text with just his address in it and El had assumed she can show up whenever.
She might call him to make sure though, for clarification, of course. Nothing else.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
El waved a quick goodbye to her father, who yelled out something about a curfew as she closed the door.
She was wearing simple jeans and a t-shirt. She had applied a bit more make-up than she usually would, mostly to impress Mike, but also for herself.
She hopped into her car and drove to Max's house. El turned the radio on to make the ride less silent.
She parked outside of her house and waited, knowing that Max would come out.
El was right, as Max opened her front door and walked over to her car.
"So?" Max said as she opened the car door.
"So, what?"
"Tell me about the kiss!" Max said, as if that was the first thing El should've thought of when Max said so.
"It was good." El said with a blush. It was easier to talk to Max over the phone about this stuff. Face to face made El more anxious.
"Oh my god." Max complained. "You said that over the phone, too."
"Well, I don't know how to describe it!" El shouted. "It made me feel all warm inside…"
"That is absolutely adorable. You two are definitely gonna get married."
"Shut up. You asked."
"I'm starting to wish I didn't." Max laughed. "The amount of gush in my heart is killing me. I have a reputation to protect."
"Let in the love."
"It's also reminding me that I am incredibly single."
"Well, Lucas is going to be there tonight. Maybe you'll get lucky."
Max raised her eyebrow at her. "Let's just hurry up and get there."
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
El knocked on the door of what was hopefully Mike's house.
All of the houses in the cul-de-sac looked the same and the house numbers were surprisingly hard to find.
El had almost walked up and knocked on the wrong house, before Max smacked her arm and pointed to the mailbox.
The Johnson's was scrawled on the side in a cursive font.
"Mike's last name isn't Johnson, is it?"
El shook her head. "We are definitely at the wrong house."
Moving on to what was hopefully Mike's house, El waited alone on the porch. Max opted to wait inside the car. Max said it was so she could sit and laugh as El knocked on the door of the wrong house again.
"Technically," El said. "I didn't knock on the door of that first house. I almost knocked on it."
Luckily, it was Mike who opened the door. He smiled at her and El shyly returned one of her own.
"Hey…" He breathed, standing in front of her.
"Hi." El tucked a curl behind her ear. Mike stared at her and El was content with gazing back.
"Can we talk alone?" El asked. "About, uh… What happened earlier? About us."
Mike nodded. "Yeah. My friends are already inside, though…"
"Oh," El said. "Maybe we can get a moment after?"
"They're staying the night." Mike said. He blushed and cleared his throat. "Are you, uh… Are you s-staying the night?"
El's eyes went wide with shock.
"Because you can if you want…" Mike rushed out. He rambled, "My mom wouldn't mind. She never goes downstairs when my friends are over anyway, so I doubt she'd even find out. She's not even home, actually. She's out with my dad at some place. And there's like a couch you could sleep on. All my other friends are staying over, too..."
El smiled. Mike looked so awkward, slightly blushing and avoiding eye contact. She really wanted to kiss him again.
"Mhmm." El purred, resting her hand on his upper arm, pulling him a bit closer.. "I really like you, Mike."
"Yeah? Me too." He cheekily grinned, leaning closer to her, whispering. "I really wanna kiss you again…"
And maybe she would have, but El suddenly remembered Max was there, too. She turned back to her car. Max was sitting in the passenger seat, staring at the two of them intently.
"Uh… Staying the night sounds fun." El said. "But my dad wants me back at a certain time. And I need to drive Max home."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Mike frowned and El mentally cringed. From his point of view, it looked like she had just rejected him. "How's Max getting here? Do I need to give her my address, or something?"
"Um, actually…" El said hesitantly. "She's been watching us from my car. That's why I didn't want to kiss you just then..."
Mike's eyes widened and he whipped his head in the direction of where El was parked. El looked back to Max. Her fiery hair was extremely noticeable in the passenger seat. She watched as Max leaned over the console and honked the horn a couple times. Max opened the door and bounded over to the two.
"I feel weird." Mike said, as Max walked over to them.
"Did you not want me to tell Max about, uh..." El asked, unsure of what to define them as.
"No… I don't mind." Mike said, looking at El. "I immediately told all my friends once I got home. Hopefully, that's alright."
El laughed. Slightly because she also rushed to tell her best friend about what happened. Slightly because of how brazenly he had admitted that.
"I don't mind." El confirmed. "What'd they say about it?"
"Lucas and Will were like about time." Mike said. "Dustin asked if we were, uh… dating?"
"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you abo-"
"Hello, lovebirds!" Max interrupted, holding her arms out and wrapping them around either person. Mike huffed, trying to wriggle out of her grasp. Max winked at El before walking through the door. She called back, "C'mon guys, we have a party to start."
"Well…" Mike started. "This will be… interesting."
El looked at Mike and sighed. She grabbed his arm and dragged him through the doorway. "We better make sure she doesn't cause any trouble."
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
El sat beside Dustin on the couch in Mike's basement.
She looked around the basement and it screamed Mike at her. There were action figures scattered around shelves. Books lined the walls, ranging from literal thesauruses to The in-depth Guide to Star Wars.
A table was set up which had a mountain range on it. Dice were scattered on the table and small figurines were positioned every here and there. That must've been the game they were playing, Dungeons and Dragons.
Compared to her boring room, the basement actually described Mike. It showed his interests and hobbies. While her room was purely functional, not much in it was personalized. Maybe she would do a bit of personalization. There were tons of photos of her and Max that she wouldn't mind putting up.
El looked back around the room, resting her eyes on her best friend.
Max and Lucas were talking and laughing. They seemed to be having a good time and El was happy for them. Max was blushing, her face redder than her hair and Lucas seemed to be playfully teasing her.
El blushed. Is that what everyone saw when she and Mike talked amongst themselves?
She turned to look at Dustin. El could feel his eyes on her from beside her.
He looked away, staring off at the bookshelf behind her when she locked eyes with him.
"Hello, Dustin."
"What, oh, hey, El!" Dustin sputtered. "I was just looking off behind you. Not at you, or anything. I just wanted to know if that book over there, was indeed a book. And it is. Mystery solved."
El smiled, shaking her head. Dustin was a terrible liar.
It felt like all of Mike's friends were staring at her when she first entered the room. But as time went on, they had all gone off to do their own thing as they waited for Mike to finish up the campaign, as he called it.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" She asked Dustin.
"Nope! I'm fine." He nodded, lacing his fingers together.
"Really? Because it seems like you and the guys have all been staring at me since I got here."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Dustin shook his head. "Lucas is busy trying to woo Max and Will is talking to Mike as he puts the finishing touches on the campaign. I don't think they've been staring at you."
"Yes," El nodded. "But you have. What's up?"
Dustin looked at her, then glanced back to Mike. He leaned in and whispered. "Mike told us about how you guys kissed…"
"Uh…" El blushed. She knew Mike had told his friends, but she didn't think they'd go and bring it up to her. "Yes, we… we did?"
"Cool." Dustin nodded, sitting up straight again. "So like, are you guys dating now? Are we gonna have to sit with you and Max at lunch for the rest of they year? Or at least until you guys break up… Are you gonna sit with us in the AV room for lunch?"
"Um." El's blush somehow deepened. She hadn't really thought about the future. Dustin was bombarding her with questions that she didn't really know the answer to. Although, she had thought of at least a couple of them before.
"We aren't dating." She answered definitively, as if that answered all of his other questions. It was the only thing she could say for certain. Even if she didn't like the answer.
"What?" Dustin exclaimed. Will looked up from where he was sitting beside Mike to questioningly gaze at them, but other than that, no one seemed to notice Dustin's outburst.
"Why not?" He asked her, tone slightly lower this time, although still as emphasized. "He's got like, a massive crush on you."
And just when El thought she had gotten her blush under control…
"Well, we haven't really talked about our, uh… We haven't talked about our relationship."
"Well, you guys better get on that."
"That's what Max said…" El muttered. "Why do you care, anyway?"
"What? A guy can't want his friend to be happy?" Dustin innocently said.
El glared at him, lowering her eyebrows.
"Uh… Also, you're like… really popular." He admitted. Dustin looked around the room to Will and Lucas. "It might help us out."
El rolled her eyes. "Seriously? Being popular doesn't matter."
El felt like she's said the same thing so many times but she really believed it. To her, being popular doesn't matter. She couldn't care less.
"Of course you'd say that." Dustin whined. "It's easy to not care about popularity when you're already popular."
"Does it look like I'm popular?" El asked. "All I've ever done is hang out with Max 24/7. It's not like I'm swamped with friends. People just don't mess with me because my dad's a cop."
"Well, that makes a bit too much sense." Dustin grumbled. "You're telling me I've got more friends than El Hopper?"
"Technically, you guys are my friends now. So like, not just Max anymore."
"Yeah, but like… At one point in life. I had more friends than you." Dustin nodded.
"I mean, technically, yeah."
"I guess that makes you a bit of a loser, then." Dustin joked.
"But it doesn't make my dad any less of a cop." She threatened, jokingly, of course.
Dustin gulped in fear and El figured she had made some slight progress with getting to know Mike's friends. So it was a win-win, really.
El was really starting to like Mike's friends. They were nice to her before, but now that she got to slowly know them, they were funny and pretty cool, like him.
El thought back to what Dustin said earlier. Is she going to eat lunch with them? Will they eat lunch with her and Max? El didn't know, but she liked the idea of either happening.
Mike had stood up, holding a closed notebook in front of him. "It's done."
"Finally." Max said. "You made us wait, like, an hour."
"It's been twelve minutes."
"It's done? Cool." El said. She turned to Dustin. "Mike said there was a surprise with this campaign."
"A surprise?" Dustin said incredulously. "What kind of surprise?"
"Well, it's not much of a surprise if I spoil it. Just listen and he'll tell you."
"This campaign will be a bit different, though." Mike said. "It is very different."
"A good different?"
"Yes." Mike said. "This campaign will be our longest campaign yet."
"What?" Lucas said, standing up from beside Max. "Longer than the one we did at the start of summer?"
"Yep. Thirteen hours."
"Holy shit." Dustin said.
"This is gonna be awesome."
El smiled. She wouldn't be able to stay for the entire thing, but she'd be able to enjoy it while she could.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
The first thing El learned about Dungeons and Dragons, or D&D, as everyone insisted she call it, was that it is very confusing.
Like, El sat there for at least an hour and had no idea what was happening. She didn't want to keep interrupting and ruin their experience but some of the things they did made no sense.
They kept rolling perception checks. El had no idea what it was, but they kept doing it.
Max seemed confused, too. Although, she didn't mind voicing whatever questions came to her mind. Max, however, seemed to be picking up the game fairly quickly, at least, a lot quicker than El could.
El sat beside Mike at the head of the table. He was the Dungeon Master, as they called it. It seemed a bit dramatic, for El, since the whole term was fairly gruff and didn't describe Mike at all, in her opinion. He was all kind and sweet and a Dungeon Master were definitely not the first words that she would use to describe him.
He had a tri-fold piece of cardboard propped up at their end of the table. She watched as he rolled the dice and consulted a notebook every now and then, reaching around and positioning the pieces on the board.
And even though El didn't know anything about the game, she knew just from watching Mike that he was a good storyteller.
He spoke with his hands, telling the story of four adventurers in faraway lands. He described the landscape around them with such detail that El could feel herself actually there. It was quite amazing, really, and she was glad that he had invited her and Max along. This seemed like a side of him that not many people got to see.
She felt lucky.
The other boys were really into the story, but it seemed like Max was the one who was enjoying it the most.
"Shut up!" Max yelled to El, who was trying to whisper some joke to Mike. "You're ruining my immersion."
El's eyes went wide and she just smiled, sitting back down in her chair.
She also got to see Mike and his friends (her friends) work as a team. She could watch their decision-making process and it amazed her how well they worked together. Kind of like when she watched them work on the video project they're doing in AV Club
Sure, there were disagreements, but compromises were made and the story continued.
And before El knew it, she was cheering along with the rest of the boys when they defeated one of the bosses. She was deadly silent as she watched them sneak past a group of guards. It was exciting and fun and something that she's never seen before.
During a lull in the campaign, as Lucas, Dustin and Will discussed what to do (with Max popping her own suggestions in) El kicked Mike's leg, grabbing his attention.
She also grabbed his hand underneath the table, smiling up at him.
"This is really fun." She told him.
"Yeah?" He smiled, looking down at her. "I'm glad you're enjoying it. I put a lot of work into this kinda stuff."
"Well, it's definitely been worth it so far."
He squeezed her hand under the table and beamed at her.
"It's a shame I won't be able to stay to watch you guys complete it."
Mike frowned. "We could, uh, put it on hold and finish it next weekend, if you're free?"
"Mike!" El said, smacking his leg. "Don't even think about doing that. You'll be forcing everyone else to wait. And that is not fair to them."
"Jeez! Sorry…" He muttered, scratching the back of his neck. "Maybe we should take a small food break or something?"
"I could use some food." Her stomach had been quietly rumbling for the past twenty minutes.
El looked at the clock. It was almost 10:00 pm. They had been doing this campaign for almost five hours. Which meant there were only eight hours left.
"Hey guys." Mike called out. "You guys down for a food break?"
"Yeah, sounds good."
"Cool."
"Hey, Max." El said to her friend. "We need to get going soon. Hop wants me back home."
"Shit…" Max muttered. "I guess I won't be able to finish the campaign with you guys."
Lucas' mouth gaped. "Maybe we could, like… Maybe we could stop it now, and finish it next week?"
Will nodded. "Yeah, we started this together. We'll finish it together."
Dustin seemed hesitant but agreed pretty easily. "I don't mind waiting until next week."
Mike turned to El smirked. "They seem fine with it."
She lightly kicked his leg, smiling. "Fine. I guess I'll be seeing you next weekend."
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
El wrapped up her goodbyes, hovering around the door, not wanting to fully leave yet.
Mike walked up and she pulled him into a quick hug.
In his ear, she whispered, "We never really got that moment alone to talk…"
"Yeah, sorry about that."
"You're tutoring me after school Monday, right?" She asked him.
He nodded against the top of her head. "Yeah."
"We can talk then."
She pulled away and looked at the rest of the people around her. Max was giving her the look and El would've glared or something but she looked down at Max's hands instead.
Her eyes widened as Lucas' hand was slightly grazing Max's. They were definitely talking about that in the car ride home.
"I had a lot of fun, guys. Thank you." El said to everyone, one final time. "I'll see you in class tomorrow."
She gave them a small wave and turned to walk to her car, Max following her.
She got in her car and watched as they gave her a final wave. They went back inside, except for Mike. Who seemed to be waiting until they left to go back inside.
El started her car and gave him a small wave.
"You totally want to kiss him, don't you?" Max said from the passenger seat beside her.
"Um…"
"Make it quick." Max muttered.
El blushed slightly but decided to take the opportunity. She pushed open the car door and paced back to Mike.
He seemed confused. "Uh, did you forget something or-"
El stepped in close to him, resting her hand on his chest. The only light was from her car headlights and a small porch light, but the way Mike's face glowed was golden.
"Thank you." El whispered, gazing at him fondly.
She stepped onto the tips of her toes and snaked her other arm around his back. She leaned forward and lightly planted her lips on his.
He made a soft, strangled noise but placed his good hand on her hip nonetheless, responding to the kiss.
El pulled away, knowing Max would definitely lay on the horn if they take too long. "I'll see you Monday."
Mike sputtered, his face a deep shade of red. "What? Uh, Monday… Yeah, Monday. I'll see you Monday…"
He smiled at her one last time before she got in her car.
El pulled out of his driveway, ready to go home.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
"So…" El said casually. She turned down the volume of her radio so Max could hear her. "When we said goodbye to the guys, I happened to notice you and Lucas' hands awfully close. Like touching close."
"Hmm?" Max said, turning to look at El. "Close like you and Mike for the entire night? Yes, we noticed you two playing footsies under the table."
El huffed. "Well, I feel like we're allowed to do that now."
"Are you guys dating?"
"Well, technically… No."
"Then that means me and Lucas's hands can occasionally barely touch." Max smirked, crossing her arms.
hello people that read author's notes. how are you?
here is another chapter. i hope you enjoy it. I posted it a bit early, just because I hate making you wonderful people wait. next chapter, things start to get spicy between el and mike. so definitely be on the lookout for that.
there isn't really much more to say for this author's note. so please be sure to review. I would really appreciate it. As always all mistakes are mine and I hope you all enjoyed.