Summary: The Gate was closed, they were safe. Years have passed by in an instant. But life has one more unexpected and terrifying twist to throw at Mike and Eleven. Follow them on their new adventure. Choices are made. Are they the right ones? Only time will tell.
AN:
This story was stuck in my head after binge-watching all three seasons and reading a few other Fanfictions. This story takes place a few years after season three but without really exploring it except for character development, this is AU that's Mileven centric and won't include anything from the Upside-Down except mentions of what happened. Eleven closed the portal in season 2, no Mind-flayer coming back, no Russians, Will's fine and she still has her powers but they're not centric to the story. I'm sticking with age and timeline as best I can but will have to make some guesses and leaps. Eleven was 13 in Season 2, which was set in October/November 1984. I don't know the month so I'm just gonna say her Birthday is February 27 1971. I'm making Mike's Birthday March 19 1971. Mike will be very AU. Their appearances will be about the same except Mike, and Eleven just looks like her actress does except with a short pixie style cut above her story starts in 1987 so they're 16. The first part of the story will be more of a synopsis of what's happened up till now. I hope the timeline makes sense.
This is AU. There are a few OCs and places that don't exist so don't go looking for them on a map, I'm just making some things up to go with the story. And the POV on this is all over the place as a warning. Along with a few time skips.
Bold and underlined: Places, dates
Italic: 'Thoughts'
Underlined italic: Flashback
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or story surrounding Stranger Things. I technically don't own the Oc's or my storyline version either so don't sue.
Warnings: Language, Mentions of Suggestive and Mature Content, (AN: I understand but don't condone the things mentioned in the story, but I read another fanfic and this was stuck in my head.)
Intro:
Hawkins, Indiana, May 29 1987,
Mike, who was sitting in his parents basement with his friends and other members of 'The Party. Will, Lucas, Dustin and Max along with his girlfriend, yes girlfriend, and his first and only love (AN come on those two are perfect for each other.), Jane ''Eleven'' Hopper, or El as he called her, sitting curled up next to him on the couch with his arm around her for movie night. He couldn't believe how life had gone after the shit that happened with the Mind-Flayer.
Thinking back, the feeling of having El back in his life and the gate to the Upside-Down closed was something he couldn't really put into words. Happy, relieved, elated, they were all this and more. It was like a heavy weight had been lifted off his shoulders when he had seen her walk in the door, her hair slicked back and punk rock girl outfit, which he thought looked good on her, after having thrown a Demogorgon through the window. Hugging her for the first time in 353 days, and knowing she was alive and she was there with him. But there hadn't been time then to really appreciate the happiness he felt, the gate needed to be closed, they made a plan and went with it, and it worked even if some was improvised after Billy showing up.
He truly got to appreciate and recognize it after she stepped through the doors again, dried blood caked down her nose, sides of her mouth and down her ears. He could see the pale look, dark veins around her eyes as she leaned heavily on Hopper as they came in. The gel in her hair was coming undone as he could see some of her apparently natural curls popping out. The feeling of seeing her so exhausted but with happiness in her eyes, overcoming the exhaustion she felt and showed. Mike ran up to her and threw her other arm over his shoulder, happy she was alive and here. The two of them helped her to Joyces' room where she said they could put her. El needed help getting out of her jacket and shoes to lay down in the bed but he helped her happily as she looked at him with a tired smile. Jim had left and returned with a bowl of water and cloth, he walked in, looked at him and gave a heavy sigh before giving them to him asking if he could clean her face up. Mike had nodded quickly accepting the items before turning around while hearing the Chief step out.
When he had turned back around he noticed the Eleven had fallen asleep by her closed eyes and steady breathing. He sat there with her throughout the night after cleaning her up, admiring her, even in her current state before his own exhaustion hit him as he fell asleep with his head on the bed next to her, his hand in hers. Waking up to a tapping on his shoulder, he looked up to see her looking at him with those doe brown eyes that had captivated him the first time he met her, standing soaked and cold in the pouring rain before giving her his jacket. She was looking at him with a tired but happy smile on her face that he couldn't help but give one too. She looked at him taking in everything she could of him while he watched, just happy she was awake, alive. Looking a lot better as the paleness and dark veins had receded during the night, leaving her with dark bags under her eyes. El seemed to smile wider after a moment and leaned in quickly and kissed him. The kiss was different from the one he had given her in the cafeteria in a loss for words to explain the difference in what he felt for her versus just a friend, while asking her to the Snowball. This time they both had a better understanding of what it was to do so and what it meant to them. They were in love, it was new and it was a feeling they would figure out together.
After a moment they separated and looked into the others eyes, their foreheads pressed together. All she said to him in the carefully chosen and determined way she does was "I learned what a kiss means." and he just blushed with a smile and replied "Me too.". It was early in the morning and no one was up so they stayed there catching up and laughing quietly for hours sitting on the bed together. When the sun started peaking through the window and they started hearing movement and the smell of food coming from the kitchen, Els' stomach decided it was a good time to remind her how hungry she was with a loud growl. With pink tint on her cheeks he had helped her stand and make their way to the kitchen where they found Joyce and Johnathan shuffling around cooking. They smiled when they saw her up and moving. Knowing she was hungry a plate of food was placed in front of her which she dived into. It felt like she hadn't eaten in days, which she probably hadn't, but she felt much better afterwards, leaning on Mike's shoulder as he ate. It was long after he was done that the others woke up, even Will who seemed to be doing much better, and wandered into the kitchen for food. Everyone sat around talking and eating as they all caught El up on what they had been doing while she was gone, with no talk of monsters and potential world ending calamities. It was nice.
Although it wasn't long before things had to go back to normal or as relatively normal their life could be. After breakfast Hopper had shown back up and told El that it was time to go. Nancy had come back to pick him up too. He had tried to understand, he really did but it was hard to let her go again. Neither of them wanted to let the other go now that they had found each other again. When they wouldn't let the other go Jim had just let another sigh out before sitting them both down at the table and explaining it as best he could. They needed to keep the appearance that no one in the house knew or had any idea about what had happened at the Lab. That it was Sunday and his parents were already wondering where he was for the last two days and that El needed to get back to the cabin and out of sight until things calmed down and a favor that someone owed him hopefully came through so she could live a more normal life. He said they could talk on the supercomm using his stronger radio at the cabin (AN sounds right) or the phone whenever they liked and when the cover story of a chemical leak started to stick and when the danger went down he could come visit her after school. Hopper had even made a promise that if they accepted this he would allow El to go to the Snowball dance with him which made them smile, although he said he would be there to make sure nothing happened to her but they didn't care. Looking at each other for a moment and then back at him they both nodded, even though they were reluctant to leave the other they understood the danger. Good-byes were said outside with a long hug before she got in Hopper's police truck.
Nancy had driven them home after he said good-bye to the others who were getting a ride from Johnathan. Of course when he got home his parents hadn't been happy about him being gone for almost two days without telling them where he was. He gave the lie he and the others had come up with before leaving, they had gone over to see Will who was feeling better to cheer him up. With him being up and doing better and not wanting to leave him there by himself they had gotten into a campaign of D&D and had lost track of time and that he was sorry. It didn't take much to convince them as they had once gone three days straight during spring break on a campaign, his mom wasn't happy but bought it thankfully. He still got grounded for a week, lucky for him he got to keep his supercomm.
Time seemed to fly by after that. When he went back to school, he and El talked pretty much every night, about their day, what they did and how they were feeling. She was sad that he was grounded but it made it slightly easier to not give into the temptation to go see her. The Party talked to her too but all agreed not to speak about her outside of the basement or around anyone else. Even Dustin who everyone knew talked a lot, made sure he didn't mess up. On the following Sunday his grounding was over and El told him that Hopper said he could visit for a few hours and have dinner with them. He was so happy to see and hug her again, maybe even get another kiss.
So much had happened after that. Weeks passed, Hopper kept his promise as they danced together at the snowball, with him in the background keeping an eye out, probably on him more than anyone else. Months passed and with the help of the favor Hopper talked about coming through along with the lab being shut down, Eleven could go out more and started homeschooling seriously with Hopper and Joyce helping her catch up to a respected level so she could go to school with everyone. When she did the following year (1985), taking the placement test and joining them in high school for ninth grade, she was nervous and shy around so many people but got the hang of it with the Party's help. Her speaking was better but still had trouble with certain words or sayings she didn't know. But she enjoyed it and was quite smart. She was shy and polite but it had a way of drawing people to her. She had friends in her classes but tended to keep to the Party mostly. He had apologized to Max for treating her like he did and she accepted it understanding how he felt. And when El learned that Max had no feeling for Mike, but actually liked Lucas, she apologized too for what she learned was jealousy and they became pretty good friends, hanging out when they wanted to have a girls only time.
Don't even get him started on probably the most embarrassing or awkward or both moment he had with her. They had been home watching movies with his parents out and El had gotten up to go to the bathroom and within a minute came back with a scared look on her face. He immediately got up and rushed over and asked her what was wrong, she said she was bleeding. He was confused as he looked at her, her nose wasn't bleeding and he didn't see any cuts or blood on her and so he asked where? She still looked scared and confused and just said "Uh…? Down there." he was still confused until she just looked down at herself, he glanced down at where she was looking before looking up realising what she meant. All he could say was "Oh...uh.". He started freaking out because he had no idea what was going or what to do (AN he's 14 most boys really don't). Thankfully Nancy was home, he told Eleven to stay there for a minute as he ran up the basement stairs then the stairs to the second floor and knocked on his sister's door quickly. He heard a come in before he opened it, his sister was sitting on the bed reading a book as she looked up. "What's Up? How's date night?" she asked. He blushed at the second question and for a minute he fumbled with what to say as she waited patiently. He finally managed to get what he wanted to say out loud. "Um...uh..El..El's bleeding."
His sister had looked concerned as she put her book beside her. "Is she alright? Mike, I thought we talked about you having her use her powers frivolously, it's still not safe for her to do it in case someone walks in." she said exasperatedly. "No no no she...she's uh not bleeding from her nose." he replied. Nancy looked confused "Then where.". He stuttered and looked away for a sec before saying embarrassed "Down..down there." she still looked confused before her eyes went wide before standing with her hands in front of her trying to calm him down and said "Oh oh ok ok..i understand i can help with that ok.". "Please she's really scared." was all he said with a pleading look. Nancy moved quickly and passed by him down the stairs as he followed her back to the basement to see El sitting on the couch with her legs pulled to her chest with tears in her eyes still scared.
His sister immediately ran over to her and told her she was perfectly fine and that it was completely natural and to come with her and she would explain it. El had just nodded and got up following her as Nancy held her hand. He was told to stay and El would tell him what she felt comfortable telling him. It took almost an hour before El came back but she looked calm and happy. They had never kept many secrets from each other, even after she understood she didn't have to tell him everything and was allowed to have her own secrets and so she pretty much told him everything in a short order. About a monthly cycle and why she was bleeding, how to manage it ,about hormones and how they might make her act or feel during it, apparently she was what was known as according to Nancy a late start, with the stress and pain of her childhood, even being in the cabin was stressful, but now that everything had slowed down and she wasn't in as much stress her body was playing catch up, by the end of it with her straight to the point and determined way of speaking he was bright red in embarrassment and kind grossed out, but it was El so he was just glad she was ok.
Everything else was pretty simple. They went to school, studied, he started working they all got together to watch movies, or played D&D, though El just liked to watch. Max and Lucas had started going out, they seemed happy together. She practiced her powers when she could, now her nose only bleeds when she is lifting something extremely heavy, using it too much in quick succession or on many things. And strange enough Hopper and Joyce had gotten married which was nice. El liked having a new stepmom and two brothers in Will and Jonathan. When her 15th birthday came around he asked what she wanted, all she wanted to be was his official girlfriend. When she said it he was surprised because they had kind of been 'dating' for a while and everyone thought they were together but when he thought about they never had labeled themselves as boyfriend-girlfriend, he couldn't say yes fast enough. He would never forget the great big smile and look of love in her beautiful eyes before she kissed him, till the day he died.
His 15th birthday wasn't as fun, but it was great. He had a party with his friends but the conversation he and El had that day was weird but he embarrassingly understood it. Hopper and Joyce ,mostly Joyce, had sat the two down and gave them the 'talk' and to ask any questions they had which they did and gave them the knowledge they needed about being 'safe' but it was still weird and Hopper kind of looked like he wanted to strangle him but that's just his opinion. The rest of the school year went fine after that. Their 16th birthday came and passed, sophomore year was almost over. Mike, looking back, couldn't complain about how life had treated him and El. He hoped life kept going in the wonderful way it had since then, as he glanced down at El with a smile.
Unknown to Mike or the others, life had a way of giving just that but not in the way he would ever expect.
Please Review. Even flames are appreciated. Hope your enjoy the story. Stormgod