resonance

03

It was your fifteenth day in 1984 when Joyce entered the cabin with a box of pizza in her hands, greeted by the door opening by itself. She came in cautiously, laughing when she saw you and El locked in a staring contest on the sofa. You were still bed-ridden (not by choice). The exhaustion from teleporting back four decades had now faded to just a slight pulsing with every movement you made, a stark difference to how you felt two weeks ago.

"Training again?" the woman asked, placing the pizza on the table.

The two of you broke eye contact, El letting out a groan and wiping sweat off of her forehead. "You know it," you grinned. "Gotta keep our minds sharp."

Joyce pursed her lips, fighting a smile. "I thought you were supposed to be resting."

"Can't save the world from ending if I'm always resting," you rolled your eyes, happy to be practicing again. "Besides, I feel much better, just a bit sore. Probably from resting too much."

You still ached, but the salt baths and ice packs Hopper and El forced you to take helped, if only emotionally.

Still, Hopper's strict rule of staying inside drove you mental.

Back home you were constantly on the move, always eager to avoid being in the same house as your mother. Training with Melissa wore you out so much that you usually went to bed right after returning from the lab.

"Hop still at work?" Joyce sighed, no doubt thinking of their conversation from last night.

You'd been pestering Hopper about going outside for a week straight, insistent that the fresh air would be good for you. The excitement of the boom you'd brought into the town had died down fast, but the man still wouldn't budge on you going into public yet.

El was all too eager to back you up, her frustration with being kept in hiding for almost a year (345 days to be exact, according to her furious update this morning) nearly coming to a head with her guardian at his refusal to let her leave. The strain between them was painfully obvious.

While you didn't want to cause friction with the man who had taken you in, utterly grateful for his kindness, you'd be damned if he thought you were staying inside for nearly a year and you told him as much when he refused to give you a date when you'd be free.

It was a tense dinner, with Hopper ultimately leaving to go call Joyce, no doubt asking to meet up for advice on how to handle two irritated, super-powered teenagers.

You struggled with obeying his demand, the urge to just simply leave tempted you every time Hopper wasn't home. It wasn't like you necessarily needed his permission, but you'd listen out of respect, just until you were fully healed anyways.

"We just want to go outside," you told Joyce. "I can only work out so much inside, I need to be able to run again. And," you added. "Less things would be broken if we could train in the forest and not the living room."

Joyce snorted. Hopper had been complaining ruthlessly about the redecorating that had happened in his cabin ever since El asked you to start training with her. "Is that really all you want?" she asked, skeptically glancing between you and the younger girl, who shook her head.

"I want to see Mike," El stated, causing you to groan.

"Come on kid, you gotta work your way up to that," you rolled your eyes.

"Friends don't lie!" she glared at you.

"Well, sometimes they gotta lie by omission if they want to leave the damn house at some point!" you hissed before looking at the woman and whining. "Joyce, he's broken me! If I can't go outside soon I will lose my mind."