mileven oneshots [completed]

red cups

el visits mike on halloween night.
[post S3]

"wonder woman. look for wonder woman"
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el pulled her coat tighter around her small, thin body. the bus was blasting the air conditioning despite the fact that it was nearly seven o'clock and already pretty cold outside so she was only low-key freezing her ass off.

it didn't matter so much because the bus driver had just pulled up to her stop, and she thanked him as she grabbed her stuff and descended the stairs.

the bus had dropped her off in the middle of town, so she went to the only place she knew to go to: mike's house.

el knew joyce would be pissed if she found out that she was here, in hawkins. that she had sat on a bus for hours so that she could be here. to see him. but she bought herself enough time with the lie that she was sleeping over at hailey's house that she didn't have to be back until lunchtime tomorrow.

it was so painful to have lost her powers because she lost the ability to see into the void, too. to see mike. and as much as she loved that picture of them at the snowball, him in real life was so much more breathtaking.

she saw a pair of headlights in the distance as she walked along the side of the street, and as they passed by her she heard an absolutely insane howl from the person driving, who didn't even look like a person.

it freaked her out for a second, but then she had to remind herself, it was halloween night. people were probably going crazy at parties.

but el knew mike. he was watching scary movies in his basement with lucas, dustin, and max. they probably made a bet to see who would piss themselves first.

but as el approached mikes house, she heard loud music. loud rock music, her heart rate matching every beat of the drum. el raised her eyebrows when she saw mike's house flooded with people, flashing colored lights shining through the windows.

okay. that was new.

the first thought that came to her head was that the wheeler's has moved. but that was impossible. the mailbox still read the wheelers. mike's car was in the driveway, surrounded by dozens more.

there were people outside holding red cups, which, to her knowledge, often contained substances poisonous to the brain, and she immediately grew tense.

they were all drunk.

the last time she was around drunk people, a lot of people were hanging onto her. someone threw nearly threw up on her shoes and she thanked god that she wore beat-up sneakers.

the door was wide open, so she invited herself in, and as the music pierced her eardrums. there were people bouncing up and down around her, wearing ridiculous costumes. and lots of the girls were wearing way too little. the dancing crowd continuously splashed drops of their beers on her coat. el couldn't breathe inside the small confinements of the crowd, so she got herself upstairs to mike's room. she forgot to warn the couple making out on his bed that she would come in, but apparently her presence didn't matter to them or maybe they were too drunk to notice.

el placed her coat on a hanger and put it in his closet. el drew her eyebrows together. her hand traced down the two leather jackets that were hanging in his closet. his wardrobe was....different. el pushed those to the side to sort through band t-shirts and jeans.

el smiled. tucked away in the corner of his closet lied all his sweater vests and collared shirts.  she found the one sweatshirt that mike had given her on her first night out of the lab.

she smiled, and let her hands smooth over the fabric. el hadn't really grown much since that day. sure, she was taller, her hair was longer, but she still had a small frail figure. she recalled mike's innocent face the day they met, how he was caring enough to care for her. to take her in. to protect her.