Stranger Things one shots

1. (Mike x Eleven) Lightning

(Mike's pov)
It had been a couple of days since the weird girl- sorry, 'Eleven' had stayed at my house. She refuses to talk to my mom and if she's right about these 'bad men', then I don't blame her.

There's definitely something interesting about her.

She's gone through some deep shit. She flinches at every time a loud noise occurs and sometimes has blood coming out of her nose. She's probably had abusive parents who went into the looney bin. Or threw her into the looney bin, as Lucas said.

Everyone thinks we should just get rid of her. And yeah, it's crazy that we got a girl who can barely speak in my basement, but she's just scared. Kinda scared of everything honestly.

I was in my basement, thinking about what to do about Eleven, when I noticed thunder booming outside.

I grimaced at the crackle of loud thunder. "Jeez, it must raining hard outside."

I snuck a look at Eleven(which I have not been doing the entire night) who looked horrified and had her eyes closed.

Usually, I would have laughed at a middle school student that is still terrified of thunder, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. She looked so scared. So helpless. I wanted to make sure she didn't, like, feel scared. I just don't like people in pain, okay?

"Hey are you okay?", I asked.

She looked at me with fear in her eyes.

"Have you . . . Not seen rain before? Like, never heard thunder?"

I could tell she wanted to turn away. To say nothing because she was embarrassed by her answer. But she turned back at me with a softer expression.

"Once. The day I came. I-I think", she said. Then she asked something that made me feel way more sorry for this girl than I would about any normal kid. "I-is it?" Then she pointed two fingers at my head and pretended to shoot like a gun.

"What?! No! God no! No. Wherever you were with the bad men? With the people with guns? They're not here."

She cocked her head sideways in confusion. "Gun?"

"Yeah, it's, well . . ." I put a fake gun at my head using my two fingers. I shot and faked dead dramatically.

She smiled softly, relieved it wasn't a goddamn pistol being shot in front of my house.

"Hey . . . Can I come in there?"

She looked at me peculiarly, "In . . . here?"

Welp, she got here from there, so maybe she's smarter than Lucas said she was. I nodded my head, and she moved over to make room.

I shuffled inside and grinned at her.

"What's the loud noise?", she asked quietly.

I was a little surprised that she initiated a conversation.

"O-oh, that's called lightning. It's like this, uh, science thing. It has to do with voltage and something you learn in school and- you have n-no idea what I said do you?"

She tried to process what I had just said but gave up and shook her head in defeat.

I sighed in exasperation when thunder suddenly filled our ears. Eleven jumped into my shoulder, her breathing becoming uneven and her eyes were shut tight. Unsure how to calm her down, I just enveloped her in my arms, trying to make my face less red than it seems.

Her face buried into my shoulder while I awkwardly patted her back, trying to calm her down.

"H-Hey, It's going- I mean, it's fine. It won't like, uh, hurt you. Not in this house. If you want, I could protect you."

(Eleven pov)

"Protect you".
I remember. 57 days earlier.

Papa wanted me to go in the bath. The water. The gate.

"W-what if, what if I get hurt?"

He smiled. He looked like he loved me. He lied.

"No one's going to hurt you Eleven. It can't hurt you. It's not really there. It's all in your mind."

"What if he comes . . . comes back? what if I am hurt?"

He looked at me like he used to. When I did something good. When I hurt the red can.

"I will protect you."

I used to believe that. That papa was proud of me. That was before the small "kitty cat". Before the bath. Before the gate was opened. He faked. He worked with bad men- No, he was bad man.

He lied

They lied

"You won't be hurt."

"you'll be protected."

"I love you."

"Everything is okay."

I don't believe them anymore.

(Mike's pov)

I . . . I don't under-understand?? how to?? comfort girls??

Eleven started crying in my shoulder and everything felt super weird. I felt a swelling in my chest and my face started heating up. It was awkward and upsetting, yet still sincere and just being near her made me feel happy. I- what the fuck-

But seriously though, I'm probably the only person who can make a girl cry by telling her that I'll protect her. That's not depressing at all.

"Eleven, w-what happened? Are you . . . okay El?"

She backed up from my chest, eyes still red and squinted because of pain.

"P-please mike. Don't lie. No more lies. Friends . . . Friends don't lie. We're friends, right?"

I relaxed. So it wasn't because she hated me.

"We are friends. That's why I'm not lying. I'll protect you and I can guarantee that I'll always be there for you. And maybe I wanna protect you cause . . . well, . . . I really like you El, and maybe I have ever since I saw you on my way to find my other friend"

She had her head leaning on my shoulder, tear tracks still prominent on her face. Her eyes were shut, so I assumed she fell asleep while I ranted. Thank god, too. That would have been embarrassing if she knew I liked her.

Another crackle of thunderstruck overhead, but Eleven didn't flinch. She felt safer around me, and for some reason, that made me happier than I have been in a while

The lamp suddenly turned off. Probably a power outage or something. Still though, I could see El's nose start to bleed.

Okay, if y'all don't realise, Eleven heard him and turned off the lights. Sorry this was trash but . . . hey, welcome to the show. It's trash and I won't blame you to go next door to see something professional.