Regular People [Elmax]

Chapter 18 - Trial and Error

When they all got back to Mike's, he ushered them into his basement. El flopped onto the couch, exhausted, as Max sat next to her, gently rubbing her arm, forgetting completely about the boys around them. She felt eyes on them, she looked up and caught Will just as he snapped his gaze away. What was his problem? Max continued to brush her hand up and down El's arm, after what they just went through, the boys finding out about them was the least of her worries.

"Well that went to shit", Lucas sighed, "what the hell are we supposed to do now? What's plan B?"

"That was plan B Lucas! That was plan A, B, C, all the way to Z!", Mike said with frustration.

"Got any other genius plans Einstein?", Max said sarcastically.

"Really? Now? You wanna do this now? Right now we need to be finding Hopper. He's the only one who can keep us safe"

"We can keep ourselves safe Mike"

"Really Max? Because when you needed to keep yourself safe, you broke down crying and El had to save us once again"

"What are you talking about? I totally helped there!", Lucas argued, but they ignored him.

"Don't even fucking go there, Mike. You have no idea what that was like for me"

"Oh boo hoo-"

"Enough", El butted in looking drained, "I'll find Hopper"

"No, no, no. Not in the state you're in. You'll hurt yourse-", Mike tried to say but Max cut him off.

"Mike. Leave out.", she turned to El, her tone and facial expressions immediately softening, "El do you really think that's a good idea? It's your decision but I think you should rest up first"

El looked into Max's eyes. This trust thing had to work both ways. If Max didn't think it was a good idea, she had to trust her.

"Okay. I'll rest", she smiled.

Max looked back up at Mike who looked at them with a frustrated glare.

"I think we could all do with a rest", he said through gritted teeth, "I'm going to bed for a few hours. Boys, you can sleep on my bedroom floor if you want. El and Max, you can sleep down here."

El looked up to say thank you but Mike was already storming off with Lucas right behind him. Will stayed for a second and waved goodbye to the girls before following after them.

As the door shut behind them, Max breathed a sigh of relief, she couldn't stand being near Mike right now. Not after what he'd just said.

"It's small so you can take the couch and I'll take the floor", Max finally said to Eleven as she stood up.

El quickly grabbed her hand, Max spun around to see what was wrong, "please sleep here with me. You can fit".

Max looked at El and saw she looked scared. It would be a tight squeeze but they could make it work.

"Okay", Max whispered as she sat back down.

El laid out on the couch, pushing herself right into the back of it to make room for Max. Max laid herself out too, facing El. They just laid there for a moment, looking at each other. With a minute away from all the chaos, Max was finally able to think about how lucky she was to have El in her life. She was the most beautiful girl she'd ever laid eyes on but she was also the strongest, bravest and most loyal person she'd ever known. And despite all that, despite her undeniable strength, Max still felt the need to protect her. She couldn't get what had happened earlier out of her head. Sure, El had saved her life, that was badass, but it was what happened afterwards; how she had collapsed in tears into her arms, how she grabbed onto her for dear life. She'd almost lost her life, and Max had almost lost her Eleven.

"I thought you were gone", El said suddenly, obviously thinking a similar thing.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought he killed you. I didn't know if I got up in time"

"But you did though. Honestly, I thought I was too late and he'd killed you"

"I thought he'd killed me too. Everything was dark and hurting. Then I had to get up and when I did, I thought he was going to kill you, so I fought"

"Did I ever say thank you for that?", Max chuckled.

"Did I say thank you for saving me?"

"You don't have to"

"Then you don't have to either"

They both let out a sigh simultaneously and laughed. When their laughter died down, Max put her hand on El's cheek, rubbing her thumb up and down.

"I'll always have your back El. No matter what"

Eleven smiled and relaxed immensely for the first time since their night at the cabin. So much had happened in so little time. She just wished she could go back to that moment, when Max kissed her and they spent a while dancing around her room, when things felt normal and right for the first time in her life. Max noticed something had changed in her eyes, she looked...sad? Happy? Thoughtful? It was hard to tell.

"El are yo-"

She was cut off by a kiss softly planted on her lips. It only lasted a second but it was sweet and perfect. Not long after she'd pulled away, El went back in and kissed her again. This one was longer, it felt more desperate like El had wanted to do this for a while. Max kissed back, sitting herself up slightly to make it more comfortable as El smiled uncontrollably. Things just felt...better like this. El moved her hands up to the back of Max's neck, causing even more butterflies to erupt in her stomach. Neither of them had felt like this before, not with Jess, not with Lucas and not with Mike. El suddenly pulled away and sat up, looking over Max's shoulder at the basement door behind her.

"What's wrong?", Max asked, also spinning around.

"I thought I heard the door open...", El trailed off. She could've sworn she heard it but no one was there.

"Lemme go check", Max said as she got up and walked over to the door.

She opened it and looked around Mike's kitchen but saw no one around.

"Nope, I don't see anyone. We're good", Max smiled and came back to lay on the couch.

El yawned, she didn't even realize how tired she was until she did it.

"We should get some sleep", Max smiled, brushing some hair out of El's face.

"I want to stay up with you", El frowned.

"I'll still be here tomorrow. Plus, you need rest, we both do. It's been a long day for us all"

El wanted to argue but she knew Max was right. Max seemed to be right a lot like she knew El better than she knew herself. Maybe that was the case. Max seemed to know a lot about a lot of people without even asking them anything. Maybe that was her superpower.

"How do you know so much about people?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know a lot about people without questions. How?"

"Trial and error"

"Trial and error?"

"Yeah. It's when you try something a lot and fail a lot until you get the right answer"

"But you always know the right answer"

"I mean I've done a lot of trial and error myself. I've made a lot of mistakes, made the wrong choices, misjudged situations. I learn from my mistakes and apply what I've learned to other people's situations but I'm definitely not always right. I just act confident in what I'm saying to make people feel better"

"It's your superpower"

"I guess. Maybe that can be one of the traits of a Zoomer", Max chuckled while El just stared at her blankly, "let's get some sleep Eleven. We've got a lot to do".

Max kissed her on the forehead before wrapping her arms around her and pulling her in closer to her chest.

"Goodnight El"

"Goodnight Max. I-"

She looked up and saw that Max had already drifted off before she could even finish her sentence. She smiled at her sleeping girlfriend before slowly drifting off herself to the rhythm of her heartbeat.