A/N: I know I still have my other fanfiction I'm working on but I couldn't resist writing a stranger things fanfiction. Anyway's This is going to be multi-chapter and I am very slow at updating and they're rather inconsistent so if you have a problem with that then don't read it, it's as simple as that. There is going to be a lot of romance with Mileven, Lumax, Jancy, and Jopper. I don't know when I'll be posting next and my updates are rather inconsistent. I can post in a few days or a few weeks it just depends on what I have going on and what I have happening. But I will say this; I started writing this fanfiction on November 10, 2017. So you can have an Idea of how long it takes me to write this chapter. Anyways enjoy reading!
Nancy, Mike, and Eleven were in El's bedroom working on painting the wall. Hopper had decided that Eleven was going to live with him and he was going to be raising her. They had decided that they will live in the cabin in the woods. It was small but Eleven liked it and it was big enough for both of them to live in with two bedrooms, a small but working kitchen, a small bathroom with a shower, living room and plenty of storage space.
El was finally getting to make her room her own and Nancy was helping decorate and paint. El decided that she liked more of the pastel colors to brighten up her room. So, they were painting it a light pastel purple.
"How do you want to decorate your room El?" Nancy said trying to think of decorations and ideas to make El's room the way she wants it. Eleven was more girly like Nancy so Nancy was a huge help when it came to this stuff. Nancy and Joyce had bought her more clothes and though El did like her more punk style she'd come to realize that she liked the girly styles a little more. With brighter colors and clothes, purple was one of her new favorite colors.
"I don't know. I do like the purple though. I also like the lights that are on people's houses when Hopper lets me ride in the car with him. Could we put some of those up?" El asked.
She would go places with Hopper for simple things like going to Joyce's house or the store, which was a good way to teach her how money worked. But he still wouldn't let her go out much and obviously not by herself. They had covered up her gifts pretty well but Hopper didn't want to risk it too much because he wasn't sure if Dr. Brennan was really dead or not. Though all the files he got from Dr. Owens said he had died from some sort of government project gone wrong. But when Eleven was telling him what happened while she was gone with her sister, he wasn't too sure about her safety anymore.
Dr. Owens had been trying his best to help Eleven live a normal life. All he wanted was to help people. And even though he wasn't a scientist at Hawkin's lab, he figured it was the right thing to do and he wanted to help her. So, now she has a legal name and family and though Hopper hasn't told her quite yet that he is legally her daughter, they've grown a strong Father-Daughter relationship.
"Do you mean the Christmas lights?" Mike asked her smiling.
She looked confused for a moment and thought about what Mike had just said and started shaking her head.
"Yes if that's what they're called," she said
"Of course we can hang Christmas lights in here," Nancy said smiling, excited to do more decorating.
"What is Christmas?" asked El, "I mean I have heard of it but I don't know what it is." Eleven was a little confused. She knew it was an important holiday but she wasn't sure when it was or how people celebrated it. She had celebrated Thanksgiving after Joyce taught her all about the pilgrims and the Native Americans. Joyce said that Thanksgiving was always celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month of November. Joyce had been tutoring Eleven since about a week after she had closed the gate. Eleven loved learning new things and she caught on to her lessons really quickly. She was good at it and Joyce loved spending time with her. Joyce would tutor her from about 8 am to 3 pm just like the boy's school. Hopper was glad she was learning quickly because he wanted to put her in school with the boys for their high school years. He had hoped that if they could continue working on teaching El she would get a good grade on the placement test to start high school in the fall of 1985. She was very curious what school was like. She would always ask Mike and he would do the best he could to explain it to her.
"You've never celebrated Christmas before?"Nancy asked as she was working on painting the rest of the wall she was working on.
They were almost finished painting the room and El was really excited to see it all finished.
Eleven shook her head no and looked down at the ground and seemed very sad. "I don't think so," She said softly.
Her "Papa" of course never celebrated it with her. He was nothing like a father and he only wanted her to experiment on. Dr. Brannan was evil and cruel and they try not to mention him at all and especially not in front of Eleven who still has nightmares and flashbacks to the lap and the time she spent with "Papa" there. She was trapped in that lab for 13 years and was tortured and abused all in "the name of science" (or at least that would be the argument that the people who worked in the lab would give).
"Guess it was after Christmas that Hopper found you," Nancy said more to herself than anyone else.
"What do people do for Christmas?" El asked curiously looking at Mike who was smiling. Mike always smiled around El and he always wanted to be with her. Eleven was the same way. She always smiled when she looked at Mike and she never wanted to leave him for as long as she did before. 353 days was enough time apart and they didn't need anymore. So, Mike tried to come over as often as possible. They were finally together and that's all they wanted.
"Well, people try to give presents to the other people they care about. They also set up a Christmas tree with lights and ornaments and stuff like that," Mike tried to explain what people do but then Eleven had more questions.
"What're Christmas ornaments?" she asked Mike. Mike wasn't that great at explaining things, so, he just said, "Well, I'm sure Hopper will get a Christmas tree and ornaments for you guys soon, and if he doesn't I know Joyce will," Mike said
"Can you put up a Christmas tree with us?"El said starting to get very excited about this Christmas stuff.
"Yeah, I mean if Hopper is okay with it," Mike said to her.
"I'm sure he will be," Nancy said. Eleven's smile got bigger (if that was even possible).
Shortly after that, Hopper came home. He had the keys to the door and fiddled with the lock trying to open it. He only had one free hand because he had some stuff in the other. Hopper decided that he would rather use a key than the secret knock. That way he could give one to Joyce and she could come there whenever without having to remember the secret knock. He also gave one to Nancy because he didn't want to give one to Mike. Hopper didn't want Mike and El to ever be alone together but El wanted to be able to see Mike as much as possible. So that was their compromise. And El wasn't allowed to open the door for anybody if they knocked on the door. He finally got it open lugging in bags of groceries. He was late but El didn't mind because she hadn't been alone. I was about 6 o'clock and it was already dark out. Hopper put the bags of groceries on the counter in the kitchen and he said "I bought ice cream! You guys want some or should I eat it all myself." It didn't take long for El and Mike to come up to him and ask "where's the Ice cream?"
"It's in the grocery bag," Hopper answered. They went to the grocery bag and pulled out the chocolate ice cream. El grabbed a spoon to scoop the ice cream with and got out a bowl. Mike and El decided to share a bowl because it uses fewer dishes and it was kind of adorable. Plus El had to do the dishes and she didn't want to wash too many dishes so it helped.
Though Hopper didn't like it much. He was beginning to worry how close Mike was getting to Eleven. He wasn't sure why he was so worried… He trusted Mike and knew that he wouldn't do anything to hurt El. But perhaps it was more that he didn't want to lose her. He had just adopted her legally. He couldn't lose her so quickly. He loved her and didn't want to leave. She was already 13 so it wasn't like he had much longer with her. Five years and she'd be leaving to go to college or do something else. As Hopper sat there watching El and Mike together he decided that even though he had only a few years with her he was going to do the best he could to make sure she had what she needed and felt the love she never got in that lab. He wanted to be the best father to that little girl. The Father she never had but always needed. He was going to make her happy. Not just halfway happy but happy, happy.
He was drawn out of his thoughts when Nancy said, "You okay Hopp?" coming up behind surly noticing his stare as he was deep in thought.
"Yeah, I'm… perfect," he said smiling.
He walked over to the counter scooping up some ice cream for himself and sitting at the table next to Mike and El. Nancy soon came over to with a bowl of ice cream for herself.
"Hopper? Can we get a Christmas tree and decorate it with the pretty Christmas lights?" Eleven asked him as he was eating his Ice cream.
"Yeah, Joyce is coming over on Saturday and we're going to get a Christmas tree then. It was her idea. She said Will and Jonathan are coming too," Hopper replied.
"Can Mike come too?" She asked. He looked at her with grief in his eyes. He was hoping it could be some kind of family thing. But since Jonathan was coming, Hopper was guessing Nancy would too. And if Nancy was coming he really couldn't say no to Mike coming.
"Okay… that's fine," He replied. Eleven's face lit up with excitement. She was so happy. Seeing her happy made Hopper happy and she went to give him a hug. As Hopper was hugging her he kissed the top of her head.
"Thank You," she said so quietly that he could barely hear it. As he was letting go of her he thought, My little girl is happy and I couldn't be happier. I have all I want now. What Hopper didn't know was that she was thinking the same thing.
Everyone was happy, things are going great, and Eleven gets to live a somewhat normal life. Things were perfect and they wish they could be this way forever.
A/N: I hope you liked it! I don' t know when the next chapter will be coming out but I just started writing it. I have few good Ideas for the next few chapter and I'm excited for you all to read them. I hope you enjoyed it and I promise I will include every main character in the show but I just wanted to start with this and yes I'm aware that Christmas isn't for another month. So I will wait a little while longer to make an actual full on Christmas chapter but I have some great ideas for Christmas. anyways I hope you enjoyed this and see you next time.
*Edited by the best person ever kalebbaul21