A/N: I'm really bad about updating here—I've become more of an ao3 girl in recent years—but a few kind reviews from Shian1998 were enough to remind me of all the wonderful people that still use this site.

HOLD ME CLOSE

by stupidityisdangerous

El is very affectionate. She kisses her friends on the cheek when she arrives in the morning at school, she hugs the other Party members in between classes, she scoops her little sisters up into her arms as soon as she gets home. When Joyce and Hopper get home, it's not just her toddler sisters yelling "CHIEF/MOM'S HOME!" and when Jonathan comes home from NYU, she basically tackles him in a hug despite her petite frame. She always asks Joyce to help her do her hair—whether she be simply combing out her curls or bleaching her entire head—and begs Hopper to watch television with her so she can cuddle with someone on the couch. When she gets excited, she kisses her loved ones quick and chastely on the lips, and clutches their hands so hard in her own that their knuckles turn white. When Mike is feeling down, she crawls into his lap and hugs him to her chest; when Will has nightmares, she sleeps next to him with her hand holding his; when Max comes over in the middle of the night, battered and sobbing after a particularly tough fight with Neil, she wraps her calves around Max's waist from behind and presses ice to the developing bruises on her skin. When the Party has sleepovers, she puts her body across them all on the couch or sleeps in a pile of sleeping bag covered bodies on the floor. When her and her siblings finally convince Hop and Joyce to get a dog, it's always sleeping in the middle of her bed or sitting on her lap on the couch. She spent so much time being alone and isolated from other people in her youth, that just the warmth of someone's hand in her own makes her face light up like a menorah, and everyone around her is happy to make sure that she never feels alone again.