010 & 011-Elmax

16

-This chapter takes place during S3E5: The Flayed-
-Max's POV-

I wipe away the blood from El's nose.
My eyes drift towards her lips as they often do as she looks at her bruised neck in the mirror.

"Does it still hurt?" I ask, looking down at the dark bruise.

"Only when I talk," she answers. I give El a mischievous smirk. "What?" She asks.

"I have an idea to make it better," I say right before kissing her. I start pecking her all over her face while she giggles.

"Max!" El scolds playfully.

"I can't hear you over all the love and attention I'm giving to you right now!" I say before going back to kissing her. My heart drops when I realize I said love out loud, but she must've not noticed because she's still laughing.

"That's not making it not hurt!" El says in between laughs.

"It's making you smile though," I say before pressing big kiss right on her cheek. "Everybody knows laughter is the best medicine."

Suddenly I stop as a sharp pain shoots through my head. I've had this dull ache in the front of my brain all day and all last night since I controlled Billy, but I've been able to ignore it. Every few hours though the pain becomes harsher for a few minutes before dying back down to the dull ache.

I rub my temple while letting out a wince, trying to sooth it. El gives me a concerned look.

"Max? You okay?" She asks. I open my mouth to answer her but cut off by loud shouting.

"ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TRYING TO JUSTIFY THAT?!"

-Meanwhile-
-Mar's POV-

"How is this possible?" Mike asks. "You guys came from California!"

"Our theory is that there were more than eleven experiments," I say. "We were just numbered then shipped to different labs. Max and I were somewhere in California when we escaped, so there's probably a lab there."

Mike stops pacing back and forth. He sits down on the loveseat next to Will. I slouch back in my chair. After the whole fiasco at the pool, we all came back to Mike's house and went straight to his basement. We tried to sleep but I doubt any of us got much rest. Plus we were all sweaty without a spare change of clothes. Once we woke up El checked on Hopper since he's been MIA. After that Max took El to the bathroom to clean her face and of course that's when Mike decided to pester me about our powers.

"Why didn't you guys ever tell us?" Mike snaps. "You're both like El and didn't think that it'd be helpful to mention that? Didn't think you could help when we were fighting Demo-dogs or something?"

"Mike, calm down," Will says.

"No!" Mike shouts. "These two could've been helpful! Maybe Bob would've still been alive or something!"

"Mike you're being irrational!" I shout. "Bob was dead before Max and I even got to the lab in case you've forgotten!" He goes silent. "Besides, we're not exactly like El. I can see the future and sometimes I can see a specific person's future but that would've been no help in fighting Demo-dogs and setting tunnels on fire. Max can read minds and control them too. We couldn't have done anything helpful until last night when she was able to subdue Billy."