Adolescence, m. mayfield

04. operation mirkwood

Mikes friends came back the next day, this time they had all brought some monster fighting equipment. El was sat on the sofa still trying to get onto a frequency that she could communicate to Will through. Ten was stood with the boys, he wanted to see all the cool stuff Mike said they would bring.

"We just tell our parents we have AV club after school" Mike told them surely, "That'll give us at least a few hours for Operation Mirkwood"

Lucas and Dustin silently agreed, Lucas taking a deep breath before looking at Mike, "You seriously think the weirdos know where Will is?"

Ten scrunched his face up at the name Lucas keeps using to talk about them, he wasn't sure what it meant but Lucas said it like it was something bad. He looked away from Mike to Lucas with a firm statement, "Eleven does" he didn't like how Lucas talked about his sister, she was really cool- to Ten at least.

Mike nodded slowly, glancing between Ten to Lucas, "Yeah, just... trust me on this, okay?"

Lucas peaked over his friends shoulder to look at El, she was still sat with that radio trying to do something. His eyes traveled to the other weird kid, the boy holding a glare in his direction, "Okay" he let out in quiet conformation.

"Alright, did you get the supplies?"

"Yeah" Lucas grinned and started pulling things out from his backpack, "Binoculars, from Nam. Army knife, also from Nam. Hammer, camouflage bandana... and the wrist rocket" Ten peered closer to try and look at the bandana, Lucas slid it away from him before he could.

"You're gonna take out the demogorgon with a slingshot?" Dustin asked

Lucas side glanced to Ten, the boy looking at him innocently, he shook his head dismissively off and looked to answer Dustin, "First of all, it's a wrist rocket. And second of all, the demogorgon's not real. It's made up" he stated. He pulled back on the wrist rocket and aimed it at Dustin, "But if there is something out there, I'm gonna shoot it in the eye... and blind it" he let the sling go, the other three boys jumping back.

Mike sighed, fed up of his friends arguing, "Dustin, what did you get?"

The boy smiled as he flipped his bag over and started pouring a bunch of different snacks onto the table. Ten didn't really care for them and quietly reached for the binoculars Lucas had set down. Curiously, he held them in front of him and shook them about- they seemed quite boring and didn't do anything.

Mike rolled his eyes when Dustin started to list off the food he brought. Seriously, they were going to fight an inter dimensional creature, and he didn't bring one weapon? His eye caught sight of Ten glaring down at the binoculars. Mike slowly took them off the boy, "Look, like this" he said quietly to not disturb the others from their arguing and brought the binoculars up to his face.

Ten squinted his eyes and nodded, taking them back when Mike handed it over. Ten brought them up to his eyes and looked around the room with amazement, he looked back at the other boy with them and got right up close to Mike. Laughing at how the lenses made his face bigger. Mike leaned back from the personal space intrusion with a small chuckle, "Yeah, they're cool, right?"

"Cool" Ten mirrored with a smile.

A loud clatter made them jump and their heads shot over to the couch where Dustin stood awkwardly standing in front of El, "okay, one more time" Dustin said to the girl and bent down to pick up a large grey toy, "use your powers, okay?" He dropped it again but El still wouldn't use her powers to keep it up.

Mike walked over and snatched the you before Dustin could pick it up again, "she's not a dog"

"Boys! Time for school!" someone from upstairs hollered down. Ten went to sit by El as Dustin and Lucas scrambled to get their things.