Adolescence, m. mayfield

012. compromise

Almost a year had passed since Hopper had taken Tom and El in. The small cabin was now truly their home and everything was going fine... mostly. El was starting to get annoyed that she couldn't visit Mike, she was taking the tv more and more to go and see him, just watching over him and making sure he was okay.

Ten understood, couldn't wait to finally see his friends after all this time— but Hopper said it was too dangerous, the bad men might still be out there. And Ten had grown to trust Hopper and would go with his word most of the time.

Led Zeppelin had quickly become the boys favourite band, he really liked listening to all the instruments flow together, Hopper even told him that maybe he could play like them one day. He was sitting in his room, a song flowing quietly from the record player, and his gaze was transfixed on the stars shining down from the sky.

They weren't allowed outside, but Hopper had never told Tom off for having his window open, so it was most of the time. He had quickly become amazed by all that stuff, stars and planets— had a whole shelf dedicated to books and toys about it. Spaceships were super cool and Tom still marvelled about that time he saw a shooting star. Space was beautiful.

It was late, Hopper should have been home a few minutes back, but sometimes work kept him late. Tom was already tired and half falling asleep at the window sill but his head started to hurt, a dull ache just at the front of his head. He wasn't sure what had brought it on and tried to put his head further out into the cool breeze in an attempt to soothe it. That worked slightly but all of a sudden, the pain sparked angrily through his whole head, buzzing right at his temple. A groan was punched out of him as he ducked his head into his hands.

There was a lightning crash. Which was weird, there hadn't been any just a moment before. Tom squinted against the headache to get a look outside. He realised then that he was having a terrible memory, a flashback to when he was still at the lab. That terrible, giant monster looming in the sky just away in the distance— a flash and it was gone again.

Tom jumped at knocking on the door, he sighed to himself and slinked back from the window, shutting it over onto the small safety latch. The headache was gone now, something he was used to, he'd been having random bursts of them now. Hadn't told El or Hopper because he didn't see reason too. Hopper was looking in the fridge when the boy walked out, pulling a grey sweatshirt over his head.

"Hey, kid" Tom hummed in greeting as Hopper pat his head on the way past. The boy searched through the fridge himself and poured a large glass of chocolate milk. "Hey, what'd we talk about?" Hopper called a little louder, Tom glanced back to see a tray discarded on the small table with a half eaten Eggo.

"No signal" El said back.

Hopper didn't catch what she said and went to ask what she was talking about, "No signal" Tom repeated before he had to, sitting down ungraciously at the table, already pulling off the cover off of his dinner, "It's 8-1-5. You are late... El doesn't like when you are late"

El's room door rattled open and Hopper looked at her, "Yeah, I lost track of time. I'll signal next time, alright?" The girl nodded absentmindedly as she crossed the room to plant herself down on her seat. "Uh, and it's 8:15, Tom. It's not 8-1-5"

He looked up at the man, always content on learning new things from him, "Eight-fifteen" Tom recited slowly, head nodding along with the words. Hopper nodded at him but pointed his fork towards El.

"Now, what did we talk about?" El looked down guilty, knew she wasn't supposed to eat the Eggo's too soon before dinner. Hopper was only looking at her kindly though, could never really bring himself to be angry at the pair, "Dinner first, then dessert. Always. That's a rule, yeah?"