you're my safe place ~ MILEVEN ONE SHOTS~

He Can't Defend Himself!

Dedicated to my fave mileven author and one of my readers (god knows why she reads my book)

lucastown

Everyone sat around the Byer's house unsure of what to do next, or if there was even anything else that they could do. Hopper rubbed his chin harshly, feeling the roughness of his beard slide through his fingers. Joyce's eyes were flying around the room, constantly flickering back to her boy who sat with Dustin, Lucas and Max. El simply frowned at the floor in concentration, occasionally glaring at Mike beside her who had both knees bouncing up and down nervously, making the most irritating tapping sound.

The door opened and Steve, Nancy and Johnathon closed the door behind them, sighing heavily.

"It's spreading further west" Steve stroked his hair back into place and looked around wearily, "What do we do?"

"I don't know" Hopper grumbled. "We don't even know what the hell the thing wants!"

The Mind Flayer was back to torment the lives in Hawkins after the gate was mysteriously opened once again, but this time it was even stronger. Nobody knew what it wanted now especially as it seemed to fixate solely on Eleven, the cause of its recent imprisonment on the other side of the dimension.

"It has to be something to do with El" Max spoke up. "She is the one that can defeat it, so it must want to return the favor."

"It wants to make her weak" Lucas added suddenly. "Maybe if we use that to distract it, El can get it for good this time."

"Hop, did you say that her powers have started to get stronger?" Joyce asked, rubbing her hands on her trousers.

"Yeah, as she grows up the more she can do with them and the more often she seems to naturally use them" he explained, glancing at El who simply kept her gaze on the floor.

"Like her powers are getting her ready to fight it one last time" Mike breathed, gripping the arm of the sofa next to him.

"What if we used that? Made it think that she was weaker so that it leaves her alone enough for her to finally finish it off..." Nancy questioned with raised eyebrows.

"So we need to use something that makes her weak" Hopper quietly stated, his eyes reluctantly moving over to the boy beside his daughter.

"So...what is her weakness?" Steve asked quietly.

Everyone's eyes went to the same person that Hopper was staring at with reluctance, knowing that his daughter was about to heavily object. El finally noticed the silence and looked up in confusion, her eyes widening in horror when she saw all of them looking at Mike beside her.

"No."

"El-" Hopper started.

"I said, no. Don't even think about it" she stood up suddenly and blocked their vision of Mike who had gone all quiet. "I'm not letting it anywhere near him."

"She loves him. How could we all seriously be his dense?" Dustin stated full of awe as he looked at El standing in front of her boyfriend protectively.

"Kid, just listen to me-"

"Look, I know that you don't particularly like him but I would never think that you would try to get rid of him" El snapped.

"Don't be stupid! I'm not trying to get rid of him, it's just that if we used to him to get that thing to the gate again then you could-"

"He can't defend himself!" El sobbed, tightly clutching Mike's hand who was still frozen in his seat.

"He can barely catch a ball in gym class" Dustin added quietly.

"Maybe if we just get him close enough so that it doesn't hurt him then-" Max tried to speak up but El snapped once more.

"Will anybody listen to me? No!"

"El...they are right" Mike said gently.

She span around quickly, glaring at him so harshly that he shrunk back. "Don't even try! I'm not letting you go and get hurt!"

"El, sweetheart-" Joyce tried to calm her.

"NO!"

Mike squeezed her hand and stood up, towering over her. "How many times have I let you try to save us when I didn't even know if you would come back?"

"They locked you in a room last time so that you wouldn't stop me" El sniffed before snatching her hand away from his.

Mike sighed and looked up at the chief, "I'll do it."

Hopper nodded once before gesturing for him to find a way to calm his girlfriend down who was still distraught.

"Mike-"

Before she started arguing once again, Mike snatched her hand and dragged her into Will's room away from everybody else. Shutting the door, he sighed when she immediately collapsed into his arms with tears soaking his jumper. Wrapping his arms around her and stroking her hair, he clenched his eyes shut as she repeatedly muttered, "no" against him.

"Please don't do it" she whimpered, clutching onto his sweater tightly.

"El, if it will get the damn thing to leave you alone for once so that we can have a normal life, then I would do anything!"

"It wouldn't be a normal life if you get killed" she shook her head as he lifted her chin up to wipe away her tears.

"Well, just try to hurry up and kill it before it kills me" he tried to make a joke out of it but muttered a curse word when she simply burst into tears again and hid her face in his neck.

Resting his cheek on top of her soft curls, he wrapped his arms around her shaking frame. "Don't you think that it's my turn to save you?"

"You don't have any powers, it would kill you in a second!"

"El, please calm down. I won't let that happen."

"Promise?" she mumbled, half challenging him.

"I promise that I will do everything I can to make sure that I come back to you" Mike said firmly.

"That's not good enough" she squeezed her eyes shut. "That isn't a real promise!"

Mike grabbed her chin gently to make her look into the pools of chocolate that she fell in love with. "It's a promise that I know I won't ever break. But there isn't anything else we can do, El. You know that."

El simply whimpered in response and held him tighter to her.

"I love you, El. I'll always come back to you" he whispered before gently connecting their lips. She rose up on her tip toes and kissed him like it was the last thing she would ever be able to do.

He pulled away reluctantly and hugged her one last time. "Let's do this. Together."

She managed to smile back lightly. "Together."