KIDS AREN'T SUPPOSED
TO BE HEROES.

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STARCROSSED (book one).
°• CHAPTER TWENTY •°

" HEY, BAMBI. "

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HAPPY ENDINGS DIDN'T ALWAYS EXIST. Elijah Wolfhart was convinced he was going to die the night that the full-grown Demogorgon was lured with the blood of his and his friends had cornered him with a drooling petal-like mouth and razor-sharp claws, and that would've been it. The end of his story. The book closed. And it wouldn't have been the first time in Elijah's life that he felt like that. It didn't seem to matter he was a child, the cruel reality of life would spare nobody at all. If Elijah's story was a chaptered book series, he sincerely doubted any volume would hold a happy ending. For almost a year, Elijah had been under the presumption that Eleven was dead, having sacrificed herself to destroy the monster and save her friends. It'd be the most tragic ending he could've thought of for a kid having deserved so, so much better. So, he doesn't know what to do or say when he sees the same child he thought bit it a long time ago. He doesn't know what to say when the ending suddenly changes.

The change in Eleven was obvious and seemed deeper than her physical appearance. While her shaved head had grown into a mop of brown curls that had been slicked back, her attire had been swapped for darker shades, and her dark stare held a different level of maturity that matched the trickle of blood leaking from her nostril, something was different. Eleven had come back from the dead and distanced herself from the girl she used to be. Elijah saw it right away, but his jaw is still slacked, and Mike doesn't care at all, because this was the girl he fell deeply for all the same.

Mike stared at her with tears in his eyes as if it's been lifetimes. Elijah supposed it could've felt like that. The pair whisper each other's names before they fall into a tight embrace. Max glanced from Dustin to Lucas with confusion. "Is that..." She trailed off. Her new friends nodded to confirm her question.

"I never gave up on you." Elijah can hear the sob Mike held back when he released Eleven and how it escaped behind the poor kid's words. "I called you every night. Every night for - "

"Three-hundred and fifty-three days," Eleven finished. Her lower lips trembled and a tear started to roll down her cheek. "I heard."

A hurt look crossed Mike's face. He tried to understand, interrogating, "Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?"

"Because I wouldn't let her," Hopper cut in. He stepped past Mike to shoot Eleven a disappointed stare that Elijah had only seen from his father when he had his hand caught in the cookie jar. "The hell is this? Where you been?" He demanded to know.

"Where have you been?" Eleven shot back and all the pieces fell into place.

Chief Hopper had pulled the small girl into his chest with an arm around her when the others made the realization. Elijah let the truth pass his lips and slip down his throat when he swallowed the growing lump. Eleven wasn't really a dead girl walking. They just thought she was since she had seemingly vanished into thin air. Hopper had made a home out of her. Elijah could see it in the protective arm he draped over the girl, the kiss he pressed to the crown of her head, and the worried look in his stare. In the end, it was their own happy ending.

Mike hadn't taken the news as easy as Elijah did. His eyes widened at the realization and his hands balled into shaking fists. "You've been hiding her." He threw an angry fist at Hopper's back and his voice raised with every angry word, "You've been hiding her this whole time!"

The next hit Mike went to throw was caught by Hopper. He placed a heavy hand on Mike's shoulder as he shook with rage, warning him, "Hey! Let's talk. Alone." Mike didn't allow himself to be pulled away without a fight, but Hopper dragged him into the closest empty room where the bomb finally detonated. Elijah could hear Mike screaming at the older man through the thin walls but tried to block it out like the rest of them.

The reunion between Eleven, Lucas, and Dustin went better. The three friends didn't waste any further time when they hugged one another in a tight group hug. Elijah's heart softened at the sight. Damn it. Having seen Eleven clutching his hand out of fear last year and shielding Dustin, Lucas, and Max from the Demogorgon on the bus when they were terrified of the monster on the outside had turned him into a softie, hadn't it?

"We missed you," Lucas insisted as he tucked his head into Eleven's neck.

"I missed you too," Eleven replied softly.

"We talked about you pretty much every day," Dustin said with a grin as they broke apart.

Eleven noticed the grin immediately and her eyebrows knitted together curiously. She reached out to shove her thumb past his lips and Dustin flinched away, the smile dropping into a stare of puzzlement at her reaction.

"Teeth."

"What?"

"You have teeth."

Dustin and Lucas shared a laugh. "Oh," he realized. "You like these pearls?" He released a purr that made Elijah cringe on the inside while Lucas shook his head and Eleven jerked back, startled.

The trio started to part as Max shyly took a few steps toward Eleven. "Eleven? Hey. Um, I'm Max," she introduced. There's no heat behind her words that is all Elijah has heard since he met the kid. Max politely held her hand out with a warm smile. "I've heard a lot about you."

Her introduction didn't go as planned. Eleven shot her an icy glare before rejecting the handshake with a light shove to Max's shoulder in favor of pushing past her to throw herself into Joyce's arms. The cold reaction had Elijah frown but he ultimately decided it wasn't any of his business. Besides, the two had cried in relief as they hugged, Joyce squeezing the small girl's back, whispering, "Hey, hey, sweetheart."

Eleven gave her one last smile before her stare finally met the Wolfhart siblings. Elijah felt his soft heart melt when her lips pulled into a small, excited grin and she launched herself into his chest, her arms circling his waist, forcing him to drop the ax. He nearly stumbled at the impact but soon found his grounding thanks to the shortstack squeezing him with her face buried in his shirt. The top of Eleven's head was now almost to his shoulders and he gently placed the palm of his hand over the gelled hair while the other wove over her shoulders.

"Hi, Eli. Hi, 'Vaeh," Eleven said, her voice muffled when she buried her face in Elijah's shirt.

A long breath pushed itself out of Elijah's lungs as he sighed in contentment. "Hey, Bambi," he responded quietly. He hadn't spoken the nickname in the near year she'd been gone. It still tasted bitter on Elijah's tongue. He shared a look with Nevaeh who blinked back a few tears of relief. Nevaeh pushed a few stray pieces of Eleven's hair that has escaped the gel and thumbed a few tears away before they could soak Elijah's shirt.

The book Elijah thought had closed was still open and ongoing. The author wasn't done. He squeezed the main character of her story one last time before releasing her. Eleven is still teary-eyed as she shot him one last sad smile before glancing from Nevaeh and back to Joyce. She slowly pulled away from the hug that she had dove into and looked hopefully at the woman before asking in a small voice, "Can I see him?"

Eleven takes her time visiting Will. And for the most part, Elijah understands. Seeing Will possessed was awful. It was an image he wouldn't forget and knowing that Will was there, somewhere, was somehow worse. The poor kid was suffering underneath it all in a way they weren't which is why they were left to fix it. They gave Eleven as much time as they could spare to hold Will's hand before regrouping. Hopper and Mike had both seemed to calm down too although Elijah noticed a flush in the kid's usually pale cheeks and his red eyes.

"It's not like it was before. It's grown... A lot." Elijah suppressed a shudder. The monsters reached his knees the last time he saw them and a group of them nearly took down a bus. It was only going to slowly get bigger and it made him think of the thing that chased him when he crawled into the Upside Down. "And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs," Hopper continued.

Dustin turned. "Demo-dogs," he corrected.

The silence turned thick as Hopper glared at the kid beneath furry eyebrows. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass - "

"It sounds like you're trying to humanize these things that tried to kill your friend a year ago," Elijah cut in coldly. He doesn't have to look behind him to have known Nancy flinched because he heard Nevaeh shift so she could put an arm around her. Elijah backed off but added, "And ate your cat."

Hopper released an exasperated sigh. "How is any of this important right now?" He demanded.

Their tones made Dustin shrink back. "It's not. I'm sorry."

All of a sudden, Eleven's head snapped up, dark eyes focused and serious in a way that made Elijah feel she was staring right through him. "I can do it," she declared.

The Chief shook his head. His annoyance turned into concern evident by his words when he voiced, "You're not hearing me."

"I'm hearing you. I can do it," Eleven insisted. There wasn't a doubt in her mind and it made Elijah's chest ache for her. She sounded so sure, but she shouldn't be. She was just a kid. This shouldn't have been her fight.

And yet, everyone was siding with her. Even Mike. "Even if El can, there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies," he reminded them. His statement made Elijah feel as if someone punched him in the chest as he remembered how limp Will was laying in the hospital bed a year before. How he felt when he watched the news that the Byers boy had been found in the lake.

"I thought that was the whole point," Max said, confused.

"It is, but if we're really right about this... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind Flayer's army..." Mike trailed off.

"Will's a part of that army," Lucas said gravely.

"Closing the gate will kill him."

The silence wasn't tense this time. It was deafening in a way that left Elijah's ears ringing and a sharply numb sentiment that shot through his system. He didn't know if he was suddenly freezing cold or burning hot with the feeling. Elijah only took one look at Joyce to tell she was feeling something identical as her knuckles turned white from the grip she had on the wooden table and the look of horror in her wide eyes. The idea of losing Will... Losing Will...

Elijah thought he was going to cry or pass out.

Joyce suddenly shot up. She didn't say a word and the horrified bearing didn't change. She marched out of the room, but Elijah had a sense it wasn't to be alone. It was like she had an idea. The group followed the woman into Will's bedroom and the look of terror slowly faded into something else that Elijah couldn't quite put a finger on until she finally spoke.

"He likes it cold," she whispered. A colder draft filled the room with the gust of wind that blew into the small room, causing the drape over the open window to shudder.

"What?" Hopper asked.

"It's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold." Joyce nodded to herself and quickly slid the window shut. "We keep giving it what it wants!" She exclaimed.

The gears seemed to turn in Nancy's brain. Elijah immediately hung onto anything she had to say. "If this is a virus, and Will's the host, then..."

"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable," Jonathan finished for her.

"So if he likes it cold - "

This time, Joyce spoke, coldly. "We need to burn it out of him."

How quiet it was next didn't feel grim at all. Elijah could feel Joyce's rage radiating off of her and if it was real enough to fill the air, Will would have certainly felt it too, and if she was right and the Mind Flayer hated the cold, he would've been screaming.

It was then the first time Elijah was angry instead of scared.

But not angry enough to forget to say see you later instead of goodbye. Hopper had rattled off instructions to the private cabin he was hiding to Jonathan with Will's slack figure draped over his shoulder, wrapped in a blanket to keep him warm while they rushed to Jonathan's car. Once the unconscious kid was tucked inside with Jonathan's mother, Elijah's best friend turned around and yanked him in a hug, one they haven't had time to share in a while, one they absolutely needed.

Elijah returned it without a second thought. The warmth of his best friend enveloped him in his arms didn't make him angry, scared, or sad. It didn't even give him joy. It made Elijah grounded in a way he hasn't been for hours. He shut his eyes and basked in it for as long as he could, not knowing when it would come again.

"I love you," he whispered because he didn't have to think twice about it. Elijah didn't want to miss the chance to say it again.

"I love you, too," Jonathan responded with his words muffled by burying his face into his best friend's shoulder.

When Elijah opened his eyes again, darting past Jonathan's shoulder, he saw Steve walking away from Nancy. His gaze passed through them with slumped shoulders. He saw Mike talking softly to Eleven on the Byers' porch. And Nevaeh's face peeking through the window. The scene only made Elijah want to squeeze Jonathan harder, but his weak arms would fall limp, as the feelings he didn't want to pass washed over him anyhow.

They were all just kids.

But so was Elijah.

.

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author's note:

tell a friend to tell a friend ... she's BAAAAACK!!

hi guys!! this story has gained sm attention and wow. i genuinely appreciate it. thank you for reading my stories and all of the amazing, kind words you guys give me 🫶🏻 i've been out of it for awhile. i recently lost my toddler nephew and family dog these past few months and haven't had motivation to sit down and write for a long time, but getting back into this has made me feel more like me then what i've felt for months. again, thank you guys for being so sweet while i was struggling, i truly appreciate the good thoughts and words you guys have sent me. it means the world. i will try to get back in my groove of writing. it means the world i still have people interested in the worlds i'm creating. ❤️

this was sort of a filler chapter as i'm still struggling, so i'm not totally proud of it, but. i just didn't want to really jump around. elijah's still my baby! it's either way too easy to get in his head or way too hard to do so, so there's that.

anyway thank you again for reading and as always i'll see you guys soon ❤️

- koda

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