Work Text:
The concept of marriage is something Eleven understands.
Hopper had explained it to her one day back when she first started living with him in the cabin. They’d been watching some old program about a witch, a half-eaten stack of cold Eggos on the coffee table. They got three episodes in before she asked what it meant when the people on-screen slipped rings over their fingers earlier in the show.
The policeman had sighed, stumbling over his words for a minute, but then he’d said, “it’s, uh- It’s a legal promise to stay together…usually.” She figured he’d been burnt before. “That make sense, kid?”
And it had because she knew what a promise was. It was something to be handled with care. Mike had taught her the word — He swore by every single promise he ever made and she was sure, even back then when she couldn’t be with him, that he was still trying to fulfill them all. He’d promised, in the confines of the blanket fort, to keep calling until she answered.
A couple of days after, El had pulled the encyclopedia off of the bookcase and looked up the word. Hopper had been close enough. After that, she looked up ‘wedding’ and ‘bride’ too – The man had struggled enough with one definition, never mind several more. She’d decided that someday, whenever that day would be, whenever she’d be old enough and free and allowed to, that she wanted to get married, too. The idea of throwing a party with friends and family, however few, to celebrate your love for someone seemed… special. Happy. There was nothing too exciting about spending days cooped up in the cabin. She looked forward to the day she could feel something other than boredom. To happiness outside of old television shows and frozen waffles.
So when the day finally came Eleven reached for it with eager hands and held on for dear life. She had Mike back, and her friends, too. She clung to the boy as if almost afraid he might disappear from her life again. Afraid that every ounce of joy she’d ever experienced up to that point would follow in his wake. She couldn’t have that, so she stuck to him like glue and she tried to convey everything in every kiss or hug — Mike had been the first one to promise her anything. Safety. Love. She couldn’t imagine him not also being the person who could make her happiest.
But ‘engaged’ is a word Eleven has a harder time understanding.
El likes the idea of binding yourself to the person you love — You can never be torn apart that way. Lovers can be miles apart and still share some sort of link, a connection. She and Mike are already connected, she knows. But this is a different kind of bond.
Dustin says in some cultures, they wrap a red string around the couple’s hands as a means to physically tie them in matrimony. It sounds nice, but still, she prefers the idea of a ring; something you carry with you at all times to represent the promise somebody made you.
When she’s seventeen, Hopper proposes to Joyce and they become engaged. The word has been brought to life, but El is no closer to figuring out what it means. If marriage is an eternal promise to love someone, what good is being engaged? It’s only temporary.
Lucas tries to explain it to her at the engagement party. He says it’s “like a preemptive marriage. People can be engaged for years sometimes and not need anything more.” It doesn’t help much. Max and Will are children of divorce–they don’t exactly believe in happy-ever-afters. Nancy tells her an engagement is just what happens before marriage. It’s a step. She comes a little bit closer to understanding that day.
It’s when she’s alone with Mike, knees pulled up to her chin in a self-embrace on the sofa, staring off into a dark corner of his basement as his lips caress the skin of her neck, that it clicks. “It’s… halfway married,” he mumbles.
“Halfway?” She tilts her head, eyeing her boyfriend in curiosity.
“Yeah,” he nods, and she’s hyper-aware of the fact that he’s no longer kissing her because suddenly she feels exposed. “You know, it’s just the promise to make a promise. You kinda have to ask someone before you drag them down the aisle.”
“Drag them?” El gapes down at him. “Weddings are supposed to be happy, Mike.”
“No, no. I know. I just-” he pauses, waving a hand about with a roll of his eyes. “You know what I mean, like, you can’t just force someone into it. I mean… You wouldn’t want Hopper to make your mom marry him without asking first, right?”
“It’s a question.”
The step. She didn’t know what Nancy meant at first. Surely if you loved someone enough, and you knew for certain that they were the one you were going to marry, there would be no hesitation. You wouldn’t have to take steps. You leaped. But this… makes all the sense in the world.
Mike had said ‘please’ before he’d locked her behind his wardrobe door with a promise to come back. That had been a question, too.
“Are you going to ask me?” She blinks, pursing her lips in a gentle smile as Mike’s cheeks flush.
“What, now?!” His eyes widen at the insinuation. He drags his teeth along his bottom lip, seeming to ponder the thought. Then he says in a low voice, “I- I mean, not yet.”
Eleven unwinds her arms from her legs to throw them around his shoulders, pressing her mouth to his cheek in an awkwardly-angled peck. “Okay,” she says, leaning her forehead against his, tips of Mike’s black fringe sweeping along her nose. “Do you promise?”
Mike snickers, but he swiftly grabs the back of her neck to pull her in for a kiss. “You want me to… promise to make a promise to make a promise?” he asks, voice slightly muffled by the airy press of her mouth against his. There’s lipgloss smeared along his top lip. “That’s, like, a lot of promises.”
The girl giggles, cupping the sides of his face between her hands. “You always keep them, Mike. I trust you.”
“Okay, well… yeah. Sure.” He grins, but she suspects he doesn’t even realize it. Without missing a beat, he says, sounding sure, “I promise.”
Mike had been the first person to promise her anything. Safety. Love. She can’t fathom the idea of him not also being the one to make her the happiest she could ever possibly be.