#elmax au

Jane Hopper, they could never take your whimsy away.

Elmax Season 1

imagine november 6, 1983. max is an og member of the party who joined around the same time as dustin, and els hair is being retconned to a short style adjacent to her s2 curls because i do what i want. obviously the lab has been searching for her the entire time, and the town is starting to get suspicious about the helicopters and stuff. anyways, november 6, the party is playing dnd with max, it was a seven, the demogorgon, it got me. see you tomorrow! max skates home, dustin and will race. el is near the byers house, will sees the demogorgon and wrecks his bike, bolts for his house. el is hiding in the bushes when she sees will run into his house, then she sees the demogorgon from afar. not knowing what to do, she unlocks the byers door with her mind and immediately tries to seek refuge while will runs into the shed. she let the demogorgon in. BOOM will goes missing. el leaves before jonathan gets home. mike, lucas, dustin, and max called to the office because of will being missing, mike and max are immediately on it because im a madwise, byler, and madwheeler truther.

november 7, 1983. the party is searching for will even though they were told not to. they hear a strange noise, and max gets in front of them. they turn around and shine their lights, and instead of mike seeing el first, it’s MAX. mike says “that’s not will.” they bring el to the wheeler house and the boys bomb her with questions, max shuts them up. mike and max are caring towards her and know she’s probably just scared, dustin is simply curious, and lucas doesn’t trust her, and is fixated on finding will. mike gives her clothes, she changes out of her bennys shirt, dustin and max are infatuated with els hair and are playing with it. el is freaked out but ends up letting them

dustin: “woah.. your hair would be kinda like mine if it was longer!”

max: “have you ever brushed it before?”

el: “no..”

mike: “so you can speak!”

max: “maybe she doesn’t know many words?”

after this mike max and lucas argue about where they should put her, max just doesn’t want her to be around billy, mike doesn’t want his mom to find out about her, and lucas wants to tell karen. they agree on letting el stay in the tent in mikes basement and plotting to send her to pennhurst in the morning, but max wont have that. max insists on keeping el because she believes that el deserves a place to live. after bickering, mike questions if she can find will.

el: “what… is friend?”

max: “a friend is someone you’d do anything for.”

dustin: “you lend them your cool stuff like comic books and trading cards”

lucas: “and they never break a promise.”

mike: “friends tell each other things, things that parents don’t know.” “they don’t lie.”

el: “friends.. dont lie”

max ends up sleeping in the wheeler basement next to el, because she’s stubborn and el feels safe around her. max asks her name, and el shows her the 011 tattoo, max thinks its SO cool, and nicknames her el while ranting about how she wants a tattoo.

november 8, 1983. max has to skate home quick and make it seem like she’s been there the entire night and promises to come back to mikes, but billy catches her. mike brings el some waffles and discovers max is gone, and thinks he can do his plan. he carefully asks her to go to the door, but then she explains to him that the bad men are after her. mike stays home and shows el his family photos, meanwhile max got into an argument with billy and ended up not going back to mikes house as early as she wanted to. the second billy leaves, max books it out the window and skates to mikes house. she BARGES in, panicking, asking if he had gotten rid of el yet. mike explains the bad men and max completely understands but is also very confused. el sees a picture of nancy

el: “pretty”

mike: “yeah, that’s my sister nancy”

max: “you know, you’re pretty too el.”

el: points at herself “me?”

max: “duh! even mike agrees!”

mike: “I mean.. yeah”

(I just added this for my own maxelmike enjoyment LMAO)

they bring el up to mikes room, and el recognizes the picture of will. mike immediately goes batshit and is like “YOU KNOW WILL?????” and max is astonished. then karen gets home. mike freaks out and puts el in the closet, and max promises to stay in there with her. she then teachers her what promise means. mike talks to his mom, and el gets flashbacks to papa in the closet, max is extremely worried and reassures her it’s okay. they then contact ucas and dustin, telling them to get over here now. mike explains what’s going on, max says she recognized will, and lucas is confused on why they haven’t got rid of her yet. lucas tries to leave, and el slams the door with her mind. dustin goes CRAZY. boom dinner time, and the party is having dinner at mikes house. nancy is going on about steves house when they see el wandering down the stairs.

mike: chokes on his milk

lucas: signs for el to go

dustin: spazzes out and bangs the table

max: flings a pea at ted wheeler

dustin: “sorry… muscle spasms..”

max: “yeah… spasms..”

IM CTFU we gotta speed this thing up

after dinner, they get el to find will. she flips over the DND board, and puts the wizard and the demogorgon on the board. max almost immediately catches on. “upside… down?” but doesn’t quite understand.

november 9, 1983. operation mirkwood is in action. the party brings things, including army supplies, wrist rocket, food for el, and billys lighter along with a hairclip for el (just because) mike leaves el home alone, and max gives el her yellow watch to tell the time. while at school, mike lucas dustin and max are searching for rocks to attack the demogorgon with. lucas is taunting dustin about how obsessed he is with el when troy and james interrupt them.

dustin: “shut up lucas!”

troy: “yeah, shut up lucas.”

troy: “if it isn’t midnight, toothless, frogface, and their girlfriend”

james: “if she’s even a girl!”

max gives him the NASTIEST look known to man

james: “what are you guys doing back here?”

troy: “probably looking for their missing friend.. he’s dead. that’s what my dad says. probably killed by some other queer.”

james: “I wonder if it was frogface? hes always seemed like one.”

mike starts to have a look of regret and shame on his face.

troy: “look at wheeler, his face is getting red!”

mike: “come on guys, let’s just go.”

troy then trips mike and he hits his chin on a rock. max is FUMING. lucas helps mike up, and as the bullies are walking away, max grabs one of them by their shirts, turns them around, and slaps them across the face. the other one just stares at her. they then run away without saying a word. when they go to pick up el, she seems a bit scared, max compliments her hair and it makes her smile. (imagine the wheelers have an extra bike and max borrows it and lets el ride on the back of it tehe) while on operation mirkwood, lucas and max have a solo convo about will and el while dustin, mike, and el walk up front because im a byclair and lumax truther

lucas: “I just don’t know, max. what if we can’t trust her? how do we know she’s not lying? how do we know she didn’t kill will!?”

max: “lucas. she has superpowers. and why would she kill will? sometimes people just need someone to trust them.”

lucas: “yeah, and I don’t.”

max: “….is it because she’s a girl? with short hair?”

lucas: “what!? no! I love girls! and I love her hair! I mean you’re my favorite- but- …. no it’s not because she’s a girl!”

max laughs at him

max: “relax! I’m just teasing you… but seriously. I think she knows what she’s talking about. we’re gonna get will back, and once we do, everything will be normal again and we can tell mrs wheeler about el. I’m sure she’ll understand! maybe she could even come live with me.”

lucas smiles at her. as dustin makes his way to the back with lucas and max, el gives mike the “friends don’t lie. i understand” speech, but mike doesn’t quite understand her yet, not as much as max does. night falls, and they are now at the byers house. el says that will is hiding here, and everyone is confused.

mike: “…will is missing from here. this is where he lives… why would he be hiding here?”

lucas: “I had a feeling she was lying!” (to el) “please, just tell us the truth. did you kill will?”

el: shakes her head no and backs up slowly, but as she recognizes the byers house, she starts to think back to the night before they found her.

max: “what if he is hiding here! what if he got scared and hid in the shed or something?”

mike: “his mom would’ve found him! …she can’t be lying!”

as lucas max and mike argue, dustin notices police sirens and ambulances. “guys…. guys!” they immediately stop.

mike: “..will.”

max: “come on el, hop on!”

they bike to the quarry, and follow the police cars. they hop off of their bikes and run to the truck, peter gabriels “heroes” starts playing. everyone starts to tear up as they watch wills “body” being pulled out of the lake, and mike immediately clocks that it’s not will. mike turns to el, angry and teary eyed

mike: “you said he was alive! why did you do that?”

max: “mike, come on..”

mike: “why did you lie? what is wrong with you?”

el: “mike…”

mike: “what?”

max: “mike! stop!”

mike grabs his bike, and starts to bike away.

lucas: “come on mike, don’t do this.”

dustin: “mike!”

max grabs els hand as she starts to cry, not knowing what she did wrong, they get back on their bikes and CUEEEEE the deleted scene where mike is biking home and wiping his tears.

november 10th, 1983 max brings el to her house and shows her Wonder Woman comics and all her clothes, + a bonus scene where max washes els hair and styles it for her, despite it being almost too short to do anything with. mike looks at wills drawings, el channels will singing through max’s walkie talkie, and max brings her back to the wheeler house. mike is like “bro what the hell” and max shows mike what she did, mike immediately recognizes wills breathing. mike and dustin remember the ham radio, and get an idea. they give el a makeover, and max does her makeup.

dustin: “…pretty”

lucas CLOCKS him

mike: “..pretty good!”

max: “you look beautiful”

mr clarke catches them trying to get into the av room, and they have to make a fake persona for el. she is now eleanor, mikes cousin from sweden.

mike pushes troy after they call will the f slur, and troy charges at mike. max whispers to el “can you do something to him?” and she makes troy pee himself. after the assembly, they get el to channel will through the ham radio. everyone starts to tear up as will cries for his mom and describes the upside down as dark and empty. the ham radio then catches on fire because of els powers.

max: “el! are you okay?”

mike turns her around

lucas: “holy shit…”

max: “come on… we gotta go guys!”

mike tries to pick her up, but can’t, so instead dustin does.

mike jumps off the cliff while the bullies hold max and dustin hostage, el saves them, lucas tries to find will, van flip, el tries to steer them away from the gate, max feels a little betrayed, they make up with a hug, cue school scene.

okay we gotta speed this up

instead of “goodbye, mike.” it’s “goodbye, max.” AUGHHHHH this also paves the way for some madwheeler angst in s2… “you got your best friend back, but I lost mine”

I don’t feel like going into detail about the rest of this because this has been sitting in my drafts for a month. let me know how you guys feel!!

However, (and dont hate me plz) it's not Mike whose coming out, but Max, telling him how she likes Jane, how she watched her stare at Mike who never bothered to return those shared looks, always watching Will. How she hated how he idolized her as a superhero instead of his girlfriend, instead of a person. How Max knew but never said anything because Jane seemed happy, but she was lying.

Mike comes out to her too, he tells her about Will and his own guilt for leading Jane on until she dumped him. About the pain of hiding himself and how he thinks he knew who he was all along. How much more alike him and Max are.

The royal family’s on a ship, ship gets wrecked, max nearly drowns but el saves her. fast forward to later, she trades her voice to become a human like the story goes, but when she washes up on shore, max or someone who’s hopper equivalent finds her and brings her back to the palace where the king and queen instantly love her because she’s gorgeous and invite the strange foreign girl to stay. however, i can’t do a sappy love story without angst personally so then, surprise! the king and queen “politely” encourage their son, the prince, and el to get married, going on and on about how beautiful they’d be together and you get the gist. this whole time, max and el are getting closer, spending time together, max is teaching her all about living on land (without knowing she was a mermaid) and they’re falling in love.

bonus points if you include any of these:

• canon el has a complicated relationship with femininity and looking pretty which is why i think it would be so beautiful to include a quote that goes “i think you’d make a beautiful bride” or something along those lines when el’s trying on her wedding dress

• if the prince is mike as fits canon (don’t villainize him please, that’s no fun and so overdone) it would be so fun if he was queer coded in this as well

• also if mike is included, if he makes an effort to fulfill his obligation of marriage but not of being a husband (getting to know the woman he’s about to marry) then big fat gold star for you

• keep max’s less gender conforming character traits like her hobbies and the clothes she likes to wear but in a medieval context like horse racing for fun or even fencing (bonus bonus point if she’s training buddies with lucas or something)

• her home in the ocean resembles the lab to some degree

-> relationship that challenges social norms/conformity

jane shares so many qualities with rapunzel. i mean, taken from her parents when she was a child to be used for her powers? imprisoned in a isolated building without being able to see the outside world? the only thing we rly need to change is changing the lab into a tower and giving her rly rly rly long hair

and max as flynn!! max would SO be a thief that girl definitely hates rich royals tf. she would take one look at jane’s wonder-filled eyes as she talks abt wanting to see the lanterns and instantly fold. she’s TAKING her to see the lanterns or she’s going to DIE trying!!

They’re still both outcasts and bullied but Max doesn’t know about the upside down. Maybe Billy is still alive since he never got possessed or he could’ve died by car accident so Max still has similar character development but that would also impact her friendship with El and how close she’ll let her get.

Could also be background long distance byler/hellcali