Mileven

Mileven is the het ship between Jane "Eleven" Hopper and Mike Wheeler from the Stranger Things fandom.

Season 1
As Eleven ran for her life from a government laboratory tucked away in Hawkins, Indiana, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas find her in the pouring rain, in the woods while looking for their missing party member, Will Byers.

Mike was not aware of her telekinetic abilities when he decided to bring her into his home. As they noticed "weird" qualities about her, they questioned her upbringing, wondering why she isn't talking or why she has a shaved head. Dustin and Lucas were hesitant of Mike letting a strange girl stay the night despite his compassionate nature. When the boys left, Mike sat down with her and started talking to Eleven in hopes she would open up a little bit. When he asked her what her name was, she showed him her "011" tattoo. Instead of judging her for it, he was impressed and suggests they call her "El" for short.

At school, Dustin and Lucas start to make fun of Mike because they believe he is starting to have a crush on Eleven. As they continue to make fun of him, Troy Walsh and James Dante come of to them and start making fun of Will, which results in Mike getting a scab on his chin. When they all go to meet Eleven again, she questions why Mike has a scar on his chin. At first he just says that its not a big deal but then soon tells her what happened and calls Troy and James "mouthbreathers" which throughout the rest of the episode she refers to them as that. Mike tells her that he didn't want to tell her because he was afraid she would think of him as weak. She tells him that she understands and gives him a small smile. He gets a little shocked since this is the first time he's seen her smile but he smiles back.

As the journey went on for a bit longer, Eleven and Mike became extremely close after Hopper and Joyce set off to go find Will and save him from the upside down after Eleven had seen him in physic visions. While everyone else goes to either fight the Demogorgon or get Will the boys and Eleven stay in Hawkins Middle School. Mike tells Eleven after they defeat the bad men and the Demogorgon, Eleven would be able to come home with Mike, where Mike's mom could take care of her. Eleven mistakes Mike for being her brother, but Mike goes on to try and explain what it would be like instead. Fumbling with his words, he decides to kiss her instead. She is stunned, but happy.

Going to confront the Demogorgon, and Eleven's powers drained, they take her to a classroom. Mike promises to take Eleven to the Snowball once everything is over. The Demogorgon stops them, though, and Eleven says a final goodbye before sacrificing herself and being taken to the Upside Down.

Season 2
During this season Michael is still mournful over the disappearance of Eleven and tries to contact her through the supercomm often. He spoke to her every night for comfort and in the hopes that she was listening or would return. Eleven also tried to communicate with him, but due to Jim Hoppers orders (her adoptive father) she was not allowed to make direct contact to him. For his own safety and her own.

Eleven becomes rebellious and decides to leave the cabin to see Mike at school. Upon her arrival she finds Mike, she is behind the glass door of the gymnasium and is cheerful to see him but then she spots Max, she misinterprets the scene and becomes jealous. Using her telekinesis she throws Max off her skateboard and leaves upset, questioning whether he was still waiting for her. Mike immediately suspects that it was Eleven and rushes out to find her, but she has already left.

The two reunite at the end of episode eight, Mike sobbing while Eleven makes a badass entrance through the front door after killing a ring of demodogs circling the Byers house. Before Eleven leaves to close the upside down, the two attempt to kiss, but Hopper interrupts them.

After fighting the monsters from the upside down, the two go to the Hawkins Middle School Dance, the Snow Ball, together. Mike and Eleven kiss while slow dancing. They are finally reunited but the scene pans out to the mindflayer watching, which some have interpreted as troublesome foreshadowing for the couple.

Season 3
The season starts off with the two in a good place. As we later learn from Hopper, the two have been seeing each other every day for the past six months. The two are kissing in Eleven's room and Hopper sees them through a crack in the door. This causes the two to quickly pretend they are reading. They joke about it as Mike rides home.

Mike's friends tease him about the amount of time he is spending with Eleven, both at the mall, and when Dustin comes back home from camp. Mike takes Eleven home early, leaving the gang. The two once more make out in Eleven's room, when Hopper comes in to talk to set boundaries. He instead scares Mike off, causing him to lie to Eleven, in which Max prompts Eleven to "dump his ass". This leaves Mike wondering what he has done, causing him to call girls "the female species", which Eleven hears while spying on Mike, Lucas, and Will in the void. The two are not far from each other, as Eleven is sad that her and Mike broke up, even telling Max Mike was her first boyfriend.

After getting a code red, Eleven and Max meet up with the boys, where Eleven and Mike get into an argument at the pool. Mike tells her how she is the most important thing to him, but Eleven tells him off for a few things, and eventually tells him she makes her own rules. They eventually make up after Eleven is almost choked to death by Billy and Mike puts his life on the line to save her although Eleven was so tired and drained she pulled herself together to save Mike and then the two share a heartwarming moment with a bag of M&Ms.

With the final battle approaching, Eleven goes to spy on Billy when Max and Mike get into a heated argument, where Mike blurts out that he can't lose Eleven because he loves her, leaving everyone with their jaws to the floor. Eleven comes in and he brushes it off. After yet another brush with death, Mike carries Eleven (with Max) to a convenience store where the gang breaks in to heal her. They share yet another moment where Mike tells her he hates that they broke up even though by now they got back together. She agrees, and he tells her "blank makes people crazy", but she doesn't get it.

During the final battle, he watches as she removes part of the Mind Flayer from her leg. Billy later attacks Mike, Eleven, and Max, causing Eleven to be captured. After defeating the Mind Flayer, the two are reunited, sharing a hug.

With Hopper's death, Eleven has to move with the Byers. While packing, Mike excitedly talks about the two getting to see each other. Eleven brings up that she did hear Mike confess his feelings for her, she tells him that she loves him too. They share a goodbye kiss, and a few more tearful goodbye hugs and kisses before she gets into the moving truck, leaving Mike and her friends behind in Hawkins.

Quotes
"You want her? You'll have to kill us first!"

- Mike about Eleven.

"Are you there? El? It's me. It's Mike. It's day 352, 7:40 PM. I'm still here. If you're out there, say something. Or give me a sign, I won't even say anything. Just-I wanna know if you're okay."

- Mike trying to contact Eleven.

"You're the most important thing to me in the world."

- Mike to Eleven.

"You're treating her like some kind of machine when she's not a machine! And I don't want her to die looking for the flayed when they've obviously vanished off the face of the earth. So can we please just come up with a new plan because I love her and I can't lose her again!"

- Mike about Eleven.

"I've just never felt like this with anyone before. And, you know, they do say it makes you crazy."

- Mike to Eleven.

"You know what I think of you. You're the most incredible person in the world."

- Mike to Eleven.

"Everything is going to be fine. I am going to fix this, OK? Just stay calm and everything is going to be fine, OK? All you have to do is trust me. I promise I'm going to get you out. I promise!"

- Mike to Eleven when the police took her.

"El? I don’t know if you can hear this, but… but if you can, I want you to know I’m here, okay? I’m right here. And… I love you. El, do you hear me? I love you. I’m sorry I don’t say it more. I… It’s not because I’m scared of you. I’m not. I’ve never felt that way. Never. But I am scared that one day you’ll realize you don’t need me anymore. And I thought if I said how I felt, it would somehow make that day hurt more. But the truth is, El, I don’t know how to live without you. I feel like my life started that day we found you in the woods. You were wearing that yellow Benny’s Burgers T-shirt. And it was so big it almost swallowed you whole. And I knew right then and there, in that moment, that I loved you. And I’ve loved you every day since. I love you on your good days. I love you on your bad days. I love you with your powers, I love you without your powers. I love you for exactly who you are. You’re my superhero. And… I can’t lose you. Okay? Do you hear me? I can’t lose you. You can do anything. You can fly. You can move mountains. I believe that. I really do. But right now, you just have to fight. Okay? El. Do you hear me? You need to fight! You have to fight. Fight! Fight!"

- Mike to Eleven after Vecna trapped her.

Fanon
A lot of people love this ship because of their positive interactions. The ship sailed at the end of the first season, when Mike asked El to go to the Snowball with him and kissed her. A common trope in fanfiction about Mileven is hurt/comfort, where Mike comforts El about her tragic past or they comfort each other about the trauma they have endured together.

On AO3, there are currently over 4,700 works under the Eleven/Mike Wheeler tag, making Mileven the most written ship for Eleven and the second most written ship for Mike. The ship is also the fourth most written ship under the Stranger Things (TV 2016) tag, only coming third after Harringrove, Steddie and Byler.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Eleven/Mike tag on FanFiction.Net
 * Eleven/Mike tag on FanFiction.Net

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Trivia

 * The kiss that had taken place during the snowball in season 2 was not scripted and was in fact requested by the actress Millie Bobby Brown.
 * In season 4 Eleven wears a ring that Mike gave her as a gift in between seasons 3 and 4.