Chapter Text
Mike often considers himself level headed and rational. Often
But at this exact moment? He'd always remember it as not his finest.
With emotions running high and tension think from the bombshell he'd just dropped in his pseudo boyfriend slash best friend, it was understandable for tempers and words that would normally not be used to be said.
"Will can you please just listen?" Mike begged as he jogged after Will down the stairs of his apartment.
Pausing and almost causing Mike to collide into him, Will turned around to face him with bloodshot eyes and his lips pressed together in a thin line.
" What is there for me to listen to Mike? You just told me that not only are you not in love with me, never had been but you slept with someone else and not just anyone either, it had to be my step sister and now she's pregnant. Jesus Christ Mike"
"Okay, I know that sounds bad but..."
"Bad? Bad? Is that how you're thinking of this entire situation? Bad?" Will said with venom and ice dripping from his voice making Mike wince.
" I know Will. I know how this whole entire thing..."
"No" Will sharply said cutting him off, "You have no idea how I'm feeling Mike. To find out that the man I've loved for so long and finally got the courage to tell him then getting hopes that it may finally be our time only for him to tell me he's in love with my own sister and having a baby with her just a few weeks later... It's messed up Mike. So so incredibly messed up. So please just allow me the dignity of walking away without taking anymore from me.Please. "Will finished pleadingly leaving Mike speechless as all he could do was nod and watch him turn and walk away.
'Well that went swimmingly' was the only thing Mike could think of at the moment as he sighed and ran a hand through his curls before turning around and heading back to Will's apartment.
"How is he?" El asked anxiously as soon as Mike opened the door.
"Probably never gonna speak to me again and I wouldn't blame him." Mike replied as he took her hand and guided her to the sofa.
El quietly sat down and laid her head on his shoulder, her hand squeezing his tightly.
"He'll come around. It's still a shock I imagine. I mean I'm still trying to wrap my head around you being the childhood best friend he talked about. So I can I can only imagine how he must be feeling." El pointed out empathetically.
"Yeah. I know. I'm also just in disbelief that you were his step sister. Opening that door earlier today and seeing you sitting on that couch felt like an out of body experience. I mean what were the chances?" Mike said gently as he stroked El's hair as she hummed in agreement.
Mike had arrived earlier and gone straight to Will's place but had almost had a heart attack when he realises that Will wasn't alone but with El. Then just before either him or El could have a whole grasp of the situation, Will had introduced them and Mike like a dumbass had blurted that they already knew each other, prompting having to uncomfortably tell Will everything on the spot instead of easing him into it as he had originally planned.
It hadn't been a great conversation but thankfully El had excused herself and left Mike to tell Will while she sat in the spare bedroom she normally stayed in whenever she visited her brother to get a grasp of the entire buzziareness of the thing.
Of course El had known about Will's crush and long time yearning for his childhood best friend Mike. Jonathan never failed to stop teasing him about it. But never in a million years had she ever thought her Mike would be that Mike.
Though Will had never talked much about him except in pieces and fragments over the past two years her dad had been dating her mom, El knew Mike was special to Will. Even as she'd arrived from Lenora the day before as a surprise for her step brother as she was planning to attend one of his exhibitions, she had never expected this morning till now to play out like it did.
A part of her felt guilty that she wasn't feeling as guilty or as sad as she was expected to. Sure she was heart broken for Will and sad this had happened the way it did but from the first moment she had met Mike, she'd just known that he was the man she'd been waiting for.
He'd been standing there with his inky dark wavy hair almost plastered to his forehead due to the heavy rain, giving his sharp cheekbones and nose an even more aristocratic look. And El had known in the only way someone who's meeting their soulmate knows. That Mike Wheeler was gonna be her entire life. Was gonna consume every part of her.
And so she'd allowed herself to fall into his orbit. To not overthink like she always did with everything else in her life and had just let herself feel. And now she was having a baby with him.
That had been a shock but with it having always been just her and her dad, El had always wished for more family in her life. More people to love. And with the Byers she'd almost had that dream realised. But a baby. One that would belong wholly to her, for her to love and cherish, it was an unreal feeling. One she'd embraced as fast as her love for Mike Wheeler.
So if she said she wasn't elated then she'd be lying. She was absolutely ecstatic, incredibly scared yet just unreally excited. And at this moment as she laid her head on Mike's shoulder, she could feel it. That everything will work out. The current chaos will melt away and peace will come. She just hoped it would arrive before her and Mike's gift did.