Chapter Text
The most pivotal moment of the night, Mike thinks, was the when the lights flared.
Barely having survived the tunnels, the four kids and Steve ran back to the car and piled in. Mike felt like he was in a haze. He couldn’t feel his legs. He could hardly breathe. But somehow he found his way back to the car.
One of his hands fidgeted with the fabric of his jacket. He knew that the lights getting brighter could mean one of two things: that El had succeeded in closing the gate, or she was dead.
Mike wasn’t prepared for the second option.
The ride back to the Byers’ wasn’t long. Before Mike had even realized they’d been driving, they were already back in the driveway.
He got out of the car and his legs carried him through the threshold of the house. He went straight to the bathroom without speaking to anyone.
His reflection stared back at him, but the person he saw was only mildly reminiscent of Mike. Who was this person covered in dirt and a strange upside down-related substance? But it wasn’t just the dirt. It was his eyes. They weren’t his own. They had seen things that a child’s eyes should never see. Was he even a child anymore? It didn’t feel like it.
Earlier in the night, when El had came back, he had been so hyperaware. Now? He didn’t feel anything. He couldn’t focus. Was it shock?
He splashed his face with water, clearing some of the dirt. Then, he made his way back out to the living room.
But before he even consciously made the decision, his feet began to lead him out to the porch.
“Where are you going?” he heard Dustin say.
He stopped in his tracks, only momentarily, to reply, “To wait for El.”
No one stopped him after that.
He had been sitting on the steps for only about a minute before he heard the sound of a car.
He stood up, waiting for it to come into view.
It was Jonathan’s car. And later, Mike would hate himself for being disappointed, but in that moment, all he could think about was El. So he simply watched as Jonathan carried Will’s sleeping body into the house, Joyce following quickly behind.
Nancy looked like she had aged ten years in one night. Her shirt clung to her from the sweat and her eyes were tired, but not calm either.
She wordlessly sat next to Mike, giving him and herself a moment to just breathe.
“He’s alright now,” she finally said. “Just exhausted. I know that right now you have other things to worry about, but I know you would still want to know.”
“Thanks,” he heard himself say. He did want to know. But his mind was moving a million miles per hour right now, and he couldn’t form the words.
“You… you could’ve told me, you know. I thought we said no more secrets,” Nancy said. Mike didn’t need any context to know what she was referring to.
“I didn’t.. I didn’t..” He took a deep breath. It was all he could do to not burst into tears like he had earlier that night in Hopper’s arms. “I didn’t know what to say. I felt—I feel like such a loser.”
“You’re hurting, Mike. You’re not a loser.”
Mike tried to smile, but it was more of a grimace.
“You love her don’t you?”
Mike didn’t answer. He simply looked up at Nancy, hoping she could read him well enough so he didn’t have to say it out loud.
Yes.
He did.
Nancy put her hand on his shoulder as she began to stand.
“She’ll come back to you. I know she will.” And then she left him.
Mike hoped she was right.
———————
Mike figured that the lab was about a ten minute drive tops. And it had already been twenty since they had gotten back.
He was NOT going to freak out. No way.
At least not yet.
Taking deep breaths, steadying himself, he promised—no one in particular—that he was going to stay calm for fifteen more minutes.
If by then, El wasn’t back? Well, he didn’t know what he was going to do, but it would not be calm, he was sure of that.
Ten minutes.
Seven.
Three.
One.
Just as Mike was about to lose it, he heard the sound of an approaching vehicle.
Heart beating wildly in his chest, he stood up, seeing a pair of bright headlights come into view.
The hyperawareness from earlier in the night returned as the vehicle got closer.
Before the cruiser had even come to a stop, the passenger door was being flung open, and Mike watched in complete awe as the girl he’d been thinking about all night appeared, running towards him. She went to him under her own power, not needing any help. She was tired, yes. But she was strong and beautiful.
She threw her arms around his neck, and Mike wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her into the air with the force of their collision. Mike felt a tear escape him as he set her feet back on the ground.
He looked down at her face, but kept his arms around her steady, unwilling to move them. She grinned back up at him.
Before he could stop himself, he was leaning down, not thinking or even really caring that Hopper was there.
She met him halfway, their lips meeting.
And suddenly, the (2nd) worst night of his life was also the best. Because there was nothing better, he decided, than having El in his arms, her lips on his, and the promise of a future.
A future, with her in it.