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“You’re gonna have an awesome scar, you’ll look even more badass”, Mike states in that ever so familiar voice that El could never get tired of. Mike always tries comforting El to his maximum efforts, but what she hasn’t told him is that his voice alone is comforting enough. Even just his presence.
“Bitchin” El nods with a grin, in her attempt to reassure him that he does make her feel better.
“Bitchin”, Mike responds with an even bigger grin.
Feeling correctly interpreted when communicating with people has always been a struggle for El. She often doubts if she is being misunderstood, or misinterpreted, and when she doesn’t, she feels like those she’s talking to believe that she doesn’t understand them. Communication is so much more than words, and it’s so difficult to conquer even one aspect of it. Sometimes she feels as though she’s always playing the same game over and over, and nothing ever changes. There’s an invisible barrier between her and everyone else.
That is, everyone but Mike. It’s not that she hates everyone else, it’s just that being with him feels like a break from that never ending game in her head. He always understands her, and if not he tries to, and believes she has good intentions. When El is in Mike's company, it doesn't matter if he can’t understand what she’s trying to say right away, or the other way around, because they believe in the best in each other. There’s no words to describe the connection El has with Mike, because it’s way beyond that. When El is with Mike, she can finally relax.
“El?” Mike asks, with a sudden change to the tone of his voice and his deep chocolate eyes, now so serious that El is taken agape by it for a moment.
El dares to think that maybe he could be gathering the courage to tell her what she heard him say earlier.
It’s funny, really. El has a fresh, deep wound on her leg, and she’s still bleeding out as Mike speaks, but all she can feel is butterflies swarming through every inch of her. All she can feel is anticipation.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you something. It’s just, being broken up, it’s been hard. And I like that you and Max are friends now. It’s just, I was jealous at first. And - and angry. That’s why I said all that stupid stuff. And it’s like I wanted you all to myself-“
Els' heart skips five beats right at that moment. It’s not that she’s flattered by his possessiveness, it’s that she knows his love is pure. The conclusion to all of his words is definitely headed towards a genuine apology, and even though it’s the bare minimum, it makes her heart sore.
“and now I realize how unfair that is, and selfish, and I - I’m sorry”
And there it is. He’s sitting right across from her, admitting his mistakes. Vulnerability is one of the biggest signs of trust, and something about that just makes El’s heart burst with love. Her heart belongs to him, and it is so easily affected by him, it sometimes shocks El.
“It’s just, like, I’ve never felt like this, you know, with anyone before and.. you know, they do say it makes you crazy”
All El wants is to hear those 3 words from him. She doesn’t know if Mike expected her to know what he’s talking about, and for her to say she loves him too, but she just wants to make sure she’s on to the right thing.
“What makes you crazy?”
Mike's face falls, and suddenly he panics because in a fragment of a second he realizes that he will need to find the words and the courage to explain to El that he loves her. No big deal.
“You never- you never heard that term? You know, like the phrase? Like “blank makes you crazy”, like the word?”
Mike's words are turning into whispers and El is certain about what he’s talking about now, but she’s unsure that he’s ever going to say those exact three words to her face if she doesn’t say them first. El wants to at least try to get him to spit it out though.
“Girlfriends?”
“No, no, no, no, not - not girlfriends”
“Boyfriends?”
“No! No, no, not boyfriends either. It’s like - it’s like a feeling”
“A feeling?” El whispers under her breath.
“Yeah, like something.. like, old people say it to each other sometimes”
“Old people?”
“Yeah, what I wanna say is, that I just-“
El knows that it’s finally about to happen and she can’t hide the excitement on her face at all, though he is way too distracted to notice it.
“I know.. that I..”
And just like that, Mike is out of words to say. There’s nothing left to do other than to just tell her, but for some reason it’s like the sentence is stuck in his chest every time he tries to get it out. It’s so silly. He just yelled to a room full of his friends and family that he loves her, and now he’s sitting right in front of her and he just can’t.
“.. I know that you mean a lot to me, El”
El grabs Mike's hands with her own, and shivers run through his body like lightning.
“You mean a lot to me too, Mike.”
El doesn’t want to make him beat around the bush anymore. It’s pointless. And she also has something to say.
“And I’m sorry too.”
Mike, who’s finally calmed down a bit, replies, “What are you sorry for?”
“For breaking up and making you sad, when all you’ve ever done is be nice and help me. I don’t want to be broken up.”
“I don't wanna be broken up either”, Mike smiles, tilting his head.
“And.. Mike?”
“Yeah?”
El looks down for just a moment, because she fears she’ll lose the courage to do what she wants to do if she looks him in the eyes.
“I love you too”
Mike’s jaw falls, and he blinks a couple times before not closing them for what feels like minutes, and El doesn’t quite know what to make of it. She eventually leans over and puts a soft innocent kiss to his check, and that seems to bring him back from wherever he was.
“When did you know what I was talking about?” Mike asks, still taken aback.
“I had an idea about it when you brought it up. I kinda - I kinda heard what you said when you were talking to Max. I just wanted you to say it to me.” El admits, a bit embarrassed.
Mike's jaw drops even more.
El starts laughing at his reaction, she can’t contain it anymore.
“So you were just messing with me before?” Mike asks, smiling because El is.
“I just wanted to hear you say it”
“Well..” Mike starts, looking right into Els' eyes. He reaches out for her face, and pulls a loose piece of hair behind her ears. “Then you’re in luck..” He cups her face with his hand and softly kisses her lips. It’s short lived, but El thinks it feels like laying in freshly washed bed sheets, and soft pillows.
“Because I love you, El”.