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Mike is humiliated. This is just beyond embarrassing. That's one of the only emotions he really feels these days. That and sadness. And maybe anger. Scratch that, definitely anger.
It's not that he's really angry at anyone in particular, just the world, and his current situation. Max still isn't awake (Mike is seriously doubting if she ever will be) and you can't go outside without saying goodbye to all the people you love, “just in case something happens” as
Nancy puts it.
Oh and he's hiding in the corner of the upstairs bathroom.
The hiding is the humiliating part.
Mike's also crying which certainly doesn't help. He hates crying, it makes him feel weak and fragile, when he's not. It's not like he’s wracking with sobs—now that would be really embarrassing. More just…constant tears falling down his cheeks. And he’s tried to stop, but he just can’t.
That's why he isn't going to get out of the bathroom anytime soon. Nobody would want to see him like this. He rubs at his eyes. Then again. And again. He lets out a frustrated grunt. Great. Now his eyes burn, and his eyes overcompensate with more tears.
That's another thing Mike hates about crying. How he can’t see anything. When it's like this, the tears are welling up too much and too often and his eyes get the kind of blurry that even glasses can’t fix. He lowers his head into the divots of his knees, it's better than trying to pretend he can see the scene in front of him.
God, how did this even happen? His day started off relatively normal. Well, as normal as it can get when you live on the brink of a crazy fucking weird apocalypse.
He woke up, brushed his teeth, got dressed in the same comfortable sweater he wore the day before (who cares? Everyone is doing the same), had breakfast. Not a good breakfast, but a breakfast, which is more than he expects most days.
He's not really sure where it all went to shit. Mike doesn't really have bad days anymore. In the earlier days, probably the couple months after Cali, he would lash out on everyone for anything and everything. But after El broke up with him, he doesn't feel that outward anger like when they were dating anymore. It kind of just stews inside him, and it stays there, which—in Mike's opinion—is much better than how it was. The issue is that he feels numb to a lot of things now. He isn't really there anymore. Of course he's physically there. But never mentally. Nowadays, it's hard to keep up with the rest of the group (planning for the end of the world is hard, sue him).
Mike also can't be there for other people, which is frustrating. I mean, he wasn't very good at being there for people in the first place, but at least he could try back then. He's worried for El especially. Without Max, she's a shell of who she once was. Mike doesn't think that's an extreme statement. She doesn't talk to anyone, except to Hopper, but even that's sparse. El is good at listening though. She’s very attentive during the tri-weekly meetings they all have. Mike wishes he could be there for her, but he really just can't. Maybe there’s some sort of mental block, or something.
Realistically, he knows he can't cry forever. Like, his body probably has a limit, right? There's only so much water a body can lose. Mike raises his head and reaches up to feel his cheek, finding it mostly dry. The blurriness clears from his eyesight but Mike rubs his eyes one more time, just for good measure. Ow.
He gets to his knees and walks towards the sink. He splashes his face with cold water then buries his face in a towel. He doesn't really want to look at his reflection. He looks up anyways, and puffy eyes stare back. Well, Mike's gonna be very bored for the next hour or so. He has to stay in here at least long enough for the redness to go away. Why didn't he bring a comic in with him?
From outside the bathroom, Mike can hear a bell ring inside the house. A very familiar bell.
“Shit,” Mike whispers under his breath. There goes waiting in here as long as it takes to look like a normal person again. All he can wish for is for nobody to notice the glaring red color around the rims of his eyes.
That bell is what Hopper likes to call ‘the meeting bell’ (Mike doesn’t think Hopper is very creative, especially when it comes to naming things). Usually the bell ringing signifies that it’s one of the three meetings of a week. But that doesn’t make any sense. They had a meeting this morning.
That means either two things: Mike is somehow wrong about the morning meeting, or someone had a breakthrough. Hell, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was the first option, lately Mike can’t even remember what day it is. But god does he hope it’s a breakthrough of some kind. They've been stuck in a whirlwind of what if’s for months, it would be nice to actually know something.
Mike quickly unlocks the door and opens it, feeling a strange sense of urgency. He makes it to the staircase and practically gallops down the set of stairs, not without tripping a little at the base.
“Ah shit,” he says. He supposes ‘shit’ is just the word of the day. Luckily for him, it seems everyone has gathered in the living room rather than being around to see him almost fall onto his face.
He brushes himself off and swiftly turns the corner and…who the hell is that? He halts to a stop. A rosy cheeked girl with striking red hair looks to him, along with the rest of the group.
“Ha, ok I think everyone is here then,” Robin pipes up nervously, clearly the reason the group gathered in the first place.
Mike continues to the living room, and decides to awkwardly stand behind an already full couch. Most everyone is sitting on the couches or on the floor, but a couple stragglers—well, actually just Jonathan and him (why did Argyle get a spot on a couch and not Jonathan? Next to Nancy even, what the hell?)—are closer to the wall. Jonathan doesn’t look too bothered, though. There's a high (ha) chance that he’s been smoking.
Robin looks especially fidgety right now, switching between clasping and unclasping her hands, and messing with the collar of her shirt. It’s making Mike antsy to do something with his hands as well. It might relieve the nervous energy within the room for him, but his parents made it a point to tell him that fidgeting like that made him look bad. He was never entirely sure what kind of bad, but bad is bad regardless of what kind.
Most of the time he got away with playing with his hair after his mom gave up on forcing a haircut, but that's no use since he’s gotten one. Mike misses his long hair. Fuck.
Robin clears her throat and looks to the redheaded girl, who smiles. “I just wanted to introduce you all to…” she trails off.
Then, “Uh, this is Vickie.” Robin gives sort of lame jazz hands in Vickie’s direction and Vickie laughs into her hand.
“It’s nice to meet you all,” she waves and looks back at Robin, who inches closer until the two of them are touching arms.
“Well this is it,” Robin whispers, albeit terribly. “She’s….mygirlfriend.” she says the last part all jumbled up and quick, barely coherent enough.
Mike short circuits.
What?
“Hell yeah!” Mike can hear someone say (Steve maybe?). But nothing matters. His friends erupt into cheers for Robin and her girlfriend. Her girlfriend. Romantically. Oh god has it always been stuffy in here?
Nobody even took time to question, it’s all hugs and congratulations. It feels like time has stopped, or maybe fast forwarding? Has it been seconds, minutes, hours? Mike feels like he doesn’t know anything anymore, except for a gnawing feeling of anxiety.
He has to get out of here.
Mike does what he does best, and he runs.
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───
Robin is very overwhelmed, in the best way possible. Truly anything could’ve happened when she said those three words. Fights could have broken out, or maybe awful accusations, or just general disappointment. Hell, even seriously bad things could have happened to Vickie, and Robin wouldn't have forgiven herself. Ever.
But here she is instead, feeling more love and acceptance than she’s felt in a long time. She couldn't be happier. Robin doesn’t think she’s gotten this many hugs in one place before.
“I am so happy for the two of you,” Steve says with a soft smile on his face, and goddammit Harrington is not going to make Robin cry. It might already be too late though, she can feel the hot tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. She’s overwhelmed with love, warmness is welling up in her heart, and Vickie is still holding her hand occasionally rubbing her thumb across Robin’s rough knuckles.
“Ah jeez, sorry guys this is just a lot,” Robin says wiping at her face with her free hand.
“Oh sweetheart it’s alright, let us know if we’re crowding you too much,” Joyce gentle voice cuts through the excited buzzing emanating off the circle of people now around her and Vickie.
“Thanks Ms. Byers,” Robin looks to a grinning Vickie, “we really appreciate it.”
“Finally we have some good news,” Lucas says softly.
“Yeah it really brightens up the place–metaphorically of course–I don’t think those dark clouds outside will ever go away.” Dustin smiles and bumps Lucas’ shoulder, which provokes a small smile to form on his face.
“Oh shit,” Steve says quietly from Robin's left side, “Wheeler doesn't seem to be taking the news too well.” Steve frowns.
Robin looks over just in time to see Mike sprinting away from the scene. The circle gets quiet, all looking to where he ran off.
“Who pissed in his Cheerios?” Erica folds her arms and shakes her head.
Nancy rolls her eyes, “God, sorry Robs, I’ll talk to him. I didn’t think our dad actually rubbed off on him.”
Robin frowns at this. To her at least, it seemed Mike would be chill with the whole being gay thing seeing as…well…Robin doesn’t want to assume anything, but she’s like ninety-five percent sure he’s some sort of gay.
Like he’s gotta be right? There’s no way to explain the way he interacts with the Byers kid if he’s not. Not to mention, Robin’s hunches are usually correct.
“Don’t worry Nance, I’ll talk to him.” Nancy frowns, and Steve looks really concerned.
Steve furrows his eyebrows, “Are you sure? What if he tries something?”
“Psh, I think I’m like a hundred times stronger than he is, I've got it Steve.” Robin gives her best ‘it’ll be fine’ smile—whatever that’s supposed to look like—and walks in the direction Mike went off to.
Vickie grabs her shoulder on her way out, “Be careful anyways.”
“I will,” Robin presses a quick kiss to her cheek which gets several ‘awws’ from the Argyle–Jonathan corner. Robin rolls her eyes fondly.
It’s weird to her how close she feels already to everyone after coming out. It’s like she just gained like seven more Steve’s. Although, actually, Robin doesn't think anyone can come close to the weird friendship Steve and her have. He will always be the first one she came out to, and she will be forever grateful for all he’s done for her. Robin shakes her head. There’s a situation at hand she needs to be worrying about.
Mike went in the vague direction of the stairs so she tries there first. Robin treks up the creaky steps and hears a ruffling noise coming from the bathroom. She smirks to herself, who knew it would be that easy to find the runaway Wheeler? Robin pauses in front of the door, just about to knock before she realizes something. After the rollercoaster of emotions that was her coming out and the resulting high that it turned out to be, she has no idea what to say to this kid.
Maybe her hunch is wrong after all, and Mike is just super homophobic. Nancy did say something about their dad ‘rubbing off on him,’ which already isn’t a good sign. But…
Robin sighs audibly. She thinks back to all of the times she made note of Mike's interactions with Will. He’s just so…different with him. The normal grouchiness is completely gone when Mike talks to him. It’s night and day, really.
Robin takes a deep breath and tries to gather her courage just like she did earlier today. She knocks twice.
“Uh–occupied,” Robin hears Mike call out. She can hear faint sniffling, “Sorry.”
Robin feels a little guilty, maybe she should just leave the poor kid alone. There’s more small sniffles, and Robin realizes that if her hunch is correct then she’d be making a big mistake in not trying to help.
“You’re not like actually shitting in there, right?” Robin grimaces outside the door. Why did she lead with that? “I mean, like–” she cuts herself off, there’s no fixing this. Robin says much softer, “Can I just come in?”
God must really like her today because the door unlocks with a click and opens slightly. Mike peeks from behind the door, like a toddler hiding behind a pair of legs. He looks past Robin, clearly cautious of anyone who might jump out from behind her.
His face is a little red, and his eyes shine with tears. And by the way Mike’s looking at her, Robin half expects him to slam the door in her face.
He doesn't though, instead he looks away and steps to the side bringing the door with him to let her in. Robin smiles awkwardly and walks in. Mike steps back to face her. They stand across from each other and Mike shifts uncomfortably. Robin, who’s decided she’s done with this bullshit, closes the door behind her and slumps down onto the tiled floor. She pats the tile next to her, gesturing for him to sit down. “C’mon Wheeler, let’s talk,” she says in her best welcoming voice. It comes across well enough, because Mike sits down next to her, albeit looking down at the floor. There’s a beat of silence and Robin considers speaking up again before–
“I’m really sorry.”
Robin doesn’t miss a beat, “It’s okay, I just want to understand–”
Mike interrupts, and it feels like a dam breaks, “I mean I would’ve reacted differently if I knew how badly that looked, but it was just so in the moment and–” he chokes up, then continues, “and god, I really am happy for you but like, everyone was so…so, okay with it I guess? It really caught me off guard. Shit, sorry I sound like a blabbering idiot right now.”
Robin blinks once, then twice. Mike finally looks to her, probably expecting her to say something.
“Believe me, Wheeler. I was not expecting everyone to be okay with it either. I guess all that trauma bonding made those small towners not homophobic anymore.” Robin laughs to herself, praying to god this tactic will make him feel better. She is not good with comforting sad little kids. Well, not that she sees Mike as a little kid, but she isn’t much better at comforting sad little teenagers either.
“Yeah I guess,” Mike smiles a bit. It quickly turns back into a frown. “Too bad the rest of this shitty town isn’t like that.”
Robin lets out a breath, “It would be a hell of a lot easier to kiss my girlfriend in public if that were the case.” She puts a hand on her forehead and leans back dramatically, “But instead I’m stuck fighting my brain to control myself. She’s just too irresistible.” Mike audibly laughs at this, filling Robin’s chest with pride.
They settle into a comfortable silence. Mike looks much better than he did, so Robin considers it a win. Mike is still a little tense, and clearly there’s still words being left unsaid. But Robin can handle that another day. Coming out was enough already, she doesn't want to mentally exert herself. She stands up and offers out her hands to Mike.
“Everyone is probably starting to get worried,” she says smiling.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Mike takes her hands and pulls himself up.
“Don’t worry about explaining anything,” Robin says, opening the door. “I’ll handle it.” She gives him double thumbs up before leaving the bathroom, not too concerned if he follows her or not.
Robin’s excited to get back to the warm embrace of her friends, and her girlfriend. Something she’ll finally be able to say out loud.