Work Text:
Mike & El/Jane - Hopper's cabin, Post S-4.
He knocks on the door three times, waits before a fourth and comes in upon hearing her voice, Mike hair is unkempt, wild curls flying in all directions almost as if he had spent the whole night with his hands harshly tugging at them.
He looks at her, fondness and sadness both seemingly battling in the midst of his dark brown eyes, she silently waves for him to come closer.
He sits besides her on the bed and takes a breath, then two and three, his head falls forward into his hands, a frustrated groan filling the air.
Jane frown and lean towards him, concern hitched over her soft features.
"Mike? What's wrong?" She ask, her lips pressed thinly together, a voice, reflection of her own, telling her that she knows exactly what's wrong resounding at the back of her head.
"El, I,...you know I do love you El, right?" He turns towards her with determination, his hands are closed into fists, they are trembling and mike try as hard as he can to not notice just how scared he is right now, because for all that both him and El needs to have this conversation he does not want to lose her.
Jane eyes narrow slightly and her whole body tenses, much like when one holds their breath for too long, though in a matter of second it becomes a sight long gone as the girl exhales and unconsciously tips her head to the right.
"yes, mike I know, you have told me during the piggyback" she sounds tired, somewhat resigned, the way a person is when they're speaking of something they don't particularly want to talk about.
Mike, for his part, feels as if he's on the edge of a cliff and about to throw himself over,...he think that this might be what he needs, after so long fighting over himself, to just...trust things would turn out fine for once and make the jump, to make a leap of faith.
"yes! yes I have, but El the thing is... The thing is that, what I said at the time, it, I don't think it was entirely true, I... I know most of it isn't."
Now Jane's frowning intensely and mike can see it coming from a mile away, her famous "friends don't lie!" and it's true, they don't lie or at least they shouldn't do so conscientiously
"Not that I was lying lying because I wasn't, I just, at that moment I hadn't realized that what I said wasn't true, i didn't know, I swear I didn't!" Mike blurts out earnestly, so earnestly that Jane find herself believing him.
" okay!" She respond softly and nod at him to continue
"I, what I said back then in a way it was both true and not true because, I was saying it while responding to something I thought you felt or was thinking, but it wasn't actually your feelings I was going off on, but someone else's and when I figured that part out and thought it through,...that's when I figured it all out!!"
El is confused, she is very confused, that sentiment is probably showing on her face, she thinks, because mike starts telling her of many things, starting with a painting she had apparently commissioned but actually hadn't and for a second she's even more confused before figuring out multiple things at once, as the boy monologue kept progressing:
Firstly, the famous painting she had told Mike about in one of her letters, the one will wouldn't let her see, had actually been for mike, and will had lied saying the painting had been from her and mike had apparently believed him at first, despite said letter, -but Jane knew that it was more due to the Mike instinctively believing will would never lie to him, than anything else-.
Secondly, she is pretty sure will has feeling for mike, because it would explain many, many things and she's also pretty sure her brother has a tendency to sacrifice himself, which, she really wished he didn't have and has a grand need to rid him of.
Lastly, Mike's eyes are looking very shiny and enamored, another word for loving will said, a com-pa-ri-son, when talking about will.
In fact his voice seem to have gone really soft too, and he's not even just talking about the painting anymore, he's talking about meeting will on a swing set, about how meeting will was still the best thing he's ever done, that meeting El was great and he was really glad he did, but he doesn't think his life actually started the day he met her and he shouldn't have told her that back during the piggyback because it was really shitty not just to her but also to Will and he had apologized about it to him already but he thought he should do it again because Mike was pretty sure his life started the first time Will smiled at him as if he was someone precious to him, someone that made him feel safe.
Jane can see that Mike is starting to slightly panic -or a lot- because he can't seem to be able to stop talking about Will right now, except that's not quite true because mike has always been incapable of shutting up about Will, El doesn't think she would have enough hands to demonstrate just how many times she has seen this precise event occur when around mike, because he has a real talent in turning absolutely any and all conversation about trivial things into a "will conversation " as Lucas would say, often Dustin would answer that Will is exactly the same if only dialed down to about a 70% instead of Mike 200% and after having lived for 6 month with her brother she can and will say that it's entirely true.
Even more so, El would said that Will and Mike have always been different towards each other, as if the moment they lock eyes, they are the only being to exist in the world, even with how mike seemed to try really hard to concentrate all of himself on her when she was around so as to avoid the mere thought of will, which never really worked and perhaps mike had simply gave up on fighting himself and what he truly want and this is why they are even having this conversation and really how did she not realize this before, it is baffling to her to not have seen it before,....
Facing her, mike is standing very still, his thought are milling about in much the same fashion as the girl facing him and yes, maybe he is panicking or having a breakdown because he has stopped talking and El isn't answering at all and it's been five minutes, going on six not to add that he's fairly certain he's about to cry or scream or both.
Mike is choking, all concrete thought have left his brain, only rocks remain, one could even hear the wind sing inside of his brain if they were to strain they ears just a little more.
He clears his throat once, twice, his mouth as dry as a California summer, his ears keeps ringing and...if he's honest with himself which he really tries to be lately for a change, mike doesn't want to lie to El, because yes this is a break up conversation and in spite of everything and anything el is and always will be one of his best friends.
So, with his chocolate eyes shining even more, brimmed full with tears , he tells her
" yeah, yeah I do, I really want to El"
She looks at him, she smiles and she doesn't fully know why herself but... Jane is so proud, she's so proud of this boy, tall and gangly, somewhat awkward in his own skin much like many other teenagers out there, as she's found out in Lenora, this boy who's been hiding for so long and made so many mistake and is, despite the gut wretching fear, here, trying!
Mike is trying to make things right for her, for himself and she knows this, for will too possibly.
But Jane doesn't know how to express all of this yet, maybe she will one day but not yet and she doesn't want to say something wrong, doesn't want to hurt mike, who is the first friend she made -after that kind man who died because of her-, the first to have told her that she wasn't the monster and tried to give her an actual home and family and succeeded for the latter.
Mike looks at his ex-girlfriend, softly smiling at him, upon feeling a touch on his hands he lower his gaze to find her hands curling around his kindly and something unclench itself in his chest, it's exploding and freeing itself all at once with relief and such a deep sense of safety and love that he falls forward as if he had been chained his whole life and finally, finally he was free.
Quietly, as if afraid of disrupting the peace gently wafting around them, Mike burrows himself in her arms and slowly sways them from right to left, and this is quiet and beautiful, such a sweet moment between them that they start laughing and crying as they realize that a tension they weren't even aware was there fully left them, El push back from the hug and with a subtle smile on her face look back to Mike and says with a voice full of humor
"i dump your ass!" At those words mike let out a snort which kick-start him into a giggling fit that quickly spread to Jane.
And for a moment, Vecna doesn't exist anymore, the giant cross shaped gate or something which destroyed half of Hawkins and apparently started another apocalypse doesn't exist anymore, just them, two person who finally were honest with each other and themselves.