we go down together

✈︎

Today would be their last fun day together. The next day would include packing up most of El's things, but this was one of their last days together and for sure they would make it count. They wouldn't waste a single second without being with each other.

Mike had spent the night at her house the day before, as he would for the next two days. Something he adored just as much as falling asleep with her by his side, was waking up with her. Somehow she always had a small smile on her lips as she was glued to his side, her arms wrapped around him and her head resting on his chest and Mike couldn't help but stare until she woke up.

The bright sunlight peeked through the side of her curtains and landed right on her face, making her features glow even more than usual. Mike's hand that was resting by her head found its way to her soft, golden curls and he gently played with it in his fingers. It was always a miracle to him how it was so soft, like he was touching the finest of silk.

Somehow she was always in the center of his head, even when he was sleeping, all he thought about was her. Not bad things, not at all, more like the playful and happy side Mike knew best. Sometimes it was different things in his dreams, but lately all of his dreams had been nothing but bad. They weren't happy, or playful, or nice dreams at all. It was one of his worst fears, her getting torn away from him.

The past week all of his dreams were of different things revolved around her getting somehow slipping out of his grip. Mike hadn't told her about the dreams, trying to wake up as quiet as possible, not letting anything out, for he didn't want her to worry about him. He wanted to be the least of her worries but that wouldn't be the case.

El was worried about Mike, she knew he would be devastated once she left for Italy but she didn't know how bad he would really get. Ever since she found out she was going to Italy this summer, worrying about him was all she ever did. What if something happened and she wasn't there for him?

She would never forgive herself if something happened to him and the cause of it was her.

But now here she is, fast asleep, the worry out of her mind for now until she woke up. Which would not be long until she did, but in the meantime Mike could enjoy his time with her because in two days she would be gone.

Soon enough the sun in her face got too irritating and her eyes fluttered open. She brought her hand up to her eyes and rubbed the sleep off of them, before glancing up to Mike who was staring at the ceiling, trying to act like he was not just staring at her for 15 minutes.

She squirmed out of his hold, which he disagreed with a small whine but El ignored it as she walked to her bathroom. If she didn't leave sooner she might have peed her pants, and neither of them wanted that, but soon enough she returned. El jumped right back onto her bed and cuddled up next to him again.

"Hi." She greeted warmly, "Hi." He replied, slightly moving his head so he was staring at her now. "How did you sleep?" She asked, unaware of the awful nightmare he had. "Good," He knew it was bad to lie to her, and honestly he was surprised how she hadn't noticed it yet.

"Dream about me?" She teased, "Always." Mike replied with a chuckle. El then turned so she was laying on her stomach and rested her head on his arm, "So, what are we doing today?" She asked. "Um, I don't know what-"

"Great because I want to go rollerskating." She interrupted. Mike groaned, "Rollerskating? You know I suck ass at that!"

"Exactly! I would like to see how silly you look on skates!" She exclaimed. "Elllll.." Mike whined, he knew what he would look like roller skating and it wasn't very pleasing. His long legs would scramble all over and he would definitely fall multiple times due to his clumsiness.

"Please?" But then again, he couldn't say no to her.

"Fine." He huffed making El's face light up with joy. "Yes! I knew you wouldn't say no." She giggled, Mike mumbled something inherently before speaking up. "Why do you find joy in my misery?"

"Because it's funny!" She giggled, smiling brightly up at him. "It is not, but whatever. Let's get up then." He sighs, already trying to sit up but not before El pulled him right back down. "It's only like... noon. I want to sleep for another hour!" El whined, "Only noon? I've been up for hours waiting for your lazy ass to wake up." Mike scoffed.

El grumbled. "Okaaay.." Finally giving in, she sat up and crawled out of her warm bed. "Ugh, I have to start packing soon." El groans as she glances at the suitcases set next to her closet. Mike looks at the suitcases and he could feel his heart get heavy, why did she have to pick the farthest art school possible? Couldn't she pick one like.. 10 minutes away? Surely there had to be one closer than Italy!

El saw his change in expression and ran over to him and hugged him, "No emo Mike yet, okay?" She whispered, clinging to him like a koala. Mike nodded silently and tried not to look over at the suitcases again, it would only remind her how far away she's going.

4,765 miles to be exact.

"Okay," She started, pulling away from him, "I'm hungry, want to eat?" Mike smiled at her and nodded again. The pair walked out of her room and into the kitchen, because Hopper was at work they were home alone like most days. El opened up the freezer, "When all else fails, Eggo's." She says, pulling out the familiar yellow box with the bright red label, and holds it out to Mike.

"How many would you like, good sir?" She asks, pulling the plastic open and walking to the toaster. "Just 2." Mike replies with a small yawn. "Just 2!?" El repeats. "Yeah..?" Mike responds, rather confused.

"This is a fine morning and you just want 2 Eggo's? No, no, I will serve you the finest Eggo Extravaganza you've ever seen!" She exclaims, putting a few frozen waffles into the silver toaster. Mike chuckles at her attempt to cheer him up, and like always, it worked. She always put a smile on his face no matter how grim the situation.

After waiting for about 10 minutes, the waffles popped out of the toaster, each side a golden brown. El carefully plucked them out of the toaster and put them onto a plate, smothering it with whipped cream, Hershey Kisses, and a bunch of another candies she could find, topping it all off with a red cherry.

"I present to you," She says, placing the plate in front of him. "The Hopper special." She says, throwing a fork and knife onto the table before going to cook her own Eggo's. "Oh this looks... delicious." Mike mumbles, in all honesty it looked disgusting. Only a child of 4 would enjoy this meal.

Then there was El. Who liked everything childish and was a toddler at heart. It just took the right person to bring it out, that person being Mike.

When El was waiting for her Eggo's to cook she turned back to Mike, who still hadn't tried it yet. "Go on, eat it!" She said, a bright smile taking up most of her face. Mike gulped as he looked down at it, "El I'm going to be honest, this looks.." He looked back up towards her and saw that her smile faltered slightly, knowing he'd say something bad. "This looks amazing." He finished, stabbing his fork into the pile of waffles and cut out a big piece and stuck the fork into his mouth.

The flavors all combined into one, it was incredibly sweet and just tasted like plain sugar, but just too much sugar. He chewed it slowly, trying to process all of the flavors and then swallowed her harshly. That was awful, but he would never tell her that.

"Just as great as it looks." He said making El grin. Luckily she couldn't see through this lie. "Oh yay! I'm so glad you like it, I honestly don't know why you haven't had one of these before."

After that it wasn't too long until her own Eggo's were done and she made another sugary mess. After her Eggo Extravaganza was finished, she sat don across from Mike and began eating it like it wasn't 8,000 calories.

After they finished eating, Mike tried not to throw it up and somehow managed to keep it down, and they went back to El's room to get ready for their day. Mike sat on El's now neatly made bed and watched her try to find something to wear for the day.

"What about this one?" El asks, holding a yellow shirt out towards Mike. "It's fine, just like the hundred others.. why does it even matter what you wear? Who are you trying to impress there, Picasso?" Mike accused, pointing a suspicious finger at her.

"No one! When have I ever been interested in anyone? And besides, you are the only boy that I speak to and you'd probably know if I was talking to anyone." El sighed. "Hey I wouldn't know if you met some random dude and agreed to meet him at the roller skating place, then you would ditch him for me and then you'd move to Italy and never come back and I'd be stuck here-"

"Mike." El said, which stopped his rambling, "Yeah?"

"You're the most important thing to me in the world, I would never ditch you. Ever." She said, giving him a reassuring smile.

"Well okay.. if you say so.." Mike says, his cheeks burning with a crimson color. "Okay now, help me pick out a shirt. You're the one I need to impress," El teases with a sly wink. Mike rolled his eyes, he didn't have to remind El that no matter what she did, he was always impressed with her.

After a while, El still hadn't decided on a shirt so Mike just agreed on the last one she showed him, which was a plain green t-shirt. She finally got changed and brushed her hair and teeth and they could get going now. It was late afternoon so the skate ring was probably crowded with teenagers now.

The car ride there was short since it was only a few minutes away from her house, but when they did arrive, the parking lot was filled with cars and the people from all ages were entering and exiting the building.

"Great now all of Hawkins can watch me fall right on my face!" Mike huffed as he parked the car and unbuckled his seatbelt, El doing the same thing.

"It will be fine! I will help you up in you fall." El said, walking around the back of the car to meet him on the other side. Together they walked inside of the building and waited in the long line. When they got to the front of the line Mike pulled out his wallet and quickly paid for the two before El could protest.

After Mike paid they walked over to the counter here they would get their skates and a worker sa them and walked up to help them. "What size shoe?" He asked them, "6" El replied, the worker nodded and looked to Mike. "Uh, 11"

He nodded, "Stay right here, I'll be back." He turned around a disappeared into the isle of skates, coming back after a few minutes with 2 pairs of skates, handing one pair to Mike and one pair to El.

"Have a nice day!" El chirped as she grabbed her skates and went to find an open seat so she could try them on. She found a seat and Mke sat in the one next to hers and they both pulled off their shoes and tried the skates on.

El stood up, wobbling slightly as she did so but the skates fit her comfortably and then she glanced to Mike who was tieing the the laces on his. When he finished he gave El a hesitant look, "I'm going to kill myself on these things."

"No you won't! Here, take my hands," El says, gliding over to him with ease and holding her hands out for him. Mike grabbed her hands and she helped pull him out of the seat. When he was standing El grinned up at him, now he was even taller than her. "See, it's not that bad."

"I'm just standing."

"Well, come on let's just practice moving around before we go on the actual floor." El suggests, moving over to his side and locking their arms together. "If you go down, we go down together." She confirmed, Mike nodded. "We go down together.." He echoes quietly.

"Alright.. let's do this!" She exclaims. After a few minutes of explaining it to him, and showing him how easy it was for her to glide around the carpeted floor, he somewhat understood and claimed he was ready to try it on his own.

El went back to his side and looked at him, he gave her a nod and out one foot forward and slowly started moving. "Yes! You got it," She said, moving along with him. He was slowly starting to get it, the key was to pick up your feet as little a possible, he let the skates to most of the work as he slowly moved around the carpeted area.

"Okay.. you ready to go to the actual ring?" El asked, Mike nodded and they made their way over to the colorful skating rink where people were zipping around, and most people were stuck on the wall.

"I'm ready, let's do it." Mike said, El nodded and she stepped out onto the shiny, polished floor. Mike stepped out onto it next, it was more slippery that he expected. When he took a step forward to go further on the floor, his foot slipped and soon he was falling backwards, bringing El with him.

Mike landed harshly on his back, but the next thing he knew, El landed right on top of him.

The moment their eyes locked with each other Mike felt like he might melt right then and there into the floor. Everything else seemed to stop, there was no one else but them there. The only thing separating them now was El's hand on the ground right next to his head, she was using it to hold herself up. But right now Mike really wished that her hand wasn't there.

It felt like they were there for forever, but it wasn't until someone yelled at them when they finally got out of their daze. "Uh.. s-sorry." El muttered quickly before standing up and holding her hand out for him to get up.

Mike cleared his throat, "it's fine.. we uh, go down together right?"

Yeah but not like that. His mind said for him.

"Right.. is your head okay? It looked like you hit it pretty hard."

He hadn't even noticed.

Mike put his hand to the back of his head and winced slightly, "Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Are you sure? I could go get you some ice.. I'm sure they have it." El offers, mostly because she still needed to process what the hell just happened and why she felt weird after getting up. "Yes, I'll be fine." Mike repeats.

El nods, "Should we get back to skating then?"

"Yeah.. I'm just going to stick to the wall until I know I'm not going to fall over again." Mike says, chuckling awkwardly. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom, but i'll be back and you better be some olympic skater." El jokes, making Mike roll her eyes and then she skates off the floor and right over to the bathroom.

When she entered the bathroom there was no one else there surprisingly, so she skated over to the mirror and put her hands on the sink. "Okay, what the fuck." She muttered out loud. Why did she suddenly feel weird? This is Mike, her best friend, she shouldn't feel as weird as she does right now.

It was like something clicked inside of her.

No, I'm just thinking irrationally. It's fine. Yeah, I'm just stressed for the trip and I'm worried about Mike. That's what it is. I'm just worried for him. That's all. Just nerves.

Finally convincing herself she sighed and splashed some cold water onto her face and then dried it with a paper towel before heading back out to see Mike no longer clinging to the wall. He was surprisingly doing pretty good by himself, he wasn't going too fast, nor too slow. When he saw her emerge from the bathroom he skated over to her.

"You okay? You were in there for a while." Mike asks, concern lacing his tone of voice. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. The toilet wasn't working so I had to flush it a few times before it did work."

Mike nodded, "Oh, okay.. Well I can actually skate now!" Mike says, changing the subject. El grins, "I knew you could do it, now, let's see how well you can do it with a partner!" She giggles as she steps out onto the polished floor. Mike laced their fingers together and they started gliding around the arena.

El watched as people zipped past her, some skating backwards, some spinning and twirling. There was always those show offs at the roller skating rink. "I don't understand how people do that," El says, pointing to one girl who was spinning around in the middle.

"Yeah I could never do that with these stick legs." Mike chuckles, "Your stick legs can't do shit." El laughed.

"Well, screw them, they just came here to show off." Mike scoffed, bringing his attention back to El. "Right.. anyway, I'm going to finish packing most of my things tomorrow, want to come over?" El asks, reluctantly glancing at him.

Mike frowned, of course he would say yes but it would only remind him further that she was leaving and how much he would need to prepare himself for the day she was leaving.

"Of course."

Author's Note:

ok fuck endings.

anyway hiii :) sorry this took me a while, had to sort some things out, but I have the chapter of when El leaves finished so the next 2 chapters shouldn't take me long. Also, since it will probably take me another 5 years to update Puppy Love, I just wanted to tell you (that read it) that there will only be about 3 or 4 more chapters left :/

but i have a new fic planned and I'm ready for this one to finally take off! Italy here El comes!