your world

Song: Just the Two of Us by Grover Washington Jr.

✈︎

"Rise and shine, lovebirds!" Sofia said loudly as she barged into the room, turning the lights on in the process. El groaned and pushed her face into her pillow, Mike mumbled something at Sofia which sounded like: "Go away" but the blond couldn't really tell.

"Guys please, it's nearly noon!" She scoffed, flopping herself dramatically on the edge of El's bed. "Whatever," mumbled Mike. "Um not whatever. We're going to an aquarium today and Anthony is coming to pick us up in an hour, so get up!"

"An aquarium?" El mumbled, lifting her head and squinting at her friend. "Yes. An aquarium. You know it has fish in it?" She said sarcastically.

"I know what it is." El said groggily.

"Great. Now get up before I separate you two."

"How are you going to go about doing that, blondie?" Mike asked with a yawn.

"I don't know! Don't doubt me, though. And don't call me blondie!"

El rolled her eyes, "Okay.. guess we should get up, then. C'mon," El said, sitting up and tapping Mike's nose. "I'm still tired." He pouted.

"You've been sleeping since 1 o'clock yesterday, it is now past noon. That's over a full 24 hours, how can you still be tired?!"

"I don't know," He shrugged before pulling her by the waist so she was laying next to him again. "Mike, seriously. We have to get up! I look like a mess, and I need to shower." She huffed, sitting up again.

"You look beautiful and you smell fine, don't leavee!" He whined.

"I'm leaving, so get up and get ready. We've already wasted like 10 minutes."

Mike huffed. "Fine."

"I put your suitcase over there, find something to wear." El instructed as she walked over to the bathroom.

"Yeah, yeah." He dismissed, finally getting up. He found a random shirt and pants and quickly put them on before walking over to the kitchen where Sofia was sitting.

"You hungry?" She asked, putting her pencil down on her sketchbook. Now that he thought about it, he hasn't eaten anything since yesterday morning.

"Yeah." He responded, the feeling of his empty stomach was quick to return.

"Do you want toast? We have a few frozen waffles left.. um, oh I can make you eggs! We also have cereal but it's just Cheerios so nothing exciting. Whatever you want."

"Oh. I'll just have toast, I guess.." He replied quietly. "Okay what do you want on it. We have strawberry jelly, avocados, just butter.." Sofia suggested as he placed 2 slices of toast in the toaster. 

"Jelly is fine." Mike shrugged, sitting down at the counter. Sofia stood on the other side of the counter in front of Mike and crossed her arms. Mike looked at her curiously. "What?"

"So.."

"So..?" Mike repeated questionably, wondering why she was looking at him like that. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?" She asked innocently. Mike rolled his eyes, "C'mon spit it out."

Sofia shrugged and picked at her nails, annoying Mike further. "I was thinking last night.." She started. "And I was like.. 'Hm, how could I help the lovebugs out?' and then I was like.. 'Hm, I'll leave them alone tomorrow and see if anything happens' So, hold up on your part of it and just tell her!"

"I'm not doing it today."

"Why?!" Sofia whined.

"Because! I still don't know what I'm going to say."

" Stronzate! You know what you want to say, you just don't have the courage." Sofia accused.

"What?! Sofia, you have to put yourself in my place. After all of these years, practically our whole lives of being friends, I suddenly say something that changes everything. I'm going to be nervous okay? Just give me a few days."

She rolled her eyes and then the toast in the toaster popped up and she turned around to take them out. "You better not wait until the last day that you're here, because if you do that I will be pissed."

She set the toast in front of him. "I'm not going to, so no need to worry." He mumbled.

El finally walked out of the bathroom. She wore just a plain t-shirt and jean shorts, her damp hair pulled into a ponytail.

"Oh good, you got something to eat." She said, ruffling Mike's hair as she passed him and walked into the kitchen.

"Yep." Mike answered, biting into his last piece. "Anthony should be here any minute so grab any last minute essentials." Sofia announced, clapping her hands in excitement.

After a few minutes a knock on the door was heard and Sofia jumped up to answer it. She opened the door and immediately hugged her boyfriend before pulling him inside.

"Hey guys," He said with a friendly smile as he noticed Mike and El standing off to the side. "Hey, Anthony." El said with a wave.

"Ready to go?" Sofia asked, grabbing onto Anthony's hand. The group nodded their heads and they all walked out of the apartment and down to Anthony's car.

"Why are you so excited to go to an aquarium?" El asked curiously as they got in the car.

"Um, why wouldn't I be? Aquariums are great. Please tell me you've been to one."

"I have.. like 10 years ago." El chuckled. "Well I'm sure Mike here can make it your worth while." Sofia said as she turned around to smile at them, along with patting Mike's knee.

El rolled her eyes. "Is there an off button for you?" She mumbled.

"The person sitting right next to me, but I don't think you wanna see that." Sofia replied smugly.

"No, I don't." El muttered, turning to face Mike. "So, you excited to see some fish?" El asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, sure." Mike chuckled.

"There's this one fish called the-" Anthony started but Sofia quickly cut him off.

"Do not say it!"

"Fine..fine. Well anyways, it's called the slippery dick," He said quickly, snickering afterwards.

"Anthony!" Sofia scolded. "They gave young, innocent ears, do not blab that stuff out!"

"Sofia, we are literally the same age as you." Mike pointed out.

"Yes, but you are still living in lollipop land and your mind is still clean.. sooo.."

Mike and El rolled their eyes, not wanting to argue with her anymore so they stayed silent.

The drive to the aquarium wasn't bad, especially since they were all talking the whole time, but they finally made it. Much to their surprise, it wasn't that crowded.

They all walked inside and paid for their tickets before they entered the dimly lit building. "C'mon Anthony, I want to go see the sting rays!" Sofia said, grabbing her boyfriends hand and dragging him away before he got a say in anything.

El looked at Mike and smiled. "Well since they dipped on us, let's go look around."

She grabbed his hand before they began walking down a dark hallway that led to a room with tanks lining the walls. "Oh, Mike there are supposed to be sharks in this one!" She said pulling him towards a large tank filled with colorful corals and rocks.

Schools of fish were swimming all around the illuminated tank. The light gleamed off of the water and reflected out to the space in front of the tank where Mike and El were standing.

As El stared in wonder at the fish Mike let his stare linger on El. He watches as she smiles up at the fish passing by the glass and the way the water created kaleidoscope patterns all over her lightly freckled cheeks. His heart lights up whenever she sees something new, something she's never seen before, or when she pulls on his arm and points at a fish that she's seen. Of course Mike doesn't find it half as fascinating as she does, but that doesn't matter.

"Mike, look! It's one of the sharks!" She exclaimed as she got closer to the glass to see the big shark coming into view. She looked over at the description to where she would find the type of shark that she had seen.

"Ooh it's a cow shark!" She said, her eyes going back towards the glass to see if she could see anymore.

"I think we should name it." She announced as she turned to Mike. He quickly looked away.

"Yeah? What do you want to name it?"

"Hm. It looks like its name would be Fred."

"Fred?" Mike chuckled. "Yeah," She shrugged. "Fred the shark."

"Hm, good choice." He said making her chuckle.

"I wonder what Sofia's doing." El said out loud as she stared into the tank.

"She's probably yelling at Anthony not to grab something out of the tanks." Mike said honestly.

"Yeah, that's true. Oh, over there are the otters!" She said, pulling him towards a larger enclosure where small otters were swimming along the glass.

El's eyes lit up as she them, "Look at how cute! Don't you just want to cuddle it?" She said, putting her hand up to the glass.

"No, I want to cuddle you." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world (which it was).

El turned to look at him as she rolled her eyes. One of the otters came up to her hand and stared at it in curiosity. El smiled and moved her hand, and the otter followed her hand, going in whichever direction her hand went.

Mike smiled at her and watched in amusement as she played around with the small mammal. He came up behind her and rested his chin on top of hers and wrapped his arms around her torso and sighed.

"What are you doing?" She chuckled as she continued to play with the otter.

"I am using you as a headrest, my love. Also this is the closest I'm going to get to cuddling right now, so I'll do whatever I can."

She laughed, "Okay, Mike. You're very clingy today."

"Yes, I am. So give me attention."

"No, I'm giving Mr. Snuggles attention." She said. pointing towards the otter.

"Mr. Snuggles? Shouldn't that be me?"

"Nope."

"Wow, rude. I give you all of these nicknames and I don't get one."

"Nicknames are your thing, though." She commented, leaning into him more.

"But I would be happy to share my nicknames with you." Mike said, fiddling with her hands that had somehow managed to find their way on top of his.

El rolled her eyes, "I mean.. I guess I could."

"That's the spirit!" Mike exclaimed, making her smile.

"You are such a dork, Mike Wheeler." She giggled.

"But I'm your dork. Now, let's get moving, darlin'. Don't want to be late to pet some stingrays." He said sarcastically, making her roll her eyes.

They're hands connected as they walked down the dark hallway, stopping at a few fish tanks along the way.

When they made it out of one hallway, they reached two different hallways, one going one opposite direction than the other.

"Down that way are the seals...but down that way is the aqua tunnel." El said as she read the signs.

"What the hell is an aqua tunnel?" Mike wondered out loud. El shrugged and pulled him down that way.

"I don't know, but let's find out!"

They were in another dark hallway until they reached the end of it where it turned into a tunnel below all of the water where the fish, sharks and other things swam over and around them.

"Wow.." El said quietly as she looked all around her. All different types of sharks swam above the tunnel and multicolored fish peeked their heads out of corals. She didn't hesitate to pull Mike further into the tunnel as she wanted to see all of it.

"This is so cool!" She exclaimed as she spotted different things in the water. Mike's eyes were again lingering on her. Why should he care about cool looking fish when the most beautiful girl in the world was standing right next to him?

She was saying something, but Mike couldn't really pay attention. He wanted to, but he simply couldn't focus on her voice. She pulled him all through the tunnels as she pointed at different fish and said something about it before seeing something even better and making him look at it.

"What kind of fish do you think you would be?" El asked randomly.

"What?"

"Like if you were a fish. What kind would you be?"

Mike furrowed his eyebrows, how was he supposed to answer that if he barely knew any types of fish?

"Um.. I don't know. What would you want to be?"

"Probably like a jellyfish.. or a stingray. They just seem very free."

"Well in that case, I'd be whatever fish are. We can be fish together." Mike said as he smiled down at her.

"Yeah, that would be cool," She said quietly. They were standing face to face, El staring up at Mike and Mike staring down at El. El suddenly squinted and leaned up closer to his face. "Have you always had that there?" She asked, bringing her hand up to his neck and touching a small mole underneath his ear.

"Um..probably?"

"I've never seen it before," She said. El leaned away from him but her hand remain on his face. "You're very pretty, Mike."

"What?"

"You're pretty. Beautiful even." She said softly, touching his cheek lightly.

"Thanks..?" Mike replied, not really knowing what to say.

"No, I mean it. You are," She stated, nothing but seriousness in her tone. "Your freckles, your eyes, your hair.. everything about you, you know?"

"Wow, I'm flattered, love," He said, a grin stretching across his face. "But I don't know.. you're pretty beautiful there yourself."

El scoffed, "No, I am not." She mumbled as she began walking again.

Mike rolled his eyes before he ran up behind her and snaked his arms around her waist, slightly lifting her up to prevent her from walking away from him further.

"Do I really need to remind you, for the billionth time, of how pretty you are? Because I will not hesitate." He said, tickling her sides which made her squeal.

"Put me down!" She laughed, the sound echoing throughout the tunnel.

"Nope," He responded. "Since you obviously can't see it yourself, I guess I'll just start off at the top of the list for reasons why you are the most beautiful girl i've ever seen," He started, putting her back on the ground, but not releasing her from his hold.

"Mike you don't-"

"Number one, your beautiful eyes. Your eyes are like the windows into your soul, like one glance at them and it's like I'm in a different world- your world, and it's magical. And your eyes aren't really a dark brown either, they're like honey colored with little golden specks. I could stare at them literally all day and I wouldn't get bored. I know that probably sounds really creepy, but it's true,"

If Mike hadn't been holding onto her so tightly, El probably would have fallen over from how lovesick she felt. She really didn't think she could possibly be more in love with him than she already was, but of course Mike always found more and more ways into her heart.

"Number two, your smile. Whenever you smile it lights up whatever room you enter, you could practically be the damn sun! I remember the very first time you smiled at me- at the pool, and my day instantly got better, well from that and that you and I became friends, but that's not the point. Anyways, I just get this warm feeling inside of me whenever you smile at me, and I know I've probably said that before but I'm telling you, it's just like.. butterflies."

"Number three, and I'll stop after that just because you're probably annoyed, but I don't care. Your personality. Where do I even begin?" He started, carefully choosing his words as he went along. "Well, your literally the perfect person so.. I need to try and explain that.. well, you're kind, loving, charismatic.. literally everything in between. I don't really know how to explain it, but everything about your personality is perfect.."

El really could just turn around and kiss him right now, it was so tempting. It would just complete the moment, it felt right. It felt like she should do it. God, she really wanted to, but she couldn't. Not right now, but soon. Soon she would.

"Mike.." She said softly, not knowing what she could possibly say after all of that. She turned around so she was facing him, their chests pressed against one anothers and their faces only inches apart.

"You don't have to say anything. I'm just telling you what I see." He mumbled quietly, giving her a small smile.

"Thank you, Mike." She said, hugging him tightly.

They stayed there in silene for a few minutes, the fish swimming all around them, creating possibly one of the most peaceful atmospheres.

"God, I love you so much," Mike sighed as he broke their sudden silence. El smiled, "Love too, Mike."

"No, El. I mean-"

"There you guys are! We could not find you for the longest time, and when we do you two are literally conjoined." Sofia exclaimed as she ran up towards the duo. Mike glared at Sofia harshly as he let out a sigh, did she really have to walk in right then?

Of course Sofia noticed this and was quick to point it out. "What's with the look, Michael? Did a shark bite your ass or something?"

"Nope," He mumbled through gritted teeth. El pulled away from Mike and turned to look at Sofia.

"Did you guys find the slippery dick?" She asked with a laugh as Anthony came into the tunnel. "No because someone was petting the stingrays for like.. an hour!" He whined, nudging Sofia with his elbow.

"Not my fault they are adorable." Sofia defended. Anthony rolled his eyes before looking back at Mike and El.

"What'd you guys do?" He asked.

El shrugged, "We were in here practically the whole time."

"Oh cool. I'm really craving gelato, so can we go get some?" Sofia asked the group.

"Ooh yes! I could go for Stracciatella Chocolate Chip right now." El answered, already craving it just from the name.

"Okay! Let's get out of here!" The group all headed out of the tunnel and then out of the aquarium.

El had already gone up ahead, but Mike called after Sofia and the two trailed after Anthony and El.

"What's goin' on Mike?" She asked sweetly after Mike pulled her back. "What's going on is that you interrupted me telling El how I feel!" He said quietly.

Sofia widened her eyes and stopped walking, making sure Mike stopped with her. "What?!"

"Yeah! I thought you were leaving us alone!"

"Well you said you weren't doing it today! And I really wanted gelato- plus, how was I supposed to know you were going to do that?! Warn a girl!"

"I didn't think I was going to either but I felt like the universe was like 'Just do it! Now's the time, do it!' And I was going to, but then someone had to walk in." Mike said as he crossed his arms.

"Shit, I'm sorry. How about I just don't go anywhere with you two the rest of the week, that way there will be no interruptions whatsoever. Deal?"

"Deal."

authors note:

they're literally married they just don't know it.. but how cute was this omgthere will be lots of teases from here on out, so enjoy :)

this took me incredibly long, and I have no idea why, but I do like the way it turned out! Let me know what u think!