you and me

✈︎

When he opens his eyes, all he sees is black. Pitch black, as if he'd closed his eyes.

But his eyes were open, yet he couldn't see a thing. It's cold wherever he is, a weird shivering sensation is crawling throughout his body and Mike doesn't like it one bit.

He's all too aware what will most likely happen now. He knows he's dreaming and he knew who will be the center of his dream- the girl who was always the center of his mind. His thoughts always orbiting around her like the Earth revolves around the sun.

As much as he can't see anything, he walks forward. Maybe he will see something up ahead, but everything around him is dead silent. All he can hear is his footsteps in the shallow water below him. Finally, he decides to speak up.

"Hello? El?" He calls out, his voice echoing around him, bringing him no sense of comfort at all. But then he hears something... almost like a ticking noise. Like a timer. Like the one his mother uses when she bakes cookies.

He furrowed his eyebrows and looked around, still seeing absolutely nothing. Then suddenly, as if he wasn't walking where he was going, he suddenly dropped. He was pulled straight down into the water he was once walking in.

Luckily he had sucked in a breath just as he was going down because now it feels like he's held underwater, and now there is no escape. But his eyes are open and he finally sees her.

She is sitting, tied to a chair facing him. The ticking sound only gets louder as he tries swimming towards her. But his efforts remain useless and he seems to be stuck in place. The harder he tries to swim towards her, the farther away she gets and the louder the ticking becomes.

She's staring at him with cold eyes. Her mouth was moving, as if she's saying something to him but he can't hear as he frantically tries to get to her.

Why isn't he moving?! The ticking only builds more anticipation inside of him and he needs to get to her now, afraid of what would happen when the ticking stops. It gets louder and louder, and faster and faster.

Mike has never been a very strong swimmer, but he knows this has nothing to do with that. He's using every muscle in his body but he can't get any closer to her. But El remains still as her eyes stare daggers into his. He never breaks eye contact with her, afraid of what would happen to her if he looked away.

He feels like he can't even continue he's so tired, and his lungs are just about to burst as he can't hold his breath any longer. But he needs to get to her, but he doesn't know how he can get to her.

He wants to talk to her, to tell her that he's trying to get to her. But the ticking gets so fast that it just seems like one loud blare in his ears. But he can't hold his breath any longer, so he lets out a breath and everything happens at once.

First, the ticking stops. Next, his body freezes and he no longer feels the need to struggle, so he stops. Lastly, everything becomes silent again but there her voice cuts through the silence like a knife as she only utters 2 words.

"Don't wait."

And just like that he's snapped back into reality. He sits up in bed and gasps for the air that he lacked in his dream. He then notices how incredibly sweaty he is. Mike cringed and got out of bed, quickly checking his clock which read 2:53 AM.

Now ignoring his clothes that are sticking to his body, he needs to call El. Mike knows she's awake, as it would be around 8 and she's probably up making breakfast for everyone. Mike quietly opens his door and walks downstairs, careful not to wake anyone.

Once he's downstairs he dialed her number and waited for someone to pick up. Though it doesn't take long for the line to pick up.

"Hello?" Her sweet voice feels like absolute relief all over his body, the sound knocking all of his thoughts away at once. "Hey."

"Oh, hey Mike. Why are you up? Isn't it like.. 3?" She asks curiously.

"Another dream."

"Wanna talk about it?" She questions. Mike shakes his head (like she could see it) "No.. it was just weird."

"Oh, okay. Why'd you call?"

"Just wanted to talk, love." He shrugs casually. El giggled, "Okay then. I'm making breakfast right now, Dad and Sophia are still sleeping. You know they are both not morning people."

"You really aren't either," Mike points out. "Yeah, I know. I just wanted to make the most of today because Dad leaves tomorrow afternoon." She explained. "Oh, gotcha. What'd you two do last night?"

"Oh we just went out to dinner and just kinda hung out. We watched a movie later with Sophia so that was fun."

"Ooh what'd you watch?" Mike asked curiously. "Dirty Dancing."

Mike gasped, "How dare you watch my favorite movie without me!"

El laughed, "Sof had never seen it! Now she's in love with Patrick Swayze."

"Who isn't?" Mike asked, receiving another laugh from across the line which made his heart melt. "But I bet Hop loved watching that."

"Oh, yes," El said with a chuckle. "What did you do last night?"

"I played barbies with Holly." Mike replied. "Oh my gosh. She's still into that?"

"Sadly." Mike groaned, rolling his eyes at the thought. "It's pretty late, why don't you go back to bed?"

"Trying to get rid of me already, darling?" He asked sweetly.

"No, I'm just saying.." She mumbled.

"Fine, fine. Whatever. But, El?" He asked quietly. No, he wasn't going to tell her his feelings. Not over the phone.. in case you were getting your hopes up.

"Yes?"

"I really miss you." He says quietly, but El heard him crystal clear. She frowned as her heart sank. "I really miss you too.. but hey, one more week okay?"

"Yeah, one more week." He repeated to himself. "Then you'll be here for a whole week! Can you believe it? We can explore around Italy, and we can eat all the food we want, and just hang out. You and me, okay?" El said, quickly wiping at the tears that were threatening to fall from her doe eyes.

"Okay.." He said with a sigh. "Oh! I almost forgot I was making breakfast, I made pancakes and they're done now, so I'll call you later?"

"Yeah, sure. Love you." He said with a yawn. "Love you too! Bye!" The line hung up and Mike trudged back upstairs to go back to bed.

He wasn't going to wait any longer. He's going to tell her next week and there's nothing that can change his mind.

✈︎

El hung up the phone and walked back into the kitchen and quickly put the fully cooked pancakes on a plate, then pouring more batter into the frying pan. She put butter on the three pancakes and walked over to her and Sofia's room and opened the door.

Sofia was wrapped in her blankets while her face was buried into her pillow. El giggled before softly shaking her friend awake.

"Wuh?" The blond mumbled when her eyes adjusted and saw El standing next to her bed. "I made pancakes if you want some."

Sofia's eyes lit up and she sat up, quickly getting out of her bed and going to the kitchen. El followed behind her and then went to wake her dad up. He was always a heavy sleeper so it took her a few moments to shake the burly man awake.

"Hm?" He groaned, slowly opening his eyes. "I made pancakes, want some?"

He nodded, "Gimme a sec,"

El walked back to the kitchen to finish making his pancakes. Once she had two more plates for her and Hopper, she turned off the stove and grabbed the syrup from the cabinet and poured it all over her pancakes.

She looked around the room to find Sofia, but instead saw her sitting outside on the balcony. El walked over to the sliding glass door and went out to sit on the small couch next to her friend.

"What are you doin' out here?" She asked, digging into her pancakes. Sofia shrugged. "It's a nice day."

El nodded and silence fell between the girls as they ate their breakfast. "How's Mike?" Sofia asked. She recalled hearing El laughing earlier this morning, and she knew Mike was one of the few people that were able to make her do that.

"He's good. He had another nightmare.. he didn't want to talk about it, though." El mumbled.

"Oh. What were you guys talking about yesterday on the phone?" Sofia hasn't forgotten about El mentioning a kiss, in fact it's been stuck in her head ever since yesterday. She didn't bother to ask until now.

"Oh. Another dream he had, it was a weird one," El said, putting another forkful of pancakes into her mouth. "But um, you know what I finally admitted to myself?"

"Hm?"

"That I love Mike... I always have, I just.. you know, didn't want it to be true. But now it doesn't seem that bad." She said quietly, smiling to herself. Sofia dropped her fork on her plate, "Are you playing a joke on me?"

"No."

The blond squealed, making nearby birds fly away in an instant and people from the streets below looked up at their apartment. "Infine! Oh, sono così eccitata! You have to tell him!"

"What?"

"Yes, you have to!"

"No, not until he gets here. I don't want to do it over the phone." El said, putting her plate down on the small table next to her. Sofia rolled her eyes, "You two..così testardo.."

El rolled her eyes, "I'd just rather do it in person."

"Hm, whatever. As long as you tell him. What made you finally realize it?" Sofia questioned. "Well my dad and I were talking about it and I guess I just thought about it. I've always loved him. I mean, what isn't there to like? He always makes me feel loved, and happy, he's caring, handsome..." El trailed off, looking at the city in front of them.

"Oh mio Dio! You are so in love!! I knew it! Ha!" Sofia exclaimed. El blushed and smiled bashfully, "Shut up."

"When you get married, I'm going to be your bridesmaid." Sofia beamed. El just smiled and stayed silent. Finally admitting it to herself felt a lot better than keeping it inside of her, and she couldn't wait until Mike knew just how much she really loved him.

✈︎

Finally Mike's day started when he woke up around 10:30. He got dressed and went downstairs where his mother was drinking her usual chamomile tea. Her eyes lifted as she saw her son coming down the stairs, she smiled at him and set the newspaper down on the counter.

"Hi sweetie, how'd you sleep?"

Mike shrugged and went to the pantry to grab something to eat. "Fine."

"What are you doing today?" She asked. "Don't know. Why?"

"Wanna make cookies?" She and Mike used to make cookies together all of the time whenever Mike was feeling down, or had a bad day at school. Occasionally El would join them in baking, but it was almost always just Karen and Mike.

Mike smiled at his mother. "Sure."

Karen put her hands together in excitement, "Great! Holly is out with friends right now, but I figured you and I could spend some time together."

Mike chuckled, "Sounds good, Mom."

Mike sat down at the counter as Karen got all of the supplies out. She grabbed a baking sheet and then grabbed the sugar, eggs, flour and everything else that was needed. She went to the oven and started pre-heating it and now they could begin.

"So, I heard you on the phone this morning. What was that about?" Karen asked as thy began mixing some of the ingredients together.

"Just talking to El." He responded. "Why'd you call her so early?"

"I had another nightmare and I knew she'd be awake to talk about it." He muttered casually. "Hm I see. What was it about?"

Mike explained the dream to her, never looking up to see her face as he was mixing the dough together. He finished with saying, "I keep having all of these dreams about her, you know? They all mean something, like a message or something. This one is telling, don't wait any longer to tell her, and I don't want to wait. I won't wait any longer, but I just have no idea how to tell her."

Karen nodded, "I understand that. You want to tell her in person, right?" She asked while going over to the cabinet to grab the chocolate chips. "Yeah, I can't do it over the phone.. that's just.."

Karen agreed. "Yeah. In person is better."

"I have until next week to come up with something, because I want to tell her while I'm there." He explained. "Is there any specific places she wants to go there?"

"Yeah, Ponte Vecchio, the Florence Cathedral, and a billion other places that I cannot even pronounce." He said as he finished mixing in all of the chocolate chips.

"Why don't you tell her at one of those places?" Karen suggested. "You're there the whole week, spend every day going to different places and just pick a day and place where you want to tell her. Easy."

"Yeah but.. how am I supposed to tell her?"

"Just say what you feel. Speak from your heart and tell her the truth and how she makes you feel." Mike nodded and mentally took note of what his mom was saying.

"Now start rolling the dough into balls, the oven is ready." She instructed. The two silently rolled the dough into small balls and put them on the cookie sheet, but Karen still noticed something off about him.

"What's wrong?" She asked, nudging him with her elbow. "Nothing, just thinking."

"Don't worry, she loves you just as much. I promise."

✈︎

"So, where are we going today, kid?" Hopper asked as he and his daughter walked down the apartment stairs to Sofia's car. El walked around to the driver's seat and got in, Hopper alongside her in the passenger.

"Bargello." She responded as she started the car. "What now?"

"Bargello. It was a former barracks and prison, but it's now an art museum. I figured you'd like to see it since you're a cop and all." She responded smartly. "Sounds cool." He said, sitting comfortably in his seat.

"Yeah, they have a lot of sculptures there and paintings.. but mostly sculptures. So that should be interesting. I also wanted to come for some ideas for future projects so.." She trailed off as Hopper nodded.

"Mike's coming next week, right?" Hopper asked. "Yes, thankfully. I don't think either of us could handle another month."

They continued talking until they arrived at the museum. El parked the car and Hopper paid for their tickets and soon enough they were in the old prison. El pulled her father in one direction once they were passed security and headed straight down a hallway. Hopper had no idea how she already knew where most of these things were, but he didn't think about it too much.

"This is one of the oldest buildings in Florence, you know," She said randomly as they walked through a hallway where statues and paintings were along the walls. "Yeah?" Hopper responded to let her know that he wasn't just paying attention, but really listening to her as well.

"Yeah, it was the head of police that later became a prison. And here we are." She said, gesturing to the room around them. The turned another corner and were met with a large room.

"Here we are, the main hall." The room was huge, not just in size, but it height too where the ceiling towered above them with delicate arches that held it up. The room was filled with statues that were all along the walls and some near the center of the room.

Being around all of the sculptures made El remember her conversation with Mike in the Boboli Gardens. Where she and him talked about her doing a sculpture eventually, which lead to her saying this: "I want to try sculpting. Eventually." She said when they stopped at The Bronze David.

"Yeah? What would you do?" Hopper asked as he studied the piece in front of him. "Mike.. probably like his head or something." She said, mumbling the last part.

Hopper rolled his eyes, he could not get over how ridiculously in love his daughter was. She shook her head quickly and cleared her throat, "Um, well anyways. This is the Bronze David, if you didn't read the sign."

They walked through the main hall for about 15 minutes, El talking about the piece they were looking at and then saying some random fact about it until they had walked through the whole room. Next they headed towards courtyard, which was a big square with the roof open, letting in the bright sunlight from above. Along the walls of the courtyard were more pieces of art, which El did not hesitate to stop and look at.

Just like she had in the main hall, she told Hopper the name of each and a random fact as if the description tag was not right in front of her.

"How do you know all of this stuff, kid?" Hopper asked astonishing. El shrugged, "I've been preparing for this my whole life, why wouldn't I know all of it?"

✈︎

A little over 10 minutes had passed and Mike and Karen were laughing about a memory they had just reminisced over. The oven beeped loudly which led their laughter to die down and Karen grabbed an oven mitt and opened the oven and pulled out the sheet of freshly baked cookies.

She placed them on the stove checked to see if they were baked all the way and when she saw that they were, she began placing them on a cooling rack.

"Remember the first time we baked cookies?" she asked as se transferred the cookies. Mike nodded, "Yep, El went to sleepaway camp and I was upset." He said with a chuckle.

"Ah, nothing has changed, though. Here we are, baking cookies while El has gone away to Italy." Karen said, laughing under her breath. "Yeah, except she's halfway across the world this time. Not a few dozen miles."

"Obviously," Karen replied in a duh tone. "But the good thing is you'll see her next week!"

"Yeah.. next week."

Next week couldn't come any faster.

Author's Note:

ugh i'm sorry this update was so incredibly boring! Perhaps that's what took me so long to write it lol.. and i feel like I ended it in a rly weird place but it's whatever, I don't think i needed to write Hopper and El leaving the museum and going home, or Karen and Mike eating cookies.. so yeah

but next chapter is just a filler, so don't get too excited for that one either, but then after that Mike will be on his way to visit his girl, and the excitement will begin! I hope u enjoyed some mother-son and father-daughter content lol

okay bye!