Sequel to Paper Hearts. Works as a standalone too. For the anon who requested the other half of this fic: El drawing hearts in her notebook and Hopper or Mike finding it.
Mike Wheeler was one hundred percent certain that he loved El Hopper. He knew it with every fibre of his being, knew that the warm and indescribable feeling he had every time she smiled at him or touched his hand or kissed his cheek was definitely the deepest kind of love he had ever felt.
What he didn’t know, was how to tell her.
It was this problem that held his attention during Friday’s final period, not the several algebra equations on the page before him. He had been meaning to say those three little words to El for weeks now, maybe even months, but he wanted to make sure everything was perfect.
And, having never been in love before, Mike had little idea what perfect was. He might have asked Nancy or Steve, but the idea of telling anyone other than El didn’t seem right. He wanted her to know first.
He had contemplated pulling a scene from one of her favourite movies, but it just never seemed to rain at the right moment and he was pretty sure the Chief would arrest him if he showed up tossing rocks at El’s bedroom window.
When the dismissal bell finally rang, Mike was beyond ecstatic. He always visited El on his way home from school—she wasn’t able to go herself yet, but Hopper said next year was looking hopeful—and on Fridays he stayed for dinner and worked on some of his homework while helping El with her tutoring. Already flush with excitement, Mike biked over to the Hoppers’ house as fast as his legs would carry him.
“Lucas and Max got detention,” Mike told her, grinning as he recounted the details of his day. He sat with El on the living room sofa, sharing an after-school snack of chocolate chip cookies and milk. “They were throwing paper planes at each other during study hall. Lucas never gets detention. His dad is—“
“Paper planes?” El interrupted him for clarification. “Airplanes?”
El knew about airplanes. Sometimes she and Jim would go up on the roof and watch them fly by. Jim promised that one day he’d take her on a plane and they’d go far away from Hawkins for a little while.
“Paper airplanes,” Mike explained, “It’s just paper that’s folded to look like a plane. I can’t make them that good, not as good as Lucas or Will, but here, I’ll show you!”
He held out his hand and El passed him the notebook that had been resting on her lap, ready to be opened as soon as they finished their snack. El didn’t realize Mike was opening it to a random page until it was too late.
The page laid there before them was covered in her heart doodles and Mike’s name written several times, each “i” dotted with a tiny heart.
El flushed, staring at the floor. “Mike—” she began, but he laughed, gently and kindly, cutting off her words.
“Hey!” Mike smiled and took her hand “I like it. My math book looks pretty much the same.”
El looked up at him, eyes hopeful. “Really?”
“Yeah!” Mike nodded emphatically, “Wait here.” He scrambled over to the front door and returned to his seat a moment later with his own notebook, opened to a page near the beginning. El looked and saw her name doodled repeatedly across the margins of the paper, hearts and stars surrounding it.
Smiling, El looked up at Mike with shining eyes, noting how red he’d turned underneath his freckles—she loved those freckles. Love. El’s lip quivered, words poised on her tongue. She opened her mouth to speak, but Mike beat her to it.
It was said quickly, but there was no mistaking the words, or the feeling behind them. El shifted closer to him on the sofa and clasped his hand, notebooks forgotten on the pillows beside them.
