A.N. Hello, Until Dawn readers! I can see that most of my fellow fans love Josh the most. I regret to inform you that I love Mike the most. And Sam. And because I love them the most, and think they are the best characters of the game, naturally I think they should be together. My Sam+Mike OTP club starts here.

Unfortunately, this couple is kinda hard to write. Because I know that Mike cares about Jessica, and I don't want to throw that away just because it makes shipping Sam and Mike together easier. So I wrote this in hopes of making everything more believable. This story is everyone-lives ending, Mike and Sam heroic.

Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: Do people even do these anymore? Eh. I don't own Until Dawn.

The Sun Rises

Jess asked him why he always checked on Sam.

Mike always checked on Jess, too, and Emily and Chris and Ashley, but he'd check on Sam the most.

He once asked Jess why she never thought it was weird when he checked on Emily, but she would shake her head and say Emily didn't count because Emily hated Mike now.

But Sam didn't hate Mike, and when they all finally escaped the mountain, everyone went to therapy except Sam, and Mike always called to check on her.

Jess thought Mike didn't like Sam. Jess thought Sam didn't like Mike.

When it had been all over, when Jess had been recovering, when they all had been recovering, Jess didn't care. Didn't care that Mike and Sam had a bond now, a connection, didn't care that their trust had grown, didn't care about anything except coping with the events of the lodge.

But it's been a year since then, and Sam was okay, and Mike was okay, and Jess still had nightmares sometimes, and Mike wouldn't stop checking on Sam.

Sam went to dinner with them once. With Mike and Jess and Chris and Ashley.

And everything was the same as it had been before, except everyone was a little older, a little harder, and sometimes they couldn't hold eye contact with each other for longer than a second before they would remember what they had to do to get off the mountain.

Except, sometimes, Mike would look at Sam when her head would turn down, and Jess would look at Mike as he waited for Sam to raise her head, and Sam would eventually raise her head and look right at Mike, and Jess would look away and pretend she didn't notice.

When Chris and Ashley got married, Mike took Jess as his date, and Jessica beamed at everyone who saw them together.

When it was time to dance, Jess was his first partner. And his second. And then Mike danced with Emily for half a dance, Ashley for part of a dance, and Chris for one, too.

He danced with Sam for the final dance, and when the song ended, Mike's hand lingered at Sam's waist when she leaned up to kiss his cheek.

Mike took Jess home and didn't stay the night.

Jess and Mike and Sam and Matt went hiking. And Jess forgot about how weird Mike had been acting these past few weeks because the three of them were having such a fun time that Jess didn't have to worry about anything else.

Not until Sam stumbled and Mike caught her by the elbow, laughing at her as he let her go.

But his hand skimmed down the length of her arm before he dropped it, and Sam smiled up at him with warm eyes, punching his shoulder for mocking her.

When Jess and Matt asked if she was okay, both Sam and Mike looked back at them as if they forgot they weren't alone.

Jess started avoiding Mike.

He tried to keep in contact with her, to check up on her, asked her why she was acting this way, what did she want from him, expect from him, was she okay, what was wrong, why, why, why.

But Jess never told him, and Mike stopped asking.

Jess saw Mike and Sam walking together.

They weren't laughing or talking or making lewd jokes. They were just walking down the street a little bit in front of Jess, and sometimes Jess saw Sam's shoulder brush against Mike's arm.

Jess drew closer to the pair to hear why they were talking about, but mostly they didn't talk about anything until Mike looked down at Sam and asked, "Are you okay?"

And Sam looked up at Mike and smiled.