A/N: This is my first (but likely not last) fanfic in this category. I love Pixar films, and Monsters Inc. is one of my favorites.
Mike is without a doubt my favorite character, and I've always been really touched by his fixing Boo's door. Thus, the inspiration for this story. I know this has sort of been done before, but here's my take.
Disclaimer: I do not own Monster's Inc.
Reasons
Sometimes, we are called to do things for reasons we don't fully understand; not at first.
For Mike, the Door Project was like this. The idea itself wasn't novel - the logic was simple. Sulley loved Boo, Sulley wanted to see Boo. In order to accomplish this, Boo's door had to work. And it had been splintered into pieces by that roaring "monster" of a door shredder.
Solution: fix the door.
That part (the 'figuring-it-all-out' part) was something Mike had no trouble with. That was easy. The implementation of the "plan"...well, that was another matter entirely.
Every monster had his or her strengths. Sulley was scary (Mike was funny), Celia was organized (Mike was not), and Randall was (had been?) clever. Mike's best plan involved digging a tunnel under Monstropolis using spoons as tools.
Mike was skilled at being a trainer and a Laugher. He never remembered to file paperwork and he was not good with his hands.
But this was for Sulley, and that was reason enough to try. The guy needed to smile more.
/
What Mike didn't understand, not for awhile (not as he recruited Needleman and Smitty to identify the bag containing the remains of Boo's door, not as his long hours of labor began, and not as his hands were repeatedly sliced by bits of wood) was exactly why he was going to so much trouble to do something Sulley would never in a million years suspect him of even thinking of.
He and Sulley had been best friends since grade school, and it wasn't that they didn't do nice things for each other. They did. But this was...different. Mike couldn't deny that, but he carefully let the pride swell his heart and not his head.
No, Sulley would not expect it because Mike had never felt the same way about Boo as Sulley had. After some time, Mike had come to like her. She was a cute kid, and she did have a way of tugging at the heartstrings.
But life could move on for Mike, with or without Boo. He wasn't so sure the same was true for Sulley.
/
The Laugh Floor was an overwhelming success for the company and for the city. Power was cheaper and more efficient, and the monsters liked making kids laugh. Mike was not the only talented comedian on the staff.
But there was one monster, the new CEO, who rarely laughed at all, and Mike thought maybe he was the one who deserved it the most.
This was the motivation for the long, lonely hours spent in a rarely-used room in the maze-like corridors of Monsters Inc.'s basement.
No one knew what Mike was doing. It was illegal, so no one could. He worked whenever he thought he could spare a moment without arousing suspicion. Dates with Celia were never abbreviated (it was getting very serious between them), but time spent with Sulley was. Mike felt guilty because he knew his friend needed him more than ever. But Sulley never seemed to notice. At home the mask went down and he could be visibly distracted without facing questions.
Besides, Mike told himself whenever these unpleasant guilt bubbles began to form, everything would be made up for by the final result.
/
Reconstructing a door took many times the work Mike had ever dreamed it would. There were so many pieces! He had liked puzzles as a child, but he'd never been particularly good at them, and he knew why - his patience level was low.
He wanted the door to just come together magically, but that wasn't going to happen, so he strained his eye a little more and bought another box of Band-Aids.
/
Just when Mike thought he couldn't take anymore, he was going to die from splinters and lack of sleep, forget Sulley and Boo...he realized he was almost finished. All that was missing was one little piece.
He blinked and flexed his robotically moving arms and fingers. And sighed. Because he knew who had the final piece.
It was time to unveil his masterpiece at last.
Mike expected to feel excited or even anxious about the next day's grand event...but he was just too tired.
This changed the next morning when he saw Sulley's usual weary expression and knew he was about to make not only his best friend's day, but his week and possibly whole month.
His heart beat at twice its usual speed as he led his friend to the previously prepared active door portal.
Everything - all his work over the past seven months - was about to pay off or go horribly wrong.
/
He heard their excited voices inside the room and smiled, leaning against the frame.
Boo was back. Sulley was back.
Who cared about the reasons?