Mike woke early Thursday. Having taken the step for an unusual morning shower, he was now looking in his closet for something nicer to wear.
So engrossed with this usually quick task, Nancy coming in went unnoticed as he his eyes shifted back and forth from two shirts. An amused Nancy leaned in the doorway.
"I'd go with the one on the left," she said with the teasing evident in her tone.
"Nancy! Get out," an embarrassed Mike squeaked. Partial to her choice, he wore it and went down to breakfast.
A bit later before they left for the day, he gave his rushed thanks.
For her part, Nancy liked this new Mike.
El "woke up" from a night of tossing and turning in which waking up was really just getting off the bed. Hopper had come in late last night, thus requiring her to stay up to make sure she could slide the door open.
While she was physically tired, Eleven was more so out of concern for what was happening Friday. Not only did Hopper come in late, but he also left early. There was a feeling she could not place. If she was still alone, she'd think herself crazy for it, but Mike also felt something.
It was due to this addled state that it took her looking at the calendar to realize today was the day she and Mike refound each other.
It was called an anniversary, she believed, though she had to look up the word and the exact definition in the dictionary. She had first found out about the concept from watching something on television. The moment returning to her, she found it all very cute, the flowers and the romantic gestures.
Would it be too soon for her to do something just after a week? What could she do?
It was this that she toyed with for most of the morning. Her weary mind not aiding in the endeavour one bit.
Elsewhere, Mike was nervous about after school. He had come up with the idea to celebrate their anniversary a few days prior, but didn't quite stop to think whether it was a good idea. He had taken the first, albeit, good plan and ran with it.
Now, hours away from execution he was wondering whether it would be silly. After all, it had been a week and not even a month. What would El think of it? Would she laugh, would she even find it silly and rushed.
It was thoughts like this that plagued Mike to do a walkabout during lunch and miss the meal.
Back at the cabin, El thought she had something. A plan or rather pieces of one. Looking at the clock, she knew she'd have to buckle down and began by rolling up her sleeves and then levitating a piece of furniture.
Uncharacteristically, Mike didn't immediately depart Thursday after school. Rather, he found Will. His turmoil about his anniversary with El trudged up, as these things want to do, their other shared worry.
"Hey, stay safe tomorrow."
"Thanks," Will said, more than puzzled. "See you Monday."
His mum had let him stay home on Friday morning as in the afternoon they were going to the Lab.
Cycling his way, Mike tried everything in his power to not break too much of a sweat. By the end of the ride, he was set on doing it. It was cheesy, but something monumental and important and lovely was being celebrated.
Even so, for the amount of planning he put into this idea, he didn't quite come up with a way to present it. He thought it would just come together at the end, but as he was guiding his bike closer, Mike was clueless.
As he walked up to the porch, he breathed in. Mike was going over the hastily thought up presentation he arrived at.
Breathing deeply again, he knocked on the door.
When El heard this, she smiled. Her preparations were finished, but as she was going to unlock to let him in, a thought flashed to mind. Was what she was doing normal? Did people do these things, would Mike find it odd?
To squeeze out a few more seconds of thinking she decided to walk up to the door and remove the chains manually. As Eleven made her way, she thought about what she was moving towards. Who was behind that door.
It was her Mike, somebody she cherished. With this love in mind, what she was doing didn't seem abnormal anymore. What she was doing was out of passion and caring, how could anything that came out of that be bad?
The door opened and there was El. His El pulled him in and then passionately kissed him. His bag slumped off his shoulders as he responded in kind.
"Hi," they said at the same time to which they smiled and rested their foreheads against one another.
"I have a surprise," she started and guided him out the door.
He put his bag back on and followed her. Not knowing what was happening, but not really caring either way.
Mike found a table in the woods and two chairs. Cloth covered, there were plates and utensils, but also a large silver lid in the center. He looked over all this and could not help but beam. Mike was just ecstatic on multiple levels. El had remembered, like he had, was one thought, but also how what he was going to do now was just so naturally appropriate.
So wrapped up in this, he hadn't noticed El gazing, peering into his face for a reaction once he saw the table. His resulting smile took off the heavy burden that had multiplied every step they took out of the cabin.
Finally he looked at her to continue his smile and she did as well. They found their seats on the opposite sides after a bit of stumbling as for the most part they were just staring at each other with profound amounts of passion.
She wordlessly opened the lid and he smiled to which she blushed.
"Do you like it?" she asked in the first words they verbalized in a long time.
"More than anything in the world," he responded and found her hand across the table.
It was a stack of delicately arranged Eggos with tremendous amounts of whip and fruit and chocolate in between the layers and oozing down the sides.
Mike began cutting into it, but then El came up with a thought. She got up and moved her chair so that it was adjacent to his.
Taking the piece he had just cut with her folk, she brought it up to his mouth. Eating it, he moved to do the same for her. After one or two bites, they moved their chairs so that they were directly next to each other, so that they were side-by-side.
They found themselves gravitating to each other with foreheads resting on each other again. Mike moved to wipe away a piece of whip cream on the edge of her mouth and that somehow turned into a loving kiss, at a table in the middle of the woods.
After kissing for a few seconds, they rested on each other's heads again. Mike took this time to take the box out of his bag and slowly put it in her hands.
"This is for you," he said quietly, not wanting to disturb this moment.
El felt the box, but her mind took a second to come up with its meaning. Mike must have also realized it was their anniversary. Her face lit up at this thought. At his care. And she slowly moved to rip the shiny paper off, wanting to preserve it.
She found a wide black box and opened it.
El was without words at the two pendants inside. They were halves of a silver heart that came together to be one. Mike, with shaky hands, lifted one of them and moved to place it around her neck. Meanwhile, El touched the other heart in the box and brought it to her lip to kiss it. Mike did the same for hers as she put the other one on him.
"It's a reminder for us," Mike started slowly. "When we're feeling lost or trapped, that we have each other now."
"Always," said El. "We'll always find each other again and be together.
Then they passionately kissed and held it, content if the world always remained like this.
