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Warning for extreme fluff and a pair of cute little kindergarten soulmates. Word count is 2,163. I hope you all enjoy Kindergarten Soulmates.

Sitting in the back of his mother's car on the first day of kindergarten, Mike Wheeler, looked at the slowly ticking number that had been on his wrist since before he could remember. His mother said that one day when they got to zero that he'd find someone really special. Like she had found his father. Not that Mike's parents acted like they were meant to be together forever. But apparently, they were.

"What if I don't fit in with anyone, mom?" Mike asked, looking at his shoes nervously. "What if the other kids are mean to me?"

"They won't be honey," his mother said, looking at him in the rearview mirror. "They are just as nervous about starting school as you are."

"But Nancy said…."

"Nancy was trying to scare you, honey. She was just as scared as you were on her first day of kindergarten. Except she didn't have anyone besides your father and me to comfort her."

"Which would explain why she was afraid," Mike murmured under his breath.

"What, honey?"

"Nothing."

"What does this time mean, mom?" he asked, holding his arm forward for his mother to take a look at the slowly counting numbers. The numbers were going backward like they always were but sometimes they'd go backward and then move forward again. This time they were going backward.

"I'll take a look in a moment, Mikey," his mother said, not taking her eyes off the road. "When we reach the stoplight up there, okay?"

"Okay." But it wasn't okay. He wanted to know why the timer thingy kept speeding up and slowing down its countdown. It was odd how the slowing and speeding came when they were moving and stopping in the car. Was his special person in his kindergarten class? Was that what that meant?

"That time means that you will meet your special person in about a half-hour," his mother said, her voice sounding concerned.

"What's wrong, Mom?"

"Nothing, baby. Everything is fine."

His mom didn't sound like everything was fine. She sounded like she was going to break down into tears at any moment. But he had to know something first before dropped the subject.

"How far away are we from the school?" he asked, watching his mother's shoulders tense in front of him.

"You don't have to worry about that, baby," she said, looking once into the rearview mirror. An unknown emotion dancing across her face. Was it what he had been feeling earlier? Was the emotion he'd just witnessed on his mother's face fear?

He spent the rest of the ride to school silently watching as his timer counted down the minutes until he would get to meet his special someone. By the time that his mother pulled into the school parking lot, his time had counted down to five minutes until he would meet his person. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and wondered if this was how his mother felt when meeting his father for the first time.

"I'm going to walk you to your classroom," his mother said, helping Mike out of the car and handing him his backpack. He didn't understand why a backpack was part of the school supplies for a kindergartener. Hadn't Nancy said that they played and colored all day when she was one? Or had that been another part of her lies she was telling in order to make him more afraid?

"Mom, do I have to go in?" he asked, not moving to follow his mother as she started to walk towards the school.

"Are you still afraid, Mikey?" she asked, kneeling down in front of him.

He looked at the mark on his wrist that was telling him when he'd meet his special person. It had stopped the moment he had.

"A little," he said, looking from the mark on his wrist with the blinking numbers and his mother. "What if I meet my special person and they don't like me back?"

A look of grim realization crossed his mother's face and she took his hands in her own. "Baby, there are sorts of different possibilities for you and your special person when you meet them," she said, trying her best to explain. "You don't have to start out the way that your daddy and I did. You could start out as friends and if when you are older you want to be something more than friends that will be okay too."

"But what if he or she doesn't like me?"

"They will like you, Mikey. How could anyone not like a kind thoughtful boy like you?"

"You have to say that you're my mother."

"Mikey…"

"But mom what if my special person doesn't like me?" the voice of a boy about his own age floated to Mike's ears. He could sympathize with the boy. He still felt that way about his own situation. Maybe he could talk to this boy and ask him about his thoughts on the whole special person thing.

"Come on, Mikey," his mother said, holding her hand out to him. "You don't want to be late for your first day of school."

As Mike was walking towards the school he could hear the loud sound of male laughter and a woman's voice chiding the man.

"Lonnie, you know he's worried about this enough," she said, her fading the further away Mike got. "You don't have to…"

This Lonnie person didn't have to what? Mike could help but wonder what the woman had said to Lonnie. But he couldn't wait for them and ask. His mother was looking at him expectantly as she held the door open.

"Mikey."

"Sorry, mom," he said, walking through the door.

"Kindergarten?" the woman standing at the door asked, looking at Mike who stood tongue-tied and turned his eyes toward his now steadily ticking countdown.

"Yes," his mother answered. "He's a bit shy at the moment. This is Mike's first day of school."

"Well, welcome to school, Mike," the woman said, smiling at him. "I'm sure you're going to this place before the end."

"Mikey." His mother murmured nodding towards the nice red-haired lady who was smiling at him in a friendly manner.

"Thank you," I said, looking back at my countdown as the number ticking more slowly than they had been before.

"Your classroom is right down the hall there," the woman said, pointing towards a door colorful looking decorations on it. A sign that said Welcome Kindergarten class was also hung on the door.

"Thank you," Mike said, following his mother down the hall. His countdown starting move forward the further away he got from the door. Was his special person not her yet? They must be very close because it stopped at five minutes as it had been in the parking lot.

As they reached the open door, Mike's heart started to pound hard in his chest again. But it wasn't fear about what his special person would think that had got to him. Inside the class was a small smattering of kids already. When he stepped into the room all eyes turned towards him.

"Hello," the person who must be the teacher said in a kind voice, walking over to Mike and his mom. "Who might this be?"

His mother nudged him gently. He looked up like his parent had told him to when an adult asked him something and opened his mouth to reply. The only thing was that nothing came out.

"This is Mike," his mother said for the second time that day. "Apparently he's pretending to be shy today. But he's very excited to be here."

The teacher who introduced herself as Miss. Mallory knelt down to his level and smiled at him. "It's alright to be nervous on your first day of school," she said, looking over shoulder at the other kids. "Everyone is. I was. But once you get right into the swing of things that will all go away."

"The swing of things?" Mike asked, looking at her questioningly.

"Made friends and gotten used to being away from home for a bit of time each day."

"Oh."

"Well, why don't you go and find a seat at one of the tables?" she said, pointing around the room at a group of small tables with construction paper on them and crayons. "We're going to be coloring the letter A and everything that starts with it today. Doesn't that sound fun?"

Mike nodded as he looked behind him to find that his mother had left during his interaction with the teacher. He looked back to the teacher who only nodded and directed him towards the tables and chairs.

Mike walked over to a table that was empty not knowing any of these kids. He was just about to put his backpack down by his chair when he heard the teacher trying to calm someone down. Mike looked in the direction of the door and saw that a man was the one throwing the fit and not a child.

"This place is full of namby-pambies, Joyce," the man was yelling. "I am not going to have my son turn out to be…."

"I'm sorry about this, Miss. Mallory," the woman with the dark brown hair said, turning to Miss Mallory. "Lonnie isn't usually this vocal when he expresses his dislike for something."

"It's quite alright," Miss. Mallory said, smiling at the woman, Joyce. "Who might this young fella be?"

"This is Will," Joyce said, putting a hand on her son's shoulder a smile of pride on her face. "He's a little nervous that he won't make any friends."

"He needs to man up," Lonnie said, turning and walking out of the door.

"Are you alright if your father and I leave you here few a while, Will?" Joyce asked, looking at her son in concern.

"I'll be fine, mom," he said, smiling at her. "I'm going to meet my special person today."

"Are you?" Miss Mallory asked, kneeling down to Will's level.

The dark-haired boy nodded looking up at the teacher with solemn dark eyes. He held out his wrist for her to see. "See my countdown thingy is almost down to zero," he said, looking out at the other kids. Mike could feel his cheeks heat up as those chocolaty brown orbs stopped on his own.

"Why don't you go pull up a chair?" Miss. Mallory said, smiling at Wil. "We're going to put coloring today."

"That sounds fun," said Will before he started to walk past the other tables and seats in the room.

Mike looked at the construction paper in front of him, not wanting to be caught listening in to the conversation between Will and the teacher. He looked back down to his piece of construction paper as the boy made his way through the classroom. Mike didn't think he would choose to sit with him. Why would he when there were other kids to talk to? Mike had just started to draw in the way that most young kids draw when a seat next to him was pulled out from the table.

"Cool backpack," said Will, gaining Mike's attention. "I wanted to get one like that but my daddy said we couldn't afford it. But I got this one and my older brother Jonathan and I decorated it."

He turned to look at the boy with a smile. "That's cool," he said, noticing that his countdown thingy was now at zero. "My sister, Nancy wouldn't have done that for me."

"You don't know that," Will said, grinning in a friendly manner. "Maybe she's waiting for you to give her a chance to do something like that for you?"

"Or maybe that's just how she is?" Mike replied, grinning. "Can I show you something cool?"

"Yeah," Will said, looking at him strangely and then at his wrist. "Only if I can show you something cool in return?"

"Of course," Mike said, looking at the large zeros that were on his wrist. "Who goes first?"

"Why don't we do it at the same time?" Will suggested.

"Okay."

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

Mike was staring at Will's wrist had the same zeros on it that Mike's had. He looked over the dark-haired boy next to him in shock. A look which the boy returned.

"I'm Mike," he said holding out his hand for the boy to shake. "Mike Wheeler. I think that you're my special person."

"Will," said the other boy, shaking Mike's hand. "Will Byers. I think that you're my special person too."

For the rest of the day, Mike and Will sat together coloring and talking. Each of them not fully understanding what being the other's special person meant. But each of them vowing to be the best of friends. Neither one of them knowing that events that would happen years later would lead to them becoming something more than friends. But that is a story for another time.

I hope you all enjoyed Kindergarten Soulmates as much as I enjoyed writing it.