A/N: Part two of "Fun and Games". Enjoy!
"… and with a gasp, the demon king falls to his knees, his flaming sword extinguishing itself as his power leaves the world, his mighty obsidian throne, cracking as it loses form and crumbles to the ground. With his last breath, he curses the names of those that have saved the world from his tyranny," Mike dramatically finished, bringing an end to a seven-plus hour campaign. The faces of El, Will, Lucas, and Dustin stared eagerly at their dungeon master. Mike stared back.
"Wait, that's it?" Lucas asked, all of a sudden confused. "What about the brave princess that rebelled against the kingdom?"
"Yeah," agreed Dustin. "Or how about the strange vortex in the Great Library?"
Mike shuffled as he thought about it.
"Well, you se-" he started.
"Mike!" The five of them all turned to stare at the top of the stairs, where one Karen Wheeler stood, one hand on the hip.
"It's 12:30 – way past your bedtime," Mrs. Wheeler exclaimed to Mike. Then she turned to everyone else before Mike could get a retort in. "You all should be cleaning up for bed. Good night!" With that, she closed the basement door, leaving five teenagers to themselves.
Mike clapped his hands together. "Well, I guess that about wraps up that." The other four looked indignant at first, with Lucas and Dustin being the main ones upset that Mike wasn't going to explain the loose ends in his grand tale. Mike held up his hands in resignation.
"Hey, don't blame me. You guys saw my mom."
With some grumbling – some more than others, the four others acquiesced and started to gather up toiletries and bath towels. Mike, on the other hand, began cleaning up the D&D table, sweeping empty snack wrappers and soda cans into the garbage bin while folding up the board. He was just about done with picking up some of the wrappers that had fallen to the floor when he felt a soft hand fall on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw El's looking down at him.
"Oh hey, El. S-so how did you like D&D? Sorry your first game wasn't longer." El shrugged.
"Don't apologize; it was fine. It was very fun!" Mike visibly brightened up at that as he stood up.
"So you'll play with us whenever then?" El grinned, now looking slightly upwards toward Mike's eyes.
"Definitely."
"El!" yelled Dustin from inside the bathroom. "Are you gonna wash or not?"
"Oh," whispered El, as she quickly gathered her things and entered the now-vacant bathroom, locking the door behind her.
Mike stared at El as she retreated into the bathroom, before he felt a sharp nudge on his right side.
"What the-" Mike exclaimed, as he turned to see Lucas beside him. Lucas made exaggerated eyebrow motions and winks, a large, open grin on his face as he nudged his head toward the closed bathroom door. Sighing, Mike shook his head, and sunk into the nearby couch.
3 Hours Later
"… so they didn't come back af- hey, Lucas, are you still awake?" whispered Mike. Lucas' still, likely sleeping figure lay in the sleeping bag next to Mike's right; El lay directly left of Mike, with Will beside her and Dustin are the other side of Lucas. It was the middle of the night, in the traditional sense, or the earliest hours of the morning. Mike had been wondering whether Lucas fell asleep or not – he hadn't spoken in five minutes – so this was somewhat expected. The goal had been to pull an "all-nighter", but such ambitious goals would have to wait for another day, evidently. Rolling onto his back, Mike stared at the basement ceiling, barely illuminated by the faint moonlight that crept through the basement windows.
Then he felt a poke from his left side.
"Mike?" El's soft voice wafted through the air, almost music to his ears.
"El? You're awake? It's pretty late," Mike replied, still whispering to avoid waking everyone else up.
"Mike, I have something to tell you," El responded, ignoring Mike's query.
A hesitant Mike found his voice wavering. "Yeah?"
"I like you." A pause.
"I like you too. You're a great friend."
El sat up, shaking her head.
"No, no. I mean… that I like like you. In the kissing way."
Mike's eyes widened, and he sat up as well. Warily looking at their presumably sleeping friends, he stood up, shaking his blanket off as he ruffled his sleeping back under his feet trying to stand. After helping a slightly bewildered and confused El up to her feet, he led the two of them to the bathroom, where he closed and locked the door behind them.
"Mike? What's going on?" El asked, staring at Mike. The two stood face-to-face parallel to the door, and absentmindedly, El noticed that Mike had grown considerably in the last few months, to the point where she couldn't see the top of her head in the mirror behind him due to his height.
Mike blinked once, and then reached out to one of El's hands. Clasping it, he breathed.
"El, I-I like you too, in that way." El beamed at him, a mixture of relief and happiness on her face – the same expression, incidentally, that was on Mike's face as well.
"Mike." "El."
The two blinked simultaneously, as they spoke simultaneously. The two looked at each dead in the eyes, and then chuckled quietly, humored by the overlap.
"You go first, El," Mike whispered, the humor still playing on his face in the form of a grin (one that El frankly quite liked to see on him).
El smiled (an expression that Mike loved to see on El, because he thought she looked like a beautiful angel whenever she did smile), and lightly coughed, steeling her nerves.
"I was wondering about something… at school, I heard some of the other girls talking about it… will you go to the Spring Ball with me?"
Silence pervaded the air, as Mike's eyes widened for the second time of the night (or morning) before he finally found his voice.
"Yea- yeah, of course! I was going to ask that too!"
Beaming, El wrapped her arms around Mike, the two joyful and exuberant. After a few moments, they pulled away from each other, staring deeply into one another's eyes, before El gathered her courage.
El leaned forward quickly and bumped both of their noses together.
"Ah!" Mike grunted, as his head was pushed back unexpectedly. El, mortified at her error and failure, quickly apologized, though Mike soon recovered. Chuckling, he again looked at El.
"Well, that was… unexpected." El shared his smile. They locked eyes again, for what had to be the hundredth time that night, and this time, both leaned forward slowly, meeting in the middle as their lips touched. This time around, it lasted longer than the impromptu one Mike began in the school cafeteria, with both of them now committing to it. Breaking apart gently, El gave her trademark small smile, while Mike was in an interesting state of happiness and "oh-my-god-did-I-just-do-that".
"Well, I guess, we should, uh, get back to bed, huh?" Mike broke the silence, scratching the back of his head with one hand.
"Yeah," El softly replied. They both smiled at each other as they turned to the bathroom door – happy with what had transpired in the bathroom at three-thirty in the morning on a Saturday, and content with each other's presence.
"Oh crap!" Lucas whisper-yelled, as he, Will, and Dustin scrambled from a position less than a meter from the bathroom door back to their sleeping bags to pretend that they weren't just spying on their two friends finally get together.