A Promise Shared

They drove through the streets of Hawkins to get the the middle school. El kept glancing over at Mike to see how he was taking it all in. "Are you doing ok?"

"It's like I never left. Hawkins doesn't look like it's changed at all. Even Chief… uh your dad looks the same. His hair is grey but he hasn't changed a bit." Mike sighed.

"Oh he's mellowed a lot. We had a couple of rough years. I was crying myself to sleep a lot. Every night."

Mike looked at her as she wiped her eyes. "I didn't think I had that kind of affect on you. I thought it was me who felt that way. Lucas always made fun of me."

"I think he was a little jealous of the attention you were giving me." She smiled at him.

"What's that building?" Mike asked.

"That's the Starcourt Mall. It was new about a year after you were gone. If the party wasn't hanging out there, we were hanging out at the bus."

"The bus?"

"At the junkyard. Steve made sure we were all safe and home at reasonable times. He got very protective of all of us."

"Steve? Oh, right, you mean Steve Harrington." Mike sighed, "I have a lot of catching up to do."

El saw that he had put his face in his hands. He was trying to be quiet, but she could tell that Mike was really hurting. He had missed almost his entire childhood.

"I won't sugar coat it Mike." She began, "you missed a lot, and it's going to be hard hearing stories of all the things we did. But if you can keep two things tucked in the back of your mind today… with everything we did, we… I always wished you were there with us. I didn't have quite as much fun as the rest of the party… and the other thing… there are perks to being an adult that we didn't have back then. Nudge nudge, wink wink. Lots of perks."

He smiled at her, "are you always going to know what I'm thinking. I thought your superpowers were only moving things with your mind."

"Remember Mike, the first part of my childhood I missed. I was a lab rat. I know exactly how you are feeling. The week I was with you and the party was the most wonderful time of my life… until now."

"I didn't forget, El. I can't imagine what you went through at that place. That piece of shit Brenner was insane. I still don't know how he found us at the school. I think about it a lot. Do you want to know the exact time I fell in love with you?"

"The quarry?"

"When you asked me if you were still pretty. I just wanted to hug you, after I said you were really pretty. I was trying to screw up the courage to kiss you when Dustin interrupted"

She laughed lightly nodding her head., "I was waiting for you to kiss me. I wanted you to kiss me so badly I moved in a little to give you a signal." She signed, "...Dustin has always had bad timing."

"My hair is longer and I have no idea where the curls came from…. but… still pretty?" She didn't consider herself a vain person but she was suddenly desperate to hear Mike's affirming answer.

"Yeah, pretty. Really pretty."

El cleared the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, "thank you Mike. I waited a long time to hear you say those words again."

El held Mike's hand as they walked into the school, "Mr. Clarke is going to be so disappointed in me. I know he looked forward to the Party being in his class, we all liked science and he just got us. You know what I mean? It was like he was an unofficial silent member of the Party."

"Hold on to that Mike."

They walked into the classroom and Mr. Clarke looked up from the papers he was marking. "Ah, I see the Mage has found her Paladin." He said from underneath his moustache, now all grey. She went over and gave him a hug.

"Good to see you again Mr. Clarke."

"How many times have I told you to call me Scott."

"Sorry Mr. Clarke. You are always going to be that for the Party." Mr. Clarke looked over at Mike who was nodding eyes to the floor.

When she stepped back he gave Mike quick glance, Mike was unable to meet Mr. Clarke's eyes.

"Did you finally locate him in the Void?"

Mike looked up sharply and stared open mouthed between her and Mr. Clarke. Questions evident on his face.

"He knows?"

"He's no longer an unofficial silent member, Mike. We needed his help to close the gate, and it was getting too difficult for us to make up reasons that made sense, he saw through us right away."

"Even though he was a grown up, we had no trouble convincing him the first time. He was a great help. He deserves as much of the credit as anyone of us."

Mike smiled, "I knew you were a cool teacher Mr. Clarke, that's why you were the Party's favourite. I'm now realizing just how far that cool goes."

"You should see his zipping up The Upside Down demonstration." El said.

Mike look confused and slightly out of sorts. Mr. Clarke put him at ease by saying, "I'll explain it over a beer. We ready El?"

"A beer?" Mike looked at her.

"You don't have to drink. We're going to Steve and Dustin's pub.. It's Benny's old burger, place. It's totally renovated. He was the first person who was kind to me. Even renovated the pub will always have a place in my heart because it reminds me of Benny."

When El entered the Hawkins Pub and saw Steve at the far end behind the counter polishing a glass, occasionally looking up at Dustin who had his elbows on the counter talking to Lucas and Max.

Without missing a beat Dustin said, "So, this Mage and this Paladin walk into a bar…"

Both Max and Lucas turned to look and El and Mike. Everyone noticed how close she stood to Mike, and the grip they had on each other. Mr Clarke followed a bit behind.

Max gave El a hug, Lucas gave Mike another long hug.

"Hey you little asshole, make room from me," Dustin pushed Lucas out of the way and gave Mike a long hug also. "She found you. We talked about you pretty much every day."

Mike was again overwhelmed and El came to his rescue, "give us a few minutes ok?"

Dustin and Lucas nodded. El led Mike to a corner booth. Mike was breathing a little heavy.

"Whew, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be." Mike was having trouble.

She squeezed his hand, "it's ok Mike. None of us thought this would be easy for you."

"I feel a little ashamed that I ran out on everybody… but… I just couldn't do it without you El. I couldn't..."

"Shh." She put her finger on his lips again, "they know Mike. Nobody is going blame you for anything. I think they're all now realizing what we meant to each other. Even back then."

"How do I make it up to them?"

"Well, first. You don't have to. But I know you want to. You just be their friend. That's all any of the Party would ask of you."

Max and Lucas slid into the booth next to El and Mike.

"I haven't properly introduced myself." Max said. "I'm the Party's Zoomer." She held out her hand.

As Mike shook it Lucas rolled his eyes and said, "that's not even a real thing."

"It could be." Mike said, and gave her a small smile at her, still keeping a low key presence.

"Hah, I like him already," Max said.

"Oh, shit." El said suddenly. "We forgot to go to the bank. We have to go guys, uh, Lucas? Mike can borrow one of your suits right? For the Snowball?"

"Is that tonight?" Mike looked up panicked.

"Yes," El said, "you are keep your promise to me tonight." She pulled Mke out of the booth but heard Lucas and Max talking as they walked away.

Max looked at Lucas. "Mike promised to take her to the Snowball. This was before you moved to Hawkins."

"He's keeping a promise he made almost twenty years ago?" Max said raising her eyebrows.

"That's Mike. He would have done anything for his friends Dustin can confirm. For El… for El he'd wait forever so he could keep a simple promise he'd made."

The last thing El heard was, "Mike doesn't break his promises. Ever."