blackbird | mike wheeler x reader

the battle of starcourt pt.2

THREE MONTHS LATER

Joyce, Jonathan, Will, and I were moving out of Hawkins. It might've been the worst news I've received since I found out Hopper was really gone. I'm still not over it. I barely got to spend any time with him. And then there was Mike, when I told Mike we were gonna move away, he cried which made me cry. My life has been horrible so far. I got kidnapped, the only person I had left from the lab died, my real father who I barely got to bond with died, and now I have to move away. The only pros I've had are gone right now, considering I lost my powers, too.

I was helping Joyce pack up her room. There was a teddy bear on the top rack that I couldn't reach. I tried to use my powers to bring it down, but my powers stopped working. "They'll come back. I know they will," Mike reassured me as he walked into the room. He grabs the teddy bear and hands it to me, "Thanks." I smile softly. "You packed your walkie, right?" Mike asks. "Yes," I nod. "Because you know that I'm gonna steal Cerebro from Dustin and call you so much, you're gonna have to turn it off, right?" Mike jokes, making me chuckle. "Did you talk to your mom? About Thanksgiving?" I question. "Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got the okay. I'll be there. And then I was thinking maybe you could come up here for Christmas. And Will, too. You can come before or after Christmas, or whatever Mrs. Byers wants, but I was thinking Christmas Day could be super fun, because we'd all have cool new presents to play with and, uh... Sorry, that made me sound like a seven-year-old," Mike ranted. "I like presents, too," I smile. "Yeah, cool. Yeah. I like--I like presents, too," Mike stammered. "Cool," I chuckle. I slowly begin to walk past him. I stopped walking before quickly turning around. "Mike?" I call out. He turns around to face me. "Yeah?" he replies. "Remember that day... at the cabin, you were talking to Max?" I ask. "Umm... I don't think I follow." He shrugs. "You talked about your--your feelings, your heart," I explain. "Oh. Oh, yeah, that. Man, that was so long ago. Um... That was really heat of the moment stuff, and we were arguing and... I don't really remember... What did I say, exactly?" He asks awkwardly. "Mike...I love you, too," I exclaim, placing my hand on his cheek and leaning in to kiss him again. We pull away, and I hug him. I walk into the room Joyce was in, getting ready to ask her about the teddy bear. "Donation box?" I ask. "Uh, yeah, sure," she nods, clearing her throat. "What is that?" I ask, looking at the paper she was holding. "Uh... It--It's the speech Hop wrote for you and Mike," She smiles. "Speech?" I question. "Yeah. You know, the heart-to-heart," she continues. I look at her blankly. "He never talked to you, did he?" She asks. I shake my head, no. She scoffs. "Can I read?" I ask. She nods. "Here. Take this, too," She exclaims, handing me the note and a tiger stuffed animal that I recognized from the New York box. I walk into another room, lying down on the floor as I open the note.

There's something I've been wanting to talk to you both about. I know this is a difficult conversation, but I care about you both very much. And I know that you care about each other very much. And that's why it's important that we set these boundaries moving forward, so we can build an environment where we all feel comfortable, trusted, and open to sharing our feelings. Feelings. Jesus. The truth is, for so long, I'd forgotten what those even were. I've been stuck in one place, in a cave, you might say. A deep, dark cave. And then, I left some Eggos out in the woods, and you came back into my life and... for the first time in a long time, I started to feel things again. I started to feel happy. But, lately, I guess I've been feeling... distant from you.

Like you're... you're pulling away from me or something. I miss playing board games every night, making triple-decker extravaganzas at sunrise, watching westerns together before we doze off. But I know you're getting older. Growing. Changing. And I guess... If I'm being really honest, that's what scares me. I don't want things to change. So, I think maybe that's why I came in here. To try to maybe... stop that change. To turn back the clock. To make things go back to how they were. But I know that's naive. It's just... not how life works. It's moving. Always moving, whether you like it or not. And, yeah, sometime's it's painful. Sometimes it's sad. And sometimes... it's surprising. Happy. So, you know what? Keep on growing up, kid. Don't let me stop you. Make mistakes, learn from 'em, and when life hurts you, because it will, remember the hurt. The hurt is good. It means you're out of that cave. But, please, if you don't mind, for the sake of your poor old dad, keep the door open three inches and don't forget to breathe.

I chuckle as the tears continued to pour down my face. Joyce peeks her head into the room. "Are you okay?" she asks. I nod, wiping away the tears. "Yeah," I sob. "Time to go?" I sniffle. "Yeah," she sighs. "I'll be out in a minute," I croak as I carefully folded the note and placed it into my pocket before walking outside.

We all exchanged our last hugs outside. I had a conversation with everyone as we all cried. We all did one last group hug. Everyone was crying as we stood out by the moving trucks. As the U-Haul pulled out and Jonathan's car followed, I stared out of the window, thinking of all the times here. I looked at Mike, who's eyes never left the car. I blinked my tears away as I shut my eyes and began to wonder what it would be like if none of this ever happened.

Mike's pov

I silently entered my house. I walked into the kitchen as mom prepared lunch. She looked up at me as I looked up at her, tears streaming down my face. She runs over to me, embracing me in a hug as I cry into her shoulder.