Elle snapped her fingers and everyone blinked at her. Mike's eyelids droop and he slumps against his chair, completely knocked out. Will, who was sitting right next to him, yelps and shakes his shoulder, but the boy doesn't respond.
"What– What did you do to him?" Nancy exclaims, eyes wide and she looks over at Elle, who raises an eyebrow at her.
"I don't think he'll want to watch this next one," Elle says calmly, using her magic to only allow calm and peaceful dreams to find Mike in his sleep. She could see the relaxation on his face when the magic was complete. "Well, I don't think most of you want to watch this, but," She claps her hands together with a mischievous smile. "Mike is my favorite, so he gets special privileges."
Lucas makes a face and Elle smiles. "Your favorite? Really?" Max questions, sounding unamused. "How do you even know us?"
"In my universe, you guys are just TV characters," Elle says, earning gasps and jaw dropping from everyone in the theater. "We'll get to my universe soon enough, but your show is one of the most popular shows in my world."
"Wow," Dustin says, smiling in delight. "So people like us?"
Elle nods. "Yup," She says, sounding excited to talk about it. "You'll see what I'm talking about later, but if you guys care, my favorites are Mike, Lucas, Will, Steve, and Max respectively." She counts on her fingers when she says their names.
"Cool," Lucas says with a smile, turning to change that smile to smug as he looks at Max. "I'm second."
Max snorts. "Why is Mike your favorite?" She says sarcastically, raising an eyebrow. Elle suddenly looks dramatically tearful. "Uh—"
"Because I am a Mike Apologist and a Mike Kinnie," Elle says, slightly choked up. She dabs her face gently with a handkerchief she definitely didn't have before. Steve and Robin exchange an amused look.
"..Mike Apologist?" Will questions slowly. All this new information was overwhelming him, but in a pleasant way.
Elle rolls her eyes. "Right," She says with a sigh. "A bunch of people in the fandom hate Mike and call him an asshole all the time, but the people who don't do that call themselves Mike Apologists. I am one of those people."
"Hate Mike?" Jonathan questions in confusion. Nancy looks furious at the thought of people hating her brother. Only she can tease him a little, but hate him? She was having none of that. "Why?"
"Because..." Elle trails off for a moment, pursing her lips. She seemed like she couldn't find a legitimate answer. "He's.. moody? And... has anger issues?" She shrugs. "Another reason I'm a Mike Kinnie, but THAT IS COMPLETELY OFF TOPIC!" She suddenly shouts. "Let's start the next universe."
The screen turns on to show Mike hunched over the toilet, coughing the last bits of throw up out of his mouth. He was in his own house, and by the light coming from the window, it was probably in the evening.
Multiple people in the theater wince at the sight of the bile.
Mike wipes his face and sighs, flushing the toilet and standing up shakily. He washed his hands thoroughly and frowned at his reflection in the mirror, gently pulling at his neck. He was pulling on 'fatness' that wasn't even there. His eyes were dark with hatred and disgust at himself.
"Oh honey.." Joyce mutters softly, glancing at the sleeping Mike. Hopper frowns at the screen and back at Joyce. "He's having some bad body dysphoria."
"Wait, does he have an eating disorder?" Dustin exclaims, looking at Elle with concern. She blinks at him. "Is that why he's throwing up?"
Elle sadly nods. Will frowns and looks at Mike, who was still peacefully sleeping.
Mike tries for a smile in the mirror, but stops instantly, scowling in annoyance. He traces his cheekbones and jumps a little when he hears a knock at the door.
"Mike? Are you in there?" Karen questions loudly, sounding annoyed.
"Yeah, hold on," Mike says loud enough for her to hear. His voice was shaky and raspy, very different from how it is normally. He looks at the toilet to make sure all the throw up was gone before moving to unlock and open the door. He barely looks at his mother as he darts to his room.
Karen frowns after him disapprovingly. "God, Micheal," She mutters in annoyance. She shakes her head before entering the bathroom herself.
"She doesn't know," Jonathan says slowly, narrowing his eyes. Nancy sighs.
Joyce sighs as well. Karen is a good mother, but there is only so much you can do with these kinds of things, especially if you don't know, and don't know how to handle it if you did.
Mike doesn't move to lie in his bed. Instead, he walks over to the full body mirror he has in his room, leaning against the wall next to his closet. He frowns at it again, this time touching his already pretty skinny waist. Not just skinny, his skin was also sickly in that area. Something about it made him angry and he groaned.
Then his stomach growled and he paused, looking at the closed bag of chips on his desk. He ignored them, grabbing his water bottle instead.
Will's frown deepened, looking at Mike again. The boy was beautiful, he had to know that in this universe, right? Or.. was it the same? Will would find out and help Mike if the boy needed helping. And he'd get the rest of the party to help as well. If it turned out to be true, Mike should be ready to listen to compliments for ages on end. That thought made Will smile softly. He could already imagine how flustered Mike would get with all the compliments, his pretty freckles popping when the red covers his cheeks.
Mike leaned closer to Will with an incoherent mumble and his head fell on Will's shoulder, sighing contently in his deep magic induced sleep. Will tensed but didn't move, and looked back at the screen.
The screen shut off just as Mike sits on his bed, looking fully depressed, staring at the floor with a blank expression.
