T H E P R O L O G U E
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Y/N HOPPER and Mike Wheeler had always been best friends for as long as they could remember.
Being Jim Hopper's daughter, Y/N got out of the cabin a lot, always playing at the arcade while her dad worked and she has hung out with Will and Mike since they were little kids.
Y/N formed this huge crush on Mike, always blushing at all his jokes he cracked or when he would give her a hug of congratulations if she won the campaign of Dungeons & Dragons.
Over the years, as they all got older, the party got bigger, including Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Y/N.
That was, until Eleven and Max came along.
When El came into the picture, Hopper took her in as his own, and she became sort of like a sister to Y/N, with all eyes and priorities set on Eleven.
Y/N was pushed to the side like a child when a parent brings a newborn baby home.
Hopper would focus more of his attention on Eleven, making sure she had the things she
needed—being a telepathic and all.
But Y/N couldn't help but feel like her father was drifting from her, hardly finding the time to spend it with Y/N anymore.
Y/N wasn't envious of El, no.
Jealous? yes.
Jealous that Hopper pushed her to the side to focus on El.
She was jealous that Eleven's boyfriend was Mike.
This summer, instead of playing D&D like Y/N wanted like the old days, Mike seemed
infatuated with El, his eyes always in the shapes of hearts when he saw her.
It hurt Y/N to see her best friend and first love just completely drift away from her.
Sure, Y/N and the party would still go to the movies and hang out at the mall, but Y/N couldn't ignore the sense of heartbreak that Mike didn't love her the way she loved him.
This summer of love had changed everything.
"I know, right? why couldn't we have just played d&d ?"
Will exclaimed, flailing his arms to emphasize his point.
Y/N and will stood a few inches apart in the center of the ruined mall complex as she ranted to him since he was practically like her brother, and Joyce was the only mother figure in her life.
Y/N and will were about to separate so Y/N could help Hopper, Joyce, and Murray with the portal, even though they really didn't want her to because they feared she might get hurt, but Y/N knew she could hold her own.
"Hey. Be careful down there, okay? Don't be stupid."
Will warned, holding Y/N's shoulder firmly as his eyes filled with worry for what felt like his little sister—even though Y/N and him are the same age.
"I will, don't worry about me. I'll be..okay."
Y/N reassured, pulling him in for a hug before they parted ways for the big battle.
Y/N said goodbye to the rest of the party, before she came across Mike—standing there as he supported El and her injured leg.
"Hey, Mike."
Y/N called for him, making his head shoot back to see you, waving her hand to come talk to her.
He made sure El was stable before releasing her arm to walk back over to Y/N, his gaze softening once he saw that she looked sorrowful.
"Hey, N/N. I was just about to come wish you luck—.."
Mike began, but stopped mid-sentence once he saw that Y/N's eyes were tearing up, not able to stare Mike in the eye as she thought of her feelings for him.
"Hey..what's wrong?"
Mike asked softly, placing a hand on Y/N's shoulder in an attempt to comfort his best friend.
"I..i just..i can't hold these feelings in anymore. It hurts too much, i-i can't.."
Y/N couldn't help but let her eyes water with bottled up emotions, her eyes clenching and struggling to keep her composure.
"W-what do you mean? What's wrong?"
Mike's hand on Y/N's shoulder helped steadied her breathing, trying to sort through her feelings before she suddenly confessed them.
"Mike, I like you. Hell, i love you, and i have for such a long time. I know you're with El and everything, but I had to say something because it's like a constant pain and weight on my shoulders that i can't get rid of.."
Y/N's voice was shaky with overwhelming sorrow as she felt Mike's hand slip from her shoulder slowly, leaving her to stabilize on her own.
Y/N finally looked up into Mike's eyes, seeing a mix of uncertainty and surprise, but she couldn't quite identify the third feeling she saw arise in his eyes.
The same eyes he had when he looked at El, but that quickly disappeared.
Yet his young hormones and emotions were too complex for him to understand that he did in fact love Y/N too—he just didn't realize it yet.
He didn't know exactly how much she meant to him, so his answer was :
"Y/N, no. I-i don't like you that way. i love El, and i don't like you like i love her."
With those fatal words spit from Mike's mouth, Y/N's heart instantly dropped a thousand leagues—she had hit the bottom her endless pit of hormonal despair.
It seemed almost heartless the way he shot her feelings down so quickly, but she understood.
he was still her best friend above all else, so she would have to force yourself understand.
"i know.."
Y/N muttered, her eyes not able to face Mike's.
She stared down at her dirtied shoes, before he began to walk away from her—to sulk alone.
"Just.. be careful down there, okay? I'm sure you'll be fine."
Mike called out over his shoulder while he walked back to El, swinging her arm around his shoulder—walking away from Y/N.
She couldn't help but feel embarrassed that she had admitted her feelings for him, yet the weight on her shoulders felt as if it lessened.
She watched as her father, Hopper gave El a heart-to-heart speech as a quick last moment together before they parted ways, and she knew that since she would be with him down by the gate, that she didn't need a heart-to-heart, yet she wanted one.
Y/N just wanted things to be the way they were before El showed up—how she and hopper would spend nights playing board games and eating junk food together as father and daughter.
she missed how she and hopper would just lay together and watch tv till midnight in which she would fall asleep lying against her dad's chest, where he would then carry her to your bed to tuck her in.
now, hopper still does those things, just not with y/n. he does them all with el, and if y/n was being honest, it broke her heart.
the blue bracelet that hopper gave her years before el arrived was identical to the one el wore, and yes, that made y/n jealous that the sacred thing that she shared with hopper was being shared with el now.
hopper finished talking with el, finishing with a hug and kiss before she limped away with mike and max.
hopper got up to walk beside y/n, joyce, and murray as they split all up with the rest of the teams.
y/n's team name : eagle's nest' made their ways down the hallways and ramps into the russian labs, disguising as military to blend in with the others.
while murray went into the underground ducts, y/n, hopper and joyce made your their to the safe where the keys laid locked inside.
"the goddamn code is wrong !"
hopper's frustrated voice boomed through the small chamber in which y/n and joyce waited for him to unlock it.
"planck's constant ? i think i know who can help—.."
dustin's voice surfaced through the static on the walkie talkie before you cut him off.
"screw that, i got this."
y/n interrupted with confidence, preventing dustin from finishing what he was going to say.
she brushed past hopper, placing her hands flat on the keys that were used to unlock the safe.
being the chief of police's daughter, she had a lot of time on her hands when he was at work, so occasionally, she would get in some trouble.
y/n learned how to pick locks and break safes, so this was the first time hopper was finding out about it.
she closed her eyes, feeling the bolts and locks inside the safe itself before she pressed the right keys, successfully opening the safe to reveal the case in which held the keys.
"boom."
y/n declared, taking out the case out before shutting the safe closed again.
with a surprised look frozen on their faces, y/n, joyce and hopper made their way to the gate's control room, hopper and joyce placing the keys in their slots.
but before they had the chance to turn it, y/n heard footsteps behind her, pushing her out of the way to attack hopper.
her face swarmed with worry for her dad, but he seemed to have the terminator-like guy under control.
"don't worry, kid ! just help joyce with the keys !"
hopper yelled as the russian guy took the fight outside of the control room.
the russian threw many punches, dazing hopper as they got closer to the turbine in which the laser was being shot from.
joyce helped y/n up to her feet to help her with the keys, and right before the two were about to turn the keys, y/n took a glance at her dad and saw him laying on the ground—his head was inches away from being sliced by the twirling turbines while the russian used his foot to hold him down.
"dad !"
y/n shouted, instinctively rushing out of the control room and down the ramp to help her dad, ignoring the warning yells from joyce to come back, but she couldn't just sit by and watch her father being beaten.
y/n ran at full force towards the russian, using her body's inertia to ram into his side, effectively knocking him off of her father and into the turbine—killing him.
y/n helped her father up to his feet, seeing his saddened bloodied lip and face stare down at her with glossy eyes.
"come on, dad we gotta get outta here, quick-.."
she began to say hurriedly, starting to walk back in the direction she came to get back to the control room, before her dad jerked her back.
"we're..stuck."
he murmured, his hands on y/n's shoulders as he pointed at the electrified barrier that kept her from walking back down the ramp.
y/n stared in shock between the gate, and their only way back up to the control room which was blocked by the electricity.
she felt her eyes water, feeling like she failed her dad.
hopper saw her beginning to contort her face in a worried look, bending lower to meet her eyes.
when she felt her dad getting closer, she instinctively lurched to hug him tightly, feeling him wrap his broad arms around her.
y/n hugged him so desperately, like she wasn't sure when the next time she would hug your dad was.
it was now that hopper realized just how much he'd pushed her to the side, and how the times had changed since el arrived.
he felt horribly—wanting nothing more than to make sure his daughter knew that she meant so much to him, but now, how was he supposed to do that when they're stuck in an electrified chamber?
"i'm so sorry, kid.."
hopper mumbled into her shoulder, hoping his words held multiple meanings as to why he was sorry.
he was sorry for not being the father she needed.
y/n's breath hitched at her dad's words as she shuttered her cries into her dad's shoulder. those words were hardly uttered to her, so when she finally did hear them, she could hear just how her dad meant them.
she knew what he was trying to say.
"i'm sorry too, dad.."
her cried halted as she pulled away from her dad's shoulder, feeling his calloused finger wipe away her tears from her
cheek—just like he used to do when she was a kid and she scraped her knee when she fell off her bike.
hopper smiled thinly at her, his bleeding lip was dried now as she smiled back at him.
"i love you a lot, you know that?"
he chuckled, his eyes squinted with a wide smile as he saw her chuckle too.
"yeah, i love you too.."
y/n said through a smile—they both knew that it was like they were in a soap opera with the dramatics.
y/n and hopper stood up to their feet, looking up at joyce in the control room behind the glass, seeing that she was struggling to twist both keys, but she was ready.
y/n and hopper gave her a meaningful look, signaling that it was okay for her to pull the keys and turn off the turbine.
hopper's hand reached to hold his daughter's, y/n's hand clasping with his in an attempt to comfort each other.
joyce's eyes squinted with tears, seeing that she was about to lose two of the very important people in her life all at once, so she closed her eyes while she turned the keys.
[]
"mike, come in here for a second."
joyce called out from your room as she packed y/n's old stuff into boxes, but she found a certain note that was addressed and ready to give to a special someone.
"yeah..?"
mike answered as he hesitantly walked in through her doorframe to see joyce holding a piece of paper.
"here. i thought you might want to read this since y/n seemed to want you to."
joyce offered the note to mike with a shaky voice, knowing that it was a love note that y/n had written a while back when she didn't know how to handle her feelings for mike.
joyce got up and left the room to mike for privacy.
mike took the note, and unfolded it, his hands already jittery at the sight of y/n's messy handwriting that was dotted with what looked like dried teardrops from when she wrote it.
" mike,
mike wheeler. my best friend—my first friend actually.
you may not understand this, but even though it has scared me to my core, i love you mike wheeler, and not in a friend kind of way.
but..you never saw me.
you only saw her—el.
but that's okay because i love you anyways.
i love you completely, and have ever since we were little kids.
mike, you're a great best friend, and to walk up to you while you were swinging with will on the swings as little kids—it was the best thing i ever did.
i hope that when i actually get the balls to give this letter to you, it won't bite me in the ass.
your best friend,
y/n. "
mike whipped away his tears with the heel of his palm, smiling at her sense of humor towards the end of the letter.
he realized that he had loved y/n for so long, he just didn't know how to process them.
he never saw her in the way she saw him, but now he did.
mike wheeler loved y/n too..only it was too late to tell her now, and he regretted that.
or was it too late..?
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i know this prologue was basically just the imagine that i wrote for my stranger things imagines book, but is the next chapter is the real thing.
it's gonna be crazy.
thanks for choosing to read this short
novel—more to come..
-kay
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