for aylas-geetar bc she wanted me to write this friends inspired one shot (basically just ross & rachel scenes from 1x05) & how could i refuse such a kind soul?
also, check out her stories bc they're amazing!
•
mike & el (au)
Mike Wheeler had developed a massive crush on El Hopper in the seventh grade and unfortunately for him, it never went away. It only got worse as the years went by and he was always too much of a coward to tell her how he felt.
They weren't exactly each other's type either, according to the social hierarchy established by their classmates, so that didn't give him any kind of confidence boost.
Most people in school also didn't like her because she was "a spoiled rich girl." Mike would disagree with anyone who claimed such a thing, though. He thought she was simply perfect, due to the fact that he was unashamedly head over heels in love with her.
It's silly really, given he hadn't spoken to her that much or ever really been close with her throughout the school years. She was good friends with his step sister Max, but the two had grown apart during their last few years of high school and Mike unfortunately didn't see El as much.
As fate would have it though, El had run into Max at the beginning of the summer, one conversation led to another and suddenly, the two were planning on being roommates.
Now here they are, moved off to the city, about to start their first year of college, and well, he's still madly in love with her.
Upon her arrival to the city a few weeks ago, El had gotten a job as a barista at the local coffee shop, which so happened to be the Party's everyday hang out. So, with her always being at the coffee shop, along with the fact that she now lived with Max, El had quickly found her place in their friend group. She was an official member of the Party and it seemed too good to be true. Mike had quickly gotten used to having her around a majority of the time, but her constant presence only made his ever present love for her grow.
It was a Friday morning and the Party, with the exception of Dustin, who was out with another girl he had met, were all sat around on the couch and chairs at the shop. They each had their coffee mugs in hand, El included, even though she was technically supposed to be working.
She did that a lot, not that he was complaining. Every time they'd come in, she'd drop her barista duties and join them, forgetting all about the rest of the customers.
Any other girl would have already been fired for this, but Mike was almost certain that her boss had a crush on her, so she managed to get away with it.
Really, could he blame the guy? She was so pretty, Mike would let her get away with it, too.
Eventually though, El had gotten up from her place on the couch, deciding she should probably get back to work. Mike watched her saunter over to an open table, lazily pulling a wash cloth out from her apron.
Will had disappeared off to the bathroom and Lucas was at the start of a full fledged debate with Max. This left Mike, sat on the end of the couch all alone, trying his best to admire El without getting caught.
After growing bored of sitting in silence, he hopped up off the couch, deciding to join El. She smiled sweetly when she noticed him coming over.
"So El, what are you doing tonight?" Mike casually asked, moving closer to the high top table she was currently wiping off.
"Oh, I have a big night ahead. Max and I are going down to Laund-o-rama to do our laundry." She unenthusiastically cheered, her sarcastic tone making Mike chuckle, louder than he intended.
"Sounds fun." He retorted back, before a brilliant idea hit him. "What a coincidence actually. Guess who else is doing laundry there tonight?"
"Who?" El asked, completely oblivious to the fact that he was referring to himself.
"I am." He informed her, with a wide grin on his face.
El hummed in response, showing her interest as she moved over to wipe down another table.
"Hey, why don't I join you both there?" He suggested, not caring if he sounded like a dork, since he did most of the time anyways.
El suddenly stopped her cleaning, eyeing him skeptically. "Don't you have a laundry room in your building though?"
Shit.
"Yeah, yeah I do. But there's uh..." Think Mike, think! "There's a rat problem! Apparently they really have a knack for dryer sheets, so they just hop on into a random dryer and next thing you know, you've got a dead rat mixed in with your towels."
El's face scrunched up in disgust, which he found to be quite adorable. He was starting to wonder if there was anything she didn't make look cute.
"Anyways, how bout we meet there around 6?"
"Okay, sure!" She happily agreed, briefly placing her hand on his shoulder to give it a squeeze, before returning to the counter.
•
Mike had been counting down the hours until 6. It was pretty pathetic, he knew that. They were only doing laundry, with his step sister. Not exactly a thrilling evening, but he was getting to spend time with El and that was more than enough for him.
Before thoughts of how tonight could possibly go with El took over his head, his phone started ringing. He snatched it up off the table, a smile instantly gracing his face after seeing who was calling.
"El, hey!"
"Hey, Mike, so Max can't go tonight. She somehow managed to score a date for the night, so it'll just us two if you still wanna go?"
Oh, hell yes.
"Yeah, of course I still want to go. I have a whole basket full of laundry here, just begging to be washed so..."
"Okay, great! See you at 6 then!"
"Yeah, see you soon. Bye!"
Dustin emerged from Mike's kitchen, just as he ended the call, stuffing his face with some potato chips.
"Who was that?"
"El. She said Max isn't going, so it's just gonna be us two." Mike told him, while getting up off his couch to clean up a bit.
"Hold up, Mike." Dustin rushed to stop him from what he was about to do. "You sure you've prepared yourself for this?"
Mike leaned down to pick up a pillow from the floor, lazily throwing it on the couch. "We're just doing our laundry. How prepared can one be?"
"But it's just you and El... the two of you, all alone."
"Yeah?" Mike questioned, still not understanding what he was getting at.
"Dude, this is a date. You're going on a date!"
"Uh, no I'm not." Mike instantly denied, his voice nervously cracking mid sentence.
"Uh, yeah you are." Dustin shot back, mocking his previous words.
Mike hadn't thought of tonight as a date, not at all, but now that Dustin had planted the idea in his head, it wasn't going anywhere.
"Shit, it's a date?! Okay, what should I do? Should I bring her flowers?? Change into some nicer clothes?"
Dustin snorted through his fit of laughter, before shoving another handful of chips in his mouth. "Well first, you might wanna rethink the dirty underwear."
Mike looked down to where Dustin was pointing, finding various pairs of dirty underwear lying on the top of the pile in his basket.
"I mean, this is pretty much the first time she'll see your underwear, you want them to be dirty??"
Mike groaned irritably, shoving his underwear to the bottom of the pile. He really didn't want El to see his dirty underwear, that's just too weird.
"And get rid of the detergent and fabric softener." Dustin added.
"Hey, what's wrong with my Snuggles! It says I'm a sensitive, warm kinda guy. You know, like a fuzzy little bear."
Dustin shot him a questionable look, wondering how the hell Mike didn't notice what was wrong with the words that had just come out of his mouth.
It took Mike a good minute, but he did realize how incredibly lame it sounded and nodded. "Yeah, I'll pick something else up on the way."
"Good idea." Dustin roughly patted his back, before retreating to the kitchen to scarf down more of Mike's food.
•
El was currently leaning against the far wall inside the Laund-o-rama, patiently waiting for one of the washers to open up. Apparently a lot of people did their laundry here on Friday nights.
She figured she'd get extra quarters to pass the time, just in case Mike needed any. She found it really sweet that he wanted to come tonight and keep her company, so the least she could do is pay if he needed it.
Before she managed to make it to the change machine though, a washer opened up. She rushed to grab her basket from the floor, placing it on the top of the free washer before anyone else could. Feeling pretty satisfied with herself, she headed back over to get the quarters.
After getting all the change she needed, she turned to get back to her washer, only to find an old lady shoving her own clothes in there.
"Oh, excuse me." El politely spoke, as she approached the woman. "I was kinda using that machine."
The woman glanced up at El, before turning back to her clothes. "Yeah, well now you're kind not."
El shot her a half forced smile, not appreciating her rudeness, but also not wanting to come off as rude herself. "But my basket was on top, I was clearly saving it."
"Oh my bad! Was that your basket?" She asked, sounding somewhat sorry, but the look on her face said otherwise. "It's nice, unfortunately I don't see any suds."
"What?"
"No suds in the machine, no save." She harshly spat out, cocking her head to the side. "Understand?"
El scoffed, before sliding her basket off the top and walking away. She placed it on the table beside the washers and huffed, utterly annoyed with that woman.
Luckily, Mike had arrived then and was making his way over to where she was.
"Mike, hi!" She happily greeted him, a bright smile forming on her face.
"Hey, what's going on?" He asked, looking behind her to the lady he just saw her speaking with when he had come in.
"Ugh, that awful lady just stole my washer!" El huffed again, while crossing her arms across her chest.
"Did you have your basket on top?"
"Yeah, but there were no suds." She sighed, earning a confused look from him. "Well, you know, no suds no save."
"No suds no save?" He questioned, the words not ringing a bell. "Hold on a second."
Mike set his own basket down, walking straight up to the woman and lightly tapping her on the shoulder.
"Excuse me ma'am, but this was my friend's machine."
She didn't acknowledge his existence, so Mike took it upon himself to make her. He carefully shoved himself in between her and the machine, making her jump back a bit.
"Hey hey hey! Her stuff wasn't in it!" The lady angrily shouted.
"Hey hey hey! That's not the rule and I think you know that!" Mike shouted back even louder, taking El by surprise. Her eyes widened, as she held back her laughter.
Mike stared the woman down, his dark eyes never letting up on her harsh gaze until she groaned. She turned back to the washer, angrily threw her clothes back in her basket, slammed the door shut, then walked away.
Mike turned back to El, looking very proud of himself. "Alright, let's get some laundry done!"
"Mike! That was amazing!" El gushed, lightly nudging his arm with her elbow. "I can't even send my order back at a restaurant when it's wrong!"
El shook her head in disbelief at how he handled that situation. Mike never ceased to surprise her.
Now that she had a washer, she placed her basket back on top, then bent down, beginning to place her towels in the machine.
"Well, that's because you're such a sweet, gentle.. uh.." He was rambling, mostly under his breath, but still, rambling on about her. Thankfully, she was focused on the clothes, not really paying much attention to the somewhat quiet words coming out of his mouth.
"Oh hey, you need any detergent?" Mike asked her, wanting to get himself out of the awkward situation he had just created for himself.
He reached inside the basket, pulling out the giant box of detergent he had bought on the way here. He had purposely chosen the most manly looking one, due to Dustin's poking fun at his usual choice.
"What's that?" El gestured to the giant box he was now holding.
"Uberweiss!" He practically shouted, causing El to jump back a little. "It's new, it's German, it's extra tough!"
Girlish giggles inevitably escaped El's mouth, no doubt laughing at the dorky attempt of an advertisement he had just done.
God, I'm never getting a chance with her if I keep acting like this.
El had gone back to her clothes, still laughing to herself. Mike noticed her adding all her clothes into the same washer, which wasn't at all what she was supposed to be doing.
"Uh, El, you gonna separate those?"
She looked up, confusion written all over her face.
"Am I being like a total laundry spaz right now? I mean, am I supposed to use one machine for shirts and one for pants?" She joked, not knowing that she actually was supposed to separate her clothes.
"El, have you ever done laundry before?" Mike asked, a hint of amusement in the question that he could already guess the answer to.
"Well, not myself... The maids did it when I lived at home and Max usually insists on just doing everything for me when we come here..." She embarrassedly admitted, before sighing in defeat. "Fine, you caught me. I'm a laundry virgin."
"Well then don't you worry, I'll use the gentle cycle."
Oh God, please tell me I did not just say that.
Once again, El couldn't control her laughter at his words.
At least she thinks it's funny and not weird, unless she's pretending for my sake.
"Okay, so you wanna use one machine for all your whites. Then a whole other machine for your colors. Then a third for, uh, your delicates... which would be your bras and your, uh, undergarment panty things."
At this point, Mike just wanted to run out of the place and never look back. His tendency to be such an awkward dork was ridiculous.
"Okay, so these are white cotton panties? Would they go with whites or delicates?" El cluelessly asked, holding said panties up for him to see.
Mike could only gulp at the sight of her panties, rather close to his face. Well, they weren't really that close, but close enough.
"I think that would be your, uh, personal decision..."
•
Twenty five minutes later, El was sitting up on the washer, legs crossed with her head resting in the palm of her hand. Mike was beside her, leaning against the machine as smoothly as he could.
"I just, I feel like if I can do this, if I can do my own laundry, there isn't anything I can't do." El spoke so confidently.
El often said random stuff like this and while most people find it stupid, he loves it.
Mike couldn't help but stare lovingly at her, as she sat there with such a determined look on her face. Her hair was messily pulled up into a bun and she had exchanged her work clothes for more casual ones. She looked so warm and comfy, he just wanted to pull her into his arms right then and hug her.
Geez, could you be any weirder?
"That's a great way of thinking." He finally said after snapping out of his thoughts, which only made her scoff.
"It sounds dumb doesn't it?"
"No, no. Not dumb at all. It's like the first time I had to make my own real dinner and burnt the entire chicken and-"
Mike's own random story was interrupted due to the washer buzzing, signaling that the clothes were finished and ready to be dried.
"Oh, and we're out time. Be sure to catch the next episode of Mike and El, complete adulting amateurs." He joked as El hopped down, laughing yet again at him.
Mike opened up the door to her washer, but shut it immediately after seeing what was inside.
"Oh no."
"What?" El hesitantly asked. "Why oh no?"
"Uh, well the laundry's done, but uh..."
"Mike, what's wrong?"
"I think you might've left a red sock in there with your whites and well..." Mike opened the lid back up, pulling out a towel that was once white, but was now definitely not white. "Everything's pink."
"Everything's pink!" El practically whined, looking at the wet clothes inside, which were now unfortunately all the same color.
"Yeah, except for the red sock, though! It's still red!" He tried to state the positive, but it wasn't helping that much. El angrily started pulling her laundry out, throwing it into her basket.
"Hey, it's okay. No need to get upset. It could happen to anyone!"
"But of course, it happened to me! Now I'm gonna look like a big pink cupcake." She groaned, just thinking about all the pink she'd have to look at now. "I can't even do my own laundry right. I'm such a screw up!"
As if on cue, that horrid lady from before popped up out of nowhere, laughing at her unfortunate situation. El rolled her eyes, flipping the lady off as she walked away.
"Hey, look you got the clothes clean that's all that matters!"
"I guess so, except it all looks like pajamas now."
Mike snickered to himself, as he spotted an empty cart, going over to grab it before someone else did. He rolled it over a bit, leaving it where it was while he checked to see if any dryers were open.
And of course, their favorite person came right back over, trying to roll the cart away. El immediately grabbed it, stopping her from moving it any further.
"Woah, sorry lady. We had this cart first."
"Yeah and I had a 27 inch waist, but guess what? You lose things sometimes. Now get out my way princess."
"I'm sorry, maybe I wasn't being clear before." El not so nicely responsed. "This is our cart!"
"Hey hey hey! There weren't any clothes in it!"
"Hey hey hey hey! Stop making up your own rules lady!" El yelled back, her voice growing louder. "Let go!"
The two yanked the cart back and forth, neither wanting to give it up. El felt stupid fighting over a stupid cart, but this lady had been irritating her all evening and she wasn't gonna let her have her way.
"Okay listen here! If you want this cart, you're gonna have to take me with it!" El said defiantly, as she jumped right in the cart. She sat crossed legged, with a cocky smirk on her face as she stared up at her.
The lady looked to Mike, but all he did was shrug his shoulders, giving her a cheeky smile.
After giving El another dirty look, she gave up, shoving the cart, with El in it, the short distance to where Mike is standing. Mike caught the cart before it rolled past him.
"Did you see that?" El asked, sounding more excited than she probably should be.
Mike nodded immediately, high-fiving her as if they were children. "You were awesome! It's like you're a brand new woman!"
"Ah! Thank you Mike! I couldn't have done this without you!"
Couldn't have done what? Stand her ground with some old lady? Screw up her laundry? Mike really didn't know, but he really didn't care. He didn't care at all, because not even a minute later she pulled him down and planted a kissed right on his lips.
Mike tried to say something, anything when she pulled away, but he was in such a complete state of shock that he just spat out a bunch of gibberish, until he finally got a sentence out. "Time to put clothes in the dryer then?"
Mike whipped around to do just that, anything to keep from making a fool of himself, it's just too bad that he made even more of a fool of himself. He turned around so fast that he ran straight into the open dryer door and fell straight to the ground.
El gasped, a hand shooting up to cover her mouth.
"Mike!"
Mike sprung up from the ground instantly, casually leaning against the dryer beside him.
"I'm fine, I'm good!" Mike rushed to assure her, even though he clearly wasn't good.
And Mike's current injured state was how the two of them found themselves back at the coffee shop, for the second time that day. The rest of their friends were there, which wasn't too much of a surprise. It was their designated hang out spot, after all.
Only this time their time at the coffee shop wasn't spent with El cleaning tables and Mike watching from the couch. This time El was sitting excessively close to Mike, with her legs draped across his lap. She was holding an ice pack against his forehead, in hopes to get the swelling to go down. Turns out, he had hit it pretty hard on that dryer door.
Mike was trying his best to remain calm, he really was. Remaining calm is kind of hard though, when the love of your life is basically sitting in your lap, tending to your wounds.
"Mike, are you sure you're okay?" El asked, genuine concern in her sweet voice.
"Yeah, yeah I'm okay."
"Does it still hurt?"
"Yeah, tremendously." He complained, wincing as she moved the ice pack around. "I don't think it's ever gonna stop hurting."
Was it hurting? Yes, it was, but not so much that he felt the need to complain anymore. But, if his pain meant El would be there to comfort him like this, then he'd milk the situation as long as possible.
El frowned, clearly upset that he was hurting. Then, much like earlier, El did something completely unexpected.
She moved closer to place a quick, but ever so gentle, kiss to his forehead.
"Well, that actually helps a little." Mike sheepishly admitted, with El grinning back at him, finding him to be completely adorable. She could only hope that they would do their laundry together from now on, just maybe next time they could go without him getting hurt.
Then again, she was loving the effect that her comforting had on him. Like stated earlier, she found him to be completely adorable...