Title inspired by "One Life" by Ed Sheeran. I don't know, this song just screams "Mileven".
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The first time Mike asks El to marry him, it was a rainy day and they were sixteen. Way too young to think about marriage but it's heavy on everyone's mind. Joyce and Hopper's nuptials are days away and in the frenzy of last-minute planning, all Mike can think about is a hypothetical someday where it'll be his and El's turn.
When he blurts it out while El is stuffing little envelopes with rice for the send-off, she drops the handful of rice she's holding all over the basement carpet.
"Marriage? You and me?" she asks, looking flustered.
"Not right now!" Mike says hurriedly, blushing. "One day… when we're older." he knows he shouldn't say it, he knows nothing is certain.
Even now with undeniable calm in their life, it doesn't mean something won't happen. The world could be turned on its head all again, supernatural beings rear their ugly heads or worse… he and El could break up forever. He doesn't want to make promises neither of them can keep.
But still, he's hopeful.
He's so very hopeful.
"You don't have to," Mike adds belatedly. "If you don't want to."
He suddenly wishes he hadn't said anything at all. Because she's not saying anything at all, just staring at him with her eyes wide and her mouth slightly agape. He needs her to say something, anything. He wants her to giggle and tell him how stupid he's being.
Finally after what seems like an eternity, she leans over and starts to scoop up the rice she had dropped. Her hair falls in front of her face. "Marriage," she says. "I'd like that."
"You don't have to," Mike says again, thinking about the real possibilities that she could meet someone else.
El finally laughs. "Mike, I want to. One day. It's probably too soon to think about it right now. You should at least go to college first." She sounds like she's had this conversation before, probably with Joyce or Hopper. She pauses and adds in a small voice, "but it's okay if you change your mind."
"Who me?" Mike makes a pfff sound with his lips. "Like that will ever happen. You might change your mind though."
Pfff, El mimics Mike, looking up to smile at him. "Like that'll ever happen."
.
"If you're not doing anything in four years, do you think you'll marry me?" Mike asks for a second time, it's the day before he leaves for college. It's kind of a joke, not to make sure he locks her down or anything. He's afraid that if he doesn't say something stupid, he'll break down and cry.
For the first time since they were 13, they're going to be apart and he doesn't know if he can bear it. If he could, he'd probably marry her tonight and bring her with him. But that's not really fair, besides she has dreams of her own she needs to pursue.
El gives him a watery smile and he knows she's holding back tears too. "Of course Mike," she answers. "I'd marry you tomorrow if you wanted me to. I'd marry you right now if you asked."
It's a tempting offer. But he wants to make sure she gets married in the way every girl dreams about growing up. It's not like she hasn't since their lives have gone back to their own version of normal. He's seen her and Max, paging through bridal magazines and talking about what their first dance songs would be.
And he wants to see her walking towards him in a wedding dress. It's a moment that he's dreamed of for almost as long as he could remember.
But she's looking at him expectantly like it's a serious offer and she needs a serious answer.
Mike shakes his head. "I want to, I want to more than anything…"
El sighs. "But."
"I want to but I want to do it right," he tells her. "I promise we'll see each other as often as we can. We've been waiting for six years, what's waiting for four more years?"
"Four years seems like a long time," El tells him.
"It does," Mike agrees. "But it'll be worth it, it'll be forever eventually. Besides, I don't want to hold you back just because of me."
"Oh Mike…" El gets a funny look on her face. "You've never held me back. I think… I think one of the reasons I am is because of you."
Mike feels so full of affection for her, he presses a kiss to her lips and pulls her in for a fierce hug. "You too," he answers, he sighs into her hair. "Okay, how about we try one semester apart and if we can't handle it then I'll do whatever it is you want."
"Compromise," El says.
"Just don't go pretending to be miserable on my account," Mike answers.
El lifts her chin definitely. "Well, I'm already pretty miserable since you're leaving. I don't think it'll be pretend." her eyes are getting watery and suddenly she bursts into tears.
Ted is putting his lawnmower back in the garage and he eyes them wearily. "Michael, what did you do now?" he asks.
At this point both Mike and El are crying, so he doesn't get an audible answer from either of them.
.
The first semester seems to drag on and on, and things aren't the same without El by his side. It reminds him of that awful season when she was in California and all they could do was talk on the phone and write letters. They're busy with college but not busy enough where they can't make time for each other.
They're both lonely but Mike is determined to see the semester through without burdening her with his loneliness for her.
Except one night, after Christmas, she shows up at his dorm, snowflakes clinging to her hair. Cold to the bone.
"El… what are you doing here?" he asks as she pushes the door open and unceremoniously strips off her parka.
"Do you have anything warmer for me to wear?"
He finds her sweatpants and a sweater, and a towel. She disappears into the bathroom, twenty minutes later she returns showered and dressed in his clothes.
"Hot chocolate?" El requests hopefully as she curls up on his dorm chair, delaying any questions he may ask.
When he's done what she asked him to, he sits down on his bed and props his elbows up on his knees, leaning forward to look at her. "El, what are you doing here?" he asks again.
El takes a long sip of her hot chocolate, puts the mug down on his desk, and runs her fingers through her hair. She's taking an agonizingly long time to get to the answer and Mike is feeling sicker to his stomach by the minute.
He thinks this is the moment she'll break up with him and he just wants for her to get it over with.
Finally she speaks. "I was just thinking… I could study to become a teacher anywhere and I really hate being apart. Why are we apart anyway?"
If she'd asked Mike this a few months ago, he would have told her it would be good for her to find out who she was apart from him. But he's realized that they've already done that a couple times and it never ended with them realizing they wanted other things. They always wound up going back to each other, they always wanted each other.
She doesn't wait for him to answer. Instead she jumps up and goes over to her coat, digs through one of the pockets and then comes back to him.
"Don't say anything," El instructs. "I need to get through this and I'll do better if you don't try and talk."
Mike nods, giving her his word that he won't say anything.
She gets down on one knee and suddenly, Mike knows what's going to happen.
"Mike, I can't imagine my life without anyone else. It's always been you since that night we met in November and it's always going to be you. I think I'll die if I don't get to be yours for the rest of our lives. So, will you marry me?" she asks, opening the palm of her hand to reveal a ring. "My aunt says this was my dad's ring… I never got to know him but I think he would have wanted you to have it if he had known you."
"I'm the one who's supposed to ask you," Mike manages.
El gives him a look. "Well, if we waited for that to happen we'd be waiting a really long time for you to propose. I know what I want, you're not holding me back from anything. I've worked it all out and it might be a little tight but we can do it, we can make a life together and still pursue our own dreams. I've never wanted anything more than I've wanted to be with you anyway. I know you well enough to know that you want the same things as me. Just… just say yes, Mike."
"Yes," Mike manages without thinking about it too much, wishing he had a ring for her, so he could ask the same words right back to her.
She puts the ring on his left hand and he thinks that he's engaged and he wasn't the one who proposed. He really wishes he had been the one to propose. He never imagined El would beat him to the punch, she always seemed so traditional.
"Mike?" El prompts. "I think you're supposed to kiss me right about now."
"Oh! Right. Right!" He scurries to his feet and pulls her up with him, giving her a hurried kiss that grows more tender after a few seconds.
"My roommate told me if I really wanted to marry you, I should just propose," El confesses after a few seconds. "I hope you don't mind."
"No. No, I don't mind at all!" Mike assures her.
He wonders if he can propose to her at some point though, or at least give her a ring that he's been secretly saving for since he got his first job. It hasn't been consistent, like the time he had lost a chunk of it to replace the Barbie camper that Dustin had run over with his car, but now he was only a few dollars away from being able to afford the actual ring of her dreams, granted no other accidents happened between now and him earning the rest of the money.
"So, what do we do now?" El asks.
"We could start by calling Hopper," Mike teases.
El laughs. "You can do it," she replies.
Mike laughs too. "Okay but really, we're going to have to tell people eventually. Unless you want to keep it between the two of us for the rest of our lives."
"We'll tell them soon," El promises. "But for tonight, let's just keep it between the two of us."
.
They tell their parents first. Ted and Hopper have their reservations about it at first but eventually come around. They're both secretly amused that El asked first. Meanwhile, Karen and Joyce are thrilled at the prospect of a wedding even though Mike and El are just going to be 19. All of them really just want what's best for the two of them and they know that keeping them apart much longer isn't.
One day, Karen pulls Mike aside and tells him that El simply needs to have a ring of her own. So, she gives him an emerald clustered with diamonds that was his Nana's engagement ring and tells him to give it to El.
The money he was saving for a ring can go to start their new life together.
Mike happily accepts the gift and takes El on a picnic. If she suspects anything is going to happen, she doesn't let on. She spends the drive to the lake happily chatting about bridesmaid dresses and wedding cakes and their honeymoon.
Finally, after they've eaten lunch and lazed about, warming themselves in the late June sun, El stretched out on her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows. "Is everything okay? You've been quiet all afternoon."
"It's nothing," Mike answers. "Well, it's nothing really. I just… I have something for you."
"Oh?"
"Mhm," Mike says as he pulls the worn velvet box from his pocket.
El's eyes light up. "Is that what I think it is?" she asks.
"I know we're already engaged and it's kind of already too late to ask. I don't want you to think I'm trying to take away from your proposing to me but—"
"Yes!" El squeals as she scrambles to her knees and lets Mike put the ring on her finger before tackling him to the ground. "I was really hoping that you'd still ask me."
"It was my nana's," Mike says, he'd talked to his grandmother earlier that morning and had gotten her blessing, she had loved El from the first time she'd met her. "She really wants you to have it."
El snuggles into the crook of his arm and examines it. "It's so beautiful."
"It suits you," Mike tells her.
"Not as much as you do," El replies, catching his mouth in a sweet kiss, she sighs. "I can't believe in a month, we'll be married. It feels like it's taking forever to get here. But Joyce says not to wish the time away. We won't be able to get these days back."
"We already have forever," Mike tells her. "We just need to get there."
.
A month later, they get married in the Wheeler's backyard. It's the most perfect July night. She walks down the aisle on Hopper's arm, looking prettier than any girl in a magazine modeling wedding dresses.
And Mike cannot believe that he gets to spend forever with her.
But of course, this was always meant to be.
End
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Author's Note:
This story got away with me. It was supposed to be five times "Mike jokingly but seriously proposed to El until they were old enough to get married" but it morphed into 2,000+ words of nonsense. Also, I am a great lover of the young and in love married trope. I just didn't flesh it out here.
I hope somebody liked this. Tell me if you did!