3. 3: The Nightmare (Mike)

A/N: Hi! This is the exact same story you just read, only told from Mike's perspective. Enjoy!

Mike bolted upright as he was suddenly ripped into consciousness. He scanned his pitch-black basement, his eyes landing on the sleeping figures of his three best friends. He groggily rubbed at his eyes, wondering what on earth could've woken him up so early.

A jolt of adrenaline went through him as he heard three sharp, urgent knocks on his basement door. The one thought in his head was "El?" as he scrambled out of his sleeping bag, being careful not to wake his friends,

He unlocked the door as quickly as he could, desperately wanting to find her safe on the other side. Who else could be knocking on his door at three in the morning? Please be okay, El, please be okay.

Whoa.

In daylight, she was drop-dead gorgeous. In the moonlight, however, she was ethereal. The light bounced off her in silver rays and in this moment, Mike could swear she was an angel. Heck, she already possessed the traits to qualify as one, he thought. Gosh, how he loved her.

But he banished those thoughts from his head when he noticed the shining trail of tears that were streaming down her face. His heart broke as she quietly whispered his name and he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her fragile, innocent body. All he wanted was to save and protect her from the horrible things life had and was inflicting upon her. He knew the bad men were long gone. He knew Hopper was taking care of her and she was happy in his home. But still...this innocent, perfect girl held a past no one deserved and yet she amazed him every day with her sweet, gentle demeanor and a curious wonder for everything around her that he absolutely adored. Whatever had happened to her, he swore to himself that he would make it better.

Before Mike could make a move, however, El stretched out her arm, whimpering as her hand touched his cheek. He felt his heart rate speed up and he had to fight to focus on the fact that she was hurting and not on the place where her skin was touching his. She made this exponentially more difficult as she timidly ran her other hand through his hair.

"Who hurt you?" Mike heard himself ask. A single tear escaped her eyes and his chest ached for her. He realized with a start how cold her hands were and he guided her back into his basement.

"Mike" she whispered, glancing down at Dustin, Lucas and Will, who were still sound asleep. "Privacy?" "Right, of course!" Mike gently whispered back. She followed him up two flights of stairs and he secretly noted how tightly she was clinging to his hand.

Once they made it up to his room, he locked the door behind them and led El to his bed. He kneeled down in front of her and took hold of her hands once again. "What happened?" he asked.

"N...ni...nightmare" she managed to get out. "Do you want to talk about it?" El finally looked up at him and Mike felt his heart break when he saw just how much sadness she was holding in her eyes.

She nodded and exhaled. "Demogorgon...chasing friends...they got away...except..." Her voice broke and Mike squeezed her hands tighter. "It...it got you." El threw her arms around Mike and finally let the sobs she had been holding back overtake her. Mike swallowed the lump in his throat and buried his face in her shoulder, pulling her as close to him as possible. "It took you away from me" El whispered.

He knew it was slightly selfish, but his mind couldn't help but try to picture being forced away from her.

He couldn't do it. When his mind got close to imagining the pain, the emptiness, the unbearable longing that that would bring him, he immediately stopped that train of thought, which was then replaced with memories from about a year ago. She had been ripped away from him. He was nearly destroyed because of it. He quickly lost count of the number of times he had sobbed in her fort, crying, begging for the girl that he had cared for and loved so deeply to come back, to fill the empty void that had overtaken his mind.

Without her, he was nothing.

Knowing they weren't going to let go of each other for a while, Mike shifted so his back was against his bed and gently pulled El so she was now positioned in his lap. Her cries eventually subsided and right before she fell asleep against Mike's chest, he heard her quietly whisper

"Thank you, Mike.

Please don't ever, ever leave me."

When he was sure she had gone to sleep, he gently put his lips on the top of her head. Kissing her silently, he whispered back

"I will always protect you.

I promise."