𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐒

your the only person i'd dance with

☆

it was the year 1984, in the month of december the hawkins middle hosted their annual snowball dance. most would say it was cheesy or just something one would go to just for the snack bar but this.. this was something mike had been waiting for, for about a year. he promised el that he would take her to this very dance, and mike never broke a promise. especially if that promise was to the girl he had been crushing on. in the month that she had been back, they spent every fleeting moment with each other, not leaving ones side until hopper pulled them apart.

but when mike had brought it up to her she had been more than ecstatic, but there lay one problem. she had to run it by hopper. but when she found out the answer to whether she could go or not she chose not to tell mike, she wanted to surprise him. and the day came around and mike was feeling nervous the whole day, what if she never came he sat there alone? what if all of his friends ran off with girls and left him astray? but chose to just swallow his nerves and find out if any of that would turned out to be true.

when el woke up that day she didn't mope around in her bed, she jumped up and ran to the kitchen. hopper sat at the small kitchen table smoking his usual cigarette. "today is the s-snowball!" she cheered, "sure is." hopper grumbled, "what time?" she asked, "it starts at 5, that means you should start getting ready at 4:30 so you can do all the girly stuff. i'll see if i can get joyce to come over, yeah?" el nodded, a smile not slipping off her face for one second.

*

4:30 rolled around and el waited impatiently for joyce to get there, her blue and purple dress lay on her bed. she examined the dress, joyce had bought it for her after el said that she liked it. she began to wonder if mike would think she looked pretty, or if she wasn't pretty enough. she knew she would never look like his gorgeous sister, but at least she had someone to look up to.

she stopped thinking when someone knocked on the other side of her door, she rushed to answer it and let joyce inside. "okay el are you ready?" she asked, "yes!"

"well, i brought you something to wear alongside your dress." joyce smiles holding something behind her back, "what is it?" el asked curiously, "makeup!" joyce said handing her a small eyeshadow pallet. "pretty.." el mumbled when she looked over the shiny and glittery powders.

"now, let's get you ready!" joyce smiled, el nodded and went into the bathroom to put on her dress. she had joyce zip up the back of the dress and joyce sat her down on the edge of the bed. she curled el's brown hair into a style that framed her face, and she put purple eyeshadow above her golden eyes. joyce stepped back and admired her work, "you look gorgeous! mike is going to be drooling." joyce winked, el looked down and blushed. "let's get you to that dance!"

*

hopper drove to the hawkins middle carefully, he knew he shouldn't tell el what to do, she looked so excited he couldn't ruin it for it. but he just had to tell her.

"just.. be careful, okay? stay with mike and his nerdy friends." hopper reminded, "they are not nerdy!" el argued, "pff okay." el hit his shoulder, "shut up." she giggled, "but stick with em' okay?" she nodded, "will do." moments later he stopped in the parking lot and el got out. she waved at him and walked into the school with the small ticket. when she entered into gym a very slow song echoed through the gym, she looked around and tried to spot mike. she hoped he wasn't already dancing with someone.

when she spotted him he sat slouched over in a small black folding chair. and when his eyes landed on her they widened, he stood up and walked over towards her. "you look beautiful." he gushed, she put her head down to try and hide her rosy cheeks. "you wanna dance?" he asked motioning towards the mob of swaying people. "i-i don't know how.." she said quietly, "i don't either, you wanna figure it out?" he asked, his goofy grin spreading across his face. she simply nodded as he grabbed her hand gently and pulled her towards the dance floor.

when mike first spotted her the first thing he thought of was, beautiful. she was beautiful. everything about her. it didn't matter if she had a dress on and makeup or one of his sweaters and sweatpants, he still thought she was stunning. but seeing her with that dress on made his eyes bulge out of his head, her dress was blue with little purple dots, and a thick purple belt around her middle. her hair was styled in something he had never seen before, but nevertheless she looked gorgeous. and he wanted to make sure she knew that.

as they arrived to the middle of the dance floor mike took both of her arms and placed them on his shoulders, "like that." he smiled, el returned the gesture as she wrapped her arms around his neck. mike placed his hands on her waist making chills run down her back. he pulled her closer so that their foreheads were almost touching, it didn't bother him that there were hundreds of his fellow students surrounding him, the only thing that mattered to him was the girl right in front of him. the two didn't say anything as they gently swayed to 'every breath you take' for they didn't need to say anything, their eyes said everything so much better.

as the song concluded mike felt the need to be closer to her, in a way that he had expressed once. his eyes glanced down at her pink lips, he couldn't contain it anymore, he leaned forward and pressed a firm kiss on her lips, it wasn't rushed or anything, it was exactly she wanted. after they pulled away she rested her forehead on his, closing her eyes as if to savor this moment forever.

when the song came to an end and a more upbeat song started playing they pulled apart. "you want to go find everyone else?" he asked, el nodded. mike grabbed her hand once again, making her smile, and he lead her over to the small table he sat at just moments before. "lovebirds! where you been?" dustin asked walking forward to hug el, "hi dusty." she smiled hugging him back, for some reason el always liked dustin the best out of mike's friends. he was so goofy and never failed to make her smile, and she loved that about him. "things were getting pretty heated over there on the dance floor, huh?" he teased, "shut up, dingus." mike sat hitting the back of his head, "well am i wrong?"

mike just rolled his eyes, "where's max and lucas?" mike asked, "who knows, probably sucking face." he shrugged, "we're right here." max scoffed from behind him, el furrowed her eyebrows. that girl.

why was she here? she wasn't in the party. "come on, let's go dance!" mike smiled pulling her back into the crowd of people. el put her arms around his neck like he showed her before, "you only do that when you dance to slow songs." mike explained, "slow songs?" she asked, "yeah like the one we danced to, this one is more upbeat you know? see how everyone is jumping around?" mike asked pointing to some people, "yes." she responded, looking carefully at the other kids. "that's what you do to this type of song." mike said gesturing towards the song that played, girls just want to have fun. "oh." she said, "i mean if you don't want to dance, you don't have to. we can just go back to the table- or if you want to go home i'm sure we-"

"mike!" she giggled, "sorry, rambling." he said rubbing the back of his head. "can we d-dance?" she asked, "yeah yeah! just warning you, i'm an awful dancer." he smiled, "i won't be any better!" the two started to jump around, giggling and laughing the whole time.

the rest of the party watched from the table, "i haven't seen him smile so much before." max said sipping on some kool-aid. "yeah.. that's mike. or at least mike when he's with her, she makes him happy." lucas said, they all smiled watching the two.

*

after the two had danced for a bit another slow song came on and mike held his hand out for her to take. "you don't want to dance with.. someone else?" she asked curiously, "your the only person i'd dance with. and just a reminder, i think your the most beautiful girl in this room."

authors note:

i just had to make this! the snowball is one of my favorite mileven scenes, we just couldn't forget about it after season 3. but hope you enjoyed, and make sure to check out wickedwheeler she's got a new story out, some amazing one shots, and a wonderful fic! so go read them all now or i'll cry🤧

ok bye

-nedy ✌🏼