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“Mike, what’s this?” The 12-year-old turned to look at Eleven, or 'El', as he now called her, the girl he had met the night before in Mirkwood when he, Lucas and Dustin were in search of Will.
“Oh, this is a radio. It plays something that’s called ‘music’” Mike explained. “Music,” El parroted. “Music is something that makes you sing,” he started to sing a lyric from one of his favourite songs as an example while El watched with intrigue. “Or dance,” Mike started to move his body awkwardly and El couldn't help but giggle.
"I'm not the best dancer, Lucas is much better than I am when it comes to that stuff, and when it comes to music, Will usually knows what's good or bad thanks to his brother, Jonathan," Mike paused as he thought about his best friend, who was currently missing.
"Music sometimes makes you feel something too. Here let me show you.” He turned it on as the device blasted “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen during a climactic part of the song, frightening but fascinating the girl because of how loud it sounded. Mike bopped his head to the beat, encouraging El to do the same.
"How do you feel?" He asked as the song came to a close. "Good," El replied. "Music can sometimes do that to you, or it can make you feel sad, or it can make you angry," Mike explained.
She liked the feeling of moving to the music, or dancing, as she now learned, and wanted to do some more, only for the radio DJ to start talking. El frowned, and Mike immediately noted her expression.
"Don't worry, the DJ is someone who just talks in between the songs that play. Another song should come up soon." Mike said. "Usually, if you don't want to listen to that, you would use this to change the station and it’ll usually play a different song or a news broadcast, kinda like on the TV I showed you.” He demonstrated by turning the knob, static being heard briefly before another station was chosen.
El was happy to be learning something new from Mike, especially the concept of music, singing and dancing as they spent their time listening to different songs before Mike took her upstairs to show her his bedroom.
Later that evening, Mike was writing down different possibilities of where Will could be after Lucas and Dustin had left. El had been able to show them where Will could be, and although his two best friends were wary of Eleven, they agreed that she could still help them.
Meanwhile, El was watching TV as she sat next him on the couch, the girl watching the screen intently when she saw people dancing, a man and a woman, holding each other close as they slow danced on the TV. Remembering her lesson from Mike, she tugged on his shirt to grab his attention. "Dance?" El pointed to the screen.
Mike looked up from his notebook, his eyes focusing on the TV screen. "Oh, yeah, that's another type of dancing. Usually couples do it," Mike replied nonchalantly, getting up to change the channel, only for the young telekinetic to stop him. "I want to try, with music" she whispered. Mike's cheeks turned red. "W-with me?" El nodded, not understanding why Mike was acting weird all of a sudden.
"O-Okay, um," the boy wasn't sure how to do this. Slow dances like these were usually reserved for the Snow Ball, but El was curious, and he couldn't say 'no' to her. "Let me, um, just turn off the radio, and turn on the TV- I mean, turn on the radio and turn off the TV," he fumbled, only for the TV to magically shut off and the radio to turn on, El wiping her nose of the blood trickling down after using her powers.
'Faithfully' by Journey started to play as Mike nervously stood in front of El, looking down at his feet. "Okay, so," he grabbed her hands and put it on his shoulders while he placed his hands on her hips. "So, the couple just started to move like this," he swayed, and El mimicked his movements. They were a bit of a distance away from each other.
"This is called slow dancing," Mike said lowly, his eyes finally meeting hers and all air left his throat immediately at how intently she stared back at him. "Slow dancing," El repeated. "Y-Yeah," As the song continued to play, the two kids found themselves closer, with El wrapping her hands around his neck, than before as they danced, Mike's stomach doing a weird flip. What was this feeling, exactly? It's something he never felt before, and yet, he found that he didn't mind it, not one bit. The song came to an end all too soon, and they both came to a stop.
"So, um, yeah," Mike's hands dropped from El's waist as El removed her hands from around Mike's shoulders. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, avoiding eye contact with El. "That's slow dancing. W-We should get to bed if we're going to try and find Will tomorrow," the girl nodded in reply.
"Goodnight, Mike," she said as she went to her little fort. "Goodnight, El." he replied as he made his way back up the stairs and into his room, his heart pounding as he sat on his bed. He had just met this girl, but why was he feeling like this? Little did they both know that this would be answered in a few days to come.
The slow dancing did end up coming in handy for both Mike and El in the future. A year later, the two would slow dance with each other at the Snow Ball, sealing their relationship off with a second kiss shared between the two.
They would dance together during their Senior Prom, Mike protesting that he still had two left feet and El not caring about that as she still dragged him onto the dance floor.
And they would slow dance yet again on their wedding night, surrounded by their family and friends as they will hold each other close, lost in each other and in their own little world.