Chapter Text
Mike?
Yeah.
Remember that day….at the cabin. You were talking to Max.
Um, I don’t think I follow.
You talked about your feelings. Your heart.
Oh. Oh! Yeah, that. Man, that was so long ago. Um, I don’t know, it was just heat of the moment stuff, and we were arguing, and...I don’t really remember...what did I say exactly?
Mike? I love you, too.
She was gone.
It didn’t feel real, Mike thought. He’d only had a year with El, and now she was gone, all over again.
He understood why Mrs. Byers wanted to move- heck, if his parents knew half the stuff he’d seen, they’d want to move, too -but it still hurt.
Mike was upset about one of his best friends moving, too. He and Will had been friends since the first day of kindergarten, and the Byers had been a big part of his life ever since then. Mrs. Byers may as well be another mother; and though he and Jonathan weren’t extremely close, Mike knew how much his big sister cared for him, and how much she must be hurting right now. Mike knew things were going to be different now, with Will gone.
Maybe it’s what’s best for Will , he thought. Will kind of deserved a fresh start . Mike just wished he could be there for his friend.
And then, of course, there was El.
The girl who’d changed his life forever, the girl he’d fallen in love with, the girl who loved him , was gone.
And that was probably what was bothering him the most; El loved him . She’d told him how she felt, and instead of saying it back, he’d stared at her, mouth open, like a mouth breather.
Over the past few months he’d been trying to find the right moment to tell her; he’d finally come up with the bright idea of taking her out to Lover’s Lake on the last week of summer and telling her there. But then she’d broken up with him, and the Mind Flayer happened, and Billy happened, and Hopper had died, and suddenly it wasn’t the most important thing anymore.
Why didn’t you tell her you loved her, too he asked himself. He would think it would be easy, but for some reason he got all tongue tied when he tried to tell her. She’d obviously overheard him talking to Max and Nancy, but his brain had malfunctioned.
And now she was gone, and he may have missed his chance.
After the moving truck left, Mike returned home in a daze; he’d ended up home but he honestly didn’t remember riding his bike there. He’d hugged his mom in an attempt to feel some kind of comfort before stumbling upstairs to his room, falling asleep on his bed. Hours later, a familiar voice woke him.
“...Mike?”
He slowly woke up, and realized it’d gotten darker; apparently he’d been napping for a while. He looked up to see Nancy, standing in his doorway with her hand on the doorknob.
“Yeah?” he asked, sitting up.
“Dinner’s ready.”
Mike nodded. “Okay.”
Still, she stayed in the doorway, a worried look on her face. “Are you doing alright?” she finally asked, folding her arms and stepping into his room.
“I’m fine,” he answered, hoping she’d leave.
“Come on, Mike,” she said. She took a seat on his bed, forcing him to make room for her. “ Really ? How are you doing?” When he still didn’t say anything, she responded with “Them moving...it sucks, I know. After the...shitty summer we had, we deserved something good , don’t you think? But..maybe it’s for the best. I mean, they have had a bad couple of years here. And now with Hopper gone, it…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “It just sucks, is all.”
Mike sighed and wiped at his eyes, hoping his sister wouldn’t see the tears that were forming. They sat there quietly for a moment, before Mike said “I never told El.”
Nancy looked at him quizzically. “Told El what?”
“What I said at the cabin. About how I felt.”
“What do you... oh ,” Nancy said as she remembered that heated conversation from months ago. “She probably knows, Mike.”
That caused a light chuckle from him. “Actually she did know. She, um, heard me.”
“Well, you did kind of shout it,” Nancy said, playfully bumping her brother.
Mike breathed a laugh.
“Even if you never said it to her, she knows it, Mike.”
He nodded.
“Besides, you can always tell her the next time you see her. Or call her, even.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
They heard footsteps outside the door, and when they looked up their mother was standing in the doorway. “Your dinner’s getting cold,” she told her children.
“Yeah, mom,” Nancy said, standing. “Sorry.”
Her somewhat-scolding demeanor loosening, Karen asked “How are you two?”
“We’re fine,” Nancy answered.
Karen glanced at her son, worried. “Mike?”
Mike let out a breath before standing as well. “I’m okay,” he told her. As the three of them headed downstairs, Mike wondered when or if he would be “okay” anytime soon.
~~
“El?”
The teen slowly woke, blinking herself awake after hearing her name. She looked to her left, where she saw Mrs. Byers giving her a tired smile. “Are we there?”
“No, sweetie,” she answered. “We won’t be for another day or so. We’re at a motel.”
Eleven sat up, finally taking notice of her surroundings. It was getting dark outside, and the clock on the dashboard read 7:12 . Outside and in front of them was a building she didn’t recognize. “Motel?” she asked.
Mrs. Byers nodded before turning off the ignition. “Just for the night. It’s getting late.”
The two climbed out of the truck, slamming the doors behind them as Jonathan and Will made their way over, Jonathan holding a set of keys in his hands. “We’re room 18,” he said, motioning towards a door a little ways from where they stood. Tossing the keys to his mother, he and Will went to grab the suitcases while Joyce and El went to the room.
El had never been to a motel before ( among other things ), and was curious to see what it looked like. Upon entering, though, she found it not to be that big of a deal. She sat on one of the beds as Joyce stood by the door, looking out at her sons.
“Where are we?” El asked.
“Somewhere in Illinois,” Mrs. Byers answered.
“So we’re almost there?”
“Almost,” Joyce answered, pulling the door open as Will and Jonathan arrived. Will lugged his suitcase to the bed opposite of El, while Jonathan stood the other near El’s feet.
“You and Will can take that one,” Joyce told her oldest son, nodding at the bed Will was at. “El and I’ll take this.”
Once they’d settled in Joyce took a shower, Jonathan went down the street to buy the family some burgers, and Will and El turned on the TV as they waited. The two teens were quiet as Will sketched in a notebook, and El flipped through channels.
After a few minutes, Will asked “So are you excited?”
El looked over. “Excited?”
“About the new house.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head.
“Yeah, me either.”
El, who’d been sitting up, flopped onto her back. “I miss everyone.”
Will smirked. “Do you mean you miss Mike?”
“No,” she said. “I miss Max. And Lucas and Dustin, too.”
“Me, too,” Will responded.
El frowned at what Will had said a moment ago; do you mean you miss Mike? Of course she missed him; she missed him terribly. Even though they’d sort-of-kind-of-but-not-really broken up in June, things had changed after the battle at Starcourt. She’d needed all of her friends after the tragedy that’d happened, but she had especially needed Mike. As much as she loved her friends, it was Mike who knew her best, and it was he whose shoulder she’d needed to cry on. Shortly after Starcourt, and she’d gone to live with the Byers, the two had gotten back together ( though Dustin-once he’d been caught up on what he’d missed during his time with Steve and Robin-insisted they’d never really broken up in the first place ). Soon after that, Mrs. Byers had announced her decision to move the family-El included-to a new city.
Everyone had been sad, obviously, but had slowly come around to accepting it. El was the last to acquiesce, due to her stubbornness (she was a Hopper, after all). But even she had to admit that the town of Hawkins, despite all of the good things it had given her-a family, friends, and a real life-also had more than its fair share of demons. In the end, she had to admit it was the right thing to do. But it still hurt.
The door to their room opened, and Jonathan walked in, struggling with two bags of food and a cup holder full of drinks. “Give me a hand, willya?” he asked the two. Will and El scrambled over, Will taking the drinks and El taking one of the bags. When Mrs. Byers emerged from the bathroom moments later, the family sat together and ate, talking about the drive ahead of them as well as some ideas they had for the new house, when they arrived.
When dinner was done first El, then Will, and finally Jonathan had their turn using the shower before they all got into one of the two beds to sleep. El listened as one by one everyone around her drifted off. She couldn’t stop thinking about the new life ahead of her; a life in a new town with her new family and a new house, with new people to meet. And “newest” of all? School. When Mrs. Byers had made the decision to move, she’d also made the decision to not enroll El in school just yet; she hadn’t been sure how to answer questions about a girl with a birth certificate reading “Jane Hopper,” or at least how it could be explained without ending up with more questions. But in this new city where they were unknown, El would be put in school. El had always thought she’d have her friends, have Mike , with her when she started school.
Mike…
As sleep finally came for her, she wondered what he was doing, and if he was thinking of her, too. Was he missing her like she missed him? Was he having a hard time falling asleep?
Sleep finally came for her, and she welcomed it.
~~
The next morning was a Monday, and Mike was late getting up. Late enough that his friends left without him, but early enough that he could turn down a ride from Nancy. With both of the (older) Wheeler kids going to high school now, Karen usually insisted that they go together. But Mike enjoyed biking with his friends too much, and Nancy liked the peace and quiet in the car before school.
When he arrived at Hawkins High School, Mike found Lucas and Dustin waiting for him at the bike racks.
“Dude, where were you?” Dustin asked as Mike climbed off his bike.
“I slept through my alarm,” Mike answered.
“Oh. We thought maybe you were, you know...going to stay home today,” Lucas said.
“Why would I stay home?” Mike asked, leading the way into the building. Dustin and Lucas exchanged glances, shrugged, and followed him inside.
The freshmen lockers were, thankfully, all near the front of the school, so they didn’t have too far to go. The three of them all had their lockers on one side; across the hall from them were Max’s and, up until last Friday, Will’s.
“Where’s Max?” Mike asked. The party’s Zoomer was typically the last to arrive, but even now-five minutes before class-was pushing it.
“I don’t know,” Lucas called, two lockers down from Mike.
“Shouldn’t you know?” Dustin, whose locker was next to Mike’s, responded.
“I’m her boyfriend, not her dad,” Lucas said.
Their books gathered, the three boys turned, their eyes wandering over to locker 23A, Will’s former locker.
“Any idea when they’re getting to the new house?” Dustin asked.
“Sometime today or tomorrow,” Mike answered.
“It’s not going to be the same,” Lucas admitted.
The bell rang, signalling it was time for their first class. As the boys began to make their way, they saw a certain redhead rushing into the building, out of breath.
“You’re late,” Dustin told her.
“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock,” she replied, walking to her locker. The group had earth science first period together. The boys waited as Max quickly did her combination, tossed in her skateboard, and grabbed her science book.
“I told you to set your alarm earlier,” Lucas said as Max, finished, joined them and they began heading to class.
“Lucas, can you not right now?” she asked.
“Yeah, whatever,” he answered as the group made their way down the hall.
~~
Miles away, the Byers clan had had a quick breakfast before hitting the road, on the way to their new home.
In the passenger seat of the moving truck, El looked out the window, watching as trees and buildings passed her by.
“Did you sleep okay?” Mrs. Byers asked her.
“Yes,” El answered quietly. Then, thinking friends tell the truth , she added “Not really.”
Mrs. Byers frowned. “Was it Jonathan? Was he snoring again?”
El grinned. “No. I was...thinking.”
Mrs. Byers nodded. “Is there anything wrong?”
“No,” El answered. “I just...I miss everyone.”
“I know you do, sweetie,” Joyce said. “I do, too.”
They drove in silence for a few minutes until Joyce said, “At least you’ll get to see Mike at Thanksgiving. And that’s in another month.”
“Yeah,” she said, smiling slightly at that thought. Then, absentmindedly, she said “I told Mike I loved him.”
Joyce opened her mouth to say something, but paused; she obviously wasn’t expecting El to tell her that . “That’s...good. Wow.”
Eleven turned to her, confused. “Wow?”
“I just...was not expecting you to tell me that.” It stayed quiet for a few seconds until Mrs. Byers asked “What did Mike say?”
“Nothing,” El said, replaying the scene in Will’s bedroom in her head.
“Nothing? You mean he didn’t say it back?”
“Well...no,” El answered. “But he said it before.”
Eleven spent a few minutes telling Mrs. Byers about what happened at the cabin, where Mike had accidentally told Nancy, Jonathan, Will, Lucas, Max (and El herself) how he felt.
“That’s sweet,” Joyce said.
Eleven honestly hadn’t really thought about it too much since they’d left Hawkins. She had debated, at first, whether or not to tell Mike before she left. But somehow the moment had seemed right after their clumsy conversation in Will’s room. He hadn’t said it back, which really hadn’t bothered her at the time; even if he didn’t say it, she knew how Mike felt. Still, though, it would’ve been nice to hear him purposely say it to her, she thought.
~~
When school ended, the remaining party members had A/V Club. At Hawkins High it was led by Mr. Oliver, who also taught history. Though he was no Mr. Clarke, the group had come to enjoy their time in the A/V room.
Today, though, things seemed strained. Mike had been withdrawn all day and, despite his friend’s attempts to lift his spirits, the group’s Paladin was unmoved. Making things worse, Max seemed to be in a bad mood as well. The only person she seemed to have any patience with was Lucas, and even that was stretching it.
They’d just finished experimenting with the Heathkit radio when Mr. Oliver had to run back to his room to grab something.
“So,” Lucas said, attempting to fill the silence, “Do you guys want to come to my house? Work on homework?”
“I can’t,” Dustin said. “My mom’s making Sloppy Joe’s.”
“So?”
“So, they’re really good,” Dustin retorted.
Lucas shook his head. “Anyway...Mike? Max?”
“Not tonight,” Mike said.
“Why not?”
“I just don’t want to, Lucas. Okay?”
“Fine, jeez,” Lucas said. Looking to his girlfriend, he asked “Max?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head.
Lucas sighed. “Are we just going to not do anything until they come back? Is that what’s happening now?”
“We’re here , aren’t we?” Max asked.
“That’s kind of harsh, dude,” Dustin commented to Lucas.
“I miss them too, but…”
“I’m going home,” Mike said, grabbing his backpack. He pulled open the door and brushed past the returning Mr. Oliver.
“Mike,” Lucas said, standing.
Max put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. “I’ll talk to him. Real smooth, Stalker,” she said, going to catch up with Mike.
Mike walked the hall, not knowing where he was going. He honestly didn’t feel like going home yet, he just wanted to get away from Lucas for a minute. He rolled his eyes when he heard the footsteps behind him, knowing his friend was going to try and stop him. He was surprised, then, when he saw it was Max and not Lucas coming after him.
“Wait up,” Max called, trying to close the distance between them.
“I’m going home, Max,” he called over his shoulder.
“You’re not the only one that misses her, you know,” Max finally said after a moment.
That got Mike to stop. Turning, he asked “What’re you talking about?”
“El,” Max answered, finally catching up. “And Will, too, but I know this is about Eleven.”
Mike sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “So what if it is?”
“We all miss her.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So you don’t get to be a jerk just because you’re missing your girlfriend.”
“I’m not being a…” he paused, because he knew he’d been short and distant today. Still, though, he got defensive. “You’re one to talk.”
“What?”
“You’ve been icing everybody out literally all day . And you have the nerve to talk about me ?”
Mike expected Max to come back right away with a response. Instead, he saw her facade falter for a second before she blinked, looking away for a moment. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, taking a seat on a bench.
“What do you mean?”
The redhead looked at the ground, sighed, and held her head in her hands. “You think you’re the only one who’s having a hard time? My friends moved away, too. Not to mention Billy died.”
Mike started to say something, but she continued. “And my parents...I mean, my mom and my stepdad. Ever since Billy died, they’ve been...different. My step dad...he’s always been angry, but now, with Billy gone, he’s got no one to take it out on. So...he drinks.”
“Oh,” Mike said, sitting on a bench across from Max’s.
“My mom tries to get him to stop, but that only makes him mad at her. That’s why I was late,” she explained. “I was trying to wait for them to finish fighting.”
“I’m sorry,” Mike said. “I didn’t know.”
Max chuckled as she quickly wiped at her eyes. “Of course you didn’t. Lucas doesn’t even know.”
“Why’d you tell me?”
“I don’t know,” she said, shrugging. “It just happened.”
Mike sighed, taking it all in. He forgot, sometimes, how close El and Max became in such a short amount of time. And Billy….
Mike knew Max and Billy had had a...well, complicated relationship seemed somewhat of an understatement. But she still cared about him in her own way, and Mike sometimes forgot how Billy’s death had to have affected her.
“I never told El,” Mike finally said. When Max looked up, confused, he added “You know...what I said at the cabin.” Max still seemed lost, but after a few seconds she mouthed “oh.”
“She told me ,” Mike said. “But I didn’t say it to her.”
It got quiet for a moment, and Mike was about to get up, when Max said “I’m sorry about the whole...El breaking up with you thing.”
Mike chuckled. “You mean you conspiring her against me?”
Max rolled her eyes. “Oh my God. I was trying to help her be her own person . How was I to know Hopper made you lie to her and…”
“Max,” Mike said, waving it off. “I’m kidding. Kind of.” He stood up. “I shouldn’t have lied to her. But...I’m glad you two became friends. And I’m glad you kind of...helped her come out of her shell, I guess.”
Max nodded. “Thanks.”
“I just wished you’d gone about it in a different way,” he said, recalling the arguments between him and Max last July. And since they were on the subject of arguing, he decided he’d do something. “And I’m sorry for kind of...being a jerk when you first moved here.”
Max smirked. “ Kind of ?”
Now Mike rolled his eyes. “El was gone, and it just felt like everyone was forgetting about her. I…”
“ I’m kidding,” Max said, smiling.
Mike grinned, before walking over to Max and extending his hand. At first Max thought he was trying to help her stand up, but then she remembered the group’s way of “officially” apologizing, and she shook his hand as she stood. “You going back to A/V?” she asked.
Mike shook his head. “No. I’m going to head home. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
Max nodded, and the two went their separate ways.
~~
The next day was a little better, as his friends saw some of the old Mike coming back. Lucas and Dustin had feared that with Eleven and Will gone, their friend would return to the pessimistic version he’d been a year ago.
With no A/V Club after school on Tuesdays, Mike biked home after school, settling in the basement as he looked over the homework he had to do. He’d been home for almost a half hour when the phone rang. Figuring it was Lucas or Dustin calling about the algebra homework, he got off the couch to pick up the phone. “Hello?”
Nothing at first, then a soft voice asked “Mike?”
Mike felt a smile come to his mouth as he heard the familiar voice. “El?”
“Hi,” she breathed into the phone.
“Hi, I thought...I thought you guys weren’t getting there for another couple of days.”
“We made good time,” she said. “We got here this morning. We’ve been unpacking all day.”
Mike shook his head in disbelief; it felt so good to hear her voice again. “Wh...how...how’re you doing?”
“Good,” she answered. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too, El. What’s the…” He paused, hearing someone saying something in the background. Is that Mike?
“Yes,” El answered.
The phone was shuffled, then Mike heard Will. “Hey, Mike.”
“Hey, Will. How’s the house?”
“Not bad, I guess,” his friend answered. “It’s a little bigger than our home in Hawkins. How is everyone?”
“They’re fine,” Mike said. “We all miss you guys.”
“We miss you too,” Will said. “We...hold on.” He heard murmuring, then Will came back, saying “I’ll talk to you later, Mike. El’s begging to talk to you.”
Mike smiled. “Bye, Will.”
“Hi,” El said, back on the phone.
“Hi. So how do you like the house?”
Over the next hour, El described the house, especially how happy she was to be getting her own room again. She talked about the sights she’d seen on the ride from Hawkins, and their stays in two motels ( one kind of dirty, one nice ). Mike surprisingly didn’t talk that much, instead listening and loving the sound of hearing El’s voice again. He had to remind himself that it’d only been two days since he’d seen her; still, two days was too long.
However, all good things have to come to an end. Mike had to get dinner, and El had to go work on unpacking her bedroom.
“Can we talk tomorrow?” El asked Mike.
“Yeah, of course,” he answered. “Same time?”
“Same time,” she repeated. “Okay. Bye,” she began.
Before she could hang up, though, Mike said “Wait! Um, El?”
“Yes?” she asked, bringing the phone back to her ear.
“Um...remember before you left? What you told me?”
“Yes…” On her end, El felt her heart beat faster.
“Well, I just...I’m sorry I didn’t say it back. But...I wanted you to hear it from me, that...that I love you, El.”
Eleven smiled. She knew how he felt, of course, but actually hearing it from him ( and on purpose this time ), plus knowing that he wasn’t saying it by accident gave her the first warm feeling she’d had since leaving Hawkins.
Mike, however, took her silence as either the call being disconnected or possibly something worse. “El?” he asked worriedly. “Are you there? Did you hear me? Are you...”
“I’m here,” she finally said. “And...I love you, too, Mike.”
Mike smiled, almost too happy to speak. “I’ll...I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow,” she said. “Same time.”
They both hung up, with almost near-identical smiles on their faces.