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It was the first spring break since Mike had started highschool. Since they'd all fought the mindflayer. Since Billy and Hopper had died.
After everything had happened, Joyce took in Eleven, since she was now technically an orphan, and moved her family away to California. She had said it would be best for all of them to move far away from Hawkins. To start a new life. And that left Mike and Nancy living 2000 miles away from their lovers.
Sure, they had talked with each other on the phone nearly every night since the Byers had left, but now both siblings jumped at the chance to see their significant other again after six months!
However, unfortunately for them, their parents were paranoid about the flights and dropped Mike and Nancy at the airport six hours early. "It's better to be too early than too late," is what their father had said at the siblings' annoyance. So now, the two had to somehow kill six hours!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"God! I'm so booored!" Mike whined only two hours into their wait, head dangling off the back of an uncomfortable chair in the middle of the small airport terminal. Him and Nancy had managed to get through security in record time and had already explored every coffee shop and laughed at every ugly souvenir they could find in the airport.
"Well we still have," Nancy looks down, checking her watch and sighs, "Four more hours to go."
"Can't we do something fun to pass the time?" Mike asks turning to look at Nancy, "Like, play a game or something."
"That won't work. All the games are in our cases and I don't even have a pack of cards on me," Nancy rooted around in her bag and pulled out a copy of 'A Taste for Death', "I do however have this."
"I didn't bring a book," Mike rolls his eyes, "reading is boring."
"Well, that's not my fault," Nancy says opening her book.
"We could play eye-spi?"
"What, with all of the rich, interesting visuals around us," Nancy mocked, waving her arm around at the plain grey room that surrounded them, "Why didn't I think of that one."
"Well, come on then. You think of something. Surely the genius Nancy Wheeler can conjure up a way to cure her lowly brother's boredom," Mike made sure to punctuate this with his best puppy dog eyes.
"Fine." Looking around, Nancy notices many people dressed in an array of bright patterns, clashing colours and ugly accessories. She looks over to her brother, dressed in his plain blue shirt and black trousers. "You got anything on under that?"
"WHAT?" Mike all but yells at the question, earning his a few strange looks from other people in the airport.
"Just answer the damn question," Nancy hisses back.
"I'm wearing a vest and underwear if that's what you wanted to know," Mike says hesitantly, eyeing up his sister suspiciously, "Why?"
"I've got an idea for a game," Nancy declared, closing her book and placing it on her lap. She obviously isn't going to get to read anything until her brother is occupied. Mike visibly perked up, now giving Nancy his full attention, "You see all of those people in their outrageous clothing? I'm going to give you $30 and I want you to buy a full outfit just like those ones from what you can buy in this airport. Also, you have to wear it all the way to California until we meet up with the others."
Mike just stared at her in disbelief, "Are you crazy? What am I going to do with what I'm currently wearing?"
"Put it in your bag, it'll fit."
"And where am I meant to get changed?"
"There's a bathroom over in the back, you can use one of the stalls."
"And how am I meant to make an outfit that looks good from $30?"
"You're going to have to get creative. Look, Mike, I've thought all of this through," Nancy replied leaning back in her chair picking her book back up, "There's no reason why this won't work, plus it'll be fun."
"I don't know..." Mike says, he knows this is going to be embarrassing, but he also really wants something to do and this could be an interesting way to pass the time.
"Oh come on," Nancy reassured, stuffing a hand in her pocket keeping her eyes fixed on the page, "It'll be fine. We're in an airport. Nobody will be paying attention to you." Looking up she shoved three crumpled $10 bills into Mike's hand, "Here. Now get going," She said, Jenkins her head towards the nearest shop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
An hour later, Mike was still shopping. He'd already found a yellow button up for $8 and some shorts for $9. He now only had $13 to get shoes and accessories. 'This game is harder than I guessed it would be,' he thought, flicking through rows of brightly coloured sun visors, trying to find something that would not completely clash with the rest of this train wreck that he was trying to pass off as an outfit. Finally, he spots a visor with dull blue and orange squares and covered in...plants? Oh well, this will work. Mike also spots a pair of white sunglasses with a stripy rope attatched to them (he figured he could remove that bit if he wanted to) and some simple - bright blue - flip flops. Perfect. His total came out at $12.75, just enough left to get a pack of gum for the flight.
Mike walked across the airport towards the toilets and looked over at Nancy, still curled up in her chair reading. She really was handling this boredom much better than he was.
Looking himself in a stall, Mike laid out his Frankenstein's monster of an outfit; looking at it for much too long in an attempt to figure out how to make it look good. He figured that if he kept his t-shirt on and wore the button-up open over the top, he could still look somewhat stylish, right? Wrong.
When Mike came out of the stall and looked in the mirror, he almost died of embarrassment right then and there. He had to wait in an airport, take a flight and meet his girlfriend (who he hasn't seen in six months) looking like this? He just stares at himself, dumbfounded, before someone else walks in. Mike quickly scuttles out of the bathroom and half walks half runs back to Nancy. To everyone else in the airport, it looks like Mike is speedwalking, but with a little hot every few paces.
Hearing footsteps rapidly approaching, Nancy looks up from her book and immediately brings it up to cover a small smile as she looks Mike up and down. "Wow. That outfit really is, something."
"It's ugly is what it is," Mike shrugs is backpack off and drops down into the chair next to her. A muffled, "Stop laughing at me," could be heard as Mike hid his face in his hands.
"I'm not laughing," Nancy said, holding back a snicker, "It's not that bad, I promise."
"Yes it is," Mike looks at Nancy through his fingers, almost pleading.
"Okay, it is bad," Nancy all but cackled at the sight of her brother sitting beside her looking like a middle aged man on his way to Hawaii.
As the teasing continued, a crackly voice started announcing something over the intercom. Nancy and Mike's heads snapped up, "That's us," said Nancy, putting her book back into her bag and starting towards their gate.
"Finally!" Mike replied following behind, glad for the escape from the teasing, at least for a short while. He was surprised that the game had lasted for nearly four hours. It hadn't felt half as long.
The two boarded their plane and took their seats before taking off on their way to California. Now, after six months, they only had 3 and a half hours until they could see the Byers. They had waited so long for this moment. Mike only hoped that El didn't care too much about how he was dressed.