Chapter Text
Everyone got the same size of tent. There was no money to ask for a bigger tent just for a bigger tent— you only get a bigger tent if you've got more people, and even if, you just need a lot of kids who can't stand to be apart from their parents.
Decrepit buildings and getting uprooted from your home to sleep on the cold, hard ground can be very scary. Is very scary. Even for the oldest, most experienced people— Mike bets that Hop and Joyce are scared, no matter how much they've already gone through.
The Wheeler family got one of those tents that have one room, and then another one. Karen Wheeler wanted a tent that had three rooms, but the police (the real ones who were leading all this runaway camp shit) turned her down immediately.
Right now, the divider is closed, but Mike can hear everything that's going on in the 'room' over. The sun hasn't yet risen to meet the mesh windows of the tent, which has him under the impression that it's very early in the morning (although time has never really mattered since they got moved to this place). Which means that his parents don't want him or Holly to hear this conversation.
Well, Holly won't hear. She's sleeping sound beside Mike, her breathing even.
But Mike hasn't really been asleep at all this night. He fell asleep quickly (a bad sign) and dreamt about the vines that would crawl underneath Hawkins and almost got him. He woke up, in a cold sweat, thrashing about until he quickly remembered that Holly was sleeping right beside him. Thankfully, he hadn't hit her or woken her up, but this has been a recurring thing now, and he doesn't want to see what happens when she does wake up and see her big brother in that state.
"We do need to talk!" Mike had been drifting off, thinking about random things, when his father's voice snapped him out of his trance.
Mike turned over, closer to the divider. A conversation so early in the morning seemed quite important.
He heard his mother take a deep breath. "Fine." There was some sort of rustling, of something that seemed like paper. "Fine, Ted. Y'know why I've been taking all these magazines and these newspapers? Not because I want to 'hold onto our old life'. Hawkins sucked. Okay? I'm looking for houses on the market."
"Do we—"
"I have all the money stored up, okay? We just need to get out of this shithole."
Mike's eyes went wide. He had never, ever heard his mother swear.
His father let out a raggedy breath. "Fine. Have you found anywhere you want?"
Mike didn't hear anything, but he assumed that his mother nodded. Maybe took out a newspaper to show him the house she wanted, though he's not sure.
"Alright," his father said, "but it's gonna take a lot to get out of here. Besides, aren't we not supposed to have money? We were supposed to donate it so that everyone can get everything they need?"
"Well, we need to get out. So we'll get out."
Mike felt like he was about to puke.
For two reasons.
One: What the absolute fuck? His parents have just been storing money away, instead of donating it so that everyone has comfortable sleeping bags, so that everyone gets more than enough food, so that people actually survive? What kind of asshole bullshit is that?
The Byers lost every single penny they had when they came here. And his parents just can't share? Instead they're going to take Mike and Holly and run? Not help anyone?
They might not know what the earthquakes' cause was, but he does. And they're just going to run?
Two: They're leaving.
They're leaving.
The only phones in this place are the three phones that sit in the makeshift town square thing, and those always have some pretty long-ass lines. Too long.
And if he leaves, if he moves away, he won't be able to call anyone who lives here. He'll just have to wait for them to call him, for Will to call him... for El to call him. If she does— she's still angry at him, and he's still not sure why. Was it because of the rollerskate incident? It's been a while since then.
But Will won't be able to call him, either. Will, who's been by his side every single day since they got back to Hawkins and since they've moved to this camp. Will's been there as El stays at the makeshift hospital with Max, waiting for her to wake up. Even when she's not at the hospital, she's always... gone.
So now it's been Will and Mike.
But it won't be Will and Mike if Mike has to leave the camp.
And then he'll be all alone.
Where? Where are they going? Across the country, to a whole other country?
What would he do?
Alone, the weirdo from broken-in-two Hawkins, without any friends and with a girlfriend who no one will believe is real.
God, he's always been a nobody, but at least he has a decent amount of friends here. At least his family, his real family is here. What would he do away from them?
Is this how Will and El felt? Leaving everything they knew?
But wasn't it at least somewhat of a relief? They had so many bad memories from Hawkins, it almost made sense. Not almost, it completely made sense.
And under that logic, this should make sense to Mike too.
But all he can do is stare at the dark 'ceiling' of the tent, hold his breath, and wish that his parents weren't like this.
He wouldn't say that they were terrible people, but he could feel it deep in his bones.
That morning, he made his way over to the Byers tent, like he always did. He used to go over to El and Hopper's tent too, but El was almost never there. He's never sure where exactly she is— anytime he needs her, she's not at the hospital with Max or in her tent, like she's deliberately trying to avoid him.
He chalks that off as another reason why he's been hanging out more with Will. El won't speak to him, at all. She spends all her time at the hospital with Max, and when she's not there, she's spending her time avoiding him. She talks to Lucas more than she's talking to Mike, which says even more.
Mike tries to shake it off. He's got Will.
There's a small bell that he's pretty sure that Will stole from Family Video, the kind of bell that sits on counters at stores that you can ring if you need someone.
Mike always rings it three times. That's how Will knows that it's him, and it's not about to change.
Will's head was out of the tent by the first ring. "Do you know how annoying that bell is already? And you just have to ring it three times?"
A grin stretched out across Mike's face. "C'mon, sleepyhead. I waited until ten to get you, but I've been awake since six!" Technically he'd been awake since one, but Will didn't need to know that.
Will rolled his eyes, but there was a smile on his face as he wiped his eyes. "Fine, but I have to get dressed. I'll be out in a second."
Mike pouted, but Will just rolled his eyes again and zipped the tent shut.
Mike didn't like standing there, waiting for Will. He used to be someone who would sleep in too, until all the nightmares hit. Had Will just gotten used to them, that's how he could fall back asleep? Or was it because he had Jonathan and Joyce, who would wake up and know exactly what was wrong? Was it because Mike's family didn't get it, because he had to sit there in fear of thrashing about too much and hitting Holly across the face?
He had been thinking for too long by the time someone snapped right in front of his eyes. "C'mon, Mike, you coming or what?"
Will's boots squelched in the mud. It was always raining, always muddy in this camp, and Mike can never tell why. Though, it does warrant a lot of fun card games, so he's not exactly complaining. "Yeah."
Mike and Will have a very specific spot in this camp, where they hang out almost every morning before they have to go out and do things. It's right behind an abandoned restaurant, that seems like a diner but Mike has always thought it might've been a strip club (don't even ask how those two correlate), far enough from the tents that no one will bother them but not too far that there's a chance they'll get lost.
They lay down their coats over the mud and lean against the cement block that is the back wall of the restaurant, just like they always do. It's routine. They usually stay here for about two hours, before they leave and go help with anything that the camp needs: help making food, help folding/fixing clothes, help fixing tents.
"Are you worried about El?"
Mike swallowed. "Yeah." He is. It's just been... weird betweent the two of them lately.
"I know I am." Will sat up a little farther against the wall. "But, I guess it makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, if you were in the hospital, I'd spend every day there just like she is with Max."
Mike nodded. "True." But he's not worried about Lucas, because Lucas is acting normal. Yeah, obviously he's struggling, the girl he's in love with might never wake up from her coma, but he's still acting generally normal. El isn't.
Will rested his head on Mike's shoulder.
Whenever this happens, Mike always gets this feeling that he needs to be closer to Will. Deep in his stomach, he wants to snake his arm around Will, he wants to hold his hand, he wants to hug him tight, he wants to—
He decides to stop that train of thought before it goes haywire, instead opting to just rest his head upon Will's. The feeling's always still there, willing him to inch closer, to lean farther, to do anything to satisfy what he's always feeling.
Will snickered slightly.
"What?" Holy shit, did he just say all that aloud?
"Y'know what Jonathan did yesterday?"
Thank God. Mike has to stop himself from audibly sighing. "What?"
"Honestly, I feel like he misses Nancy a little too much. I mean, it's getting a little excessive now, maybe he should just move over to wherever she lives..."
The feeling never really goes away, ever.