Chapter Text
Mike was lying on his bed in the basement, trying to get some rest. He assumed everybody in the house had already gone to sleep, because it was late evening and all of the Wheelers were exhausted by the graduation day.
He turned onto his side, facing the old blanket fort. Memories rushed through him and tore his heart open all over again. For eighteen months - every single day since El disappeared - he had barely slept. The same moment replayed in his mind over and over: the vanishing of the love of his life.
He had been having nightmares ever since, often thinking how reckless he was for not coming up with the real escape plan - not just these 3 stupid waterfalls.
The past eighteen months had been harder than anything he had ever lived through, and the deja vu effect to events that took place more than 5 years before made everything even worse: his biggest fear of losing the closest person on Earth, his girlfriend, his only love, the most incredible and important human on the globe… came true.
It was incredibly hard for him to stay…Present? Alive? He hardly ever spoke to his family or friends. Of course, they tried to help him: Party inviting him to table games sessions, family trying to make Mike smile even a little with their awkward and awful jokes, but it all was useless. He was lost in thoughts, in himself, wandering through every room like a ghost.
The only person he could talk to was Nancy, who always listened attentively to every word he said, while being silent every time - a thing he was really grateful for. Mike needed somebody to listen to his endless sentences, describing El, their stories together, his feelings about her. Nancy often nodded, knowing how important it was for her younger brother to speak out. She was the one person, apart from El herself, who knew Mike the best and saw their relationships getting stronger with every passing day. Nevertheless even Nancy couldn’t help him much, no matter how hard she tried.
Every day since El’s disappearance Mike had been thinking about her fate. Even though his family and friends tried to pull him from drowning, saying it’s better for him to move on, Mike never lost any hope, believing she managed to escape and is more or less safe, awaiting their reunion, but not enough to let him know yet.
Interestingly, Mike had always sensed El, even when she was not anywhere near. When he was alone in the basement or too concentrated on dreaming about seeing El again while sitting in public places, he had this feeling of being watched - but it wasn’t scary or chilling - it was joyful and pleasant, though making his chest tighten. He had sensed her since the day she vanished back in 1984, not long after just several days spent with him, and El knew Mike had this feeling when she was checking on him.
What’s more, about 2 weeks prior to the day of graduation, he had begun to notice some strange things happening around him. Apart from a feeling of being watched, he drew attention to El’s belongings he’d previously put on a bedside table appearing on his bed or desk. He attributed it to his mind imagining things or Holly playing in his room, putting everything back, yet he couldn’t stop thinking about those signs.
And something extremely odd happened on the graduation day, something that finally made Mike solve the mystery of El’s disappearance. He couldn’t understand what exactly made him come up with this idea, “That’s what Einstein felt with his Eureka, my ass”, he thought. Mike couldn’t do it himself, so somebody did help him.
He was still lying in bed, reliving graduation day and all the days prior to it. He remembered today’s talk with Hopper in front of the library, and shit, it made Mike infuriate. “How the fuck could a grown-ass man get over the fact of losing another daughter that easily?” - this question appearing in his head made him angrier. Earlier that day Mike would have punched the old man for everything he had said about the need of moving in right in the face, but he didn’t hear half of the words as his chest started to tighten, bringing down this familiar feeling of being observed.
When 𑁋
A memory popped in his mind. It was Mike and El talking about anything and everything, back in the summer of ‘85. She told him about her childhood, about the lab, Terry… and Kali. El described her powers of creating illusions in detail, but Mike was too distracted by El herself at the time so he missed some of the details. Now, he remembered: “She could cast illusions, that’s what she did".
Mike’s mind clicked, like he understood every law of the universe - instead, he finally solved a puzzle. Everything he was thinking about throughout 18 months was right, he just couldn’t prove it anyhow. But now he could, “El staged her ‘death’, managed to escape through tunnels, put me in the void and ran away to a safer place”, he said to himself, still trying to process it all. And you don’t have to be Albert Einstein to understand that these scary machines with antennas directed exactly at El weren’t placed there by chance. They would do at least something to her, but instead, she was standing at the gate completely unharmed. Because of Kali.
“How could I be so hella dumb, God!”, words bursted out of his mouth. A couple of strangers turned around him, with concerned looks. So did Hopper.
“Hey, you okay?”, he said, acknowledging Mike wasn’t listening to him at all. Mike's face started to fill with tears, but not the grieving ones - tears of happiness yet still sad, “Yeah…I’m fine. Now, go to school, I’ll be there in some time”.
Mike decided not to tell anyone about his finding, not yet. “But - ”, Hopper started saying, when Mike quickly got up from the bench, feeling dizzy and overwhelmed yet somewhat happy. “No, I’m alright…I’ll be there, promise.”, Mike said, as he started running back home, finally feeling some kind of light in his whole body.
“El is alive”, three words were circulating through every cell in Mike’s body. And he felt…Alive. Too. Probably half-alive, but still.
The rest of the day felt super quick - Dustin speech, Party playing DnD - first time in a long while, families celebrating graduation. But Mike’s mind was full of thoughts about El, not the same feeling he’s been having this whole time, now - encouraging and even more hopeful ones. Yes, he decided to tell the Party about her escape - in a safe way, as a theory, because it was still dangerous to reveal the fact of her successful ‘vanishing’ from the military to everybody.
Reliving this exact moment of his realisation back at the bench made Mike smile. Yes, a very moderate smile - but smile - an action he couldn’t do once during these 18 months.
And that’s how he managed to fall asleep - in tears and a moderate smile, finally admitting he was so damn right about everything when it came to El. He could really sense her, not talk or see, but it was enough to make him happiest he’s ever been since El’s disappearance. He knew, if she gave him this huge sign, it would mean she is more safe. Probably trying to make him find her. Hopefully…
Fucking definitely.
𑁋
The day after graduation started as usual, late morning for Mike. He sat down on the big sofa, ate pancakes that mom left for him, and drank coffee, while still being half-awake. A cup of caffeine made him more conscious, which made him remember that his family left for a planned shopping trip to Indianapolis for some stuff they couldn’t buy at Hawkins. They had previously invited Mike, but of course he refused - so he was staying home alone for the whole day.
The moment he started to remember everything he had been up to yesterday, he heard a knock at the front door.
“Not these stupid kids again”, a moan escaped his mouth. Mike was very annoyed by Hawkins School students, who often did pranks by knocking at random houses’ doors. He sure did all those things back in his childhood, and now he understood the feelings of frustrated adults.
When he got off the couch and started to walk towards the door, Mike was preparing to run after the kids, cursing endlessly and shouting to leave him alone. However, there was no sign of pranksters at all when he opened the door.
What he saw was a tiny envelope lying on the porch. “Most probably dad’s work reports”, a quick thought appeared in his mind. But as he got back inside something caught him off guard. It wasn’t a letter for Ted Wheeler. Instead, it was carefully written “for Michael Wheeler” with a very familiar handwriting.
Mike’s moves were fast - he cautiously unpacked the envelope with a trembling feeling. He hardly ever received letters, in fact, never.
Then his breath stopped for a second. Then for a couple more. And… more.
The envelope had a postcard, but not an ordinary one. “Holy shit” were the first words Mike said after regaining consciousness - it was a postcard of 2 stunning and picturesque waterfalls, with a small label “Iceland, Háifoss”.
He quickly flipped the postcard to see what was on the other side. “It’s finally safe. I hope you’ll come.” was written neatly on the back of the postcard. His face started to flood with tears, the process he couldn’t stop anyhow. And he didn’t want to. He finally had happy tears, not grieving or sad ones.
Mike was rereading those 2 sentences, flipping the note around to glance at a beautiful photo - and then rereading again for God knows how long. But he forced himself to ‘wake up’ and at least get to the couch as his legs began to lose their strength from standing for too long.
“I hope you’ll come”, Mike kept repeating the word that made him lighter and lighter with each passing second. “How…how wouldn’t I?”, he asked himself.
“El,… if you’re listening to me right now…”, his breathing became slow, as he was still trying to process everything that had just happened, “You have to know one thing: you shouldn’t ever hope about that. In fact, I know… and so do you… that I’m coming to you.”, another tear appeared on his face.
“I just need you to know it, El. I’m coming to you as fast as I can, no matter what. I promise…”, Mike said, noticing his full body tightening in such a familiar way. “God, El, I’m coming. Just wait for a little, I’m really coming…”.
𑁋
After Mike’s burst of emotions finally began to fade, though it took some time, he started to realise the complexity of the upcoming journey. He didn’t remember much from his geography classes, but what he did remember was that Iceland is somewhat far from Hawkins. Like really far, definitely nothing like a trip to Indianapolis.
Mike got off the couch and walked towards the phone. The next hour passed in a flash: he contacted some local travel agency and kept questioning the call center agent for every possible detail in the trip as he was neatly writing an instruction sheet.
When he managed to book the trip and all the questions were answered, he hung up the phone. As a result of an hour-long conversation, the instruction sheet contained a detailed plan of the journey. Mike would be going to Indianapolis airport by bus, then flying to New York, then to Reykjavík. After that he would hop on the local bus to Háifoss, finishing his trip on foot near the waterfalls from the postcard. Even though the price of flight tickets was not really cheap, Mike still got enough money from his own savings, allowance from his parents and his college fund.
The nearest flight to New York was scheduled to be in 2 days, so Mike got plenty of time to be ready. But almost immediately after the end of the call an upsetting thought popped in his mind: “I’m leaving everyone here, my family, my friends. They love and care and what I do is escaping to a faraway land, leaving them behind”.
This idea didn’t come from Mike not wanting to find Eleven. In fact, everything he had said before was true - he was coming to her. No matter what. But at the same time it felt bad leaving his parents, Nancy, Holly, all of the Party. After everything they have done to him throughout these years, especially the last 18 months - not letting him drown completely, running away from home seemed ungrateful and pathetic. Instead, Mike decided to tell Nancy about the plan - to the closest human after Eleven. He knew she would understand his choice and persuade others to do the same, after all she was the first to sense Mike’s true feelings for El.
Mike didn’t want to disappear with no trace and explanation, so he began writing - something he could do really great - the letters to everybody. In each one he described how he felt for El, reassured he’ll be fine, convinced it was his choice and there was no other way. As a result, there was a pile of letters for his family, friends, Hopper and Joyce, and even Steve, Robin, Murray.
Mike finished writing the letters and hid them in a drawer. At the time he remembered he hadn’t eaten for a pretty long time as the dusk began to appear, the rest of the Wheelers arrived home. Mike greeted them with much more enthusiasm than before, which surprised all of them.
“Hey, Mike”, Karen started to talk. “Are you okay? Is everything fine?”, she asked, reacting to her son’s unusual behaviour.
“Yeah… Totally. I’m fine.”, Mike said, “Just… I want you to know that… I really do love you all…”, the words burst out of his mouth. “Even though I don’t say that often, I do mean it... I love you”, he then hugged them so tight, that Holly made a squeaking sound. He tried not to cry, thinking how heartbreaking it will be for them to be away from him. Even for some time, until it’s safe for all of them to meet.
“Ah, Mike. We love you too, honey”, mom said, brushing his hair.
“Yeah, Mike! We love you!”, Holly and Nancy replied at the same time, which made everyone laugh.
“Lords, Mike, we know that. But still, you could say that more often”, even Ted, who was often grumpy and callous, was touched by his son’s words.
They were hugging for quite some time, until Holly said, “By the way, we bought you some of your favorite sweets!”. That’s when the rumble from Mike’s empty stomach overwhelmed them.
“Mike, have you eaten anything today? I’ve left all your favorite food, but your stomach is empty!”, mom exclaimed, now looking directly at Mike.
“Um… Yeah, I h - I have. But I only had breakfast. Actually, it was enough for me”, Mike said, reassuring his mom.
“Honey, you know that you have to eat! You’re not a kid anymore, I thought you understand such things. Moreover, you’ve lost some weight and look even slimmer”, Karen gave his son a questioning look.
“God, of course I know. I just didn’t want to… But now I do. Let’s eat before it’s too late, I know you don’t like us eating after 6 in the evening”, he said, waving them towards a dining room.
Having all the Wheelers together, talking and eating at the same time, made Mike experience a wave of emotions inside, while trying not to show it. He understood it was a temporary solution - nobody will stop them from meeting or even living nearby. But for now he had to take this step, no matter how hard doing that was.
He decided to tell Nancy about the plan tomorrow - she will be staying at home in the morning - while dad, mom and Holly will do a second round of shopping - now at Hawkins. He’ll have enough time to explain everything to his sister and instruct her what and how to say to others.
While lying in bed, at the moment he was trying to plan his talk to Nancy, he eventually was fast asleep, dreaming of the moment of meeting El for the first time in a while. The next few days were going to be inevitably hard, but Mike was ready.
“I’m coming. No matter what”