Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from Stranger Things or its plots or characters.

CHAPTER 1: MADMAX

Day 351.

He could hear it in Dustin's voice; he didn't want to be the one to call him. But then again, Mike wasn't really interested in talking to him either.

"Mike, do you copy? Mike, you copy?" Dustin's voice droned flatly through the receiver.

Mike debated with himself for a second, deciding whether he was actually going to respond. Sitting here in the her fort Mike always got lost in memories of her.

It had been almost a year now, 351 days to be exact, and he had been hyper-aware of every minute of it. That's because every second of every minute of every hour of every day had been excruciating without her. He had spent one perfect week with her before she disappeared, and that week is what kept him going. He would do anything to get her back, anything.

The first few months Mike took every chance he could to look for her, the school, town, the quarry, Mirkwood. Regularly, he would cut class and just wander aimlessly through the halls of Hawkins Middle, hoping for a glimpse of her short brown hair around every corner. When he wasn't at school, Mike was canvassing Mirkwood, the place he had first laid eyes on her, cold and shivering in the rain in nothing but a ratty hospital gown, but she wasn't there. He searched every where but there was never any sign of her or the Upside Down for that matter.

Currently, Mike was in the same position he had been at this time of night for the last 351 days, sitting cross-legged in her fort. It was hard to even think her name despite the fact that it had almost been a year since she'd been gone. All of the books and movies had got it wrong… time doesn't heal all wounds. Day 351 hurt just as bad as Day 1, maybe worse, because with each passing day he felt further and further away from her.

Mike just couldn't accept that she was gone. His mind had convinced himself that there was no possible way she was dead. If she had died, wouldn't there have been a body? Even if there had been a body, that didn't mean she was dead either, take for example Will's situation last year. Thinking of Will made Mike think that maybe, just maybe she was stuck in the Upside Down. His mind had gone over this more than a thousand times; it would explain why there was no body, it would explain why she couldn't get back to him.

Then there were the feelings he would get sometimes when he sat alone in her fort. It was as though she was in the room with him, but he couldn't see her. It was driving him crazy, but he couldn't shake the feeling that she was around. So, he spent the majority of his time down here, hoping that if she came back, this would be the first place she'd come to, and he'd be here waiting for her.

From Day 1, Mike had called her every night on the Supercomm. He knew it was stupid, but he couldn't bring himself to stop. He just got the sense that she could hear him somehow. He couldn't explain it, but it was cathartic to tell her about his day even if she couldn't hear him.

It was always pretty much the same, Mike would report the date, ask her if she could hear him, silence would ring back at him, his hopes crushed, he would talk about his day, and then just sit there in utter misery until he was almost too tired to haul himself to bed. On more than one occasion he had fallen asleep in her fort, his face mottled with dried tears.

His friends had given up hope of finding her a long time ago. Sure, they missed her, but they had accepted that she was never coming back, something Mike was unwilling and incapable of doing. They just didn't get it. As a result, their friendship had been strained the past year because Mike just felt like none of them understood. Will was able to empathize somewhat, but Mike knew he was dealing with his own issues. Mike tried to be there for him, but it was hard when getting Will back had meant losing El, the only girl he had ever really liked. Maybe even loved.

Familiar pain shot through Mike's chest as the memories flooded his mind, but he refused to drown in them. He had just finished day 351's call to her when Dustin had called, so, he decided it was better to respond, maybe his friend could distract him from thinking about her for just a little while.

"Yeah, yeah, I copy," he replied, unable to conceal the slight annoyance.

"What the hell are you doing on this channel?" Dustin asked in an accusatory tone.

"Nothing," Mike shot back a little too quickly to not be suspicious, but thankfully Dustin let it drop.

It was silly, he knew it, but he liked to talk to her on channel eleven. He thought maybe it'd be the first channel she would try, but really it was just another one of those things that brought even the smallest bit of comfort and made him feel closer to her somehow.

"Well, Lucas and I have six bucks total, what's your haul?"

He had completely forgotten. They were all supposed to go to the arcade tonight.

"Shit, shit! I don't know yet," Mike swore, trying to think quickly.

"What do you mean you don't know yet?" Dustin's voice rose in frustration, but Mike already had an idea about how he was going to get some quarters.

Ending the conversation with Dustin, Mike shoved the antenna back into the Supercomm and ran to Nancy's room. He looked all over, he knew she had a piggy bank in here somewhere. Searching her drawers wasn't really his favorite idea in the world, but he was desperate.

As he was shaking change out of it and onto her bed, Nancy burst into the room.

"I'll pay you back!" he yelled at her, scooping up as much of the change as he dared and got out of there. He could feel Nancy chasing after him, even as he ran his bike halfway down the street before throwing his leg over it and pedaling away. The last thing he heard was her shouting after him,

"Asshole!"

The arcade had only been a distraction. That's how Mike lived his life now. It hurt too much when he was alone with his thoughts, so being in the loud crowds of the arcade always helped him forget even if for only a little while.

His mind began to wander though as Dustin began yelling at Keith, mad he wouldn't reveal who Madmax was who had beaten all their high scores, but Mike could really care less. It wasn't really worth fighting with him over it and it certainly wasn't worth prostituting his sister, even if she was being a major jerk these days.

These games weren't really his thing, anyway. He preferred Dungeons & Dragons, but even that brought him little joy anymore; all it did was remind him of her every time they played and eventually the guys stopped asking to play because Mike's campaigns sucked now. He'd had to buy a new set after the bad men from the lab had raided his house last year, but it just wasn't the same. The memory of El flipping over the D&D board to show them that Will was hiding in the Upside Down floated to the surface of his mind. He still couldn't believe he hadn't gotten it when she couldn't have made it any more obvious. It would have saved them so much pain and heartache, but none of that mattered now. All of that seemed so trivial now that she was gone.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't realize that Will was no longer with them.

His eyes swept around the arcade, searching for the smallest member of their party. After everything that had happened to Will last year, Mike felt responsible for making sure his friend was okay. He didn't want El's sacrifice to find Will and save them to be in vain. Lucas and Dustin cared about Will, but they just hadn't been affected by the events of last year the way he and Will had.

Not seeing the tell-tale bowl-cut hair in the arcade, Mike stepped outside, and his eyes fell on Will, staring off into the night sky blankly. Mike followed his line of sight and saw nothing, but this was how Will had been since he had gotten back, mentally somewhere else.

"Will, are you okay?" Mike asked him, concerned. Will turned to him slowly, the all too familiar haunted look still reflected in his eyes.

"Yeah, I just… I just needed some air," he said in daze. Mike felt bad for him, he really did. Whatever he had experienced in the Upside Down may never truly leave him, and Mike got it. After all, he'd never be the same without El either.

"Come on, you're up on Dig Dug," Mike opted for his usual attempts at cheering his friend up, encouraging, "Let's take that top score back, huh?"

He threw a friendly arm around Will's shoulder and led him back into the arcade.

Day 352.

Mike had Mr. Clarke for science first period with all of the guys. Mr. Clarke was easily one of Mike's favorite teachers and science was easily his favorite subject, so his attention was on Mr. Clarke's lecture. It was actually really interesting, and Mike was able to get lost in Mr. Clarke's excitement over the human brain.

Almost every day, Mike sat in this room and had to pretend like his life hadn't ended in this school 352 days ago. So, while Mr. Clarke's lessons were always fascinating, how was he was supposed to ever completely focus on anything that he was saying?

He thought back to that lab table she had laid on, the last time he held her hands. His heart squeezed painfully in his chest, but Mike had learned how to hide it. At least it hadn't happened in this room. Otherwise, Mike didn't think he'd be able to handle that.

The door opening distracted him for a moment.

There was a new girl. Maxine. Max. Madmax?

Who cares? Mike thought to himself as he watched her take her seat. Well, Dustin and Lucas cared apparently.

"There's no way that's Madmax," Mike insisted as they all watched the new red-headed girl skateboard in between classes.

Truthfully, Mike was annoyed with Lucas and Dustin's newfound obsession. It felt weird standing out here and watching her all because those two thought she had beaten them at some dumb arcade games.

"Yeah, girls don't play video games," Will reasoned, but Mike internally disagreed. If El was still here then he would have loved to take her to the arcade and show her all the games. She would have loved it. She will love it, when she gets back.

Mike had to push these thoughts from his mind. Instead, he argued,

"And even if they did, you can't get 750,000 points on Dig Dug. I mean, that's impossible."

"But her name is Max," Lucas countered back, his eyes focused with rapt attention on this new girl.

"So, what?" Mike huffed, not seeing Lucas' point, or caring to really.

"So, how many Max's do you know?" Lucas asked, it wasn't harsh but Mike could feel himself getting defensive,

"I don't know."

"Zero. That's how many," Lucas felt like he had won the debate, Mike could hear it in his voice.

"Yeah, and she shows up at school the day after someone with the same name breaks our top score. I mean, you kidding me?" Dustin rationalized.

"Exactly. So, she's gotta be Madmax. She's gotta be," Lucas agreed.

"And plus, she skateboards, so she's gotta be pretty awesome," Dustin said with a smile on his face as he watched her. For some reason, this really pissed off Mike.

When they had found El in the woods, a girl who actually needed their help and had obviously been treated like shit her whole life Lucas had been adamant that she was "crazy" and a "weirdo" and made fun of Mike for actually treating her like a human being. Lucas had only said she was awesome when she had flipped that van with her powers and saved all of their lives. Now, some random girl shows up, skates around, and maybe plays arcade games, and all of sudden and she is awesome?

Anger burned in Mike's chest at their hypocrisy and he couldn't help his harsh reaction,

"Awesome? You haven't even spoken a word to her!"

"I don't have to. I mean, look at her," Dustin seemed unaware of Mike's ire. "Shit, I've lost the target."

"There," Will turned and they all followed his line of sight.

They watched as Max picked up her skateboard, headed up the steps to the door of the school, and dropped a piece of paper into the trashcan below. As soon as she was out of sight, Dustin, Lucas, and Will ran towards the trashcan. Mike followed behind, not as enthused.

When they reached the trashcan, Dustin dug around in there to find the piece of paper Max had thrown away. A group of girls past them and Mike felt the need to wave awkwardly at them, so they would look a little less suspicious. It didn't work.

Dustin found the paper and unrolled it, and they all looked over his shoulder to read aloud,

'Stop spying on me, CREEPS.'

"Well, shit," Dustin said and Mike felt the smile curl his lips. They kind of deserved that for being stalkers.

They were all caught off guard when the principal showed up behind them, his voice formal,

"William Byers, you're mother's here."

Mike watched Will walk away with the principal, his whole demeanor changed, any trace of a smile gone from their friend's face.

He, Dustin, and Lucas approached the chain link fence to watch their get in his mom's car.

"You guys think he's okay?" Dustin's voice had lowered slightly, partly to be discreet and partly because of his concern for Will.

"He's always weird when he has to go in," Lucas said, not meanly, but just as though he were stating a fact. Lucas did have a habit of intellectualizing everything. Facts were easier than feelings.

"I don't know…He's quiet today," Mike was worried about Will. He hadn't been the same since he had gotten back from the Upside Down, which was completely understandable. But all these visits to the lab were getting more frequent and seemed to have more of an affect on him. Mike couldn't help but think Will was going through something alone… something inside that he didn't feel like he could share with them yet. And as curious as Mike was he wasn't going to pry.

He just hoped his friend would realize he could talk to him soon. Will was the only member of the party that Mike felt comfortable talking to about El. Maybe it was because he had never met her or maybe it was because Will had always been a little more sensitive than the others, but Mike felt like Will was the only one that got it and listened.

Mike had simply stopped bringing up her name to Dustin and Lucas. They just told him to accept she was gone or didn't seem to realize that talking about her was still painful. Their lack of empathy extended to Will too as highlighted by Lucas' response to Mike's concern for Will,

"He's always quiet."

Mike was done stalking this girl. He didn't give a shit if she was Madmax or not. So, instead of hanging out with the guys after school when they suggested it, he opted to go home.

This had become his norm. He would come home after school and go straight to his room where he would do whatever homework he felt like doing. If it was a bad day that usually meant just Mr. Clarke's assignments and nothing else. Then his mom would call him down for dinner and he'd grit his teeth and bare it until he could go down to the basement.

Today was a bad day. There was more of those than good days since she had gone. So, he just laid on his bed, over the covers, staring at the ceiling. He was lost in thoughts of El when his mom called him down for dinner. He forced himself to close those thoughts off while he was around his parents, so dinner was usually pretty quiet except for his mom trying to make conversation.

"After dinner I want you to pick out your toys for the yard sale."

Mike didn't even raise his head to look at his mom. He really just didn't care about the stupid yard sale. It wasn't worth the fight, so he replied shortly,

"Fine."

"Two boxes worth," his mom stipulated and that got Mike's attention.

"Two boxes?!" Mike repeated incredulously. That was basically all of his toys. Nancy didn't have to get rid of that much stuff.

"You heard me," his mom asserted, giving him a withering look, one he completely ignored.

This was bullshit. He needed those toys, some of them were the only tangible reminders of El he had left. How could they expect him to get rid of them? It would be like getting rid of El and Mike wouldn't do that.

"I'm fine with giving away a couple but the other ones just have way too much emotional value," Mike reasoned, his tone argumentative. He couldn't exactly tell them why the toys had sentimental meaning but for once he just wished they would just trust him or even make an effort to understand.

"Emotional value?" his mom scoffed, clearly not believing him. This only fueled his anger at the injustice of it all.

The truth was, Mike didn't really give two shits about most of his toys but there were those that he had showed to El almost a year ago and they kept the memory of her alive. Having them around reminded him that she had been real and not just some figment of his imagination.

"They're hunks of plastic, Michael," this was his dad's contribution. All his dad ever succeeded in doing was minimizing his feelings, trying to make Mike feel like he was being ridiculous.

"You already took away my Atari!" Mike roared.

He had tried to be honest with them, talk about his feelings, this is what he always got: two parents that were too busy being miserable to listen when he was trying to open up to them. His mom was always notorious for telling him and Nancy that they would talk to her, but it was bullshit.

Looking nonplussed, his mother paused, lowering her fork and calmly reasoning, "If you didn't want to lose more toys, you shouldn't have stolen from Nancy."

"I didn't steal, I borrowed!" Mike argued defensively.

"And you didn't curse out Mr. Kowalski last week either, right? Or plagiarize that essay? Or graffiti the bathroom stall?" his mom listed his offenses in rapid succession as if they were all related or something.

So, what? He had cursed out Mr. Kowalski because he was being a jackass. They had been in third period social studies and that tool had been trying to tell them about the history of Hawkins lab, spouting off some bullshit about being a government facility making state of the art technology. Mike remembered how a fire had blazed in his chest, thinking to himself, 'Yeah, a state of the art government facility where they abuse children and make them into weapons for their own sadistic use.'

What Mike had actually said was, "You're so fucking full of shit."

Needless to say, Mr. Kowalski had thrown him out the classroom, but Mike didn't give a shit. Those government pricks didn't deserve to be taught about like heroes in a middle school social studies class.

The second incident his mother had been referring to was last school year when he had stayed up all night talking to El on the Supercomm. He hadn't had time to write that essay, so he managed to find an old one of Nancy's and copied it. Still, not a big deal.

Mike remembered the graffiti too. It was on another one of his bad days. He was just so tired of trying to pretend like everything was fine and normal, but it wasn't and it was crushing him slowly. So, he needed to get away from everyone even his friends. In between classes he stayed in the bathroom and wrote the number eleven on the metal door. His mom had thought maybe it was some weird gang thing at first since she said he'd been acting weird since last November, but a quick check with his friends' moms told her that wasn't it.

Of course, Mike was acting weird. He had lost a part of himself he hadn't even realized he needed. El had come into his life and shattered everything he thought he knew about himself and now he was supposed to go on like normal, like she had never existed. Well, it wasn't possible.

"Everyone graffitis the bathroom stall," Mike challenged. It was true after all and it diverted from the main point.

"So, if your friend jumps off a cliff, you're gonna jump too?" his dad asked rhetorically in between bites of food.

His dad would never get it. He didn't even know how wrong he was and he didn't even care to get to know his son. All Mike could think was the time he had jumped off the cliff at the quarry in order to save Dustin from getting knifed by Troy. But she had saved him, just like she always did. He could use saving right about now.

"Look, we know you've had a hard year, Michael, but we've been patient. This isn't strike one, this isn't even strike three," Mike could tell his mom was trying to sound sympathetic, but she had no idea what she was talking about. Hard year? That didn't even begin to encompass the feeling of waking up every morning knowing that a piece of his soul was missing.

His dad picked up where she left off,

"It's strike twenty. You're on the bench, son. And if it had been my coach, you'd be lucky to still be on the team."

Mike gave his dad a disgusted look at his stupid metaphor. What the hell was that supposed to mean? This wasn't a stupid sports game. Was his dad trying to say Mike should be kicked out of the family or something? As if Mike wanted to sit here every night with these people who had no idea what he was going through or cared.

"Two boxes. Two," his mom said with finality, going back to her dinner. Mike's anger continued to quietly simmer, so he took it out on his dinner, stabbing a carrot so hard into his plate that he thought he might break it.

Mike angrily threw toy after toy into the yard sale box. Eventually, his eyes fell on Rory the Dinosaur and he picked him up. The familiar wave of memories flooded him as he thought back to how he had shown El the speaker in his mouth, even if she had been more interested in his science fair stuff at the time.

He decided to keep that one.

Then he looked down and saw his Millennium Falcon. He could almost see the image of Dustin holding the toy in front of El's face and dropping it. At the time, it had pissed Mike off because El wasn't some kind of performing monkey, just there to entertain them.

That sharp pain in his chest had returned whenever he thought about her. But it was about that time too.

Setting down the toy, Mike made his way over to the fort, sitting down cross-legged inside, and picking up the Supercomm as was his usual ritual. After all this time, he had become a little particular about his routine.

"Hello, are you there? El?" he paused, releasing the talk button to listen for a response, before continuing breathlessly, "It me, it's Mike. It's day 352. 7:40pm. I'm-I'm still here."

He released the button again. This is how it went every single night since she had gone. Mike would wait with bated breath, straining his ears for anything in the white noise. But she was never there.

"If you're out there, say something, or-or give me a sign. I won't even say anything just, I want to know if you're okay," Mike knew he sounded desperate, but he was. He would give anything to hear her soft voice on the other end of the radio..

"So stupid," he muttered to himself irritably. Why did he keep getting his hopes up like that every single night for almost the past year? Because he was a complete idiot, that's why. Mike stood and made to walk out of the basement, uninterested in finishing filling those stupid yard sale boxes. His mom would be pissed but Mike could care less at the moment.

"Mike," a muffled voice came through the Supercomm, stopping him in his tracks. Was that…?

"Mike.' The second time the voice spoke, Mike was already back down in the fort, gasping, his heart racing.

"Hello! Is that you?!" he practically shouted in his excitement.

"Yeah, it's me, Dustin," the voice continued, now sounding more like his friend, and disappointment felt like it was crushing him. Mike couldn't even speak because it felt as though his throat was closing.

"What're you doing on this channel again? I've been trying to reach you all day. We were right! Max is Madmax," Dustin reported to him excitedly, but Mike couldn't care less about the stupid girl they were stalking.

"Yeah, I'm busy," Mike said curtly, shoving the antenna back into the radio roughly. Mike stood up and stomped away from the fort, angry with himself again for getting his hopes up again.

Even though she was back in her room, Eleven could still hear the distinctive pattern of knocks on the front door of the cabin. For a moment she considered not unlocking the door, but she did anyway, mostly because she was hungry for dinner.

"Hey, what'd we talk about?" she heard Hopper call from the kitchen. He must have discovered her half-eaten plate of Eggo's but it was his fault. She had been so hungry and they were supposed to eat together, but he was late.

"No signal," she called back in frustration.

"What?"

"No signal. It's 8-1-5. You're late," she elaborated, still annoyed with him for being mad at her for eating dessert when she should be the one mad at him for being late.

"Yeah, I lost track of time, I'll signal next time, all right and it's 8:15, not 8-1-5," Hopper apologized half-heartedly and she was still mad at him, especially because he corrected her. But she was hungry and she was done waiting to eat.

"8:15," she repeated, unimpressed with his apology. He was always late and he always said he would signal her, but he never did. She was getting tired of it.

"Now, what did we talk about? Dinner first then dessert. Always. That's a rule, yeah?" again he was reprimanding her when he was the reason she had to eat dessert first.

"Yes." She agreed, just wanting to placate him so she could finally eat.

She didn't tell him, but she had seen Mike again. Hopper wouldn't understand her need to see Mike, so she stopped telling him.

It had taken her a while to realize she could use the TV to find him and even longer to find out that he was talking to her on the Supercomm every night at pretty much the same time. She had figured it out on Day 21, and she had visited him every night since.

Eleven loved hearing his voice. It was the only thing she had to hold on to here. Eleven felt good knowing he was okay and he was still waiting for her, but she wanted to see him in person. She had watched him get taller and listened as his voice got deeper. But she noticed other things… Mike seemed sadder than the whole-hearted boy she had met almost a year ago.

Eleven's heart constricted painfully every time she watched he hopeful expression on Mike's face fall into despair. Every day, he seemed to retreat further and further into himself and each day she felt closer and closer to letting him know she was listening, alive and missing him just as much as he missed her. But for now, she ate her dinner in silence, watching Hopper resentfully across the table.

A/N: I'm baaaack! So, I already knew this story was going to be about 75% Mike and Eleven's individual introspection but hey, I like feelings, what can I say? I hope you do too!