Hello everyone! I'd like to start off by giving you guys a HUGE apology for the massive wait for this chapter. I'm really sorry about that, my Christmas break that was supposed to be productive went to shit when one of my close family members fell ill, and it took up a lot of my time. On top of that, I hit a huge writer's block when it came to resolving this fight between El and Mike. After a lot of thinking, I came to a decision that I hope you will all be happy with.
I thought really hard about what I wanted to do. Originally, I was going to have El and Mike not even interact until the move, but I decided that would be too unrealistic. So enjoy this chapter with a lot of emotional Mileven, haha
I would also recommend re-reading the last chapter, just to refresh your minds as to where we are; there are many direct references to stuff that happened in chapter 25. This chapter only starts up literally a few minutes after the last one.
Guest: I hope you'll be satisfied with this chapter, then :)
39CluesStrangerThings-Star: Me too! Will and El's dynamic in this fic was one of my favourite things to create. There will definetely be more of it in chapters to come.
Luna0603: It means the world to me that you're such a fan! (Especially considering how brilliant of a writer you are. I am still loving TTWAS!) I'm glad you're liking the El/Will dynamic. And I hope you are happy with how things with Mike and El go this chapter, let me know in a review!
Vader115: Thank you! I hope you like this one, too!
El was lying in her bed after having that discussion with Will. Initially going in there, she hadn't expected to be so emotional. All she really wanted to do was apologize for being rude to him earlier, and to maybe find out if he had talked to Mike over at Lucas'. But it had turned into an entire conversation that actually made her feel a lot better.
She was glad that it appeared that Mike felt bad about his actions. Not that she wanted him to feel bad or anything, but it was better than finding out that he thought that everything was her fault. That meant that when they made up, it would be mutual; she didn't want him to take all of the blame for this. She knew that she had done a lot of stupid stuff too that she regretted. All that had to be done was to actually go to him and talk with him. Then everything would be better.
It had been a close call, though; before he had came into her room, her mind had started to, in spite of herself, wander back to that night at Steve's where she and Mike had shared that bed for a short amount of time. She had found herself getting increasingly aroused and bored, so she had decided to try out masturbating again.
Thank God Will had knocked on her door before he came in, or else she probably would have had to run away from their house and never come back. Even still, Will looked slightly concerned toward her, but she dismissed the possibility that Will could know what she was doing.
But other than that, their conversation had gone well; she felt like she was truly starting to bond with the youngest Byers boy. She had not gotten much of a chance to warm up to Jonathan, but she considered them close enough. She shuddered at the memory of him cutting open her infected leg at Starcourt at the beginning of summer. Without Jonathan, she would have probably died.
As for Joyce, El found herself in an odd situation with her. They had gotten a lot closer when they were moving out of her cabin and she had had that meltdown in front of her; that incident certainly broke down some walls between them. But for the last few weeks, El kept getting the feeling that she was being hidden from something by her. Yes, she had been kind of isolating herself the past couple days, due to the whole thing with Mike and all, and whenever Joyce had tried to ask her what was wrong, she lied and said nothing. But even before that, she had this nagging voice in the back of her head reminding her that she was an outcast in this household no matter how she felt, and that the three of them were hiding something from her.
What could it be? Something about Hopper? Something about Mike? Something about the boys? Was someone sick or something? She had no idea. Perhaps she could ask Will. They had gotten a lot better at communicating, and she felt that the bond between them was growing stronger by the day, which was ironic- up until she moved in with them, she could have never imagined herself getting along with Will. She had always got the vibe from that he didn't like her because of how much time Mike had been spending with her.
Nevertheless, she decided that it might be worth her time to try to talk to Will about whether or not there was something happening that she did not know about. It was getting late, though. She nodded her head and made up her mind that she would ask Will about things tomorrow when she had a clear mind.
Mike woke up in his bed feeling rather refreshed. His night had not been plagued by thoughts of El or the fight for once. In fact, he had gone to bed with a clear plan in his mind. He knew that by now, Will must have gotten some sort of information regarding how El was feeling that he could work with. And hopefully, based on that, he would be able to go to her and have some kind of conversation with her that would resolve their issues.
He had a hurried breakfast, answering his Mom's seemingly pointless questions without much regard, simply nodding his way through the meal. As soon as he put his empty dishes in the washer he rushed to the kitchen and snatched up the phone. He dialed Will's number as quickly as he could and waiting apprehensively for someone to answer (hopefully not El this time).
"Hello?" It was Joyce. Mike silently prayed that she didn't know about what was going on, or he would have a very awkward conversation in store for him. He scrunched his eyes together in silent prayer and answered back.
"Hi, Mrs. Byers. It's Mike."
"Oh, hi, Mike!" she answered excitedly. "I haven't heard from you in so long. How are you?" That was a good sign.
"I've been good. How about you?"
"Good. How was Steve's? It's been a couple of days, but Will barely told me anything about it. Was it fun?"
Mike cringed inwardly. "Yeah, it was good," he lied. "Hey, uh, is Will around?"
"No, sorry. He went to the video store with Jonathan a couple minutes ago. Do you want me to pass a message to him?"
Mike cursed under his breath. He had been psyching himself up all morning to finally confront this problem, and now Will was busy. He needed to know what had happened last night. Had Will ever ended up talking to El?
"No, it's okay. Is El with them?"
"No, she's still at the house. Did you want to talk to her?"
Fuck! He quicky lied on the spot. "No, I was just curious. Would it be okay if I came over later? I would need to ask my Mom."
"Yeah, sure, just drop by any time. I'll be home."
"Okay, thanks, Mrs. Byers."
"You're welcome, sweetie. I'll talk to you later."
"Bye," he replied and hung up. He was heavily considering just biting the bullet and going to see El himself. He had built it up in his head, and to be shot down was really frustrating him. This stupid problem had been lingering with him for too long, and he needed to deal with it, with or without Will. He told him yesterday that she didn't seem too mad, which was a god enough lead to go off of.
He wondered if it was a good idea to just go today and talk to her. He had family coming over later this afternoon, so it was either this morning or tomorrow, and he really didn't want to wait another twenty-four hours to deal with this problem. This stormcloud of a problem had been hanging over his head for far too long already, and he was desperate to get rid of it.
He knew El incredibly well; he doubted that she would still be so mad that she wouldn't even simply listen to him. And that was all he needed. He just needed to talk to her and for her to listen. If that could happen, he was sure that he could fix this problem once and for all.
Feeling resolved, he nodded to himself and headed out the door.
Joyce was staring at her empty bowl of cereal, stirring the small amount of milk that was left around with her spoon. She was resting her head in her hand, with a puzzled expression on her face. She was in the middle of trying to reach a decision regarding an issue that had been pestering her for weeks.
Telling El about the move.
It had been confirmed for a long time. They were going to move. They had sold the house, and they were going to be buying the new one very soon. It was only a matter of time. In fact, she was thinking that it would probably only be a month or so before they were leaving. Will and Jonathan both knew, but Will had kept insisting that she should wait a little bit longer before finally disclosing it to El and everyone else. She didn't know why because and he never gave her a clear answer. But her patience was wearing thin; she was honestly considering telling her now while her other kids were out of the house. It would be fine. She would be able to answer all her questions, comfort her if it was needed. There was no reason to believe that it would not go over fine. Sure, she was expecting some bumps in the road, but it couldn't be that bad.
Right?
How would she even bring up the subject to her? She couldn't just walk into her room and announced that her life was going to change in one of the biggest ways possible that it can for anyone; she would have to ease her into the idea gently.
Which shouldn't be a problem. She had been a Mom for seventeen years, she had enough experience with parenting children and coaching out problems. She could do this.
Mike's heart was beating out of his chest by the time he had even stepped out the door on his way to the Byers home. He had decided to walk so he could have more time to think about what he was going to say to El. His hands felt cold for some reason, yet sweaty at the same time. He was finding himself becoming more and more nervous with every step he took that led him closer to where El was. He had dug himself out a hole like this before only two months ago.
Okay, maybe this hole was worse.
Way worse.
But that was okay; he was feeling confident that he would be able to find the right words to make her see the reason in why he did what he did, but also understand that he knew it was wrong for him to have lied about it all. He wanted her to see things from his perspective, and he wanted to make sure that she knew that he understood hers just as well. Will had told him that she hadn't even seemed that mad when he tried to talk to her. That was a good sign. There was nothing to be stressed about.
Nothing at all.
El heard a knock on her bedroom door. She looked up the page she was reading (it was from some sort of science magazine that Mike had given her a long time ago) and almost tried to open the door with her powers, but then mentally kicked herself shortly after. Even after nearly two months of being stripped of her gift, there was some things in her daily life that she still had not gotten used to. Opening and closing doors were tasks that she never did manually back when she lived in the cabin with Hopper.
"Come in," she called out, just loud enough to be heard. Joyce opened the door, and she stepped in with a smile. El offered a small, half-spirited expression of greeting (she could barely call it a smile) before turning her attention back to the paragraph she had been reading. She heard Joyce close the door behind her, which made her nervous because she never closed the door unless something very important was happening. And in her life, important things were usually bad things. On top of that, the fact that there wasn't even anyone else in the house and she was still taking this seemingly redundant precaution was reason for even more concern.
El closed up the magazine and placed it on the bed beside her. "What's wrong?" she asked Joyce quizzically.
Joyce appeared confused. "Why would you think something is wrong, sweetie?" She looked unsure of herself. Recently, El had made a lot of progress with being able to judge people by their social signs and expressions. In the past, she had found it difficult at times to understand what people were thinking. But since moving in with the Byers' where she had to live under the same roof as three other people rather than the one Hopper she had grown accustomed to, she found that it gave her practice in understanding social cues and being able to judge what people were thinking or feeling.
"You closed the door. You only do that when you have something important to talk to me about. And important things are bad," she explained to her.
Joyce let out a dry chuckle that seemed forced. "What? What do you mean, 'all important things are bad?'"
El shrugged. "When important things happen, usually it means I have to do something I don't want to do." She allowed Joyce to ponder her words for a few extra moments as she reached over to help herself to a sip from the glass of tea she had on the nightstand; tea was something that Will had taught her how to make. She had come to enjoy it quite a lot.
"I don't think that's entirely true," Joyce finally replied. El was about to reply but she got cut off. "But you're right, I do have something important to talk to you about. But that doesn't mean it's bad."
El didn't reply. She was in a difficult mood. If Joyce was going to be bringing her some "important news," she doubted that any good would come from it. She shifted in her bed to look at Joyce directly.
"I don't think this is bad news at all," Joyce began. "I think that you might actually be happy about this." El was confused. She didn't know whether to be hopeful or even more skeptical of the situation.
"What is it?" she asked hesitantly.
Joyce took a deep breath and sat down beside El on her twin bed. "El, do you know what 'moving' is?"
El was confused. Of course she knew what moving was. "It's when someone goes from one place to another," she replied, feeling that the question had been rather pointless. How dumb did Joyce think she was?
"Yes, you're right, but, do you know what it means when someone moves homes?"
El was again confused. "No."
"It's when someone moves away from their current home and goes somewhere else to live."
"For how long?"
Joyce chewed her lip. "Usually, forever. Until they move somewhere else." El's eyes widened. Why would anyone want to move away from their home on purpose? Well, unless it was a bad home, like when she was in the lab. But most people were never raised in a lab like her. The notion seemed ridiculous.
"So they never move back to their real home? Why would anyone want to stay somewhere else?" she asked. This idea of moving was really confusing her.
"No, they… usually don't move back. And it's not they move away from their 'real home,' it's just like… their real home becomes somewhere else. It's not that unusual."
El was done beating around the bush. She had to find out what the point of this conversation was. "Why are you telling me this? Is someone we know moving?"
Joyce paused for a moment before speaking. "No, El," she responded. "We're moving."
El's heart skipped a beat. "W-what?" she stuttered, despite her large efforts to not do so.
"We're all moving away," she restated firmly. "Me, you, Jonathan, and Will. We're moving away from Hawkins."
"Where are we going?" El asked immediately. Her heartbeat was accelerating at a frightening rate. Please don't let it be far, please don't let it be far.
"A town called Des Moins. It's in Indiana, West of Hawkins."
"How far away is it?" she asked, her insides still feeling like they were falling.
Joyce inhaled slowly. "See, that's the thing, sweetie," she replied. "It's kind of far."
"How far?" she repeated, her voice nearly breaking. But her anger at the situation kept her from showing any signs of sadness.
"It's about… five hours away," she said, her voice sounding like it was laced with regret and doubt.
"Why?" she immediately asked, her heart thumping in her chest loudly, panic rising in her throat. "Why are we leaving?"
"El, can you just calm down, I'll explain-"
"NO!" she screamed as loud as she could. Tears were already streaming down her face so furiously that it looked like she had been crying for days. "Why are we leaving!?" She felt the rage rocketing through her veins like fire, so strong and present that it seemed to overshadow any feeling of sadness or remorse. All she wanted to do was yell and scream.
She had been sad for so long. It made her feel weak. But when she was angry, she felt powerful. Back when she still had her powers, her anger always fueled her and made her stronger. She had used it to save her friends and the people who she loved. But now, the thing was, that no matter how angry she got or how much power she felt like she had, nothing would be able to fix this problem. And she knew it.
Her feet started blindly carrying her out of the room. She had to leave. And it wasn't like she was even thinking about it. It was like her body was making the movements for her. The calls from Joyce echoed in her mind as she moved out of her room and toward the living room, and then near the front door.
"El, please," she begged from behind her. "I can explain-"
"NO!" she shrieked again, but without turning around. She opened the door and took off running without looking back.
Joyce watched in agony as the front door slammed shut. She didn't bother opening it again or trying to get back to her. She was gone.
After peering through the curtained window, and not seeing her, it was evident to her that wherever she was going, it was far from here. And she also knew that it was completely futile to even try to stop her; she was a woman in her early fifties who was dealing with an upset teen. Given her prior experience of parenting Jonathan and Will, she knew that the best course of action was to wait for at least a little bit of time for her to at least calm down so that she could either be approached by El, or, if push came to shove, she could go to her.
But she hoped that El would come to her for eventually to talk.
But what if she didn't? No, she would have to. El may be angry now, but she wasn't stupid. She must recognize at least some of the logic in moving. At least, if she was able to rationally think about it for a couple seconds at least. But she was probably so blinded with rage that it never crossed her mind.
Hawkins had cursed her family. It had ripped her away the two men that she had ever truly loved; it had plagued her children with unimaginable grief and pain; it had fucked up her life permanently; the whole family needed something new. Every time she stepped outside and looked around, all she could see was the Upside-Down. She had never told anyone, but her experience of walking around in that alternate dimension with Hopper had traumatized her. Everywhere she went, it felt like she was going to get jumped by a Demogorgon or start seeing those hideous vines again.
It was awful. The only way to escape it all was to get a fresh start. Away from Hawkins. A new town, a new house, new people… it would all be perfect. Of course, they would still stay in contact with their friends back in Hawkins. That was irrefutable. She was well aware of how close kids were to their friends. Not just for their sake, but for hers- she knew she was going to put in one-hundred-percent effort toward keeping their friendship alive.
But that probably sounded a lot different in her head than it did in El's, but hopefully she would soon see the sense in what she thought was a logical decision on her part.
Hopefully.
Mike was about two minutes away from the Byers home when he saw El sprint across the dirt road and into the woods. He immediately reacted. "El!" he screamed, but she was too far away to hear. She disappeared behind the treeline, and when he lost sight of her, he took off sprinting. A wave of deja vu washed over him in an instant; it had been the same sort of running-after-her-in-the-woods situation that had occurred when their massive fight happened.
Why was she running into the woods? Was it because of him? Did she somehow know he was coming? He hoped not. When he jumped off the road, he started to feel the overgrown plants brushing his shins and he ran forward. He could barely see her anymore, but he kept going forward. Where could she be going? And why was she in such a hurry to get there?
"El!" he screamed out again. This time he was positive that she was within earshot, but she still ignored him. His heart sank just a little bit when he realized that there was a strong chance that she was simply running away from him, but a tiny voice in the back of his mind was whispering to him; it was telling him that there was something bigger going on.
"Go away, Mike!" El yelled, but without looking back. She kept running, and Mike was starting to feel his lungs crying for a break. He cursed his weak stamina but for the sake of the girl who he loved, he ignored the protest from his body and kept going.
"El, where are you going? Are you mad at me?" There was no answer. However, after a few more seconds it became apparent that El was going to the old cabin. Which was odd, because Mike couldn't think of a reason as to why she would want to go there, and in such a rush, nonetheless.
The small house came into view and El let her pace subside slightly, but it was still enough for her to keep an ample distance away from Mike. When she reached the porch, she didn't waste any time in barging through the door and running into her old bedroom.
With Mike hot on her heels, she barely had any time to close the bedroom door before he was already in the room with her, watching her scream and cry with her face buried in the unwashed and musty bed sheets.
Mike stared at El in utter confusion. Surely her breaking down like this could not be attributed entirely to him, right? There had to be something else happening. Something else must have had occurred that caused her to act like this. He reached out and placed a shaky and unsure hand on her shoulder. When she didn't pull away, he crawled onto the bed with her and hugged her slowly from behind.
He felt her tense up in his arms at first, but she eventually surrendered to his hold and melted into his body, completed letting out all of the doubt that was fogging her mind. She sagged back and held his forearms tightly and tried to calm down but it was hard. For nearly ten minutes, all she could do was gasp and breath and sob, but Mike never let go. He just sat there patiently, waiting.
El took a deep breath and hiccuped once, and felt that she could finally speak. "Mike?" Her voice was scratchy and raw from all of the yelling and crying that she had endured in the last twenty minutes.
"Yeah?" Mike answered while slowly rubbing one of her bare forearms with his thumb.
"I… don't know what to say," she told him. It was the truth; it seemed like her brain was gone, and in its place, a tornado that was made of questions and worries and emotions was whirling furiously.
"Okay," he replied slowly. "How about I talk and ask you some questions, and you listen and answer them the best you can?"
"Okay," she sniffed, still not turning around. She was still resting the back of her head on his chest, staring at the wall.
"I'm sorry," Mike began. "I don't know if this is all because of me, and I hope that it isn't, but if it is, I'm sorry. And even if it isn't, I still am. I know that I was wrong to keep that stuff about Hopper away from you. I guess I thought that I knew better, but I didn't. I'm sorry. And I'm sorry for all that shit I said to you in the woods by Steve's. I didn't mean any of it. I was just upset-"
"I'm sorry, too," El apologized back, attempting to cut off his trademark nervous ramble. "And I'm- I'm sorry for h-h-hitting you," she added, but not before melting down again and bursting into another fit of tears.
"Hey, hey, hey," Mike said softly, hugging her closer. "It's okay. Shhh, it's okay. Don't worry, it's fine, okay? You didn't hurt me. I deserved it anyway."
"N-no, you d-didn't," she hiccuped. "I don't know why I did it."
"You were mad at me, okay? It's fine. You don't have to apologize."
"No, I do," she cried. "Mike, I'm sorry for everything. I'm so sorry."
He swallowed heavily. "It's okay, El."
They sat in silence for another five or so minutes. Mike wanted El to calm down before he said anything else, because he still had a big hunch that he was yet to understand the full extent of what was truly happening. When it seemed like El had quieted down, he inhaled nervously. "El?"
"Yes?"
"Why were you running away from the Byers?"
Silence.
"El?"
"Mike…" she trailed off. Good God, something terrible must have happened. Mike's heart rate was picking up quickly.
"El, just tell me what happened. Please," he almost begged. He needed to know what had caused her to become this upset. He rubbed her shoulders, still hugging her from behind. He still wasn't able to see her face from where he was.
"Hey, turn around," he said softly. "Let me see you."
"No," she replied shortly, letting out a small cry as she did so. "I don't want you to see me right now."
"Shh, El, that's bullshit. Let me see you." He loosened his hold on El and scooted backward on the bed. He rotated her body with slight force, and he felt her eventually give up and begrudgingly turn around. Her face was red and her eyes were glistening and puffy. Mike had only ever seen her this upset a couple of times before. He gulped inwardly but forced himself to put on a brave face.
He cupped her face in his heads and planted a gentle but meaningful and reassuring kiss on her semi-open mouth. "El, what happened?"
El seemed to refuse to look Mike in the eye. She was focusing on spot in the middle of his chest. Her mouth opened but no words came out at first. "Joyce… Joyce told me something."
"Joyce told you something? What did she tell you?" Mike immediately answered. His stomach felt like it was going to jump out of his throat. What had Joyce said to El to make her this upset? What could have possibly happened?
"She said…" her voice faded away.
"El, it's okay. You can tell me. Just tell me," he pressed, rubbing his hands up and down her arms. They were looking eye to eye now, facing one another directly. A single tear fell trickled down El's emotionally-scarred faced. Mike joined his hands with El's limp ones. "El, tell me."
"We're moving," she blurted out. "We're moving to a town that's five hours away in a month, and I'll never be able to see you again. We're getting separated again, Mike." She had barely finished her sentence before she exploded again and lunged forward and grabbed Mike like he was the last thing in the whole universe. Her body shook violently, and all he did was hug her back. He just whispered whatever comforting things to El that he could think of, and maintained as calm a face as possible.
But on the inside, he was fighting off the worst pain he had felt since that night in the school two years ago.
Okay, guys, that's it for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it! Exams are in less than two weeks, so I'm not gonna make any promises about this chapter, but I can give my personal guarantee that I will never abandon this story, not until season 4 drops. As always, PLEASE drop a review! I remember in one chapter I got, like 8 and I LOVED replying to all of them. So please, let me know! Take care, guys :)