Chapter Text
“Michael, this is… what, the eleventh one?”
“I know dad, but this time will be different, I know it.”
“What your father is trying to say is that we’re worried about you. You missed Nona’s birthday last month to go to Niagra Falls! And when Will and Dustin were back in town you disappeared to Wales. Wales! I know you need your “inspiration” or whatever you want to call it, but come on Mike, this is getting out of hand!” Karen flapped her hands around exasperatedly.
Mike sighed. “Look mom, I know it all sounds crazy, but I am so close to striking a goldmine here. This time will be different… I can just feel it, y’know?”
His parents just stared at him, their expressions worn (well, Karen’s was - Ted just looked bored). This conversation had to be over, and Mike had to get out of there or he was going to miss his flight.
“Well, gotta go! So glad we got that all cleared up. Love you mom, see ya dad!” Mike grabbed his bag from beside the door and swiftly made for the car parked out front.
“MICHAEL!” He heard his dad yell as he slammed the door shut, but he didn’t look back.
---------------------------
Mike knew how it looked to everyone else, he was still living with his parents, working part time at Melvald’s, and all of his savings went towards travel. He looked crazy, heck, maybe he was crazy. But he couldn’t give up. Not when there was a tiny chance that she was still out there.
Didn’t they call Joyce crazy too, when Will went missing? Didn’t Joyce do things that didn’t make sense to anyone, because she had a tiny slither of hope that her son was still alive? Will went missing on the 6th of November, 1983, and El vanished on the 6th of November, 1987. That couldn’t be a coincidence, right? Not that Mike believed in coincidences anymore.
“So… Iceland.”
Lucas had agreed to drive Mike to the airport at 3 in the morning, on the condition that the DnD Players' Manual he was currently writing made the Ranger “super hot”. Mike cringed. He would have said absolutely not if he wasn’t so desperate for a ride after his taxi money had been converted to plane ticket money. Who knew flying to Iceland was so expensive?
“Yep, I’m going to see-“
“Let me guess, more waterfalls” Lucas interrupted. “Dude, seriously, what is your obsession with those things? Like, its just water flowing off the side of a cliff… “
“Lucas, leave him alone.” Max nudged him from the passenger seat. “I’m sure Mike has a perfectly good reason for his waterfall obsession. Don’t you Mike?”
Mike rolled his eyes. “You guys just wouldn’t get it. It’s… writer stuff.”
Max and Lucas exchanged slightly worried looks, but Mike didn’t care. He had to keep trying, he had to find El. He would spend his whole life looking for her if he thought there was a chance she was out there.
“Well, you better bring us back souvenirs this time!” Max mused, “Seriously, I can’t believe you were at Niagra Falls and didn’t even think to bring us back a keychain, a fridge magnet… anything!”
“Well then, this time I’ll be sure to bring back so many fridge magnets that we’ll basically have our very own deadly-Russian-science-experiment-detector.” Mike grinned.