Mike missed her, that was something everyone could see. He stopped coming to meet the party, giving lame excuses to hide his sadness. He wanted to be okay, he really did. He wanted to be there for his friends, knowing Will wasn't okay still.
But to think she could be where his friend had been for a year, after hearing all the stories. He just wanted her there, with him.
She was all he dreamt of.
His bedroom had become long forgotten, opting to sleep in the fort instead. The smell of her wore away, but her presence was still so strong there. He'd drift off, holding that damn yellow shirt close to his chest with dried tears on his freckled cheeks, and he'd dream she was there instead.
He dreamed of how she would look with longer hair, like the lab had never happened. Soft ringlets tickling his neck, or his cheek as she slept next to him.
Like nothing was ever wrong.
Then he woke up, and the tears resumed.
Every single day without fail he would radio in how long it had been, and a little update on his life with a soft beg of her coming home, to him.
The fact that he didn't even know if she was alive was the thing that really crushed him. It was all well and good having an imaginary girlfriend, but she was real and he knew that. The emotional baggage was too heaving, on his shoulders weighing him down like the bags under his eyes.
But mostly, Nancy missed him.
She missed the little asshole who ran up and down the stairs at five in the morning with his airplane toy and making those dumb sound effects. She missed his laugh, that little giggle he made when he'd successfully pissed her off. It was the little things. But that was her one brother, the annoying little shit who she'd watched give his heart away to have it missing for almost a year with no claimer.
It was crushing.
So much so, she walked down the creak wooden stairs to the basement on christmas eve. Mike's voice echoed soft through the room, until she found him curled up in the den, radio in hand.
"Eleven, it's me again. It's day forty-two. It's christmas eve, and that means it's the day Jesus was born. He's a really cool guy, he's the son of God. God made everything around us, and he controls the world. I pray every night to God that you'll come home, and that you're okay. It's been weird, the lights everywhere remind me of Mrs Byers' house. She was the nice women who took care of you the night you left." Nancy watched her little brother attempt to hold back his tears, trying to keep his voice gentle incase Eleven really was there.
"Please give me a sign. Just anything." his voice broke like those walls around him, dropping the radio and doubling over as he allowed himself to sob into the pillows and blankets surrounding him. As Mike hid his face and the radio went dead, Nancy swore she saw the lights flash once, twice, before returning to their original state.
With a saddened smile, Nancy walked slowly towards the young boy and retrieved the supercomm.
"Nancy, give it back-" He tried, before he received a scolding look from her. She sat down next to him, legs crisscrossed, as she wrapped an arm around him.
"Hi, Eleven. It's me, Nancy, Mike's sister."
The boy smiled for the first time in a long time at that.
"I-uh- I saw the lights. If that was you." His eyes widened in excitement.
"I promise, I'll take care of Mike for you. He misses you, we all do. I'm always here for you and for Mike, think of me as a sister. I've been a sort of mouth breather recently, but I promise I'll take care of him from now on."
-
Eleven sat down in the void, parallel to Nancy. She reached her hand out to touch Mike's cheek, and he didn't vanish. She grinned widely, frantically wiping her eyes as she listened to Nancy and Mike.
"Merry Christmas, El. I love you."
"I love you too, Mike."
