Chapter Text
The car ride from New York for the most part is completely uneventful.
Will knows that Mike prefers the silence of driving since it gives him time to think and brainstorm, and he is more than happy to oblige and keeps to himself if Mike doesn’t initiate.
When they’re almost out of Pennsylvania, Mike pulls into a gas station, even though they’re doing quite alright on gas. “I can drive if you’re getting tired. Is your headache getting worse?”
Will bites his lip and undoes his seatbelt when Mike vigorously rubs at his temples. He reaches for the tylenol from his bag as Mike groans out a sound of objection. “No, ‘s all good. I just need a little break ’s all.”
This does nothing to convince Will. He takes a look at the time on the dash as he turns off the music and grabs his wallet. They’d been driving for a few hours now, and if anything, with Mike’s horrible diet, he might just be hungry again. Will almost wants to take time to scold him for not eating how and when he should, but he bites his tongue and keeps it to himself. Mike was already suffering enough and his nagging wouldn’t make the situation any better.
“Stay here and I’ll go grab some things from inside.” He’s about to get out when he pauses. He slips his sunglasses off his face and puts them on Mike. He squeezes his shoulder and speaks a little softer. “I’ll be right back.”
His eyes carefully sweep the shelves in search of anything that might help the situation while also keeping an eye on Mike through the windows. For a moment, Will’s heart stops beating as Mike remains so still in the car that he might as well have been dead and it makes Will worry for a few seconds longer than he would like to admit. That is, until Mike grimaces and presses a few fingers to his forehead and will could finally breathe out a relieved sigh and let his heart settle itself in his chest.
Migraines weren't uncommon these days with Mike. Will has seen the worst end of a few of them and based off of that experience, he knew they were not pleasant and there was quite literally little to nothing he could do to help.
He continues on grabbing snacks, sodas, sandwiches and sweets that he hoped would be of use.
The girl behind the register is a pretty brunette who immediately straightens up when Will approaches. He gives her a gentle smile and she smiles widely in return. He dumps all his items onto the counter. He tilts his head to the side and smiles with his eyes in the way that Max always tells him should be illegal. “By chance, do you happen to have any ice packs and ice?”
She blushes and bites her lip with a nod. “Uh yeah!” She squeaks, a little louder than she had hopefully intended but then she cleared her throat as her cheeks redden further. “You’ll find the ice in the cooler outside, and I can get you the pack to fill it.”
“You’re an angel.” He replies and she completely splutters.
She rings him up after they’d gotten the ice pack together and he fishes his wallet out of his back pocket to pay. When she hands him his change along with the receipt, there’s also another slip of paper along with it.
She turns away and doesn’t look him in the eye when she is met with his questioning glance. “Call me… if you’re interested.” She manages to squeak out.
“Thank you!” He gives her a genuine smile, no tricks this time, and leaves.
Pride swells in his chest when he catches Mike looking his way with another look of annoyance.
“Another one?” Is the first thing he says when Will gets in.
“Yes, and we are now 16-7, you better step up your game, Wheeler. You’re losing.” He opens the dash and adds the slip of paper to the growing pile of numbers he’s collected.
“It’s unfair.”
He takes off the button down tee shirt he was wearing and wraps it around the ice back for an added layer before taking back his sunshades from Mike and setting the ice pack onto his forehead. “What’s unfair? That you’re losing?”
When they had just moved to New York, they had been very taken aback by the sheer brazenness and bravery of mostly women who would share their numbers with them in hopes of a date or even a casual hookup. It was… new. They were not this sought after in Hawkins. Back home, they were quite well known for being outcasts and the popular attractive kids steered clear of them mostly. But outside of that, in a newer place where no one knew them, they were judged by their attractiveness, which was certainly different. It was a sort of culture shock the first few times it happened. And after that, it just kept on happening until Mike made it a competition on who gets more, and it didn’t end even after Will got a boyfriend since people seemingly keep finding him attractive.
Mike presses his face into the ice and Will watches as his whole body relaxes into his seat and his breathing finally becomes more at ease. “No, not fair because you’re- you’re so… ugh you wouldn’t get it.”
Will snickers at him and starts unpacking the bag of junk food. He puts an open can of Coke in Mike’s hand and instructs him to drink. Mike does so with no qualms, “Five more minutes and I’ll be good to go.”
“Better?”
“Much.”
Will watches closely as Mike moves the ice pack down his face a little. On the bridge of his nose, then to his right cheekbone and then to his left. “Smells like you.” He comments, eyes still shut.
“It’s clean I promise.” He takes Mike’s hand into his own and presses his thumb to the space between Mike’s thumb and forefinger like he’d seen him do before. He diligently rubs soothing circles into the pressure point in hopes that it would help.
“I know. Just… smells like you.” Mike mutters.
“Not bad I hope.”
“No, just the perfume.”
“I’m trying a new one, you’ll have to tell me what you think of it.”
“Then why don’t you get Carlton’s input?” He snarks with not quite any heat behind it. Will brushes it off with practiced ease.
“He’s probably gonna tell me he likes it. He likes anything as long as it’s me.”
Mike freezes for a second before taking his hand back and getting the ice off of his face and plops it back into the plastic bag along with Will’s shirt so as to not make a wet mess everywhere. “I’m sure.”
“You good? I thought you wanted a few more minutes.” Will throws a bag of chips his way to hopefully distract him when he puts on his seatbelt. Mike simply puts it on the central console and gets the car going. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
Will sighs and gets his own seatbelt on too.
The rest of the drive is wholly uneventful. But it's already late afternoon when they finally make it to Hawkins. Will rests his chin on his palm and his elbow on the window as he looks out at the town. Nothing has drastically changed, and yet everything feels different. This place wasn’t his home anymore. It was no longer a nightmare place, even though he still had plenty of nightmares for a lifetime from this place.
Coming back can only be described as bittersweet. There were many things he loved and missed. But it’s never the same. Nevertheless the nostalgia for something he could never return to tugs at his heart and makes him feel a little choked up. His palm covers his mouth to hold back a pained sound and he watches the trees pass by.
They drive by the video store and he turns to Mike and opens his mouth, but Mike beats him to it, “We can come back and get some movies later.”
“Okay!” Will says cheerfully.
The familiar streets build anticipation inside him and soon they’re turning into the Wheeler’s driveway. Holly, Karen and Ted are already standing at the entrance of the house, patiently waiting.
Sorta patiently waiting, because Holly is barefoot in the yard impatiently hopping from foot to foot with a smile so wide her cheeks would probably hurt later on.
Will is hardly out of the car properly before Holly is barreling toward him like a torpedo. She throws herself at him and he drops his bag to catch her, successfully knocking the air out of him. “Will!” She giggles gleefully. And then she starts talking a mile a minute about her most recent campaign, the figurine she’s painting and and wants his input on, her boyfriend at school, the new book she recently read. Will is hardly keeping up.
“Holly, calm down. He’s gonna be here all week.” Mike chides. He gets their things out of the car. His own duffel sling over his shoulder and Will’s bag in his other hand. Will reaches to take it from him but Mike brushes past him to take it inside himself. He stops to nod at his father and kisses his mother who also smiles widely.
Will has no time to register anything because Holly is picking up his knapsack and dragging him inside my arm. “Come on! You’re moving too slow.”
“Let him breathe first, Holly.” She pouts at her mothers stern voice.
Karen turns to him and opens her arms to welcome him with a hug. “Welcome back, sweetie.” He accepts her hug and it's warm and motherly. It makes him miss his own mother.
“Thank you for having me, Mrs. Wheeler.”
“Nonsense! This will always be your home too.” She pulls back and squeezes his arms lovingly.
He turns to Ted who shakes his hand firmly and pats his back with his free hand. He says nothing though.
And then Holly is pushing him toward her bedroom. She talks for about an hour straight and she reminds him of Mike in all the nice ways when he was younger. Jumping from topic to topic and talking until they are red in the face from not getting enough air. Will only smiles at her and helps her choose colors, explains certain techniques to get the color just right, and offers her advice on her love life.
“Holly, did you say hi to your brother?”
Her brush pauses over her figuring slightly before she continues with a frown. “No…”
He lets the silence sit.
“He doesn’t write me back. He never does. Only you do. And Nancy only writes on occasions.” She’s pouting petulantly now.
He gets up off of the floor and pats the top of her head. “He’s still your brother, Holls. Come on. Let’s go say hi and later when we go get movies, I’ll get one that we can watch together.”
“My Little Pony?” She asks.
“Rescue at midnight castle.” Will nods.
Her eyes light up and she’s up and at the door in an instant, Will watches her fondly.
He watches the way she runs across the hall to Mike’s bedroom and bangs against the door with a closed fist. “Miiiike!” She calls in between her rapping.
He opens the door and he so obviously had been taking a nap from the way his hair is a mess and his clothing are askew. Will giggles behind his hand when Holly throws herself at him not dissimilar to the manner she did with Will earlier. Only that this time she reaches up on his tiptoes and peppers kisses all over Mike’s face or wherever she was allowed when he started pulling away in embarrassment.
And then she just hugs him tight.
“I’ve missed you a lot.”