Chapter Text
It’s been a little over a month since the death of Vecna, and everything feels peaceful for once.
Now it’s early January, and the new year feels like a fresh start for the party. Everything is different, it’s a good different, but still. Will still lives at the Wheelers, which he and Mike have been more than happy about, but not for long, since Joyce was looking for a new house they could all live in. Joyce lives with Hopper and El, and school has started back. It’s their junior year of high school, and Max had to take harder classes to be able to graduate, since she was in a Vecna induced coma for basically all of high school.
So yeah, life was going pretty good, but Mike and Will still haven’t really talked about it since back at the radio tower, though their friendship is thriving. They've given each other a few looks, which could definitely be seen as more than friendly, and they’ve almost held hands a few times too. Will is giddy.
They were in Mike’s room, Mike spread out on his bed, reading a comic, and Will was sitting on the floor in front of the bed, drawing. Drawing Mike, actually, but he didn’t need to know that. After Mike finished whatever he was reading, he yawned, and placed the comic on the nightstand, then looked at Will, sitting on the floor with his knees almost up to his chest, sketching.
“Whatcha drawing?” Mike said casually, looking down at the sketchbook, and then back up to Will.
Will jumped slightly, his eyes meeting Mike's.
“O-oh, uh, nothing.”
To any normal person, they would’ve shrugged it off. But Mike, being the nosy asshole he was, noticed the slight nervousness in Will’s response, and decided to pry.
“Doesn’t seem like nothing…” He said, teasing.
“It’s just a sketch, Mike.” Said Will, trying to make it seem insignificant, like he has learned to do with most things in his life, because he had felt insignificant most of his life. But Mike never made him feel like that.
“Right, and we’re just friends.” Mike said, as if it was the most casual thing in the world. Will blushed. This is the most obvious that he’s flirted with Will. Mike hopped out of bed and walked over to Will, sitting down on the floor in front of him.
“Can I see?” He said, his head nodding to the sketchbook in Will’s hands. “I-I mean, if you don’t want to sho-”
“Sure,” Will said. Normally, he wouldn't be this brave, but since Mike had just flirted with him basically 20 seconds ago, he figured why not. Mike was caught off guard, fully expecting Will to say no, since he always gets shy about his art. “You can’t make fun of me, though.”
“When have I ever made fun of your art?”
Will rolled his eyes playfully, before handing the sketchbook over. The drawing was of Mike, of course, but as a paladin, sort of like in the infamous painting currently hanging above Mike's desk. He looked very pretty in the drawing, but that was just how Will saw Mike. And after a few seconds, he could’ve sworn he saw Mike blush.
“H-Holy shit, is this me?
“Yeah,”
“This looks…I mean, you made me very handsome.”
“You are…” Will blurts out, before even realizing what he said. His hand practically slaps over his mouth. “Shit, I mean…”
“Oh, I am?” Mike teases, they’re both blushing now.
“No! I mean, w-well yes, you are, I just…wasn’t trying to make you look that way or anything, that’s just how I see you, I guess”
“This is how you see me? This is very generous…I mean, look at my jawline!”
“Mike, shut up!” Will’s hands are covering his face, completely flustered, but when he removes his hands, he sees Mike, red as a tomato.
“Michael Theodore Wheeler, are you blushing?”
“No, shut up!” Mike reaches up to the bed and throws a pillow at Will, not hard of course, but Will’s jaw drops in shock. “I-It's just, nobody has ever seen me like this before.”
“Well yeah, that’s true.” Will adds, because even if El was in love with him at one time, she never saw him the way Will does, because she’s not Will. Will had seen every side of Mike, and had to watch him go through life as he loved him silently. He had made hundreds–-no–thousands of drawings like this. They were silent for a moment, it wasn’t awkward, but tender, filled with both their racing thoughts, and hearts.
“D-Do you have any more? Of me?” Mike asked, and Will almost laughed, because, how is that even a question? He had an entire sketchbook of just Mike that he eventually had to replace because it was full.
“Of course I do,” Will said.
“Do you mind?” Mike nudged towards the spot on the floor beside Will.
“No, no. Go ahead.”
Mike squeezed in beside him, facing Will with a tender smile. And he did that thing, where he looks at Will’s lips for a split second before looking back into his eyes and it made Will’s heart skip a beat. Will admired Mike for a moment…how his hair is all messy and his eyes are all dark and his lips are so pink and the shirt he’s wearing looks so good on him and he looks so pretty and-
“So? Are you gonna show me?”
“O-Oh yeah, shit, right.”
Mike giggled. Will took the sketchbook and flipped it to the front page, before handing it to Mike. Mike flipped through the pages slowly, and Will nervously kept his eyes on Mike, looking for any sign of disapproval.
“Are these all me?!”
“Y-yeah, sorry, I-”
“Sorry? What are you sorry for? These are amazing, Will!”
“You like them?”
“I love them.”
Will grinned so wide it hurt, and then Mike turned the page to another drawing, one that Will immediately recognized. Will snatched the sketchbook out of his hands impossibly fast.
“Hey! What was that for?!” Mike said in that stupid offended voice he does.
“I-I’m sorry, this one’s not finished, I don’t want you to see it yet.” Mike immediately regrets snapping at Will, and then he talks in that soft voice he only does for Will when they’re alone.
“Don’t say sorry. And you know I don’t care if it’s finished or not. But if you really don’t want me to see it, then I’ll shut up.”
“No, here. I want you to see it, I just-” Will handed the sketchbook back to Mike.
Mike observed it for a second, before speaking again.
“Is this us?”
The drawing was of a paladin and a cleric that looked suspiciously like Will the Wise and Mike the Brave. They were standing in front of each other, the paladin’s hand resting gently on the cleric's face, and they were looking at each other, sort of how Mike and Will were looking at each other a few seconds ago.
“Uh, yeah..”
“When did you make this?”
“A few weeks ago. After what happened in the upside down. I never really stopped thinking about it.”
“Yeah, me either.” They’ve broken eye contact at this point, and Mike's hands were fidgeting with the carpet.
“W-What did you mean…when you said not friends?” Will needed to get it out. He needed to address the elephant in the room, the thing he knows is on both their minds, but he knows Mike is not good with expressing his emotions, and he probably won't be able to spit it out. Mike’s eyes widened. He knew it was coming.
“I meant that–I um—I meant–shit.”
“It’s okay, take your time.”
“I meant that I knew you were talking about me when you came out, and then you brought up Tammy, or whoever the hell, and when you asked if we were still friends, I was trying to tell you I didn’t want to be friends because I wanted–” Mike choked on his words. “I wanted–I wanted to be more, I guess.”
“More as in, like, best friends? Because we already are…”
“No, Will. Not best friends.” Mike turned his head to look at Will. Then Will’s lips.
And Will was staring right back at his. “Then what, Mike?”
And then Mike leaned in a little. Will did the same. They slowly inched towards each other, before Mike finally closed the gap. Their lips met, and they lingered for a moment before they both pulled away. Will was in shock. They just kissed. He just kissed his best friend. And maybe it wasn’t technically perfect, and their noses bumped a little, and the angle was weird, and Will has never kissed anyone before in his life, but it was perfect to him. Will’s chest exploded with a fiery passion. His nerves were burning, and he needed Mike right now more than he had ever needed anything. And then, they were kissing again, a little more intense this time, and they kept going, and Mike’s hand slowly made its way to rest on Will’s jaw, just like the drawing. They sped up a bit, and Mike tossed the sketchbook aside. Will’s fingers twisted through Mike’s black hair, making it messier than it already was. Mike pushed Will down onto the carpet gently, and straddled him, and Will made a noise that he didn’t even realize he made until it was too late, and it drove Mike crazy. They kept kissing, Mike’s hands finding their way to Will’s waist, his chest, his shoulders, his neck…after a few minutes of gently exploring, they pulled away, lips swollen and cheeks flushed.
“Wow,” Will added breathlessly. They laughed.
“I have wanted to do that…for so long.” Mike pushes out breathlessly.
“Tell me about it,”
Mike smiled and then placed a soft kiss to Will's cheek. Will closed his eyes and inhaled, before they both sat up, realizing just how disheveled they both looked. They gazed at each other for a moment in the silence, and laughed. They didn’t say anything, because they didn’t need to. After all these years, it had finally happened. They finally got it over with, and told each other how they feel. And only one thing was running through both of their minds:
you’re a cowboy like me.