Chapter Text
Will needs to get ready for the rest of the day, so Mike goes downstairs to wait with El. She’s sitting with a copy of Little Women and a cup of peppermint tea, curled up on an armchair in the living room.
Mike feels bad for interrupting. “Hey.”
“Hi! Come and sit.”
Mike walks towards the sofa and nods towards the book. It’s a worn old paperback, clearly one of Joyce’s. “Are you liking it?”
“Yeah! I really am. Joyce told me to read it. She said I reminded her of Beth, but now Beth has scarlet fever, so I’m hoping it all works out.”
Mike just stares for a moment, not wanting to spoil the book, but also slightly concerned that El might start thinking her mom wants her to die. “Yeah, I can see that. You’re both really kind, and passionate.”
“Anyway, what did you get Will for his birthday?” She closes the book and leans over the arm of the chair to place it haphazardly on the corner of the side table. “I made him a necklace and a couple of bracelets. There was a yellow and blue one, and a yellow and purple one.”
“Aw, nice – he always wears your jewellery around New York. He said a couple of his friends from class have been asking about it.” El glows at that; it’s clear how much she loves her brother, and how much she values his good opinion. “It was just a few bits and bobs from me: some records, a movie, paints. A print of a painting we saw at the Met.”
“I didn’t know you knew any paintings.” There’s no insult to it, just a look of confusion at Mike’s apparent new-found love of art.
Mike’s face turns a pale shade of pink, and he gets a bit snappy. “Hey, I- I know stuff about art. I’m cultured.” He can feel himself getting defensive, and can see that El's scared she misspoke. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” That’s El: always kind. With anyone else, a question like that feels like a demand. A sure-fire way to make him retreat back behind his walls and to hide away the key. With El, it’s an invitation: I’m here if you need me. I’ll wait here until you’re ready. It’s no surprise she’s so popular with the kids at the nursery.
“I just- I want to be enough for him. I want to know about the things he knows about, but we bump into guys from his classes and they throw all of these words around and I can’t keep up and I just feel so stupid.”
“I think we all feel like that around the people we want to impress.”
“I never needed to impress him before, though. I think that’s what makes it all so scary: I managed to get in early, when he didn’t need impressing, and now I’m realising that maybe I don’t have very much going for me.”
“Mike, are you being serious right now? You’re you. That already puts you way ahead of anyone else. How many people can say that they stuck with someone through alternate dimensions, possessions, and superpowers? Yes, you got in early, but no one forced you to stick around.”
“But I didn’t. Stick around, that is In ‘85 I spent all of my time with you. I barely spoke to him whilst you were in California. I feel like I need to redeem myself.”
“That’s – what? – a year and a half, tops? You’ve known each other for, let’s say, fifteen and a half years. That still leaves fourteen whole years of being a really, really good friend to him – that’s like a fully formed teenager! Yes, Mike, you messed up. Badly. I heard him crying himself to sleep in Lenora. I saw him looking over at the mail to see if he got letters from you. I saw his ears prick up every time the phone rang. But that was years ago. And you aren’t doing either of you any favours by moping around feeling bad about it.” Mike’s not used to El being so blunt, but it’s good. It suits her. “You need to trust him. Anyone can see he’s forgiven you. If you respect him, you need to trust his judgement and let him. You need to let him love you, not push him away because you think you have to repent.”
He smiles at her. “When did you get so wise?” He looks towards the stairs, as if expecting Will to come down any second. His voice drops conspiratorially. “Do you think he would? Let me love him?”
“Yes. I do. But you can’t spend your whole life thinking about talking to him, Mike. At some point you have to actually do it.” He opens his mouth to defend himself, but she cuts him off. “And no, over the phone at midnight, in the middle of a completely unrelated conversation doesn’t count.”
“Did he tell you anything? He didn’t say anything last night. He know he wants to talk about it; I can see it behind his eyes. But I feel like I’m just waiting for the penny to drop, to hear that he doesn’t love me and never did. And then everything will be different. We won’t be able to cuddle during movies, or climb each other’s beds when we’re sick, or stay up all night talking about campaigns we’re planning. It’ll- everything would be different. I don’t think I’m ready to hear that yet. And it’s his birthday! Why did I do it on his birthday? Surely that just shows that I’m being selfish! I clearly can’t want him to be happy if I’m willing to ruin his birthday.”
“Mike, I’m not going to tell you about our private conversations.” She sounds different now, establishing boundaries. This is a line I’m not going to cross, so don’t ask me to. “But, for what it’s worth, I think you’re looking at this all wrong. Yes, things will change. But everything changes. Your relationship now isn’t the same as it was when you were 17, or 15, or 12, or 5. You two changed when Will went missing, when he got possessed, when you and I started dating, when we moved to Lenora. But you made it through.” She’s looking at him as if she’s not sure that he believes her. “You did, Mike. And, let’s face it, I don’t think your love problems are a bigger battle to face than an alternate dimension and an evil monster hellbent on destroying Indiana.”
“God, you sounded like Max there. Do you talk to anyone other than her and Dustin?”
El seems to take this as a change of topic, and starts excitedly talking about life in Cambrige. “Yes! Dustin and I have a new apartment, really close to my work, and we have a neighbour who I’ve made friends with. She’s called Mary, and she’s quite old, but she has five cats and one of them’s pregnant, and Mary says I can have one of the kittens-” She rattles on about her new friends. Mike zones out a little bit, and gently smiles at her. She seems genuinely happy.
She’s not the girl he met in the woods anymore. Time has changed them both, but she’s right. Life has happened, and that’s okay, because they’ll get through it together. All of them. He loves Will too much to let a rejection push them apart.
---
After lunch in the diner, and a special birthday one-shot campaign Dustin had put together, they party has settled down where they always end up: piled in front of the TV in the Wheelers’ basement, Star Wars playing loudly through the tinny speakers. Will and Mike are curled up together on the sofa as they always are. Will’s head resting quietly on Mike’s shoulder, with Mike’s arm wrapped around him.
The tension of last night’s phone call has dissipated. Not quite forgotten, but put aside so that they can enjoy their time together. Even with Lucas loudly crunching on chips on the floor, Max berating him for making a mess, and Dustin explaining everything happening on screen to El, who looks confused regardless, Mike’s happy. Because Will’s still here.
Will’s still here. Not just safe from the Upside Down. Not just free of Vecna and the Mind Flayer, but here. With Mike, by choice. El was right: Will keeps on choosing to stick with him, through it all.
That has to mean something, right?
---
Maybe watching the full original trilogy was an ambitious goal, to say they’d also tried to fit in a full D&D campaign and lunch, but they managed it. The only thing marking this as different from every one of Will’s birthdays (excepting the one they don’t talk about) is that tonight isn’t a sleepover. The Party seem to value their backs more now than they did as teenagers.
El had already fallen asleep by the time the credits rolled on Return of the Jedi, and so Lucas had promptly driven her, Max, and Dustin home. Each one to their own home and their own lives. He hadn’t asked if Will wanted a ride.
Mike watches Will pull on his jacket by the back door. “I’ll walk you home.”
“Oh, Mike, don’t worry about it, it’s late.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll walk you.”
“Okay.”
They set off down the drive in comfortable silence, their feet tapping out a regular rhythm against the pavement. The night’s clear and crisp, and the moon shines down brightly. The streetlights are hiding the stars, but it’s a beautiful night nonetheless.
Will glances at his watch. “It’s nearly 1:00.”
Mike looks up at him, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What?”
“It’s not my birthday anymore.”
That hasn’t cleared anything up for Mike, who still looks just as lost.
“El said you wouldn’t want to ruin my birthday.” He’s looking over to the woods, clearly trying to avoid eye contact. “She said that’s maybe why you weren’t talking about it.”
“Oh. Um- yeah. I guess.”
“Please can we talk about it?”
“Well- I mean- What is there to say, Will?” He stops walking and Will turns to look at him. “I mean, I said what I said. The ball’s in your court now.”
“Did you mean it?”
Mike hates that the question even needs asking. “‘Did I’- Will, of course I meant it. I’d tear this world apart if anything happened to you again. I can’t- no, I don’t want to live without you.” He kicks his feet against the pavement and looks down, voice quieter now. “However you’ll have me. As a lover, as a friend, as your brother’s brother-in-law, as your sister’s ex. Anything, Will, I don’t care. I’ll take anything. I love you more than life itself.”
Mike can usually read Will’s face like a book, but he doesn’t trust himself now. He doesn’t trust that the shred of hope he thinks he can see in Will’s eyes is truly there. “Please, Will. If you don’t want me, just rip off the bandaid. I can’t live like this.”
“No, I- God, I-” All of a sudden, Will’s moving towards him, hands reaching out. Will grabs his face, and pulls him into a kiss. The dark cloud that had settled over Mike days ago lifts, and everything seems clear again. All he can focus on is Will. Will’s hands in his hair, Will’s tongue in his mouth, Will’s lips on his. There’s no air left in his lungs anymore, but the burn only feels as warm as Will’s chest does where it presses against his. And then, Will pulls away. Before Mike has a chance to close his mouth, jaw still hanging in surprise, Will says “I want you. Mike, believe me, I want you.” He’s nodding, as if Mike needed more confirmation.
“Oh, uh- cool.” The words sound too casual against the manic grin plastered across Mike’s face. He’s nervous. His heart is thumping against his chest. “So, um- what are we? Choose a word. I’ll say yes.”
“God, I never thought I’d be asking this question.” There’s a smile tugging at Will’s lips as he looks up into Mike’s eyes. Finally, Mike dares to let himself see the affection pouring out of them. “Michael James Wheeler, love of my life and pain in my ass, will you be my boyfriend?”
Mike pulls him in by the waist, smiling down at him, before answering, “William Jacob Byers, with all my heart, yes.”
They don’t need much more for now. They just hold their foreheads together for a few seconds, before Mike pulls away to place a chaste kiss where he had just been leaning.
“Well, 'Boyfriend', let me walk you home. I’m still a gentleman, after all.”
With that, they link arms and carry on walking, neighbours be damned.