Chapter Text
Mike completely ditched the plan.
He was supposed to ease into Will's life, slowly like a worm wiggling into Will's daily interactions.
And here they are, laughing away just like they used to.
“No but like, you don't understand… After he saw it he was like- full on shaking!” Mike exclaimed.
Will snickered. “The same guy who told you to kill your self not even a couple days prior?”
“Well to be fair, the spider was almost the size of my middle finger.” Mike strung up his hands and accidentally stuck the bird at Will. Will gasped, leaning over the box in his lap to swipe at Mikes hand in return.
“Whoops, wasn't trying to do that,” Mike drops his middle finger down and raises his index finger instead, “it was massive.”
Will places his hand back on the top of the box and scrunches his nose in disgust. “That's gross.”
“Tell me about it…”
Mike grins, setting his hands down in his lap, wriggling his fingers.
He feels so giddy talking to Will like the old times. He feels like he's going to explode, and can't stop moving around.
“Oh! About the movie, what should we watch?” Mike asks.
“Mmm...” Will hums in thought.
Before Will gets the chance to answer, Mike continues.
“Also do you want me to help you unpack- Or I can clean the basement.”
“No it's fine, we can do it later.”
“Oh okay.” Mike nods.
“Back to the movie thing, I kind of only have Ghost Busters and, i think some of the Star Wars series.” He says, lifting himself off the couch and starts heading towards a shelf in the back wall of the basement; where they usually store their VHS.
“I'm okay with any of them.” Will responds, cupping his face in his hands, leaning his elbows on the box in front of him watching Mike as he heads over.
“Did you watch anything cool in Lenora?” Mikes asks crouching to pull open the drawers for the one that has the movies that the party usually watches, and starts shuffling inside the back cupboard. He lifts up a Star Wars VHS and continues. “We’ve watched Ghost Busters together like a hundred times together already” Mike turns around, waving the VHS in the air and asks, "Is Star Wars good with you?”
Will snorts. “Mike, slow down, you've asked me like four questions in like a minute.”
Mike feels his face flush. “Sorry! Sorry, its just been so long- and I'm excited.” He rambles, hes being too pushy again.
He needs to reel it back in.
Mike plucks out the Ghost Buster VHS and closes the cupboard.
“We can watch both if you want.” Will lightly says.
Mike lights up into a grin, “Okay.”
He seats himself next to Will on the couch, but doesn't say anything; waiting for an invitation to speak.
“I watched Jaws with Jonathan,” Will continues.
“Really?!” Mike leans over and nudges him on the shoulder with his elbow, “Without me?” He jokes shooting Will an obviously fake frown. Will shoves him back, “Well yeah, I kinda had to.”
They both snort as they continue shooting each other questions back and forth.
Mike sits down at the dinner table next to Will, he brings his empty plate down with him and starts to scoop some of the mash potatoes his mom just spooned on this plate as the rest of the table chatters.
Holly leans over Will to throw her greens onto Mikes plate, but he catches them before they can pollute his plate with anything healthy.
“Ew! Holly stop!” He grimaces as he slowly picks up the greens, touching them with his mere fingertips so they dont infect his skin either. He flicks the greens back across the table and they land right back onto her plate.
One lands on Wills plate mixing in with his mashed potatoe, and Will scrunches his nose up at it. Mike snorts at his reaction.
“Whoops, sorry…” He uses his fork to lightly pick up the bean off Wills plate and launches it back to Holly. It hits her splat on the side of her head.
“Mike!” Holly and Mom yell in synchrony.
“What? She thew it first.” Mike points an accusatory finger towards Holly. Now it's Wills turn to snicker at Mike.
“Just apologize, Mike.” He snorts as he picks up the green and places it on a napkin inbetween him and Holly.
“Fine, sorry.”
Holly looks over and sticks her tongue out at him. “Thank you.” She says sarcastically, mostly towards Will since he was the one who got Mike to apologize in the first place.
She picks up the green out her hair and puts it on the table before she turns towards Will.
“Oh! How long are you guys going to stay with us?” Holly chirps as she slides the greens off her plate and onto Wills.
“Hm… i don't know yet Hols.” He says as he neatly rearranges the greens that are now his.
“Oh, okay”
Will turns his head over towards Holly and whispers in her ear “Your mom said we can stay forever.” He pulls back and puts his finger over his mouth in a shushing motion, “But it's a secret, no one knows yet.”
Mike wishes that were true, but he knows they'll only be staying for at most a couple of weeks before they'll have to move out.
“Guess we're officialy family now.” She giggles as nudging Will on the ribs, making him snicker quietly too.
“So, where did you say your mom was again, Jonathan.” Mom asks as she seats herself down in one of the empty chairs next to Dad.
Mom doesn't know she's at Hoppers house with him and El, theyre trying to clean the cabin up so it's atleast some what livable. Last time they went it was ripped to shreds, so that's going to take a long time to fix. He figures she'll be gone most nights from now on.
Jonathan exchanges a look with Nancy before he answers calmly, “She’s out looking for a job.”
Mom hums in return, “Oh, alright. Hope the food won't be all finished before she gets back.” She half jokes as she seats motions towards the table, food already half eaten even though she had just set the food down not even five minutes ago.
“Are you guys settled down okay?” She asks, looking at Jonathan and Will for any input. She's been out and cooking all day so she hasn't had time to actually check in with them.
“No, we're good, thank you.” Will replies politely as he bites down on one of the meatballs on his fork.
“I know your good,” she laughs “your still sleeping up with Mike, right?”
Will stops chewing for a moment and looked up across the table towards Mom with a slight look of confusion on his face, before it forms back to neutral.
Will turns his head to look over at Mike for confirmation. “I am?”
Mike pipes up excitedly, leaning towards him, “Yeah! Itll be like a permanent sleepover-” He pauses, “I mean unless you want to sleep in the basement.”
Will opens his mouth to respond but Dad gets to it before he does.
“Do they really need to share a room?” Dad grunts.
Dad notices the silence and decides to continue adding on his unwanted thoughts. “They're not kids anymore, they're almost grown.” He states complacently.
The rooms mood shifted.
Mike waits for him to elaborate, to get to whatever point he's trying to make, but Dad never does.
He hates when his dad attempts to actually be a parent. Because he always ends up pulling something like this.
He's just talking for the sake of talking.
His dad isn't even making any sense, Will and Mike being ‘grown’- which they're literally not, they're both still fifteen; not that it matters.
Mike clanks his fork on his plate. “Fucks that supposed to mean?”
Mom whispers a small "Language…", which quickly gets overlapped his dads voice “I didnt mean anything,” he states, smacking his lips on the potatoes, slowly lifting his spoon into the air, dropping a couple clumps of mashed potatoes into his plate.
“I’m just, commenting, about how you boys are grown. There's no need to be all huddled up in one room together all night.”
Mike knows there's an implication behind that, but can't be bothered to figure out what it is now.
He points the spoon towards Will and Jonathan and waves it around. “Theres plenty space in the basement for the three of them.”
Mike shoots a confused look at Will, but finds him frozen.
Wills gaze uncomfortably flickers around the mashed potatoes and gravy on his plate, before he slowly lifts up toward Jonathan; sending him an alarmed look.
Nancy pipes up filling the silence “Dad… What?”
Mike is quickly getting irritated at his dad, and just as hes about to argue, his mom speaks.
“Ted, they're boys,” Mom states.
“I dont know what your trying to say.” his mom continues, attempting to defend them.
The words ‘theyre boys’ echoed in his head.
He's so lost.
What does his dad think they're going to do?
Theyre just sleeping over, Mike doesn't understand what the big deal is.
They've slept over countless times over the years and today is nothing different- well besides the fact that Wills permanently staying and their older now.
But he doesn't see what that would change.
It's still Will.
Will is the most trust worthy person he's ever known.
“Youre welcome to sleep anywhere you please, Will.” Mom says softly, trying to smoothen out the tension his dad made.
“I'm just saying…” He huffed as he pressed his glasses up and reached over to scoop more potatoes onto his plate; mentally checking out from the conversation.
After a while Will softly speaks up.
“I'm okay with the basment.” Will responds in a faint voice.
For the rest of dinner Will doesn't look up from his plate or talk again.