Chapter Text
Will's POV
Will couldn’t sleep the whole night. He kept turning and tossing all the time, replaying last night in his head. When he finally got out of bed, he realized that Mike was still sleeping and probably hungover. Trying not to wake him, he changed and quietly left the room.
The hotel was empty, but somehow it felt cozy. Perhaps because Will could now be alone with his thoughts, though he may not like it. He decided to go for a walk because the cool breeze might help him think more clearly.
For his ‘luck’, even the fresh air outside couldn’t keep Will from overthinking. Maybe Mike was always like that when he was drunk, after all, Will had never really seen him drunk. That was probably the most logical explanation for why Mike said those things about him, but Will wanted it to be something more.
Maybe it was crazy to think that, but all the signs and the little things kept Will hooked. His mind went over every detail from last night until he couldn’t take it anymore, so he decided to go back to the hotel.
He gently opened the door and entered the room just to see Mike still sleeping. Will thought about waking him up, because they had a long day ahead of them, but then he found himself staring at his best friend, Mike’s dark hair and red cheeks, resting gracefully on his pillow.
Part of Will wanted to wake him up, and get it over with, but the other part of him just needed to look into Mike’s face one last time before he woke up, before he said that last night didn’t mean anything, or that it was a mistake.
Will decided to wait until Mike woke up, so he walked to his nightstand, picked up his sketch book, sat on the sofa, and started sketching.
He could sketch Mike’s face by memory. Will basically learned how to draw faces and bodies from Mike—he was his model, though Mike probably didn’t know that. Of course, over the years Mike’s face had changed, but the essence is still there.
“Aghhhh, the sun! Oh, good morning Will,” Mike said, with a follow-up yawn. Will couldn’t stop himself from chuckling, and Mike smiled back. Gosh, he missed this proximity. He missed his best friend a lot, and could just now comprehend how much he needed him. It was a pleasure to regain this closeness, temporary or not, after such a long time.
“Good morning. ” Will said quietly in return, still smiling. “Do you want me to pull away the curtains?”
“No, it’s alright, but thanks” Mike replied, now looking through the window. “By the way, thanks for helping me get back yesterday. I might not remember much, but my headache tells me everything I need to know.”
“You’re welcome, but it wasn’t like I had something better to do.” Will said in response. Mike smiled. Since they got here, this was probably one of the first times he genuinely smiled, or so Will thought.
“They said that they’re going to be at the lobby at 12:30 in time for lunch,” Mike said, looking at his watch. Will just then realized it was still the same watch as he used back in Hawkins; he never changed, which gave Will a weird calmness. “Should we just go right now? There’s only 30 minutes left.” Mike asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Will responded.
They walked over to the sofa and sat down. It was quiet, just the faded voices of staff workers and light music from the radio. “So, I guess I passed out so bad that you had to carry me home, huh?” Mike laughed awkwardly. “No, you managed to stay awake until we arrived back, but you did lose a lot of your senses,” Will answered with a small giggle.
“I believe you, honestly, the only thing I remember was going on a walk and sitting on the pavement, but even those are a blur.” Mike said, avoiding Will’s eyes. Will’s mind went blank. He didn’t know whether that was a good thing or not.
‘I should be glad,’ He kept repeating in his head. ‘it would cause drama if Mike actually did say something.’
Or would it be the thing that Will has wanted since, well, since forever.
“Was Lucas mad that we left early?” Mike asked, bringing Will back to planet Earth.
“No, I don’t think so, I mean, it was pretty late,” Will replied. A few silent moments passed. “Do you really not remember anything from last night?” After saying that, an imaginary weught dropped from his shoulders, which probably was dumb of him anyway, but he needed to know, or that thought would eat him alive the whole day.
“Uhm, no, not really,” Mike answered slowly, after a couple of seconds. Will just nodded and tried to relax.
“Will! Mike! What’s up?” Lucas shouted, and they quickly realized that they’d been sitting at the opposite side of the lobby.
“Are y’all waiting for us?” Max asked.
“Yes, we were,” Will answered.
“Cool. So today we’re going to a restaurant.” Lucas proceeded, guiding them outside to the parking lot. “We can drive you there if you guys want.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Will thanked, looking at Mike, who gave him a small nod.
“About the suits,” Mike started, trying to break the silence that was in the car. “we thought that we could show you the photos of some, and you guys could decide what would go better with the dress code.”
Mike then gave the photos to Max, and she laughed.
“OK, if you were just going to criticize our taste, then you can give the picture back. ” Mike talked back.
“Uhm, no, sorry, the suits look good, just that you two look like it’s your first time posing in front of a camera. God, you two look like you’ve known each other for 5 minutes. What’s up with the awkward poses?” Max said, trying to stop laughing.
Will laughed, but couldn’t help but think that if they always looked like that, was Mike always looking uncomfortable with Lucas or Dustin, or was he just this way with him? He always thought he was good at hiding his feelings, but over the years, he might’ve gotten sloppy.
“Well… oh, whatever, we were in the middle of the store, what did you expect - a whole photoshoot?” Mike said, annoyed, but couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
“OK, fine, so are you planning to pick up the suits today?” Max asked, changing the topic.
“Yeah, we’re planning on going there again after lunch.” Will responded.
“OK, good,” Max replied, smiling, and then turned to Lucas and started chatting.
“There you guys are!” Robin said as everyone entered the restaurant.
“Hey, did you two already order?” Will asked, smiling.
“No, because we spent the whole time arguing about whether everyone would want wine,” Nancy replied, glancing at Robin.
“Well, how can we know if everyone wants it?” Robin said looking back at Nancy.
“Because everyone drank it yesterday!” Nancy shouted sarcastically, but once everyone started laughing at their pointless fight, Nancy and Robin joined in too. “So, how was everyone’s day so far?” Lucas asked, after everyone was done ordering. Everyone started chatting, and Will felt relaxed. The thought of last night occasionally entered Will’s mind, but he tried to keep it at ease.
“What were you sketching in the morning? I may have still been hungover, but I can always tell when you’re drawing something.” Mike asked, looking at Will, clearly bored of the wedding and college talk.
Will looked at him, certainly blushing, before answering.
“I was just drawing the view outside our window,” Will said. Lie. He knew he couldn’t lie to Mike, but he was praying that he didn’t catch up on this one.
“Cool, I would love to see more of your art. It feels like I haven’t seen any in forever.” Mike said. Perhaps he didn’t catch up after all.
“Yeah, of course,” Will answered, smiling, the regretful feeling of lying to Mike growing inside of him, but this secret was worth keeping. It shouldn’t be hard, after all, he has had this under control for 12 years anyway.
They chatted for the rest of lunch, until it was time to head out.
“Should we just drop you two at the suit shop?” Lucas asked. “Yeah, that would be great actually, thanks.” Will thanked Lucas and got in the car, with Mike behind him.
“When you guys pick up your suits, I was wondering if you could pick up some others’, too? The fittings are already made, I think Miles has them. I’ll give the cash after.” Lucas asked, while finding a spot to drop them off.
“Yeah, not a problem.” Will answered, mentally checking if he’d have the cash. Let’s hope so.
“OK, perfect. Thank you” Lucas replied
After entering the shop, Mike and Will greeted Miles and he came to assist them.
“We’re here to pick up yesterdays suits and some other under Lucas’ name?” Mike said, looking at Will, who gave a small nod.
“Oh, OK. Yeah, I think I have ‘em,” Miles replied, already walking towards the ‘Pre-order’ racks. Mike and Will followed.
Miles then started looking through the racks until he had found them all. In Will’s calculations, there were 4 suits and 1 dress.
“OK, so these are under Lucas’ Sinclair’s name, and these are under the surname ‘Byers’, which I think is also yours.” Miles said, giving them all the suits and the dress.
“Yes, it’s ours,” Will said, looking at Mike, whose eyes were shining? No. Well, yes, Mike’s eyes should be shining because the suit looks good.
“Great, so just follow me, so you can pay for everything,” Miles said, guiding them to the counter. Once Will and Mike paid for all the suits and stuff, they decided to call a cab and head back to the hotel.
When they entered the hotel lobby, they saw Max sitting at the side table, organizing something.
“Oh, hey you guys!” She said, smiling.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Will smiled back and asked.
“I’m just making the cards for the seating chart.” She replied. “Actually, could you guys help me do them? Robin and Nancy were supposed to help out, but they went to check if all of the guests could still make it to the wedding.” Max added.
“Yeah, sure.” Mike said, sitting down and grabbing a couple cards.
“So, you basically just have to write names of the guests on the card.” She said and handed them the guest list and markers. “Oh, and you also have to write the table number. Here, take a look at the seating chart.” Max put out a sheet of paper that had the layout of the whole room, tables, and some cards already-made.
Will took a quick scan, looking first for his name, and when he spotted it, where he was sitting, which he instantly got butterflies in his stomach when he saw that Mike was sitting right next to him. That obviously wasn’t a surprise to him, because even the group always joked around about how ‘Mike and Will are like two magnets that follow each other’, but the thought of sitting next to Mike, who would be wearing the suit, intrigued him.
“Sorry, Will, that you have to sit next to Mike, I can imagine how much he has already made you lose your mind these few days,” Max said, side-eyeing Mike, giving Will a grin.
She wasn’t wrong, Mike definitely made Will lose his mind, but not for the reasons she thought. Will giggled and looked at Max, who was dying from laughter at how red Mike’s face was.
“Haha, very funny, I can imagine how much Lucas has lost his mind planning this wedding with you.” Mike shot back, before laughing.
A couple of moments of silence went by before Max mentioned something out of the ordinary.
“How is it sharing a room? I know I never mentioned it, and it came up unexpectedly, so I apologize for that.”
Everything went quiet for a minute, and Mike and Will exchanged a quick, uncertain look, like they had done something wrong, and when Will was about to answer, Max’s stare made him rethink his answer.
“It’s fine, why?” Mike answered, unsure.
“Good, good, I just wanted to make sure, y’know,” Max said, with a small grin on her face. “I’m going to get more cards from my room.” She said, standing up.
Now it’s awkward. Mike tried to focus on the task, but Will couldn’t help but overthink it. Why was Mike’s face red? Was it from embarrassment? Embarrassment from what? They have all been friends for a long time now.
“Will, where did you put Jonathan’s card?” Mike asked, probably wanting to break the awkward silence that friends, let alone best friends, shouldn’t have.
“Um, I didn’t put Jonathan anywhere yet,” Will replied, picking up a blank card that was lying on the table and wrote Jonathan’s name on it—then proceeding to give Mike the card.
The silence was back again, but thankfully so was Max.
“Thanks for helping, but Robin and Nancy are already coming, so you guys can go, and if you don’t mind, please bring one of the suits to Jonathan.” Max said, taking her previous seat, “Jonathan’s room number is 1281, second floor.”
Mike and Will thanked Max and went up to their room to set aside the remaining suits.
“So room 1281, here we go!” Mike said sarcastically, and that got a smile out of Will’s face. Will then opened the door for Mike to pass through, locked the hotel room, and went for the search of Jonathan’s.
The walk was awkward, with them occasionally accidentally bumping their shoulders, and Will wasn’t helping much—Mike tried to somewhat talk about something, but Will just kept giving plain, dry answers.
Knock, knock.
“Hey, you two!” Jonathan said as he opened the door to his room.
Jonathan’s room was pretty identical to theirs, with just the queen bed being replaced with a twin one, and the windows being on the opposite side.
“Hey” Will greeted, giving him a small hug. “We just came by to give you your suit.”
“Oh, thanks, I was just planning on calling Lucas to see if I should get it myself,” Jonathan said, smiling. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, what’s your room?” He asked, looking at Will.
“Oh, we’re actually sharing a room, the room number is 1221, just one floor beneath you,” Mike replied for Will.
“Oh, OK,” Jonathan said, grasping a little out of the situation.
As Jonathan said that, Will murmured a goodbye and let Mike pass before shutting the door. He figured that that was a bit rude, but that was definitely not one of Will’s priorities right now.
“What should we do for dinner?” Mike asked, trying to start a conversation so the walk to their room wouldn’t be awkward, “Since Max mentioned that we won’t be meeting up today for dinner because she and Lucas are making the final arrangements for the wedding, so maybe you’d, um, want to go out for dinner?”
Will was too ‘interested’ with the floor to be paying total attention, but when Will had comprehended what Mike said, his face was frozen.
“Yeah, o-of course,” Will answered, still trying to comprehend, but afraid to sound rude or unsure.
“Cool. Already looking forward to our hangout,” Mike added.
Oh. Shit. Yeah, of course it was just a normal hangout, what were you thinking, Will? That Mike Wheeler would ever think of it more than a hang out? Wake up.
The walk back to their room was quiet and awkward, except for that conversation. When they got back, Will sat on the sofa, trying to get comfortable, but it was a little difficult when it really lived up to its expectations—it was, in fact, hard. Then he picked up his sketchbook and a pencil from the nearest table and started drawing something. No, someone. Thank god it wasn’t recognizable yet, because just then he realized-
Mike was sitting next to him, watching him draw. He must have gotten here while Will was locked in, because apparently, he can’t even sense a whole person sitting right next to him. Just then, Mike realized his presence was not a secret anymore.
“Who is it? The person you’re drawing, I mean,” Mike asked simply. It should have been an easy answer, but Will knew he wouldn’t go through with it.
“Just a rando that I came up with” Will lied. Well, fair enough, because he wouldn’t, by any means, say ‘Oh that’s you, yes, of course I’ve drawn you eternally handsome’. That’s what a normal person would say to their crush (if they’d have the confidence, of course), but how could Will do that? It was, by any rights, not the same, and he knew it, just as he knew it could never be true.
Or could it?
OK, no way. Mike’s just really oblivious, like he has been all his life. Guess graduating didn’t help in any way. Yep, that’s all it is; just obliviousness. Will couldn’t face Mike and see what his face looked like, and he didn’t want to, because he was sure that was going to give him a lot more confusion, and of course, consequences. After a few more seconds, Mike moved away onto the bed and turned the TV on.
There was finally some peace in the room; Will could draw carelessly, and all of his thoughts were gone (well, almost), and Mike was silently watching the TV.
After some time, Mike asked Will.
“Where should we eat? For dinner.”
Will just pushed all of those feelings away, and now he still has to get through dinner? ‘Well, this would certainly be great.’ “I know a cool hotpot place nearby, do you want to try that?” Will asked.
“Actually, yeah, that sounds good,” Mike said, looking satisfied.
Will nodded. “Should we just go right now, since we have some free time anyway?” He asked, not wanting to go any further with the drawing, because that would cause some problems.
He put on a sweater and waited for Mike to get dressed before they headed out.
The air outside was chilly, but perfect for fall. They shared a couple words about their plans for tomorrow, but that was it. Once they entered the restaurant, they chose a small table in the very corner and got seated. “Do you know what to order? I bet there are a lot of these restaurants in New York.” Mike asked, looking at the menu.
“Yeah, I usually go with my friends or after class is over. Honestly, everything is delicious, just don’t pick anything from the spicy section, you won’t be able to handle it.” Will said, raising his head at Mike, the last part with a touch of sarcasm. “OK, rude, I’ll have you know I have gotten used to spicy food actually,” Mike replied, jokingly. Will giggled and looked back at the menu.
“OK then, Mister Spice,” Will said, humorously, fighting back a grin but giving up midway. “the spice section is all yours.”
Mike smiled, looked at him and said:
“Is this a bet?”
“Maybe” Will replied, still grinning, turning his head a little to the right. Mike now was grinning.
“Hello, would you like to order?” The blonde, British waitress asked.
“Hi, yes, I’d like a mushroom broth with sliced chicken, quail eggs, shiitake mushrooms and egg noodles. No seafood, please.” Will listed. “And Mike would like?”
“Yeah, I’d like green pepper broth, with sliced beef belly, crab nugget, pho veggies and udon noodles. Thanks,” Mike ordered, finishing with a polite smile.
The waitress listed everything, and they confirmed. After she was out of the hearing zone, Will started to joke again.
“Hmm, Mike, will you really be able to handle it? I don’t think you know how spicy it is.” Will joked, not being able to fight away a grin, again.
“No, yeah, I’m sure it won’t be that bad.” Mike replied, sounding overly confident. Will couldn’t fight back giggles anymore. It was pretty contagious, and next thing you know, they’re both giggling like they’re teenagers again.
Wow, Will really missed this friendship.
“Dude, your eyes are literally watering,” Will said, practically dying out of laughter. “No, no,” Mike replied, coughing and laughing, which made him gasp for air. “I am not losing.” He added.
“You do know that you won’t lose anything, we didn’t bet on money.” Will said, his eyes now watering too, as he watched Mike fight for his life with the spiciness.
“I won’t lose money, but I will lose my dignity.” Mike responded, still managing to eat some of it.
“I fear you lost that years ago.” Will shot back sarcastically.
Mike’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.
“Wow, well, I’m offended.” He laughed, looking at Will with soft eyes.
Their laughs slowly faded as they finished eating.
“As it appears you haven’t totally lost your dignity” Will jokingly said, smiling, as they were walking towards the hotel. The autumn night was pretty chilly, with the soft breeze hitting their faces.
“Well, I never even lost it to begin with,” Mike replied, laughing.
“Aham,” Will said, laughing now too.
“Where did you find this restaurant?” Mike said, his attempt to changing the topic being flagged.
“Wanna change the topic, huh? Well, one of my friends from New York recommended this chain” He replied, looking at Mike’s eyes.
“Well, that was quite a dinner. I think my lips are still burning to be honest.” Mike said, opening the door to their hotel room.
“I don’t think you’re helping your ‘dignity’ case after saying that,” Will replied with a small grin.
Mike laughed and gathered his pajamas.
“Is it okay if I go shower first?” He asked. Will nodded, and Mike quickly went to the bathroom.
Will took a deep breath and slowly started cleaning his part of the room. He turned on the TV and sat on the bed with his sketchbook. He doubted if he should even continue drawing the portrait, but his mind wouldn’t let him give up, so he started adding more details to Mike’s face.
Thankfully, once he heard the water stop running in the bathroom, he quickly put away his sketchbook and tried to just focus on the TV.
Once Mike came out of the bathroom, Will grabbed his pajamas and went straight to it, not wanting to waste a second, and just going to sleep faster.
When Will stepped foot into the cold wooden tiles of the bedroom, Mike was reading a comic in bed. Will quietly walked over to the bed and hopped in.
“Are you going to bed right now? Is it okay if I finish this comic? I recently bought it, since there’s honestly nothing better to read in Hawkins.” Mike said, giving Will a soft smile.
“Yeah, go ahead.” Will assured him.
Well, what do I do now?
The clock showed 10:32PM, and Will’s eyes were getting sleepy. Mike was still reading, but Will guessed it was because the comic was interesting.
“Mike, I’ll try to fall asleep now, OK?” Will asked for reassurance, but he knew he would somehow fall asleep anyway.
“Yeah, I think it’s time for me to go too. Tomorrow we should get the last things for the wedding anyway” Mike replied, reaching for the lamp’s cord.
And now the lights were out, Will’s mind could finally relax. He was just beginning to feel comfortable when suddenly he felt something on his hand.
Oh. Mike just put his arm on Will’s hand. His heart was frozen; he couldn’t breathe for a second.
This must be an accident. Yeah, no way.
He didn’t know what to do, a part of him thought to move his hand, but he couldn’t.
Maybe after today it wasn’t an accident?
OK, now he was being delusional again. Perfect. He tried to calm down his breathing, tried falling asleep, but he couldn’t shake off the feeling of Mike’s hand touching his. The softness, everything. Will just wanted to make his delusional self, his 13-year-old self, loved back by the boy whom he had loved all these years.
He just hoped that one day, Mike could feed into those delusions, make them real.