Chapter Text
Mike was extremely grateful Max was back, don’t get him wrong, but she had been getting on his nerves recently.
“Come on Wheeler, none of these girls pique your interest?” she asked as they sat down in their history class, the only class he unfortunately did not share with Will.
Mike sighed as he dropped his books onto the table, “no Max, can we just drop it”
Max hummed as she sat down, “I just don’t want you to be lonely”
“Bullshit” Mike scoffed,
Max rolled her eyes, “okay, but seriously, you can’t have seen every single girl in hawkins, surely one is your type”
Now it was Mike's turn to roll his eyes. Why could Max not just drop this topic?
Can a man just not be interested in dating anyone?
He had tried to enjoy being in a relationship with El, but he always felt like he didn’t fit, something always felt wrong.
He always felt awkward holding her hand, and he truly cared about El, don't get him wrong, but he could not enjoy the kisses, no matter how hard he tried.
Maybe that was just his fault though, maybe he was just a lousy kisser.
Maybe Mike just wasn’t made to be in a relationship; be someone's boyfriend, hold hands on date or make out, maybe that's just the way he is.
Not incapable of loving, he thought to himself,
He was great at showing his friends and family he loved them and he did love them, he did care for El greatly, but like a friend,
Maybe that's all he would ever be capable of being to people, their friend.
Well, in Will’s case his best friend,
He wouldn’t want to be anything less that’s for sure.
“Maybe I am choosing to be single” he sighed as he flipped through his textbook.
“As if” Max says, bursting into a fit of laughter, “admit it Wheeler, you just have no game”
“Not true,” Mike scoffed, “I could ask out anyone, no bother, I just don’t want to”
Max sobered up and stared straight at Mike. He would find it absolutely horrifying if this was the first time she had done this, but Max unfortunately had a tendency to make fun of Mike so it was not the first time this had happened.
“Wanna bet?” she asked, continuing to stare straight at him.
“What?” Mike coughed out, sending her a questioning glance.
“Do you want to bet on it?” Max asked again.
“What, bet on my love life?”
“Yeah, I have nothing better to do” she shrugged
“No, no way I am not doing that” he whispered and turned his head to face the board as their teacher had finally entered the classroom.
“Well then I’m just going to presume you’re full of shit and can’t get a girlfriend”
Mike sighed, he did not want to explain his whole ordeal around relationships, especially to Max of all people, but he also hated being seen as too much of a coward to take on a bet.
“Fine, only because I want to prove you wrong” he sighed, turning back to face Max.
Max turned around, excitement filling her eyes, “Actually?”
Mike shrugged in response.
“Sure”
In all honesty Mike was only doing it because he could not let Max be right.
It might surprise some people, but he and Max were actually friends, their bonding just came through the form of bickering and petty arguments.
“Okay, lets see” Max began, fully ignoring their history teacher now, “if you don’t have a date for the prom you owe me fifty bucks”
“Fifty bucks!” Mike half shouted, earning a disapproving glare from their teacher, “you know I don’t have that kind of money”
Max put her hands up in response, “okay, fine how about twenty five dollars and you have to share an embarrassing story with the rest of the Party”
Mike stuck out his hand,
“Deal, but if I win the bet it works the same way, I get the money and you have to share an embarrassing story”
Max shook his hand, “you’re on Wheeler”
In Mike’s opinion, the bet was simple, $25 wasn’t too much money, and he’s pretty sure the Party had witnessed 99 percent of his embarrassing tales. His main focus of this bet was to prove Max wrong.
He really wasn’t lying to Max earlier when he said he could ask out a girl no problem, the only issue was he had no interest in it.
He’d much rather be in his basement with Will, and the others of course, playing dnd or watching a movie.
But alas, his inability to be proven wrong has put his pride on the line and now he has to find a date and bring a girl to prom.
───────
Mike had somehow survived his history class and the billion other classes it felt like he had on that day and now was comfortably sprawled across Will’s bed.
He was attempting to write his history essay, which would have been a lot easier to write if he had been paying attention in class instead of making stupid bets with Max.
Will was drawing in his sketchbook, his back propped up against the side of his bed.
He looked down at the sentence he had just written and scribbled it out, realising it just looked like complete gibberish.
Will looked back at him, his brows twisting in concern, “history stressing you out?”
Mike hummed, scribbling another sentence out. He didn’t even know why he cared so much about this stupid bet, he didn’t know why he was letting it get to him this much.
“Yeah, Max was distracting me the entire time” he answered after a moment.
“Isn’t she always?” Will said with a small smile, evidently trying to cheer Mike up.
Mike took the bait, letting his lips warp into a small smile, identical to Will’s.
“Yeah, but this time she was being extra stupid” he groaned, letting his gaze meet Will’s eye.
“Why, what did she do?” he asked innocently, putting his sketchbook down to listen to Mike.
“She kept asking me if I found any of the girls in our class hot and wanted me to ask some of the girls out” he sighed, also letting his refill pad fall off his knees.
Will let out a breathy laugh throughout his nose, Mike felt offended he thought Will would at least take his side in this but apparently not.
“Thats Max for you” Will said, reaching up to pat Mike’s knee, “she’s always onto me about guys who she thinks are my type”
Mike’s eyes stayed trained on where Will’s had just been on his leg,
“and are they?” he asked, “your type I mean”
Mike didn’t know why he cared so much about this specific detail, and judging by the look Will gave him when he asked it, it seemed he didn’t know either.
“Not really I guess” Will responded with a shrug.
“Oh” Mike simply said. He kept his eyes trained on his knee. He felt too embarrassed to face Will, although he didn’t exactly know why.
“So, is that what made you so stressed, Max being a meddler?”
Mike sighed and rubbed a hand down the side of his face,
“No” he mumbled, “it gets worse”
Will let out another short chuckle.
“I know you and Max don’t always see eye to eye, but it’s hardly that bad”
“oh, it is that bad”
“If you don’t tell me, I can’t help you” Will said in a sing-song tone,
Mike silently groaned, could Will even help him out in this situation.
Maybe he could be his wingman, help him scout out a girl who wouldn’t mind going out with him for one night and being broken up with the next.
“She made a bet with me” he mumbled out, glancing back towards Will,
“Okay,” Will said, encouraging Mike to continue, “what’s the bet?”
“I have to find a date for prom or else I owe her twenty five bucks and I have to tell the Party an embarrassing story ” he finally said, closing his eyes out of embarrassment.
“Mike,that’s not a world ending bet” Will began with an airy laugh, “I’m sure you’ll have no problem finding a girl to ask out, and if worse come to worst, we have known you almost your whole life, an embarrassing story from you is not new”
Mike reached out to smack the back of Will’s head from the insult, or was it a compliment in some twisted way? Mike didn’t know.
What Mike did know, is that Will was currently unaware of the inner turmoil currently going through his head.
His pride was on the line with this bet, but at the same time he knew he would only be hurting another girl if he asked her out just for the sake of the bet.
He already felt terrible enough over how he had treated El when they were together.
“Yeah, but –” Mike started, but he felt he couldn’t even finish his sentence.
He didn’t even know why the thought of asking a girl out sent a wave of nausea threw him, let alone know how to explain it to Will.
“It’s just- sorry I’m really bad at explaining it,” Mike began again, slightly cringing.
Will patted his knee again reassuringly, “it’s okay, take your time”
Mike nodded and began again.
“I just feel like I don’t know how to be a good boyfriend, like El was great don’t get me wrong” he started with a small laugh, “I was definitely the problem-
“Mike, no-” Will interrupted, but Mike just continued to speak,
“Will you don’t have to defend me, I was a shitty boyfriend and it just felt like I was doing everything wrong when I was with her, my hands always felt out of place whenever I had them on her waist, and every time my tongue was in her mouth I just felt out of place” he rambled on,
Will cringed slightly at the last part, which caused Mike to stop his ramble.
“shit oh my god, I forgot she’s like your sister” Mike said, covering his face with his hands, realising what he just said,
This would be mortifying for anyone to hear, but Will of all people, Mike actually felt like crawling into a pit of fire.
“It’s okay, continue, just less details please” Will said with a laugh.
“Right” Mike cleared his throat, “anyways, what I was um, trying to get to was that, I didn’t really enjoy being in a relationship, and I’d feel horrible leading a girl on, just for the sake of a stupid bet”
Will nodded, it looked like he was mulling over everything Mike had just said.
“I mean, could you not just tell Max all this” Will simply said.
Mike sat up and let out a sigh he didn’t even realise he was holding in.
“I could, but that would almost be worse, Max would never let me live it down” he said, slightly laughing.
“True that” Will said with a grin.
Mike shot him a look, “hey, I thought you said you would help me, not make fun of me” he said with a pout, which only made Will’s grin widen.
“Sorry” Will said, putting his hands up in defeat.
Mike flopped back down onto his bed, “maybe I should just fork over the twenty five bucks and accept my fate”
“I mean going solo isn’t all that bad” Will said quietly, “we can go solo together”
Mike nodded, yeah, he would definitely much rather spend a night dancing with Will, and the rest of their friends instead of awkwardly mingling around with a girl for a few hours.
Mike thought about it a bit more, going to the prom with Will, it would be fun, like when they were kids dancing about in his backyard.
Except they wouldn’t actually be going together of course, they would just both happen to be going separately, but hanging out all night together anyways, once Max and Lucas inevitably sneak off somewhere and Dustin and El go explode some fruit punch or something.
Mike blinked, he had the perfect solution to his problems, and it would even help him win this stupid bet he had with Max.
“Or we could go together” Mike said, abruptly sitting back up to face Will.
“What” Will coughed, not entirely sure he heard Mike correctly.
“I mean we would both be going solo, but still hanging out together the entire night anyways” Mike began to ramble, “and then I’d be able to win this bet, because I would in fact have a date to the prom”
This was actually a genius plan, Mike thought to himself, he could hang out the whole night with Will, not have to break a girl's heart and earn a few pence, it was perfect.
“I feel Max would not let you win the bet like that” Will said, slightly laughing.
Mike furrowed his brows, “what, why wouldn’t she”
“She already knew we were both going without dates, she would just probably think you’re using this as some loop hole and she’d end up taking your money”
Mike mulled over those words for a moment, trying to find a solution.
“What if we made it clear it wasn’t for a loophole” Mike said, spewing words out as soon as they popped into his head.
“What if we like pretended to show interest in each other leading up to the prom, and then I like ask you out or something” he rambled.
Mike’s breath stuttered as he realised what he was saying. He tried to push down the sense of nausea he felt overcoming him. This was a good idea he reassured himself, he loved spending time with Will and this plan he was coming up with would mean he would get to spend extra time with him.
“You want to pretend you have feelings for me” Will said, as if he was sounding out how ridiculous Mike sounded right now.
“I mean not pretend, just like extra feelings,” Mike stuttered, “more than usual ya know”
Will nodded, but his eyes didn’t meet Mike's.
“I mean, it’s a decent idea Mike, if you really want to win this bet I guess, but-” Will began, but was quickly interrupted by Mike.
“Oh, my god, no I'm so sorry,” Mike cut him off, beginning to ramble. He forgot for a moment that Will actually likes guys, so it would probably be weird for him to pretend to like one.
“I forgot you like, like guys and it would probably make you uncomfortable to pretend to do all that stuff with me, I'd probably be scaring off other guys”
Will stared at him for a moment, making Mike slightly squirm, oh god did he say something wrong again.
“okay firstly no,” Will said softly, “I wouldn’t be uncomfortable Mike, I’ve known you for as long as I can remember”
“Oh” Mike simply said.
“I meant, this wouldn’t really work because you don’t like boys, you like girls” he continued, in a tone that made it seem as if Mike should have realised this key factor ages ago.
Mike opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it, well aware he probably looked like a fishing blubbing in front of Will.
Right.
He did kinda look over that minor detail.
“I mean, Max doesn’t know that,” he said with a shrug.
Will let out a laugh in shock.
“Mike!” he exclaimed,
“What?, the others had no problem when you told them, so they’d hardly have a problem with me” he said, simply.
Will’s eyes narrowed,
“So, you would have no problem with the others thinking you liked boys,” he asked.
“Not really” Mike shrugged, should he have a problem with it?
Was it normal for you to not care about your friends thinking you liked boys?
“I mean, I could always tell them I liked girls too, you’re allowed to do that right?” he asked, just in case that wasn’t something you could do.
Mike was admittedly not an expert at liking boys, or girls.
“There’s no rules about who you like Mike” Will said earnestly, “you’re allowed like who you like”
Mike nodded in understanding.
“So what’s the harm in pretending, unless you’d be uncomfortable with it of course” he said, tacking on the last bit after, he didn’t want to force Will to do anything he didn’t want to.
“Are you that desperate for twenty five bucks?” Will asked with a laugh.
Mike grinned back, “is that a yes?”
“Yes Mike” Will said with a teasing sigh, “I’ll pretend to be your date to prom”
“Oh, that part's not fake,” Mike said suddenly, “just everything before that” he continued, waving his arms about as if that explained what everything was.
“Oh” Will simply said.
Mike saw something flash through his eyes, he just couldn’t figure out what.
“I mean, unless you want that part to be fake” Mike backtracked.
“No, no Mike honestly, I’d love to be your date to prom” Will said, smiling warmly.
“Great” Mike grinned,
“But you owe me half the money from the bet,” he added with a laugh.
Mike nodded in response, “fair enough”
Will coughed, darting his eyes around the room,
“Should we have a list of rules or something?” he asked after a moment.
“Rules?” Mike questioned, “what for?”
“I don’t know, maybe if you’re not comfortable with me doing something too couply, like holding hands or cuddling around the party or whatever” Will shrugged, seemingly embarrassed that he brought this up at all.
Mike thought about it for a moment, honestly he would have no problem holding hands with Will or cuddling up beside him during movie night, they already sat pretty close already, what’s a few more inches closer.
“I mean, I don’t think I’d have any problem with you doing anything” He said, glancing at Will, “but if you don’t feel comfortable that’s fine”
Will gaped for a moment, sending another confused glance Mike’s way.
“No, no it’s okay, but are you sure you wouldn't be uncomfortable with me being gay and all” he sheepishly said.
“Will, no of course not, you could be a rabbit and I still wouldn’t care” Mike said earnestly.
“um, thanks, I think”
Mike sent Will a quick smile.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” Will confirmed.
Mike grinned, “thank you so much, you’re literally a lifesaver Will”
“I mean, I wouldn’t go that far,” Will sheepishly said.
“My pride is on the line against Max” Mike solemnly said, “I’m sorry but it is extremely serious to me”
That earned himself a laugh from Will.
“I just have one more question,” he said, nervously glancing towards Mike.
“Fire away, sorcerer, ask any question that big heart of your’s desires” Mike said with a laugh.
“Shut up idiot,” Will said, smacking Mike’s leg, Mike would’ve preferred if he had patted his knee like he did earlier, but he does not know why that is currently on his top priorities of things to be thinking of as of right now.
“Okay, I’m all ears” he said, putting his hands around his right ear to show as much.
Will rolled his eyes but asked anyways,
“What the fuck are we meant to tell the rest of the party?”
Mike furrowed his brow, “can’t we just tell them we got together?”
Will threw a stray pencil at Mike’s chest, rolling his eyes “have you met our friends?”
“Yeah, they’re great,” Mike shrugged, “and I’ve met Max too”
Will scoffed and threw another pencil towards Mike,
“Our friends are really nosy, they’ll want to know details”
“You can’t say much, we’ve had our fair share of gossip sessions”
At that comment another pencil hit Mike’s chest.
“seriously dude, how many pencils do you have”
Will chuckled, “enough to shut you up each time you interrupt me”
Mike threw up his hands in feigned defeat, “the floors yours”
“As I was saying,” Will began, looking up over his sketchbook at Mike, “our friends love to know details, they’ll want to know when we decided to get together, why we decided to get together, hell Mike they’ll even be wondering when you decided you ‘liked’ boys”
He put the last few words in air quotes, which made sense, Mike didn’t like boys. Still, that didn’t stop the strange feeling from spreading across his chest when Will spoke about him liking boys.
Mike mulled it over in his head, Will is right he supposes, their friends would be asking questions, “We could just tell them we accidentally hooked up and realised our feelings for each other then”
Will snorted, bursting into a fit of laughter, “you’re such an idiot, how would that even work?”
“I mean, It would stop them from asking questions about us” Mike said, joining in on Will’s laughter. It was infectious, one of Mike’s favourite sounds.
“We can’t tell them that Mike, you're the DM aren’t you?” he teased, “you’re the great storyteller”
Mike scoffed, “yeah, in fantasy, not romance”
A part of Mike felt like he should be weirded out, discussing romance with Will, a boy. Yet the rest of him felt at ease. It was so easy to talk to Will about anything. Even romancing and accidental hook ups.
“Okay, let's just tell them we both realised our ‘true’ feelings for each other and talked about it” Will decided, using air quotes again when he spoke about true feelings.
“Yeah that sounds good,” Mike agreed, “that’s a lot easier than just telling them we accidentally fucked”
“Oh, yeah definitely" Will coughed out, and Mike swore he saw his cheeks darken a shade.
To be fair though, it’s probably weird for him to be talking about sex and all that stuff, it’s probably different when you’re into guys.
Mike thought about it for another moment, how different could it actually be between two guys. Although Mike couldn’t speak from experience from either teams, as he hasn’t properly been with a guy or a girl.
“-ay Mike” Will’s voice interrupted his train of thought, and his hand which he was waving in front of Mike’s face.
“What”
“Are you okay?” Will asked, “you kinda zoned out there”
Mike felt his cheeks heating up, of course he just got caught thinking about sex, in front of Will of all people. “Yeah, I'm okay, just-it’s nothing, nevermind”
“Alright” Will shrugged, starting to sketch something out, “so, when are we going to tell the others the news”
Mike thought about it for a moment, he didn’t want it to be too sudden or else Max would definitely be calling his ass out, but he also couldn’t leave it too late or Max would still think he was using Will as a last ditch effort.
Was he using Will?
He did say he didn’t have a date, and they would have been hanging out with each other the whole night anyways…
Anyways this would be a surplus to both of them, the party won’t treat the two of them as third wheelers at the prom and they would be making a buck from it as well.
“We should probably wait a week or two, so Max doesn’t find it too suspicious, but we should probably like sit close to each other and act I don’t know, like flirty to each other or something” Mike shrugged.
It seemed like a foolproof plan to him anyways, but when he turned his attention towards Will it looked like he was fit to burst into laughter.
“I’m sorry,” Will said in between laughs, “you, be flirty”
“I can be a flirt” Mike huffed, did Will underestimate his skills in romancing?
Sure he had one relationship, that did subsequently fail, and he has had no interest in pursuing other girls since, but that doesn’t mean he can’t flirt.
Will only scoffed and leaned in closer to Mike, the tips of their noses almost brushing.
“Wanna bet?” Will asked, a sly grin forming on his face.
Mike felt his face heating up, only because of how close the two were of course, it was probably really warm with barely any space between the two.
“I think I have enough bets at the moment” he whispered, staring directly back at Will, even though he could feel the inside of his mind squirming.
Will was actually pretty good at the flirting part of this.
Will grinned and moved back towards his sketchbook. Mike let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in.
“You can do the flirting part then” Mike chuckled, hoping his cheeks weren’t as red as they actually felt.
That would be embarrassing. Will was showing him, as his best friend, how to flirt and Mike was over here blushing like an idiot. It just shows how good Will was at this. They’ve got this twenty five bucks in the bag, he thought to himself.
“Oh, okay” Will mumbled under his breath, his face bright red. It must really be hot in the room.
Mike cleared his throat, “so, if we just do that for about two weeks it should work right?”
“I mean probably, but what if they don’t believe us?” Will asked with a shrug.
Mike blinked.
That was a possibility.
Even though he and Will weren’t actually dating, they’d surely believe it, right? It couldn’t be that far-fetched, especially seeing as the romance in their small friend group has yet to expand outside their inner circle — save for the short lived summer romance Dustin had with Suzy that one time.
“What’s there not to believe?” Mike asked, bumping his shoulder against Will’s, “I mean, we hang out the whole time anyways”
Will bumped his shoulder in response, “yeah I guess, but you’re forgetting one important detail again”
Mike paused, he had figured out when to tell the others, and they had decided what they would actually tell the party, what could he be forgetting?
It must have been obvious that Mike was stumped as when he turned to look at Will, he looked as if he was holding in a chuckle.
“Mike you don’t like boys” Will said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Yeah, you told me that before,”
Will shook his head and sighed, “I know, it’s just I want to make sure that you definitely want to do this,”
Mike patted his knee reassuringly, “It was my idea Will” he said with a chuckle, “If I felt weird or uncomfortable about it I wouldn’t have brought it up in the first place”
Mike could tell that Will was mulling it over from the way he was biting his lower lip, processing everything Mike had just said. Slowly, he nodded.
“I’ll do it,” he agreed, “but if you ever change your mind or do feel uncomfortable we stop, ok?”
Mike nodded, about to open his mouth, but Will wasn’t done speaking, “we stop and just let Max win. Let your ego take the loss”
“My ego, please I do not have an ego” Mike teased.
Will just rolled his eyes in response.
“okay,” Mike agreed, “but the same goes for you, if you want to stop, we stop”
“Deal” Will agreed, sticking out his hand.
Mike gladly shook it, a grin rising on his face,
“Deal”