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Will looked up as he heard the doorbell ring. He put down his pen in confusion. Who could that be at this hour? His Mom was at work as always and Jonathan was out somewhere, probably taking evening pictures in the park or something. Will took a quick look at the Walkie Talkie on his desk. It had been quiet all day – had been for several days now, actually. Lucas was busy spending all his free time with Max, and Dustin was working on this school project he was really excited about. And Mike, well Mike just hadn’t interacted with them for a while now, without any good reason. Will had just figured it would be best not to push him and instead leave him be.
The doorbell rang again, twice in a row this time and Will rushed down the hallway. Could it be Hopper, maybe? The Chief had visited a few times since everything had happened; maybe he wasn’t aware that Joyce was working.
But it wasn’t Hopper. It was Mike. And he was crying.
“Can I come in?” Mike snuffled and before Will could respond, he already walked in.
Mike went straight to Wills room, sniffling and wiping his eyes with his jacket as he went, Will followed him quickly.
“Mike! What is going on? Are you okay?”
Will couldn’t help but stare as Mike took off his jacket rather aggressively and threw it on the ground before he slumped down on Wills bed and started running his hand through his hair. Will swallowed.
“No… I mean, yeah I’m okay, but… my parents are fighting again, you know?” Mike looked up a Will and sniffled again, his nose and eyes were pretty red. “If you can call that fighting. I mean Mom just screams and screams and dad just stands there and does nothing! He doesn’t respond, he doesn’t defend himself – he just stands there! And worse, sometimes he even sits down and just stares into the void and I feel like that is making Mom even angrier, you know? And I can hear everything up in my room, no matter how loud I listen to music and it’s just driving me nuts and I thought that… well, I thought that…” He looked at Will, lost, shrugging his shoulders and flopping his long, lanky arms.
Will nodded quickly. He knew what Mike meant – Will had experience with fighting parents. He sat down next to Mike and looked at him shyly. A lot of things had changed since everything happened. Of course, Will and Mike were still friends but it was different now. Will had seen things, lived through things. They both had. But Will was the one who saw Mike kiss Jane at the Snowball. After everything that he endured in the Upside Down, it still felt like maybe this was the worst thing he had to go through.
“Well, you can stay here as long as you want to.” Mike nodded, he cleared his throat and looked around Wills room, searching for something to distract himself.
“What have you been up to?”, he asked and his voice was a little raspy, Will noticed. “Uhm, drawing mostly. I thought about visiting Castle Byers, but… well yeah, I ended up drawing.” Mike nodded again, absent-minded, “Can I see?” Will rose and went over to his desk, quickly going through his drawings and picking a few, he thought turned out pretty good. He returned to his bed and gave them to Mike who looked at them eagerly.
“These are so good! Who is Will the Wise fighting?” Will watched as Mikes frown turned into an earnest smile in a matter of seconds, watched as his hair fell into his best friend’s eyes – it had gotten way too long, Will liked it very much – and watched as big brown eyes turned to look at him questioning.
“Hello? Did you hear me?”
“No. What? What did you say?” Will felt himself blush as Mike repeated the question with a lopsided grin. “Oh, I haven’t thought of a name yet. I mean, he’s some kind of Org, I guess and he wants to steal the Great Book of Magic, buuut…”
Mike furrowed his eyebrows, “Maybee… uhm… How about Ted-… Tedalogon?”
Will snorted. “That sounds horrible, actually.”
Mike looked offended and put down the paper. “Yeah, well name your own characters then.”, he said and Will noticed the skin under Mikes freckles had turned slightly pink, anyone else would have missed it.
There was a moment of complete silence and Mike sighed as he put the drawing he held in his hand neatly on the others that lay on the bed.
“I just don’t know what to do, Will. I almost kinda feel like… I want them to divorce? But that’s stupid. Who wants that? Nobody wants that!” Mike swallowed hard and Will watched his neck closely. It looked different somehow.
“I wanted Mom and Lonnie to separate,” Will admitted, his eyes still fixated on Mikes’ neck as he spoke.
There was a pause again and when he looked up, he saw that Mike had started crying again. This time it was quiet and Mike didn’t wipe away the tears; he looked very tired.
Will felt his heart flutter in his chest. He stared hopelessly and cursed himself for being so useless. He wanted to make Mike feel better, wanted to assure him, that it was going to be alright.
He wanted to kiss him.
But that was out of the question, wasn’t it? If anything, it would add to Mikes confusion and sorrow.
So, Will just stared.
“I’m sorry.” Mike wiped his eyes roughly with his sweater and stared out the window. “You’re mad, aren’t you. Because I didn’t call or anything these past weeks, right?”
Will looked at the taller boy in complete surprise, “What? No. No, what gives you that idea? I’m not mad at all!”
“Okay, but why… I mean you always used to… Is it because we’re older now?” Mike stumbled over his words, now looking back directly at Will.
It was true. Before everything happened, they had no problems being affectionate towards each other. Back then it would have been unheard of to let the other one cry without at least giving him a hug. They used to cuddle all the time.
But now it was different. And it wasn’t just because they were older.
“It’s not that.” Will started and he felt his palms getting sweaty.
“What’s it then?” Mike asked, his voice almost a whisper.
“Will? What is it then?”
He inched a bit closer.
Will looked up into Mikes’ eyes. Red, swollen, beautiful and warm. He followed the curve of his nose, looked at the freckles, sprinkled like stars all over Mikes’ face. He stopped at Mikes’ lips, remembered Mike getting teased for them, being very aware that they were the most beautiful lips he had ever seen. They were parted, probably because Mikes’ nose was stuffy.
“Will?” Mike breathed. They were only inches apart. When had they gotten this close?
Will felt his hand reach out to touch Mikes’ cheek, he couldn’t help himself. He still saw the remains of tears there. He had to wipe them away, gently.
They remained like this for a brief moment, a heartbeat, before Mike leaned over to touch Wills lips with his own.
It lasted only a split-second, a blink and one would have missed it.
But Will didn’t miss it.
“Oh God, sor-“
Will reached out with his other hand, cupped Mikes' face and stopped the rest of the sentence with another quick, sweet kiss.
When they parted, Mikes eyes were wide like cherry pies. Will felt his heart pound in his chest.
“Wh-“ Mike started.
“Will, Sweetie I bought us some Pizza. Just for us. None for Jonathan!” The two boys jerked away from each other, almost out of breath from the shock. None of them had heard the keys at the door or Joyce entering the house.
When they heard a knock on Wills door, they were already sitting on opposite sides of the bed.
“Wil- Oh Mike, hey! I didn’t know you were here! But that’s lucky, you can have the third Pizza, I was joking about Jonathan, but he actually isn’t here!... Are you guys okay?” Joyce had spoken quickly before noticing the atmosphere she had stumbled into.
“Yes, sure we just… We’ll be there in a second Mom.” Will managed to say and Joyce apologetically left the room.
There was complete silence, except for faint sound coming out of the kitchen.
“Would you like to stay?” Will finally said, while shyly looking up at Mike who actually smiled at him softly.
“Yeah. Yeah, I would love to stay.”