Chapter Text
Will didn’t think he’d meet his soulmate while kissing another man.
Will remembers hearing footsteps approach and accidentally pushing his kissing partner—Will was embarrassed to admit he had forgotten his name now—back so far that the man fell into the rose bush when they broke apart. Looking back on it, he’d realize how symbolic that moment was—he’d push away any man for Mike Wheeler.
The two of them stuttered as the man Will would learn was named Mike looked at them. Before either of them spoke a coherent sentence, the man Will was kissing ran away.
“He didn’t have to go,” said Mike—although at this point he was just a tall, handsome stranger in an army uniform.
“I—Uh, What?” Will stuttered, unsure what to do now that this man had seen what could best be described as an “indiscretion.”
“I like kissing men too,” said Mike. “And women. I like both, I mean.”
“I just like men,” Will admitted.
Men with dark hair and freckles, Will thought to himself.
“My name’s Mike. What’s yours?”
Will realized he had been staring and struggled to remember his name for a moment.
“I’m Will, William Hopper.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Will William Hopper.”
Will smiled at his dumb joke.
“Where are you from?” Will asked.
Given that Mike wore a union army uniform and Will had never seen him before, Will suspected he wasn’t from around here.
“Hawkins,” said Mike.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“It’s not really a place worth hearing about,” said Mike as he rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly seeming nervous.
Will was about to ask where Hawkins was when Mike said, “I’m from here originally though.”
“Really?”
Mike nodded and paused. “I’m Ted Wheeler’s son.”
Will knew that name. The Wheelers has caused quite a scandal when Karen Wheeler had left her husband and run off with her three children to live with another woman in the backcountry.
Karen Wheeler was kind of his hero.
But to everyone else, she was a disgrace.
“I can see why you might leave that detail out,” said Will. “But I think your mother is quite brave for what she did.”
Mike smiled. “I think so too.”
Will felt a warmth in his chest as if his heart had been lit aflame.
Will and Mike began slowly walking back towards the ball. They spoke about books and then politics. Will was amazed at that depth with which Mike saw the world.
As the reentered the party, Will saw his sister standing against the wall a few feet away, chatting with Max Mayfield and watching the couples on the dancefloor.
Will led Mike over to her as Max walked away.
As the pair approached her, Will saw her face light up. She stared at Mike with a look of awe he had never seen before.
When Will introduced them, Mike reacted the same way to El. His smile softer but more meaningful than the one he gave Will. After a few minutes of conversation, Mike asked El to dance. As the two of them walked away, Will realized three things.
First, Mike marrying into the Hoppers would help reestablish his family’s reputation—Will’s father was a well-respected General.
Second, if he told El that he was interested in Mike, she would stay away, even if it broke her own heart.
Third, it didn’t matter if El had no interesting marrying Mike. Will was a man in a world where he could do anything except marry another man.
*
“Are you sure you don’t want me to fake a fainting spell?” asked Max, one arm threaded through Will’s and the other fanning her face.
Will scoffed, “Me having a fainting spell would be much more believable than you having one.”
“True, but it probably wouldn’t help the rumors that you’re in love with the groom,” Max said, dropping her voice to a whisper.
Will gave her a look, annoyed at her for saying the truth.
Max widened her eyes at him daring him to say it wasn’t true.
It wasn’t that Will had kept it a secret exactly—both Will and Max knew Will had always been in love with Mike, that was the whole reason they married: they were both in love with men they could never be with, but Will had never said so out loud.
“We could also just leave with no explanation,” said Max. “I would never had set foot in Lucas’s wedding.”
Will wanted to say that probably had something to do with her breaking his heart, but he bit his tongue.
Instead, he said, “Yes, but the bride wasn’t your sister. I have to be here.”
When Will watched his sister marry Mike, he told himself he didn’t need to be with Mike romantically. He felt honored just to spend time in Mike’s presence, to be able to be a small part of his life. He’s not the only man I’ll ever love, Will told himself. This was the best case scenario. Mike would’ve had to marry a woman eventually, and having that woman be El, this meant he was going to keep Mike in his life—that was enough.
*
On good days it was was.
Nights writing letters in the drawing room in the Hopper’s family estate in silence late into the night. Mike always running out of ink and stealing from Will’s inkpot. Moving to the couch in front of the fireplace, sitting sit by side talking about anything and everything.
Trips to the new capital on the Potomac as Mike began his political career. Strolling along the swampy excuse for a river, Will unimpressed, but Mike with a million brilliant ideas of what this city could become.
Watching his nephews and nieces grow and show the innate goodness they had inherited from their parents. Will drawing some of the scenes from books that Mike and El read to them and the children hanging them above their beds.
*
On bad days, Will wants to rip his heart out of his chest. It already feels like his body is going to collapse in on itself.
The silence that falls when Will writes his letters with Max reading a book is companionable, but it isn’t the feeling of contentment he gets with Mike.
When El makes Mike laugh and hideous jealousy courses through his veins.
When he attends a party and is reminded he’ll never dance with the person he loves.
*
Sometimes Will stares at Mike and he just feels in awe of him. Watching Mike smile feels like witnessing some kind of miracle. Will kept telling himself that he would fall in love with someone else, but as the years go by, Will knows he never will.
He tries to be grateful because without Mike Wheeler, Will never would’ve known what it feels like to love someone.
*
When the Mike moved his family to Washington, D.C., Will savored every letter he gets.
He realized with some embarrassment that Mike’s words felt intimate and warm than any lover’s arms ever had.
*
Mike lays on his bed, pale and coughing.
Much too young, thinks Will. Too young. Too soon. El’s not ready. The kids are too young, they’re not ready. We’re not ready. I’m not ready. I’m not ready. I’m not ready. I’m not ready to live without you.
He kneels beside the bed and takes Mike’s hand. He can already feel tears welling up in his eyes.
“Will,” he says. “I can’t thank you enough.”
“For what?” Will asks.
“Everything,” says Mike. “Everything I have is because I met you—my wife, my family, my career.”
“I did introduce you to your wife, but I can take no credit for your career: the speeches, the platforms you ran on, the legislation you passed. That was all you.”
“Maybe you don’t remember,” says Mike. “The night we met, I told you all of my crazy political aspirations and you told me you thought I could do it. You’re the first person who believed in me.”
Will doesn’t remember what he said, but he’s sure he would’ve immediately followed Mike off the edge of the earth, so he probably would’ve said something about believing in him when Mike brought up his political ambitions.
“I think I was right to believe in you, Senator,” says Will.
“I hope I made you proud—”
“You did, of course you did,” Will assures him.
Mike smiles at him and the two sit in silence for a few moments.
“I met you first,” says Mike, something different in his tone of voice.
Will had been looking down at Mike’s hand, but now he looks up at his face. Mike’s eyes, so tired looking, gaze into Will’s.
“In another life…” Mike continues.
Will says, “I know.”