Work Text:
If there was one thing that constantly amazed Mike about Will, it was his ability to draw. Not just translate the real world onto paper, but see things at different angles and translate them into a perfect drawing– even if they were only in his head. Mike was starting to think Will had superpowers, even before the Upside Down. Every time Mike went into Will’s room, there was more art hanging on the walls and as he walked further inside, his mouth hanging open.
“Holy shit.” Mike muttered, following the edges of Will’s room. “How do you find the time to do all this?”
“I don’t know.” Will said, shrugging. He sat on his bed, watching Mike go around his room. “That’s not even all of it.”
“Not all of it?” Mike said. “Where are you hoarding the rest of it?” He held his arms out and turned, waving at the rest of the room.
“Most of it’s under here.” Will tucked his legs under his body and leaned over the edge of the bed and pulled a piece of old Tupperware out from under his bed. The crayons clattered against the plastic walls and Mike could see the white pages, some stark clean and others well colored acting as the crayons rolling space. Mike looked in amazement as Will popped the lid. There was easily a half-inch pile of work. “I-I just really like to draw.”
“It’s incredible!” Mike whispered, reaching into the bin to take the stack. Will the Wise practically had his own comic between all the different drawings Will had hidden in the bin. He recognized most of Will’s characters and their stories, most from campaigns, but a few had a tall boy-faced character he didn’t recognize. “Who’s this?”
“Oh.” Will craned his neck to see the work right-side up. “That’s, uh, that’s Will the Wise’s companion.”
“Why does he need one of those?” Mike laughed. “He’s a genius.”
“Sometimes he’s lonely.” Will said, pointing at a drawing where the two of them were standing in the foreground of a great castle. “He needs someone that he knows when he goes to all these new and scary places.”
“I guess you’re right.” Mike nodded. “Safety in numbers.”
“Yeah.” Will said, his voice flat. “That’s it.”
Mike began separating the drawings by characters, wanting to see all he could about Will the Wise and his new friend. Mike wasn’t sure why Will had kept it a secret, both the character and the drawing, hiding under his bed.
The pair seemed to also have their own continuous adventure together, outsmarting bad guys, defending villages, fire-balling dragons, and even being knighted together by a king. In each drawing, Will the Wise was depicted with a bigger smile than Will had ever drawn him. In one in particular, both characters were smiling, standing beside each other in the center of the page. A patch of the paper rough and nearly torn. It surrounded the characters’ hands. They were drawn with their arms and hands hanging by their sides, but the eraser and ghost pencil marks clouded the space between them.
“What were you trying to draw?” Mike asked, lifting the page out of the pile to better look at it. Will grabbed it out of his hands and crumpled it.
“Nothing. It’s nothing.” Will tried to throw it towards his desk and neighboring trash can, but Mike pulled it from his hand before he had the chance. “Mike, it’s a bad drawing. Please stop.”
“First off, it’s not bad.” Mike said, He unfolded the paper and flattened it on his leg. “It’s a great drawing, Will. I like his companion.”
“He’s a natural leader.” Will said, looking at the drawing with a sad smile. “Who knows how many times they’d all be lost without him.”
“He is?” Mike wanted to laugh. The companion was lanky and pale with wavy yet messy hair. “He looks like someone we go to school with.”
Will took the picture again. “It’s stupid.”
“I don’t know why you keep saying that!” Mike sighed. “The picture is nice! Who is it supposed to be?” Will sighed and lolled his head back and forth as he groaned out the sentence. Mike leaned in to hear better. “What was that?”
“It’s supposed to be you.” Will said again, jaw tight.
“Why would you put me with Will the Wise?” Mike asked, reaching for the drawing again. Will let him have it and they each gripped a side. “I’m not good enough to help him.”
“He needs you.” Will said, pointing at the boy’s bright smile. “Will the Wise isn’t anything without his companion.”
Mike stared at the character’s young face and waxy freckles. He was drawn in flattering sincerity and admiration. The worn portion of the paper ran rough as Mike ran his own hand over the page. He stared at the lost markings of the pencils, faded lines showing wrists reaching hands towards the same goal. Mike couldn’t see anything else drawn between them and it occurred to him that there wasn’t anything they were reaching for; they had been drawn holding hands.
Mike tried to act like the pieces hadn’t clicked in his mind, and placed the rest of the drawing on top of it, still flipping through. Mike was barely registering the shapes in front of him, paging through to make him appear to still be present and not at all frozen behind the eyes, his mind hoping to comprehend the sight present to him– a sight that had gone through multiple hands to be hidden from him. Under the bed, erased, crumpled, distracted. Will didn’t want him to see whatever secrets he was concealing in the mastery of his art. Especially the art that involved him.
“Mike.” Will said softly. “Are you okay?”
“Huh?” Mike muttered, looking away from the pages. He had been flipping through the same ones.
“You look upset.” Will seemed to read Mike’s face better than he had been hoping. “Look, we– we don’t have to talk about it. I’m sorry. Just, give me the drawings. I can have Mom or Hop drive you home.”
“What? What are you talking about?” Mike slapped his hand over the drawings.
“I didn’t want you to see. I–I’m sorry. It’s just a drawing. We don’t have to talk about it.” Will stood from the bed and began to smoothing his shirt awkwardly, like he had to make a better impression with the incriminating evidence presented to Mike.
“No. It’s okay.” Mike said, looking back down at the stack of pages. Will spent his talent trying to give his favorite character someone like him. He had said Will the Wise needed his companion. And truthfully, if he was anything like Mike, he needed Will too. Will was the strong force that allowed Mike to even feel like he had any reason to lead, anything to really fight for. “I stand by what I said. They’re incredible, Will.” Will smiled sheepishly and sat back down on the bed. “You should draw this one again.” He pointed to the crumpled page.
“Oh. You don’t like it?” Will muttered.
“I want you to draw it how you want to before.” Mike let the silence take over after his words faded into a shy smile. “I think the companion would like to see how holding hands with Will the Wise feels… I think he might like that.”
“He’s never been drawn doing that before.” Will said.
“That’s okay.” Mike smiled, taking his hand off the drawings to place it on Will’s jittery hands. “He’s more nervous than you are.”