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It should have been obvious.
They should have figured it out a lot sooner.
Eleven had opened the first Gate to the Upside Down and Will had been called into it. He and Eleven had always been linked somehow, like two sides of the same coin. Sharing the same mind, the same soul, the same love.
Vecna was stronger than they had anticipated.
Eleven’s powers were no match.
Vecna was exhausting her, the Party incapacitated. The Gate Vecna had opened was getting so big, it was swallowing everything around it, forming a gigantic field of electric blue energy. The Creel Manor began to crumble, the trees set on fire.
They were in Hell.
Eleven tried to push Vecna away with her mind again. She was profusely bleeding from her eyes, nose and mouth. Vecna absorbed her attack and used her power to fuse the energy field. The ground suddenly shook and collapsed under their feet, creating a small hill on which they still stood.
Will swallowed, observing the inferno around him.
A brick fell on Dustin’s head. Lucas and Max were brutally pulled apart.
Steve screamed. Robin grabbed Eddie’s hand.
Mike called for Eleven as she was forcefully thrashed to the side by a powerful wave of telekinetic power. The energy field was getting even bigger behind them, as big as a dark blue Sun.
She wouldn’t last long and Will knew this.
“We need to close that Gate!” Steve yelled, cradling an unconscious Nancy in his arms, Jonathan and Argyle huddled together with them two, bloody scratches and bruises all over their faces.
Will gasped, side glancing at Mike just beside him who had eyes only for Eleven. The girl was on her knees, breathing heavily, out of strength.
Vecna was shuffling towards her, his claws extending before him. With a single gesture of his hand, Eleven was pulled into the air.
“EL!” Mike screamed and it was a gut-wrenching sound, coming from the soul.
Everything around Will suddenly muffled down, leaving only the regular vibration of the Gate as he watched Mike’s face break into terror for El. Vecna was going to kill her and Mike’s pain was so powerful, it crashed into Will’s heart. Turning his attention on the Gate again, Will saw black weaves of smoke erupting.
And as he watched the Mind Flayer surge through, El’s hand snapping, Vecna pushing his claw forward to strike, Mike crying, it finally made sense, like pieces of a puzzle finally put together.
He and El had always been two sides of the same coin. One side opened the Gate, the other side closed it. For the first time in his life, he understood things with perfect clarity. For the first time in his life, he knew. Smiling in spite of the chaos around them, he watched the Gate one more time and turned to Mike, momentarily calling for his attention.
“Will?!” Mike asked, confused and terrified, glancing between him and his girlfriend.
Will’s smile widened. It all made sense now and everything was going to be ok. He took into the beauty of this boy he had loved for too long in secret. His Mike. He knew he shouldn’t have loved him, knew that a boy wasn’t supposed to love another boy like this, that Society would have called him a deviant. He had wanted to tell Mike, with the painting. He had wanted to hope that perhaps Mike would understand, return his affection too. But after seeing him with Eleven, after watching the way he watched her, Will knew that he was like El’s powers to Vecna, no match. Mike would never love him back and that was ok. Because Will only wanted Mike to be happy. And if Eleven had died, Mike would have been devastated.
So it was better this way.
“There are so many things…” Will started, “I wanted to tell you, you know.”
Mike shook his head, “Tell me what?” he hurriedly turned his attention toward Eleven who was trying to resist but was slowly losing.
Will smiled sadly to himself. Mike was so absorbed by El, he couldn't even pay real attention to him. And it was ok. She was his girlfriend. They were friends. Behind them, the field of energy roared and Will knew they were running out of time.
No longer caring for what was right or not, he gently pushed the back of his fingers against Mike’s soft cheek, feeling his skin against his own just for this one time. He hadn't touched Mike in so long, his heart still weeping bitterly at their aborted hug at the airport. Will had waited months to have Mike in his arms again and was only left with the grab of a backpack in the end.
Mike ignored Will's touch - or simply didn't notice - and turned toward his friend in panic, “We need to help, El! We need to close the Gate!”
Will didn't move and nodded calmly, “I know. I know, Mike."
Two sides of the same coin. One opened the Gate, the other closed it.
Mike's frown deepened at Will's strange confidence, "Will? What's wrong?!"
"It's ok," Will reassured him, "Everything's gonna be ok, now. I got it. I figured it out."
"You figured out what?!" Mike asked, looking lost and scared.
Will didn't respond. Before Mike could react or pull away, Will bent forward and pressed his lips against Mike’s softly, kissing him for the first time and the last, his fingers still grazing Mike’s cheek. The kiss lasted a second but Will used it as a surge of oxygen to give him the courage he needed to go.
Near the border of the hill, Jonathan watched his brother kiss the boy he’d loved all his life and fear gripped his heart as he understood. He wanted to scream at Will not to do this, to stop. But he was too weak and he was too far and Will couldn’t hear him.
Mike shook against Will, shocked and alarmed.
Will ignored Mike’s confusion and flashed him a bright, reassuring smile, silently bidding his farewell, brushing his thumb against Mike's cheek tenderly. He let himself burn the memory of Mike into his mind, wondering if this was something he would take with him wherever it was he would go. Without another word, he turned back, rushing down the hill toward the edge. Mike watched him run off and understood too late, his eyes widening, yelling hysterically after Will but Will couldn't listen.
Jonathan opened his mouth, powerless, tears falling down his cheeks.
Will jumped off and landed into the field of energy.
The first hit of electricity was the most painful, paralyzing him instantly and he screamed into the field, his body convulsing. It was the right thing to do, he forced himself to remember. Now they would finally be able to return to a normal life for good without Will as the third unwanted wheel and monsters surging from Hell every two days. El would be fine. Maybe they’d get married with Mike, have kids too. Little Mikes. Will wouldn’t have been able to marry Mike anyway, let alone have children with him. As he was being assaulted by hundreds of jolts at once, his mind brought him back to his meeting with Mike on that swing and his heart swelled in spite of the pain. It was the best thing he had ever done.
Feeling his connection to the Upside Down weaken, Vecna let go of El who collapsed on the floor and turned toward the Gate that Will’s interruption was short-circuiting.
“NO!” he yelled and shuffled down the hill as fast as his tentacles would allow him.
He extended his hand toward the Gate but it was too late, his body was evaporating as Will’s life was abandoning him, suppressing the links of the Upside Down into their world once and for all.
“NOOOOOOOO!” Vecna roared again, watching his limbs, torso and face turn to dust.
Will’s heart gave one last beat, a last powerful jolt of electricity hit it and Will smiled, the feeling of Mike’s lips against his own following him into death. The last thought that crossed his mind, just a second before his heart gave, was that it was a bummer, really, dying a virgin. He would have loved to know what it felt like, being so intimate with someone just once. Being intimate with Mike.
His heart stopped. The Gate closed. Will’s body fell.
Silence returned, the survivors all shocked and confused, looking around them. Vecna was gone. The Gate had disappeared. Lucas shook Dustin awake, Max stunned beside them. Nancy battled her eyes open. Steve helped her on her feet and together with Argyle, Robin, Eddie and Jonathan. Mike didn’t join El, nothing making any sense around him. El was trying to find her breathing again, her body shaking and empty.
They all walked on wobbly legs toward the edge of the hill.
Down below, laid Will Byers' dead body.
Jonathan took his head into his hands crying. Steve's face fell in the crook of Robin's neck, sobbing. Lucas, Max and Dustin stared down, tears straining their cheeks. Mike didn't react, his body engulfed by cold, his lips still tingling from where Will's warm mouth had pressed. El looked down, inhaling deep as she made the connection.
She and Will had always been two sides of the same coin. One had opened the Gate, the other closed it.
Will was buried in Hawkins graveyard. He was dead for good this time and wouldn't come back. It was raining that day. Mike didn’t say a word, El’s hand intertwined in his own. His mind kept playing their last exchange over and over again. “I wanted to tell you.” Will's eyes, his smile, his gentle expression just before running off to his death, as if he were at peace with himself somehow. Mike hadn’t understood then. And he didn’t understand either why Will had kissed him.
But then, Jonathan gave him the painting Will had made for a girl, right after the battle, and Mike understood.
It wasn’t for a girl.
He returned home in silence and went to lock himself into his room, preparing a box with things he wanted to give Joyce.
On the wall of his room, just above his bed, beside the childish drawing of a dragon, there was another painting, more mature, polished to perfection, crafted with care. It depicted two children meeting on a swing. At the bottom of the painting, one could read:
“To Mike,
It was the best thing we’ve ever done.
Love, Will”
And it really was.