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Mike has a grin plastered on his face, looking back at Will occasionally as they whip around badly laid roads, the light grey asphalt ridden with gravel and potholes. They’re getting way too big for their old bikes.
Will is smiling ear-to-ear too, he’s happy to be back in the familiar town he grew up in. His hair whips past his face because he’s going breakneck speeds on his bike, trying to catch up to Mike. He’s looking at all the changes to his community. That old candy store got knocked down, and the council repaired the fence around the park.
Mike hasn’t changed though. Sure, he’s older, but he’s still nerdy, stubborn and very enthusiastic, especially when anything concerns Will. He’s still pretty, his pale cheeks painted with pink in the cool autumn dusk. His freckles that lightly dust his face, faded with time. Will’s smile reaches just a little bit further just thinking about him.
Before he could continue his thoughts any longer, Mike brakes sharply at the base of the signature woods he and his party grew up around. Will already knows where they are going. As the boys abandon their bikes to run off, the orange of the setting sun paints the tops of the deciduous trees, leaves fallen and crunching underfoot.
The air between them is filled with childlike joy, nostalgic and precious. They run to the familiar area. They arrive and Mike places his hands on his knees and bends down to catch his breath.
“And there,” Mike puffs before gesturing, “the remnants of Castle Byers.”
It’s really just a dilapidated, vaguely shaped pile of sticks and painted planks, with a cloth and US flag on top. Joyce had removed the comic books, duvet and tarp after Will took a bat to it in ‘85, a sour memory for both Will and Mike.
-
“It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”
Will's face sunk as that dagger hit his chest. Everything else Mike said afterwards was just a blur. Heavy rain and thunder crashed in the background, cold engulfing his legs and arms; a world away.
He biked to the forest. To his castle, his safe place. Home to Will the Wise. He was soaked in rain, a tingling, stinging sensation at the back of his neck. Looking at all his old drawings, comic books and D&D manuals.
Stupid. Childish.
He rips up an old photo of him and his party, he then picks a bat from the corner of his fort and makes his way to the outside.
Dark. Cold.
He hits the castle with a yell. Thunder booms. Another hit. Then another.
The sensation on his neck had turned into a burn, a raging fire within him that fed off of his emotion.
“Will? Will!”
-
“Will look! It’s still here!”
Mike’s voice brings Will back to reality, Mike grabbed a weathered plank from the pile of Byers and holds it high above his head.
“Castle Byers!”
“The sign!” Will lights up with joy.
“I bet some stupid kids from around here stole the other ones... Glad this one survived!”
“That’s awesome dude!” Will looks around, taking it all in for the first time in a long time.
“So many great memories here man”
They share a heartfelt look, smiling at each other, Will feels warm. So warm that a blush rises to his cheeks in dead autumn.
The sun casts its final rays of light on a few clouds on the mostly clear night, and the boys decide to stay.
After them snacking on candies from Mike’s backpack, or failing to rebuild the long-gone Castle Byers, or good old jumping in the leaves, it's dark, properly. Stars scatter the night, the almost-bare trees framing the sky. The boys are laying on their backs, hands behind their heads. Mike is looking up at the sky, trying to recollect any scraps of his astronomy class.
Will is looking at Mike.
“I give up. They all look like Orion!”
Mike animatedly tries to point out- and connect dots to no avail, until he covers his hands over his face, then looks back at Will to ramble about how he SWORE he knew what was what.
Will isn’t really focused on stargazing. Moreso on his proximity to Mike, their shoes touching and elbows rested on top of each other. His heart speeds up a little faster when he sees Mike’s doe eyes looking right back at him, almost sparkling in the clear night. Mike exclaims as if to realise something, and jumps up from the bed of leaves to reach into his backpack, Will sits up to see what's going on. Mike pulls out a small wrapped gift and runs back over to Will.
“It’s really not much, I made it for your birthday for when I visited, I know I forgot and that’s super shitty of me. I was planning for it but I just got so wrapped up with everything that happened with El, then the-”
“I know Mike, I was there. Thanks”
Will smiles and takes the gift and starts gingerly unwrapping it. He lights up as he feels the familiar shape and material of the present. A cassette tape.
His mouth is turned into an open, almost shocked, smile. His eyes are fixed on the object he’s gripping with so much excitement and…
Love.
The tape’s label has familiar, scrawled handwriting on it.
To Will,
Will flips the cassette.
Love, Mike
♡
Reading the words made Will’s heart skip a beat, and Mike tensed as he read it. If only Will knew how much effort it was for Mike to write those words to El. It was so easy now, when it came to Will.
“I, uh, asked Jonathan for a bit of help with your music, happy birthday”
Will looks at Mike with such genuine joy. Smiling as wide as he could. He flops back onto the ground, hugs the tape to his chest and grins at the stars.
“It’s..” Will purses his lips to hold back a smile “It’s awesome man, thanks.”
Mike smiles warmly at his friend, knowing how much the gift means, for both of them. He reaches in a bag, pulling out a walkman, so the pair can give it a listen. They pop it in, each grabbing an earbud, and grin at each other when the first song starts. Will's excited to use his present, and Mike’s excited to hear his feedback on the playlist. Will is always talking about how Mike needs to get into ‘real music’, so his deep dive into Will’s tastes mean a lot, especially if he was almost 2000 miles away.
Will sits back up, the boys' heads pressed together to study the walkman and the tape inside, waiting for it to start. The familiar tune of ‘This Charming Man’ by The Smiths rang through the tinny speaker, into both of their ears. Will lights up, having memorised every strum, note and beat, he starts humming happily into the intro and humming along the lyrics too. Will is singing along to the mellow tune, adding his own little dance moves. Mike should be listening to the song, instead he’s looking at Will. Him happy, in his element. He didn’t see this at all in California. Instead he saw him isolated, hesitant. Total third wheel.
He has his spark back now, smiling and occasionally looking at the sky. The stars haven’t changed.
This charming man.
“Come on Mike, aren’t you gonna dance?” Will chuckles and dances- as best he can whilst being connected to his friend via earbud.
“No!”
He rolls his eyes and smiles at Will, before adding in a little dance move of his own. It gets a laugh from Will.
He puts his head in his hands and says “Sorry I asked dude! How did El even tolerate you! Those moves are so… bad!”
“Come on Will, you know the ladies dig me!”
He sends a wink and plays the air-guitar to the music.
“No. No! Do not disrespect Johnny Marr like that.”
“Oh yeah?” He plays another riff, scrunching up his face.
“Christ!”
Will tackles him down, earbuds being yanked out. The pair are laughing hysterically, Mike is flat on the ground underneath him. Will’s hands are planted under Mike’s shoulders. The laughter slowly ceases, and something electric can be felt in the four inch gap between their faces.
Reckless and boyish.
The palpable energy warms Will’s cheeks, realising his closeness to Mike, he rolls back to his original position. Mike lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. A build-up of warmth and energy from that, having Will tackle him by his sides, Will’s eyes locking with his, being so close he could see every breath taken. His face so… so close.
They’re both left breathless. Hearts racing. Will grabs the walkman again, brushes off a bit of dirt and picks up from where it left off. The pair get lost in the music, Will leading in all his useless facts about the songs and bands themselves, and Mike following by just listening to him.
“London Calling”
“Cemetry Gates”
“Love Will Tear Us Apart”
“The Lovecats”
“Boys Don’t Cry”
Will sparked up about this one. Old favourite of Jonathan’s.
“Haven’t heard this in the longest time.”
“You loved it when we were 12.” Mike states earnestly.
Will gives a smile. Before shit hit the fan, this was one of his songs.
“It helped, you know.” Will remarks
“Hmm?”
“With all the bullying. Me and Jonathan would go home and listen to this. He’d tell me that it was alright. And that I could, you know, show emotion.”
Will looked pained. Mike gazed at him, wishing he could do something. Will kept talking, not pausing to think.
“Even dad would call me a queer. It never let up, trading the smaller bullies at school for the bigger one at home.”
He waves his hands vaguely, irritated, sick of it. He then rested his hands on his stomach, letting out a sigh. Mike didn’t know what to say. He just stared at Will, while Will stared at the sky. It broke his heart to see a tear pooling, glistening in his eyes.
“They were right.”
Will’s voice broke the tiniest bit, having to inhale slightly, sharply, after he finished his sentence. The music kept playing away in both of their ears, slicing through the silence.
Mike’s dark eyes rested on Will’s face, he grew flustered, trying to find something to say- anything to say.
“Oh. Right.”
Nice one Wheeler.
“Yeah.”
Will looks ashamed, embarrassed. So tense that his heart could beat out of his chest.
“How long have you known?”
“I’m not sick, Mike,” Will scoffs lightheartedly, “I’m just… I’m just gay.”
Will subconsciously clenches his jaw.
“A while. Ever since you got with El. Then the Mind-Flayer happened, everything got piled on me all at once, so that was… all at the back of my mind.”
Mike nods slightly, furrowing his brows as if to compute all of it. It shoved a dagger into his chest to realise that at the time he was so mean to Will, when he told him he didn't like girls, that he actually didn't like girls.
“How-” Mike clears his throat, narrowly dodging a voice crack. “How did you… figure it out?”
“I don’t know?” Will sounds unsure of himself, “Every time a girl would ask me to the Snow Ball, I’d never get why people liked that so much. They all called me zombie boy anyways.”
Will gazes at the stars, as if they would take him up to space and get him out of the hole he’s dug himself into.
“You never called me zombie boy.”
Will tears his eyes from the sky and manages to meet Mike’s. He sees his eyes blown and wide, pale cheeks flushed.
"Well why would I?" Mike gulps, " You're my best friend Will." He sounds less-than sure, juggling the electric energy between them.
He edges his hand over to Mike. leaves rustling under the movement of his arm. Will’s pinky finger hooks over Mike’s. This sets off sparks in Mike’s chest, any more contact and he swore he could have caught aflame.
Hand holding was ordinary when they were kids. On this night, it had so much more weight.
Will musters the newfound courage to grip Mike’s whole hand. Their fingers interlink
“Waning gibbous.” Will breaks the silence.
“What?” Mike gulps again, throat so dry.
They both absentmindedly squeezed each other’s hands tighter.
“The moon… Waning gibbous” All Will wanted was to just break the silence. To talk to Mike, just to see what he’d say.
“Yeah.” Mike let out a deep breath, getting over his temporary panic. Will couldn’t possibly have a clue as to what he was thinking, and that could not have been helping him our. The forgotten walkman was still absently operating, now the sound of ‘Girl Afraid’ is playing through their earbuds.
The pair sit up, Mike doing so first. They rest with their legs folded. Hands still intertwined. Will’s stomach churned with confusion, this closeness wasn’t usual for two high school boys, one of which recently broke up with his magical girlfriend.
Mike was stirring too. He was going through an array of realisations.
One of them being that he wanted to kiss Will.
Will looked perfect under the moonlight. The night illuminating his hair, seeing his cheeks and nose pink with the chill, and lips red. Mike wanted to kiss him.
Mike tentatively rests his hand on the base of Will’s neck, getting Will to face him. They both slightly gasp at the contact. Mike dared to look down at Will’s lips. When Mike looked up to meet Will’s eyes, he could see him staring at his lips. He decided to make the move, the 6 inch gap between their faces getting smaller and smaller. The earbuds drop out of their ears, unimportant.
Will felt a firework of excitement rush through his chest at the contact. The uncertainty that was eating away at him dissolved into one single thought; Mike.
The kiss was slow, tentative. Mike was careful not to cross any boundaries. His hand edged from the back of Will’s neck to the side, thumb cupping his cheek. Will decided to move his hands from the ground, adjusting his position, his left hand found its way to the front of Mike’s shirt, tugging slightly.
They broke apart from the kiss to take a breath. There is a brief moment where they want to go into the kiss again, instead, Will rests his forehead on Mike’s shoulder, hand hovering over his back before pulling him in for a hesitant hug. Mike wraps his arms around him in return. They stay like that for a moment, until Will brings his hand up to Mike’s face, to pull him in for another kiss. Mike goes along with him, hands still hanging over Will’s shoulders. Will slips his tongue to Mike’s lips, as if asking for permission, Mike leans into it, taking control, bringing his hands to cup Will’s jaw.
They kissed for a little longer, experimental but perfect. They broke apart, lips reddened and faces flushed.
It was late, and the pair decided to ride back home, their matching digital watches flashed 8:30. They picked up the walkman and Will stashed the cassette into his own bag. He read the writing again.
Love, Mike.
It felt different now, more vivid. The pair picked up their lively conversations all the way home, laughing and definitely disturbing the neighbours. They were guided under the streetlights to Mike’s household.
Karen and Joyce were conversing in front of the TV, smoking away. Nancy was doing her schoolwork on the kitchen table.
“Welcome home boys, dinner’s in the fridge.” Karen doesn’t turn much of a head, cigarette burning away between her fingers. Joyce jumps up and kisses Will on the forehead and gives Mike a side-hug to welcome them inside.
The boys grab their dinner, eating their pizza next to Nancy.
“Did you give him the gift?” Nancy keeps her head down at her textbook knowingly.
“Yeah Nance, I did.” Mike declares, through a mouthful of pizza.
“It was great, I liked it.” Will pipes up politely.
“He put a lot of effort into that, you know.”
“Yeah” Will shoots a look at Mike, who immediately stares at his slice of pizza to avoid Will seeing him turn red.
Will was happy to be back in Hawkins, if only for a holiday. In the Wheeler basement, humming along a boombox with his new favourite mixtape, designing D&D campaigns, and being with Mike.
He stared at the ceiling from his air mattress, looking at Mike before drifting off to sleep.