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Will didn’t know how it had reached this point. He really didn’t, okay?
One minute, he was laughing in unbridled glee at the party’s D&D victory, watching as they danced around in circles at their incredible triumph, and the next minute he… he was making eye contact with Mike. Only for a second, really, maybe not even a second. But it was enough to suck Will right in.
It almost felt like he’d gone back to the Upside Down; in the way he felt powerless to stop it from happening and powerless once it was already in motion.
The worst part was that Mike had shifted his attention to the others too, long ago, and yet Will was still frozen in place. He couldn’t stop staring, not even if he prayed to the Gods above.
He couldn’t stop starring at his eyes, God, those eyes, the intensity behind that look, that barely there glace, had fire flowing through his veins: what would’ve been pleasant tingle if it wasn’t for the way his heart seemed to be trying to crawl its way up his throat.
He’d always thought there was something special about Mikes eyes, but it was only now that he started realizing just why he thought that. Why looking at them for too long would make his skin flush; why he felt as if he was drowning in a pool of the thickest of honeys when he saw the afternoon rays being reflected in his eyes.
And it wasn’t just his eyes either, but the way he laughed; all loud noises and zero appeal and yet that somehow, absurdly, only made him more attractive, only made Will want to stare and stare and stare all day long.
The realisation was making him lightheaded, and it caused him to laugh. Not just a subtle laugh either, but an almost hysterical one. Because what else do you do when you realise you’re in love with your best friend who doesn’t only have a girlfriend but is also a guy.
Will didn’t notice, too caught up in his head to, but he was flawlessly mending in with the rest of the crew who were still laughing, high off their win a mere few minutes ago. (So at least they wouldn’t have much to comment on).
How?
How???
It didn’t make any sense.
It didn’t, it didn’t, it didn’t!!
…But it did.
Oh, it did.
It did and Will knew it too, he just didn’t want to accept it.
Every time he sat a little closer to Mike than was strictly necessary; every time he flicked his eyes towards him when he made a joke specifically for him; every time he did anything… it was because of him.
It was for him.
As his laughter waned, he refocused his eyes on Mike again: Mike who still had that glint in his eyes from laughing so much, whose nose was still twitching with remnant laughter, whose mouth was still smiling with those perfect teeth and those perfect lips and, wow, Will would do anything right now to be able to just throw himself on top of him, topple him over and catch the noise of surprise that would surely leave his mouth with his own lips.
He wanted to. He really really wanted to.
But Will knew Dustin and Luke were somewhere in the room too, merely unintelligible white noise in his daydream.
Which made Will pause for a second. Because they shouldn’t be white noise. In fact, their conversation should be crispy clear considering they were a mere two meters away and why would his brain be prioritising absurd, made-up, and completely unrealistic scenarios when his friends were talking right in front of his face.
A part of him was trying to regain control for this exact reason. He shouldn’t be thinking about… about kissing his best friend, why on earth was he imagining all of that?! He wanted. No. He needed to regain a sense of normality before things got worse and the one stray thought become two or three or more.
That part of him was tearing and scratching and scrambling in an attempt to snap him out of this delusion he concocted out of cobwebs and dust.
But the other part of him – the one that was clearly winning – was playing and replaying over and over and over again the same, same, exact same thought and ones just like it.
His eyes, his lips, his hair, his nose. Topple him over, kiss him, hug him, grab his hand, hold it, kiss him again-
“Will?”
-it seemed to be a losing battle. Why was this happening to him, it didn’t make any sense, it didn’t, it didn’t, it didn’t-
“Will? Hello? Will~”
But it did.
“…Hm?” answered Will, eyes almost glazed with that faraway look in his eyes.
Mike laughed softly, eyes looking at Will curiously yet delicately. “You spaced out, man. Everything alright?”
Oh it did.