Work Text:
Things never really fully went back to how they used to be, that was something that they all collectively grew to accept.
Nancy grew more private as she seemed to be lost in her own internal conflict, Dustin a little bit quieter than usual, the loss of Eddie probably continuing to haunt him daily… Point was, ever since the California group returned back to Hawkins and the biggest gate yet has split the town in fours, not a day passed where everyone felt grim. There hadn’t been much to celebrate, no reason to as their plans seemed to run in circles at some point down the line. It was so unfair, everything Vecna has ever done to them and this town has been unfair. There had been a point where they all instinctively knew that anyone directly involved with the Vecna situation was not going to come back out on the other side a sane person. Not to the general public’s expectations anyway, they were always going to be traumatized.
Will would have felt a bit of comfort in the fact he wasn’t the only one who had to endure all of this now, that he wouldn’t be alone in having nightmares about the upside down, but he also wouldn’t wish that upon anyone, ever. Not his brother, not his mom, not Hopper, not Mike, Dustin, Lucas… Not Max, god, never Max.
(But look at her now, wasn’t life messed up enough?)
The year following his return to Hawkins has been spent with a lot of thinking. Surprisingly, when you’re planning to take down a near impossible foe, there was a lot of room to get lost in thought. However, If he noticed, paid extra attention to his surroundings, too… Noticed how the dynamics have shifted in their group of found family, he simply didn’t say anything about it.
What else was he supposed to think when Eleven and Mike haven’t talked much recently? He would have thought it would have been different… Unless they had grown so comfortable so quickly that they had built their own secret code of communication.
But Will doubted that.
So when Will found himself out in the forest, just where he could keep Hopper’s cabin in sight, he didn’t find himself very much surprised when Mike came bounding up from behind him. The taller male simply swung his leg over the log Will sat upon and linked his own hands together, not yet looking at Will, but settling for staring out through the trees and bushes like all of their answers would jump at them right then and there. The quiet wasn’t as awkward as it should have been, it hasn’t been for a while since California.
“Didn’t Hopper say you shouldn’t wander out on your own, to at least have someone accompany you?” Mike finally said after a moment. The brunette simply snorted a bit in response and shook his head as he recalled the rule that the police officer had pretty much made specifically for Eleven and Will’s sake.
“Yeah, well… I think I’ll survive just this once,” Will said half heartedly. Truth is, they could never know and that was the scariest point.
Simply mumbling a ‘I guess so,’ Mike let the subject drop and invited in another blanket of silence. This time, while it took a moment, Will could practically feel the gears turning in Mike’s head next to him and for once in all their moments and finding each other alone, the anticipation of what he would potentially say next was making him antsy and he had no idea why.
“I did some thinking,” the darker haired boy finally began. Will simply raised his eyebrows briefly.
“That’s dangerous,” he responded back.
“Okay, come on now man,” Mike turned his body fully to Will with an ‘are you serious look?” in his eyes and a mildly dramatic arm wave, but the small smile that threatened his lips gave him away. The playfulness dropped quickly though as he recentered himself, hands dropping between his long legs as he inhaled deeply to himself. “Listen, this is going to seem sudden but… I’ve been rethinking a lot of things about… About what you said last Spring, about what you said about El.”
His heart leaped up in his throat at that, his back straightening on instinct as he cast his eyes to Mike with barely contained shock with a thin layer of fear creeping in. It had felt like ages ago since that conversation - since the moment Will pushed aside his own feelings to push Mike towards El - but for Mike to be the one to bring it up again really struck him to his very core. A million thoughts came racing to him at once, running through all the scenarios like VHS film of why Mike would suddenly be bringing this up again. Mike didn’t seem to notice Will stiffen, and if he did, he ignored it for (hopefully) Will’s own comfort.
“I had a talk with El, quite a while actually… And I think… I think we finally need to talk about that because… Because I can’t believe I was so stupid to not realize it sooner,” Mike said in his fumbling for words. He sighed shakily, bouncing his leg for a second before turning his eyes to Will fully again, pinning him down with a stare that the brunette couldn’t quite make out. “She didn’t commission that painting… Everything else you said was maybe true, but I’m realizing now that maybe… Maybe you were hiding behind El. Why, though? That’s what I can’t figure out here, Will.”
At this point, the smaller boy had begun retreating in on himself, finding it hard to meet his best friend’s intense gaze and shrinking in on himself as his skin crawled with fear of the situation he was currently in. It was one thing to get the chills at the reminder of Vecna’s presence, to always feel him like he was right there looking over his shoulder, but the realization that Mike had figured it all out, had finally opened his eyes and saw through Will’s attempt to cover up his own thoughts and feelings towards the other… It was suffocating and it reminded him vaguely of when the Mind Flayer had all but taken over. No amount of preparation could have saved him from wanting to run at this moment, to get as far away from this location as possible… But he wouldn’t, because Mike was right. They needed to talk even if Will would have rather brought these secrets to the grave.
“I just thought… Maybe it’d finally set me free,” Will finally supplied. “And maybe if it would set me free, at least you and El could be happy, too. Killing two birds with one stone, right?”
Mike seemed to have a vague idea of understanding wash over him.
“But did it? Did it set you free?” He asked anyway, although it was obvious Mike might already know the answer.
“I wish it had.”
Once again, the silence reared its head on them. This time, it wasn’t very suffocating though. It felt more akin to the clouds rolling in, right before a light drizzle would start to hit the earth. A sort of indescribable moment of silence.
Finally, “You know… El and I haven't been together for a while now. I do love her - we love each other - but not in the way we had thought… And I guess I kind of always knew why, it was just hard to swallow at first… More for my sake though, because -” Mike halted himself abruptly, bowing his head forward as he pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. Will could tell from where he sat that tears were forming as Mike’s voice began to waver with emotion. All he wanted to do in that moment was reach forward and comfort the boy he loved so dearly, but he had to hold out. “BECAUSE… I realized I loved someone else, and loving them was so much easier than any other truth in this world. Loving them was so second nature, I didn’t even realize it until everything started changing. But I should have known… I should have known! I should have known when you went missing and a-all I ever wanted was to have you back and happy by my side again! How I wanted to see your smile and h-how your eyes shine whenever we talked about DnD or comic books o-or - !”
He put himself at a full stop, tears spilling from his eyes now like broken dams and he failed to rub them away as they dropped to the dirt and grass below. The other boy sat in shocked silence, tears unknowingly spilling down his own face as well as he stared down at his childhood friend. The only sound between them at that point was Mike’s small noises of distress and it managed to both break Will’s heart but also put it back together again… He couldn’t believe the things he was hearing from his friend right now, the one person he had been pining after for as long as he could remember.
“Mike…” Will muttered softly, daring to scoot closer to him before the other seemed to just gravitate right to him and wrapped his arms around Will, squeezing him close like he’d disappear if he didn’t keep him secured.
“I-I’m sorry, Will. I am so sorry. You mean so much to me, I’m sorry, I love you, I’m sorry,” Mike repeated himself like a mantra, clinging on to Will as he cried into his shoulder. If Will was honest, this was the most emotion he’s seen spill out of his friend in a long time, but he could recall a time when they had been the most honest with each other and things just… Finally seemed to be clicking back in place, maybe not the same as before, but he couldn’t complain too much about this change for once.
After all, Mike just said he loved him…
“I-I love you, too,” Will said as his voice wobbled and he hooked his arms around Mike’s shoulders, his face nesting into the other male’s darker curls. They sat like that for a moment before Will slowly untangled from Mike, but only so much so that he still had an arm wrapped around him and his hand tentatively reached up to cup the other’s sharper cheek and rub away at the stray tears that coated them.
Albeit Will being the first one to move to face the other, Mike was the first one to speak again after that, “You do? You really, really do?”
“Yeah… I love you, I always have and always will,” Will said. “It’s funny, because I was thinking of asking you that.”
Mike didn’t say anything at first which gave Will a moment of fear, that maybe this would just be another El situation, that maybe Mike only really meant he loved him as a friend, but all his thoughts scattered once the taller boy leaned forward and pressed his lips to Will’s.
It wasn’t anything crazy, but Will wouldn’t trade this kiss for the world. It was clear as Mike pressed forward, nearly dipping Will backwards, how much emotion he was trying to convey in that instance, to try to signal to the brunette just *how much* he loved him. Will was on cloud nine, cupping Mike’s face in his hand and responding to the kiss in kind.
Eventually, the Wheeler boy pulled away only enough so that they were still pretty much nose to nose as he said in the air between them, “I love you. So so much.” He gave him a much shorter kiss, but it still radiated all the love he absolutely felt for the other. “I love you, Will Byers.”
If it had gotten slightly darker that day the more time they had spent there, Will didn’t notice. If goosebumps rose at the back of his neck in the ever silent warning that Vecna was still on a war path to ruin their lives, he had no idea. All he knew now was that he loved Mike and Mike loved him back… And that was just enough for him in that moment, that was all he needed to get through these hard days, that was all he needed to start believing again that maybe… Maybe they’ll see the sun another day.