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Will is violently jerked awake by the van driving over a pothole, his head accidentally smacking the glass of the window he rested against. He squints and rubs his forehead, eyes focusing on the scenery outside. A darkened road lined with trees with street lamps few and far inbetween. The sky is bleak, not a star in sight. “Where are we?” Will asks no one in particular, voice hoarse.
Jonathan answers from the passenger seat, “An hour outside Hawkins.” He turns to Eleven, who had been snuggled up to Mike pretty much the entire time. “You’re sure we’ll make it there in time?”
“Yes,” El says simply. “Max’s plan has not started yet and Owens said he was going to send a friend to tell them we are coming.”
“But that was hours ago back at the rest stop. Who knows if something could have happened-”
Jonathan is interrupted by Argyle who says “I think Carrie here knows what she’s talkin’ about, man.” El, who doesn’t get the reference, frowns. “We’ll get there in due time to kick some interdimensional ass.”
Jonathan, who still looks on edge, releases a harsh breath. “Sure.”
Will turns to look at Mike. He’s leaning against the wall of the van, right arm slung around Eleven’s shoulders and his chin resting on the top of her head. They’ve been attached at the hip since they had rescued El from Brenner back in Nevada. They had been able to sneak into the base with help from Owens and as they drove away, with Jonathan's foot slamming on the gas, it looked like they had also narrowly escaped the military. Over the phone, Owens seemed to have gotten out okay but they knew they’d be coming after him. He had told them Brenner had been killed which has since plagued El with a conflict of emotion and Will understands. Brenner was all Eleven ever knew. His manipulations had made her feel safe. But the pain had been worse. Much worse. But she looks somewhat at peace now, pressed against Mike. Mike had been drifting in and out of sleep but it now looks like he decided on staying awake until they’ve reached Hawkins.
Eleven told them all about One or “Henry”, Brenner’s first human experiment. How she had beaten him once before but he was back in Hawkins and looking for vengeance, killing innocent people as part of some unknown plan. Eleven had also told them that their friends are concocting a plan to stop him and that they needed to get there before they carry it out in fear that some, or maybe even all of them, wouldn’t make it out alive.
The van jerks again and Will’s painting, that had been sitting idly between him and Mike, rolls in what feels like slow motion towards El and bumps her shoe. She eyes it curiously and reaches for it. Mike looks down, noticing it and her hands. “Oh,” he says, “I wanted to thank you.”
An unfamiliar, sickening heat crawls up Will’s neck and floods his face as Eleven tilts her head. “For?”
“For the painting,” Mike answers and points to it, oblivious to El’s confusion. “Will told me everything. How you, uh, told him the idea for it basically and how it represents how you feel about me. It was a really nice thing of you to do and I just wanted to say I-”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mike pauses. “W-What?”
Will’s eyes are glued to the window, but he feels their eyes on them. He can’t bear to look. Eleven says “You don’t remember what I wrote to you in my last letter? Will would not let me see the painting. I didn’t know who it was for. I thought maybe it was for a girl but…”
El doesn’t finish her sentence. Will finally looks back at them. They’re fully sat up now, the painting bending slightly under El’s grip, urgency written all over her and Mike, well, Will can’t even read the look on Mike’s face.
“Why didn’t you tell me who the painting was for?” El asks.
Will can’t even give her a coherent answer. “I.. I just- I don’t know. I don’t want to talk about this.”
“I am confused,” El tells him. “Was the painting not for Mike but then you said I made it for him anyway? To make him happy?”
He falters. “That’s not-no it’s… well it’s part of it but no, I-I did-”
Mike, voice soft, just says “Will.”
The van suddenly halts, the three of them falling forward onto the carpeted surface. Will looks up and finds Argyle looking back at them. “Stoppin’ for gas, brochachos,” and steps out of the van like one of the biggest revelations of the evening hadn’t just occurred. El, without a word, uses her powers to push open the door and stomps off. Mike follows, but not before looking back at Will with another vague expression. Absolutely bewildered, Will rests his head against the window and bites hard on his lower lip.
“Hey,” he hears and catches Jonathan’s glance in the rearview mirror. “You okay?”
Will feels his eyes sting. Great. “Yeah.”
Jonathan then unceremoniously climbs from the passenger seat to the back of the van, sitting down across from his younger brother. “You know you can tell me what's going on.”
Shaking his head, Will tells him “No, I can’t.”
“Why not?” Jonathan questions.
“Because you wouldn’t understand,” Will says not with anger, but with certainty.
Jonathan leans closer. “Just because I wouldn’t understand doesn’t mean I can’t listen.” And Will doesn't have any real objections to that statement. Jonathan places a hand on his shoulder. “You used to come to me for everything and I don’t want you to feel like you’re not allowed to do that anymore. You’re my brother and I love you. I love you so much and there is absolutely nothing that will ever change that. Nothing . If something is bothering you, if something is going on, I want you to be able to tell me.”
Will feels the familiar warmth of tears roll down his face as the sight of his brother turns blurry. Jonathan draws his eyebrows together. “Will?” He says his name as an encouragement.
Will swallows a lump in his throat. “I…” and he can’t get the words out. It’s stuck. Just like him in a sense. Stuck in a hopeless situation with no real light at the end of a dark tunnel. Jonathan watches him close. Say it, goddammit. He can hear Mike and El’s voices from a distance and it’s too much. This is too much but he can’t keep going like this so he lifts his eyes to meet Jonathan’s. “I’m gay.”
Jonathan breathes out and a small smile spreads on his face. Then Will feels Jonathan’s arms wrap around him as he’s pushed forward into a tight hug. “Thank you for telling me,” Jonathan tells him, his voice muffled by the fabric of Will’s flannel. And Will goes to pieces as he hears “I’m so proud of you, you know that?”
Will screws his eyes shut, escaping tears landing on Jonathan’s shoulder. All he can do is nod. And for a fleeting moment, there’s no world threatening crisis, no supernatural entities, only two brothers opening up. Just like it used to be.
When Jonathan pulls back, he places his hands on Will’s shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay. Everything is gonna work out, I’ll make sure of it.”
Will sniffles, rubbing his tear stained eyes. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.”
There’s a sudden knock on the driver’s side window and Argyle opens the door with “Alright my dudes, all set.” He then gestures to his right. “Told the odd couple to get their butts back here.” Jonathan nods at this, giving Will’s shoulder a squeeze before climbing back into the passenger’s seat. A beat later, Mike wanders back into the van, El behind him. She’s noticeably calmer with a knowing air about her. Mike is silent.
No one talks for the rest of the drive.
══════════════════
The Welcome to Hawkins sign strikes Will as much more foreboding than it should, given the circumstances. What used to feel like home feels foreign, unnatural. His gut tells him he’s not supposed to be here. His heart, on the other hand, says otherwise. He shifts uneasily and as he does, he feels a piercing sensation behind his eyes. He closes his eyes, reaching up to massage his temples. He concludes that he has a migraine coming on and with all that crying and screaming and running and not eating anything for pretty much the whole day, he’s not surprised. He hears a faint ringing in his ears. When he opens his eyes, the first thing he sees is the sky. It’s pitch black and unnervingly empty. He notes that it’s almost like staring into a vast, black hole. The ringing stops.
Jonathan is driving the van now, though Will can’t place when exactly he and Argyle had decided to switch. Eleven is sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest, staring at the floor. Mike, though he was sitting close to her, hadn’t touched her since they had gotten back in the van. Will tries not to dwell on it, but can’t help not notice Mike glancing over at him every once in a while.
They pass the school, the library, the community pool. It all feels different. They turn into the trailer park.
They notice the lights in Max’s trailer are still on when they pull into the grass and an almost physical sense of relief floods the van’s interior. They scurry out of the van and just as they’re about to storm in, Dustin opens the door. He’s dressed in what looks like makeshift armor. His eyes light up as he throws his arms around Will, then Mike, then Eleven and then Jonathan simultaneously babbling about how much the gang missed them and how he’s so happy they found their way here. He takes a step back then, eyeing Argyle. “Who’s this?”
“I’m Argyle, my little dude,” Argyle says simply. Dustin nods like he understands what he said and ushers them all into Max’s trailer. Everyone else subsequently rushes to them, pulling them all into hugs and various worries like “ are you okay” and “how did you guys even get here” fill the small living room. Dustin introduces Jonathan, Will and Argyle to Eddie, who Will thinks looks like he’s about ready to join a mosh pit rather than fight a supernatural being. Once everyone has settled, they gather around Max’s coffee table. There’s a display of various weapons and a half drawn plan on it's wooden surface. Jonathan tells them they know what's going on and that Eleven got her powers back in order to stop One, or Vecna as the Hawkins gang have been calling him. Max tells them about their plan, to which Eleven cuts in and tells her she already knows what they were planning to do.
“The bait will not work, he might already know I’m here,” Eleven tells her. Max frowns.
“We know that the clock chimes four times, which means Vecna, or whatever, needs four deaths but something tells me he doesn’t want to kill you,” Steve says, to which the others nod their heads in agreement.
“He doesn’t,” Nancy confirms. El turns as Nancy walks to stand in front of her. Her eyes are tired and watery. “He… he gave me these visions. He wanted me to show them to you.” Eleven nods cautiously, taking Nancy’s hand and closing her eyes. After a moment, the overhead light starts to flicker. Argyle stares on, mouth agape. Eddie raises an eyebrow with a look that says " impressive." The lights flicker again, more sporadically.
Then El snaps her eyes open, dropping Nancy’s hand with a gasp. She stumbles back into Will, who catches her by her shoulders. Her breathing is hard and fast. “Are you okay?” Will asks, urgently.
Eleven nods quickly, bringing her sleeve up to wipe her bloody nose. “Y-Yes.” She catches her breath and steadies herself. Will continues to stand behind her just in case. “So we know why he is killing people. Why he is opening gates,” she pauses. “He wants a war in Hawkins. He wants to destroy it.”
Will looks at her, knowing where she’s going with this. “But he won’t stop at Hawkins. He’ll want to..”
“He’ll want to destroy the entire world,” Lucas finishes. There’s an awful silence in the room now. Robin’s eyes shift nervously and Nancy lets out a shaky breath. The light flickers again and everyone looks up.
Will feels an unmistakable coldness rush up his spine to the back of his neck as the piercing sensation behind his eyes begins again, but more painful than in the van. He involuntarily gasps, a hand coming up to cover his eyes. The others look over, suddenly on high alert. “Will?” Jonathan asks with heavy concern. The ringing in his ears makes him want to scream. He hears the others’ voices, overlapping each other and what feels like Mike’s hands on his shoulders as the ringing gets louder.
The ringing turns into chimes.
Will falls to his knees.
When he opens his eyes, he’s still in Max’s trailer though he quickly realizes he’s in the Upside Down version of Max’s trailer. He stands to his feet, urgently searching the room. Familiar dark vines covered the walls, wrapping around every surface. His breathing becomes labored as his chest tightens. He feels his throat tightening, closing in.
“Will Byers,” a deep, ravenous voice speaks.
And it’s all too familiar.
He turns to the direction of the voice, though nothing is there. A tear rolls down his face. The voice speaks again, now from a different direction.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” the voice says.
“What do you want?” Will screams, voice cracking. His hands tremble.
“It’s your time, Will,” the voice replies. Will’s head snaps to his left. Now he sees him, standing ominously in the corner of the room. He lifts his clawed, disfigured hand. “It is time for you to finally join me.”
Will shakes his head violently. “No… No, I won’t.”
The figure takes a few steps forward, causing Will to back up into the coffee table. The vines that were covering it came up to wrap around his legs, immobilizing him. He struggles against them but with no use.
“You are different from the others, Will. You do not belong with them. You belong here, with us.”
Will hears a crack of thunder as a faint image of a large, spider-like creature flashes behind his eyelids.
“No! Let me go!” Will shouts, shaking the image away. The figure tilts his head.
“We are a part of you, just as you are a part of us,” he tells him.
There's another voice, far in the distance, almost like it’s beyond the sky. “Will!”
“I-I’m nothing like you. I don’t belong here,” Will protests.
The figure is now standing toe to toe with Will, his piercing gaze looking down at him. “Oh, but you do. You feel unwanted. You feel like a mistake. You will not feel that way here.” A clawed finger lifts up Will’s chin. “But you know that already.” Will turns his head away as the figure continues. “You can tell Eleven that it is over. Yes, I know she is here. There is no physical way to stop me from completing my plan. She has already lost before she has even begun.”
The other voice shouts again. “Will!”
Will trembles and closes his eyes as the figure leans in. He can feel the hot, harsh breath on his face and he takes in the sick smell of rotting flesh. “You tell her that, then I will come for you. And you will join me.”
“No!”
“Will!”
His eyes snap open and there’s Mike, leaning over him, face skewed with worry. Once his eyes have refocused, he sees that the others are crowded around him as well, watching intensely. He looks to Mike again as he realizes that he was holding him in his arms. Mike reaches a hand to the side Will’s face, to which Will, without even thinking, places his hand over his.
“Oh my god, Will. Thank god. Thank god,” Mike says, breathlessly, finally pulling him up into a tight hug, his hand coming to rest on the back of Will’s neck. And at that moment, it was just them. Just the two of them in an embrace Will had only ever dreamed about.
Mike pulls back, hands still framing the other boy’s face. His eyes widened, then. “Will… your nose.”
Will takes the back of his hand and dabs underneath his nose.
Blood.
“Jesus Christ,” Eddie whispers.
“Well now we know for sure he’s not after Eleven,” Nancy says, voice tense.
El crouches down next to Will, placing a hand on his shoulder. She looks back up at Nancy, then at the rest of the group.
“He’s after Will.”
══════════════════
“No, absolutely not.”
“Jonathan, it might be our only chance to stop him,” Nancy protests. Will was seated on the couch, Mike at one side and Eleven on the other. The rest were all standing in a sort of semi-circle, arguing.
“Not if it means my brother is going to die!” Jonathan yells, making Nancy recoil. This seems to mellow him slightly. “I’m sorry it’s just…”
“You don’t want to lose him, I understand that,” Nancy says, reassuringly. She reaches for his hand, holding it firmly.
Mike cuts in with “I- we -wouldn’t let anything happen to him.”
Jonathan looks to Eleven. “Can you be sure?”
“I would keep him distracted,” she tells him. “While they kill him physically.” She points to Steve, Nancy and Robin. “If things go wrong, for any reason, Mike will be here to pull him back.”
“I don’t understand why I can’t just be the bait like our original plan. Vecna came after me before, I know he won’t let me just get away like that,” Max argues. “I don’t want Will getting hurt.”
“Oh, because it doesn’t matter if you get hurt?” Lucas asks in disbelief.
“He might let you go if there’s a better target,” Steve tells her. “Will’s connected to the Upside Down, right? This all started the day he was taken. I mean, the kid’s even been possessed by the Mind Flayer.”
“Wicked,” a voice, Eddie, says.
“It makes sense why Vecna would want to go after him,” Steve continues.
“Holy shit Will, you’re all kinds of messed up,” Erica suddenly announces.
“Erica!” Lucas scolds.
She shrugs. “Just the facts.”
“I need tapes,” Mike suddenly remembers. “If I’m going to pull Will back I need tapes.”
Dustin raises a hand. “Eddie and I will get them. We’ll stop by mine and pick some up to drop off before we go back to his trailer. We can pick up salt, for the, uh, sensory deprivation tank too.”
“And what about Lucas and I? What can we do?” Max asks.
Eddie smirks. “We’re probably gonna need some backup, red. You and the Sinclair pair care to join?” and Max, Lucas and Erica accept the proposal.
“And what about me, then? I’m supposed to just sit and watch this all go down?” Jonathan questions.
“We will need backup too. In case something goes wrong with the piggyback,” Eleven tells him. Jonathan, after a moment, nods curtly. Argyle gives a thumbs up.
“Oh, so we don’t get any backup?” Steve questions.
“Ah, we got this, right? Nancy Wheeler has a gun, what more do we need?” Robin answers.
Nancy smirks as she says “Then let’s do this.”
══════════════════
“Okay, let’s run through this one more time,” Steve says on the other end of the walkie. “Phase one, we get this Vecna creep to take Byers as bait. Wheeler will tell us when to go into phase two. Henderson, Munson, Mayfield, and the Sinclairs lure the bats away from the mansion. Phase three, El gets in Byers’ head to keep him distracted and defeat his… trance form. And then phase four, we torch his ass. Got it?”
“Got it,” Mike answers.
“Got it.” Dustin.
“Alright,” Steve says. “And if anything happens, anything, you abort. Understand?”
“Understood,” says Mike, then Dustin.
“Initiate phase one,” Steve says before the line goes dead.
Mike puts the walkie down beside him. He and Will are sitting across from each other in front of the bathroom. The door is shut, as El said she wanted the time alone to prepare. Once Vecna has Will, Mike is supposed to knock on the door three times to signal they were moving onto phase two. Will fidgets with The Clash tape in his hand.
“I guess now we wait,” Mike tells him, folding his hands in his lap.
“Yeah,” Will manages.
Jonathan and Argyle are sitting in the van to simultaneously give them space and to keep a lookout. Jonathan had warned that if anything even slightly off happens, he’s rushing in guns blazing. They knew he was serious about it too.
“Hey,” Mike says and Will looks up, unaware that he had been zoning out.
“Hm?”
“Are you okay?”
Will can’t help but smile. “I think that’s the first time you asked me that all day.”
Mike bites his lower lip, guilt written all over his features. “I know, I’m sorry.” Will absently shakes his head. “No Really, I am. I’ve been treating you like… like absolute shit and you don’t deserve it. Not even for a second.”
Will meets his eyes and as he does, he unexplainably loses his breath.
Mike continues. “I guess… I guess I’ve been pushing you away lately. At first I didn’t know why. But then I did. Well, I guess I’ve always known but I didn’t realize it until now. You… what you said to me about the painting-”
“I’m sorry,” Will says like it's a reflex.
“No,” Mike stops him. “No, don’t be sorry. When…” he takes a breath. “When El said that she had nothing to do with the painting, I remembered the conversation we had. When I told you I was scared of losing her. You told me that she needed me and that she was also scared of losing me.”
“She is-”
“But you also said how… she feels like a mistake. And that I don’t make her feel like a mistake because I’m the heart, right?”
“I-”
“You weren’t talking about El, were you?”
Time seems to stop then, and Will wishes he could just walk away from this. Walk back to Lenora and leave all his problems, his hurt, here. But he looks at the person across from him, at a beautiful boy who makes Will feel like he’s the only person in the world who matters. It tugs at him. It drowns him. It tears him to pieces. It sets him on fire.
He breathes. “No.”
Mike moves closer, taking Will’s hand in his own. “Remember when El and I were talking outside of the van, when we stopped for gas?” Will nods. “We… We broke up then. It was mutual, actually. I told her that I did love her, that I do love her, but not in the way she wants me to. That's when I realized why I wouldn't say it to her. I couldn’t because… I wanted to say it to someone else.”
The room is quiet. “Mike-”
Mike laces their fingers together and Will wants to cry.
“I love you.”
There it is. And it’s a reality.
Time starts again.
Mike reaches up with his free hand. He cradles Will’s face, his thumb lightly brushing his lips. Then he kisses him.
Will's breath catches in his throat as his eyes flutter shut and It is every thought, every daydream, every stolen glance, every accidental touch, every late night talk, every fight all at once. They crash into each other. It explodes into a beautiful flame.
Mike pulls away and touches their foreheads together.
Will is reeling. “I-I love you too. God, I always have.”
Mike smiles, pressing a kiss to Will’s hand that was still intertwined with his. “I wish I caught on sooner.”
“Well, at least we have now,” Will tells him.
“At least we have now,” Mike echos before kissing him again, both hands now coming up to cup Will’s face.
Will is crying when they part and Mike’s eyes fill with worry. “Hey, hey what's wrong?” His voice is so gentle . He starts to lightly brush through Will’s hair.
“I’m okay, I’m just-” Will stifles a half sob, half laugh. “I haven’t been this happy in so long.”
Mike takes the back of Will’s neck, pulling him into a hug. Will rests his head in the crook of his neck, tears accidentally dropping onto his shirt. Mike continues to card through his hair. Will closes his eyes. “We’re gonna get through this,” Mike tells him. “You’re gonna get through this and we can finally be happy. Okay? We’re gonna make up for all that lost time. We’ll play D&D whenever you want. I’ll watch you paint and admire how goddam talented you are and how you’re so beautiful when you’re focused. We’ll watch all our favorite movies and you’ll laugh when I start crying during the sad parts even though I said I wouldn’t. You can blast your favorite songs and sing along so badly that I'll just have to kiss you to shut you up. How does that sound?”
Will can’t find the words, so he nods against him. Then he feels Mike draw his hands away. “Will?” he hears him say. He has a different tone to his voice now.
Then, the pain and piercing ringing hit him all at once. It floods his senses, leaving him cold. He hears Mike’s voice again, much louder now. “Will!”
Will opens his eyes and finds himself kneeling on an empty, winding road. It’s dark save for a single, dimly lit street lamp. He jumps to his feet, frantically surveying his surroundings when it sets in.
Vecna has him.
His fervent eyes land on the side of the road on an abandoned, silver bike lying on its side. The front wheel is spinning. Will instantly recognizes it as his childhood bike. The one he rode the night he was taken by the Demogorgon. Wind rustles against the trees.
He hears his voice. That unmistakable, guttural voice. “Will Byers.”
He turns, and Vecna is standing just behind the light of the street lamp. Where the Demogorgon had appeared to him three years ago. Tentacles are stretching from his back.
“It is time for you to join me,” Vecna tells him, almost like its fact.
Will stands his ground. “No. No, I won’t join you. And I never will.”
Vecna comes closer. “You forget who you are, Will.”
“I know exactly who I am.”
Vecna stops. “Do you?”
When Will blinks, he’s at home back in Hawkins, standing in his living room. But it’s not the one he’s used to. That thought is confirmed when Lonnie storms into the room, Joyce running after him. They look younger.
“I don’t know what to fucking do with him!” Lonnie shouts, turning around to face Joyce. Now it clicks in Will’s head.
This is a memory.
“Treat him like you treat Jonathan!” Joyce retorts. She’s been crying. “He has no idea why you’re so cold and-and distant towards him. He thinks he’s doing something wrong, like he’s not good enough for you. How can you let your own son think that?”
“Because he’s a fucking faggot, Joyce!” Lonnie yells. No hesitation. Joyce shakes her head. “Don’t give me that look. You’ve known for a while, you just didn’t want to say it.”
There's a dangerous look on Joyce’s face. “Get out of my house.” When Lonnie doesn’t take her seriously, she shoves him hard. His head hits the wall behind him. “Out!” Lonnie pauses, then storms to the door and throws it open, shouting obscenities. Joyce runs to the doorway and screams after him. “Don’t you ever talk about one of my boys like that again!” she threatens as she slams the door. She catches her breath and when she turns around, she looks Will right in the eyes. “Oh. Oh, honey. Did you… did you hear that?”
She rushes over to him, hugging him close as she rocks back and forth. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I love you so much. I love you no matter what.”
The hug becomes suffocating. It’s crushing him. “M-Mom,” he struggles. When he breaks free, it’s no longer Joyce standing in front of him.
“You know who you are now,” Vecna tells him. “You’re the son who drove his own father away. The son who’s a burden. The son who always disappoints. The son who’s a mistake .” Will makes a run for the door, but Vecna quickly catches him with one of his tentacles. He drags Will in front of him as he struggles underneath his grip. Will cries out for Mike, every fiber in his being kicking and fighting to break free. “You don’t have to feel like that anymore, Will. You will finally be where you belong.”
“I’m already where I belong,” Will spits back. Then he hears El’s voice in his head.
“Think of one of your happiest memories. Think of that and I will find you there.”
Will closes his eyes, racking his brain.
He hears Mike. A younger, happier Mike. “Crazy together.”
When he opens his eyes, he’s in Mike’s basement. Specifically, Mike’s basement on Halloween night, 1984. There’s candy all over the floor and the table. Ghostbuster costumes are slung over the couch. Will lets out a shaky breath, but a smile creeps onto his face. He remembers the conversation they had that night. How they stayed up late and watched scary movies together until Jonathan came to pick him up. He remembers how Mike held his hand whenever he jumped.
The room’s warm light turns cold.
“Did you think I would not find you, Will?” Vecna says from behind him. “I know your thoughts as I know my own.”
Will tries to run again, but he’s frozen. He feels himself being lifted into the air as he faces Vecna, who’s clearly run out of patience for him. He struggles against the invisible force to no avail. Vecna pulls him closer. “It’s over.”
Before Will can say anything, Vecna is suddenly flung against the wall, leaving him to fall to the ground. When he looks up, he sees Eleven, hand outstretched and nose bloody. “Maybe for you,” she tells Vecna. Will gets up to stand beside her. Her hand is noticeably trembling. It is taking unimaginable energy to hold him. “If you ever touch him again, I will kill you again .”
“Eleven,” Vecna says, like welcoming a guest. “I didn’t think you’d come.” Will watches him intently. “Now I’m glad you’ll be here to watch.”
Eleven looks to Will. “Run,” she orders. And he does just that. He makes an escape through the basement door and runs as fast as his legs can carry him. He doesn’t stop to catch his breath. He just keeps going. He runs up the road, not having a destination in mind, just getting as far away from Vecna as possible. He runs past distorted, unfamiliar buildings as his lungs begin to burn. He swears he’s almost at the edge of town.
He stops running when he hears the music.
He bends over, planting his hands on his knees as he gasps for air.
“Darlin’ you got to let me know
Should I stay or should I go?”
Will looks up and sees a window into Hawkins. The real Hawkins. He sees himself sitting on the floor, headphones on as Mike is desperately screaming for him to wake up.
So he breathes in and runs.
══════════════════
Will opens his eyes with a gasp, collapsing into Mike’s arms.
Mike holds him close. “Will! Will, look at me. Are you okay?” Shaking, he takes Mike’s hand and nods. Mike breathes out a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank God you’re okay. You’re okay, come here.” Mike sits him up into a proper hug. “You’re alright. I’m here, okay? I’m right here.” The bathroom door swings open as Eleven comes running out, soaking wet. She kneels beside Mike and rubs Will’s back as he calms down. “I’m right here,” Mike says again. “We’re right here.”
Then Jonathan bursts through the trailer’s front door, Argyle right behind him, and almost screams at the sight of his brother. He rushes beside him. “Is he okay?” When no one answers right away he yells “Goddammit, is he okay?!”
“Yes,” Eleven tells him and Jonathan slumps back, relieved.
“Wait,” Argyle starts. “So, did the epic mind fight, like, work? Is Vecna dead?”
Will lifts his head from Mike’s shoulders and meets his teary eyed gaze. “I thought I lost you there,” Mike tells him.
“Never,” Will says and Mike can’t help but laugh and kiss the top of his head, ignoring the surprised, but not really shocked, look on Jonathan’s face.
Steve's voice comes over the abandoned walkie. “Wheeler, Henderson, do you copy?” Jonathan, not wanting to interrupt Mike and Will, picks up the walkie.
“This is Jonathan, we’re all okay,” he tells Steve.
“This is the bat-attack troupe. We copy,” Dustin says.
“Everyone alright?” Steve asks.
“All good,” Dustin says. He pauses. “Did… did we do it?”
Jonathan looks to Eleven, who nods with a smile. “We did it,” he says into the walkie.
“Right on,” comes from Argyle as he pumps his fist in the air.
“Thank god. Okay, Byers and company, hang tight. The rest of us are on our way,” Steve says before the line goes silent.
Mike and Eleven help Will to stand on his feet and once he’s stable, Jonathan throws his arms around him. “Don’t ever scare me like that again, okay?”
Will smiles and replies “I can’t promise anything.” Jonathan lightly punches him in the shoulder. “I’m gonna go outside, I need some fresh air.”
“I’ll come with you,” Mike says and helps Will out the door. It’s almost morning now, the sun slowly rising in the horizon and painting the sky with orange and pink. Mike and Will sit on the trailer's wooden stairs, taking in the cool air. A few moments of comfortable silence pass before Mike clears his throat. “I was thinking,” he starts and Will raises an eyebrow. “Now that this is all over, maybe you’ll… move back?”
Will smiles with faint sadness. “I would love that more than anything, but we don’t know that for sure yet.”
Mike looks down at the ground. “Right. No, yeah, of course.”
“But,” Will continues and Mike tilts his head up. “I could stay for a trial run.”
A wide smile spreads across Mike's face and he wraps his arm around Will, drawing him close and resting his head on top of his. They watch the sun continue to rise and Mike traces light patterns on Will’s arm. “I love you,” Mike tells him.
Will tilts his head back, meeting Mike's eyes before leaning in to kiss him. “I love you too,” Will says as the inviting daylight shines over them.