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Chapter Text

Manic pixie dream prince

Prologue:

Will, William Jacob Byers has the biggest crush on his oblivious best friend Mike, Michael Wheeler, which was out of the question because nothing was ever going to happen between them. His sweet wholesome traumatized alpha sister El Jane Hopper has been with Mike since they were twelve years old, now fourteen almost fifteen. They were all over each other last summer. It was gross. She was constantly clinging onto him and kissing him and scenting him, especially on his neck and face and arms.

Mike presented as an omega at twelve years old the very same night Will was rescued from the upside down and El disappeared in 1983. Will remembers at the hospital Mike tried not to make a big deal of it since everything that had happened, and he did not want to take the attention away from Will. Will knew Mike was in a lot of pain. Male omegas have the hardest and most painful presenting. He remembers Jonathan locking himself in his bedroom, pain meds, pads and he cried so much. His mom had to take a whole week off of work.

He demanded that Mike lay in his hospital bed with him. Mike was so excited to see him and was all loopy and giggly from the meds he was given because otherwise he would have been his stubborn self and insisted he was fine. Instead, he ended up cuddled up next Will making sure he was extra comfy despite also being in a lot of pain. He may have accidentally turned the bed into a nest, which nobody acknowledged as to not cause him any further embarrassment. Frankly Mike doesn’t even remember most of it because well all the meds he was given.

Presenting happens on average between ages thirteen to fifteen. However, presenting can happen earlier or later. Mike really had not wanted to come to school after. But he needed to be there for Will. He was happy to be an omega once he figured out was actually happening to his body and the daze, the bleeding, the pain and emotions of presenting wore off. If anything, he just wishes he didn’t present so early and didn’t deal with the outside word. There were signs there. Mike changed after that. They don’t know if it is because of the trauma or presenting or both.

Mike tries really hard not to act particularly omega-like and to develop a hard surface. Sometimes it worked but most times it failed. He purrs when happy and comfortable and excited. He likes to nest, just look at his basement. He kept up the fort he built El for over a year and didn’t let anyone take it down or inside because he didn’t want her scent to go away. She smells like firewood and maple. Sleeping over at Will’s when he got possessed by the mind flayer Mike built a nest hoping it would make Will feel better.

He will steal his friends' belongings when his heat and period are close. He will accidentally scent his friends and family without realizing and likes having their scents on him. He smells like honey and old books.

He starts blushing and giggling if El growls or uses her alpha voice on him affectionately. When El’s rut is near, she gets a bit friskier and aggressive. She likes to sit on top of Mike peppering his face and neck with kisses, scenting him so he only smells of her and leaving little love bits making him blush and laugh. Sometimes her hands will travel below his waist but, instead they cuddle on the couch and watch soap operas. He lets her do that to him.

He got jealous of Max when she first moved to Hawkins and got even prissier when she first presented.

He compares himself to omega characters and during Dungeons & Dragons his characters are omegas even before he presented, without realizing.

No alpha or beta male in their right mind would let themselves be saved and protected or let themselves be so nurturing and emotional. They wouldn’t be the group caretaker.

Will tries really hard not to give into stereotypes. He doesn’t judge Mike. He knows Mike is happy about being an omega. He doesn’t want Mike to be bullied worse than he already is. He, himself, does not want to be omega. He doesn’t understand how he himself is seen as more sensitive and more of an omega than Mike.

Will doesn’t remember the last time he cried in front of Mike; he holds it all in. He is sensitive and caring and creative and has such a big heart. However, Mike with his big brown beautiful eyes and big loud energy, trying to hold it together but then one tear would trickle down his cheeks and chin slowly, and it was all over. It turns into a full blown inability to stop sobbing, needing to be hugged and reassured with soothing words to calm down. Will wished he could be that emotional without being questioned. It would not only hurt their ego but, it would be suicidal. Mike is allowed to live in his delusions and is humored or maybe he isn’t? Will knows his best friend so he should really stop projecting himself onto him.

Instead of comforting a child who went through multiple traumatizing events, who has been bullied most of his life and top of that presented pre-maturely at the age of twelve years very traumatically, you either act like nothing happened or shame him for his actions and reactions.

 The government agency people implied he presented prematurely because of El to shame him into talking even though he didn’t know anything. They could smell her on him. " Physical intimacy can trigger pre-mature presenting and presenting omegas can be very emotional and naïve. The first alpha comes, and sweet talks gets them all excited. It is their instincts; they don’t know how to control them yet and get taken advantage of. It is very clear with his scent and building her a nest"

After they left, he got an hour long talk from his parents about puberty and presenting and what it means to be an omega and how he shouldn’t be letting anyone touch him at his tender age of twelve, especially his private parts. He wanted to scream into a pillow and die. It was just a little peck on the lips and a hug. At fourteen he knows it is bullshit, you can’t trigger someone to present.  

Before all he had to deal with violent bullies and being so called “ weird” . But now, he had to deal with the trauma he endured, sexist remarks and slurs, bullies and his personal space being invaded. " You know young omegas are so hormonal and they act out." "Make sure to keep all the alphas away." "He was always such a crybaby." "He is a clumsy twig, of course he’s an omega." "I heard he had a little alpha girlfriend and went crazy when she left him. That’s why he is acting weirder." His sister presented at fifteen at the end of ninth grade and he presented at twelve in the beginning of seventh grade. How is that fair and how is it fair he is still getting bullied in high school? He thought everyone was more mature but guess not.

According to all his friends and his family he has been acting differently and closed off he just doesn’t see it. He just can’t wait to see El and Will.   

Will knows he himself is an omega. He has been told this his whole life by his ass-whole father and jerk bullies. He is dreading the day he presents; he just really hopes they are wrong. It is only getting closer and closer.

But, in a few days he will see Mike and he is so happy.

Chapter Text

Chapter One:

March 1986

Mike feels like he is twelve years and going crazy again. His brain won’t shut up and his body and emotions are all out of whack and just decided they are going to be unpredictable. He just wants to be normal, is that too much to ask for? He wants to lay in bed all day. He wants to break down crying. He wants to punch a wall. He wants to jump for joy and play the fairy-tale prince who saves the day just like in his games. He feels numb and emotionless but sad and angry and happy all at the same time and all the damn time.

He is currently sitting on his bed before school, reading the most recent letter El wrote him with heart stickers, cute little doodles and her scent rubbed into it. He likes to joke with her that waffles are his favorite breakfast because he gets to put maple syrup on them and the smell reminds him of her. He only got a little bit through before – Nancy Wheeler, his older alpha sister started yelling at him to get out of bed.

“The hell are you doing? It's ten after. Thirty seconds or I leave without you.” Mike realized, “shit, shit. Okay, okay, I just have to find my pants.” He thought he woke up earlier than he did. He pulls on his grayish blackish jeans which are loose but fitted and tucks his undershirt in them. He pulls on his hellfire t-shirt over his head. He looks in the mirror to fix his hair and straighten out his shirt and runs downstairs and grabs the letter and his Walkman to put in his backpack. He’ll read it later when he has free time.

As he is toasting waffles for breakfast he feels his mom, Karen Wheeler next to him. “Michael, remember to take your medication. I don’t want another call from the school nurse or the school therapist or one of your friends.”

His father, Ted Wheeler adds nothing of value as he reads his newspaper at the kitchen table. “If you just had put him on suppressants, he wouldn't have to deal with this, and we wouldn’t have to deal with his raging hormones.”

Mike rolls his eyes and grits his teeth; in his thoughts ‘ it’s not even my fault that I’m so defective .’ He downs his meds with water and his mother notices the look on his face. She scowls and yells at his father. “Ted! We talked about this! Pup, I know your D&D club is tonight.” “Hellfire. Mom stop touching me so much. You’re getting your scent all over me” She smells like peaches and vanilla cupcakes.

His dad interrupts again, “why don't you call it the High School Dropout Club?” And goes back to his newspaper.

His mom ignores his father’s comment, “I want you home no later than nine.”

“Why?”

“It is a six thirty am flight.”      

“Yeah, I know but.” 

“Not buts. Nine or no California.”

“And no sweetie pie alpha.” El is more than Mike’s alpha. She is one of his best friends and he is visiting Will too, his best friend since kindergarten. Can his dad think before he speaks sometimes?

Mike is so exhausted, can his family stop talking for five minutes, is that too much to ask for? His mom keeps him scenting him because she thinks it soothes him, which it does but he would also like some personal space. His older sister keeps going from being overprotective to yelling at him for being annoying and an inconvenience. His father makes random remarks out of nowhere and how difficult it is to deal with him. The only sane person in the household is Holly Wheeler, the youngest. The only reason is because she is only six.

“Jesus. How am I gonna survive a whole week without you guys?” Mike says sarcastically, just as his breakfast pop out Nancy starts yelling and uses her stupid alpha voice. “Mike, let’s go!”

It caused him to look at her and glare. “Are you serious, Nancy? You know I hate when you do that. I was coming anyway!” He put his shoes and jacket on and grabbed his backpack which had his Walkman and El’s letter in it and finally grabbed his breakfast, eating it on the way out and purposely shoves his side into her side to show her how pissed he was.

Just as they were walking out the door their mother started yelling, “Nancy Wheeler do not use your alpha voice on brother! Michael Wheeler do not shove your sister! -” The door slams shut.

“Remind me, when do they become reasonable human beings again?”

They are now in the car. Mike is in his headphones blasting his music coming from the Walkman and looking out the window. Nancy is driving, “are actually ignoring me?” She sighed, “Mike, are you serious?”

“I am not talking to you.”

“You are talking now.”

Mike glares at her. “You used your stupid alpha voice on me like some knothead. Do you know how shitty that feels?”

Nancy being an alpha does not understand. “Mike, it was an accident. I need to get to school on time for the newspaper since I am covering the pep rally.” She looked back over to him “but, you’re right. I don’t like it when other alphas challenge me. I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry.”

He seems to relax, and his scent mellows out a bit. He did not have energy to argue and was staring at something in his lap, it was the letter El wrote. Nancy decided to playfully tease her little brother, “you don’t seem to mind when El uses her alpha voice.” His cheeks turn bright red, and he tries to suppress a smile and hides his face, “that’s different.”

His annoying older sister using her alpha voice on him to be bossy and overprotective, and his girlfriend using her alpha voice to flirt and be sweet to him and protect him, are two very different things.

Mike likes when El uses her alpha voice and growls at him, he likes it a lot. He would never admit it though. It makes him weak in the knees ( literally ) and makes him feel like he is floating on a cloud. It makes him all hot and bothered. El knows this. She thinks it’s really cute. His scent gets sweeter, and his cheeks turn red, and he gets all dopey eyed and giddy and his knees start to shake.

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She would sit on his lap kissing and scenting him as he was being his nerdy goofy self, singing corny pop songs and she’d growl at him in a playful way to get him to stop so she could continue to kiss him. Which results in him giggling and getting an even bigger smile.

   “What you don’t like it?” 

“No,” shaking her head and giggling. 

“El?” 

She smirked teasing him using the lower timber of her voice, her alpha voice and her sweet yet mischievous smile. He is so sweet and dorky and cute and is hers. He is her boyfriend. He is her omega. He is her prince, who saves her and protects her. So, she would treat him one like, like she had seen in all the movies and TV shows. She has been watching too many soap operas and was forced to endure so many sci-fi and fantasy movies and books and comic books by the party.

She gets off his lap, takes his hands and continues, “you are safe with me, omega” He rarely feels hundred percent safe and like himself. He always feels like he has to protect and save everyone and put on a false façade and be the leader always.

‘Act like an alpha no one wants an omega who acts like a stereotype.’ ‘Bitch. Cunt. Knot tease. Stuck up. Dramatic. Uptight. Prude. Killjoy. Slut. Brat’  

‘Act like an omega nobody wants an omega who acts like an alpha.’ ‘Crybaby. Pussy-boy. Submissive. Fragile. Over-Emotional. Sensitive. Breeder. Spoiled. High Maintenance.’

He wants to be allowed to act like an omega. He likes being an omega. He just doesn’t want to be judged or shamed for it. He doesn’t want to be forced to act like stereotypical omega either. He doesn’t want to be an alpha or beta, he wants to be himself.

El and Will are the only people he can feel he can fully be an omega and himself around. He does wish his body was more predictable though, that would help a lot with his issues.

He melts. His cheeks flush, and the pupils of his big brown eyes are blown. He drops to his knees and feels so full of ecstasy and gets a bit shy. She keeps telling him, he is such a good omega. He is her sweet omega prince. He looks so handsome and sweet on his knees for her. She scents him and marks him and kisses him. His scent gets elevated, smelling like fresh sweet honeycomb and vintage books being opened. El scent elevates as well, smelling like fresh maple straight from the tree and firewood roasting. He can’t think straight. ‘El is such a good alpha.’ All he wants to do is please her, please his alpha and for her to touch him, for her scent to be all over him, for her to tell him he is good. His alpha cuddles him and he cuddles her back and turns into a happy purring mess. They both felt amazing. If anyone but El saw him like this he would simply die of embarrassment.

He later realizes that El accidentally put him into an omega drop and it felt amazing. She has used her alpha voice and growl on him to flirt before but they never triggered a full-blown drop. He had drops before and they were all horrible and disorienting and painful and unpredictable, it is part of the reason he has to take his medication. But this had felt like heaven.  

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If she uses her alpha voice and growl on him around other people, it is because both herself as a person and her alpha instincts take over and need to protect. It doesn’t help that Mike is the most self-sacrificing and has the least amount of self-preservation skills and is the least athletic in their pack and is extremely stubborn and sometimes doesn’t always have the best common sense. He is very smart but his common sense is seriously lacking.

He literally let El live in his basement when he first met her, even though she was a strange possibly feral alpha and said that bad people were after her. He tried to use a candle as a weapon once. He trips over his own two feet and is the slowest bike rider. He threw himself off a cliff to save Dustin’s baby teeth. He tried to throw himself in front of a monster.

El tried to use her alpha voice on Max once to protect her. Which surprised her. El is still learning what is socially acceptable and about the outside world. According to El, using your alpha was used for two reasons, well actually three reasons now.

One : challenging other alphas who may be dangerous.

Two : protecting your pack, mostly omegas because they are biologically more susceptible to listening and need to be protected according to ‘papa’.

Three : Mike gets really really happy. Which she likes a lot. He feels protected and turned on and wanted, like El is a superhero in a comic book.

“Mike is okay with it. He really likes it.”

She didn’t know that it was supposed to be private. She thought because Mike likes it and is okay with it, it would be okay. It was not. Max was not mad. She just explained that some omegas do not like and are not susceptible to it and some are and do like it. It depends on the person. Max personally did not like it because she was used to having alphas trying to control her unfortunately, so she built up a tolerance.

"Just because Mike likes it doesn’t mean everyone does." Just like in the Cosmo magazine Max stole from her mom expect way more pg-13. Mike was so embarrassed after that he didn’t want to see anyone but Will and promised nobody would bring it up and they didn’t.

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Nancy queried her eyebrow.

“Shut up. I hate you.” He was stewing and embarrassed. He did not want to talk about this with his alpha sister, even though he knew she was only teasing.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

They drive up to the school and Mike is immediately out, ignoring his sister and going to find his friends. The school was having a stupid pep rally in the gym first thing in the morning. He settles in on the bleachers next to Dustin Henderson and Maxine Mayfield, some of his best friends.

Dustin has been friends with him since the fourth grade when he moved to Hawkins, and they all discovered the wonders of dnd together. Mike and Max took awhile to warm up to each other, mostly because Mike hates change and thought she was stealing his friends away and that they liked her better than him. Their friends say they have trouble getting along sometimes because they are basically the same person, which they both resent.

Lucas Charles Sinclair, Mike had met Lucas during the first grade after Will introduced them. They have been best friends since. Currently Mike, Dustin and Max are watching him and the rest of the jocks gather around to bring school cheer. They started the ninth grade and Lucas had decided to join the basketball team.

Max is rolling her eyes as Dustin and Mike were bantering about who has a better girlfriend.

“Look, I'm not saying that my girlfriend is better than yours. It's just that Suzie's like a certified genius.”

“You do realize El saved the world twice, right?”

“And yet you still have a C in Spanish.”

Max sees Lucas wave to her, smiling. “Lucas manages to look cool around your nerdy asses and in those little shorts.”

“Are you lusting right now, Maxine? I for one am shocked. I thought you were a dignified woman.” Dustin gasps, fake scandalized.

“He is my boyfriend. I’ll lust as much as I please. El is cooler than all of you, anyway. So, it’s not a competition. Right, Mikey?” She added jokingly and went slightly elbow him when.

Mike is sitting down on the bleachers between Dustin and Max, and he is exhausted. He hates high school jocks. Jason Carver, the alpha basketball captain was droning on about death and tragedies that struck their town and turned them into an inspirational speech, despite the fact he was never a victim and didn’t know anyone who was a victim.

“Mike, buddy are you okay?” Dustin asked.

“I’m fine.” Mike is clearly not. He is holding his nose, trying to block out all the scents coming from the jocks most of which were alphas. His head is pounding. He knows he isn’t the only omega in the gym, everyone else seems fine. He wasn’t going to make a big deal about it. ‘Why aren’t my fucking meds working?’

Max and Dustin share a look and he notices their nostrils flare, looking like they are trying to smell him. ‘ Oh great, fantastic. I’m probably giving off the scent of a distressed omega and smell like rotten honey and burning books.’

“You can’t lie for shit, you know.” Max points out the obvious.

Dustin looks concerned for his friend, “you are covering your nose, Mike. Why are you covering your nose?”

‘Max is an omega so she might understand, and Dustin is an alpha but like a chill alpha not some alpha knothead who scents and spreads his pheromones everywhere.’ Before Mike could stop himself, the words came pouring out.

“I hate alphas jocks. They are stinking up the whole gym, it is giving me a fucking headache. They are making their scents stronger, just to show off I swear. What are you-”

Max is not a physically affectionate person. She is not a lovey dovey person. She hates how vulnerable it makes you.  

“I am scenting you dummy. What does it look like? You reek like a distressed omega.” She sits down as well making it easier to reach him because of their height difference and rubs her wrists onto Mike and then puts one of her arms on his shoulder. She smells like honey crisp apples and fresh soil. Dustin did not touch Mike because he didn’t want to cause more distress and Max does not like being scented.

“Geez, thanks. Like I didn’t already know that.”

Max rolls her eyes. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Alphas are terrible,” Max.

“Hey.” Dustin adds jokingly.

“Dustin and El are okay. I guess we can keep them. Either of you tell anyone about this, I know where you sleep.” Max half teases half threatens. That gets a soft smile out of Mike.

“Don’t worry Maxine, we won’t tell anyone you’re a big softie.” Dustin teases.

Mike hears Jason rattling off, “we embarrassed those candy-asses in their own house, and now tonight, tonight, we're gonna bring home the championship trophy!”

Dustin is shocked as well. “How is that possible?”

Max informs her two unathletic un-sporty friends, “they call it a tournament. You win one game; you go on until there's only one team left.”

Lucas caught up with them as they were walking to their first classes. “I don’t get what the big deal is. Just talk to Eddie. Get him to move Hellfire.”

“Just talk to Eddie.”

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September 1985

It was earlier in the school year. It was September 8 th , 1985. Edward ‘Eddie’ Munson is the king of the high school freaks and president of Hellfire, The Dungeons & Dragons club. He sees three freshmen sitting in the corner of the lunchroom keeping to themselves. Max had walked off after finishing her lunch and probably went off to skateboard and listen to her music outside. They were like lost nerdy little ducklings and Eddie decides to take them under his wing.

Eddie walks over to them looking super cool and suave, at least he does in Mike’s fourteen-year brain. He pulls up a chair to sit down with them and slams a poster on the table which reads ‘Hellfire Club.’ Mike looks down fidgeting with his fingers. Despite the fact Mike is very vocal in his little friend group he doesn’t really like interacting with a lot of other people. He likes his little group. Dustin reads the poster as Lucas inspects Eddie. Eddie just put on a very animated voice “Little nerds join on my quest to defeat a world unknown.”

Lucas protests, “we are not nerds.”

Eddie looks amused, “really because you are all sitting at this table alone. Your little skater friend left you. You’re dressed like a wannabe athlete, your buddy next to you is wearing a Weird Al shirt and the quiet one looks like his mommy bought his clothes.” Mike was wearing his pastel blue and pink color blocked collared shirt with his blue jeans and white sneakers.

Mike gave him an annoyed look and was about to speak before, “so this is a dnd club, right?” Dustin spoke.

Lucas, even though he was bothered at being called a nerd, he is now intrigued and takes a closer look at the poster.

Eddie's smile gets wider and sweet. “Why yes, young ones. Do you join me on my quest?”

Dustin gets super excited, they haven’t played dnd since Will and El left Hawkins. “Yes, I do.”

Eddie, “good. What be thy names young fellows?”

“Dustin Henderson.”

Even though Lucas thinks Eddie is a little weird and eccentric, he is excited. “Lucas Sinclair.”

Eddie now looks and points towards Mike, joking, “what about this little prince?”

The only people who call him that are his mom, dad, sisters, El and Will very occasionally. His friends will tease him about it sometimes. Strangers who don’t mean harm and bullies will call him that sometimes too. 

Mike rolls his eyes and blushes a little bit. He gets a better look at Eddie. He looks like a rock star with his long flowy hair and alternative fashion. At first he seemed scary but he has a soft reassuring smile. His scent smells of leather and lilacs which Mike could just inhale. He is so pretty and handsome. He looks over at his friends who give him a teasing look. He wants to play it cool.  

“I am not little, and I am not a prince.”

“Come on Mike you are kinda acting like a prince right now. Don’t be so dramatic, it will be fun. You’ve been so moody lately,” Dustin said.

“Yeah, Mike. Since Will and El left Hawkins you don’t leave your house. All you do is sit in your basement, in your nest and play Nintendo all day.”

“It is super depressing.”

Eddie being the curious person he is, “who are Will and El?”

Dustin having a non-filter and just wanting his friends to get along and play dnd. “I am sure Will won’t mind if we join a dnd club. He would want us to have fun and be happy. Oh, Will is one of our best friends. Mike has known him since kindergarten and El is his alpha and he is her omega. They moved to California.”

Mike kicks Dustin in the shins under the table.

“Ow, what was that for?” Mike ignores him.

Eddie ignoring that, “the first meeting is today after school in the drama room. Lucas and Dustin, you are coming?” They both agreed to come to Hellfire.

“What about you little prince?” Mike thought he was done with that. He chokes a little on his lunch and tries to clear his throat and his face gets pinker. Lucas and Dustin start giggling.

“It is Mike, Mike Wheeler.”

“Okay, Michael Wheeler, are you coming today?” Mike corked his eyebrows, “um sure. I guess?”

Eddie walks away as Lucas and Dustin tease Mike. “Are you enjoying your lunch, little prince?”

“Dude, you should see your face. You’re as red as a tomato.”

Mike is currently hiding his face in his hands, “I hate the both of you, so much.”

Mike is not close with many omegas, well other than his mom. There is Jonathan Byers, but he is the older brother of Will and boyfriend of his older sister. There is Steve Harrington, but he is the ex-boyfriend of his older sister and he acts more like a babysitter than a friend. Plus, Mike doesn’t have anything in common with either of them. There is Max but she is a girl not a boy, so it is different, and she likes to joke that she is basically a beta since she takes suppressants.

Even though Mike felt completely humiliated when he first met Eddie. He is happy he met him. Mike thinks he is amazing. He is hung over the moon for him. Mike smiles from ear to ear when he is around him. He feels safe around him.

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Mike is feeling a little better after leaving the gym and breathing in the fresh air. He really cares about Lucas, but he was also really looking forward to dnd. It has been the only of the few things that has been bringing him joy lately. So maybe he gets a little bit defensive.

He really doesn’t want to be in a hot sweaty gym with a bunch of alpha pheromones. “Why don’t you just talk to your coach and get him to move the game?”

“I think that is a great idea, Mike.”

“Thank you, Dustin.”

Lucas is frustrated with both of them. “This is the championship game.”

Dustin, “And this the end of Eddie’s campaign. A semester of adventuring has led to this moment, and we need you.”

Mike, “yeah and the tigers don’t. You’ve been on the bench all year.” Mike does not understand why Lucas would want to be a part of a group that doesn’t want him. They bully him. Mike and Dustin want Lucas around them even if they get into little fights sometimes.

Lucas, “That’s not the point.”

Dustin, “please, arrive at the point.”

Mike suddenly feels like he is not a part of the conversation, it gets quiet. His vision gets a bit hazy and his eyes well up.

‘He is getting bullied again, worse than before. I don’t blame them. He brings it on himself. He acts like such a bitch but he is a total pillow prince. The only reason I put up with him is because of Will and I don't want him to end up in the hospital. I just feel bad. He pretends to be tough, but he is not.’

‘Yeah total. He says friends don't lie and then he pretends he is so tough. He cries so much and gets down on his knees for El. That is not tough. No wonder all the other alphas can't keep their eyes off of him. And have you seen the way he looks at Eddie? They are saying he is a queer, a heat switcher. Do you really want Mike around with those rumors? He will bring the whole room down, look at him. He looks like he’s gonna puke and is going to take all the attention away from you.’

Mike blinks and he is back to reality. He feels his eyes well up, trying not to cry and realizes he was just imagining things and pretends he is fine.

Lucas sighs. “If I get in good with these guys, I'll be in the popular crowd, and then you guys will be too.”

“Has it ever occurred to you that we don't want to be popular?” His nose starts bleeding and suddenly felt himself getting wet between his legs. ‘No, no, no. I had my heat three weeks ago. I’m not supposed to have my period for another week. It is a good thing I'm wear by dark jeans. Why aren’t my god damn meds not working.’

Lucas, “you wanna be stuck with the nerds and freaks for three more years?”

Dustin, “we are nerds and freaks.”

“But maybe we don't have to be. Look, I'm tired of being bullied. I'm tired of girls laughing at us. I'm tired of feeling like a loser. We came to high school wanting things to be different. Right? So now we have that chance. I skip tonight, that's all out the window. So I'm asking you guys, as a friend, just talk to Eddie. Get him to move Hellfire. Come to my game.”

Mike feels eyes on him. Maybe Lucas is right. ‘Fuck I really need to get to the bathroom. Hopefully it is just spotting or maybe it is sweat or discharge. I’ll try to convince Eddie to move Hellfire during lunch. Don’t fucking cry, don't fucking cry. Boys don’t cry, boys don't cry. Your friends don't hate you, your friends don't hate you.’

Chapter Text

Chapter Three:

Mike locks himself in one of the stalls in the boy’s bathroom. One bright side, his period did not come early, it was a false alarm and his nose stopped bleeding before anyone took notice. Thank god since he couldn’t find any pads in his backpack. He is supposed to meet Ms. Kelly since it is his free period, but maybe reading the letter El had written to him will make him feel better and he can finish it before the bell rings. It is stacked in his mess of a backpack with unfinished poems for English class and letters to Will. He really wishes Will sent him some letters. He plays his music. 

Dear Mike,

Today is day 185. Feels more like ten years. Joyce says time is funny like that. Emotions can make it speed up or slow down. We are all time travelers if you think about it. This week is going very fast. I think because I am so busy. I have to make something called a visual aid. I hope Mrs. Gracey will give me an A.

El has been telling him all about her life in Lenora. She seems to be happy and is making friends and finding her passions. Mike is happy for her even though he misses her.

Did you get the stuffed dragon in the mail, I made it myself? Will says they are your favorite make-believe animal. It was really fun making it. Do you like it? Did you get it in time for your heat? I know you have really bad ones and it could bring you comfort. Maybe you can put it in your nest. 

Three Weeks & One Day Earlier:

His mom yelled, “Michael, sweetheart you have mail!” He came up from downstairs to see her holding a box address to him. He proceeds to open it with a pair of scissors and what is revealed is a cute, soft and fluffy toy dragon with little wings and a heart on its stomach. It is red, orange and brown with big blue eyes. Inside the rest of the box is a piece of paper saying “love El” and it smells like her and a light hint of the Byers. He blushed slightly. He misses them so much.

“Who is from?” His mom asked. 

“It is from El.” 

She actually saw what it was. “Oh, sweetheart. You got your first courting gift and it looks handmade.”

He tried to argue with his mom before she literally took their polaroid camera out, like whenever she thinks he looks handsome and adorable and hits a milestone. He is wearing a dark blue sweater and black sweatpants with white socks and feels a bit hazy and wants to lay back in his nest. He does not think he looks handsome or cute or whatever his mom thinks.“You know I hate having my picture taken and I’m in pre-heat. I really don’t want my picture taken.” 

“Sweetheart, your pre-heat is nothing to be embarrassed about. It is perfectly natural and normal, nobody will know just by looking at the photos. This is a big milestone and you look so handsome with that little dragon. My sweet prince is getting his first courting gift.” She snapped a few photos. Can he please die? His family is always extra sensitive when he is in his pre-heat and heat. Even his dad is more gentle. His mom uses pet names more often and is more affectionate and has to take care of him. It makes him feel like a little kid.

Mike groaned. “Mom, it’s not a courting gift. We’ve been dating for a while.” 

“Ted, come here look, Michael got his first courting gift. Isn’t that exciting? Pup, can you please smile for me and stop making that face?”

Some exciting news. Joyce got an amazing new job. She gets to work at home. She says she loves freedom.

Mike is glad she has a better job and is no longer struggling. People in Hawkins always thought she was strange and struggling. He is a bit annoyed because her new job is clogging up the phone line and he can’t reach Will. Eventually he started giving up.

Will is painting a lot, but he won't show me what he's working on. Maybe it is a courting gift. I think there is someone he likes because he has been acting weird.

Mike felt a pance in his chest and frowned slightly at the letter. Will has only ever made art for him, he has his artwork from the years ago. The thought of Will making artwork for him made him blush, not someone Will has known for less than a year. They don’t deserve it. Not when Mike has always been there for him. Or maybe he doesn’t deserve it after how he treated Will like shit over the summer. 

He thinks of him and Will in his basement coming up with dnd campaigns. Mike would write it out and Will drew all the characters and animals and landscapes. Mike kept all the drawings in a binder.

He brushes it off. 

He does think it was a little strange, courting usually doesn't happen until after a person presents. Will has yet to present unlike the rest of the party. Will is probably getting annoyed he hasn’t presented, he is almost fifteen.

Sometime In 1982

El presented as an alpha when she was still at the lab, really young at age eleven. It was sometime during 1982. She didn’t really tell him what happened.

-----

June 1985

Max presented as an omega a little bit after middle school graduation while she was at the Star Court with everyone. They were going to get ice cream and see a movie but that fell through. Her and Mike got closer but more petty with each other as well, mostly because Mike is stubborn and is not very good at picking up on social cues. He thought Max thought she was so cool and was trying to steal El and everyone away. 

She started getting overwhelmed by all the scents and got tired. She was not happy. Mike was not happy. Mike was pushed into the girl’s bathroom and had to console her even though he is a boy. He was standing outside the stall, very uncomfortable. He was getting looks from the women and girls until someone mumbled, “he’s omega. He’s not gonna do anything.” Which annoyed him, him being an omega doesn’t make him any less of a boy. But at least that got some eyes off of him and people started to leave until it was empty.    

“Are you okay?”

“Seriously, Mike.”

“Okay, right. Stupid question. Um,” god this was so awkward. He cringed and talked quieter, “are you bleeding?”

“Mike!”

“I am trying to help and you’re acting like a baby! I am in the girl's bathroom because of you. I was getting weird looks. Do you think I want to be here? I can leave but don’t come crying to me when you bleed through your pants.”

“Fine! Yes.”

He went rummaging through his bag. He grabbed something to give Max under the stall. “Here.”

She was quiet for a moment.

“It is a pad. You open it and put the sticky part on your underwear. It is made for boys so I don't know how well it will work for you but it is better than nothing.”

“I know what a pad is. I’m not stupid. How is it different from girl pads?”

Mike rolled eyes. “Max, do you really want me to explain basic biology to you?”

“You know you don’t have to be dick.” She came out of the stall after she was done. 

“Exactly! You don’t have a dick.” He jokes trying to get a smile from her and chill her out.

She didn't know whether to laugh or roll her eyes. She groans “ you boys are so gross.” She went to wash her hands and pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. 

“You’re the one who asked.” He grabbed something to hand her. “Here, take these.” She gave him a look. “Geez you’re so paranoid. They’re just painkillers.” She grabs her water bottle from her bag and takes them from him. “Other than you know, how are you feeling okay?” 

“Um, I’m kinda tired and my stomach hurts. The scents are giving me a headache.” She looked embarrassed and flushed. Mike kicked his foot back and forth and spoke up, “um I don’t hate so you don’t have to be embarrassed. If it makes you feel better I was way worse when I presented.” 

Mike was being caring and it was weird. “I thought I was a beta. I feel angry and kinda want to cry. Do you ever wish you were a beta or alpha?”

Oh fuck, Mike does not know how to handle this. Maybe he should hug her but she is not a very touchy person. He tries to be as gentle as he can. “Um, no. The idea of being a beta or alpha makes me wanna cry. But um, if you really feel that way there are suppressants and scent blockers and maybe some other stuff you can do.” She looks down. They are sitting on the ground. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. It can be overwhelming. Some people know right away and feel comfortable and some need time. You’re still the same person. Um, I can call my mom to pick us up and we can hang out at my house. She’ll understand. If you want I’ll even let you chill in my nest, betas and alphas like nests too and I have some comic books with omega superheroes too, if you wanna check them out.”

She looked confused by his kindness and understanding, they always had a weird relationship and the fact he likes being an omega. She usually only hears and sees the negative parts of being an omega. “Wait, you actually like being omega and you aren’t just going to take me home?”

Now he looked confused. Max doesn’t have an easy homelife, why in the hell would she want to go there when she was presenting and vulnerable? And what the hell does him being an omega have to do with her? “Yes, Max I do. There’s nothing wrong with being an omega, even if some people are jerks. Do you really want to go home?”  

“No, I don’t. I know there’s nothing wrong with being an omega, I just-”

Mike interrupted her. He was on his feet and helped her up. “Max, it is fine. I know what you mean..” They left the bathroom to find their friends and a payphone.

August 1985

Lucas had presented as a beta towards the end of summer when they were swimming at the pool. He suddenly could smell everything and the world looked brighter and bigger. He had to be picked up by his parents because he was getting too excited and overwhelmed. It felt like a light cold, he wasn’t too upset and he was happy to be a beta even though preferred to be an alpha after all both his parents who he loves are beta so it had sense.   

October 1985

Dustin presented as an alpha the week of Halloween which he was pretty upset about. But he was very happy because by actually Halloween he fully presented and could be his nerdy self. He vowed to be the perfect alpha geltman and wasn’t ass about it. Which wasn’t surprising. Everyone actually thought Lucas would have been an alpha and Dustin a beta with Lucas’s athleticism and protectiveness and Dustin being chill and overly rational. 

Jonathan is acting weird also. I think he is just nervous about college. He is still waiting for his big letter. I hope he and Nancy get to go together. But I don't know how he'll get to college because his car is still broken. His funny friend Argyle has been taking us to school. His hair is longer than mine. And he and Jonathan like to smoke smelly plants together. Jonathan says the plants are super safe because they come from the earth, but to not tell Joyce.

Mike never pictured Jonathan as one to smoke weed although given what he has been through Mike doesn’t blame him. Him and Nancy are super gross together and Mike used to tease Nancy about it. He is happy that Jonathan made a friend even though he was never close with Will’s brother. He was always a bit of a loner.

Me? I am twice as happy now. You were right. It just takes time. I think I have finally adapted. I even like school now. I am still the best at math, but my grammar is getting good now also. It helps that everyone is so nice here. I have made lots of friends. Even so, I am ready for spring break, mostly because I get to see you. I am so excited to see you, it is hard to breathe. Are you excited too? I think we will have the best spring break ever. Miss you.

He is proud of El. She has been through a lot and deserves a happy and normal life. Lenora seems better than Hawkins. If you were different or people thought you were different you got bullied. He is excited to meet her new friends. He does miss her. But what if she finds someone who is better than him? She’ll find someone sweeter and stronger and not a total nerd, someone who isn’t broken. Someone who isn’t a freak. She is a real superhero while he plays pretend at it. 

Love, El.

He can’t say those three little words. He cares about El but….. He can’t think about this right now. 

The bell rings. If he misses his meeting with the guidance counselor, she is going to call his parents. He shoves it into his backpack and rushes out the door, only to bump into Troy.

Chapter Text

Chapter Four:

Troy Walsh has bullied Mike and his friends throughout their elementary and middle school years and to this day he continues.

‘Fuck, fuck, fuck.’ He can feel Troy staring down at him with his nauseating alpha scent. It makes him want to gag. The contents of his book-bag falling out and to the ground: folders, notebooks, books, pencils, pens, highlighters, a Spider-Man comic, a half eaten Kit-Kat, a pad he had been searching for, pages of unfinished english class poems, letters to and from El and letters to Will. He stupidly didn’t keep home or put into a folder. Troy spotted the comic, rolling his eyes. In his mind creating characters like these gives omegas the wrong idea. He likes his omegas when they are cute, sweet and submissive which Mike is not. Well he can be but only if he is in the mood, is with the right person and feels safe and he most definitely does not feel safe around Troy.

He wants to break and provoke Mike. He sees him on his knees picking up his fallen belongings. Troy roughly pulls the headphones off of Mike. “You think you could be a hero, breeder? Last time you almost killed yourself and had your runt of girlfriend save you. You are nothing but a nerdy scrawny bitchy crybaby pussy-boy.”

Mike is really good at sticking up for his friends and loved ones to the point of starting fights, but he fails miserably at standing up for himself. He is trying to shove all his stuff back in. He says firmly, “Troy, I am not in the mood, leave me alone.”

“You think I’m scared of someone reeking like a depressed omega and who is built like a twig.” Whilst Mike had a massive growth spurt over the summer growing to around five ten-ish, he has not put on any muscle. He is small compared to Troy, who has new muscles and is around six one. 

He starts laughing, “are these love letters, poems? Frogface, who knew you were such a prince?”

Mike tries to ignore him. He rips the rest of the pages out of the hands of Troy and puts them in his backpack. He desperately hopes that Troy did not see the ones written for Will. Mike has been in deep denial about his feelings for Will but the more time is separated from him and the more times he spills his thoughts on paper the less he can deny it. 

Will, his best friend since kindergarten. He is kind, creative, tough, sarcastic, strong and smart. Will with his chestnut hair you could run your fingers through and beautiful hazel eyes and a smile and laugh to die for and the hands of an artist always covered in paint or crayons or graphite which made their way onto Mike’s hands when they were little and held hands. 

The bullies would make fun of them for their closeness. They would speculate about their secondary genders. They would call them queers. They would call them breeders. Mike did fit into some of the stereotypes but he did and currently shows legitime signs of being an omega. 

Mike has always been a very sensitive, emotional kid with big emotions. He only in the past few years has tried to suppress them. He cried and clung to his mother’s legs on the first day of kindergarten and begged her to keep him home for another year. “Mommy, I don’t want to go. I just want to play and stay home with you. Please, I’m a good boy.”  

They tend to start nesting at a very young age, leading to being very touchy with their friends and carrying around comfort objects for longer than their peers. Mike has the whole basement to himself which is essentially a big giant nest with a smaller nest inside. He does not like anyone messing with it or moving his things, which usually leads to the silent treatment. 

He carried around his stuffed cat with him everywhere up until one day in fourth grade when it had been thrown into a pile of mud during recess and then he was pushed into it as well. 

They were jerring “ only omega babies carry stuffed toys.” 

“Are you an omega baby?” 

“Do you need to nest to calm down, breeder?” 

“Do you need your mommy’s scent to calm down?” He had been caked in mud and his bottom lip trembled and eyes watered. “ Are you going to cry, little frog prince?” 

Will held his hand as he walked him to the nurses office and stayed with him until his mom came to pick him. “ They're just jerks, don't listen to them. Tabby is awesome and omegas are cool. You know my mom makes the best nests and smells like chocolate and cinnamon.”  

The stuffed toy was caked in mud. “They ruined him.”  

“I’m sure your mom can get the mud out, don’t worry. He will be good as new.” 

“Can I have a hug?” Will hugged him even though he was covered in mud and crying. “It's okay, Mikey. You’re my bestest friend.”   His mom did manage to get most of the mud out but to this day on his bed it sits with little specs stained onto it, like freckles. 

That was the second to last time they held hands. His parents suspected his omega gender. His mom suggested he put it in his book-bag instead of just leaving the toy at home to avoid bullying and his dad was surprisingly gentle about the incident. “Michael, pup. How about we keep our kitty in our backpack instead? We don’t want him to get dirty again.” 

“Michael, buddy you’re too big to be carrying a stuffed toy around. Let’s be a good little prince and leave him at home. Okay? ” That was the last time the stuffed cat was seen outside his house. That day was never talked about again. He does still keep the toy hidden in his backpack during sleepovers.  

Pre-presented omegas tend to act like little leaders in their pup packs but don’t really like interacting with people outside of it. Mike loves his friends but being forced to interact with others makes him angry and anxious. He sticks up for his friends but never himself. He always makes sure everyone is safe, has eaten and had water. 

It became a lot more obvious when El all showed up because she had already been presented as alpha before they met and Mike had a massive supersized crush on her you could spot from a mile away. It was kinda cute and kinda annoying. He got super blushy when she used her alpha voice and called her a superhero. “Did you just use your alpha voice? It sounds really cool.” 

He had acted like a little omega parent to her. He made her a very nice nest to sleep in with stuffed animals included. “You can sleep with my teddy. My mom is an omega and scented him for me. Um, I heard omega scents help alphas, maybe he can help you.” 

“Thank you for nest.” She had thought he built her a nest to sleep and chose not to correct her. He gave her some warm clothes, made sure she had food and water and did everything in his power to keep her safe even though it started fights with his friends. 

There was the whole thing with not wanting Max in the party and now in high school he still does not want to interact with others. Miss Kelley thinks he might have social anxiety and needs more omega-omega friendships which he thinks is the biggest load of bullshit he has ever heard. He does not have social anxiety, his friends say that he can never shut up and he has plenty of omega friends being Max and Eddie. 

Will did not really have significant signs of being an omega. The only person he was really touchy with was Mike. He was not really sensitive or emotional despite what people said. He does care about people but that is different.

Will puts up with him and his many antics and flaws. He lets Mike ramble on and on about fantasy worlds and would make the most beautiful art based on it. 

He let him ride on the back of his bike until he learned how to ride. He didn’t mind that Mike has two left feet and it took him longer to learn, even though he still teases him about being a slow poke. 

Will who would sometimes throw a game of dig dug because it is the one game Mike is terrible at and otherwise he would never win. 

Will who insisted Mike stay with him when he was presenting, despite just being rescued from the upside-down and held his hand. That was the last time they held his hand.

Will, who somehow still cares about Mike even when he is acting like a shitty friend all summer, barely sends him letters or calls and ignores him in favor of El. Deep down he knows the reasonings. He is in love with his best friend.

July 1985

Mike was running late to meet up with his friends, well he is always late so it is no big surprise. Will, Lucas and Max were waiting for him, as he was biking from spending the day with El. His heat ended early in the morning, so he wanted to be with her. He is always a bit hormonal and clingy for a few days after his heat, which El didn’t mind. If anything she enjoyed it because it meant non stop kissing, holding hands, cuddling, scenting and marking as long as they didn’t get caught and his giggle and scent are so much louder and sweeter. She loves to hear it and inhale it. Usually he spends his heats cuddled up in his nest with his mom. He hasn't yet reached the age where he can or wants to be left alone during his cycles, not that he would admit after all he insists he is grown up. Even though he still plays with toys, sleeps with his stuffed cat and nightlight and has a bedtime which won’t go away no matter how much he tries to convince his parents he doesn't need one. He was fourteen after all. 

Heats are typically three to seven days and happen about every two months and are followed by menstruation about four weeks later, if not impregnated. While heat cycles increase sex drive and want for their mate, they are not always romantic and sexual. Heat cycles can be very sweet and innocent with lots of nesting, cuddling and scenting with loved ones and need to be kept fed and hydrated especially for young omegas. As young omegas have a more difficult time taking care of themselves during their heats because they are prone to more physical and emotional pain and need a lot of affection due to their bodies, hormones and brains not being fully developed and settled. 

Symptoms of heats may include: haziness, drowsiness, thirst, restlessness, mood swings, being emotional/sensitive, clinginess, cuddliness, nesting, scenting, increase in slick and discharge (this is one of the most physically obvious signs that heat is coming. Pads are used to avoid leaks and discomfort. They are also used two to three days before and after heat to avoid accidents from happening.) increase in libido, pain and sensitivity in nether regions, scenting glands and bonding glands, stronger and sweeter scent, stronger and more sensitive sense of smell and body temperature runs warmer. 

El tried sneaking in to see him but untimely failed. Unlike Hopper, Karen did not yell at El. She explained why she couldn’t see Mike and called Hopper to pick her up. While El was in the car Karen went full mama bear on Hopper yelling at him. “Hopper, you got angry at Michael for kissing El, but didn’t stop her coming to see him during his heat. Do you know what a fourteen year old is like during heat? I do not want any alphas around him right now and if you use your alpha voice around my son you will regret it.” 

Mike, Will, Lucas and Max are planning to sneak into the theater to see Back To The Future at the new mall in town Starcourt.

Lucas was annoyed and curious. “You’re late.”

“Sorry.”

“Again.”

Will was also annoyed, “we’re going to miss the opening.”

Mike being his dramatic self, “yeah, if you guys keep whining about it. Let’s go.” 

Lucas said making kissy faces and noises, “let me guess-you were busy.”

“Oh, real mature, Lucas.” 

“Oh, El, I wish we could make out forever, and never hang out with any of our friends. Oh, El will you scent me? Oh, El, will you be my mate? Oh, El, will you please claim me? Seriously dude, I haven’t even presented yet I can still smell her scent all over you.”

Max, “Lucas, stop it.”

“Will thinks it's funny.”

“Because it is.”

“Yeah, it's so funny I want to spend romantic time with my girlfriend.”

------

“I don’t even understand. Why lie?”

“Hopper. He threatened me.” 

“Did he say he’ll kill you?”

“What? No!”

“So then, what’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is, if I don’t do what he says, then he’ll stop me from seeing El. Like, permanently. You don’t understand, Lucas. He’s crazy.  He’s lost his mind. He used his alpha voice on me and growled.”

“Hey, guys, I’m almost done setting up here.”

“I had no choice, Lucas. I really had no choice.”

“He used his alpha voice and growled. He knows you're an omega, right?”

“Yes, Lucas. It's pretty obvious, it's not like I hide it and no way would I be allowed to date his alpha daughter if  he thought I wasn’t.”

“What he did was a dick move. I just wished you consulted me first, because the way you handled it, you’re in deep shit. I'm not gonna lie, it's gonna be bad. But… you can fix this. It's just one little mistake. I've made hundreds, thousands. Max has dumped me five times. But what have I done? Huh? Have I despaired? No. I've marched back into battle, and I've won her back every single freaking time.”

“How?”

“Come one, I’ll show you.”

“Guy, wait! I’m still here! Guys?”

-------

“Excuse me, sir.”  Mike saw a small little shiny bear and smiled. It would be perfect for El. She has a collection of stuffed animals. He pointed at it. “ How much for this teddy bear right here?”

“Three hundred. But, aren’t we a little young to be courting? Did you make your alpha mad and need forgiveness, little prince? Did nobody teach omegas court by hand making or cooking or writing a poem? You might actually be able to afford that.”      

“Three hundred?”

“I should've shoved that teddy bear right up his…”

----

“Hey, Mike. Check this out.”

“What is it?”

“It is supposed to make you smell like you’re in heat and make you irresistible to alphas aka El.”

“Lucas, I’m not using that.”

“But, don’t alphas get super turned on by heat. If you smell like that she’ll probably forgive you and want to jump your bones and you’ll be back together, easy.”

“Yeah, and every other alpha who says they can’t control their urges and stop saying heat so much. We’re in public. You realize that is like,” he said the next thing quietly “a sex thing right? It says 18 plus on the bottle and if I go to El smelling like that, Hopper will kill me and if I go home smelling like that my mom will think I left the house in heat and freak out.”

Lucas accidentally sprays it in Mike's face causing him to inhale it and start coughing.

---------

Mike’s scent was light and breezy and softened his voice trying to lighten the mood. “We're here to get a gift for you. Just, we couldn't find anything that suited you and I only have, like, $3.50, so it's hard.”

Lucas backed him up, “super hard. It's... It's expensive.”

El was soft when she spoke “You lie. Why do you lie?” Her scent soured. She waited for a response. She saw the bus and then looked back to Mike getting inpatient and glared. Her voice reached a lower timber as if she was using her alpha voice and let out a growl. She didn’t mean to, sometimes hard for young alphas to control their growl and alpha voice when they are overwhelmed with emotions. “I dump your ass.” She hopped off to the bus. El has never used her alpha voice or growl on him like that out of anger and in front of anyone. If she did use them on him around others it was her being protective so this was a bit of a shock to everyone. Max followed after her with her jaws dropped.  

Growling and using your alpha voice on a romantic partner is supposed to be used to protect or in private to initiate intimacy, so using them at your omega partner while angry and in public is a big no no. 

Mike watched El walk off. He dropped his bike. Before he could stop himself he started mewling and felt a bit shaky in his knees, felt Lucas and Will a lot closer to him. Once he came to his senses he saw that he had fallen knees first to the concrete and now has teary eyes and bloody skinned knees. Lucas and Will sitting criss-cross applesauce next to him, they had tried to stop him from falling but failed.  

“Shit.”

Lucas was concerned for his friend. “Dude, you went down hard. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine” Mike said even though he winced. 

Will and Lucas got up and shared a look. Then Will looked back at Mike and spoke gently to him and reached out to help him up. “Um, let’s get you cleaned up.”

Mike looked up to Will. “Will, I am fine.”

His mom and brother are omegas so they have taught him a lot about it. But Will was getting a bit agitated with Mike ignoring him and not listening to him. “Really, Mike you dropped to your knees, skinned your knees and started mewling and crying and went into an omega drop because your alpha got mad at you, which wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t lied to her and we were playing dnd like you promised.”  

Mike wasn’t fully out of his drop. Will is mad at him too. His eyes started to water again and he hid his face in his knees and tried to keep from sobbing. 

Will is sweet and kind. Him and Mike who have been attached at the hips for most of their lives and he just made Mike cry. Lucas knows Will is frustrated with them but, “Will, what the hell? You were supposed to make it better, not worse. His heat ended like less than a day ago, you know how he gets.” Mike mumbled under his breath but it went unheard. Lucas went over to his friend. Lucas comes from a family of betas so he doesn’t excitedly know who to comfort an omega in drop. Max just presented less than a month ago and doesn’t like being treated like an omega. But he knows what Mike is like.

“Mike, it's okay. El, just needs some space and Will is not mad at you. I bet we can convince Steve to give us free ice cream and then we can go back to your nest and call El. Please don’t cry.”

“I’m n-no-t cr-y-ying. I’m a-a-a ba-bad om-om-ega.”

Lucas and Will's eyes become wide open. Mike does not get like this. It has been a while since he got like this, especially in public. “Mike, you are not bad. You just made a mistake. You are good. You are the best omega. You always make the best nests and let us hang out in them. You alway have the best food and make sure everyone has eaten and had water. I haven’t presented but I know you smell sweet. You have a massive heart. You’re a total prince but, in a good way.” That made Mike blush a bit. Will hugged Mike. “I was just annoyed, I wanted to play dnd. Um, can you stand? We need to get those scratches cleaned or they’ll get infected.” He helped him up. 

They dragged him to Scoops Acoy. Luckily there weren’t many people there. “No. No. No. I’m okay now. Let’s go back to my house.” 

“Dude, you are bleeding and they have a first aid kit. Do you really want to ride back home with blood on your knees?”

“Hey, Dingus, your pups are here.”

“Again? Seriously? Wait, what happened?” He motioned to Mike. 

“Nothing happened, Lucas and Will are being dramatic.”Mike said glaring at his friends. 

Robin and Steve shared a look. Steve motioned them to the back and Mike was forced to follow his friends in what looked like a break room. Steve, being forced to be their babysitter in the past, takes charge seeing Mike’s red face and bloody knees. Pointing to a mental chair as he grabs the first aid kit. “Sit, Wheeler. Why are all of you always dragging me into your problems?” Silence. He sat down in front of Mike, getting cotton balls and rubbing alcohol. “I am not a little kid, I can do it myself.”

“Really, because you seemed to have been dragged here against your will. Now, will someone tell me what happened? I’m waiting.”

“Mike dropped like a sack of potatoes.”

“Lucas!” Mike winced, “ow, that stings!” Steve continues to clean the wounds ignoring the protests.

“What do you mean he dropped? How did you trip this bad Wheeler? I know you're a klutz but really.”

Mike kept his lips pursed together, clearly he wasn’t going to say anything. Steve took some neosporin and put on the cleaned up knees. 

“Um, no. Uh, he had an omega drop.” Will spoke up softly.

Steve is still confused, as there are two types of drops. 

The most common drop are hormonal drops,which is trigged by a romantic and/or sexual partner and can make an omega extremely happy and extremely submissive (although, it depends on the omega. Some get very dominant and some stay somewhere in the middle as neutral.) 

The second type of drops are spontaneous drops and are pretty rare. They are most common with young omegas in the beginning of presenting and are outgrow most of the time. If experienced more than a year after presenting there might be unlying physical and/or mental health conditions. So logically it makes sense it would be the first option which made Steve feel pretty awkward as an adult.   

Steve finishes patching Mike up. “Um, kid. I don't want to know what you’re into. But um don't go into omega space in public. Okay, no matter how sexy it sounds, you could get into a lot of trouble and danger and maybe don’t kneel on concrete.”

That makes the room go completely silent. Mike turns bright red. ‘Can he just kill himself now?’ 

Will can clearly see his friend is embarrassed. “Um, no. Mike had a bad drop. Not one of those. El, she got angry at him and used her alpha voice and growled.” 

“She didn’t mean to. I-” Steve was using a flashlight to shine into Mike’s eyes. “Follow the light.” 

“What are you doing?”

“Your pupils are blown. When did your last heat end?” 

“None of your business.”

“Yesterday.”

“Lucas, seriously! How do you even know that?!”

“Dude, you don’t leave your house for a week every two months. It's not that hard to figure out and your dad told us when we tried to come over. He was very annoyed as always” 

“Why is it even important?” He was getting annoyed. “And when did you decide to become a doctor?”

Steve ignored the rude comment. “That's probably why you dropped so hard, your hormones are messing with you. Instincts tend to be heightened during and a little before and after it. Some omegas want to please their alphas when they're in heat and get submissive without realizing. You should be fine. But if they get more of them, you need to tell your mom and go to the doctor. They can be very dangerous and omegas that have these kinds of drops are more likely to be abused and attacked.”

“El is not going to hurt me. She isn’t abusive.”

“You think you’re going to get married? Kid, the likelihood of ending up with your high school sweetheart is slim and it is even more slim to end up with your middle school sweetheart. Life changes. You’re like thirteen. Are you going to be okay getting home?”

“I am fourteen. We should be fine.” Will and Lucas tried to argue with him but it didn’t work. Once they got back to Mike's basement, they tried to be gentler with him so as to not trigger him. He was not having it. “We are never talking about this again.”  

“Maybe you should tell your mom.”

“No.” He did not want to talk about it. 

“You don’t have to be embarrassed. It is not like you could help it. You heard what Steve said.” His mom and Jonathan said it is okay if they are very very rare and says he should treat someone in a drop gentle and respectful way. That hormonal drops in an environment and with a partner you feel safe with are normal and healthy however crying, calling yourself names and hurting yourself in a drop is not. 

“Just drop it. I presented almost three years ago, I think I know my own body better than Steve.” Changing the subject, “I just don’t understand what did I wrong? What did I do wrong with El?”

“Mike, stop. Relax. Just relax. Okay? Stop asking rational questions.”

“I know, I know, you're right.” 

“Yeah.”

“Because women act on emotion and not logic.”

“Precisely. It's a totally different species.”

El at the moment was spying on the boys with Max encouraging her. 

“They say we are "species."

Max said, confused. “What?”

"Emotion, not logic."

She now understood and got angry. “What?”

“Guys, it's ready.”

“Will, not right now.”

“They broke up with you. What else is there to talk about?”

“Tons.”

“Yeah, we're trying to solve the great mystery of the female species.”

“El is an alpha girl. Max is an omega girl but acts like a beta, Dustin is obviously going to be a beta and Will and I are going to be alpha.”

“You think I am an alpha?” This surprised Will. His whole life he was called a breeder and a queer all because he minds his own business and did not like violence and he was the creative type and did not come from the most well off family. He was gentle and sweet and never raised a hand to anyone. 

“You always play alphas characters in dnd. You can build stuff and shoot a gun, that is alpha shit. All the beta and omega girls and omegas boys swoon over you all time. You give off the artsy mysterious kid vibe, that is totally alpha energy and you haven’t even presented yet. The only people who think you’re an omega are knotheads. You probably haven’t noticed because Mike is the only omega you pay attention to.” 

Mike thinks Will is an omega. He had been called all the same slurs. Will is all the things Mike is not. Will is sensitive but not a cry-baby. He is opinionated but not loud or dramatic. He is quiet but is always articulate when he has to speak. He is creative but not a mess with papers and supplies everywhere. He is protective but not overbearing. He is sweet like sugar.     

Will’s cheeks turn pink. Changing the subject quickly “ Can we play d&d now?” 

They did not. The boys hung out with each other without really saying anything. They ate pizza and wings. They watched The Breakfast Club for the millionth time. They were planning a sleepover so they all had a set of clean clothes. Lucas had taken a shower and ended up falling asleep on the couch. It was already dark outside. 

Will decided to shower and frankley getting clean was nice, he was still strewing and letting off some steam a bit after he got out until he saw Mike nesting. Nesting is comforting, especially on a difficult day. Mike had taken a shower earlier to not get his nest dirty. 

“Mike, is it okay if I come in?” Will asked about the fort like nest. You never enter a nest without permission. It had multiple layers of pillows and blankets and stuffed animals and a pack of playing cards and a few books and comics and a bottle of painkillers hidden under one of the pillows and fairy lights which Will didn't know how Mike managed to hang. 

“Yeah.” Will crawled into it on his knees to get inside. It looked even prettier up close. “Is it okay if I sleep in here?” The nest was big enough for more than one person.  

When they were little when Mike would sleep over he would make nests with the help of Will and that is where they would sleep because they were always very cozy and comfy. He hasn’t done it since the mindflayer, it is almost like he was embarrassed. 

“Um, yeah. If you want. It just hasn't been washed yet, so it smells a little like heat.” He looked down avoiding Will’s gaze. “I can get clean-” 

He was interrupted by a reassuring Will, “it is okay. I don’t mind.” 

The lights were put out. “Oh, okay. Are you comfortable?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Well, goodnight.” 

“Night.” Will did not mind that they had a long day. They are going to play dnd tomorrow. 

The Next Day

Will was wearing his Will The Wise costume. Lucas was already awoken by him. He was upstairs having a nice conversation and eating with Mrs. Wheeler while it was Will’s job to wake Mike. Music from what sounded like medieval times played. Will woke Mike up gently and poked his cheek when he wouldn’t wake up. Mike turned away from him. “Will, can you please turn it off?” “Address me by my full name Will The Wise.”  

“ Will the Wise, can you please turn off the music?”

“That is not music. That... is the sound of destiny! I have seen into the future, and I've seen that today is a new day, a day...free of girls!”

“ Will, come on.”

“A tribe of villagers are under threat from an evil force from the swamps of Kuzatan.”

“Will, it's so early.”

“Is it early? Sir Lucas is already up. Prince Michael? Tell that to the villagers crying for your help, the children so frightened, they cannot sleep. Are you truly going to let them perish? Or are you going to come to their rescue and become the heroes you were always meant to be? What will it be, my sweet stubborn prince will you hold up your promise? The villains might inflate your nest that you worked so hard on. You wouldn’t want that.” He said the last part with a smirk, teasing Mike. Prince is a cute nickname. 

He would usually be a lot more assertive but given yesterday and the fact Mike is still in post heat he decides to go easy on him. 

Mike’s cheeks pinkined “Now, you’re just making fun of me. I let you sleep in here and this is what I get.”

“Michael, Will!” Karen yelled. “Come eat!”

“Help me out, William The Wise.”

Will helped him up and teased him, cuddly Mike is adorable. “You’re so needy.”

When they got upstairs, Karen made sure Mike took his medication even though he has been taking it since he was twelve. They ate in silence and then went to start the d&d game. Will worked so hard to work and they were having a lot of fun until The phone rang. “El? No. Sorry, not interested. Telemarketers.”

Lucas “maybe we should just call them.”

“We can do that?”

“I think so.”

“Yeah, but what would we say?

Will interrupted them. “We'll say nothing! The Khuisar tribe still needs your help.”

Mike unenthusiastic “all right, then. I'll use my torch to set fire to the chambers, sacrificing ourselves, killing the jujus, and saving the Khuisar. We all live on as heroes in the memories of the Kalamar.”

Lucas high fived Mike with no energy and an eye roll, “victory.”

Will started getting angry and threw his hat off. “Okay. Fine. You guys win. Congratulations.”

Mike started to feel guilty and started getting closer and calm. “Will, I was just messing around. Hey, let's finish for real.” 

Lucas, “yeah.”

Mike was being more sympathetic. “How much longer is the campaign?”

Will basically ignored Mike and threw his costume off. “Just forget it, Mike.”

Mike kept on insisting. “No, you want to keep playing, right?”

Lucas agreed. “Y-Yeah, totally.”

“We'll just call the girls afterwards.”

Will started yelling at Mike causing him to back off and wince. “I said forget it, Mike, okay? I'm going home.”

Lucas tried to step in but was also yelled at.“But… Come on, Will.”

Then Will shoved into him because he wouldn’t move. “Move!”

Mike followed Will up the stairs and out to the garage. He tried to get Will to come back inside. “Will, come on. You can't leave. It's raining. Listen, I said I was sorry, all right? It's a cool campaign. It's really cool. We're just not in the mood right now.”

Will was just so angry. He has always been so patient with Mike but it is wearing thin. “Yeah, Mike. That's the problem. You guys are never in the mood anymore. You're ruining our party.”

Mike argued. “That's not true.”

Will pointed out the obvious, just filled with so much rage.“Really? Where's Dustin right now? See?” Mike looked away. “You don't know and you don't even care. And obviously he doesn't either and I don't blame him. You're destroying everything, and for what? So you can swap spit with some stupid alpha.”

Yelling back, “El's not stupid. It's not my fault you have presented yet and everyone thinks you’re an omega.” He initially regretted what he said. He knew Will was sensitive about that but it just slipped out. “I'm not trying to be a jerk. Okay? But we're not kids anymore. I mean, what did you think, really? We were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?”

“Yeah. I guess I did. I really did.” Will got out his bike. “Excuse me,” basically telling Mike to get out of the way.

“Will.” He got on his ride and rode off, almost running over Mike’s foot. 

“Will! Will, come on!” Mike was now yelling after Will who left him alone.

He grabbed a raincoat and started to get on his bike. Lucas came after them only to see Mike. “What happened?”  

“Will and I got into a fight. I’m going after him, he’s going home.”

“Well, wait for me.” Lucas grabbed a raincoat and hopped on his bike and followed Mike who was riding like a maniac. 

When they reached Will’s house Mike started banging on the door and kept on saying how sorry he was non-stop.  

Lucas saw that nobody was home, so they went to check out the rest of the area. As they were doing that Will was having a breakdown and destroying Castle Byers as it poured down. Then he suddenly felt something. Not again. Then he heard yelling coming from Mike and Lucas. Mike had been filled with worry and guilt. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Of course they can never get peace, Will can never get peace. “He is back.” And with everything that happened over the summer they never spoke about that conversation. 

-------

Will, who was his first friend, said yes to him. He doesn’t want to think about what his life would have turned out like without him. 

Will who has yet to present but is speculated to be an omega.  

Will who doesn't know how much Mike needs and loves him.  

‘How can I be so stupid. How could I get my stupid english class poems and El and Will’s letter’s mixed in.’

Mike was so lost in his thoughts got up to start walking off. He didn't notice Troy grab and twist and shoving him against the wall leaving barely any gaps between the two. Mike is heaving in his chest. Seriously, why can’t Troy just leave him alone? Glaring at him, “if you’re going to hit me just do it already or let me the hell go. I have places to be.” 

“I’ve known you for a long time, Wheeler. You pretend to be tough shit, that leather jacket and hanging around a metalhead doesn’t change anything.”

Troy is eyeing him up and down, like a hungry hyena. Mike suddenly feels trapped. He tries to walk away but Troy pinned his wrist to the wall. He presses himself closer, leaving no space. “Troy, this isn’t funny. Let me go.” He slides a hand up Mike's shirt, annoyed to find him wearing an undershirt.  “Troy, stop touching me. I know you like messing with me but this is too much.” Mike began to get frantic and louder. He starts smelling scared and angry like something is burning. He can smell Troy giving off the scent of arousal. 

“I could claim you right here and now and fix you.” He threatens, his teeth hovering over the bonding gland on Mike’s neck. “But you have an alpha and it is just so fun to think about what she’ll do to you when she finds out you’ve been writing queer love letters. She is so sweet to you, isn’t you. She puts you on your knees and sweet talks to you, doesn’t she. Wait until she finds out.” He makes it to the button of Mike’s jeans. “I bet she won’t mind if I take a peek, considering what a whore you are. I always wonder what a boy-pussy looks like in person, your dick and balls are smaller aren’t they. I wonder what it would be like to knot one.” 

‘I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna be. Stop, Stop, Stop. Think, think, think. I need to get out of this.’  Mike steps on his foot the hardest he can. Troy holds his ground smirking. Troy is facing incredibly close to him. Before Mike can think he bits Troy’s nose, making him attend to it and letting go of Mike. Mike elbows him in the face and kicks him in the groin sending Troy to the ground. “I am not queer. They are not love letters. If you touch me again my alpha will make you piss yourself in front of the whole school and you will have another broken arm again.” Mike threatens and grabs his backpack and as he runs his eyes start watering. He finds himself covering his mouth and breathing heavily, trying to stop the sobs from coming out but the tears won’t stop streaming down his face. ‘ I want to go home. I want his mom, I want his dad. I want my mommy and daddy. I want someone to hug me or hold my hand. Fuck I need to calm down before seeing Miss Kelley. If she knows I’ve been crying she'll explain why and then I’ll start crying again. Great, I’m already ten minutes late.’

Chapter Text

Chapter Five:

The tears on his face dry and he takes a deep breath before he slowly opens the door to Miss Kelley’s office. 

Taking a seat he said, “hi. Sorry, I’m late.”

“It’s -” she interrupts herself. She sees his slightly pink tear stained face, there is only so much five minutes could do to hide it and the red marks on his wrists. “Michael-” 

He can see her mood shift and the concern on her face. “Mike, it’s Mike.” He has told her before but she still gets it wrong. Why must people use his full name when being serious? Him telling her again won’t stop her from calling him that again in the future but it might stop her questions. 

“Yes, Mike. Did something happen?”

He looks down trying to keep her from seeing his face and playing with the sleeves of his shirt. “Mike, I wanted you to know this is a safe place. You have experienced bullying in the past which can be a very difficult traumatizing thing but it can be helpful to talk about and if someone is currently bullying we can help. You just need to tell us who it is.” She speaks in a sweet and neutral way as the beta she is.

‘No matter how many times mom complained about the bullying, the schools did nothing. They would just ignore it. What was the point, if anything it would just make them angrier?’ His big brown eyes start to welling up again. He squeezes his eyes tight. He really wants to be strong and not cry and especially not cry in front of anyone. He is too old to be crying at school. More tears slip out and he is breathing hollowing to stop himself from letting out a sob or gasp. This is not the first the counselor has had a crying kid in her office. She places a box of tissues in front of him. 

“I’m sorry.” He wipes his face and blows his nose. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That’s okay. We can come back to it later. Are you sleeping better? Are your headaches gone? Have you stopped having hallucinations? Has the nose bleeding stopped?” 

He lies through all of it. He says no over and over again because no matter what he does it is not stopping. 

“Okay, that is very good Mike. Now you’ve been on your anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication for a few weeks. They might take a little bit longer for significant changes but have you noticed a difference.” No he has not if anything he is more depressed and anxious. He lies and says yes, single word answers because he wants to curl up into himself and make himself smaller. “Okay, that is very good. You should be proud of yourself.” 

“How have you been dealing with your overheat? Your mom told me it has been causing you distress and had to increase your medication dose recently.”

Overheat, a health issue and hormonal imbalance that is specific to omegas. The body has a hard time regulating itself and has a plethora of symptoms which can be debilitating. May include: heat-like symptoms outside of heat, irregular heat and period cycles, spontaneous omega drops, sensitivity to alpha voices and growls, dangerously submissive during heats and omega drops and wanting to please their alpha, (omegas who do not seek treatment are more likely to ended in toxic possibly abusive situations due to this and are more likely to develop other physical ailments and mental health issues.) extreme sensitivity to scents, strong scent, excessive bleeding during period, spotting, slicking when not aroused or in heat, intense and extreme pain during heats and periods, disorientation, dangerously high fever during cycles, increased heart rate, mood swings, chronic pain, nausea, lightheadedness, weakness in bones and muscles, heighten omega instincts, anxiety, suicidal and depressive thoughts. 

He stays quiet. He just wants to be left alone. He does not want to think about the fact that over the past few months his body and brain has decided to wreak havoc on him, to the point where he could not function normally some days. The panic attacks, the omega drops, the irregular cycles, the bullying, the trauma, the debilitating pain, the extremely strong scent, the nausea, the vomiting, the lightheadedness, the bleeding, the fits of rage and crying, the neediness, the mood swings, thinking nobody loves him and will abandon him, the barely leaving his room or basement. 

Some of these issues are easily hidden, his parents do not know the full story. He does not want to feel like a burden. So, he suppresses and hides. He would take pain meds to ease the pain. It hurt so much. He did not tell his parents most of the stuff that was happening to him. They only know what happens in front of their eyes or what is told to them from a third party. So, they chop it up to his hormones and puberty. He is still developing so these things are “normal.” His body has not settled yet or he was faking it to get out of school. After all, high school years are the worst and Mike has always been dramatic.  

It was getting harder and harder to suppress and it kept getting worse. They started to notice slowly and kept an eye on him, mostly his mother. She tried to get him to talk to her but he always found a way to get out of it. They start treating him more gently, even his dad. It started with little things. His scent was either extremely sweet or sour. He was more physically affectionate and clingy and needy. So, unnoticeable scenting was done to soothe him. He asked for pads more often. He took longer in the bathroom. Bottles of painkillers were found in his bedroom and basement and backpack. His nesting and scenting got more intense, taking some things from his sisters and parents, things went missing.  Holly was upset because she thought she lost her stuffed bunny, it turns out Mike had it. So extra nesting supplies were bought and washed and left in the basement without a word said. He very rarely left the house. He only left for school or if he was forced by his friends. Mike was never one to stay home. The mood swings were awful, they were never this bad. Mike has never been good at masking his emotions even when he tries really really hard.       

It started getting more obvious and then went down the hill and continued to go down to hell. 

One night his whole family had dinner together, except Nancy. She was working on the school newspaper late. Mike kept picking at his food and he had been moody all day. Ted had the bright idea to use his alpha voice on his son to get him to behave and at least pretend to be happy. His  mother had taken the effort to make his favorite meal after all. It did not go well. His mother had to send a worried Holly to eat dinner in the living room and scolded his father for his actions. Mike went into an omega drop and could not stop crying. He was held down sitting in his father’s lap like a little kid, having his arms pinned down so he would not hurt himself.  He had dug his nails into his wrists so hard they started bleeding and had been actively trying to hit himself. “Michael, stop. If you don’t calm down, you're going to seriously hurt yourself and we're going to have to take you to the hospital. You are too old to be acting like this.” Mike has the terrible habit of trying to hurt himself when overwhelmed and upset, which his parents thought he outgrew. He did not and it is a lot harder to hold a fourteen year old than it is a four a year old, a seven year old or a twelve year old. He was getting too old for this.

He struggled against his father but he felt weak.“I am not a little kid. Let me go.”

Karen glared at her husband. “Ted. I will take care of this, Let go of Mike.” He went to eat his dinner with Holly on the sofa as she watched cartoons. 

Karen had gotten some cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol to clean up the scratches Mike made on his wrists and bananged his wrists so they could heal and so Mike would not pick at them. “Sweetheart, I love you so much. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Maybe we should take you to the hospital.”

He moaned and complained. “Mom. I am fine.”

“Honey, you are not well. This isn't normal. You should have not reacted that way. Sweetie, you have seemed so sad lately. Your scent is off. You look sick. You aren’t yourself.” 

“Mom, I am fine.”

“Fine, I do not want to force you but I will call your doctor on Monday so we can figure out what is going on with you.” 

“Fine.”

Monday came and it was horrible, one of the worst days ever. His heath teacher, Mr. Johnson did not let him go to the bathroom and said he should have gone before class started and Mike did not really have to go that bad, so he was not too worried. Ironically they were discussing presenting and periods and heats. He ended up getting his period and bleeding through his pants and did not realize until his classmates started looking at him, a few were snickering and some gave him sympathetic looks and the teacher then sent him to the school nurse. Mike wanted to die, right then and there, his cheeks became flushed red as he wrapped his hoodie around his waist to hide the mess. On the bright side after that his teacher never refused a bathroom break. Mike waited in the nurse's office until his mom came to bring him clean clothes, instead his dad came with the clean clothes and to pick him up.  

In the car as they were driving, “you didn’t have to pick me up?” 

“Would you have rather gone back to class after bleeding through your clothes in front of everyone?” To contrary belief Ted actually does care about his kids but is horrible at showing it and sometimes makes insensitive comments without realizing but is embarrassed by their actions at times and does not want to hear others talk about his children in a negative light since it reflects poorly on him. 

Mike cringed, “no. Why didn’t mom come instead? Did the nurse call your office?”

“Your mother is probably running errands. Did you have your heat a few weeks ago?” Ted is not a very observant father but it is pretty hard to miss the scent of a nesting fourteen year old in heat and his car started smelling like that. He does want to hear about all the gross biology aspects, being the alpha he is. Those are things that are discussed in private. He really does not want to deal with Mike right now, his mother can deal with him. He placed his hand on his son's forehead to check. “You feel warm.” 

“Dad!” Mike yelled, flushed with anger and embarrassment, smacking his father's hand away. “I am not in heat!”

His father rolled his eyes and they drove in silence for a while. Slowly it becomes too warm, too bright and  too loud for Mike. He tried to reach to make the air cooler in the car. “Michael, it is the middle of winter. Do not touch the air conditioning.” 

“It is too hot.”

“It is not too hot, you’re being dramatic like always. We’re almost home.”

“I don’t feel good. I really really don’t feel good.” He mumbled, hiding his face in his father’s arm and blocking out the obnoxiously bright sun. He breathed in the scent of him, despite their complicated relationship the scent still brings comfort to the kid. The softness of the sweater feels nice pressed up on his forehead as he clutched onto his father. 

“Michael, I am driving, you can’t distract me like this.” He sighed, pulled off to the side of the road and placed the car in park. 

The fourteen year old stuttered out, “sor-r-ry dad,” his head resting on the older man and hugging him, a little bit delirious. “I really don’t feel good, dad. I-it's like s-someo-one is hammering my head hurts, it burns a-and l-like m-my insides are b-b-being pulled and I feel dizzy and nauseous. I-I-I can’t breathe my-my chest h-hurts.” 

The pain was getting worse as he tightened his grip, “daddy, please ma-make it st-stop. It hurts.” Mike had a panicked whimper and was in so much debilitating driving out of your mind pain he started sobbing into the chest of his father and won’t let go of him. He was in excruciating pain. His stubborn hyper-independent thinking he is a super mature fourteen year old persona was out the window. 

Ted Wheeler seemed to have fine relationships with his children when they were small, he could care for them. Holly loves spending time with him. It is when they are bigger it goes downhill, he is not very good at those. Comforting a fourteen year old can't be that much different than a six year old. He awkwardly for multiple minutes hugged his child back, shushing him gently and rubbing his back trying to sooth him. “Shh, shh, shh. You’re okay, little prince. You’re going to feel better.” It seemed to help somewhat, breathing started to stabilize and the shaking of the lanky teen’s body slowed down. Mike felt ashamed crying boys don’t cry. It has been a long time since dad comforted him. He wanted his mom, his skin felt like it was burning, his chest was pounding and everything hurt. “I think I’m gonna be sick. I'm gonna puke.”  

He hated the hospital. He laid on one of their beds with his mom next to him, gently caressing and scenting him. She was telling the doctor and nurse about his health and if anything seemed off about him lately. He had a hundred and three degrees fewer triggered by betting his period and heat at the same time. It felt disgusting, blood and slick. They gave him painkiller fever reducer and hooked him up to an IV and took his bloodwork. 

“He is only fourteen, he hasn’t even had his first full heat. He is a child. Is that really necessary?” 

“Bloodwork doesn’t tell us everything. Getting samples is important and making sure nothing abnormal happens down there and that he is developing properly is important.”    

Karen sighed. Mike had been zoning out until the last statement. “What? No. No way!  I don’t want anyone looking down there. That isn’t fair, it's my body.”

“Michael, sweetie. You’re sick, we don’t want this happening again--” 

Mike kept arguing “I don’t want to do it.”

The sweet doctor who was a woman and beta, having experiences with people of all ages explained to Mike what would happen. This can be a very difficult and embarrassing situation for anyone but especially when you’re younger. “Here is what is going to happen. We need to make sure you’re healthy.” Mike wanted to mumble that he obviously is not because if he was he wouldn’t be laying in a goddamn hospital bed. “You are going to put on a hospital gown, you will also be covered by a blanket, your mom can stay in the room for support. I will be the only one to look. I will be using a speculum to get a sample and check for abnormalities. After we’re done you can change back into your clothes. It’ll be ten minutes tops, kiddo.”

He tried to find a reason not to do it. He flushed, “I’ll get blood and slick on the bed.”

The hospital has dealt with worse. “Sweetie, it is a few moments of pain and then we get medication and treatment and you won’t get this sick again and we can go home.” He was not getting out of it. He hated it. The doctor shoved a too big medical device up him and poked around inside of him with a stupid fucking q-tip. It felt super weird, gooey, wet, gross and it hurt so bad he started tearing up again. He squeezed his mom’s hand so hard his fist turned white. He couldn’t stop whining  and whimpering and fidgeting. “It hurts.” The doctor tried to be reassuring “you’re doing great kiddo, we're almost done here.” He hated it. He did not want to be talked to and treated like a little kid, it is insulting. He did not want to be touched and looked at and prodded at. It is not fair that he has to deal with it just because he is a kid, it is his body, it isn’t fair. Why doesn’t he get a say?

He went through all of that just for his medication dose to be upped and get prescribed painkillers for his cycles and be told to eat better and exercise and not suppress his omega intinsts. 

He stayed home for a week. It was the worst pain ever, the only thing worse was presenting. The doctors couldn’t stop it fully but gave him blood thinner to lessen the bleeding and strong pain medication lowering his fever and knocking him and making him delirious. He did not want to go back to school after what happened in health class. His mom tried to assure him, saying he is still only fourteen. Plenty of kids his age are still presenting, getting their first periods, their first heats and their fits ruts. Some kids have presented during the middle of classes. So he shouldn’t be embarrassed. 

“I’ve been better. It helps, sometimes, I guess.” 

“For chronic illness it has ups and downs, there might be days you feel great and other days it feels awful. It is not linear journey” 

“Okay, sure, I guess” Mike looks uninterested, fidgeting with his fingernails. 

“Are you looking forward to spring break? Anything interesting?”

Mike perks up a bit. He could talk about Will and El forever, especially after the awful day has had so far. He just needs to get to the end of the day without another incident and to see Will. Though he feels as if Will abandoned him for his California friends, they are probably better and cooler than nerdy dorky dramatic Mike. He stops answering the phone and returning voicemails. 

“Hey, Will. I don’t know if you got my last few voicemails. But, um, I miss you and El of course. My parents are driving me crazy. Me, Lucas and Dustin joined the dnd club at school. Um, it's been fun. The dm is really cool, his name is Eddie. He is teaching how to play the guitar. He is a little weird but he is really nice and cool. He has been protecting us from bullies. We even got Max to play sometimes. Lucas decided he is cooler than us and became a jock, he joined the basketball team. I’ve been playing a lot of video games and my mom is forcing me to learn to cook and bake, it doesn’t taste disgusting. Maybe I can make something for you and El sometime. I thought about joining the drama club, it was stupid anyway. My dad said everyone would think I was easy and a stereotypical omega. It didn’t work out anyway. I almost threw up on the stage when I tried. He made me use a gun to toughen me up, it did not go well. I guess I would just stick to what I know. Oh, I’ve been writing a lot, maybe I can show you sometime and maybe I can see your new art sometime. Please call me back. I know I have been shitty but, please don’t abandon me. I know I deserve it but I don’t know if I can survive without you, I’ve been going crazy. I don’t know myself without you. We don’t even have to be best friends, we can be just friends. I lo- I miss you. Bye.” He hung up the phone and never got a response. “Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.”  

Mike doesn’t exactly blame Will. Mike was such a shitty friend all summer but it hurts ten years of friendship down the drain. One bad summer and Will just wants to throw him away. He does not want to be best friends with Mike anymore, he deserves better anyway.

But maybe he can change his mind. Thinking about Will and playing dnd with him pushes out the pain. “Yeah, I’m going to California. I’m visiting my girlfriend and best friend.”

“That’s exciting. What are their names? Are you happy to see them?”

“Yeah, I haven’t seen them since they moved. Um, El and Will. It is Will’s 15th birthday, so I wrote him a short story as a gift. We both like fantasy, so it has dragons and knights and swords and magic and castles and battlefields and a happy ending. We’ve been best friends since kindergarten. He hasn’t been answering the phone but it is okay, I’ll see him tomorrow. El has been sending me letters. We’ve been together since we were twelve. We went to the snowball together. She seems happy. She likes. . . ” He could not think of what she likes. “She really likes animals and she took up sewing and knitting, she really likes fashion and poppy music. Madonna is her favorite. Me and Will tried to get her into Star Wars, she didn’t like it. Hawkins weren’t good for either of them but they seem better, which is good. Even though I’m stuck in this shithole” He mutters the latter thought under his breath. 

Miss. Kelley was a bit surprised this was the happiest she has seen Mike since they started their sessions, even though his smile seems to be slipping once in a while. “That is great Michael, it is a good thing that they make you happy. Friendship is extremely important and not isolating yourself. It must have been hard to be separated.” Miss Kelley thought fourteen is a delicate age of hormones, changes and discovering themselves. She has a sense about him and is gentle. “Michael, I have some other students who experience the same dynamic and same gender attraction. It is nothing to be ashamed of, nothing leaves this room. You know that right.”

Right there Mike panics. He starts stuttering. “I-I, El - El -i-is aa-n alpha a-and a girl. My alpha, my mate, whatever you call it. I’m not like that.” He should have shut up about Will. He loves El but he also loves Will. He would just focus more on El.

“You’re right, I am sorry Michael. I should not have brought that up. How about we talk about the bullying you experience and what happened that caused you to become so upset.”

“I would rather not.”

“If you don’t tell me who harmed you and who has been bullying you, they will continue.” She caught a glimpse of the red marks and scratches on his wrists and on his collar bone and the bruises forming on him.

“They will continue and become worse if I tell you. I’ve been bullied since first grade. Do you know how many times the bullies were reported, do you know what happened to them after? Nothing. I can deal with them myself. I have been dealing with them myself” He yelled out bitterly with anger. He has never been so glad for someone being a beta, her scent is less stronger. She can’t smell how depressed he is. She can’t tell that he had Troy scent on him as it fades. She reminds him of his bullying, that his body is messed up, that his brain is messed up, that his best friend and girlfriend abandoned him. He just wants to be normal. He just wants to be loved for who he is. Mike was currently zoning out as Miss Kelley drones on.

l rings.

Chapter Text

Chapter Six:

Mike manages to get through the rest of the day up until lunch without another major incident, other than getting a few glances from Troy and James, smirking at him which makes his skin crawl. Mike is now currently sitting in the school cafeteria, slowly eating his lunch and listening to his walkman waiting for the rest of Hellfire. His mixtape is filled with bubblegum pop, alternative pop, rock ‘n’ rock and less intense punk music. He can’t listen to straight punk. It is too depressing and intense for him, the screaming gives him headaches. He tenses up and feels someone gently loosen his headphones, now sitting on his neck. He turns to see Eddie, sitting next to him. 

“Hey little prince, little Wheeler. Listening to your teeny bopper music. Haven’t I taught you better?” Mike rolls his eyes with a small smile and biting his bottom lip. His heart goes boom, boom and boom. Eddie became a friend and mentor to Mike, teaching him about music, culture, the systems of society, politics, d&d and talks to him about how shitty alphas can be and what it means to be an omega and omega rights that are currently being fought for right now. 

After the horrendous puberty presenting talk and scolding him for keeping secrets, rebelling against the government and helping a dangerous alpha girl his mom told him she loves him no matter what and not to let anyone make him feel bad and not to feel limited. Even though he presented early and not in the best conditions it was very sweet and embarrassing; having a bunch of older omegas congratulate him and give him advice but having a close friend who is a male omega like him is different. Before Eddie Mike never had that. 

Eddie is a very passionate person, at the beginning he and Mike had a sorta rocky relationship. Eddie thought he was way too serious and too stubborn and too sarcastic and too dramatic. He sees Mike as a very sweet, nerdy, introverted, sensitive kid with a massive wall around him who comes from a very guarded background but has a bit of a bite and an edge.

According to Mike, he himself can be loud and bossy but only when he deems necessary, like when one of his friends is being bullied or when coming up with a plan to defeat whatever comes from the upside side or when he is dming. His friends joke about how bossy he is, how much of a loud a mouth he is, how he never shuts up, how he is so dramatic and makes a big deal of every little thing but that comfort he feels around his friends does not translate well to strangers. He does not stand on top of tables and yells in the middle of the cafeteria and demands everyone pay attention to him just for the fun of it. 

The first impression of Eddie was abrasive, nosey, bossy, intense, obnoxious, out there and looking for trouble. He was cute and annoying in the way a young kid gets a crush on their older siblings’s best friend. They make fun of you but put up with you and give advice. Mike did not like him but now Mike really likes him. 

“Shut up. I can listen to my teeny bop music and still rage against the system.” 

Eddie picks up on Mike’s scent sweetening up, smelling and teasing him, “who have you been flirting with?”

“What?”

“You smell sickly sweet and it looks like someone got rough with you.”

“Oh, um, sorry. Um, I’m going to California to see my girlfriend and best friend. Remember I told you. I guess I’m just excited. And I got into a fight with my sister, she scratched me up.” He said tugging his sleeves down to block out the scenting bonding glands and injuries on his wrists but they were too short, he really wishes he had a sweater or jacket to cover the scenting bonding gland on his neck and the injuries near it. 

“You don’t have to cover your scent, I don’t mind and these knotheads can deal with it. You baby omegas are adorable but some advice, just don't let yourself get claimed. Learn to protect yourself, be as loud as you can and hit whatever you can.” Eddie did not believe the obvious lie and eyes him up. 

Mike is surprised, gagging on his food and almost choking. “What?”

“Don’t let your alpha bond you. You don’t want some boring ass house-husband, stick it to society.” Eddie says as he is eating his french fries and does not mention he thinks some alpha tried to get their way with Mike. He wants to spare the kid the embarrassment.  

Mike furls his eyebrows. He is way too young for that and he is told repeatedly by his father if anything like that happened he will be throwing his life away. He has given Mike disapproving looks when he was covered in El’s scent. His father's opinions are so contradictory to each other. He is some-how traditional and modern at the same time. He is ashamed of his son for acting like an omega and ashamed of him for not acting enough like an omega, both will ruin his life. You need to be independent but not too independent. You have to be sweet but not too sweet.  

Mike developed early and shortly after was one of the first in his year to get a romantic partner. Do you know what they say about early bloomers? Do you know what they say about an omega who gets an alpha so young? ‘ Crazy. Easy. Submissive.’ Mike knows he has heard what they say. He hears the rumors and comments. 

“He has gone psycho. Someone should really put a leash on him. Did you hear he cursed Mr. Kowalski out and graffitied the bathroom?” 

“Wheeler is covered in alpha scent.  The way she is crazy possessive, he must be such an obedient little omega for her. Good for her. There is no way anyone would put up with him otherwise.” 

“He is such a nerd, I bet he is such a prince. No way anyone would want him if he wasn’t.”

“You know what they say about bratty omegas? They need to be locked down, put in their place,  tamed and then they become putty in your arms and go down on their knees.”

“I don’t know. He’s just shy. All you have to do is be nice to him and he will get all flirty with you, so easy. He turns so red and smells all sweet . Just don’t be a jerk to his face.”

“He is such a weirdo trying to be punk but he is such an omega-ish omega. Have you smelt him? It is the sweetest scent I have ever smelt.”   

Mike hates being talked about like that, he isn’t property. Yes, he lets El scent him because he likes her and she likes him and it makes them both feel safe and he scents her too. All they have done is kiss, hold hands and cuddle. Okay, maybe it is a little intense sometimes. El is a little possessive and Mike likes giving up control. But it is disgusting to speculate on the love lives and the non-existence sex lives of two kid who started dating at thirteen. Why don’t most people want to ask him about his interests instead?

The word claimed has a loaded and controversial history, depending on who you ask it is a degrading way to say bonded. Up until very recent history omegas were the only ones getting claimed. Older generations are often appalled when they see an alpha or beta with a bond mark. 

Bonding/Claiming is usually between an alpha and omega, when a large bite is placed on the body leaving a permit scar which creates an emotional and physical link between the mates. Bonding can be done without sex, however it is strongest when the omega is knotted, is in an omega drop and/or during heat and rut. The most common area for marking is the gland on the back of the neck for two reasons. One: is primitive and for protection. It is to show everyone this person is already claimed and already belongs to someone, therefore nobody else can have them. It is the most visible and accessible gland. Two: is when things get intensely intimate one of the first places after the lips that is explored is the neck.

Upper until the sexual revolution in The United States in the 1960s unbound omegas were expected to wear collars or cover their necks in public order to protect themselves from being forcelly bonded. Omegas were shamed for being forcefully bonded especially if they left the house smelling sweet with no collar and nothing protecting their neck. This was legal because society deemed if omegas left the house with an exposed neck it was done on purpose to attract a mate and it was a way to control them. There were no legal medical procedures available to break a bond, leaving omegas permanently physically, emotionally and legally connected to alphas. This forced omegas to search for unsafe underground options which could cause permanent complications to the body and possible death and if caught imprisonment. 

Historically even prostitutes and strippers covered the bonding scenting gland and would charge more for having them during pre-heat, heat and post-heat.

During this movement mini skirts and shorts came into vogue with controversy. Individuals were both appalled and pleased. This was because they reveal what are considered the most promiscuous bonding and scenting glands located in the thighs. These areas were meant only to be seen and smelled by an alpha mate. Since then mini skirts and shorts have become staples for warm springs and hot summers. Statistics have shown taller beta females and taller omegas and omegas with strong sweet scents have an increased likelihood of being dress coded and slut-shamed. Some omegas choose to wear longer skirts or longer pants during their pre-heats and post-heats to protect themself from prejudice and danger despite warm weather and clothes exacerbating heat symptoms.  

Today in 1986 forced bonding is categorized as a form of sexual assault and a criminal charge and the perpetrator can be sent to prison. However, justice is not always served. Forced bonding and rape are still large issues as are coerced bonding and rape. Forced bonding is almost always exclusively a crime committed against omegas. 

Coercion is harder to prove because it is most likely done by someone who has a relationship with the omega and during deep heat, deep omega drop or under the influence when not  mentally capable of consenting. Depending how deep an omega is in heat or drop they will be disorientated. During this time there is an increased need for affection and pleasing who they are with. Using an alpha voice has stronger effects when there is a familia, platonic or romantic connection. An omega is more likely to obey and try to please them even if they do not want to. 

Legalization and medical advances of breaking bonds, scent blockers, suppressants, birth control and abortation gave omegas the ability to escape abusive and loveless relationships, become independent, gain rights, protections and dress more freely. They did not fear being forcefully bonded with no way out. The omega rights movement has taken the collar a symbol of oppression and turned it into a tool of empowerment. Many omegas still chose to wear the collar on a daily basis due to religious and modesty reasons. The punk and alternative movements have taken to spiked collars. 

Unbound omegas who come from an uber conservative and religious background still are often forced and coerced to wear collars. In some cases if forcefully bonded and sexual assaulted they are forced to stay with the alpha by their family and community.

Once an alpha and omega are bonded their rut and heat cycles sync with each other. An omega is expected to move in with their alpha, be dependent on them and be a house-wife or house-husband, regardless of age. While there has been a lot of improvements in omega rights and prejudice has lessened there is still a lot of work to be done.  

Mike personally wants to be a successful fantasy and sci-fi author, maybe write for comic books one day. That is his big dream. He wants to move to a big city where everyone is more accepting and get out of the hell-hole that is Hawkins. He wants to fight against the man, against the government.

“That is not going to happen. Even if I wanted to my parents would probably kill me, then resurrect just to ground me for the rest of my life.”

He does kind of want to be a house-husband, have kids and be bonded but only if they’re the love of his life. He wants both. Maybe he will marry El when they get older, they care about each other. He really loves El, he is just not in love with her. They wouldn’t hurt each other. He just needs some time and he will get over his silly little crush on his best friend and he will fall in love with her again.

His little crushes on omegas will go away too. ‘It is just a phase.’ It is not his fault omegas are so damn cute and kind to him. Eddie who introduced himself on the first day of school and vows to protect the outcasts, Tyler the sweet talented boy from drama club who asked if he was alright after he ran off stage almost puking, Sammy the athletic girl who is the captain of the JV soccer team who passed him the ball during gym class despite it being known a fact he has two left feet and his sweet artsy best friend since kindergarten who is ignoring all his phone calls fit into that description. 

They are beautiful like pieces of art you want to stare at and try to touch even though if you do you will get in big trouble. They are like art, not crushes, not loves. It is like when he rented Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty In Pink so many times that Robin asked if he wanted recommendations for films with realistic omega male leads. He just wanted to stare at Molly Ringwald’s pretty face and watch cheesy rom coms. Most mainstream movies with an omega protagonist are romances, so Robin probably brushed it off as he wanted to see an omega like him on screen. 

He still likes alphas. Mike likes alphas a lot. He likes them so much, so he should focus on them. Like the drop dead gorgeous Michelle Pfeiffer who was the only reason he watched Grease 2 with her dark lipstick and tight leather jacket and the alpha voice she used in the movie drove him crazy. He may have watched alone during one of his pre-heats before he started getting painful emotional clinging to his mother and begging for her attention.

One time he visited the art club during lunch because he missed Will. He was a bit sensitive because he finished his heat the day before and the Bylers left fairly recently so the wound of missing them was still fresh. He got overwhelmed and almost went into a drop but a sweet alpha named Julia used her alpha voice to pull him out of it before he actually did drop. When he was pulled out he hoped a blush did not appear on his cheeks. Afterwards she tried to teach him about brush strokes. She was one of the few alphas in the art club, it was mostly omegas and betas. She reminded him of El, she even wore overalls and funky colorful shirts like her. 

There was one time his dad took him to the shooting range, his dad decided he needed to man up and learn to defend himself. He spends too much time playing make believe fantasy games, sitting around writing nonsensical stories in his many notebooks shattered around the house or clacking away on his typewriter and playing that wretched guitar. “You need to grow up and stop acting like a little boy.”

Mike hated the shooting range. It smelled like alphas on steroids and it was too loud, not to mention he was terrible at shooting and literally has gun related trauma. No matter how much his dad yelled instructions or tried to fix his stance he missed every time and almost fell on his butt.  

It was not until an alpha named Zack came around. He was a few years older than Mike, a junior at school. He was on the school track team so he had some muscles. His hair was chestnut brown and was a few inches shorter than Mike. He wore a thick warm flannel with long sleeves underneath, a wool corduroy coat, thick light wash jeans, tan work boots and a hunting hat. He helped Mike with his stance and placed his hand over Mike’s as he did his first successful shot and then high fived him, which might have caused him to blush and his scent to sweeten. 

His mother asked him about his day at the dinner table and his father complained about him. “Nancy can teach him. I’m not taking him again. Karen, all he did was complain and then this little runt came up and kept flirting and touching him. I was thinking about challenging him but I don’t fight teenagers, the kid looked like he was seventeen. Out of his damn mind, flirting with a fourteen year old. Ought told him you can’t sleep without a nightlight and are scared of monsters under your bed with your absurd hallucinations. That would have scared him off.” Miss. Kelley thought it was a brilliant idea to tell his parents he was having chronic headaches, nosebleeds and hallucinations. She said it was due to extreme stress and ptsd and that Mike should find ways to relax which would help reduce them.

“Dad!”

“Michael, would you relax, I’m just joking. You are such a spoilsport.”

“Ted! Michael, is this true? Did you and your sweet little girlfriend El break up? You know long distance relationships can be very difficult. But you are not allowed to date anyone who is that much older than you.” 

“What? No. We are still together. He was just being nice and he is only sixteen, by the way.” 

Nancy thought about Jonathan, how he helped her master the gun even though he wasn’t good at it. Mike, her sweet little brother is so obvious. He could not take a hint if hit him in the face. You have to be explicit with him otherwise he might not get it. It does not help that Mike is a very touchy and physically affectionate person and has accidentally scented people in the past when he was not careful. “Oh, he definitely has a crush on you.” He proceeded to argue with her but was proven wrong. One day Zack came up to him when he was at his locker with flowers trying to court him, asking him on a date, telling him he thought he was cute.

Mike became a deer in the headlights, he was not used to this kind of attention. He was extremely awkward and uncomfortable. He might have said yes if he was not in a relationship with his lovely beautiful girlfriend. El deserves all his attention. 

He wonders if El will like his new style and still find him interesting. He is growing up, he has grown up a bit. He is taller. His hair is longer and curlier. He started picking out his own clothes, thrifting and sewing patches on them. The patches are of his favorite characters, bands, and fantasy things, an omega right patch, punk is not dead, revolt against the system, f*ck the government. The last one got him in trouble with detention and told “ It is a good omega-ish hobby but tanating it by swearing and insulting our country!” So Mike can grow but only an appropriate amount and in ways adults approve. He can grow up but not rebel. 

His mother is teaching him to cook and bake, he is getting pretty good at it especially the baking. Mike loves his mother and likes spending time with her, even though he pretends he doesn’t. Cooking and baking are like edible science. Since he barely leaves the house in order to get him to move around and try to pull him out of his rut Karen makes him help with dinner and bribes him with dessert, some days. She makes treats with him for when his friend comes over and for his d&d club. She makes sure to tell him she is proud of him and he gets the sweetest little smile on his face. It has been the most time she has spent with her little boy in a long time, she just wishes it wasn’t because of his depression..  

Max jokes about him being a dad friend and his mom training him to be a good husband, which he argues with even though it is true. He always insists on being the leader and is extremely overprotective of their little friend group to the point where he puts himself in danger. He tries to protect everyone even though he is the least athletic out of everyone but he succeeds most of the time. If they are hanging out at someone's house it is his most of the time, he makes sure everyone is comfortable and makes sure everyone is hydrated and fed. He even has everyone's favorite treats memorized and makes them from scratch sometimes and because Mike is a klutz his friends assumed his food would be terrible. 

Mike and Max use his new found skill to their advantage to get revenge on bullies. Lucas was, “we are now in high school we should try to be civil.” Dustin was too preoccupied with his extra clubs and calling Susie. Mike and Max made the worst cupcakes ever, filled with hot sauce and salt and uncooked coffee. Thanks to Mike’s new style he has a reputation of being “an unstable omega.” Max got off with a warning because her brother died. He got detention for a week. It was totally worth it. No jackass alphas tried to scent them, no one tried to hit on them or make fun of them and alphas were being slightly less invasive around omegas at least for a little bit. Just because an omega acts traditional or likes stereotypical omega things doesn’t mean they will let themselves be walked over. There was a bit of gossip and stares though. How could you take a perfectly wholesome thing and make it a way to rebel again.

He thinks it is a bit silly. Everyone knows he wants to be a novelist and go to some big city but nobody really know he wants the stupid typical omega things. He doesn’t not want to be taken less seriously and be made fun of or be seen as this cute omega stereotype and have creeps trying to get with him. He already has to deal with comments about his extra sweet scent and people mostly alphas invading his personal space, sniffing him. “You aren’t as sweet as your scent. Maybe you should work on that. You’re misleading people.” “You’re too tall and too loud for an omega but you have a sweet scent.”

Though he is pretty sure nobody actually wants him and they are just making fun of him or if they spent too much time with him they would just abandon him. Everyone thinks he is this super weird nerdy kid who trips over his own feet, has cursed teachers out and written “fuck the government and Reagan” in the bathroom stalls and refers to fantasy and sci-fi books. He dresses like a wannabe punk. He does not have the persona of a super sweet preppy omega, though he used to dress like one, thanks to his mom picking out his clothes.

“Can I come over after Hellfire?”

“Kid, again. We hung out almost everyday this week. I need a little break from you, aren’t you sick of me?”

“I know, I have to be home by nine anyway so it would only be for a little while. I swear. It's just my parents are driving me crazy. Half the time they treat me like a little kid and the other half they say I need to grow up. Which is totally hypocritical. They think I’m gonna have nervous breakdown or something, if I was gonna have one I would’ve had one alr-”

“Alright, kid. I get it. Parents suck. Nervous breakdown. Yadda yadda yadda. You can come but I’m not watching one of those corny ass John Hughes movies again.” 

Seeing the rest of Hellfire arrive Eddie goes to sit at the head of the table leaving Mike as Dustin sits next to him. Dustin looks him up and down, “are you feeling better? I can scent you if you want? Why do you smell like Troy? Why do you have all these marks? Did he hurt you?”

“No reason and I’m fine.” 

Dustin did not believe him. “Mike.” He gave him a serious look. 

Mike gave him an annoyed look. 

“Fine, don’t answer me. I’ll force it out of you anyway.” Dustin says with an unamused tone and talks to him quietly. “Have you asked Eddie about postponing yet?” Mike looks away, shoving food in mouth.

“Seriously, dude.”

“You said we would do it together.”

"Dungeons and Dragons, at first regarded as a harmless game of make-believe, now has both parents and psychologists concerned. Studies have linked violent behavior to the game, saying it promotes satanic worship, ritual sacrifice, sodomy, suicide, and even... murder."

Mike and Dustin are half whispering to each other and half listening to Eddie and the rest of Hellfire. Dustin says “shit, he seems really revved up today.” 

Mike says “he's always revved up. We'll just act casual.”

The two were getting each other ready, talking back and forth. “Society has to blame something. We're an easy target.” 

“Exactly. We're the freaks because we like to play a fantasy game. But as long as you're into band or science......or parties or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets…” Eddie gets on the table and starts going off and pissing people off. One person even called him a freak but he does not let it phase him, instead he sneers at the alpha basketball captain.  “It's forced conformity. That's what's......killing the kids! That's the real monster.” 

Eddie notices Dustin and Mike are in their own little world. He clears his throat trying to get their attention and pushes between them to sit. “Aheem, is there something the young bard and paladin would like to share with the class?”  

Mike and Dustin look at each other. Mike is clearly out of it. He is a little lost in his brain. His scent is giving off weird mixed signals. It stays smelling like honey sweetness and freshly stocked vintage books but mixed in with rotting and burning. He smells happy and fearful at the same time. He gets blushy and has a nervous smile and has a bit of an awkward uncomfortable laugh, his eyes flicker between Dustin and Eddie. He opens his mouth to speak but nothing comes out. He wants to talk but can not, he is scared. He does not want anyone to be mad at him.

Dustin starts to laugh trying to lighten the blow. His natural alpha scent of iron and pine cones starts to smell of rusting and wildfire. “So, uh, speaking of monsters, uh, Lucas has to do his, uh, balls-in-laundry-baskets game. So.. ...he's not gonna be able to make it to Hellfire tonight. And I know there's no way we can beat your sadistic campaign without him. So, me and Mike, we were talking, shooting the shit, and we were thinking that maybe we might…” Mike regines his ability to speak and finishes for Dustin, “postpone.”

The whole table starts creating a ruckus. “Shut up! You’re saying Sinclair's been taken in by the dark side?” Mike winces at the fact Eddie and older boys of Hellfire are yelling and he wants to clasp his hand over his ears, “uh, something like that.”

“Something like that? Jesus Christ. And rather than find a sub for him, you want... you want to postpone The Cult of Vecna?”

Mike stutters over his words a little and says with a little bit of confidence. He does not know what is wrong with himself. He was fine talking to Eddie a few moments ago but now with all the attention he can’t. “I...I don't want to postpone it.” Referring to Dustin “we don't want to postpone it. It's just that, you know, most of the subs will be at the championship game.”

“Oh, it's the championship game?”

“Yeah.” 

“Can I level with you? Jeff graduates this year. Gareth's got, what? A year and a half? Me, I am army-crawling my way toward a D in Ms. O'Donnell's. If I don't blow her final, I'm gonna walk that stage next month, I'm gonna look Principal Higgins dead in the eye, I'm gonna flip him the bird, I'm gonna snatch that diploma. I'm gonna run like hell outta here.” 

One of the older kids of Hellfire said, “didn't you say that last year? And the year before?”

“Yeah, yeah, and I was full of shit. This year's different. This year is my year. I can feel it. '86, baby. You know what that means?” Eddie walks over towards the young alpha and omega. He wedged himself in between them to take a seat and was teasing them playful, which seems to have tensed up Dustin and relaxed Mike. “It means you boys are the future of Hellfire. I knew it the moment I saw you. You sat on that table right over there, looking like... looking like two little lost sheep. You were wearing a Weird Al T-shirt, which I thought was brave.” Dustin, lighting the mood, “thank you. 

“Mike, you were wearing whatever shit your mommy bought you from goddamn Gap.” The group starts laughing. Eddie yanks on the backs of younger boys' shirts, invading their personal space and pulling them harshly. The group stops laughing a little weirded out as Eddie is dragging the ninth graders away. “And we showed you that school didn't have to be the worst years of your lives, right? 

“No.” 

“Okay, no, no.” Eddie loses his grip and lets go of them and digs around in his pocket for something to hand Mike, he and Dustin  make confused faces. “These scent blocker patches. I’m for going all natural but nobody going to want to join a club hearing about it from a scared sweet scented omega and maybe tone down the cutesy omega loner vibe nobodies gonna take you seriously and think you’re easily to take advantage of you, though some are into might be into that. Dustin, your scent is also getting a little strong too.” 

Mike freezes in his place and gets the most horrified look on his face as it flushes into reddish pinkish color. His eyes flicker to the dirty cafeteria floor to avoid meeting Eddie or Dustin’s eyes. He, like most, can only go off what other people tell him about his scent. While a person gets a sense of their scent, they can never fully smell it. They can never tell how strong it is or what emotions it indicates. 

He did not think his scent was that bad, he knew it was off because he hasn’t been feeling well lately and the attack from Troy earlier but thought since he took his pills and Max scented him early in the morning it would lighten his scent at least slightly. Mike can only assume his scent got worse and stronger in the short period of time because a few moments ago Eddie was telling him to embrace his scent and now he is telling him to cover it up like he should be ashamed. 

He knows he can act omega-ish extra sometimes but it hurts coming from another omega. Eddie is usually really cool about it and sometimes will playfully tease him, which Mike pretends he doesn't mind. The only people who feel like he can express that side of himself fully without being embarrassed are in a different state. They didn’t mind the non stop nesting or purring or scenting or his stupid fucking drops.

Dustin looks shocked as well. “Dude, not cool.” Dustin looks up to Eddie but he can be a little intense and insensitive at times. “Mike, got a rash last time use them and he can act as omega-ish as he wants.” Mike mumbles at him to “Dustin, shut up”, he would kick Dustin in the shins if he didn’t want to cause a scene. 

“I’m just stating facts little punks, sometimes you have to work within the system to destroy it. And they probably gave you the kiddie ones.” It is medically suggested to wait until one has at least one mature heat or rut to be placed on scent blockers and suppressants or until they turn fifteen. However in certain situations there are special scent blockers and suppressants for kids under the age of fifteen. “These are the real deal. You don’t have to use them. I know how much of a prude you are.” He teases Mike who tries to argue with him and pouts, “I am not a prude.” 

That gives Dustin a clever idea. “Did you bring the brownies you made yesterday? We can lure them by saying we have desert.” That is it Mike is going to kill Dustin and sends him a death glare. He brings the treats he makes to Hellfire and passes them off as his mom’s because he is a cool tough omega who goes against stereotypes like Eddie, he fights monsters, he plays the electric guitar, he flips assholes off he doesn’t write cheesy poems, gets really happy when his friends tell him they like his food or build nests at his friend's houses.  

Eddie rolls his eyes and puts them in Mike’s palm, “sure you’re not, take them don’t take, I don’t care, I just want to play the game. The food you make is really good.” He says trying to reassure Mike. “ But we are not in the business of bribery and whoring out Mike, that is definitely a cutesy omega thing which he can act like when we have more play. And he should not be expected to feed everyone, only if he wants to and if they are worth it.  Now, I'm here to tell you that there are other little lost sheepies out there who need help. Who need you. And all you guys gotta do is get your Bo-Peeps on and go and find one.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Seven:

Eddie shoves them towards the cafeteria doors and they are out in the hall. Mike starts walking to the bathrooms with Dustin following behind him standing outside the stalls.

“Dude, don’t listen Eddie. You know he can be an ass sometimes. You smell fine, a little strong but fine. Anyway we need to come up with a plan? And you are going to tell me what happened with Troy?”

“Dustin, I would appreciate it if you didn’t talk to me when I am trying to pee.”

‘Oh, sorry.” But Dustin being Dustin starts talking again as Mike is leaving the stall. “Why don’t you just use the urinals?” Mike glares at him as he is washing his hand. “Because.”

“Because why?”

“Seriously Dustin, Because it is easier and no knot-head can try to catch a glimpse of my junk. Not that is any of your business.”

“Oh, okay. So, are you excited to see El and Will? Wait, are the brownies for El? A little courting gift if you will. It’s not like you need it, you can’t keep your hand to yourselves.” He teases his best friend by initiating a fake make- out session.

Mike turns a light shade of pink. “Shut up, it is not funny.”

“I’m just teasing and remember it is Will’s birthday tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I know. I have a present. Anyway, we need to get a sub.”

“Wait, um you never told me what happened with Troy. You are not getting out of this. Why do you smell like him and have bruises and scratches?” Mike’s injuries mostly calmed down but they were still visible, especially if you look closely. “Um. I-I, we got into a fight.” 

“Really Mike, you look like you were mauled.” He is exaggerating, bruises were already lightening and the scratches were healing, “and Troy looks like he was barely touched.” He notices something near his taller friend’s neck and wrists which spooked him. “Mike, why does it look like you have bite marks near your bonding glands?”Mike stays quiet. “ Mike, did he try to forcefully bond you? Remember he tried to cut my teeth and made you jump off the quarry. What did he do?”

Troy marked up near his glands to scare him and make him think he was going to bond him and to trap him. He tried to get his pants off, he had managed to unbutton them. He had seen Mike was wearing tighty-whities under his dark jeans and ran his finger across the waist band, teasing him in the most heinous way and breathing down his neck, scraping his teeth against Mike’s collarbone. He kept telling him what a disgusting queer whore that needed to be fixed. He wanted to see what Mike looked like under his clothes, have sex with Mike, knot him, rape him but he did not want to bond him. 

“Mike, buddy. Are you in there?” 

“Uhm? Yeah. Oh, yeah, Troy did not bond me. Anyway d&d, we can regroup at the flagpole.” Mike is not going to talk about it and starts leaving out the door before Dustin can stop him. He hears Dustin calling out. He rushes before Dustin can catch up with him and looks back to see if he is being followed. 

He is so distracted he slams into someone, that someone is Lucas. They both groan in pain. “Mike, dude. Would you please look where you are going?” Lucas, being concerned for his friend, tells his basketball friends he’ll catch up later. “Mike, are you okay?” The boys have been picked on from a young age, so Lucas is right to worry about some bully plus it does not help that Mike looks and smells a bit roughed up. He could sense an unfriendly alpha scent on his friend but due to time passing and being a beta his sense of smell isn’t as strong as the other dynamics. “Was Troy chasing and trying to hurt you or someone else? Is that why you look like this?” 

“I dealt with him and no, Dustin is just being annoying.” Mike starts walking past and away from Luke but is grabbed by his shoulder. Lucas wants to talk. “Wait Mike, are you really actually? It seemed like you were in your own world earlier.” “Lucas, I am fine. I need to go.” 

“No, you’re not. You seemed way off earlier and then you ran off before, me and Dustin could say another word. You have been stuck in the past since El and Will left and now with the d&d game moving it won’t be the end of the world. You’ve become a ghost, before you would never shut up and now you barely talk, you’re getting hurt and telling no one and refusing to grow up. If you’re not at d&d or with me or Dustin or Max or even Eddie you’re wallowing at home. We are here in Hawkins. I know you miss El and Will. I know you’ve been through a lot. We’ve been through a lot. I am trying to help, we’re trying to help. How are we supposed to help when you push us away? Why are you cutting us off? Why aren’t you making more friends or getting out more?”

“Really Lucas, you abandoned me with your stupid basketball team, act like an entirely new person when you’re around them. When Dustin isn’t at d&d he is at the av club or drama club which I might have joined if I didn’t almost puke my guts out which you would have known if you paid attention to me one of your best friends since first grade or he is talking to Susie on celebro. Neither of you have time, you’re too busy for. And I can’t even blame Max. It took a while for us to even become friendly and she is still grieving her jackass brother. If you paid attention you would know what is wrong. I guess your basketball friends are just better than me. I am not good enough.”

For three months Mike was deeply depressed. He would not leave his house unless it was for school or he was forced to leave. 

Mike was laying in his nest listening to his walkman and playing on his nintendo when Lucas came down to the basement. 

“Mike, you down here?” He asks and appears at the opening of the nest. Lucas starts climbing into the nest, he being raised in a beta household sometimes forgets certain things but mostly remembers before it is too late. “Mike, can I enter your nest?”

“I don’t want your scent to cover El and Will’s.” Lucas smells like moss and oranges.  

“Mike, buddy. I don’t smell them. Maybe we can tell them to scent something for you and send it.”

“I guess you can come in then.”

“Are you feeling better?”

“Not really.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It's not your fault. I just missed them and everything has been so hard..” Mike’s eyes start welling up and a tear slips down his cheek. “I’m sorry. I’m not going to cry.” Only babies and little kids cry, he is not.

“It's okay.” That makes Mike bite his lip and cry hard. His crying turned into sobs. Lucas pulls his best friend into a hug, comforting him and repeating over and over again. “It’s okay. I got you.” It seemed to work and calmed Mike down. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah.”

That got a smile out of Lucas. “Great, I brought some movies and your mom said we can order pizza if it gets you out of your hermit nest.”

“Okay.”

“Maybe later this week Dustin and Max can come over. We can hang out, make some snacks, watch movies, play video games, play d&d and maybe clean this place. I know how you hate a mess.”

“Sure”

“Then next week we can go to the arcade or the movies or to the bowling place or the diner. The week after that we can go to a hellfire meeting, you haven’t been in a while.” Lucas is trying to slowly pull Mike out of his depressive episode by not overwhelming him.

“Mike-”

“I need to go.”

Lucas does not understand. He was trying. He is trying. He comes over to the Wheeler residents to hang out with Mike when he is too depressed to leave the house. He tries to help Mike get out more. He stands up to bullies. He listens to his never ending stream of consciousness. Yeah he has hung out with the party less but he was still there for them. They aren’t little kids anymore. Mike can not expect them to behave as such and never grow up and explore. Lucas however, is left standing there as Mike walks past him feeling guilty. Maybe there was more he could do. They could fix this. Mike does feel guilt as he disappears from Lucas' field of vision, his shoulders deflate. ‘Maybe I should apologize but when Lucas finds out we are skipping his game he’ll be so angry and so upset and I can not face that.’ 

As Mike is walking he sees a Hellfire poster and is reminded of his mission: find a sub. He passes the school newspaper club where Nancy has been a member since ninth grade. Nancy used to play d&d with him and the rest of the party all the time when they were younger, one time she played as an elf princess. She borrowed mom’s green dresses and wore a crown and sparky jewels. So, if Nancy played they wouldn’t even have to teach her how to play. 

Mike opens the door slowly trying to be quiet but as he walks through it slams shut alarming everyone and drawing all the attention to him. He felt awkward with all eyes on him, playing with the right sleeve of his shirt, his darting all across the room. Then spotted Nancy staring at him unknown to him, very annoyed at her little brother disturbing her peace. What does he want? He was pissed off at her this morning and now wants her attention and yelling her name. 

“Nancy!” He got so excited seeing his sister in a room full of no one he knew. When Mike was very little, first starting elementary school he went searching for Nancy at school because he wanted his big sister and wanted to play with her, and Nancy had to walk him back to his class holding their little hands together. All the adults found it adorable. Now he is in the ninth grade you would think he would have mellowed out and outgrown his awkward inability to read social cues. 

Nancy puts her hand to her forehead, very much not pleased. “ She turns to face Fred Benson, one of her good friends from the newspaper and cringes, “I will be right back, I have to deal with my brother.” Everyone goes back to their work and their chatting. Nancy walks up the stairs to her brother grabs his hand and dragging him behind her out the door and it closes after they exist. 

“So.” 

“So Mike, I am very busy. What do you want?”

“Um, I was wondering if you would play d&d with Hellfire? We need a sub and you used to play with us all the time.” 

“This is one of the busiest days for the newspaper and I am covering the basketball game. I can’t, you're going to need to find someone else and aren’t you supposed to be supporting Lucas.”

“He has been on the bench all season, you think that is going to change today?”

“Did you get into a fight?”

“What? No.” They technically did not fight. Lucas was trying to be a good friend but stupidly told him he was being a bad friend and probably made Lucas feel awful.

Nancy examines Mike and frowns, her alpha big sister instincts are acting. “Did you get into a fight with someone else?” She was referencing the little injuries Mike acquired since she last saw him. “I got hurt in the gym.” 

“And you didn’t go to the nurse.” She drags him into the nearest girl’s bathroom resulting in him complaining. She pulls out her mini first aid kit. Inspects further she gets closer and starts smelling him. “It’s not that bad and stop smelling me.” 

“You interrupted my day and embarrassed me. I’ll smell you as much as I want, Michael.”

“Why did you have to drag me into the girl’s bathroom?” He says as she disinfects him. Luckily the bathroom was empty. “I am not dealing with any alpha males today.” Speaking of which Nancy could smell alpha on him, probably one of his bullies, it sure smelled like it, families tend to have a stronger sense of smell when it comes to their loved ones. 

“Tilt your head.”  She says as she is putting a band-aid on. 

“Ow, Nancy, stop it.”

“Who did this? Was it James? Was it Troy? Anyone else I don’t know about? Where is your jacket? Why aren’t you covering it up?” She suddenly remembers seeing Troy with Mike’s leather jacket which he picked out himself from the thrift shop. “It was Troy wasn’t it? He did this to you and stole your jacket? I am going to kill him.” She did notice marks suspiciously close to his bonding scenting gland but says nothing, she will protect her brother and make whatever bully did this pay. 

Mike follows Nancy outside the bathroom to her locker as she is opening it. “Nancy, I’m not six anymore you can’t threaten to beat someone up to get them to leave me alone and he is almost a foot taller and probably at least a hundred pounds heavier. It would be stupid to challenge him.”

She is rummaging through her locker to find a plain oversized denim jacket. “Here, wear this.”

“I am not wearing it, it is for girls and it has your scent all over it.” He is not wearing his older sister’s sister jacket and embarrasses himself. Older family members often scents the younger ones but as they grow up it becomes embarrassing. It is like when your mom or dad yells ‘I love you’ insert a cutesy nickname out the window when dropping you off at school.

“Would you relax? It is oversized and you're so skinny anyways it will fit and no one will bother you if you smell like me, the pros of being an alpha and civil. I am older than Troy so I have more experience challenging other alphas.” Nancy has the reputation of being incredibly kindhearted and intelligent alpha, anyone omega would kill to be hers.  

Mike rolls his eyes. “Don’t embarrass me. I still have to be here for three more years after you graduate. Promise me.”

Mike hates it when Nancy gets overprotective, she goes all alpha. Nancy is mostly a sweet person until someone hurts someone she cares about. She has and will so gone all alpha. She did actually threaten to beat up Troy and James if they did not leave Mike alone when they were still in elementary school together and it did work for a little while. 

“Fine, I will not embarrass you.” Nancy is the big sister and oldest sibling. She has not had to deal with an embarrassing overprotective and nosey older sibling. Her definition for embarrassing is a little different than Mike’s. 

Mike was left to find others to play. First was the wrestling team, who were the most polite of out everyone. It was surprising because they are jocks, and well jocks are known for being obnoxious. 

“So you fight with dice?”

“Yes, but these aren't your normal dice. They have up to 20 sides.”

It was a no. 

Then it was the science club. Mike was once in the science club during his middle school time, so maybe he can reason with them.

Mike talks with Conner, a boy conducting an experiment on the bunsen burner.“Mom says the game promotes Satanism and animal cruelty.”

“That's just bullshit media propaganda. You’re a man of science, maybe do some data analysis.”

“ 60 Minutes begs to differ.” He looks Mike up and down, giving him a little smirk. “ 60 Minutes also honey scented omegas are very fertile and betas are just as capable of pleasing them. You’d be cute if you didn’t hang around satanists and didn’t have rumors about being a queer.”

“You know what. Fuck you!” Mike yells and flips him off but it wasn’t as thrilling as a fiery flame cut him off, slamming the door. “Jackass.” He digs through his pockets and slaps on the scent blocker Eddie gave him earlier, maybe he is right.

Math club says no. Chess club says no. Art club says no but in a nice way. Dustin is convinced the one alpha girl has a crush on Mike. Drama clubs say no but nicely because Dustin is a part of it and they don’t want to be rude and one of the members saw Mike almost puke which makes people feel pity. 

Like they said Mike and Dustin meet at the flagpole exhausted. Mike is tired with the day long pressure in his head and his sensitive nose and his droopy eyes made worse by running around the school. “I hate high school.”

Dustin looks towards the middle school. “So screw it.”

“Screw what?”

“Screw high school.” 

“What? What? Dustin, where are you going?”

Mike suddenly sees Nancy walking towards the basketball team where Troy is and looks back to Dustin. 

“Just trust me!” 

Mike is trying to figure out what Dustin is on about and keep an eye on Nancy at the same time. “Come on, just talk to me.” He starts running forcing Mike to chase off him leaving him unable to stop Nancy if needed. ‘Fuck.’

“Tell me things!”

“Wear a helmet!”

“What are you talking about?”

He prays Nancy does not do anything to embarrass him. He prays Dustin has a plan because if he is forced to follow him while being exhausted, in pain and with the possibility that Nancy might humiliate him it better be worth it.