Work Text:
Mike glanced around the prize room. There were quite a few small items in here, none of which really interested him. The arcade, like others, was known for reserving the big prizes for huge ticket amounts. He and Nancy had managed to accumulate about 2,000 tickets apiece by going to the arcade a few times a week. Ever since Steve and Robin had gotten the jobs in the arcade, Nancy and Mike had been able to enjoy reduced rates for buying tokens at the arcade.
Near the back of the prize room, Mike spotted the prize he knew he wanted. He walked a little closer and took a better look at it. The prize was a Dungeons and Dragons D12 dice light that could light up in four colors: white, purple, green and red. Mike picked up the box and looked over it. He put it down and groaned slightly when he saw the prize amount: 2500 tickets.
"I gotta win this for Will," Mike muttered under his breath before he went on to look at the other prizes. He hoped that he would be able to bring Will to the arcade so he could win the DND light for him. He started thinking about scheduling a day for him and Will to come to the arcade so Mike could win some more points.
He walked over to Nancy, who was looking at coffee thermos that was shaped like a prescription bottle. When he got a closer look at it, he snorted. The thermos was labeled as prescription coffee, 18 ounces, to be administered throughout the day to stay awake and feel human. It also came with a warning that said "do not interact with others until effects are felt." And it suggested frequent refills.
"That is perfect for you," Mike said.
"I know right?" said Nancy, grinning up at Mike. "And it's only a thousand points so I don't have to use all of them at once!"
Mike grinned at his sister's excitement. She had been rather hesitant about coming to the arcade so often, but seeing their visits pay off seemed to make her happy. Plus, Mike privately enjoyed spending time with Nancy outside of the house. They always had fun together whenever they came here.
"Find anything?" Nancy asked as they walked over to the ticket counter for Nancy to redeem her tickets. The tickets were stored on their gaming card, so they didn't have to carry tickets around with them, and could keep track of them at any of the machines where digital tokens were sold.
Mike shook his head.
"Not quite enough for what I want to get," Mike said a little sadly.
"Oh, that's too bad. Hope you don't have too much more."
Mike nodded, but didn't say anything. It wasn't that he didn't trust Nancy to not judge him for wanting the DND light for Will, but Mike wanted to keep it a secret until he was able to give the light to Will.
The next Friday, Mike picked up the phone and dialed the Byers' house. Will had had a rough day because of the bullies at school. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, El and Max had all stood up for Will and were encouraging to him after the bullies went away, but Mike could see that Will was still down. He had the perfect idea for how to lift Will's spirits.
"Hello?" said Joyce when the phone was answered.
"Hi there, Mrs. Byers, is Will around?" Mike asked.
"He's in his room, do you want me to get him?"
"Yes, please. I know he had a bad day today and I was hoping to cheer him up."
"Thank you for that, Mike," said Joyce. "I'll go and fetch him for you. Give me a minute."
Mike nodded even though Mrs. Byers couldn't see. He held his breath slightly as he waited for Will to come to the phone. He hoped that Will wasn't too sad that he wouldn't want to do anything. Mike knew he could talk Will into going out with him, even if he had to push a little, but he hoped it wouldn't come to that.
"Mike?" asked Will.
"Hey, Will, are you feeling any better?"
"Kinda," Will said. "I took a nap when I got home and that seemed to help a little."
"I'm glad you're at least feeling a little better," said Mike. He took a breath before he continued. "Listen, I was going to go to the arcade tonight, but Nancy has other plans. I wanted to know if you wanted to come with me?"
"The one at the mall?" Will asked, sounding a little lighter in tone.
"Yeah, this way we could get Robin and Steve's discount for our tokens. I figured you could use a little cheering up, Will."
"That would be great, Mike!" Will said, sounding slightly nervous now. If Mike didn't know any better, he would have guessed Will might have been blushing. Mike could feel his own face turning red, too.
"Awesome! I'll swing by in just a little bit and we can bike over there! See you soon, Willie!"
"Bye, Mikey!"
Mike smiled to himself as he hung up the phone. Will was sounding like his usual self, which meant Will was definitely feeling better than he was earlier.
Mike and Will walked into Round One, the mall's arcade. There was a large bowling pin in front of the building that they had taken a picture next to before going inside. Although they weren't going to bowl, they were amused by how huge the bowling pin was.
They headed over to the arcade's dining area. Robin and Steve were cashiers at the main eatery and could usually be found laughing with each other when they weren't helping other customers. Tonight, though, they were a little busier since it was a Friday night. Mike and Will had to wait in line for about ten minutes before they reached the counter.
"Hey guys, no Nancy tonight?" asked Steve when he saw them.
"Nah, she's going shopping with Mom for some new clothes," said Mike. "But I still wanted to come and try and get some more points."
"Well, Robin is about to go on break so she can get you some cheaper tokens. You guys have fun, all right?"
Mike nodded as Robin came out from behind the counter, taking off the apron she'd been wearing. She led them over to the ticket counter and entered her employee information before Mike swiped his gaming card to add virtual tokens.
"Have fun, kiddos," Robin said, winking at Mike. Mike swallowed nervously. He had a feeling Robin had seen him looking at the DND light the week before and wondered if she had put two and two together.
"Thanks, Robin!" Will exclaimed.
"Yeah, thanks!" Mike said as Robin walked back over to the cafeteria.
Mike pressed some buttons to add enough tokens that would ensure he would have enough to build up the rest of his points. He double checked his point numbers and saw he still had just about 500 points to go before he'd have enough to win the DND light.
"What should we do first?" Mike asked when he was finished.
"Air hockey!" Will exclaimed, his eyes lit up.
Mike grinned at Will and nodded, letting Will lead the way to the nearest air hockey machine. Mike swiped his gaming card and the machine started to blow the air, and the puck came out on Mike's side. The two of them spent about ten minutes playing, which resulted in Mike losing spectacularly to Will.
"Better luck, next time, Mikey," Will said, sounding amused.
"What can I say? I'm great at losing in air hockey."
Will giggled and grabbed Mike's hand, pulling him away from the air hockey machine and over to one of the basketball shooting games. Mike groaned slightly; his athletic abilities were pretty much non-existent, so he knew this would not be the game to win a lot of tickets for him.
To Mike's surprise, however, Will was much better at the game. He managed to score about 20 more hoops than Mike did and when the display showed how many tickets they earned, they were already up 100 tickets.
"Oooh, we did pretty good!" Will said when he saw the ticket amount. "What else should we do?"
"Skee ball is an easy ticket maker!" Mike exclaimed.
"Good idea!" said Will, grabbing Mike's hand again and pulling him over to the skee ball machines.
Mike swiped his gaming card for him and Will and the two started their round of ski ball. They both got quite a few points in the game and earned about 50 more tickets. Mike decided to play again and get some more tickets. They ended up winning another 75 tickets and Mike was starting to get excited. It was easier than he expected to rack up those tickets he needed.
After playing skeeball, the two of them started to play actual games that didn't involve winning tickets. Will dominated at both galaga and Ms. Pac Man while Mike focused on some shoot 'em games that he played until he ran out of lives.
Once they had gotten their fill of regular games, Mike asked Will what to do next.
"Is there a game where you'll win lots of tickets?"
"Yeah, there's the game that drops the coins into the hole and you can win lots of tickets fast with that one!" Mike exclaimed. "One time Nancy got a jackpot and won like 750 tickets!"
"Wow, we should go try it!"
Mike smiled and grabbed Will's hand this time and led him over to one of the coin games. This one was themed with Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory , which had always been a favorite movie of Mike and Will's.
Mike sat down in the chair in front of the machine while Will sat in the one next to it. He swiped his card and started letting coins drop. He played three rounds of it, which consisted largely of him and Will going, "Oh, come on!" when the coins wouldn't fall into the hole to award points. At the end of the final round, Mike glanced down at the swiper that displayed his tickets and saw that he had earned 375 tickets without realizing it.
A jolt of excitement ran through Mike. He had enough tickets!
"Hey, can we head over to the cafeteria? I'm thirsty."
"Yeah, of course," Mike said, thinking quickly. He wanted an excuse to go over to the prize area to pick up Will's surprise. "Actually, I'm gonna run to the bathroom first, can you get me a..."
"Dr. Pepper," he and Will said at the same time, both of them grinning.
"Of course, Mike," Will said, nodding.
"Thanks, I'll be back in a minute."
Will turned and walked over to the cafeteria. Business had slowed down quite a bit, so he was first in line.
"Hey Will, what can I get for you?"
"A Dr. Pepper for Mike, some nachos, and a Diet Coke for me," Will said.
"Sure thing, buddy," Steve said. "It's on the house, Will."
"Are you sure?" Will said.
"Don't worry about it," Steve said. "All of our friends get free food around here."
Will wasn't entirely sure that was the truth, but decided not to question it all the same. Steve handed him a number 7 tent and waved him away so he could help the next customer. Will headed over to one of the open tables and sat down, glancing around for Mike. He was wondering what was keeping his friend and didn't notice Robin approaching him.
"All right, one Dr. Pepper for Wheeler, and an order of nachos and a Diet Coke for my favorite Wizard," Robin said, putting down the order on the table.
"Thanks, Robin!" Will said with a grin. He slid her a $10 bill. "Can you split that with Steve?"
"No promises!" Robin exclaimed but she winked at Will and Will knew she would do as he asked.
Robin walked away and Will took a sip of his Diet Coke when Mike returned.
"Thanks for ordering, Will!" Mike exclaimed before he sat down. Mike was carrying a bag that seemed to have some sort of arcade prize in it.
"What's in there?" Will asked.
"I'll show you later," Mike said, sounding slightly nervous.
Will frowned slightly but decided to let it go. He and Mike shared the nachos and finished their drinks before they decided to call it a night and head back to Will's house. They biked over and headed into Will's room when they got there. Mike still seemed nervous about what was in the bag and Will noticed.
"You okay, Mike?" he asked.
"Huh?" Mike asked, looking at Will.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Mike said a little fast. "I, uh, I got this for you at the arcade prize store."
"You got me something? Mike, you didn't have to do that."
"I know, but I wanted to, Will. Wanna open it?"
"Yeah I do!" Will exclaimed.
Mike grinned at Will's enthusiasm as he handed over the bag. Will quickly reached inside and pulled out the box. His eyes widened when he saw what it was.
"Mike, what is this?" Will asked.
"It's a DND dice light," Mike said. "Do you like it?"
"Like it? I love it! Mike, thank you!"
Mike wasn't prepared for Will to practically tackle him into a hug. Mike hugged Will back just as enthusiastically and they held onto each other for a good thirty seconds before they finally broke apart. Will opened the light's box and read about how to work it. He walked over to his desk and pulled out some batteries and put them into the light. It lit up green at first and Will pressed the button on it to change the color to red.
"That looks so cool!" Mike exclaimed.
"Yeah it does! Thank you again for this, Mike. I love it!"
"I knew you would," Mike said.
"I feel bad you blew your tickets on me, though, Mike."
"Will, I wanted to get this for you. As soon as I saw it, I wanted to make sure I could win enough points on my next arcade visit. I didn't know you'd be there with me when I got enough tickets, but I'm glad you were. It made it more special when I got it."
Will smiled at Mike, some tears running down his face as he leaned forward and hugged Mike again. They held each other gently, rubbing circles on each other's backs as they hugged.
When they broke apart, Mike was the first to speak.
"I hope you're feeling better, Willie."
"I am, Mikey. So much better, thank you."
"I'm glad," Mike said. "I'm sorry you had a bad day today."
"You made it better, Mike. You always make it better. I love you for that."
"I love you, too, Will."