Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“But I don’t want to go to prom,” Will whined as The Party sat around their regular lunch table. The current, heated, topic of conversation was who Will would bring to prom. Everyone around the table groaned, tired of hearing Will’s exhausting excuse.

“You have to go to Prom.”

“Don’t you think you should have one night of fun after all the shit we’ve been through?”

“It’s our last big thing before graduating!”

The cacophony of rebuttals was overwhelming and Will was starting to get tired of hearing it. They’ve been having this discussion for a week, trying to whittle down Will’s refusal until he would finally agree. 

“I saw Jennifer Hayes eyeing you up after English class today. Maybe you should ask her. I’m sure she’d go with you,” Dustin suggested with a wiggle of his eyebrows and a wink, earning him an exaggerated eye-roll in return. 

“Dude, the problem isn’t that he doesn’t have any options. Trust me, there are girls lining up, hoping for ‘cute, mysterious William Francis Byers’ to ask them to prom. He doesn’t want to go,” butts in Max to the defense of her friend. 

“That’s…not even my middle name. Also, what are you even talking about? No one is lining up for me,” he replied with a blush, not at the prospect of so many girls allegedly being interested in him, but rather because moments like these caused him anxiety as he worked hard to keep up the ‘straight-charade’ and not show why he didn’t really want to go to prom. He didn’t see why he should have to torture himself by being forced to watch the person he actually wanted to go with dance with some random girl. It would be a complete repeat of the Snowball Dance and Will wasn’t exactly looking forward to that, thank you very much. 

“Too bad, I’m totally calling you Francis from now on,” Max replied, sticking her tongue out in his direction. “El, back me up here. You hear it after P.E. too, right?”

“Oh, yes. Something about your very cute eyes and the sun.” Will sneered at El, who mocks his face right back, as she feeds into Max’s taunting. Will knew that she and Max were just trying to get a rise out of him, they loved pushing his buttons at times like these.

—

After the Hawkins 1986 Disaster, and the subsequent defeat of Vecna and the Mind Flayer, things had gone relatively back to normal. Max awoke from her coma, her limbs taking their time to heal over the 3 years, but her eyesight never quite returned. The fissures running through Hawkins closed almost miraculously, seemingly dependent upon the Upside-Down big baddies to remain open. Hawkins High renamed the gymnasium in honor of Jason Carver (and every time The Party walked by they would ceremoniously give the nameplate the finger while whispering “fuck that guy”). The school even dedicated the music/study room where the Hellfire Club met in Eddie’s memory, but only months after Eddie had been exonerated and some petitioning led by Dustin and Mike. Every now and then they would meet in there to just sit in silence when they weren’t hosting campaigns or mini battle of the band competitions. 

But perhaps the biggest change was within the dynamic of the group. Despite having a small falling out in 1986, just before Vecna first struck, the Party actually came out of it all stronger than ever. There was hardly a moment when they didn’t all hang out together. Mike had begrudgingly let Max officially into the party, though really it was the least he could do after, well, everything. The only time they were apart was when Lucas, Dustin, Mike, and Will got together for “boy time” and El and Max hung out for “girl time”. Will got the best of both worlds, though, since “girl time” meant El and Max would hang out at the Byers house, and it was just natural for Will to tag along when he was home.

Honestly, Will began to feel a bit closer to El and Max than he did with the boys. It wasn’t like he would skip “boy time”, and the boys didn’t even seem to know he hung out with them. Except for that one time El begged Will to let her practice make-up on him and he agreed, only to forget hours later that he was covered in mascara and eye shadow. When he showed up in Mike’s basement he was met by Dustin and Lucas, who couldn’t contain their laughter and still to this day bugged Will about it, and a blushing Mike who grabbed Will’s wrist and dragged him to the basement. “Let’s just…get this shit off your face. Boys don’t wear make-up,” he muttered, wiping hurriedly at Will’s face. Will had blushed at their close proximity but was also hurt. Deep down inside he kind of wished Mike would find him…pretty? 

Despite the not-so-positive reaction Will received from the boys, he allowed El and Max to continue to give him make-overs, as long as they made sure to clean it off right after. Max would give El suggestions on what to do, El would execute it as best as she could, and Will would look in the mirror and describe to Max what it looked like (“Oh. My. God. El made me look like I have a black eye!” or “El’s starting to nail down the smokey-eye look, you should let her do that on you next.”)

One day Max, the ever-blunt person she was, asked him, “Why do you let us do your make-up? Most guys would run the other way at the mere sight of a make-up brush?” Not taking Will’s “I don’t know” as a response she pushed on, “And you’re so cool with us talking about boys. You never disagree whenever we call Rob Lowe a heartthrob”

“Well he is, isn’t he?” 

“I don’t know, is he?”

“I mean, I much prefer Judd Nelson, but Rob Lowe’s cool too,” he said, fidgetting as the room got quiet, both El and Max taking in his confession while he waited with bated breath for them to say something, anything.

It was El who broke the silence as she stated, “Judd Nelson is super hot,” with a nod. Max giggled and suggested they watch The Breakfast Club and was met with no resistance. Will, feeling a huge weight lifted off his shoulders, agreed to make some popcorn. When he returned he took a seat between the two girls and the three gushed over Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez the entire time, El and Will taking turns describing for Max exactly what was happening in each scene. 

This new blossoming friendship brought Will a lot of freedom that he just couldn’t seem to find with Dustin, Lucas, and Mike. He still loved hanging out with the three of them, and the entire Party, of course, but part of him still felt trapped in a cage he didn’t see himself unlocking until well after they parted ways for college. El and Max knew this and understood why, yet that didn’t stop them from busting his chops from time to time about all the girls that found him downright adorable.

—

“No, I think they said something about ‘feeling lost at sea when they stare into the eyes of Will Byers’”, Max continued to tease, El verbally pointing out once she sees a blush creep on Will’s face due to their incessant teasing.

“But Will’s eyes are brown, so wouldn’t they be lost in like a puddle of mud or something?” After having nothing to say all afternoon, Mike finally decided to contribute to the conversation. He was met with boos from everyone and Dustin threw a few fries at him. “What? I’m just saying that it logically doesn’t make sense,” he replied indignantly, brushing the salt from the fries off his shirt. Mike and Will’s eyes met and Mike had an expression that Will couldn’t quite read. It looked like annoyance, but there was something else there that Will just couldn’t put his fingers on. 

“Mike’s just jealous that no one’s complimenting his eyes and that the girls aren’t lining up for him ,” Lucas said, reaching across the table to nudge Mike’s arm jokingly, but Mike wasn’t having it and brushed him off. 

“Come on, the bell’s about to ring. Let’s just get to class,” he mumbled before briskly walking out of the cafeteria, leaving the Party dumbfounded in his wake. El leaned over to Max to whisper something into her ear, but Will was just out of earshot and couldn’t hear her. He’d have to ask her about that later. In silence, the rest of the group rose and went off to their respective classes. Will sighed upon remembering his next class, Trigonometry, was one he shared with Mike. After having his eyes compared to mud, he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to spend 60 minutes sitting next to his friend. 

Chapter Text

Upon entering the Trigonometry classroom Will saw that most of the seats were still vacant, his classmates still slowly trickling in. Usually he took the seat directly to the right of Mike so that they would always be paired for group work, to make passing notes easier, and so that he could feed Mike the answers whenever he got called on. His body was already taking him to his usual spot, working off of pure muscle memory, but Will made a snap decision to continue walking until he was all the way at the back of the classroom, about five rows past Mike. He could feel Mike’s eyes watching him, he felt Mike’s body shift his way as he walked by, but he refused to look at the curly-haired boy.

“What the hell, Will, that’s my seat,” Lauren Passanova complained, hands on her hips and foot tapping impatiently.

“Yeah, well, I guess you’ll have to find a new one today,” he replied, still feeling a pair of eyes burning into him from a few feet away, but he still didn’t dare to check.

Lauren considered this before completely changing her demeanor. She leaned down towards Will, twirling a finger in her hair, and he noticed her eyes faltered down from his own. “Ok, but only if you ask me to prom.”

Normally Will would politely decline asks like these. It wasn’t like he had received a lot of them, but he did have his fair share of girls talking to him, just as any other normal boy had. But this time he noticed movement in his peripheral vision and it seemed a lot like Mike straightening up very quickly, a move Will recognized he did when he was offended, as if he was trying to tower over and intimidate whatever, or whoever, the offender was. This mixed with the non-compliment Mike gave earlier in the day was really starting to get to Will. Maybe Lucas was right. Maybe Mike’s jealous that I’m finally getting all this attention and he’s upset no girls have asked him to prom. He mustn’t think I’m worth receiving this attention.

Spurred on by this “realization” and his newfound need to bother his friend who apparently thought he couldn’t possibly have anyone like him, Will decided to pull out the most flirtatious smirk he could, leaning slightly towards Lauren while taking her hand, and said, “Well I guess we’ll just have to see, won’t we?” 

“I guess we will,” she replied just before Mr. Walker walked in to settle down the class. Smirk still grazing his face, Will finally allowed his eyes to meet Mike’s and found Mike glaring daggers right back. This only ignited the fire in Will more, now wanting nothing more than to prove to his friend that people could be interested in him, whether Mike liked it or not. So Will did the only thing he could think of at the moment that would really set Mike off, and he winked at Mike. This caused the Wheeler boy’s face to turn completely red and choke a little, finally turning towards the front to focus on the lesson.

Guilt suddenly began to swarm around Will. It flooded his brain so badly that he had a hard time learning about sine and cosine. He didn’t feel guilty about what he was doing to Mike, in fact, he was going to brainstorm later with El and Max how he could continue to enrage his friend in revenge for the way he was starting to treat Will. No, he felt guilty for how he treated Lauren, though, and how he might have led her on when he had no intention of actually asking her to prom. In his notebook, he wrote Lauren’s name in the margin to be a reminder to chat with her later and let her know that he wasn’t even going to prom. 

The rest of the class period moved along rather uneventfully. The only highlight was when Mr. Miller called on Mike who struggled to answer the question since Will wasn’t there to give it to him. Will laughed to himself as he doodled in his notebook. I think that’s 2-0 for me now.

As the bell rang Will shot up, wanting to avoid Mike once again on his way out. He heard Mike call out his name as he walked by, but he continued ignoring him as he left the classroom and made his way toward his English class. Fortunately, they did not share that class.

Will made it a few steps down the hallway when he felt a hand grasp his wrist tightly and tug him to the side of the hallway.

“What is this, are you ignoring me now?” Mike forced Will to face him and quickly dropped his grip on Will’s wrist. Mike crossed his arms over his chest as his eyes bore into Will just as they had in class. 

“Yeah, I am. Wouldn’t want to make you look into a puddle of mud all day,” he bit back, matching Mike’s stance as his arms fell comfortably across his own chest. 

“Jesus, Will, that’s not what I meant and you know it,” Mike said exasperatedly, one of his hands carding through his messy hair as he rolled his eyes. 

“No, Mike, I don’t. What’s up with you insulting me in front of everyone?”

“Well, what’s with you asking Lauren to prom?” Mike deflected as he always did, like he could never just take responsibility for the things he said to Will in the heat of the moment.

“What about it? She’s pretty and she’s interested in me.” Arms waving at his side as if to make a point, trying to hide the difficulty with which he said the words given he didn’t exactly believe them.

“Pretty interested in kissing you.”

“What?” Will shouted incredulously, wondering where Mike had gotten that idea. The warning bell rang and Will realized he still had a hefty walk to English. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Mike. I’ve got to go.” 

As Will started walking away Mike yelled out, “Look, just meet me at Eddie’s room after school, we’re not finished here.” Will rolled his eyes as he walked away, feeling like a child being reprimanded by their parent. Will couldn’t fathom why Mike thought Lauren wanted to kiss him nor why he would care. Part of him didn’t want to meet Mike at the end of the day, he just wanted to keep ignoring him and push his buttons. He wanted to be as much of an asshole as Mike was being to him. But at the end of the day, he found himself standing in front of the Munson Study Hall, staring at his friend who was pacing around the room waiting for him.

Chapter Text

“Glad to see you’ve decided to not continue to ignore me,” was the greeting Will received once Mike noticed him standing in the doorway.

In response, Will rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, and leaned against the door frame. He had half a mind to leave if this was how Mike was going to keep acting. “Yeah, well you’ve got 5 seconds before I change my mind, so…” he replied, looking down at his watch for good measure. 

Seemingly equally frustrated, Mike let out a harumph and gestured to the table, taking a seat himself as he waited for Will to join him. Will debated between staying put and sitting down, weighing the pros and cons in his head briefly. The doorway provided a quick exit, but sitting meant he was more likely to make Mike comfortable enough to actually say what was on his mind. Reluctantly he took a seat, making a show of it as he was currently relishing the overdramatic air he was giving off after seeing just how much it was frustrating Mike. 

Neither said a word at first, so Will tossed him an expectant look and tapped his watch as if to say time’s ticking.  

“She doesn’t actually want to go to Prom with you,” the long-haired boy finally said with such conviction. If Will didn’t know any better he would have thought that perhaps Lauren told Mike this himself. Seeing as they all ran in completely separate social circles, this was absolutely impossible and Will knew Mike was just talking out of his ass.

Instead of calling Mike out on his crap, Will asked the question that he actually wanted the answer to. “What does it matter to you? Just this afternoon you and everyone else were begging me to go to Prom. Now I’ve finally started to agree, maybe even found someone to go with, and suddenly it’s a problem?”

Mike doesn’t reply at first, instead looking away with a contemplative face. Tired of the silence that kept falling between them, Will pushed on. “Everyone else has a date, so why shouldn’t I? Lucas is going with Max, Dustin is going with his cousin Gloria, you’re going with El-”

“I’m not going with El,” Mike cut in sharply, giving Will a look of confusion. “We broke up ages ago, why would I go with El? Why can’t you go with El?”

“First of all, she’s my sister and I will not be the guy who goes to Prom with their sister. Second of all, so what if you broke up? You’re good enough friends, there’s no reason you can’t go together. Who else would you go with?” 

“No one, I guess,” Mike answered with a shrug and all Will could do was guffaw. 

“So you’re telling me that you’d rather go to the Prom alone than have me go with some girl? That doesn’t even make sense, Michael. What the hell is your problem?” Confusion didn’t even begin to explain what Will was feeling at that moment. How dare his supposed best friend try to dictate who he could and could not go to the Prom with. He still couldn’t wrap his brain around why Mike cared so much about it. The only other time he had ever seen Mike get this controlling was years ago when he was mad at The Party for encouraging El to push herself and the limits of her powers. As Mike had said at the time, “I love her and I don’t want to lose her again.” But to Will that didn’t quite make sense in this context and he was getting really tired of trying to rationalize Mike’s actions. 

“I told you, she just wants to kiss you!” Mike explained, hands waving in the air as if that was truly any explanation at all. 

“Yeah, you keep saying that, but what. does. that. even. mean? Why do you think she wants to kiss me?” The exasperation Will was feeling was really beginning to shine through as he felt he was being left with more questions than answers. He was really starting to regret not going straight home after his last class.

“She keeps looking at your lips,” again stated, in a tone as if Will is supposed to know what that means. Seemingly picking up on Will not comprehending, Mike added, “That’s like the universal sign that someone wants to kiss you. Jeez, Will, like everyone knows this.” 

But Will hadn’t. And he was floored as he took in that fact. He had seen subtle lip-glances in movies and TV shows before, but he never knew that was what it meant. Especially because Mike did it often to Will. When they were alone. Sitting close. Having deep conversations. Mike’s voice soft and low. Will noticed that Mike did it, but he had always assumed that Mike was just fidgety or was trying to read his lips as he spoke. 

“But y-” Will starts, ready with yet another question for Mike, really hoping that this one will leave him with an actual answer. Maybe even the answer that he wants to hear, although he highly doubts that would be the case. Never in a million years would Mike Wheeler want to kiss Will. 

Unfortunately, Will never gets to even ask, as Lucas has walked into the room whistling to himself before noticing Mike and Will sitting at the table. His happy demeanor drops when he sees the looks on their faces and feels the palpable tension in the air. “You good?” he asks, pointing a finger back and forth between them.

“Mike thinks Lauren Passanova wants to kiss me.”

“She looked at his lips , Lucas. Back me up on this one.”

“She just…happened to look down! Who even knows that it was at my lips.”

“She was twirling her hair and told you to ask her to Prom. She was clearly flirting with you.”

“Hold up a second…She told you to ask her to Prom?” Lucas finally said in an excited tone, cutting off the back and forth bickering that had grown increasingly loud with each response. 

“Not the point , Lucas. We can discuss that later. Is looking at someone’s lips the universal sign of wanting to kiss or not?” Mike asked, rising from his seat with his hands gripping the table, as if impatient to have someone on his side of the argument.

Lucas stroked his chin with his forefinger and thumb, as though thinking through the situation thoroughly. “Well, it could just mean that she thinks you’re cute. But 9 times out of 10….yeah, she wants to kiss you. And she probably wants to kiss you at Prom.” Lucas did a suggestive eyebrow wiggle. “Under the glow lights, dancing to a slow song, staring deeply into each other’s eyes, swept up in the romance of it all.” Will wanted to vomit at that mental image but kept his face as neutral as possible. Mike, however, wasn’t doing a great job at hiding his scowl. “So when are you going to ask her?”

“You’re actually encouraging this right now?” Mike asked, getting frustrated after he apparently didn’t get the response from Lucas that he had wanted.

“Um, yeah, I am. Why aren’t you? Will deserves to finally find some love,” his voice lilted at the end as he gave a wink to Will, who was still holding back the mental vomit. “If a cute girl wants to give Will some sugar, we should be helping him come up with how to ask her to Prom, not working against him.” As much as Will appreciated the gesture and help, he wished he could just tell his friends this wasn’t actually the kind of support he was looking for. 

Mike was flabbergasted after being called out and couldn’t seem to formulate a sentence, only wild gestures. Lucas and Will kept looking at him expectantly, though, both still curious to hear why he was so against the idea. Looking between both of them, Mike let out a frustrated sigh, grabbed his backpack, and started heading for the door. “Fine, you want to go with her, fine. I don’t care. Then I’m going to ask Jocelyn Finch.”

Hearing that, Will’s heart fell to his stomach. In his dreams, Will and Mike would have gone to Prom together. In reality, Will knew that would never happen for a multitude of reasons. But when Will thought that Mike and El would go together, he was fine with that. He knew there was no chance for their past relationship to be rekindled, El made that very clear during girls' night. Now that there was a new prospect in the mix, though, Will felt forlorn. 

“Will…Will…Will?” he snapped out of his trance to Lucas calling his name. He nodded at Lucas to indicate that he was listening. “You ok, dude?” Lucas asked with concern, obviously taking in Will’s subconscious pouting. 

“Yeah…just thinking about how I’m going to ask Lauren to Prom,” he replied through gritted teeth. Lucas was none-the-wiser, beaming at Will and patting him on the back, before diving into suggestions he had on how to “pop the question,” as he put it.

Chapter Text

“So explain to us again why you asked Lauren to Prom?” Max questioned Will as El worked on painting her nails a deep red color. The girls were sitting cross legged on the floor while Will was perched on El’s bed. Will rolled his eyes and held the pillow he had been hugging tighter. He was beginning to regret hanging with El and Max over laying around and reading comics with the guys, but he knew Mike would be there and he wasn’t quite ready to be around him. 

Their fight had been three days ago, but neither had made any move to apologize or even look at the other, leaving tensions extremely high. The rest of the Party could tell, feeling it come to life at lunch, but no one seemed brave enough to bring attention to it. Lucas had never been great at keeping secrets, especially from Max and Dustin, and Will wasn’t stupid. He knew that immediately after the fight happened the rest of the Party knew. That didn’t mean he necessarily wanted to talk about it, though.

Earlier in the night, after lots of obvious whispers between Max and El that sounded a lot like “Ask him” and “No, you” back and forth, Will finally burst and told them everything. Part of him thought it would have been a cathartic experience, but it was proving otherwise as this was now the third time Max told him to repeat himself and he was getting a little fed up.

“Can you stop that?” he finally answered, huffing and tossing the pillow at Max, making sure to time it when El was dipping the brush into the nail polish bottle so he wouldn’t accidentally hit her and get nail polish everywhere. 

“Hey, not cool to chuck something at someone who can’t defend themselves,” Max retorted with a middle finger high in the air in Will’s direction. El merely glared at him. Will hated whenever he was the recipient of that look.

“Sorry…” he sheepishly replied, though deep down he knew Max didn’t actually care. He got up to retrieve the pillow and ended up sitting on the floor with them, completing the circle. 

“I get you’re upset with him and all after he made a shitty comment about your eyes. And that he thinks Lauren wants to kiss you, which…I don’t really get why you’re mad at that, but whatever. I’m just genuinely confused, Byers.” El nodded in agreement, her tongue pushed past her lips in concentration as she continued her work on Max’s nails. 

“You’re being overdramatic,” El said in that matter-of-fact way she often did, when she finished on the nail she was focused on. When she met Will’s eyes with a frown he matched her expression. He knew he was overreacting to it all. He knew that deep down this was not a normal reaction for someone to have about their straight best friend turning them down. It wasn’t even like Mike knew he was turning Will down. Will hadn’t done anything in order to even be turned down. Which is why Will knew he was overreacting. And he knew why , but Max and El didn’t. Will wasn’t sure he was quite ready to tell them. 

With an exasperated sigh he shifted around on the ground as if to get more comfortable, but that was impossible given all the big feelings he was experiencing. “I guess I envisioned that if I was going to go to Prom it would be a little different,” he finally shared, suddenly finding interest in in his own nail beds, picking at the non-existent dirt beneath them in order to give himself something to do. 

“Different as in…” Max pushed on, confusion evident in her voice. 

“I didn’t want to go to Prom to begin with, so like…let’s not forget that.” 

“We didn’t,” El said bluntly with a smirk. Will rolled his eyes, knowing they hadn’t. It had been a hot topic of conversation between the three of them for awhile. They never really understood why Will didn’t want to go, he never told them the exact reason, but they agreed to just respect Will’s wishes at the time. “But you thought about it. Going. And what it would be like?”

Will nodded, bitting his lip in contemplation as he decided if he should just come straight out and tell them. Tell them why he didn’t want to go, what his dream Prom would have looked like, and who he wanted to go with. “You promise you won’t like..tell Lucas and Dustin? Or Mike? ” he asked, looking between them as they solemnly nodded their heads. For some reason coming out to them had been so much easier than this. He had dropped it in their laps mid-conversation; they moved along as if nothing had happened, never treated Will any differently, and only showed him the utmost support. But this…this was ten times harder. It was almost like it made everything real about his identity and his feelings. What if they judged him for his taste in guys? It was inevitable, as Max was a bit of a harsh critic and her past history with Mike wasn’t the best. And El was his ex-girlfriend. Sure, they had broken up amicably, but there was probably a lot of unspoken weirdness there too. Would she realize that the entire time they were dating Will was right there, dying inside as he wished it was him? He knew he was diving down a rabbit hole in his head, his eyes starting to tear up slightly. 

“Will, it is ok,” El said, closing up the nail polish and putting a hand on his. Max reached a hand out too and Will met her halfway, allowing the three of them to hold hands together. Max and El squeezed his hands comfortingly in sync.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded resolutely. “I-I guess,” he voice broke slightly, but he pushed on as bravely as he could. “I guess I hoped that we would all go to Prom alone, or like as a group.. And we’d all be dancing together, jumping around, making fools of ourselves, and having the best time ever. Then maybe a slow song would come on, like “Just Like Heaven” or something. I know it’s not really a slow song, but I mean it’s my dream, right? It can be anything I want it to be,” he laughed nervously, taking a deep breath before launching into the rest of his dream. “Everyone would pair off until it was just me and Mike left. We’d laugh about it and he would jokingly say, ‘Can I have this dance?’. I’d take his hand and we would slow dance together. His hands on my waist, mine around his neck…we’d just dance and look into each other’s eyes, not caring about the looks we’d get and acting like it was normal to slow dance with your male best friend who also happened to be your biggest crush of the century.”

Full-blown tears were spilling down his face now and he had to release their hands to wipe them away. Will was not new to crying when he was overwhelmed, but sharing his heart so openly and vulnerably was bound to start the stream that was falling. 

“Oh, Will,” El whispered, pulling him into a tight hug that Max shortly joined in on. They sat like that for what felt like ages before finally pulling apart.

“ Him , though? Of all people, William Edward Byers, him ?” Max asked, clearly joking to lighten up the mood a bit.

“Still not my middle name.” Will couldn’t help himself and let out a small laugh, nodding. “Yeah, yeah. I know. I know .” 

Max and El were kind enough not to ask Will too many questions about his rather unfortunate crush. El didn’t seem as bothered by it was Will thought she might, even after Max teased that El should give Will all the details on how terrible kissing Mike had been. Will was eternally grateful when El declined. 

They did, however, chastise him for going forward with asking Lauren to Prom. Will still felt bad stringing her along, but he had already asked her the day after he and Mike fought, his anger from the day before driving his actions. Lauren was none-the-wiser and happily agreed, telling Will what color dress she would be wearing so that they could match. It was too late for him to tell her that he changed his mind and leave her to have to find a date with a week left, that probably would have been even more cruel. So he decided to go along with it and show her as best of a time as he could.

“You’re going to have to like take pictures with her, dance with her, and laugh at all her jokes, you know?” Max reminded him, waving her hands around as she tried to dry her nails faster.

“So basically just keep pretending? Good thing I’m great at that.” He replied sardonicly. “My turn?” he asked, holding out a bottle of clear polish to El who nodded excitedly. The night continued on with excited chatter as they moved on from discussing Prom and shared instead some juicy celebrity gossip they had heard. Will painted El’s nails later on, a nice light lavender color, though he struggled a little bit and had to stop to fix his errors often. It wasn’t as easy as using a paint brush as he thought it might be. He also kept getting distracted by a thought that had been nagging him for the past three days. 

“Mike and Lucas said that if someone looks at your lips it means they want to kiss you?” he asked out of no where, both girls looking at him shocked as his question had nothing to do with their conversation on whether koalas or sloths were cuter.

“Yeah, why?”

“Is that like always the case though? Like can’t it mean something else?” he presses on, working diligently to fix a smudge on El’s nails.

“Well, yeah, it can. But usually it means they are thinking about kissing you. Is someone looking at your lips? Is it Lauren?” Max sung the name in a mocking tone, knowing Will would hate that.

“Yes, but not Lauren. I mean she has, but…it’s someone else,” Will shared, keeping his face as neutral as possible. 

“Maybe this person wants to kiss you too,” El matched Max’s singing tone, poking Will in the cheek.

Despite himself he chuckled, bottling the nail polish once he was done with her nails. He stood and stretched, announcing that he was going to go to sleep before heading to his own room. He laid in bed that night once again considering this information and what it could possibly mean.

Chapter Text

Will ruminated over his potential discovery for the next few days, wondering if it really was possible that those times Mike had looked at his lips he was thinking of kissing Will. Eventually, Will decided that he was just overreacting, just had he had been all week around all things Mike. The glances were just casual and didn’t mean anything. Mike was an expressive guy, his arms always moving and his eyes always flitting about. There was no way in hell that he thought of Will in that way and Will couldn’t allow himself to keep fantasizing about things like that. Will just needed to get through the last month of school and then he’d be in college where he never had to even see Mike again if he wanted. And maybe that was for the best, in order to shake this childhood crush of his.

The days leading up to Prom were rather boring and uneventful. The tension still remained between Mike and Will, but had softened slightly given the time that had passed since their fight. Mike and Will weren’t completely ignoring each other now, but they weren’t going out of their way to speak either. That seemed to be just fine for the two of them, at least on the outside. Inwardly it killed Will who wanted nothing more than to fall into the old rhythm of friendship with Mike. He had to keep reminding himself of his plan to graduate and move on, which helped him get through the slightly painful days.

The day before Prom they found themselves in Trigonometry again. This time Will sat next to Mike, who gave him a brief smile and greeting that Will returned in the same way. Unfortunately, Mr. Miller’s lesson consisted of lots of group work, so the two were forced to share more than the pleasantries they had been for the past few days. 

As they worked together Will could see that Mike was struggling a bit with some of the concepts. “Do you want me to show you how to do it?” he asked gingerly. If it were any other day and any other circumstances he would have flown right into the explanation, but with them both being so on edge recently he wanted to be sure Mike was alright with it. Mike offered a grateful smile and Will delved into his explanation.

“Does that make any sense?” Will asked after verbally walking Mike through the process and writing out one of the practice problems. 

“Yeah…totally,” Mike replied, brows furrowed as he tugged at his hair, a sign Will recognized as Mike not having a clue what was happening. 

With a sigh, Will turned his notebook back a few pages to the notes he had taken last class, hoping a new method of explanation would help. “Let’s try this instead…” he started, pointing along with the notes as he said the steps out loud. It didn’t take long for him to realize a shift in Mike’s demeanor as the curly hair boy sat back in his chair, arms crossed tightly on his chest, as he just stared at the notebook laid out in front of him. “Mike, what’s-”

“So now you’re doodling her name in your notebook?” The tone was hushed. Will wasn’t sure what he was talking about at first and took another look at his notebook, his eyes immediately finding ‘Lauren’ scribbled among his doodles; the reminder he had written last week when he intended to talk to Lauren about how he wouldn’t ask her to Prom, a conversation that never happened. 

“No, Mike, that’s not-” he tried to explain, but was cut off again.

“If you liked her I wish you would have just told me. I thought we told each other things like this. Especially because this is your first crush, Will,” Mike’s voice carried a hurt tone, one that Will wasn’t used to hearing from him. Hearing Mike’s voice like that left Will feeling gut-wrenched. He wanted nothing more than to tell his friend just how wrong he was about all of it. How her name was in his notebook so that he could let her down gently. How she wasn’t his first crush at all. Why he couldn’t tell Mike who his actual first crush was. But before he could do so the bell rang and Mike sprinted out, leaving a shocked and equally hurt boy behind. 

—

“Oh my, Will, you look so handsome!” Joyce affectionately stated as Will left his room, all dressed up in his black hand-me-down suit from Jonathan. It had been a little large on him, but his mother did a good job of tailoring it for him so that it would fit nicely for Prom. He wore a white button-down shirt with a yellow tie and pocket square to match Lauren’s yellow dress. 

Jonathan smiled at him and stepped closer to fix his tie which Will had accidentally put on a little crooked. “You look great Will,” he finally said, holding his brother at arm’s length before pulling him into a tight hug. Hopper beamed at him and clasped his shoulder. Will was blushing from all the attention he was getting at that moment, but allowed his brother, mother, and step-father to dote on him for the time being.

A few minutes later they could hear El clear her throat from down the hall. All four of them quickly turned and gave her the same adoring treatment as she walked forward in her purple dress. Will thought he saw Hopper wipe away some tears from his eyes, but he thought better than to bring attention to that. Instead, he rushed forward and took El’s hands as they jumped around excitedly. This was their first real dance since the Snowball Dance and they couldn’t wait. El was going to Prom alone, though she said that it was her own preference and had nothing to do with the fact that Hopper threatened to give any boy she would go with a long talking to. 

The siblings took some pictures together at Joyce and Hopper’s insistence, only making a fuss once they were forced to do the same pose for the 10th time. 

“Come on , everyone else is waiting for us,” Will finally whined, not wanting to make the rest of the Party wait. Jonathan was their chauffeur for the night and drove them to the Sinclair house to meet the rest of the Party and take a few more group photos. 

Everyone else was already at Lucas’ house, so El and Will quickly greeted Dustin, Lucas, and Max with hugs. When he turned to Mike to give a cordial greeting he stopped in his tracks, gulping deeply. Mike was wearing a skinny blue tie and a black suit that had clearly been professionally tailored to fit his slender body. Will couldn’t help but notice that it fit in all the right places. His hair, which was normally unkempt, had been neatly arranged to frame his face like a picture. Just a few more months, Will reminded himself, holding his hand out to Mike to shake. Mike quickly shook it and didn’t even bother to hide the fact that he was looking Will up and down as well. Their hands lingered together a moment before Will pulled his back as if he had been burned to the touch.

They both fell into line with the rest of the Party and posed for a ridiculous amount of pictures, every family having their own cameras and needing their own copies of pictures. They took as many ridiculous pictures as they took serious pictures, contorting themselves into poses that made them burst out into laughter. They were sure the pictures would turn out blurry, but they were all happy to capture these memories. 

As couples grouped off to take individual pictures, Mike and Will stood together awkwardly, watching the rest. 

“Come on, you two, get together,” Jonathan said approaching them and gesturing his hands together to accentuate his words.

“Oh, no, that’s ok-” Will started to say, but Mike saddled up to his side, pressing his arm firmly around his friend.

“He’s right. We need some best friends photos,” Mike whispered, though his tone was similar to class from the previous day. Will simply nodded before placing his own arm around Mike and smiling for the camera. 

“Now do one of those cheesy couples poses!” they heard Dustin yell with a giggle before demonstrating with Lucas. 

The boys turned towards each other and shared a look, unsure how the other would react. Finally, Mike put his hands on Will’s shoulders and turned him around. “It’s fine,” he whispered through gritted teeth, wrapping his arms around Will’s middle and pulling him close to his chest. It took Will a second to compose himself, but he cautiously placed his hands on Mike’s wrists and smiled at the camera. Scared that Mike would feel his heart thumping out of his chest, he broke away as soon as he heard the picture snap. 

“We should probably get going. I think Lauren and, um, Jocelyn, wanted to get some pictures at school before it started,” Will added quickly to try and make the situation less awkward. Mike frowned but nodded, mumbling something under his breath that Will couldn’t hear as they walked to Jonathan’s car.

The ride to the high school was awkward, Will sitting in the passenger seat, Mike and El in the back, and nothing but the sound of Jonathan’s music filling the empty space. Will could feel his brother send him some concerned glances throughout the drive, but Will pointedly ignored them, leaning his head against the cold glass window and staring out at the familiar passing town.

Will, Mike, Lauren, and Jocelyn took more typical prom pictures in front of the school before the girls finally begged their parents to let them go inside. Will and El said their goodbyes to Jonathan who told them to be safe and left Will with a sympathetic look. 

Entering the high school was like entering a completely new place. It was decorated head to toe with balloons and streamers and Will wondered when they had time to do all of that. The night’s theme was Paris, as evidenced by the Eiffel Tower balloon arch that domed over the entrance to the Carver Auditorium. As they passed underneath Mike leaned into Will and whispered, “fuck that guy, huh?” as he always did and Will couldn’t help but chuckle. 

The rest of the Party was already there and had claimed a table. Lauren and Jocelyn had agreed that they could all sit with their respective groups, but that the boys had to dance with them when asked, so they all headed to hang out with their friends. 

“You think they have any escargot tonight? Since it’s Paris themed and all?” Dustin asked, looking around to scope out the food situation. 

“We live in the middle of nowhere, Hawkins, Indiana. I’d be scared if they had escargot,” Lucas quipped back with an eye roll.

“What is…es-car-got?” El asked innocently, carefully pronouncing each syllable.

“Snails,” Max replied with a shiver. 

“I bet if they had any it came from the field,” Mike added, met with a chorus of disgusted groans.

The night went on fairly easily, they would sit around and chat a little, laughing at each other’s stupid jokes about the couples acting gross around the room. Every now and then they’d get up and dance as a group, laughing and jumping along to the loud, lively music that the DJ played. They moved without a care, knowing they all probably looked ridiculous, but acting oblivious to the world. This was one of the few times they got to be young and celebrate and they were going to do just that.

Eventually, Jocelyn and Lauren made their way over, dancing along with the group. Lauren grabbed Will’s hands to dance along and he let her, just as he had been doing with Max and El earlier. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Jocelyn do the same with Mike, but he casually took his hands back from her.

When the music shifted to a slow song, Will was ready to sit down and catch his breath. However, Lauren caught his wrists again and asked him if he wanted to dance. Not wanting to be bad date, Will nodded sheepishly and accompanied her back to the dance floor. His hands nervously went to her waist and hers were gently on his shoulders. They swayed casually to the music, both looking anywhere but into each other’s eyes. 

As Will’s eyes trailed around the room he noticed Jocelyn and Mike by the tables. Jocelyn looked upset and was storming away from him. “What’s the point of having a date if he won’t even dance with me?” she huffed as she passed Will and Lauren. Suddenly Will’s eyes met Mike’s and he was met with an intense glare before Mike walked in the opposite direction, out the doors, and into the hallway. Will looked back towards Lauren, who was looking off towards Jocelyn with a concerned look. “Maybe we should go talk to them?” he offered and she quickly nodded. They separated and went off to find their friends.

Will went out to the hallway and looked both ways down the corridor, not seeing a trace of Mike anywhere. He wasn’t sure where he would have headed, so he chose a direction and started walking down the hallway, hoping he had picked the right one. He made a right at the end of the hall, still looking around anxiously for his friend. Despite the loud music trickling out of the auditorium, Will heard the distinct sound of sniffles coming from just ahead. Hiding between two sets of lockers and out of direct view of the hallway. Mike stood there, his eyes closed, one arm across his chest and the hand tucked under his other arm, jut up with his hand clasped over his mouth. 

“Mike…” Will whispered, though it still seemed to scare Mike who jolted and rushed to wipe the tears from his eyes. He turned further away from Will, leaning against the locker in front of him.

“Shouldn’t you be dancing with your date?” Mike asked in a broken tone, kicking the toes of his shoes gently against the locker in front of him.

“Shouldn’t you? ” he asked back, it coming out a little harsher than he intended and he immediately felt bad. “Look, I saw you and Jocelyn and you both looked upset. What’s going on?” 

“What do you like about Lauren?” Mike supplied instead of answering the question, rounding on Will with the same hurt expression he had the prior day. 

Feeling put on the spot and flustered, Will stumbled over his next words. “I-I don’t! I don’t like Lauren,” he started, gaining a little bit of boldness as time passed. “And you would have known that by now if you didn’t run out of Trig yesterday, dumbass.” 

“Then why are you here with her?” Mike pressed on, his foot tapping anxiously and barely audible over the upbeat tempo playing. “Why would you ask her to prom if you didn’t like her?”

“Why are you here with Jocelyn? Didn’t think you liked her,” he spit back, again getting tired of Mike’s incessant need to question all of his choices lately.

“I don’t!” He shouted, his hands shooting up defensively. 

“Well good, because you’re acting like a shitty date tonight, Mike. If you’re going to ask a girl to Prom you’ve got to at least dance with her.”

“She’s…she’s not who I wanted to dance with tonight,” Mike’s tone is hushed and he’s staring directly at Will, making the shorted boy feel flustered in the unwavering gaze. 

“Then maybe you should have asked that person to Prom, Mike. That doesn’t excuse you from basically ignoring her all night.” Will finally looks away and shrugs as he contemplated what was worse - Mike asking Jocelyn to the Prom or hearing that there was someone else Mike was more interested in. 

“I couldn’t ask them.” Mike takes a step closer, trying to meet Will’s eyes, but his gaze is still transfixed on the floor, taking in a rather uninteresting stain in the corner.

“Why? She already have a date or something?” he asked bitterly despite trying his best to provide a neutral tone.

“No. I don’t think he’s interested in me,” Mike said plainly, as though he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on Will. He dug his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels, head still dipped as he tried to look into Will’s eyes.

“What?” Will finally asked in a broken tone, looking up at Mike through his eyelashes, still unwilling to look directly at Mike. 

“I think he likes someone else, even though he’s telling me he doesn’t,” he added, his Adam’s apple bobbing and his eyes…Will gasped slightly as he noticed Mike’s eyes glance down at his lips. There’s no way… Will thinks as he lifts his head to fully look at Mike. Mike does it again before his eyes continue down to look at his feet. 

“You’re such an idiot,” Will whispered as he surges forward, grabbing Mike by the collar of his suit and shoving him into the lockers behind him. Mike gives him a scared look, his arms wrapped tight around Will’s biceps. “Such an idiot,” he repeated before pulling Mike down by the collar and leaning up until their lips clashed together. The kiss was nothing like Will wanted for his first kiss. It wasn’t sweet or passionate. There were no fireworks. But it was Mike and Will and that was all he needed. 

“You really thought I liked Lauren? What, were you…were you jealous?” he asked, shoving Mike back into the lockers, hands still firmly grasping his collar. Dumbfounded, all Mike could do was nod as a deep red blush crept upon his cheeks. “So stupid,” Will whispered again, pulling Mike back down into another kiss. This one was a little less aggressive but contained just as much of Will’s pent-up anger over the situation. 

“And, what, did you ask Jocelyn because you thought it would make me jealous or something?” Mike’s blush got deeper as he fumbled with an excused, “Well, um, I, uh, you see…” all the while his eyes still glancing between Will’s and his lips. 

“You were so obsessed over Lauren’s name in my notebook yet you never noticed all the drawings of your name in my notebook,” Will noted with an incredulous laugh, pulling Mike into a final kiss, this one much gentler and slower than the last two. Finally having the opportunity to respond, Mike eased into the kiss, moving his hands from Will’s arms to his back, holding him tight to him as their lips moved together. They stayed like that for a few more minutes until Will remembered another pressing question he had. 

Pulling away to keep Mike at arm's length, Will asked, “Why did you say my eyes are like puddles of mud?”

Mike groaned, taking his hands from Will to dig the heels of his palms into his eyes. “You’re right, I am an idiot.” After a beat, they shared a laugh.

“Your eyes aren’t a puddle of mud at all. Jesus, Will, that was a stupid comment, alright? I don’t believe that.” He paused to envelop Will into a hug, pulling Will’s head to his chest as they swayed slightly. “No, I’m lost in a feeling of safety and security. I look into your eyes and I feel like I’m at home…like I’m at peace. Your eyes are reminders of all the love and loyalty you’ve shown me, to all of us, over these years. And I’d never want to stare at anything but them for the rest of my life.”

Will felt like he could cry at that moment, overwhelmed by Mike’s words and the dawning realization that Mike really did like Will just as much as Will liked him. 

“You know…if you had just said that we could have skipped a lot of unnecessary steps this past week,” Will joked, looking up at Mike with his chin resting on Mike’s chest. Mike looked down at him with a soft smile. “I know.”

As they continued standing together in the hallway, Will’s ears perked up when he heard the recognizable opening notes to one of his favorite songs. “You gotta be kidding me,” he whispered, shaking his head in disbelief. 

“What is it?” Mike asked worriedly, pulling away to get a clearer picture of him.

Will allowed his lips to pull into a lopsided grin as he slipped his arms around Mike’s neck. “This song. I’ve been dreaming of slow dancing with you to it,” he explained as ‘Just Like Heaven’ began to play. 

“Dream no more, then, I guess.” Mike gave him a goofy grin back as his hands rested on his waist and they slow danced in their little corner of the hallway, allowing themselves a little bit of peace before having to return to the rest of the Party and explaining why they had been away so long.

—

“Mike? Will?” El called out worriedly as she walked through the hallway, holding Max’s hand as they both walked through the high school looking for their friends.

“Wait, I think I hear something,” Max said, nodding her head in the direction she heard movement. El looked over and giggled, seeing Mike and Will slow dancing in the empty hallway. “What? What is it?” Max asked, feeling slightly left out but knowing that whatever El saw must have been good.

“It’s Mike and Will. They’re slow dancing and-oh-now they’re kissing,” El narrated, both girls falling again into a fit of giggles. “Maybe we should leave them alone for now?” Max nodded in agreement and they both hurried back into the auditorium, leaving the boys behind. 

“I told you Mike was just jealous,” Max whispered to El as they crossed the dance floor to their table.

“And I told you that it was Mike who was looking at Will’s lips,” El replied. 

“Either way…it’s about damn time.” They both agreed, silencing the matter as they reached the rest of the Party. 

“You find Mike and Will?” Lucas asked, peaking behind the girls as if looking for the boys. 

“Yeah, they’re just…sorting out their differences,” Max answered, the girls again falling into a fit of laughter. “Now come on, I need a slow dance with my boyfriend.” Lucas grinned and took her hand, leading her to the dance floor as they swayed along to the beat.