Archive of Our Own

It was a week after the California gang had made it back to Hawkins and everyone was finally back together. It was inevitable that Vecna was going to attack again soon, but not knowing when it would be or how it would happen, there was nothing that anyone could exactly do about it now. Max was still in the hospital, El and Will spent all their time glancing back behind their shoulders, Dustin was still mourning Eddie, and everyone else was trying to figure out how the next phase was going to happen. 

All in all, the kids were nervous wrecks, and Steve and Nancy could see they needed a break. So, they called a meeting of the newly formed babysitters club (consisting, of course, of Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, and Robin), pooled some of their spare cash together, and sent the kids off to the movies.

El had wanted to see Pretty in Pink , while Dustin and Will argued for Labyrinth , and Mike and Lucas were completely ignored in their pleas for Highlander . They compromised at a suggestion from Joyce and saw none of those things, instead settling on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off . It was their day off from saving the world, after all. 

Mike sat in between Will and El, holding their shared popcorn. Lucas and Dustin had their own bag they were sharing. Mike leaned over towards Will as the lights in the theater dimmed, offering him some of the popcorn. Will smiled. The bag was already almost half empty. 

“You know, some of us like to save some for the actual movie, Michael ,” Will joked. 

Mike rolled his eyes and leaned over closer to Will, resting his arm on the armrest that sat between them. He dropped his voice to a whisper as the movie started. 

“It’s Nancy’s money, we should buy as much popcorn as we want,” Mike retorted. 

El leaned towards them. “Mike.” 

“This is why I never share with you. You suck at sharing, Mike,” Will laughed. 

“Mike.” 

“I’m hurt. I’m shocked. I can’t believe you’d accuse me like that.” 

“Mike.” 

“And after everything we’ve been through, Will, really. You won’t even share popcorn with me-”

“Mike!” El grabbed Mike’s arm, bringing his attention back to her. 

Dustin leaned in front of Lucas, glaring at them. “Will you three shut up already?” 

“Right yeah, sorry,” Mike shook his head, looking at El. “What’s up?” 

She pointed at the bag. “Popcorn?” 

“Oh. Sorry, sorry, yeah here.” El smiled as Mike passed her the bag of popcorn. 

“Tha-” But he was already leaning back towards Will. 

“You got me in trouble, Byers,” Mike joked. Will just rolled his eyes. 

El sighed, settling in her seat with her popcorn and watching the movie.

“Dude, I could not believe it when that car went flying out of the garage-”

“I would be so dead,” Lucas agreed. “Can you imagine what your mom would say, Dustin?” 

“Imagine being so popular that the people at your school get you a singing nurse because you’re sick. I died and didn’t get that treatment.”

“That’s because you didn’t really die,” Mike comforted. 

“Yeah, but they didn’t know that!” 

“I liked the police scenes,” El added. The boys all stopped walking to stare at her. They were in the lobby of the theater, up by the entrance, but El and Will still had a while before Jonathan would be by to pick them up, and the others were biking home. 

“Because they reminded you of Hopper…?” Will asked. 

“No, the boy was cute.” 

Mike choked on his soda. “Charlie Sheen? You like Charlie Sheen ?” 

Dustin elbowed Lucas. “What the Hell is she doing with Mike then?” 

“You know, she does kind of have a point,” Will agreed. 

Mike pivoted to face Will. “What, you like Charlie Sheen?” 

Will blushed, shrugging. “Maybe,” he steeled himself, straightening his back. “Yeah, maybe I do. You know. Like Charlie Sheen.” 

Everyone froze. Will could faintly hear Dustin going “oh shit”, but he was more focused on Mike’s reaction. 

Lucas was the one to break the silence. “That’s cool, Will.” 

“Yeah, that’s cool,” Dustin agreed. “I would’ve thought you’d have gone more for Cameron, you know, quiet, brooding, but you know, I guess Char-”

“Shut up, Dustin,” El sighed. 

“Shutting up now.” 

Mike still hadn’t said anything. He was just staring at Will, his brow furrowed. El pinched his arm. 

“Isn’t that cool, Mike? Will likes Charlie Sheen too.” 

Will bit his lip as he looked at Mike, waiting. Mike blinked at him a couple of times before coughing out a laugh. 

“Whatever, I still think Charlie Sheen’s totally overrated in that. Smallest part of the movie, really. I don’t know why you wouldn’t choose Ferris, out of everyone.” 

Will rolled his eyes. “You just don’t understand liking people. You’ve liked one girl and you two are still together.”

“What? Oh,” Mike smiled, wrapping his arm around El. “Yeah. Yep. Just the one crush. I’m lucky like that.” 

“Oh God Will, why’d you have to say that! Now they’ll be all gushy, made for each other perfect,” Dustin complained. 

“Can’t blame us for being perfect.” Mike kissed El’s cheek, tightening his arm around her. 

El gave everyone a tight smile. “Just like a movie.” 

“Oh my god, stop rubbing it in. I don’t even know when I’m going to get to see Suzie next.” 

“At least you’re dating someone, unlike me,” Will countered. 

Lucas raised an eyebrow, looking around the group. “Guys, my girlfriend is literally brain dead right now. I think I win this one.” 

Everyone else cringed as they let out a chorus of “Shit, sorry”s and “Yeah okay you’re right.” 

El shrugged out from under Mike’s arm and walked over to Lucas, wrapping her arms around him. 

“She’s still in there. I know it.” 

Lucas smiled, hugging her back. “Thanks El.” He stepped back, turning his head away from the group for a moment to run the back of his hand over his eyes. 

“Actually, I wanted to stop by the hospital one more time before they shut me out for the night, so I’ve gotta get heading over there.” 

“I'll go with you,” Dustin offered, following him out the door. 

Mike looked between El and Will. “Want to go sit out on the curb? It’s pretty warm.” 

“You could just head home if you wanted, Mike,” Will offered. 

Mike shrugged him off. “Nah, it’s okay. I’ll wait with you guys.” 

They sat on the curb just as they did in the theater, with Mike in the middle, leaning towards Will. 

“Hey, Will?” 

“Yeah?” 

“I just. I wanted to say. You know. Sorry I didn’t say anything, at first. When you said you. You know.” 

“It’s fine, Mike,” Will said. 

El folded her hands on her knees, setting her head on top, watching a bug pick its way across the pavement in the glow of the setting sun. 

“It isn’t,” Mike insisted. “I just. I want you to know that I support you. Really.” 

“Thanks, Mike.” Will smiled at him, knocking his shoulder into Mike’s. 

El could hear them continuing to murmur to each other as she watched the bug. In Lenora, the asphalt would have been too hot to sit on until after the sun went down. The few times that she and Will would hang out around the town together, they were always unpleasantly shocked by the weather that stayed hot all year round, by the way the ground held in its warmth. Everything was so warm in California. Except for the people at school. 

El turned her head to look at Will and Mike. Will already seemed happier here. She didn’t know what had happened between those two, but she was glad to see it was over now and that they were talking again. She wondered if it would be hard at all for Will to be back in Hawkins, away from Lenora after they’d just moved there. People had liked him more than her. She thought that he had liked them too. After all, there was that mysterious painting…

El lifted her head, furrowing her brow at Will. 

“Will?” 

“Yeah El?” Will asked, leaning forwards to see her better around Mike. 

“Who was the painting for?”

Will froze. “What?” 

“The painting you were doing in Lenora. I thought it was for a girl.”

“What? What are you talking about, El?” Mike asked, turning to face her as well. “Will told me that painting-”

Headlights washed over them as Jonathan pulled up to the curb, rolling down the passenger side window. Will jumped up immediately. 

“Hop in guys,” he called. “You need a ride too, Mike?”

“Thanks Jona-”

“He’s got his bike,” Will rushed. “Maybe next time. Bye Mike! Let’s go El.” 

Will pulled El over to the car, hurrying her in before himself. 

Mike lifted his hand in farewell as the car was already starting to pull away. “Bye!” he called. 

Who was the painting for?

Over the next week, Mike really, really tried to forget about the last few minutes of their movie outing. Even though it didn’t make any sense to him, because Will told him the painting was from El, but El thought he was working on it for someone he liked , but you know, maybe Will was actually devoting all of his time in Lenora to two different paintings, to the from El painting and also to the liking painting, but then where was the other painting, what was the other painting, who the hell was the other pai-

But Will didn’t want to talk about it. Clearly. So Mike was going to not talk about it. Because Will didn’t want to. And he wasn’t going to push it. Because while pushing it got Mike results, they were often rather… mixed results. 

Plus, things were on their way to normal again. Will and El had re-enrolled in the mostly-still-there Hawkins High School, school had started again with only a… few faces missing, El and Mike were back together and doing totally great, all of their friends were together again. Mostly. Except for Max. But. She was doing. 

Everything was starting to be. 

Everything was great. And Mike wasn’t going to screw that up. 

Except what did she mean asking about the painting . 

It haunted Mike the entire week at school. That one painting was all he could think about, and he hated it. He hated thinking about a painting when he could see Lucas catching himself checking the halls for Max, when he could see Dustin flinch anytime someone sat in Eddie’s chair or even mentioned his name. The only comfort was that he knew it was bugging Will too. Because Will didn’t mention it. At all. But he talked himself in circles trying not to mention. 

It was a Friday night, and Mike had just spent the last two hours lying on his bed, throwing a hacky-sack up in the air and hitting himself in the face with it every five minutes and barely even noticing because all he could think about was Will . And the fact that all he could think about was Will and that he should really be thinking about other things than his best friend. His male best friend. Who… liked Charlie Sheen. But Mike… did not like Charlie Sheen. 

This was stupid. 

Mike groaned, sitting up on his bed and running his hands down his face. He reached over to his bedside table, pulling out his walkie talkie and turning to the station he shared with Will. 

“Hey, it’s Mike. Anyone there?” 

There was static for a moment, and then- 

“Hello?”

Mike stared at the walkie talkie. God damn it he hadn’t even thought about- 

“Mike?”

Mike shook his head, holding down the button to talk. “Hey! Hi El, hey. What are you up to right now?”

What are you up to right now ? What was he doing he had to ask Will about the-

“I was rebuilding the cabin. The model I made?” 

Right. The cabin model. From when she was in Lenora. Away from him. Miserable. 

“That sounds… fun.” 

“...Yeah. Do you want Will?” 

Mike yelped, quickly covering his mouth with his hand. Why would she ask that, of course not, what was she talking about, did he want Will , nope no, not that there was anything wrong with that, because Will was, Will was amazing and-

Mike blinked down at the walkie talkie. To talk. She meant did he want Will to talk to. At that moment. And he had thought… 

“No, um. No actually I was trying to get you!” 

“You were?” 

“Yeah. I thought we could do something together this afternoon. I could help you with that model?”

“...Sure.” 

“Cool. Cool okay. I’ll head right over.”

El’s back was to the door of her new room while she worked on the model. Jonathan had let Mike in (while glaring, for no apparent reason) when he arrived at the new, temporary house the Hopper/Byers family was living in. Jonathan and Will had to share a room at the moment, but El got her own. The walls held a couple of drawings of Will’s and some polaroids of the party and her family. 

Mike knocked softly on the door frame. “Hey.” 

El sat down her paintbrush, turning her head slightly to him. “Hi. You want to help.” 

“Sure,” Mike shrugged, heading over and sitting on the bed next to the desk. “What can I do?” 

El handed him a few pieces of white paper and scissors. “You can cut the clouds.” 

“Alright.” Mike focused on the shearing sounds of the scissors as he worked his way around the outlines that El had already down on the paper. She was focused on painting the roof, tracing over the lines that had been drawn and redrawn in pencil with a thin paintbrush. Each time she got to the end of a row of bricks, she took a deep breath before moving her paintbrush back to the other side of the small piece of paper and working again. 

“So why are you rebuilding it? Wasn’t it just for a project?” Mike asked, setting down his newly cut out clouds and reaching for the green paper with the tree outlines, raising an eyebrow at El as he grabbed them. She nodded at him to continue. He kept his eyes on his cutting as she began to speak. 

“It was nice. To build it. The first time, in Lenora.”

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah. It was… calm.” 

Mike’s lips twitched. “Right. Because life in Lenora must have been so stressful compared to sleepy old Hawkins.” 

El laughed, glancing at Mike for a moment before focusing on her painting again. “It was different. To be there. To be alone.” 

“You had the Byers though?” 

El shrugged. “I have friends in Hawkins. In Lenora, I had family. A brand new family. I didn’t have my Dad. My only friends were my brothers. It was not the same.” 

Mike couldn’t exactly argue with that. 

El finished painting the lines on the roof. She put her paintbrush down in a cup of water, swirling it around and watching as the black paint leached out. 

“Why did you want to see me today?” she asked. 

Mike gulped. “Well, we haven’t talked much this week. Thought it’d be nice to do something together.” 

“At all.”

“What?” 

“We didn’t talk at all this week.” El kept her eyes trained on the swirling water.

“Oh,” Mike stopped cutting the paper. “At all?” 

“Not at all.”

“Oh. Sorry.” 

El sighed, turning to face Mike. She took the scissors and paper out of his hands and set them gently on the desk, before grabbing his hand again. “Friends don’t lie, Mike.” 

“I know.” 

“So. You were trying to get Will earlier.” 

Mike deflated, hanging his head. “Yeah.” 

El brought one of her hands up and grabbed Mike’s face, turning it upwards so he would look her in the eyes. 

“Mike-”

“El, it’s nothing, really, I just-”

“Mike.” El released him, bringing her hands back into her own lap and sitting back slightly. She went to push her hair back and stilled when she realized there was no hair there left to move. She dropped her hand, sighing again. It was time. 

“Mike, you told me before that you were afraid that I wasn’t going to need you anymore. That was why you did not say you loved me.”

“Yeah?” 

“I don’t need you anymore.” 

Mike flinched, scooting backwards on the bed. “Oh,” he choked. 

“It’s not a bad thing, Mike. I do not need you, because I need myself . I am not a hero. But I am not a monster. I am not Papa’s Eleven, but I do not know how to be Jane yet. I am somewhere in between, and I need to learn what that is.” 

Mike shook his head, furrowing his brows. “What are you saying, El?”

“I have spent my entire life belonging to somebody. Being somebody's. I was Brenner’s monster. I was your superhero. I would like to just be me, for now. I would like to know who I am, when I am not somebody else’s.” 

Mike was horrified. “El, I’m so, so sorry. I never wanted to make you feel like- Like you belonged to me. That’s just. That’s my parents' relationship, you know, that’s my dad , I didn’t-” 

“You didn’t, Mike. Really. But I still felt that way because. Well. It has not been an exactly fair relationship.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“We do not love each other the way that we should.” 

This just wasn’t Mike’s day. 

“What? You don’t love me? But you- you said-” 

El leaned forward, covering Mike’s hands again. “You have been there for me, through so much. And I will always love you for that. I love you for being my friend. But I do not love you as my boyfriend. I do not know how to love you as this person I am trying to find. But that is okay, because you don’t love me as that either.” 

“What are you talking about?” 

“Will told me about the painting. When we got home from the movies.” 

Told her about the painting? But Will had said-

“I did not ask him to paint it. Those things that he told you, in the van, they did not come from me.” 

Mike blinked at her. 

Well shit.

“So. So all those things he said, the things that made me, you know, say I loved you, those were all really…” 

Mike trailed off, leaning back on the bed and letting his head bang against the wall, staring up at El’s ceilings. He’d wanted so hard to make all of this work. To make things with El work. Because if they didn’t, when they didn’t, he knew he’d have to face the fact that- 

“Mike?” El asked, getting on to the bed beside him. 

Mike stayed staring at the ceiling. “I’m in love with Will.” 

El leaned her head on his shoulder and grabbed his hand. “How do you feel?”

“I um, I-” Mike coughed, clearing his throat. “I don’t know. It’s just like. I spent so long trying not to feel this, I think. And now it’s here and I have to deal with it, and I don’t really see any way that it could end well at all. But also. I just. I lo- I love him. And I think he loves me.” 

“And?” 

“That part feels pretty awesome.” Mike smiled, biting his lip. He closed his eyes and sighed, thinking back over everything that he and Will had done together. The world was ending again. The thing that took Will away the first time was trying to take him away from Mike again, but it had a name now. The monster had a name, and a face, and a story, and they knew all of it. And Mike was pretty sure that this time? They all knew each other too. Maybe better than any other group of friends could know each other. 

Now Mike knew everything too. 

“Are you going to tell him?” El asked. 

Mike nodded, furrowing his brow as he looked back down at the bed. “Yeah, I think so. Just. Not yet.” 

“Why not?” 

Mike shrugged. “I’ve still got to get my head around it, I guess. Also like. What if he like. Rejects me.” 

El rolled her eyes. “He is not going to reject you, Mike.” 

“He might.” 

“He won't.” 

“He could .” 

“He wouldn’t .” 

Mike sighed again. “It’s just scary.” 

El squeezed his hand. “You have faced monsters, Mike.” 

“Yep. And this is worse.” 

El shook her head at him. “Whatever.” 

“I’ll tell him! I really will. Just. Give me a couple of days. You know, you’re really trying to push me on to someone else quickly given that we just broke up.” 

“We don’t feel that different, though.” 

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Mike agreed, slinging his arm around her shoulder. “The best team ever, just Mike and El.” 

El pursed her lips. “Hey Mike?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Can you call me Jane?” 

“Sure,” he agreed softly. “Just Mike and Jane, then. Fighting monsters.” 

“And bullies.” 

“And feelings.” 

“And fear.” 

“Just Mike and Jane,” Mike whispered. “Fighting to not be afraid of ourselves.”

Mike and Jane didn’t tell anyone about the breakup right away. When the party hung out all together the next day, there wasn’t much noticeably different between them. They still sat next to each other, with Will on Mike’s other side. They still joked and laughed the same. If anything, to any onlooker, their relationship seemed better , seemed freer. 

So, when Mike casually referred to Jane as his ex girlfriend while everyone worked on painting her new room on that Sunday, it came as quite a surprise to everyone in the room. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Dustin dropped his paintbrush in his bucket with a splash. 

“Henderson!” Steve groaned, trying to wipe paint off of his face. Nancy grabbed a wet cloth and started to help. Jonathan was too distracted glaring at Mike to notice. 

“You broke up?” Lucas asked, coming to stand next to Mike. 

“Um, yeah?” Mike responded. 

“When!?” Dustin came to stand with him as well. 

Will continued to paint the wall, timing his breathing with the strokes of his brush. So Jane and Mike had broken up. It didn’t mean anything. They were young. And also kind of a horrible couple. Of course they broke up. Horrible young couples do that. 

Robin watched as Will went back over the same stripe of paint a good 10 times, biting his lip as the brush went up and down and up and down and up and down. Well that’s interesting . 

“On Friday?” Mike was still confused as to why exactly everyone was so shocked. It hadn’t exactly been shocking to him. 

Now it was Will’s turn to drop his paint brush, just as Steve was walking behind him to get more towels. 

“Oh for fu-” 

“ Language ,” Nancy reprimanded. 

“That was two days ago.” 

Mike picked up his brush and started painting the wall again. “Yeah?” 

“Well, just. I mean. Why didn’t you tell m-us? Why didn’t you like. Say something. To everyone.” 

Jane shrugged. “It was not a big deal.” 

“So what’d Wheeler do, huh?” Jonathan asked. 

“Hey, why do we assume Mike did something?” Nancy crossed her arms, whipping around towards Jonathan. 

“You literally just said we !” he pointed out. 

“I mean, Mike does seem a lot more likely to be the one to have done something wrong,” Robin argued. “If we’re just looking at the track record of how everyone has acted, it doesn’t really seem likely that Jane would have done something to end the relationship. Well, I guess she might actually have some anger issues. There was that whole thing with the roller skate. And also didn’t she like flip a police car once or something? I feel like someone once mentioned a police car being flipped. And there was that whole vaporizing Vecna thing, but like he was a bad guy, does it really count if the person the anger is being targeted towards is a bad g-” 

“It was mutual,” Mike interrupted. 

Steve nodded. “Just like me and Nancy.” 

“Wait,” Dustin paused. “I thought that you and Nancy broke up when she got like super drunk at that one party and told you that your whole relationship was-”

“ It was mutual!”  

“Wow, fine, okay sure it was mutual Steve.” Dustin rolled his eyes. 

“Okay, but this actually was mutual,” Mike argued. 

Everyone turned to Jane. “I am too good for him,” she shrugged. 

They all paused for a second before nodding, continuing their painting job with a chorus of “Yeah, that’s fair.” 

Will began working next to Mike. “I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t have told me,” he murmured. 

Mike swallowed. “It really wasn’t a big deal.” 

Will paused, turning to look fully at Mike. 

“But I thought you loved her?” 

“I do just… It’s just… complicated.” 

“It’s just complicated ? What-” 

Robin tapped Will on the shoulder. “Hey, can you come help me get some drinks for everybody?” 

Will blinked at her. “What?” 

“Get drinks for everyone. Because drinks are a lot to carry for one person. I know. I’ve tried. To carry a lot of drinks. So will you come with me, to the kitchen?” 

Steve snorted from beside her, and she elbowed him in the ribs. Will shrugged and followed her out as Steve began sputtering. 

Mike could feel Jane staring at him. 

“Shut up.” 

She flicked her paintbrush, splattering him with paint.

Mike did not tell Will on Monday. He wanted to, but Will was still acting strange around him after the whole breakup incident, and Mike just didn’t know how to start it. Jane kept trying to push the two of them together, at one point physically shoving Mike so that he would fall into Will while Will was distracted, but he couldn’t do it. Everytime he thought about it, he couldn’t find the words.

He didn’t tell him on Tuesday either.

Or Wednesday.

He really, really, actually, legitimately had been planning on doing it Thursday. He had this whole speech prepared, a whole idea of pulling Will aside after school, of asking him to go to the swings on their old playground, of telling Will he loved him, of Will blushing, and the two of them leaning in closer together, this whole image of the two of them on the old playground-

Well. Suffice it to say, he had it all worked out. 

And then Lucas was pulled out of their shared fifth period biology class. 

The principal himself was at the door. Mike could see Mrs. Sinclair pacing in the hallway behind him. He knew from the deep breath Lucas took as he stood up, from the blankness that came over his face and the set of his shoulders, that he saw her too. There had been no change with Max over the last couple of weeks. Jane had kept trying to reach her, but couldn’t find anything. The doctors were starting to look more grim, and just yesterday Max’s mother had started asking question about finances, about the cost of keeping her alive, about if Max would be better off if they just-

The door clicked softly shut behind Lucas. No one looked at each other. Even their teacher was having trouble focusing back on class. Max may not have been popular, but the victims of the “earthquake” had been shot into stardom. Suddenly, everyone was rooting for Max Mayfield, the face of the resilience of Hawkins. 

Finally, class was released five minutes early. Everyone else shot out of their seats, but Jane, Will, Mike, and Dustin took their time, packing their bags back up slowly. Mike was pretty sure Jane may have been crying. Eventually, there was nothing left to pack anymore, and they made their way to the door. 

Jane grabbed Mike’s hand as they pushed the door open, bracing for the tearful faces of their parents on the other side, or worse, an empty hallway that would leave them wondering until they could see Lucas again- 

But as the door swung open, they were greeted with Erica. And she was grinning. 

Max had woken up.

So that evening was spent at the hospital, crying and laughing and hugging. 

The swings could wait another day.

On Friday, Jane cornered Mike as he was parking his bike out front. 

“It has been a week.” 

“Hey Jane, how are you today? I’m pretty good. Isn’t it so great that your best friend isn’t dying anymore?” 

“Mike.” 

“I think Max is going to make a full recovery. She’s tough like that. She’d probably beat me up now , especially if I did something stupid to overshadow her miracle.”

“You said a couple of days.” 

“It just feels wrong to think about anything other than how grateful I am for my friend to be awake, you know? She just really deserves all the attention.”

“Max hates attention.” Jane was not to be convinced. 

Mike sighed, running his hand through his hair. “Yeah, yeah. I know.” 

“So you should tell him .” 

“I will! I had a plan. Like a whole, awesome, really good full plan.” 

“You had a plan?” 

“I have a plan. I just need to feel the right time.” 

Jane rolled her eyes and walked away. 

Mike knew that she was right. Over the last week, Will had been more distant from him, and it was getting worse and worse. Mike kept trying to catch his eye, and Will kept looking away. Mike would go to say something to him walking through the halls, or hanging out at lunch, only to suddenly realize that Will wasn’t there next to him like he usually was. When Mike had asked if Will wanted to come over and play video games on Tuesday, Will shrugged him off, saying he had to meet the son of some friend of Hopper’s. Despite his worries, Mike knew that Will loved him. He knew Will loved him as soon as he realized he loved Will. It was just a fact, it was how they were. It was as much a part of their dynamic as catching each other’s eye and smiling, as always being next to each other, as hanging out in Mike’s basement playing games. 

But now there was no eye catching, or proximity, or video games. 

Mike was suddenly finding himself on very shaky ground. 

At lunch, it got even worse. Now that Max was out of her coma, Lucas was all bouncy smiles and loving love, and evidently that love needed to turn to matchmaking. Dustin was in a relationship, and Jane and Mike had broken up too recently to even be a consideration, so that left Will. 

When Mike sat down next to Will at the lunch table, he found it in utter chaos. Will was blushing furiously, staring down at his sandwich. Lucas and Dustin seemed to be going through every single guy in their grade. 

“What about Richie? He’s funny.” 

Dustin waved the idea away. “He’s way too loud, man. Miles?” 

“Way, way too creepy. We’ve fought monsters, and that kid freaks me out. Trevor?” 

“And you think Miles is weird? Have you even seen Trevor? That kid is like obsessed with ghosts.” 

“Fine, fine. What about that one guy? The musician, with the hair?” 

“‘The musician with the hair.’ Wow. Really great description, Lucas.” 

“Come on . That guy, that kid in the band!” 

“Do you mean Finn?” Will interrupted. 

Dustin wiggled his eyebrows at him. “Oh, so you know him?” 

Will shrugged. “Barely? We had an art class together.” 

“They had art class together,” Dustin repeated to Lucas. 

“Ohh, they had art class together, huh?” Lucas was smiling now. 

Mike was actually going to throw up. “I don’t like him.” 

“You don’t even know him, Mike.” Will rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah I do!” 

“Really? What’s his last name?” Will was staring at him, arms crossed. His eyebrows were raised, his lips pressed into a tight line. Mike hated when Will did that, he much preferred Will’s lips-

“You don’t know, do you?” 

Mike blinked at him. “What?” 

“Do. You. Know. Finn’s. Last. Name.” 

“...Werewolf?” 

“Ridiculous,” Will turned back to eat his lunch, shaking his head at Mike.

“What about Enzo’s son?” Jane suggested slyly. 

At this, Mike noticed that Will did actually blush deeper. Who the actual fu-

“Yeah, he was pretty cool,” Will responded. 

Pretty cool ? He was pretty cool ? Mike was really, really, really going to throw up. 

“Aren’t you going out with him tomorrow night?” Jane asked. 

“I’m not going out with him, we’re just hanging out. He’s never heard of DnD before, so I was going to explain it to him and we were going to play some video games in the new base-” 

Mike pushed back from the table and stood up. “I’ve gotta go.” 

Everyone turned to stare at him.

“Mike, are you okay?” Jane asked. 

“I dont- I don’t feel well,” he stuttered. 

Will stood up too. “Do you need me to walk you to the nurse?” 

Mike stumbled back, wrapping his arms around himself. “No, no I’ll be fine.” 

“You look pretty pale, Mike,” Dustin argued. 

“Yeah dude, let someone walk with you,” Lucas agreed. 

Mike waved them off. He could feel the pressure building and building behind his eyes, and there was a massive hole in his chest. It felt like someone had opened up a gate right in the center of him, but instead of monsters crawling out, it was sucking everything around it in. 

“Your hands are shaking, Mike,” Will murmured, reaching towards him, his eyes going soft and wide and concerned. 

Mike barely managed to choke back a sob, the image of Will looking at some random stranger like that bursting its way into his mind, telling him to make note of every time Will still cared about him, but at the same time, telling him to run away as fast as he could. Will was just concerned for his friend . Whatever Mike might have been to him before, whatever Mike might have realized, he was positive it was too late. 

Count your minutes, Wheeler. You’ve gone and lost him again . 

Mike ran away.

He didn’t bother with the nurse. He just ran home. He had passed Nancy and Jonathan on his way out of the school, but he didn’t stop as they called after him. He just ran, barely seeing where he was going as he cried. Given everything with the upside down, Mike had been trying not to imagine a future. He didn’t give a shit about school anymore, because what were the odds he was actually going to live to see college anyways. He didn’t want any friends outside of those he already had, because that just created more people for the upside down to take, more friends for him to watch die some horrible, atrocious death. When Will had gone missing, Mike had led the charge to find him. Will had called Mike the leader, the heart, but Mike couldn’t do anything , all he did was lose, and there was no point imagining a future when all you were was a loser. 

But Mike had imagined a future. He’d imagined that moment at the swingset with Will, imagined going through high school together and knowing they were together, even if they couldn’t tell many people. Imagined days spent in the basement turned into nights where they could be curled up next to each other, where Mike could wrap his arms around Will and fall asleep knowing he was there, knowing he would still be there when Mike woke up. He imagined what Joyce might say, what Hopper might say, worried if his mom would still love him, if his father would hate him or if he’d even care. He imagined a future of going wherever Will went, of the two of them following Nancy to New York, to a place somewhere a world away from Indiana, imagined the crappy, tiny apartment they would get together. Imagined the pieced together furniture that Will would turn into something beautiful that their friends would throw themselves over when they visited. Mike had imagined his future, his wonderful, beautiful, brilliant future with Will where they beat it all, and now it was all dying. 

It wasn’t until Mike was standing in front of his door that he remembered that he had left his backpack at school, with his keys. He pounded on the door, but there was no answer. Glancing to the driveway, he saw that all the cars were gone. He was alone. 

He folded in on himself. It hadn’t felt so bad before, none of it had felt so bad since he had had Will back. He hadn’t grieved for anything, not really, there had never been time. There was no grieving in a battle. But Mike had already lost again, so what was the harm in sobbing on his own doorstep?

He heard a car screech into the driveway and the doors fly open, several pairs of footsteps running towards him. 

“Mike!” Nancy called. He didn’t look up. Jonathan must have been with her. They probably thought something horrible had happened, were coming to see what had happened, to make sure everyone important was okay. To make sure that everyone who wasn’t Mike was doing just perfectly fine. 

He felt Nancy’s arms wrap around him. “Mike, Mike it’s okay. Come on, what’s going on?” 

Mike returned her embrace, pushing his head into her shoulder. “It isn’t fair, Nancy,” he sobbed. 

Nancy’s hand rubbed up against his arm. “What isn’t fair?” 

“I’m going to lose him again, and it isn’t fair, it just isn’t. I wasn’t supposed to lose him again.” 

Someone was rubbing small circles on his back. 

“Lose who, Mike?” Nancy asked. 

“ Will . I’m going to lose Will .” Mike heard a bag drop somewhere in front of him. 

He felt Nancy pull back slightly from him. “What’s wrong with Will?” She sounded confused. 

“Nothing, nothing is wrong with him, he’s perfect and I know that now and it’s too late and I love him and I know he loved me but now he’s moving on and he’s going to fall in love with some other guy and he’s already leaving me behind and I’m too late, I’m just too late, I’m always too late and everyone is going to leave but it was going to be okay because we were going to still be together but now we’re not because he doesn't love me and I love him so much and it hurts so bad, Nancy, it hurts so, so much…” 

Mike trailed off, crying too hard to get any more words out. Nancy held on to him tighter, but the hand on his back had stilled as his speech had gone on. Mike heard someone stumble in front of him. 

“Mike-” A voice choked out. 

Mike tore away from Nancy, finally looking up. No. No no no no no . 

Will stood in front of him, Mike’s backpack at his feet. His eyes were red, one arm slightly extended in front of him, palm up, reaching out toward Mike. He took another step forward. “Mike, I-” 

“I’m so sorry,” Mike blurted, jumping to his feet and crossing his arms again, pushing them into his stomach. “Please don’t. Please don’t say anything, Will. Please. I just- I can’t- I can’t hear you say how you don’t- that you don’t-” 

“Mike, it’s okay ,” Will pleaded. 

“No, it’s not. I’m sorry, can we pretend this never happened please?” 

Will took another step towards him. The door behind Mike shut as Nancy and Jonathan left. 

“This wasn’t how I wanted to tell you,” Mike explained. “This wasn’t how you were supposed to find out. I had this whole plan, just like a movie. But then, at lunch, you- you said- And so I wasn’t going to-” 

Another step. “Mike,” Will whispered, and Mike could feel his breath across his face. 

“Please don’t say anything.” Mike closed his eyes, bracing himself. He heard Will swallow and shuffle even more, impossibly closer. 

“Okay.” Instead, Will cupped his face, leaned forward, and kissed him.

They were laying in Mike’s bed together, arms wrapped around each other and legs tangled together with Mike’s head on Will’s chest. They hadn’t talked much after Will kissed him, just held on to each other and moved inside, in case anyone happened to drive by and see. Will had led him by the hand up to his bed and laid down with him. He used the sleeves of his flannel to wipe away the tears that were still on Mike’s face and kissed his forehead. Mike had yawned. 

“Go to sleep,” Will murmured. 

“But we have to talk,” Mike protested. “I don’t want to mess this up.”

Will shook his head, beginning to run his fingers through Mike’s hair. “We have time.”

“Thought I was supposed to be the one taking care of people.”

“We can take care of each other, Mike,” Will responded seriously. “That’s what people who love each other do.”

So Mike fell asleep. When he woke up an hour later, Will was still there, in his arms, reading a comic from Mike’s bedside table. 

“Hey,” Mike yawned, stretching his back. 

Will laid the comic aside. “Hey, how you feeling?” 

Mike grabbed Will’s hand that wasn’t wrapped around him and pulled it to his chest, kissing the back of it. “Pretty good.”

“Yeah?” Will grinned. 

“Yeah. How are you feeling?” 

Instead of responding, Will leaned down and pressed his lips to Mike’s again. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, with Will pulling away just slightly. 

“So also pretty good?” Mike breathed. Will nodded. 

“Did you want to talk about it?” he asked. 

“We probably should,” Mike sighed. Will slid down the bed so that they were both laying down on their sides, facing each other. He grabbed Mike’s hand and stroked his thumb across the back. 

“When did you realize?” Will asked. 

“I think it started with the painting. When Jane asked you who it was for, it really threw me. I became a little obsessed about it, actually. And then Jane and I talked and she helped me realize that I’d actually loved you the whole time.”

“Is that why you broke up?” 

“Kind of?” Mike shrugged. “I guess we both realized that what we wanted was like, a relationship out of a movie, and we thought we had that but that was because we were trying to make work what we thought we had to make work, but that ending doesn't work for everybody.” 

“I don’t think they’d ever make a movie like us,” Will pointed out. 

“They might,” Mike smiled. “If they really love a happy ending.” 

“Maybe we’d make history. It would be a beautiful story.” 

Mike leaned forward this time, kissing Will. 

“It already is.”