Work Text:
If you looked into the young Byers’ room you would see that Will was sat on the floor with his sketchbook open wide on what he’s working on right now.
He planned on giving it to Mike, a perfect Christmas present for him. It was no surprise to say that the Byers family didn’t have as much money than the Wheelers did and Mike knew that, so at the young age of 7, he told Will that he never needed to buy him a gift. After all, he always preferred it when the shorter boy made him drawings.
Will would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous to give it to him. The older they got the harder it was for him to give Mike things without overthinking and then finally backing out. A lot of people thought that was because of all his trauma, but really, it was simply because he liked the curly haired boy. But of course, that wasn’t accepted where he lived. They fought monsters of all kind, hell, they even fought them on another world, but the thought of a boy liking another boy was unacceptable
At least to wills eyes.
— — — — — —
Mike laid on his bed playing messing around with his guitar. He knew Will loved it when he made up new tunes for him and so for this Christmas, he had the ingenious idea to make a song dedicated to him. Of course, Mike hated the thought of it, but with Nancy and Jonathan on his back constantly telling him that his feelings towards Will were mutual, he sort of felt like he had to. If he was being completely honest with himself——which lately he’s been trying to do, ever since Vecna he couldn’t risk loosing anyone else——he was going to make something for Will either way, but usually he would just put it into the sacred “Will” box, where everything else hid.
All of the unsent letters, all of the presents, all of the loose drawings that weren’t in his binder hid in that box. But no one knew about it. Well, except for one person.
Eleven.
October 14 1987
Mike had invited over Eleven to finally break things off, as much as he internally fought with himself, he knew at the end of the day he had to do it. Nancy was sitting on the couch as Mike was pacing around the living room, waiting for the pained sound of the doorbell ringing.
He played it all in his head. El walking in, asking her to follow him to the basement——or his bedroom——, telling her he’s never seen her as a romantic partner, more of a platonic best friend. And finally, the hardest news of all; that he was in love with her brother, or half brother, whatever.
The doorbell rings, interrupting his thoughts and he looks at Nancy with a look she could only express as; scared, confused, determined all at the same time.
It rings a second time, and this time he feels like it’s mocking him. The person behind that door is expecting good news and she’s going to walk out with bad ones instead.
“Go in the basement” Nancy says as she finally gets up and heads to the kitchen, leaving him alone. He finally gets the courage to open the door.
El’s eyes bounce back up, and she simply greats him with a small “hi”. It takes him a second to process but eventually mutters back the same thing.
“Oh sorry you can come in——oh and come to the basement with me” Mike says as awkwardly as he can be. He couldn’t help it, he’s naturally a really awkward guy.
She follows him to the basement and after a bit of awkward small talk they both look at each other.
“I need to tell you something” They both say at the same time. Wow, maybe spending so much time together did affect them.
Mike finally gives in and tells her everything. And he can’t bare to look up at her.
He feels a weight being lifted off his shoulders when he finally realizes she’s okay with it and that she understands. But that weight comes crashing back down when he notices her staring at a box. A very, very, private box.
— — — — — —
Wills alarm clock goes off and he physically cringes at it. He’s had the same one since he was 10 years old and it’s been used for one thing only: school. So of course dread is the first thing he truly hears every time the alarm goes off.
He has always been a night person. Knowing that you were the only one up at night, knowing that you’re in the safe world, not the upside down was oddly more satisfying at night. He wouldn’t say he liked quietness, if anything it kind of stresses him out, but at night he doesn’t need to be stressed, he has the comfort of knowing that they’re all warmly tucked into their beds, dreaming of something completely different than what his usually dreams nightmares were.
He goes to the bathroom and does his usual routine and changes into a nice white shirt with some simple brown jeans. Yes, it wasn’t that cold here, but ever since the mind flayer flayed him, he could never be cold again without panicking.
— — — — — —
Mike is awoken by his sister when she starts playing with the lights.
“GET UP. WERE LEAVING IN FIVE MINUTES. FIVE.” She yells as she shuts his door again.
“WHAT IF I WAS EPILEPTIC?” He yells back, knowing damn well that no one was behind his door to hear it.
He rushes to the bathroom and does his usual routine and pulls out the first shirt he sees; a blue hoodie and black jeans. He runs down and grabs a waffle for his breakfast and finally signals Nancy that he’s ready to go. Today is their last school day before Christmas, which Mike was very in pleased when he found out that his last school day was the 23rd of December. At least there won’t be any actual work, it’ll just be games.
Nancy and Mike finally arrive at the school, and he waved goodbye at Nancy as he watches her drive out of the school parking lot.
When he reaches his locker, he finally hears the voice he’s been searching for since he stepped foot inside the school.
“Last day until Christmas break” Will says as he leans back into a strangers locker. Mike can’t help but stare, head over heels over this boy. His eyes, that was Mikes favourite part of Will. His eyes held such love and beauty, no one would be able to pull away from them. A perfect mix of brown and green. Perfect eyes for a perfect boy.
“Mike… You okay?” Will says as he places an arm on Mike’s shoulder. That action alone shouldn’t make him feel like sparks ran through him. But here Mike stood, addicted to that feeling and craving more.
“Yeah, yeah I’m good. Oh also for Christmas, you guys are all coming over to our place right?” He had to change the subject or else he would get on his knees right there, in the school hallway at 8:09 in the morning, begging the beauty of a man staring back at him.
“Yeah we’re all coming over.” He answers with a smile. He looks excited, he should be excited. Jonathan found a way to convince Mike that Will does have feelings for him, but now all he can do is overthink every thing and notice the little things. But it’s not like he didn’t do that before, now he just does it for another reason.
The school bell rings and in the blink of an eye, everyone is gone. Except for one boy.
Mike walks up to will’s desk and just waits for him to finish packing up. It’s become a habit of theirs. Lucas and Dustin leaving together to go hang out with Steve and Robin and Mike and Will leaving together.
“How’s present shopping so far?” Will asks as he finally takes his bag and pulls his seat back into the desk.
“Oh I’m not shopping really. My moms doing all of that stuff.” Mike can visibly see Wills face dropping so he hurriedly says something to make him feel better. “Wait but for you I’m making something. I couldn’t find anything that really called out your name so, instead I decided to be creative” Mike says as they walk towards the doors.
He checks to his side to see Will smiling, feeling way better than he did two seconds ago. His smile, god his smile was his favourite thing about Will. Even with everything that happened to him, he still has the prettiest smile ever.
“Getting crafty, are we?” Will says with a small laugh. That alone makes Mike explode. He simply nods, not trusting his voice enough to utter words.
They eventually had to go their separate ways, but Mike knew that he would see him tomorrow and that everything after that would change. He was determined——unlike usually——to talk to Will about his feelings for him.
— — — — — —
The doorbell rings and Mike runs up to get it. He’s greater by four familiar faces and he kept help but smile at them. Joyce is holding out a cake, Eleven, Jonathan and will are holding a bunch of presents. But what really grabs Mikes attention was a bag, with the name Mike written on it. Will was holding it with a stronger grip than the others, so Mike figures it was from him. That makes him feel just that much better. A couple of minutes later Mike finally asks Eleven why max joined them, not really disturbed, just curious to know. “Well she doesn’t really have anyone to celebrate with, so we figured she could come with us. Please Mike, just be nice to her today.”
“It wasn’t like I was planning a great scheme to make her day miserable. Anyways, I’m kinda glad she came. She has a touch that no one else can bring to the table.” He also did feel bad for Max. It has been difficult for her, especially since she’s partially blind. They’ve gotten closer after all the Vecna crap they were put through, and he now doesn’t hate her existence.
Which is a win.
The clock finally strikes twelve, signalling that it was time for them to open presents. They had a wonderful meal, Joyce and Karen making food together is better than any food in the world and Mike is very glad that he has the chance to even smell it.
The teenagers all start open sing presents one by one, until there’s nothing left. Mike has forgotten about the present Will was carefully holding, until he saw Will take it to the basement. It confused him a bit, but he didn’t dare ask.
Minutes go by of them all just chatting and thanking everyone for the gifts until will asks Mike to follow him to the basement.
Mike shoots a glare towards Nancy and gets two comforting smiles in return by his sister and Jonathan. Before he even realizes it, his legs are moving towards the basement.
Will is standing there, looking a bit nervous but in general, he looks absolutely stunning. Drop dead gorgeous. Beautiful. Mike would gladly go on about how beautiful this boy is, but Will interrupted his train of thoughts.
“I got you this. Thought it might be better if you opened it privately tho.” He smiles and hands him the bag. Mike takes it with such a caution. He cannot ruin this moment.
“Thank you Will. My present is actually in this room too, I’ll give it to you after this” He says with a smile following. They both share a smile until Mike opens it up.
It seems to be a rolled up paper and Mike starts getting deja vu from that one painting in Argyles truck.
Excitement fills Mikes stomach as he slowly unrolls it, but his heart is what explodes in the end. Never did he think his love for Will could ever get bigger, but he just proved himself wrong.
The drawing is of two little boys, one of them seems to be scared, sitting on the floor in the upside down in a Ghostbuster costume, the other boy in the real world, also wearing a ghostbuster costume, holding the little boys shoulder. Mike realizes that this is from the time Will was flayed. Mikes side of the drawing is yellow and Wills side is blue. How ironic.
Mike looks up to Will and smiles. That’s all he can do really. When Will finally realizes that Mike is in utter love with the drawing, he finally speaks and breaks the comfortable silence.
“So you like it?” He says as he fidgets with his fingers.
“Like it, Will I love it. I adore it. I can’t believe you made this holy shit this is awesome Will!” He exclaims. Suddenly the boy has the urge to show him his present.
“Okay, wait now I have to show you my present.” Mike takes up his guitar and will looks shocked.
“You did not” Will starts, a smiling threatening to mark itself on his face.
“I did.” Mike says proudly and before starting, he takes a deep breath. A very deep breath.
“This is dedicated to my best friend Will, my only other half, the person who gets me the most, my favourite person in the world.” And before he has a chance to change his mind, he starts singing the newly made lyrics he made.
Author: I’m really sorry I would put some lyrics down but I can’t write songs for shit 😭
The song ends and the world suddenly goes quiet. Will looks at Mike with such love that Mike can’t help but feel a bit shy. He looks down and realizes he probably has to explain a bit the reason this song was made.
“I like you will. More than a friend would like his friend. And I know that I dated your sister but she actually knows that I’ve liked you for so long and she wants us to be together so you don’t need to worry that El wouldn’t be okay with this because she is more than okay with it. Will I like you so much it hurts. In a good way. It hurts in the best way possible. I look at you and all I see is love, all I see is perfection. All I see is the boy I like. Words aren’t good enough to explain the feelings I feel towards you, but I really just——“
He didn’t want to shut up, not really. He had to keep explaining as to why he likes him, but before he could finish, Wills lips were on his.
And he felt on fire. The kiss held so many emotions, so many unsaid words. So many stories. Will initiated the kiss and that made him feel even better. The kiss was everything and more he could’ve ever wanted and he never wanted this moment to break. If he could have any moment engraved in his mind, this would be the moment.
Wills hand roam through his hair as Mikes hands reach around his neck. It was like they knew how to do it, like it was meant to be.
As difficult as it was, they had to break the kiss and breathe. Their foreheads stick together and they just breathe each other in.
“It isn’t Christmas without you” Will says as he looks into Mikes eyes. Mike finds himself getting lost in his perfect hazel eyes once more, but this time he’s allowed to do it, he can do it for eternity and that’s what he planned on doing for the rest of his life. Fall into Wills eyes and never find a way out.
Mike was finally able to express his love for Will aloud, the war is over.
Turns out Jonathan and Nancy were right, Will loves Mike just as much as Mike loves Will.
Maybe it’s a Wheeler Byers thing.