Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

Will had given up trying to hang out with his friends, most of his attempts brushed off with half-assed excuses about being ‘busy’ or ‘maybe tomorrow’, well, it felt like tomorrow never came.

He understood why, he really did; Mike and El’, Lucas and Max, and Dustin and Suzie wanted to spend time together, and Will didn’t really fancy being a third wheel.

By now, Will was used to being his own company, finding refuge in his art and music, but it was getting harder. Even his brother had abandoned him, but again, he understood why. Between Nancy and the Hawkins Post, it was no surprise he had no time for Will.
His brother had often been the only thing between him and being completely alone, with Joyce working long hours, but again, he understood why, she had to work to keep a roof over their heads. Somehow it was worse when their dad, Lonnie, was around. The occasions when when Will was with just his dad were his loneliest, nothing to protect him from his father’s wrath and abuse, both mental and physical. This was never something Will had ever shared, wanting to save Joyce and Jonathan from feeling guilty, when there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Will missed their company, sure, but he would have to get used to it; he was getting used to it, so found no use in complaining.

His mind would often drift, for short moments, wandering why no one could put him first, just once, but every time he allowed himself to think this way he was riddled with guilt, feeling selfish; what others did with their time was not for him to dictate.

So really, today was just the same as any other day, lounging around the house basking in his own company, filling the hours with drawing while listening to music. For the amount of time Will spent with a pencil in his hand, one could think Will would be proud to show off his works, but they were almost his personal diary, a recount of his deepest thoughts and feelings, and therefore, very private.

He was working on a seascape, waves beating a small rocky outpost, with a lighthouse, long abandoned, being the focus of the piece. Will never set out to draw anything specific, just following where his hand would take him, but never read too much into what he drew, scared of what he may see looking back at him. Will’s drawings were so private, he dare not look at them himself, not properly. Recently, he had taken to more monochrome drawings, as this one was, telling himself that the lack of colour made drawing more challenging.

After finishing his latest drawing and adding the date of completion to it, he tucked it away in the folder under his bed for safekeeping. Turning to the stereo he had permanently borrowed from his brother he saw his two-way radio, left unused on the sideboard for about a week now, longer than almost ever before. Will picked it up, turning it on and extending the antenna, tempted to send out a message with the hope someone would pick up. But decided it wasn’t worth trying, wasn’t worth getting his hopes up again.

As he looked away, it blared out to him.

“Hello, anyone there? It’s Lucas”

Will hesitated before he picked it up, trying (unsuccessfully) to hide the undertone of annoyance in his voice, “Lucas, it’s Will, what’s up?”

“Yo Lucas, it’s Dustin”.

“There’s this film out at the moment, Weird Science, it’s a 15 but I reckon Steve could sneak us in, you guys up for it?” Lucas proposed.

“I’m in, but I’d have to persuade Steve” Dustin already thinking of ways to convince him.

Lucas chuckled “I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem”.

“What do you mean” Dustin inquired.

“Has he ever said no to you”,

Dustin had no response, trying, and failing to think of an occasion when he had.

“Exactly” Lucas confirmed “he’s practically your dad, or mom”.

“Well – Uh – No, but....” Dustin spluttered.

Will heard Lucas laughing at Dustin over the radio “there is a showing at 1500, you guys in?”

Both Will and Dustin answered in the affirmative, Will then asked, “Is Max coming?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there” Max had clearly taken the radio from Lucas when she heard her name.

Putting down the two-way radio, Will checked his watch, and had about 30 minutes. After changing into more presentable clothes, he realised he hadn’t eaten anything all day, too wrapped up in his own head, so he grabbed a quick bite before taking some snacks from the cupboard and setting off.

-----

Will pulled up to the bike rack outside the mall slightly late and rushed through the crowds to see Dustin sat outside Scoops Ahoy.

“You haven’t been here long, right?”

“No, like a minute, Steve gave me an ice cream and told me to let him know when you guys get here”.

“Are Max and Lucas not here yet?”

“No – oh, here they come”.

Lucas and Max approached, hand in hand. “Sorry we are late, got a bit – distracted” Lucas said, looking over at Max, who blushed slightly, and kicked Lucas gently.

“Right… should we go find seats then?” Dustin asked, looking at Will for confirmation.

“Err… yeah – sorry, good idea” Will replied, not 100% present in the moment.

Dustin went up to the counter, the rest in tow, and saw Robin was there. She saw them and immediately knew what they were here for, turning around and shouting “Steve, your kids are here” round the back.

Without needing to be invited, they all went round through the backrooms where Steve was waiting, holding the door open.

“Don’t tell your parents I let you watch a 15” Steve said as they were walking from the store to the cinema back entrance.

“Yeah, yeah, we won’t” Dustin called back.

“And if you tell anyone I let you in this way”.

“Yeah, yeah … you’ll kill us”.

-----

Will was sat one from the end of the aisle, with Dustin on his left and Lucas, then Max on his right. He didn’t really know much about the film, just that it was called ‘Weird Science’, so was hoping for some nerdy sci-fi film like Back to the Future, which he had enjoyed early this summer.

This was far from what the film actually was. As it turns out, the film revolved around 2 friends, who create the ‘ideal’ women as they described her, using computers. This film was not at all interesting to Will, so he wasn’t really paying it any attention. To his right, Dustin was engrossed, eating the snacks he brought without taking his eyes from the screen, almost as if he was under hypnosis. Whereas Lucas and Max were certainly not watching much of the film, keeping each other ‘busy’.

Will sat there awkwardly, growing more aware of his surroundings, and in turn more uncomfortable of them. Shifting in his seat, he nudged Dustin “I’ll be back in a second”, Dustin barely responded, focusing on the film, and rushed out towards the toilets. Will stared at himself in the mirror, looking dejected, another day out with his friends, and he was alone again.

Looking back at him, he saw a face he barely recognised, the weeks of neglect almost visible. His face looking tired and dishevelled. Will was tempted to head home, making up some excuse later; he wasn’t feeling great or something, no one would have questioned it, and to be honest, it probably would have been true. But Will decided to persevere, silently making his way back to his seat with about 30 minutes of the film left.

-----

Once it was finished, they made their way out of the cinema to ‘Hot Dogs on a Stick’. Will went up to grab them some food, as the rest of them sat down.

“That film was great!” Lucas exclaimed.

“Of course you’d think so” Max quipped back at Lucas, lightly shoving him, which earned a light chuckle.

Dustin laughed at the two of them, “Yeah, not as good as Back to the Future, but fun”

Dustin and Lucas fell into animated discussion, as Max went to see if Will needed any help.

“Will … you good?”

“Uh – what - yeah, sorry, wasn’t with it for a second there. They’re just making the food now”.

“Right, uh, sounds good” Max refrained from commenting on how Will had seemed distracted all afternoon.

The two of them returned with the food, and Max quickly entered the conversation Dustin and Lucas were having. Will couldn’t really tell you what they were talking about, too lost in his own thoughts.

After a few minutes, Max said she had to head back, not wanting to get in trouble with her parents, Lucas looked slightly worried, but didn’t say anything.

After she had left, Lucas turned to Will.

“Will, you never said what you thought of the film, so; what did you think?”

“Eh, it was alright, not really my thing” Will had little enthusiasm in his voice.

“But Lisa was hot, no?” Lucas responded quickly, with a smirk across his face.

“That was the whole point. And, if Max heard you saying that she’d kill you” Dustin butted in, saving Will from responding.

“That’s why I waited until she was gone, I’m not stupid, we’ve been together like 7 months now you know” Lucas looked almost too proud.

Will enjoyed watching his friends fire cheap shots at each other, laughing about whatever, but didn’t really chime in, letting them carry the conversation. If it were Mike, or Dustin, or even Lucas, it would have seemed odd, but Will had always been the quiet one.

“Do you guys need a lift? I’ve just got off” Steve asked as he approached the table.

“Yeah, that would be great, can we put the bikes in the back?” Lucas and Dustin responded.

“Yeah, sure. Will, you want a lift as well?”

“No, I’m meeting my mom at work, so I’ll head that way. Thanks though”. Will was almost concerned as to how easy it had become to lie to his friends. He heard El’s voice in the back of his head saying ‘Friends don’t lie’ but he had long abandoned that principle.

He wanted to be alone and was quickly running out of social energy. Before this summer, that had never happened when he was with his close friends. They could spend hours together, but it all changed recently, as if Will was spending all his energy propping up a mask.

“Where’s Max?” Steve sounded a little concerned.

“She left just after the film, didn’t want her parents to be mad” Lucas responded, with equal concern.

“Right” Steve said, clearly deep in thought.

“Let me know when you guys want to go”.

They left shortly after that, not wanting to leave Steve waiting too long.

On the way back, Will was lost in his own head. Why had Dustin and Lucas been so obsessed with Lisa from the film? Sure, she was attractive, but they had been describing her as the next messiah. ‘I suppose everyone has a type’, Will said to himself.

Not allowing his train of thought to run any further, Will increased his speed, and hummed along to a song he had stuck in his head, occupying his thoughts just enough to avoid feeling alone as he cycled past Mirkwood.

Will arrived back at the Byers house just as the sun began to set, and the driveway was as empty as he when he left. Getting the house keys from his pocket he let himself in, locked the door again from the inside, and walked to his room. Not even taking his shoes off, he dove onto his bed and stared at the ceiling with the first mixtape Jonathan gave him playing through the stereo.

His thoughts immediately went to high school, which started next week. It was safe to say Will was terrified, middle school had been rough, and in a small town like Hawkins, people rarely forget things, even if it was meant to be a new school. Especially not something like coming back from the dead, that was certainly memorable.
There were times were Will almost wished he had actually fallen in the quarry, rather than lived through a week of torture in the Upside Down, just to be forced never to talk about it. Then on his return be bullied incessantly because of the half-baked story that was the ‘official narrative’ or however the agent had described it.

Life would be simpler for everyone, no one in Hawkins would think Joyce was mad, Jonathan could continue to live his normal life, rather than tread on eggshells around Will for fear of saying the wrong thing. People wouldn’t feel bad for giving up hope after Will’s ‘body’ had been found in the quarry.

But most notably, Will wouldn’t have become the shell of a person he is today, never sleeping properly, never feeling safe when alone, but never relaxed around others, for fear that everything may return. That Will was living on borrowed time, and that his time in the real world expire, and he be taken back to the Upside Down. That fear, perpetual fear, that he would be forced to return petrified him, he couldn’t think of anything worse.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

Will was painting this time, something from his upside-down memories. While he didn’t always trust himself to paint from those times, on occasion he found it a good method of release, unloading the burden onto the canvas. Surprisingly for Will, he was interrupted by his mom at the door, he thought she was at work.

“Will, I’m just back on my lunchbreak, I forgot to take a few things. Oh, and by the way, Hopper and El’ are coming over for dinner tonight” Joyce added nonchalantly, almost attempting to make Will not notice.

“Uhm, sorry?” Will said somewhat taken a back. It wasn’t that he was against them coming over, it was just unusual for Joyce to arrange for his friend to come over, with her dad, without Will asking.

“Hopper and El’ are coming over tonight” Joyce stated matter of factly, “Dress up”, Joyce said as she walked out, as if it was a totally ordinary request.

Will sat there for some time, the cogs in his brain audibly turning. His mom asked him to dress up, that was odd, it had literally never happened before. What was he going to wear, would he have to speak differently? All Will knew was this was very alien, but in kind of a good way.

Will was picking out things to wear, from his admittedly very limited wardrobe, well, Will was trying and failing to pick out things to wear, when his brother Jonathan got back.

“Will, you home?” Jonathan called out.

“Yeah, in my room” Will shouted back, returning to his scrupulous search of his closet for anything that would fit Joyce’s ‘dress up’ criteria.

Jonathan knocked on his door, while opening it at the same time. Will looked up, thinking to himself: what’s the point in knocking if you are just gonna come in anyway? Before he got the opportunity to ask, Jonathan saw the mess of clothes all around Will’s room, unusual for Will, who’s room was almost always impossibly tidy.

Jonathan was initially concerned, only remembering Will in this state during the time he was compromised by the mind flayer.

“What’s up with the clothes?”

“Mom told me to 'dress up', whatever that means”

“Dress up?” Jonathan wanted to confirm what Will had said, which reassured Will he wasn’t going crazy, and that it was in fact a strange request. “Did she say why?”

“Yeah, Hopper and El’ are coming over”

“Ohhh, now it makes sense” Jonathan chuckled, assuming Will would have figured it out after he spelled it out to Jonathan, and relieved Will sudden disorganisation had a harmless cause.

Will stared back at him blankly.

“Wait, you don’t get it? You really haven’t figured it out?” Jonathan said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, teasing Will for his obliviousness.

“No, what is it?”

“Mom likes Hopper, like, since high school. I can’t believe you didn’t notice” Jonathan jokes with Will. Will’s obliviousness was often a source of friendly ridicule from his older brother.

“Well, I have been … distracted as of late” Will stuttered through the sentence, looking at his feet, the mood in the room killed. Jonathan’s face fell, as he apologised profusely, he always felt guilty when it slipped his mind.

“Right, well, what are you gonna wear, cause I’ve got nothing” Will quickly changed the subject, not wanting to dwell on it.

“I think I’ve got a collared shirt and some trousers, can’t remember where I got them from though. I can help you find something to wear if you want, you must have something”

Jonathan helped will pick out an outfit, listening to the Smith’s first album: The Smiths, which came out the previous year. Laying on Will’s bed, looking at the ceiling as they chatted, Jonathan thought of asking Will if they could play the mixtape he gave him in ‘82, but decided against it. That mixtape was meant to be for Will, when he really needed an escape. It took him back to a time before it all, when his biggest problems were avoiding his father. Which, to most teenagers, was a significant thing, but seemed trivial to Will.

Jonathan felt terrible for his little brother, he never had the opportunity to be a kid. As soon as Lonnie had left their life, Will’s life was robbed from him once again by the upside-down. To be frank, to say Jonathan was concerned for Will was an understatement, he looked back on the few, fleeting moments when he saw the real Will, free and happy to express himself, and realised he hadn’t seen that side of Will for years.

As Jonathan let his thoughts run, they were interrupted when Joyce ran through the front door, clearly panicking.

“Boys, boys… Donald wouldn’t let me off early, Hopper and El’ are over in 30 minutes and I haven’t started cooking!”

Will, now clued in to Joyce feelings for Hopper, looked across at Jonathan, and a sly smile grew on their faces as they got up to go and help. With a smirk they tried to hide, they walked into the kitchen to see Joyce with several bags of groceries hastily unpacking things.

“We could just get some take-out, I’m sure Hopper and El’ wouldn’t mind” Will suggested.

Apparently, that was the most ridiculous suggestion Joyce had ever heard, so in response, she simply looked at him with raised eyebrows, continuing to get food out to cook, getting a laugh out of Jonathan.

After Joyce settled on the lasagne, and got it in the oven, with the boys being more a hinderance in the kitchen than a help, they got changed and ready for El’ and Hopper to arrive.

Joyce had her hand on her knee to stop it from tapping, as they waited for the doorbell to go. Jonathan and Will were trying to avoid eye-contact, for fear they couldn’t stop laughing if they started. They knew it meant a lot to Joyce for Hopper to enjoy the evening, but it was still novel to see their mom in this state.

It didn’t help that it was very obvious that Hopper was also interested in Joyce, he had asked her on a date before but logic seemed to have gone missing. Even Will, once Jonathan had clued him in on the situation, had realised it was very obvious there was something between the two adults, Dustin would probably describe it as ‘the electricity’.

Hopper and El’ arrived not long after, Joyce doing a strange hop to the door once the doorbell chimed. Joyce opened the door to them and embraced Hopper in long hug, with Will and Jonathan behind Joyce, and El’ behind Hopper, who couldn’t get through because Hopper was blocking the door frame. Will made eye-contact with El’ a smile rising on their faces at the situation, before Jonathan cleared his throat to get the attention of the adults, and take them out of their daze.

Joyce and Hopper slowly stepped back, muttering ‘right’ and ‘sorry’ as El’ made her way in and greeted the two brothers, before giving Joyce a tight hug.

“Right, come in, sit down, dinner will be in around 20 minutes, we are having lasagne” Joyce announced as Hopper handed her a bunch of flowers. Joyce took them through to the kitchen to find a vase, and El’ made eye contact with Will and busted out laughing, sending Will and Jonathan to their knees. Hopper looked on at his daughter, and the two Byers boys bemused: no words were said, and now they are laughing so much they can’t stand up? ‘I cannot keep up with this generation, honestly’, Hopper thought to himself.

-----

“This is delicious Joyce, thanks” El remarked. Even after being out of the lab for some time now, living with Hopper meant she wasn’t exactly culinarily experienced.

“No problem sweetheart. So, what’s new with you El’? I hear you are joining the gang at high school next week”

“The party, mom” Will corrected Joyce.

“I’m really excited, I’ve done so much extra work over the summer to catch up. It will be great to go to school with everyone, and I get to see Mike everyday” El’ said, beaming, as Hopper rolled his eyes and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“How is Mike? Haven’t seen much of him around this summer” Joyce asked El’, Hopper chocking on his drink, he really didn’t like where this conversation was going. His joy at seeing Joyce and El’ get on well the only thing keeping him from changing the subject.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the people around the table, Will's reaction, while more subtle, was similar to that of Hopper. His previous good mood, brought on by the hilarity of the situation between Hopper and Joyce and the fact he hadn’t seen his friends much over the summer, was swiftly ended by one mention of Mike. Once El’ got onto the topic of Mike, she doesn’t stop talking about him easily. Mike was meant to be Will’s best friend, so Will couldn’t understand why, but he got very irritable when someone spoke about El’ and Mike as a couple, even worse when they were hanging out together. Will had thought hard about this but found himself lacking answers.

Mike’s remark of “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls” rung through his ears more often than he would admit, and, that being the last time Will had spoken seriously to Mike about him and El’, it wasn’t really something he was willing to bring up again. He hoped his animosity would go away, as he truly wished the best for both Mike and El’, despite how little he had seen of them over the summer.

Will fazed out of the conversation at this point, as Joyce and El’ carried the conversation from boys to shopping and other things not remotely interesting to Will. Once everyone had finished, he scurried around to clean the table, before hurrying off to his room. Will knew he was being somewhat rude, but it wasn’t like Hopper and El’ were unfamiliar to the Byers, so despite having to dress up a bit, it was an informal occasion. Will hoped he would get away without his mom telling him off later in the evening, he simply needed some time to himself.

El’, clearly not wanting to be drawn into the awkward conversations between Hopper and Joyce, went looking for Will, finding him in his room listening to music definitely permanently borrowed from Jonathan. She knocked on Will’s door, asking permission to come in, instead of just barging in like Jonathan or Joyce would have done. Will, predicting it was El’, called out for her to come in.

Making space on his bed for El’ to sit next to him, Will turned the stereo off so they could talk to each other without having to raise their voices.

“Hey, what’s up?” Will asked.

“Nothing really, just wanted to avoid my dad’s conversations with Joyce.

“Me too.” Will chuckled in response. “You looking forward to high school?”

“Its gonna be great, finally get a bit of freedom” El’ responded. Will hadn’t known her long, but most of her post-lab life had been mired with upside-down related trauma, so a bit of normality would do her a world of good. “What about you, do you think it will be different to middle school?”

Will hadn’t really thought of it like that, Hawkins is a small place, so almost everyone from middle school will be at high school. But maybe El’ was onto something, could high school actually be more enjoyable, would high school actually be enjoyable?

“Probably not” Will surmised, trying not to get too hopeful when in reality no one was going to have forgotten he was the kid who died and came back to life. ‘Zombie Boy’ was going to stick, so no point thinking otherwise.

El’ could tell that under the guise of that short answer was a lot of thought and hurt. She had never experienced the bullying the party often recounted, but imagined this was what Will was thinking about when he suggested there would be little change.

They quickly fell into comfortable conversation, Will describing what it was like to go to school, cherry-picking the good parts as to avoid El’s enthusiasm being quenched before she even arrived on her first day.

-----

The next morning, Will woke up, having forgotten just how early you have to wake up for school. If it had been a larger school, with the chance of actually meeting new people, Will may have put effort into his outfit, maybe even trying to reinvent himself. But no, it was Hawkins, Indiana, a suffocatingly small town, where everyone knows everyone, and when you died and came back to life that wasn’t a good thing. So, Will decided not to torture himself by trying to pick out a good outfit, and simply chucked on the first things he got from his closet.

As he walked into the kitchen, Joyce greeted him with a ‘good morning’, far too enthusiastically for a Monday morning at the start of term, so she got a half-response half-grunt back from Will as he began to eat.

“Come on Will, you must be excited, new year new you, right?”

“Seriously mom, its Hawkins, nothing ever changes here, everyone is gonna be the same as middle school”. Will paused, it was clear to them both Will had more to say, but Will left it unsaid, and Joyce didn’t pry. Joyce felt her kids, especially Will, had been through enough and that an overzealous parent would not be a useful addition, she just hoped he knew she was there if he needed her.

“Jonathan has already left, so we better get going, don’t want to be late” Joyce ushered Will out the door after an extended period of ominous silence.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

Joyce still wasn’t completely comfortable with Will cycling on his own, even after several years, so insisted on driving him when she could. As she pulled up near the school, Will grabbed the door handle to jump out, but Joyce held his arm, wanting to wish him well before his first day.

“Mom, come on, it’s embarrassing, I’m in high school.”

“Fine, fine, go. Enjoy yourself ok, it’s gonna be great.”

“Sure mom, its going to be great” Wil sounded far from certain.

As Will jumped out the car, fortunately far enough away from the school for anyone to notice, he walked toward the doors with has head down and his hands in his pockets. It would be a much easier high school experience if he was a ghost, rather than a zombie.

That hope lasted all of about 3 seconds, before Troy grabbed him hard by the shoulder, ruffled his hair vigorously and said “Will, great to see you man” in a very condescending tone.

Will didn’t react to Troy, trying to free himself from his grip, but not saying anything that would aggravate him further. Instead, Will mentally buckled himself in for another 3 years of torment from Troy, relieved he hadn’t gone for the ‘fairy’ angle just yet. To Will’s surprise, Troy’s posse was no were to be seen. Perhaps they weren’t in yet, or it could be new school, new hierarchy, and Troy wasn’t the ringleader anymore. Will didn’t want to get his hopes up, but there was a chance.

Once Troy had realized he wasn’t going to get a rise from Will, he walked off, probably to find his football friends.

Will finally spotted Mike, El’ and Dustin, feeling relieved, and walked over to them.

“Hey guys, how you been?” Will said as he approached the three party members already there.

“All good man, good to see you again, you ready for a new school. Maybe we won’t be at the bottom of the barrel this time” Dustin responded enthusiastically, saving Will and Mike from an awkward conversation, having not seen each other for weeks. It had been almost since the battle of Starcourt, which none of them seemed willing to talk about. Will had hoped it would bring them together, but alas, everyone else moved on much more quickly.

Entering homeroom, which Will had with El’, and Mike and Dustin had together, Will grabbed a seat in the second row, not wanting to stand out by sitting at the front, but wary that Troy-types usually sat at the back. El’ took the seat next to him, slightly nervous, having never attended public school before.

As the bell chimed to indicate the start of the day, Max walked in, heads down, headphones on, only looking up to see who was in her class, before sheepishly walking toward El’ and sitting on the other side of her. Will was concerned by her demeanour, used to a more boisterous version of Max, but didn’t have the chance to ask her about it, as the teacher began taking the register.

They were given their timetables and met up in the corridor before first lesson with the rest of the party, minus Lucas, to compare. Fortunately, El’ shared every lesson with at least one party member, notably, Max for English, the next lesson, and Will for Spanish, as all the other party members had chosen to do either French, or not to do any language that semester. El’ had chosen Spanish randomly when she put in her application, and Will was the only one who had done it at middle school, as an extra-curricular, so they had practiced a bit over the summer, but El’s was most nervous for this class regardless, as she couldn’t exactly wing it.

Will’s first lesson, like Max and El’ was English, but Will had the wonderful idea of taking AP English. Joyce had said Will should take at least one AP class in freshman year, and Will had settled on English. It was one of his stronger subjects, but he was still dreading it, terrified of being the worst in the class, and with no friends to share the trauma with. How many group projects on Shakespeare could he survive without any friends to do it with?

Will arrived at the class early, hoping to get the best pick of seats, choosing one the far side from the teacher, 3^rd row of 4. He surmised that his AP class should be free from Troy and his friends, if you could call them that, so sitting further back should be a safe bet. Will kept his head down as the seats around him were filling up, hoping that, if he didn’t make eye contact with anyone, the seat beside him would be left empty, and he would then have the desk to himself for the entire year.

Unfortunately, Will heard the seat beside him be dragged out, and someone sat down next to him. “Hey man, what you doing down there” Lucas said to Will.

“Hey Lucas, didn’t realize you were in this class, so I was trying to prevent anyone sitting next to me. Where were you earlier, we were comparing timetables?”

“Sorry about that one, had basketball try-outs in the morning for the ‘Tigers’, so missed homeroom. Got in, but probably gonna be on the bench most of this season.”

“Basketball?” Will asked, ensuring he had heard Lucas right. Lucas had always been the most sporty of them, but that went no further than watching a few games with his Dad, none of the party could be described as ‘sporty’.

“Yeah, I’ve been practicing all summer. What’s a better way to avoid being bullied than playing sport?” Lucas said, as if it were an obvious solution to all their problems. Clearly, like Dustin and unlike Mike and Will, Lucas wasn't content with simply absorbing the torment they received for being nerds, and instead was hyper fixated on preventing the bullying of middle school from reoccurring.

“I suppose, have you told anyone else in the party? Max?”

“No, not yet, wasn’t any point if I didn’t get on the team, so was gonna wait till after”

Will raised his eyebrows, imagining what Max would think, and was sure the same thought had gone through Lucas’ head as well. He would have responded further but was interrupted by the teacher starting the lesson.

The rest of the lesson went without hiccup, and made Will quickly realize he wasn’t as out of depth as he thought and was relieved he did in fact know someone in AP English.

Will’s next lesson was Spanish, strangely, Will was looking forward to it. Other than art, Will reckoned this was going to be his favourite subject. He put in time outside of school to get better, which meant he was actually good at the subject which always helped.

After waiting for El’, Will and El’ were some of the last people into the class. Will’s head sunk, and his enthusiasm for Spanish evaporated was he saw Troy, and one of his friends, sat at the back, next to the only 2-person desk still empty. El’ went ahead, not recognizing Troy, who had changed a lot since they first met. Will sat down after her, very sheepishly, keeping his head down, hoping foolishly, Troy wouldn’t spot him.

Troy had in fact spotted him, almost as soon as Will had entered the room. As Will went through the door an Troy saw who it was, a smile grew on his face. However, when Troy saw who came through the door after Will, that smile morphed into a frown, and he cowered into his seat, remembering what happened last time he faced her. She almost ruined his football career, so he wasn’t going to cross her again.

As the teacher started speaking, El’ whispered to Will, “What’s wrong?”

“That" Will said, indicating with his eyes, "is Troy”.

El’s eyebrows rose and a smirk grew on her face, her memories of Troy very different to Will’s. Will, remembering the story Mike and Dustin had told from the time he was in the upside down, realized that despite the memory being painfully second-hand, this may mean, in Spanish at least, Will may be saved the torment of Troy.

“Is there a problem at the back!” the teacher shouted, looking at Will and El’. Their faces went red as they looked to the front, as if they had been paying attention the whole time.

Once the teacher had set them off on a pairs speaking task about Barcelona, Will took the opportunity to ask El’ about Max.

“Did you think Max seemed off this morning?”

“Hmm… a bit, but it is the first day, she was probably nervous. And Lucas wasn’t there, that probably didn’t help”.

“True, you’re probably right” Will said, but was largely unconvinced, promising himself he would keep an eye on her, knowing what it was like to have a difficult family life.

“¡En Español!” the teacher scolded the two of them for speaking in English, clearly not on task, as they made their way around the class, listening to the students pronunciation.

‘Great’, Will thought, first lesson of the year, and the teacher of my second favourite subject already hates me.

The lesson, which moved on to cover something about the perfect tense, Will had no idea, not really paying any attention, finally finished. El had packed up and left, rushing to find Mike before next lesson. As Will was getting up to leave, Troy stood by his desk, blocking his exit. Like before, Will didn’t say anything, knowing Troy was looking to get a rise out of him.

“Something wrong, fairy”

Will stomach dropped. That nickname, which he had picked up from Troy, hurt him the most. Not ‘Zombie boy’ or any other name relating to his time in the upside-down, not that they knew that. Those names brought back memories he would do anything to forget, but it was fairy which hurt Will the most. Will wished he did not know why it hurt so much, but truthfully, it was Lonnie, his father. He had called Will such things, only when it was just the two of them, that was when Lonnie reserved most of his abuse. So, when Troy used the word to describe Will, it brought back all that trauma which had robbed him of his childhood and, despite everything that Will had experienced, were some of the worst times of his life.

Will pushed past Troy and stormed out of the classroom, taking deep breaths to slow his heart rate. Will could hear Troy chuckling with whoever he was talking to and knew the reaction Will gave Troy was exactly what he was looking for. He had condemned himself to another year of bullying, maybe Lucas was right, Will should play a sport. The only issue was, Will had zero athletic ability, more adept to watching than playing, and he wasn’t even good at that, not really knowing the rules of any sport.

After third lesson, math with Dustin, they headed to the cafeteria. Dustin had waxed lyrical about how the table they sat at today would determine where they sat all year. Will wasn’t buying it, high school was strangely hierarchical, but having unspoken table seating was ridiculous. Either way, Will followed Dustin’s instruction and made their way with haste to a decent table after getting their food. What made a table decent was another mystery, but Dustin was clearly very passionate about it.

After a short while, Mike and El’ and then Max and Lucas arrived at the table. Mike and El’ were positively giddy to spend time together, without the prying eyes of Hopper or Nancy and Mrs. Wheeler, who often pestered them when they were at the Wheeler household. Max and Lucas, on the other hand, were seemingly cold to one and other as they sat down, Lucas between Dustin and Will, and Max on the other side of the table, next to El’. As they sat down, the conversation went quiet, picking up on the coldness between them. Wanting to cut through the awkwardness, Mike asked Lucas where he was the morning. Clearly, this was the wrong question to ask, as Lucas hung his head as he mumbled a reply.

“Basketball try-outs, for the team” seemingly hoping that, if he spoke quietly enough, no one would listen.

“Basketball?” Mike had an almost identical response to the one Will had in AP English earlier.

“Yeah, the best way to fit in during high school is play sport”

Dustin agreed, and, seeing as Will, and apparently Max, already knew, Mike was the one who objected.

“Fit in? Why would you want to fit in? Most these people are jerks”

“They aren’t all bad, and don’t you want to avoid being bullied for the next few years?”

“Aren’t all bad? You are already becoming one of them”.

Lucas scoffed, but decided it wasn’t worth arguing further, so dropped the matter. The party ate, mostly in silence, with no one wanting to speak up. Mike and El’ left almost immediately after finishing lunch, and Max disappeared shortly after, leaving just Lucas, Dustin and Will.

Breaking the silence, Lucas asked “You guys will come to some games, right?” nervously, wanting to avoid the confrontation he had with Mike, but also desperate for some of his friends to support him.

“Course man, if you want to play basketball, we’ll support” Dustin reassured Lucas.

“Go … tigers?” Will said, wanting to show his support, but realized he wasn’t perfectly sure what the high school sports teams were called.

Lucas laughed; glad he had the support of at least some of his friends. “Yeah, the Tigers”.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

Will’s first day was finally over, and it had gone about as badly as he expected. Troy had pestered him all day, at least when El’ wasn’t there, Lucas and Mike had a huge fight and, Max, Max seemed off. Dustin was about the only one who seemed like his old self.

Mike had invited the party over to his house after the first day, but it ended up only being Will and El’ who came. Lucas decided it was best he stayed away after their fight, Dustin was hanging out with Steve, and Max hadn’t said anything, she just headed home.

Will couldn’t believe his luck, or lack thereof. Mike and El’ were great, but together, well, it was going to be a long afternoon.

They had settled on Star Trek, Mike shocked El’ had never watched it. They were sat in the Wheeler’s basement, El’ cuddling with Mike as Will sat on the armchair next to the sofa. Having seen Star Trek countless times, Will wasn’t watching too intently.

Too often he found himself shooting wistful looks toward Mike and El’. Will told himself he was just jealous of what they had: a genuine connection. He knew he struggled to let people in, even those who knew what happened with the upside down could never truly understand what Will went through. It had severed his connection with the people around him, much of their life had started while Will was in the upside down.

Despite this apparent jealousy, Will had come to the conclusion some time ago that he would never fall in love. He couldn’t relate to the other party members obsession with girls, from ‘madmax’ to Lisa from Weird Science, Will knew he was different, not that he could bring himself to say that aloud, let admit it to anyone else.

Will looked across to Mike, the light from the TV, being the only light in the room, reflected off Mike’s face, accentuating his cheekbones, appearing very defined. Will stared dreamily in Mike and El's direction, before he looked away quickly, gluing his eyes to the screen, praying Mike hadn’t noticed him staring. Will knew he shouldn’t look at Mike that way, everyone knew that. Superficially he was perturbed by his actions, but in truth it didn’t feel wrong.

Regardless of Will’s true feelings, he couldn’t see past what he had been taught, so wrote it off and tried to put it to the back of his head.

Will had completely zoned out for the next half an hour, before Mrs. Wheeler shouted down that dinner was ready. Despite her being ok with Mike and El’ being together, they jumped apart when they heard her voice. Probably because of Hopper, Will thought to himself, as El’ and Mike’s cheeks went red with embarrassment.

-----

During dinner, in which Nancy was absent, and Ted mentally absent, Will could clearly see El’ and Mike holding hands under the table. He would normally try to avoid noticing this, for reasons he couldn’t explain, but today was different, he found he couldn’t stop staring, particularly at Mike and the contrast between the veins and pale skin of his hands.

This was the second time in an hour Will had caught himself staring at Mike. He was meant to be Mike’s best friend. Will’s realization that he was overstepping the boundaries between him and Mike caused him to grow more uncomfortable.

He quickly finished his food, and excused himself to the bathroom, leaving El’ and Mike uncertain but concerned as to what had happened. Will had seemingly run off while looking pale in the face. Despite the concern, they brushed it off as Will likely not feeling well, and returned to the conversation the two of them were having.

Once again, Will found a face he barely recognised staring back at him in the Wheeler's bathroom mirror. Not wanting to seem rude, he didn’t wait too long before returning, giving him just enough time to compose himself, and hope Jonathan would turn up to pick him up soon. Fortunately for Will, almost as soon as he came back down the stairs, Jonathan arrived at the Wheeler’s House, dropping Nancy off.

Ordinarily, Jonathan would stay for a short while with Nancy, but as he came through the door to greet Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler, Will discreetly asked if they could leave straight away.

“Jonathan, can we get going” Will whispered.

“Sure, what’s up?” Jonathan replied. He trusted Will implicitly, so didn’t require justification, which was fortunate, as Will left Jonathan’s question unanswered.

After Will and Jonathan had said their goodbyes, they walked out of the Wheelers house and into Jonathan’s car.

Will remained silent, not wanting to start the conversation, and Jonathan, while being very concerned, did not want to force Will into anything, so, also remained silent. It took several blocks for Jonathan to break the silence.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Over the years, Jonathan had learnt to be very careful and not to force Will to talk about anything. He knew he had been through so much, but forcing Will to talk would have destroyed their mutual trust.

“Not really” Will mumbled, after all, he had no idea what he would say, he couldn’t explain what he was feeling.

“Okay, I wont force you, but I’m here if you need me.”

The earlier silence returned, as Will tossed thoughts around in his head. Will knew Jonathan was there to support him, but, like everyone else, he couldn’t help but feel like Jonathan was moving on. Everyone assumed that the upside-down was finished, with all the gates closed and they lived like that, getting jobs and forming new relationships. But Will couldn’t move on, couldn’t form new relationships, he felt stuck in the past, as everyone else left him behind.

As soon as they arrived, Will jumped out of the car and hurried to his room, leaving Joyce stunned.

“Did he not have a good time at Mike's?” Joyce asked Jonathan as he came in, after Will.

“I’m not sure, he really didn't want to talk about it”.

Joyce was worried, wanting to go after her son, but Jonathan stopped her. Will had to be given space to deal with whatever it was, and he knew they would be there if he needed their support.

-----

Will put Jonathan’s first mixtape in his Walkman, reserved for the most pressing occasions, and laid on his bed facing the ceiling.

Why did he look at Mike that way?

Why was he always so uncomfortable when El’ and Mike were together?

Why did he feel like everyone was slipping away from him?

Why did he struggle to spend time with his friends nowadays?

Will had endless questions. Everything seems to have changed since the start of summer, since the battle of Starcourt.

He took himself back to around that time, what changed in Will?

What changed Will?

The first place his mind went was Friday, June 28^th, 1985.

After laughing at Jonathan, who still had Nancy’s lipstick on his cheek and was late for work, Joyce turned to her other son who was sat at the table for breakfast.

“Gross” Will said as his face turned sour in reaction to Jonathan’s ‘antics’.

“I don’t think you’ll think its gross when you fall in love”.

“I’m not gonna fall in love”.

Will was unsure whether Joyce ever thought of this short conversation, or even remembered it. But it stood out to him, it was the first time he had really acknowledged it to anyone, or aloud for that matter. He knew he was different, he could not relate to Mike, Lucas, or Dustin’s obsession with girls, so he surmised that he was never going to fall in love. Something was wrong with him, why couldn’t he be normal? Why couldn’t he like girls the way they did?

After this, Will’s mind went to a moment he had tried so hard to forget, but was consistently unsuccessful.

Monday, 1^st July 1985.

A day Will won’t soon forget, the thundering rain acting as a pathetic fallacy for the stake being driven through Will’s heart. He was losing his best friend just as he was learning more about himself, the real person behind the layers of trauma and guilt.

As the words left Mike’s tongue, Will could see the disgust on his face, it was an image he would never forget. As Will cycled away the words Mike said seared into his brain. He remembers them as vividly as anything that happened in upside down. It was the day his life was turned upside down for the second time, this time more metaphorically.

“It’s not my fault you don’t like girls”.

Will didn’t have the heart to tell anyone, he didn’t have the heart to admit it to someone else, he didn't have the heart to admit it to himself, yet Mike had used it as a tool to destroy him. Mike had figured it out, and decided Will was different, too different.

It had circled around Will’s head ever since, ringing in his ears like a siren, never fully allowing it to be stored in his subconscious. Strangely, Will used it as almost an anchor, it never allowed him to think about telling anyone of his deepest secret, forcing him to hide from those closest to him. If Mike would react so poorly, Will could barely imagine what anyone else would think. If Mike, Will’s best friend for his entire life, would treat him with such vitriol over something he couldn’t control, how could he expect anyone else to accept him. Those eight words had a more profound impact on Will than Mike could have imagined when he said them, truly, it hurt Will more than anything in the upside-down. That was physical torture, and he will never forget it. But in comparison to the damage Mike had done that night, it was all superficial, his best friend, closest confidant, the only person he trusted completely had betrayed his trust, and he wasn’t sure if it could ever be completely repaired.

As Will laid there, a single tear rolling down his right cheek, he had finally admitted to himself; ‘he didn’t like girls’, not that he had the strength to say it aloud. If he didn’t like girls, and was never going to fall in love, then he would be alone forever. But Will still couldn’t explain why he hurt so much when he looked at Mike and El’. Or why he was staring so much at …

“Mike”, the name crawled of Will’s tongue, as if he could not control it.

Oh, God. No, this cant be right.

Will Byers had a crush on Mike, his best friend of 10 years.

Will Byers was gay.

Refusing to believe his own thoughts, Will turned over and screamed, gutturally, into his pillow, as tears streamed down his face and his eyes stung.

They were right, Lonnie was right, Troy was right. Will was everything they said he was.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

Will’s first hellfire meeting, the party’s first hellfire meeting. After his tumultuous start to the week, he had been avoiding Mike at all costs, quite successfully he might add. After Will’s realization earlier in the week, not only had he been avoiding Mike, but he had been avoiding himself, staying busy with whatever task he could find to keep him out of his own head, everyone had told him that how he felt was wrong.

Mike had insisted the party join Hellfire when he had first learned of it. Lucas was the most resistant, not wanting to condemn the party to another 3 or 4 years of torment, but when Mike wanted something, he didn’t give up easily. So, it fell to Lucas to placate Mike and avoid another argument.

That’s how Dustin, Mike, Lucas and Will ended up in a random drama room after school on Thursday, with Eddie Munson, who somehow still hasn’t graduated, Gareth and Jeff, who Will had never seen around school before.

Eddie, the DM, was half-way through his campaign, probably a great campaign, Munson had been doing this for years after all, but Will wouldn’t really know. Being surrounded by Mike depleted his focus on other things, with most of his energy spent keeping his eyes from betraying him. If Will were honest, it was not just his gaze, but the lean of his shoulders or the blush of his cheeks. However, this lack of focus on the campaign wasn’t going to slide with Munson.

After Eddie had caught Will distracted for the third time he finally raised it.

“Byers, all good over there”

All heads turned to Will as the room went silent. Once Will realized everyone was staring at him, oblivious to Eddie’s question, he blurted out a response.

“What? Uh, yeah, sorry what?”

“Heads up!” Munson responded, throwing a dice at Will, apparently it was his turn. Will’s slow reactions and general lack of athleticism betrayed him, as it bounced off his forehead.

“Ow!”

“What? It’s your turn”.

“Right” Will stumbled out “What do I need to roll?”

“14!” Munson announced, as if he were the host of a game show.

Will does exactly that, rolling a 15 to save the group from a landslide. After being jolted back into action by Munson, well, a dice to the head from Munson, Will decided to pay attention, or at least try. Eddie had put a lot of effort into the campaign, and Will was nothing if not polite.

For the rest of the meeting, in which the group scaled an erupting volcano to save a local tribe, Will applied himself to the campaign, which turned out to be a sufficient distraction from all things Mike, who, inconveniently for Will, was still sat right next to him.

Once the meeting was over, and Eddie was packing up, Lucas was first to leave.

“I’ll see y’all in a fortnight” Lucas announced as he headed out.

“Woah, woah, woah, not so fast Sinclair. In a fortnight?!” Munson asked, as if Lucas had committed a federal crime. “What about next week?”

“I thought I said, I have a basketball game. It won’t be a regular thing, I promise”

“Basketball?! Really Sinclair, you’re blowing off D&D to play BASKETBALL!” Munson said.

While it wasn’t clear to basically anyone whether Eddie was being serious or not, apparently it was to Mike, who decided it was a good idea to add to this argument. He attempted to back up Munson. “I told you man, you’ve got to pick: us or them”.

“What do you mean, ‘us or them’ Wheeler?” Lucas retorted.

The rest of the group stood there in stunned silence, they had just been perfectly fine, and now the three of them were at each other’s throats. Well, that was harsh on Eddie, two of them were at each other’s throats.

“You know what I mean, Sinclair, you’re becoming one of them” Mike said with venom.

Will looked across the room at Dustin, assuming he was thinking the same thing. Twice in a week Mike and Lucas had had a huge row over basketball. If Will was not so concerned with whether the party would survive this, he would have enjoyed the irony. After all the party had been through, it was only the second time they were close to breaking point. The first time was girls, El’ in particular, who was now in the party, but the second time was basketball, that certainly wouldn’t have been a bookies favourite.

Lucas stormed out with Munson in tow, likely trying to repair the damage Mike had done. He may be passionate about D&D, but he wasn’t completely crazy.

Realizing he may have been a bit too harsh, Mike tried to justify his actions by garnering support from Will and Dustin, looking toward them.

“You guys must understand, he is becoming ….”

“Mike, stop” Dustin said forcefully, interrupting Mike, and getting in before Will. “What Lucas does in his time is none of your business, if he wants to play basketball, then he can play basketball! And, for the record, Will and I are going to watch, and it would mean a lot to him if you were there”

Mike scoffed and walked off. He was taken aback, he had assumed they would see his side of the argument, but apparently not. Will was also pretty stunned, but for different reasons. Dustin was not the sort of person to talk so poignantly or bluntly, that had usually been Lucas’ job. He was seeing a new side of Dustin, no doubt influenced by Steve.

Once Mike, Lucas and Eddie had left, Gareth and Jeff weren’t far behind, leaving just Dustin and Will.

“Will, seeing as Lucas has practice afterschool tomorrow, and Mike and El’ are … you know. Do you wanna hangout with Steve, Robin and I tomorrow, after school, Steve’s asking about you guys”

Will was hesitant, feeling off since the start of term, but maybe this was exactly what he needed to get his head off everything, and Mike wouldn’t be there.

“Sure, I’ll have to check with my mom though”

“Yeah, no problem. See you tomorrow” Dustin said as he left.

Before leaving, Will took the moment to settle himself; Mike and Lucas had argued again, and it didn’t seem like something either of them were going to get past, and Dustin seemed to have picked sides. Will could only see two solutions, neither of which would end well. Firstly, he could talk to Mike and try to persuade him to dial it down and apologize, but that had two issues. Mike is incredibly stubborn, and Will would have to spend time, alone, with Mike. The second option, which suddenly seemed much more appealing, was to do nothing and hope it blew over. For now, the latter was the way to go.

-----

After school the next day, Will had finally finished the first week of high school, and it hadn’t gone great. The party was fractured, Troy was as obtuse as expected, and Will was avoiding Mike. Throughout all of this, Will couldn’t get it out of his head that Troy was right, that Lonnie was right, that every person who ever called him a ‘fairy’ or a ‘faggot’ was right; perhaps he deserved the torment from them as well.

Will could philosophize over these issues later, he was cycling, with Dustin to Scoops Ahoy, which had reopened after the ‘mall fire’ in the summer. Dumping their bikes outside, Dustin marched through the mall into Scoops Ahoy and went behind the counter as if he owned the place. Will, with some deference, followed suit.

“Hello, Steve? Robin?”

From the backroom of the store, Steve came out.

“Hey Dustin. Will, how are you? You know Dustin, I had absolutely no idea you were here, next time make more noise” Steve fired off, dripping with sarcasm.

“You still have customers Steve” Dustin gestured toward the three or four people in the store who were looking over at the debacle.

“It’s all part of the charm” Steve patronized Dustin by switching to his customer service voice, ruffling his hair as a sign of his affection, while he gestured toward a table.

“I finish in like 20 minutes, I'll get you some ice cream while you wait. Dustin, you’re a cookie dough guy right. And Will, which way do you swing?”

“What?” Will chocked, positive he must have misheard Steve.

“Sorry, turn of phrase, what flavour do you want?”

“I’ll have cookie dough as well” Will replied, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

Despite having to remove what had actually come to mind when Steve asked ‘which way do you swing’ I mean, why would anyone actually say that when talking about ice cream?, Will was looking forward spending time with Steve and Robin, and Dustin of course.

While waiting for Steve and Robin to finish up, Will and Dustin ate their ice cream and somehow found enough to talk about without mentioning Mike, Lucas or anything party related.

Steve and Robin cleared up as quickly as possible, and Steve drove the four of them to his house, furnishing them with drinks and snacks when they arrived.

“So, Will” Steve started “Dustin mentioned some issues in the party, I’ve heard what he thinks, what about you?”

“I don’t know, it isn’t easy, Lucas wants to try and fit in, and Mike is adamant Lucas is becoming ‘one of them’” Will described the situation, using air quotes to emphasis his point.

“Well, I can tell you it isn’t worth trying to fit in artificially, I’d know” Steve said, looking guiltily at Will, remembering how he treated Jonathan “But, if its what Lucas wants, do you want to stand in his way?”

“Exactly” Dustin said triumphantly, as if Steve’s word had been a vindication what he had said. If Will had interpreted what Steve said right, it was basically: neither of them are wrong, which wasn’t particularly helpful.

“Anyway, that’s Mike and Lucas” Steve’s experience dealing with the party told him they weren’t going to get anywhere “how’s Max?”

Will looked at his feet and the expression on his face fell, not really wanting to answer. He knew something was wrong, very wrong, but he couldn’t say anything more than that. Before Will was forced into saying anything, Dustin responded.

“She’s a bit quiet, but fine, I think”. Will knew Dustin’s misinformation didn’t come from a place of malice, he simply wasn’t very observant when it came to people.

Steve didn’t say anything before changing the subject to something more light-hearted, but noted Will’s expression. Despite Steve’s reformation from popular high school jock, he hadn’t lost his interest in following football, so, once again was trying to convince someone to watch a game with him. Robin always refused, as did Dustin, so he hoped Will would be more open to the idea. Before Will could respond, Robin interjected.

“Steve, really, football? Again? No one wants to watch a load of sweaty men chase a ball around for 2 hours” Robin laughed as she said it, clearly this was something Steve mentioned frequently.

“Fine, sorry, no football” Steve raised his hands in defeat, before slipping in “the offer always stands” pointing toward Will, which earned him a playful slap on the shoulder from Robin.

Will was beginning to understand why Dustin enjoyed spending time with Steve and Robin, it was much less taxing than being around the party, not that that wasn’t enjoyable as well. Will felt as though he could truly be himself around them. Part of the reason was Mike, Will thought. Mike may have been Will’s best friend, but Will was hiding the gravest of secrets, and hiding took energy, he of all people would know. Will didn’t have to hide with Steve and Robin, they had no preconceptions, they hadn’t known him for long, there was no past Will to compare to, no pre-Upside Down Will to compare to, if Will was honest with himself.

“Yo, Will, can you help me grab some drinks from the kitchen” Steve asked.

“Steve!”

“Robin, I was not talking about alcoholic drinks! I’m not that irresponsible, I have experience.” Steve chirped back, raising a laugh from Will, Dustin and Robin.

As Will was grabbing glasses from one of the cupboards, Steve spoke up.

“Will, I uh, I didn’t really need your help, I could’ve managed. Max, how is she really? I saw the look on your face when I asked earlier, you’re much more observant than the others, is something up?” Steve sounded concerned. Since the upside down and the mind flayer, Steve took it upon himself to look out for the kids, but he was particularly concerned about Max, she lacked the support network the rest of them had.

“I really don’t know Steve. She’s very quiet at school, never hangs out outside of school, and has been distant with Lucas, but I couldn’t give you any specifics. I’m worried.”

“Me too kid, me too. Distant with Lucas as well?” Steve was deep in thought, his paternal instincts running on over-drive.

“Right …. What about you Will? How you holding up? I hear a lot from Dustin about you guys, I don’t want to push, but you …” Steve stumbled over his words, not wanting to say the wrong thing, before he came out with “had it worse than the rest”.

It was odd for Will, but Steve felt very easy to talk to. Everyone had heard of Steve Harrington, king of Hawkins high school, but what he had done for people he cared about, that didn’t live up to the jock persona. Steve realized the way he treated people was wrong, but unlike most, he had the guts to apologize, and change. Admitting you were wrong, when everyone already loved you, that was hard.

Will sighed, “I wish I could say everything was great, but, truth be told, it’s not.” Will paused, trying to compose himself. “Everything reminds me of the upside down. It feels like I’m on borrowed time. Every time I close my eyes I see a Demogorgon or hear their snarl as they hunted me for a week. And, the real world isn’t great either, Troy treats me like Vermin” a single tear rolled down Will’s cheek. He hadn’t meant to share all this with Steve, most of it he had never even said aloud before, but once he started it all seemed to just come out. But, something went unsaid, Will knew it, and Steve could tell there was something else from the way Will’s voice hitched at the end of his sentence. Something which ran deeper than any of the other horrors he had described. Steve refrained from speaking, not wanting to force Will to say anything.

“Also, I’m …”

Will continued, but now found himself stuck. He had never said the next word out loud, nor had he really allowed himself to accept it, hoping that, if he didn’t accept it, somehow he would change. Will felt on the precipice of a cliff, he could back off, and walk back down the mountain, or he could take the jump, feel the adrenaline of freeing himself, and either die (Steve freaking out and exposing him to the entire town) or be saved (Steve being supportive). ‘There is a reason people don’t jump of cliffs’ Will thought to himself, the risk is simply too great. As if the universe knew Will was never going to make a decision, it made it for him.

Dustin called through to the kitchen “what’s taking you guys so long, its been like 10 minutes”.

Will instantly snapped out of the daze he had been in, wiping the tear from his cheek and plastering on a smile, so much for being yourself around Steve and Robin, and headed back to the sitting room, before Steve grabbed his arm.

“I’m here for you Will, honestly” Steve reassured Will, before leading the way.

As they entered the room, Robin looked at them with an inquisitive frown. “Uh, guys, you forgot the drinks”.

Simultaneously, both Will and Steve looked at their empty hands as if the drinks had just vanished, before offering a light chuckle and heading back to retrieve them.

Chapter Text

Chapter 6

Second Thursday of term, and it would be the second meeting of Hellfire, if Will and Dustin hadn’t been going to watch Lucas first basketball game for the junior varsity team, not that Will had any idea what that meant.

At the start of the week, Will, during a Spanish lesson with El’, had found the perfect way to avoid Troy. Troy was petrified of El’ and wouldn’t pester Will when he was with her. There was however, one significant drawback to this idea; El’ was, always, without fail, with Mike. Whether it was the 30 seconds between lessons, or walking to each other’s classrooms, they were always together. This meant Will also had to spend a lot of time with Mike. Fortunately for Will, rarely alone together, but that didn’t really help. For most of the week, Will had felt as though he had to tread carefully for fear of exposing himself, but that was better than facing Troy. He could no longer deny or deflect what Troy was saying, so it was better to avoid the man completely.

Will had art Thursday morning, without a doubt his favourite lesson, despite it also being the only lesson he didn’t know anybody in. Being alone in art was unsurprising, as the rest of the party had the combined artistic talent of a seagull. Will had found his seat at the back of the class, it may only be his third art lesson of the term, but high schoolers were very territorial when it came to where they sat, and that included Will. It was a perfect seat, with a good view of the classroom, but tucked away enough no one would bother him much. As an added bonus, Will had an extra seat empty next to him, which gave him more space. Or at least he thought he did.

“Hey, is this seat taken?” Will was asked. While the seat wasn’t taken, he would rather it would remain vacant. But that wasn’t what Will first thought. What first hit him was the thick French accent. Will was going to respond, but as he looked up, the air in his lungs was knocked out of him.

Standing beside looking down at him was perhaps the most perfect human he had ever seen. Any thought of Mike evaporated from his mind, likely never to return, as he took in the sight before him. The defined cheekbones and broad shoulders framed bright blue eyes and a head of floppy brown hair. The only difference between what Will was currently experiencing and a cliché love-at first sight was that time definitely hadn’t slowed down.

Will stared at the French boy for several seconds, mouth slightly agape and eyes popping from their sockets, before he muttered out a barely audible response.

“What, sorry. No, not taken”. Will realized how strange he must have looked and cowered further into his seat, hoping the world would swallow him up, only not really, as that had a whole different meaning.

Seemingly unperturbed by Will’s extremely awkward response, unnamed French boy took the seat next to Will and got out his things, before introducing himself.

“Hi, I’m Arthur. This is my first lesson here, since I moved from Europe.”

Will was trying to recover from the fact this guy would likely be sitting next to him for the entire semester, but quickly had to get his head out of the sand in order to have an actual conversation and avoid Arthur thinking he was any weirder.

“I’m Will, it’s nice to meet you.” Will cringed at what he was saying, he probably sounded so odd. “I’d be happy to give you the low down about the school, but I’m not exactly social kryptonite, so if you want to be popular, I’m basically persona non grata.” That wasn’t any better, Will thought to himself, the first time in ages someone is actually showing interest in him, and he is blowing it.

“I’m not too fussed about that kind of thing, if this place is anything like in the films, those guys are probably not my type.” The French accent was soothing for Will, he was sure he could listen to Arthur talk all day. However, he needed to sort himself out, the new kid is trying to have a conversation, be polite.

“So, what is your type?” Will shocked himself when he asked. That was the least Will Byers thing he had ever said, not to mention it was rude, and borderline flirtatious, which is not advisable in a small town in Indiana toward someone who was almost definitely straight.

A small smirk grew on Arthur’s face, which Will would have noticed if he wasn’t so ashamed by what he had just said. “Preferably dark hair, funny, shorter than me, but most importantly, he would need to be smart.”

He?

Will’s brain had officially stopped working.

Unless Will had heard him wrong, which he was pretty sure he hadn’t, a cute boy from France, who Will assumed was straight and had only been in America for 2 days, just came out to him. He had known Arthur for like 2 minutes and he had just told Will he was gay.

Will wasn’t sure what it was like to be gay from where Arthur was from in Europe, but this was rural Indiana. Will had never met anyone in this small town who was gay, let alone open about it. Arthur was either very brave, very stupid or blissfully ignorant. For fear that the latter of the three was the case, Will realized he would have to tell Arthur, as if he let it slip to anyone else, well, Will didn’t want to think about that.

Will had dreamt, so many times, for someone in this small town to be like him, someone he could relate to, talk to and take lead from. But Will was certain that person would never come, and he would have to wait 10 years for a move to a big city to finally be felt and heard. And suddenly, all he had asked for had appeared before him, and now he had to tell this poor soul that you couldn’t be open in rural America, when all Will wanted to be was open about himself as much as Arthur was.

Once again it took Will a long time to process what Arthur had said and construct a response which was polite and dignified, while delivering news that would hurt Arthur’s very being. And Will had to do all this without telling Arthur he was gay. He was sure Arthur would accept him, why wouldn’t he? But the fear that had been bread into Will by the insular society he had lived in for his entire life meant it simply wasn’t possible for him to trust himself to say the words aloud, let alone to another person. Will just hoped he would have the confidence in the future.

“Arthur?” Will start tentatively “not that I think there is anything wrong with it, I mean, I don’t see why anyone should dictate who you love, but, here, in rural Indiana, well rural America as a whole, its … I mean … it’s very hard, almost impossible to be … out”.

That was a mess, Will thought, he would be surprised if Arthur understood a word of what he said.

Despite Will being clearly flustered, by the look on Arthur’s face, his point had been clear. Arthur’s negative emotions were not aimed at Will, but it had a profound impact on him nonetheless. Arthur was hurt, the pronunciation and optimism in his cheeks slumped, as if Will had driven a stake through his heart. Will could barely imagine what Arthur was feeling, he never had the luxury of being open about himself, but to take that huge step, and then be forced to undo it all, to live the torment of a double life again after experiencing the ecstasy of freedom. All Will could do was be there for Arthur, if he would allow it. He knew Will for two minutes, he was probably the first person he spoke to at school, and he had just delivered news that could ruin his life.

What upset Will more than the hurt he saw, more than the undertone of betrayal or the sadness that now glistened Arthur’s perfect eyes, was the hint Will got that Arthur wasn’t completely surprised. Will wasn’t sure why, but it could have been denial, coming from a clearly very open and accepting place, Arthur couldn’t imagine somewhere that wasn’t as open or accepting, despite what people had told him. But this was all Will’s conjecture, he wasn’t going to jump to conclusions about Arthur’s life, he owed him at least that.

Arthur wore his heart on his sleeve, he was open, confident and seemingly happy, until, with one sentence, Will had quenched all of that optimism. Will felt terrible, despite knowing he was doing it for the right reasons, despite knowing that, if Arthur heeded his warning, he would avoid the years of torture Will received for the simple accusation, rather than actually being out. Will was terrified for Arthur, which would have felt odd for Will seeing as they had met 5 minutes prior, but he had connected with him on a different plane, he was the first person he knew that actually knew what it was like to be Will, to be gay. As much as his friends in the party were everything he could ask for, they would never come close to understanding Will truly, because of one difference, which seemed to Will an ocean wide.

Both boys were completely lost in their own thoughts, probably thinking more similar things than Arthur could imagine, to the point where nothing was said between the two of them until the end of the lesson. Will had gone from eagerly anticipating every art lesson to going through the motions, willing the time away.

After Will had thought about the information he had unloaded on Arthur, he realized that saying nothing else would seem cold, not that Arthur wanted to talk to Will at this point, he assumed.

As Will was walking toward the door to leave class, he reached out to grab Arthur’s shoulder to indicate for him to turn around. Arthur, with his head down, shrugged Will’s hand off before knowing who it belonged to, but stopped and faced Will none the less.

Arthur winced as he saw Will, unfortunately connotating Will with being forced back in the closet. Looking at Arthur’s face and feeling very guilty, despite knowing he had little choice in what he said, Will couldn’t muster much.

“I’m sorry Arthur” Will said remorsefully. It may have been the understatement of the century, but Will didn’t know what to say, how could he help Arthur in this situation, when understandably, he didn’t want to talk about it?

Despite Will’s feeling that his apology had been insufficient, Arthur nodded toward Will, as if he knew Will truly meant it, and headed out the door, without turning back, his head still hung.

Will felt horrible, truly disgusted with himself, as if he had willed Arthur into prolonged suffering, as if he was solely responsible for the societal structure which meant people couldn’t be themselves. He felt burdened with the inevitable suffering of Arthur, when he knew there was nothing that could be done, that he had actually saved Arthur a lot of trouble. Will knew he had done the right thing, but that didn’t matter.

Will could hear the voice of Lonnie, and to some extent Troy, in the back of his head. In truth, the words of Troy did a lot of damage superficially, but it was his father, the man he craved approval from more than anyone else, who had inflicted the deepest scars, both physical and mentally. There was nothing that hurt Will more than what his father had done, and Will had experienced a lifetimes worth of torture beside that.

All of that had to be put to one side, as Will had promised Lucas he would watch his first basketball match on team, and he couldn’t abandon Dustin, who was also going. Will found it difficult to push what had happened with Arthur out of his head, but he decided he must, in order to give his attention to Lucas. Will hadn’t eaten since breakfast, his appetite thoroughly ruined, but that didn’t put him off either, this game meant a lot to Lucas, and Will wouldn’t miss it for the world.

-----

After school, having wished Lucas good luck, Will and Dustin made their way into the gymnasium, which was very busy, being the first game of the season. Will had hoped they would keep a low profile, not exactly being socialites so people may ask questions as to why they were at a sporting event, but Dustin was insistent on raising the roof in support of Lucas. Will eventually resented, basking in the occasional distraction supplied by Dustin’s unadulterated enthusiasm.

It was early in the second quarter, the ‘Tigers’ up 6 points, when Will noticed a solemn looking Arthur near the top of the seating on the opposite side of the court (Lucas had confirmed ‘court’ was the right word). Will was surprised Arthur was here, assuming he would have wanted to leave as soon as he could after the first day he had. Arthur’s presence meant Will didn’t focus much for the remainder of the game, paying attention only when Lucas was on the court, which hadn’t been very long.

Lucas’ team won by 21 points, which is a lot according to Dustin. Will enjoyed the game more than we expected to, particularly considering the circumstances, Lucas had even scored, which got them both very excited. Will and Dustin were leaving the gymnasium after the game, Lucas had told them not to wait for him as he would likely be some time. As Will was listening to Dustin wax lyrically about the match, having found a great enthusiasm for the game since Lucas announced he had taken it up, Will was thinking about Mike. He was sure that had ended the moment he laid eyes on Arthur, but apparently his brain was betraying him once again. He wondered what Mike was doing. He was pretty sure he wasn’t with El’, maybe he had gone to Hellfire, but Eddie probably cancelled that session seeing as 3 of 7 were missing. Rather than the usual thoughts about Mike, Will wondered if he was lonely. He knew his home situation wasn’t ideal, not that it reached the levels of Will, but the clear lovelessness between his parents must take a toll on him. And he had in two weeks, managed to push the party away from him, much of it his fault, much of it not. Will made a mental note to try and talk to him in school tomorrow, he may have neglected him recently due to his realization, but that didn’t mean Mike didn’t deserve his support when he needed it.

Will train of thought was interrupted when Troy pushed past Will, barging him with his shoulder before stopping in front of a bemused Will, and looking down on him, even though they were a similar height.

“What are you doing here Byers, I thought fairies didn’t play sport”.

He had gone there straight away, and Will quickly became aware this was the first time he had faced him since he had acknowledged he was gay, the normal El’ shield not protecting him this time. Will didn’t know what to say, his usual strategy of ignoring him wouldn’t work now, he was blocking his path, Troy’s posse of 7 or 8 boys in tow this time.

Will, who stood there petrified, was saved by Dustin’s intervention. He had always been more fearless (on occasion one could describe it as stupid) than Will, and was as fiercely loyal. Dustin stepped in front of Will and rebutted Troy’s harassment.

“Fuck off Troy”

Dustin, while he had been a victim of Troy’s bullying, had never been on the end of this type of attack, so as soon as Will heard what Dustin said, he knew Troy wouldn’t give in now he had a reaction.

“Aww, Byers … need your boyfriend to protect you” Troy laughed, seemingly at his own joke, before scoffing and walking away. Dustin let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in, before looking back at Will and embracing him in a hug, hiding Will’s look of complete vulnerability.

Dustin didn’t say anything, he didn’t know what to say.

Unbeknownst to Will, stood slightly away from where the altercation had taken place was Arthur, who stood frozen in shock. He remembered Will’s warning, and had heeded it, but the initial exposure to what Will was talking about shook him to his core. How did a boy the age of Troy have so much hatred and pent up anger within him to justify treating someone like that. Arthur was almost as shook as Will, on the verge of tears himself, and finally fully appreciated what Will had done for him when he gracefully warned him of the dangers of being out, without telling anybody or mocking him. Arthur realized how bad it could have been if it wasn’t Will he sat next to in that first lesson.

While this horrified Arthur, and hurt him deeply, what was most shocking was who the victim was. Arthur assumed Will was a standard student, who happened to have progressive views and didn’t want to see the new kid bullied. But no, Will was already being bullied, for the very same thing, and he seemingly wasn’t even out yet. Arthur believed it was yet; he had met enough gay people back in Europe that he was pretty sure Will was gay. The way he was flustered when he first introduced himself was an indicator, but the way he winced when Troy had said ‘fairy’ and ‘boyfriend’ was the reaction of someone who was gay, not someone who people joked, very crudely, was gay. However, Arthur wasn’t going to make judgement, he had his hunches, but he would not make any full assumptions until Will had told him, if he ever felt comfortable enough to do so.

Chapter Text

Chapter 7

Something was off, Will couldn’t put paint to canvas, or graphite to paper. He found himself incapable of making art. This was an issue as Will was in art class, which he had last thing on a Friday. He was held up on his confrontation with Troy; he could no longer brush off what he said, it cut even deeper knowing he was right. He couldn’t shake the guilt he felt, he had let down everyone, his father had left because of him.

This lesson also happened to be with Arthur, who had decided, despite their painful introduction, to sit next to Will again. However, despite Will’s preoccupation with his own thoughts, it was Arthur who seemed even more out of it the entire lesson, not engaging in any conversation, and barely conscious of what was going on around him. He contributed the bare minimum to the class and stared at his art book rather than do anything productive. He was not being cold to Will particularly, but seemed generally apathetic, for reasons unclear to him. Will couldn’t help but rue over why Arthur was behaving this way. Perhaps it was the fact he had just moved halfway across the world and forced back into the closet, in which case his disassociation was merited.

What Will didn’t know was that none of these reasons, while valid, were accurate. Arthur was thinking about Will, about what he had seen Will go through at the basketball match yesterday. Sure, he had faced homophobia here and there, but it was never as overt as what Troy had said, and Will wasn’t actually out. Arthur was again reminded of the debt he owed to him. He had prevented Troy turning to Arthur, even if that would have saved Will. But Arthur also hated himself, as anytime he looked at Will he found himself unable to think of anything but what he had told them the first time they met.

When Arthur came out to his mom and brother around 2 years ago, it had been hard, he had only just accepted it himself, but was pinned down by the burden of carrying something so important without being able to share it. So, he forced himself to tell them, knowing it would take the weight from his shoulders.

While they had never spoken about it, Arthur was sure they would accept him, even if there was a small voice in the back of his head theorizing about the worst case scenario. When he sat down after deciding to tell them, he suddenly found himself unable to speak, or focus on anything else. But, after finally getting it out, it went as he expected, with both of them accepting him for who he was, with only a few awkward questions which Arthur could forgive them for. He would be eternally grateful for their support and encouragement; he knew so many people who were not as fortunate as him.

Being gay at school was scarier than at home, so he decided not make a big deal out of it, telling his friends if they asked but not bringing it up intentionally. It became one of those things most people knew, but no one really talked about. Arthur knew he was once again fortunate, it was a small school in the city, so he had hoped people would be more accepting.

He only had a few close friends back home, never being extremely sociable or popular, but still managed to steer clear of the bullying that was present at every school. Arthur supposed that was why it hurt when he saw what Will was subject to; Arthur had never personally known anyone who was bullied, especially not for being gay, and it terrified him.

The burden he felt from carrying the secret he was gay when he first realized was a feeling Arthur didn’t think he would ever feel again, but no. Arthur had to now carry that burden again, but under the pretence that, if he didn’t, he would be subject to what Will suffers and probably worse.

Arthur had been in the USA for about a week, starting school on Thursday to give him time to set himself. When his school at home had announced a foreign exchange scheme to various places in the  US, Arthur thought it sounded exciting, but for the first time, he wished he was at home, with the support of his mom. He needed to be at home. The family who agreed for him to stay barely knew anything about him, he had no idea whether they would accept him. He decided this was worse, much worse, than before he was out back home. He had experienced the exhilarating freedom of not having to hide, the adrenaline of telling the people closest to him, and it had all been taken away.

He imagined what his mom would say, she always found a way to soothe his pain. The three of them, with his brother, had grown much closer since their father died, filling the gaping hole left in each other’s lives. Arthur supposed, although he would never admit it to his mother, that it was his father’s death that caused him to take up the opportunity to spend a year abroad, far from home.

He had taken his dad’s death harder than anyone, his brother was always closer with their mother, and Arthur their father, so when he was taken away from them, it was a sucker punch. Arthur had to escape the town in which on every corner he turned he was reminded of him. Arthur also felt guilty over his death, he had known he was gay, and he had betrayed his father’s confidence by not telling him, and now he couldn’t. He could never tell the man for which he owed everything the full truth. The most important person in his life would never truly know him, and that ate at Arthur every day.

Disturbing him from the torture of his mind, the bell rang through his ears, indicating the lesson was over. Looking over to Will, he was offered a small smile, before Will left the class. Arthur realized he hadn’t spoken more than a word to him all lesson, so he wasn’t really sure what he expected Will to say.

-----

Back to Will’s POV

Will felt lost. Arthur wasn’t talking to him, for obvious reasons, and Will couldn’t help but feel guilty for that. Mike wasn’t talking much to the rest of the party after Dustin took sides with Lucas, so spent most of his time with El’. Dustin spent more time with Steve and Robin, Lucas with the basketball team and Max, well, Max was even more insular than Will. He was very concerned for her, but she was so stubborn that once she decided she didn’t want help, she would turn everyone away.

Remembering the promise he made to himself just before Troy confronted him after Lucas’ basketball match, Will decided he would talk to Mike. It seemed as though Dustin and Lucas had abandoned any hope of rebuilding the party, not wanting to be the first person to approach the other, as if that was an admission of guilt. It therefore fell to Will to pick up the pieces, certainly not for the first time. The issue with this was it meant Will, who had somewhat successfully managed to avoid Mike for the last two weeks, would have to face him again, while covering his most grave secret.

Will caught Mike as he was leaving school, and he knew he had to bring it up now, otherwise he would never find the words.

“Mike, Mike” Will started, getting him to stop in his tracks and turn to face him. “How are you holding up? The Lucas and Dustin thing must be …”

“Will, stop. I don’t want to talk about it” Mike shut down Will instantly, not even letting him finish his sentence. Will was deflated, this rift seemed more terminal than the previous ones, but he was the only one to see it.

“Anyway, do you want to come round mine tomorrow, I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages. I’ll invite El’ as well” Mike quickly removed the vengeful look on his face after Will’s initial mention of Lucas and Dustin.

In any other circumstance, Will would have deflected Mike’s invite with some lame excuse. It broke two of the rules he had been following: he would basically be third wheeling Mike and El’, not that they meant it, and he would spend a long time with Mike in an enclosed space. But Will was aware it was about the only time he would be able to talk to Mike about the party without it becoming too long since the original incident and he wasn’t going to let that opportunity slip, it felt too wrong to see the party fall apart after everything they had been through.

“Sure, that sounds great, I’ll cycle over after lunch” Will was less confident than he sounded.

After confirming this they went their separate ways, Mike cycling home, but Joyce picked Will up, it was one of the days she could get off work to drop him home.

-----

Will had been at Mike’s for a few hours now, in the basement with Mike and El’ watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mike insisted it was another classic El’ had missed out on. Of course, Will and Mike had watched it a hundred times, despite Will thinking it was a bit overrated, and Mike usually responding with something like, ‘That’s blasphemy!’

Will had found himself sending wistful looks in Mike’s direction as they were sat in the basement. Again the light from the television doing wonders to Mike’s cheekbones, but Will was trying to keep his discipline, his best friend didn’t deserve to be violated like that. It was Will who had agreed to come over, and the best he could do was be polite.

To their credit, Mike and El’ had kept things subtle, avoiding Will feeling too much like a third wheel, but, aside from how Mike looked, he couldn’t get the rift between the party out of his head. Mike had told him he didn’t want to talk about it, but Will thought it was unavoidable, it had to be settled eventually, it would be settled eventually, right?

Seeing as El’ was there, Will was considering bringing it up with her before talking to Mike, so he knew where she stood. The two of them had grown much closer since Hopper and Joyce had been together. Will wasn’t sure whether he could disassociate El’ from Mike. He had been taken to the upside down, experienced a week of emotional and physical torture, just to find he had been replaced when he came back. But he had managed to put this aside when he got to know El’, she was a victim too, and he couldn’t blame anyone for the situation.

Mike had gone upstairs to talk to Mrs. Wheeler, about what Will wasn’t sure, so he took the opportunity to talk to El’.

“El’, do you think Mike’s okay? I’m worried about him after what happened with Dustin and Lucas.”

“He seems …” El’ struggled to find the word “isolated. He hasn’t taken the rift well, even though he insists he’s fine. I don’t know how to talk to him about it though, you know I’m not very good at that”.

“Its okay, I’ll give it a go when he gets down” Will didn’t want it to get to this point, but it was inevitable.

It took Mike longer to come back down to the basement than Will expected, so he was sat with his hands in his lap, thinking and over thinking what he was going to say. He couldn’t strike up conversation with El’ again, they were both thinking about the same thing. When Mike finally opened the basement door to make his way down again, Will and El’ not saying anything, just staring up at him.

Mike picked up on this quickly, hesitantly asking “Erm... is everything ok?”

“Mike, we need to talk about Lucas and Dustin”.

“Nope. No. We. Do. Not! I told you this yesterday Will, not happening”.

“Mike come on; we both know the status quo isn’t sustainable”.

“Will, just drop it, its my problem, so I’ll sort it out!” Mike was starting to raise his voice, but Will wasn’t going to give up so easily, the party was worth fighting for.

“No, Mike! No, I will not drop it, and nor is it just your problem. We have to sort this out”. Will shouted at Mike, it felt wrong, event though he believed what he was saying.

“Will you’re being ridiculous, you always butt your head in other people’s problems, El’ come on, you know I’m right” Mike had stooped low, bringing El’ into their argument. Will felt bad, he didn’t want El’ to have to pick sides. He knew she agreed with him, but Mike was her boyfriend, and feared she would be betrayed by her own blind honesty.

El’ felt very awkward, cowering down in her seat, but both sets of eyes were fixated on her, so she didn’t really have a choice. “Will’s right” she said, very sheepishly, in an attempt for her voice not to reach Mike. Evidently it didn’t work, as Mike’s face fell, and he reeled from hearing El’s opinion.

“Great, Lucas and Dustin hate me, and now you’ve driven a fork between me and my girlfriend, thanks Will”. Will was used to verbal attacks, from Troy or Lonnie, and while those hurt, especially Lonnie’s, the way Mike said Will, it cut deep, he had almost spat it. There was no one, outside of Joyce and Jonathan, that Will had trusted more throughout his life than Mike, he thought they were the best thing that happened to each other. But what Mike said, that didn’t reflect the relationship Will believed they had.

The last time they had a big fight, when Mike said ‘It’s not my fault you don’t like girls’, he immediately realized the faults about what he said, he knew how it would have hurt Will. That didn’t excuse what he had said, but this time he hadn’t even acknowledged, at least by facial expression, that he could have hurt Will.

But Will was stumped, there was nothing more he could say, Mike wasn’t going to be convinced. All Will was trying to do was mend the party, but he had made it worse. He had to get out of there.

With puffy eyes, Will stormed up the stairs, out of Mike’s basement and through the front door, pedalling through pelting rain toward his house. If Will wasn’t so frustrated and emotional, he would have recognized the fact ever time he argued with Mike, it seemed to be raining, but Will didn’t have the mental space for arbitrary thought like this. A bike ride that would have normally taken 15 minutes took less than 10, in part due to Will wanting to get out from the rain, and in part because Will was so overwhelmed. He needed to be alone with his thoughts, and that wasn’t possible when he was focusing on getting home, he needed a space he was comfortable in.

Almost throwing his bike under the overhang from the roof, he pushed through the door, ignoring Jonathan’s calls, and dumped himself on to his bed, kicking off his shoes.

Will had nothing left. He was emotionally spent and physically fatigued but most concerning to Will was that he was losing his friends. He could barely talk to Mike without exploding into a huge argument, he didn’t feel safe going to Lucas’ basketball with Dustin. He can’t go to Hellfire because then he would be picking Mike over Lucas and Dustin, and they didn’t deserve that. Max was basically isolating herself from everybody, and wherever El’ went, Mike went. And on top of all this, Arthur, who Will seemed to have connected with instantly, wasn’t talking to him because Will had ruined his life.

Art, that was all Will had left, so, as usual when he was struggling under the pressure of life, he pulled out his drawing book and began to sketch.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8

Jonathan’s POV

Jonathan pulled up outside the Wheeler’s house to pick up Nancy. Sunday was the only day they both had off work and school, so they liked to use it to enjoy each other’s company. Despite having been with Nancy for some time, he always felt apprehensive going to her house, because of her parents. While it didn’t help they didn’t know about the upside down, he was uneasy around them because of the struggles she had recounted. Jonathan knew first-hand what it was like to have a difficult home life but hated the thought of Nancy going through anything similar. She had described Mr. Wheeler’s apathy and coldness, particularly toward Mrs. Wheeler, who was equally apathetic, but also blunt and snappy. It was great contrast to the parents he knew many years ago, when his only connection to the family was through Will.

Jonathan knocked on the front door, hoping it wouldn’t be one of Nancy’s parents that answered. Fortunately for him, it was Mike who answered the door. Jonathan, not aware of the hostile nature of the last two encounters between his younger brother and Mike, greeted Mike with a warm smile. He cared greatly for all those who had the shared trauma of the upside down.

Mike reacted to Jonathan’s presence differently. He felt somewhat bad for how he had left it with Will, so turned his face away from Jonathan, trying to hide his embarrassment. Jonathan, of course, caught Mike’s trepidation immediately, but filed it in the back of his mind, not wanting to push. As it turned out, he didn’t need to. After Mike called up to Nancy, he started:

“Jonathan, I hate to ask, but could you, maybe, if you had time, check up on Will? I’m worried about him”. Mike felt awkward asking Jonathan to do this, it was his job, he was Will’s best friend, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Jonathan was concerned, he was very protective of Will, but thought this was something Mike could talk to him about. “Sure man” he started tentatively, “what do you think is wrong?”

“I’m not sure really, I just think he’s having a hard time”. Mike lied, he knew he was doing the right thing, getting him to check on Will, but he couldn’t let Jonathan know he was the reason Will was feeling off. “And also, can you, like, not tell Will I talked to you?”

Jonathan looked sceptically; he had never known Mike to step around a subject carefully. Other than Will, the entire party was very oblivious, and lacked the nuance to speak cautiously. So, for Mike to be avoiding saying things was very … unusual. “I guess man, sure”.

Nancy came running down the stairs, saving both Jonathan and Mike from the situation becoming even more awkward.

He spent much of the rest of the day with Nancy, but what Mike had said never left his mind.

Will’s POV

Will had, since the start of the week, been hiding himself in the art room, working on whatever piece he had for class, or if he had completed all his work, then something more personal. During lunchtimes, or after school if he was feeling like it, he would escape reality and avoid his friends.

But he didn’t know how to break the cycle, he knew he couldn’t hide forever, but revelled in the time he spent on his own. His solitude lifted the burden of hiding himself from everyone, which was painfully relaxing. What would his friends say? He had completely isolated himself from everyone, he had no idea if Mike, Lucas and Dustin had repaired things, but he really doubted it. Will was trying to put the fact none of his friends had raised his absence with him in class out of his mind, he couldn’t enjoy the time alone and wish for their companionship.

Will also had to remind himself that the mental debate he was having must be viewed in the context of him hiding his true self from everyone.

Lying in his bed after a long day of his own company, Jonathan knocked on the door to signal he was there and then poked his head through the door, having taken the day off work to spend time with Will. Will smiled slightly as he was again reminded of his debate as to Jonathan’s reasons for knocking on the door if he was just going to enter anyway. Jonathan laid beside Will, staring at the ceiling, just like they would do when Lonnie and Joyce were arguing, except this time without the music blaring.

They laid in silence for a while, Will enjoying the feeling of Jonathan's familiar presence, and Jonathan not knowing where to start.

Jonathan eventually broke the silence, dodging the difficult topic of what Mike had mentioned, deciding instead for the difficult topic of Joyce and Hopper.

“Do you like Hopper? And not just because he makes mom happy.”

The idea of Hopper entering their life, perhaps even as a father figure, made Jonathan more nervous than he would be willing to admit. Despite Will never talking about it, Lonnie did serious damage, and he didn’t want to see that happen to Will again.

Will didn’t really know how to respond; he hadn’t really thought past what Hopper did for Joyce.

How would be react if he ever found out about Will? He wouldn’t be able to deal with that sort of abuse at home again. But he knew about the upside-down stuff, which should help. It was something Will was sure he would overthink.

Jonathan clearly noticed the lack of response from Will, who was stuck in his own head. “I get it Will, really” he reassured him, “but he won’t be like Lonnie, I promise”.

“How … How can you make that promise?” Will’s voice broke as he began to speak, but he quickly tried regained his outward composure. He wasn’t attacking Jonathan, he simply couldn’t afford to be that confident, no one truly knew what he went through with Lonnie.

Jonathan had no response to that, Will was right.

Jonathan was positive Hopper was so much better than Lonnie, but to go so far as promise it after the way Lonnie treated Will, it wasn’t fair. Instead, Jonathan rested his head on Will’s shoulder, and they soaked in each other’s reassuring presence. Except Jonathan kept reminding himself of what Mike had said. He hadn’t raised it yet because he didn’t know how. He had always avoided pressuring Will into talking about his feelings, but if Mike was concerned to the point he had raised it with him, this may be a time when he would have to push.

“Will, are you ok, just, in general?” Jonathan wished he asked this more often, but no one was perfect.

Will may look back on it as a moment of weakness; after everything he had been through, his impulse reaction to this question was ‘yeah, I’m fine’, but Jonathan was the only person he felt safe with.

“Honestly, I’ve been better.”

Jonathan hated that he was surprised when Will said anything but his default answer, which he would admit he was used to, and expecting again. He also knew Will doesn’t exactly give out any information for free. “Do you want to elaborate? I’m here for you, Will”.

“Not really, its … it’s hard to talk about, with anyone.”

Jonathan sighed, despite the inevitability of the conversation reaching this point, he wished Will would feel safe enough to talk about whatever was on his mind, but he understood why. Will had been through more than anyone could imagine, and he was still only in high school, if anyone deserved a break it was him, but it never came.

“Will, they say it gets easier if you talk about it”. Jonathan was not going to force Will but pushing him in the right direction would help.

Jonathan let the suggestion float in the air. The silence was comfortable, with them both lying on Will’s bed, Jonathan’s head still resting on Will’s shoulder as a comforting presence. Jonathan had said all he could, his main goal was ensuring Will was comfortable, there were many places he didn’t feel safe, but his own room must remain his safe space.  Will struggled to find the words, not trusting his own voice, but he knew Jonathan was right.

“It’s Mike” Will started, very tentatively, “well, the rest of the party as well, I just … feel like I’m different, and they are drifting away, and I don’t know what to do”. Will knew it was only a half truth, everything would make more sense if Jonathan knew everything, but Will was a long way off telling anyone he was different, well, why he was different. Despite Will having come to terms with it, he was still struggling to say it to even to himself.

Mike, that was the first thing Jonathan processed in his head. No wonder Mike had asked him to check on Will, he knew more than he was letting on. But Jonathan agreed that he wouldn’t tell Will Mike had asked about him, and he would keep to that, for now at least. It was clear to them both Will left much of the story untold, but Jonathan also knew he wasn’t going to get much more out of Will, so he hoped Will would find comfort in his words.

“Will, I know you’re going through a lot at the moment, and you have been, for years now, but every time you’ve faced something which felt insurmountable, you’ve beaten it. And it may seem to you as though each of those experiences weakened you, they didn’t, they made you stronger than anyone I know. You’ve been through things, and done things no one can imagine. And I would do anything for you not to have been through that, I would do anything for me to have been there instead of you, I would do anything for you Will”.

Jonathan had a few silent tears roll down his cheek, but continued, the love he had for his brother was not easily expressed.

“When you first went missing, god that seems like years ago now, I beat myself up, thinking it was my fault, but when your body was lifted out of the quarry, the feeling was indescribable, I lost everything, my closest friend, they only kid who could have gone through everything with Lonnie, with a smile on his face. I don’t want you to lose sight of that version of you, the kid who smiles at adversity, and revels in the company of their friends.”

Jonathan was crying, silently tears were now streaming down his face, Will was precious to him, and the torture he had been through, it brought tears to his eyes every time he thought about it.

Jonathan turned to face Will, who himself had tears brimming his eyes, threatening to leak out, but remained steadfast focused on the ceiling. “Will, I just … I don’t want you to forget that I’m here, And I’ll always be here. No matter what, Because you’re my brother. And I love you. And there is nothing in this world, okay, absolutely nothing, that will ever change that. You got that?”

Will knew what Jonathan meant, even if Jonathan didn’t.

Jonathan loved Will unconditionally.

Afraid Will would not be able to control his emotions if he started crying, he buried his face into the side of his brother’s jumper and wrapped his arms around him. It was enough of a response for Jonathan, Will felt safe, and that was all that mattered now.

Will and Jonathan remained in that position until Joyce got home, mainly because Will had fallen asleep. Despite conversation they had, Jonathan’s concerns for Will had not diminished but increased, he could add not sleeping well to the list.

As the front door opened, signalling Joyce was home, Will quickly emerged from his slumber, shot up, fixed his hair and went to greet his mother, as if he hadn’t just been crying and then fallen asleep. Jonathan observed this very bizarre behaviour. Will never hid things around Joyce, the three of them had gotten close since Lonnie left, close enough that they didn’t really keep secrets from one and other.

Or maybe this was another area where Jonathan had missed things, how much of Will had been hidden? How much had he missed? And how long had Will been struggling? These questions disturbed Jonathan, was he not the attentive brother he thought he was?

Chapter Text

Chapter 9

Will Byers is gay.

Will Byers is gay.

Will Byers is gay.

He kept repeating this in his head as if it were his personal mantra. It was his own way of fighting the nagging voices in his head, Lonnie telling him that he was wrong. If he could accept himself, what did it matter if no one else accepted him.

If only he could truly believe that.

It was Wednesday evening and Will had just survived another dinner with Hopper and El’ where he sat around the table, not feeling able to contribute anything, but wanting to ensure his state of vacancy went unnoticed.

It had been two weeks since Will had realized he was gay, and it had been occupying his mind ever since. He was still trying, and often failing, to accept there was nothing wrong with him. His father had internalized beliefs that made him hate himself, and they would likely never truly leave. There was no handbook to tell him how to do things, no one he could ask. He simply had to avoid spilling his secret, keep it locked away in the depths of his mind, and focus on each day as they came, allowing the inevitability of time to engulf him.

The idea that he wasn’t the only gay kid in Hawkins was keeping him from insanity. Arthur had been through this process before in France, but he couldn’t really ask him about it. Not only would that be too suspicious coming from someone that, as far was Arthur was aware, was straight, but he was also the one who had warned Arthur about the traditional conservative values that existed in this town.

-----

The next morning, Will was still largely avoiding the party where he could. He had mastered the art of cycling and walking slow enough and leaving the house late enough that he would arrive just before the homeroom started, so wouldn’t have to hang around before school, making awkward small talk with the very people he had been avoiding. Homeroom was easy, Max remained a much more insular version of herself, and Will was very used to El’s company due to the number of times she would find herself at the Byers house, with Hopper of course. However, it was Thursday, which meant art first thing in the morning, and art meant Arthur.

When Will arrived at art class he was surprised to see Arthur already there and looking markedly more positive than last week. As Will was walking toward his seat next to Arthur at the back of the class, he could have sworn he saw a smile adorn Arthur’s face as he spotted him, but Arthur quickly turned his head. Will was happy to see Arthur more cheerful but couldn’t help but wonder what had caused his change in mood.

“Hey Will, how are you?” Arthur said, clearly more talkative than last week.

Will found his brain had again short circuited, his inability to process what Arthur was saying due to the heavy and unexpectedly attractive French accent was becoming a serious issue. “Yeah, err… good man, thanks. What about you? You seem more cheerful than last week.”

Did that sound creepy? Did it sound like Will was closely observing him? I mean, he kind of was, but Arthur didn’t need to know that.

Clearly overthinking his own very reasonable response, Arthur put him out of his misery. “Yeah, had a decent-ish week, got onto the Tennis team. Apparently not that many people play in the US, back in France its much more popular. We meet after school on Thursdays, so my first meet is tonight. The rest of the people on the team seem nice, at least the ones I’ve met …”

Arthur continued to talk Will’s ear off about tennis, and as much as Will loved to see Arthur clearly much more enthusiastic about school and life, Arthur’s soothing voice was making it impossible for him to actually focus on what was being said. Will quickly realized Arthur was staring blankly at him, having finished his short monologue, and was clearly expecting a reply.

“Tennis, that’s great, not really a sporty person myself, but I’d love to watch you play sometime” Will let his tongue run away from him, so added “if that’s alright with you of course”.

At this, Arthur’s face lit up a crimson red, “Sounds great, I’ll let you know when I have a match. Also, I need some clothes for Tennis, I have stuff for this afternoon, but when the season picks up, I’ll need a few more bits, can you show where to get it, I haven’t really been out into town much while I’ve been here”.

“Yeah, that’s a great idea, how does Saturday afternoon work? I can pick you up, then we’ll go to Starcourt”. Arthur nodded in confirmation, and was about to say something else, when he spotted the teacher approaching, so, pointing with his eyes, alerted Will and they both put their heads down, looking like they were busy with their work. A hint of a smile grew on Will’s face, as he could hear Arthur stifling a giggle.

Arthur’s good mood was infectious, and for the rest of the lesson, Will was feeling better than he had for some time.

-----

Will’s relative positivity quickly dissipated when he saw Mike walking toward him at break. Will then remembered that, being Thursday, Mike would likely expect Will to be going to Hellfire, but he had planned on not going, he really wasn’t in the mood to face the party.

“Hey Will, how are you?” Mike started.

“What do you want Mike?” Will wasn’t prepared to deal with Mike’s small talk, his mind going back to the last time the two of them talked.

Mike face twitched in response to Will’s very blunt response, Will didn’t normally respond in such a way to anyone. “Sorry, umm, I was just wondering if you are going to come to Hellfire tonight?”

“No, Mike, I will not be at Hellfire, and I will let Eddie know if that changes in the future” Will replied in a monotone voice, before walking off, leaving Mike stood there stunned.

The two of them, Mike and Will, had promised each other so many times they would be best friends forever, but from Mike’s perspective, Will had changed hugely, but for Will, it seemed as though he was just about the only person who hadn’t changed.

Will felt that his progression, just like that of time in the Upside-down, had halted when he first entered the alternate dimension which had haunted him ever since.

-----

“Will, come on, we’re going to be late” Jonathan, who had agreed to drive Will and Arthur to the mall, shouted through Will’s door.

On the other side of the door, Will checked his hair one last time, brushed down his trousers to make sure they were crinkled, and then checked his hair in the mirror again. He then bustled out of his door, grabbing his shoes while mumbling an apology to Jonathan. Jonathan laughed at the scene before him: Will, with one sock tucked in the bottom of his trousers, hopped down the corridor toward the front door trying to put his shoes on.

“Will, we aren’t that late” Jonathan said, before fixing Will’s socks and heading out the door, with Will in toe.

Arthur had given Will his address on Thursday, so Jonathan headed in that direction. As they pulled up outside the house, Will again checked his hair in the car mirror, before jumping out and knocking on the door. Fortunately, it was Arthur, rather than his host parents, who answered the door. Arthur called out to them, letting them know he was heading out, before walking with Will toward the car.

Jonathan observed the two of them as they made their way toward him. Will was blushing somewhat and looking at the ground as if to avoid eye contact, but surprisingly to Jonathan, Arthur was doing a very similar thing.

“Arthur, this is Jonathan, my brother. Jonathan, this is Arthur”.

“Nice to meet you Arthur, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Will heard this as he got back into the front seat and stared daggers at Jonathan in response. Jonathan simply laughed at the awkwardness of the situation, keeping himself entertained. It was his compensation for driving Will around, so he really didn’t feel bad about it at all, it is what brothers are for.

“Right … er … all good I hope?” Arthur mumbled nervously, more of a question than a statement.

Arthur, who surprised himself with how talkative he was, and Jonathan fell into relatively comfortable conversation. Unfortunately, for Will, who was cowering in his seat due to Jonathan’s embarrassing comments, most of what they were saying was to the ridicule of him. The only thing saving him from mortal embarrassment was that Arthur lived quite close to Starcourt, so the conversation didn’t last too long.

“Thanks for the lift, it was nice to meet you” Arthur said to Jonathan as he jumped out.

“No problem, next time I’ll tell you more stories about Will”.

A very red in the cheeks Will ushered Arthur away from the car and closed his door with enough force Jonathan would know he wasn’t actually angry, but a bit peeved. In truth, not that he would ever say this to Jonathan for fear of eternal ridicule, he quite enjoyed the fact Arthur and Jonathan got on.

They made their way into Starcourt, which looked largely similar to before the 'fire'. The mall was very profitable, so it was decided that if the companies wanted to keep their previous stores open, they could. Every time Will came back, he found it unsettling, struggling not to remember what happened here in early July. Arthur provided ample distraction fortunately, as Will guided them toward Herman’s World of Sporting Goods, which he surmised would be their best option for Tennis gear.

Will hadn’t been in a sports store since Lonnie had left, so let Arthur guide the way. He beelined straight for the shirts section at the back, before picking out a few he liked.

“Will, American sizes are different to European ones so I’m going to have to try a few on, do you know if they have changing rooms?”

“That’s no problem, I think I saw them at the back in the right corner, I’ll come with you”.

Once they found the changing rooms, which always seemed to be unnecessarily hidden, Arthur went in to try on different sizes, with Will waiting outside. Will assumed Arthur would look in the mirror to figure out which size was correct, but apparently, he was wrong.

Arthur came out of the changing room wearing the first of the shirts, and asked “Will, does this fit right, I can’t see at the back”.

No, the shirt didn’t really fit. It was pretty tight at the back and front, and when Arthur raised his arms, the shirt would rise up, revealing the top of his Calvin Klein boxer shorts and a small section of Arthur’s stomach. Will’s mouth stood agape, and his eyes fixated on the small section of Arthur’s torso on show, before catching himself and blushing as he looked away.

“No, it’s err … it’s a bit small” Will finally managed to reply.

“Ok, then I’ll go with the size up, thanks for your help.” Arthur was either completely oblivious, or very calmly pretending it didn’t happen, and Will wasn’t sure which was more embarrassing.

Arthur changed back into his own clothes, and returned those too small to the rack, before picking up some shorts. Will found himself slightly disappointed Arthur didn’t need to try those on.

Once they had finished up in the sports shop, Will persuaded Arthur to go to Scoops Ahoy, on the off-chance Steve and/or Robin were working.

As it would happen, Robin was there, and Will assumed Steve was somewhere in the back, the two of them always seemed to be working at the same time. The two boys joined the back of the short queue.

When they reached the front, Robin’s face lit up as she saw Will, but then turned to Arthur and looked him up and down, without giving anything away.

“Hey Will, do you need me to go and grab Steve? He’s in the back.”

Will laughed in response, he couldn’t really blame Robin for assuming such. “Hey Robin, no, no. Just here for some ice cream. Cookie Dough for me, Arthur?”

“Yeah, I’ll get the same.”

Once they had their ice cream from Robin, they sat down at a table in the corner away from the entrance.

“Why did Robin think to get Steve when we walked in?”

 “Steve lets us go through the back to get into the cinema without paying. Although, he swears he’d kill us if we told anyone, so, looks like I’m gonna have to kill you instead” Will remarked with sarcastic seriousness, it must have looked a bit odd to Arthur.

Arthur threw back his head laughing, and Will found himself mesmerized. The sound Arthur made when he laughed was addicting, with his French annunciations coming through strongly. And his hair flopped back and forth, but somehow remained perfectly intact, with his curls falling just above his eyebrows. His hair was a bit longer than when Will had first met him, but it still looked just as good.

Then the penny dropped.

This wasn’t the first time Will had caught himself being lost in all things Arthur; it wasn’t even the first time today. Will didn't just find Arthur attractive ...

Will Byers had a crush on Arthur.

Will Byers, a gay man, had a crush on Arthur, also gay.

Thinking back on it, he couldn’t believe he hadn’t figured it out earlier, like, as soon as he met him. Will just hoped Arthur hadn’t caught on.

This felt different from Mike. That was never more than a pipe dream, Mike was a straight guy, with a girlfriend and very conservative parents, it was never going to happen. But Arthur, well, Arthur was possible. Of course, Will had no idea whether Arthur thought of him in the same way, but it was possible. And that was just about all Will needed.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10

Will was slightly panicking.

That was an understatement.

Will was completely panicking.

Before his realization, he had the plausible deniability that Arthur was just an attractive guy, but now it was different. Will had a crush on Arthur, but Will was also one of Arthur’s only friends. When he was around Mike, he felt guilty, as if he was betraying his confidence due to feelings he couldn’t control, and Will couldn’t help but feel the same way toward Arthur. If Arthur knew what Will thought of him, how Will thought of him, would they even be friends?

Having finished his ice cream, Will excused himself to the toilet, in an attempt to compose himself.

He stared at himself in the mirror, trying to psych himself up to appear unfazed to Arthur. The Will he saw looking back at him appeared brighter than he had for some time, but more importantly, it looked like Will again, rather than the ghost of a lost soul.

Splashing himself with water, he headed back out to see Arthur talking to a stoic Robin, and Steve. That wasn’t meant to be happening, Will could only imagine what they were saying. In a mixed state of panic and concern, Will picked up his pace to a slight canter as he made his way over.

As Will was approaching, Robin nudged Steve and his face curled upward into a subtle smile as he halted his conversation with Arthur, who looked slightly intimidated.

“Hey Will, how are you man?” Steve asked, clearly trying to distract him from his conversation with Arthur.

“I’m good Steve. What did you say to Arthur? He looks like he’s seen a ghost.”

“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Nice to meet you Arthur, bye Will.” Steve had never been a good liar, Will would have to ask Arthur or Robin if he wanted to get a straight answer.

Will turned to Robin, hoping she would enlighten him. “Erm… I think we have some customers” Robin pointed vaguely over her shoulder, “good to see you both”. Will looked over toward Scoops Ahoy, which was entirely empty, and then turned his gaze toward Arthur.

“Sorry about them, they didn’t say anything too bad, did they?”

“No, nothing much” Arthur said, clearly slightly on edge.

Will looked at Arthur with his eyebrows raised, making it clear he didn’t believe him. His concern for what the two scheming half-adults had said made him temporarily forget his realization a few minutes prior.

“What did they actually say?”

“Just wanted to know who I was, you know, make sure I’m not a bad influence.” Will again raised his eyebrows. “And, where I live, social security number, landline number, mother’s maiden name. You know, standard stuff.”

Will laughed at Arthur’s recounting of events. He knew how intimidating Steve could be, unless you actually knew him, and then the façade quickly fell, and he became an occasionally overbearing but very caring figure.

Will knew Jonathan would be back to pick them up soon, so went back to the Scoops Ahoy counter to let Robin and Steve know he was leaving, eyeing Steve on the counter.

“Hey Steve, Jonathan will be here soon so we’re heading off, thank Robin for the ice cream” Will turned to leave.

“Wait, Byers, you didn’t pay?!”

“Nope” Will popped the ‘p’, “Robin waived it for us.” Steve waved to Will as he headed out.

Steve’s POV

Once Will had left, Steve went into the backroom, where Robin was on a break.

“Robin, you gave Will free ice cream, you never do that. Erica had to force it out of you.”

Robin didn’t really have an answer, “Well, you know, felt like the right thing to do.”

“You wouldn’t even give me free ice cream.”

“You work here Steve; you can get it yourself.”

While every conversation between the two lacked any seriousness (unless they had been drugged) Steve’s curiosity meant he wouldn’t give up. Trying to look pensive, he asked again, “Robin come on, there must have been a reason.”

“Do you think Will’s seemed a bit … off lately? Even Dustin mentioned it.” Robin knew she wouldn’t get away without a serious answer. Steve’s face dropped slightly, reflecting a level of thought he didn’t reach once during high school, as he recounted his interactions with Will. Steve took the wellbeing of the upside-down kids, as he occasionally lovingly referred to them, very seriously. And everyone knew, but rarely acknowledged, that Will had been through it much worse.

“You’re right, poor kid.” Steve paused, “What did you make of his friend? Arthur, was it?”

“Yes, Arthur, his friend. Seemed like a normal kid, very protective of Will though.”

“Protective? How do you mean?” Steve glossed over Robin’s emphasis on ‘friend’.

“It was just what he said, how he acted. Most kids his age would have taken the bait when you ‘questioned’ him like you worked for the FBI.”

Steve scratched the back of his neck, slightly regretting his interrogation of Will’s new friend, but he knew what Will had gone through, not just in the upside-down, and didn’t want to see a repeat.

Will’s POV

Will and Arthur jumped into Jonathan’s car, Arthur putting his bags at his feet, as it pulled up in the mall car park, Will deciding to sit in the back with Arthur this time, with the hope he could talk to Arthur rather than his brother.

“Hey Will, hey Arthur. Will, mom says Arthur can come back to ours until after dinner, provided you’re free Arthur.”

Arthur turned to Will to confirm it was ok and received an enthusiastic nod. “Sounds great, thanks Jonathan. I’ll phone my host parents when we arrive if that’s ok.”

Will was both excited and apprehensive to spend more time with Arthur, his presence was intoxicating which meant it was also dangerous. This train of thought was disturbed by Jonathan, who decided his duties as teasing older brother hadn’t been fulfilled.

“So, Arthur, when Will was about 7, he was halfway up a tree …” Jonathan didn’t really have a story, well, he had loads, but 7-year-old Will and a tree wasn’t one, as far as Will could remember. But that didn’t matter, both Arthur and Jonathan were killing themselves with laughter, not helped by the sour face Will made at first. But the laughter of the two of them was infectious, and Will found himself begrudgingly joining in.

After a car ride much more enjoyable for Will than the opposite journey, they arrived at the Byers house. Arthur placed his bags from the sports shop at the door, and quickly called his host parents to let them know he would be back later than planned. He then nervously approached the kitchen where Jonathan and Will were greeting Joyce.

Arthur poked his head through the door, “Hi Mrs. Byers, I’m Arthur, nice to meet you.” Arthur’s French accent was particularly thick, which Will determined was a sign of Arthur’s nervousness, but could do little to reassure him and was sure Joyce would take well to him, as she did almost everyone.

“Hey Arthur, nice to meet you, Jonathan told me you’re new to Hawkins.”

“Oui, madame, exchange student from Paris, got here this month and I’m staying for a year.”

“Well, welcome to Hawkins, and Joyce is fine love.”

“Right, thank you.” Arthur’s cheeks began to glow a faint red as he turned his face away from the three of them, trying to hide his blush. Will guided Arthur out of the kitchen and was heading toward his room before Joyce called out.

“Will!” Joyce shouted, trying to get his attention before he disappeared into his room, “Lucas phoned while you were out, him and Dustin are coming over too, they shouldn’t be a few minutes.”

Will’s eyebrows raised unconsciously. He had never thought about Arthur meeting the party, well, not the whole party, but Lucas and Dustin. Will didn’t respond to Joyce, too busy thinking about how the interaction would go. Would they get on? Would Arthur like them? Would Lucas and Dustin let anything upside-down related slip? Will’s mind was in overdrive, which Arthur clearly picked up on.

“Will, Will, is this a painting for school? Its really good.” Arthur said, pointing to the painting Will had left out from that morning.

“Oh, yeah, for school, I’ll put it away before Lucas and Dustin get here.” Will said as he hurried around tidying away his artwork, which was definitely for school. “Lucas and Dustin coming over is fine, right?”

“Yeah, of course, it will be nice to meet some of your friends.” Arthur sounded surer of his answer than Will was.

Fortunately, Will had kept his room tidy other than the painting he left out, so didn’t need to scurry around throwing anything else in random draws. Will and Arthur slipped into easy conversation, Will asking Arthur about his tennis, with Will enjoying watching Arthur be so passionate about something he clearly enjoyed. Arthur idolized a player called ‘Yannick Noah’, Will would be lying if he said he had even heard of him but apparently he was massive in French tennis. Will’s stomach flipped as Arthur spoke with a beaming smile and passionate gestures, which in turn put a small grin on Will’s face.

This moment was interrupted by a knock on the door, which signified Lucas and Dustin had arrived. Will’s face dropped to nervous neutrality as he headed out of his room toward the front door with Arthur following tentatively behind.

Will opened the door to the overexcited pair, and was jumped by Dustin into a tight embrace. He had always been more intimate than Will, but Will accepted it, nonetheless. After greeting Lucas with a quick handshake, Dustin and Lucas’ eyes turned to Arthur.

“Right, Arthur, this is Lucas and Dustin, Lucas and Dustin, this is Arthur.”

Lucas immediately greeted Arthur just as he had Will, which Arthur graciously accepted.

“Hey man, Joyce said you’d be here, nice to meet you.”

Lucas greeting was followed by similar from Dustin, after which Arthur breathed an audible sigh of relief, and Will mirrored his sentiment more subtly. The four of them made their way to the sitting room, it was odd for the three of them (plus Arthur) to be without Mike but it went unsaid, for now.

“Arthur, where are you from? What brings you all the way to Hawkins?” Lucas broke the ice, wanting to ensure Arthur felt included.

“From Paris, I’m sure you can tell from the accent. There was a student exchange program, and I thought, why not?” Will could tell there was slightly more to it than that, but knew it wasn’t the place to ask.

“That’s wicked man, what’s Europe like?” Dustin pleasantly surprised Will with his enthusiasm.

Dustin and Lucas began questioning Arthur on everything Europe, well France once Arthur had explained that Europe was about the size of the US, so he really didn’t know that much. They also got him to say a few things in French, which Lucas particularly enjoyed, as he was doing French at high school. At one point, Arthur, who himself was glowing at the memory, had Lucas and Dustin on the floor in hysterics at a story involving him and his brother, who Will learnt was called Charles. Will largely sat back and enjoyed his friends getting along better than he could have expected. With the burden of concern lifted from his shoulders, he could relax a lot more.

After what felt like 5 minutes, but was more like an hour, Joyce called the four of them into the dining room for dinner. Will was last out of the sitting room and gestured for Dustin to hang back.

Under his breath, Will said to Dustin, “Dustin, Arthur and I were at the mall today, and Steve said something to Arthur, but neither of them will tell me what he said, can you ask? Steve isn’t exactly known for saying no to you.”

Dustin laughed lightly and offered a reassuring pat on Will’s shoulder.

“Sure man, I’ll ask, but no promises.”

The four of them, Joyce was going out later with Hopper so wasn’t eating, were sat around the Byers table. Despite the turmoil of recent weeks, it felt as it always did when the party came around, with one significant exception, Mike.

It was impossible to deny, for those used to his presence, that a lack of Mike left a big hole in their group. Will hoped that the developing rift would be resolved soon, and acknowledged he would have to rely on the others to do so. But Will had never been good at waiting around and relying on others.

“Lucas, Dustin, have you heard from Mike recently?” Will had been slowly building up the courage to raise the issue. Arthur could tell by the tone in Will’s voice and by how uncomfortable Lucas and Dustin looked, that it wasn’t an easy topic.

Lucas and Dustin looked between them, as if begging each other to answer, before Lucas bit the bullet.

“We saw him at Hellfire on Thursday, and for lunch sometimes, but I often catch him sending daggers my way.”

“Have you tried just talking to him?”

“You wouldn’t understand Will, he is just so stubborn.” Dustin backed up Lucas’s determination that it was Mike who was at fault.

“I wouldn’t understand?” Will was taken aback by this, he more than anyone understood Mike’s stubbornness. Dustin recognised he was out of line and an awkward silence filled the room, disturbed only by the clinking of a fork or the scraping of a knife.

Arthur was bemused; from the few things Will had told him of his friends he knew they had known each other for years, so he wasn’t expecting a blanket of awkward silence to engulf the table.

“Lucas, you play JV basketball, right?” Arthur tried to divert the conversation away from Mike, not that he really knew who Mike was. Will shot him a thankful and apologetic look.

“Yeah, although I don’t get on the court much.” Lucas joked, he was clearly enthusiastic about basketball, as Arthur was tennis.

“I caught some of the first game of the year, the principal suggested I go to ‘get involved in the school community’” Arthur said doing an impression of their principal, which earned laughs from the other, “you looked pretty good.”

“Thanks, man. I’ve been practicing loads.” Lucas and Arthur both missed the panicked expression Will sent Dustin. He knew Arthur had been at the basketball game, but he had basically forgotten after what happened with Troy. Had Arthur seen what happened with Troy? Was that why Arthur was so quiet and withdrawn the next day?

Questions were flying around Will’s head which meant he barely contributed to the conversation going on around him, the topic of Mike having been abandoned some time ago.

It was getting late, so they decided to get going, with Jonathan driving. As they were standing up to leave, Will asked Lucas quietly, “How’s Max, have you spoken to her recently?”

“She won’t talk to me, like, at all. I’m worried Will, really worried, but if she won’t talk to me, it feels like there's nothing I can do.” Lucas’s face turned sour, and his voice trembled. Will didn’t have a response for Lucas, but offered a reassuring, but lacking conviction, smile. Will couldn’t find the confidence to believe it would turn out fine, how could he when most things in Hawkins didn’t?

After Jonathan had dropped off Lucas and Dustin, Will moved to the backseat to sit next to Arthur, not too close of course.

“Will, what happened between you and Mike?” Arthur said in hushed tones, wanting the conversation to be private between him and Will.

“Basically, Mike thinks Lucas is changing himself to play basketball, when we were bullied for years by those guys.” Will almost said are bullied, but Arthur didn’t need to know that. “And Lucas just wants to fit in, and I think he is starting to like it.” Arthur nodded along to Will’s recounting of the story, listening carefully.

“Will, I meant, what happened between Mike and you. When you said, ‘I wouldn’t understand’, what did you mean?” Will wasn’t expecting that question, but looking back, it shouldn't have been that surprising. Arthur had never met Mike; he didn’t know what Will and Mike had been like together before, well before everything. But Will was also not ready to say any of it aloud; sure they had their fair share of arguments, but what had come between them, that hadn’t been because of any shouting match.

“Oh, that, right, well … we’ve been best friends for years, since kindergarten, and for the longest time it was just the two of us, we didn’t really make many other friends, but as of late, we’ve just drifted apart, we haven’t been talking and when we do, we end up shouting at each other. It’s just one of those things, people drift apart.”

Most of what Will said was the superficial truth: they didn’t make many friends when they were younger, they were drifting apart, they do always end up shouting at each other, he just left out the why. But it hurt Will when he said ‘it was just one of those things’ because it wasn’t, it was Will and Mike, they were meant to be friends forever, it would never be a simple case of people drifting apart.

Arthur picked up on the fact Will really didn’t, or wasn’t ready, to talk about it, so dropped the subject, but parked it at the back of his head; it was more significant to Will than he was letting on.

Jonathan, who was driving, had also heard most of what Will had said, not intentionally, but in a small car it was impossible to be discreet. He knew a lot more than Arthur about the two of them, he probably knew more than anyone else. But like Arthur, he found himself acutely aware of just how much information Will had left out that he didn’t know the answer to or the reason behind.

Chapter Text

Chapter 11

After a long but enjoyable weekend, Will was surprised to find himself looking forward to Monday. Things with Dustin and Lucas were back to normal and they had met Arthur. Admittedly, everything Mike was still an issue, but Will’s life had never been perfect, so he was taking the wins where he had them.

He bounded into school that morning with more energy than the rest of the semester combined, and made his way to homeroom with Max and El’. El’ beamed up at him when he came in, and Max hadn’t arrived, which wasn’t unusual for her. She either arrived as the bell went, or a few minutes after.

“Morning Will, how are you today?” El’ greeted Will far too enthusiastically.

“Erm … I’m good El’, thanks for asking. How about you?”

“I’m just great” El replied, sounding almost pleased with herself.

Any further discussion was interrupted by Max, who arrived just as the bell went and looked as despondent as usual.

Will had tried several times to get her to talk to him, but she was about as stubborn as one could be, and there wasn’t anyone else he could ask if Lucas didn’t know.

Max’s disgruntled look and lack of any recognition of the two of them, other than sitting next to El’, put a damper on the conversation Will and El’ were having, so the three of them sat in relative silence for the rest of homeroom.

In Spanish, which Will had with El’ second on a Monday, he was greeted once again with El’s very bouncy mood. El’ wasn’t great at Spanish, not terrible but not great, so she usually didn’t enjoy it. Will, being top of their class, helped where he could, but could only make so much difference, so Will was quite surprised by the fact she was still so upbeat.

“El’, as much as it’s great to see, why are you so bouncy? It’s like your high.” Will chuckled as he asked.

“Oh Will. It’s a nice day, leaves are falling from the trees, Spanish with you. What more would I want?” El’ was positively beaming, and despite her words sounding sarcastic, Will was certain they were not.

“Right.” Will stretched the ‘ight’, stressing how sure he was El’ was telling the truth.

The two of them settled into a much more productive than usual Spanish lesson, despite often bursting into laughter either completely spontaneously when they made eye-contact at just the wrong time, or at El’s pronunciation.

After their Spanish lesson, in which Will barely thought of Troy at all, let alone was pestered by him, Will was feeling good. That was the first time in a long time he could say that about school, but El’s mood was very infectious.

Will didn’t often see Arthur in the corridors, but apparently, today was his day.

He was walking towards Math, his 5^th and last lesson, when he saw the unmistakable mop of light brown and slightly curly hair of Arthur, who had his head down walking to whatever class he had next. Will walked in front of Arthur’s path and stopped, wondering when Arthur would notice, or if he would walk straight into him.

“Woah.” Arthur exclaimed as he stopped just before he walked into the person in front of him. He then looked up, about to have a go at said person for standing in the middle of the corridor, but when he saw Will, his face lit up slightly.

“Hi.” Arthur pushed out.

“Hi.” Will replied in a similar fashion, somehow blushing simply at receiving Arthur’s attention, the accent didn’t help.

 The two of them stood there awkwardly, waiting for each other to talk.

“How are you?”

“How are you?” The two of them interrupted each other.

Both laughed, chuckled and blushed as they looked down in an attempt to avoid the other seeing.

“I’m, I’m good.” Arthur finally replied, his voice wavering somewhat. He nervously ran his hand through his hair, yet it remained perfectly pristine. This small act had far greater an impact on Will than he was willing to admit.

Will, very flustered, tried to compose himself, but was interrupted by Arthur, who in trying to adjust Will’s bag strap which had folded over itself, brushed Will’s chest.

That was awkward.

“Oh, god, sorry, erm …”

“Well … I ought to, I ought to go, you know, lessons.” Arthur pointed vaguely over Will’s shoulder.

“Right, yeah, me too.”

Will and Arthur both walked off in opposite directions, Arthur looked back just as Will did, with the two of them making awkward eye contact as they quickly looked away.

Will thought about this interaction for the entire of his math lesson; it was far to easy for him to lose himself day dreaming about Arthur.

Having enjoyed his day at school, Will relaxed in his room, working on a much more upbeat piece than usual.

The peace and quiet he was enjoying was disturbed by Joyce and Jonathan getting home, but he elected to remain in his room, he saw them every day so was happier enjoying his own company with music and a brush while all seemed well.

When he did emerge from his room, he was greeted with a sight he did not expect.

He saw Jonathan and Joyce in a tight embrace. From his angle he could see Joyce’s eyes puffy and her face smeared with tears.

He was staring at the two people before him, unable to take his eyes off them and made eye contact with Joyce. Their eyes locked before her lips upturned into a smile.

Now Will was confused, he hadn’t seen Joyce in this state many times, and she was smiling?

Breaking the embrace with Jonathan, Joyce ushered Will over to the sitting room. Very hesitantly, Will, suddenly much more alert and his awkward encounter with Arthur at school long forgotten, made his way into the sitting room and sat on the couch opposite. He shot Jonathan a look in the hope of getting some inkling of what was going on, but failed to catch his eye.

Will sat on the edge of his seat waiting for Joyce to break the silence, his eyes flitting between the framed picture on the wall (which Will had just realized wasn’t straight) of him and Jonathan many years ago and the now very interesting lamp in the corner.

“Will … I” the emotional conversation she had with Jonathan making it more difficult for Joyce to speak. “I, I wanted to ask you … if it’s okay if we move house” Joyce paused. Now Will was very confused, moving house would be significant, but not this significant.

“stay in Hawkins, but if … If we move house with Hopper and El’.”

“Oh” Will didn’t really know what to say, he hadn’t exactly given it much thought. “That’s fine, I guess.”

Will didn’t know what he was feeling, on the one hand he knew Hopper and El’ well and they were both good people, but it had just been him, Jonathan and Joyce since, well since Lonnie left.

And now El’s ecstatic mood made more sense.

But he didn’t know what to think, he didn’t know his own opinion.

“Will love, you don’t have to be fine with it, it’s up to you. But I need you to be more definitive. If you don’t want it, we won’t do it. Okay?”

“Right, yeah, of course.”

Will excused himself from the room. He knew Joyce wasn’t expecting an answer soon, nor did that answer have to be in the affirmative. But that didn’t stop his brain from overheating and his mind from running from him with every possible question and scenario.

Sat on his bed in an attempt to calm himself down, he could feel his heart bouncing rapidly from his chest as he failed to get his breathing under control.

He tried to slow his breathing, he tried to breathe more deeply, but it didn’t work.

His breathing remained shallow and short, and his hands were shaking.

He felt as though he was going to be sick.

He closed his eyes, trying to focus on exhaling and then inhaling, his lungs filling and emptying with air.

He couldn’t stop his mind from racing, was he scared of moving, or living with new people? Or was it something else entirely? Or was he just scared of change?

If he was just scared of change, how would he ever be able to move on, go to college, move out of Hawkins?

He tried to focus on one thing, on the light shade on his ceiling or the random shoe on the floor in his room.

Nothing was working.

He felt like he was suffocating, tears were threatening to break out and his head was searing in pain.

He held his knees near his chest squeezing himself in the foetal position, doing anything just to feel something, to break his mind from the detrimental cycle.

Once they started, he couldn’t stop them.

His defenses gave out, the tears leaked and then flowed from his eyes, first silently, and then more audibly.

Unconsciously, Will rocked back and forth, staring blankly through blurry eyes at the bare cream walls of his room, tears streaming down his face uncontrollably.

Will was in this state for some time, his body shutting down to avoid any further spiralling.

After a while, Jonathan became concerned about how long Will had been in his room and how quiet he was, so he knocked, waiting for a response.

After knocking three times without reply, he tentatively opened the door and peered in.

He saw Will on the bed curled up in a ball, with the pillows and duvet strewn across the floor, and panicked, moving quickly to be beside Will, but ensuring he didn’t touch him, not wanting to jolt him.

“Will? Will? Its Jonathan.” He whispered; concern laced in his voice.

“Will, can you look at me?” Again, he garnered no response so repositioned himself to in front of Will in the hopes of sparking some sort of acknowledgement from Will that he was ok.

But no such acknowledgment was forthcoming. Will was not ok.

Jonathan had seen Will in a bad state before, but this was jarring. He knew from the look on Will’s face, completely blank as if emotion had been erased from Will completely and white as a sheet, that this was different. This wasn’t Will scared of the upside-down, this was something far less tangible, yet somehow far more real.

As time went on and Jonathan sat alongside Will, not touching him yet not even being able to ascertain whether Will was even aware of his presence, he began to grow more nervous. There was only so long Jonathan could stare at the slits between Will’s fingers through to his face, or the arch of his back as Will remained in the fetal position, before he had to try something else, anything else, to get through to Will.

“Will, I’m going to touch you now, I’m just going to rub your back, I’m here for you.” Jonathan lowered his hand onto Will’s back very cautiously, but as soon as he made contact he felt Will shudder, and immediately lifted it off again.

Jonathan went to get Will a glass of water, taking the opportunity to focus and calm himself down.

“How is he?” Joyce asked, sat jitterily on the edge of her seat, her voice laced with concern.

“It’s hard to tell, he won’t say anything. But I think he’s dealing with a lot; he needs some time.” Joyce was unconvinced.

Jonathan re-entered Will’s room, he was sitting up slightly at this point, but his face remained pastel white.

He placed the water glass on Will’s bedside and went to leave.

“Jonathan.” Will croaked out, barely trusting his own voice, and gestured for Jonathan to sit next to him.

Nervously, Jonathan complied with Will’s request and sat alongside him on his bed. Once Jonathan had sat down, Will rested his head on Jonathan’s shoulder, taking in his comforting presence.

“Will, this has been coming for a while, hasn’t it?” Jonathan spoke in hushed tones.

Will hummed to the affirmative.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Jonathan didn’t get a response, which was reassuring; to Jonathan it meant Will was at least contemplating it.

“Is it something Mike did?”

After some time, Will shook his head.

“Okay, Arthur?”

“No.” Will replied quietly, with the hint of a slight smile on his face.

“Me or mom?”

Will shook his head again, before pausing.

“I’m terrified.”

Jonathan looked at Will intently, “why?”

They both left the question floating.

“Lonnie” Will croaked out after what felt like eternity to Jonathan, and only a few seconds to Will. He said it so quietly, Jonathan wasn’t sure he had heard him properly at first.

“Will, he’s gone, he’s never coming back.”

“No, he’s not.”

“Will …” Jonathan was interrupted.

“I see him. I hear him. Every. Single. Day.” Will didn’t elaborate, still talking quietly for fear of his voice failing him, but it sent a shiver down Jonathan’s spine, he didn’t realize Will was haunted by it so badly.

“I’m sorry, Will.” Like Will, Jonathan had a few silent tears rolling down his cheek.

“But he is gone, that I can promise.”

“But he’ll always be here.”

“In your mind?”

“I feel it too.” Will paused, his next words stuck in his throat.

“When we were alone, he would … he would … god.” Will was visibly shaking.

“He would … he would hit me until I screamed. And if I cried, he’d do it again. Men don’t cry, Jonathan, he would shout Men don’t …” Will couldn’t say anymore, he collapsed into Jonathan’s arms.

The anger bubbling inside Jonathan was nothing he’d ever felt, it was making him almost hysterical, but he forced it down, it was no use to Will.

Despite Will’s state, he forced himself to continue, sniffling away his tears.

“He would yell at me, call me a fairy for not liking baseball or football, or he’d call me a f-” Will couldn’t bring himself to say it, Jonathan knew the word.

“And the worst thing was … ” Will stopped himself.

He was right.

That’s what he wanted to say – but his brain wouldn’t let him.

Jonathan was, besides angry to a level he had never felt before and feeling overwhelmingly guilty, confused. Will, his younger brother, the boy who had everything stolen from him, had just recounted some of the worst experiences of his life, and yet there was something worse.

“Will, what was worse?”

He was right.

He was right.

He was right.

It was on the tip of his tongue, he just had to say it. Once Jonathan knew, once he had told somebody, things would be easier, right?

But what if they weren’t, what if somehow it got to Troy or one of his friends, what if the whole school knew. What if Mike knew.

“What?” Jonathan asked.

“He was right about what?”

Will’s heart rate jumped even further. He had said it aloud?

“Oh.” Jonathan said.

Jonathan realized and his heart lurched.

Will went stiff, still in Jonathan's embrace.

“I love you, Will. I always have and I always will.” Jonathan tightened his embrace, nothing more needed to be said.

Chapter Text

Chapter 12

Will’s body was completely depleted, so Jonathan held him as they both laid on Will’s bed. Joyce came to check on the two of them after a while, making sure they were okay, but by this point Will was asleep and pinning Jonathan down under his weight, so Jonathan gave her a reassuring smile.

She noticed the tear strewn face of her oldest son, and likely her youngest, not that she could see, but decided not to comment on it. Will clearly trusted Jonathan, and with the hand he had been dealt, that was a lifeline.

With Will pinning Jonathan down (Jonathan could probably move him if he needed to, but he was enjoying it) he used the time to reflect. He wondered how much Will was hiding from everyone, from him even, but more worryingly, for how long?

Jonathan thought that, after Lonnie left, the three of them grew much closer, that they wouldn’t hide anything from each other, but Will had clearly thought differently. He felt guilty; had he not supported Will enough? Had Will not trusted him enough?

But most significantly, how had he not noticed?

Lonnie was around for their early years, and Jonathan had not once noticed that he went further than underhanded comments and raising his voice toward Will. It was no secret Lonnie and Joyce would get into huge arguments, that was why they had built castle Byers after all, but how had he missed his own father beating his brother?

Jonathan wasn’t sure it was something he would ever truly forgive himself for.

“When did you know?” Will asked groggily, halting Jonathan’s harmful train of thought, having just woken up.

“When did I know what?”

“You said, a few weeks ago: I love you. And there is nothing in this world, absolutely nothing, that will ever change that. Did you know then that I was, I was -.” Will still struggled with the internal conflict sewn into him by his father, so found himself unable to say it aloud.

Jonathan was reassured to know that what he had said to Will hadn’t fallen on deaf ears.

“I never truly knew until you, you told me, you never really do. It’s just, I knew you were going through things, figuring things out, and I just felt terrible you couldn’t lean on me for support.” Tears once again pooled in Jonathan's eyes.

“And you won’t tell anyone?” Will buried his face into Jonathan’s side.

Jonathan felt as though his heart was struck with a hot poker.

“Not unless you ask me to. You know mom loves you regardless, right?”

When Will offered no response, Jonathan added, “Will, I’m so sorry you went through that with Lonnie, and I’m sorry you couldn’t talk to me about it. I would do anything, truly anything, to take that experience away from you.”

Will smiled in confirmation that he knew. He never doubted Jonathan - his concern was never telling Jonathan - it was having to relive it himself when he did.

Jonathan got up to leave, wanting to give his brother some time to himself, but Will followed him out of his room.

As Will exited his room, Joyce pounced on him and embraced him in a tight hug, which Will gladly reciprocated. She may not have known the truth, or anything close, but that didn’t matter to either of them at that moment.

“Hey Will, are you okay?” Joyce asked during their embrace.

“I’m a bit better.”

“And yes, moving sounds great. We all deserve a fresh start.” Will’s voice was shaky, but there was conviction behind his words.

“Will, don’t feel like you have to answer now, and it doesn’t have to be yes.” Joyce eyes remained glossy with concern for her youngest.

“I know mom, but I want this, seriously, it will be nice; El’ and I get on really well. And I might get a bigger room, so …” Will looked Joyce in the eye when he said it, conveying his sincerity, but also looking for a chuckle.

Joyce accepted Will wasn’t simply giving her the answer he thought she wanted to hear, so went to go to the phone to let Hopper know of Will’s answer, but as she walked over, the phone started ringing.

“Hello, this is Joyce Byers, who’s speaking.” Joyce answered the phone in her ‘phone voice’ as Will described it, although Joyce adamantly refuted the idea that such a voice existed, let alone that she used it often.

“Oh, hello Arthur, and Joyce is fine.” At the mention of Arthur, Will’s eyes shot up and his ears stood at attention, hoping to pick up the conversation.

“I’ll get Will for you.”

“Will!” Joyce gestured toward the phone, “it’s Arthur.”

Will shot Jonathan a look before scurrying over toward the phone. His haste meant he missed the knowing look his brother returned.

“Hey Arthur.”

“Hey Will.”

Neither of them said anything further.

“Erm… Arthur, why did you call?”

“Oh, right … tennis match. I have a tennis match. It’s after school on Wednesday. I was hoping you would come watch. You said you wanted to when I mentioned it before, and I was just thinking maybe you’d want to come. Of course, it wouldn’t be an issue if -.”

“Yes, I’d love to.” Will smiled.

“What? Yes, to what?” Will laughed at Arthur confusion.

“Yes, I’d love to come to your tennis match.” Will was enjoying Arthur’s confusion slightly too much.

“Oh, that’s great. You see, I would have asked you earlier, but I only saw the team sheet yesterday and we rarely see each other on Mondays. Of course, we did today, but I forgot to mention it and then …”

One of the things Will learnt about Arthur very early on was that he loved to ramble. If Arthur said he spoke for France, Will wouldn’t be too surprised. And honestly, Will loved to listen to it, even if his accent was slightly lost over the phone.

Once Will got off the phone, which took noticeably longer than usual, he had a spring in his step which didn’t go unnoticed by Jonathan, although admittedly, Jonathan had been watching his brother closely.

“What was that about?”

“Oh, just Arthur wanted to know if I wanted to go to his tennis match on Wednesday after school.” Will said proudly, his voice speeding up near the end, demonstrating (to Jonathan at least) that he was somewhat excited.

“And you said no because you hate sport?” Jonathan teased, knowing the real answer.

“No.” Will corrected Jonathan, matter-of-factly, “I said yes because I am a good friend.”

“William Byers, are you abandoning our lifelong pact to hate sports?” Jonathan quipped mockingly accusatorily.

“Don’t. Call. Me. William.” Will spat out his full name, but matched Jonathan’s lack of seriousness (although he actually didn’t like being called William).

As much as Jonathan enjoyed seeing this side of Will, in the back of his mind he remembered what Will had just gone through, what he had just recounted to Jonathan. He wondered how Will had learnt to switch his emotions off.

“Wednesday?” Joyce asked, ending the battle of words and minds between the two brothers.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. I can call and let him know I can’t go.” Will conceded, remembering their dinner with El’ and Hopper, while attempting to avoid sounding despondent.

“It’s ok, I’ll move it to Friday.” Joyce put Will at ease with a wry smile on her face.

Will sighed in relief, which Jonathan smirked at knowingly.

He may not be able to share it with anyone else, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to have fun with it, at Will’s expense of course. If anyone asked, he would justify it by saying ‘Will wouldn’t want me to treat him any differently’, which was probably true in all cases but this.

-----

After school on Wednesday, Will was sitting near the back of the bleachers which encircled the two tennis courts behind the main school building. Fortunately, the weather was nice so it wasn’t too cold, which wasn’t a given being early October.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t nearly as busy as the almost full basketball game, but there were still more people than Will anticipated. However, he wasn’t with Dustin this time so could remain much more incognito. Will was enjoying the tennis, well, Arthur’s tennis. He had brought ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’ to read while other people were playing, finding comfort in a story with characters he could relate to. After Arthur’s first game, a singles match which he won, Will had tried to catch his eye, but was unsuccessful; Arthur was ‘in the zone’ (Will wasn’t very familiar with the phrase, but Lucas used it).

Like basketball, Will had no prior knowledge of tennis (other than Yannick Noah, of course).

However, unlike the basketball game he had attended earlier in the year, he had taken the time to learn the rules the day prior so he could figure out if Arthur was winning or not.

Will’s head emerged from his book as Arthur and his doubles partner began their game. Being Arthur’s second match, his hair was damp with sweat, which Will realized was the first time he had seen it in a less than pristine condition. More importantly, he also realized that this did things to him. He allowed himself to indulge, it was different to what he used to have, or still had, for Mike.

Arthur won his doubles game; Will may not have known much about tennis, this was his first game, but he could tell Arthur was very much the better player of his pair. Will waited around afterward allowing most people to leave, he wanted to catch Arthur afterward.

Spotting Will waiting at the bottom of the bleachers, Arthur, with his hair mopped to the side and his white tennis bag swung over his shoulder, made his was over.

“Hey Will, thanks for coming, was I any good?” Will had just noticed Arthur was wearing the clothes he bought at the mall.

“Yeah, yeah, you were great. I think.” Will was still distracted by Arthur’s, well, Arthur.

“Hey Carlos, come here!” Arthur shouted across the court, ushering over his teammate.

“Carlos is one of my teammates, I want you to meet him.” Arthur clarified to a confused Will.

“Hey, you must be Will, I’m Carlos. Arthur talks about you, a lot.” Carlos greeted Will. He was quite a bit taller than Will, and marginally taller than Arthur.

“Okaaaay, too much information, I’m regretting this already.” Arthur let out a small (and cute according to Will) chuckle.

“Anyway, I was wondering if you guys wanted to do something for my birthday, I haven’t been in the US long, so I don’t know that many people, I was just thinking we could do something in town. I mean, you two have lived here most your life, I think, so you probably …”

Will shares a look with Carlos, who was apparently also familiar with Arthur’s rambling.

“He does this in the changing rooms all the time.” Carlos laughed as he told Will, interrupting Arthur.

“I do what?” Arthur was somehow oblivious, but received no answer as Will and Carlos shared a laugh, which wasn't helped by Arthur's pronunciation and inflection of what.

“Wait, your birthday? When?” Will’s brain took some time to catch up with what Arthur was saying, having to filter most of it out.

“A few weeks” Arthur replied nonchalantly.

“By a few weeks, you mean?” Carlos asked with his eyebrows raised.

“12 days.” Arthur mumbled, which led to another similar look between Will and Carlos.

The three of them agreed in principle to do something for Arthur’s birthday, what that something was remained to be seen.

“I better go, my mom is waiting, nice to meet you Will, see you tomorrow” Carlos walked off toward the car park, waving back at the two of them.

Will and Arthur chatted for a short while longer, before Arthur headed back into the school to collect his stuff and Will headed toward Joyce’s car.

-----

“Well, good morning, William.” Arthur, ever the morning person, was very chipper for his Thursday morning art lesson with Will.

“And good morning to you, your royal highness.” Will bowed slightly as he greeted Arthur, playfully mocking his tone.

“Be careful, they might execute me.” Arthur joked, but quickly realized it went completely over Will’s head, so explained himself to him, as the shorter boy looked at him slightly concerned.

“Us French have a habit of executing, usually by guillotine, royalty. You should pay more attention in world history.” Arthur set Will at ease - ish.

“Right, of course” Will replied, Arthur was probably right; he should pay more attention in world history. “How are you feeling after the match?”

“Fine honestly, I’m used to it by now.” Arthur replied nonchalantly, getting prepared for another art lesson in which Will would stifle a laugh at what Arthur painted/drew, and then teach him how to fix it (if it was salvageable at all).

“You play a lot of sport back in France?” Will enjoyed learning more about what his French friend enjoyed.

“Just Piano and tennis, they were basically my life.”

“You play the piano?”

Is there anything you can’t do, was what Will really meant.

“Yes, I play the piano.” Arthur matched Will’s emphasis of the piano, adding in a hand gesture as if mocking the Italians.

Will was in trouble; this was just another thing to add to the ‘why Arthur is too attractive’ list, which was getting slightly too long. Since Will had accepted this crush, he had allowed himself to bask in the idea of Arthur. It probably wasn’t the healthiest thing in the world, but he was allowed a vice, or two.

“Great, I mean, that’s cool, not cool, it’s interesting. Not that it isn’t cool, it’s … good?” Will had lost all confidence in what he was saying, so left it open-ended.

Once he had calmed his brain, he noticed that Arthur had begun drawing, or trying to draw, for the current assignment they were working on: a monochrome pencil only landscape. Will also noticed that Arthur was using completely the wrong shading technique.

He nudged Arthur and gestured toward his paper, asking for permission to draw on it, which was granted. As Will furiously, but carefully, shaded a small section of Arthur’s drawing, Arthur looked down at Will, completely in his element, and a small smile grew on his face. There was something special about Will in a trance with his art, and Arthur was privileged to witness it so regularly.

As their lesson neared its close and most people were packing their things to leave, the teacher made an announcement.

“Okay class, before you go: there is an assignment due next week, any subject of your choice, but you must use two different mediums, and it’s to be done in pairs. This is high school, I’m not going to tell you who to work with, but this will count toward your grade at the end of the year.”

On hearing ‘it’s to be done in pairs’, Will and Arthur looked at one and other, confirming without words they would work together, as a small smile adorned both of their faces.

“And bring some ideas by tomorrow, I don’t want anyone missing the deadline.” The teacher finished their announcement but was met with groans and complaints from the students, having to start the homework for the lesson the next day. None of these complaints came from Will though; unlike most in his class, he enjoyed art, and he found it even better if it was with Arthur.

“Do you wanna come to mine after school today? My mom works late, so it will just be us and Jonathan.”

“To work on the art project, of course.” Will added, not wanting to seem too eager.

“Oui.” Arthur didn’t need to be asked twice, and even Will’s rudimentary French - which was improving ever so slightly thanks to Arthur, although it was mostly profanity, which wasn’t exactly Will’s style - allowed him to translate Arthur’s answer.

-----

Will and Arthur had been hanging out in Will’s room since they got back from school, with very little progress made on their art project. Will’s stomach hurt from laughing at some of Arthur’s impression, mainly of students and teachers at their school. There was something refreshing about Arthur, who had only known these people for a month, reaffirming Will’s years-old opinion of them. Combined with Arthur’s French accent, Will was almost in tears.

“Draw me.” Arthur requested, out-of-the-blue.

“What?” Will wasn’t sure if he had heard Arthur right.

“Come on, draw me.” Arthur dipped his head and looked at Will pleadingly, and who was Will to say no to those eyes.

“Fine but sit still.” Will got his pencils and art book out, and began to observe Arthur, wondering where to start. He didn’t often draw portraits. Under Will’s gaze, Arthur didn’t last long, and cracked a smile, which became a giggle, and then a laugh. In response, Will looked down at Arthur as if to say are you serious.

Will began to roughly sketch Arthur, starting with his defined cheekbones moving up to his cute smile and deep brown eyes. Okay, this wasn’t good, staring at Arthur so intently was not helping his heart, nor his brain.

Once Will had struggled through the initial pencil sketch, which was more superficial than he would normally do due to his flustered state, he picked up his fine marker to add more detail. He started with Arthur’s hair, often the first thing he noticed about the Frenchmen.

A strand of his luscious curly brown hair had fallen out of its normal position and was lying across Arthur’s forehead. With the charged, rather than awkward, silence still hanging over the two of them, Will leaned over and flicked the hair back into position. As Will leaned in, he accidentally made eye contact with Arthur, and the two of them froze, eyes locked together barely a centimetre apart.

Will’s mind was telling – screaming at him to get a grip.

Arthur may be gay, but Will was just being creepy.

But Will didn’t have control of his own muscles, his entire body was rigid.

“Boys, I’m going to get pizza, what do you guys … want?” Jonathan announced as he barged into Will’s room, before backing out slowly, fearing he may have interrupted something.

Will backed away from Arthur, glancing down briefly at his lips, before composing himself, as Jonathan spoke. His mind and heart were contradicting each other.

Will stood to go after Jonathan, before realizing he had actually asked a question.

“Pepperoni?” Will asked Arthur, who nodded but avoided eye contact.

With haste, Will went after Jonathan, with no aim other than informing him of their pizza choice – of course. When Will came into view of Jonathan, who had an inconspicuous grin on his face, he halted. Will wasn’t stupid, he knew what Jonathan thought, but he hadn’t thought up how he was going to explain that the opposite was actually the case.

“Uh, we would like pepperoni, please.” Will’s face was about as red as said pepperoni.

“I ought to be going, it’s getting late, but don’t think this is over, I am your brother after all.” Jonathan said with a wide grin, and Will decided he was far too smug, far, far too smug.

Will went tentatively back into his room, nervous as to whether it would become awkward with Arthur. He hoped not – nothing had actually happened after all.

“Hi.” Will

“Bonjour.” Arthur replies nervously and an awkward silence descended over them.

“So … the art project, any ideas.” Will asked, twiddling his thumbs.

“Oh, yeah, that. Right.” Arthur's dispassion in the statement (unusual for the Frenchmen) indicated to Will he was feeling somewhat similar.

The two of them begin discussing their ideas for the art project, acting much cagier in a conscious but feeble attempt to forget what had happened.

Their limited conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“That must be Jonathan, he probably forgot his key, can you get it while I put the art stuff away?” Will asked Arthur, thankful for the intervention. Arthur complied, getting up and heading towards the door.

“Hey Jona - … You’re not Jonathan.” Arthur was confused, as far as he was aware, a random guy was at Will’s door.

“Where’s Will?” The ‘random’ guy asked, sounding almost entitled.

“Who are you?” Arthur bit back, returning the subtle animosity.

“Who are you?” It was becoming almost akin to a tennis match, both returning with the same attitude.

The two of them stared daggers at each other, neither willing to give ground. Arthur may not know who this person was, but he already didn’t like him.

“I’ll get … Will.” Arthur finally gave into the demands of said unknown person, but apparently didn’t need to, as Will was standing right behind him.

“Will.” Unknown man uttered, offering no emotion, as far as Arthur could tell.

Arthur realized this was probably not a conversation he needed to be involved in, so stepped away and back into the house.

“Mike.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 13

“Mike.”

Both trying to avoid eye contact, the two of them stared at each other testing each other’s patience, as if talking first would be a sign of weakness, the coldness of the autumn evening long forgotten.

As always, Mike was more stubborn, so Will broke the silence.

“What are you doing here?” The words left Wills mouth colder than he intended, not that he showed it on his face, which remained stoic.

Somehow, Mike hadn’t thought of that answer. He had been going over in his head what he would say, but it had all gone out the window already.

“Why are you here, Mike?” Will stood, leaning against the doorframe, waiting for Mike to explain himself.

“Who’s the other guy?” Mike said with an undertone of jealousy, not that Will picked up on it.

Once Mike had registered what he said, and how he said it, he looked at his feet and regretted.

“The other guy, are you kidding me? Arthur, his name is Arthur.” Will wasn’t sure why he became quite so irate so quickly.

“Oh, right, well I should probably just go, you probably don’t want me here.” Will was perplexed, what was the point of Mike coming over, if he was just going to leave instantly?

“Mike, come on, your being ridiculous, it’s like 20 minutes on a bike, and at this time of night, on your own. You are staying for pizza and Jonathan will drive you back.” Will was not sure how he had gone from almost shouting at Mike, to persuading him to stay for pizza, but the idea of him cycling home in the dark was too unsettling.

Will stepped aside, allowing Mike to enter the house he was so familiar with, having spent many an hour here as kids. But not so much recently, a fact which niggled at the back of his head as he walked in.

“Mike, this is Arthur, we have art together and he is from France. Arthur, this is Mike, we’ve known each other since kindergarten.” Will stood awkwardly between them, now much more on edge, as Mike looked Arthur up and down, an unreadable expression on his face.

‘Known each other from kindergarten’ hurt Mike more than he was willing to admit, anytime he had ever heard Will introduce him, it was: ‘this is Mike, he’s my best friend’.

Arthur may not have met Mike, and therefore hadn’t recognised him, but he remembered the hushed conversation between Lucas, Dustin, and Will about him. He knew, from what Will said, that they had always been close before the current rift (which still confused Arthur, but he wasn’t going to ask Will about it). He also knew that both Lucas and Dustin blamed Mike for the problems and that Will either thought they were both at fault, or he had determined not declaring partisanship would be better.

So, it was safe to say, Arthur knew this evening wouldn’t exactly be plain sailing.

The two greeted each other awkwardly, Will couldn’t help but think about Lucas and Dustin’s reaction – and how different it was.

The three of them made their way into the sitting room, both Mike and Will perched awkwardly on their seats, not wanting to kick off the conversation.

“So, Mike, what do you do outside school? I know Lucas and Dustin mentioned Dungeons and Dragons.”

That may not have been the smartest move from Arthur, raising Lucas and Dustin straight of the bat. However, he had learnt very quickly that Americans are more than happy to sit in silence, which was uncommon in France, so he found himself struggling to avoid filling the silence with conversation, even if it was just small talk.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it, sometimes El’ will come over to mine. I’m sure you’ve met her as well.” Whether or not Mike intended it, Will couldn’t help feeling Mike said those words with an undercurrent of animosity.

Jonathan coming through the door interrupted Mike’s line of questioning, much to Will’s relief.

Will quickly explained Mike’s presence.

Jonathan chose the wise option of not asking questions.

The four of them were sat around the Byers dinning room table, a few slices of pizza on each of their plates. Will squirmed in his seat at the awkward silence that hung over them, as Jonathan sat somewhat confused.

“Will, do you want the barbecue sauce?” It was an innocuous enough question, but Arthur could not stand the daggers Mike was sending his way.

“Will doesn’t like barbecue sauce.” Mike said without exerting any emotion.

“Okay, do you want the – whatever this is.” Arthur offered the ranch to Will, trying to brush over Mike’s bitterness; whatever caused it was lost to the Frenchman.

“Will doesn’t like sauce with his pizza, and that is ranch.”

Will lightly kicked Mike under the table and shot him an annoyed glance, which jogged Mike’s attention away from Arthur.

For the rest of the dinner, almost nothing was said.

Will had hoped that Mike meeting Arthur for the first time would go better, but they hadn’t shouted at each other, that had to count for something, right?

After they had finished eating, both Mike and Arthur declared they ought to go.

With Mike’s bike in the trunk, Will sat in the front next to Jonathan, and Mike and Arthur sat in the back, as they drove first to Arthur’s house, then to Mike’s.

The silence lingered as they drove into town, Will’s eyes trained to the front windscreen, out of fear of making eye contact with Mike or Arthur through the rear-view mirror. The silence was clearly getting under Jonathan’s skin, so he flicked the dial and The Clash started playing out of the speakers.

It was a song Will would usually enjoy, even sing along to if he were feeling really upbeat, but that somehow didn’t seem appropriate.

They dropped off Arthur first, Will offering a quiet ‘see you tomorrow’ which was reciprocated, but the awkwardness between Will and Mike had somehow transcended to between Will and Arthur as well – or at least, Arthur seemed very cagey.

Once Arthur had left, Will hoped that conversation would pick up with Mike, they had known each other for 10 years, and there had never been a quite moment between the two in that time, always filled with the story from the latest DC comic or Mike’s plans for a DnD campaign.

But not this time.

As Jonathan pulled up outside the Wheeler’s home and Mike jumped out to grab his bike from the trunk, Will wanted to say something before Mike left, and they probably wouldn’t talk for several days, both still largely avoiding each other.

“Mike -” Will was interrupted by the curly haired boy.

“Bye Will, see you soon.” Mike forced an optimistic tone in his voice, which left it sounding insincere, and Will felt very despondent.

Mike didn’t want to talk to him, he had made that very clear.

The drive back to the Byers was silent – not the awkward silence which had lingered in Jonathan’s car prior, but a contemplative silence, the sort that arises when neither person knows quite the right thing to say.

Will stared out the window as Jonathan drove through Hawkins.

It was a town so intimately familiar to both of them, and yet Will felt no love for the place, no feeling of home.

All he felt as he saw the woods, he had explored so many times, or the hills they had run up and rolled down many summers prior, or the letterbox Dustin had somehow managed to flatten twice with his bike, neither time altering the homeowner, all he felt was the inexplicable feeling of wanting to leave.

Wanting to leave Hawkins, turn his back on the place he had spent the last 15 years, and likely the next 3, leave and never return; for this place, this wretched hive of scum and villainy, a horrid backwater plagued by prejudice and hate, had given him nothing but pain.

Will allowed his mind to run from him, he imagined living in a city, maybe Indianapolis, but Lonnie might be there, maybe even New York, or could he leave America?

He could go to London.

Will had heard it was the gay capital of the world (he had heard that from Ted Wheeler, who had listed it as a reason to avoid the city).

Or maybe, just maybe:

He could go to Paris.

With Arthur.

He could imagine Arthur showing him around his hometown, infinitely more impressive than Will’s.

The fancy bakeries and the palaces older than the United States, and they could go to the Arc de Triomphe, and then climb the stairs up the Eiffel Tower, just the two of them.

And at the top of the Eiffel Tower, Will would look into Arthur’s eyes and lean in and –

“What’s going on between you two?” Will’s daydream was brutally interrupted by Jonathan, who had decided this was the perfect time to break the silence.

“Nothing is going on between Arthur and I, we are just friends.” Will knew he had told Jonathan he was -, well, that he was different, but he naively didn’t expect his older brother to pair him up with ever male friend he had.

“Well okay, I’m happy for you.” Jonathan started, with a wry grin, “but I wasn’t talking about Arthur, I was talking about Mike.”

Oh

“Well, of course, erm…” Will again took station staring outside the window, this time to avoid Jonathan seeing just how red he had gone.

“Mike, Mike, Mike – we’ve just, I don’t know, drifted apart, he’s changing. We just can’t seem to get on.” Jonathan could hear the regret in Will’s voice.

“He cares about you, y’know. And don’t give up on him, I never seen two people get on so well, it would be a shame to lose that.” Jonathan finally said, after carefully contemplating his words. This was never Jonathan’s area of expertise, relationships, whether romantic or platonic, had alluded him for so long (he would be quick to point out they aren’t going too badly now).

“It wouldn’t hurt for him to show it once in a while.”

That was a low blow, Will knew it, Jonathan knew it. But Will wouldn’t say he regretted it. There wasn’t much he wanted more than his best friend back. Mike and Will, Will and Mike, they used to be a package deal, never seen without the other – Will would do anything to get that back.

They used to be able to talk about anything; maybe they’d even be able to talk about boys.

Will hadn’t allowed himself to consider a world in which Mike would be disgusted. It wasn’t that he was certain Mike would accept him, one could not afford to be so complacent in rural USA; it was simply that it would hurt slightly too much.

The universe had hurt Will one too many times, so they’d at least let him have this, right?

In moments of weakness, Will found himself imagining sitting in the Wheeler’s basement, or maybe Mike’s room, whichever was further from Ted, and talking about Arthur – or any other boy Will was interested in, it didn’t have to be Arthur, that was just one name, of course. Talk about Arthur just as Mike talks about El’ or Lucas talks about Max (again didn’t have to be Arthur). As if, just in the cacophony that is Mike’s bedroom, being gay was just as normal as being straight – the Wheelers house had always been the best place to avoid reality, the walls of Will’s own house too tainted by memories of his father.

And Will knew Jonathan was right – that Mike did care, deep down, somewhere, the same place in his heart that urged him to go over to Will that first day, when Will was alone on the swings.

That bit of Mike would never disappear – he may lose sight of it a little too often, but that was who he was – or at least, that is who Will had thought he was, for almost the entire time they had known each other.

But what if he had changed?

That was the question that had been nagging in the back of his head.

It’s not my fault you don’t like girls.

There really was only one reason to say something so insidious, so inflammatory – but Will simply couldn’t allow himself to think like that.

So, he didn’t, he focused on something which, in the present moment, made him feel much happier.

Arthur.

The same Arthur who he had almost kissed (it felt closer to Will than it was in reality) and then had dreamt about kissing atop the Eiffel Tower. As much as Will knew he was meant to be disgusted, that second one sounded dreamily romantic – and they both sounded dreamy.

He needed help, like, immediately – well, not quite immediately - but soon.

He couldn’t ask Jonathan, well, because he would never hear the end of it, and he couldn’t ask Nancy for fear it would get back to Mike, so Steve and Robin were the only available options, even if Steve was slightly overprotective – Will thought back to the elusive comments Steve had made to Arthur.

Chapter Text

Chapter 14

Jonathan pulled into the Byer’s driveway and turned the car off, before jumping out.

Will, still inside his own head, didn’t register the car stopping, so sat staring into the distance before Jonathan drew his attention.

“Will, you coming?” Jonathan waved in Will’s direction.

“Yeah, right, sorry.” Will slowly climbed out of the car and followed Jonathan into the house.

Heading inside, Joyce made it known she was back from her room, and Jonathan headed to his, tired after stepping on eggshells around Mike, Will and Arthur all evening.

Once Will had confirmed Jonathan and Joyce were out of earshot, Will picked up the phone and dialed Steve’s house number, praying it was him that picked up, and not his parents (if they were even around, Will had never met them after all).

*Ring*

Will tapped his feet on the floor as he held the phone to his ear, stretching the cord to allow him to lean on the nearby chair – waiting for Steve to pick up.

*Ring*

Will, slightly frustrated, put the phone back on the hook, waiting for the ding, before dialing Robin’s number – he needed to unload before he went to bed, otherwise it would be a sleepless night.

*Ring*

“Come on, Robin.” Will muttered under his breath, slightly desperate.

But his muttering was to no avail, as the dial tone rang through without anyone picking up.

He rang both of them several more times, still to no avail – so assumed they were both out (probably together).

Frustrated, Will threw off his clothes and collapsed onto his bed – his mind racing from Mike to Arthur and everything in between.

-----

Will awoke abruptly, slapping his alarm furiously to prevent the mind-numbing buzz continuing any longer.

Friday

Some thought it was the best day of the week, the beginning of the weekend, and others said it was the worst, the end of the working week, everyone’s tired.

But Will didn’t really care about this debate, all he knew was that he could barely keep his eyes open and had 5 hours of teachers talking at him before he could collapse behind the walls of his room.

“Will, time to get up, we’re going in 20!” Joyce shouted through his door, as if he hadn’t done this routine for the last God knows how many years.

And just like every other time, Will grabbed some clothes from his closet, threw them on and headed out of his room to snag some breakfast – he found comfort in routine.

“Will, its for you, it’s Robin.” Joyce gestured toward the phone she was holding, as Will pulled his head up from the breakfast in front of him, still barely awake.

Oh, Robin.

He was really hoping to have this conversation, like, not in front of his brother and mother.

“Hey, Robin.” Will started sheepishly.

“Byers, sorry I missed your call, all good over there?” Robin asked with slightly too much enthusiasm for this early in the morning.

“Yeah, Robin, all good.” Will sounded unsure, “I was just wondering if you and Steve were around this Saturday afternoon.”

“Just to catch up.” Will clarified, but anybody could have read through Will’s words, which was somewhat the idea. Will could say what he actually meant, without actually saying it in front of Joyce and Jonathan.

“Yeah, Steve’s place at 2?” Robin asked.

Will hoped Robin picked up the importance of his request and didn’t go and invite Dustin (although he might as well live at Steve’s at this point).

Will confirmed with Robin – a very small part of his mind put to rest.

“Will honey, before you go, don’t forget about the dinner tonight with El’ and Hop’, at Enzo’s.” Joyce called down the hallway.

Great, another thing to add to the longest day of his life, and it wasn’t even 9 o’clock.

-----

Somehow, Will had survived.

So far, at least.

The last lesson on a Friday, as always, was Art.

Will’s favorite lesson, with Arthur, one of his close friends.

However, today was not a normal Friday – Will wouldn’t blame Arthur if he didn’t even talk to him.

But of course, his French friend, or crush, (could he say that?) was too good to be petty, so Will found himself talking to Arthur just like always, while his neck struggled to hold his head up, and his brain felt like a sieve.

“Will, come on, we have to do the project, and we both know if we get a good grade, it isn’t because of me – have you got any ideas, we didn’t get much done last night.” Arthur was trying, largely in vain, to motivate Will.

“Oh yeah, Arthur, listen about last night, it was – I’m -” Will stuttered

“Can we not, Will. I just want to enjoy the lesson.” Arthur butted in, rather abruptly, which took Will slightly by surprise.

“Right, okay.” Will replied unsure.

“I had an idea for the project: seeing as you are here, in my hometown, how about we do it on your hometown – Paris – if you can even call if a town.” Will looked to change the subject, but it was also an easy way to learn more about Arthur.

“Yeah, probably not a town, but that sounds great, did you have anywhere specific in mind?”

“Mon ami – is that right? – You are the one from Paris.” Will replied in his best rendition of a French accent, which admittedly was terrible, but Arthur found it funny, so it fulfilled its purpose.

While ‘mon ami’ wasn’t strictly correct, Arthur found Will’s expressions too endearing to correct – perhaps in the future, Arthur thought, he would endeavor to teach Will real French, not the cliché French you saw in American films.

They fell into comfortable conversation, Arthur regaling Will with stories of certain places, trying to decide which landmark to go for. Arthur eventually settled on Rue Crémieux, which he maintained was the nicest street in Paris, despite the cars making it difficult to walk down.

Arthur began to try and draw the street, but at Will’s insistence, he instead began to describe it, so that Will could draw the rough sketch.

While they worked well together, and made more progress than expected, Will couldn’t help but feel on edge after Arthur had shot him down when trying to explain what happened the night before.

This plagued Will’s mind throughout the lesson, so, when the bell rang marking the end of the lesson and the day, Will scurried out, hoping to see Jonathan’s car waiting for him.

Will sighed audibly in relief when he saw Jonathan’s banged up Ford parked in the back corner and dragged himself toward Jonathan’s car. He received a sympathetic look from his older brother, presumably because of the dinner they had that evening.

“Hey Will, how was school?” Jonathan asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.

“Long, really long.” Will chuckled as he reclined in the chair.

Jonathan drove them back to the Byers house, stressing that Will can’t flop onto his bed when they got back, otherwise they wouldn’t be ready to go out.

Reluctantly, Will adhered to Jonathan’s jokingly serious warning, picking out a relatively nice outfit – from his limited options.

After longer than Will was proud of, he emerged with an outfit which got a grunt of approval from Jonathan – Will thought he looked quite good.

It was a light blue collared shirt (the same one he wore when Joyce told him to ‘dress up’ a few weeks back) with a grey pullover and black trousers – he even did his hair so it didn’t look so much like so much like a bowl cut.

“Time to go boys, we don’t want to be late!” Joyce hollered from her room. Jonathan and Will shared a look – both of them had been ready for some time, if there were going to be late, it would be because Joyce couldn’t decide which shoes to wear.

“It’s not exactly like we’ve never met them.” Jonathan laughed as he and Will waited for Joyce to get her shoes on.

“Jonathan! Do this for me, will you?” Joyce lightly reprimanded her oldest. In response, Jonathan shot Will a smirk, which earned him a soft punch in the arm from his brother, trying to persuade him to take it slightly more seriously.

-----

Jonathan drove the three of them to Enzo’s, he had offered so that Joyce could drink, and it was better anyways, they both knew how bad of a driver Joyce was when she was stressed.

Despite Joyce insistence on being early, while they weren’t late, Hopper and El’ were already there when they arrived. El’ was quick to shoot out of her seat when she saw the Byers coming through the door, throwing her arms around Joyce before greeting Jonathan and Will. She jumped into conversation about how ‘over the top’ Hopper was when they were getting ready this afternoon, leaving Joyce and Hopper to greet one and other; they seemed almost too happy to see each other, tripping over their sentences – and Will thought he was bad around Arthur.

After ordering drinks and food, Joyce managed to find her way to Will’s least favorite topic (and apparently her favorite) Mike Wheeler.

“El’, how is Mike? I haven’t seen him much recently.” Joyce asked with a smile on her face, offering a pointed look in Will's direction.

Of course, Joyce was unaware, but her comments hurt deeper than Will expected - and was willing to admit.

It also hit Will that he had no idea what El’s answer was going to be. He spent a good amount of time with El’ at school, but they never talked about Mike. Will had only realized now just how bad of a friend (brother?) he had been.

Will zoned out for El’s answer and the ensuing conversation. He wasn’t sure if it was because it would hurt if El’ said Mike was doing great, or because he forced himself not to care, but in the moment it didn’t matter.

“Will?”

“Will?” Hopper called out, Will too far in his own head to notice he was being talked to, before Jonathan kicked him under the table to get his attention.

“What? Sorry, lost focus.” Will sat up in his seat in an attempt to show he was focused.

“I was just wondering if there were any girls you had your eye on at school, El’ tells me your friends with a few.” Hopper asks, teasingly.

Will was not prepared for this question, his face went red and he shifted in his seat; Hopper’s question reminded him too strongly of Lonnie.

“No, not really – just …” Will paused to think of a plausible excuse.

“Focusing on school at the minute.” Will answered sheepishly, trying not to offer anything else to go on.

“That’s what I said in front of my mom when I was your age.” Hopper laughed, which gained a chuckle from most around the table, but Will sat their trying to remain stoic, not allowing his emotions to surface.

“So, where is this house you had your eye on?” Jonathan asked, successfully changing the topic, and shooting Will a sympathetic yet reassuring look.

“Oh, it’s on Oak Street, a bit closer into town, everyone would have their own room.” Joyce continued to describe, with a wide smile on her face, the house they planned to move in to, Will not really listening.

“Oak street, that’s interesting.” Jonathan remarked while smirking in Will’s direction.

“Why is that interesting?” El’ asked, as Will locked Jonathan into eye contact, making it clear that Jonathan better not say too much.

“Oh, it's just near one of Will’s friends.” Jonathan brushed off.

Fortunately (for Will), neither El’, Hopper nor Joyce read into Jonathan’s statement, and continued gushing over the house.

Will excused himself from the table to try and calm down in the bathroom.

Throwing the door open, and glancing quickly around to ensure he was alone, he splashed water on his face and stared himself down in the mirror, in a form of mental pep talk.

When he returned to the table, their dinner had arrived, so he slipped back into his seat and managed to avoid any substantive further conversation, the five of them falling into a comfortable silence as they ate.

For the rest of the evening, Will managed to float on the edge of conversation, and avoid any topics which would raise his heart rate too much.

At the end of the evening, which lasted until the sun had set and then some, there was a round of hugs and farewells – despite Will’s unconscious reservations, he was truly looking forward to the next chapter in his life, in which Joyce would be happier and Jonathan freer to focus on his own future.

Will and Jonathan headed to the car, chatting with El’ while Joyce and Hopper walked behind them, enjoying the sight of their kids getting along so well.

El’ peeled off towards Hopper’s car, leaving just Jonathan and Will with a moment free from prying ears.

"So, near Arthur's place, ay?" Jonathan nudged Will, smirking as he spoke.

“Jonathan. In all seriousness, thanks for earlier, you kinda saved me.” Will admitted sheepishly.

“This isn’t going to be easy Will, but I'm happy to steer conversation or take the focus away from you a hundred times, if that's what it takes – you know that, right?” Jonathan was aware of how much Will wanted to avoid feeling like a burden, that was something they shared.

“Yeah, right, of course – thanks.” Will tried and failed to sound sure of himself – Jonathan offered a comforting squeeze to his shoulder as they climbed into the car.

“You know Will, next time you should bring Arthur out with us, he’s great.” Jonathan lightened the mood.

“Why would I bring Arthur, El’ doesn’t bring Mike -”

Will paused, mentally kicking himself, he was giving Jonathan too much ammunition.

Jonathan looked over his shoulder to Will sat behind him with a wry smile on his face.

“That wasn’t what I meant, but … is there something you want to tell me?”

Will’s face went beetroot red as he hid his face in his hands, also hiding a very small smile.

“There is nothing going on between me and Arthur.”

“Yet.

Chapter Text

End of previous chapter

“You know Will, next time you should bring Arthur out with us, he’s great.” Jonathan lightened the mood.

“Why would I bring Arthur, El’ doesn’t bring Mike -”

Will paused, mentally kicking himself, he was giving Jonathan too much ammunition.

Jonathan looked over his shoulder to Will sat behind him with a wry smile on his face.

“That wasn’t what I meant, but … is there something you want to tell me?”

Will’s face went beetroot red as he hid his face in his hands, also hiding a very small smile.

“There is nothing going on between me and Arthur.”

Chapter 15

“Yet.”

“Jonathan, don’t.” Will sternly warned his brother, who found the teasing much too funny if the beaming smile on his face was anything to go by.

“Sorry.” Jonathan replied, jokingly insincere.

“What are you sorry about?” Joyce asked as she opened the front passenger door and climbed in.

Jonathan didn’t reply, but instead looked at Will, trying to ascertain what Will wanted him to say. Will’s previous confidence when going back and forth with Jonathan evaporated and he avoided eye contact with his brother or his mother.

“Nothing.” Jonathan finally responded, before starting the car and pulling out of the parking lot, forcing the conversation to end.

Will slept well that night, things may have been complicated, but he had Jonathan in his corner, and was genuinely looking forward to having an extension to their family.

-----

He slept in on Saturday morning, enjoying the tranquillity of the weekend compared to the hubbub of high school. But after enough time had passed, he forced himself up, busying himself with art waiting until he had to head to Steve’s.

Going through the sketches and paintings that he had left unfinished, Will stumbled across the drawing of Arthur he had started at the Frenchmen’s request. He figured he could make more progress on it when Arthur wasn’t in front of him, for he would get less distracted.

Picking up the softest pencil he could find, Will immediately went to Arthur’s hair, his favorite part of the boy. Will never really drew people, he always had trouble picturing them, but somehow, drawing Arthur wasn’t nearly as hard. His mind wandered back to the more intimate moments – always very brief – he had with Arthur. He knew he was gay; he had made that pretty clear, but did he think of Will in the same way, it would be terrible if Will went 2 for 2 in falling for close friends. But his relationship with Arthur was different than that with Mike, they had met so long ago that there was so much more to lose, and so much more context – not to mention that Mike was dating his sister (?). Arthur, on the other hand, was available (at least he hadn’t mentioned anyone back home) and didn’t know everything about Will, the sort of things that scare most away.

Maybe he had a chance.

Maybe.

He didn’t make as much progress as he would have liked before he had to eat and then leave, his perfectionism leading him to furiously and precisely rub out small sections – to then go over some of the finer details in a black marker.

Steve’s place wasn’t too far from Will’s, but, during the cycle over, Will thought and overthought what he was going to say.

How was he going to explain his predicament without saying too much – or much at all?

Will knocked on Steve’s front door, having propped his bike up against the wall. He was usually taken aback by the size of Steve’s place (and the swimming pool in the back) but his mind was elsewhere, so he barely noticed the grandeur in front of him.

“Hey Will, come in.” Robin exclaimed as she opened the door, as if it were her house – although with the amount of time she spent there, it might as well be.

“Hi Robin.” Will replied somewhat sheepishly as he took off his shoes - he never did like being the center of attention.

“Little Byers, how are you?” Steve bounced through the corridor and ruffled Will’s hair as he greeted him.

“Why does everyone call me that?” Will chuckled awkwardly as the three of them made their way to the sitting room – one of the sitting rooms.

“Well, I call you that cause your brother is scary – he did beat me up, remember. Who else calls you that? Mike?” Steve had mostly forgiven himself for his actions during his Steve ‘the King’ Harrington phase, so looked back on his fight with Jonathan with at least a small smile.

“No, no. Not Mike.” Will answered quietly. “Max.”

“Right.” Steve replied, the wind taken out of the conversation – clearly being kept up to date by Dustin.

“How are things with you then, Will?” Robin was quick to change the subject.

“Fine. Keeping busy.” Will fidgeted as he ran his hand through his hair. He hadn’t planned on being so cagey, but talking aloud was much more difficult than in your head.

“How’s Arthur?” Robin tried to draw slightly more out of the youngest Byers – when he had asked to come over, his voice had conveyed a certain desperation.

At the mention of Arthur, Will’s face lit up slightly, but his mind went straight back to the evening with Mike – also, why did Steve and Robin jump straight to Arthur?

“You know, you never did tell me what you said to him that day – neither did Dustin.” Will commented, changing the subject away from him.

“It really wasn’t that bad Will, I wouldn’t worry – I mean, he still talks to you, right?” Robin joked as Steve sat back in his chair, smiling subtly, but also appearing as though he felt bad – only slightly.

“Yeah, we still talk. It’s actually his birthday in two weeks, I don’t really know what to get him.” Keeping Arthur as the topic was easy for Will, and close enough to what he actually wanted to talk about – maybe they’d just figure it out, and then it would be easier for everyone.

“You’re good with art, right? Maybe something to do with that?” Robin suggested – in truth, Will did have some ideas, including the drawing of Arthur he had asked him to do, but it was the only way he could think of to talk about Arthur, without being obvious.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

Will was very quickly regretting this, he hated being the center of attention; it would have been much easier to get a quick moment alone with Steve or Robin when they were all together.

Could he just make up another excuse as to why he was there, or would he be forced to bear his heart out for all to see?

“What was it you wanted to talk about then Will?” Steve sensed Will was losing himself in his own mind, so tried to drag him out of it.

“Oh, right.” Will’s cheeks flushed as he began to panic slightly, all he had to do was say it – sure, they may react badly, but how bad could it really be.

Well, they could tell Dustin, and then Dustin would tell Lucas and Max, maybe even El’ – and Mike, oh God.

And then Mike would probably tell Nancy, and then Ted might overhear, and then Karen would have to talk to Joyce and then Hopper would find out – it would probably reach all the way to Lonnie somehow.

Then everyone at school would know, and what if Joyce forced them to move again, Will hated Hawkins, but he hated leaving Hawkins even more, better the devil you know and all that.

“Max, I’m worried about Max, and no one can get through to her, not even El’ can. So, I don’t really know what to do.”

Will lied, and he felt terrible – when they finally found out, they would put everything together and realize Will had been lying to them all, and ‘friends don’t lie’. He could barely imagine their reactions, but would they be any worse if he told them the truth?

Will’s previous optimism, from having Jonathan in the know, was quenched. He was reminded that, while one person knew, there were so many other important people in his life that didn’t, and the idea of telling them was overwhelmingly intimidating.

The small bubble of positivity Will had built since accidentally telling Jonathan had firmly been burst.

Steve sat back in his chair, having pondered the wellbeing of all 6 of his adopted ‘kids’ often, but particularly Max. Will’s words confirmed a lot of what he had thought, Max was more unreachable than the others - Will was comparably unreachable, not that Steve would tell him that, and Steve knew he had Jonathan.

But Robin’s reaction was slightly different, she remained forward in her chair, and simply stared at Will, thinking not of his words but how he had said them.

“Well, Dustin was coming over at like 4, he’s talking to Suzie on Cerebro, how about I invite everyone, and maybe Max will come. It’s a stretch, but I can’t think of anything else.” Steve interrupted the brief thinking the three of them (well, Will was more panicking than thinking).

Before Will had arrived, he was dreading the idea of any of the party members being at Steve’s, but it now appeared to Will to be the best way to avoid talking about himself, as he always found it easy to blend into the background with the party.

Robin was going to shoot down Steve’s idea, but Will interjected.

“That’s a good idea, haven’t had the party together for a while.”

“Okay. Oh, Will, you should invite Arthur, he seemed great. He’s met most of the party, right?” Robin added, without asking Steve if it was okay (when inviting 8 to basically a mansion, what difference does 1 more make).

Will went from slightly looking forward to the gathering, to dreading it. Not because he didn’t enjoy spending time with Arthur, but Arthur + Mike was a pretty disastrous combination, for Will at least. And he was at Steve’s trying to escape everything that he associated with Arthur.

But Will couldn’t throw off Steve’s idea now, it would be too suspicious, so he had to go along with it.

“Yeah, everyone but El’ and Max.” Will replied mutedly.

Seeing as they were already there, Will and Robin were roped into getting stuff from the grocery store. Steve insisted that October was the last month you could have a barbecue, and therefore he wouldn’t miss the opportunity – Will questioned whether Steve could ever barbecue.

While Will and Robin got whatever stuff Steve had scribbled down on the list, Steve made the calls trying to get everyone to come. He managed to persuade the rest of the party to come, but Nancy and Jonathan were inconspicuously both busy.

Max didn’t pick up the phone any of the three times Steve called, but instead of giving up, he drove out to her motor home to try and convince her personally.

Surprisingly, whatever Harrington charm he had used worked, as by the time Will and Robin were back, Max was at the Harrington mansion, with the rest of the party making their way over soon.

Will and Robin made their return known to Steve but elected to put things away in the kitchen themselves, allowing Steve more time with Max – it seemed, from afar, that perhaps he was making progress, but Will would have to ask later to confirm.

Will felt slightly guilty that this whole event, in particular dragging Max along, came out of him obfuscating the truth – he was trying to justify it to himself with his genuine concern.

“How are you really, Will?” Robin asked as they were putting away the groceries.

“Glad Max is here; she’s been really off.” Will brushed off the conversation Robin was trying to spark.

“Will.” Robin responded, allowing them both to recognize she didn’t buy it for one second, but she decided not to push any further, and instead shot Will a questioning look.

Will, however, was internally panicking, the list of people who knew he was hiding something was growing concerningly long.

“Don’t forget to call and invite Arthur.” Robin smirked as she left the kitchen.

Will hadn’t forgotten of course, but had been hoping the others would, but apparently not.

“Hello, who’s speaking?” An older lady picked up the phone.

“Hello ma’am, is Arthur around?” Will assumed it was one of Arthur’s host parents – Arthur avoided talking about them, for reasons unknown to Will, and it wasn’t his place to pry.

“Yes, I’ll get him now.”

“Hello, who’s speaking?” Arthur’s refreshing French accent rang through the phone.

“Arthur! Hey, it’s Will.” Somehow, Arthur’s voice lifted Will’s spirits, even if Arthur (not that it was his fault, at all) was partially the reason for Will feeling apprehensive.

“Will! What’s up?”

“Steve, you’ve met Steve, is having a small get together at his place, and he was wondering, well, I was as well, if you wanted to come.” Will hated that his tongue twisted when talking to Arthur, even on the phone, but his French friend never seemed to notice, or if he did, he didn’t say anything.

“Yeah, that sounds great – I’m kind of getting cabin fever at the minute.” Arthur enthusiastically agreed – oh, to be that confident, Will thought.

Will tried to keep his outward confidence up as he confirmed the time and address with Arthur, before hanging up. After he hung up, he slumped into a lean against the wall connecting to Steve’s phone and let out a sigh, louder than he had anticipated.

“It can’t have been that hard, Byers!” Robin called down the hallway from the sitting room upon hearing Will’s sigh.

Will decided against dignifying Robin’s teasing with a response, instead walked back into the kitchen.

“Max, glad you came.” Will was surprised when he saw Max sitting in the kitchen, having assumed she was still outside.

“Little Byers, how are you?” Max asked, slightly quietly, but almost as if she hadn’t been MIA for the last month.

“I’ve been fine Max, but more importantly, how have you been?” Will pulled up a chair next to her.

“So-so.” Max tried to brush off the question, a tactic Will was very familiar with.

Will looked in Max’s direction doubtfully, hoping she would elaborate, but to no avail; Max avoided his glare.

Just as Will preferred when people tried to talk to him, he decided not to pry, but hoped his concern would demonstrate that he was willing to listen.

The not quite comfortable but not awkward silence that fell between Max and Will was interrupted when the first of the outstanding party members arrived.

“Max!” El’ exclaimed as she bounded through Steve’s house, engulfing Max in an initially one-sided embrace, which lasted just long enough for Max to feel safe to reciprocate.

“Hey Will. Is Arthur coming?” El’ asked after breaking the embrace with Max, not knowing what she was doing to Will’s heart and mind.

“Yes, why?” Will asked suspiciously – the conversation had also garnered the attention of Max, who silently observed.

“Just wondering, heard you and Jonathan talking about him last night – he’s met the others, right?”

“I’ve heard he is most charming.” El’ smirked as she turned from Will to Max, whose lips twitched into a very slight smile.

Will’s mind went into a state of panic, how much had El’ heard? And charming, who had she heard that from?

He barely managed to nod in response to El’s question, relieved to see she was talking with Max, well, talking to Max, it was questionably as to how even the conversing was.

It wasn’t long before Dustin and Lucas arrived, boisterously swinging the front gate open, ensuring there was no doubt as to their presence. El’, Steve and Robin greeted them enthusiastically, with Steve falling into animated discussion with Dustin, of what Will wasn’t sure. Will and Max held back, generally being more reserved, but it seemed to outsiders that time stopped when Lucas caught sight of Max.

No one really knew how much Max and Lucas talked, or what was going on between them, but what was clear was that the connection between them was as strong as ever.

They stared at each other, as if no one else was there. They didn’t make any specific movement toward each other, but their expressions seemed to soften upon seeing one and other.

Will intentionally (although he did it so often it was his default) faded into the background, allowing others to strike up conversation; his mind still focused on Mike and Arthur.

He was so occupied by his own mind, sitting on the loungers in Steve’s garden somewhat partaking in a conversation between El’ and Dustin, that he didn’t notice Mike sauntering in – he didn’t announce his presence as clearly as Lucas and Dustin.

“Hi Will.” Mike cleared his throat as he stood, hovering above Will.

“Mike.” Will replied, it wasn’t cold, but he simply didn’t have much to say, or more accurately he didn’t know how to say what he wanted to.

The two of them stared at one and other, holding eye contact but not saying anything further for some time.

“I, err… saw Arthur not far behind me, he’s probably pulling up now.” Mike gestured over his shoulder, his face falling slightly as Will perked up somewhat at the mention of Arthur.

Will offered him a quick ‘thanks’ before heading off in the direction of the driveway, Mike’s eyes lingering as he walked away.

Will stood to the side of the driveway, shifting his weight from the left foot to the right, and back, waiting for the car carrying Arthur to pull in. Mike was right, Arthur wasn’t far behind.

Will stood stationary, looking at his feet, as Arthur thanked his host parents for giving him a lift, and jumped out of the car in Will’s direction.

“Hey William.” Arthur sounded much more hesitant than he was on the phone.

“Hi Arthur, you’ve met everyone except -” Will was interrupted, while showing Arthur into Steve’s backyard, the two of them getting nods of greeting from Lucas, Dustin and Mike, with Steve and Robin indoors.

“Arthur! Right? You must be Arthur.” El’ bounded between the two of them, looking Arthur down, before asking her question toward Will.

“- El’ and Max. Yes, El’ this is Arthur, Arthur, this is El’.” Will blushed slightly as he introduced his French friend to his sister (?).

“You were right Will; he does have a nice accent. Where did you say you’re from Arthur?” El’ dragged Arthur away from Will, who remained planted in his stance, stunned, as he processed what El’ had said. Arthur, who was now likely on the receiving end of a friendly interrogation, sent Will a wistful look over his shoulder, which Will missed due to his slightly panicked state – he swore he had never told El’ about his accent. Had she just said that to embarrass him?

“Yo, Byers! You good?” Lucas shouted across the garden, laughing as Will appeared to jump out of his skin.

Will returned to the garden chairs, where Mike, Lucas and Dustin were sitting, with Steve stood over the barbecue with a ridiculous looking apron on - which may have fit him 5 years ago. He looked around for Arthur, but he was nowhere to be seen, clearly El’ had dragged him inside.

“In the front room, with the girls.” Dustin answered the question Will didn’t need to ask – his face clearly showed his confusion, and slight concern.

Will offered a small smile thanking Dustin, and took a seat between Lucas and Mike, with Dustin on Mike’s other side. Will was pleased to see Mike, Lucas and Dustin acting civil with each other, it wasn’t clear to him whether they had made up while he had been avoiding them, or if one of their arguments was brewing, yet to spill over.

They quickly struck up conversation, not as seamlessly as they once could, but there weren’t any negative undertones, at least that Will could ascertain.

“What’s that smell?” Lucas interrupted their conversation, Arthur still inside.

“Erm… Steve, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Will was the first to realize the smell was a mix of smoke and something burning.

“Yeah, of course, the food isn’t on yet, just getting the coals going.” Steve said confidently but received uniformly doubtful looks from the four boys.

“Hold on now, none of you know how to do this either.” Steve clapped back in a voice of mocking betrayal, before caving in. “Can one of you go and ask Robin?” The five of them chuckled.

“I’ll do it.” Will shot out of his seat, beating the others to get up, wanting an excuse to see what El’ was up to – it didn’t go unnoticed by Mike, who’s face twisted momentarily, before returning to its resting position.

Will walked into the house with some haste, but stopped just before he reached the sitting room they were in, listening to their conversation through the crack in the door.

“No, come on, it’s cute. He gets so focused he just loses himself.” Arthur chuckled in response to something someone had said, not knowing Will was standing on the other side of the door.

Will puffed his cheeks and breathed out, leaning against the wall out of the view of the door.

His mind had officially stopped working.

What was Arthur talking about? What had been said before he started to listen?

The conversation was completely opposed to what Will had expected; they were chatting away as if they knew each other for years.

And was Arthur talking about Will?

Or was he talking about someone else, maybe from school.

Chapter Text

Chapter 16

Realizing he was listening into a conversation that he shouldn’t have been, both for privacy and his mental stability, Will pushed the door open, announcing himself to the room.

“Speak of the devil.” Max muttered to El’, louder than she meant; all eyes went to her as she hid a smirk.

No one made comment on what she said, but Will stored it away as another thing to panic over – Arthur was talking about him, he said ‘it’s cute’ – what’s cute?

“Erm… Robin, Steve is having a few issues with the barbecue, was wondering if you could help?” Will asked as he stared between Arthur and El’, trying unsuccessfully to ascertain what had been said.

“Why me, I don’t know anything about a barbecue. If only Nancy was here, she usually does it before.” Robin laughed at Steve’s overconfidence in her.

“I can help if you need, I’ve done it before, my err… my dad always made us help.” Arthur spoke up but became more muted after mentioning his father. Will recalled the several other occasions Arthur had been cagey about his life back in France, except his older brother, who he talked about constantly. Arthur met Will’s eyes, communicating without needing words, reassuring Will that he had not been interrogated, but that he was happy that most of Will’s friends took to him so quickly.

“Come on then.” Will offered Arthur a hand as he pulled him from his chair.

“Yeah, lets go!” El’ announced as she too shot from her chair, grabbing Max up.

“You don’t all have to come, its fine.” Will protested without response, as everyone filed out.

With El’ having dragged Max out with her, and Robin not wanting to be left alone, everyone was soon sat outside, while Arthur and Steve cooked – tried to cook, as by the laughing, exclamations and general panic ensuing behind the barbecue, Will was certain it wasn’t exactly going to plan. But he was happy to see Arthur get on so well with everyone.

Everyone, that is, except Mike.

Mike wasn’t as openly hostile as Will had mentally prepared himself to be, it was more a consistent cold shoulder or lack of interest. This led to a slight awkward tension between Will and Mike, less prevalent simply because there were more people around, but present, nonetheless.

“They must be done now; these ones look good.” Arthur pointed out to Steve. Will had managed to slip out of the conversation he was in with Dustin and was observing the two cooking.

“This one isn’t done though.” Steve gestured to the other side of the grill.

“That’s because you haven’t flipped it.”

“Oh god, you haven’t flipped it!” Arthur started laughing, quickly followed by Steve, as they put the half-raw half-burnt burger onto a side plate, ready for the garbage. Will couldn’t stop a small smile growing on his face, as he watched Steve and Arthur go weak in the knees laughing at one and other, gaining the attention of the rest of the group.

Arthur and Steve soon served up what was a surprisingly tasty meal, with a round of gratitude muffled by full mouths.

“Thanks Arthur, this is great.” Robin spoke up after her first bite – Steve, without looking up from his own burger, offered her a middle finger.

As the group descended into their normal bickering, Will took the moment to catch Arthur. “Hey Art, you went kinda quiet when you mentioned your dad earlier, are you okay?” Will asked quietly, hoping to avoid anyone else hearing their conversation; knowing the topic was potentially sensitive from his own experiences.

“He … he passed away last year, I’ve got used to not having him around a bit, but I’m still working on it, sometimes the grief hits me at random moments, y’know?” Arthur spoke slowly, pausing to inhale and exhale to calm himself – he was at a point where he was better at talking about it, but it would never be easy.

“More than you know Art. I’m here if you ever need me, you know that, right?”

“Yeah, thanks William.” Arthur looks Will in the eye as he mustered a faint smile.

Will excused himself to go to the toilet, and by the time he had emerged from the house, Arthur seemed wrapped up in a conversation with Steve and Lucas, so Will elected to let him be.

Will found himself chatting to El’ for most of the rest of the afternoon; ever since the move had been finalized, awaiting all the adult things like paperwork, El’ and Will had spent a lot of time together, and El’ was seemingly still as excited for the move as she first was.

“My room is gonna be full of posters, all sorts of stuff, I’m sure Max knows the best ones, and maybe I’ll put some of your art up as well, would you make me something, Will?” El’ had been rambling about every little detail, about how her room as gonna look, about how they were gonna have rooms next to each other and therefore Will shouldn’t play his music too loud, to the point that Will had almost missed his turn to speak.

“Yeah, course El’, that sounds lovely. What did you have in mind?” Will responded, only half-listening, as he carefully watched Arthur chatting away to Steve and Lucas.

“I don’t mind, its up to you, I’m sure it’ll be great regardless.” El’ said with a beaming smile on her face, giving Will a quick hug.

Will only managed to catch Arthur as he was leaving, having been quietly observing his interactions with his friends. It didn’t seem as though Mike acted too differently, but Will had not properly spoken to him, and didn’t see Arthur doing so either.
Avoidance is better than confrontation, Will thought.

“Hey Art, thanks for coming.”

“We sticking with ‘Art’ then William?” Arthur replied cheekily.

“Yeah, I think we are, Mr.”

“Provided that’s okay with you, of course.” Will retreated when he realized his slightly flirtatious tone.

“Of course, I kinda like it. When you say it.” Arthur hit back with a similar tone, not picking up, or disregarding, Will’s climbdown.

“Right. We’ll erm …” Will shifted his weight as he looked to his feet – his confidence betraying him. “Oh, yes, we need to finish the art project, how about Monday at lunch?”

“Monday lunch sounds great, see you then.” Arthur replied with a smile before turning his back and heading to the awaiting car.

-----

It was getting late; the sun had mostly set, and Steve’s garden was illuminated instead by outside lighting and the embers of what was a small fire.

Max and Lucas had also left, and those remaining were sat around the remnants of the fire Steve had constructed in a comfortable silence, enjoying the heat given off by the withering embers.

“Does anyone want anything?” Will asked as he rose to get a drink from the kitchen.

“Can I get a coke?” El’ asked.

“Me too, please.” Dustin gave a teethy smile.

“I’ll help.” Mike stated, ignoring Will’s look which suggested plainly that he didn’t need any help.

Will had seen this coming, the awkwardness between the two of them would eventually lead to Mike wanting to ‘talk’. Mike may be more obstinate, but he certainly wasn’t more patient.

Will walked into Steve’s kitchen, stretching up to pull a few drinks from a top shelf, acting as if Mike wasn’t shadowing him.

“Here.” Mike passed Will the glasses he needed, without Will having to ask.

“Thanks?” Will replied hesitantly.

“Will, we should - we should talk.” Mike stopped Will from leaving the kitchen.

Will placed the drinks and glasses on the sideboard and shifted from one foot to the other, waiting for Mike to begin.

“Will, William.” Will frowned through his eyebrows, indicating that ‘William’ was off limits.

“Will, I’m worried about you, you’re changing, you’re almost unrecognizable, we haven’t talked properly since Starcourt. You can’t just bottle that up.” Mike sounded much more sincere than Will expected, seeming to be truly concerned.

But the fact Mike thought Will was ‘changing’ hurt him more than Mike could have imagined.

Will didn’t feel like he was changing, it was everyone else that was changing, moving on as if the world hadn’t ended that summer, as if everything they’d been through since November 1983 hadn’t happened. Sure, it was over, but how could they just move on like that?

And he wasn’t changing, he was finally gaining a modicum of confidence in himself, Arthur was showing him how to be him. He was more willing to revel in his art, and secretly ogle at cute guys (mostly just Arthur recently); if Mike thought he was changing, becoming ‘unrecognizable’ simply because he was being more of himself, then was their whole relationship built on lies? Did Mike really know the real Will?

Did Will even know the real Will?

Did anyone know the real Will?

“Will, Will, you’re getting lost in your head again.” Mike nudged Will, hoping for a reaction to what he said.

“I’m ‘changing’ Mike, really? It’s not me who had an explosive fight with Dustin and Lucas over the tiniest thing, it wasn’t me who abandoned DnD, or moved on from all the Upside-Down stuff within like a week!” Despite Mike’s surprisingly calm demeanor, Will was becoming fraught, not mentally prepared to have this conversation.

“Will.” Mike grabbed Will’s hands, looking him in the eye with concern, “The fight with Lucas and Dustin was over long ago. You are the one who abandoned DnD, you haven’t been to a meeting in weeks, going to Tennis with Arthur, who you’ve known for 30 seconds. Don’t you see, you’ve become a recluse since Starcourt, it isn’t healthy.”

“How do you know about the tennis?” Thoughts were travelling through Will’s mind faster than he could accurately decipher them, so he was bursting out with several lines of questioning.
“Wait, Arthur, what does Arthur have to do with any of this?!” Will took a step back from Mike and raised his voice – Will never raised his voice.

“He’s changing you Will, you’re always at his tennis or he’s at your place, or you’re hiding away in the art room. When was the last time we hung out - as a party?” Mike’s previous placidity was beginning to dissipate.

“He’s? Changing? Me?”

“Mike, no! I don’t do those things because Arthur ‘changed me’ or whatever nonsense you have to say; I do them because I’m trying to be more confident, I’m having to learn to believe in myself, because no one is gonna do it for me!” Worried he might say something he would regret, and not wanting to let Mike get the last word in, he scoffed and brushed past him, storming out the door.

Mike sighed loudly, as he hung his head in defeat, standing frozen in the doorway.

El’, having overheard much of their conversation, cautiously embraced him in a loose side hug, Mike slumped his head on her shoulder.

“I don’t know what to do El’, Will is not okay, but he won’t talk to me. I feel like he’s hiding something and shutting me out, and I keep messing it up.” Mike’s frustration got the better of him as he collapsed completely into El’s arms.

Despite his clear frustration, Will’s emotions were not dissimilar to those of Mike, as he went looking for Steve to take him home. Will wanted Mike back, the ‘old Mike’ that was ever so reliable – the only constant in Will’s life.

The drive from the Harrington mansion to Byers’ abode wasn’t long, but it felt such to Will as Steve began to prod.

“Little Byers, you doing okay? I know I’ve asked that already today, but I heard some raised voices just before we left.”

Leave it to reformed Steve to be annoyingly observant, Will thought.

“Yeah, I’m fine, its been a tiring day, all the socializing and all that; it was good fun though.” Will, trying to keep his polite and dignified exterior, while giving Steve little to continue the conversation with.

Undeterred, Steve continued.

“Y’know Will, I’m concerned, as you are, for Max, but that doesn’t mean you have to be alright as well, you are allowed to struggle, and you are allowed to ask for help.”

“You sound just like my brother.” Will remarked, facing away from Steve out of the window.

“He’s a wise guy, wise beyond his years – so are you - but talking helps Will, it certainly helped me.”

“It helped you?” Will knew that Steve, like all those involved, must be troubled by the things they saw, but it bucked norms for even the reformed Steve to be getting help of that kind.

“I didn’t go from insufferable douchebag to God’s gift to parenting through trauma alone kid, progress takes time, but it goes way quicker with help.”
“Unfortunately, that is the end of our journey.” Steve said as he pulled into the Byers’ driveway, “But, and remember this ahead of everything else, you are a good kid Will Byers, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise – a good kid who has been dealt a few bad hands so far, don't right yourself off.”

Will didn’t offer verbal response, but gave a half-smile and a small wave as Steve reversed his car out of the drive and into the evening darkness.