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An unfortunate side effect of growing up in Hawkins, Indiana —aside from growing up horribly repressed— was that by the time Mike Wheeler was eighteen years old, he'd been to the beach a grand total of one time in his entire life. When Max learned this, she was appalled. When she found out that the rest of the party were all pretty much in the same boat —give or take a few family road trips to the coast and the couple of times Will and El went while they were living in Lenora— Max decided they needed to take a party trip to the beach as soon as possible.
So, they made a summer road trip of it. They all loaded up in Dustin's mom's minivan and made the trek down to Florida. Max said she would have preferred California, but she supposed that a beach was a beach, and Dustin had a rich aunt in St. Augustine that they could stay with.
When they arrived, they unloaded the van and headed down to the beach to find a spot to set up. Carrying all of their supplies was a team effort. They may have been amateur beach goers, but they were nothing if not prepared. They brought a cooler full of drinks, PBNJs and snacks, towels and blankets, a beach umbrella, and a plastic bucket and matching shovel that El spotted at the gas station and insisted on buying with the allowance Joyce had given her. (The money was intended to be for food, but it was only $4.99, so Will decided to let it go.)
"Is this a good spot?" El asked when they reached a relatively flat spot close to the water.
There was hardly anyone else around, probably because it was a weekday, and according to Dustin's Aunt Collette, the schools down there weren’t on summer break yet. There were only a few other people nearby, but even they were a few hundred yards away.
Will looked around. "Yeah, I think this is good," he said.
Max nodded. "Someone help me spread the blanket."
Lucas moved to help her, and everyone kicked off their shoes and started to set things down.
Will screwed the beach umbrella into the sand, and Mike helped him hold it upright while he did. They opened it, and the umbrella cast shade over most of the blanket.
"Perfect," Will said.
"What snacks do we have?" Dustin asked, reaching for the bag Max had just set down.
"Dude, we just got here," Lucas said.
"And I'm hungry. We were driving for hours!" Dustin said.
Mike felt a sharp pinch on his toe. He yelped and jumped a little. "Fuck! What the fuck?"
"Are you okay?" Will asked, rushing to his side and grabbing his arm.
Mike looked down at his foot. "Something pinched me!" he whined.
"Are you serious?" Will dropped his hand. "I thought you were actually hurt," he said with a laugh.
"It did hurt! Look, there's a mark!" Mike said, bending down to point to a small pink mark on his big toe.
"Poor baby," Max said sarcastically as she rooted through the cooler.
"Look," Dustin said, pointing at a hole in the sand by Mike's feet, "It was a crab. There's the tunnel."
Mike looked at the small hole in the sand, and sure enough a crab peeked out for a moment, before quickly retreating.
"It's kind of cute," Will said.
"It's cute? It pinched me!" Mike said indignantly.
"It is cute," Dustin remarked, "It's a fiddler crab. That one was a male, they have the one big claw."
Mike crossed his arms. "Interesting. Another fun fact about them is that they're little bastards–"
"Oh my god," Lucas interrupted, taking the soda Max handed him, "Maybe you shouldn't go sticking your toe in crab holes. I bet it doesn't even hurt anymore."
Mike frowned. "It hurts a little," he mumbled.
"Max, do you have the sunscreen?" El asked, "Joyce said to make sure we put on plenty of sunscreen."
Max nodded and pulled a bottle of SPF 50 out of her tote bag. "Yeah, here you go."
Will grabbed Mike's hand and laced their fingers together. "I'm sorry your toe hurts," he said solemnly. Mike was pretty sure he was being mocked, but he was willing to overlook it if Will kept holding his hand.
"You are dramatic," El told Mike as she rubbed a copious amount of sunscreen onto her face.
"You," Max said to Will, pointing at their joined hands, "Enable him."
"No, he cares about me, unlike all of you," Mike huffed.
Then El handed the sunscreen to Will, so he dropped Mike's hand to take it. Mike tried not to pout about it.
"Well, I respect Lucas enough that if he was acting like a little bitch over a crab bite, I'd tell him to tone it down," Max said.
"Crabs don't bite, they pinch," Dustin corrected, "Their teeth are in their stomachs so they wouldn't be able to–"
"I wouldn't act like a little bitch in the first place," Lucas interjected.
"I'm not acting like a little bitch!" Mike said, "Can we please just forget it?"
"You're the one who made a huge deal!" Max said.
"Leave him alone. He's just sensitive," Will said.
Mike scowled and turned to Will. "I'm not–"
Mike's words died on his tongue as he watched his boyfriend strip off his shirt and toss it on the blanket, leaving him in only bright blue swim trunks. And Mike–
Well, okay, listen. Mike spent his entire life not allowing himself to look, so now that he was allowed to… he looked. And Will was nice to look at! He wasn't like, a body builder, which would probably be intimidating anyway, but he wasn't not muscular, and–
"Mike, do you need a towel?" Max asked.
Mike snapped his head to look at her. "What?"
"To wipe the drool off your chin," she said.
"Shut up," he said, flushing red. He pointedly did not make eye contact with Will in that moment.
"Hey, Will," Lucas said, "Do you need help putting that sunscreen on? I could rub it on your back, or–"
Will cracked a smile and playfully rolled his eyes as he started to generously apply sunscreen, because Joyce really did lecture them, and he didn’t want to face her wrath if he came back burned.
"I'm gonna kill you," Mike said to Lucas, "I'm gonna bludgeon you with this plastic shovel," he plucked the small purple shovel out of the bucket El was holding and pointed it at Lucas, "and then I'm gonna chop you up into tiny pieces and feed you to the sharks."
"Mike, please don't murder Lucas," Will said. "But… I actually do need someone to get my back–"
Mike snatched the sunscreen out of his hand as if Lucas was going to try and take it first, and Will laughed.
"Are there really sharks here?" El asked.
"No," Max said, just as Dustin said, "Yes."
Max glared at him.
"There are definitely sharks here," Dustin said, "Spinner Sharks, Blacktips. I read that there's Makos and Hammerheads if you go farther out from the coast. But incidents of sharks biting humans are very low."
"What about Jaws?" El asked, eyes wide.
"Well, there are definitely no great whites here," Dustin said, "and that movie is highly dramatized."
El shot him a confused look.
"It's not real, El. Sharks don't actually hunt people like that. Usually shark bites are by accident, and they happen very rarely," Max explained.
"Oh," El said, "Okay."
"I told you guys we shouldn't have watched Jaws right before the trip," Lucas said.
"Will picked it!" Dustin said, holding his hands up.
"Because it's awesome," Will said as he handed the bottle of sunscreen to Max.
"Mike, you need to rub that shit in, you look insane," Max said to Mike, whose face was covered in streaks of sunscreen.
Mike glared at her, while Will laughed and gestured for him to come closer so he could help. He carefully rubbed the rest of the lotion into Mike’s skin, then pressed a quick kiss to his lips. Mike gave him a dopey smile.
"You guys are disgusting," Dustin said matter-of-factly.
Mike couldn’t hold back his smirk as he said, “Wow, Dustin. Just because–”
“Stop it,” Dustin said, “I hate this bit. It’s not because you’re gay, it’s because you’re my two best friends since childhood –”
“Who are gay,” Mike pointed out.
“–and because it’s you,” Dustin continued, addressing Mike, “and I can’t for the life of me figure out why Will wants to kiss you.”
“I am a great kisser, thank you very much,” Mike said.
“He is,” Will said with a shrug.
Dustin pretended to retch, and Lucas made a face.
“No, he is not,” El chimed in.
Everyone, including Will, burst out laughing.
“We were fourteen!” Mike said defensively.
“Lucas was already pretty good at fourteen I think,” Max said, tossing her denim shorts to the side and unbuttoning the white button down that covered her bikini.
“Now that is disgusting,” Mike said.
“Are we gonna get in the water now?” Lucas asked, ignoring Mike.
"Yeah, we– Shit!" Max said.
"What’s wrong?" Lucas asked.
"I stepped on a fucking shell, and it was sharp as shit!" she complained.
"Did it break the skin?" Dustin asked.
"No, it's fine, it just hurt," Max said.
Mike raised his eyebrows, "Now who’s making a big deal? Stop acting like a little–"
He was cut off by Max scooping up a handful of sand and throwing it at him. “You don’t wanna finish that sentence,” she said.
He flinched away, but was clearly still laughing, and Max threw more sand at him. He backed up, covering his face, until finally he broke out into a run, heading toward the ocean.
"Yeah, you better run, Wheeler!" Max called as she sprinted after him. He made it into the water before she caught up to him and jumped on his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and attempted to put him in a headlock as she clung to him. He kept running further into the water until it was past his waist. Max caught on to his plan a second too late.
"Wait, wait!" she yelled, but Mike was already ducking under the water, just as a wave crashed over them. Max let go so that she could surface. Mike popped up out of the water with a grin, but before he could even shake the hair out of his face, he was being pushed back under by the top of his head.
On the shore, the party watched in amusement.
“They might actually kill each other this time,” Dustin remarked.
“Should we save Mike?” El asked as they watched him briefly surface and gasp for air before once again being pounced on.
“Nah, she won’t drown him,” Lucas said, “Then she’d have nobody to pick on.”
Will hummed in agreement, then looked at Lucas. “Hey, Lucas?” he asked.
“Yeah?”
"Race you!" Will yelled, and took off toward the water.
"Fucker!" Lucas yelled and took off after him.
"He always does that shit! He's a cheater!" Dustin called after them. He looked down at El, who was sitting in the sand. "Don't you want to swim?" he asked.
She made a face.
"We'll look out for sharks, I promise, but they really don't bother people very much," Dustin said, "Just stick close to Mike so that if a shark comes maybe it'll bite him instead."
El giggled and let him help her up, and they headed for the water to join the rest of the party. It seemed Max and Mike gave up on trying to drown each other, because everyone was peacefully wading, about chest deep in the water. The waves were relatively calm.
Mike briefly wondered if the salt water would remind El of NINA, but she didn't give any indication of being worried about anything but sharks.
"This is fun," El finally said as she seemed to calm down. She jumped with a wave and floated on top while it carried her a few feet.
Max beamed. "See, I told you guys, you were all living sad, beachless lives."
"We've all been to the beach before, just not often," Lucas said.
"Still," Max said.
"Hey, baby–" Mike said, turning to Will only to be pelted in the chest with a hunk of slimy brown seaweed. "Dude!" he yelled, frantically brushing off the offending seaweed as Will cackled.
"I'm sorry," Lucas said, "Did you just call Will 'baby' and 'dude' in the same sentence?"
Mike glared. "Yeah, so?"
Will smiled. "I think it's endearing."
Mike picked up a handful of seaweed and attempted to throw it at Will in retaliation, but he missed.
“Almost as endearing as your abysmal aim,” Will said lovingly.
“Screw you,” Mike said, and was promptly hit in the face as a stream of water shot up at him.
He sputtered, "What the hell?"
Then he noticed El giggling and wiping her nose. "Blood attracts sharks," he said, crossing his arms.
El's eyes went wide and she looked at Dustin for confirmation.
He shrugged. "Yeah, it does actually."
Max smacked Mike on the back of the head. "You scared her, asshole," she said.
Mike flinched. "Okay, I am being attacked from all angles here," he said.
Will laughed. "Okay, I'm sorry," he said, and held out his arms for a hug.
Mike immediately wrapped his arms around Will’s waist and let himself be held. "Thank you," he said, burying his face in Will's neck.
Then, because Mike can't have a second of peace, apparently, they were splashed with water from all directions.
At some point, Mike's relaxing beach trip devolved into manual labor, as he was forced to lug buckets of water back and forth to fill El's sandcastle moat. He wasn't exactly sure how that ended up being his job. Well, okay, he did know – it was because Will asked him to. Will was busy using a jagged shell to carve intricate designs into the side of the —admittedly impressive— sandcastle.
After the moat was finally filled, Mike collapsed on the sand and laid his head in Will's lap. Will smiled down at him and ran a hand through his hair, at which point El asked to braid his hair, which turned into El teaching Will how to braid. Soon Mike's head was full of little braids of varying size and quality – not to mention the sand from their fingers which they hadn't bothered to brush off. Mike grumbled about it, but in reality, laying in the sun listening to the waves as he had his hair played with wasn't the worst feeling in the world.
After they had their lunch, they decided to go for a walk. Dustin and El were collecting shells, while Lucas and Max were holding hands, as were Mike and Will. Every so often, El would find a really cool shell and would run up to show Will, then Max, then she would run off again.
"I think," Lucas said, "that we should have a piggyback race."
Max scoffed, "Is that just an excuse to show off how big and strong you are?"
Lucas shrugged, "It's an excuse for you to walk less."
Max considered this. "Sounds like a good idea to me."
Will stopped walking and looked at Mike. "I think we can win," he said.
"No way," Max said, "No possible way."
"We'll see," Will said, "Hop on," he said to Mike.
"What? You're carrying me?" Mike asked.
Will laughed. "Obviously."
"Why obviously?" Mike demanded.
"Because you're like a spaghetti noodle," Max said.
Mike ignored her. "You don't think I can carry you?" he asked Will.
Will shrugged. "I mean… No?"
Mike scowled. "I so can."
"Okay, Mike," Will said.
"C’mon, I'll prove it," Mike said, crouching slightly so Will could climb on his back.
"I'm gonna break your spine," Will protested.
"You are not!" Mike argued, "I carried Max, didn't I?"
"Max is five foot three," Will pointed out.
"Will you just please get on?" Mike asked, exasperated.
Will sighed. "Don't drop me," he said. He jumped up on Mike's back and wrapped his arms around his neck. Mike immediately stumbled forward.
"Okay! Off, off!" Mike said frantically, and Will slid down with a laugh.
"Idiot," Max said, jumping onto Lucas’s back.
Mike huffed.
"Just get on," Will said with a fond smile.
Mike reluctantly complied. Will seemed to be able to carry him fairly easily, despite the fact that Mike was a few inches taller than him, so his toes were almost dragging the ground.
"Wrap your legs around my waist," Will instructed.
"Bossy," Mike mumbled, but he did as he was told.
Dustin walked down about a hundred yards to mark the finish line, and El grabbed a palm frond to use as a flag.
When El waved the palm frond, Lucas and Will took off. Will kept pace with Lucas for about thirty feet then started lagging behind. All things considered, they didn't end up losing as badly as Mike thought they would, but they definitely lost.
"I don't think I even need to call it," Dustin said, "But clear winners, Lucas and Max."
Max cheered. "Losers," she said to Mike and Will.
Mike rolled his eyes, "Oh come on, he only won because you're so much lighter."
"Perhaps you should switch then, and have a little rematch," Dustin suggested.
Lucas let Max down. "Okay. Rematch then?" he asked.
"I'm not riding on your back," Mike said flatly.
"Wouldn't dream of it, you gangly motherfucker," Lucas said, "Will. C’mon."
Lucas crouched, and Will gently put Mike down.
"Are you sure?" Will asked with a laugh.
"Yeah, man, jump up," Lucas insisted.
Will did, and much to Mike's dismay, Lucas didn't seem to be struggling half as much as he should have been.
"Guess that leaves you and me," Max said to Mike.
He nodded and let her jump up on his back.
El and Dustin switched places, since El insisted on being the flag girl.
"Alright, head in the game, Wheeler," Max muttered into Mike's ear.
"Don't you want your boyfriend to win?" Mike asked.
"No, because then I would be on the losing team," Max said, like it was obvious, "We have to crush them. Into the ground."
"Right," Mike said, "Into the ground."
El waved the flag again, and they were off. Spurred on by the pain of Max slapping his slightly sunburned shoulders repeatedly and screaming, "Go, go, go!" directly into his ear, Mike ran probably the fastest he'd ever run in his life. That's including during the apocalypse complete with monsters. Miraculously, it was even fast enough to beat Lucas, though just by a hair.
"Close one!" Dustin yelled, "For Mike and Max!"
Max whooped and raised her fist in the air, still riding on Mike's back. He couldn’t help but laugh as she brought an imaginary microphone to her mouth and sang, "We are the champions, my friends!"
She brought her closed fist to his mouth and he sang, "And we'll keep on fighting till the end!"
"I think I like them better when they're trying to kill each other," Lucas remarked as he let Will down.
"No time for losers!" Max sang directly at Lucas, "'Cause we are the champions…"
"Of the world!" Mike finished into the imaginary microphone.
Max jumped down and grinned. "Winning team both times," she said.
"Yeah, yeah," Will said with a small smile, "You didn't do any of the work."
El jogged to catch up to everyone. "Great job, Max!" she said with a big smile, and gave Max a high five. Will made eye contact with Mike and shook his head, chuckling.
By sunset, everyone was pretty tired, and it was starting to get cold. They all huddled together on the picnic blanket and wrapped towels around themselves. Max sat shoulder to shoulder with Lucas, her fingers interlaced with his. Her other hand was tangled with El's, and El laid her head on Max's shoulder.
Dustin sat with his legs crossed, a towel pulled tightly around him, looking out at the sunset on the water. The sky was a brilliant orange with streaks of purple, and it reflected on the ocean. Once in a while, some seagulls would fly over, black silhouettes across the canvas of the sky.
Mike thought it looked like something Will would paint, and he suspected he was thinking the same. He glanced down at Will, who was leaning his head on his shoulder. Mike expected to see him admiring the sunset, but he was already looking up at him. Will looked at him with so much warmth, Mike almost didn't feel cold anymore. As soon as their eyes met, Will smiled at him and his expression softened even further, somehow.
Once upon a time, Mike had a hard time believing Will could ever love him that much, because he was nothing special. Now he knew better, because Will proved every day how much he loved him, not just with words, but with little gestures, and the way he looked at Mike like he was more precious than the most brilliant sunset either of them had ever seen.
Mike's heart soared and he leaned down further to connect their lips. The kiss was soft and sweet. Will brought his hand up to cup Mike's jaw, before reluctantly pulling back, because they were still surrounded by all of their friends.
Mike glanced around to see if anyone was about to yell, "Gross," or maybe throw sand at them. Lucas and Dustin didn't seem to be paying attention, but Max and El were. They both wore fond smiles, and Max playfully rolled her eyes, before turning back to watch the sun disappear beneath the water.