Work Text:
I had all
“Will?! Will, are you there?”
The young boy smiles at the familiar voice coming from behind the front door. He jumps up from where he was sitting on the coffee stained, cigarette smelling sofa, and sprints to the door.
He beams as he opens the door to see Mike.
It was sunny outside, the September dew from the previous night evaporating off the leaves. The raven haired boy gives a crooked smile at his friend.
“Hey!” Mike says, hair wild from the bike ride over. “Are you ready? Lucas and Dustin should be on their way over to my house in an hour or so, but I thought we could hang out before they got there, just us?”
He says it like a question. As if Will would say no.
Still, the smaller boy nods rapidly. “Sure!” He opens the door wider, inviting him in. “I’ll just need to grab my stuff from my room.”
Will heads for his room, Mike closing the door behind them and following. Once in his room, he grabs his jacket, slips on his shoes, and turns back to where Mike is waiting in the doorway.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
o.0.o.0.o
“Do you ever feel like…no one understands you?”
It was around midnight now, Mike and Will tired after a full day playing D & D with Lucas and Dustin. Having a sleepover after, just the two of them, had become a tradition. They lie in Mike’s bed, staring at the green illuminating stars on the ceiling.
“Yeah,” Will replies. He turns to his best friend. “All the time, actually.”
Mike rolls over as well. “Like…you feel something no one else does. Or you’re just some sort of alien from another planet.”
Will nods, smiling at the analogy. “Like I’m some sort of…outlier.”
That’s a word Mike didn’t really know, but he agrees nonetheless.
The boys always understood each other. Sometimes it feels like they have the same mind, how well they know the other.
“I don’t feel like that with you though,” Mike says quietly, after a moment of silence. Not even thinking about their unbreakable bond, Will was just an easy person to talk to. He listened and cared and was just so nice. Much nicer than Mike.
Will smiles fondly. “Me neither.”
After another hour or so of chatting about this and that, the boys fall asleep.
And then most of you
Will goes missing, and so does a part of Mike.
He had never been so worried when looking for him, but also relieved when he was found.
El’s disappearance hurt, sure, but Will was back. He had his Will again.
Until he didn’t and Will was possessed, and he was screaming, crying, and Mike would do anything to make it stop. He’s tied up, screaming in agony, retching in the chair, but it just won’t stop.
It should have been Mike. Why didn’t it take Mike? Will didn’t deserve this. He didn’t do anything wrong.
He covers his ears, trying to drown out the boy's cries.
“Someone make it stop,” he whispers. “Please, Will.”
Stop stop stop STOP STOP STOP STOP-
Some
Will can barely look at him.
Mike doesn't even know what he said. Yes, he’s been a lousy friend recently, but was that really what made Will look like he was in physical pain anytime he was faced to him?
“It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”
He doesn't even know what that means. It had just been another thing that flew out of Mike's mouth in a moment of anger and confusion and panic.
Now El, Will, and the rest of the Byers are off to California- across the Country. His relationship with the both of them in shambles.
Mike doesn't know what to do without Will. He doesn't know who he is without Will. And El- he needed her too.
Will won’t join another party. He's going to come back to visit. He doesn't hate him.
El kisses him. Mike pretends she's someone else.
And now none of you
Mike realizes he’s in love with his best friend the 56 days after he's left.
Highschool sucked without him. The boy spends most of his time, when not at school, sitting alone in the basement. Staring at the nintendo he played on with Will, or the table he sat at with Will, or the couch he talked to Will on, or-
The realization is scary. Of course it is. Finding out something so huge about yourself like that is scary. Coming to terms with the fact that you've been in love with a boy for practically your entire life is terrifying.
But none of that mattered, really. Will wasn’t there.
Mike misses him a lot. More than he thought was physically possible. Will is everywhere; the school hallways, his bike, his room, his friends. There is no escaping the fact that Will is across the country, probably glad to have gotten away from the curse that is Mike's presence in his life. In anyone's life.
But he wasn’t the only one suffering without Will. Everyone was. This whole situation made the whole party realize just how important will was to the group. He was like the glue who kept them together.
That’s why they all fell apart when he left.
Lucas became some wanna be jock, Max totally ghosted everyone, and Dustin was some awkward person in between. All Mike wanted was for things to go back to how they used to be. When they were just oblivious 6th graders who played games and had fun and never had to worry. Now the whole world has turned to absolute shit and Will was out of reach.
He couldn’t even call him. The line was always busy. And he couldn’t send him the letters he wrote, too worried they came off too strong. Mike wanted to apologize for how terrible he had been to Will and tell him he loved him and kiss him-
No. No, that can't happen.
El wrote to him. It's nice to talk to her. But she's not Will. She's kind and powerful and strong but she is not Will.
Mike thinks he would do anything to just get their friendship back. Nothing more than that. The amount of love he has for Will overbears his constant want for something more. He would be more than happy to have him in his life- as a friend.
But now even that is gone.
Wills was gone and so was a large part of Mike.
Oh take me back to the night we met
Will kicks the pebbles under his feet. Mike watches.
Somehow in the chaos of the end of the world, Hawkins basically crumbled into the depths of hell, and waiting for Vecna to make the first move, the boys ended up right where they started.
They swing parallel from each other, silently enjoying the company. There hasn’t really been much talking between them, at least about all their problems, but they were repairing themselves. For real this time.
Things felt easier between them; just like they should be.
“I missed you.”
Mike doesn't even realize he's said it until he sees Will look over at him in confusion, raising his gaze from the ground. To him, it must seem sudden. Out of the blue. But it’s really all that’s been running through Mike's mind.
I miss you please forgive me I love you I’m in love with you-
“I missed you too, Mike.”
Will's voice cracks when he says his name. Mikes flooded with sudden emotion. Will missed him. Will missed him.
He smiles over at him. “I don’t deserve you, y’know.” he says in one breath. It isn’t really a confession since everyone already knows it. Will is much too good for Mike.
Apparently Will does not expect that, his eyebrows drawing together, creating a crinkle in his forehead.
Mike has the silly want to kiss it away.
“Don’t say things like that,” Will whispers. He’s serious, almost as if Mike has insulted him and not himself. “Don’t- not when you know how much you mean to me.”
His heart flutters. “No, Will, you’re so kind, and brave, and thoughtful. You’re everything I’m not.” Mike knows this.
Will steps out of the swing, and slowly walks over to him. “Mike- I’ve already told you this,” he stops for a moment, as if he’s bracing himself for what he's about to say. Once he's directly in front of Mike, he clutches at his chest.
“ You are the heart. We need you,” Wills breath shudders as he reaches out for Mike, grabbing his hands from his lap and pulling them into his chest. “ I need you.”
The way he's staring at him feels like a confession. “Wha-”
“The painting,” he states simply, suddenly bashful.
Mike feels stupid. The painting, his words, the tears, they all made sense now. But still, there is only one question that comes to his mind.
“You love me?”
Will laughs at him, clutching onto his hands tighter. “Could I have been any more obvious?”
It feels like a dream. Mike has to be dreaming because there's no way Will would actually say this, and look at him like that, and bend down closer to him. “I mean, obviously you could have. Maybe then I would catch on sooner.”
Will smirks, making Mike's heart flutter, but it immediately disappears when Mike's lips are on his.
The boys smile as they part.
“Was that obvious enough for you?”
“Eh, I might need to do it again-”