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Mike? Mike! The static of his walkie-talkie on the table next to him grabs Mike’s attention, but the pained panic of his best friend’s voice is what brings him back to reality, making him put down his favorite comic book. He reaches over to answer the call as quick as he can, desperate to stop his friend’s cries, to let him know that he’s there.
“Will? I’m here. What’s wrong?” He stops himself from adding an ‘over’, sensing that this was far too serious for proper etiquette. There’s only one reason in which Will gets this panicked: The Upside Down. Usually it’s just because of a nightmare, which have gotten worse since the Mind Flayer possessed him a month ago. But there’s always a sinking feeling in Mike’s stomach that, this time, Will is in present danger, that he will hear ‘code red’ answered back. He thankfully never is, but that doesn’t stop the dread that it will happen eventually.
Mike is quickly pulled out of his stream of worries. “Can you come over? Please?” A wave of relief washes over him, which he fees guilty about seeing as his friend is seemingly on the verge of a panic attack, breath rapid and heavy. “On my way,” he replies quickly, walking as fast as he can down the stairs and out the door without his mother becoming worried.
It’s 2 O’Clock in the afternoon as he starts biking down the road. Mike would be worried that this isn’t a nightmare due to the time of day, but he knows that Will has gotten basically no sleep these past couple weeks, so it’s not too crazy to think he was having a nap. Since the gate has been closed, Mike has spent every day with Will. For the first few days, he practically lived at the Byers house. Eventually, his mother made him come home at night, but he would be back first thing in the morning. He felt bad that Joyce didn’t get to spend much one-on-one time with Will, but the distressed look on his face when Mike left each day was enough to justify his selfish actions. Joyce didn’t seem to mind much anyway, she was just happy that her son was happy.
Today was the first day they were apart, as both Joyce and Jonathan had work and his mom didn’t want him there without supervision. He had argued to let Will stay with them today, but she said they were spending too much time together. See what happens, mother? You caused this.
After what seems like forever, he finally ends up in the Byers’ driveway. He throws down his bike hastily and runs up the porch to the front door. He grabs the spare key from beneath the loose wood of a window frame and lets himself in. “Will?” He calls while running to his room, letting him know that he’s here.
Whatever horrible sight he’s experiencing to see, it’s nothing like what’s sitting in front of him. As he pushes open the door of Will’s bedroom, he braces himself for a red-eyed, tear-stained boy, trying to make himself as small as possible by curling into a ball. Instead lies a perfectly fine Will, breaking into a smile as he sees his best friend.
“Mike!” He tilts his head a bit too far to the side, as if he can’t keep it up. “What are you doing here?”
Mike’s face scrunches up, very visibly confused. “You called me?”
Will lets out a small laugh, almost a giggle. “Oh yeah, I had a nightmare.”
Mike’s suspicions were confirmed, though there seems to be no evidence of it. He goes to sit on the edge of the bed in front of Will, who’s sitting criss-cross by his pillow. “Are you alright?” He asks, though referring more to his current state than his apparent nightmare.
“I’m fine! I’m happy now that you’re here. I was sad before, but I fixed it.” He answered vaguely, slightly slurring his words. Will was making little sense and was smiling so much it was becoming worrying.
“How did you ‘fix it’?” Mike questions. His first thought is that he stole some alcohol from the fridge, but that seems unlikely as Will swore off ever drinking after his father left.
“It’s a secret”. Will’s eyes go wide as he places a finger on his lips in a shushing motion, immediately giggling again afterwards.
“Can you tell me the secret?” As much as he’s worried about his friend, he’s kind of loving this. He hasn’t seen him this happy since before the Mind Flayer, possibly even the Upside Down entirely. Plus, something about Will’s over exaggerated expressions makes Mike smile. Not that he would ever admit it, but Will looks cute.
Will considers for a couple seconds, tapping his chin in a childish manner. “Okay,” he grabs Mike’s face with both his hands, slightly squishing his cheeks. “But don’t tell Mike.”
“Why can’t I tell Mike?” He raises an eyebrow trying to sound playful, but it comes across more concerned.
“He’ll get mad,” Will replies with a slight frown, slowly lowering his hands. Mike immediately panics. Is Will scared of Mike getting mad? Has he given him the impression that he can’t come to him with anything? Has he turned into the bane of his existence, Lonnie? He thought he controlled his emotions pretty well, especially with Will who scares easily in the presence of anger. Goddamn Lonnie.
Luckily, Will quickly clarifies. “Not bad mad,” he looks down at his hands in lis lap. “Good mad. Like he cares. I like it.” He quickly looks back up at Mike, who thinks he’s acting a bit like a puppy, and holds out his pinky. “Promise?”
Mike laughs a little and returns the gesture, interlocking pinkies. “I promise.” He ignores the slight butterflies in his stomach as he lets go of Will’s hand.
Will takes a quick glance at his bedside table and returns his gaze back to his lap, laughing to himself. Mike’s eyes follow where his had been a second ago. Oh no. Sitting on the table is an empty syringe, the same as the ones that Joyce had taken from the lab when Will had been possessed. Everyone had assumed that they were all full of the ‘knock out’ kind of drug, but in hindsight, it was probably a bad idea to inject him with unknown substances. Will had probably assumed the same thing, and was trying to knock himself out so he wouldn’t have to think of his nightmare. Apparently, this one was filled with some sort of loopy drug.
“In my nightmare,” Will explains, “There was a big worm man.” Mike fights a laugh at that, knowing that regular Will would never in a million years describe someone as a “Worm man.”
“He seemed to know me, and I knew him, although I’d never seen him before. We were in the Upside Down, but not anywhere I’d been before. He told me that he would return, that no one was safe, and that my time is almost up. He touched my arm, like really touched my arm. It felt so real that I couldn’t breathe, so I took one of the syringes to go back to sleep.” He isn’t laughing anymore, but he doesn’t seem too upset. More numb, thanks to the drug.
Mike adjusts his spot on the bed to where he’s sitting next to Will, and wraps an arm around his shoulders. “It’s alright, I won’t let any worm monsters get you. I promise,” he jokes, trying to get him laughing again. Will just stares at him with the slightly widened eyes he’s had since Mike walked in the room. He tries again, a bit more serious this time. “We closed the gate, you’re safe. And even on the small chance this mess isn’t over, I’ll destroy anything before gets to you. We’ve won before, we can do it again. Nothing will hurt you.”
Will just blinks at him. “I’m tired,” he says lightheartedly as he speedily lies down on his side, facing Mike.
Mike chuckles to himself as he starts to get up from the bed.
“Wait.” A hand grabs his wrist and he looks back to see Will, already half asleep but still with a terrified look in his eyes. “Stay with me.”
He doesn’t argue as he lies down, mirroring the boy next to him. After Will’s eyes close, he admires how his bangs part, slightly ruffling with the breeze from his open window, revealing part of his forehead he only gets to see when he’s asleep, how his mouth is slightly open, ready for his inevitable snoring, how he looks so peaceful, a sight he never gets to see nowadays. It almost makes him want to—
“Kiss me,” Will says in a half whisper as eyes flutter open to stare directly into Mike’s.
“What?” Mike asks alarmed, as the question starts to sink in. Did Will just ask to kiss him? Why is he considering it? Why is he happy? Does he want to kiss Will? He thinks back to every time the two boys weren’t standing close enough for Mike’s liking, so he moved closer; to every time they touched and the butterflies that followed without fail; to the warm feeling in his chest every time Will smiled at him; to the way he could look at his face for hours, telling himself that it’s just because he has an ‘easy face to look at.’ Suddenly it became clearer than ever. How had he not seen it before? He’s in love with Will Byers.
“I always want to kiss you, and you never want to kiss me,” Will pouts.
“I do! I do want to kiss you! But…” Mike is suddenly aware that Will is not himself at the moment. Maybe this is just the drugs talking. Maybe Will doesn’t actually feel this way. He can’t take that chance. If Will wakes up and doesn’t feel the same, he could never live with himself for kissing him while drugged. “Not now. Not until you’re better.”
“Okay.” He sounds disappointed, but ultimately understands and closes his eyes again. There’s only thirty seconds before Mike hears faint snoring.
Mike doesn’t sleep, he can’t. He spends the next four hours replaying every memory with this newfound context, panicking about his future, and praying that Will’s confession wasn’t a fabrication of the drugs.
———
Will opens his eyes to a figure lying next to him. His head is foggy, and so is his vision. The figure tentatively props themselves up on their elbow.
“Hey.”
Mike
“Hey,” Will replies, slowly regaining his vision. Mike looks worried, or even scared. “What’s up?”
“How are you feeling? Are you still all weird?”
“Weird?” Will asks, scrunching his eyebrows.
“The drug? The drug that you decided to inject into your bloodstream when you had no idea what it would do?” There it is. That protectiveness that Will only tolerates from one person.
“Sorry.”
Mike’s expression grows softer, though it wasn’t that mad to begin with. “Hey, don’t apologize. It was Worm Man’s fault anyway. I just hate that you were in so much pain that you had to take such drastic measures.”
“Worm Man?” Will asks with a slight laugh.
“You don’t remember Worm Man? Oh, I heard all about him. Sounds like a douche,” Mike jokes.
Will smiles, despite the memories of his worst nightmare yet. Mike always has a way of making him feel better.
“You don’t remember anything from earlier?” Mike asks, the look of worry back on his face.
“Vaguely.” Will looks up slightly to jog his memory. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No!” Mike insists. “You just, you told me something.”
Will winces. Having no filter around Mike can be dangerous. Please don’t be the one secret Mike can never know.
“You wanted me to sit with you while you slept, in case you had another nightmare. You don’t remember?”
Suddenly, a memory flashes into Will brain. It’s so fuzzy that it could very well be fake. Will hopes it is fake. Kiss me.
Will starts rambling, hoping that if he keeps moving his mouth, his brain won’t have time to overthink. “I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I said that. That was really stupid, I was drugged, I’m so sorry. It’s fine if you don’t want to hang out with me anymore, I understand. Please don’t tell anyone I said that.”
“Did you mean it?”
“Huh?”
“Did you mean it?” Mike repeats.
Will pauses. If he tells him the truth, he loses a friend. His best friend. If he lies, he breaks the party’s number one rule. He would rather have no friend than a best friend that he lies to. He shuts his eyes tight, bowing his head. “Yes. I meant it.” There’s an overwhelming feeling of shame and embarrassment with those words. Shame that’s been imbedded in him from Troy, Lonnie, pretty much everyone he’s ever met. He hopes that Mike isn’t everyone. Still, he braces himself for what’s to come.
A pair of lips crash against his, a sweet alternative to the expected string of slurs, or even sting of a punch. It only lasts for a few seconds, giving Will enough time to just sit there with wide eyes, stunned.
Mike quickly pulls away, looking about as startled as Will feels. “What?” Will asks breathily and slightly high pitched, very confused.
“I promised I would. After you felt better.” Mike replies quietly, his blush becoming very evident.
“Oh, okay,” Will returns the blush. “You didn’t do it just because I asked you to, right?”
“No! I…I like you.” Mike cautiously places his hand over Will’s, looking down at his lap.
Will smiles as he turns his hand over to be palm side up, interlacing their fingers. “I like you too,” he confirms as he moves his gaze from their interlocked hands to Mike’s face with a beaming smile.
Mike returns the smile just before they hear the sound of keys entering the front door. They jump slightly, glancing in the direction of the sound with wide eyes before meeting each other again, laughing at how jumpy they are. They quickly untangle their hands and turn towards the bedroom door.
Joyce knocks softly before opening the door and walking in. “Mike!” She says surprised. “I thought you weren’t allowed to be here today.”
Will and Mike share a look that says What do we do? I don’t know, what do you think we should do? Mike is the first one to respond. “I was just picking up my textbook that I left here.”
“Right, your textbook.” Joyce replies sarcastically. “You should get home before your mom notices.”
“Yes! I should! Bye Will!” He turns to look at him, giving a smile with a glint in his eye that only the two of them can detect. And with that, he turns to walk out the door.