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It’s a weird form of optimism to start dating someone when the world is falling apart.
That’s what Jonathan told him that three months ago and Mike’s been thinking about it ever since. Mike’s never considered himself to be an optimist. He’s told by everyone that he worries too much to consider himself anything but woefully pessimistic. Nancy wouldn’t hesitate to agree. Where she sees opportunities, Mike sees dead bodies. It’s certainly a point of contention between them.
But Jonathan Byers called him optimistic. He’s called him optimistic a couple of times since then actually. Mike’s not sure if he should be insulted or happy about someone who’s known him for nearly his entire life has decided he’s an optimist instead of an anxiety ridden control freak with rocks bouncing around in his empty brain.
But however Mike feels about it doesn’t change the fact that Jonathan Byers has decided Mike’s an optimist.
And somehow Mike knows that Jonathan’s going to be doubling down on that idea after this morning.
The past three months have simultaneously been the best and worst of Mike’s life. It’s been over a year since they lost. Everyday the world looks bleaker. His friends are tired and scared and his family is all over the place. Nancy’s fighting with their parents, their parents are fighting with each other, Holly’s just a kid and she’s scared and tired and as angry as a seven year old can manage to be before tiring herself out. Mike can’t stand it in his house most days but he can’t stand leaving them alone either.
Mike and El have just barely become friends again and the rest of the Party is in shambles. Weekly meetings about strategy have turned to monthly disasters. Lucas and El are still trying to get Max back after… all this time. They’re still trying. Mike knows they’ll find her but seeing Lucas and El looking more and more dejected each week kills him a little inside.
Everything fucking sucks.
Everything but… this.
The sun is coming up. As Mike stares, the room lightens around them. Soft golden rays bounce off of yellow walls and scatter over the drawings on them. Old drawings of campaigns and dragons and a few new framed portraits. Brushing over a few strands of brown hair.
Mike is reluctant to move. The pillow is molded perfectly to his head. It’s warm and safe. Will’s asleep and he looks… he looks. Will looks beautiful in this light. In every light, actually. But right now he’s free to stare without anyone else’s eyes on them. And he and Will are all tangled up in each other. Mike wouldn’t do anything to change this moment.
But they are going to be in so much shit if he doesn't climb out Will’s window in the next minute and a half.
It’ll be fine.
Probably.
Will groans and tugs Mike closer.
“Mmhnm- Why’re you awake.”
Mike lets Will smush his face into Mike’s neck and settle back into the bed, and Mike’s side, before he shatters this moment.
“It’s morning,” Mike says.
Gentle rays of sunlight fall over the two of them. Running like water over Mike’s fingers as he runs his fingers through Will’s hair.
“So?” Will’s lips brush over Mike’s neck and Mike takes a moment to reconsider his options.
He’s in bed with Will. The suns just started rising which means no one else should be awake for at least another hour. It's warm and Will’s tracing his fingers over Mike’s chest. Mike’s wearing Will’s shirt. It's one of his grey long sleeves which means that it doesn’t reach his wrists like it’s supposed to and it’s way too loose everywhere else. It’s perfect.
Mike’s eyes start to droop. Maybe Will’s right. Maybe he can just… stay here for a little longer. He’s never been in Will’s room overnight long enough to see the sunrise- at least not when he’s not supposed to be in Will’s room- but… Everyone’s always asleep when he leaves. And he's been at Will’s house enough to know everyone’s habits.
No one is awake right now. And they won’t be for a while.
Will’s hand lays gently over his heart. He’s asleep.
Mike can stay a little while longer.
—
The second time Mike wakes up it’s to frantic whispers and someone shaking his shoulders.
“Mike! C’mon- you gotta wake up!” Someone’s yelling at him very, very quietly. And it’s not his mom or Nancy or even Holly or anyone he’d expect to wake him up at home-
Mike’s eyes snap open.
Jonathan stares back.
Yellow walls and soft blankets and a shirt that he doesn’t dare wear anywhere but in the safety of Will’s room smack him back into reality. This isn’t his room. He’s not at home.
There are people moving around in the house. People are awake and Mike’s still in Will’s room- he’s still in Will’s fucking bed.
And Will-
“How is he still asleep,” Mike whispers as he gently shoves Will off of him.
Jonathan runs a hand through his hair, tugging on it when he gets to the ends. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter- we have to get you out of here, okay?”
Mike looks down at Will’s shirt and Will’s pajama shorts. They’ve got a white drawstring and white leaves and swords on green fabric that Will and El somehow made with bleach. He’s very proud of them and everyone knows exactly who made these and who they belong to.
Mike stares at Jonathan, opening and closing his mouth helplessly.
Jonathan pinches his brow. “I’ll stall, you get dressed. I’ll meet you- shit where’s a place they won’t see?”
“The street over- I’ll run out the back and go through the forest,” Mike says.
“I can’t let you-.”
“I’ll be safe. It’ll be fine.”
Jonathan scrunches up his entire face for a few seconds before he relaxes and nods. “Okay, be safe. If you’re not- scream. We’ll figure it out.”
“I know.”
Jonathan shakes his head and mutters something under his breath before leaving the room, motioning for Mike to lock it behind him.
It’s not optimistic! It’s rational!
Mike locks the door and throws his clothes on as quietly as he can. Jonathan’s having some sort of conversation with Hopper that Mike can’t pay attention to right now and just as he tugs his jacket on over his own cold uncomfortable shirt, Will’s eyes blink open.
He squints at Mike, looking at the empty space beside him and back to where Mike’s scrambling to gather his things in the middle of the room. Out of the corner of his eye Mike sees him yawn.
He’s so fucking cute when he’s tired.
Will sits up and stretches his arms above his head. He slumps down and watches Mike quietly and frantically search for his things. “…What’s going on?”
Mike shoves his book into his backpack and pinches the zipper between his fingers as he zips it back up, hoping it’s quiet enough that no one else hears it. A few seconds pass and no one comes running into the room. It looks like he got away with it.
Then Mike walks over to Will and kneels down next to the bed. “Hi, I’ve gotta go.”
Will frowns. “Why?”
Mike cups Will’s cheek in his palm and kisses him gently. Will hums and tugs him closer. He melts into Will… he could stay here forever. Will starts to pull him back to bed and Mike almost lets him.
A door slams shut in the living room and Mike pulls away. He feels slightly dazed, unlike Will who looks far more awake, almost like Will stole half of Mike’s alertness for himself. With… his lips… and… everything.
Mike’s so fucking gone for Will Byers.
“Oh- oh, shit. Okay,” Will says as he sits up and pushes Mike towards the window. “Be safe. Don’t die. I love you. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Love you too,” Mike says already halfway out the window.
Will squeezes his shoulder before finally letting Mike slip through his fingers and into the backyard.
Just a few hours and a scary fucking forest to get through. Then he can sit next to Will as everyone yells at each other and the world and maybe if everyone’s too distracted with everything, Mike can hold Will’s hand.
Mike sprints towards the trees without looking back. He can’t afford to look back right now. Otherwise he won’t make it five steps into the forest without turning back around and running right back to Will’s room. It was so embarrassing the last time that happened. They had to wake Jonathan up so he could drive Mike home.
This strip of trees only lasts for long enough to feel lost in the middle. It’s dark. And it’s way too cold. Little bits of dirt and moss kick up around his shoes as he runs. They’re barely noticeable and if it weren’t for the fact that the drift in the air longer than the Earth's gravity should allow, Mike would have never noticed them. It freaks him out everytime. He tries not to look at everything that’s not normal. He keeps running. Past trees and shadows and darkness and silence.
And he can’t see the other side.
But he’s almost there- he knows he’s almost there-
Mike trips and crashes over the forest floor. Something snaps a little to his left as he lays in the dirt. He doesn’t look towards it.
He just keeps running.
He was just hearing things. There’s nothing there. There’s nothing there. There’s nothing-
Mike tumbles out from the tree line and sprints towards Jonathan, who is in Hopper's truck for some reason. He scrambles into the passenger seat and doesn’t relax until the engine starts and they’re turning off onto a different street.
Jonathan drums his fingers on the steering wheel.
“So…”
Mike crosses his arms. “I just don’t like the forest okay? It’s creepy and dark and it always feels like something is watching me or following me and it’s just weird okay?”
“Woah, hey,” Jonathan says. “That’s… that’s okay. It’s dangerous out there. You have every right to not want to go through it alone.”
Mike hums, looking out the window.
“That’s not really what I was going to say either.”
Mike looks down. “Oh. Sorry.”
“Hey, you’re on edge right now. It’s okay… just. Breath for a second, alright?”
Mike closes his eyes for a moment and lets all his anxious thoughts bleed away. The forest. Sleeping in. The Upside Down. Hawkins. Will.
In and out.
In.
And out.
He’s okay.
“So… uh- what were you going to say?” Mike mumbles. Slowly, he opens his eyes again and blinks the light back into them.
Jonathan’s smirking when Mike looks over at him. The stupid teasing expression Mike’s known since he was five years old. He’s going to say something that he thinks is hilarious, and that Mike isn’t going to like at all.
“Cutting it kinda close this morning, huh?” Jonathan fiddles with the radio. He changes the station from Hopper’s usual music to the closest station that plays some sort of rock or whatever it is that Jonathan and Will listen to.
Mike rolls his eyes. “Nope- not talking about this- I know what you’re gonna say and you’re wrong.”
“Just saying, it’s kinda hard to deny at this point.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really?” Jonathan raises his eyebrows. “I thought you knew exactly what I was going to say.”
“Nope. I am a perfectly rational person.”
“Is that why you slept over last night? In my brother's room?”
Mike crosses his arms. “It’s not like this is the first time that I’ve… done that.”
“Nah. But it’s the first time that I’ve had to wake you up.”
“So? It was just… I- I slept in late.”
“You haven’t slept past sunrise in six months,” Jonathan says before signaling and turning onto Mike’s street.
“Why do you know that?”
“Nancy complains about it all the time.”
“Are you two even dating right now? Why would she tell you that!”
Jonathan laughs. “We’re still friends… kind of. It’s complicated and I know you don’t want to talk about my relationship with your sister because you’re a hypocrite.”
“I am not a hypocrite-”
“I literally just smuggled you out of Will’s room and drove you home.”
Jonathan parks a little ways away from Mike and Lucas’ houses. Just far enough away that they won’t be seen.
“…thank you.”
Jonathan ruffles Mike’s hair and Mike swats his hand away. “Anytime. I’ll be back in a couple hours to pick you and the others up for the meeting alright?”
Mike nods and opens the door. Jonathan smirks.
“What?” Mike asks, already halfway out of the truck.
Jonathan shakes his head and sighs. Mike closes the door. Before he turns away and starts walking home the window rolls down.
“You’ve got green paint on the back of your neck.”
Mike drags his nails across his skin and feels a bit of it chip away. “It’s fine. No one’s going to notice it anyway. And I can probably pick most of it off by the time I get home.
Jonathan shrugs and turns away. “Sure, if you’re being optimistic about it.” Then he starts the truck and drives away.
No one else would call Mike Wheeler an optimist. He’s worried about everything all the time, checks every plan at least six times, and has to check the locks on the doors everytime he leaves the house. He’s anxious and sees the flaws in everything because if they mess up one thing they’ll fail. They can lose someone else. Most people call Mike things that can be summarized as meaning meticulous to the point of being continuously aggravating.
But Mike is one of the few people left who still believes that they’ll make it out of this. That’s why he tries so hard to make sure that they won’t fail. So maybe Jonathan is right. Maybe Mike Wheeler really is an optimist.
It’s just really annoying that his boyfriend's older brother is the one saying it.