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At one moment Mike Wheeler was just coming into view in front of Will Byers.
Floating in the air.
The next moment Mike Wheeler was in front of Will Byers, but not the right Will Byers. Not the real Will Byers. And for some reason the real Will Byers was watching the whole thing unfold.
Will didn’t know why he was suddenly standing in Mike's mind, watching a scene play out. He didn’t know, from where he stood, where Mike's mind ended and where the space he occupied began.
It was like he was watching a movie screen, except there was no light reflection, it was a great black expanse, but it was also the field they had just been standing in.
It was Will walking up the hill to find Mike, and Mike having no idea that it wasn’t real.
As Will felt the strained tendrilled hand grab his shoulder and the all too familiar chill run up his spine, he suddenly understood that all he could do was stand and watch.
———
Mike Wheeler was not doing Too Great to say the least. Well, nobody was. He reminded himself he wasn’t special for feeling like shit. It was just the cause of a lot of these feelings that was… special.
And though he normally wouldn’t let himself acknowledge these things, he couldn’t help the little voice in his head that told him that Will Byers was the most beautiful person he had ever seen.
Will was walking back up the side of the hill; the golden sun that was rare for these days, if Mike had ever seen it recently at all, reflected from behind him into the crown of Will's hair. The only thing Mike could do was stare.
He was frozen in place.
Mike tried opening his mouth, he tried saying something along the lines of, “I haven’t seen the sun in months,”, he tried to turn himself away from the blinding light that was Will Byers smile.
But he Could. Not. Move.
And when he did, it wasn’t any of the things he had wanted to say or do, in fact it wasn’t as if he was doing anything at all. He just noticed absently that his legs had started towards Will.
And then his arms.
And then his eyes.
And then almost his head, his face, his mouth.
But then he saw the look in Will's eyes. The way his golden smile had turned into a scowl full of hate, and his bright eyes had shriveled in disgust. As he heard the words, his body frozen once again, they sounded distant and muffled, like a scream under water.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, you fucking queer!”
Mike knew this was wrong, he knew there was no way Will Byers could ever be a genuinely hateful person, he knew this wasn’t truly happening.
Was it?
Mike finally got his body to turn away from Will, when he saw something horrifying.
Will Byers.
Not the scowling, golden light Will Byers. The real Will Byers.
With Vecna right behind him.
———
Will made eye contact with Mike, unknowing of if Mike would even be able to see him. If the look on his face meant anything, Will would bet he had, and he didn’t know if he was relieved by that or not.
He honestly couldn’t tell if this was Mike's mind anymore either. Maybe all of this, maybe seeing him floating and then sudden teleportation, the whole scene that just played out was exactly that: a scene.
Maybe in reality, Will’s the one floating in the air right now. But Mike's eyes going huge, and his eyebrows knitting in shock, that was not a look Will could recollect, it wasn’t one he’d ever seen before. Somehow that’s what made him believe that he’s well and truly inside Mike’s head, and so was Mike.
And so was Vecna.
“So, that’s his greatest fear then.” Will spoke to the being behind him like an old friend, and they were somewhat adjacent to that in reality. Always being able to feel someone's presence did that to you.
“Yes, his greatest fear is rejection.” A gravelly voice spoke.
“I-” Will choked on his own voice, “I see.”
Mike looked frozen in his skin, permanent panic set eyes flitting between what Will assumed to be himself and Vecna.
“Does he really think I’d ever do that to him?”
“You ask the wrong questions, William.”
“What else is there to ask?”
“For answers, though you did always have a one-track-mind.” Vecna replied matter-of-factly.
“That’s answer enough for me.” Will finally turned to see Vecna for the first time, “I don’t need to ask to know what you want from me; I don’t know what use I could offer you, but I’d rather die than help you.”
“Ah, but dear Will, did you ever stop to think that I didn’t bring you here?” Vecna smiled, if that was possible.
“What?” Will asked breathlessly.
“Why,” Vecna started, “Would I have ever taken you to the Upside Down had there not been something different about you?” A smirk could be heard through his voice, “Don’t believe that I do not know what it’s like to feel different, but that does not make it bad. Eleven and the others at Hawkins lab, they were different too, but they were not like you and I, they were just an imitation of real power; I didn’t realize that until I felt your presence. Haven’t you ever felt it before? The thrum of power under your skin, the ability to change, create, destroy. But you deny it to yourself, and that, Will, is where you and I differ. You’re so sensitive to the people around you. Too sensitive.” Vecna looked away from Will and towards Mike, “To him especially. Hasn’t he done nothing but disappoint you? Nothing but anger you? The person you love does nothing but pretend he hates you, and why do you think that is? Oh, yes, his greatest fear is rejection, but you are his fear embodied. Don’t you see it? He’s scared of you. This is what sensitivity does; delays the inevitable truth. You only ever hurt the people closest to you, don’t you? Will, you need to wake up to yourself, wake up to the truth, wake up to your power.”
The world twisted around Will as his vision started fading out.
—
Tears had always been a constant in Will's life, though he, for so long, tried to hide it. As a young boy he had learned from Lonnie and the boys at school that crying was a thing for babies and fairies, or both as they had often ascribed to him.
He was five years old the first time his father had hit him. He would say that he started crying afterwards, but truly the first tears had fallen long before the phone book had touched him.
He watched the scene unfold in front of him.
Will had become friends with Mike Wheeler a few weeks prior to this on the first day of Kindergarten, and had since become best friends. How was Will to know that you weren’t supposed to hold hands with your friends?
He certainly found out the hard way.
That was also the first time he had been called a slur, not that he knew it at the time, but he would find out sooner or later what that word truly meant. Along with fairy, fruit, queer. He also didn’t know at the time that they had been right, and what a spiral that had been when he found out.
Mike Wheeler stood in front of Will, but not the real Mike Wheeler. No, this was thirteen year old Mike Wheeler in the rain with a thirteen year old Will Byers standing next to him, who had just recently had that aforementioned revelation.
“It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!” Mike spat out. Apparently he had had the same revelation about Will as well, or maybe he had always known and just ignored it. Maybe Will had done the same.
Will's attention was drawn away from thirteen year old Mike and Will, to the now sixteen year old Michael Wheeler who was watching the whole thing unfold while standing next to Will now. He was shaking and he flinched at the faithful words his own mouth had spit out only a few years ago. His eyes darted over to the present day Will Byers, who tried his hardest to look as unphased as possible. That was difficult considering Mike was looking at him so full of sympathy? Pity? Certainly not apathy, that’s for sure, and it was almost too much. Almost. Will held his gaze.
Will didn’t look at the scene’s playing out, and instead kept his eyes trained on Mike, so he missed watching himself getting pushed around in the Hawkins Middle School hallway by Troy, missed high schoolers trying to freak him out on Halloween, missed the destruction of Castle Byers, missed the Mind Flayers possession, missed the fact that Michael Wheeler showed up to help him in every single one of those moments without fail.
No, Will resolutely looked right at Mike, but he couldn't help but feel like he was missing something as Mike went between watching everything unfold in front of them and meeting Will's eyes with his own. But, that was the thing, he wasn’t missing anything, not really; he'd gone through it already, he didn’t need to relive it.
And then that was exactly what he was doing. Instead of a young Will and Mike, they both stood under the garage of the Wheelers home looking as they did now, being who they were now. Will vaguely heard the words leave his mouth,
“You’re ruining the Party and for what? Just so you can swap spit with some stupid girl?” He winced at calling his sister a stupid girl, but he had no choice in saying those words faithfully.
“El’s… not.. Stupid,” Mike got out of his mouth as if he was fighting his own words. His eyes wildly shifted towards their surroundings, he looked as if he was trying to escape his own body, his own mouth.
“It’s not my.. Fault.. You don’t…” Mike gagged, choking on his own throat. His eyes looked frantically at Wills, half an apology, half a plea, “Like…”
Will didn’t know what came over him, but before Mike could finish the sentence that he’d replayed in his mind thousands of times over, he started laughing.
The rain kept falling, and Will kept laughing.
The rain kept falling, and Mike caught his breath.
The rain stopped falling.
“Why,” Mike started, still scared that the wrong word might come out, “why are you laughing?”
Will took a moment to catch his breath as he noticed the previous sounds of rain and birdsong had stopped dead in their tracks, and the droplets of water were frozen in the air where they had been falling.
“Well, because apparently this was Vecna’s plan to turn me to the ‘dark side’” Will still had a light laugh in his tone, “He really thought that making me revisit my trauma was going to get me to say, ‘Yeah, actually I think I’ll turn my back on the only good people in my life’”
While that was what made Will laugh at first, there was something else. Something so ironic that maybe, just maybe, Mike would find funny too.
“And, it just hit me how ironic those words were too,” Will added, feeling a bravery he hadn’t felt in the back of the van from California.
“Huh?” Mike was still trying to get his brain to catch up to what was happening at all.
“Well, you know, ‘it’s not my fault you don’t like girls,’” Will swallowed the lump in his throat, “It kind of is your fault. That I don’t like girls.”
“Oh,” Was all Mike could get out before the chill ran down Will’s neck once more and the tendrilled figure that was Vecna appeared once more in front of Mike.
The landscape changed from the comfortable familiarity of the Wheelers basement to a dark and barren red landscape. Vines of tendrils rushed from the command of Vecna to grab hold of the wrists and ankles of both boys, one started wrapping around Mike’s neck, who began to choke. Vecna turned to face Will, a hand still outstretched towards Mike.
“So, that is the path you choose. Pass up the opportunity of greatness for what? For a love that cannot last, for people who will fail you over and over again. No one understands you, Will, no one but me. We are one and the same and yet you would rather choose to be a failure than become the truly powerful force you were born to be. What a waste.” Vecna sneered at Will, “You’ve left me no choice.”
Vecna poured his full attention and power onto Will now, the vines restraining Will from trying to grab at his neck. He was unable to breath, his vision starting to black out on the edges, his feet lifting off the rocky ground.
“Will!” like a crack of thunder, the voice of Mike yelled out as loud as he could, “Will, you can get through this! You can’t leave me like this, Will, when I said crazy together I meant it! When I said becoming friends with you was the best decision I ever made, I meant it! So, Will, believe that I mean it when I say I need you! I lo-” Mike was cut off by the tendril around his neck tightening as Vecna diverted part of his attention back over to Mike, leaving just enough space for Will to feel some oxygen hit his lungs.
Power was not something that Will had ever let himself feel fully, the humming under his skin, something he knew would make him irrevocably different. One more thing added to the grocery list of flaws and differences. But, now- now was the time to make it useful, if he even could.
As Will let the power rise through his veins and his pores, through the very fiber of his being, he could feel nothing but anger.
Maybe it was because of all those old memories he had tried to let collect dust in the corner of his mind he never visited, maybe it was because Michael Wheeler was dying in front of him, maybe it was because this was all Will’s fault.
For the first time, Will did something helpful.
Will felt the blood run out from his nose and his eyes, and really all of his pores. He heard himself screaming from far away, the blood rushing in his ears far too loud to hear anything else in the forefront. He felt the tendrils around himself loosen, and saw the vines around Mike drop him to ground, but he knew this was not enough to defeat Vecna, he’d known that for years. All he needed to do was get Mike out of here.
He could worry about himself later.
Once he mustered up enough power to get the vines holding onto him to the ground, he used the rest of what he’d got to slow down Vecna in his shock and pushed him to the ground. Once Vecna stumbled back, Will ran towards Mike, grabbed him, closed his eyes, and focused.
—
Will opened his eyes to find himself and Mike sitting on a swing set. For a moment, he was watching their five year old selves meet for the first time, then he glanced over to see Mike watching them as well. Just as quickly as they were there, they were gone again.
“What was that?” Mike asked with wonder in his voice.
“Us,” Will started, realizing he was still holding onto Mike as they sat on the dirt of a playground, Mike met his eye, “My happiest memory.” They stared at each other for a moment before Will continued, “El said that’s what Max did to bide time when Vecna was in her head; she thought of the time she was happiest.”
“Oh,” Mike stared in awe, and Will caught the downward movement of Mike’s eyes, as he’d kept catching over the years. That was another of the things he put in the corner of his brain to never think about again. Mike’s eyes lingered for longer than normal, but it seemed he remembered himself and looked back to Will’s eyes, “Will, we really need to ta-”
“Find a way out of here,” Will interrupted as he got to his feet to walk over next to the swing set, “Who knows how long we have until Vecna finds us again. Honestly, we’re probably floating in the air right now, maybe seconds away from all of our bones being snapped like KitKats.” Mike scrunched his nose at the analogy but nodded as he got up from dirt as well.
“Wait, whose mind are we in right now?” Mike wondered, “Because at first it was mine, but those were your memories and this is yours as well.”
“Definitely me, if I’m able to control the memory it would make sense to be mine, right?”
“Right, but if you’re, you know” Mike gestured wildly around Will, “Like El, or Vecna, or whatever,” Mike interrupted his own train of thought, “which when the hell did that happen?” Will looked at him exasperatedly and gestured for Mike to hurry up.
“Okay, later, got it. but wouldn’t it make more sense that you’re in my head?” Will took a moment to contemplate before responding,
“Would it?” Will questioned.
“Yeah, I would assume so, how would I be here otherwise?”
“Huh, I guess that does make sense, but you weren’t in every memory we were shown.”
“I wasn’t?”
Will paused and just stared at Mike.
“No,” he said incredulously, “As far as I’m aware, you weren’t there for Lonnie.”
“No, I wasn’t, but what’s Lonnie got to do with this?” Mike asked, incredibly confused.
“What do you mean what's Lonn- Wait, oh my god,” everything started to make sense to Will now, “You weren’t there for Lonnie!”
“Yeah, I know, and it’s great I didn’t really have to deal with his bullshit,” Mike stopped for a second to contemplate, “Well, it would’ve been nice if I could’ve been there for you from the beginning, but that’s beside the point. You’re gonna have to spell this out for me, Will.”
Will paused for a moment at how weirdly sweet Mike was, but remembered himself. He cleared his throat before speaking.
“V-Vecna, he showed me a memory of Lonnie in my mind, but you didn’t see it! We’re not in my mind, Mike! All the memories that you saw earlier, both of us were in them, you were already in them when they started!”
“Okay, okay…” the wheels in Mike’s brain started turning as well, “Then does that mean you can manipulate people's memories like Vecna can?”
“What?” Will choked out, caught in surprise and fear by the suggestion, “no, Mike, I would never do that.”
“No, no, I know that,” Will couldn’t help but blush at that as Mike waved off the thought, “you might not use your powers in the same way that Vecna does, but they’re the same powers! You brought us here to this memory, and obviously at the time you didn’t know it was my brain, but we’re here all the same. You were able to move us, not just piggyback like El, but actually move us!”
“Oh shit,” Will said smartly, “holy shit.”
“Will, do you know what this means?”
“Um, generally yes, but if there’s something specific you’re thinking, not really.”
“It means that I’m probably the only one in danger of Vecna right now,” Mike tried for casual, but it still came out laced with fear, “Or at least I’m probably the only one of the two of us that’s in risk of becoming a KitKat. Vecna was gunning after you in my mind, but maybe that’s the only way he can get to you? Maybe him getting to me was so he could set a trap for you!”
“Mike, these are all great theories for later,” Will started feeling antsy, “but they don’t help us get out of here safe now.”
As if on cue, the bright lighting of that fateful September afternoon darkened significantly. Time was getting shorter and shorter by the second. They both looked up to the sky then back at each other with knitted eyebrows.
Will had only one idea.
“Mike,” Will started, voice laced with worry, “What’s your favourite song?”
“Will?” Mike's eyes quickly widened at Will, filled with horror, the grin he was wearing earlier had completely fallen from his face.
“You have to trust me, Mike. What’s your favourite song?”
Mike slowly nodded at Will, having no idea what Will could be thinking, but had confidence in him anyway. He smiled towards Will, as he crossed the barrier between them and pulled him into the tightest hug he could manage. He buried his face into Will’s neck and answered him,
“Smalltown Boy, Bronski Beat.”
Will pulled Mike out of the hug, still holding him, as he huffed a quiet laugh,
“Of course it is,” Will smiled once again, a small thing, just for Mike, “You’re going to be okay, I promise.”
“I trust you,” Mike’s voice low, pausing for a moment, he took a deep breath and continued, “I love you.”
“I-” Will started, but was cut short as the darkness grew until they were covered in shadow, and Will knew he had no time to spare. Just as quickly as he had entered Mike's mind, he was out of it and back in the field looking up at the floating body of Mike, who’s eyes were starting to bleed.
—
Mike Wheeler knew his day could end one of two ways, either he got out of here because of Will, or he died. Yet, for some reason those weren’t the things he was very focused on, instead his mind was a replay loop of, “He didn’t say it back, he didn’t say it back, he didn’t say it back,”
The world changed and warped around Mike as the shadows that had been slowly creeping before began to consume the playground that had been there moments before. It twisted and turned around Mike as something began to shape in around him. It was still dark, but a normal Autumn evening type of darkness.
He saw the water and he knew.
In early November, 1983, Will Byers body was found in the Quarry and Mike was there to see it. Of course, now he knew that wasn’t actually Will; now he knew his Will was alive. He didn’t then, and that still ate at him long after he saw Will again.
The memory though was not as it once was. This time there was no fire truck, no crowd around, nobody to pull Will out of the water. No, this time Will rose out of the Quarry himself, body water logged as a mix of blood and water spilled out of his mouth with his rise. His eyes were sunken into themselves and his skin was a cold, dead, grey. He was still wearing the puffed jacket he’d always had.
“Mike,” a strangled imitation of Will's voice came through the being, “how did you let this happen to me, I thought we were best friends?” The look on his- it’s face was of genuine questioning.
Mike didn’t answer it; he didn’t think it deserved to be answered, it wasn’t the real Will, and it never had been.
“Mike,” Mike whirled around on his heel to see a different Will Byers, one with black veins coursing through his skin, “how could you let this happen to me, I thought we were best friends?” This Will spoke with a ferocity that he’d never heard coming from Will before.
Mike couldn’t say that Will hadn’t existed.
“You’re not real!” Mike yelled, and he turned away. He couldn’t have stopped what happened, he never could have known. He doesn’t blame himself. He doesn’t.
As he turned he saw another Will Byers, running up to him, panic in his eyes.
“Mike!” He yelled as he ran closer, “I can get you out of here, I think, I just need a little more time!” he was out of breath by the time he reached Mike, “You just need to hang in a little bit longer.” he grabbed onto Mike’s shoulder and looked into his eyes.
Mike met his black eyes.
Mike stumbled back from Will, landing on his butt as he fell backwards. Will’s face twisted in hurt, wounded by Mike’s sudden fear.
“Mike,” Will started, “what’s wrong?” voice soft and tentative.
“You’re not Will!” He looked up at the face he’s known for as long as he can remember, and he does not recognize those eyes.
“What?” Will's face contorted in worry, but it was wrong; Mike knew it was wrong.
“What do you want from him?” Mike yelled.
“Ah, you do catch on quick don’t you Michael,” Will's voice shifted and melded into the low strained voice of Vecna, but he still looked like Will, besides the eyes, “I should’ve known you would.” He started slowly walking closer.
Mike, still on the ground, started backing up, trying to put some distance between himself and Vecna. He hit his back against something, and as he turned his head to see what it was, he saw the Will that had been in the back of the Surfer Boy Pizza truck, hand covering his mouth to quiet his sobs. In front of him, he saw the thirteen year old Will Byers, soaked by rain crying and muttering the word ‘stupid’ over and over again. On his right was the waterlogged body, and his left was the black veined Will. He was surrounded.
“Mike,” They all said in unison, “how could you let this happen to me? I thought we were best friends.” again and again and again as Vecna laughed a throaty growl of a laugh in the body of Will Byers. All Mike could do was curl into himself, hands on his head with the only hope that Will could forgive him.
—
“I found this song I think you’d like,” a voice sounded out as Mike raised his head and looked into the shining green eyes of a certain Will Byers, “do you want to listen to it?” Will’s voice lilted in question and it just felt right.
Mike looked around and noticed, rather than on the floor, he was sitting with his back against the headboard of his own bed. The room was full of knick-knacks he had collected over the years and looked almost exactly as he had left it before he left for California except there was an entirely new pile of dirty clothes on the floor full of hand-me-down flannels, button-ups, and khaki jeans.
He knew this memory; he loved this memory.
It had been a few weeks after the “earthquake” that hit Hawkins, and the Byers had to find a place to relocate in Hawkins for the foreseeable future. El and Hopper had gone back into hiding in his cabin with Joyce, who went between the cabin and the Wheelers, where Will and Jonathan had been able to stay.
Mike and Will were starting to go back to normal, they were becoming the team that Mike had proposed they become again. Of course, they had their arguments, but that was to be expected. Mike thought that this memory would be like their fight in the rain, where he needed to follow a script, but he found his tongue could speak freely.
“Of course.” Mike uncurled on leg off the edge of the bed and waited in anticipation even though he already knew what song was going to play. Just as he had expected, the synths to Smalltown Boy started playing from Will’s Walkman.
Mike rested his head against his knee that was bent as he relaxed into the ease of familiarity. His eyes closed, and his mouth quirked upwards as he spoke,
“do you know what it’s about?” Mike opened his eyes to meet Will’s.
Will looked towards him in surprise, took a shaky breath, and spoke different words than he had all those months ago,
“It’s about a- a gay man who leaves his smalltown to escape rejection,” Will’s eyes looked up from where he had been wringing his hands in his lap and met Mike’s.
Mike spoke softly through his grin,
“Yeah, I know,” He kept looking at Will, as the synth, drums, and vocals seeped into his brain and washed over him like a warm hug, “I know, Will.” As he moved closer to Will and hugged him tight, it felt like coming home.
—
When he finally opened his eyes, Mike was in the arms of Will Byers, a breeze rustling through the trees on the outskirts of the field. He looked up at a teary eyed boy with blood running down his nose and wiped it away with his thumb.
“You did it,” Mike breathed out, “you got us out of there, Will.” He looked in awe at his best friend. Will laughed a small watery laugh.
“Yeah, I guess I did,” Will's grip on Mike tightened ever so slightly, “I really did.”
Then Mike did the bravest thing he’s ever done.
He kissed Will Byers.
Will Byers kissed him back.
It was a little too desperate, and the taste of blood meshed in their mouths, but it was perfect. Will pulled back to look at Mike with wide shining eyes.
“I love you, too,” Will said quickly, as Mike started laughing a hearty laugh, “Just, you know, in case that wasn’t obvious enough.” Will smiled through the rest of his sentence. Mike just pulled him closer and kept hugging him. He nestled his head in Will’s shoulder so Will could feel his lips move as he spoke,
“Thank you,” he turned his face to look up at Will’s side profile, “for being my best friend.” He suddenly got up to grab Will’s shoulders and look him in the eyes, “And, I’m sorry that I wasn’t there for you. I’m sorry I let everything happen to you, if I had just asked you to sleepover that night, or biked you home, or-”
“Mike, it’s not your fault,” Mike fell silent, “I don’t blame you for anything that happened, I mean it. If it hadn’t happened then, it would’ve happened sometime else.” Will took a shaky breath and continued, “You know, the Upside Down, the Mind Flayer, everything, it was Vecna the whole time, and he wasn’t just coming after anybody, he was coming after me. He wanted me so I could become his apprentice or something like that,” he laughed a little as Mike continued to stare at him, “I think that’s why everything that just happened, well, happened. He was seeing if it had worked, if he’d convinced me enough. Obviously, he hadn’t.”
“Will, you know we’re going to need to tell everyone else about that, especially El, right?” Mike’s tone was low and serious.
“I know, but first we need to get back home.”
“Home?” The smile Mike was wearing seeped through into his voice. Will got up from the grass and brushed his pants off with his hands before reaching out for Mike’s hand to pull him up; Mike took it easily, and was taken off guard with how much force Will pulled him up, and he stumbled forward, almost crashing into Will. Right, Mike would need to get used to that.
“You heard what I said.” Will replied with a smile of his own as he noticed the red blush starting to dust Mike’s face. Mike clapped an arm around Will’s shoulders as they started walking from the field back to the Hawkins suburbs.
“Yeah, I did.”