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“ We need to stop him. Today.”
The sentence has been echoing in Mike’s head all day. El said it earlier that morning - or maybe it was actually the evening. It’s impossible to know anymore. Clocks and compasses don’t work anymore, spinning endlessly with no direction, and there’s been no day or night in Hawkins since the Upside Down bled into it months ago. Nothing but dark clouds and spores and lightning. The storm has never been this bad, though, and they all know what that means.
One is not going to wait any longer. He wants El.
And he wants Will.
It terrifies Mike to even think of it. One has made it increasingly clear that he wants Will much, much more than he wants El - for reasons nobody knows or understands. Last night, everyone in their party - Mike’s friends, Jonathan, Mrs Byers, even Steve and Robin - was shown a vision of exactly what would happen if One didn’t get what he wanted soon. He hasn’t revealed why he’s so obsessed with Will, but somehow, Mike doesn’t think he wants to hang out and catch a movie with him. It makes Mike angry as much as it makes him scared.
As detestable and scary as One’s obsession with Will is, though, it can’t even compare to how much anger and fear Mike feels about El’s plan - because simply put, she and Will are going to give One exactly what he wants.
The plan isn’t that simple, he knows that - it’s not a surrender. But it feels like one. He’s not the only one who absolutely hates the plan - Jonathan and Mrs Byers were almost in hysterics over it - but with the way One has ramped up his attacks on Hawkins over the last few days, it’s become apparent that they don’t have a choice.
El and Will are going to go into the Upside Down.
They have a strategy, of course; they’re going to have people on the outside monitoring everything and taking out any creatures that come up through the gates. They’re going in armed - Will’s been practicing with his shotgun. The ever-dwindling number of soldiers scattered around Hawkins are collectively looking the other way at the highly-illegal sawed off end of it - the law means nothing when you’re shooting at demodogs. His backpack is full of explosives and supplies, and El has the full force of her powers to protect them. It’s little comfort against the simple truth that the two people Mike cares most about in the world are about to walk into the arms of the guy that has been trying to kill them for years.
Now, it’s time for it to happen, and Mike is watching Will pack and trying to resist the insane urge to hide him in his basement. Or maybe his closet. Somewhere he won’t be found, and therefore can’t sacrifice himself to One.
“We’ll be okay, y’know,” Will murmurs, packing the last box of bullets into his backpack. Will being so comparatively serene about all this only makes Mike’s anxiety twist harder in his gut. He looks up at Mike, his green eyes turned brown by the red glow of the sky and hardened by sudden determination. “We’re going to kill him, and we’re going to come back.” he says.
“I know,” Mike says, and tries to believe it. But he’s got the mind of a strategist, and he can see so many ways things can go wrong. They’ve tried to account for as many as they can, but One isn’t stupid either. “I just…” Mike swallows. “I don’t want you to go,” he says honestly.
He and Will have been closer, lately. Since he and El broke up and admitted they’re better as friends, and since Max has been in a coma, they’ve been talking more, like they used to. They no longer struggle to find things to talk about; there’s no more awkward half-hugs in airports. There’s no more uncomfortable silence. There is, however, still a lingering awkwardness in the air when they’re alone together, though - a tension that Mike can’t identify the source of. It’s present now, and it gets stronger when Mike takes a step closer to Will.
“I know El can protect you in there, but anything could happen. I don’t like the idea of you voluntarily giving yourself to him,” Mike says.
Will gives a soft smile.
“It’s the only way,” he says, sadly. Mike wonders what he’s thinking. He can’t think of a way to ask, and the silence between them grows as Will finishes zipping up his backpack and picks up his shotgun. “Come on, let’s go,” Will says. The two of them walk out of Mike’s bedroom and down the stairs to meet the others. Will shuts the door behind them with a soft click, and Mike tries not to see it as an omen of finality.
The Party walk together to the gate that El and Will are going to enter through. They couldn’t let them leave alone - and it’s always worth it to have a bodyguard or three. Only El is not visibly armed, making her look vulnerable and fragile as she leads them through what used to be Hawkins’ Main Street. Dustin and Lucas are each armed with their weapon of choice, while Mike carries Steve’s nail bat at his side. He could never get the hang of ranged weapons like Lucas favours, and Dustin’s reconfigured cattle prod is honestly terrifying. Will’s gun is slung across his back, and if Mike lets his imagination run wild, the red light from the Upside Down makes him look like a character in a movie, walking into the sunset.
The thick layer of vines encasing the library kind of spoils the effect, though.
Will shudders when he sees the library.
“It’s horrible seeing it like that, right?” Dustin says, with the mournful tone of a true bibliophile. Will shakes his head.
“No. I mean, yeah, it’s just… This is where they found me,” he says. “The first time, in the Upside Down.”
It goes quiet; none of them had known that.
“I didn’t even know it myself until Hopper accidentally told me, once,” Will says, immediately guessing what they were all thinking. “I was nearly dead when they got there.”
“That’s not going to happen again,” Mike says fiercely, before he even realises he’s saying it. “Right guys?”
“Right, right,” comes the chorus from Dustin and Lucas. Mike’s eyes are fixed on Will’s face. He’s scarcely able to blink; he’s worried that if he looks away from him, he’ll just be gone. Will has told them all that he doesn’t know what One wants either, but Mike has been Will’s best friend for more than ten years. He knows when Will isn’t saying something, and there is definitely something he’s not telling anyone. The feeling gets stronger and stronger the longer Mike and Will share eye contact, but neither of them dares to speak.
El pulls away from the group to examine the gate. It’s been dormant for a while, which is why they chose it - but that means El has to reactivate it without One noticing. She pulls away from the group, treading silently past thick vines. There are so many spores on the ground here that it’s white in places, and Mike expects her shoes to crunch it like snow. Instead, she just kicks up little puffs of them wherever she steps. Mike thinks about putting his bandana over his face, but he thinks it’s probably too late to start caring. Once she reaches the edge of the gate, she closes her eyes and starts doing… something, with her powers.
As El starts to open the gate, Will turns back to look at his friends with a solemn expression on his face. Mike knows what’s coming before Will even opens his mouth.
“Guys, just in case I don’t…” Will begins, but Lucas cuts him off sharply.
“Don’t even say it,” he warns, clapping a hand onto Will’s shoulder. “You go in there, and you finish it,” he says seriously. "And then you come straight back."
Mike can see the pain in Lucas’ eyes - the pain of everything that’s happened to Max, everyone they’ve lost - and he knows that Lucas feels just the same as Mike does right now. He doesn’t want to let his friend go either. Lucas pulls Will into a tight hug, holding onto him for much longer than two guys normally would - but Mike figures this is a special circumstance. Lucas gives Will one final squeeze and then steps back, wiping discreetly at his eyes. Everyone pretends not to have noticed.
Will moves down the line, stepping closer to Dustin - who immediately grabs him in a huge hug with no hesitation.
“Break a leg,” he says cheerily, as if Will is about to perform on stage, not willingly leaping into a nightmare. “And don’t be gone too long. Once you kill him and everything gets back to normal, we are gonna have so much Star Trek to catch up on,” Dustin says.
It's a major tone shift from Lucas' sombre farewell, the way he claps Will on the shoulder jovially - but his eyes are wet too. He’s scared, but he's somehow managing to not even entertain the possibility that Will and El won’t come back. Mike knows it’s all pretending and bravado, but he wishes he had even half of that confidence - even if it’s faked. But Dustin, for all his false confidence, still has wet eyes, and he still pulls Will in for a long hug, just like Lucas had.
He and Will separate eventually, and then Will is standing face to face with Mike.
Despite the presence of the others, that familiar awkwardness starts to build up - like it usually does when they’re alone.
Or, Mike thinks, maybe awkwardness is the wrong word.
Tension. That’s a better fit.
“Mike,” Will says, hand twitching like he wants to reach out but is stopping himself for some reason. “Mike, I …” he begins, and then his voice dies in his throat.
Will’s goodbyes with Lucas and Dustin seemed difficult for Will to get through, but now it’s like someone has stolen Will’s voice. He just looks at Mike with a strangely desperate expression on his face, mouth opening and closing. He’s silent, apart from the soft, stressed-out little sound he makes as he tries to say something. For the first time, it really, truly hits Mike that Will is going to disappear again. That Will is about to go back into the Upside Down, and they really have no way of knowing if he’s going to come back. It hits Mike like a brick to the chest, stealing his breath. Mike’s throat closes up with the threat of tears and he’s not going to cry. He isn’t. Not in front of Will.
Will tries to speak again, and still nothing comes out. Mike doesn’t know what to say either. It’s not possible for Mike to say everything he would want to say to Will in these precious few moments they have before he leaves, and it occurs to Mike that even if they had enough time, he wouldn’t want to say it in front of their friends. He’s not even sure what he wants to say - he just knows it’s only for Will’s ears. So he just grabs Will and pulls him close, hugging him as tightly as he can.
“It’s okay,” he murmurs into Will’s ear. “You’re gonna be okay,” he says, because there’s nothing else he can say. He wants to say he’s sorry for everything; wants to pull out an itemised list and apologise for all his past wrongs and fuckups. He wants to remind Will of all the good times they’ve had. He wants to run over the strategy to make absolutely sure Will comes back to him. Will is going to be okay because he has to be.
But Mike doesn’t have time for any of that, and so he just tries to cage his arms around Will as much as he can, as if his fragile bones and meagre muscles can protect him. It strikes Mike just how small Will suddenly feels in his arms, and he doesn’t want to let go. In this moment, Will is safe. He can’t let his best friend walk into danger like that.
The Upside Down seems to sense their reluctance, because suddenly, the storm gets much worse. It goes from windy to almost gale force in an instant; Mike and Will’s embrace ends too-suddenly as they look around frantically to see what’s going on. Red lightning crashes all around them and the dark storm clouds thicken. The wind whips Mike’s too-long hair into his eyes and howls through the barren landscape. The combined effect is that everything seems to judder and groan around them, seeming to stop and start like an old movie. Somewhere nearby, there’s the distinctive rumble of the ground shaking as a gate either opens or closes. Mike’s hand jumps to his bat as he swears he hears the familiar, animalic chirping of one of the Upside Down’s creatures.
“Will!” El calls, standing by the gate and looking concerned. “It is time.”
Her tone leaves no room for further delay. Will nods at her, and steps away from his friends.
“Goodbye, guys,” he murmurs, voice cracking. Lucas and Dustin chorus their goodbyes, but once again, the words die in Mike’s throat. He can only stay silent as he watches Will walk away, and prays with all his heart to a god that he doesn’t believe in that this won’t be the last time he ever sees his best friend.
Will gets about halfway to the gate before he freezes in place.
It’s a sudden movement, like someone’s hit pause on him, and Mike starts to panic, thinking One has got him and he’s about to lift up in the air like every one of Mike’s nightmares. But that’s not what happens. Instead, Will turns on the spot and looks back at Mike, wearing an expression Mike has never seen before. A muscle in his cheek flexes as he sets his jaw, then sets his shoulders, and then he breaks into a run - dodging vines and spore drifts to sprint back to where his friends are standing.
Specifically, he runs towards Mike.
Will is in front of him again in seconds.
“In case I don’t make it,” Will says - the only explanation there’s time for, because before Mike can say anything back or even register what’s happening, there’s a hand at the back of his head and another on his shoulder, tugging him forwards. Will’s body crashes into Mike’s, and then, right there in the former town square, in front of all his friends, Will is kissing Mike on the mouth.
Mike is so shocked that all he can think about is how he didn’t even know Will was gay.
He doesn't think about that for long, though. He thinks he hears Lucas or Dustin gasp next to him, but he ignores it, because Will is kissing Mike with everything he has, like he thinks he’ll never get another chance. Mike realises that that’s exactly why he’s doing it. It’s the last thought he has before his mind goes blank and he loses himself in kissing Will. Neither of them are the most experienced, so it starts off centre, but Will is determined, and it only takes a second to correct. Mike grabs the lapels of Will’s jacket and pulls him in closer, kissing him back on pure instinct, because suddenly, everything makes sense. All the tension, the awkward stretched silences, the thing Will wasn’t saying - Mike suddenly understands it all. Will kisses Mike breathless and Mike’s head spins, but far too soon, Will is pulling away.
There’s barely a second in which Mike gets to look into Will’s eyes, but there are so many emotions swirling within them that Mike can’t make out any individually.
“Goodbye Mike,” he whispers.
Before Mike can reply, Will runs back the way he came. He and El meet at the edge of the gate, and then, with a lingering look back to their friends, they disappear through it. Less than a minute after they go through the gate, the storm dies down to normal. Such a clear sign from One would normally fill Mike with dread, but Mike’s brain is a million miles away.
Mike can feel that Lucas and Dustin are staring at him. He can feel how red his face is. But he can't bring himself to care about either of those things right now; he’s stuck staring at the patch of gate where Will disappeared. His fingers come up to rest against his lips, still tingling from Will’s kiss.
Will needs to come back alive. There are a few things Mike needs to say.