Work Text:
Nancy reaches into the rusty chest, searching for whatever could be of use. Mike on the other hand, he's trying his best. His sister was always better at this kind of stuff compared to him. Nancy dropped a few glances at her brother, who was still soaking wet from the lake. Her face showed that she wanted to say something, but an odd force was holding her back.
“Hey, uh, Mike?” she asked softly. Mike glanced up at her, holding a bucket?
“Will this work?” he said with an odd grin on his face, Nancy giggled, it's the thought that counts. Mike went back to looking around the room, while Nancy paused, finding the words to ask him.
“So are you and Will…like a thing now?” she questioned. Mike's body froze for what felt like hours, but really was at least for a second. He turned around quickly, his opened eyes shifting into a disgusted look.
“What? No! Ew, gross…I'm not..we..” he scrambled. Words were very difficult for him to say right now, the grip on his flashlight tightened. He looked away for a while, his mouth open but no sounds were coming out of it.
“You..don't have to say anything!” His sister reassured him.
“No, um, why would you say that..?” he asked.
“Me and Johnathan..well, saw you two at the lake, obviously. But, you guys…um, well, kissed.” she walked a bit closer to him, making sure her tone didn't come off rude.
“What!? Y-you guys probably just saw something else, I mean, I practically almost drowned! We didnt…I'm not..!” Mike yelled as if he were in court trying to defend himself from a whole life sentence. Nancy tilted her head.
“Mike…”
“I'm not…” it's like the words just wouldn't come out of his mouth, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make himself deny it.
“I…I didn't mean to attack you or anything, you know? I just…I want you to know I don't care.”
“What?”
“Not like that! I mean..I don't care who you like, Mike. I don't care that you feel like that for Will, he's great ! What I do care about is that my brother can feel safe to be himself. Because no matter what, you're still my brother.” Mike's eyes began to fill with tears, could his sister actually be saying this? What if she knew this whole time?!
After just looking at her, Mike ran those few inches that were separating the two, and hugged Nancy as hard as he could, as if he hadn't seen her in years, and began sobbing uncontrollably. Of course, Nancy hugged him back. She laughed a bit, Mike looked up at her, confused.
“What? Why are you laughing??” he said with a frown on his face, worried it was about him. She smiled.
“Nothing…I guess us Wheelers really need those damn Byers, huh?” Mike laughed at the realization, they really were both dating a Byers, weren't they?
“I'm not dating Will!!” he said, still sniffing. Nancy looked at him, she smiled once more, grabbing the bucket Mike had found a while ago.
“Come on, let's go bring this stuff back, and get you back to your boyfriend." She giggled, walking out of the storage room. Mike rolled his eyes, grabbing whatever he could find once again, and walked out with her.