Work Text:
"Hey, kiddo."
Will lifted his eyes from where he'd been trying to bore holes into the ground and somehow set the straw on fire with his fiery gaze, finding Robin standing over him with a knowing look, her hands placed on her hips while she stared down at him. Not knowing what she wanted or why she was here, he made a noise in the back of his throat, crossing his legs as he stayed sitting there in the stall that had way too much hay.
When it was clear he wasn't going to answer her, she spoke up once more, waving a hand at the ground beside him. "Mind if I sit?"
He had no qualms with her sitting with him, mostly because she'd been suspiciously nice to him ever since they'd first started talking properly during their mission to defeat Vecna once and for all, and partly because he wasn't in the mood to send her away and he could do with some company right about now. And with all that in mind, he waved a hand down at the hay spread out around him, expecting her to sit at the other end of the stall; however, to his utter surprise, she set herself right down next to him with a sigh.
"Are you okay?" he asked as he leaned back against the wall and let his head thump against it, his hands sitting in his lap neatly while everyone else busied themselves with other things around the barn. His mom was helping Mike barricade the door with a thick plank of wood while Derek climbed the ladder to get to the hayloft, and Erica was..being Erica, much to his expectations. "Sorry for getting you dragged into all of this, by the way. I'm sure you're missing Steve like crazy."
Robin shrugged quickly, running a hand through her hair as she glanced around. "It's cool, and at least I get to have a break from Steve with his constant whining. He can't pull any girls, you see," she whispered to him out the corner of her mouth as she leaned in, as if she were sharing a top secret at a sleepover.
In response, Will let himself snicker at the thought of Steve being so helpless he couldn't get one single girl to go on a date with him, and his nerves were already beginning to ease just from the small amount of conversation they'd had. But to be fair, Robin was surprisingly easy to talk to despite her forward personality and how snippy she could appear to be, and she seemed like she understood just what was going on.
"How are you doing? With, well, everything."
And just like that, the prior events of their situation came crashing down in a tidal wave that threatened to push him under and drown him all over again.
Vecna wouldn't leave him alone. He was messing with his mind. And then, right as they'd arrived at the farm to meet up, they'd been caught up in a trap that had left them all taking shelter within the barn, hence why they were currently barricading the doors as much as they could.
Why was it chasing them? He didn't have the answer to that question. But for what it was worth, he knew what Vecna was feeling right about now. And he was suspiciously happy for some reason, satisfied.
However, his eyes catching Mike's as he flitted around the room carrying another plank of wood and their eyes staying locked for all of five seconds before they both finally looked away, Will decided that this was a more pressing matter at hand. He'd dealt with a plethora of insane and diabolical shit regarding the Upside Down and had still come back from it, but when it was Mike who was causing his hurt, it wasn't as easy to come back from.
So, turning to Robin, he decided now would be as good a time as any, seeing as he was so comfortable in her presence. "Do you ever look at someone and feel like they're everything you need, but at the same time, you just want to strangle them? Even though it's wrong to like them, you just can't help it?"
The only indication that Will's words were unexpected to Robin was the way her eyebrows shot up and her eyes widened a smidge, but after a moment, her mouth formed into an 'o' shape as she glanced from Will to Mike, and then from Mike to Will.
And then she did it again, pointing at both of them, and as she opened her mouth, sucking in a breath to say something, which Will already knew would be loud and obnoxious, he quickly moved in to slap a hand over her mouth. "Be quiet, oh my god. He can't know about it, or about me, okay?" She made a noise from behind his hand, something that sounded like a growl. "You can't say anything about it, alright?"
Robin paused at the last bit. Looking around, her eyes landed on Mike as he stayed forcefully busy and clearly trying to avoid Will at all costs with the way he paused every now and then and forgot what he was doing as he moved around the barn; she eventually nodded with a sigh through her nose. And slowly, he pulled back and removed his hand from her mouth so he could settle back into his previous spot. He didn't know what to expect out of her, for her to grimace and tell him he was disgusting or to get up and walk away without a word, but after a few long moments, he found that she didn't do either of those things.
She settled back down, moving closer to him and leaning in once more, and it took everything in him not to lean back and escape her devious and wolfish grin, knowing that she was undoubtedly up to no good.
"Wait. You like Mike?" Robin whisper-yelled in his ear when she finally found her words, making him wince. "As in, Mike? Mike Wheeler, who is a total muppet and acts like an idiot half the time and ignored you for a whole summer?" And with that, Will was regretting opening his mouth at all because she was not helping.
Surprisingly, for not having talked too often, she was taking it rather well, looking more excited than anything as she continued to steal glances at Mike, who was now in a different part of the barn, but that didn't seem to stop her excitement. What a weirdo. "Look, Robin, yes, I do like Mike. The muppet who ignored me for a whole summer," Will said in a hushed whisper. "I know it might sound weird or gross, but it's driving me insane, and I can't keep letting him look like that and just not lose my mind. But again, you can't say anything to him."
She just wiggled her eyebrows as she shimmied up beside him, letting out a long 'oo'ing noise that he just rolled his eyes at, pushing her away once more despite the wide grin on his face that came from their whimsy that seemed to clash in the best way possible. "I mean, I do get it. I kinda did suspect something was going on between you, like seriously, how often do you two need to ogle at each other until you do something about it?"
"Robin," Will muttered in such a low voice that he almost couldn't hear himself. And before he could even begin telling her how dire the situation was and how much he didn't want it to get out for everyone to know, she lifted a finger hastily, not touching him but very damn close to it as she cut off whatever else he was about to say.
"You know, I really do understand it." She sounded a lot more restrained now, something in her eyes clearing, and Will could already tell she was about to reveal something big, so he prepared himself as best he could as she blew out a breath. "You know how you don't show any interest in girls and only like guys?" She asked gently, catching sight of Mike again and nodding towards him to emphasize. "I'm the same, but just the opposite. I like girls in the way you like boys, and it's totally freaking cool because we're, like, best friends now, and we can talk about it whenever we want."
Will's fingers curled into his trousers painfully. "Well, I guess that does make things slightly easier," he muttered under his breath, not elaborating on exactly why that was.
Robin wiggled her eyebrows once more. "So I can tell you all about my girl crushes I've ever had and I can—"
"Oh my god," he groaned as he brought his hands to his face, burying his face in his hands even as she started talking, though it was more like rambling as she jumped from one thing to another, and he couldn't understand a single word as she continued to dive deeper and deeper into whatever it was she was talking about, only managing to cut her off when she stopped to take a breath. "Okay, okay, how did you know exactly? If they like you back? I mean, have any of these girls ever liked you back?"
In truth, he hadn't meant to sound accusing or snippy in any way; he mostly wanted to know so he could maybe try and apply it to his and Mike's situation, where they were dancing around each other but neither of them were making a move on the other. And notably, Robin's eyebrow quirked as she picked up on what he was trying to get at, tilting her head in question.
"You wanna know how to tell if the muppet likes you back, yeah?" He nodded, worrying at his lip as his heart stuttered at the mere mention of Mike. "Well, if you wanna know if Mr. Grumpy Pants, who is currently sulking over there because you're not talking to him, likes you back, I'd say it's pretty obvious he does."
"Yeah, but he always sulks when I ignore him," Will countered, and as he glanced over at Mike and realized he really was sulking as he dragged his feet all over the place and dropped his head with a pout on his face like nothing Will had ever seen before, he decided that it could very well be possible. He popped his lips. "Okay, yeah, he definitely looks more upset than normal."
Robin nodded pitifully as they both locked eyes on Mike. And as he shuffled towards Joyce with a pouty face and talked through pursed lips, gesturing up at the hayloft before pointing at the barn door, letting out a sigh that they couldn't hear as he turned to walk away, stopping when his eyes landed on Will. Staring for a long moment like he couldn't pull his gaze away, Will stopped breathing, his chest jolting as Mike shook his head and tore himself away from the spot he was standing in and moved through to the back of the barn with his shoulders slumped.
Will slowly turned his head, finding Robin with her lips rolled inward in a stifled laugh before snorting, going overboard as she slapped his knee with a loud laugh, her eyes crinkling with the smile. The sight was enough to pull a similar laugh out of him as he slapped a hand over his mouth to cover it. And then, once they'd both recovered from the sight of a pouty Mike, she sat back with a devilish grin wide on her face.
"Shit," she said after a long moment, the evil grin not leaving her face. "I can't believe you like him out of all people."
Will nodded in agreement, pressing his lips together in a tight smile. "Yeah, I know. Tell me about it." He let out a breathy sigh as he tipped his head back against the wall, knitting his eyebrows together in an expression that he guessed looked pathetic on his face. "I can't help it, though."
"Well, this is definitely a saucy little twist, actually," she cheeked as she directed her attention back to him, draping an arm over her knee casually and sitting in one of the most uncomfortable positions Will had ever seen, but looking at himself, he wasn't any better. It seemed they both had this unique, weird way of sitting that set them apart from the group who could sit normally and be comfortable with it. "In love with a total muppet, huh? But on a serious note, I think he really does like you back, Will. And if he doesn't, then that's his loss and I'll hurt him for it. Because you're a catch."
Will's fingers paused where they'd been scratching at the moles on his neck, shooting her a glare that crumbled almost instantly. "Don't lie to my face."
"I'm not!" She grinned in response, grabbing his jacket with a vice grip to pull him back down to the floor when he jokingly tried to get up to leave, forcing him back into the hay with a grunt. "Just..give it a bit of time, maybe?" Will opened his mouth to tell her he was sick of waiting and he couldn't just sit around in his pitiful silence anymore without either yelling at Mike or telling him he loved him, but she cut him off with a sharp snap of her fingers in his face. "Seriously, wake up! You two would be great together, but he's clearly as scared as you are. I can't speak from experience since I'm not doing much better in my department, but I could give him a talking to if you want?"
Will clamped his mouth shut before shifting his attention back to Mike as he entered the barn once again, deciding to turn to Robin to talk anyway. "Are you always this intense? You sound more excited over this than I am."
Robin smirked at him, however, wasn't able to immediately speak as Mike's voice reached them from across the barn. "Are you two going to help?" he asked with a prodding look, eyeing them both.
One that Robin completely ignored. "I'm just happy to know I'm not the only one to go through this. You're not the first one to wish someone would look at them, you know?" She let out a long sigh, something sparkling in her eye as she craned her head back towards the ceiling. "Do you know the number of times I wished for Tammy to look at me the way Mike looks at you? Yeah, he's definitely head over heels for you—"
"Robin."
She ignored the warning in his tone, clearly unable to help herself. "But Vickie?" She continued on with a dreamy sigh, shaking her head with a wide smile and looking all too much like how Will felt whenever he was in Mike's presence. "She's perfect. She made this..hideous peanut on peanut butter sandwich and gifted it to me. Can you believe that? Isn't that the sweetest thing ever?"
"Yeah, actually, I can." Will lifted a sassy brow before continuing to say, "you seem like someone who swoons over hideous peanut butter sandwiches, actually."
Robin let out a loud laugh, lowering her head into her hands before running those hands through her messy hair, rolling her lips inward with another faraway look on her face, which had Will thinking back on all the times he looked truly hopeless while he thought about Mike and just how stupid he probably looked as he thought back on all the times he'd made Mike laugh or done something to make him happy. "She's so sweet."
"Have you told her you like her? I mean, if you're giving me lessons on how to tell my muppet that I love him, then surely you've told this Vickie that you're drooling over her?" he asked, unable to stop himself from asking. Consider his interest piqued. "And besides, if she's as crazy as you are and struggles to shut her mouth and looks..like this when thinking about you, then you've gotta be perfect for each other."
Robin hummed as she sat with her chin in her hand, her other hand playing with the top button on her jacket absentmindedly as she stared at the wall of the stall, drumming her fingers along her jawline, which left small crescents in the skin there with how much she was doing it. And again, Will could think back to whenever he'd done that, though it was directed towards his painting, which he'd crumpled while walking through the airport. "She was talking about how her boyfriend broke up with her because he's a dickhead, and she just talks on and on...you know? And she's so graceful with how she does it."
Will smirked knowingly. "Yeah, you two are deep in it; there's no hope for either of you."
"I haven't told her yet," she continued on, wincing when she did and even sticking her tongue out, either at herself or at the fact she hadn't confessed her feelings yet, but Will hung onto every word anyway. Even as she began picking at her nails with a small pout on her face before biting said nails, her eyes flickered around the barn. "I'm going to tell her. When I see her next." A cunning smile lit up her face then, and Will did not like the look of it in the slightest. "Actually, you know what?"
"What?" he whispered.
She tapped her nose. "We make a deal. I'll tell Vickie I like her if you pull yourself together and tell Mike you like him, yeah?"
He paused to think the suggestion over, and considering that he wouldn't be alone in his confession and knew that Robin would be feeling the same way he did as they tried to confess to their love interests, it would be easier to deal with. If they were to be rejected, they could cry about it together and wallow in their sadness together while they talked about it all, and if they were to have their feelings returned, they'd still be able to talk about it.
After weighing out the pros and cons, but still bearing the anxiety that came with it, he managed a shrug. Which she apparently didn't like, because she frowned before glancing off to the side, the smile returning to her face fully as she set her eyes back on him. "Maybe you should tell Vickie I like her, and I'll tell Mike you like him, saving us both the trouble."
"Robin," he grumbled in response. "I literally told you, you can't say anything."
"So, you're just never going to tell him—"
"If it saves me from wanting to rip my hair out, then no. I won't tell him."
"What if Mike is within range and I accidentally say it?"
"And why would Mike be within range?"
"I mean, he's walking right up to us right now. It would be weird if he didn't hear us talking about it."
Will's eyes snapped open impossibly wide as he whipped his head around, and just his luck, Mike was indeed walking towards them right at that moment, not looking all too pleased as he glared right at them with a sour frown on his face.
"Oh no," Will hissed as he shuffled around in the hay, trying to look as normal as possible. And before they could even come up with something to talk about or try to look like they weren't talking about their love interests instead of helping around the barn, Mike finally reached them, standing in the doorway to the stall with his hands on the frame.
"Are you two just going to sit there and chat with each other or help us barricade this door?" Mike chided, before catching Will's eyes and sighing, gulping loudly as he leaned against the doorframe. "Are you okay? Is she bothering you at all? And if she is, I'll see to it personally that she leaves you alone."
Dusting off his hands as he finally pulled himself out of the sitting position, Will shook his head. "It's fine, Mike." He brushed shoulders with Mike as he moved past him and into the center of the barn, the touch being enough to make him bite his lip harshly and with enough force that it hurt.
Mike followed after him. "So, you were talking about nothing and leaving us to do the work?"
"No," he snipped, the denial tearing free without his permission before he cleared it away with a cough in the back of his throat. "We were just sharing our mutual worries about dying in a barn."
Mike snorted. "Oh, that's fine then."
He opened his mouth to speak up once more, to tell him that he was sorry or that he wanted to talk, but he was cut off as a pounding filled the barn, forcing all of them into a pause that hung heavy until the noise came again, much louder this time, and they all slowly retreated a few steps towards the back of the barn. Shoulders heaving with stuttered breaths as his heart panicked, Will kept his eyes on the door, flinching back when the door bent inward. Like it could snap in half at any second.
Erica stepped up beside him, putting herself between him and Mike as Robin took a spot at Mike's other side, ready for whatever was coming to get them and likely kill them all off.
Outside, a loud roar joined the sound of the plank creaking against the strain of the door being forced in on itself, and if that wasn't enough to send them all into panic, the lights suddenly began to flicker once more, telling him there was definitely something outside that didn't belong there.
A cold and electrifying shiver shot up his spine that threatened to freeze him from the inside out, and he shuddered against it, craning his head back to look up at the flickering lights.
Funnily enough, even with the threat that was currently trying to break the door down and the wild flickering of the overhead lights, all Will could think about was his lost chance of telling Mike how he felt and the fact he'd likely never get another chance to. Perhaps he really was cowardly, or maybe he was just a downright fool, but as he shared a quick glance with Mike, who was standing too far away, he found he didn't care if he was a fool or not.
His feelings for Mike always won out in the end after all, overpowering and too mighty for him to simply ignore them or push them deep down. As he shared the gaze with Mike, the type that made him feel rooted to the spot and made his tongue feel too big for his mouth, Will nodded at him. Because they would get out of this alive. He'd tell Mike.
However, his attention was ripped away all too soon with another pound against the door, making him jolt.
In front of him, his mom held the axe up as her shoulders heaved heavily, keeping her eyes on the door that was bending inwards once again with another burst of power against the outside of it, the noise being loud enough to almost burst his eardrums as he was blinded by flashing lights.
And it just kept getting louder.