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Will lays on his back, eyes burning from staring into the artificial sun above him. When he turns his head to the left slightly, he can make out the shape of the corner in the sky of their boxed paradise.
His eyelids flutter shut, supplying his eyes a reprieve from the stinging light. Fingers traced the long grass surrounding him, and Will lets his mind wander and wonder what grass would have felt like on earth. Would it be as beautiful as his mother had told him – as warm?
A familiar voice begins to hum next to Will, and he reopens his eyes to gaze at the boy beside him. His best friend, Mike, was staring up at the sky, absentmindedly picking at the synthetic grass around him, never able to stay still for very long.
At Will’s motion, Mike rolls over to lay on his side, front facing Will’s body. His boyish face breaks into a warm grin, eyes lighting up with joy at being on the receiving end of Will’s attention.
“Will.” Mike whispers, and something about the way Mike says his name makes something flutter in Will’s chest. Nobody else says his name in the same way – with such reverence.
“Hm?” Will hums, turning to mirror Mike’s position on the grass.
“What are you thinking about?” Mike questions, voice gentle in a way it always is around Will.
Will glances back down at the artificial grass, “What do you think earth would be like?”
Mike’s face scrunches up momentarily, “I don’t know.” He says, then his face lights up, “Maybe we’d be attacked by a wild animal.”
“I bet it would be warm.” Will says wistfully.
Mike adjusts his arm to pillow his head. “Yeah?” He asks, staring deeply into Will’s eyes.
Will notices that Mike does that a lot – stare. It used to make him uncomfortable at first, but now it’s a blanket of comfort. Mike makes him feel seen, like someone does notice he’s there and understands the thoughts going on in his head.
But it’s strange to know that Mike will never fully understand. He never experienced having a mother – or brother – like Will did, since he was grown here in the Upside Down Garden. He was never told stories about earth from a mother like Will was, and he never felt the grief of being taken away from his family.
It’s been a while now, and Will regrets that he doesn’t remember his mother’s face anymore. But he remembers her smile, her warmth, her love.
Will sees the truth of this paradise more clearly than anyone else here. He sees the cracks in the perfection, the corners in the sky. Even so, he knows Mike isn’t ignorant – never has been. But he knows Mike likes to pretend he is. It gives him a sense of peace, and Will can understand the appeal, even if he never allows himself that luxury.
With every test passed and the celebration that follows, he can see the darkness behind Mike’s eyes. The one he pretends he doesn’t know is there.
Mike knows that every temporary step forward will eventually lead them to a place where one of them is not going to survive – where one of them is going to disappear from the other’s life permanently. He also likes to ignore this knowledge.
That’s when Will finds himself being stared at. When Mike wants to forget their reality, he turns to Will and looks at him like he’s the only thing in the world – his entire universe. And Will lets him. Lets him block out all of the pain and grief, lets him focus his entire being on Will and Will alone. Lets Mike worship him like a God. Lets himself worship Mike back.
Maybe it’s not healthy, but Will doesn’t think either of them would be able to survive without the other. They’ve become one – two pieces of the same heart, dysfunctional without the other half. As Mike lets a breath out, Will is taking a breath in – sharing the same air between them.
Suddenly the room is too stifling, too bright around him. “Do you want to get out of here?” Will asks.
Mike’s eyebrows raise with surprise. “Where would we go?”
“Outside.” Will replies, sitting up to glance around to see if they were being watched. Mercifully, they seemed alone.
Mike’s brows furrow in confusion. “But we don’t have permission to–”
Will covers Mike’s mouth with a hand, leaning closer. “I know a way we can sneak out. Do you trust me?”
Mike’s eyes widen and his cheeks have adopted a pink tinge. The way the black-haired boy is looking at him conveys the message well enough, and Will supposes it was a foolish question to ask – if Mike trusts him – as if they don’t trust each other with their whole beings.
Will flashes him a quick smile and removes the hand over Mike’s mouth to hold his hand instead, and then he’s pulling Mike towards a hidden vent in the room. They make their way through the small airway until they reach the hallways in the large building. Mike follows Will’s every move almost religiously as they make their way towards the doors while simultaneously hiding around corners to avoid being caught by the demogorgons.
Finally, they find the small back door and run out of the building, laughing as they escape the sterile, fluorescent lighting. Will tries to remain unnerved by the darkness clouding around them and the flashes of red lighting. Even this was more refreshing than the faux-paradise of the Upside Down Garden. He’d much rather have the horrifying reality than an illusion of safety and perfection.
Will and Mike hop around the slithering black vines, making their way up a hill to a tall tree to provide them safety from any demobats that might be eager to attack.
Will lowers himself down on a vine-free section of the ground and unwillingly shivers in discomfort from the unsettling cold of the atmosphere. Mike follows him down and curls up on Will’s side, laying his head on his shoulder. It feels like the most natural thing in the world, and it grounds Will to reality.
Ships move across the dark city, demogorgons all moving around the low-lit city. Above them, the sky glows red, and occasional flashes of brightness sting Will’s eyes as lightning strikes. He presses himself closer to Mike’s warmth.
As Will looks down at the city, he allows himself to wonder if his mother and Jonathan are still down there. Maybe they had found a way to escape the demogorgons, maybe they were out there looking for him.
Maybe they’ve left him behind and carried on with their life.
“Will.” He hears Mike groan beside him, and he turns his head to look at Mike’s dark eyes staring deeply into his. “Stop thinking so hard.”
Will snorts. “Isn’t it good to think about things from time to time?”
“Not about this.” Mike says earnestly, and Will doesn’t need to hear Mike’s explanation of what ‘this’ would be referring to. They both already know, but always glide around the topic.
Will looks away from his friend’s unbreaking stare, and remembers the weight in his pocket.
“Ah,” He says, reaching into his pocket and retrieving the piece of bread wrapped in a napkin that he’d snuck out from the cafeteria. “I saved this for us to eat.”
Mike furrows his brows and pouts a little. “I’m not hungry.”
Will knows he must be lying, because he saw how Mike had barely picked at his food during lunch today. He didn’t know why, but his best friend seemed to have trouble eating enough, and it worried Will to no end. When he could, he came up with excuses to subtly force Mike to eat. Now was one of these moments.
“I brought it so we could share it here.” Will states, already splitting the roll of bread equally in half. He reaches his hand out to offer one piece to Mike, making his expression seem innocently expectant.
Will doesn’t know if he does a good job at feigning ignorance, and he sometimes gets the feeling that Mike catches on to what he’s trying to do. But Mike’s never been good at refusing Will, so it always works in his favor in the end.
Mike hesitates before eventually giving in, taking the bread from Will’s offering hand and taking a small nibble out of the fluffy roll. Will inwardly sighs in relief that he got Mike to eat something and diverts his attention to taking his own bite out of his half of the roll.
And while they sit here – bathed in a red glow at the top of a hill, slowly chewing their way through a bread roll – the two of them can almost pretend that they’re in peace.
Right now, Will can pretend their inevitable doom is not closing in on him from all sides.
Right now, Mike is pressed against his side, near finishing his half of the roll, and that’s all he needs.