Chapter Text
A shiver ran through Mike’s body. The sky was clear, and the air was crisp. As autumn faded, the winter taking over Hawkins was brutal. Mike’s breath left his mouth forming a hazy fog before vanishing into the dark of the night.
“Y’know, I’ve never gone swimming in the wintertime” mumbled Will.
Mike looked over at him, watching him use a twig to scribble in the dirt.
“Well, considering we live in the middle of nowhere Indiana, I'm not surprised.” Mike said plainly before asking, "You didn’t go to the beach when you were in California?"
Put simply: Mike and Will didn't discuss California. With everything going on with the upside down, there wasn't much time. But deep down Mike also couldn't forgive himself for those six months of radio silence. Bringing it up stings. Maybe if they didn’t talk about it, they could pretend it never happened.
“Nope” Will said bluntly.
“How come?” Mike pressed.
Will dropped the twig. “I don’t know” He looked to the side, pondering Mike’s question, “I guess everything happened really fast. Moving in, helping El at school, mom’s new job, Jonathan applying to college. Don’t even get me started on finals, my geometry teacher was a total douche” Will huffed, exaggerating a shiver while Mike giggled.
“Welp, I guess you missed your chance. Sorry dude. Welcome back to Hawkins, I don’t think you’re gonna run into many surfing opportunities here” Mike shifted so that he was sitting crisscrossed, facing Will fully.
Will’s face snaps forward, “You’ve never thought about it?”
“About what?”
“Swimming. Now. In the winter.” Will’s unwavering gaze unsettles Mike.
“Pfft - No, it sounds awful. I’m freezing my ass off sitting in the dirt. What makes you think I’d wanna get in the water?” Mike says, feeling a bit confused about Will’s newfound fixation.
“I think it sounds liberating” Will’s eyes stay on Mike’s, almost like he’s searching for something in them.
Mike tenses up and looks away, “Okay, weirdo. What’s got you thinking of swimming anyway? Maybe we can break into the middle school and use their indoor pool. I mean, we’ve got an apocalypse going on, they’ve gotta let us use the pool, right?” Will hums in response and stands up off the ground.
“Unless it’s got like brain eating amoebas in it or something. Shit, it probably does. You think they – hey where’re you going?” Mike looks up from the ground and sees Will walking toward the dock. Mike gets up to follow him.
“What’re you doing?”
Will sits on the edge of dock, legs dangling over the edge.
“I read in a book once that it’s actually really healthy for you, swimming in cold water” Will looks out over the lake. The edges of the lake blending into the dark night.
Mike walks over and sits down next to Will. He blows into his hands, rubbing them together to warm them up.
“Should I go grab the Walkman? You’re kinda creeping me out man” Mike asks semi-seriously while chuckling nervously.
Will rolls his eyes playfully, “Shut up. Come on, you don’t think it’d be fun? It’s like skinny dipping but ten times cooler” Will looks over at Mike, a smile tugging at his lips.
The thought of Will Byers skinny dipping makes Mike infinitely more nervous.
“Alright Byers, keep your clothes on and yourself out of the water” Mike clears his throat anxiously, not able to meet Will’s gaze.
Will stands up suddenly and faces Mike. He reaches one arm forward while hunching over awkwardly. Mike crawls backward away from the ledge in a panic.
“Touch me and your dead!”
Will puts his hands in the air, laughing quietly.
“Relax relax, I was just gonna take my jacket off. It’s warmer than I expected” Will takes his jacket off and throws it.
His jacket hits Mike in the face.
Mike goes to grab at the jacket that landed on his head, “Ugh what is up with y-“
Splash
“No FUCKING way. You better not b-“ Mike pulls the jacket from his head and leans forward to search the water for Will, but the darkness makes it hard to see anything at all. He waits for a moment, and another and another and one more just to make sure before he starts to panic. Why isn’t Will swimming to the surface? Mike gets struck with fear.
“Will?” Mike calls out hesitantly, but he’s met with no response.
“Will!?” Mike nearly falls into the water trying to see if he can spot him. It’s too fucking dark to see anything. The only movement he sees is the gentle ripples in the water left from when Will jumped in. Panic starts to really set in, “WIILL”.
Splash
Will’s head shoots out of the water. He shakes the water out of his hair like a dog and sends his head back as he cackles.
Mike plopps down from his knees, clasping at his chest while trying to slow his quick breathing.
“You dick! This is not the time to joke around Will, Jesus” Mike slides a hand down his face.
Will spits into the water “It’s cold” he says while struggling to stay afloat.
“No shit Sherlock” Mike groans, finally gaining feeling back in his limbs.
“I love it” Will’s grin stretches from ear to ear, “I feel alive!” Mike can’t stay mad at him for long, seeing Will smiling tugs at Mike’s heart strings, as annoying as it is.
But Will’s grin slowly fades. Concern takes over his features, “but there’s one problem”
Mike pauses his huffing and puffing to look up at Will floating in the water, “What?” His worry trumps his annoyance.
Will looks around anxiously, leaving Mike in suspense.
“I’m lonely” Will pouts as he swims closer to Mike.
“Ah hell no, get away from me!” Mike shifts away from the edge of the dock.
“Come on! You know you want to!” Will grabs onto the edge of the dock with his left hand.
“No!”
Will splashes Mike.
Mike gasps when the cold water hits him. He twists away from the water instinctually, but the freezing wetness clings to him. “Will! You’re gonna get us sick!”
“You sound just like your —“
Swoosh
In a split-second Will’s body is ripped under the surface.
“WILL” Mike looks in horror at the spot in which Will was just floating.
Mike wastes no time, immediately ripping off his jacket and boots “shit shit shit” he mumbles to himself as he dives into the ice cold water. The moment he hits the water his body goes stiff from the frigid temperature. It felt like a thousand knives stabbing him all at once. He shakes the cold off the best he could and wills his limbs to move.
Mike swims frantically. He keeps his eyes open, searching his surroundings. The bottom of the lake glows red, a stark contrast from the midnight water. Mike propels himself as fast as he can when he sees - Will desperately trying to cling to the lakebed, leaving scrape marks behind.
Mike grabs a hold of Will, wrapping his arms around Will’s torso. He looks around in a frenzy to see what’s tugging at Will and starts stomping on the vines wrapped tightly around Will’s ankles.
The vines won’t budge, shit. Mike keeps kicking at them trying to shake them loose, but he doesn’t have any weapons with him fuck fuck fuck. He looks over at Will and sees him start to nod off.
“WILL” Mike screams while trying to shake him, to keep him awake but it’s no use. Will’s body goes limp in Mike’s hands. Then — abruptly Mike shoots back with Will in his grasp. The vine that was previously holding onto Will slithers away.
Mike swims like hell, fighting to bring them to the surface. The lack of oxygen makes him sees stars, but he keeps pushing.
Mike gasps for air when he emerges from the water, dragging Will’s body to the shallow end of the lake. His lungs burn and his head aches, but he keeps his focus on dragging Will toward land.
He drops Will’s body down onto the dirt once they’re fully out of the water.
Mike hovers over Will, “Will wake up” Mike’s voice quivers as he shakes Will by the shoulders but gets no response. “Please Will, please” Mike pleads, shaking him again. He let the panic consume him before – he jumps back into action.
“Fuck, uh CPR! Robin taught me how to do CPR. Fuck how do I -“
Mike tugs on the back of Will’s neck, tilting his chin up. He timidly puts his hands on Will’s chest and starts pumping, anxiously whispering to himself ha ha ha ha stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
He moves over to plug Will’s nose with his shaky hands and placed his lips onto his, breathing into his mouth cautiously before going back to compressions.
“Will please, please wake up! Come on” Mike is scared, mad, hell he’s feeling every emotion possible. His heart beats so hard against his ribs he’s sure he’ll have a heart attack at any moment.
He breathes into Will’s mouth again when he feels Will convulse. Mike jumps back falling onto his elbows as Will rolls to his side, coughing up an absurd amount of water.
After coughing it all up, he spits into the dirt for good measure and flops backward, taking in a shaky breath on his own.
“Holy shit!” Mike yells. Will startles as Mike throws his body on top of Will to hug him. “You’re alive, holy shit I thought you were dead!” Mike sobs into Will’s shoulder. Will musters up all the energy he could to limply bring his arms up and hold Mike.
They lay like that for a few minutes, before Mike leans up on his forearms to look Will in the eyes - “do something like that again and I’ll kill you myself”
Will chuckles weakly before tension arises between them. He registers the genuine fear on Mike’s face, not a hint of a smile.
“I’m sorry” Will whispers.
Mike stares into Will’s eyes, saying everything and nothing at the same time. His eyes swipe over Will’s features, from his eyes down to his chin. Mike has so much to say, but no right way to say it, so he settles for silence.
Finally, Mike pats Will on the shoulder, “C’mon we need to get you home. If those slimy fuckers didn’t kill you, the cold will”
Mike pushes himself off the ground and offers Will a hand, pulling him up.
They walk over to the dock in silence, Will following closely behind Mike. Mike bends down to grab the boots he discarded before jumping into the water.
“Take your shoes off” Mike says.
“What?”
“Take your shoes off. They’re wet, you’re gonna get sick” Mike says matter of factly as he loosens the laces of his boots.
Will realizes what Mike’s doing. “Mike no, come on how’re you going to get home? It’s fine, I’ll make it home” but Mike was already on the floor, “Mike!” Will shrieked as he lifted Will’s foot up to take his shoe off. Will grabs the top of Mike’s head to regain his balance.
“Don’t fight me. You’re gonna wear my boots. They’re dry” Mike grumbles. He bites the inside of his cheek as he focuses on lacing up the boot as fast as possible.
Mike stands once he’s done. “Turn around” Mike orders and Will obeys. Mike pulls Will’s hands behind his back and shrugs his jacket up his arms for him. Will looks around awkwardly as Mike dresses him.
“I know I just drowned but I’m pretty sure I’m capable of dressing myself” Will attempts to joke.
“Shhh” Mike dismisses it. Frankly Mike doesn’t have any energy left in him after watching the life leave his best friend’s body. His mind is racing and focused on getting him home safely.
Mike tugs on Will’s side to turn him around so he could zip his jacket. Mike’s fingers linger once they reach his collar, giving it a final tug before meeting Will’s eyes, keeping his fingers wrapped tightly around the top of Will’s coat.
Will grimaces when he sees Mike’s blood shot eyes and tears running down his face. He releases a shaky exhale and pulls Will to his chest.
“Let’s get you home” he whispers into Will’s neck.
They hold each other for a moment before Mike releases Will and picks up the abandoned walkie talkie to radio Hopper.