Chapter Text
Stunned beyond belief, Mike stares at Will. The boy has dropped to his knees from the sheer force of whatever he just did, taking his damp sleeve slowly across his face, wiping the blood from his nose. Mike can’t quite comprehend how Will is still conscious. How he’s still upright. How he’s still breathing.
And then- as if the thought passes from Mike’s mind straight into Will’s-Will collapses to the asphalt.
Still full of adrenaline from his near-death experience, Mike sprints forward, narrowly avoiding stepping on the corpse of a horribly mangled demogorgon. He stumbles slightly, unsure of how his legs are carrying him.
“Will!” It comes out hoarse. Needy. Wrong.
Unbothered about the state of his own knees, Mike slams into the concrete next to Will. He rolls Will onto his back, his hands trembling as they grip and shake his shoulders.
“Will! Will, come on. Come on, Will-open your eyes!” Panic sets in, the worst-case scenario swirling in the depths of his brain. Will gone, or dying, slipping somewhere Mike can’t reach. Mike is so consumed in trying to wake up Will, he hardly notices the presence of Joyce beside him. A hand finds his shoulder; he flinches ever so slightly. She kneels beside him, checking Will’s carotid for a pulse, and lets out a sigh of relief.
“He’s alive.” Tears well in her eyes. “Mike, we need to get him somewhere safe. He needs time to recover and wake up on his own terms.”
Shaking his head, shaking away his fears, Mike processes the words that were just spoken to him. Where can they reconvene? WSQK. It’s the most logical. It’s the only option.
“The radio station. Contact the others, let them know where we’re going.” Mike wastes no time lingering, and unsurprisingly, neither does Joyce. Moving with purpose, she heads toward what he assumes to be her bag, and hopefully unscathed, a walkie-talkie. Gently, as if he were made of porcelain, Mike slips one hand under Will’s shoulders and the other under his knees. Mike’s joints groan, but regardless he stands up with Will in his arms.
He's lighter than I expected. Mike doesn’t know why this thought causes a pang in his chest. He quickly dismisses it, storing it somewhere deep in his brain. Later, he can feel things later. Will nestles into Mike’s shoulders unconsciously, yet this goes unnoticed by Mike, as he slowly makes his way towards Joyce. Together, they head toward WSQK in silence.
----
Robin, Murray, and Lucas are already there when the three of them arrive. Mike is well aware of the concern and tension in the room; all eyes follow him as he delicately lays Will down on the old couch in the basement.
“What the hell happened? I was nearly a demogorgon’s dinner and all of the sudden, its’ bones are snapping like it’s been, vecnatized or something!” Robin’s words flow out of her in a steady stream, laced with anxiety.
“Same here,” Lucas pipes up from the corner. Mike glances his way and Lukas’s face mirrors his own: full of concern and worry. Mike doesn’t have it in him to explain, so he looks expectantly to Joyce. Joyce launches straight into the details of the last hour, talking a mile a minute. She stops right before the big reveal of Will’s powers, taking a deep breath and steadying herself. Mike pretends he’s listening, keeping his gaze locked onto Will, hoping for any stir that indicates he is awake. He can practically hear the jaws in the room drop when Joyce finally tells them.
“… he just needs to recharge. In the meantime, we need to plan our next move.” Mike hears the tail end of Joyce’s statement. He agrees.
“I’ll stay with Will. You guys have always been the best strategists.” Mike tries to joke, but it comes out all wrong. Nods and hums of agreement echo around him. Lucas shoots Mike a suspicious but knowing look. What? What does that even mean?
The four of them ramble out of the room, leaving Mike alone with Will. A deep sigh leaves Mike’s chest. He fears that he might implode if Will doesn’t wake up soon. Or at all. Stop it, Mike. He’s fine, he’s going to be just fine.
Taking two strides forward, Mike is hovering above Will. He sinks down to his knees, unsure what he thinks his words will do.
“Hey, Will. It’s Mike. I mean... I’m sure you know that. Listen, we need you to wake up. We can’t do this without you.” His throat tightens. “I can’t do this without you.” He grasps his hands together tightly, sighing once again to himself. He drags over a chair and sits, eyes never once leaving Will. The exhaustion in his body sets in. He’s in for a long night.
----
“Mike, shut up!” Will playfully remarks.
“Make me!” Mike sticks his tongue out in Will’s direction, eliciting just the response he had hoped for. Will chuckles under his breath, a smile stretched wide across his face. Mike’s chest tightens.
The Byers had been staying at the Wheeler’s house for about a year and a half. After the “earthquake”, Mike, with the backup of Nancy, had insisted that the Byers move in for the time being. Even though she hadn’t contributed much to the fight, Nancy remarkably was awarded with Jonathan being able to stay in her room. Will was assigned a blowup mattress in the basement, even though Mike had pleaded that he stay in his room. It wasn’t like they hadn’t had sleepovers before and done just that. Karen said no. Mike wasn’t sure why it bothered him so much.
The two boys sit cross-legged on the basement floor around the table, exchanging a dialogue about school, D&D, and other miniscule matters. They scattered around the topic of Vecna and the impending doom they know they both felt.
“Mike?” Mike looks up from the homework he’d been doodling on. Will’s eyes are full of questions Mike suddenly wants desperately to answer.
“Will?”
“Are you scared?” It slips its way out of Will’s mouth, softly, but there. He looks expectantly toward Mike. Mike flounders for a moment, all of the sudden feeling like he’s unable to find even footing in this conversation.
“Honestly… yeah. I’m pretty terrified.” Will’s face drops, so Mike scrambles “But…I know I’m not alone. Everyone in the party is probably feeling the same way. We can lean on each other! I mean, I don’t think I could get through this without you.” Mike laughs awkwardly, rubbing softly at the back of his neck and eyeing the floor. Why’d I say it like that? I mean it’s just a best-friend thing. Right?
Mike dares to look at Will. He swears he sees a faint dusting of pink across Will’s cheeks. He’s probably making things up. A beat of silence goes by, and Mike starts to wonder if he made Will feel uncomfortable.
“I feel the same.” Will speaks up, a timid smile on his face. Mike forgets he was worrying in the first place. The conversation dies, but not in a bad way. Mike returns to his mindless doodling, but he swears that he sees Will stealing glances at him in his peripheral. He feels content, happy even. Time seems to stand still in these moments with Will.
“Mike?” Mike looks up once again, but Will is still consumed with the journal in front of him.
“Mike? Mike.” The voice is a bit more urgent, and Mike understands that it is not Will’s. The memory starts to drift away, and Mike feels as though he should reach out and grab it. He should grab it, bottle it, save it for a rainy day.
His eyes shoot open. Lucas is standing above him. It takes Mike a second to remember where he is and what he was doing. Lucas is now trying to force a warm cup of coffee into his hands. He takes it, blinking away the sleep, realizing that he was dreaming of a long-forgotten memory.
“You fell asleep. You said you’d stay with Will, not take a cat nap.” Lucas scolds him.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m here next to Will, aren’t I?”
A third voice joins the conversation.
“Yep, right next to him.” Mike’s head snaps around so quickly, he feels his brain smack against his forehead. It’s Will, still laying on the couch, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
“Good morning.” A sheepish grin snakes across Will’s face, and Mike nearly sheds a tear at the sight.