Chapter Text
William Byers always had a special place in Michael Wheeler's heart.
Maybe he never knew. Maybe he always knew. But how he treated Will came naturally, like a survival instinct. If Will was sad, if he was hurt, Mike could cheer him up without a second thought.
It was always just friendship to him. Will Byers, his best friend.
Or maybe Mike was just oblivious.
Mike stares. Just stares. Stares at his best friend, on his knees, swaying slightly, as fire and dead bodies and blood surrounds them.
He feels frozen. Lost in a trance from the disbelief, the adrenaline, from watching Will wipe his bloody nose after saving his life.
Will has powers.
He's snapped out of his daze when he hears Joyce scream, running and dropping to her own knees in front of will just as his head starts to dip forward, her cheeks streamed with tears.
Mike's head is pounding, breath coming too fast, too shallow, but he runs too, sitting beside Joyce and holding Will's shoulder to keep him upright as the consciousness finally leaves his body, exhaustion taking over.
They're still on the floor catching their breaths when Mikes forgotten walkie talkie goes off, Robin shouting into it, begging for someone to pick up, saying it's a code red.
Mike won't let go, so Joyce has to leave her own son to fetch the walkie.
"The kids! It got the kids!" He hears Robin shout distantly, "The truck tipped and Murray- I think he's-" Mike doesn't care to listen anymore. Not when he hears Lucas tune in, not when they have a rushed, panicked conversation, not even when Joyce tries and fails to explain the situation they're currently in.
When Mike seems to come back to reality, him and Joyce are dragging a still-unconscious Will down into the radio station where they find Robin tending to Lucas, who has a gash on his chest.
Mike and Joyce carefully lay Will down on the sofa, before Mike spins around and jogs to Lucas.
"Dude," He breathes. He can't seem to get the rest of his sentence out, instead just staring at his best friend.
Lucas finishes it for him instead. "The- the demogorgon- it was coming for me, Mike. It was mid strike and it just stopped. Mid-air. Then it-" Lucas swallows, Mike nodding along to every word.
"I know, me too." Mike confirms, before Robin chimes in Same thing happened to me.
Mike and Robin, standing, turn to face Will, Lucas already sat facing him when he asks, "Was it him? Is that why- why you had to... drag him in here?"
Mike doesn't turn around. Instead just holding his gaze on Will as he nods, something like admiration in his eyes that only Robin seems to notice.
It's only 10 minutes later when Dustin barges through the door, Jonathan, Nancy and Steve right behind. "Where is he?!"
Mike watches in his peripheral as Lucas and Robin point forwards to Will laying on the sofa. Still unconscious. Still unresponsive.
He would never admit it, but his heart is pounding so loudly he can hear it in his ears, his own body making him feel sick from the anxiety swirling around inside of him like melted butter in a pan.
However maybe he doesn't have to admit it. Maybe it's clear on his face. Maybe his breathing is giving it away. Mike doesn't understand his feelings, but he blames them on worry. He's just worried for his best friend's life, for-
His nose scrunches slightly, watching Will's arms twitch. "Is that... normal?" He mutters to himself.
Mike doesn't even seem to notice everybody's heads turn to look at him, everyone now off the stairs and into the room.
He takes slow steps forwards, Will's whole body twitching a little bit more, and more, and more. Someone takes a deep breath behind him.
A step. Another step.
He lunges, attempting to pin Will's arms down whilst everyone behind him screams.
Will is clawing at his eye, Will is clawing at his eye, Will is clawing at his eye.
It repeats in his head like a mantra as he presses down his whole body weight atop Will. "Stop it! You're going to hurt yourself!" he screams, but Will is still unconscious, he can't hear him!
Mike is suddenly being helped. Steve and Jonathan grabbing an arm each, Mike sat uselessly on top of Will. He wants to be useful. Why is he never useful?
With no arms left to grab, Mike cups Will's face instead, seemingly calming the still unconscious boy down as everyone finally breathes again.
Steve, still holding an arm, looks at Mike and Jonathan. "Okay, what the fuck was that?"
No one answers him.
Instead, Mike, Jonathan and Steve slowly let go (and in Mike's case, get off) of Will, everybody still in some state of shock, and Mike doesn't know why, doesn't know what possesses him to do it, but he just drops. Completely drops to his knees beside Will and grabs his right hand, clutching it in both his own.
In the background, he can hear Jonathan trying to calm Joyce down, can hear the others finally starting to breathe normally again, but he's concentrated on Will and Will only.
Mike rests his head on the edge of the sofa, still gripping Will's right hand impossibly tight. He hesitates, before rubbing Will's knuckles with his fingers. Just incase, he tells himself, incase he can hear us, incase he's scared. Incase he needs me.
"Where are Hopper and El? Are they okay?" Joyce's worried voice makes Mike lift his head, letting go of Will's hand and standing to face the group.
"They're still there. In the Upside Down. We managed to contact them when Steve crashed his car-" Dustin starts.
"Steve crashed the car?" Lucas buts in.
Steve tries to interfere, "Yes, but-"
"Something about infiltrating the military base" Nancy's the one to actually answer the question.
"In the Upside Down?" Lucas exclaims.
"What?! That's so dangerous!" Mike finally speaks.
There's no time to dwell on it, though, as Will finally wakes up. Not a stir, not a grumble. He sits up so fast his head flings forwards, Mike immediately at his side.
"Will!" Joyce and Mike shout at the same time. "You okay?" Mike asks him. Will is looking at him, but he's not really looking at him. More... past him.
"The MAC-Z." Will chokes out, trying to stand up but being pushed back down.
"What about it?" Steve asks from a few feet away.
"We need to go back."
"What why?" Mike asks, however, he doesn't get a reply. Instead, Will looks almost zoned out. "Why, Will?"
The mention of his name makes Will finally look at Mike, and Mike may be paranoid as fuck, but is Will's left eye flickering a faint red? Nothing noticeable at all, but Mike subconsciously pays so much attention to the little details that he sees it immediately.
Will looks around, "I don't know. But what I do know is that I can feel it. Feel him. He doesn't want us there. He's hiding something". The silence that follows is unbearable to Mike, and he's about to break it when Steve does first.
"Well, then. We better get going."