Chapter Text
Staying in the Wheelers basement hadn't been Will's first choice, it was cold, damp and the mattress on the floor was too hard.
Despite all that, sharing a room with Mike would've been ten times worse. He was much too tall now to fit in the old sleeping bag Mike had and the spare mattress was too big to fit in Mike's room so they'd have to share a bed. Realizing all this, Will had insisted that he sleep in the basement with Jonathan.
Out of respect for Nancy's parents Jonathan didn't sneak upstairs to join her (at least not every night) which meant Will got some more bonding bonding with Jonathan at night.
It was nice to talk about all the odd things the Wheelers did, like how Mike's dad likes to chew his food for long periods of time (maybe he forgot he was eating due to his newspaper) or how Holly seemed to always be in her own little world, Jonathan would also talk about his relationship with Nancy and how they're trying to fix things.
All while subtly trying to get Will to open up about Mike. Will wasn't stupid, he knew Jonathan had a loose idea of how he felt about Mike, but he also knew Jonathan wouldn't outright say it until Will himself did.
“So anything new?” Jonathan asked after going on a long rant about Nancy.
Will gave his brother a look that clearly meant ‘not this again’. “Nope” Will replied with a shrug, curled up with his blanket.
“Nothing at all?” Jonathan pushed just a little.
"Nothing” Will insisted with a laugh, trying to play it off.
He wasn't lying. There was nothing new. Mike and him biked to school together everyday, put up with classes and talked to each other here or there.
It was still awkward, months of staying at Mike's house hadn't changed much. Sure they talked more but it was usually small talk, it's like they didn't know how to talk unless the world was ending.
When Will laid down to sleep for the night he pondered on the same thing over and over again. Was he losing Mike? Were they getting more distant each day? He couldn't even confidently call him his best friend anymore.
Will shivered a bit, it was November and the winter was beginning to truly show up in Hawkins. He hadn't missed the cold one bit, California had been an endless ray of sunshine or rain, no snow.
It was nice, it made him forget about the Upside Down, about the cold. Now that he was back and facing it once again, a strange feeling gnawed at him.