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Ted liked to keep the house way too cold for Will’s liking.
It was one thing in the main parts of the house, but the basement - the basement was another story. It wasn’t as well insulated as the rest of the house, so the heat retention was near none. So Will was freezing at night. It was almost like Ted was trying to push them out of the house. He wouldn’t be surprised.
Will was too nice to ask for extra blankets or anything to warm himself up, though. He already felt like he was imposing enough staying there.
But he had to do something. So the next time Mike was in the shower, Will snuck into his room to look for something, anything to keep himself warm.
He hadn’t been in Mike’s room since before he left for California. He definitely felt like he was intruding, but he didn’t know what else to do at this point.
As he stepped into the room and quietly shut the door behind him, he glanced around, taking in the state of things. It was largely the same as he remembered, with a few more of his newer drawings added to the walls; more notably, there was also the painting he had made for Mike hung in a place of prominence above the bed.
He swallowed down his feelings of shame and guilt at the memory of giving Mike that very painting and walked over to the closet, beginning to rifle through the hung clothes looking for a sweater or a hoodie or something.
As he shuffled through the flannels and t-shirts, a shirt slipped off of one of the plastic hangers. “Oops,” he said aloud instinctively even though no one was around. He crouched down to pick it up from the floor when something in the corner caught his eye.
A box, full of papers. Envelopes? He looked over his shoulder and listened intently for a moment to make sure he wasn’t in danger of being caught, then reached in and pulled an envelope out.
To Will’s surprise, the envelope was addressed to him. In Lenora Hills.
Mike had been writing, he just hadn’t sent them.
Why?
Will glanced around himself again briefly, then grabbed a few more envelopes and stuffed them in his pocket. Surely Mike wouldn’t notice if just a few out of the 20 or so that were there in total went missing.
He stood back up, t-shirt in hand and put it back on the hanger it had fallen off of. He spotted a pale orange hoodie near the far end of the rack and quickly pulled it off the hanger, rushing out of the room before he could get caught and heading straight to the basement.
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
And now, the final battle with Vecna was at hand.
There hadn’t really been time for Will to act on what he had read in the unsent letters. Sure, he had tried with flirtatious conversations here and there, but building up the courage to really do something about his feelings was another story.
And here he was, 18 months later, and they were probably going to die.
Time to do something.
Everyone was in the basement at WSQK, preparing their supplies and weapons to go into the Upside Down to face Vecna. Will sat on a table on one side of the room, his bag long packed and ready to go. He didn’t need much, after all - he had his powers now.
He sat, staring at Mike who was talking with El on the other side of the room. Will now knew they were no longer together and hadn’t been since they had returned to Hawkins all those months ago. For over a year, everyone else, including Will, had assumed they had stayed together, but they just hadn’t made a big deal of their breakup. When this had been revealed to everyone, only Will knew the probable reason behind it.
The letters had told him everything he needed to know. He hadn’t even read all of them - just a few were enough to get the point across.
Will hopped up from the table and walked across the room just as Mike and El nodded at each other in apparent solidarity and understanding. El walked away to speak to Hopper, and Will spoke up. “Hey, Mike?”
Mike perked up, turning to Will. “Hey, I was just about to come talk to you,” he said. “I need to tell you something before… you know.” He scratched his head awkwardly, apparently nervous.
“Yeah, me too,” Will replied. “Um, can we go somewhere private?”
Mike looked around, not really sure where they could possibly go until he spotted the supply closet. “Yeah, let’s, uh,” he said, nodding in the direction of the closet.
As they walked toward the closet, Will’s heart was beating out of his chest. He wasn’t nervous, exactly - he knew this was going to go well, unless something had changed drastically since Mike had written and never sent those letters to him. But the anticipation was ungodly.
They walked in and Mike closed the door behind them, flipping on the light and then turning to face Will. “So-”
Before Mike could even form a full sentence, Will had grabbed him by the front of his vest and dragged him in, softly slotting their lips together in what he hoped was a decent kiss. To his delight, Mike pressed back into the kiss, just as he had hoped and expected. After a few moments, Will pulled away, gently smiling at Mike, who had a rather serious look on his face.
“H-how long have you known that I-”
“Love, Mike,” Will quoted from the letters he had read and reread countless times since he’d stolen them. Mike’s expression turned to one of surprise and he froze, blushing.
“...you read them.”
Will’s face grew red, partly with embarrassment at admitting his transgression. But for other reasons, too.
“All of them were signed, but not sent…” Will looked off to the side, blushing shyly. “I was looking for a hoodie to steal from your closet and there they were.”
Fuuuuuuuck, Mike thought. Should have hidden that better. He thought about it for a moment. Or maybe not, considering the circumstances.
“I saw my name and the Cali address on them… I couldn’t resist,” Will confessed, locking eyes with Mike again.
Mike looked back at him, slack-jawed and stunned.
“I’m sorry I pried, but… I’m also kind of not sorry,” Will said with a smirk.
Mike shook his head. “No, no, don’t… don’t be sorry. I. Uh.”
“What is it, Mike?” Will asked with a sly smile.
“Well, first of all, I was about to tell you myself, but you cut me off.”
“I saved us time.” Will grinned mischievously. “Anything else?”
“Second of all…” Mike stepped back into Will’s space, blushing furiously. “Can… can we try that again? You caught me off guard.”
Will giggled and wrapped his arms around Mike easily, as if this was something they had always done. “Of course. C’mere.”
The next kiss was much better, less restrained without the burden of unspoken emotions between them. Will’s hands tangled in Mike’s curls, knocking the beanie off of his head while Mike’s hands found their way to Will’s waist, pulling him in closer.
They had a world to save from literal Hell.
But for now, Hell could wait.