Work Text:
JUNE 1988
Will walks into Mike’s room for the first time in over a year. He’s alone, and the room is surprisingly dark for the daytime, courtesy of the curtains Mike insisted on keeping closed his whole life. Flipping the lightswitch reveals an unsuprising mess of dirty laundry alongside miscellaneous items on the floor and an unmade bed. From the doorframe, he surveys the room for another minute before stepping in. Will is careful not to rearrange the clothes on the floor, to not change the way Mike had left it.
The Wheelers were out of the house, grocery shopping or another mundane task Will had opted out of. He felt bad about not helping, but he’s set the table almost every night since he started staying with them, and Ted has gotten out of his Lay-Z-Boy maybe once. Plus, they'd be moving out soon. Joyce had already started looking at houses; when Will asked where she was thinking of going, she'd said, "Anywhere but here." The Wheelers wouldn’t be back for a while, so Will took the opportunity to look around.
He hasn’t been in this room since the move and, just like everything else in Hawkins, it’s changed. New decor, new wall colors, new layout, new everything, except for the desk. Despite it being covered in water rings and pencil marks, it hasn’t changed. Will takes a seat in the revolving chair and plucks a pen off the desk, mindlessly fidgeting with the clicker until he notices the pile of face-down letters in the corner.
This was why he’d come in here. He’d seen the letters once before, but at that point, he didn’t know whose name was scribbled on the front in Mike’s messy scrawl and he didn’t know why they were written in the first place. He did now.
Gently, he picked the top one off the pile and flipped in over in his hands. Will, it read. He sucked in a shaky breath and pulled the paper apart effortlessly. He'd done this before.
Will,
Hi
I know you just left. You won't see this for a few days, but as soon as I couldn't see your car anymore, I missed you started writing.
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JULY 1988
Will hurried through the jet bridge after the plane landed. It was pretty cramped, and the other passengers seemed just as relieved as him to be off the flight. El, Jonathan, and Joyce trailed slightly behind him, less eager to get out of the enclosed space. As soon as he made it through, he started scanning the room for the Wheelers. After months of pleading, Joyce had begrudgingly decided to fly into Hawkins for spring break. Jonathan missed Nancy, El missed Mike, and Will- well, Will missed Mike too.
After a second, he spotted Mike and Nancy. Mike was waving excitedly at him and Nancy stood next to him, a soft smile on her face. Will started towards them, but was suddenly passed by a blur of motion. El was running directly towards Mike, screeching to a halt just before knocking him over. Will looked away before he could see them kiss, feeing like an idiot. Of course Mike hadn’t been waving at him, he was waving at El. His girlfriend. Will watched as she launched into conversation before embracing him in a brief hug. He laughed and hugged her back before reaching onto the chair behind him and awkwardly handing her a bouquet and nervously explaining something.
“What’s wrong, honey?” a voice asks from behind him. Will hadn’t realized he’d stopped walking until he turns to see his concerned mother’s face.
“Nothing, Mom. Sorry.”
“Well, go say hi!” Joyce urged and gave him a slight shove on the back to keep him moving.
“Okay, okay! Geez!” He laughed, but walked more in Nancy’s direction where she was greeting Jonathan, his mother walking slightly behind him. Will notices that Mike and El are now sitting a couple seats down and seem to be engaged in conversation.
“Hey, Will.” Once again, his stare is broken by a warm voice.
“Oh, um, hi, Nancy,” he says back.
“Is your mom here?” Joyce interjects from behind him. “It’s been a minute since we spoke.”
“Oh, no, I offered to drive Mike here. He was really excited to see everybody.”
“Ah, okay,” Joyce replies before changing the topic to something Nancy definitely doesn’t care about, but she nods along politely anyway.
Will zones out for another moment, contemplating why he’d wanted to come here so bad before he felt a tap on his shoulder. Startled, he spun around to Mike standing there, grinning widely and holding a small stack of envelopes. “Will! Hey!”
“Hi, Mike,” Will managed awkwardly. Mike put his arms out, presumably for a hug, which Will was not expecting in the slightest. “Oh, um,” he said, and attempted a weird half side hug which made him want to jump into the quarry. He pulled back, unable to meet Mike’s eye. “What’s that?” He gestured at the envelopes in Mike’s hand.
“Oh. Uh, it’s nothing, it’s just something that I wrote.”
“Okay. Um, cool,” Will mumbles. Just at that moment, El runs back up beside Mike and starts to explain enthusiastically to him the schedule she’d made for the day despite being the visitor. She grabbed his hand and started pulling him along towards the exit.
Will knew what was wrong with him. He'd known since, what, sixth grade? For years, he was the only one who knew, until the move. California was different than Hawkins. People were more accepting there, more unapologetically themselves.
There was a guy. It didn't last long. He hadn't really cared, and Will was too desperate for someone who understood how he felt for him to care who it was. Jonathan had his suspicions, but he had kept a careful distance from the situation.
However, El had not.
She didn't do it on purpose, per say, but she also hadn't knocked before opening the door that day. Prior to that, she had often demanded information pertaining to why these two were always together or why Will's lips were so red after they hung out.
When she found out, Will had begged her not to tell Joyce. He knew she loved him, but when Lonnie had screamed that word as he frequently did, she hadn't disagreed.
Will climbed into Nancy's car and prepared to be stuck in a car with the love of his life and his girlfriend for the next two hours.