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Everybody got divided, of course. This was the final fight and they were going to win. To say that Will felt his heart skip a beat after hearing Mike split up the teams when they began to branch off into the Upside Down…well, that would be an understatement.
“Finally, Will and I will get the cables from the lab. Everyone will meet back at the tower together, okay?”
Will glanced at him, and Jonathon glanced at Will. Jonathan always had a feeling, and after what had just happened, will confessing to everybody, as if he were guilty of something…well, now Johnathon knew it. But there wasn’t time for this. Not right now.
“C’mon guys! The world is ending tonight. I hate it but…my theory? Let’s keep it that way…a theory. Nothing more, okay?” Lucas explained to everybody in the truck. They all nodded together like it was a shared moment of undying certainty, before grabbing their gear and putting on their determined faces. This was the night everything would change.
//
Will and Mike found themselves walking through the ash and dust of the extremely windy Upside Down, headed towards the lab where everything started. It was quiet…quite honestly, Will was afraid to say anything. The silence didn’t feel bad though…just like, tense…maybe?
The boys entered the building and began scoping the area out, examining their surroundings in the safest way possible. They were avoiding eye contact, almost. Like, maybe it was intentional for Will…but Mike? What’s he doing consciously avoiding Will’s eyes?
When they came to a quieter room, one filled with nothing but their worried selves, Will dropped down onto the floor and leaned against the wall. It was going to be a long night, and he needed a minute. He put his face in his palms and took a deep breath.
Mike followed, he knew that this, what was about to happen…everything from the very beginning led up to it. This was no easy toll on Will, and Mike would be a fool to treat it as anything less. Sooo…he sat with him.
Mike, with his head between his own knees as they both sat with their knees tucked to their chests, spoke for the first time since the team split up.
“Who’s Tammy?” Mike’s words echoed through the small room.
“What?” Will gave a hollow laugh and looked to his left, where Mike was staring at the floor.
“Back there, you said something about your crush being your ‘Tammy’, who is she?” Mike was completely serious. He wanted to know, and it made Will’s heart skip every beat that was meant to ring through his body, pump his blood to his vessels, give his lungs the means to fucking breathe. What a loaded question.
“It…it was like, a metaphor—or whatever. It’s kind of hard to explain,” without outing the cutest couple in the room, “but picture it like—Tammy is like a wall—one that’s there for me, that I talk to and it always stays no matter what, but it would never be able to actually absorb what I feel, because of its material, you know? It’s not…built the same way I am, so it can’t work. Tammy becomes something of a reflection, where everything I’ve ever felt for Tammy then comes deflecting back to me. Putting the focus on me, and who I am, rather than what Tammy’s purpose is…if that makes sense?” Will’s hands were still, and he was so confident in explaining this, hoping Mike would just get it and move on.
Admitting his difference to everybody was hard enough.
I don’t like girls.
Despite the reaction being everything he needed…the part where his crush finds out that he’s the lucky guy? Well…that was something Will didn’t plan on saying. That wasn’t the point anyway. So Mike asking this question? The possibilities that curiosity undeniably brings—this was no joke. This conversation…it scared him.
“How do you know?” Mike was looking at him now with his dark eyes, the faint glow of Will’s flush face, and Mike’s voice shook…just a little.
“Know what?” Will felt like his breath was slow to reach his lungs, everything was moving in slow motion despite this being the night—of all nights—for motion to be the only thing on their minds. But here they sat, slow and quiet.
“How do you know your crush is your Tammy if you’ve never told him?” Mike asked…his voice…delicate, like this was the most calculated question he’d ever let fall from his mouth. He wasn’t even sure what to expect next—he didn't even know what he wanted to happen.
“How do you know I’ve never told him?” Will could feel the walls closing in on him—his headspace became prominent, where everything outside of it was somehow muffled…his eyes were completely glued to Mike’s, who didn’t falter their contact. Their eyes stayed locked, staring at one another intently—as though this question posed something otherworldly—but foreign entities were not so foreign to them anyway, right? Not in their strange world.
So…why now must their minds stop working? Their hands, start shaking? Their hearts…keep beating…for why now…does it feel foreign? Why now, among all moments they’ve endured—their shared experiences…why do they feel this way?
Defeated.
Though…it was a strange kind of defeat—one where they both felt it, although Will was the one carrying the burden. And it was a burden he only shared with himself…he’d never actually said it, not yet.
Devotion.
People talk of romantic love and platonic love, although none of those things ever remotely described Will’s love for Mike. It always came back to devotion…sure, there was the uncertainty of reciprocation, but the certainty that it didn’t matter. It wasn’t about reciprocation.
Unconditional.
Will never bothered telling Mike because he was so afraid it’d change how Mike saw him. But, he never once felt it would cause ripples in his perspective of Mike…no, no…that’s impossible. Will loved Mike…unconditionally.
Eternal.
Whether or not they made it out alive tonight was out of their hands. They didn’t know. What Will did know was that his love for Mike was eternal…in that, if they died tonight—his love will remain. To have existed in the time they’ve crossed paths, in a universe where their lifetimes meant all of nothing in the comprehensive understanding of science and all things relative to reality…this feeling of love? It was just as real as anything else…and even if they died, it could not simply undo what was felt through Will’s heart, his mind…his fingertips…wait.
His fingertips felt warm.
Will realized that Mike had placed his palm just beneath Will’s hand as their bodies and slightly shifted toward one another. The intensity of it all was…unbearable—like Will might actually explode. Will couldn’t even break eye contact to look at Mike’s hand, which had now somehow been softly cupping around his own.
So, they sat there…still breaths and heavy chests, eyes connected—like a bridge between worlds, and hearts…still beating.
“M-Mike, I…,” Will whispered, his voice shaking.
“Will,” Mike gulped like he had to swallow the taste of Will’s name on his tongue before breathing out the only thing he knew how to say, “…tell me.”