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Vecna’s voice won’t leave his head.
It’s worse than before. Before, he could ignore the wounds. Focus on the IV under his skin like ice, the scratchy hospital blankets, his mom’s eyes blown wider than he’d ever seen them, even after a bottle of scotch, until the wounds turned to scars he only scratched at night, when he wanted to bleed.
But now the feeling of Vecna’s fingers around his throat linger, the bruises pulsing in time with the horrible voice in his head, the way the back of his neck rolls. The horrible things Vecna showed him. Black holes where Max’s eyes used to be. The slow slamming of every door after he tells them who he is. A scowl crossing Mike’s face…
Except.
Except, Vecna may be a mindreader, but he can’t see the future. Max is here, weak and shaky, but her eyes are bright. Robin figured out who he is, and she doesn’t hate him. So maybe, Mike. Maybe. Maybe.
“Hey.”
Speak of the devil.
Will turns in time to see Mike walk in, carrying a half-zipped military backpack. Mike doesn’t look at him right away, locked in instead on putting a crudely drawn map on the table between them. “Alright, here’s the plan. El and Kali are going to help Murray get the semi. We’re all gonna load in the back, and Nance is gonna hide on the roof. We already got her a rifle. She didn’t even react.”
Mike snorts. Will cannot bring himself to react, which is the wrong choice, because Mike finally looks up at him. “Will?” he asks. He seems to take everything in. Will has never been subtle about having been crying. “Holy shit, what happened?”
Will tries to laugh, but it comes out as a sob. He casts his eyes to the side, where the sun is just beginning to dip. They’ll need to leave soon. El and Kali are probably already getting the truck. Will has never before been so sure that he’s running out of time. Vecna’s words echo through his skull.
Will the Wise, afraid of his own feelings. Those horrible fingers, sharp nails leaving faint red lines on his cheeks. Secrets rot from the inside, William. And I can smell the flesh from here.
“I have to tell you something,” Will forces out.
Mike’s eyes, all wide and earnest, lock onto him as he drops the backpack and sits. “Okay. Yeah. Is it about Vecna?”
“Kind of?” Will answers. He can’t bring himself to look at Mike, so he looks at his fingers instead. Cheap ink, rubbed off from Max’s hospital band when he hugged her. Leftover grease from where El had shared her fuel snacks. Dirt, still under his nails from the Upside Down. “Vecna, he takes people because they’re weak, right?”
Mike frowns. “Will-”
Will holds up a hand. “No, Mike, just. Let me finish, okay?” Mike, for the first time in his life, quiets down. Thank god. Will couldn’t do this with a Mike Wheeler Speech. Not this time. This time, it’s all him.
“Vecna takes people because they’re weak. He gets into your head and uses all the shit in there against you. He unearthed things I didn’t even know were in there when I was a kid. And this time, he told me I’ll never have a chance of defeating him if I’m scared of my own feelings. He takes secrets and uses them against people. But I won’t let him, not this time.”
Will finally meets Mike’s eyes, sees how confused and earnest and worried Mike is, at the same time. Sees the vision Vecna put in his head flash over Mike’s face like a ghost, the scowl, the look of disgust when he turns away, the venom that will coat his words.
But he also sees the only kid who’d talk to him on the swings. The one with the cardboard swords and the cheap dice and the DM guide too big for small hands. His best friend. The heart. And maybe he’ll take mercy on Will the Wise, one last time.
“I’m gay,” Will breathes.
Will’s head drops between his knees as he sobs and awaits the reckoning. He listens for Mike’s footsteps to retreat, to hear the heavy backpack move, for the door to slam. Instead, he hears Mike’s voice. “Okay,” Mike says. “Okay.”
Will looks up at him, and Mike is looking back. Mike’s face is doing something complex and unreadable, like he’s trying to work out how to reply. “Okay?” Will asks, swallowing around the lump in his throat and tears dripping steadily down his cheeks.
“Okay,” Mike repeats. “I-Jesus, Will, I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say.”
Will can’t help but smile. “I made the great Michael Wheeler speechless?”
“First time ever,” Mike answers.
They both laugh, and it feels like something breaking inside Will. The laughter clearly turns back to sobs. He feels ridiculous and lighter and hollowed out, all at once. That was it. He told Mike, and the world didn’t end. Mike is still sitting there, watching him shake and cry and breathe in snot. Jesus, he can’t stop shaking.
“Oh, Will, hey.” Mike gets up, finally, and sits next to Will on the couch. He tugs Will in and Will goes easily, collapsing into Mike, hands coming up to cling onto his back as he sobs. Mike gathers him up and just holds him as Will cries, like he did when they were kids, when Will would wake up during sleepovers screaming about monsters and the dark and fingers trailing down his chest, too slow.
“I’m sorry,” Will says, in between sobs. “I’m sorry, this is so embarrassing.”
“Hey, don’t apologize.” Mike pulls back a bit and Will looks up at him, his eyes glassy and his lip trembling. “You’re so brave.”
Will rolls his eyes. “I told you I’m-” he can’t even bring himself to say it again, “-different. I didn’t, like, punch Vecna in the face.”
“You took away his ammunition,” Mike says. His thumb brushes a tear off of Will’s cheek. “Even if you did it with snot on your face.”
Will laughs, broken out of the trance. He brings his sleeve up to rub at his eyes and his nose. “Sorry,” he says again.
Mike pulls back from the hug as Will fixes his hoodie. “So here’s the plan,” Mike says. “We go in there. We kick Vecna’s ass with Nancy’s rifle and El’s powers and our sorcerer.” He bumps Will’s shoulder, which makes Will laugh again.
“And when it’s over?” Will asks.
“When it’s over,” Mike echoes. He laces his fingers through Will’s, steadies him. “When the dust settles, it’s you and me. Always has been.”
Will can’t help the grin that pulls at the corners of his mouth when he looks at their joint hands. “Let’s go kick some monster ass.”
Mike smiles back. “Fuck, yeah.”
END