Chapter Text
Mike was worried about Will
Sitting next to him at dinner while everyone else were having their own conversations, Mike wasn't hungry at all.
Will, on the other hand, seemed hungry, devouring his plate (in a decent way, of course) while talking animatedly with Jonathan.
He looked fine, healthy, and at peace.
That made him really happy.
Bored as he was, he looked at this food without interest and began to wonder on his mind
(...)
That Morning
"¡Mikee, comee oonnn, we are lateee!"
Holly was stressed.
She herself had woken him up about 15 minutes earlier, in a rather unpleasant way.
Short story: Last night he'd lost track of time finishing a paragraph for his story not helping his current disastrous sleep schedule at all. Holly then entered at 7:30 am to his room screaming.
He'd had to rush to the bathroom, nearly tripping over his old clothes scattered on the floor, run back to his room, almost bumping into Mrs. Byers at the bottom of the stairs, and get halfway ready for stupid school.
"¡Coming!" Mike screamed, grabbing his backpack and then his personal notebook. He ran out of his room and practically leaped down the stairs.
There they were, Holly already holding the front door open, and Will, looking so much better and well-dressed than him. He was always on time, for everything.
"I'm here" he sighed tired of the runway, adding the jazz arms and exhausted face.
Holly only stares at him with disappointment while shakes her head and goes out, their mother's live picture.
Will only smiled at him, "You really need to put a timer on".
"For waking up or for going to sleep? " Mike smiled back, ignoring his sister frustration.
That brought a small laugh to Will's face, "both things," his face looked so warm and pink nodding towards the door, "let's go".
Will went out through the door leaving a breathless blushed dizzy Mikey.
"Oh boy," he thought,"that marathon around the fucking house got me bad"
(...)
On their way to school, Mike always liked to watch around the town and see the lack of military shit.
"Hey" Will called his attention, "you brought your spanish homework with you right? ".
"Spanish homework..."
"Shit shit shit"
He felt like crying "Ohh shit".
"It was due today you know, you are screwed" said Will with a straight face.
Mike might actually start crying seriously. A real panic taking his face, churning his guts.
There was not even time to go back home for it, they were already chaining their bycicles at the school entrance and many teachers had already seen them arrive so there was no place to...
"You are lucky Christmas arrived early this year"
Interrupting his inner crisis, Will rised his arm to Mike, holding his Spanish book assignment right in front of his sight, like a real holy saviour. Mike could cry.
"Oh Will" a light louder moan than usual escaped her lips, as he felt the world start spinning again.
"If you want to get more than a C maybe start not leaving your homework at your basement's floor" said trying to keep his neutral expression even when it was obvious the moron wanted to laugh at his face.
Mike felt a little too moved for something so ordinary, but wouldn't stop him from responding with something ironic.
"Oh yeah? Then what about stop making us do homework at the basement only because we get distracted easily there alone".
Both bodies stopped abruptly, thanks to Mike's easily misinterpreted words.
"Damn, that didn't sound how I expected"
Feeling his ears go red and see Will with a weird expression he nervously tried to say something. Conveniently, Dustin ran around the corner and yelled at them.
"¡Boys what the hell!?, ¡Mister McAllister is going to left us out of the class! ¡We are fucking latee!".
Will ran instinctively after him and Mike couldn't say anything else.
"Shit" he mumbled and ran after the boys.
It was their Senior year, one finally free from
all regarding to The Upside Down and beyond.
They were lucky people from Hawkins were so clueless and didn't ask many questions. A government announce about a third earthquake and the money that would be send to help the town's rebuilding was enough to calm the town.
Getting ride of their childrens for the day (mostly called "going to school") was still a priority for parents even on a post apocalyptic scenario and, since the building was always safe and sound no mattered what, they continued (or rather started) the ordinary life of teenagers the best they could.
At lunch everyone reunited to speak and laugh about their days, almost always making plans for the afternoon.
Sitting in front of Will, Mike had just lost a strength challenge against Lucas, being brutally humiliated by him and Dustin, who obviously had a bet.
Making his best defetead expression as the others talked shit he looked at Will.
Will smiled and whispered "next time"
Mike suddenly forgot what he was complaining about.
His parents recovery from the demogorgon attack had been slowly and painful so far, so meanwhile they were still at the Hospital with no sign of leaving soon, both the Byers as the young Wheelers took care of the house.
So yeah, Mike and Will were still living together. Well, at a same house with their respective families of course.
Everything was really great, they had so much fun, just like in the old good times. They would watch horror movies friday nights at the basement, read comics for hours at Mike's room while listening his radio and overall, play DnD nonstop.
Their campaigns had never been greater. They had grew up but the excitement was still there.
Mike felt a team again with Will, like they used to be, like they promised to be on their California adventure.
There was something though... something Mike was concerned about lately.
Between the laughs and humiliating reminders of how weak his whole body was, Will left the table to go use the restroom. Mike took it as an opportunity to talk to the others about it.
"Guys, hey," he snapped his fingers to get Dustin and Lucas to stop talking, Max had just arrived to the table. All three of them then looked at him, "Listen, I believe something's going on with Will".
"What is it?" Max was the first to say.
"Not sure if any of you have realized about it but" Mike looked over his shoulder, feeling a whole world hearing, "I've seen Chance bothering Will these days".
None of them seemed too surprised. Mike expected at least a little worry about it.
"What?".
All three exchange looks before go back to him.
"Well, he has for years now, to all of us so" Lucas took a sip from his coke, interrumpting his own words, "Why would it be concerning now?".
"Because he only does when Will isn't around any of us now"
It had all started 3 months ago.
He saw Chance laying against the lockers next to Will's, talking to him with that annoying smile. Will didn't do anything, just focused on grabbing his notebooks.
Mike quickly approached them.
"Any problem here Chance?" he walked between them.
His smile faded "None of your business Wheeler" and without further ado he walked away.
He turned to look at Will. He seems paralyzed, blushed all over his face... Oh god, was he about to cry?
"Will" he hold his shoulder softly, "you okay? Was he bothering you?" he examined his friend from head to toe, as if whatever the idiot was saying had hurt him on live skin, muscle memory from dealing with bloody monsters throughout his adolescence "What did he say?".
"N-nothing! I-i mean" he cleared his throat "nothing, he just asked about a science assignment, that's all".
"Chance Buscamante? Asking about science?"
He must have symptomatized his own thinking, letting it be foreseen in his own expression.
"Come on Will, does he ever enter to that class? Please".
"He does Mike" not even him sounded convinced himself. Mike simply gave him an innocent look, the poor expression of calmness that Will was trying to convey hesitated, "O-or maybe he wants to start doing it now, so he simply asked. What would you know? heh".
"But-"
"Don't overthink it, let's just go".
"... "
"What in the world?"
"Will defending Chance?"
He closed his locker and turned back to walk but Mike grabbed his shoulder to stop him, almost immediately stopping the contact. Instead, he directed his hand towards the strap of his backpack that was over his shoulder, nervously squeezing it.
"Will..."
"Stop worrying so much Mike, ¡I'm fine!, he didn't do anything, i swear," he smiled and pointed his arm towards their next classroom at the end of the hall as he started walking, leaving him slowly behind, "Come on, let's take good seats".
Mike wanted to trust him
If Chance was doing something bad to him, Will would tell the group... or at least him, ¡they were a team after all!.
But the same situation kept happening over and over.
Chance talking to him at class, Chance talking to him at the lockers, Chance talking to him at the cafeteria, all under Wheeler's incredulous look from a distance.
He behaved like a shadow going after Will whenever he was alone, making Mike nervous.
Mike would confront Will about it but he would mumble a "I'm fine" or "he wasn't saying anything" and completely fake dementia.
He trusted Will
But not fucking Chance Buscamante
"But why would he not say anything if it's been this long?" Lucas brought him back the present.
"Well, you know sweet William Byers" Max said, her face resting on his hand and narrow eyes, clear signal she was now meditating about Mike's concern.
"¡Exactly!" exclaimed Mike pointing at her with his arm making his point, "he is too kind for his own good".
"But he isn't stupid" Dustin intervened, suddenly gaining the attention, "if Chance and Andy were bothering him bad so many times he would tell us, or at least mention it so they wouldn't get away with it".
"That's the thing," again, the three of them looked at Mike curious, "it's not Andy or any other from their bunch of idiots," he sighed, "it's just Chance, over and over".
That left the table under a cloud of disconcert.
Before anyone could say anything else, they saw Will walking towards them so they left the subject there and continue the laughs and complains about the run they had had earlier.
Lucas boasted about how muscular and strong he was, trying to get Max to touch his "muscles," she just made a face of disgust, making the others laugh. Dustin noted his champion's winning rounds on his notebook, Will sipped his orange juice, laughing, entertained enough just watching them.
Mike would find peace in these carefree moments with the boys; they deserved it after all, so much suffering and trauma at such a young age.
Distracted as Dustin began talking about his next project with Mr. Clark, his eyes wondered around. From the distance he saw Andy and his friends laughing loudly over something sitting over a table, Chance between them, but he wasn't laughing.
He was looking in their direction, his eyes focused on Will, even though Will had his back turned.
Mike jumped on his sit (discretly) and looked around, no one cared or realized of course .
Well, he did
After a few seconds, Chance noticed Mike was staring at him with murderous intent and looked back, Mike make his face to be a clear message for Chance;
Leave him alone
Chance seemed to understand that, because he smiled mockingly in response;
Says who?
And looked back at his friends.
Oh the audacity
Mike felt even more offended than before.
It was definitive: Chance Buscamante was a total imbecile.
And Mike wasn't going to let him hurt his friend.
His best friend.
(...)
After dinner, Mike first went upstairs to his bedroom while Will stayed at the table helping Holly with some sort of art project with crayons.
It was a cloudy frozen night even after a warm sunny day. Pacing on his room while putting another sweater on, Mike wondered whether to ask Will about it again.
But Max's voice on his head slapped him like the real her would have.
"Don't fuck anything up, you boys usually are intense assholes out of touch," she said to him before going home with Lucas, him with Will and Dustin debating some meters from them, "I promise I'll talk to him and ask softly about it, if there's really something to start".
"If he doesn't talk about it with me, I don't believe he will with you"
He had no idea where that thought came from, but obviously didn't say out loud, Max could actually help.
He nodded at her, "Thank you".
Then he wouldn't say anything, he couldn't.
Giving up, Mike finally sitted on his desk to continue his writing. Will entered half hour later and sitted on the floor and continued a little drawing of Max's DnD character as a gift for her.
This closeness they were now settling into felt so natural; it seemed unbelievable that they had practically lost touch just two years ago.
But even with the peace and comfort of having Will in his room, Mike was still troubled by his worries about they-knew-who.
Finishing the final paragraph of the current paper, he pushed back against the desk and stretched his arms, holding a yawn.
Slightly moved his head and out of the corner of his eye he saw the body lying on a drawing that was still incomplete but the expert lines were already taking shape.
He turned back again and stared at the blue wallpaper among the light yellow curtains drawn, revealing a waning moon over the town through the closed window.
Mike biggest fear out of Chance being a dick focusig only on Will was him swallowing all by himself, bearing inner shit and act all brave and tough.
Maybe he could be scared of seeming weak, maybe embarrassed for being seen fragile by others, outside people who didn't know how clever badass Will Byers was; the boy who figured out how to steal their enemies powers in less than 10 seconds and defeted them by their own hands.
People who didn't know and probably never would.
He may have exaggerated at lunch with the others, of course Will wasn't a defenseless flower, Mike could imagine him breaking the already crooked nose of Buscamante anytime.
But, at the same time, he couldn't forget the sensible kid who cried silently for hours under his bed, afraid of his own father, not wanting to "bother" his best friend or even his mother with it.
Finally, the intrusive thought won
"...Hey"
"Hey"
Mike hesitated once again.
The conversation had started, he started it even without knowing what exactly to say, a winner honestly.
Biting a little side of his dry down lip he tried to gather his words and act fresh
"You know you can tell me anything, r-right?," he cursed himself internally for stuttering at the end but continued, "that you can... trust me?".
Mike heard the pencil scratch stop and, a few seconds of silence later which seemed eternal and heavy, the cracking sound from the old floor, Will had sitted from where he was laying.
Mike felt it then like a sign to face him, founded Will already looking at him, a look he couldn't really identify.
"Of course i know that... why?", Will launched the little concerned smile and head tilted to one side like a confused puppy bending down, almost doing push-ups with his arms and hands palms firmly planted on the floor.
Speechless, his face felt warm watching the whole sequence, room as well, maybe the perfect time to look away from Will like a creep and open the window in fron of him, let in some air. He leaned forward remaining sit on the chair, intending to open it, while searching for a valid answer.
"N-no specific reason, l-like I just felt like saying it since... ¡N-no! I mean, It just grew upon me haha, so you know, you don't have to w-worry about- ugh, what the fuck?" the perfectly new window, recently replaced along with the renovation of his house due to the demonic attack seemed to have jammed for no reason, as if mocking Mike's poor attempt to open it in the middle of his lamentable rambling, making him gasp between words from the effort and anxiety with both arms now at work.
"¡Not that there's actually s-something to be worried about! 'cause there's isn't, our lifes are just normal and daily and that's a big change, you k-know how emotive-" finally he cut himself off with a grunt of discontent, sick and tired of the fucking tries to open the fucking crystal.
The burst of laughter that came from Will was enough to lighten the suffocating atmosphere his room had become when he started babbling as he usually does. Mike turned and joined him with rather a chuckle.
"Seriously, Mike," "You don't fall on your anxious chat unless there's something, what's the matter?".
Usually, how easy it was for both of them to read each other made him feel special, but this time it put him at a disadvantage.
Mike couldn't tell what he was dying to really say; his heart wanted to tell him everything, but his mind forced him to swallow all he had to say, make a little nice smile and stay acting clueless.
"Just..., " gulp, "wanted to make sure you knew".
Mike saw it on his face, Will knew that wasn't all he meant to say, but after a moment of silence with eyes still on each other Will was the one to break the quietude
"I hope you're not trying to ease me to let you see my painting already".
Great, an excuse.
Mike played along, squeezed his face as if showing pain and jokingly push his pencil case away.
"Mmm catched"
feeling that warm moment between them even after that weird encounter
After that they continued their works on a comfortable silence, hearing each other breath peacefully, almost sincronized
Mike didn't wonder why the moon showed itself all bright for the first time on that night through the window or why his heart felt lighter but at the same time rushed.
(...)
Mike was looking for Will
They were supposed to meet at school entrance to leave together but it had been 15 minutes with no sight of Will.
The sunset was already beginning to darken the sky, blue meeting yellow in the west.
It was getting late, they had plans at Dustin's afterschool and all the gang had leaved already, Mike was starting to get a little nervous.
Walking through the hallways, he looked in every classroom for Will. Maybe he had work to finish, or maybe he was engrossed in the art room, as usual.
Mike shook his head to himself, a small smile forming on his dry lips, memories flashing through his mind.
Will's ability to lose himself in a small world inside his mind was incredible, a place where all his painting ideas emerged, and he had to bring them to life with his own hands right away. Usually his friends had to drag him home from there.
The halls were almost empty, except for a few students just leaving their classrooms and the detention kids helping the janitor clean. That bastard Andy was one of them, unsurprisingly.
"Hey Wheeler, looking for your favorite little fairy?".
"Focus on cleaning the floor properly, you idiot. Every time you step on it, you just leave it full of shit" Mike didn't even bother to look at him while passing by.
"Don't be acting so indifferent frog face," he said between laughs rising his voice so mike could be able to heard him just fine as he was walking away "your princess must be eating dust and bird's shit by now".
Mike stopped abruptly, rage and fear climbing through his back. He turned back to face Andy's eat-shit smile from the distance.
"What did you just said asshole?"
Andy didn't answer, just kept smiling holding onto the mop he was using.
Mike wasn't in the mood for games.
He quickly went back to where the basketball player was and grabbed him roughly by the edges of his jacket, making him drop the mop
"¡Say it again son of a bitch!"
He didn't seemed intimidated by Mike, but this time he did talk.
"I saw Chance following your little friend into the woods"
"Oh no"
"Chance"
"I fucking knew it"
Since Mike didn't say anything, Andy took it like a victory and continued talking with his horrible smirk. "So sorry to be the one telling you this buddy, but Chance must be giving him a hard time as we speak".
Even when Andy deserved a really good punch on the face, Will was priority so he left him to run.
He went out and straight to the forest, looking for any signal of Will hurted.
"God, it's my fault"
He ran as fast as he could, overwhelmed
Who knew where that psycho would drag Will
"I knew Chance was no trusting"
"Will please"
Out of habit and to rule out any familiar places, Mike decided to run towards the picnic table where they usually planned their crawls
Getting closer to the spot he started seeing a person sitted on that same table, their back turned on him. He could identifie Will's yellow jacket and his brown short haircut only even with a single eye open, good thing he hadn't inherited astigmatism from his father's side
He seemed fine, extremities and belongings on their right place, that finally calmed Mike's rushed heart a little, lifting his arm and all to touch his chest and let out a sigh out of relief as dramatic as he was
Andy just wanted to scare him out, Mike would make him pay, eventually, Dustin and Lucas would be pleased to help him.
Mike walked a little closer and there he was, sitting on the bench by the table, fluffy hair with ends sticking out in all directions
Still a little far from there, he was about to call out for him, run to the table and make Will laugh telling him how he had freaked out by a stupid joke, reproach him a little for being late but then smile and run again, this time together to take their bikes and hurry to catch their friends, all under a beautiful sunli-
As if Will had read his mind, he moved to sit over the table, letting be seen another person
Chance, sitted right front him, talking to him... and Will was laughing?
"What the hell"
"Did he threatened him to come here, the middle of the nowhere and laugh at his shitty jokes?"
All of a sudden, Chance stopped and took Will's face with his rough hand, Will stopped laughing and frizzed
Chance got them closer and-
He kissed him?
He kissed Will
Mike felt a wild rage he had never felt ever before, even bigger than his disconcert
He was about to end that up and maybe hit that imbecile a little for daring to touch Will
But then, Will melted on the kiss and took Chance's face between his long fingers
Mike was left on blank
They separated from the kiss and looked at each other.
Will smiled at Chance so bright with his moist lips and Mike's heart was stabbed by a chainsaw
Chance smiled back before starting another kiss, this time more passionately and intense
"Oh"
Without any of them realising, Mike was staring at them, in the middle of the forest, feeling his body being destroyed and crashed by an invisible force
He felt like tearing his eyes off so he couldn't watch that horrible scene or Will's excited smile for Chance
A smile Will had only for Mike