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“I think you should hear this too.”
—
Will sat in front of the two people he cared most about, his mother, and the love of his life. “I need to tell you both something, something that if I don’t say now I don’t think I could face him.” Will shuddered at the thought of Henry seeing through his eyes again, Henry being him again. He knew that the only way to lose the control Henry has over him is to be honest.
Be honest about the one thing Vecna has held over him since before Will knew himself. “The thing is,” Will looks at his mother, tears forming in both of their eyes. “I am different. Not different like Jonathan, not different like how all of the Party is.”
He looks towards Mike with a slight smile under his watery eyes. When Mike gives him a small smile Will continues, “Ever since I was taken, Henry broke me. Found out my deepest secrets and used them to manipulate everything I did. The fear that he would do something, that he would somehow get into your minds and tell you my secret. The fear that it would change how you thought of me.”
Will’s looking down at his hands now, a shiver runs through his spine, overwhelmed yet knowing. “I remember how dad used to call me… names. How he would talk about me like I was weak.” Tears were now running down his face as his voice shook. “What’s crazy about it all was that I never really felt hurt, because deep down, even when I was young I knew that it was… true.”
The room went silent, only the ambient sound of Joyce and Will's quiet sobs.
What feels like minutes pass before Will finally looks up to find Mike already staring at him. “Mom… Mike, I”. Will’s tears come rushing back and Mike gets up and hugs him before Will can get any words out.
“Shh Will, it’s okay. We’re here for you.” Joyce comes over and strokes her son's hair while wiping her tears. “Everything that Lonnie and Henry say, it’s never been true in the way they think it is. We love you Will and we always have.” As the tears slow down and Mike finally releases the hug, the lump finally clears Will’s throat.
“I didn’t even say it… I don’t know if I can even bring myself to.” Will looks down back at the floor before feeling a hand being placed on his shoulders. “You never have to”. A smile crept across Will’s face as he stood up to hug the man in front of him. To know that he will be loved, never having to say something that isn’t necessary.
–
Mike is the first to go join the others to prepare for the final fight. He can’t help but feel a little confused. He doesn’t know whether to smile or cry. He doesn’t even know what to think about Will being… different.
Micheal has always been kind of confused when it comes to relationships. He didn’t even know what the hell he was getting into when he first got with El, and even then, it’s not like their relationship has ever been the best. Even though he would never admit it out loud, Mike wondered if he and El were purely staying together for the sanity of the Party.
Especially when you have way bigger problems to worry about.
Mike sighed as he stepped outside, squinting at the change in light. “Dude, what took you so long? And is Byers even coming to help?”. Mike rolled his eyes at the abruptness coming from Dustin. “Dude! Just give him a second. And there's like a zero percent chance he’s not coming.” Dustin took this response as a clear sign that Mike was not in the mood to talk, which would be right.
Mike knew he didn’t have the time to think later so he sat down on the stairs, trying to process whatever was in his head. Whatever has been in his head.
Micheal lets out a sigh he didn’t know he was holding, and drops his head into his hands. He knows that these past days have been crazy, but he also knows that whatever was going on with Will didn’t fully have to do with Vecna like he said.
The past months, the two boys have gotten closer, like they were when they were kids. Mike couldn’t have asked for anything better after the events that took place over a year prior. However, the first time that Mike realised Will wasn’t being honest was the first time Will had seen the painting. He remembers seeing a fear cross over Will's face when he mentioned the fact he had talked to El about it.
“Oh! Uhm, what did she say?” The fear in Will's eyes crept over Mike. Biting his lip, approaching the situation as safely as possible.
“She told me the truth. You know she doesn’t lie, Will. Friends don’t lie.” Tears were forming in Will’s eyes as the boy took a couple steps back. “Will wait! I don’t mean to shame you for… not telling the full truth. It’s just that, it would have made these first two months easier to try to talk to you if I knew you still, you know, cared about our friendship?”
Mike chuckled as he said this, not quite understanding what he was even saying. “Look, Will, what I’m getting at is that I don’t care who made it! I love that both of my favourite people were thinking about me when we were miles away! I want to be best friends. Like how we were meant to be.”
Mike thought a lot that day. About Will’s reaction and how Mike wanted to make sure that he showed that he cared about Will. All without trying to think about the implications of the painting.
The truth is, that's all Micheal thought about. For weeks, maybe months, Mike looked at the painting hanging above his dresser, wondering what it meant to him. And more importantly, what it meant to Will.
—
Will held his mother in a tight hug finally calming down. “Mom, do you think he’s mad?”. Will held back the tears as he said this. Joyce grabbed her son “Will honey, he cares about you and this,” she says looking into his eyes now, “this won't change anything.” Will hugged her again while nodding.
“There’s one thing I didn’t tell him though. Mom, I… I’m in love with Mike.”
The tears were falling from his eyes unprompted now. “I’ve loved him for so long, I didn’t know what to do. I’ve spent the whole time since I came back from the Upside Down helping him with El! I love her too but do you know how much that hurt?” Will sighed and gained his composure.
“All these years, helping him work things out with the love of his life. The whole time I just… I wished it was me. Maybe if I had powers back then. Maybe if I never went missing. Maybe I would be the one he loved.” Will was exhausted as he pulled away from his mother. “I’m sorry, I know we really don’t have time to deal with this right now. I just… I needed to get that off of my chest before the fight.”
Looking back at Joyce, confidence of the fight coming back. “Now there's no secrets. Henry has nothing against me when I go into his mind.”
— — —
The truck shook as they entered the Upside Down.
“The easy part is over, from here until now we can’t mess around. No matter what happens we can’t stray from the plan. Get all the rest you can right now because the second we reach the tower it's show time.” Jim Hopper was stern, maybe knowing something no one else knew, but everyone just nodded silently and found a place to sit.
Hopper, El, and Kali discussed plans near the front of the truck and everyone was preoccupied with the heavy stress and couldn’t bring themselves to talk with anyone. Except for Mike.
Mike, now left alone while his girlfriend talked with her father, slid now along the side of the truck next to Will. “Are you… uhm, ready?” Mike said with a bit of a chuckle at the rhetoric question.
“I mean like I know you’re probably not the most ready, but hey! You already proved to him and all of us that you are capable of it.” He leaned closer, putting a hand on Will’s shoulder. “Will, you can do this. There’s nobody who can truly do what you can.” Mike smiled at the boy who's been silent this whole time and rubbed his shoulder, finally causing Will to look up with a half smile across his face himself.
“Thanks Mike. It means a lot to me.”
The boys sat in silence for a bit longer, looking around seeing Steve and Robin shoulder to shoulder, while Nancy and Jonathan sat resting their eyes while holding hands.
“Hey Will?” Mike’s voice was barely a whisper. Will nodded in response too exhausted to say anything back just yet. “You know earlier… I was wondering, when did you know. Was there a guy in Lenora?”
His voice was impossibly quiet now and Will’s face was burning red suddenly hyper aware. “Mike..” Will bit his lip in nervousness.
“You don’t have to tell me!” Micheal said a little too loud before going red and lowering his voice. “It’s just that… after you got back something was different. Not in a bad way it just felt like something was off. You lying to me about the painting and suddenly being so secretive. I just… I want to know.”
The boys were looking at each other now, Will heating up from the fear and proximity of Mike. “I don’t think this is the best time to talk about this…” Will looked away now, ashamed of the truth.
Mike put his hand over Wills, “I know it's not ideal, but what other time is there?” Will let out a sigh before nodding.
“There was no guy in Lenora, but that doesn’t mean there was no guy. I’ve liked this person for so long it hurts Mike. And no matter how obvious it is I don’t think he’ll ever realise it's him I like.”
Will turned his head to avoid tears forming as he spoke. “After all these years, I’m finally starting to accept that maybe it’s been silly of me to keep chasing after a boy who will never see me the way I see him.” Will finally looked back at Mike, more serious than before. “The thing is, Henry knows this, and he’s used it against me since the day I went missing. But now? Now I feel like I can be myself without the guy controlling that aspect of my life.”
—
“We’re here.” Hopper's voice echoed through the truck, fear instilling itself within everyone. Mike looked between El and Will once more, nodding as both of them moved into their side of the plan. The plan was El and Kali infiltrate Henry’s mind and fight him inside while Will goes into the hivemind and weakens Vecna from within.
As everybody else floods out of the van, Mike looks back to see Joyce comforting Will as Hopper looks off into the distance. Suddenly Hopper speaks, “I should go out there, Joyce. We should be out there. The kids need to do this and it’s going to be dangerous for you if Henry manages to take control of your son.” Joyce looked back at Will before Hopper continued, looking into Joyce’s eyes.
“It will be okay. I promise you being here will do no good. El has taught me that to be a team sometimes you have to let others be in control.” Joyce stood up and hugged Hopper as Mike bit his lip looking back at everybody who’s already exited the truck before turning back and speaking without another hint of hesitation.
“I’ll stay back.”
Joyce, Hopper, and Will all looked towards Mike. “I… I won’t be much help out there, but here I can watch. I can get El out if it gets dangerous and I can fight Vecna if he tries to take over Will.” Mike looks into Will’s eyes, “I can protect them.” Joyce and Hopper look between each other before Hopper speaks again. “Joyce the kid might be right here.” He turns to look back at Mike. “Do you promise to watch them without getting in their way?”
Micheal nods and as quick as that the adults head out of the truck, leaving Mike and Will to close the door while El and Kali sit across from them seemingly sitting in their minds.
“I can feel him… he knows that we have something planned. But he won't let me see yet… he’s planning something big.” Will is nervously shaking, knowing that soon Henry will be close enough for him to reach.
Mike bites his lip and looks back at the girls. “Do you think they’ve found him?” Will shivers. “They’re close. He’s getting angry.” Will looks up at Micheal. “I don’t think we have much time.” El’s nose is bleeding now and Mike knows that it's time. “Will go in. I’ll be here for you. Don’t let him win.”
“I see him… he has the kids. They're not in control.” Will’s eyes roll back and fear covers Micheal's face. “He knows I’m there, but he's focused on something else.” Silence follows for a short moment before El screams and Mike turns around.
“Mike! Stop her!” El screams as Kali gets out of their shared headspace and quickly goes for Will.
With quick thinking, Mike doesn’t waste a second to push her back, trying to knock sense into his girlfriend's sister before Kali raises her hand. “Stop it! You're weak, weaker than El. You won’t win.” Kali sends Mike back with a push of her palm. “You don’t get it. He is stopping brother from becoming successful. If brother does not do this, we will never have peace.”
Kali’s hand continues to hold Mike back, fixed against the wall of the truck. “The worlds, if they collide then Jane does not have to die. If you prevent him from making the new world, you are sacrificing Jane’s life.” Mike struggles against the girl's hold as she walks closer towards Will who is fully consumed by Henry’s mind.
“That’s not true! Vecna is using you! El doesn’t have to die and neither does Will! I won’t let you kill them.” Mike pushes against the force stronger now as Kali grabs a knife from her coat and approaches Will. Mike cries out as he can’t fight the force.
“El! Please! Will needs you now.” Will is shaking on the ground as he fights to try and help El within Henry’s mind. Without a second to spare, El lifts one of her hands to push Kali away, while still fighting within Henry’s mind.
Kali falls for a moment which gives Mike the chance to free himself from the force and run over to where a weakened Kali was still clutching to a knife. “You don’t know what you are doing!” Kali screams as Mike grabs her arm, fighting for the knife.
“I know more than you ever will!” Mike finally gets a hold of the knife but before he can do anything. Kali screams and sticks out her hand before using the little strength she has to break Mike's arm. Screaming out in pain, Micheal drops the knife, causing the tip to break off, shortening the weapon. “You can’t beat me without Jane, and Jane can not beat brother without me. You lose Mike.”
Kali says panting and she gathers her strength to grab the broken knife off the floor. Mike sobs from the pain as he falls to his knees, watching the girl crawl over to Will who is lying on the floor, already bleeding from his eyes. Mike watches in pain as Kali uses the last of her strength to raise the knife right above Will. Seeing the blade, over top of the defenseless man, Micheal’s best friend.
He snaps.
Without a care for his broken arm, Mike pushes himself up with his left hand and pulls the girl away. She fights back flailing the knife as Mike holds her in chokehold before finally getting a cut across his neck, causing Mike to choke out and let her slip for a minute. In the second that Mike loses control, Kali falls forward dizzy. Knife in her hand but unable to aim, Kali opts to just stab him somewhere.
Before the boy could stop her, Micheal watches as the blade lands in Will’s whited out eyeball.
—
Will cries out as he hears Henry laugh on the other end. “If you stay in my body, you won't be able to heal. Do you really want to die like this, William?” Will feels himself becoming weaker but he knows that if he tries to go back to his body Eleven won’t be able to beat him.
“I won't let you take my sister! Maybe we’re not blood but I get her more than a monster like you ever could.” Will reaches out to try and twist Henry’s leg to immobilize him, but the pressure coming from his eyeball overwhelms him and it doesn’t work. Henry laughs again before raising his own arm and somehow pulls the knife out of Will’s eye.
The pain is overwhelming now as the feeling of hot blood running down his face overcome Will. He sits watching through Henry’s eyes as he approaches El and pushes her to the side with a force strong enough to make the wall of the memory dent.
“El!” Will screams out as he watches El bleed from the force, wondering what everything looks like from an outside perspective. “Oh William, there’s no one to help you out anymore. It’s time for you to get out of my body. You can’t win. You’ve never won.”
—
Mike shuts the door after pushing an unconscious Kali out of the truck, not caring if she was dead or just knocked out. He closed the door before turning around to watch as the knife was being pulled out of Will’s eye. He looked over to El who was screaming right before being thrown into the side of the truck with enough force to make it shake.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Mike was screaming as he rushed to grab El, seeing her bleed from her head and shaking her. “Please El wake up, I can’t do this without you. Come back El.” Through sobs, Mike looks up to finally see El looking back.
“Will…”, Eleven breathed out, barely enough sound for it to be heard.
“Mike, I’ll be okay. Will won’t be. I can do this without you, I have always been able to. I thought… I thought I needed you to be whole, but I don’t.” Mike wipes his tears.
“El, you're not strong enough to fight Vecna right now.” El smiles knowing Micheal has never understood anything she says. “Of course I am not. But my sister… she is still alive.” The two of them both look toward the truck door before El continues.
“I can stop her from getting to Will. You have to help him fight Henry. He’s the only one who can stop him.” Before Mike has the chance to argue, El kisses his cheek and whispers to him. “He needs you, Mike.” El leaves Mike and goes outside to find Kali.
Mike turned to look at Will, whose eye had now bled all across the left side of his face.
“Will! Will its okay, I’m here.” Will screamed out in pain. “Mike… he wants me out. I can’t beat him.” He cried out as Henry took over. “Mike… You can’t beat me. William will die.”
A sinister laugh escaped through Will’s mouth. “When he gets out of my body, his body won’t be able to handle the pain. There’s no winning here.” Mike grabbed Will’s hand, sobbing. “Will, I know you can hear me. You can beat him. The rest of the party is going to put a stop to him. Vecna is already weaker, I can tell. The kids… they’ve got to be free. You just have to hold out until Hopper can cut the seal.”
Mike was crying harder than he ever has now, worried that everything he said isn’t true. He just needed to put it in Will’s head that maybe, maybe, there is a chance for them to win. “Mike…” Will breathed out. “I… I’m in so much pain.” Mike folds over now fully laying on the shorter boy, tears staining his shirt.
Before Mike can get another thought out, the door to the truck opens and the party floods back in. All except Hopper. Joyce rushes in crying and drops to her knees to be next to Mike and Will. “Hopper’s doing it. The bomb is going to go off. We have to leave.” Robin says in a grim way, which makes Mike realise Steve is no longer with the rest of them.
“Will, do you hear that? Just a little longer… Please hold out for us.” Joyce sobs to her son before Jonathan pulls her off while hugging her tightly.
“Mom, leave him. We can’t afford to lose anyone else.” Mike sits up, still grabbing onto Will’s hand when it suddenly twists as Will screams out once again. Mike quickly lets go and falls backwards, landing on his already broken arm as he screams out in pain, having been so focused on Will he forgot about his own injury.
The walkie statics as Hopper speaks on the other end. “Jane, if you can hear this, it's time. Thirty seconds till the gate is forever closed. I love you.” El sobs into her hands as the walkie cuts, everyone knowing this was it.
“Even if this gate closes, I will live and William will die.” A voice cuts through the sobs, coming out from Will. Mike quickly crawls back to the man in front of him. “You’re wrong! Will won’t die.” Micheal says through sobs, using his good hand to cup the side of Will’s face.
“Will, don’t believe him. It’s not true, okay!” He’s crying violently again as someone shouts out ‘fifteen seconds!’. “Will” Mike looks into Will’s eyes, not caring that the tears won't stop. “I know everything. I’ve been too stupid to realise it until now. I’m sorry it took me so long to figure this out, for you to be on the brink of death before I could understand this.”
Ten seconds.
“I think I’ve known for months now. Since having you back in my life I realised that I could never lose you again.”
At five seconds, Mike dipped his forehead to meet with Will’s. “William Byers, I’m in love with you.” Times up and everyone sits in silence as Will’s body suddenly goes limp and the party exits the Upside Down.
—
Silence and sobs fill the van ride back to the WSQK, as Micheal lays next to Will, unwilling to let him go.
When the party finally gets in, Joyce and Johnathan carry the two boys to the bed while Vickie tends to their injuries. “Is he alive?” is the first thing that Mike asks once he is in a cast and the cut on his neck is stitched up. Vickie looks at him and nods. “He will be, he just needs to wake up.” Vickie looks down before leaving the room allowing Jonathan to talk to the boys while Joyce cries quietly.
“You did good Mike, without you, who knows who else could have died.” Jonathan says as he pushes slightly against Mike's good arm, causing the younger man to give a slight smile back.
“I’m sorry about Steve…” Micheal starts before looking towards Joyce. “...And Hopper. They were good people and without them, we may all be dead.”
Johnathan nods before going over to his mother. “Lets go mom, Will is alive and he has no signs of being in a coma, just asleep. The more we sit here the less likely it is he’ll wake up any sooner.” Joyce nods before the two walk out, leaving Mike alone with his thoughts.
Mike wakes up to someone nudging his bad shoulder.
“Ow, ow, ow! What is it?” Mike speaks angrily before opening his eyes to find Will next to him.
His one eye was bandaged up, Vickie saying the eye was beyond saying, and his hand was in a cast. Mike's face immediately softened to look at Will. “Will… you’re alive. You’re alive!”
Mike sat up, ignoring the pain racking over his body and leaned over Will, putting his good hand against his cheek once more. “Mike… you saved me.” Will said with a faint smile and tears in his eye. Mike shook his head.
“No Will, you saved me.” Mike stroked the side of Will’s cheek before abruptly stopping when Will’s face flushed red. The both of them remembering the confession from earlier.
“Mike, I…I didn’t know.” Mike laughed.
“Neither did I.” The two looked at each other before Will spoke again. “I… Mike I love…” Will was crying again which clearly caused a stinging to his bandaged eye and blood began to stain the cloth.
“Shh. I know Will.” He placed his forehead back onto the shorter's, their lips almost meeting.
“Mike, I didn’t say it.” Mike smiled. “You didn’t have to.” Mike finally understood. This is how it was always meant to be. With tears in his eyes, the pair leaned into each other, finally connecting their lips.