Chapter Text
God fucking dammit.
Mike stomps up to Dustin about to ask if he found a replacement for hellfire when the loud mouth beats him to it. “ Steve and Max both said no. Quite rudely actually”
Mike groans and buries his face in his hands. They all really want to finish this campaign, what Eddie has been spewing is absolutely genius if you ask Mike but apparently it’s not good enough for Lucas if he’s gonna skip it for fucking basketball.
“You get anyone?” Dustin sighs.
“Obviously not Dustin” Mike snaps back.
Dustin sits down on the curb at Mike's feet. “Eddie is gonna fucking kill us dude we have to finish the campaign today before you go to California.”
Right.. California. The trip that Mike was totally dreading. Note to future Mike if you're going to plan a trip to California months and months in advance, maybe don't start being an ass to the people you're going to go see.
“ Maybe Lucas could ask Erica-”
“No” Dustin shouts for some reason.
Mike joins his friend on the curb and huffs.
“Maybe I’ll text Will? See if he can call in? I mean we have your shitty macbook we could pull it off.”
Mike goes dead silent. Will was exactly the person he was avoiding. He kept telling himself “after this campaign I’ll call him” and “ when midterms are over I’ll text him” and this one was the best “ I’ll just talk to him when I'm in California!”. So yeah Will calling in for this final day is basically his biggest fear. Will he be mad? Will he ignore Mike? He hopes he doesn't find out.
“ Mike? Come back from lala land should I text Will or not?”
Mike shrugs because according to the rest of the party, he and Will are still best friends. None of them know that they’ve barely spoken since last Summer when Will’s family moved for Joyce's new job. And he's not about to tell anyone.
Dustin sighs “ okay then… I’ll text him. Steve's driving us tonight so be on time. He gives me so much shit about how late you ar-”
“ oh my god okay” Mike hops up, climbs on his bike, and rides away. All the while crossing his fingers and hoping Will is busy today.
Will was not busy. In fact his schedule was wide open.
Apparently the only thing the Byers/Hoppers were doing that day was cleaning so their house looked good for Mike the next day (which made him feel like complete shit by the way).
Dustin excitedly told him the second he got in the back of Steve's car, yammering on and on about how pumped he was to play with Will again, and how stoked he was that Will could meet Eddie.
Meanwhile Mike was wondering how much it would hurt if he jumped out of the car while it was moving.
“ Mike, are you even listening?” Dustin shouts.
Before Mike can say no, Steve turns to the curly haired boy.
“ Dipshit can we stop yelling? Your lucky I'm even driving you guys”
“ Oh yeah what else do you have to do? Find a new hairspray now that your precious Farrah Fausett is discontinued?”
Steve gasps and slams on the brakes. “ Too far man way too far”
“ I knew it as soon as I said it”
The walk from the car to the school's entrance feels like the walk to Mike's execution.
Once they get Will on the phone Dustin is gonna find out that Mike ruined their party and has been lying about being in touch with Will for months on end now. And of course after he finds out he's gonna ask Mike the big question he’s been avoiding: “why?”
Why has Mike gone through all this work not to talk to his best friend anymore? Why is he ignoring Will now that he’s in California and most definitely needs Mike's support? The truth of the matter is… Mike has no idea. Whenever he thinks about texting Will, calling him, sending him a letter (no one does that anymore just Jane) he breaks out in a nervous sweat. His hands get clammy, he feels his heart pound in a way it's never done before.
“ BE BACK HERE AT 9 EXACTLY!!” Steve yells from the front of his car.
They both forget about him when Eddie throws open the school doors and glares at the two of them.
“ Henderson, Wheeler, where's Sinclair?”
Mike turns to Dustin “ you didn't even tell him?”
Dustin ignores him. “ He's at a game but we have a replacement dont worry” he says and marches past Eddie. Mike and him lock eyes and both shrug before following Dustin to their shitty little hellfire closet.
“ Okay Dusty bun tell me what the hell is going on” Eddie sighs as he plops down onto his throne. Mike and Dustin take their seats at the table. “ Lucas is finally off the bench so we found a replacement, Will from California, im sure Mike has mentioned him.”
Eddie goes to say something when he sees the scathing look coming from Mike across the table.
“ well then… set him up Henderson we dont have all night seeing as mommy Steve gave you a curfew”
The freshmen both scoff while Gareth, Jeff, and the other upperclassmen laugh.
After a table full of dweebs cursing at a macbook for 10 minutes, Will Byers is suddenly on their screen being introduced to every member of Hellfire by Dustin.
“ Here's Eddie, our genius DM” Eddie grins.
“ And we’ve come back around to the Bard and The Paladin!”
Will is grinning so widely on the other end that Mike swears he can see every single one of his teeth.
“ Mike! Hey!” his grin gets impossibly wider. He looks so… happy.
Mike feels like his heart is about to beat out of his chest. He physically covers it up with his hand and manages a small “ Hi Will”.
“ Oh my god I am so excited to see you tomorrow! We cleaned the whole house and we planned this crazy day out on the tow-”
“ Okay California dreamers!” Eddie interrupts, getting into his DM persona.
“ Let's begin,” he grins.
When the campaign is over, the entire table is clapping and Eddie is bowing.
Yes clapping like Eddie just landed the fucking plane. As much as Mike wants to be grumpy about it, it was a genius campaign. Will had the last turn of the game and managed to roll an 18 ( Dustin rolled it), defeating Vecna and saving the entire party's sorry asses.
“ WILL YOU SON OF A BITCH YOU DID IT!!” Dustin screamed after they won, picking up the computer and spinning it around while Will laughed and smiled his beautiful smile.
In all honesty, Mike couldn't keep his eyes off his best friend the entire time they were playing. He hasn't seen Will this happy since… well he can't remember. He forgot that when he smiled, his eyes looked almost watery. He forgot that when he was nervous about a roll, he would start smoothing down his hair at the top. He couldn't believe he’d forgotten his favorite things in the world.
After Eddie soaked in all his praise he finally snapped out of his evil dungeon master character and grabbed Henderson by the shoulders, crushing him into a hug. “ good fucking choice bringing Byers along Henderson!”
Mike hears Will giggle from the speakers of the computer and stands in front of the camera where he can see him. “ Great job Will” he lets the smile he's been holding back slip free.
Will beams at him from the computer screen, smiling so wide his eyes are almost closed. Mike's breath catches looking at him and he has to step away.
“ All the things we’ve done and it's only…” Dustin checks his watch “ 9:20?! Fucking shit we gotta go Mike!” he frantically starts grabbing all his things while Eddie and the rest of the gang roll their eyes.
“ Go ahead Dustin, I'm sure Nance is still here I can catch a ride with her” Mike says with a smirk.
“ Oh you're leaving me to get chewed out all by myself? Very classy Wheeler… I will remember this” and with that he’s out the door.
The rest of Hellfire follows suit until it's just Mike, Eddie, and Will still on the call. He and Eddie had been chatting up a storm so Mike is happy when he finally hears Eddie say goodbye and put down the computer on the other side of their d&d closet.
Mike is staring down at his hands resting on their dirty table. He thinks about how he completely let Will down this year and how… Will still cares for him. Still wants to see him.
“ Don't we have a trip tomorrow Wheeler? You should get out of here before i make you clean”
“ Eddie, have you ever been in love before?”
“ the fuck?!”