Chapter Text
Mike is sure Will is going to kill him.
Mike Wheeler is going to die in Lucas’ Backyard, next to Dustin’s beat up sneakers and a baseball bat, under the beating sun— which he’s glad of, for once. Being so pasty means being easily sunburnt, but at least he can blame the red on his cheeks on that.
And he doesn’t think he minds. If he does die from a heart attack- which seems entirely possible from the way he can feel every fast beat of his heart shaking his whole body- then Michael Theodore Wheeler will die a happy man.
Because will came home from college for summer break and he… got hot. He was always pretty, a cute kid and a pretty boy but now Mike couldn’t stop staring. Going to school in New York meant more access to fashion trends than in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, and Will had clearly taken advantage of this.
There were several parts of Wills new appearance that had Mikes salivary glands working over time, and one of these was the silver earring glinting in Wills right ear. A small silver hoop, nothing special. Not like the big, bright earrings his mom or sisters had. It was small. Nondescript. Easily hid by his brown waves.
But Mike saw it. And Mike liked it.
He had heard about the earring code, of course. A subtle way to identify another gay man so you didn’t go up to the wrong one and get smacked. Mike appreciated it. He had looked at the small piercing studio that doubled as a hair salon in Hawkins longingly after he had come out to his close friend the summer before they all left for college, but had never been brave enough to get it done. Mike wondered if it hurt for will, but then considered all the pain will had been through in his life (like the feeling of being burnt alive and starving for a week) and came to the conclusion that minor pain probably wasn’t much of a deterrent for the other boy. He wondered if Will might let him touch it. They were best friends again, after an odd period of time when Will was in California and any communication once they met up again felt fuzzy, like trying to argue your point to a person wearing noise cancelling headphones through a glass wall. But after Will helped him get back with El (which lasted all of three months. He adored El as a friend but he cringed when he thought of their relationship and the way thirteen and fourteen year old Mike acted) things started to go back to normal.
Well as normal as you can get in Hawkins. Which, as it turns out, is very far from normal.
The ground split open, the military took over, vecna started plotting and the Byers moved in with the Wheelers. A sort of normal.
Then Vecna struck (Will had super awesome powers for a few days— Mike still gets butterflies thinking of the way Will looked when he first got them), they broke into his home turf, saved the kids, beat a massively creepy eldritch monster with way too many legs and cut off vecnas viney head. Simple. A new normal. They grew up, they graduated, they left for college— apart from max and el. The parties zoomer and mage had been more than excited to take a year out of education and simply relax…although working for six months and going backpacking across Europe to see waterfalls, volcanos and glaciers didn’t sound like Mikes idea of a good time, they were happy (even if he wasn’t, having to listen to Lucas whinge about how much he missed Max. He’d even tried his hand at poetry about her ‘flaming hair and temper’…max was not impressed).
He shook his head free of thoughts of them, and went back to gazing longingly at the human angel presence that was William Byers. Aside from the small hoop in his right ear, the next thing about him that would be listed as cause of death on mikes autopsy report was his clothes.
Will was wearing an honest to god cutoff shirt.
A crop top, a cutoff shirt, Mike didn’t know the correct name, but he knew he never ever wanted Will to take it off. Will had also gotten bigger in college— he wasn’t huge or swole by any means, but the fabric clung slightly to his biceps which had a touch more definition than they had before he left. His shoulders slightly broader, his gait more confident. God, he looked good, and as mikes thoughts started to wander he was snapped suddenly back to reality.
“Mike? Are you okay?”
His ears perked at wills voice speaking to him, and he dragged his eyes away from the pale expanse of wills oh-so-soft looking stomach. Dustin, Lucas and Will were looking at him with varying degrees of impatience and amusement on their faces.
“…what?” Mike asked dumbly
“We asked if you would drive, dude.” Lucas responded, grin evident in his tone. Lucas always knew. He was annoyingly observant like that.
“To the drive in movie theatre? They set one up on the outside of town and they’re showing the first two back to the future films ‘cause the new ones coming out in a few weeks” Will offered
“Ah. Right. Yeah. Why can’t you drive, Lucas? You’ve got the biggest car”
“Yeah, but if me, Dustin, you, max, Will and el are all coming then we’ll be squashed in like sardines. I can take four and someone can go with you”
Mike was about to respond with ‘it’s not that tight of a squeeze’ when Will spoke.
“I can go with Mike. I mean el and max will want to stay together and they’ll want to fill Dustin in on all their travels and if I hear the hiking story one more time, I think I’ll go crazy”
There was various sounds of agreement and Mike was pretty sure he made one, both excitement and dread were pooling in his stomach. Excitement at getting to spend time with Will alone, and dread at spending time with Will— looking like that— alone.
The party continued with their hangout in Lucas’ backyard. Mike felt will nudge him and his eyes flicked to the crop top, to the earring before settling on the equally flustering pretty face that belonged to his best friend.
“Hey”
“Hey”
“So..what time will you come pick me up?”
“Pick you up?”
“Yeah. For the movie? It starts at six thirty, I think.”
Mike blinked, remembering what Will was talking about. “Right! Yeah, movie. Um..say six”
Will have him an odd look. “Are you okay? Are you getting heat stroke again?” He pressed his artists palm against mikes forehead, and Mike was sure he would implode.
“Im fine!” He said quickly, and he was more than embarrassed at the pitch of his voice. Will gave him a crooked smile and ripped out a few blades of grass to busy his fingers.
“Okay. I should head home and shower I’m sweaty and gross. See you at six, Mike”
Mike didn’t hear wills goodbyes to Lucas or Dustin, because he was so focused on trying not to confess his love for Will and his crooked smile, and his bunny teeth and his hands inability to stay still right then and there.
Because it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair to Will who Mike knew loved him when he came out that day, but stayed stubbornly silent, tangled in his web of fear. Mike had made his choice. He had let Will go, how he felt was his problem now, not wills.
But god, how was he supposed to survive this summer.