Chapter Text
Everybody lived happily ever after.
Supposedly.
The knight and the zoomer did settle down, Max and Lucas moved away and now live together. They’ve been by far the easiest to get a hold of, they even have a joint answering machine.
The bard went off to gather more knowledge, Dustin applied to many universities after their graduation, and now attends the most prestigious one he could find. Mike can sometimes get a hold of him, but he usually has some big test coming up or is off with Steve.
Will the Wise travelled to a much more bustling village, he moved to New York alongside his parents. Mike’s not sure what he’s been up to, he hasn’t returned a single one of his calls since he moved, but he hopes Will is happy there.
And the Storyteller?
The Storyteller continued to write stories.
Mike had started writing a novel inspired by all his friends’ adventures and past Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.
“This super cool horror-fantasy story where these kids get kidnapped and taken to another dimension!” Was how he described it to his mom.
Karen let him rant about it all he liked, but the minute he finished talking she’d sigh and ask “And how’s the job search going?”
Mike knew he needed to get a job if he intended on saving up to move out. And his mom kept threatening to charge him rent. But no matter where he looked, nothing interested him. He could try to get a job at the game store, or video store, but his mind was set on writing. Doing anything else felt pointless.
Mike was both between jobs and between schools. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go to university, he planned on getting an english degree, he just never applied. They were battling the Mind Flayer, then they were battling Vecna, then suddenly they were graduating. Everything happened in one big blur, somewhere along the way he just forgot to.
And then it was too late, everyone else was already going off on their own journeys, leaving him alone in Hawkins.
Everyone else was happy. Why was everyone else so goddamn happy?
Mike wrote the first two chapters of his novel in a fervor, everything was so fresh in his mind and it filled him with excitement. He hardly left his room at all until he finished the second chapter. He felt like he was finally getting somewhere, like this story would be the happy ending to his.
But then he finally left his room, and his mom was pestering him to find a job again. Which made him realize no matter how much he wrote about them, his friends still weren’t there.
So, instead of a job or higher education, Mike learned to drive. He hoped that would make visiting them easier.
When his motivation for writing the third chapter dwindled, Mike left his room for maybe the second time that week.
Karen was standing by the phone, her tea in hand, when her son came into the kitchen. “Hey, Mike. How are you feeling?” She asked softly. She’d been speaking to him like that since graduation, likely picking up on him not quite acting like himself. She intended to come off considerate, but it just felt patronizing.
Mike just stared at her for a second, unsure of how to answer that question.
“Joyce just called. That reminds me, Melvald’s General Store is hiring.” Karen suggested, taking a sip of her tea.
“I’m not working at the department store.” Mike grumbled.
“You have to find a job somewhere if you want to keep living here. Why not give it a shot? You might like it.”
Mike let silence wash over them for a bit longer. The house had grown quiet since Nancy left. Mike never would’ve thought he’d miss her.
“Do you know what Nancy’s doing?” He asked.
Karen scoffed. “Oh, who knows? She’s probably off doing her own thing somewhere.”
“Didn’t she go to college…?”
“Oh, yes, of course. She went to…” Karen paused and squinted her eyes.
“You don’t remember what college Nancy’s at?”
Karen just laughed. “I’ve had too many kids. It’s hard to keep track sometimes, forgive me.”
“She went to Emerson. She’s always wanted to go to Emerson.” Mike argued.
“Yes, yes. I know.” Karen brushed him off.
“And where’s Holly?” Mike asked.
“Holly’s off with her friends again.” Karen answered.
Holly never used to spend this much time away from the house. But Holly was now responsible for saving the lives of eleven children, which served as a quick way for her to make lots of new friends.
“Shouldn’t you be more concerned about your schooling than Nancy’s?” Karen asked. “Did you apply anywhere yet?”
Mike nodded.
“Really?” Karen exclaimed, pleasantly surprised.
“Yeah, yesterday.” Mike forced a smile, he knew he only did it to stop her nagging. Or really, to stop her from worrying so much about him. He decided he would give her at least one small reason to be proud of him.
Karen hugged him and told him just how proud she was. But it was all just white noise.
Mike never asked the one question he wanted to ask most: ‘Joyce called? Did she say anything about Will?’
The question he never asked continued to gnaw at Mike as he tried to distract himself once again with his novel. It’s not weird to want to know how your best friend is doing after he hasn’t returned your calls for months. Sometimes, Mike thought this was Will’s payback for him not reaching out when Will moved to California.
But he couldn’t see Will actually doing this on purpose, and that’s the reason he couldn’t ask the question. Because he wouldn’t like the answer. Will was probably too busy living his own life, having fun in New York and being happy like everyone else. He probably hadn’t even thought about Mike in months. Will didn’t need him anymore. No one did.
Mike suddenly realized he had stopped typing a long time ago. He let out a long sigh and put his head in his hands, it was clear he wasn’t getting anywhere with this chapter. Maybe he just needed to get out of his own head, find that spark he had when he wrote the first two chapters. He came over to his bed, and got down on his knees
Mike reached under his bed, blindly feeling for the binder of Will’s drawings. He knew it was there, he knew that’s where he left it, so why couldn’t he find it? He moved his hand back and forth, but it didn’t run into anything, there was nothing under there.
Mike sat up and tried to think of anywhere else it could be. He’s always kept it under his bed, ever since he had collected too many of Will’s drawings and ran out of wall space in the basement.
He looked up, making eye contact with the rolled up painting that had been sitting on his nightstand since he got back from California. At least he still had that.
He grabbed it, taking off the string tied around it and unravelling it again, he knew it would instantly make him smile, just like it did the day Will gave it to him. Him leading the group into battle, the heart.
He didn’t feel much like the heart of the group anymore.
Mike started opening drawers in his desk, looking for the sticky tac he used when he put some of his posters up. He stuck four pieces to the corners of the painting and hung it up over his desk.
He stood back to look at it combined with the pages of the unfinished novel sitting on his desk. The painting reminded him of what it felt like when it was just him, Dustin, Lucas and Will against the world. That’s what he wanted his novel to feel like.
(The Thessalhydra, it could be the main villain! And the guy you think is the villain is just part of the hivemind! He’s only a pawn!)
Just like that, Mike’s writer’s block was gone. He knew exactly what he wanted to write in the third chapter.
Holly was out at another sleepover, leaving Mike to have another awkward supper with just him and his mom. But that also meant that the phone would be free that night, he could call his friends.
And that gave him an idea. Surely everybody is starting to miss Hawkins by now, why not invite everybody over here? It’d save him from having to choose which friend to visit and having to drive all the way there.
“You’ve reached Lucas and Max, who is this?”
“Lucas, hey. Do you think you could make it to Hawkins by tomorrow evening? I’m inviting the whole party over.”
“Yeah, of course we can make it.”
“Actually, I meant– Nevermind. I’ll see you there.”
“Hey, Mike!”
“Dustinnn!”
“Listen, I’m really busy right now–”
“I know, but how about tomorrow? The whole party’s coming to my house to catch up.” Mike suggested.
“Uhhhh, lemme see…” Mike heard the squeak of someone leaning back in their chair, followed by some paper rustling. “I should be free that evening?”
“Perfect. I’ll see you there.”
Mike didn’t want to call Will.
He would want to call Will if he knew he was going to pick up, he just didn’t want to hear that godforsaken answering machine again. How many voicemails has he left already? Five? Did he really want to add another to the pile?
But he couldn’t say the whole party was meeting up if Will wasn’t there. Without Will, there was no party. So reluctantly, he picked up the phone again and dialed the number.
It rang.
It rang.
It rang.
“Hi, you’ve reached Joyce and Hopper. We’re not available right now, but you can–”
Mike slammed the phone back down as hard as he could.
Will was ignoring him! He totally was! With the amount of times he’s called, there’s no way nobody’s been able to come to the phone each time. Statistically impossible. Will must have told Joyce and Hopper not to answer when he calls. Was he really that mad about what Mike said on the radio tower? He seemed fine at graduation, and when they played DnD after.
When they played DnD after…
Mike turned towards the basement stairs, then slowly gravitated towards them. They creaked in protest as he descended. At least Will’s drawings hadn’t mysteriously disappeared from the walls the way the ones under his bed had.
On the shelf were the binders the group had used the last time they played.
Max, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Mike.
Mike stuck his hand between his and Dustin’s binders and slid Will’s binder out of the shelf. It felt lighter than it should’ve been.
He flipped it open and found out why it was so light.
There was nothing inside.
Mike stared at the empty binder. The longer he stared, the more it hurt deep inside.
The pieces fell into place and a different story formed, Will was upset about what Mike said at the radio tower. That pause would have either given him hope that Mike may view him as more than a friend or made him believe for one second too long that Mike might’ve been disgusted by his sexuality. And that awful pause was followed by ‘Best friends!’ like Mike didn’t see or care about how it would hurt Will. It must’ve been the very last straw.
Will must’ve decided he wouldn’t say anything at graduation. He would smile and play DnD with them like he always did. But once he left, he would never speak to Mike again.
He took his character sheets with him, and hell, maybe he took the binder of drawings too. So all Mike would have to remember him by would be the drawings on the walls of his basement, and the painting on his nightstand.
With this new revelation, Mike raced back upstairs, picked up the phone and dialed Will’s number yet again.
It rang, it rang, it rang…
“Hi, you’ve reached Joyce and Hopper. We’re not available right now, but you can leave a message after the tone.”
Beep.
“Hey, Will. I know you probably don’t want to talk to me but I just wanted you to know I’m sorry about what I said. Like, really sorry. I wasn’t trying to be a jerk about it, everything I said just kept coming out wrong. You’re probably right to be mad at me, but maybe I can make it up to you? Lucas and Dustin are coming over here tomorrow, we’re gonna play games and have fun like we used to. I guess you don’t have to come, but… It wouldn’t be the same without you.”
Mike put the phone down gentler this time.
He hated that he hesitated when they were on the radio tower. They were about to enter The Abyss and yet Mike was somehow more scared about telling Will how he felt. He really shouldn’t have said anything at all, he should have never tried to explain himself.
If he hadn’t, he would still have Will.
And having Will as a friend would’ve been so much better than losing him entirely.