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After the Party had defeated Vecna, Will assumed it would be then that Mike went back on his ‘best friends’ promise. I mean, it was almost too good to be true when he didn’t, and the two actually fell into a routine reminiscent of a time before the Upside Down.
And then El broke up with Mike, and Will assumed it was then the tides would turn, and all of the time being spent on Will would be spent trying to get El back instead.
Again, that didn’t happen.
Nowadays, Mike spends any and all free time with Will, following him around like a lost puppy. It would annoy Will if he were anyone else, but alas, Mike is Mike, and one of Will’s biggest struggles is denying him anything.
Another one is keeping his feelings to himself, which is beginning to manifest itself into an even bigger problem every time the two spend time together.
Mike does not know a single thing about ‘personal space’. He insists on sharing the bed when it turns out his decade-old sleeping bag doesn’t fit Will, insists on sharing the same side of the booth for reasons Will really cannot figure out, and now, whenever Mike comes over to Will's house for a change, he insists on sharing the single couch instead of the double, because it’s ‘more comfy’?!
And for each of these instances, Will is left a blundering, blushing idiot, and is one step closer to confessing a truth that could ruin everything.
So he decides the start of a genius solution to this Mike-shaped problem is distance, like maybe not hanging out every day.
———
“If you’re busy right now, we could hang out later today? Tonight? If that’s okay with you, of course.”
“Um.” Will holds the phone awkwardly up to his ear, debating an excuse. “My brother wanted to hang out. All day sort of thing. So…”
“Yeah. Yeah! No, that’s fine. Tomorrow? We can, uh, go to the arcade. Or the mall! Wait, it’s destroyed…” Sound ceases for a moment before Mike seems to find his words again. “Whatever we do is fine. Up to you, really!”
“I, uh.” Come on, Will, you got this. “No, I’m busy that day too. And… most days after. Sorry. Bye.” Will quickly hangs up the phone before leaning on the wall and cringing into his hands.
“What’s wrong?” El asks, emerging from the hallway beside the telephone.
“Nothing, it’s nothing.” Will swiftly reassures her, directing his hands away from his face to instead rest in what is hopefully an outwardly relaxed position. “Hey, do you want to… hang out today?”
“Oh!” El seems genuinely surprised. “I would love to, but I had promised Max we could hang out at her house. Not that I won’t be home for dinner!” El seemed to hesitate before adding, “I thought you were… hanging out with Mike?”
“Something came up,” Will dismisses. The two of them bask in the awkward silence.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, um. Have fun,” Will says with a shaky smile.
“You too!” El gleams, waving goodbye before swinging the door open and shutting it with a resounding bang.
Will feels lonely in the quiet of the house. With his mom at work, El with Max, and Jonathan with… actually, Will doesn’t know where Jonathan is, but if he had to guess, he’d say with Nancy.
Which is the same conclusion people come to with him and Mike, apparently.
With nothing left to do, Will resigns himself to drawing. He trudges up to his room and sprawls out on his bed before snatching his sketchbook from his bedside table.
His bedroom, courtesy of hush money, is much larger than before. It’s also upstairs. (They have an upstairs!) His bed has upgraded to a queen, and he has a big desk in the corner to work on his large-scale art pieces. Though right now, he’s chosen to leisurely sketch a landscape of the quarry.
When done, Will turns his head to check how much time has passed. His digital clock flashes “9:57”. He remembers it was around 9:30 when Mike called.
Will sighs. He flips to another page.
———
Finally, after what Will assumes to be over an hour later, he distantly hears the door open downstairs. He immediately jumps out of bed and skips down the stairs.
It’s Jonathan, with Nancy in tow.
“Hey!” Jonathan greets. Will couldn’t be happier to see him. Will crosses the distance in a matter of seconds to hug his brother.
“Whoa!” Jonathan’s taken aback for a moment before quickly reciprocating the hug. “What’s wrong?”
When Will pulls back, Jonathan has a look of concern in his eyes.
“Nothing, I’m just… happy to see you,” Will says sheepishly, stepping back a bit more. Jonathan sighs.
“Well, I’m happy to see you too.” Jonathan ruffles Will’s hair before moving past him and into the kitchen.
“Where’s my hug?” Nancy teases half-heartedly.
“Hey, Nancy.” Will responds. He moves to make room for Nancy to step aside him into the kitchen with Jonathan, but she stays put.
“I thought you’d be hanging out with my brother today. Did something happen?”
“No, I just…” Would it be wrong to lie to Mike’s sister? “I really wanted to draw.” He’ll find out, he supposes.
“It’s about time he figures out how to spend time without you. I reckon he’s holed up in his room feeling sorry for himself as we speak,” Nancy finishes with a laugh. It makes Will’s stomach twist painfully.
“Hey. I’m only joking,” Nancy fixes him with a comforting gaze. “I’m sure he’s fine.”
“Yeah!” Will chuckles awkwardly. “Of course he is.”
“Yeah.” Nancy smiles. “Have fun.”
“Totally. You too.”
Nancy regards him gently before finally moving past him into the kitchen.
Will huffs before making his way upstairs, yet again.
———
Mike is confused.
After his promise to Will in California, he’d genuinely believed they were friends again—best friends. But now, Will was ignoring him, and Mike couldn’t understand why.
Mike never questioned Will’s insistence on hanging out with his brother until he’d watched Nancy and, lo and behold, Jonathan reverse out of the driveway. He didn’t want to believe Will had lied to him, because ‘friends don’t lie.’
But hadn’t he lied about the painting? Mike still remembers when he’d asked Eleven about it, and she’d had no idea about any of it. It was one thing to learn that El didn’t truly feel the way Will had described, but it was another to learn he’d lied. If he lied about that, about something that made him feel so… loved, then what else could he have been lying about?
Yeah, it hurt. But not because Will had denied hanging out with him (they had already hung out a week straight this summer, so it was understandable), but more so it hurt because Mike felt he was finally getting somewhere with Will. With no lies or secrets between them. Where, possibly, if he told the truth, the same truth he couldn’t tell El, that maybe Will wouldn’t stop being friends with him. Maybe even… reciprocate?
Regardless, Mike is very confused. And hurt.
Mike’s still thinking about going to see him. About biking over to his house and saying sorry for whatever he must’ve done. But if Will doesn’t want to see him or tell the truth, Mike supposes he just has to deal with Will’s decision. That he would rather spend time alone and… lie about it. That fills Mike with such a strong bout of frustration that he actually screams into his pillow.
“Are you alright, honey?!” Mrs. Wheeler calls from the downstairs kitchen.
“Yeah! I’m okay!” Mike reassures, before submerging his head back into his pillow.
“Dinner’s almost ready if you want to come down!”
“In a minute!” Mike yells. He drags himself off his bed and begins to slowly walk out of his room.
“What’s got you so upset?” Mike’s mother asks as soon as he enters the kitchen.
“Nothing,” Mike replies, dismissing her concern.
“Okay, well…” She moves past him into the dining room to place his sister’s plate in front of her. “Here you go, baby.” She gently kisses the top of her head, earning a small giggle from Holly.
“Anyway, Mike. I heard you and Will on the phone earlier.” She scoots past him again to make the rest of the family plates.
“WHAT?” Mike exclaims, “You were spying on me?!”
She tsks. “I wasn’t spying on you. I just happened to be listening in,” his mother clarifies. “Is this because of him?”
“Is what because of him?” Mike retorts, irritation bleeding through.
“Your crankiness,” his mother says, taking on a sympathetic tone. “I’m sorry he didn’t want to hang out, but honey, I’m sure it’s no big deal. I mean, you guys must hang out every day.”
“But he lied to me,” Mike says, anger making way for exhaustion. “He lied just so he wouldn’t have to hang out with me.” Mike slumps down next to his sister, Holly, before placing his head in his hands.
“I don’t know, maybe he didn’t want to hurt your feelings,” his mom says. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it the way you’re taking it.”
“But why would he think it would hurt my feelings? I’m not-” Mike’s head suddenly shoots up from where it had been lying. “Am I clingy?”
His mother can’t help the laugh that escapes her mouth.
“Mom!” Mike whines.
“Sorry, hun. No, you’re not clingy,” she says gently, before splitting into a grin, “At least Will doesn’t seem to think so.”
“You’re no help,” he grumbles, setting his head back in its previous position.
His mother sighs softly before tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. Begrudgingly, he looks up.
“Mike, it’s fine. Maybe he was busy with… something super embarrassing! And he just didn’t want you to know about it,” She says playfully, putting a plate in front of him. Holly giggles, but he does not.
“He wouldn’t keep anything like that from me,” Mike insists, ignoring his plate of food. “There’s supposed to be no secrets between us.”
“Seems like you’re keeping a secret from him,” His mother says knowingly.
“What?” Mike whispers, horrified.
“Mike, you can’t keep anything from me. I am your mother.” She winks. “I think it’s sweet.”
“WHAT!” Mike yells, jumping up from his seat. He’s just about to say something, maybe even defend himself, when the door swings open, revealing his father.
“Where’s our daughter?” He grumbles, taking off his coat and kicking his shoes by the door.
“Oh, Nancy?” Mike’s mother thinks for a moment. “Having dinner with the Byers.”
He scoffs. “Our children don’t live here anymore, Karen.” He seems satisfied with this realization before his eyes land on blushing, fuming Mike.
“Shouldn’t you be having dinner with the Byers, too?” He questions.
“Apparently not,” He mumbles, sitting back in his chair, arms crossed.
“It’s a sensitive topic,” Karen whispers to her husband after he kisses her on her cheek.
He takes on her quiet tone. “Let me guess, about—”
“Will? Yeah.”
His father exhales loudly, and Mike tunes in. “It always is,” he says gruffly.
“What always is?” Mike asks curiously.
“Nothing, son.” He says, sitting down as his wife places two plates in front of his and her seats. “Eat.”
———
“Hey,” Will’s mother calls to him softly from across the dinner table. “What’s up?”
Will pauses in his movement of pushing food around to relieve his mother of, in his opinion, unnecessary worry.
“Nothing, don’t worry about it mom.”
“I’m not worried about nothing, sweetheart. I’m worried about you. Did something happen?” Her food lies abandoned in front of her, and Will is feeling increasingly bad.
“No, nothing happened. Seriously, Mom.” Will even eats a few spoonfuls of peas as an attempt to reassure her.
“Okay…” She says warily, but still, she picks up her fork and begins eating again. Will smiles.
“Shit!” Nancy exclaims beside Jonathon, having spilled her glass of water. She makes way to pick it up, but gets shut down by Hopper.
“It’s okay, I got it.” As Hop gets up to grab a towel from the adjacent kitchen, Will feels eyes from across the table burn a hole into his hunched head. He looks up only to find El staring at him.
Will raises a brow, to which El jerks her head in the direction of the stairs. Despite not knowing what she means, he nods, hoping she’ll tell him later. Seeming to know this, El scoffs and continues eating, quicker than she had previously.
After El is excused from the table, she doesn’t wait for Will to finish his food. Instead, she quickly drags him by the elbow and rushes them up the stairs to her room, where she shoves Will down onto her bed before taking her place next to him. She locks the door with a tilt of her head.
“Why did you lie to Mom?” She demands.
“I…” Lying again would be futile; his sister always knows whether or not he’s lying. Sighing, he tells her the truth. “Because she wouldn’t understand.”
“Would I understand?” El asks hopefully. Will thinks about this, wondering, can someone raised in a lab be homophobic?
“Maybe,” he answers after a moment.
“Alright. Will,” She starts gearing up, always prepared to listen. “What is making you upset?”
“I… like someone.” He says honestly.
“And why is this making you upset?” She wonders.
“Because it makes me feel stupid.” El gasps, and Will almost does too, surprised at what he himself had said.
“Liking someone isn’t stupid?” El is confused. Will understands.
“It is when you’re me, and you like the person I do.” He sighs. “Liking someone in itself isn’t, like, a bad thing. But El, this person makes me feel, I don’t know, like I could mess up my words at any time, and everything, including our friendship, could come crashing down. I mean, they’re like my best friend and- and I should feel like I could tell him anything, but I can’t, and he keeps giving me, like, totally mixed signals. One minute I’m thinking: hey, maybe he likes boys too, but then he does a complete 180 and I’m left feeling like an idiot! A total idiot! And sometimes I think, late at night, during a sleepover where I’m lying in his bed watching him snore, very loudly by the way, I think, maybe the physical churning I feel in my stomach isn’t just like it’s… it’s…”
“Love?” El finishes.
“Yeah,” Will says breathlessly. “Love.” Will flops onto his back in El’s bed and covers his face with his hands. “God…”
“Who is this 'him'?” El asks. “Is it Mike?”
“WHAT!” Will screams, pulling his hands back to look up at his sister, still sitting relaxed at the edge of her bed. “Of course it isn’t Mike! Don’t- I mean, why do you even think that?” Her ex! Will thinks. She guessed her ex before anyone else!
“I know you, Will. I know the two of you care for each other very much.” El grins. “Didn’t know you loved him though…”
“You’re the worst.” And despite everything, Will smiles too. “I thought you’d be more, I don’t know. Upset?”
“I can see why you’d think that,” She says thoughtfully. “But after the break-up, I became more… me. I really found myself.”
“Wow, that’s… great. I didn’t know that.”
“Thank you, Will.” She laughs.
“What’s so funny?”
“You are avoiding him, yes?” El asks, though Will thought it sounded more like a statement.
“Well, I wouldn’t say that, but-“
El laughs again, harder.
“What is it!”
“You are avoiding him… even when he likes you back!” El smiles softly. “He totally likes you back, Will.
“El, thank you, but… you don’t know if that’s really true or not.”
El grins wickedly. “Only one way to find out!” El jumps up and over to her telephone on a table in the corner of her room.
“What are you doing?” Will asks, sitting up panicked.
“Getting a professional opinion.” El sticks out her tongue as she punches in what Will recognizes to be the Wheelers’ house number.
“What are you doing!” Will shouts, sprouting up from the bed. By the time Will crosses the room, El’s already clutching the phone up to her ear.
“Hey! Give me that!” Will attempts to steal the phone from her hands, but El must have been playing dirty because Will couldn’t seem to get close to the phone.
“Hello? Wheeler residence.” Will distantly hears Mrs. Wheeler on the other side of the phone, only serving to make his attempts more aggressive.
“EL!”
“Hello? Yes.” El sports an evil grin. “Can I speak to Michael Wheeler?”
Will screams. “EL!”
———
“It’s for you,” Mike’s mom says, holding the phone out for him. Mike slowly pushes his chair back and rises to walk to the kitchen. Mike hopes it’s Will, even if he had lied to blow him off. God, where are my standards?
“Hello?” Mike says wearily. He swears he hears screaming.
“Hi Mike!” It’s El, sounding as if she’s on a mission.
“El? Why are you calling me this late?” Mike doesn’t mind El calling him; it’s more the fact that he’d assumed the Byers would be in the middle of dinner.
“I was just talking to Will…” More screaming. “And he really wanted to ask you something.”
“EL!” This time, the shouting is so loud it’s distinguishable, and Mike would’ve recognized that voice from anywhere.
“Is Will in the room with you?” Mike asks, crossing his fingers.
“Yep!”
Mike almost dies from happiness, somehow missing him as if he’d been gone years, until he realizes he’s supposed to be mad at him.
“Well,” Mike begins angrily, “Tell him I know he lied to me and that I… really wanna see him.” So much for anger, Mike thinks.
Faintly, Mike hears El giggle, but the screaming stops.
“Come see him then,” El says softly, like a whisper, though not quite. More like she understands what those words mean to Mike, which shouldn’t be possible, but he knows El’s full of surprises. “Don’t tell him I told you this, but…” Now her voice really is a whisper. “I think he misses you, too.”
The screaming comes to a crescendo before cutting off completely. El had hung up.
Mike doesn’t think he’s ever moved faster in his life, pushing past his family still in the middle of dinner to make for the coat rack on the side of the garage door.
“Be safe, honey! I think it’s raining!” She informs him from the dining room, seemingly not too upset about his abrupt departure.
“‘Kay, mom!” He zips up his jacket and opens the door leading out to the garage. “Love you, bye!” Without waiting for an answer, he pushes through the door and shuts it before speeding off on his bike.
———
When Mike arrives at the Byers, he’s greeted by a tired but triumphant El.
“Hello?” Mike says.
“He’s in his room,” El says with a wild grin. Mike drops his bike on the patio and scoots past her a little sheepishly, kicking off his soaking wet shoes and coat before making his way upstairs.
He’s in front of Will’s door, hesitant to knock. Nancy chooses that time to walk by.
“Mike?” She asks questionably.
“Hey, Nancy. Kinda busy.” He brushes her off.
“Kinda busy standing in front of Will’s door like an idiot?”
“Hey! I’m going to knock!”
“Uh huh.” She doesn’t sound convinced. “Well, by all means, go ahead.”
He hesitates more, now flushed in embarrassment. Nancy takes pity on him.
“You go like this, see?” She knocks on Will’s door. Mike jumps.
“I was going to do it!”
“Yeah, yeah.” She smiles at him before whispering, “Good luck.” She winks. He’s in the middle of flipping her off when Mike hears the door open. Swinging his head back around, he locks eyes with a distraught-looking Will Byers.
“Come in,” He sighs. He gestures for Mike to take a seat on his bed while he takes his chair by his desk.
“You missed me?” Mike blurts, probably a bit stupidly, judging from Will's intense blush, but Mike’s too stunned to care. “But you lied to me, just so you wouldn’t have to see me?”
Will shakes his head furiously. “No! Nothing like that, I just… we’ve been hanging out a lot recently. Just needed a day… by myself.”
“You could’ve just told me that instead of lying to me,” Mike gasps. “Am I clingy?”
Will laughs and seems to relax. “No… well, I just didn’t want to hurt your feelings!”
Mike doesn’t continue talking, in case he says something crazy, nor looks back at Will, in case his expression says it instead. He wrings his hands together, looking through a blurry lens at a paint stain in the carpet by his feet. Mike doesn’t hear Will anymore until he sighs and gets up to sit next to him on the bed. Mike takes notice of the few inches of distance.
“Hey,” Will says softly, urging Mike to look at him. Mike’s cheeks are wet, and Will frowns. “I already told you you’re not clingy.”
“It’s not that, it’s just…” Mike looks away from Will and wipes his eyes using the back of his hand. “I missed you a lot. And, um. I shouldn’t have, because it was just one day apart, but then I remember all the times I couldn’t have you, like when you were in the Upside Down, or- or possessed, and… I guess I just feel like if I let you go again, you won’t, um. You won’t come back.” Mike whispers that last part, the most terrifying, vulnerable part, and he swallows hard. Will sniffs, and Mike feels himself being pulled into a hug that he quickly returns. It’s comforting for a few moments until Mike remembers why he’s here and decides to pull back. There’s no longer a single inch between them; their legs sit pressed together, and Mike uses that to distract him from Will’s expression so he can get this last bit out.
“There- there’s another reason why I missed you so much. Maybe the main reason.” Mike takes a shaky breath, pushing forward. “Will, I like you. More than a friend, more than a best friend even, and I know it took me a while to realize it, but back then I was just too afraid to tell you. I still kinda am.” Mike laughs weakly, shaking his head. “I just… you need to know, and I need you to know too. So, yeah.”
With Mike’s eyes squeezed shut (When did they shut?), he wasn’t able to see Will’s reaction. He can’t hear anything either, actually. What is he… Mike slowly opens his eyes to find Will, mouth agape and eyes wide. His face is what breaks Mike, and it finally clicks into place what exactly he has just done. Selfish, so selfish… Struggling to contain a sob, he folds into himself, shielding away from Will’s gaze. Moments pass before Mike feels a sturdy hand on his shoulder, Will’s hand, before he’s getting pulled into another embrace.
“Mike…”
“You- you don’t… have to say anything back… I just wanted you to know.” Mike sniffs into Will’s chest. He feels so… stupid.
“No, Mike.” Mike perceives what he thinks to be tears falling on him. Will’s crying.
“I love El. You know I do, I love her like a sister.” Will exhales, as if resigned to admit to a crime. “But I was jealous of her. For a while, while you two were dating. I always thought, What’s so good about her? What, just because she’s a girl?” Will chuckles wobbly. “I… am definitely not proud about it, I mean, I only just realized recently that I was jealous, not… I don’t know, mad?” Mike’s no longer crying, instead listening intently, attempting to commit Will’s words to memory. “Anyway, yeah. Uh… I was jealous because…” Will gulps, and Mike feels it against his head. “I liked you. And I still like you. Like, a lot.”
Mike feels weight leave him all at once. He feels giddy. He grins and laughs, “A lot of ‘likes’ huh?”
Will laughs too, with relief. “Yeah. You’re feeling better?”
Mike pulls his face from Will’s chest, arms still kept tightly around his torso. “How could I not be? You just told me you liked me.” Mike grins so hard his vision is hindered.
“Yeah.” Will smiles awkwardly. “I like you.”
What? His beaming smile turns frown. “Do you…not?”
“No! I do! I really do!” Will frantically rushes to explain, “It’s just-“
“Just what?”
“I love you!” Will blurts out, “I don’t like you, I love you so, yeah. I guess I kinda…lied.” Will cringes, “Again.”
Mike feels his face get hot, and he feels physically struck.
“You…”
“Yeah. Turns out I’m not as truthful as I seem.” Will smiles lopsidedly.
Mike scoffs. “No, I meant the ‘I love you’ part.”
“Oh.” Now Will’s at a loss for words. “Yeah, I… yeah. I do. Love you, I mean.”
Mike doesn’t think he’s ever been happier. Now, with a sly smile making itself known across his face, he feels extreme happiness.
“I love you too,” He says with a toothy grin.
“I would hope so,” Will says with a smirk. And that confident smile, with dimples that Mike has known since kindergarten, that belongs to Will, who loves him, Mike is suddenly overwhelmed with the need to kiss his best friend. Mike gulps. He’s never felt this with El, this want. He glances down at Will’s lips, and because their heads are barely inches apart, Will clocks it immediately. His eyes widen in surprise.
“Oh, wow. You want to kiss me.”
“Um, yeah.” Mike blushes at Will’s bluntness. “If that’s alright with you.”
Will rolls his eyes and slips a hand onto Mike’s warm cheek. “I wouldn’t mind.”
With a confirming smile and nod from Will, Mike closes the short gap of distance between them and meets Will in the middle. Oh wow, Mike thinks, and pushes deeper, placing both hands on Will’s hips. Mike doesn’t think he could ever compare this to El, to anyone. This feeling requires a cheesy, poetic approach that Mike just doesn’t have time to think of at the moment. The moment being: kissing Will. Touching Will. Maybe even-
Will’s hands have somehow gotten tangled in Mike’s hair, and Will pulls.
Yeah… definitely not like El.
Eventually, Will pulls them apart, and Mike uses this moment to take in his pink cheeks and dilated eyes.
“You’re beautiful,” he says.
Will’s lips twitch at the corners. “Thank you very much.”