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"Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one!”
The famous words of Doctor Emmett L. Brown come out of the screen where it plays the cassette, the sound just a little cracky, just enough to bring a little of that same old feeling of coziness from watching a movie on tape in the Wheeler's basement. After almost five years since the release of the first movie, Dustin, Lucas, Max, Mike and Will actually got the time, set up the plans and finally gathered to watch the trilogy.
They couldn't watch it at the time it was released because of the military quarantine in Hawkins. For some reason, most movies got ruled out as “propaganda”. No further explanation. Of course, everyone knew what it meant, so, with the fear of being marked and persecuted, the townsfolk just ran with it. As a result, for almost two years the Hawk Theater was forced to screen the only films they had in hand at the time, plus a combination of movies they actually just rented at Family Video and marketed as “Hawk's Special Reprises!”. They thought they'd have to close down, but the community came around to keep them in business. Besides, who would skip on the opportunity to watch Taxi Driver, Jaws or even The Godfather on the big screen?
At the basement, the lines of the Doc resonate with each and every single one of them.
Jane would've liked this one… They all collectively think, no need for a hive mind.
They give some mushy glances around, from the corner of their eyes. Heads unmoving, eyes locking for barely a second, an awkward, silent and unprepared acknowledgement they're thinking about the same thing.
Their futures now were just possible due to her sacrifice. So how could they not? Not think about her?
Her choice...
After years of denied agency, pushed around and being told what to do... In her own terms, at the end, she won. That's what they like to think, anyway. To believe. That it was not out of fear. That she was genuinely just… Happy with all that had been. That for the time she was in their life, they contributed to something. Made her feel like Jane, not the number she had once been reduced to.
Eventually, to break the heavy mood, they start discussing the ending for a bit. A kind of a major mistake when it comes between Dustin and sci-fi movies.
“Sigh... What a waste of a good DeLorean, man..." Lucas voiced, earning him an elbow to the ribs from a slightly annoyed, yet smiling Max.
"That's not what my problem is with the plot. The Doc specifically said to be careful with history. To not change anything! And absolutely, in no hypothesis, meet your current self. Keep things the same to not create an alternative, deviant timeline! Then on the second one he actively chooses to change Marty's kids future and for what? Care? If Marty made a bad choice, and his and Jennifer's kids ended up in jail, that's tough, buddy, but not worth changing events over…" Dustin says in a very moody tone, karate chopping his own hand for emphasis.
"People can just… Be kind, Dustin! Even crazy scientists…" Will said while chuckling, softly, trying to defuse the situation.
The comment, however, sounded like a small, unintentional callback to people of their past. Scientists, etc… Everything they said nowadays seemed like it. Like every mindless phrase blurted out landed on a weird note. At some point, they just stopped making a big deal out of it.
Will also, would outright, full-on laugh at a statement like Dustin's, but, in usual Will fashion, it's his nature to try and not let his friends so upset and help them cheer up, even with something as trivial as messing with the flow of time to help a friend.
Mike stays pensive. Smiling a bit but his heart not really in it. Could he be thinking of El...? They all were.
Lucas groans at Dustin. “Can you shut up for the rules for a second? The time travel was so sick! Can we give the plot a break?” He pleads, outraged that after such dope movies, Dustin would be thinking about technicalities and rules.
“I agree. The special effects were sick indeed. The Time Machine taking at the end of the first one? Easily my favorite shot!” She says, cutting the air with her palm for emphasis.
“Right?!” Lucas asks, beaming.
All while Dustin shakes his head, ignoring the visual aspects, which were, indeed, amazing, but focusing solely on the theory.
While they fight on the importance of visuals against storytelling, Will notices Mike's silence. The bickering turns into background noise as he worries for his best friend.
"Hey... Are you okay?" Will reach for Mike's knee, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
Will’s hands were slightly cold. They always had been. Will always liked feeling the warmth of Mike's body, enjoying it while also worrying that his own body's temperature being colder was a sign that somehow, somewhere, Vecna or the Mind Flayer, could, somehow, still lurk.
Mike, on the other hand never gave much importance to that theory. For two reasons:
1. They killed them both, Vecna and the Mind Flayer.
2. Will had always been slightly colder. In fact, Mike always enjoyed how he'd seek warmth in Mike. And he liked even more warming him up.
The squeeze seems to bring Mike's wandering mind back to his body. He gets up.
"Oh, yeah! Yeah. Totally. Just... Loved the movie, actually. Makes me wonder how much a DeLorean costs." He says, lying. This was one of the few times he did that perfectly. Lie.
They start heading upstairs. Still discussing the movies and their aspects.
"They're expensive as hell." Lucas points out, laughing.
"Didn't they go under? The company? With the movie, I wouldn't put it past them to be sold at 50k or something. They're not made anymore…" Dustin adds, matter of factly, with a little shrug.
"FIFTY THOUSAND?!" Max interferes, annoyed and surprised. "FOR A CAR SO HEAVY THAT NEEDED IT'S ENGINE BE REPLACED TO GET TO 88 MILES PER HOUR?!" She… Expertly mentions?
“How… Did you know that?” Lucas asks, wary of her sudden burst of knowledge.
“I read in a paper somewhere.” Max replies, standing taller with a bit of a smug look.
“You don't read!” Dustin can barely contain his laughter. “OW!” He gets shoved by you-know-who and almost trips on the staircase, but keeps laughing.
"That's why Jonathan is making a movie on capitalism and consumerism" Will chuckles yet again, trying, like always, to please and appease moods, leaving everyone happy.
“With cannibalism, yeah…” Lucas grins. “Like a normal person would. Nothing weird.”
“None of us actually are normal…” Will defends his brother earnestly.
"Will?" A voice cuts the moment. One that stayed behind. Everyone, not just Will, but Max, Dustin and Lucas all look back as well, to see Mike still at the bottom of the basement stairs.
"Uhh. Hey. Can we talk for a minute?" Mike asks, fidgeting with a previously bitten nail. He developed the tic of biting them off somewhere during Will's first disappearance and never stopped.
“Oh…! Sure?” Will replies. “You guys can go ahead.” He says, shooing the others. They exchange glances, shrug, and keep climbing.
“Bye, Mike. Bye, Will!” They say in no respective order, disappearing around the door. Will walks back down to about three steps from the basement floor.
“What is it Mike…?” He says with those perfect doe eyes. They carry so much. It's clear he's worried, but holding back. His hand on the railing.
Mike reaches for the railing as well. The tip of their fingers touch.
“I just wanted to apologize…” He says, distraught.
“Mike…” Will smiles. “I told you, you have nothing to apologize for–”
“Not for that.” Mike cuts him. “I mean… For that too but…” He seems at the verge of tears, which gets Will to frown more and take one more step down, getting closer. Mike is never this emotional.
“I don't get it… For what then…?” Will asks, hand instinctively going to Mike's cheek, cupping it. It felt invasive to touch him like this, but the previous intimacy and the new dynamics overlap and blur inside one another.
Mike tugs at the hem of Will's shirt. “For… For killing El.” He sobs. “I feel like… It was my fault she died that day.” He's full on crying now. It catches Will by surprise, making his eyes shoot wide open at the statement. But in a moment, Will's cradling him, Mike's face against Will's abdomen, Wheeler's tears staining his shirt but he doesn't mind. Of course he doesn't mind. This is Mike. Will would do anything for Mike.
He caresses the back of his head, his fingers curling on his curls and listening to him throwing up his emotions. Mike's arms wrap around Will's body —Will's ass, unintentionally — anchoring himself to his best friend.
Best friend…?
“The bomb… I came up with the concept for it… I feel like I… Like I contributed to it… To… To…” He pulls his face back and looks up at Will. “To taking your sister away from you! Hopper's daughter… Joyce's daughter!” He buries his face back to Will's body, words and sounds muffled, shame overflowing.
“I'm so sorry…! Please forgive me!” He begs.
Will blinks away the way his eyes blur. He's crying too.
“Oh, Mike…” Always too compassionate. Always too understanding. Too forgiving.
He guides Mike's face up, gentle fingers under his chin.
“You have nothing to apologize for…” He walks the last steps down. He hugs Mike properly. Mike's face finding the crook of Will's neck.
“You know it's not your fault. It was… I don't know. I… It-It was the only way. And she… She…” Will tries to find comforting words. Words are hard.
“She knew… I'm sure she knew. That we loved her. That you... Loved her.” Will says with conviction. And hurt. But Mike's heart sinks more. “That she… Made a change in our lives. That she… Was one of us. Your girlfriend…”
“Hopper's daughter…”
“My mom's daughter.”
He takes a deep breath and a big painful gulp. Will can't help the quiver in his chin.
“And… My sister.” Yep. More tears come. He can't help shedding them at the memory of his platonic soulmate.
Jane Hopper.
Jane Byers-Hopper, as they once jokingly said. They'd all become Byers-Hopper once their parents got married, which had long stopped being a possibility and turned into an inevitable future.
Will's thumb brushes over Mike's cheek with such tenderness… Mike himself can't understand. Can't help but appreciate Will more for his heart.
Appreciate.
Appreciate.
It felt… Wrong for Mike. But he didn't know what would feel right.
“But we'd never… Ever... Blame you for that. We all lost that day. We won. But at the cost of a much higher loss.” Will swallows. Swallowing is hard.
“There's nothing to forgive, because you did nothing wrong. We had no way of knowing. Okay…?” Will finishes. At the end, words are still hard. But feelings come naturally.
“Okay…” Mike replies. Softly. “Thank you. For everything. I don't deserve you.”
Will smiles. “There's nothing to thank, either.” He reassures Mike.
Maybe this is fading… Will thinks. He hopes.
“Let's go.” Will
lets go first, which pushes Mike back to square one. He felt so relieved right now… So why did the sudden loss of touch make him feel so bad again…?