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Lucas's eyes scan the crowd in the same hopeful way they always do just before a match. He doesn't know why he does this everytime, but today it hurts more than usual because not only has Max not shown up, but Mike and Dustin haven't either. Steve was here, as he often was, and a much as the gesture means a lot to Lucas, Steve wasn't them, and this was the championship game.
He thought, foolishly, that Dustin and Mike would have changed their mind, that they would have attempted to convince Eddie to move the final.date of the campaign. But no, why would they? It's not like it was physically impossible for Lucas to reschedule this match, it's not like DnD couldn't have happened any other night.
Lucas sighs, tearing his eyes away from the stands without bothering to scan to the seats again. He knows he hasn't missed them, their just not here. Chance claps him on thr back in a way that's probably meant to be encouraging, but just makes him feel worse, as if it's a reminder he doesn't actually belong here. Not on the team. Not with his friends. Not with anyone.
The game goes well. Extremely well. It's the best Lucas has ever played, his heart is racing, his mind is soaring, he feels like he could run a marathon based off of pure adrenaline alone. Lucas grins so hard his face hurts as the crowd cheers, and his teammates life him above their heads. He feels happy for all of three minutes untill he remembers that the people he truly cares about weren't even their to see him win.
Lucas wished he didn't care so much, wished it didn't make his victory feel so much less of an accomplishment, but it does. A hollow feeling washes over him as the cheers continue, and Lucas feels the sudden urge to just leave. His teammates are fine, but they aren't his friends, he wants to share his happiness with the people he loves, not with them.
But the people Lucas cares about obviously don't care about him. At least, not enough to show up.
As Lucas is lowered to the ground, Chance nudges his shoulder once again, although this time he accompanys the action with words, gesturing just out of sight of Lucas's gaze, "Someone's calling your name, dude," Chance says, and Lucas's eyebrows scrunch in confusion, the sadness in his gut being temporarily replaced by mild bewilderedment.
That's when the person comes into sight, massive grin on their face, eye's lighting up when they realise Lucas has noticed them, "Lucas!" They call again, pace quickening as they continue to move towards him.
It was Will. Will who was supposed to be in Califorina. Will who Lucas hadn't seen in months. Will Byers, who was somehow here, who had somehow come to see Lucas's game.
"Will!" Lucas exclaims, shock lacing his voice as he envelopes Will in what is probably a slightly bone crushing hug. Will's touch lingers just long enough for Lucas to inhale his shampoo, the scent is familiar and it settles all the previous discomfort he'd been feeling before into something softer and more manageable.
"You did amazing!" Will grins as he pulls back, hands still resting on Lucas's forearms, "I mean, I had no idea what was going on for most of it, but I can tell you were doing great!"
This makes Lucas laughs slightly, Will's enthusiasm very much making up for his clear lack of basketball knowledge. It's never been about wanting others to care for the sport in Lucas's mind, he's just wanted them to care about him. Will does, he's always had a strange way of being much more empathetic than anyone else.
"How are you even here," Lucas says, still in a state of disbelief as he smiles across at Will.
Will shurgs, "My mum was already planning to drive us down for a visit, , I asked her if we'd be able to come a little sooner so I could make your game," Lucas feels warm at this, feeling the sudden urge to hide his face, "I wanted to suprise you!" Will continues, "We're staying with the Wheelers, so Mike already knows I'm coming down, but I asked El to tell him to keep it a secret, I'm suprised he managed it, if I'm being honest".
Lucas wants to mutter something bitter about how Mike probably wouldn't have thought to mention it even if he was allowed because the boy doesn't seem to care about anything but himself anymore, but he bites his tongue. Comments like that won't do any good now, especially since Will's just got back, Lucas doesn't want to cause even further upset in the party.
"How did they even let you in," Lucas says instead, "You don't go here anymore!"
"I have my ways," Will notes wryly, a somewhat sly smile tugging at his lips.
Lucas shakes his head in bemusment, "You're insane".
"And you've been hiding your sports talent for way too long," Will replies, giving Lucas a playfull once over, "Where did a this muscle come from? What happened to the nerd I left in Hawkins?"
Lucas bites back a grin, "I could say the same about you," he says slyly, "You went and got hot without me, Byers".
"Shut up," Will shoots back, and Lucas feels smug at the sight of flush crawling up his neck and onto his cheeks, "There's hardly anything to do in Cali, I just started working out when I'm bored, that's all".
"Must have been pretty bored," Lucas joked, looking Will up and down appreciatively. Will's always been attractive, maybe it's strange that Lucas has always kept a mental note of this, but he doesn't really care. Talking to Will is easy. Liking Will is easy. If if was another member of the party that made his heart race like this, Lucas would be scared shitless, but with Will? For some reason everything felt safer.
"Something like that, yeah," Will chuckled lightly, "Thanks for writing by the way, it helped, with the being away from home shit".
"Of course, man," Lucas replied. He liked writing to Will, he called too, of course, but letters felt more personal somehow. He kept all of Will's in a draw by his bed, but it was much better having him here in person like this.
"So, where are the others?" Will says casually, as if he's only just realised he was the only one running up to Lucas to congratulate him.
"Oh, yeah, they didn't come," Lucas mutters, tone turning slightly sour as he adverts his eyes from Will's and glares at the ground
"What?" Will exclaims, looking affronted on Lucas's behalf, eye's narrowing in annyonce.
"They have DnD so they couldn't make it," Lucas says, not even trying to resist his eyeroll because he knows Will won't judge him for being frustrated.
"DnD? Thought Mike was too old for that now," Will asks through raised eyebrows, sounding nearly as bitter as Lucas feels, although it's clear he's trying to hide it.
"Apparently not," Lucas mutters, and him and Will let the silence fall around them for a split second, both looking away from eachother, going over their own separate feelings of betrayal from the other party members in their head.
"I'm glad you came, Will," Lucas whispers softly, "It means a lot to me, genuinely".
"Of course," Will replies gently, because it really was that easy, "That's what friends are for, right?"
"Yeah," Lucas smiles, "You're right".
Lucas squeezes Will's shoulder, oblivious to the celebration still happening around him, eye's fixated on his friends smile, and how much he'd missed seeing it.
"Hey Sinclair!" A voice calls from a few feet away, Lucas's head whips around at the sound, quickly realising it was Chance speaking, and the man shot him a wide grin, "Are you coming to the celebration party at my place tonight, or what?"
"Who's that," Will whispers into Lucas's ear before he has a chance to reply.
"Chance," Lucas answers, "He's actually not that bad, he's like really into star wars but don't tell him I said that". Will laughs at that, glancing back at chance with a slight look of disbelief.
"You can bring your little friend!" Chance adds on, nodding towards Will, still yelling from across the room.
Will turns to Lucas and waggles his eyebrows, "Did I just get invited to a popular kid party? I'm like super cool now, right?" Will teases, tone light and playfull as he nudges Lucas in the side.
"Shut up," Lucas laughs, nudging him back, hesitating slightly before saying, "Wanna go?"
"Do you?" Is Will's instant reply.
"Kinda," Lucas says with a small shrug, feeling mildly embarrassed for admitting it.
"Then sure," Will beams, "Why the hell not".
☆
Lucas and Will are leaning against a wall, the house reverberating with loud, and admittedly quite shitty, music, the bass so strong Lucas swears he can feel it rattling his brain. They're watching some of the basketball team, and a couple of guys Lucas doesn't know, play beer pong, or, at least, Will is watching them, Lucas's eyes are trained on Will, smiling slightly at the bemusment etched across his face.
He looks pretty in this light, the color of the room shifting underneath the cheap disco equipment strung up on the ceiling, painting Will's face in a soft, ever-changing, rainbow. Will always looks pretty, though, Lucas thinks to himself, eye's lingering on the boy's hair, taking note of how much it's changed since he last saw him. Taking note of how much Lucas has missed.
"Is it weird that watching them play this is making me want a beer?" Will muses, turning his head to look at Lucas, "I don't even like the thought of drinking".
"I mean trying one couldn't hurt," Lucas replies, eye's wandering to the table in the courner of the room where an odd assortment of party food and alcoholic beverages stood.
"I suppose not," Will says, smile tugging at his lips, before he tugs Lucas by the wrist and leads them over to the table, "Come on, we can share".
Lucas's heart flutters oddly at that, but he doesn't disagree, letting Will pick up a red solo cup, and waft it under Lucas's nose. "It looks like piss," Lucas comments, wrinkling his nose in disgust.
Will grins at him, maintaining eye contact as he takes a large sip, before wincing, and eyeing the drink like it personally offended him, "It takes like piss, how do people drink this stuff".
Lucas laughs, gesturing for Will to hand him the cup, "It can't be that bad," he says, before taking a bold swig, and Immediately choking on it, spluttering at the bitter taste. Will breaks out into giggles as Lucas coughs, "I take it back, it can be that bad, what the hell".
"I guess we're just not destined for the party life," Will sighs, feigning dissapionment, as he holds the cup up to eye level, as if he was about to preform some sort of dramatic monologue.
"How ever will we cope," Lucas adds on, joining Will in his antics, delighting in the way it makes Will's eyes sparkle with joy. They both dissolve into laughter then, the kind where you laugh for so long that you can't even remember what was so funny in the first place.
"I've missed this," Lucas admits, as his laughter finally subsides, not remembering the last time he's had this much fun by simply existing in someone else's presence.
"What?" Will says with light confusion, as he looks around like he's trying to figure out what Lucas is talking about.
"You," Lucas replies too honestly, and Will's face flushes pink as he quickly turns away.
"It's loud in here," Will murmers, and Lucas doesn't know if he's pleased or disheartened by Will's very clear deflection.
"Want to go find somewhere quieter?" Lucas asks, to which Will nods, and they move to try and make their way out the crowded room without being stopped and brought into unwanted conversation with some rowdy party goer.
"Why is this house so full," Lucas mutters, as they squeeze through a hallway that somehow feels busier than the living room.
"Why is this house so big," Will shoots back, "Rich kids are insane".
After navigating their way through several rooms so full of people that it had Lucas questioning the amount of people that actually lived in Hawkins (he could have sworn half these kids don't even go to their school) him and Will finally find an empty space, that being the upstairs bathroom, and they filter inside, locking the door behind them.
"That's better," Will sighs happily, the music a lot quiter up here, and Lucas can agree that it's already nicer than being downstairs with a borderline headache.
"This bathrooms bigger than my bedroom," Lucas notes as he looks around in mild disbelief.
"Literally," Will laughs, "How does anyone possible uterlise this much space".
Will settles himself on the floor then, leaning agaist the door, as he tilts his head back, closing his eyes, and letting the silence settle comfortably around them. Lucas takes a seat on the floor opposite him, which probably isn't very hygienic, but he's at house party, so most things here probably contain much more bacteria than they should.
"I know I said this ealier," Lucas starts, eye's fixated on Will's closed one, taking note of the way his eyelashes flutter agaist his cheeks gently as he speaks, "But thank you for coming to my game, you're all the way in Califorina and you came when the others didn't. It means a lot to me".
"It's stupid that they didn't come," Will mutters, still not looking up.
"They think I'm trying too hard to be popular," Lucas reveals, "They're taking me being on the basketball team as some sort of personal offence, like it's insane that I'm tired of being bullied, and I actually enjoy playing a sport".
Will nods to show that he's listening, but he doesn't speak up, allowing Lucas to continue speaking, as if he somehow knew that's what he'd been wanting permission to do, "And it's not like I've stopped playing DnD, or like I've abandoned them, or like I've actually changed! I just want high-school to different than middle school was, and this is my one chance to make that happen".
Lucas sighs deeply, rubbing his brow in frustration as his tone shifts from something annyoned to something more tired, "I love them, and I understand where they're coming from, but they just don't get it. They've grown out of all the physical shit they used to get teased for, now people just pick on them because their nerdy. I'll never grow out of being black. They don't see how our situations aren't the fucking same, I can't hide who I am, I don't want to, but I want to be seen for more than just the colour of my skin".
"You are so much more than that, Lucas," Will says gently, "You deserve so much more than the shit the world has given you," and even though the words are something Lucas has told himself time and time again, it somehow means infinitely more coming from someone else. Coming from Will.
Will is looking straight at him now, eye's big, soft, and knowing, so full of emotion that it overwhelms Lucas slightly. "This year has been the first year of my life where people I don't know have talked to me because they think I'm cool, not because they want to yell some overused racist joke in my face that they somehow think is funny. I don't understand how the others expect me to just give that up".
"I understand,," Will confided, his voice only just above a whisper, as if he was scared someone else would hear him despite the fact the room was empty, "I mean obviously not completely, but I get what it's like to be different, and to not be able to change that fact. I've been called a fairy, and a poof, and a queer my whole life, and it hurts not just because it's fucking horrible but because, in a way, it's true".
Will takes a deep, shaking breath, and Lucas places a hand on his knee, a silent gesture to let him know that whatever he says next, they'll be okay, "I... I am gay," Will admits quietly, looking mildly nauseous, but also extremely relieved, "And if I had a chance to escape the fucking neon sign that apparently seems to tell the world that fact, I would. So I get it, why you want to be popular, why you don't want to live like you did in middle school anymore".
There's a beat, then Will speaks up again, voice quicker now, and full of poorly concealed worry, "Sorry, I didn't mean to make it all about me, I just wanted to help-"
"Will," Lucas cuts him off, and Will blinks owlishly at him, "Thank you. You did help, genuinely. I felt so alone for so long, and you getting it, you telling me that me feeling what I feel isn't stupid, or insane, like the others sometimes make me think, it helps. It helps a lot."
Will laughs wetly, before tugging Lucas
forward into his arms, hiding his face in the boy's shoulder as they embrace eachother on Chance's bathroom floor. Lucas thinks Will might be crying, and he rubs his back slowly, not quite sure what to say or do, but hoping simply being there will be enough.
"I've never told anyone that before," Will whispers, breath hot agaist Lucas's neck, "That I'm- that I like boys".
"I'm glad you felt like you could tell me," Lucas replies, "I'm okay with it, you know that, right?"
"I always hoped you would be," Will hums, "But you just never can be sure untill you tell someone. I think my mum knows, and johnathan almost definitely does, but I've never outright said anything to them before, it's scary. I wish it wasn't, it shouldn't be, not with them, not with you".
"I think you're the bravest person I know," Lucas says truthfully as he pulls back to face Will.
"Really?" Will asks skeptically, stray tear still rolling down his face.
Lucas's hand instinctively darts up to Will's face, thumb gently brushing the tear away as he replies, "Yeah, really".
Will leans into Lucas's touch, cheek resting agasit Lucas's hand in a way that makes him want to pull Will's face impossibly closer to his.
So he does.
And suddenly they're kissing, Will's mouth moving slowly, tentatively, agaist Lucas's, Lucas raising his other hand to further cup Will's face. He hummed happily into the kiss as Will's hands come to rest lightly on Lucas's waist. The kiss is slightly clumsy, given it being both of their first's, but their's something strangely familiar about it, that made up for the lack of experience completely in Lucas's mind.
They break apart for air, Will's forehead leaning against Lucas's, as Will let's out a suprised, almost hysterical, laugh, "You- you're...?" He questions in disbelief, the question hanging clearly in the air without Will even having to finish the sentence.
Lucas thinks for a moment, and is hit with the sudden realisation that he doesn't actually know. He likes Will, he definitely likes Will, but being gay has never been something that's crossed his mind. He's like girls before, or at least, he's pretty sure he has, but he finds Luke and Leia equally attractive in star wars, so that implies he probably likes men too. That and the fact Will is literally a man, a man he's just kissed, a man he'd very much like to kiss again.
"I've never really thought about it, if I'm being honest," Lucas admits, "But I've thought about you," he continues, flustering slightly at his own words, "So yeah, I suppose I am. Boys are hot, girls are hot, you're hot," Lucas pauses to wiggle his eyebrows, causing Will to laugh and shove him slightly, "I think i just like everyone? Is liking everyone allowed ?"
"If that's how you feel, of course it's allowed," Will says so matter of factly that Lucas almost immediately accepts his words, as if Will was giving him no choice but to listen to him validate Lucas's feelings once again, "Lables can be nice, but there not what matter, you are".
Lucas brushes his nose over Will's at the boy's words, leaning in to kiss him softly, "When did you get so emotionally intelligent, hm?" Lucas asks, only half seriously because in a way Will's always been like this.
"When Mike got a girlfriend lost all of his," Will jokes slyly, "Someone had to take one for the team".
Lucas chuckles at the unexpected jab at Mike, "You're meaner than people think you are," he says, looking at Will and feeling almost impressed.
"I'm funny," Will corrected, looking uncharacteristically smug, "There's a difference".
"Mm, sure there is Byers," Lucas muses, and they break into twin bouts of laughter once again.
"We should probably head home soon," Will points out, sounding oddly upset despite the fact they'd been hiding out in Chance's bathroom for the vast majority of their time here, "It's getting late and I didn't tell my mum where I am".
"Oh my God, she's going to kill you," Lucas chokes out, half laughing, half genuinely afraid.
"And you too, probably," Will adds, as he pushes himself to his feet, holding out a hand to pull Lucas up with him.
"What's the bet she's called the police already?" Lucas inquires dusting off hus clothes as he straightens up.
"Like a... 70% chance...?" Will says slowly, as if genuinely considering the statistics in his mind.
"Shit," Lucas curses.
"Yeah," Will laughs, "Shit".
"You're staying at the Wheelers, yeah?" Lucas clarifies, Will nodding in agreement, "I'll walk you home," Lucas says, knowing Chance's house is only a block or two away from Mike's, "If you want?"
"Please," Will answers with a grin, "How much convincing do you think Ted will need for him to let you to stay over too?"
"Way too much," Lucas says with an eyeroll, "But we'll convince him some how, come on," and with that he opens the bathroom door, not even trying to hide the grin on his face as they walk outside into the hall.
Today had been a good day, Lucas thinks to himself with a quiet smile, and as he looks over at Will he knows exactly why. Will's always been the reason, part of Lucas hopes he always will be, and if he is, Lucas will always be thankful for that.