Chapter Text
”Guys… I don’t think this is a good idea.”
Mike sighs, shoulders tight.
He isn’t a party guy.
Hell, none of them are.
They’ve never been to one, and honestly, Mike never had plans, or desire to.
But everyone else? They’re practically vibrating with excitement.
Everyone but him.
”Mike, relax okay?” Will says, trying that soft, convincing tone he always uses.
”It’s gonna be fun.”
Mike can’t help the eye roll.
”Usually you’re the one begging us to play D&D at every time even when the world is literally collapsing. But then I mention it one single time-”
Lucas grins, cutting in.
”We can do that right after getting absolutely, illegally wasted.”
He slings an arm around Mike’s shoulders, and ruffles his hair.
”Let us be normal teenagers for once” Max says with a convincing smile ”and forget about all the shit that happened to us”
”Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you” Mike crosses his arms, pouting like a child.
”I fear this sounds like Mike’s about to black out first” Max teases, a grin tugging at her lips.
Mike gasps. ”I’d never drink?!”
Everyone laughs, shaking their heads at his stubbornness.
Will jumps back in, grinning.
”This is bold coming straight from ME but… you sound sooooo boring. No wonder we were outcasts.”
Lucas waves his arms dramatically.
”Yeeaaah! We have to be, like, non-nerds for one night. Go with the mass, okay?”
Mike is still not really convinced.
But there are only two choices: go home and spend the night alone, or… just this one time, follow what his friends want.
He might pout a little, but… he actually feels a tiny spark of excitement.
”Whatever” he mutters.
The moment they step through the front door, all their eyes meet.
Without a word, the question hangs in the air.
Is this really a good idea?
Before anyone can think more, Dustin grins and shoves them forward. ”Go, guys” he says, and suddenly they’re moving.
And just like that, they’re in it… completely. In the middle of the crowd, doing what every other teenager does. Not once do they think about the dark things they’ve survived. Not once do they feel the weight of being different.
Here, under the flickering lights, between music and filled cups, they are just like everyone else.
It wouldn’t be long now before even the nerds started to geek out.
Everyone except Mike.
He stares into his drink, nursing it like it might offer answers if he looked long enough. He stays far from the noise, far from the laughter, far from anything that resembled fun.
At least twenty minutes pass like that. twenty minutes of wondering why he came here at all.
A voice cuts through his thoughts.
”Mike, c’monnn.”
A hand closes gently around his arm.
Will.
He’d definitely already been drinking, but he looks… happy. Really happy. Happier than Mike had seen him in months.
Maybe even years.
There was a lightness to him Mike didn’t witness in a long time.
And somehow, that only makes the ache in Mike’s chest worse.
”Michael Wheeler” Will says, grinning wide, ”you are being a party popper.”
Mike exhales slowly. ”I think I’m gonna go home.”
Will’s smile fades. His hand slides down, fingers tightening around Mike’s wrist.
”No.”
Mike looks at him, confused. ”What do you mean, no?”
”For once in our lives” Will says, soft but insistent, ”let’s not think. Let’s just have fun. You’re allowed to have fun.”
The words hit Mike harder than he expects.
Yeah. He’s allowed. He knows that. In theory.
But knowing something and believing you deserve it are two very different things.
Still, Will’s hand is warm where it rests against his wrist, steady and real, and somehow that warmth starts to loosen something in Mike’s chest.
Will glances around, eyes lighting up. He grins.
”Look! beer pong. C’mon.”
Before Mike can protest, before he can overthink it like he always does, Will is already dragging him forward, laughing, fingers tight around his wrist.
And slowly, but definitely, Mike warms up to it.
Ball after ball is thrown. Beer after beer is chugged. They’re terrible at the game, honestly. Laughably bad. But that only makes it better, the joy sharper every time one of them actually doesn’t miss. Every successful shot feels like a small miracle.
They laugh. They high-five. At some point, arms are slung around shoulders, bodies bumping together as they jump and shout like children. On the sidelines, Dustin, Lucas, and Max cheer them on like it’s the most important match of the night.
And somehow, against all odds, they win.
They’re both tipsy by then, flushed and breathless and grinning like idiots. On impulse, Mike reaches out and cups Will’s face with both hands.
For just a second, Will’s smile slips.
Mike what are you-
Mike shakes him, grinning like its the first time in years he feels alive.
”We won! We won! This is so much fun!” he shouts, voice practically vibrating with excitement.
Will laughs, half amusement, half panic, and for a split second, he thinks-
Gosh
Forget it. This means nothing. I’m just being stupid.
But he can’t lie, it did feel good.
Mike is a completely different person tonight. Wild, untamed, unbothered.
And definitely drunk. He grabs Will’s hand, spins him around like he is some kind of princess, and drags him straight into the center of the music. His other hand waves frantically at the rest of his friends commanding them to follow.
”THIS IS MY SONG!” Mike slurs, voice raw with excitement as Fire in My Heart by Escape from New York starts blasting through the speakers.
Lucas had his arms slung around Max, both of them giggling like idiots, while Dustin was somewhere, half-dancing with a girl none of them really knows. But in the middle of it all, Mike and Will face to face, jumping, spinning, letting the music take over completely.
”ohHhhhh”
Mike keeps slurring his words, his grin wide and stupidly carefree. Will just watches, and for a moment, it’s just nice.
Really nice. To see Mike so light, so happy, so free of the worry that usually weighed him down.
And then, suddenly, Mike’s eyes flicker with recognition… he remembers the lyrics.
In one swift motion, he grabs Will by the necklace, pulling him closer so he could sing right into his face.
”Don’t stop when you hear me calling” he sings, eyes dark, daring, maybe even teasing, all at once.
”Now you!!”
Will’s legs wobble beneath him.
Wow… what is going on with me?
Definitely the first time drinking, probably mixed with the fact that this was the first time he’d done anything even vaguely athletic in ages.
But still… he follows Mike’s lead.
”Don’t stop when you hear me shout out”
Mike takes charge again.
”Fiiiiireeee!”
”In myyyyyy heart,” Mike sings, pressing his finger lightly into Will’s chest, kinda pointing at him.
My heart? Will swallows, suddenly aware of how close they are.
Okay… yeah. We’re all just drunk. That’s it. Don’t think too much.
Mike doesn’t waste a single thought on how he looks, or how he acts. It doesn’t matter.
Him and Will melt into the crowd, swallowed and hidden by shifting bodies, poor lighting, and the pulse of loud music. For a moment, it almost feels safe.
And if anything goes wrong, there’s always the alcohol to blame. Right?
Will kepes staring at Mike, his gaze hopping and faltering, unable to settle.
He doesn’t know what he is supposed to feel.
Happy? Confused? Excited? Scared?
All at once?
A tangle of emotions he couldn’t untangle.
Stop thinking, Will.
Will swore it. Swore to himself that he is over… whatever Mike had stirred in him, that thing he couldn’t name, couldn’t touch without wanting too much.
He swore he’d never ever let himself act on it. Not now, not ever.
”Hey Will” Mike says, low, barely cutting through the thump of the music.
Mike’s finger nudges Will’s chin up, and a big, cocky smirk spreads across his face. He’s never been this confident.
Will has never seen this side of him.
So sure, so… untouchable. But- they’ve also never been drunk.
”My eyes are up here.” Mikes says.
”What- wha- what are you talking about?” he stammers, words tripping over each other. And Mike only grins wider.
He ruffles Will’s hair, giving him a lazy wink.
”Stay calm, lil’ Superman” he says.
Will can feel his cheeks burning.
Mike doesn’t mean half of what he says, or maybe he doesn’t even know what he’s saying. He’s way too out of his mind, lost somewhere between the music and the alcohol.
Before Will can start reading more into it, Lucas grabs their arms, dragging them through the crowded room.
A circle of people sits in the living room, drinking and laughing.
Will already knows what’s coming next.
”Truth or dareeee!” Dustin’s yell echoes through the living room.
They all collapse onto the couch and floor, the bottle spins on the small table.
People who doesn’t matter to the five friends go first.
Laughs, dares, little embarrassing confessions. Time goes by quickly.
Dustin scored a kiss from Stacey.
Lucas had to do a ridiculous dance battle. And Mike? Mike is dangerously close to drowning in his own cup if he keeps the drinking up.
The bottle spins again. And again.
Mikes eyes are scanning the room, but always returning to Will.
His finger toys with his bottom lip.
The look in his eyes darkens in a way that makes Will’s chest tighten.. it’s unfocused but insistent.
Will tries not to notice, tries to pretend like it’s nothing. He catches himself stealing side glances at Mike, wondering what the hell is going on.
Omg, he’s just drunk, Will tells himself, over and over.
Will tries to focus on the chaos around them, the game, the laughter, but its impossible.
Mike leans back on the couch, and his arm falls over Will all casually, as if it’s nothing, as if no one else existed in the room but the two of them.
This couldn’t all be coincidence. Right ?
And in a strange, guilty way, Will is… enjoying it.
The closeness, the small intimacy that is unnoticed.
No one suspects a thing.
No one is watching.
No fear, no shame.
And because he didn’t make any move, didn’t do anything first, Will doesn’t feel like it is wrong.
Mike leans in, his voice dropping low, almost intimate, almost as if it’s meant to be private.
”Thanks for keeping me here,” he murmurs, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. ”I’m having a lot of fun.”
His thumb brushes over Will’s arm, light, maybe even teasing.
Fuck.
Will swore he was over this, swore it was gone. But the feelings crawl back in, harder and undeniable. Maybe it’s the alcohol, he tells himself.
Maybe. Or definitely. Or just maybe.
Before Will can even get a word out, they’re interrupted.
”Michael, your turn.”
Mike slowly turns his head, weighing his options. ”I think I’ll choose- dare.”
The group perks up immediately.
”You’re gonna… make someone drink a shot out of your mouth.”
Mike blinks. ”Wait… like, the glass in my mouth?”
The girl laughs, shaking her head.
”Dude, c’mon. This is your first time drinking?”
She grabs one of her friends to demonstrate.
Leaning over, she lets a shot trickle from her mouth into her friend’s, a few inches of daring distance between them.
”Easy thing, Wheeler. But I bet you’ll chicken out.”
Pride swells in him, especially when he’s drunk. Tonight, he feels untouchable, untamed. He scoffs, a sly grin spreading.
”I do it. Withhhhhhh… my shy buddy. He needs to open up.”
He says and points at Will.
Will could have sworn his heart had just fallen right out of his chest.
He is almost frozen, unable to move, barely able to breathe.
Panic builds up in him, but underneath it, something else is quite starting to bloom.
Something weirdly thrilling, dangerous, impossible to ignore.
Mike stands in front of him, steady despite the alcohol and for a moment Will wonders how Mike could seem so grounded while everything inside Will is spinning.
Then Mikes hands cup his face gently tilting it upward as Will sits there waiting.
”Open up,” he says.
Confused. Shocked. Terrified.
And yet… there was that tingly excitement twisting low in Wills stomach.
Will obeys, lips parting, waiting.
Mike tilts his own head back slightly, pours a bit of alcohol into his mouth, and leans back in.
Their lips don’t touch, thankfully.
Because Will isnt sure what he would have done if they had.
Slowly, carefully, even in his drunken state, Mike lets a drop of alcohol land on Will’s tongue. The cheers and laughter of the circle around them blur into white noise. Will can’t hear, can’t even move.
Heart racing.
His eyes stay locked on Mike, and Mike? For reasons Will can’t quite explain, takes this dare far too seriously.
Seconds passed, though in Will’s mind it stretched into hours.
He swallows every single drop.
As Mike wiped his own mouth, he then brushes a stray drop from Will’s lips.
Mike settles back next to Will, but the intensity, the closeness, the electricity… was too much.
Will jerks up, pushes through the tight circle of bodies, and stumbles toward the bathroom.
Heads turn, curiosity flickering for just a moment, but no one follows.
Dustin reads the room like it’s an open book, and he reads Will even better.
He knows.
He jumps in, voice just a little too loud, trying to drag the spotlight off Will.
”He doesn’t do well with alcohol, that’s all. He’ll be back soon.”
Nobody asks questions.
But maybe because no one cares.
In the end no one really knows them.
Except Lucas and Max. Their eyes find Dustin’s, and he shrugs like he’s saying, idk, guys.
A few seconds later, Mike pushes himself up.
Way more unsteady than Will ever was.
”I- I thinkkkkk- I’ll go check if he fell in the toilet” he slurs with a laugh, wobbling down the hallway.