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After it ended, they all just stood, looking at the ground, the only sign of a portal to another dimension being the lack of grass where the gate used to be. Eventually, people started to leave. Vickie took Nancy and Holly to see their mom, Lucas and Erica took Max home, the Hopper-Byers clan walked off together, and Mike was alone. He was still processing what happened. Afraid that if he left the dirt patch, it would sink in on itself and the Abyss would merge with their world after all.
He didn’t know when he started sitting, but after an undetermined amount of time he heard footsteps approaching. There, towering over him, with the rising sun giving his hair a kind of halo, was Will Byers. Mike’s best friend. Savior of literally the whole world. Armed with water bottles and beef jerky. A guy who doesn’t like girls, Mike remembers.
Wordlessly, Will sits down next to Mike and hands him a water bottle. For a moment, they both sit in the silence and the exhaustion.
“We didn’t really get the chance to talk. After… After you told us,” Mike starts eventually.
“After I came out?” Will responds, “I don’t mind that you didn’t have time for a speech, there was sort of a world to save, Mike.”
“And you did it. We did it, together, like we always do. And there’s nothing that we can’t do together, you know? I mean, you’re my best friend, since kindergarten, and you’re one of the most important people in the world to me. So, I guess you’re getting the speech now.”
“You really don’t have to. I know you’re still my friend. We can keep moving forward.” There was something in his voice that Mike couldn't place, almost like he didn't quite believe the words he was saying.
Now that the idea of a speech was in his mind though, and his best friend needed reassuring, there was no shaking it. He didn’t really think about what he wanted to say, in true Mike fashion, but if he’s good at anything, it’s talking. That, and with the imminent threat of death no longer working as an excuse, the voice in the back of his head that resonates a bit too closely with Will’s confession is getting stronger by the second.
“Of course I’m still your friend but that’s not what I wanted to say. I- I wanted to say thank you and I wanted to say sorry. I know in D&D I’m Mike the Brave, but you are the bravest person I have ever met. A real life sorcerer. Without knowing what could happen, you tapped into the hive mind and within the span of a day you were shown and then faced your biggest fear. I mean, I don’t know a lot of people who could do that. I couldn’t.”
“That’s not true-”
“It is! I couldn’t. I mean, I didn’t. So thank you.” Against his will, Mike notices his voice getting a little frantic, so he takes a deep breath. It doesn’t really help.
“Mike you don’t have to-”
“Yes I do. And I also have to say sorry. You’re my best friend. I’m sorry that for even one second you ever had to doubt I would always care about you, let alone years of feeling that way. And I’m sorry for what I said that summer about you not liking girls, I mean, I should’ve been sorry whether or not it was true and I was but I realize I never really apologized so I’m especially sorry that it was true and I said it like a bad thing. You didn’t deserve that, and you didn’t deserve to have this fear for so long. And I’m glad you told me, but you deserved to do it on your own time. So I’m sorry.”
With each sentence Mike opened and closed his water bottle, hoping the movement was less noticeable than vibrating out of his skin.
“Are you okay? You seem… scattered.”
So maybe less noticeable, but unfortunately still noticed. It was only when Mike glanced up and met Will's wide, pretty eyes, that he realized he had been looking at the dirt for all of his supposed speech. The little voice from before got a little louder.
He put the water down and tried to run his fingers through his hair before remembering the beanie in his way, so he took it off before realizing he probably had awful hat hair right now and he didn’t really want Will to see him look bad. But then again, he was probably gross in the general sense after not showering for days and being covered in Upside Down grime.
For a fraction of a second, he didn’t even know why he cared so much. Will looked kinda gross too. But even though he looked gross, he could never actually look bad. The little voice from earlier knew why. Mike covered his face with the beanie and groaned. Of course he knew why.
He can do this.
“Mike?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. Just, you know. Thank you. And there was maybe one thing you said earlier that you got wrong.”
“What could I have possibly gotten wrong in my own coming out?”
“Well, you were right, about all the things we have in common. You, me, Dustin, Lucas. But, maybe, you were wrong about the thing that makes us different. Just you and me.”
“I don’t…”
“Really? Dude, you’re like a genius in everything but this. Will, today was the first time that I have ever heard anyone ever talk about being different like that, like you, not as an insult. Just a fact. And hearing everyone accept you, and say that they’d never leave you, I mean, I have thought about it before, maybe too much, but today was the first time that I accepted it.”
“Accepted what?”
“Oh my god. I’m different too, Will. I don’t like girls. And I was always scared of it, because I’ve been bullied for it my whole life, even before I knew it was true and when the bullies didn’t know what it really meant. I thought it was a bad kind of different. But you are the best person I have ever met. If you don’t like girls then there can’t be anything wrong with it.”
“What about El?”
“We never got back together. After you moved back from California.”
“I know.” A pause. “Did you ever love her?”
“Yes. I mean, I do love her. But it’s different. I’ve had a lot of time to think about it, I’ve talked about it with her. Not the- not the part about not liking girls at all. But we talked about how it was the wrong time. Right person or not. We were 12, she was the first girl who I felt any type of positive feelings for and I was the first boy outside of a lab that she met. And then I went a year without seeing her, and it was easy to play up my feelings in my mind, and then all we really did was make out, which is objectively kinda nice but never had anything to do with her. And when I told her I loved her, I really meant it, and I thought I meant it in a romantic way, but then you all moved, and, this sounds horrible, but it was easier to be in a relationship when we didn’t actually have to be together. I started to realize what I was feeling can’t be romantic and I can’t be what she needs. She understood. She felt mad for a little about being led on, but eventually she understood I didn’t know what I was feeling. We’re good now. We’ve been good.”
"And your speech to her? About- about your life starting the day you met her?"
Mike heard his voice break a little around the words.
Moment of truth.
"I'm sorry. I think- I think I was desperate to get her to hold on. And I remembered all the things you told me in the van that she was feeling but didn't know how to tell me so I was responding to that. I know now that El's not really the one who thought all that stuff. We talked about that too. The painting." Mike heard Will's breath catch. "And when we were finally honest with each other, I was relieved. I was happy it had all come from you."
“So you don’t like girls?”
“I don’t.”
“Do you like boys?”
“…yeah. That- that feels like the natural conclusion.”
“Well, I don’t know, Mike.”
They sat in silence again. That wasn’t all that Mike had wanted to say, though he did feel a lot lighter.
“So… you mentioned earlier that you had a crush. Past tense.”
“I lied. Present tense.”
“And-”
“I’m in love with you.”
“Oh, thank god.”
Mike immediately pulled Will in for a hug, but from where they were sitting side by side the angle was awkward and his back hurt. He pulled back, saw the flash of hurt on Will’s face, and then kinda lunged at him. Mike was half kneeling over Will and half sitting in his lap, but they were hugging each other so tight Mike didn’t know where he ended and where Will began, which was the goal.
He nestled his face in the crook of Will’s neck, angling just enough so that he was sure Will could hear him.
“I’m in love with you too. Thank you for being brave.”
“Thank you for making me brave.”