Chapter Text
“Something’s coming..” Will alludes. “Something angry, Hungry for your blood.” He creates the ominous tone effortlessly in his opinion, “IT is almost here.”
Mike smiles “What is it?” He questions the DM.
“It’s the Thessalhydra, I’m telling you.” Dustin exclaims.
“It’s not the Thessalhydra.” Lucas retorts.
“I’m telling you its the Thessalhyrda.” Dustin argues.
“THE THESSALHYDRA!” Will announces as everyone simultaneously groans, a smirk grows on his face.
“Dammit!” Dustin shouts.
“It roars in anger… Mike! Your action, what should you do?” Mike is startled on being put on the spot.
“What should I do? I—“ Lucas cuts him off.
“Fireball him!” Will looks to Dustin, searching for his opinion. Dustin pauses dramatically, then, “Fireball this son of bitch.”
The party collectively grins as Mike rolls the d20, they all stare in anticipation as the dice lands on a 14. “FOURTEEN!” Dustin exclaims loudly.
Everyone in the room is loud with excitement as Will announces, “Direct hit! Mike the brave fireball hits the Thessalhydra, it make a painful-“ Will makes a dying screech noise. “And then… it crumbles to the ground.” Will falls to the ground dramatically, reaching out. “It’s clawed hand reaching out to you one last time, AND- AND- AND- AND-“ Will collapses to the floor mimicking the death, as the party cheers out in victory, running around the room.
Will gets up and begins explaining, “Lucas cuts off his seven heads, and dustin places them into his bag of holding, you carry the heads out of the dungeon victorious, you present them to King Tristan, he thanks you for your bravery and service.”
“Woah,” Dustin exclaims. “Woah, woah, woah, woah. That’s not it, is it?” Dustin questions, Disappointed.
“No-“ Will responds. “There’s a medal ceremony-“
“Oh! A medal ceremony? What are you talking about?” Dustin says, upset at the ending.
Will goes to speak, “And—“ Lucas interrupts.
“The campaign was way too short!”
“Yeah!” Mike agrees.
“It was 10 HOURS.” Will retorts.
“But it doesn’t make any sense!” Dustin argues.
“It made sense!” Will argues back, offended that they would insult his writing.
“Uh- no. What about the lost night?” Dustin retorts.
“And the proud princess?” Lucas continues,
“And those weird flowers in the cave?” Mike adds.
“I don’t know-“ Will starts but is interrupted by nancy entering the room to collect mike. “Have you guys been playing games all day? Or just farting?” Nancy jokes.
“No, that's just Dustin, he farted.” Lucas proceeds to say, in a sing-song voice, “Dustin farted-“ He blows raspberries. “Dustin farted!”
“Ok— very mature Lucas." Dustin rolls his eyes as Lucas continues, as dusting tries to stop lucas, he just keeps going with the ‘Dustin farted’ joke. “Ok. Shut up.”
“Mike.” Nancy exclaims, as Lucas concludes his sing-song joke with a dramatic ‘Dustin farted’ Nancy proceeds, “Come on.” Mike gathers his things, waving to everyone as he leaves. “Bye guys!”
“Bye Mike!” Will and Dustin say simultaneously and Lucas replies, “See you tomorrow!”
“See ya!” Mike walks out as Dustin and Lucas start play fighting. Their arguing continues, as Will stares longingly at where Mike left.
After everyone leaves his house, Will puts away the game and sets it on its designated shelf in his room. He lets his eyes linger over the door as he gets dressed imagining the moment Mike left for home with Nancy.
Mike.
He’s been through so much since he first went missing. Will couldn’t imagine what it was like hiding all of that time away from the Demogorgon and trying to survive in the upside down. Not to mention, the trauma from said events over the past year.
He thinks back to when “Mike” was found dead in the quarry. He was so devastated and angry at El because she had said he was alive, and that they could save him. But his lifeless body laid there in the arms of first responders declaring his death.
It wasn’t fair. They had known each other since kindergarten and he had lost him just like that. How could he just go missing and turn up dead? How could he do that to Will?
And El, she was like a sister to Will. Where was she now? Off somewhere doing who knows what and for all Will knows, she could be dead. After all, she had ended up in the upside down after defeating the Demogorgan so another one could have gotten her by now.
He was so happy that Mike was back, but it seems he’s not even allowed to enjoy it.
“Will.” Lonnie interrupts his thoughts as he enters the room. “That Mike boy, I don’t want him coming over alone anymore. If he does, then he isn’t allowed in your room.”
Will was surprised by this comment. Why would his father care all of a sudden? “What? But all of my things are in here! I don’t want to drag them out just to hangout with him! He’s literally my bestfriend. He’s over almost every day!” Will retorts to his father.
“I mean what I said, will. It’s either that, or you aren’t allowed to have him over unless Dustin and Lucas are here too.” Lonnie commands and Will stands defeated.
“Fine.” And Lonnie walks out of the room.
Why would Lonnie say that? What did Mike even do that he’s not allowed in Will’s room? Was it the rumors? Those are obviously fake! Mike has liked many girls in the past. Though, admittedly, they weren’t really crushes and more of thinking they’re pretty and moving on, but that doesn’t mean that he’s—
“Hey Will?” Jonathan walks into Will’s room, pulling him out of his thoughts. What’s with everyone just walking into his room today?
“Yeah? What’s up?” Will turns around to look at Jonathan, who’s peeking into his room.
“Dinner’s ready.” And Jonathan closes his door.
Will wishes he didn’t have to sit at the table for dinner. With Lonnie’s mouth that’s big, loud , and extremely opinionated, and His mom who’s overly worried about him and his well being, the dinner table tires him out.
He just wants to be with Mike. Which Lonnie would make a big deal about, but Will would argue that they’re just best friends, and thats nothing weird at all.
Nothing is wrong with spending hours with your best friend doing nothing but sitting close together bumping shoulders as you read the same comic book.
And that's not— Will isn't Queer. Or whatever Lonnie thinks. He just likes spending time with Mike. What’s so wrong with that?
Will decides that he wasn’t eating dinner at the Byers household tonight. He opened his window and slipped out undetected into the cold air. He gets on his bike and pedals down to Mike's house, making sure he isn’t caught by his mom or Lonnie.
His breath is visible in the cold air and heavy from the long way to Mike’s house. He uses this time to think. Just for a little, to slow his mind down from the racing questions of the day.
Why wouldn’t Lonnie let Mike come over alone anymore? It wasn’t even that weird since they were best friends. Will thinks that Lonnie was overreacting, how could one rumor make someone be weird about their own son’s best friend?
Granted, when Will and Mike were younger, they both were called names that had something to do with liking each other, since they were so close. Will guessed that Lonnie just really didn't like him being roped in with that.
He’s pulled from his thoughts as Mike’s house comes into view. He speeds up, and throws his bike down once he reaches the driveway. When he knocks on the door, Mike answers with a confused look on his face.
“Will? What are you doing here?” His eyebrows furrow and frown at the middle point of his forehead.
“Uh— is your mom making dinner? I didn’t really wanna eat at my house.” He scratches the back of his neck, a smile making its way to his face.
Mike’s eyebrows rest as he opens the door, a smile coming to his face as well. “Sure. I’m sure my mom won’t mind. Just tell her that your mom said it was fine.” Will nods, going inside and letting out a breath when the warm air reaches his nose.
“Oh, hi Will! Your mom said you could come over?” Mrs. Wheeler smiles at Will as she stirs the soup on the stove.
“Yep!” Will grins. “Is it ok if I have dinner with you guys?” Mrs. Wheeler smiles brightly and nods.
“Yes, that is completely fine! Mike, could you get your sister please?” And Mike leaves the kitchen, heading up the stairs.
Now it was just Mrs. Wheeler and Will in the room.
“So Will,” Mrs. Wheeler starts. “How has your day been?” She asks simply, not looking up from the vegetables she was cutting.
Will just shrugged. “Good.” Will liked this environment a lot more. Simple talking was all he could handle with his mind filling up with so many questions.
Mike eventually came back down with Nancy and sat net to Will at the table. Will looked at Mike, scanning his face for anything that signaled Lonnie was right.
“Will? You ok?” Mike nudges his shoulder.
“Huh— yeah. Just uhm…” He fidgets with his hands, picking at his fingers. “Just Lonnie getting to my head. No big deal.”
Mike stares at him, his eyebrows furrowed. “Ok…” Mike looks over to where Mrs. Wheeler is setting the soup down. “Just don’t go missing on me, Byers. Can’t have a second incident.” Mike laughs to himself about this, but Will didn’t find it very funny.
It wasn’t anything to joke about. Will had though he lost Mike to some otherworldly dimension and he was making jokes about it? Will shifts a bit, still picking at his nails.
Mike notices Will’s shift in demeanor, and his expression softens. “Hey, I'm sorry, I didn’t mean to remind you.” Will gives him a small smile of appreciation but it doesn’t last long as his mind starts racing through the events of that week.
The disappearance, the dead body, monsters, other dimension, all of the other things that happened that send Will through a jumbled up mess of apologies, realizations, and grievances he never wanted to tell anyone about.
It was wrong to think that way of Mike, so there was no way that he would ever feel that way about him because it was wrong.
That’s what lonnie always told him.
And yeah, Will didn’t care what Lonnie had to say, but it was obviously wrong, for him at least. If Mike liked guys, he wouldn’t care. It wouldn’t change anything. There wasn’t ever going to be any way that he liked guys though, because it’s not how he should be.
“—ill?” Will is awoken from his thoughts, startled by how close mike is to his face. He leans back, his cheeks feeling like they were lit on fire, suddenly.
“Yeah— yeah? What’s wrong?” Will chokes out smiling.
He internally face palmed and cursed himself. Why are you like this Will?
“Uh— You..? You’re staring.” And there Will realizes that his gaze was fixed directly into Mike's eyes, his face felt hot with embarrassment and maybe something else? But he had ignored it.
“Yeah- Sorry. Just…” Will’s eyes move from Mike's just a little bit further down. “I’m - uh.. Lost in thought.” Mike huffs out a chuckle.
“Clearly.” He says, focusing on where Will’s eyes dropped to than looked away.
Right. Will thinks. Forgetting that his eyes had mindlessly ventured down Mike’s face to the space right below his nose and right above his chin. Though, he’d never admit his intentions for looking there.
This was normal. He wasn’t looking there for any reason, just staring with a blank mind, totally not thinking about how soft Mike’s lips would be—
Ok. That’s enough, William. Don’t be weird.
He wasn’t— Queer.
“Will!” A voice shouted over his thoughts again.
“What?” He retorts.
“You’re staring again! What are you even thinking about?”
He pushes all of his thoughts down.
“Nothing— Sorry.” And he finally looks away.
For a moment, though he could have imagined it, Will thought he saw a dusty shade of pink rise up on Mike’s cheekbones, and his heart beat a little faster.
They both got up and trudged up the stairs into Mike’s room, where Will noticed various of his artworks plastered on the wall that he hadn’t noticed there before.
He feels a tightness in his chest, a feeling he couldn’t describe. But, he pushed it down before his thoughts were too out of hand and he was spilling out how disgusting he was for feeling this way, or how it will go away. As long as he doesn’t give in.
“Alright, spill.” Mike exclaims as he pushes Will for an answer.
“About what?” Will questions.
“What have you been thinking about? Did something happen with Joyce and Lonnie?” Mike speaks out in concern for his best friend.
“I really just didn’t feel like being home. You know how it is with Lonnie. He said something about you not being able to come over alone anymore if we hung out in my room.” He sneers, remembering the pointless conversation from earlier that day.
“Why?” Mike shouts.
“Hell if I know! Probably something about those stupid ass rumors going around since you were first missing.” Will shouts out, flopping back on Mike’s bed.
“What rumors?” Mike’s voice was etched in concern and fear as he brings his arms up around himself in comfort.
“Something about you running away with another guy when you were gone in the woods, I don’t know. People always look at you weird, but I don’t know why! You’re like the rest of us. There’s nothing wrong with you!” Will rambles on for a whole minute before catching his breath and looking at Mike’s face for his reaction.
His eyes were wide, but then it relaxes.
“Yeah.” He mumbles. Hugging himself tighter.
“What’s wrong?” Will pries.
“It’s just— nevermind.” Mike is deep in thought. He looks as if he’s carefully crafting his words.
“Alright.” And Will does not push further.