Chapter Text
Mike wakes up to a voice repeating his name. He groans and rolls over, trying and failing to get that voice to leave him alone. That is, until he realizes who this voice is. Shit. He thinks. Mike is sprawled across his bed, hair smashed flat against his pillow, wearing a rather embarrassing My Little Pony t-shirt Holly gave him as a birthday present. And Will Byers is looking down at him with that cute, teasing smile of his. Not that he thinks Will is cute or anything, well he is, but that's a totally normal thing to think about your best friend, right?
“It’s about time,” Will says, grinning, “Are you sick or something?” He asks, pressing a hand to Mike’s forehead.
Mike feels heat rush to his face, as he feels Will’s palm against his skin.
“It’s spring break! Can’t a guy sleep in?” Mike says, sure his face is still red, although he can’t figure out why.
“It’s 2:00! I was getting worried.”
“Yeah, yeah,” For some reason, Mike is eager to feel Will’s touch again. “I still don’t want to get up, do you wanna stay here and here about my new campaign idea?”
“Uh— yeah for sure!”
Mike grabs Will’s hand and pulls him onto his bed, fingers tingling with the contact. Will scoots in next to him, their bodies pressed together. Will curled into Mike’s side like usual, but this time, if he turned just so, his head would rest on Mike’s chest. The thought of that gives him a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach. He definitely will not think about that right now.
They spend the day together in Mike’s bed, talking, reading comics, and maybe cuddling a little bit, platonically. Will points out errors, and gives Mike suggestions. Mike wishes he could hold Will’s hand, and he definitely wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t platonically. Eventually, Mom calls them down for dinner. Will and Jonathan have been living with the Wheelers, while Joyce, Hopper and El stay at Hopper’s cabin. Originally, this was supposed to be a temporary situation, but Mike’s mom offered to let them stay through senior year.
After dinner, Mike and Will walk over to Lucas’s for movie night, passing the rest of the party’s bikes in the driveway. In Lucas’s basement, Dustin and Lucas are arguing on the couch, and Max and El are on the floor whispering and giggling. Lucas says something stupid, and Max whacks him with her cane. To Mike’s dismay, it’s El’s turn to pick. Even while they were still together he knew she had horrible taste in movies. She chooses to watch The Princess Bride for the fourth time in a row.
“El if you pick literally anything else, you can have all of my peanut m&m’s. Not five, not a handful, all of them.” Dustin says in a ridiculously serious tone.
“Deal,” El says, “We will watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Max high-fives El while the rest of the party groans.
“I’m gonna go make some popcorn,” Mike announces, “anybody want anything?”
“I mean, I wouldn’t mind a coke.” Lucas says, and the rest of the party follows suit with their requests.
“I’ll come help you,” laughs Will, “We don’t need a repeat of your short lived career as a waiter.”
“Hey!” grumbles Mike heading to the kitchen, “It’s not my fault that table ordered nine iced teas, who even drinks iced tea anyways?”
“Fair enough,” Will places the popcorn in the microwave.
“Ow, fuck!” Mike slips on one of Erica’s stupid My Little Pony dolls, and lands right in Will’s arms.
“Careful!” he says, just a hint of worry in his eyes, “You okay?”
Mike Wheeler is an idiot. An idiot being held in the arms of a very cute boy whom he most definitely has a crush on. He must look like a tomato.
“I— uh, um— I mean, uh-huh.” trying and very much failing to play this cool, “Thanks for— uh, being my knight in shining armor” he cringes as the words come out. Although, Will is looking rather tomato-y himself.
“No problem,— um, always down to save a damsel in distress”
“Hurry up lovebirds!” Max calls, which makes Mike realize he is still very much in Will’s arms.
“Shit,” Mike says, quickly getting up, “The popcorn is burning.”
They rescue what’s left of the popcorn, grab the cokes, and return to their friends. Much to Mike’s delight, Will sits next to him on the couch, under the same blanket. Their thighs and arms press together, and he feels butterflies in his stomach like some dumb thirteen year-old girl. Keep it together Mike. He thinks, but loses his last scrap of dignity when Will falls asleep on his shoulder. As he too begins to fall asleep he rests his head in Will’s hair, smelling his shampoo and a note of something muskier, maybe cologne? All of the sudden, Mike has an idea.
Mike wakes up on Lucas’s couch. Will, Max and El are nowhere to be found, and he feels a twinge of disappointment in not getting to see Will. According to Dustin, who also slept over, Max went home, and Will and El went to Hopper’s. Now that he thinks about it, it’s probably best that Will isn’t here, because last night he had the best (or maybe worst) idea of his life. He’s going to ask Will to the prom.
“Listen up guys,” Mike says, even though Lucas and Dustin are already listening to him,
“I need help asking a special someone to prom”
“Will, right?” Dustin says.
“Wha— how did you know?”
“First, you literally fell into his arms, and then you guys cuddled the whole movie.”
“We did not cuddle.” Mike grunts.
“Yeah,” Dustin laughs, “I believe the word is canoodled.”
“Fine. I guess I’ll just ask Will out on my own then.”
“No, wait! We’re sorry for accusing you of canoodling!” Lucas yelps.
“Ouch,” Mike says, fake offended, “Here’s my plan: First I’m going to get him alone—”
“Dude it sounds like you’re trying to murder him,” Dustin interjects,
“Shut up,” Mike scowls, “Then I’m going to give him a mixtape I made him,”
“Wow,” Lucas giggles, “very cliche.”
“Stop interrupting me, okay so then I’ll point out a constellation, because obviously we’re outside, and then he’ll see that I got one of those planes with the banners, asking him to go with me.”
“So that sounds great and all,” Dustin says, “but can you afford the plane?”
“Yeah, you know what you could do,” Lucas adds, “ask him through a DnD campaign.”
Mike has to admit, this is a much better idea than the plane. He grabs his notebook from his bag and starts writing. He decides to build from the campaign he showed Will yesterday, where the players manage a mythical art museum that gets taken over by monsters. Then the paladin charms the cleric and asks him to the prom. Now they just need to prepare it in two days, before Tuesday, aka, their next DnD game. What could go wrong?
Dustin and Lucas are tasked with writing the campaign. Mike is tasked with not looking like a bumbling idiot. Easy peasy, right?
“Nancy,” He asks once he gets home, “hypothetically, if someone wanted to impress someone so that they would go out with them, what would someone do?”
“Mike, are you going to ask out Will?” Nancy gives him a look,
“How the hell does everyone know that!”
“You are not very subtle,” At Mike’s obvious distress she sighs, “Okay, okay. If someone wanted to be more impressive they could start by taking a shower.”
“Hey!”
“Then maybe wear a nicer shirt, preferably one that’s been washed, and make an attempt to fix their hair.”
Begrudgingly, Mike takes Nancy’s advice. After digging through his closet for what feels like hours, he finds a clean plain t-shirt, that somehow isn’t stained. He attempts to fix his hair, it ends up looking a little bit less like a bird’s nest. He also finds some cologne his mom bought him for his birthday. Mike blushes thinking about the smell of Will’s cologne, and his beautiful, very kissable face. And now he’s thinking about kissing Will and running his fingers through his hair and— ughhh. He doesn’t know how it took him so long to realize he had a crush on Will. He wonders if it really is as obvious as everyone says it is, but would that really be a bad thing? Will doesn’t seem to mind, and canoodling implies two people. Maybe Mike really does have a chance.