Chapter Text
Mike and Will were instructed to gather necessities for their first-and hopefully last- venture into 'The Abyss', as Dustin called it. They decide to check around in the basement, as that's where Mike puts a lot of his stuff when it's not being used, and where Will had been sleeping for the last eighteen months.
"What do you think we need?" Mike said casually as Will started walking down the stairs after instinctively closing the door behind him.
"I have no clue. It's not like we've done this before, right?" Will said, then sighed as he stood at the bottom of the staircase and looked around at the basement he's been living in for over a year and a half.
Mike chuckled lightly at that, and then had an idea.
"We could dig around in here and if we find anything that we think we'll need or we think of anything we might need, tell each other and see if we really do need it or not... I guess? Do you see what I'm trying to say?" Mike rambled a bit, and Will cut him off, saying "yeah, let's do that."
Mike turned on the radio, cranking up the volume a bit so they could both hear the tune of Cutting Crew's '(I Just) Died In Your Arms' crackling on. Neither were a huge fan of the song, but neither bothered to change it, so Mike began digging through drawers in his workbench as Will started to pull things off of shelves.
After neither of the boys succeeded to find anything useful, the song 'Just like Heaven' by Will's favorite band, The Cure, started to sound throughout the room.
A few seconds into the song, Will found a binder high up on a shelf near the staircase with his name scrawled messily on the spine and on the cover.
Why in the world would Mike have a binder with my name on it? Will questioned to himself. He hated to admit it, but his heart fluttered a little bit. He hesitated to open it, but curiosity got the best of him, and he flipped open the cover of the binder to find... art. Art that he thought he had thrown away years ago. Will laughed lightly for some reason, yet he was still left wondering why Mike held onto these. They're not even that good anyways.
'"Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick,
The one that makes me scream", she said,
"The one that makes me laugh", she said.'
"Mike," Will started, and Mike stopped what he was doing, turning his head towards Will.
"c'mere." Will requested. Mike moved to Will's side, realizing before he was even next to him that he had found the binder where he kept Will's 'discarded' drawings.
'And threw her arms around my neck.
Show me how you do it...'
"What's this?" Will asked, pausing flipping through the pages to look up at Mike. He'd gotten significantly taller over the year they hadn't seen each other, but apparently, Mike had, too.
"Oh! Uh, well, I guess I didn't want to see you throw away something you had made..." Mike said hesitantly, glancing around the room as an effort to not make eye contact with Will.
"That's sweet." Will said, going back to flipping through the years of artwork Mike had saved. Will didn't notice, but Mike's face turned a little red. He didn't know how to respond, but he stayed there, watching Will flip through the worn-out pages. Worn-out because Mike would come down here almost every day when Will wasn't around just to have something to remind him of Will.
Will found himself unconsciously leaning against Mike as he hit the halfway mark of the filled-to-the-brim binder.
'And I promise you, I promise that,
I'll run away with you,
I'll run away with you.'
Mike, not daring to move any muscle with the exception of his arm, pulled Will closer by wrapping his right arm around his shoulder and pulling him into his chest. Will gained consciousness right about there, but was a bit confused at Mike's actions.
'Spinning on that dizzy edge,
Kissed her face and kissed her head.'
Will could hear Mike's heartbeat, and at that point, he wasn't giving a second thought to the drawings he had previously been looking at.
Will thought of all the ways he could return the embrace without making it too obvious that this was something he'd wanted since the day they met.
'Dreamed of all the different ways,
I had to make her glow.'
Carefully, he lifted his arm until it rested comfortably against Mike's waist - not a full embrace, but enough to where Will could feel Mike's heartbeat pick up the pace.
The tension was unbearably heavy-Mike had to break the silence between them.
"Will." He mustered, now feeling more confidence and finding it easier to think since he wasn't looking into those soft, gray-green eyes he could stare into and lose himself in - and that's when he realized it in fact did not make it easier to think, since he found himself thinking about it anyways.
Will tilted his head up to look at Mike, pulling away slightly so he could look at him fully.
Mike spoke so softly, because he knew if he spoke too forcefully, the intimacy would be broken. "I- I kept them so I would have something to remind me of you when you weren't around." He admitted, which even minutes earlier, he thought he would never say to anyone.
"So... so you really did miss me? Because with the lack of contact I got from you while I was in California says otherwise." Will countered. Guilt came flooding into Mike's heart, weighing it down.
'"Why are you so far away?", she said...'
Mike's hand rested against Will's arm, running it up and down very carefully. "I called you... every day." He almost whispered, looking off at the floor behind Will.
"And you didn't bother to write?" Will reminded him. He felt terrified to admit why.
'"Why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you...'
Mike stays silent. Will continues.
"I thought you didn't need me anymore." He whispered, looking down right as Mike decides to face all of his quarreling emotions and look at Will.
He wasn't angry at him. He was just hurt.
"I didn't want to accidentally ruin anything, or-or scare you." Will looks up with a confused look written on his face. "Every time I tried to write, I thought I was saying too much. Making it real. I thought... I thought you would think I was weird - messed up - I thought I would lose you if I told you what I wanted to tell you."
Mike hid the truth - buried it under layers of fear and lies.
Will looks up, taking a leap of faith and, as light and gentle as he can, cups Mike's face with his free hand. His gaze softens.
"You never scared me." Will murmured. "You never would." And as Will's voice got softer, slowing to a stop, so did Mike's breathing.
He held his breath as Will continued to speak in the most gentle tone he'd ever heard.
"I never wanted you to be quiet. I wanted you to be real. I wanted... it to be real."
Will said it without saying it at all.
'...That I'm in love with you?'
Mike was known to be oblivious. Everyone around him knew it, and he knew it too. But this- this one hint at his greatest fear yet his greatest wish- told him everything he needed to know.
'You.'
Before Mike could stop himself, he felt his fingers curling softly around Will's chin. Carefully, he tilted his head up so he could look Will in the eyes, but Mike soon discovered that Will's eyes were affixed on Mike's lips, which were parted ever so slightly due to his lack of self-control in the moment.
'Soft and only.'
Will's thumb traced Mike's jawline carefully, reminding Mike that he was still there, physically, and the only thing left to decide was who was going to make the next move.
That was up to Mike.
He, slowly, almost unnoticeably, tilts his forehead forward just enough to where Will could feel his breath heating up his face.
"I wished..." Mike paused, corrected himself. "I wish it could be real." Mike mustered out under his breath, and that, just those six words, lifted the world off of Will's shoulders. Maybe not permanently, but for now, it was just them.
Them and the heaviest tension they'd felt in their lives.
'You.'
Will exhaled silently, finally looking Mike in the eyes. So many unspoken words were shared in this moment - more than they'd probably ever say. Will connects their foreheads together, now on the brink of giving what they'd both wanted for as long as they could remember.
'Lost and lonely.'
Neither rushed anything. They didn't dare to move a muscle. They stayed, resting against each other for as long as they could, knowing this might just be the last time they got to experience this.
As gentle as the moment was, Mike felt the growing need to have... more. His right hand lifted and settled against Will's waist. The simple body language spoken told Will things he'd never heard before.
'You.'
Mike's eyes fluttered shut, and Will followed suit, thinking this is all he'd get a taste of, wanting to absorb the moment as much as he could.
Mike leaned in a little bit further, yet enough to where he felt Will's lips brush ever so slightly against his own.
Neither of them pulled away.
'Strange as angels.'
Will shifted-barely-but enough to where Mike could almost feel the full pressure of Will's lips on his.
'Dancing in the deepest oceans.'
They didn't advance any further, only because this felt so fragile - as if one breathed too strong, it would shatter.
'Twisting in the water.'
Will held onto Mike's shoulder as Mike's hand, that was previously on his waist, inched to Will's back to pull him closer.
'You're just like a dream.'
Will's lips were forced fully onto Mike's as he was pulled closer - this sent them both into a euphoric state - a feeling they couldn't quite describe, but a good feeling. A new feeling.
'You're just like a dream.'
This time, there was no hesitation or uncertainty.
Mike kissed him slowly and gently, almost feeling unsure, but as Will's lips moved in sync with his, all they felt was pure, passionate, delicate love.
'Daylight licked me into shape.'
They both pulled back at a time which seemed too soon, knowing without speaking that this was the last time they would feel this.
Leaning against each other's foreheads, still holding on to one another, they stayed. They stayed as long as they felt necessary to snap back into reality. Neither moved.
What really brought them back was someone's fist thumping against the door on the opposite side. They broke apart, still facing each other as Mike shouted, "Be up in a second!" to the individual upstairs. Mike reached up, just barely, to brush Will's arm in this way one last time.
'I must've been asleep for days.'
"I'm so sorry." He whispered. Will forced a smile that didn't reach his eyes. Mike didn't even bother. He felt his eyes begin to spill over with tears that Will wished he would never have to see again.
'And moving lips to breathe her name.'
He reached up and tenderly wiped away the teardrops moving slowly down Mike's defined, freckled face that Will knew he could never get out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. Feeling his own eyes begin to well up, he moved his hands to his own eyes to wipe away the tears with his sleeves.
'I opened up my eyes.'
Will sniffled, and for some reason, that action made them laugh. Not a full laugh, but soft enough to where they knew they would be close forever, even if it wasn't in the way both of them wanted, for life would not treat them closely, if at all, if they were to choose that path.
'And found myself alone, alone.'
And this time, they found themselves leaning against each other, genuine sad but sweet smiles painted on their faces as they breathed slowly, taking in these emotions and feelings.
'Alone above a raging sea.'
They embraced, holding onto a reciprocated hug as they both held tight onto each other. Mike's fists were clenched, grabbing a small part of the fabric of Will's shirt as Mike buried his head into the crook of his neck. Will rested his head on Mike's shoulder while his arms were wrapped around Mike's torso, subtly caressing his back.
'That stole the only girl I loved.'
They let go, finally, and make for the stairs. Mike reaches the top of the stairwell first, reaching for the doorknob. Before he rotates it and swings open the door, he looks back at Will, reflecting the sad smile and loving eyes he was already wearing. Breaking eye contact, Mike and Will emerge from the basement empty handed - but never in a million years empty hearted.
'And drowned her deep inside of me.'
So, when Will decides to be the bigger man and take a step Mike would never dare to take - tell everyone how he feels - Mike's chest aches. He longs for what could've been, and feels his heart break a little when Will goes on to say, "He's just my 'Tammy'. Meaning, it was never about him.", knowing it was a lie.
'You.'
His whole self wishes he could go to Will and wrap him in a warm embrace and never let go, but Will didn't want him anymore. Will didn't need him anymore.
'Soft and lonely.'
And when Mike approaches Will while they're in The Abyss, Will is hoping for Mike to say he wants more, more than what they already have.
'You.'
"Friends? No thanks."
'Just like Heaven.'
"Best friends."