Chapter Text
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December, 1987
Nobody talks about how cold Indiana can sometimes get. The summers are decently hot with an occasional cool breeze, and the temperature rarely drops below eighty. Even the spring is not that terrible; besides everyone sneezing a lot. The winter though, they’re not fun. It can be forty degrees in the afternoon and drop to seven degrees the second it hits midnight. So maybe it’s Will’s fault he didn’t ask for an extra blanket tonight. It’s somewhere between twenty to thirty degrees in the Wheeler's basement and his fuzzy socks are not doing its job.
Normally, Will wouldn’t have any problem with just going upstairs and asking Mike for an extra blanket, but they haven’t been really talking to each other. Ever since he broke up with El after they defeated Vecna, he’s been acting weird. He stopped asking Will to come over every other day to hang out in the basement and watch a movie. He stopped asking Will for homework notes. He stopped wanting to bike together, and he stopped doing a lot of things with Will. He tried asking the party about it, but nobody really seemed to know. He has even tried asking Nancy what’s up with him, but she doesn’t know. Strangely, he and Nancy have grown closer since everything happened. He’s even asked El already, but she always gives the same answer he’ll tell you when he’s ready which makes even less sense.
・・・・・
Will wakes up sick. He knows it’s his own fault; he could have asked anyone but Mike, but didn’t. Instead, he sniffled through the morning, which didn’t go unnoticed at breakfast.
“Will, are you sick?” Nancy asked as she sat down across from him; coffee in one hand, plate of pancakes in the other. Will looked up from his plate, still sniffing. “Oh yeah I’m fine”
“You keep sniffling, and it was a bit cold last night. Are you sure you didn’t get sick?”
“No, I-” He didn’t even finish his sentence before he sneezed onto his half-eaten plate of pancakes.
“So that’s a yes.”
“Maybe, but I’m fine, it just was a little colder than normal,” He says as he reaches to grab tissues.
“Yeah, the basement gets that way during the winter.”
“Oh yeah, I know,” He knows very well, having spent years sleeping there since he was little.
“You could sleep in my room this weekend if you want. I have this interview two towns over, and your brother is coming along, so my room would be empty,” She says, eating the rest of her food.
“I thought you and him…” Will says, raising his eyebrows, confused about why his brother is also going.
“We’re still broken up, he just also has an interview at the same place, so it’s just cheaper if we just go together.”
Will isn’t entirely convinced by what she’s saying but if this means he gets to sleep in a warmer room he’s fine by that. “Okay then I'll accept taking your room this week then.”
“Great, don’t want you turning into a popsicle. I feel like Mike wouldn’t like that,” she chuckled.
“What wouldn’t I like? Mike says, as he suddenly appears sitting down next to Will, reaching over to grab syrup for his eggs. “What did I miss?”
“Oh, nothing, just Will and I were talking.”
“You and Will talk?” Mike said with a rude scoff.
Okay that’s weird.
“Yeah, we talk,” Will says, turning to Mike. He’s wearing a blue sweater he doesn’t think he’s seen him wear before, along with black jeans and a white t-shirt. “We always do during breakfast, you just sleep in late.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Mike replies, picking at his syrup-covered eggs.
“Will is also going to be sleeping right across from you this weekend.”
Will freezes just for a second when Nancy says that. He also notices the way Mike’s posture changes by a few inches. Does Will being only a few feet away bother him?
“What?”
“I’m going out of town, and it’s freezing in the basement, so I offered my room.”
“What’s wrong with the basement?” He asks but only looking at Nancy.
“It’s freezing down there, and Will doesn’t need to get more sick than he already is.”
That’s what finally makes Mike look at Will this morning, “Why didn’t you come ask for an extra blanket last night? I asked my mom, and she said you didn’t need any.”
Will feels his face get a little warm with embarrassment.“I didn’t know when she asked, but after an hour, it got colder.”
“You could have asked me.”
Right, he could have asked Mike, except this is maybe the longest he’s held eye contact with him for weeks. “I didn’t want to bother you; it was late, and you could have been already sleeping.”
“You know that’s not true,’
He let what Mike said linger in the air for a beat. He knows that Mike doesn’t fall asleep that quickly, and he knows that Mike knows he knows that because they are still best friends. Although it hasn’t felt that way for a while.
“Maybe,”
“You guys should head to school, or you’re gonna be late, and don’t forget Holly,” Nancy says, picking up her empty dishes and putting them in the sink.
Mike is up before Will, scrapping his leftover eggs into the trash before dropping his plate in the sink. Meanwhile, Will finishes the rest of his orange juice. Something about the way Mike looked at him made his stomach feel weird. Like a weird gut feeling that something was off, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He shook that feeling away before he was late to school.
He made it out of the house at the same time as Mike, hopping on his bike right behind along with Holly. He was going to catch up ahead with Mike except he didn’t want Holly to feel left out. She doesn’t talk much in the mornings but she played music and he liked some of her song choices so he stayed biking near.
・・・・・
Will is zoning out during gym class. He hates this class with a passion, but it’s mandatory, so he doesn’t have a choice. It doesn’t help that his nose keeps running, and he’s running out of tissues. He does the same old trick he does when he hates gym a little extra on a day, and gets himself hit with a ball to be thrown out. A little sneaky trick that lets him keep a good grade with minimal effort. Oddly enough, this is something Mike taught him to do, but Mike is still on the floor playing. He’s running around, throwing, and dodging.
It’s a very odd thing to witness. Mike was never the athletic type; neither of them was. So it’s confusing to see Mike actually good at this. Will watches the way he pulls back his arm before throwing the ball at the opposite team, he watches the way Mike dodges before the ball even comes close to him, and he watches the way he rolls up the sleeves of his sweater that he’s wearing on top of the gym uniform. Then he watches as Mike’s eyes meet his when he’s about to throw another ball. He watches as Mike stutters and misses, and immediately gets hit with a ball to his shoulder by the other team, causing a silent noise to escape Mike. The whistle blows, and Mike huffs and walks into the locker room. Will thinks he should follow, but what would he even say? Sorry that I distracted you by staring, and I made you get hit with a ball on your bad shoulder. The whistle blows again, signalling that the period is over. Will rushes to the locker room, but Mike’s already gone. Will quickly switches out of his uniform just before the rest of the boys walk in.
The halls are already flooded with students, and neither of them is Mike. He thinks for a second, maybe he can detour and catch him just before he gets to his next class, but that’s too much, maybe. He seemed fine either way; maybe it wasn’t that bad, and Will was worried for no reason.
・・・・・
English homework sucks, Will thinks as he groans and closes his workbook. He was on Nancy's bed, already showered in pajamas, exhausted. He was still thinking about Mike and his arm, despite it looking like he was okay. During dinner, he was fine chatting a little bit with everyone. His arm looked okay when he was picking up plates and moving chairs. He even asked Will about the science homework, which caught him off guard since he knows that’s one of Mike’s strongest subjects.
Will picked up his books from the bed, placing them on the dresser to get ready to sleep. He removed the decorative pillows and switched off the lamp, sliding under the blanket. It was definitely warmer up here than in the basement. Of course, sleeping in an actual bed also makes a huge difference. He hasn’t slept in a bed in months, and he realises just how much he misses it. He falls asleep instantly.