Archive of Our Own

1987

    ⊹˚    ✩⋆    ✮ 

It’s been four years since Will Byers’ last remembered what being a normal kid felt like. Four years since he proved the impossible could be possible, yet no one but his friends would believe him. Four years since he vanished into thin air, disappeared for weeks, and while people believed him dead, he was surviving. 

“We call it the upside down,” Dustin had cautiously explained to him two days after they found him, afraid that the thought would send his friend into some sort of post traumatic response, once he noticed Will was calmed, he cleared his throat and continued, “So, it’s like a parallel dimension mirroring our world. The reason we could contact you at all was because you were here with us, just flip the page.” 

“Alright that’s enough.” Mike, Will’s best friend since they were basically babies, had to interrupt. He grabbed Will by the shoulders and tugged him against him in a side hug, “Will’s fine, that’s all that matters. We shouldn’t be explaining this bullshit to him, we should be trying to cheer him up. He is here with us and he is safe.” 

“No one is saying otherwise…” Lucas shrugs. “But we can’t ignore what he went through.” 

“Oh, we won’t.” Mike says firmly, “But I don’t think it’s best for Will if we make him remember it.” 

“Well, Will has a voice, Michael.” Dustin pokes his shoulder blade, Mike looks at him a bit offended. 

“I-I think Mike’s right. I’m okay now. We can just forget it and be normal, like nothing happened.” Will’s tiny voice sounded tired, he didn’t want to revisit the time he spent in that horrible place, even less to hear his friends’ apparent heroic journey while trying to find him. It was evident to Will that what was a miserable memory to him, became an unforgettable one to his friends. It sucked. 

So, all Will knew, thanks to his friends, was that he went missing in another dimension, was rescued through a gate only because they met a girl who apparently had powers and is now M.I.A after she defeated that monstrous humanoid creature that would make the xenomorph’s in Alien look like barbie dolls (maybe that’s a stretch, Will is still terrified by that movie).

One thing was for sure though, he had trauma. 

Trauma that was engraved so deep in his brain that explaining it to someone else was a torment, even to his friends, because no one would understand. Not really. He remembers he tried. His mother took him back to therapy, the same psychologist he had seen when he was much younger. Will had struggled with speech, was introverted by nature, and his relationship with his father had once caused him to go mute for a time. At Karen Wheeler’s suggestion, Mike’s mother, Joyce had taken little Will, who couldn’t have been more than three apples tall back then, to see a psychologist. So small and fragile he seemed. And now, after Will’s disappearance, Joyce thought it would be a good idea to take him again.

Will tried to explain as vaguely as he could remember, adding a little bit of what Dustin had explained to him, but once he overheard his psychologist speaking to his mother he decided to never return again. 

“Kids, you know how they are with their imagination.” 

“So, what? He’s lying to cope with the trauma of disappearing?” 

“It’s pretty common. William doesn’t want to face reality so he makes up a fake scenario.” 

After that incident, Will began saying the things he thought people wanted to hear. To his mother. To his psychologist. To his brother. Even to his friends. He lied so often that he eventually became tangled in his own words, and a year after his disappearance, Will could almost pretend that everything was fine.

That same year, they met Max Mayfield, a red haired girl with a terrible temper. The boys wanted to include her in the group, and with her arrival came a sense of normality. They went to arcades together, watched horror movies, everything felt mundane, almost ordinary. And yet, deep down, Will still sensed fear lurking around every corner.

Mike noticed. Of course he did. But he didn’t want to push Will, didn’t want to make things worse. Every now and then, a quiet “Are you okay?” followed by Mike’s hand at the back of his neck, squeezing gently in a silent show of support, was more than enough.

The next four years were difficult, but Will liked to believe that, slowly, he learned how to cope. Now he was eighteen, about to graduate high school, his life was starting to look normal.

Until one night, he woke up floating. Literally. 

He had a bad dream. He was back in that place, the Upside Down, moving through the vines, cold seeping into his bones, barely able to see through the darkness. Then he was pressed against the wall again, tangled in those vines, frustration and panic clawing at his chest. He had to escape. He needed to escape.

When Will jolted awake, he realized he was in his room. He had never left. And yet, he could see it all from nearly a meter above the floor.

Somehow, he had levitated in his sleep.

He would lie if he said he went back to sleep after that, because he didn’t. He spent almost all night trying to make sense of what just happened, even tried to recreate it, but it was useless. He couldn’t go back to bed, afraid he’d do it again. So he left a post it on the fridge explaining he’d left early to school, grabbed his backpack and took his bike across town until he reached a familiar house. He climbed the house in an almost very athletic way, and knocked on Mike’s window. 

“Will? What are you doing here?”

“Uhm…” he could tell him. It’s Mike, of course he’d believe him. He had nothing to fear with him only… of course… what if he thought he was going insane, like everyone else did when he was younger. “I uhm… My house is a little cold.” 

Mike looked almost too stunned to speak. “What?”

“I wondered if I could borrow some blankets.” 

“I mean you can just crash here.” 

“Even better.” Will made his way through Mike’s window, entering the warmth of his bedroom. Truth is, it wasn’t even cold outside, spring was near to an end and the weather was at its perfect point. What made even less sense to Mike is that Will actually liked cold weather. He thrived on the sensation of being in a freezing room with little to no layers. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” there it was, Mike’s infamous are you okay moment. Will sat down in his friend's bed, staring at him like he was under interrogation. 

“Yeah, never better.” 

“You’re telling me you came all the way here at the crack of dawn just for some blankets?”

Crap. Will really hated how easy it was for Mike to read him. 

Will’s an enigma to anyone but Mike Wheeler. 

He was about to come up with some cheap excuse when Mike’s expression shifted. He switched on the lamp on his nightstand and leaned over him, their noses nearly brushing. Will had to lean back slightly, clinging to what little personal space he had left.

“Your nose is bleeding.” 

“W-what?” Will wiped his nose with the palm of his hand and looked at the trail of dried blood.

“Shit, Will… what really happened?” Mike was officially worried now. He pulled a towel from a drawer, sat beside him, and gently wiped away what was left of the blood.

“I honestly don’t know. I didn’t notice I was bleeding.” Which was true. He was busy with the fact he was levitating off the ground. 

“How do you not notice you’re bleeding!?” Mike whispered sharply, keeping his voice low so he wouldn’t wake anyone else. “You probably hit yourself in your sleep. You know you do that sometimes, right?” 

“Yeah, maybe.” 

Will couldn’t form a coherent thought. He was very much aware of Mike, of his hand resting on his shoulder, of the other brushing carefully over his face, of how close their faces were. He could feel Mike’s breath, and it made his cheeks burn. When Mike finally looked into his eyes, it felt as though something was forcing them there, unwilling to let either of them pull away.

That was when the lamp on Mike’s nightstand began to flicker.

Then it exploded.

They both stared at it, frozen. Mike turned back to Will, whose nose had started bleeding again, and made a face, something between worried and scolding, as if to say you’re in trouble, young man.

Will wished he could say that was the last time it ever happened. That the lamp was just a coincidence, that he went on to live peacefully, free of nightmares about the Upside Down, but a few nights later it happened again.

Will woke up suspended above his bed, then dropped back onto the mattress as the lights flickered wildly. He tried to calm his breathing, tried to convince himself it wasn’t real.

Twice could be a coincidence.

But the third time? The third time, Will knew this wasn’t normal.

He began to shut himself at school. He talked less, dozed off during classes, skipped afternoons in Mike’s basement with excuses that sounded convincing enough for everyone else, but not for Mike. No, Mike knew something was terribly wrong.

It was one summer afternoon, Max’s birthday. She wanted to go swimming at the lake, and Will couldn’t bring himself to say no. He went, but it was as if he wasn’t really there at all. He sat lonely with his sketchbook. From the middle of the lake, Mike couldn’t stop watching him.

Dustin swam over and splashed water in Mike’s face to snap him out of it.

“Earth to Mike!” Dustin teased. “Max wants to play chicken, so get your scrawny ass over my shoulders.”

“Sure, yeah…” Mike said, though his eyes drifted back to Will. “He’s a little off, don’t you think?”

“What?” Dustin asked, caught off guard.

“Will. He’s… been distant lately. Quiet.”

“It’s Will. He’s always quiet.”

“Not like this.”

Never like this.

The next day, Will didn’t show up to school. Mike had enough of it. He left by second period, took his bike and went to the Byers’ house. Misses Byers’ car was gone but there was noise coming from inside the house which meant Will was there. 

Mike knocked on the door, called for him, “Will, I know you’re there. Come on, open up.” but had no answer. He opened the door, he was his best friend, he sure had some right to intrude on his home. 

Everything seemed normal inside, Mike even stopped to pet the Byers’ dog. He walked over to Will’s room, opened the door and saw as his friend rumbled through his room with an incredibly fast pace. He had his backpack and a duffel bag over his bed, half open, a bunch of clothes in it. 

“What’s going on?” 

Will jumped, startled, dropping his sketchbooks to the ground. “Shit, you’re not supposed to be here.”

“Not sup-” Mike frowned, stopping himself in frustration, watching as Will picked up his sketchbooks and put them into his backpack. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Mike, you need to leave.”

“Not until you tell me what’s up with you.” Mike crossed his arms, staring at his friend with an eyebrow raised.

Will sighed. “I can’t.” He passed right by him, leaving the room.

“Why?” Mike followed him.

“You’ll freak out.” Will felt Mike walking behind him, but it was too late to stop now.

“Try me.”

Will opens his mother’s room. He kneels in front of a small drawer, inside are neatly stacked folders with two names “Will”, “Jonathan”, of course, Will grabs the one with his name and flips it open, medical records, old reports, even a copy of his birth certificate. Mike’s eyes go wide. He knows this isn’t casual. Will walks out of the room as quickly and decisively as he entered. 

“Will,” Mike grabs him by the arm, his grip is tight and gosh the look in his face almost made Will squirm, it was honestly kind of attractive to see him in such despair, “Try me.” 

Will closes his eyes and takes a singular deep breath before blurting out the obvious. 

“I’m running away.” 

Mike almost laughs in his face, “You’re joking.” 

When Will says nothing, Mike realizes he’s being serious. He lets his arm go. 

“Holy shit.”

He stands frozen for a few seconds, trying to process Will’s words, trying to make sense of them. Mike follows Will to his room, watching him slip the folder into his backpack and zip it.

“Okay, no. Stop.” Mike snatches Will’s backpack from him, slinging it over his shoulder. Will deadpans at him. “You’re making zero sense right now. I mean, runaway? That’s so unlike you.”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“Oh, but you do! You’ve been acting weird lately, but running away? That’s the last thing I’d ever expect from you.” Still no answer. Mike drops Will’s backpack to the floor. “So what’s your big plan, then, huh?”

Will picks both bags up and starts toward the door. Of course, Mike follows.

“Will…” Mike’s voice cracks, and Will hates himself completely for doing this to him. He wasn’t supposed to see him. He was supposed to leave quietly, no explanations. He’d gone missing once, he could do it again. But here he was, in front of him, eyes full of that strange, yearning look that made Will’s stomach drop and regret his decision instantly. 

For Mike, he would stay. He really would.

But then he remembered all the weird nights he’d been having, and terror gripped him. Staying in Hawkins felt like a ticking time bomb, each day a risk of going back to that horrible place. He couldn’t do that.

“I’m sorry. I…” Will feels his chest tighten. He pulls Mike close, embracing him. When Mike hugs him back, Will buries himself deeper, taking in a hint of his scent. God, that stupid detergent Miss Wheeler uses, it drives him mad.

“Just talk to me, okay? If… if this has to do with… y-you know…” Mike mutters, still holding him tightly. Of course he knows. His intuition never fails, especially not when it’s about Will.

Will breaks the hug. His cheeks are damp, he hadn’t realized he was crying until he unconsciously wiped the tears with the hem of his shirt. He takes one last look at Mike, devastated but mainly confused.

“Can you feed Chester for me?” Will asks, finally, before grabbing his bike and leaving.

He cries all the way to the bus station, pedaling like he’s trying to outrun his own thoughts. He wonders if he’s making a terrible mistake. Maybe he is, he hasn’t thought about how his family will react when they realize he’s gone. 

He considers turning back, but then he stares at the bus ticket in his hand and reminds himself why he’s doing this. He’ll be safer away. For a moment, he feels the loneliness settle in. This is it. He’s truly on his own.

“Will!”

He hears his name shouted. Squinting, shading his eyes with his arm, he sees the tall figure of a boy in black jeans and a navy blue jacket rushing toward him.

“Mike?” Will says in disbelief. What the hell is he doing here?

It takes a few seconds for Mike to reach him.

“Are you insanely stupid, Will Byers!?” Mike exclaims. “You think I’m just going to let you make dumb choices without me?”

“Mike…”

“Look, I don’t know your reasons. I don’t need to know them now. But I cannot, under any circumstances, let you do this alone.” Mike grips the strings of Will’s backpack, visibly nervous. “So if you want to leave… I’m going with you.”

Will can hardly believe this is actually happening.

“Mike, I couldn't possibly ask you to do this.”

“You’re not asking. It’s my choice.” Mike trusts, deep down, that Will might back down or, if they do go through with it, that he will at least be honest with him.

“If you step on that bus you will not last a day without calling your mom.”

“And you won’t?” Mike immediately regrets asking, because the look in Will’s eyes is mischievous. Will smirks, and Mike can’t help but roll his eyes, licking his lips nervously. “Okay, yeah. I know I’m a mommy’s boy or whatever but I promise I will not, okay? And before you say anything, no. I did not tell anyone. I swear.”

“I… I don’t know what to say.”

Mike shrugs. “You don’t have to say anything.”

It’s surreal. Will feels a mix of awe and guilt. Guilt for dragging Mike into this reckless plan of his, and awe that Mike Wheeler, his best friend, actually chose to be here. Even as they sit together in the back of the bus, the engine already roaring, Will can hardly believe it. Mike Wheeler is running away with him. For no reason other than apparent support. 

“So, where are we going?” Mike asks, breaking the silence. Will, obviously, laughs.

Mike had dozed off at some point during the ride. He forgot he had that thing where he gets dizzy after long periods in a moving vehicle, and eventually, as much as he fought it, sleep won.

He felt light taps on his cheek and grunted from the back of his throat. Slowly, he opened one eye, as if trying not to be caught, but that only made Will laugh.

Mike realized he could hear Will laughing way too close, and he could feel Will’s body shaking with it. He looked up, and his nose brushed against Will’s chin. The contact snapped him upright, he had fallen asleep on Will’s shoulder.

“Driver says we’re arriving in five minutes.”

“Shit, already?” Mike cleared his throat, his voice still groggy. Then he looked at Will. “Did you not sleep at all?”

“No… I couldn’t.” Will lied. His eyes were heavy and dry, and his head throbbed from lack of sleep, but he was terrified that if he let himself doze off, he might accidentally flip the bus and kill everyone onboard.

“Well, sorry, I probably drooled all over you,” Mike joked, though he checked Will’s shoulder anyway and felt relieved it wasn’t true.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.” Will gave him a gentle smile that made Mike feel unreasonably overwhelmed.

“You know, by now, they’d probably realize we’re missing.”

Will’s face fell, and Mike immediately regretted saying it. But before he could add anything, Will grabbed a map from his backpack, opened the little food tray compartment on the seat in front of them, and laid it flat. Mike read the name circled in red, Chicago. Will then used that red pen to highlight another spot on the map.

“I saw this place listed in the newspaper,” Will explained. “Apparently it’s a very cheap apartment, so I called and asked them for a reasonable price in exchange for fixing the pipeline. Shouldn’t be hard, Jonathan showed me how. Of course, that was for one person, so things might change with you in the picture now.”

“Of course you wouldn’t run away without a plan,” Mike teased, elbowing Will lightly.

“Shut up. I was hoping to get a job nearby. Uhm, did you by chance bring your savings?”

“Of course I did. I’m an idiot, not stupid.”

“Well, then, with your savings and mine, it might be enough to get us through a month.”

A month? Mike’s eyes widened. Will was serious about this. Mike started to get the feeling Will wasn’t just running away from home, he was escaping something bigger.

For the rest of the ride, Mike sat quietly, listening to Will’s plan, unable to find a single word to say. When they finally arrived, he stepped off the bus, feeling the air change instantly. A stupid joke slipped out of his mouth, “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” Will chuckled softly, but underneath it he was terrified. They had actually left home behind.

⋆˚꩜｡

By some kind of miracle, they had made it to the apartment building. Mike’s been having goosebumps for the past half hour. The entire city felt overwhelming, unprotected. He had spent most of the walk from the bus station questioning Will about what they should do if someone tried to mug them and Will kept telling him not to be a crybaby. Maybe Will still hadn’t realized this was the first time they’d left Hawkins completely alone, without any responsible adults, but to Mike everything screamed danger.

They had been waiting for a while outside a small building, until its main door opened, and a curious looking man appeared. He had a huge smile and wore a Japanese-style silk robe, which somehow felt a little disrespectful to Mike.

“Murray?” Will asked.

“Ah, young man, Will Byers! I’m glad you survived your first night in the beautiful Chicago,” the man said with an enthusiasm that felt slightly unnatural.

“I hope it’s no problem, my friend Mike decided to come with me.”

“Absolutely not! The rate is fixed. Come in, please…”

As they stepped inside, Mike didn’t know whether to feel relief or terror. Perhaps he was just used to his family’s suburban life, where vacations were spent in nice hotels, but this place looked completely trashy. He grabbed Will’s arm, pulling him slightly to get his attention as they climbed the stairs.

“Are we sure this man isn’t going to kill us?”

“What? No! I've spoken to him several times on the phone. He’s not going to kill us.”

“Several times? How long have you been planning this?” Mike asked, a little stunned. And why didn’t he ever notice…

It clicked in that moment for Mike that Will’s distancing from the group was a huge indicator. He had been crafting this whole thing for a while and no one noticed, no one cared to ask.

Murray, the building’s owner, opened the door to an apartment with the number 7 in gold. The place was… well, exactly as the two boys had imagined. Small, with peeling wallpaper, a peculiar bed, and a door that seemed to lead to the bathroom.

Mike stepped inside cautiously, his eyes scanning every corner. The apartment smelled faintly of damp carpet, which was not a nice thing to notice upon entering. 

“Alright, kiddos, ground rules. No music or loud noises after 10. Parties are absolutely a no-no… unless you invite me, of course,” Murray smiled, waiting for the joke to land. Mike and Will remained silent, so he composed himself and continued, “No smoking, no pets. If you shave, make sure to wipe the hairs, don’t let them go down the sink. And of course, payment will be taken in cash for personal reasons only. Understood?”

“Perfectly,” Will responded. He half expected Murray to leave by now, but the man stayed put, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, grinning like he knew a secret.

“So, I’m just going to get this off my chest. Think of me as a cool uncle, okay… But judging by the way the tall, underground, looking kid is staring at you, let me just say… I’m an ally.”

Silence filled the room. Mike’s brows furrowed slowly, trying to understand. Will tilted his head.

“It’s okay! You kids are safe here. You don’t need to be afraid of being who you are.”

“Uhm… thanks?” Mike tried to make sense of it, but then Will audibly gasped, cutting him off.

“Oh my god! Oh… no, no, no! I-it’s not what you think!” Will panicked, and Mike felt an edge of alarm, why was he so flustered? Should he intervene?

“Relax! I’ve hosted plenty of gay couples before. It’s fine!”

Wait. Mike’s eyes widened.

“NO!” Mike said a little too loudly. “No, we’re just friends. What the hell.”

Murray looked momentarily stunned, then opened his mouth to say something, snapped his fingers instead, and nodded knowingly.

“Got it. Unresolved feelings,” he murmured to himself, like he’d solved a particularly tricky puzzle. “Thin line between friendship. Probably thought of dating each other by now but too afraid to mess up the relationship.”

“What?! No!” Mike squeaked, voice high. Will was already covering his face in shame.

“Anyway, I’ll leave you two friendly lovebirds to settle in. Here’s your keys.” He tossed them at Mike, who fumbled to catch them. Murray closed the door behind him, leaving them blushing in the middle of the room.

“Great place, Will. Five star rated. Really charming host,” Mike said with obvious discomfort, a little annoyance. He set his backpack on the bed and began unpacking his few belongings.

“Okay, Murray’s weird, but he’s just our landlord. We ignore him until payday,” Will said, opening the window to let the breeze in. “Besides, not to be that person, but let me remind you I didn’t make you come here.”

“I know! I’m not saying that!” Mike shot him a look. “I’m just saying… had you told me earlier, maybe I could’ve picked a different place. Somewhere with less… Murray.”

Will chuckled. Mike’s little bursts of frustration whenever he felt out of control were strangely endearing. Will set his backpack down too, then froze.

“There’s only one bed.”

Their eyes met briefly. 

“I can do the bathtub,” Mike offered, breaking eye contact.

“No, you won’t.”

“Well, I’m not letting you do the bathtub either.”

“Fine, then we share.”

“Fine.”

Crap. Will hadn’t thought this through.

The bathroom was, as expected, horrendous. Will made a mental note to buy cleaning supplies tomorrow so they could actually use the apartment without wishing he were back in the Upside Down. He changed into baby blue pajama shorts and a white shirt and looked at himself in the mirror.

He wasn’t a believer, his mother never took him to church, but in that moment, Will Byers silently prayed to whatever deity might be listening that nothing unusual would happen tonight. He wasn’t in Hawkins anymore, it shouldn’t happen again. Still, fear clung to him.

A light knock on the door startled him. He’d spent too long there. Will opened it to find Mike standing in the doorway, wearing his Hellfire T-shirt and plaid pajama pants.

“Sorry, was I in there for a while?”

“No, that’s okay. Just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Mike shrugged, though he knew the answer. He had moved four hours away from home all to make sure Will was safe. He sensed there was more going on, something Will hadn’t said.

That night, Mike fell asleep quickly on the left side of the bed, while Will curled against the headboard, too afraid to drift off and risk floating midair. At this point, Will feared he might never sleep again. His thoughts threatened to consume him, fears, insecurities, and memories of that November when he lost track of what it meant to be a child. Perhaps the solution to his problems wasn’t running away, but blaming Hawkins was easier than facing that it was his own mind keeping him awake.

Mike stirred in the sheets, shifting slightly. Will’s gaze landed on him, and for a brief moment, he envied his friend’s uncanny ability to fall asleep so easily. He noticed the black curls across Mike’s forehead, the slightly parted lips, the steady, peaceful breathing.

He couldn’t believe Mike was here. In less than two hours, Mike had left everything behind to be by his side. The thought made Will’s heart skip. He sighed softly and flopped back onto the bed, closing his eyes.

“Please, please, pleeease,” he murmured to himself, almost as if praying.

And for once, it seemed to work. Will slept soundly.

⋆˚꩜｡

The rays of sunlight streamed harshly through the window, but Will wasn’t awakened by that, it was because of Mike’s loud yell. He sat up immediately, looking around in a haze, then remembered, Of course. I’m not in my room… I ran away from home.

The bathroom door swung open, and Mike appeared with wet hair and a soaked shirt.

“I forgot we have a leaky faucet,” he said.

Will burst out laughing.

“What are you laughing at, Byers? You’re going to have to give me some clothes. I didn’t bring enough.” Mike took off his shirt, and Will’s laughter caught in his throat. Maybe Mike wasn’t the most muscular guy in the world, but he was… fine. Perfectly fine. Will swallowed hard and jumped out of bed.

He crouched by the sink, staring at the leaky faucet. The pipes felt a little loose under the touch.

“Shit,” he muttered. Tools. He didn’t have any. He could ask Murray, but remembering their interaction last night he’d rather not. 

Then a fleeting thought crossed his mind.

Strange things had been happening these past few weeks. Not just levitating in his sleep, but broken lamps, cracked windows, shattered picture frames, sometimes he could swear he’d moved things without touching them. What if…

Will locked the bathroom door. “Okay. This might be ridiculous, but it’s worth a try,” he whispered to himself.

He reached out a hand just above the faucet and closed his eyes, concentrating. He imagined the pipes lining up perfectly, tried to picture the sensation as if he was using his hands to do so. He heard the faint clanging of metal, and wondered if he was actually doing something. 

When he opened his eyes, the joint was perfectly tight.

“Holy shit,” he muttered, standing up. He turned on the tap. The water flowed smoothly, no splashes. “Holy shit!” he laughed aloud.

He opened the door. “Mike! I-” He stopped. Telling him might not be the best idea. Mike looked up, wearing a yellow sweater that belonged to Will. “I fixed the pipe,” Will said instead.

“No way.” Mike stood and approached him, but stopped short. “Will…” His voice softened. He took Will’s hand and led him to the bathroom. “You’re bleeding again,” he said, grabbing a piece of toilet paper.

Will looked in the mirror. A thin streak of blood ran from his nose. Before he could react, Mike cupped his face with gentle care, and the smaller boy was taken by surprise at the touch. Will watched Mike’s face up close and personal as he cleaned the blood for him.

Mike turned on the sink and grinned at the flowing water. “Hey, you really did fix it.”

“I told you so.”

Mike dampened the toilet paper before returning to cleaning Will’s nose. “There. We should probably check these nosebleeds, you’ve had several lately, haven’t you?”

“It’s fine. Probably just stress from finals.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Mike said. “Considering… we probably won’t make it back to graduate.”

Shit. Will hadn’t thought about that.

“Dustin’s going to kill us if we don’t go to his valedictorian speech.”

“I mean, Dustin’s probably not in my top five people to worry about,” Mike noted. Yeah, he’d have it worse with his mother and sister. Best not to think about that now. Future Mike problem. “So… what’s today’s plan?”

“Well, I thought we could buy some stuff we might need and, if we’re lucky, find a job.”

“I really don’t know how to feel about job hunting without a college degree.”

Will snorted. “Since when do you care so much about college?”

“I don’t know… since the piece of shit of my dad said I wouldn’t make it far in life with my fantasy stories.” Mike’s smile faded. “Shit. Did I ruin the mood?”

“Did he actually say that?”

Mike sighed. “Yeah. He’s… been… I don’t know. Lately, I feel like, as I get older, I can see the disappointment in his eyes grow bigger whenever he looks at me. When I was a kid, he was hopeful, you know? Thought I’d grow up to meet his expectations. Now… I think he feels my time’s running out.”

They hadn’t realized just how close they’d gotten, not just emotionally, but physically, until Will pulled Mike into a hug. It felt… selfish, almost. All this time, he’d focused on himself, his problems, his own mess, and had forgotten to see Mike. Now it made sense why he hadn’t even hesitated to run away with him.

Mike buried his nose in the crook of Will’s neck, letting himself be held. 

“I don’t think that’s true…” Will murmured, hands threading through Mike’s hair. “That we have no time. I don’t think it’s true. People like your father see life that way because they’re stuck. But if you ask me, Mike Wheeler, you’re destined for big things.”

Will felt Mike’s warm breath brush against his skin as he laughed softly.

“Like running away to a different city with no notice,” Mike said, pulling away slightly, his voice shaking. Will noticed his eyes were red, he was holding back tears.

“Bigger things, even,” Will said, pushing lightly on Mike’s shoulder. Mike ricocheted back, a dumb, relieved smile spreading across his face.

“Alright,” Mike said, grinning, “let’s go do all the things you’ve planned for today.”

The tasks felt oddly domestic. Mike had never gone grocery shopping before, so he stumbled along behind Will, who, honestly, also didn’t exactly know what he was doing. Their budget was painfully limited, so they couldn’t splurge on anything fancy.

On the walk back, Will spotted a small restaurant with a white paper in the window that read “Hiring.” He grinned. That had to be a sign that he’d made the right choice. Mike, however, wasn’t so sure, but he was supportive. 

Later, they reluctantly spent time with Murray, their landlord, who had ordered pizza as a “welcome gift.” They were starving, really, on the verge of fainting, so they endured Murray’s judgmental, analytical gaze until they had eaten enough to feel human again. The moment they could, they locked themselves back in the apartment, relieved to be free of Murray’s prying eyes and sudden theories as to how their childhoods must’ve been rough or how Mike’s terribly afraid of ending up like his father.

Just like that their first day as fugitives came to an end, it was weird since Will thought he’d be crashing out by this point but apparently Mike’s companionship truly did make it feel like they were in some sort of weird improvised vacation. They changed into their pajamas and while Will brushed his teeth Mike flipped through his comic in bed. 

Will then climbed into the bed, the mattress was smaller than either of them expected so of course, inevitably, he crushed Mike's side a little.

“Sorry…” Will said, awkwardly trying to find a fitting position “It’s… small.”

“You think?” Mike barely looked up from his comic book.

"What are you reading?"

"Right so. Remember Eddie?" 

How could he not. All Mike did last summer was talk about how cool the older leader of the Hellfire Club was. Will couldn't join the club because he had taken a part time job and could not afford spending as much time playing D&D like they used to do. So it was fair to say he felt a little left out.

"Vaguely."

"Right. Well. He got me these comics about this dude that basically shapeshifts into a moth and terrorizes people."

"Sounds gross."

"It is. But the illustration's so good, oh..." Mike went quiet. Will looked at him in concern.

"What's wrong?"

"Eddie..." Mike looks at Will with seriousness in his face until his smile grows wide, "He's totally going to be devastated when he finds out I went missing."

"Oh! Get over yourself" Will almost pushes Mike off the bed and they both couldn't stop laughing after that and it feels good. It really does feel great and wholesome and it feels like Will can live his entire life next to Mike Wheeler because, truthfully, nobody understands him like Mike does. It's heartwarming, really.

"I'm going to bed now, so you turn off the lights." Will says, switching to his right side to sleep. Somehow it felt weird sleeping while facing Mike. 

"Sweet dreams, Byers. Hopefully mothman doesn't find you in your sleep." 

Cold. It’s all so cold. Will was running through the woods, the exact same path he knew to take home only this time it was a total nightmare. 

He let out a breath of relief when he spotted the fortress he and his brother had built, a crooked sign hanging above it that read Castle Byers. It was his safe place. Whenever he felt sad, angry, or scared, he knew he would be safe there, and he was. He took refuge inside for what felt like an eternity.

With each passing hour, Will lost track of time, and little by little he swore his body would fuse with the vines from being curled in the fetal position for so long. He was hungry, thirsty, desolate, and slowly losing faith. He was going to die there. Will knew it.

All he could think about were the happy moments he hadn’t appreciated enough, a realization painfully difficult for a boy his age to grasp. He longed to sing more with his brother, to spend more time with his mother, to spend entire days locked away in the Wheelers’ basement. He wished he’d laughed more, been less afraid to be himself. And Mike… he just hoped Mike wouldn’t suffer too much when he realized he wasn’t coming back.

Not long after, Will heard cracks coming from outside. He gathered what little strength he had left and forced himself to sit up, eyes locked on the entrance of the fortress. He could hear something approaching. 

Will scrambled backward, then pushed himself to his feet and ran. He ran as fast as he could, without looking back. All the pain, the stress, the anxiety, everything faded except the fear.

Mike was startled awake by a sudden tremor. He opened his eyes as the apartment lights flickered violently. For a moment, Mike was certain an earthquake had struck. The bed shook beneath him, the windows rattling so hard he braced himself for the sound of breaking glass. He was still half asleep, disoriented, and when he turned to wake Will his heart stopped.

Will was trembling in bed, almost convulsing, his eyes no longer in a beautiful greenish tone but white as a ghost’s would be, blood running from his nose.

“Will!” Mike screamed in panic. He grabbed his friend’s face as if holding his life in his hands, shaking him. “Will! What’s happening? Will, wake up! Will, I need you to wake up!”

It wasn’t working. Will wasn’t responding, and the room was still shaking. Mike jumped to his feet and rushed to the door, but the hallway outside was completely still. The building stood solid and unmoving. It didn’t make sense for an earthquake to affect only their apartment.

He rushed back to the bed, sat on the edge, and sheltered Will in his arms.

“Will, please.” Mike shook him, desperate. He had no idea what to do, it was suffocating. “Please, wake up, you're scaring the shit out of me!”

A thought struck him suddenly, dragging him back four years ago, to the time Will vanished into the Upside Down. He remembered how they’d reached him then through sound, through music. Will’s voice, distant and hollow, singing his favorite song through the radio, clinging to life.

Maybe it could work again.

With shaking hands, Mike dug through his backpack and pulled out his Walkman, fumbling as he swapped the cassette for a mixtape he’d made, a blend of his favorite songs and Will’s. He managed to slip the headphones over Will’s ears.

Mike’s fingers tightened around Will’s hand as the music played, faint through the headphones. Then, slowly, the shaking stopped. The furniture fell still. The lights ceased their flickering. 

Will’s fingers tightened around his hand.

His eyes fluttered, the ghostly glaze fading away. The room fell silent.

Mike let out a shaky breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Thank fuck,” he whispered, tipping his head back before looking at Will again, relief flooding him as he saw the familiar color return to his eyes.

“Mike,” Will breathed, his voice weak as he struggled to sit up. Mike steadied him, hands firm but gentle.

Will wiped at his nose, staring at the blood on his fingers with dull recognition. “Did I… float?”

Mike frowned. “What?”

“D-did I?”

“Float?” Mike echoed, incredulous. “What are you talking about? No, no, you were shaking, and your eyes were all…” His breath hitched. “And the room was…”

He felt like he was having a panic attack. Standing, Mike crossed to the window and pushed it open, letting the cool night air in. He leaned against the frame, staring out at the quiet city below, peaceful, undisturbed, completely unaware.

No earthquake. No chaos. Whatever had happened, it had been exclusively to apartment number 7.

He turned back, heart pounding. “What is going on, Will?” His voice softened, but the anxiety beneath it was noticeable. “And I mean it this time. You have to talk to me.”

Will knew there was no point in keeping this a secret. 

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he sobbed, tears spilling freely. “I-It’s been happening for a while and I just feel like there’s something terribly, terribly wrong with me.”

Mike’s chest tightened at the sound of his voice breaking. Will’s name slipped from his lips before he could stop it. He sat beside him and pulled him into a hug, Will collapsed into it completely.

Mike adjusted the blanket with one hand, tugging it up around Will’s shoulders. “I’ve got you,” he would say, over and over.

They stayed like that for a long time, Will sobbing until the tears ran dry and numbness set in. Eventually, Mike fell on his back on the bed, Will curled against his chest, clinging to his shirt as Mike held him tightly and waited patiently for him to speak.

“It started about three months ago,” Will said at last. “I’ve been having nightmares. Flashbacks to… that place.”

The Upside Down.

Will had made it clear he didn’t want to talk about it again, and the others respected that. When the group did mention it, they did so carefully, making sure Will wouldn’t hear, especially Dustin, who couldn’t help wondering whether the Upside Down still existed, or if the portals might still be out there somewhere.

Sometimes, the memory of Eleven, the girl who had saved them all and vanished without a trace, haunted Mike. But beyond that, the subject remained unspoken.

“One night I woke up and I was levitating,” Will continued. “I thought it was just part of the dream. But then it happened again. And again. The lights started flickering. Glass shattered. Things moved.” His fist tightened in Mike’s shirt. “I thought it was an omen. Maybe that thing… it was coming back for me. That it was going to take me again.”

Silence settled between them. Then Mike gently lifted Will’s chin, forcing his red and glassy eyes to meet his.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked softly. “I knew something was wrong, but I never thought…” pause, “You shouldn’t have had to go through this alone.” Mike’s thumb brushed over his cheek, tenderly. “It must have been awful.”

“The thing is… I thought leaving Hawkins would fix this. That’s why I ran. That’s why I couldn’t stay in Hawkins. But apparently, it didn’t, it was useless.”

“I wouldn’t say that. It just goes on to prove it’s not the monster coming for you, Will. You’re safe from it.”

“Then what’s wrong with me?”

Fuck. He sounded so wounded. Mike didn't like to see Will like this, hated watching him hurt so deeply while feeling completely helpless.

Mike wanted to help him. He wanted, desperately, to have an answer. Instead, he sank into thought, so lost in his own spiraling theories that he didn’t notice he’d gone quiet, or that Will had fallen asleep on his chest.

Mike couldn’t let this keep happening. Not to Will, the one person who deserved to be happy more than anyone else.

He didn’t sleep at all.

His eyes stayed fixed on the light bulb above them as his thoughts raced. He replayed every hour, every day of the time Will had been missing. He wondered if ignoring it, if pretending it never happened, had been a mistake. Maybe if they’d talked about it back then, if they hadn’t buried it, this wouldn’t be happening now.

Mike didn’t move all night. He didn’t want to disturb Will.

So when Will finally stirred, letting out a low, guttural groan, Mike realized dawn was already peaking through the window. 

Will’s hand slid over Mike’s chest, thinking it was just a pillow. he could pull closer. When the “pillow” felt solid beneath his fingers, he froze, then sat upright.

“Mike, shit. You should’ve moved me,” Will panicked, rubbing his face. “That must’ve been uncomfortable.”

What panicked him more was the realization that he’d liked waking up like that. Safe. Held.

“Well, my arm’s a little numb,” Mike said as he sat up too, facing him, “but I don’t mind.” He took a pause. “I was thinking.”

“That’s a first,” Will joked weakly. His voice was hoarse, his nose still congested from crying.

Mike snorted. “I’m glad your powers haven’t killed your sense of humor.”

“I don’t have powers.”

“Oh yeah, you do. You have powers, Will Byers. And I can explain, but we’d have to talk about it.” He studied him carefully. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Will wanted to say no. To ignore it. To shove it down like he always did. But, Will knows that nothing good will come of ignoring the issue. He trusted Mike, probably more than anyone else in the world.

They changed into clean clothes and walked to a nearby park, empty except for a few squirrels climbing up tree trunks. 

For the first time, Will learned who Eleven really was. He knew she was the one to pull him out of that hell, but he’d never heard the full story. Mike told him everything, from how they found her in the rain, the fact that she escaped from a lab that abused and tested on her and had telekinetic powers strong enough to flip trucks and make bullies like Troy wet themselves.

She seemed… incredible.

Will finally understood why, while he remembered that year as pure misery, his friends remembered it like a D&D campaign.

Then Will told his side. He told Mike about running from the monster. About the nightmares so vivid they tore him from sleep screaming. He showed him his sketches, drawings burned into his memory recreating the upside down in perfect detail.

For the first time, they were completely honest.

And finally, Mike shared his theory.

“You went through something horrible, with horrible conditions. You were exposed to it for longer than any human probably has. El had nosebleeds like yours every time she used her powers. So maybe… when your body and mind were exposed to a hostile environment, perhaps something stayed with you. A part of that place.”

It made sense. Too much sense.

The idea sent a shiver down Will’s spine.

“Why now, though?”

“Well… when you get sick, viruses don’t always show up right away. They take time. Maybe it was always there. Something just triggered it. You said the nightmares started first, right?”

“Mike, I always have nightmares. Always.”

“Then maybe it’s something else. The mind is powerful. It blocks things when it can. But when it gets overwhelmed…” He gestured vaguely, like an explosion.

“So this is it,” Will whispered. “I finally had enough.”

“You’ve been bottling everything up for years,” Mike said softly. “El did that too. She had so much anger, and she channeled it through her powers.”

“I can’t live like this, Mike. I can’t just explode and cause a fricking earthquake just because I’m stressed or anxious.”

“Well,” Mike muttered, “that’s kinda hot.”

Silence.

Mike’s eyes widened at the realization. Will blinked as he tried to process what he just heard.

“…Did I say that out loud?”

Will burst into laughter as Mike’s cheeks flushed bright red.

“Oh my god, you think my convulsion last night was hot?”

“What? No, no, no, no. I didn’t mean it like that. I didn’t… you’re not… I…”

Mike’s tongue completely betrayed him and his brain refused to cooperate. Will only laughed harder, and Mike couldn’t stop staring at him, thinking, well, he is hot, so what?

“Okay! Whatever. It’s whatever,” Mike finally snapped, cutting himself off. He stood abruptly and walked over to a nearby trash can, lurking inside.

“Oh, Mike, that’s disgusting,” Will said, his laughter dissolving into genuine horror.

Mike pulled out an empty soda can and held it up in front of him.

“Crush it.”

“I’m not touching that.”

“No, not touching it,” Mike said quickly and left it on the ground. “Use your powers.”

“Mike…”

“Come on. Let’s just try. I promise you, El did this stuff all the time.”

“Yeah, but El grew up in a controlled laboratory where they literally trained her to do it.”

“Well,” Mike shrugged, “maybe if we train you, you won’t make the earth split in half. Right? If we help you control it, maybe you won’t wake up in the middle of the night floating in the air like the fucking girl from The Exorcist.”

…Okay. That actually made sense.

Will had already fixed the pipes back at the apartment with his powers, this shouldn’t be much different. He closed his eyes and tried to picture it as vividly as possible, the feel of crushing a can in his hands. Cold at first. Hollow. Light, since it was empty. He imagined the metal caving in, the sharp, satisfying sound.

His temples began to throb. Then came the warmth sensation of blood running under his nose. When his lips tasted iron, Will opened his eyes.

The can was completely crushed.

He’d done it.

“Sorcerer,” Mike breathed, grinning so wide the corners of his eyes wrinkled.

“Bite me,” Will wiped the blood away with the back of his hand.

“We can do this,” Mike said, voice hopeful. “I really think we can. I-I’ll read every comic I can get my hands on, okay? We’ll figure this out together. I’ll help you through it. I promise.”

“Okay,” Will said softly, there was something genuinely sweet in the way Mike was so devoted to help him. He wondered, had he let himself trust Mike before maybe this wouldn’t be happening.

“And if we figure it out,” Mike added, a little tentative, “we go back to Hawkins. Right?”

Will wasn’t quite sure about that. For Mike’s sake, he smiled and nodded, but deep down, he already knew Hawkins wasn’t a place where he could be happy anymore.

⋆˚꩜｡

Two days have gone by since the ‘Operation Training Will Byers’, as Mike had called it, begun. Four days since they ran away from home, without hearing anything from their relatives, their friends even, Will wondered if they were worried about him and kind of regretted not leaving a note behind.

Will took a job as a waiter at the restaurant near the apartment. It wasn’t ideal, in fact, it was awful, and the cook hated him, but somehow they had to survive. Meanwhile, Mike, much to his dismay, ended up helping Murray proofread his writing for ten dollars a piece. It turned out their landlord was something of a conspiracy theorist, writing articles on all sorts of topics, aliens, mermaids, any myth humanity had ever thought of. Mike had an impressive ability to read quickly, his brain correcting grammatical errors almost automatically. Honestly, there were far too many mistakes, and Mike couldn’t understand how Murray ever managed to get his articles published.

In his free time, Mike researched ways he could help Will with his powers. He buried his nose in X-Men issues at the comic book store, studying Professor X, Jean Grey, characters that could potentially become Will’s closest role model. On top of that, he replayed everything he remembered about Eleven’s abilities, trying to find ways to adapt them for Will. And after Will’s shifts, it was time to put those theories to the test. Mike asked him to do all sorts of things, move objects, crush them, break them. And even though Will managed to do it, both nights Mike woke up to flickering lights and trembling furniture.

Spending time together like this wasn’t just about figuring out Will’s powers, their lives also became more intimate. They’d had sleepovers before, sure, but now they were practically living together, falling into routines and learning habits.

And of course, there were moments.

Moments they both noticed and carefully ignored such as waking up tangled in each other’s arms, brushing past one another in the cramped apartment and instinctively holding the other’s waist to make room, catching themselves staring at their lips for a second too long.

Simply, moments.

Now, Will wasn’t stupid, he’d always known, deep down, that his feelings for Mike weren’t normal. Loving your best friend was different from being in love with your best friend, and something about Mike stirred feelings that Will wasn’t ready to name yet. And then there was that time at the mall, when Will had stared at one of the male aerobics instructors longer than he should have. It was obvious he liked guys. Mike, on the other hand, had never really questioned himself, he just let things happen. He never stopped to wonder why he’d never dated anyone, or why what he had with Will felt so different from what he had with Dustin, Lucas, or even Max.

Back to Will’s powers. That was Mike’s immediate response whenever his mind wandered somewhere it absolutely shouldn’t.

Another theory of Mike was that visiting the science museum might help to learn more about alternate dimensions and their effects on the human body. Will thought it was stupid, but Mike insisted.

“It’s what Professor X would do.”

They were in the middle of a subway station, trying to figure out public transportation, since Hawkins barely had buses and biking was the main way of getting to places.

“It shouldn’t be that hard,” Mike said desperately, patience being the one virtue he doesn’t have. “Just put the coins in there!”

“Mike, I am trying! If you think you can do better, then you do it!”

“Okay, well, give me the money.”

Will chuckled. “I’m not giving you the money.”

“Why not?”

“You’re clumsy! You’ll lose it or something.”

Mike gasped in indignation. “You really think that about me, Byers? I’ll have you know that whenever my family goes on vacation, they leave me in charge of the map.”

“That’s because your dad memorizes it before handing it to you.”

“Well, at least they give me responsibilities. Your mom still thinks you’re a baby.”

“Jesus, Mike!”

They weren’t proud of starting a pointless argument in the middle of a subway platform, but there they were. It might have gone on longer if Will hadn’t felt someone bump into him, rushing past without a word. A second later, his hand felt empty.

“Shit! That kid stole my wallet!”

“Oh, so who lost the money now, huh?!”

“Mike!”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it.”

They took off running after the kid, the hood of a black sweatshirt pulled over his head. Will felt something hooking around his foot, nearly sending him sprawling, only there was nothing to hook with but the force of gravity. 

“Hey!” Mike kept going, sprinting toward the exit stairs without hesitation, jumping a few steps. “Stop!” Mike grabbed the kid by the arm and yanked him, but when the kid turned around to see him he realized that wasn’t a boy. It was a girl. A very familiar girl. “Eleven?” 

Frizzy curls fell to her shoulders now, choppy bangs covered part of her brows and her eyes completely lined in black, sharper somehow, tougher. She looked nothing like the small, frightened girl Mike found in the woods years ago. 

At the sound of his voice, her expression softened, a smile grew on her face. 

“Mike.” She pulled him into a hug, letting out a breathy laugh, equal parts surprise and comfort.

“I can’t believe it. I… we thought you were dead. We thought you…”

She pressed a hand over his mouth, glancing around before shaking her head. “Not here,” she whispered. “Not safe.”

“What are you doing hugging the thief, Michael!” a secondary voice caused Eleven to jump in her place, her gaze drifting past Mike, landing on Will. Mike expected a warming welcome but then realized Will and El didn’t know each other and it was up to him to properly introduce them. 

“Righ!” he snapped his fingers, “Will, this is El. El, this is Will. But you know Will. I told you about him. And I told you about her.”

El nodded once, a little stiff. 

“Hi,” she added, awkward but sincere.

Will blinked, then cleared his throat.

“Could you give me the money back?” he asked bluntly.

Mike pinched the bridge of his nose.

Will found himself wishing they had gone to the stupid science museum when the girl, Eleven, led them back to the place she called home. It was an abandoned warehouse, abandoned in name only. Every wall was decorated with posters, lights, it felt oddly lived-in, cozy even. Will noticed two beds, one perfectly made with navy blue sheets and the second one had its lilac sheets all over the place. 

“I’m Jane now,” she said as she made her way toward what looked like a kitchen area, the two boys following after her like lost puppies. “Not El. Not Eleven. Jane.”

“Okay, cool name. Love that for you,” Mike said, trying to keep up.

Jane grabbed a box of Eggos. Mike chuckled to see El’s consistent love for them, as if they were the only food that existed in the world.

“How did you find me? Hopper said I’d be safe here.”

“Hopper?” Will raised an eyebrow. The police chief who was dating his mom? That Hopper?

“It’s a long story. But he doesn’t know about the Upside Down. I left those details out,” Jane assured them.

“Right… well, honestly, we found you by accident. Will and I kind of ran away from home,” Mike said, smiling shyly. Then a fleeting idea crossed his mind. “See, Will has a thing.” He glanced at his friend and nudged him with his elbow. “Go on. Tell her.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

“If anyone can help, it’s her.”

Will took a deep breath. “Alright. Well… I think I have powers.”

Jane frowned. “Not possible. The only kid with powers is my sister.”

At that exact moment, the Eggos box tore open, the waffles spilling toward the floor, but before she could kneel to pick them up, the Eggos hovered in midair.

Her eyes snapped back to Will, then down to the thin line of blood trailing from his nose. Jane sighed. “You didn’t have to prove it like that.”

“We’ll buy you new ones…” Mike said awkwardly in a low voice that came out as a whisper. 

Jane took three quick steps and stopped in front of Will, studying him with an intensity that made him shiver.

“How long?” she asked.

“About three months ago. Maybe longer. I didn’t… I didn’t know what it was at first.”

“We think it’s the effects of the upside down on him.” Mike added.

“It corrupted you.” Jane says, Will looks at Mike with concern. 

Mike exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. “Okay but he’s not gonna die, is he?”

“Now why would you say that?!” Will raises his voice, clearly just as panicked as Mike is.

Jane tries to analyze whatever it is they have going on. “No. He won’t die. But this thing, it’s dangerous. That place leaves marks.” She tapped her temple. “On the mind. On the body.”

Will felt a chill crawl up his spine. “So it is part of me. I’m the one doing it, n-not the monster…”

“Exactly, it comes from you.” Jane said gently, “but that doesn’t mean it owns you. If you let your powers control you then they will take things from you.” Her eyes flicked back to Will’s nose. “Blood. Energy.”

“Can you help him?” 

Jane looked between them, really looking this time, the way Mike stood protectively at Will’s side, the way Will leaned toward him without even noticing.

“Yes,” she said. “But you’ll have to listen to me. Both of you.”

Mike nodded immediately. “Consider it done.”

Will hesitated only a second before nodding too.

Jane grabbed a kitchen towel and gently cleaned the blood off Will’s nose. “First rule,” she said. “No pushing yourself. Powers aren’t like muscles, you don’t get stronger by ripping them apart. You get stronger by listening to them.”

“Second,” Jane continued, “you need grounding. An anchor. When you feel it start, you focus on something real. A sound. A person. Something that keeps you here.”

Her eyes flicked to Mike again, almost knowingly.

“And third,” she added, quieter now, “your powers are not bad, and they don’t make you a bad person. You’re going to lose control sometimes, and you’re going to mess up and you will feel bad but you need to remember they’re not a bad thing. You’re not bad.”

Honestly, Will needed to hear that. A reminder that he wasn’t flawed, or if he was then he wasn’t alone, not entirely. 

They spent the rest of the afternoon with Jane. She explained everything about her journey with her powers to Will and agreed to help him train properly so he could make peace with the idea of having them. Will listened in awe as Jane described the things she could do almost as if she was already professional, and Will supposes, in a weird way, she is professional. She’s been doing this for years. He wondered if he could ever reach that level, or if he’d be forever stuck crushing cans and flickering lights. Part of him wished he could do more. Another part of him was terrified by the idea.

While Jane talked, Mike couldn’t shake the guilt curling in his chest. He kept thinking that if he and the others had tried harder to look for her maybe they would have found her sooner. Maybe they could have helped her instead of letting her become a runaway, just like they were now.

When night fell, Jane said it was better to call it a day, especially before her sister came back and they’d have to deal with her interrogation. Mike asked if he could talk to her for a moment before they left. 

From a distance, Will watched them. He noticed the difference in their heights, the way Mike looked at her with such fondness and how she looked back at him the same way. The sight made something twist in him that he did not like. 

No more than ten minutes had passed on the way home when Mike mentioned her again in the conversation.

“She’s awesome, right?”

“Sure,” Will said monotonously, the usual emotion lacking from his voice “She is.”

Mike glanced at him. “You don’t sound very convinced.”

“Do I have to like her just because you do?”

Mike frowned, genuinely confused. “What? No. That’s not what I…” He stopped for a second, "I mean, considering she’s literally the only person who can help you with… all of this, I’d say it’s kind of important that you like her.”

Will didn’t reply. Mike continued talking, though. 

“She just gets it. You saw how she knew what was going on before we even explained it to her. She's always been very perceptive. I thought maybe it had to do with her powers but she's just someone who just gets it”

“Well, good for her perception, I guess.” Will thought the words would remain like a hiss between his teeth, but apparently he said it loud enough for Mike to hear him.

“Okay, now you’re definitely being weird.” Mike grabbed his arm, Will stopped walking and shook Mike's hand off his body. The action itself proved that Mike was right.

“I’m not being weird.” 

“You are.”

“Am not!”

“I’ve seen normal weirdness in you, Byers, and this is not it. Do you seriously not like her?”

“It’s not that I don’t like her!” Will rubs his face, takes a moment to calm down. He knows he is being unreasonable. “It’s just a lot. A lot’s going on, okay?”

Mike’s expression softened. “Hey, it’s okay. I know it is. But this is good, Will.”

"Yeah, whatever, Mike" is what Will really wanted to say, but he just smiled and then continued on their way back to the apartment in silence. 

Mike couldn’t stop thinking about what had caused Will to act this way, it reminded him a bit of the way he was behaving when he walked up on him packing his things ready to leave Hawkins which was, in summary, avoidant behavior. 

Once they reached the interior of the building, Mike called for him. 

“Will.”

But Will, a few steps ahead of him, climbing the narrow staircase, ignored him. 

“Will.” He tried again, voice a tad more insistent, Will was quiet again. 

 Mike’s patience had worn thin.

“Okay,” he said suddenly, rushing to overtake Will on the stairs halfway up and stopping him in his tracks. “No. We’re not doing this.”

“Doing what?” Will, clearly annoyed by what Mike had just done, said in a hoarse voice.

“This,” Mike gestured vaguely between them. “The silence. The weird looks. The ‘acting like everything’s fine when it’s clearly not’ thing.”

Will sighed and tried to walk past, but Mike placed his palm on Will's chest. Will scoffed, indignant. “Mike, I’m tired. I already told you, I’m just going through a lot, can we not…”

“No, we can not not…” Mike paused a bit confused by his choice of words but then continued, “You were fine this morning then we met Jane, and suddenly you’re… like this. What happened?”

“Nothing happened.”

“That’s bullshit.”

The word echoed faintly in the stairwell. Will flinched, just a little.

“Look, if I did something, just tell me. If she did something, tell me too. If you’re scared or pissed or, I don’t know, jealous or something, just tell me.”

Uh-uh. 

Mike realized he might’ve just said the wrong thing. 

“Jealous?”  Will laughed once, nervously. “Why would I be jealous?”

“I don’t know,” Mike shot back, frustration taking over them. “You tell me! You’re the one acting like I personally betrayed you by talking about Jane.” 

“That’s not fair.” Will finally managed to push Mike aside and rushed upstairs. 

“Then explain it to me.” Mike leaned on the wall next to their apartment door. 

For a moment, they stared at each other. Their eyes were full of unspoken words. Will shook his head and focused on not dropping the apartment keys to the ground from the way his hands were trembling. He opened the door to their small apartment and stormed inside with no intention of having this discussion with Mike. 

“Will!” Mike demanded that he speak to him. "I'm going to charge you every time you make me say your name!” Mike grabbed Will’s wrist next, “what the hell is the problem?”

“Because you look at her like she was the best thing that ever happened to you!” Will ripped his hand free, his voice cracked. “And knowing that the day you met her was the same day I went missing.” 

The words hit like a punch, and Mike froze. 

“Crap. Will, wait,” Mike said quickly, panic seeping into his tone. “I didn’t mean it like that. I never…”

But Will was already reaching for the bathroom door. The door clicked shut,leaving Mike on the other side. He knocked, hard at first, then desperate. “Will! Please! It’s not like that, just talk to me!”

Inside, Will pressed himself against the door, hands over his ears, trying to block out Mike’s voice. He couldn’t believe he’d said that. He knew he probably hurt him with his words, and that there had to be a better explanation for everything, but he felt… jealous. It was true. And beneath that, a bit of resentment, not just at Mike, but at all his friends. The way they’d told stories that autumn about this amazing girl with powers, parading his disappearance in front of him, meeting the protagonist of those stories didn’t help much. 

A sudden flicker caught the corner of his eye, the bathroom lights blinked. “Shit. Stop it, Byers,” he muttered under his breath, his jaw tight. The lights wavered once more, then steadied. He exhaled slowly, a mix of relief and frustration.

Will finally opened the door, and Mike, who had been leaning against it, lost his balance for a moment. He steadied himself and immediately jumped in front of Will, afraid of losing any second to talk to him. 

“It’s not true. I don’t think of her that way, you know I don’t.”

“We don’t have to do this now…”

“You know I don’t, because… if-if anything, I think of you that way.” Mike blurted out, his lips quivering, completely unsure if he was making the right decision. “I don’t think the day I met her changed my life. I mean, sure, it changed my life in the sense that I discovered something that could potentially win me a Nobel Prize, but I’ve never thought of it that way. Never. The day you went missing… fuck, Will, I lost it. I lost it bad.”

Mike took a step closer. Will didn’t back away. Speechless, he let Mike continue.

“I don’t think you realize just how terrified I was of losing you, still am, because you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And I… fuck, I love you.”

“Mike…” Will breathed, barely able to speak.

“I love you so much, Will Byers. I love you so much that I literally ran away with you. No second guessing, no explanation needed, just because I couldn’t bear the idea of losing you again.”

Will couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His brain stopped working, and his heart pounded so fast he thought it might grow legs and run away (a fairly popular action lately). Every stolen glance, every time their hands “accidentally” brushed while passing objects, every time their knees touched during a movie… all those moments that had made Will question everything he ever thought he knew were suddenly validated.

“You don’t have to say a thing. You don’t, but I just needed you to know that just because I think Jane’s cool, it doesn’t compare to the way I’ve been feeling about you my entire life. It’s insane to finally put into words, but it’s true and…”

Will grabbed Mike’s face and didn’t think twice before kissing him. 

Mike lost his balance but caught himself, holding onto Will’s hips and deepening the kiss. He pushed Will gently against the sink, a small grunt escaped Will’s throat as he wrapped his arms around Mike’s neck, pulling him closer. The lights in the bathroom flickered, once more, but this time they didn’t care, not even when the bulb exploded, leaving them in complete darkness.

“Shit, I’m bleeding…” Will muttered into the kiss.

“It’s okay.” Mike said against Will’s lips, still kissing him, unconcerned about the blood between them.

Mike’s lips traveled down Will’s jawline to his neck. Will tangled his fingers in Mike’s curls, letting out an embarrassed noise, which, far from making Mike cringe, seemed to fuel him. Mike nibbled at Will’s skin, leaving marks.

“Bed,” Will demanded, feeling his legs fail him. “Bed. Bed. Bed.”

They rushed to their shared bed almost embarrassingly fast. Will lay down, and Mike positioned himself on top, their legs intertwined.

The kisses were sloppy, messy, but made perfectly for each other. Breathless, they broke apart briefly to catch their breath, only to dive back in immediately, each time with more boldness. 

Suddenly, Will felt the bed shaking, not because of them, but because of his powers.

“Okay, stop. Mike, stop. I don’t want to permanently damage this apartment.” Will muttered, taking a closer look at Mike’s face, lips swollen and red, hair tangled, a streak of blood that didn’t belong to him under his nose. 

Mike lay down next to him, their arms pressed together.

“Holy shit,” Mike said, staring at the ceiling.

“Yeah,” Will agreed. “Holy shit.”

A comfortable silence followed before Mike cleared his throat. “So… did that do anything for you?”

Will burst into laughter, and Mike followed.

“No, not really,” Will scrunched his nose cutely.

“Oh sure, yeah, I want to see you kiss Dustin with that same enthusiasm.” Mike rolled onto his side to see Will better, and Will mirrored him.

“You remember…” Will paused, taking a deep breath. “You remember when we dressed as Ghostbusters for Halloween, and I had that terrible panic attack that night? You were so protective over me. I remember thinking how much I liked feeling safe with you. I didn’t think much of it until the snowball…”

“Oh, that stupid ball…”

“Yeah. Remember this girl, Sharon? She asked me to dance with her.”

“Right.”

“Well, I think that’s when I realized something was different with me. I was dancing with her, the first girl who’d ever actively looked at me, and all I could think was, gosh, I wish it could be you I was dancing with.” Mike gently caressed the back of Will’s hand with his thumb, listening attentively. “I just remember feeling guilty for thinking that. For ever imagining myself dancing with a boy. I thought maybe it was just a thing of the moment, that you were just so nice with me and I developed some codependency.”

“We did have some codependency,” Mike joked, making Will smile.

“Yeah. But still… I think that was when I realized I really liked you, though I always thought it would be one sided.”

Mike didn’t respond. He leaned over and kissed Will tenderly, silently saying, ‘not one sided at all’. Will kissed him back, and soon they were all over each other again.

“You know…” Mike broke the kiss but not the distance, they were so close to each other that the curls of Will’s hair tickled his forehead, “We’re kinda married.” 

Will laughed way too loud, it made Mike smile. 

“What are you talking about?”

“This. Us.” Mike pressed his lips, thinking about his next move. He tugged Will’s hair gently behind his ear and rested his hand on the back of his neck. “Sharing an apartment. Doing groceries together. Stuff married people do together.”

“Well, if that’s your concept of marriage…” Will leaned closer, even more closer if it was possible, his nose brushing Mike’s, “I’ll marry you, Mike Wheeler.”

“Only if I’m the bride.” Mike said sheepishly until he realized he said it wrong, “Wait, I meant the groom.”

“Damage is done. You’ll be a beautiful bride.”

“Oh, shut up, asshole” Mike pushed himself forward, throwing his body onto Will's, and laughing and without thinking, they settled perfectly together to sleep. This time, Will put his arm around Mike while he held him by the waist.

⋆˚꩜｡

Mike felt a warm feeling spread through him, an almost unbearable sweetness, as he watched Will sleeping by his side. He stared as his chest rose and fell gently, hair tousled across his forehead. He could have stayed there forever, just watching him breathe, memorizing every line and texture of his face.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

It wasn’t just a gentle tap, it was relentless, brutal, knocking.

Mike thought of ignoring it, but the knocking didn’t stop there. It grew louder, more impatient. Mike groaned again, pushed the bedsheets off him and stumbled toward the door, rubbing his eyes.

“Okay, okay, I hear you!” he shouted, exasperated, finally heading to answer it. He expected anything, Murray, Jane, the squirrels from the park, anything and anyone but the actual people in front of him. 

A very, very, pissed looking Dustin, Max, Lucas and Steve Harrington stood behind the door. 

“Steve?” Mike said surprised. 

“Really, dickwad? That’s all you have to say?” Dustin’s single tone let Mike know just how pissed he is. 

“Okay, before you guys say anything, Will’s asleep and…”

“I don’t give a flying shit if he’s sleeping with Madonna right now, you kids have a lot of explaining to do.” Steve interrupted. 

“He drove us all the way here. Excuse if he’s a little grumpy.” Lucas explained calmly, though he had a look on his face that showcased just how angry he was too. 

“Mike?” Will’s sleepish voice echoed in the room. 

“You, Byers, are terrible at cleaning your evidence. Did you know that?” Dustin pushed by Mike and entered the apartment, he didn’t take the time to look around but the others definitely did. 

“How did you…?”

“Find you?” Dustin flaunts a newspaper in front of his face, one that had an open page with several department options underlined in yellow.

“Oh…” Perhaps he did forgot to get rid of the evidence. 

“Your mother is dead worried about you, Byers. Dead. Worried!” Dustin pointed his finger at him within each word, “We had to come up with some shitty elaborated story about you going on a last minute school trip with Mike.”

“Well, she’ll never believe that.” Will rubbed his eyes with his fingers, not expecting Dustin to hit him on the head with the newspaper. “Ouch?!”

 "Explain. Now." Max crossed her arms.

 "Guys, this is completely unnecessary. You didn’t have to come here. Will and I are fine. There’s really nothing going on," Mike interrupted.  

"No! You can’t just run away and not say anything," Dustin protested, raising his arms dramatically before dropping them at his sides.

"Plus, it’s so out of character for you, Wheeler. We never took you for a rebellious one," Max teased, clearly enjoying the reaction she knew she’d provoke.

"What?! I can be rebellious! What do you mean?" Mike protested, flustered.

"Anyone who plays D&D for leisure cannot be rebellious," Max said with a sly smile.

"She’s right," Steve added from the corner, leaning casually against the wall.

Suddenly, the room erupted. Lucas and Dustin joined in with complaints and accusations, and Steve chimed in with a sarcastic remark about responsibility and “so not acting their age”. It turned into a chaotic scene of shouting and finger-pointing.

"Guys…" Will tried to speak up, his voice drowned in between the mess. "Guys!" they were all just too immerse on themselves to care

Will rolled his eyes, took a deep breath, and clenched his fists for a moment, focusing.

Dustin threw his hands in the air dramatically. "If this is how little our friendship means to you, Michael, then God forsake me and may a thunderbolt strike me where I stand!"

The lights flickered and the nearest chair lifted a few inches off the floor. Everyone froze.

“And I want a million dollars!” Steve said out loud, leaving the nonchalant act behind. 

“What the hell just happened?” Max’s eyes opened wide, she looked at her boyfriend for an explanation. Lucas shrugged and shook his head just as clueless as she was. 

Mike, on the other hand, stood with his arms crossed and a triumphant smirk. “Show off.” 

"You… did that?" Dustin turned his attention to Will, watching him carefully as he wiped the blood from his nose.

"We need to talk," Will said quietly. 

Mike heated some water to make tea for everyone. The idea of Mike serving tea made Max smile faintly, but no one else seemed to laugh, so she quickly regained her composure, focusing on the conversation instead.

Will explained everything, from what it was really like to get lost in the Upside Down to discovering that he had these powers.

"That's why I decided to escape," Will concluded, hoping his friends could understand his impulsive decision.

"You must have been through so much," Lucas said, squeezing his shoulder as he stood beside him. "I just wish you had told us everything."

"I know… me too," Will admitted, "but… I couldn’t. I was afraid that if I spoke about it, it would be like bringing it into existence. I couldn’t."

"It’s okay, Byers," Max said, giving him a small, understanding smile. "Trauma's a bitch." 

"That's not all… listen, uhm…" Will glanced at Mike.

Mike took it as a sign to tell them, "We found El."

Dustin and Lucas’s eyes widened in unison.

"No way?!" Dustin exclaimed. "Eleven’s here?!"

"The bald girl?" Steve muttered, holding his teacup. Sensing the others’ judgmental stares, he took a sip and slumped back in his chair.

"Wait… Eleven? Who’s Eleven?" Max asked, clearly unfamiliar with the story the others had lived through a year before she joined them.

Lucas and Dustin quickly filled her in, recounting the events while Mike and Will prepared for the day.

It was clear that the friends were eager to find Jane again. Mike gave Steve directions as he drove toward the warehouse. Steve gave them some time alone with her, but he made it very clear he would be back soon and would not wait for them if they were late.

Mike knocked on the metal gate, the clang echoing through the yard.

"Jane! Jane, it’s us!”

A moment passed, but unexpectedly, the door opened in a swift movement that could only have been caused by the ability of telekinesis. Jane stood there in her pajamas, her expression a mixture of annoyance and sleepiness, clearly not thrilled to be woken so early. But the moment her eyes landed on Dustin and Lucas, her irritation melted away and similarly as it had happened when she ran into Mike the day prior, a smile softened her expression. The two boys ran forward, wrapping her in a tight, excited hug.

“Holy shit! I really cannot believe it’s you!” Dustin said once they broke the hug. 

“How did you even end up here?” Lucas asked in disbelief, “I mean… we thought you… you know…”

“Died?” Jane raised her eyebrow and squeezed both friends’ shoulders, “It’s a long story.”

“You bet your ass we’ve got time.” Dustin said with a chuckle the boys hadn't heard from him since elementary school.

"That son of a bitch wanted to kill us this morning, and look at him now." Mike leaned closer to Will and whispered in his ear, his breath crashing against Will’s skin sent shivers down his spine.

“Let’s just hope he keeps that energy when we leave.” Will said with crossed arms.

Will felt Mike’s hand slip quietly away from his back to the loop of his belt. He swallowed, blushing. No one had noticed the subtle display of affection, but it still made his stomach flutter, proof that last night hadn’t been a dream, that something real had shifted between them.

“Hey, Jane, we can steal some Eggos! We’re starving!” Mike called after her.

Jane shot him a look that would have made her the prime suspect in any crime scene but then she just quietly said, “Whatever you want.”

Before Mike could even take a step, a sudden clatter came from the kitchen. The eggo cartons lifted into the air and flew over the cupboard, landing somewhere entirely out of reach, even for Mike’s height. Everyone laughed, even Will. 

They spent the next few minutes catching up. Lucas introduced Max as his girlfriend, and Max looked visibly relieved to see another girl in the group. Jane sat them down and told them how she’d escaped without raising any suspicion, and for the first time, Will really listened. Maybe, just maybe, he could actually get along with her.

Steve returned for them a couple of hours later, pizza boxes in the backseat waiting to be devoured.

"Hey, Jane, now that we’ve found you, why don’t you come back to Hawkins with all of us?" Dustin couldn’t resist blurting out.

Jane’s smile faltered just a little. "I can’t," she said softly. "My sister’s here, we’ve handled it well. I’m safe. But visit, please." She pulled Dustin into a hug, holding him for a moment longer than necessary.

Then she turned to Will. Her arms wrapped around him, and she leaned close so only he could hear. "You don’t want to leave with them, do you?"

Will stiffened. "Uhm…" 

<<You don’t feel ready.>> Jane says only her lips didn’t move, Will was surprised to realize that he heard Jane's voice in his head.

Will blinked. "How did you…"

<<You can too,>> she said, her voice soft in his mind. <<With practice.>>

She smiled at him, gently rubbing his arm for reassurance. "Whatever you choose… he’ll understand."

Jane nodded at Mike, and Will felt his face heat up. 

The ride back to the apartment wasn’t as cheerful and upbeat as the one to the warehouse had been. They were happy, thrilled, even, to have found Jane but there was a bittersweet weight in the air. She was safe here, away from Hawkins, and yet… they all wanted her with them, wanted her back in their world.

Steve dropped them off and, before leaving, Mike asked for a moment alone. "Give us a second," he said to the others, "just to grab our stuff." 

The door clicked shut behind them, and silence settled over the room. Will stood in the middle of the apartment, quiet, hands shoved into his pockets, staring at nothing in particular while Mike opened his bag and shoved his clothes in a disorganized manner.

He noticed Will wasn’t doing the same as him. He dropped his back and looked at him. 

"Hey… what’s wrong?"

Will’s voice was low, uncertain. "I… I don’t think I want to go back, Mike."

There was a pause. Mike’s eyebrows lifted, his lips parting slightly as he processed the words. 

"Oh?"

"I just… I feel like… well," he took a breath, looking at Mike, eyes flicking away for just a second, "you were right. If there’s anyone who will understand me, it’s Jane. And… if she needs to teach me to be better with my powers, then…" 

Mike stepped closer, closing the distance between them, hand resting lightly on Will’s shoulder. "Then we figure it out," he said quietly. "Together. We’ll figure it out, here, there… it doesn’t matter. But, there has to be a better way to do this than just become runaways. I mean… eventually your mom will find out that school trip story was bullshit."

Will let out a small, humorless laugh. "Yeah… she’s going to kill me."

“Oh, definitely." Mike licks his lips, “Which is a shame since, you know, you’re pretty and stuff.” 

Will’s eyes sparkled, a little brighter than usual, as he looked at Mike. 

“Did you just say I’m pretty?” 

“And stuff.”   

“And stuff…” 

Will chuckles at that, heart full of love and his head feeling dizzy from the fact that Mike Wheeler, his life long best friend, was flirting with him. He notices as Mike licks his lips and he tilts his head in the perfect angle so their lips could meet with no issue at all. Will’s hands reach the nape of Mike’s neck and uses his fingernails to tenderly scratch his skin as their kiss deepens. Mike grabs him by the waist, pulling him fully into his arms beneath Will’s jacket. The hem of his shirt lifts slightly, and then Mike slips his hand in, touching the exposed skin.

He feels Will’s breath hitch for a few seconds.

It's a sweet, passionate kiss, but above all, full of affection.

“Don’t you think about us, though?” Will asks, Mike doesn’t stop kissing him.

“Literally doing that right now.”

“No, Mike…” Will giggles, breaking the kiss. “I mean, if we go back to Hawkins, what about us?”

He lets the question hang there. When Mike slips into his usual disassociated thinking face, Will leans in and brushes their lips together again, just enough to pull him back. 

Mike blinks back to reality, looking at Will with the same concern as he had. “I don’t know,” he admits. “Guess I didn’t think that far.”

“Is it ‘Chicago exclusive’, or…?”

Mike kisses him again, deeper this time, sudden and sure enough that Will almost passed out. Mike presses him back against the wall, the pace of the kiss picking up, urgency replacing hesitation.

“How’s that for ‘Chicago exclusive’?” Mike says, trailing kisses along Will’s cheek, his jaw, the corner of his mouth. “Of course not,” he adds softly. “I want to love you anywhere. And yeah, Hawkins is intimidating and conservative and all you want but… “ He pulls back just enough to look at him. Mike presses a finger lightly to Will’s chest, right over his heart. “But I want you.”

Will felt like he was dreaming. 

I want to love you anywhere.

I want you. 

Those are words that would forever be engraved in Will’s head.

“Okay, I had to ask because… you know. I wasn’t sure if…” Will exhales, reaching up to push a rebellious curl off Mike’s forehead. “If it was something you wanted.”

“I get it. And if that kiss wasn’t enough to convince you there are plenty of ways we could seal the deal.”

“Mike!”

They burst into laughter, the kind that settles easily between them, easing whatever stress Will felt at the moment.

“So… what’s your choice, then?”

Will knew that running away hadn’t been the best idea, and that in the long run it would probably bring him more problems than solutions. Still, he couldn’t go back to Hawkins. Not yet. Not after Jane had shown him everything he could do if he trained enough. But he also didn’t want to force Mike to stay 

“Listen, Mike. You have no idea how much it means to me that you came with me.” Mike opened his mouth to argue, but Will beat him to it, placing his hands against Mike’s chest and stepping closer. “I’m staying. I need to. But you’re not obligated to. I won’t hold it against you if you decide to leave.”

“Like I told you from the beginning, it was my decision to come with you. I’m not staying out of pity, or just to make sure you’re safe. I’m doing it because I want to be with you through this.” A pause, then a mischievous grin formed on his face. “And, frankly, because my dad is going to lose his fucking mind over it.”

Once again, they laughed together. Then there was knocking at the door.

“Shit, it’s probably them…”

Mike rushes to open the door.

“We’re not leaving.” Mike doesn’t give them a chance. He sees how Max’s smile fades away and Lucas slaps his face with both hands. “Not yet, at least."

“Jesus, Mike! You’re going to give Dustin a heart attack,” Max stomped her foot against the floor. “What do you mean you’re not going? How is this even a possibility?”

“Will’s right,” Mike said firmly. “He needs training, and he’s not getting that in Hawkins.”

“No. No, absolutely not,” Max shot back. “Both of you are getting your pretty little asses into Steve’s car and shutting up for a four hour drive.”

Neither Lucas nor Max realized they were already inside the apartment until the door slammed shut behind them. Not by itself, of course, Will’s bleeding nose was a pretty clear indicator.

“Uh, uh. No,” Lucas crossed his arms. “You did not just lock us in.” He turned to Max. “Right, love?”

“Oh my gosh, Lucas, not right now.”

“I need to control my powers,” Will said, there was a steadiness to his voice. “I need to understand them. I can’t go back to Hawkins and just… hope nothing happens. What if I hurt someone by accident? Or worse,  on purpose. What if I draw those things back just because I don’t know when to stop?”

“I get that, Will. I really do,” Lucas said quietly. Something in his expression shifted, the way it used to when they were kids and Will was scared of the dark or monsters under the bed. He stepped closer, ruffled Will’s hair, then rested a hand on his shoulder. “But leaving everything behind? School. Graduation. Your family?”

“So we write a note,” Mike blurted out.

He rushed to the nightstand on Will’s side, pulling a sketchbook from the drawer along with a pen. “We explain we’re okay, we don’t say where we are, just that we’ll be back. Soon.”

“Are you guys seriously doing this?” Max asked, disbelief heavy in her voice. She wasn’t angry anymore, she was just shocked about the seriousness of the issue. 

Mike looked at Will. Will nodded, he was certain of what he wanted. 

⋆˚꩜｡

For a couple of days, it was all looking bright. 

Will continued working as a waiter while Mike searched for another job to pass the time and keep earning money. Mike would stop by the restaurant, and the owner, who was starting to like Will, would let them eat something before closing. After that, they’d head to Jane’s to train.

The training itself was strangely enjoyable. Jane was attentive to Will’s limits, she knew better than anyone what it felt like to be drained by power, the exhaustion, the frustration, the way it dragged you out if you pushed too far. Even so, Will grew to like her a lot. She was direct, outspoken, and they bonded quickly, especially when they teamed up to tease Mike.

It was endearing. Almost immediately after a tough session, before Will even had time to fully sit down, Mike would be at his side, offering water, grounding him. Jane knew from the very start that, whatever they had going on, it was more than friendship.

Will knew it was selfish, but he was genuinely glad Mike hadn’t gone back to Hawkins. Having him there made everything easier.

Besides, the make out sessions really did help.

They discovered the thrill of kissing, in public restrooms, behind the restaurant where no one ever went, in the shadowed corners of the apartment stairwell, breaking apart only when footsteps echoed nearby. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other. It was ridiculous. It was great.

“I can’t believe we wasted so much time,” Mike said once, breathless, laying down on the bed while Will kissed his neck. “I mean, no wonder people do this all the time. I caught my sister kissing Steve once and I was like, Ew, but now…”

“Mike!” Will yelped, horrified.

Mike laughed nervously, kissed him again, and that was the end of that conversation.

Things were good. Really good.

Which is why, one Sunday, as Mike approached the apartment building with coffee in hand, ready to surprise Will in a romantic gesture, he expected anything but to see Jim Hopper leaning against his car, arms crossed, cigarette between his fingers.

Mike ran.

He bolted upstairs as Hopper shouted his name, burst into the apartment, nearly slipping on the ground. Will had just gotten out of the shower and was barely dressed.

“Hopper’s here,” he gasped.

“Holy shit,” Will hurried to change, the timing was just before the apartment door slammed open.

“I’m going to kill you both,” Hopper said calmly. “I’m going to kill you.” Each word was uttered in a perfect crescendo, like a piece of music reaching its climax. 

“W-wouldn’t killing us remove your chief tittle?” Mike stammered, and Hopper took a threatening step forward. Mike hid behind Will. 

“You two are already making my life difficult,” Hopper snapped. “I’ve got your mothers begging me to bring you home.”

“How did you find us?” Will asked.

“Your friend Dustin. Kid folds like a lawn chair.”

“Traitor.” Mike muttered.

“Grab your things. We’re leaving. Now.”

Will raised his hands slowly. “Okay, I can explain.”

Hopper pinched the bridge of his nose. “Can you, William? Because the only reason you’re not in cuffs already is because your mother asked me to be gentle.” His gaze flicked to Mike. “Yours didn’t.”

Mike shrank even more.

“We know about Jane,” Will said carefully. “The girl you helped.”

Hopper’s shoulders stiffened.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh,” Will said, voice steady despite the fear rattling in his chest, “She told us about you. About how you helped her find her mother and how, not long after, you helped her move here. With her sister, the other kid that was also an experiment of the lab.” 

Hopper dragged a chair forward and sat. Defeated, in a way. 

“Talk.”

Will swallowed. “When I went missing… I wasn’t just lost. I was somewhere else. A place tied to the lab. Jane knows about it too because she saved me from that hell.”

“We call it the Upside Down,” Mike added.

“Let’s leave the sci-fi to Hollywood, kids.” Hopper snapped. “Look, if you ran away from home because you freaked out, fear of college, or whatever, that's fine. Let's just pack it up and…” 

Hopper was interrupted when the lights began to flicker and his chair lifted off the ground, with him still in it. His eyes widened in terror. He fell to the floor, stared at Will, whose nose was bleeding and whose eyes looked almost inhuman at that moment. He was the one doing it.

“Do you believe him now?” Mike asked, wiping Will’s nose with his sleeve.

Hopper stood slowly. “I know that lab has been digging their butts in dirty dirty ways, but this?”

Will took a shaky breath. “I didn’t leave to be reckless. I left because this is getting worse. And Jane’s the only one who knows how to help me control it.”

Hopper studied him for a long moment. He wondered how he was supposed to explain all this to Joyce. After a heavy moment of silence, Hopper let out a sigh and rubbed his forehead in complete stress.

“Okay so the way I see it there’s two options here,” Hopper finally speaks, “One. You stay here and break your poor mother’s heart. Two, you come back, we explain everything to Joyce, and I make the compromise of driving you every weekend so you can train with Jane. One of the options has a happy ending.” 

Will doesn’t say anything at first.  

“At least until you graduate, kid. Let your mom see you in that ridiculously out of fashion orange gown,” Hopper says, softer now. “Look, I know you’re scared. What you’ve been through… it’s not easy. Nobody blames you for that, so don’t blame yourself for feeling sorrow. But here’s the thing, you don’t have to walk alone. You’ve got friends, family, people who care about you. And if you keep running without fighting, then what good are those powers for, huh?”

There was something in Hopper’s words, in the idea of the lengths he had gone to searching for him, all because of his mother, because of the love he had for them as a family, that made Will’s eyes tear up. He was starting to realize that all this time he had felt accompanied, but never truly supported by himself.

His friends had always been there for him. Mike had been there. His mother, his brother, everyone had tried. But Will had shut them all out, out of fear, out of the weight of his depression. Once that realization settled in, it was impossible not to cry.

Mike slipped an arm around Will’s shoulders, pulling him into a steady, grounding hug. Feeling safe in Mike’s arms, Will nodded and murmured, “Let’s go home.”

They went to say goodbye to Jane. The reunion between her and Hopper was both tender and strange to witness, especially since none of the boys had fully understood just how involved Hopper had been in her life. It turned out quite a lot. He had been supporting her financially, visiting from time to time, like a father to her.

They reached Hawkins after sunset. Hopper planned to drop Will off first and then take Mike home, but just before Will opened the car door, he asked Mike if he could stay with him while he talked to his mom. So they both got out and walked up to the Byers’ house together.

The smell of spices and vegetables filled the air. Joyce was cooking in the kitchen when she heard the front door close.

“Jonathan, is that you, honey?”

“Mom… it’s me.”

Joyce froze. Then she turned, took one look at her son, and dropped everything she was doing as she ran towards her son and wrapped him in a tight hug.

“Oh, Will. Oh, honey…” she whispered, holding him like she was afraid he might disappear again. “Never leave like that without saying anything.”

Will clung to her just as hard. Breathing in the familiar scent of her, something in him finally broke. He started crying again. He hadn’t truly processed what it meant to leave her behind without a second thought, and the guilt crushed him.

“Mom,” he said softly, “I have to tell you something. It’s… it’s, well, you’re going to think I’m crazy. Again.”

Joyce cupped his face, worry already creeping back in. “What? What are you talking about, honey? What happened?”

Will told her everything.

He told her about the Upside Down, about how it never really let him go. About the nights he woke up terrified thinking he was still stuck there. He explained his powers, gave her a small demonstration even, how he hadn’t run away because he wanted freedom, but because he was afraid of hurting someone he loved.

Joyce listened without interrupting. Her expression shifted from confusion to disbelief, then from shock to guilt. She remembered the moment she had chosen to believe the psychologist over her own son, and Will was quick to reassure her that it wasn’t her fault, at that age, anyone would have assumed a child was making up stories to cope with trauma. Still, the regret lingered. Joyce pulled him into her arms and held him for a long time, as if trying to make up for every moment she hadn’t understood.

She wiped the tears from her face and, noticing Mike standing awkwardly nearby, invited him to stay for dinner. Then she called Karen Wheeler, assuring her that Mike was safe, that everything was under control, that it had all been a misunderstanding, but one that was being taken care of.

Mike had dinner with the Byers like he usually would. They were quiet but kind, a comfortable family to be around. Every so often, his hand slipped under the table to squeeze Will’s knee, maybe just to stir a little chaos.

Afterward, he walked with Will to his room, which was still as messy as when he’d left it. Mike helped him make the bed, then sat down and watched as Will slowly put his things back where they belonged.

“I can’t believe that just happened,” Will sighed, stopping in front of Mike, who was sitting on the bed. He rested his hands on Mike’s shoulders.

“Yeah, I mean… your next confession to your mom is gonna have a hard time competing with interdimensional powers, right?” Mike joked, earning a soft chuckle from Will as Mike’s hands slid to his waist.

Will sat down on his lap, their hearts beating wildly.

“Uh, w-what if your mom walks in?” Mike whispered.

In response, there was a soft click as the door shut behind them, Will closing it without ever standing up.

Mike let out a quiet, breathless laugh. “Right. Powers.”

Then Will’s lips were on his. They kissed slowly, unhurried, savoring every second of it. The bed creaked softly as Mike leaned back, Will following him without hesitation, still straddling his lap. Their kisses turned messy and breathless and their hands moved clumsy and suddenly it all felt too much. 

“Mike,” Will called his name. Lights started to flicker above them. 

“Tell me if I should stop.” Mike said in between kisses. 

They became a little bolder, Mike’s hands travelled inside Will’s shirt, feeling his bare back, the touch caused Will to let out a sound that sent a shiver straight down Mike’s spine.

“Let’s just tell everyone,” Mike said, breaking the kiss. He cupped Will’s face in his hands so he could look at him properly, noticing the thin trail of blood beneath his nose and a look in his eyes full of lust, one Mike hadn’t seen before.

“What?”

“Our friends. They’ll understand, right?” Mike licked his lips, tasting the faint metallic taste Will’s blood had left behind.

“M-maybe, but, that means that we are, well, something, right?”

“I’d say so.” Mike used his thumb to gently wipe the blood from Will’s nose before pulling him into a short, tender kiss. “We’re dating.”

Suddenly, the window flew open with a loud bang.

“Sorry! That was me, hold on…” Will lifted his hand, closing it again with a small flick of concentration. He laughed softly. “Do you know how weird it is to hear you say that?”

“Oh, I know. I also didn’t know that I had it in me.” Mike smiled, a little nervous. “But I told you, this isn’t ‘Chicago exclusive.’ I’ll follow you wherever you go. If you’ll let me.”

“Yeah. Of course.” Will smiled back, warmth flooding his chest. “Then… let’s go on an actual date.”

“Perfect. I’ll pick you up tomorrow after school. Sounds good?”

“Sounds perfect.”

Will pressed one last kiss to Mike’s lips before settling beside him, turning to look at him like he was made of starlight.

 “Thank you for staying, Mike. Thank you for everything.” 

“Of course, yeah. That’s what friends do.”

“Right, because now we’re friends.”

“A little more than friends.” 

Their hands brushed intentionally. 

Mike realized he would follow Will anywhere, across the country, across the world, even into another dimension, if that was what it took. He would run away with him, choose him, never look back. But for now, he was happy to lie beside him, breathing in the comfort of his presence, privileged to fall asleep next to his best friend who also happened to be the boy he loved.