Chapter Text
“Mike… I don’t want to be your best friend.. I-… I want to be more than that.” Will said in a loving whisper almost like a prayer, looking up at Mikes face and leaning into his lips slowly, until a piercing Holly sounding voice filled the house reaching his bedroom screaming “Breakfast!!!” jolting him awake. Mike groaned in disappointment and grabbed his pillow placing both ends on his ears to block out the loud bustling throughout the house.
It happened again. His 26th dream of Will (yes he’s keeping count). Ever since that trip in Lenora, Mikes been having cheesy dreams about Will, some are vivid and feel so real, like the one he just woke up from. And some kind of blur together seeming insignificant than the rest.
He doesn’t even know why he’s been having these dreams or what could’ve caused them in the first place. Maybe it was their friendship rekindling a little bit after El got taken or it was what Will said in the back of the pizza van.
But either way he’s been friends with Will ever since kindergarten and he has never had such fantasies about him up until now.
The guilt from the first couple of dreams weighed down on him like a boulder because he was dating El and it’s crazy to dream about being in a taboo relationship with his best friend while dating one of the sweetest girls he’s ever known.
But at some point along the way, a sicker twisted part of him started to not care. Maybe it was the depression or—from the looks of it, his life seemed a bit too short to care about anything at this point so he’s just decided to embrace it.
Plus, him and El’s relationship seemed very complicated at the moment. They never have time to talk about it due to the end of the world approaching, but their relationship seems a bit more platonic than romantic now. So that boulder on his back slowly lifts itself off, releasing him of his guilt as he continues to dream about Will almost every single night semi-guilt free.
His body remained tiredly motionless taking him almost 10 minutes to fully wake up. No matter how much sleep he got, the endless routine of school and crawls left him hopeless, depressed and exhausted, almost to the point where he knew it’d be useless getting up out of bed because every single day was the same and every single day lead him and his friends into a another dead end.
As he laid there, a hard knock was at his door echoing through his bedroom. “Mike! breakfast!” Nancy yelled out from the other side. “Jesus…” Mike muttered under his breath releasing the pillow from his head, making it snap back to its original shape flat on his mattress. “Yea i’m coming!” He yelled out a bit too sharply than he had originally intended, he then listened closely enough to hear her walking away from his door.
If Vecna and the Upside Down weren’t real, Nancy would’ve came in and tortured Mike for responding to her like that but Nancy knew what Mike was going through, she could sense his severe mental struggles from a mile away like it was seeping out of his pores only for Nancy to notice.
Despite Mikes lack of communication, Nancy’s emotional intelligence or stupid big sister instinct always knew what was wrong with him and it pisses him off. He knew at the end of the day that she was worried about him, but he hated nothing more than to express his feelings to anybody especially his big sister. So the least she can do is leave him alone.
When he got up out of bed he lazily walked over to his dresser ignoring the pig sty in his room. His dirty clothes were piled up in a corner, and his desk was covered in old homework assignments and broken, messy stationary supplies, everything was just scattered around and Mike has been way too lazy to clean it so he’s just accepted it. He puts on a dark blue and red sweater, black jeans and black sneakers.
As he was getting dressed he caught a glimpse of himself in his mirror noticing that his dark black curls were starting to grow a bit too long, his deep eye bags, his pale complexion due to his lack of sunlight and this weird permanent frown on his resting face. It’s like he didn’t recognize who was staring back at him.
Now, with his already low morale of trying to end this stupid apocalypse he realized how ugly he was just adding more fuel to an already strongly blazing dumpster fire in his head. He sighed deeply, grabbing a wrinkled crusty t-shirt from the floor and draping it on-top of his mirror so his reflection doesn’t ruin his day again.
When he’s done wallowing away in his feelings and low-self esteem he leaves his bedroom and heads downstairs for breakfast.
He sees everybody already there sitting at the table except Mrs. Byers. Nancy and Jonathan conversing like normal, Holly and mom still setting down some of the food onto the table and his dad sitting at the head of the table reading his newspaper silently without a single care in the world.
Mikes eyes finally settle onto Will casually entering Jonathan and Nancy’s conversation. Mikes eyes couldn’t help but stare longingly into Will’s face, sort of dreading being in his presence until he felt a gentle pat on his back, startling him out of his thoughts.
“You alright sweetie?” His mom asked with a smile, tipping her head down to look at him face to face. He turns his head to look at her and his eyebrows lift subtly in surprise “Yea, i’m okay.” He says casually, lying straight through his teeth. “Well go sit down” She says gently as she walks back into the kitchen.
Mike eyed the empty seat next to Will and walked over to it, pulling it out from under the table and sitting down. Will turns his head to look at Mike “Hey.” Will says with a friendly smile “Morning.” Mike returns the friendliness.
The awkwardness settled in fast between them. “How’d you sleep?” Will asked “Uhm.. I slept alright.” Will nods looking back at Jonathan and Nancy trying to enter their conversation again. Fuck Mike thought. On-top of the weird dreams, him and Will have been insanely awkward towards each other like they were two classmates forced to do a school project together.
They have not had a single casual flowing conversation in years and Mike misses that. He missed being able to tell Will everything without feeling like he’d judge him. As Mike drowns himself in his thoughts and flashbacks to simpler nostalgic times he suddenly blurts out without even realizing “I had a dream about you” what the fuck am I doing!! Mike panicked in his head.
Obviously he couldn’t tell Will about the dream he had about him last night. The way Will was so close to him, the way his eyes flicked down to Mikes lips every-time he spoke, the way Will gently laid his hand on Mikes thigh, rubbing it up and down gently—
“really?” Will asked interrupting Mikes flashback to his dream, interested in what Mike was gonna say next. His left eyebrow lifts a little bit and a slight grin tugs at his lips. Mike falters, melting immediately under Wills gaze “Yea..It was crazy..” Mike exaggerates with a nervous smile.
His leg started to bounce under the table. Now he has to make up some bullshit dream because he can’t keep his big mouth shut!
“Uhm.. We were at school in gym class. And my dad was our coach and he was like really really buff for some reason—“
Will laughs lightly at the thought of imagining Mikes dad being buff. Mike pauses admiring the way his face lit up. “Continue..” Will makes a circular rotating gesture with his hand.
Mike snaps out of his admiration and turns his body to face Will more “And he was making us play dodgeball but then all of the sudden the dodgeballs turn into like..” Mike pauses and looks around for something to use until his eyes land on Jonathan’s half empty glass of orange juice “Oranges!..” He turns to look back at Will, continuing “and everytime someone would get hit by one they would, like, turn orange”
Mike starts to laugh a bit and Will does the same. Will is laughing because he thinks this is funny but Mike laughs from utter nervousness because he has no idea what he’s saying right now and he’s just stringing together the first couple of thoughts into a story. “A-and you saw that I was gonna get hit by an orange and you.. jumped infront of me, saving me.”
Will laughs again lightly, turning his body towards Mike too. Now their knees are brushing up against each-other and Mike can instantly feel the warmth buzz through him.
“That’s a very interesting dream..” Will says with a warm smile and a glint of interest still in his eyes as if the weird awkward funk in their relationship has faded away.
Mike grins sheepishly and nods, tilting his head down and breaking their gaze. “Do you seriously think of me that often that you have dreams about me?” Will asks teasingly.
Mike lifts his head back up, his grin now wiped away from his face. “No” He says instantly, he then realizes that sounded rude and that he never thinks of Will “I mean!— I do, think of you..” He smiles again trying to play it off. “I was kidding Mike…” Will smiles awkwardly.
“Yea, I knew that.” He stupidly says as Will turns his body away to face Nancy and Jonathan again. Mike watches in defeat as he replays in his head how badly he fumbled.