Chapter Text
February 1992 New York City.
Will turns his head in a panicked state, his vision blurry and forehead sweaty, and just as the demogorgon is about to sink its long slimy nails into his best friend’s neck, intending to tear his so very breathtakingly beautiful face apart, his eyes snap open.
“Oh my-”, Will growls, his t-shirt’s collar drenched in sweat. Yet another horrible nightmare about that day. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 day when in real life he somehow had “gained” or more so “borrowed” Vecna's powers to save his friends from the demos. But in the dream that keeps repeating itself he isn’t able to save them. He just stands there, glued to the ground sobbing while he witnesses Mike, his 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 get demolished by the same monster that had gotten him all those years back. When he was still innocent and small, just a child.
He snaps out of his thoughts when he realises what had woken him up before the (nowadays apparently) nightly horrors make him wake up to uncontrollable sobs that echo through his lonely apartment. The phone rings. It has been ringing for probably like the past two minutes by now.
He reluctantly gets up from his usually so warm and welcoming but now just anxiety provoking bed and makes his way to the phone that is connected to the wall next to his front door. On his waddly walk to stop the most annoying voice to wake up to he glances at the digital clock on his countertop. 12:03. Jeez, how long had he slept for? Well, it did make sense, since he had stayed up late the night before painting something that the repeating horrible memory that had fooled itself into his dreams making his nights restless and his chest feel so heavy that he had to get even some of it out, to ease the burden.
He lives alone in a small one room studio apartment in NYC. He moved there about a year and a half ago when he got into college there. Life in the big city has been.. okay. Even though it’s way better, than having to stay back in Hawkins where despite the never ending forests and safe small town- feeling, he had felt trapped and like he was suffocating more and more each day that passed, it’s not perfect here either. But at least here Will doesn’t feel like he is about to run out of air any minute now, but something almost vital is missing in his life in the (not so new anymore) strange city.
New York has changed him. Or maybe it has just made him able to express himself more freely. Either way he is now one ear piercing and many new, in his opinion cooler and more fitting, clothes as well as new experiences and friends- different. Different to who he was when he left Hawkins.
After Will picked up the phone, the last bits of sleepiness were quickly shaken away when a familiar voice answered on the other side of the phone.
“Hi Will! It’s been a while, how’s New York?”
Mrs. Wheeler’s voice echoed in Will’s ears.
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬?
Will didn’t respond right away. He couldn’t, what could his best friends mom possibly be calling him for..
“Are you there? I hope I didn’t wake you up” her voice sounded abnormal. A little faster than usual, with a hint of worry hidden in the politeness.
“Sorry, yes, hi Mrs. Wheeler, yes I’m here and no, you didn’t wake me up” (a lie)
“Umh.. why.. is there something I can help you with?” Will asks.
“Well yes actually. It’s about Michael.”
Mike. Will’s 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥, Mike. 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭'𝘴 best friend, 𝘔𝘪𝘬𝘦. 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘔𝘪𝘬𝘦.
The same Mike Will hadn’t really been in contact with for the past, maybe ten months. They did send each other christmas cards a couple months back, but that was about it. After he had moved and Mike stayed back home, they just hadn’t found enough time to stay as closely in touch as they probably (hopefully) both would have liked. At least Will would have. And maybe the fact that they both had grown into adults while being over ten hours apart had its role in their current “not talking, but still friends, but not as closely, but hopefully still close 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 to be calling each other their best friend”-situation.
At the same time Will was sort of happy to have some air between them. As good, lovely and safe it had been growing up with Mike, being secretly in love with your best friend does take up a lot of energy and resources to handle. Or particularly the hiding it part. Being in Mikes presence and living together in their own world with him was all Will had ever wanted. Or so he thought, until he had to find a way to make amends with being in love with his sister’s boyfriend. Even though he had loved Mike long before El had even been in their lives.
But then some time after Vecna was defeated and El had healed her wounds for a bit, she had broken up with Mike. Will isn’t quite sure about everything that happened between them, since they both seem oddly quiet about how things went down. But it didn’t really matter, since they were able to stay as close friends and their friend group, the party, didn’t split up over things ending between them. El had just told him that their feelings had turned out to be more friendly than romantic, and that they were both on the same page about it. While saying so she had this small weird smirk on the side of her mouth, which she gave no explanation to when Will tried to ask her about it. He didn’t want to push, because he thought that even if they broke up on good terms, it still must have been hard to end such a relationship. What comes to Mike, he wasn’t exactly more talkative about it when Will asked about it one time while they were out with the party and the two of them wandered further away from the others. Mike hadn’t really ever told Will a lot about his relationship with El. Will mostly found things out from El whenever they have talked after the break up when Mike has come up, or from Max who heard all about El and Mike’s relationship while they were still together. But then, at the end of the day, since the two of them are the most important people in Will’s life with Jonathan and Joyce of course, all that mattered to him was that they were both happy. Except apparently Mike isn’t. Which makes Will feel sick to his stomach like he is about to throw up.
Swiftly Will realized that he had again wandered off to his thoughts, trying to concentrate on Karen Wheeler's words regarding her only son.
“I’m not really sure how to say this.. or what exactly to even say. He’s been doing really poorly. He hasn’t really been interested in anything for some time now. I can’t even really tell you how long it has been. But it’s really bad, and then the other day.. I walked into the bathroom while he was.. he umh.. he was just about to throw a handful of his fathers prescription sleeping pills into his mouth.. and I uh..”
Will could hear her breathing start getting faster while the words got caught up in her throat
“I didn’t know who else to call with Nancy being so far away and-”
Will interrupted her just before she was about to start hyperventilating: “I’ll be there. By tonight, I promise.”
After a short silence he heard Mrs. Wheeler whisper “Thank you, Will. Thank you.” before hanging up.
What? Ho- whe-. Will was unable to form clear thoughts with a million questions and thoughts flooding his head at the same time as he stayed standing by the door with the landline phone still in his hand, even though it beeped to let the person holding it know that the interlocutor on the other line had ended the interaction. He could as well be still sleeping and dreaming this all. The nightmare just changing its form this time.
After putting down the phone in total unawareness, his eyes still fixated on the wall against him, being able to catch only one word from all the suffocating thoughts and feelings running on his mind.
Mike.
The moments leading to this one were a blur. Will does remember grabbing his car keys and school bag. I guess taking the bag made sense in the state that he left in, since it has most of his essential everyday things in it. Keys, his sketch book and some worn out water colour palette he has gotten used to bringing to his classes to give his doodles life, a toothbrush, some underwear and a t-shirt. He had started to bring those last three items everywhere with him after he once spent the night extempore at his new college friends place and didn’t have anything with him then. He had not used those pieces of clothing or the spare toothbrush once, but now they would come in handy at last. Even though he would need to borrow some clothes from Mike, or go see if his mom still had some of his old ones left.
On the ten and half hour drive he was starting by himself he had tons of time to think about.. well everything. It’s not like he hadn’t thought about things during the last 18-10 months, but Mrs. Wheeler’s heart stopping and head aching call had brought up new thoughts. Lots of them.
Sorting out his thoughts while driving still in the shaken state that he was in turned out to be a lot harder than he had expected. It’s hard to start thinking about difficult things, so Will tried to think about something easier at first. He thought about good memories from Hawkins, about his mom, Jonathan and El, and the party; Dustin, Lucas and Max. As he took firmer grip on the steering wheel his eyes brushed through his cars front windowsill where he had his old D&D character placed, glued tightly as to never be taken out. Maybe to remember where he comes from, or to remember who he still is, deep down, under the new style and new trendy words he’s grown to use and cafes he goes to study with his new artsy friends who are nothing like friends in Hawkins. Some of the new friends had laughed at the little wizard figure just sitting on the edge of sight, but Will didn’t care. They would never get it, so he had just always changed the subject after giving it a small laugh and murmuring something about his friends back home. In fact, Will had Mike’s character figure too, hidden in the glove compartment infront of the front passenger’s seat. Mike’s paladin had sat next to Will’s cleric on the windowsill until Will’s former boyfriend he had fallen for in the first semester of college had asked him about the two small plastic dolls and Will had had to awkwardly put Mike’s away to reassure the new boyfriend that there was nothing between them. Or maybe in reality the reassurance was really for Will himself, but it was easier to say it was for this new relationship he had. Maybe Will was afraid it would come out that even after all this time he still couldn’t move on. Because where the figure was a sweet memory of Hawkins and their childhood, it was a reminder about Mike, too, who had made sure that Will took the small wizard and knight with him when he was leaving for New York.
Once his eyes went back to the road ahead, he thought about the summer after graduating High school when he and Mike had studied for their drivers licenses together. Laying side by side legs tangled on Mike's bed trying to remember how to use the pedals and the gearstick. They had their driving tests on the same day, and as they both passed (Will got a better score than Mike, obviously) they drove together around the town, taking turns sitting behind the wheel. It had felt so good sitting there together, alone with the windows rolled down, allowing the warm summer evening breeze to caress their hair and cheeks while laughing without a care in the world. It was exactly how all their years growing up should have been like. Innocent and easy. Going through the same every other teenager did; school dances and secret first kisses, sneaking out to get drunk and getting back home in the early hours of the morning trying to stay silent but failing due to unstoppable giggling, making stupid mistakes and learning from them. That evening with Mike was the first normal thing Will had experienced since being twelve-years-old. Will let out a small chuckle, he missed that summer, and those warm days at the end of July they had spent alone with Mike, since the rest of the party had already left for college.
At some point Will noticed his eyes starting to get sloppier. It got to a point where he had to pull over to not crash his car and die (wouldn’t that be an ironic ending to his story.. getting into a car crash while driving to save his first crush-best friend from killing himself). He stopped the engine and got out of the car to get some air. He jumped up a bit to sit down on his car's back bumper and let out a loud sigh curling his legs up into his chest and wrapping his arms around them so they wouldn’t fall down. Hugging his legs made him think of Mike.. again. Honestly not a day goes by without him thinking about Mike. Will sees him in everything, and he can’t say that he’s been trying not to, he likes being reminded of Mike. Even though sometimes when he really gets lost in the thought it hurts. Right now he can’t stop thinking about what is about to come. Soon when he arrives at the Wheeler’s house and steps in. Will it be like the last time he visited? Will Mr. Wheelers’ armchair still be in the same spot in front of the TV, and will there still be the same familiar scent of their house that Will would recognise amongst thousands of house scents. But mostly he is thinking about how Mike will feel about him being there again. What if his mom didn’t tell him beforehand about Will coming to stay there for god knows how long.
Or maybe he could go home for the nights or actually to this new house his mom and Hopper had bought together after their engagement. Will can’t really call the new house home, at least not yet, maybe never. Joyce and Hopper had bought the house after the cabin had started to feel too small, especially when all five of them were home, even though none of the three kids lived with them anymore. Jonathan had left for college earlier and after all the upside down shit ending El wanted to travel and see other places that were not Hawkins to get a piece of who she really was as her own individual, and after a while settling down couple towns over. Will was the last to move, since her mom was still really protective of him, and in all honesty he didn’t feel quite ready to apply and move to college the year he graduated, so he didn’t mind staying for a bit longer. Especially since Mike wasn’t going to move either.
The new house has three bedrooms, and while none of the three kids has designated room for when they visit, it mostly goes in a way that Jonathan sleeps in one and El in another, and Will switches between them, depending on how everyone is feeling. Will doesn’t really like the fact that he’s the one who doesn’t have a regular room in the house, but at the same time he does not want to inconvenience the others by bringing it up and being a burden to them. The room Jonathan always sleeps in has two beds, so usually he ends up there, but some nights he sleeps next to El after they talk for hours about pretty much everything. They have that wonder twin connection, even though they’re not biologically twins or even siblings.
Wills fingers start to go numb from pressing them against his legs so tightly. That’s when he decides that he feels good enough to continue the drive. It’s starting to get colder out, well colder than it already was in mid February. Being in the cold, especially in the dark and alone still kinda freaks him out. Like 𝘏𝘦 was still there, even though Will knows that He is (supposed to be) gone for good.
“Okay..” Will murmurs under his breath while getting down from on top of his dark blue crappy Ford Fiesta. His legs feel a bit weak having to walk around the car back to the driver’s seat.
After sitting down in the car that was as cold as the air outside Will stays quiet listening to his surroundings. He’s oddly peaceful and feels like he is the only person in the whole long road going miles and miles in both directions, even though cars keep passing him regularly. Not one car had stopped to ask him if he was okay or needed help with his car, or himself.
After a second Will starts the engine and puts the heater on high, to warm up the car and the icy thoughts on the side.
Hawkins is only a couple of hours away.
He doesn’t feel like thinking about anything anymore, so he just puts on a tape he and Mike had made some years ago. Mike had the exact same one, with Bowie and the Smiths and some other artists and bands they liked to listen to together while just hanging out quietly in one of their rooms doing their own things, but still being together.
It was closer to midnight when Will curved his car to the yard of the house he knew so very well it aches his heart. The Smiths were playing and the last words Morrissey sang before Will turned the key to stop the car were “But in my heart it was so real And you even spoke to me, and said..”. The car engine’s loud sound stopped alongside the sweet melody of a song Will and Mike used to play constantly from Mike’s tape recorder. Now there was only silence. The house, its surroundings and actually the whole town was so quiet it almost frightened Will. He didn’t want to move. Of course he was happy to be back, sort of. But being back here held so many questions and uncertainties that it made him feel uneasy. Will closed his eyes for just a second to gather some courage. Then he stepped out of the vehicle.
The Wheeler’s doorbell and its sound was fancier than what his family could have ever even imagined to have. It made his ears ring. A thought and anxiety about who would be opening the door was about to form in Will’s mind when the door opened. On the other side of the doorstep was Michael Wheeler in his worn out black sweatpants and a grey hoodie with his recognizable crooked nose and gentle dark eyes staring back at Will.