Work Text:
Tethyr, Lands of Intrigue, west Faerûn — Spring, 1358
“I cannot leave you again!” cries Sir Michael, bare palms grasping desperately at his cleric’s upper biceps. His voice is raw, distressed, and Will the Wise is unsure on how to act.
A paladin must obey his oath towards his cleric. It’s written in the stars for Mike to protect Will, a dynamic crafted by the Gods themselves. In countless past lives had Mike sworn to keep Will safe, and ever since they were children in this life, Mike vowed it. When war greets his doorstep, a paladin must never break his vow.
And now Will is pushing him away. To protect him, he said, to which Mike thinks is utter bullshit.
So he begs, uttering a broken, “Please.” Mike lowers himself to his knees, hands sliding down Will’s arms and shifting to his hips.
The look he gives his cleric, brows upturned with his gaze never breaking, almost causes Will to rethink his plans. But his grip on the staff tightens. Will knows he has to be brave, if not for himself, then for his paladin.
“My love, let me stay,” Mike whispers for only Will’s ears. “Let me fight. Let me be here for you, I beg of it.”
Will swallows the lump in his throat. The pools of dark brown are glassy with unshed tears, matching that of Will’s own gaze.
“I cannot let you,” he says quietly.
It hurts to let Mike go like this, in the middle of war and bloodshed and violence. Mike’s been injured far too many times, and Will had instructed on a twenty-four hour bed rest since exhaustion was the main setback from any and all healing spells, but Mike is nothing if not stubborn. Exhaustion and phantom pain be damned, Mike the Brave will fight on if it means keeping Will the Wise safe.
But Will cannot allow that. Will cannot live with himself if Mike’s recklessness leads to his own death after being instructed to rest.
Long fingers grasp at the fabric of Will’s tunic beneath the deep purple, star patterned robe. “I vowed to protect you for the rest of my life,” Mike says, “so may the Gods help me, I will push through so you can live through this hell.”
“I forbid it,” Will argues.
“William,” he whispers, and the call of his cleric’s name sounds so defeated. “My love, please. Rethink this.”
Slowly, Will lowers to his knees, and Mike’s eyes track his face. He releases his staff and lets it fall carelessly to the grass in favor of cradling Mike’s face like a chest of jewels.
Will sounds solemn when he quietly says, “You can‘t protect me in this state.”
“You underestimate me.”
“Sir Michael.” Hazel—no, white—eyes are shadowed with furrowed brows. “You cannot protect me in this state.”
The repeat and focused incantation of words has a brief panic flash across Mike’s features. His hands tighten its grasp on the fabric of Will’s tunic as if trying to keep him in this moment forever.
Will the Wise doesn’t need a staff to cast spells. It’s for show, for weaponry. His spellcasting comes from the heart, from divine power.
Mike feels betrayed.
“No,” he utters with the smallest shake of his head.
“You will leave Faerûn until I deem it is safe for your return.”
“No.”
“You will rest and-“
The last spell is cut off with a kiss. It’s harsh and desperate but pleads in a way that begs for more time. Mike doesn’t want to hear another spell that could wound his already torn heart. Though returning the kiss eagerly, Will pulls back in seconds. He takes a momentary breather before knocking his forehead against Mike’s. One hand lowers to take Mike’s hand in his.
“You will be with me again, my knight,” Will says. “Simply give it time.”
Mike squeezes Will’s hand. Despite wanting to cry and complain, Mike pushes those feelings aside and angles his head to reconnect their lips in one last fleeting kiss.
You will leave Faerûn until I deem it is safe for your return.
What Will decides is “safe,” Mike hasn’t a clue. Does he mean when Mike is no longer lightheaded? Or perhaps he means when the war is over (and frankly, who knows when it’ll end). Mike hopes it’s not the latter. Mike prays for it not to be.
Hawkins, IN — Spring, 1989
“This is literally the perfect campaign for spring break,” says Mike Wheeler, looking up from the magazine in his lap to his best friend sitting at the foot of the bed.
Papers with Mike’s handwriting sprawled on are scattered across the mattress, the storyline all written out for the Dungeon Master. The party’s D&D binders are all stacked on Mike’s desk with updated character and information sheets tucked into each person's binder. Ever since Mike scored the magazine back in December, he’s been drafting and planning this campaign for the six of them. Winter break was far too soon to have the campaign, so spring break is their next opportunity.
“I mean, look!” Mike glances back down to the magazine. “It says right here that it’s catered towards a party of four to six, and suggests having a wizard—that’s you—two warriors, so me and Max, and a ranger, and that’s obviously Lucas. And then we have Jane and Dustin to back us up, which is even better. It’ll be quick!”
Mike looks back up to Will, who’s been so enthralled with Mike’s enthusiasm that he almost doesn’t register the fact Mike’s handing him the magazine to look at for himself.
He blinks out of his daze, sitting up to take the magazine. “Right, yeah,” Will says with a small nod. “I think it sounds fun.” He reads over the brief synopsis—monsters, crops gone, starving citizens, crumbling government, verge of war—before skimming the location.
Will lets out a small hum as he reads about the nation of Tethyr. “That’ll be interesting for our characters,” he says, lifting his gaze and hanging the magazine back. “It says the elves don’t trust humans there.”
Will the Wise is an elf cleric. Mike the Brave is a human paladin. Their relationship has always been strong and complimentary, yet Tethyr seems to have trouble in store for the two.
Mike gives a small smile. “Fun dynamic, right?” he says. “I’ve got a whole paper, front and back, written on how it’ll play out. It’ll-“
The bedroom door slams open, startling the two boys. Their heads whip to the entrance where Lucas, Dustin, Max, and Jane stand.
“We’ve got a problem,” starts Lucas, eyes focused more so on Mike than Will.
“Is it you not being able to knock?” Mike retorts.
Lucas narrows his eyes, and Dustin stifles a giggle from behind.
“It’s a serious problem, idiot,” says Max. “It’s a you problem.”
All eyes fall on Mike. Will’s gaze is more uneasy than the others, brows furrowed and hazel eyes soon locking with deep brown ones. Mike glances from Will to the crowd of four in his doorway. He’s concerned (rightfully so), and has no idea what awaits him.
In the basement of the Wheeler’s, the lights are on and the back door is left open. A man in knights armor sits hunched on the couch, hands clasped with his elbows on his padded knees. His silver shoulder plate is decorated with a red heart and gold crown—his coat of arms.
Multiple footsteps venture down the flight of stairs, Mike and Will following last. The knight’s head lifts only a fraction to peer through his lashes at the crowd. His ranger, his bard, his mage, and his rouge—at least the lookalikes of those friends back home—have returned with two more in tow.
A mirror of himself and his cleric break through the group of four. The knight visibly lightens, sitting upright with his mouth partially agape. His eyes lock with Will’s. It’s not his Will, but it’s a version of his cleric nonetheless.
The knight can’t help himself to quietly call, “My love.”
Mike’s brows raise in utter disbelief, and he glances from his paladin self to Will standing next to him. His face grows warmer when he sees the matching wide eyes from Will (and he’s certain he spots a blush, too). Max, Lucas, Jane, and Dustin must have all heard that revelation already, because when Mike glances around at the four others, their expressions read relatively neutral.
The clank of armored boots cross the basement floor, and Mike’s attention flits right back to Paladin Mike.
“Hey, woah, excuse me?” Mike interrupts as he gets a little too close to Will for his liking. Paladin Mike pauses in his footsteps to give Mike a minute glare before softening his gaze and glancing at Will.
“I apologize,” says Paladin Mike, keeping his gaze on Will rather than Mike. “I mean not to intrude on your relationship.”
Will blinks, and his face grows hotter. This is already getting far too much for his poor heart. First, the knight version of Mike with long hair and a tender gaze calls him “my love,” then the knight version of Mike is implying he sees Regular Will and Regular Mike in a romantic relationship. What’s next? The magic version of Will comes walking in and makes out with his knight? Will could die.
“Relationship?” Mike exclaims.
Max lets out a snort, covering her mouth with her hand and glancing aside. “Oh, my God,” she mumbles. Lucas lets out a small sigh and gently nudges Max towards the couch to sit. This is going to be a long talk. Lucas can already see the conflict washing over Will’s features.
“No, no, we’re friends- best friends!” Mike continues.
“You have the gall to lessen your affection to be equivalent to that of simple friendship?” Paladin Mike says, feeling far more betrayed than when his Will shunned him.
Will glances from his Mike to Paladin Mike, and his intrigue for the knight’s relationship with his own Will heightens from hearing that reply. “Affection?” Will murmurs.
“No!” Mike defends himself against his paladin self. “What? No. I- I don’t- I don’t have an- What?” He’s stumbling over his words, and his face grows warmer with each passing second, and he’s unsure if he can have this conversation here in front of his friends (in front of Will).
Will’s bright expression falters, and he looks back to his world’s Mike.
“Okay, we have bigger problems than that,” says Dustin.
Lucas utters a quiet, “Dude,” with a pointed look, brows furrowed and a hand giving a gesture to the room. “Read the room.”
“I am reading, Lucas, and I am seeing two Mike’s!”
“Dustin is right.” Jane steps forward, looking from Lucas to Regular Mike and Paladin Mike. “The Knight Mike does not belong here.”
“Sir,” he politely corrects.
Jane stares at Paladin Mike with slight confusion. “Ma’am?”
A fond smile crosses the paladin’s lips—this world’s Jane reminds him of his version back home. At least some things haven’t changed. “No, ‘sir’ as in a knight’s title, Lady Jane. I am Sir Michael of Tethyr.” His gaze flits to Will, and he takes a step closer. A hand raises to tentatively cup Will’s jaw, skin flushed beneath Paladin Mike’s touch. “I am devoted to my cleric through all my lifetimes.”
“Sorcerer.”
Will wants to strangle his Mike. Lucas lowers his head into his palms and mutters, “Jesus Christ.”
The paladin looks over to his other world’s self as he removes his touch from Will, and his brows furrow. “Pardon?”
“He’s a sorcerer, actually,” says Mike, arms crossed and glare narrowing. “His powers are innate.”
“I believe I understand William’s spellcasting far better than you,” Paladin Mike retorts. “He is a cleric.”
“Sorcerer.”
Will cuts in with a, “Is that really a big deal?”
Both the paladin and Regular Mike turn to Will, simultaneously saying, “It is.”
“God, I’m getting flashbacks,” Lucas mutters as he leans back on the couch, tilting his head back with hands still over his face.
Mike rolls his eyes. “Whatever.” His glare stays steady on his paladin self. “How do we get you out of here?”
“If I had known that myself, I would not be here,” says Paladin Mike.
Mike grits his teeth. For being, well, himself, Mike is seriously getting annoyed with his paladin counterpart. First by calling Will “my love,” then by implying he sees Will and Mike as a romantic couple, then saying Mike has some sort of affection towards Will? Mike isn’t ready to confront those types of feelings just yet. He hasn’t been ready since the summer before freshman year.
“Can we focus on bringing this guy back to his home universe, please? One Mike is already more than enough,” Max pipes up from the couch. Her gaze flickers to Dustin and Jane. “What do you guys know about universal travel, besides what we’ve already been through?”
“Doctor Who,” says Dustin.
Jane replies with, “Not much.”
Max groans and slouches in her seat.
“Well, how did you come here?” Will asks as his gaze lands on Paladin Mike.
Will has an idea, since this Mike seems to strongly resemble the paladin in their Dungeons & Dragons games. Will assumes a spell of some sort has brought the paladin here. The why, however, is left unanswered.
“My lover told me I cannot return to Faerûn until he deems it is safe for my return,” says Paladin Mike. “I do believe his spellcasting is far more powerful than he assumes, since I have arrived here and not to my home.”
“Why would Will send you away?” Mike cuts in with a furrowed brow. “Did you hurt him?”
The paladin looks at Mike. “Did you?”
The Wheeler’s basement falls silent. Mike’s hands ball to fists at his side, and he swallows his emotions.
“Let’s get this over with,” he says as he nearly storms up the stairs and out of the basement.
Feeling that familiar hurt tug at his heart strings, Will watches as Mike leaves.
“My love?” the paladin can’t help but call quietly. Will turns to Mike the Brave; it’s not his Mike referring to him as such, but it’s Mike nonetheless. “Are you alright?”
Will glances around the room. Max and Lucas are quietly conversing about the paladin, while Jane and Dustin are brainstorming on how to bring him back home. Will’s attention lands back on Paladin Mike, and he gives a reassuring smile.
“I’m okay,” he says under his breath. He’s not.
The paladin lifts his hand to cup Will’s face once more, and Will nearly finches away from the touch. But it’s Mike holding him so tenderly, and it’s Mike looking at him like he’s molded the clouds above, and it’s Mike who wants to give Will the world. Not my Mike, but Mike nonetheless. He may trust this Mike with all his life, but his heart will only trust his Mike.
“My love,” the paladin starts, and Will wants to cry every time he says it, “if you are anything like my William back home, then I can tell you are not being truthful.”
Paladin Mike’s fingertips gently thread through Will’s hair, pushing strands behind his round ear. It’s not sharp like his cleric’s elven roots, but rather human like his own. Clarity returns to the paladin, and he lowers his hand to Will’s shoulder instead.
“You’re just…” Will takes a slow, deep breath to steady himself and his feelings. “You’re so much like him.”
“I am him.”
Will shakes his head. “My Mike wouldn’t treat me like this,” he whispers.
My Mike. It sounds lovely to say, but so untrue.
“A wise man has once said to simply give it time,” Sir Michael says, fondly reminiscing on his conversation with his Will just hours ago back home. “I vowed to love you in every life, William. I assure you I love you in this one, too.”
Vision blurring and throat feeling tight, Will simply gives a weak nod to the paladin. Maybe this Mike is right. Maybe Will is just hopeful and optimistic after all these years, but perhaps in every universe Mike Wheeler and Will Byers really are meant to be.
With a quiet, “Oh, William,” the paladin brings Will in for a tender embrace. His face tucks in the crook of Will’s neck, and a hand rests at the crown of his head. Will rests his head against the side of Paladin Mike’s and squeezes his eyes shut, arms encircling the paladin’s body. He misses when his Mike hugged him like this.
The basement door opens, and Mike jogs down the steps with his newest D&D magazine in hand. He comes to a slow pace at the fourth to last step, dark brown eyes lingering on his paladin self hugging Will. He stops on the third step and narrows his gaze.
Over Will’s shoulder, the paladin peers up at Mike on the stairs. Mike has never wanted to punch his own face more in his life.
The embrace ends, and Will wipes any stray tears from his cheeks. Jane calls Will over to her and Dustin to talk about the paladin, and Will complies, leaving only Paladin Mike and Regular Mike by the staircase. Mike’s gaze follows Will, and he slowly steps down the last few stairs before his feet finally hit the carpeted floor.
“What was that?” he asks quietly, turning to face his paladin counterpart.
“Most refer to it as a hug.”
“I know what a hug is, Michael,” Mike says with pure annoyance. Is this how Nancy feels? Or Max? Or anyone who talks to Mike Wheeler for longer than twenty minutes?
Paladin Mike raises a brow at Regular Mike before gesturing a little further into the basement. “May I talk to you?” he asks.
Mike rolls his eyes, tosses the magazine on the coffee table, then walks around the corner of the stairs to stand closer to the bathroom and further from his friends. The paladin follows him. Facing the paladin, Mike crosses his arms and keeps up his annoyed expression. “What?” he says.
“Are you devoted to Will?”
Straight to the point. Mike’s gaze narrows, and he scoffs under his breath. “What?” he repeats, this time with more of a questioning tone.
The paladin lets out a sigh and leans back against a table. “I’m unsure how it works in this… place, but back home, when I made my oath to my cleric, I told him we would always be in every fight together, even if it meant we’d go insane.”
Mike’s tense expression falters, and his shoulders visibly lighten. Crazy together.
Paladin Mike raises a brow. “I see that’s struck a nerve,” he murmurs with a smirk.
Mike huffs and looks aside. Dark brown eyes land on Will across the basement, and he tightens his jaw as those terrifying feelings come crawling back up his spine. Mike lowers his head.
“It doesn’t work like that here,” Mike murmurs, and what exactly it is, he’s unsure. But what Mike does know is that he and Will won’t work out this time—not in this context, at least.
“If you are anything like me, then I know you care for him in a way you refuse to admit,” says Paladin Mike. “Simple friendship does not come close to describing how you behave with your William.”
Mike knows that. He’s certain everyone in this basement knows that. Hell, his own mother probably knows that. But he can’t admit something like that when someone like his father exists in his life.
“He’s not mine,” is all Mike can retort quietly with.
There’s a remorseful expression on the paladin’s sharp features. “You want him to be.”
Mike doesn’t like how this conversation is going with his paladin self. He runs a hand through his hair and glances aside. “Not when dad still exists.”
“If you are to let everyone in your life dictate your decisions, you will live a life of regret.”
Mike doesn’t want anymore regrets. He hasn’t wanted to live with regret since the fall of ‘87.
The paladin places his palm on Mike’s shoulder, reassuring and comforting. “Believe me, Michael.” (It’s weird having his own voice and face give an encouraging pep talk about his unfaced queerness.) “When you make your own choices, ones that will make you happy, you will feel free.”
Free. In conservative Indiana, freedom for a queer kid isn’t exactly something to be seen in the near future.
But Mike could feel free if he were with Will. Will is strong—brave—about his sexuality. Mike wishes he could be as brave as Will. Mike still may be iffy on his sexuality, but he knows for certain that he is in love with Will Byers. Like the paladin before him, Mike can be brave.
Their heart to heart comes to an end, and Paladin Mike retreats to join the group across the basement. Mike’s attention drifts from the paladin to Will.
Mike can be brave.
He joins the group to continue the discussion of returning Paladin Mike to his world.
Hours pass, breaks are taken, and progress is made. Max figures that maybe Jane can get into Paladin Mike’s head and memories and see if there’s any information on reversing the spell. Dustin suggests creating a portal with Jane’s powers, similarly to how she did all those years ago with the Abyss. Mike’s little Dungeon #38 magazine does little to help, but does inform the group on Tethyr.
And then Will points out a specific description written in the spellcasting page. He leans forward, a pointer finger brushing the paper. “What about this one?” he asks.
Dimension door. When using ‘dimension door’, the caster can choose a destination that the caster can visualize and will instantly form a door to the location.
“It says a magic-user can cast it,” Dustin adds. He looks over to Jane. “That’s right up your alley.”
Jane nods and turns to the paladin. “Can I search your mind?” she asks.
“If you must,” he replies.
The party moves their experiment outside, just in case something goes downhill. Paladin Mike isn’t wary about Jane’s abilities. He assumes that if her powers are anything like Lady Jane's back home, then he has nothing to fear.
In the woods behind Mike’s neighborhood, Jane pauses in her footsteps and faces the party (plus Paladin Mike). She’s created a portal to another dimension once before, she can do it again—this time with good meaning.
“Sit,” she instructs the paladin.
The two settle on the grass facing each other, and Jane wraps Lucas’s bandana around her eyes. Max changes the channels on the radio they brought along until that familiar buzzing erupts from the speaker. She sets it on the grass, steps back, and waits with the rest of the group.
A minute passes before blood trickles from Jane’s nose. The paladin has his eyes shut peacefully as Jane searches his mind. Will glances at Mike beside him, and Mike catches his gaze almost instantly.
“You okay?” Mike whispers with a tilt of his head.
Will takes a breath and nods, glancing at the paladin and Jane. “Yeah,” he says quietly before meeting Mike’s eyes again. “Yeah, just… weird.” Will lets out a small laugh, and Mike can’t help the smile rising at the corners of his lips.
“Yeah,” he agrees, “very weird.”
I assure you I love you in this one.
Will’s smile falters just a fraction. He briefly glances at the paladin. “Mike,” he whispers as he looks at his Mike. “Do you think Paladin You is, um… you? Like his actions and words are, y’know, yours?”
When you make your own choices, ones that will make you happy, you will feel free.
Mike’s nerves have never been at an all time high. He swallows dryly, and his eyes flicker south for a second. “I wanna say,” he murmurs, “yeah, but…” His sentence falls short when he looks over at the paladin. “I just think he’s a lot more brave than me.”
Will’s gaze lingers on Mike’s profile.
“Be quiet,” calls Jane, and Will immediately tears his gaze away from Mike, embarrassment rising. Max lets out a small snort of laughter.
“I can see a forest,” Jane says. “There’s a man.”
“What man?” Dustin asks.
“He’s wearing a purple robe,” Jane continues, “with yellow stars. He… He looks like Will.”
A smile appears on Paladin Mike’s lips. Will’s eyes widen just a fraction.
“Wait, Will the Wise?” Lucas interrupts with a chuckle. “Paladin Mike’s Will is Will the Wise?”
“Certainly,” says the paladin.
Mike hums quietly and looks over at Will. “Mike the Brave and Will the Wise,” he says fondly.
Jane tears the bandana off her eyes and stands from the grass. Craning his neck, Paladin Mike looks up at her. “Stand back,” she instructs.
The paladin stands and takes a few steps back from Jane, the other party members standing behind him. Jane extends her hand and shuts her eyes to focus on creating the portal to another realm. Blood trickles from her nostril, her jaw clenches, and her brows are set in a furrow.
A portal rips open, tearing a clean circle in the fabric of space (and time), and tiny purple swirls emit around it. With a heavy exhale, Jane lowers her hand and wipes the blood from above her lip.
Through the clearing of the portal, there’s a forest and a cleric in a robe decorated with yellow stars. A staff holding a glowing, ruby heart is firm in his grasp, but it quickly falls to the grass when he sees his paladin looking right back at him.
“My heart…” the cleric breathes out, taking a step closer to the portal.
Mike the Brave takes no hesitation in stepping through the portal and into his own world.
“My light,” he calls in disbelief and utter amazement. His cleric has been trying to bring him back just as Jane has been working on connecting the two universes.
With hands resting on Will the Wise’s waist, the paladin brings his lover in for a tender kiss, one he’s been missing out on for eleven hours too long.
(A quiet, affectionate “aw” slips from Max’s lips at the sight through the portal. She leans over to Lucas to whisper. “Why haven’t our Mike and Will figured their shit out like them?” she says.
Lucas leans to whisper back. “I know, right? Taking them forever.”)
“I didn’t know I would send you universes away,” Cleric Will states quietly as he cradles his paladin’s face. “I assumed I'd find you at home.”
A small smile lays on Paladin Mike’s lips. “I suppose you underestimate yourself, my love.”
The cleric lets out a soft laugh before leaning in to kiss his paladin once more. It’s short and sweet and ends with a hug, arms wrapping around the paladin’s neck. “Tethyr isn’t the same without you,” admits Cleric Will.
With upturned brows, Mike watches the interaction between the cleric and the paladin. The words hit Mike right in his heart, far too familiar for his liking. He glances at Will beside him as he remembers how he once said that Hawkins isn’t the same without Will. Will is busy being enamored by the sight before him, so he doesn’t catch Mike’s gaze.
“Thank you for coming back to me,” Cleric Will utters as he pulls back from the hug.
Paladin Mike’s hand lifts from his waist to brush through his cleric’s fringe. “Thank you for bringing me back,” he says. The paladin turns his gaze from his cleric to the portal where Jane Hopper stands beyond. “And thank you,” he adds. “I strongly appreciate your help.”
Jane waves shyly at the two men with a small smile gracing her features. Cleric Will waves back, and his head tilts minutely.
“Is that my sister?” he murmurs to his paladin.
Mike the Brave gives a nod. “She assisted greatly in my return,” he says as his attention falls right back to his cleric.
It’s only the party standing beyond the closing portal now that the paladin is back home, particles of purple swirls wisping through the air. Jane’s job is done, so she bids Mike and Will farewell with a, “See you back at Mike’s.” She gestures loosely for Dustin, Max, and Lucas to follow for the two boys to have their privacy. Will watches as his friends leave, then he turns his gaze back to the closing portal.
In Faerûn, it’s just the cleric and the paladin. The forest shields them from the onslaught of war. They’re happy together, devoted to one another, and insanely affectionate. Will craves that connection with his Mike, too.
In Hawkins, it’s now just Will and Mike. The woods hold negative memories for Will, but Mike is right next to him. Mike always keeps an eye out for Will. Mike always asks if he’s okay, and he always knows when Will’s not telling the full truth. But for now, Will is fine, because he has his Mike right beside him, and he knows that if Sir Michael and Cleric William can get their shit together, then Mike and him can, too.
There is still time.