Work Text:
New York is very different from Hawkins.
The city is way bigger, for one. It’s the biggest in the world after all. There are many more people too. Many more shops. Many more restaurants. Many more parks and places to go. There is always food to buy, newspapers to read and people to meet.
Everything is so different when you step foot in New York, starting from Mike himself to his best friend.
Will has always been in a long process of growing more into his own skin, in becoming more confident. Mike has seen his confidence increase more and more over the years, and, honestly, he thought Will had reached the top level of confidence in the last year of high school.
That was his first mistake. They weren’t out of Hawkins yet.
Now that there are actually more people to meet other than the same people they used to see everyday in their hometown, Will has met more like him. He found people to take inspiration from: in the way he talks, in the way he draws, in the way he presents himself, in the way he dresses. He has become ten times more confident.
Confidence, which is an attractive trait for many people. Will becoming more confident in a huge city like this one means he’s getting more hit on than before. From both boys and girls. Naturally, he doesn’t engage with the latter. But he goes on dates with boys all the time.
Mike feels kind of left out.
Not from the boys Will is seeing, of course. Why would he feel like that? They are best friends after all. No. It’s more that everyone is dating someone to an extent—Lucas and Max, Dustin goes on dates too—and he hasn’t done as much as flirt with anyone in years.
Well, he flirts with Will sometimes. But it’s different. It’s not like when Will flirts with his boys. Mike wouldn’t really know, anyways, he always looks away when Will gets hit on. It makes him feel sick otherwise.
He wonders what it’s like. To be one of Will’s boys. How it feels like to flirt with Will, to take him on dates, to touch him, to kiss him. In a romantic way.
Why Will in particular? Mike guesses it’s the lack of romantic encounters he has added to the fact he spends all his day with Will.
They are glued to each other all the time (or is it Mike that is glued to Will?). They study together, they eat lunch together, they go grocery shopping together. Sometimes guys that want to ask Will out ask Mike if they are dating. Yes, is what is always on the tip of Mike’s tongue. For some reason.
Point is. They are best friends. Of course, they spend time together. Of course, Will comes to his and Lucas’ dorm to draw. Of course, they sit on Mike’s bed together. Of course, he lets Will rest his back on the pillow while he rests his against the wall. Of course, Will lays his legs on Mike’s laps. Of course, Mike rests the book he is reading on Will’s knees.
That’s what best friends are for, right?
Perhaps, Mike’s definition of best friend has altered ever since he moved to New York. Now, he thinks wondering what kissing Will feels like is normal. You know, because Mike hasn’t kissed anyone in a while and he is with Will all the time. So it’s natural to want to kiss the person you spend most of your time with. It happens way too often not to be.
“Will,” he isn’t paying attention to his book anymore, anyways. Mike may as well ask now and get over with it.
Will looks up from his sketch book. His gaze is gentle and curious.
“Are you a good kisser?” Mike asks.
Will bats his pretty eyelashes in confusion before giggling, “What?”
“Do you think you’re a good kisser?” Mike repeats. “When you kiss your boyfriends—”
“Boyfriends?” Will tilts his head to the side with a small smile. “Plural?”
Mike rolls his eyes, smiling at his best friend playing oblivious, “You have boyfriends, right?”
Will giggles again, “Quite a few, yes.”
Being part of Will’s boyfriends must be a dream come true. Mike silently wishes for all of Will’s boyfriends to die right now. (He swears he feels a small pain in his chest when he does that. He gets a little scared for his life.)
Mike puts his book away and changes his position to sit face to face with the other boy.
“Do you kiss them well?” Mike presses, sounding more eager than he probably should. Mike leans in to look at Will better, “Is it—is it good?”
Will blinks at him, crossing his legs. He leans towards Mike too with eyebrows furrowed. Not in a judgy way, he’s actually thinking.
“I think they like it,” Will tells Mike. “But I wouldn’t be able to tell, ‘cause I don’t kiss myself.”
Mike says something really dumb.
“I could try and tell you,” He locks eyes with Will. “I haven’t kissed anyone in a while, though. Maybe I’d be a little biased.”
Perhaps, he should think before speaking.
“Huh?” Will blinks.
“I’ll kiss you and tell if you’re a good kisser—or not.”
He looks puzzled, “But, why?”
“I want to know,” Mike answers, honestly. “And I miss kissing. C’mon, please.”
There is also that. The way Will looks at him with his pretty eyes. Will looks at Mike like he is studying him these days. His eyes stare so intensively at Mike that the latter feels his body’s temperature go up. He doesn’t know what that look means. He wonders if Will looks at his boys like that too.
“Wouldn’t that be weird?” Will says, voice quiet.
“No. No!” Mike is quick to say. “It’s just kissing, it's not like we are going to make out.”
Will bites his lower lip, seemingly perplexed. Mike prays to all the gods above to make him accept. He’s ready to become a pastor or give himself as a sacrifice in exchange.
Will stops biting his lower lip, it bounces a little and it’s red. Does it look like this too when Will gets kissed breathless?
“Okay,” he smiles. “Kiss me.”
Mike thanks the divine entity that made it happen. Perhaps, he shouldn’t be this happy about kissing his best friend. But he is.
Will’s lips are soft. Softer than Mike had imagined. It reminds him of silk and cotton candy. When he presses his lips harder onto Will’s, he can taste a little bit of the candies they shared earlier. He wants to taste more, to see what flavor Will ate the most by sliding his tongue in his mouth.
Will pulls away before he can.
“So?”
Mike gawks at him, eyes fluttering open, “So what?”
“Am I a good kisser?” Will asks like it was an evident question. It was.
A good kisser to the point Mike was planning on going on for longer, to the point he almost forgot why they were kissing to begin with.
He really doesn’t want to stop.
“I don’t know,” Mike shrugs. “I think I need another try to make up my mind.”
He wouldn’t be able to tell what Will is thinking when he’s staring at him like that. He seems to think that Mike is unbelievable but also seems to not be against the idea of kissing Mike again.
He ends up giggling, “Okay.”
Mike kisses him again. The butterflies in his stomach seem to multiply at the new contact of their lips. He puts his hands on Will’s knees to push his face into the other’s more this time, to kiss Will more than before. Will puts his hands on Mike’s shoulders.
The kiss lingers for longer this time. As if none of them wants to pull away.
When they do, it’s not too far away. Their noses are brushing. Without a word, they lean again. It’s not a peck anymore: their lips actually move against each other.
Mike doesn’t really know what he’s doing. He isn’t even sure he truly knows how to kiss anyone. It’s not like he tried to with multiple people. He doubts he’s even a good kisser.
His eyes snap open when Will bites his lower lip, teasing. It’s more about how it makes him feel than him not knowing what to do. Will interprets it as the latter.
“Open your mouth, Mike,” he smiles.
Will then parts his lips, to give Mike silent instructions to follow. Mike slides his tongue between Will’s lips before Will can do it.
Holy shit. Mike thinks God might actually exist. Only a superior and infinite being could create a mouth that tastes this good. And if heaven had a taste, it would definitely be this one. Their tongues tangle and untangle over and over again. Mike starts to feel lightheaded—he finds unable to think about anything else but Will and his mouth.
According to what Mike tastes, Will’s favorite candy flavor is strawberry. The sweetness of the candies is still here, Mike chases after it by licking Will’s inner cheeks for the tenth time.
Will is cupping his face now. Kissing him back just as hard and eager. It makes Mike feel giddy all over. Like he’s walking on literal clouds. He’d trade his lungs to kiss Will forever. He really wants to when they start to run out of air.
A thread of saliva links their lips together when they pull away.
Will pants, “Now?”
“Need a better angle,” Mike answers just as breathless. He starts to adjust himself on his knees, “Lay down.”
Will does as he was told with no hesitation. He lays open and tempting. He eyes stay on Mike and the latter is unable to look away. Mike gets above him, plants his hands on either side of Will’s shoulders. Will spreads his legs so Mike can get between them. His hand comes to Mike’s shoulder, then he slides it up to Mike’s hair. Mike leans in for an open-mouthed kiss.
Will wraps his arms around his neck and Mike falls on his forearms.
Mike can’t help but wonder if Will kisses other guys like this too. If he slides his fingers in their black curls, if he grips their hair like he does when Mike tilts his head to the side and kisses him harder, if he successfully gets to push a moan out of them with the magic of his fingers like he just did with Mike.
Mike knows he shouldn’t, but he wonders if Will’s body moves this well with other guys. If it fits this well with anybody else.
He wants to put his palms all over Will’s body and erase every other person’s touch from his skin.
“Can I touch you?” Mike whispers between kisses.
Will answers against his mouth, “Please.”
Mike rests his weight on one forearm to slide his hand under Will’s shirt. He doesn’t want to take it off—not yet. He holds Will’s side, rubs his thumb against his delicate skin. He debates for a moment whether he should go to the north and touch Will’s pecs or to the south and…
His hand moves on its own. Mike can feel Will’s breath catch as his fingers slide under his jeans. His fingertips meet with an unusual material. Instead of feeling the material of Will’s boxers, his fingers find something softer, more detailed. It’s light and seems to have patterns on it. It stretches when Mike pulls it.
“Hah!” Will yelps when Mike lets go.
“Wait, holy shit,” Mike breathes out, looking down at Will’s jeans. He undoes the button, “Are you wearing…”
His eyebrows shot up as he stares at the lacy material peeking out of Will’s jeans. It’s red, perfectly wrapped around Will’s lower waist. Mike looks at it with his mouth agape like a fucking idiot. He feels like he just discovered the Mona Lisa.
Mike looks up. Will is blushing. Mike tries to form a proper sentence but this is so hot, he’s practically salivating.
“Who did you wear this for?” He can’t help but ask.
Will’s voice is quiet and shy, “For me.”
“Did anyone else ever see you with,” Mike’s eyes drags down to the lace panties Will is wearing. “This.”
Will inhales deeply. Mike gets scared for a moment. He holds his breath.
Will exhales, “No,” Mike breathes out in relief. Will adds with a grin, “Only you got this lucky.”
“Good,” Mike says.
He kisses Will again. It’s an instinct.
Will kisses him bacl. Mike can feel the smile tugging on Will’s lips on his own. It’s a gentle peck this time. A kiss that feels a little too domestic.
“What do you mean ‘good’?” Will giggles.
Mike doesn’t know either. Really. He tries to think about a scenario where another guy sees Will like this and gets to play with the lace he is wearing. He can’t. Even in a scenario where the guy is Will’s boyfriend. Because he just ends up imagining himself doing all of it. He just can’t picture Will with anyone else.
He’s selfish like that.
Mike guesses he wants to be one of Will’s boys this bad. The only one actually. He accepts it pretty quickly. It was a long overdue.
“I mean,” He slides his index fingers under the lace panties, stretches it a bit with a smile. “I should be the only one seeing you like that.”
Will huffs, “Are you serious?”
“Yeah,” He lets go of the stretchy material again. It makes a small noise. His nose brushes Will’s as he continues, “And you should only kiss me, too.”
“Am I that good of a kisser?” Will muses. His breath fans over Mike’s mouth.
“You have no idea,” Mike says and they are kissing again.
Will cradles Mike’s face in hands, runs his fingers in hair. On the other hand, Mike’s palm finds Will’s lower back. He still can’t believe it was this easy. That he just had to ask instead of wondering and overthinking. That all it took was one question for him to be able to slide his hands down Will’s lower back.
Will’s breath catches as he feels Mike’s hand on his ass. His lips part and Mike takes the opportunity to slide his tongue between them once again. Mike squeezes, and feels the lacy material against his palm. Will whimpers in his mouth.
“Fuck,” Mike curses when they hear someone try to open the door. He kisses Will again nonetheless.
“Mike, man!” Lucas yells from behind the door. “You gotta stop closing the door when you know I forgot my keys.”
This makes Will pull away from Mike’s mouth to look at the door. Mike rolls his eyes at Lucas’ accusations.
“He’ll go away,” He assures Will and as if Lucas was doing it on purpose, he bangs on the door like a maniac when Mike is just one blink away from kissing Will again.
Mike’s hands are still in his pants when Will pushes him off gently. Mike puts out his best ever sad-lost-puppy-dog look to silently convince Will to let Lucas die outside, or something.
Will laughs at him quietly as he sits up.
Mike sighs, “Can I keep my hand here at least?”
“You’re so stupid,” Will tells him, shoving Mike’s hand away playfully.
Mike makes it his mission to rip those red lace panties off in a very near future.