Chapter Text
October 20th 1985
Mike Wheeler doesn’t like to believe he’s an irrational person. He’s perfectly rational, perfectly calm and perfectly put together. He doesn’t freak out over small shit. He absolutely kept it together when his best friend Will went missing, kept it together when El dumped in, kept it together when he lost both of them in one go.
And most importantly he’s been keeping it together despite going into freshman year without two party members, a wayward one and another who’s for some reason obsessed with being popular now. The only one who hasn’t left his side is Dustin, the two of them actually spending the most time together than they have in years.
The last time he felt this close with his best friend was when he was twelve and stepping forwards to his death. The quarry seemed like such a far drop, but back then he thought he could survive. A foolish, childish thought but the Mike Wheeler standing here would’ve jumped without hesitation if it meant he got to see Dustin’s goofy smile again.
Something happened over the years, they grew apart but ever since their party fell to pieces he’s started to see Dustin different.
The other boy’s body started to fill in, his hair got longer, he got braces, a notch in his eyebrow which he claims is stylish and a tiny piercing in his ear Eddie gave him that’s usually covered by his hat or curls.
When no one is looking Mike likes to stare at it. It’s a small one, resembling a pearl. He thinks it might be he of Mrs. Henderson’s old ones from the 50s but he’s not entirely sure. Either way it sits in his lobe and is shiny in the sunlight.
Thats another thing….his hair shines in the golden light like a halo. In the morning classes it encompasses his head like an angel’s crown and he finds himself unable to look away. It’s entrancing the way his curls bounce up and down as he walks or if he’s messing with his locks when he’s bored.
Mike doesn’t even pay attention to half of the morning lessons because he’s so enthralled at the beauty of his brown mane.
Dustin’s laughter. Mike is obsessed with it. He never used to find it so perfect, so light and airy and occasionally amazingly obnoxious. Now he’ll do anything to hear it. He cracks jokes about jocks even though he knows it’ll put a target on his back. It’s worth it to hear the raucous laughter and see the wide, goofy grins.
Sometimes if something stupid is happening in the hallways Mike will nudge him and whisper about the low intelligence scores the student must have.
Recently he’s started just shoving Dustin for fun because he knows the other boy will lunge right back and they’ll get into a wrestling match. He usually does it when they’re alone or in a safe place like the DND club room or Eddie’s trailer.
When Lucas ditches them for basketball practice the two of them just bike to one or the other’s house and watch a movie or just talk. Sometimes they’ll sit on the roof and do homework or stare at the sky which is usually cloudy.
Max doesn’t really talk to them much anymore, Mike misses her, but a small part of him is glad that he gets more time with Dustin to himself. It’s completely rational for him to be absolutely, irrevocably obsessed with everything about his best friend, down to the little ways the skin around his eyes crinkles when he smiles really hard.
The only irrational thing is the thought that he isn’t being rational.
He’s absolutely being normal about this. All the little poems and storylines he’s been writing up totally don’t have any underlining weird feelings about how he might really feel about Dustin.
They’re friends. Just friends.
The statement he’s repeated to himself over and over at night ever since it became just them, Lucas and Max..then just them.
And sometimes Mike stares at the other’s boys lips. The way Dustin gnaws on them when he’s thinking, the pink curves, how soft they must be. But those are all strictly normal thoughts so when he stays awake at night thinking about them he writes it off as something everyone thinks about.
When Dustin’s hand brushes his when they walk too close he never says anything, never thinks too hard about the way his heart leaps from his chest at the small touch.
It’s rational, normal, expected, platonic, something friends do and think all the time.
The only not normal thing is when those thoughts start to cloud his brain, his thoughts, his writing, plague his nights, stick to him in every moment of his day, mornings, school days, the shower, late nights, on bike rides, in DND club when he’s supposed to be paying attention to the campaign.
It’s all Dustin, the images of him blooming like sunflowers in Mike’s brain. When he shuts his eyes he just sees him and hears his laugh.
Still Mike tries to argue with himself that it’s rational. The days pass and the longer Dustin stands beside him, the stronger the urge to make contact with his body grows. He wants to hold his hand, run his fingers through his hair, nudge him in the shoulder, hug him, kiss him.
Kiss him.
It’s that thought that makes Mike completely spiral. It’s midway through class and he’s staring at Dustin’s lips again as he mouthes the digits of pi as he thinks to himself. His lips look so nice and he feels a certain type of yearning, the kissing variety.
But kissing boys is not normal. This is not normal. Something is very wrong with his brain right now.
He barely makes it through the last of Ms. Click’s class before snatching his stuff and booking it. He doesn’t even stick around to hear his best friend call out for him, instead racing down the halls and trying to find somewhere to silently freak out.
He passes by the school counselor’s office, accidentally bumping into someone. He mumbles out an apology, getting ready to run off when a hand grips his shoulder.
“Whoa- Mike, are you alright?”
Mike falters, taking in a sharp breath. He stares back at Max, the shorter girl eyeing him cautiously like he’s about to freak out or something. She’s wearing a black hoodie that smells like old cigarettes and he suppresses a shudder knowing whose it is.
“Yeah- yeah, fine.” Mike squeaks, wincing at how high his voice is. “Just need to breathe, Y’know? It’s so stuffy in here you have no idea- like a damn box. A big, confined, tight…hot box.” he mutters unintelligibly, face heating up. He can practically feel his pale cheeks turning as red as a strawberry.
“Right..” Max’s grip loosens on his arm, her eyebrow raised. “You’re not like..having an allergic reaction or something, right? You’re making zero sense and you’re super red.”
“Huh? No- I’m good. Just…breathing. I’m breathing good. It’s really hot in here.” Mike shakes his arm loose from her hands, stumbling back. “I’ll see you later- I have to go and think…for a while. Bye.” he turns the other direction and makes a break for it, barely catching the girl’s small “Bye?” in response to his pathetic farewell.
He nearly trips over his shoelaces as he slides down the hallways and into the library. He navigates the narrow bookshelves until he finds the place teenagers rarely look and hides himself in the smallest corner he can, head in his hands.
Fuck- this can’t be happening!
He can’t be thinking about kissing Dustin…that isn’t acceptable, isn’t normal, isn’t even a thing.
If Dustin were a girl, sure.
His father wouldn’t call him a fag if Dustin was a girl, but he’s not.
Mike wishes it weren’t true, wishes he was a woman so he could actually think these things freely.
But he doesn’t want to give up these thoughts, he doesn’t want to give up the tiny touches and stolen glances.
They’re the closest he’s ever felt to heaven, to an otherworldly emotion. It’s not like when he thought about Eleven, it’s something deeper, something that goes beneath the skin.
He loves Dustin’s mind, loves to have someone to bounce DND ideas off of or someone who can discuss Star Wars for hours at a time with something new to add every time. He’s insanely smart and snarky and funny and handsome and the best person ever.
He refuses to let him go, not like this, not until he knows there’s no other option.
But, will he even know if Dustin likes him back?
The odds of him feeling the same are about zero…but if he could make him fall in love…
Mike chews on his nails, an unsteady breath escaping his chapped lips.
He needs help.
Someone who can talk some sense into his dumb brain.
Slowly he rises to his feet, making his way through the book shelves and study nooks. His mind is swimming as he tries to think of someone who could actually help.
His first choice would be Will, but Will isn’t here and neither is El.
Lucas is a no go and Max is a definite never in a million years choice.
Nancy-
Maybe she can help him? They haven’t been very close lately, the two of them drifting apart again after 1983, but maybe just maybe she’ll take pity on him and give him some advice.
He’ll give her the light version of the truth, just remove some important details but keep the rest.
The hallways have mostly cleared out as he creeps into where the school paper is made. He slowly nudges open the door, eyes appraising the students. He sees one he recognizes as Fred Benson, but no Nancy so he walks inside and over to the teen boy.
“Hey, have you seen my sister? Her name’s Nancy.”
Fred glances up from where he’s writing a note, brow furrowing.
“Shes in the printing room, but I’d be careful. She’s angry today.”
Mike gulps, mouth suddenly very dry. He leaves the other teen to his work and trudges over to the printing room. He steps inside the cluttered room, watching his sister muttering over the papers, something about misprints and being late to the movies.
It doesn’t make much sense to him and he clears his throat.
“Nan—“
“Mike?! What are you doing in here?” Nancy snaps, nostrils flaring. She sets her hands on her hips, glaring at him with burning ferocity. “Can’t you see I’m a little busy?”
Mike shrinks back and stares at the floor.
“Look- I-I just need some help, okay?”
The animosity radiating from his sister vanishes within a second as she steps closer. He looks up just in time to see her eyes scanning him, searching for something. She walks up to him, her hand resting on his shoulder, soft and gentle and sisterly.
He leans into the touch despite how weak he must look.
His father would tell him to man up.
He’s not sure he can about this, not when he’s just crumbling at the thought of having to give up Dustin.
“Whats going on?” Nancy asks, squeezing his shoulder.
“There’s this-“ Mike swallows and inhales sharply. “There’s this girl.”
“Ugh! Mike!” Nancy snaps, pulling her hand away. “I thought this was serious! You scared me!”
“No- this is super serious, Nancy!” Mike grabs her arm and pulls her back. “I need help! Like- the most help I’ve ever needed! You don’t understand, h-she’s amazing! Super smart, super attractive, super cool, super everything and I have no shot! Dad would kill me if I brought her home, but she’s perfect and I can’t give her up. I just don’t know how to make her mine or if I even should…she’s not like other girls.”
Nancy stares at him as he rants, lips pursed. After a moment she just shakes her head and pulls up an office chair, sitting on it.
“Right…how is she not like other girls?”
“She’s not…girly. She likes boy things. Science, Star Wars, DND, obscure reptile facts, stars and space, math problems, inventing things. She wears boy clothes and looks like…a boy.”
“Are you sure she’s not a boy?” Nancy says, tone dripping sarcasm and Mike winces, clearing his throat which feels far too thick.
“Y-yeah, I’m sure. She’s definitely a boy—girl! She’s definitely a girl. The most perfect girl of all time.”
Mike stares at his sister, heart racing in his chest. It’s going so fast he feels dizzy and sick to his stomach all at once.
Maybe this was a bad idea, maybe this was irrational.
He’s being crazy- how could he make this work? His father would kick him out if he found out just the thoughts that were stirring in his brain.
This is a mess! He’s a mess!
“Okay,” Nancy sighs deeply, placing hands over her lap. “Do you want to know the four ways to get a girl and keep her?”
“Yes! Does…does it work on non girly-girls?”
“It’ll work on any girl. It worked on me.”
Mike grimaces at that, face twisting up. He makes no move to hide his disgusted expression.
He still hasn’t met Nancy’s new boyfriend but he knows his sister is absolutely head over heels for him even if she occasionally gets pissed at him. There’s always new trinkets in Nancy’s room that he finds or buys for her. You’d think he was a giant crow or something.
The only name he’s ever been able to get is when Nancy whispered a nickname into the phone. ‘Robbie’ a pretty shitty nickname if you ask him.
He better be a pretty great guy if he’s gonna date his sister.
“Number one, listen to her, number two, tell her how great she looks, number three indulge in her interests, number four take her somewhere nice. Those are the golden rules. Follow them like a gentleman and if she really likes you, you’ll be in a good relationship.”
“Thank you, Nancy. Thank you.” Mike lunges forward and squeezes her into a hug. She goes stiff in his arms, but he doesn’t pull away until he gives her one last squeeze. “I gotta get to class- bye!” with that he runs off, nearly bumping into Fred on the way out.
There’s a slight spring in his step as he focuses on the four rules, shoving his insecurities as deep as he can.
Hopefully they’ll stay there, locked away forever.
October 28th 1985
He’s staring, he knows that. It’s probably a little off putting but he just can’t take his eyes off Dustin as he scribbles down equations in the margins of one of his textbooks. They’re little marks, a bit messy but still perfectly definable.
Mike’s been trying to listen today, but Dustin has just seemed content quietly studying on Mike’s bed, against Mike’s pillows and with Mike’s blanket over his knees.
He looks extremely cozy and handsome just curled up there, dying sunlight pouring through the window and illuminating him like an angel.
If God heard Mike’s thoughts he’d surely be struck down or cast out, but he can’t help himself as he stares lovingly at the curve of Dustin’s jaw and the way he bites his lip in concentration. He looks so focused in the moment and Mike leans forward, chin on his knees as he watches the other boy.
Normally Lucas would study with them, but he has basketball practice today which means he won’t be back until later this evening.
They might be able to get a movie in before heading home but that’s about it. He wishes Dustin could stay a little longer though. He’s been enjoying hearing space and reptile facts all day until his head is stuffed full of knowledge he’ll probably never use. He’s even considering getting a book on stars to just learn about the constellations the other teen is always talking about.
Dustin hums to himself, tapping his pencil against his textbook methodically. He bites the end of the eraser and Mike smiles like an idiot at the sight.
A small idea pops into his head and he gets off the floor he’s sitting on and joins the other boy on the bed, the mattress dipping underneath him.
“Hey. Wanna sleep over tonight?”
“Tonight?” Dustin echos and looks up, teeth releasing the abused eraser. “Okay, I’m sure my mom wouldn’t mind. Are your parents good with it?”
“They don’t have to know.” Mike grins smugly, tilting his head to watch as the other teenager matches his expression with even more mischievousness.
It’s nice to have Dustin around. Especially since he can be just as rebellious as Mike if he really feels like it.
“We’ll have to be quiet.” Dustin remarks, closing his textbook for now. “We wouldn’t want your dad hearing. He’s such an asshole sometimes.”
Mike licks at his dry lips, mind suddenly clouded with all the ways he could make Dustin scream. Despite all of the countless thoughts they’re fleeting as he quickly shakes them off. His palms are sweaty all of a sudden and he wipes his hands on his jeans.
“You’re really red.” Dustin remarks, leaning in close, close enough for their lips to be a few inches apart. “Are you okay?”
“F-fine! I’m fine! Awesome even! Super peachy-“ Mike murmurs, staring at Dustin’s lips, unable to take his eyes off the light pink curves and the braces shining through the tiny part in the lips.
“Peachy?” Dustin repeats, facial features scrunching in utter confusion. “I have never heard you say ‘peachy’ in my entire life.”
“Just trying a new word.” Mike mumbles, slowly pulling away from the other teen despite how much he wants to lean forward and kiss him right there.
No- none of that.
If his dad saw that he’d be done for.
Besides he hasn’t even put all the stuff Nancy said to work yet.
He just needs to keep it together and not focus on how his jeans are a little tighter than they should be. He sets his hands in front of him, trying to act as casual as possible.
“So, wanna pick a movie for tonight?”
“Sure.” Dustin responds, giving him one last weird look before clambering off the bed. The blanket falls to the side, sliding off his knees as he stretches. “Your bed is really uncomfortable.”
Mike squeaks in response, watching as Dustin cracks his back. With his baggy clothes it’s hard to see anything, but he can just imagine how the skin underneath must look. He knows Dustin has been working out just in case they need to fight or run from demogorgons again. He must have something toned underneath all that fabric by now…
Dustin continues down the stairs and Mike nearly stumbles over himself in an attempt to follow. His legs just don’t want to work in the presence of the other teenager but eventually they get to the basement and start looking through the countless VHS’s in the cramped shelves of the room.
Dustin gets on his knees to look through it and Mike lets out a whoosh of air upon seeing how the teen’s jeans tighten around the fabric of his thighs as he kneels to look at the movie titles.
He looks away, not wanting to allow his stare to be noticed or his face to be looked at.
His ears are practically burning off his face, blood pumping so hard that he can hear his heartbeat steadily thumping away in his eardrums.
Shit.
Why does Dustin’s body have to be so damn attractive?
He’s losing his mind over it-
“We could watch the Goonies.” Dustin muses, picking up the VHS and looking it over. “It’s either that or Star Wars: A New Hope again.”
“I’m not opposed to either.” Mike murmurs, slowly glancing back to get a glimpse at the tightened fabric again. Unfortunately the other teen is already standing up and he averts his eyes, just staring at the ceiling like it’s the most interesting thing ever.
“Jesus, you look like a tomato.” Dustin murmurs and Mike’s pale face flushes even more. “Are you sure you’re ’super peachy’?”
His voice carries that familiar snark and Mike’s heart flutters like a damn butterfly.
He’s done for. He’s going to die right here in this stupid basement.
Here lies Mike Wheeler: Died After Staring At His Boy Best Friend’s Thighs Like A-
“Mike?” Two fingers snap in front of his face and he startles, finding himself nearly chest to chest with Dustin, his pretty blue eyes just inches away.
Were his eyes always so gorgeous? They’re like lakes of crystals or precious sapphires or the most clear waters in the world.
“Star Wars works.” he mumbles, face heating up.
“Right.” Dustin raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything more, digging around the basement for the extra pillows.
Mike microwaves some popcorn and they both sit on the couch, a foot apart, the shortest acceptable distance for them.
Something in Mike wants to see if he can get closer, see if he can test the limits, but as soon as he makes a move to try it out his joints lock up and he gets too nervous.
He can’t.
He doesn’t want to scare the other teenager away.
Even if he really wants to know what a purposeful brush of hands would feel like.
“Should we wait for Lucas?” Dustin asks, hand hovering over the remote.
Mike glances at the awaiting tv screen and thinks for a moment. Despite being completely content with just Dustin here, he genuinely misses having Lucas around and he’s already having a sleepover…
“Yeah, let’s wait.” He turns on his side to face the other teen, head resting on one of the pillows Dustin got from the corner of the reading nook. “Tell me something…”
“Something?”
“Yeah, something I don’t know. I’m always listening to science facts and reptile trivia, but I wanna know something personal. What do you wanna do after we graduate? I wanna know it all.”
Dustin eyes him for a moment, looking almost disbelieving then he breaks into one of his large, lopsided grins. His whole expression seems to glow in the moment, illuminating the whole basement with his special energy.
“Harvard. I want to go to graduate as a Valedictorian and go to Harvard. Then I want to study theoretical science and technology. I want to test the boundaries of what we can really do, how far our minds can take us. My dream is to make the impossible, possible, push the limits of what humans know and what we don’t.”
Mike watches him as he explains, the fluttering dying down but his eyes shine just witnessing Dustin talking excitedly about everything he wants to do.
He’s beautiful, not a soft, feminine beauty, but something else. A strong, confident type of beauty, one that has fire to it, but a cool touch as well, like ice to a burn.
It’s wonderful.
“What about you? What do you want to do after we graduate?”
Mike stops, biting his lip thoughtfully.
What does he want to do?
What does Mike Wheeler want to do?
His teeth slide off his bottom lip and a small smile plays at his lips.
“I want to write books. I have all these ideas and stories that just stay in my notebooks, collecting dust. So after I graduate, I want to finally finish a book and publish it.”
“You write stories besides DND campaigns?” Dustin suddenly straightens up, face lighting up with excitement. “I gotta see them-“
“No-nope! Absolutely not!” Mike’s face floods with color once again, thinking of all the characters that are very obvious references to Dustin. “They’re trash anyways! They need lots and lots of editing- probably professional editing. Right now they’re just really messy and don’t make any sense…” he babbles, pulse racing in his ears. “Plus, they’re probably super boring…they start really slow and are just-“
“Dude, stop talking.” Dustin throws a pillow in his face and Mike splutters, watching the curly haired teen smile smugly.
“Just two pages-“
“No.”
“One page?”
“Never.”
“A paragraph?” Dustin pleads, scooting closer on the couch. So close their knees nearly touch and Mike reflexively crawls backwards a little.
The other boy’s eyes are so big and blue and have the most distracting puppy dog look to them ever. It’s only a couple minutes before he groans and is standing up to find a notebook.
“Fine, one paragraph.”
Dustin cheers like it’s a momentous occasion and Mike tosses him the first notebook he sees, watching as the teenager goes through it eagerly.
“One paragraph.” he repeats, earning annoyed huff.
“Fine, fine.” Dustin flips the notebook to an open page and his eyes move back and forth as he gets to the writing. Then to Mike’s absolute horror he starts reading it aloud. “Brown curls fell across his face as the knight’s helmet was pulled from his head, a stud earring peeking out from his rich locks. A scar ran just above his lips, dipping beneath his teeth and into his gums. His smile though..it shone like the radiant sun, even with the blood running from the cut on his face it could not be dampened. He was valiant, an astounding image of courage in the face of—“
“One paragraph!” Mike shrieks shrilly and yanks the notebook back, throwing it in the vague direction of his desk. He can literally feel the blood pumping in his face, all of him redder than the ugly plaid walls he saw in Steve’s house while looking for the bathroom.
“It was good!” Dustin encourages, staring mournfully at the discarded notebook. “It felt a little like romance, actually.” he grins teasingly and leans closer. “Can I read the next sentence? Please?”
“No- no, never! It’s trash-“
To his complete and utter bewilderment, Dustin pokes him aggressively in the stomach.
“It’s not trash! It’s cool!”
Mike gulps, mouth suddenly dry again.
Will was the only one who used to encourage him about his writings but Will is gone now and his phone line is always busy.
His best friend cared and now the guy he has a crush on cares the same if not more.
It’s a wonderfully exciting feeling, but also kind of scary. Like a jump to a ledge you can’t see or the first flip on a skateboard. Mike had tried to ride a skateboard once and it ended with Max laughing at him the rest of the day until her face turned colors.
“Okay…it’s not trash.” he mumbles and Dustin’s cheeks spread into a grin. His eyes dart to the notebook again and Mike lunges to pull him back before he can scamper over to read more of the quite frankly obvious story about his crush.
“Mikeeeee!” Dustin complains as Mike tries to wrench the curly haired teen back and nearly passes away when he feels just how solid the other boy’s arms and back is. He finds his fingers losing grip, blood rushing to his cheeks.
The basement door bursts open and Lucas bounds down the stairs, feet hitting the floor with a loud thump. His body is plastered with sweat, including his basketball uniform and unfortunately his gym bag which they both cringe away from.
“Sorry I’m late- Jason made us stay longer to wish Chrissy a happy birthday. They had a whole party and everything, but I’m pretty sure she hated the cake he picked out.” Lucas drops onto the couch right in the middle of it and sighs heavily. “She kept glaring at it. I mean, buttercream isn’t very good, but it was a decent cake. I could’ve eaten like ten of them-“
“I thought you just said buttercream wasn’t very good?” Dustin mumbles to himself as Mike glares holes into the seat Lucas sat in, sweat soaking the furniture.
He really was looking forward to sitting next to Dustin, but now his other best friend is there and getting the couch all disgusting.
“I’m hungry, sue me.” Lucas mutters, eyes half closed. “What are we watching?”
“Star Wars: A New Hope.”
“Ugh not again, Dustin! That movie is ingrained in my brain.”
“Too bad. You’re outvoted.” Mike snips and Lucas opens one eye fully to watch him more clearly.
“What happened to you? You look like you were the one who biked all across town to get here.”
Mike groans, still very aware of his strawberry red face.
He wishes it would go away.
Surely, he’s no longer flustered now that Dustin isn’t paying attention to him.
He really wishes the other teen would look at him with those clever eyes again, with that mischievous smile that means trouble.
He thinks he might like trouble.
“He’s super red, right?! He usually has poltergeist skin, but right now he just looks like his face got sunburnt.”
Mike blushes brighter at Dustin’s words and stomps over to the VHS player, pressing play manually and settling at the foot of the couch, away from Lucas’s sweaty body. The intro starts up and his heart starts to slow until he hears Dustin drop to the floor a couple feet from him, resting against the couch right beside Lucas’s left foot.
Mike tries to focus on the movie, he really does, but he keeps stealing glances at his crush who’s just watching the tv screen with an overjoyed expression, only looking away to mention a fact about the film that they all already knew about from the other twenty times he told them. Still, Mike is completely ensnared, smiling at all the small details he refuses to leave out each time.
About halfway through the movie he realizes he hasn’t been watching the tv screen at all, just Dustin’s gleeful expressions. Watching him is a better than any movie could ever be. He’s so much more animated than the actors, bursting with personality.
Dustin scoots a little closer to the tv and Mike leans against the edge of the couch’s bottom cushion, staring at him dreamily.
Above them and sprawled on the couch Lucas is snoring, but not loud enough to be bothersome, not even loud enough for Dustin to notice, too absorbed in what’s happening on the screen.
He wishes he could watch movies all night with Dustin and talk about stories or dnd campaigns, to just spend forever listening to the other teen talk.
He wonders if this is how Lucas feels about Max, even though she’s pulling away more and more from the group now.
If only he could keep the one he loves close.
Mike feels the palm against his forehead before he even registers that it’s Dustin’s and he jolts, a slowed reaction.
“Wh-what are you doing?!”
“You looked flushed again, but you’re not running a fever.” Dustin clicks his tongue and pulls his hand from where it was intimately cupping his forehead. “Are you still paying attention to the movie?”
“Mhm.” Mike lies with a nod, peering into the screen to prove it. It’s not long until he’s looking at the other teen again, watching him stare at the movie intently.
He looks so happy…so at peace.
It’s making Mike’s chest flutter all funny.
The movie eventually ends and the two boys get ready for their sleepover. They consider waking Lucas up, but decide he looks too exhausted for them to do that to him so they throw a blanket over his body and call it good.
Mike drags some blankets into the basement along with some pillows. On his second trip downstairs he hears his parents arguing and he hurries the rest of the way to the bottom. His chest aches deeply at the thought of leaving Holly up there to hear that, but in the end he pretends it’s not happening.
He’s done it his entire life, tried to block out the yelling, stopped asking to sleep in Nancy’s bed, started to just act like everything was fine, like his friends couldn’t hear his parents shout from beneath the stairs.
No one ever said anything, other than Will who would only ask him if he was okay when they were alone.
He wishes he could talk to Will about this. He’s the one person Mike thinks would actually be accepting of him. He might think it’s a little weird that he likes a boy, but he’s a good friend, even if he’s far off. He’d try his best to understand what it is Mike is going through.
Maybe he’d even have a solid answer on what to do.
He is Will The Wise after all.
He lays down the blankets, smiling when he sees that Dustin is already meticulously making a tiny cot for himself. It reminds him a little of a bird making a nest..
A smile quirks at his lips at the thought and Dustin raises his chin to look at him.
“Whats so funny?”
“Nothing.” Mike murmurs softly and slips under the covers he just put down.
The two lay down, the lights off except for a lamp in the far corner of the desk that’s always on during sleepovers so they’d down hurt themselves trying to find the bathroom in the dark.
Usually Mike would have trouble sleeping, too caught up in worrying about his parents fighting or how Will and El were doing, but here beside Dustin he feels a soft relief, a gentle reminder he’s not alone in this. Even Lucas who’s snoozing close by makes the knot of tension in his chest loosen. He was worried about Lucas getting in the way of their night, but in all honesty, he made it better. The only thing that could perfect it was if the rest of the party was here, even Max who he’s secretly become sort of fond over.
But for now he’ll take what he can get.
Dustin mumbles something in his sleep and Mike smiles at his nonsensical muttering, darkness slowly overtaking him.
There’s a particularly loud shout from upstairs but he barely hears it, gazing at Dustin’s face until he falls asleep.