Chapter Text
The airport was packed with people rustling around, filled with indistinct, loud chatter. Will, Jane, and Jonathan search the airport for the meeting point they agreed on with Nancy and Mike beforehand.
“I can’t believe, finally we’re meeting them” Jane smiled gleefully in excitement, as she looked around the airport to find them. Will also shared Jane's enthusiasm but in a more reserved way. “Yeah, it's been a while”, he notes, smiling mutually with Jane.
As soon as Will heard he could go back to Hawkins, he had been wanting to share his paintings and be able to play DND again, just like the old times. Even if it meant being brought back to where he had fought the mind flayer and the upside down anything to see Mi- his friends, anything to see his friends.
They manoeuvred around the crowd till they saw a familiar raven-haired boy, looking at his watch. “They should be here by now”, he mutters until he hears a familiar voice interject.
“Mike!” Jane calls out to him, and he immediately notices.
“El!” They both rush over to each other, Mike swooping Jane in a tight hug and a kiss, she giggled as she hugged him back.
Will's hands clench as he feels his heart sink. Biting the inside of his cheek to keep his smile, he knows he needs to be happy for them and to stop being so selfish, yet he can’t help it.
“Careful, careful, you’re squishing your present!” Mike says teasingly before he hands Jane her flowers. To which Jane gleefully accepts, and a pang of hope washes over her as she notices the bouquet in Mike’s hands with a tag.
“It's a gift, I uh- I handpicked these for you in Hawkins, I thought maybe you’d miss them after being in Lenora for a long time? Anyway, I know you like yellow, but now I’m kinda realising that it's..It’s too much yellow. I know you like purple, so I got you purple as well-…
Her eyes darted to the tag she noticed on the bouquet wrapper. Maybe, just maybe… It would say…
‘From: Mike.’
Her smile dropped as she looked down at the ‘From..’ with solemnity and sadness.
“…-so I kinda did a 70/30 split kinda thing”, Mike mumbled on, and Jane fixed her smile to mask her disappointment.
“They’re perfect, thank you.” She says before she makes room for Will to have a conversation with Mike.
Will then goes over to Mike, eyes lighting up in excitement and built up anticipation from months of waiting to meet his best friend again.
“Oh, hey,” Mike calls out.
Will extends his arms out halfway, expectantly waiting for his hug...
Only for Mike to coyly jab his shoulder with his fist lightly instead.
“How you doing?” Mike says in a strained tone, grinning at Will awkwardly before things get too real, and his eyes dart towards his surroundings, picking up on Will’s dissatisfaction. Will's smile sinks, but he still tries to keep his smile, masking the disappointment and hurt in his face.
Due to the awkwardness, Jonathan cuts in, breaking the stiff silence: “Hey, Mike”
“Hey, how you doing?” Mike asks in a high tone
“Yeah, good man.”
“Great- uh,"
Mike says quickly, before his eyes doze off to a scroll Will was holding in his hands.
“What's that?” he asks in a curious tone, his mind rushing back to Jane’s letter she sent. ‘I think he’s making it (the painting) for someone he likes…’
“Um, nothing. Just this painting I've been working on.” Will says reluctantly, failing to make eye contact after that ‘hug’ he had with Mike after months of waiting for him.
“Cool”, Mike says, complacently nodding his head. Except, he wasn’t complacent. At all.
Who is the painting for? Is it for me? Why did you bring it here? Does that mean you like me? No, that’s impossible. Mike immediately shakes off that last thought, finding discomfort in indulging in it. He looks up at Will, they both awkwardly stare at each other for a moment before Nancy cuts in at the perfect time and greets Jonathan and the rest with a warming group hug.
They soon meet up with the rest of the main group at Hawkins. Jane holds hands with Mike, smiling as they walk beside each other, as Will trails slightly behind them like a lost sheep.
They walk towards a familiar building – the arcade, where Dustin and Lucas are waiting outside for them. “Do you think, Wills gonna like this? What if he’s already read it?” Lucas worries slightly, but Dustin grounds him, “So what if Will already has it? I mean, he’ll still be happy you got something, besides you need to cut yourself some lack Lucas. We haven't spoken to Will and Eleven in ages.”
“You’re right, but it’s just that it's Will's birthday, so he must get a good gift.” He says contemplatively, staring hard at the comic book copy of The Watchmen series he bought.
“Lucas, can’t you see it doesn’t matter about the gift?” Dustin interjects, “Besides, even if Will already had that copy, he wouldn't care that he would have two of The Watchmen series.” Dustin argues enough to shut Lucas up a bit.
It's true after all, when they celebrated Halloween (dressed as the Ghostbusters), Will never cared that Lucas and Mike were both the same character. Instead, he accepted it; he was just happy to be there with his friends.
After Lucas finished his sentence, they both heard a familiarly annoying boy, hand in hand with Jane, and Will looming behind the two. “Dustin, Lucas!” Will calls over to them, causing them both to shift in excitement. Lucas and Dustin both rush over to the rest of the party, “E!,” Dustin exclaims brightly, and Jane smiles back at him. His tone shifts nervously a bit as his eyes flicker down at his bouquet.
“I got you these”, he hands her a bouquet, causing Mike to raise his eyebrows in confusion. Jane happily takes the flowers Dustin gives her, holding them along with Mike's bouquet in her hands. “They’re uh- called forget-me-nots”, he babbles on nervously. Jane lifts her face to make eye-contact and her head tilts in confusion. Noting her curiosity, Dustin stammers on his words, “B-because we’ll forever remember each other!” He attempts to explain, but he fails to articulate his words; yet, Jane manages to understand and has a grasp of what he’s saying.
Lucas looks between Jane and Dustin, his eyes slightly grazing over Mike's slightly angered expression before finally looking at Dustin with a knowing gaze, smirking and wiggling his eyebrows in a teasing manner. Dustin looks back at Lucas and immediately scrambles with his words in an attempt to make it look like he wasn’t being overly affectionate with a 'friend':
“You know how you’ve been in Lenora and all, I didn’t want you to forget me-” Dustin quickly looks between the two of them. Mike attempts to question him before Dustin corrects his words. “US!The-THE party!...” Dustin says, clearing his voice, accounting for Mike's presence.
“Forget-me-nots”, Jane echoes, testing how the flower’s name sounds, and she gazes at the flowers with a fond expression, which are a violet purple – her favourite. “Thank you, Dustin”, she says, gazing at him with a sweet smile, at which Dustin's heart leaps.
“It's no problem, El!“ He said in a flustered tone, attempting to downplay the blatant affection he was giving.
Jane’s expression shifts down to the wrapping of the bouquet of Myosotis flowers, noticing a tag: ‘Love, Dustin’. Dustin remembers how he signed the flowers with Love and immediately regrets it. He was already being expressive with his gift and felt like it was too much, but he'd already left his house, and there was no backing out now. Before he managed to break eye contact and place all his attention on the hem of his shirt to fidget with it, he noticed a relieved and genuine smile wash over Jane’s face as she looked down at the tag and back at him.
“Uh…Okay, Lucas, how you doing?” Mike asks, trying to shift the conversation away from Dustin blatantly outdoing Mike with his gift and also trying to hide the annoyed tone in his voice.
“Good, you?” Lucas says in a sarcastic tone after seeing Mike’s tantrum.
“Yeah.. Whose that for?” Mike asks, shifting the focus, yet again.
“Oh, it’s a newly released comic that I got for Will. You know, like, for his birthday.” Lucas said in a smooth voice.
Mike, in fact, did not know, and he could’ve sworn he felt all the blood drain out of his face. He choked on any words he tried to mumble out, struggling as he opened and closed his mouth. No sound came out. From Lucas’s perspective, he probably looked something similar to a fish.
“Will’s… Birthday?” Mike repeats back to himself in a remorseful tone. There’s no way he’d forget that. They’ve been friends... Best friends, for years!
“Yeah, man. It’s his birthday today..?” Lucas said it like it was nothing in a confused voice. “You didn’t know?”
"..."