Work Text:
The idea comes to him, unsurprisingly, from a Reddit post.
‘ I, 24 M, want to show my 24 M best friend I’m supportive of his sexuality. How do I do it ?’
The first few replies are things Mike has already done; letting them know you’re okay with it, you’re proud of them, etc.
Mike is so chill with his best friend being gay that he’d be okay with kissing him, any time, any place. He scrolls continuously until he sees a comment that says
‘Go on a date with him.’ While a good idea, a great one even, Mike is sure Will doesn’t like him like that.
‘Kiss him.’ Once again, any time for any reason, Mike’s lips are open for business for only one Will Byers.
‘go to gay-friendly bars.’ Now there’s an idea. But it’d be awkward with their group and their dynamics. Considering Max and Lucas are still conjoined at the hip after years, and Dustin and El have a weird relationship going on now. So it’d just be him and Will, and he wants Will to find someone, to not be focused solely on lonely Mike Wheeler when he should be getting kissed (even as the thought of Will kissing a stranger makes him frown).
The plan comes to him while he’s writing an assignment for his class that night, ironically, a short story of romance starring a cleric and a paladin because he’s an ally like that, absolutely not writing gay fanfiction of him and his best friends' D&D characters for any other reason than education. So he opens his messages and sends a text to his coworker Adam, an openly bisexual man who he knows is single, and asks for his help.
-
He hints at his plan with his call to Will the next day. “So I was thinking, we could hit up the G Spot on Madison for the monthly hangout? It just recently opened.”
There’s a choking sound. “Um, I'm sure everyone would be okay going out. But, you do know that’s a gay bar, Mike.”
“Yeah! I figured since we always go to games with Lucas or horrendous escape rooms with Dustin, we could do something you would like. You know, if you want to.’
The silence is so long that Mike has to pull his phone from his ear to check he hasn’t been hung up on.
“Will.”
“Sorry. um. Yeah, we can go there on Saturday, then yeah, we'll just update the group later then. ”
“Cool! “
They discuss their days for at least another hour, even if most of it has already been texted or audio messaged. Because mike a chronic need. A need that needs to know every aspect of Will Byers and an ache to hear his voice.
Mike and Will first met back in kindergarten and have been inseparable since then. He’s seen Will pop off his baby teeth bare-handed with minimal tears, but is also still a person who cries over Mufasa’s death scene in The Lion King, to this day. He’s seen Will’s first-ever drawings, 2 short stick men holding their stick arms together, which Will had later told him that the figures were them. He’s witnessed almost the whole world of Will Byers as it has formed and changed, but it will probably never be enough. The constant yearning to know every thought, every reaction, or emotion that Will has had, could ever have, and will have is a driving force. It’s why he needs Will to know that he supports him, that he cares for him so much to fake date another man for him.
Adam, the aforementioned coworker, had agreed to this plan in return for the promise of free drinks, which Mike will have to rob from Max, but that’s neither here nor there. They’ll kiss and dance, and be so supportive that Will will feel confident enough to go after someone in the club, like Mike or someone else.
He brings up the fact that he is bringing someone else the night before in their designated group chat.
mike: hey im bringing someone tomorrow btw, ty bye
max: hold tf on, who dustin: WHO
lucas: ^^^^^
eL: ok
will <3: oh! who
mike: god forbid I be whimsical and mysterious.
max: literally doesn’t answer the question
dustin: answer as absent as his brain fr
mike: fuck all of u, be there or be square
eL: no thanks
lucas: insert thumbs up emoji that im too lazy to find
will<3: ok :)
And that’s that.
Mike has resorted to researching outfit ideas from Pinterest, cause what does he wear to a gay bar? He doesn’t own any of the extravagent rainbow themed clothes or items or booty shorts they display in pride videos, so he’ll have to stick with whatever this ‘masc lesbian’ outfit is by user scissorhands. He ends up wearing his usual baggy black denim jeans, the brand name of his underwear poking out, and a cotton black shirt that originally belonged to Nancy and never found its way home. It fits his shoulders fine, but the length ends around his ribs, his belly button peeking out any time his arms move an inch. He finds an unopened eyeliner he bought a few months ago, deciding today is the day to use his stolen CVS goods. His hair is still damp from the shower, so he’ll scrunch that last with some fancy gel he got from Nancy on his birthday, and top it all off with some of his usual silver rings.
He now looks presentable and hopes that he’s not pointed out as an outsider while they’re there. Adam picks him up from his apartment a few minutes before the designated time, in a simple band tee and jeans, with flowers in his hand. It confuses Mike to no end because no one will see the flowers, and he says so out loud.
“Fake date or not, I have manners, Wheeler,” Adam replies, shaking the flowers slightly.
Shrugging and also slightly embarrassed, he fills the singular vase he has with water and carefully places the sunflowers inside. He grabs his keys and phone last, and they head out to the subway station a few blocks away.
“So anything you’re not comfortable with?” Adam says, and Mike isn't used to looking up during a conversation.
“What do you mean?”
“You know, kissing, hand holding, all that?” Adam lists.
Mike thinks about it, thinks about how it would be to experience any of that with Will in mind, and he shakes his head as an answer. “ No, I’m fine with whatever.”
Immediately, Adam interlaces their fingers together, the rough pads of Adam’s fingertips grazing his knuckles. It’s fine, Mike doesn’t feel weird per se, but he’s not as excited by the prospect as he initially thought about it. About holding Will's hand at least, but that’s Will. He’d prefer to do it all with Will if possible. So he shrugs away the feeling of disappointment and discusses their common enemy, Jenny, from work on the way there.
He texts the group that he’s on the way there, to which they all send horrendous stickers of him as a response. Max and Lucas are always lying and always show up 10 minutes late, no matter the event, and he knows that Dustin and El are already holding a place in line, weirdly punctual. Will tends to show up the same time as Mike, as if they’re linked together, and it’s the same for tonight. He feels Will before he sees him. The second it takes to see Will, to rake his eyes over his outfit, feels like centuries in his mind, because Will doesn't just look good, he looks hot. Will is wearing a loose tank top, showing off the muscles he's slowly gained over the years, and jean shorts where the seam is high enough you can't help but be captivated by thighs, Will's thighs. He gulps, hoping his staring wasn't too obvious.
“Will!” He waves his free hand as a greeting and pauses when Will’s face goes from happy to constipated in a microsecond.
Maybe he smelled something bad? He pulls him into a hug when he comes close, pulling away from Adam momentarily because this is hugging time from Will, not a rare treat, but a treat that Mike cherishes. But Will doesn’t hug him back with the usual energy. They usually grip each other too hard to see who can get someone to squeal first, but instead, he barely feels any pressure from Will's hands at all.
“Will? You okay?” Mike's concerned now because if Will is sick or upset, he’ll pull him home immediately. Will opens his mouth to reply, and Mike notices that his face seems paler, when Dustin interrupts.
“Hey! losers! Over here!” Mike, his hands still on Will's shoulders from the hug, turns to yell at Dustin, to end this whole night, to take Will home, but then. Will pulls away. He heads straight to where Dustin is calling from without another word to Mike.
“You alright?” he forgets that Adam is here, and he jumps. “Shit. um. yeah. That was Will-“
“Ohhhh. That Will.”
Mike scrunches his eyebrows, “Yeah, that Will. Whatever you mean by that.”
Adam raises an eyebrow at him. “You bring him up in any and every conversation possible, Michael.”
He digs his elbow in the blonde man’s ribs, “Don’t call me Michael, weirdo.” But doesn't deny the statement.
“Alright then, babe.”
Mike rolls his eyes in response and approaches the line where his friends are standing, watching him.
“Hey, guys. This is Adam, he’s a coworker.”
“A coworker?” El says, eyes curious. She and Dustin seem to have a matching black and purple color theme tonight. El is wearing a floral purple top and blue flared jeans. Dustin wears jeans as well, complete with a purple shirt and denim jacket.
Dustin wiggles his brows as he repeats “ a coworker” in a high-pitched voice. Will is standing next to them, but his eyes are darting around. First to Mike, then to Adam, then to where their hands are at their sides, no longer linked. He seems to relax slightly, but still refuses to make full eye contact with Mike.
Adam holds his hand out to shake their hands, Will completely snubbing him and just waves.
Before Mike can debate on whether or not to pull Will aside, he feels his knees almost lock.
"Max, I promise you by the end of this week I will have an etsy witch put every curse imaginable on you." He grits out, turning to see her still close to him to where she slammed her knees against the back of his.
"With what money, Wheeler?" She smirks, ruffling his hair. Lucas pats him on the shoulder in greeting, truly the only saint in their group.
Max points her chin towards Adam, "Who's that?"
"He's-"
"Mike's date, apparently," Will interrupts, arms crossed, and voice strained.
Max glances between him and Will, to which he shrugs, lost to why there's heavy tension tonight.
"Okay. Well, nice to meet you, Adam. Excited to hear any embarassing stories of Mike at work immediately." Max says as they join and move up in the line.
"Oh, that I can easily provide," Adam says, immediately diving into the horrendous first day of Mike insulting one of the executives, to which he didn't know who he was okay.
As Adam drawls on, Mike sneaks next to Will and bumps their shoulders together.
"You good?" He whispers, close enough to Will so he could hear.
Will snaps back away from him, "I'm fine, Mike," and then he moves to the front of the group, back turned.
It's like this even as they enter and find a free booth to sit at, where the music isn't vibrating into his skull, and they only need to speak slightly louder.
Adam offers to order drinks for the table, sensing the awkward tension present.
"Why are you guys being weird?” He asks once Adam is out of sight.
“ Well, it’s the first we heard of this guy Mike,” Max says, tapping her fingers against the table.
“Who even is he?” Will finally decides to speak to Mike again.
“ He’s just Adam. We’ve gone on like one date, and he’s nice.”
“You can’t know everything from one date,” Will debates back, his face contorting into an angry pout that Mike still finds endearing now.
“What is your issue here? That it’s a guy or that I haven’t known him for that long, William.” He’s frustrated because he did this so Will can feel comfortable, yet now he’s just being a dick.
“Whatever, Mike,” Will says, voice empty of emotion.
Lucas coughs, “Well, we still support you, man."
They all nod in unison. which okay, great, we’re all in agreement that being gay is okay, the whole point of the night. Adam comes back, tray full of drinks, providing a distraction from Mike's one-sided glaring match at will. Adam wraps his arm around Mike’s waist after he sits, his cold hand brushing against Mike's exposed ribs, causing Mike to let out a small gasp. Suddenly, Will leaps up, causing the table to shudder from the force. “We're here to dance right. So let’s dance,” he grabs El without a second thought, leaving the rest of them in the aftershocks of his outburst.
“I guess we’re dancing?” Mike shrugs towards Adam once he's finished at least one drink. They both stand to head to the small space people seem to have designated as the dance area, Miek using Adam's slightly taller height as a shield. He doesn’t go where Will and El are, content to stay away from whatever Will has going with him for a while.
Adam whispers in his ear, “Your dancing is as bad as your nonfiction stories,” to which Mike simply flicks him off. That’s a common complaint he’s received from the office, a local newspaper, that his real-life journalism needs some work’.
Adam responds by shoving his still freezing hands under Mike's shirt, causing him to jerk closer. The hands graze his spine, pausing at every bump of his spine, as if to memorize its structure and Mike can’t do anything else but shiver.
"Will is looking.” Adam’s voice is soft, whispering in his ear. Mike turns around, still moving his hips to the beat to seem nonchalant, and Adam’s hands adjust to his ribs. He makes eye contact with Will, who is now dancing with a curly-haired man, though dancing is a loose term. Will's artist hands that Mike can see his sleep, are gripping the tan man’s waist, bringing him closer to Will's hips, where the stranger's ass grinds against, practically bouncing against it. It’s sexual in its entirety, the sheer presence of Will dominating the dance floor. It’s what Mike wanted. And yet he feels anything but happiness. Instead, it fills him with a feeling he refuses to name, and he mimics the boy Will is grinding with, bringing Adam’s hands down to his waist and curving his ass just so.
If this is crossing the coworker-to-fake-boyfriend line, Mike can’t be bothered to ask, because now Will's eyes are back on him, and he refuses to have those hazel hues anywhere else. Anything Will's dance partner does, Mike copies, making sure to have Will's full attention when he does. The game ends, explodes into a fit of ash, when Will's dance partner tilts his head back and puckers his lips, a universal expression of asking for a kiss. Mike leaves before he can see what happens next. He reaches the patio area in a rush, suddenly at a loss for breath. His heart is pounding, squeezing, and at his throat. There’s a hand on his shoulder, and it’s not who he wants it to be, Adam.
“You alright there?”
“Yeah, Adam. Sorry about that.”
“ I mean, whatever helps get your man.” The taller man shrugs, and Mike turns his head so fast there’s a click.
“Get my man?” he grits out.
“Yeah? Don’t you like Will?” Adam says it as a fact, as a universal law. And honestly, as Mike starts to think about this horrible night in its entirety, it’s the complete truth. He wants to be Will's.
“Fuck.” it’s said with all the emotion that has accumulated over just the past hour. He needs a fucking drink. He needs to leave this building, where Will is probably making out with another person who isn’t him, and it's all his fault.
“Shit. Are you crying?”
“ Fuck off, Adam,” because he is, and it’s embarrassing enough as it is without being pointed out.
Adam looks stunned, unsure what to do, and Mike has sympathy for him because this is a guy he’s only worked with for a few months, on a fake date with, and is now crying over an unrequited love. Adams’s hands are back in the air now, probably about to pack Mike’s back in the most bro way possible, when Mike’s body is pulled back.
“Get away from him.” He knows that’s Wills' voice, knows it in his DNA, but the anger in it is so unlike him that Mike has to turn his head to confirm the voice's origin. And sure enough, it’s a sweaty Will Byers, with his arm around Mike's waist. Adam’s hands pause. He looks at Mike with raised eyebrows.
“You know what. I’ll just leave for the night. See you on Monday, Mike. Let me know what happens with” a vague gesture is made between Mike and Will, “all this," and Adam leaves, with a smile on his face as if he hasn’t just betrayed Mike.
“What did he mean, Mike? Did you guys fight ?” Will's voice is back to its gentle state, rubbing Mike's side as an act of comfort, but it’s just making Mike go into a further state of insanity. He sighs, committing to his fate, and figures he might as well get it over with. “Will, can we go somewhere quiet?”
They stand shoulder to shoulder in the alley by the bar, right under the neon sign of “The G Spot”.
“Adam isn’t my boyfriend. He’s just my coworker. I brought him today as a fake date.”
Will looks incredulously at him. “Why?”
And Mike wants to fucking die. “Okay listen. I just. God, this is so fucking stupid. I did it to initially support you, you know, cause you came out to us recently, and I saw this post on Reddit-“
“Reddit-“
“Yes, Reddit. I know, okay. Anyway, I saw a comment that said to kiss the friend you’re supporting, you know, kiss the homies good night or whatever-“
“Oh my fucking god,Mike-“
“I know, okay! It’s fucking dumb! It’s just- I wanted to be there for you, and in some way, my mind thought this would be a way of showing my support. But instead, I just wanted to kiss you the whole time, not anyone else. I don’t want you to kiss anyone else either, no one but me.”
“So are you gay?” Will says after a few moments of silence.
Mike shrugs, “ Not sure. I just know I really like you,” and the smile that graces Will's face is worth the embarrassment.
“Well, do you like me in a support your gay friends way or-“ Will smile turns wicked.
“Will, I’ll kill you-“
“No, because I need to make sure this isn’t another support the gays act-, “ and Mike can’t take anymore of these jokes, grips his hands into wills tank top and pulls. It’s more of a smashing of lips than it is a kiss, but it’s the best experience of his life by far, second to meeting Will. Will pulls away only a few centimeters, way too far if you ask Mike's but then places those wonderful hands on his waist, they're warm and so so familiar and he forgives him. They grip tightly where Adam’s hands were on the dance floor, as if trying to replace any marks left.
“So you aren’t actually dating him, right?”
“No Will. all platonic grinding I swear.” At the mention of this, Will's pupils dilate, and suddenly Mike's back is making contact with the red brick of the alleyway.
“Yeah, well, this won’t be that platonic,” Will mutters against his lips, before kissing him breathless.
Will's hands are everywhere, even going under the exposed band of his underwear, and all Mike can do is breathe and hope he survives the fall.