Archive of Our Own

Mike was rummaging through the garage, looking for his old DnD manual. Even though it was out of date, Mike needed it to prove himself right in an argument. Dustin and Lucas thought a certain monster needed a roll of 12 or higher to be damaged, but Mike knew it only needed a 7. Yes, he knew it was a stupid hill to die on, but Mike had to be right. It was like a birth defect of his–if he was ever proven wrong he would spontaneously explode.

Mike had been looking in the garage for almost an hour to no avail. He was starting to get even more irritated. That’s when it hit him–Holly played DnD now. She probably took his old manual when she was starting to learn how to play.

Mike made his way upstairs to Holly’s room. He hoped she wasn’t home so he could steal it with no questions asked. Holly learned from a young age how to play her older siblings, especially Mike, like a fiddle. She could predict exactly what things he wanted from her the most and she would drive a hard bargain for it.

Mike knocked on the door. Yes, he would usually be described as awful by his sisters, but he wasn’t the devil–he knocked. Of course, in accordance with Mike’s terrible luck, she was home.

“Yeah?” She practically yelled, far too loud to be talking to someone right outside her door.

Mike opened the door. “Do you have my old DnD manual?” He asked, straight to the point.

“Depends…What’s in it for me?” Mike rolled his eyes. He knew this would happen. You never got anywhere with Holly unless she left with the interaction with something. She definitely learned it from Erica, now that they were friends.

“I don’t know! What do you want?” Mike said, exasperated. He was fed up, he just wanted to win this argument.

“I want your Smiths record. The special edition one.”

“Holly! That is not worth a DnD manual!” Mike wasn’t a collector, but when he found the special edition Smiths record at the local thrift store he knew he had to get it. Only 200 had ever been made.

“Okay…Then you won’t get the DnD manual back,” she said with finality, like the brat she was.

Mike was about to burn his own house down.

“Ok, how about this? Can you just look in the manual and tell me the damage roll for one monster? I don’t need the whole thing.”

“Fine. If…” She looked up at the ceiling, like she was thinking. “You buy me new shoes.”

“Okay, Fine!” He said, knowing he would not keep his promise. Mike was broke. He did not have enough money to buy his little sister new shoes. It was the summer before college and Mike decided not to get a job like everyone else. He said it was because he “wanted more time to be young and have fun before going to college,” but he knew it was really because Will didn’t have a job. And if Mike also didn’t have a job, it meant they could spend more time together.

Holly got up from where she was sitting at her desk to open her closet. She rummaged around for a little bit and brought out the manual. Mike almost just snatched it from her hands right then and there, before she could make another bargain.

“Alright, let’s go to the mall,” she said with absolute sincerity.

Mike couldn’t take it anymore. He looked at her for a second with an are you serious right now? expression. 

He lunged for the binder in her hands. She was too slow to react as it slipped out of her grip, and Mike ran away with it. 

Mike can admit, it is a little embarrassing that he just stole something of seemingly no value from his 13-year-old sister, but he has no time to think about the implications at that moment. 

Mike ran down stairs, heading to the basement. Holly followed behind, trying to catch up, but her limbs were much shorter than Mike’s.

Mike finally made it behind the basement door and locked it behind him. He heard Holly try to open it, and then groan in frustration when she realized he locked it. He chuckled a little, satisfied with his sister’s downfall. 

Who needs employment when you can steal things from your sister’s room for free?

Mike walked down the stairs, sat down on the couch, and opened the manual. A colorful package fell out onto the floor. He bent down to pick it up off the carpet.

It was a package of 8, brand new, lip balms, all fruit flavored. Mike tossed it onto the coffee table, without a second thought.

Serves her right, trying to bargain for his Smiths special edition record. Now he stole two things from her, which feels more even.

ᝰ

A few days later, Mike was sitting in his basement with Will, Lucas and Dustin. Mike was DMing a campaign for them. They had all planned to have a sleepover that night–like old times, but Dustin and Lucas had bailed for bullshit excuses. 

Dustin had to “work” at his “job.” Seriously, who does that anymore?

And Lucas just had to have a sleepover with Max instead, insisting that it was their last night together before she went on a month long vacation with her mom, and saying that since Dustin won’t be there anyway, it wouldn’t matter if Lucas was.

Now it was just going to be Mike and Will. Mike would be lying if he said that didn’t excite him just a little bit. He and Will hadn’t had a one-on-one sleepover since Will had moved out of the Wheeler household, almost a year ago. 

It was Lucas and Dustin’s loss anyway. He and Will were so much fun.

They finished up the campaign, and Mike made sure he gave Dustin and Lucas a hard time about not sleeping over, complaining all the way up the stairs and to the front door.

“You guys will be fine,” Lucas said, sighing.

“Yeah, I’m sure you guys will find something to do,” Dustin said. 

The two of them shared a look, like they were trying not to laugh. Mike hated when they did this. Over the past year and a half, after Vecna was defeated, they had been doing this nonstop. At absolute random times when he or Will would say something, Dustin and Lucas would give each other that look, like they knew something he and Will didn’t.

It annoyed Mike to no end, mostly because he had no idea what it was about. Both him and Will had asked them multiple times, but they always just looked at each other again and burst into laughter, never giving them a real answer.

After Dustin and Lucas left, Mike and Will decided to watch a movie.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was playing on the TV in the basement. They were watching the scene between Han and Leia where they finally kissed. Took them long enough.

“Do you think kissing is actually as good as people say?” Will said, after a little bit.

Mike sat up a little bit straighter. He knows it makes no sense, but he had never imagined Will thinking about things like that. Obviously he would–he was a teenager after all. He thought about kissing and–

Mike stopped himself. He wasn’t sure why, but when he got too close to thinking about Will like that, his brain short-circuited.

“Mike?” He must’ve zoned out. He looked at Will, who was looking back at him with a little concern in his eyes.

“I don’t know,” Mike said stupidly.

“What do you mean you don’t know? You’ve kissed people before, right?”

“Oh! Um…yeah.” Mike had only ever kissed two people, El, and some other random girl at a party a few months ago that he hadn’t given a second thought to until now. “I guess I would say that I don’t have the best kissing experience.”

“What? Really?” Will seemed genuinely surprised. Mike had kind of assumed that everyone around them could have seen that Mike and El were not compatible, so he wasn’t sure why Will was shocked.

Mike paused the movie, so he could fully focus on their conversation.

“Yeah. I mean…You’ve seen me and El,” Mike explained, feeling kind of nervous. “We weren’t really ‘true love’s kiss’ material.” 

Will laughed at that. “Yeah, I guess so. It’s still kind of surprising though.”

“Why? Do you imagine me being good at kissing?” Mike smirked a little when he said it.

Will immediately blushed. “No! No–I mean–Not that I think you’d be bad at it!” Will stammered, obviously flustered.

“It’s okay Will, I know,” Mike said through laughter.

Will smiled again and looked at the floor.

Mike liked Will’s smile. Will had a private kind of smile. He looked playful, like was keeping a secret. Sometimes, Mike thought he knew what the secret was, since he was almost always on the same wavelength as Will. But other times, when Will smiled at him, he knew he wasn’t in on the secret. When he was younger, that would hurt him, making him feel like he wasn’t as close to Will as he thought. But as he’d gotten older, he realized the mystery around Will was what made him so…gravitational.

“I think that I probably also wasn’t very good at kissing because I didn’t have any practice,” Mike said.

Will nodded. “Yeah that makes sense. You’d probably get better at it the more you do it.”

“Yeah.” Mike’s mind had started to drift, no longer paying attention to the conversation at hand. He was focused on imagining Will kissing someone, a guy. Would this guy treat Will right? Was he a good kisser? Did he really like Will? 

Mike found himself looking at Will’s lips. They were nice, objectively. Any guy would be lucky to kiss Will’s lips. Mike could understand that. Obviously Mike wasn’t thinking about kissing Will, because he’s straight, but he can understand why anyone else would want to. 

“Then I guess I would suck at it, since I don’t have any practice,” Will said sheepishly.

Mike doesn’t believe that for one second. Will was naturally good at almost anything he tried. When he randomly decided to learn how to play the piano a year ago, needing something to focus on after the upside down, he picked it up immediately, not needing any extra practice. Mike found it hard to believe he wouldn’t also be good at kissing.

“I don’t think that’s true,” Mike said. And he honestly believed it.

Will smiled a little and his eyes darted away from Mike and back again, like he was really considering his next words.

“So…does that mean that you imagine me being good at kissing?”

Mike’s stomach did a somersault. He didn’t expect Will to turn Mike’s comment around like that. 

He loved this side of Will. Ever since Vecna had been defeated and the upside down closed, Will had started to become more confident, and Mike loved it. Mike knew–objectively, obviously–that confidence made him attractive. Another reason Mike thinks Will would, objectively, be good at kissing. 

Mike felt his face heating up. “I–I mean–yeah,” Mike doubled down. “I do. I think you’re good at anything you try.”

Will clearly wasn’t expecting Mike to answer like that. He blushed and looked away again. “I doubt that,” he said self-consciously. 

Mike wished Will didn’t think of himself that way. He wished he could show Will how he sees him.

Mike started to look around the room, trying to think of something to say that would make Will understand. His eyes landed on the package of lip balms that he took from Holly the other day. 

He got an idea. An absolutely, completely absurd idea. But Mike was a good friend. And he wanted to help Will out however he could.

“Do you think you’d feel better if you had some practice?”

“Well, yeah. Obviously. But it’s not like there’s any guys in Hawkins who want to kiss me.” 

Mike was sure that wasn’t true. Will had such perfectly kissable lips. Who wouldn’t want to kiss Will? Well, Mike wouldn’t, obviously. Because they were friends.

“Well I was thinking…um–both of our prospects for kissing people are pretty low.” Mike didn’t finish what he was saying, couldn’t yet. But it was fine, right? They were friends. Mike was just trying to help his best friend out.

“Yeah, duh,” Will said with a smile. He looked so innocent, trusting. Mike hoped he wasn’t about to break his trust with the suggestion he was about to make.

“Well what if we like–” Mike still couldn’t get it out. It’s going to be fine. He’s your best friend.

“What, Mike?” Will said, tilting his head a bit with the question.

Mike couldn’t hold it back anymore, so he just asked, outright.

“What if we practice on each other?” He blurted out, the words leaving his mouth like they were on fire.

The basement was completely silent. Will looked at him like had just had a stroke, or maybe like Mike had grown a third eye on his forehead.

Mike started to freak out. 

Oh no. I ruined our friendship, didn’t I?

Mike’s heart started to beat out of his chest. Will wasn’t saying anything. Will was looking at him and he wasn’t saying anything. 

A full almost 30 seconds pass before Will does anything.

He just says “What?” Still staring at Mike like he just said gibberish.

“We could–um. practice.”

“Kissing?” 

“Yeah–”

“Like–on the lips?”

“Um…yes?” Mike was starting to feel extremely stupid. Was this a bad idea? This felt like such a good idea a few minutes ago. 

“Unless you don’t want to. Which I would totally understand. You definitely don’t have to. I was just–you know–offering a solution. But it’s totally fine if–” Mike was rambling. He always did when he got nervous. He was trying to make sure Will knew he had a way out. He absolutely did not want to back Will into a corner with this.

“Mike–Mike…Stop talking.” Will pressed his palms on his closed eyes, like he had a headache.

“Sorry,” Mike said. He definitely fucked everything up.

“Yeah, ok,” Will said, with no elaboration.

“What?” Mike was sure Will was going to hate him forever.

“Yes. I want to practice.” Mike just stared at Will for a second in silence, reversing their roles from a minute ago.

“Okay..” They sat there again in a prolonged silence, neither of them moving or saying anything. This was beyond awkward. Things were never like this between them. They always had something to say to each other, and could always understand each other even when they weren’t talking.

Mike threw his caution to the wind and picked up the brightly colored cardboard and plastic package on the coffee table. He started ripping it open.

“Mike…what–”

“We can make it a game.” 

Will was blushing again, looking frantically around the room, like his nervous system had finally restarted, and he was starting to actually think this over. Mike hoped Will didn’t change his mind.

“A game?” 

“Yeah–to make it less awkward.” 

“Okay, Yeah…less awkward,” Will said as he scooted a little closer on the couch. “What's the game?” Mike was already starting to feel a few degrees warmer from Will getting closer to him.

Mike started to take the lip balms out of the package one by one.

“I’ll put on the lip balm while you close your eyes and then you have to guess what flavor it is.”

“How will I guess?” Will said, with an air of faux innocence, like he knows exactly how he’s going to guess. It made Mike’s heart climb into his throat and beat violently.

“You’ll taste it. On my lips. If you get it right, you get a point. Then we switch.” Mike crawled over the rest of the couch with the chapsticks in his palm and sat right in front of Will, looking at his lips the whole time. 

“You’re sure you want to?” Mike needed to make sure Will really wanted this, and that Mike wasn’t pushing him into it.

“Yes, Mike. Let’s just do it.” 

“Okay…” Mike slowly brought his hand up to Will’s eyes, covering them completely, as he uncapped the blueberry lip balm with his other hand. Will gasped when he felt Mike’s fingers on his face. “Is this okay?” Mike asked to make sure again.

“Mhm,” Will hummed in agreement. He sounded a little breathless.

Mike put the chapstick on his own lips, making sure to put on more than necessary, so Will would be able to taste it. 

Holy fuck. Will was going to be tasting the chapstick, on Mike’s lips. Mike would have never in a million years thought that this is something they would do, but it felt so right and natural. 

Mike rubbed his lips together while looking at Will’s.

Holy shit. He shouldn’t be freaking out so much over this. They were friends, for fuck’s sake. Mike was just helping him out. So why did his heart feel like it grew wings and was trying its best to fly out of his body?

Mike took his hand off of Will’s eyes, shaking slightly and still looking at his lips. 

Their faces were about ten inches apart

Will blinked his eyes open, adjusting to the light. Mike never really noticed before how mesmerizing Will’s eyes were. They were the perfect shade of hazel, with brown in the center blending into the green on the outside. His pupils were so wide, probably from the change in light, and Mike found himself strangely entranced by them.

Will leaned in a little and whispered, “So…do I just…” he was looking at Mike’s lips.

“...Yeah, I think so.” 

Will licked his lips and Mike almost died and ascended to heaven on the spot. Why is this affecting him so much?

Will leaned in even further until their noses were almost touching. They were still looking at each other, both frozen on the spot. They were breathing the same air, and Mike’s brain unhelpfully supplied the thought that Will smelled really good. He must be wearing a new cologne or something. Mike didn’t recognize the scent. It was driving him crazy.

Mike couldn’t take it anymore. He closed the gap between their lips and shut his eyes.

Their lips collided, slightly off-center, unmoving. Despite the fact that they weren’t even really doing anything, Mike still freaked out.

Will–his best friend, Will, had his lips on Mike’s. What the fuck.

They stayed there for a second, then Will pulled back. 

“Was that–um…” Will’s entire face was red.

“Did you taste it?”

“No, not really.”

“Well then, I guess we need to try again.” Mike tried not to focus on the heat building in his stomach and spreading through his chest and face. He tried to take charge a bit. He was, after all, the only one in the room with kissing experience. “And you should probably move your lips this time.”

“Right. Um…okay.”

Mike moved his hand up and placed it on Will’s neck. Will gasped slightly as Mike guided his face toward him.

Their lips touched again, but this time it was different. Both of their brains seemed to have connected to their bodies and this time, they moved. 

As their lips glided against each other, Mike' s brain completely left his body. He was feeling a lot of things–too many for his liking. He didn’t know what was going on or why he felt the way he did, but what he did know is that kissing girls did not feel like this. This was miles better than any kiss he’d ever experienced before.

When Will pulled back this time, he confidently said "Strawberry."

Mike burst out laughing. He couldn’t help it. Everything about this situation felt so ridiculous. 

“What?” Will asked, mock offended.

Mike just picked up the blueberry chapstick and held it in front of Will’s eyes so he could see what flavor it was.

“Ugh. Strawberry’s close enough,” Will said while rolling his eyes.

“It’s not even remotely similar!” Mike said, still laughing.

“They’re both berries!” Will was smiling his wonderful smile and Mike felt so relieved.

They were still best friends. They were okay. 

ᝰ

The next day, Mike finds himself in his basement with Will again. They had gone swimming in the morning with Dustin, but after Dustin had to go to work, it was kind of an unspoken agreement to go to Mike’s again.

The whole way home Mike had been distracted. He was thinking about the night before. Were the same events going to unfold again today? Mike secretly hoped so. He had found himself almost running into multiple objects with his bike because he was looking over at Will. Did he hope they were going to practice tonight too?

They were sitting on the couch again, the lip balms on the coffee table in front of them. Surprisingly, Holly hadn’t stolen them back yet. Mike guessed she just forgot she even had them, because she had already stolen the DnD manual back (which didn’t even have the information for the right monster in it, so it was completely useless to Mike). They were both separately reading; Mike was reading a sci-fi novel, and Will was reading a comic.

Mike had reread multiple paragraphs because his mind had drifted from the book in front of him. He kept thinking about the previous night, no matter how hard he tried not to. He knew that it shouldn’t have affected him as much as it did. He knew he was straight. But he kept seeing Will in his mind over and over again, sitting across from him, smiling after they had just kissed.

They had kissed. Mike still can’t wrap his head around it. How on Earth did they end up here? 

He tried his best to just focus on his book, but after a few minutes he eventually gave up.

“Do you want to play the game again?” He said abruptly, disturbing the comfortable silence in the room.

Will looked up from his comic, his eyebrows furrowed. “The game?”

Mike looked pointedly at the chapsticks on the table. “You know…”

“Oh. The game,” Will said with a smile. Mike’s stomach flipped. Maybe Will was excited about this.

“Yeah–it’s my turn now. I’ve got to get a point before you do.” He tried to say it with an air of confidence he didn’t have. Mike was falling apart at the seams, but Will didn’t need to know that. All Will needed to know was that Mike had kissed people before, and that he wanted to win this game.

Either way, it worked. Will smirked and said, “I don't know about that.”

“You don’t know about what–you getting a point?” Mike said, with fake confusion. He knew this was the best way to get to Will. Even though he almost never showed this side of himself, Will loved a challenge.

“No. I know I’m going to get a point. And you won’t do it before me.”

“Will. Just shut up and put the chapstick on.” Mike was getting impatient.

“Okay! Okay! Close your eyes.”

Mike obeyed, putting his own hand over his eyes. He could hear a rustle as Will shifted, and then he heard the cap of the lip balm being popped off.

After he heard the plastic being placed on the table again, Will said “Open your eyes.”

Mike did what he said again, starting to feel like he was sort of on a leash. 

As Mike opened his eyes, he was met with the sight of Will, his face and lips red. Mike’s heart started beating faster. Will’s lips looked so–nice. They were hydrated from the lip balm, and they were such a nice color. Mike couldn’t look away.

“Well? Are you going to come get your point?”

Mike immediately moved across the couch to sit right next to Will. Their thighs were touching, which Mike tried to ignore. He had more important things to focus on.

Mike was still nervous, but he didn’t know why. They had done this before, so he should have already gotten over his anxiety about it. His heart didn’t agree though, beating even more rapidly the more he leaned in.

Mike slowly brought his lips to Will’s, and they kissed. It was slow and tentative, like yesterday. Mike brought his hand up to the side of Will’s face for stability. Will gasped into Mike’s mouth and brought his hand up to Mike’s neck. 

Mike had completely forgotten he was supposed to be figuring out what flavor Will used. He was so focused following his bodily instinct to just move and think later.

Mike experimentally took Will’s bottom lip into his mouth, trying to taste it. The flavor was a little sour, but he couldn’t really think about that because Will was trailing his hand up the side of Mike’s neck and into his hair.

Mike got lost in it for a second, but eventually Mike’s competitiveness came back to him and he remembered he needed to win this game.

He pulled back. He was about to say his answer, but then he looked at Will and lost his train of thought. Will looked flushed, and his lips were wet and parted open. He looked so–

“Lemon,” Mike blurted out, before he could finish that thought.

Will looked at him for a second, like a deer in headlights. He nodded, slowly.

Mike smirked. “See? I told you I’d get a point before you did.”

Will’s consciousness returned to his body and he narrowed his eyes at Mike in annoyance. Will abruptly took a tissue from the side table next to him and wiped the chapstick from his lips.

“Okay. My turn. And I’m going to get it right this time.” He said with confidence. He picked up all of the lip balms and handed them to Mike before covering his own eyes with his hand.

Mike was taken aback by Will’s forwardness. He wouldn’t have been like this in any other situation. Mike still couldn’t believe he got to see this side of Will. His future boyfriend was going to be so lucky. 

Thinking about Will having a boyfriend in the future made Mike irritated. No guy would ever be good enough for Will, at least not in Mike’s eyes.

This time Mike picked strawberry, to fuck with Will’s head.

“I’m ready.”

“To lose?” Will smirked as he took his hand away from his eyes and then did something Mike never would’ve seen coming in a million years.

He made his way over to Mike and climbed onto his lap.

Mike sat there stunned, eyes wide, as he looked up at Will. 

“Is this okay?” Will whispered, his face inches away from Mike’s. He placed his hands on Mike’s shoulders.

“Yeah,” Mike said, out of breath.

Will didn’t waste any more time. He kissed Mike again, but this time it was deeper, like he was already trying to taste the chapstick.

Mike’s hands instinctively went to Will’s waist. He felt Will’s hands slide up his neck and into his hair again. Mike made a noise in the back of his throat that was completely embarrassing, but he honestly didn’t have the mental fortitude to care at that moment, because Will had just deepened the kiss again, using his tongue now.

Holy shit. Mike’s brain completely stopped working. They were making out. He was making out with Will. 

Will didn’t pull away yet, even though he had definitely tasted the flavor of the chapstick by now. Mike brought his hands up from Will’s waist into his hair. It was so soft.

Mike’s brain felt like it was being melted and solidified into a different shape. All his thoughts were taken up by a continuous chant of Will, Will, Will.

He could taste Will on his lips, he could smell his specific scent that was so Will, he could feel him under his fingertips. And as they continued to kiss, Mike started to redefine how he saw Will.

He thought about when they were kids, and he approached Will on the swings. Back then, he hadn’t understood it, but he knew there was something magnetic about him. 

As they grew up together, Mike wanted to be around Will constantly, usually to the annoyance of every other person near him. For his entire life, Mike had felt like Will was the only other person on the planet that really got him. They vibrated on a completely different frequency than everyone else, completely attuned to each other’s thoughts and feelings.

Mike also thought back to El, and how, despite his best efforts, never felt this way about her. He was never this affected by their kissing. When they would kiss it felt like something they had to do, because they were a couple, and that’s what couples did. Him and Will weren’t even a couple, but Mike felt like their kissing was completely inevitable–that’s how right it felt.

Mike knew, with absolute certainty, that there wasn’t any universe that existed where he and Will weren’t cosmically intertwined.

When they broke apart this time, Mike felt like he had just resurfaced from being underwater for years. He audibly gasped a little bit.

He looked at Will, really looked at him. He looked like an angel. His hair was a little ruffled from Mike’s hands in it, his shirt collar was slightly lopsided, his lips and cheeks were red, his eyes were wide with surprise, and he was looking at Mike with awe.

“Will, I–”

“Sorry.” Will looked down, self-conscious. “Was that too much?”

“No, no–not at all,” Mike said as he shook his head, trying to reassure Will.

“What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?” 

Mike just kept staring at him with his mouth opened slightly, like he couldn’t believe he was real.

“Will, has anyone ever told you that you’re beautiful?” 

Will immediately blushed, his face and neck turning red.

“I–um–no, not really,” Will said, his eyes darting nervously around the room.

Mike understood now. He had always tried to turn away from his thoughts about Will, convincing himself he was just confused, or that Will would be weirded out by it.

But he couldn’t run anymore, not now that he knew what Will’s lips felt like against his own.

Mike brought his hands back up to Will’s neck and pulled him in again. Mike kissed him, slower than before, but with so much more meaning this time.

He pulled back again to look at Will’s face, and waited for his reaction.

“Mike. What–I didn’t even have any chapstick on.” Will sounded a little breathless. Mike really hoped he was right about this, because he didn’t think he would be able to handle a rejection from Will.

“I know,” Mike whispered, looking directly into Will's eyes. He could see the exact moment when Will realized what he had just said.

“Then why–” Will cut himself off, seeming to realize the answer to his own question halfway through asking it.

“Because I wanted to,” Mike said with complete certainty.

Will looked at him in shock for a few more seconds. “Are you…serious?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not–you’re not joking?”

“No, I’m not joking.”

Will looked at him a little bit longer, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Will? You’re starting to worry me.” Mike was so scared he had said the wrong thing, that Will didn’t want the same thing as him.

Then Will started laughing. Laughing. Now Mike really was going to shit his pants. Did he read everything wrong? Did he weird Will out? What was going on?

“What–” Mike tried, almost on the verge of actual tears.

“I have waited years for you to say something like that to me,” Will said, still smiling in disbelief.

Mike felt every single one of his muscles relax at the same time, so overcome with relief that he almost started crying.

“So…do you–um…like me too?” Mike said, hopeful.

“Yes, you idiot!” Will laughed again and then rested his forehead against Mike’s and closed his eyes as they breathed in sync.

“Was the chapstick blueberry, by the way?” 

“No. It was actually strawberry this time,” Mike said through another laugh.

“I guess I was too distracted to notice.” They both laughed this time, the two of them finally on the same page about this huge piece of the puzzle Mike hadn’t even realized was missing until now.

Will dropped his head onto Mike’s shoulder and they hugged, with Will still on his lap. Mike started to run his fingers through Will’s hair. For the first time in a long time, he felt completely at peace.

“For how long?” Mike asked, a little bit scared of the answer.

“Since we were kids,” Will sniffled, and Mike’s heart broke for the boy in his arms. Will was crying.

“I’m so sorry for not realizing sooner,” Mike said, starting to feel tears prickle in his own eyes.

“It’s okay Mike.” Will pulled back to look at him again, smiling. Mike wiped a tear from Will’s cheek, and then looked at him with what he’s sure looked like hearts in his eyes.

“I never expected this to happen at all. It’s okay that you were a little late.” 

Mike still couldn’t believe it. But he wanted to make sure he did this right. He didn’t ever want to make Will feel like he needed to be hidden, or that he deserved anything less than all the stars in the sky.

Mike may have been an idiot in the past, but he was going to be a gentleman now.

“Will?”

“Yeah, Mike?”

“Do you want to be my boyfriend?” Mike asked, like he should’ve years ago.

“Mayybeee…” Will said, back to teasing him. Mike didn’t know how he didn’t see it earlier. He was obsessed with Will, especially this side of him.

Will got up from Mike’s lap and walked over to sit on the edge of the coffee table, making a show of pretending to be indifferent to Mike’s question.

“Oh come on Will!”

“Maybe I’ll say yes if you ask reaallyyy nicely.” Did the AC unit in the window break? Why was it suddenly 200 degrees in this room?

“Please?”

“Is that the best you can do?” Will asked with a smirk. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Fine. If Will wanted him to ask nicely, Mike was going to ask nicely. Mike would do anything Will asked him to.

Mike slowly got on his knees in front of the coffee table so that they were almost eye level with each other, with Will being slightly above Mike. Mike put his hands onto Will’s thighs, and looked up into his eyes.

“Will, please,” Mike practically begged.

Will’s eyes were wide in shock. He had clearly not expected Mike to take his teasing seriously.

“I–I mean…Yeah! Of course, Mike.” Will was blushing and stuttering again, so different to the persona he had put on a few seconds ago. Mike was so grateful that he was the only one who got to see both of these sides of Will.

“Good. Because I’m going to treat you so well,” Mike said earnestly.

He moved upwards, into Will’s personal space, and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m going to buy you flowers.” 

He kissed Will’s nose next. “I’m going to cook you food.” Then his jaw. “I’m going to hold open every door for you.”

Will was giggling now. Mike continued giving him quick kisses all over his face and neck, telling him all the ways he was going to treat him right, until they ended up just making out on the couch again and then falling asleep in each other’s arms.

As Mike fell asleep, he felt so grateful. For Will, for his friends, and even for Holly and her chapstick. Mike knew, in every universe, having Will like this was a million times more worth it than having the fake sense of “normalcy” he had so desperately sought before.

Mike was so glad he had chosen to stop running. The view really was beautiful when you actually stopped to enjoy it.