Chapter Text
It was November 6th 1988, and Will was riding his bike to the Wheelers house when he saw what looked to be a doctor in the middle of the road. Another car was driving at least 30 mph over the speed limit so he sharply turned his bike, somehow managing to grab the old guy and swerve to safety. Honestly Will didn’t know He has these reflexes. There would be times he would have to move quickly to get away from his dead beat dad, but he hasn’t taken any classes or anything. Either way after he made sure the doctor was going to be alright he made his way to his favorite place in the world Mike's basement.
Even though the place was always messy and had a thick smell of teenage boys, it was home to them. Will had memorized every part of this room from the way the couch had a small tear in the back left corner, to the specks of paint coming off the chairs they used for DND. He had painted this basement last year making sure to get every single detail. That painting hangs framed on the wall above the TV.
“Guess what Mrs. Wheeler got us!” Lucas runs down the stairs with three boxes of pizza.
He sets them down in front of the couch as Mike puts a movie in the VCR. Will notices the way his hands move pushing the VHS tape of Goonies in. He makes a mental note to draw that later.
A not so fun fact about Mike is that his dad forced him to get a job over the summer and the dumbass chose modeling for Brenner Enterprise. That's also where he met his now girlfriend Jane Ives. Jane was the perfect model; she was actually a big inspiration for Will on female poses. She was also the perfect girlfriend, anytime Mike needed to go somewhere she would send him a personal driver, she would also order breakfast to be sent to him every morning. Worst of all she was really nice to Will and treated him like her own brother. Will hated that he had absolutely nothing to hate her for. Except maybe the teeny tiny fact that she was dating his Mike.
Will can’t be too mad at him though because now he has a whole collection of Mike posing and looking like an absolute goddess. He makes the excuse that he uses the photos for anatomy which isn’t totally a lie because he does use it for reference sometimes. Most of the time though he stares at them like a playboy magazine.
“Dude, remind me to kiss your mom the next time I see her.” Dustin grabs a slice of pepperoni and takes a disgusting bite trying to slurp up the cheese.
“Do not get anywhere near my mother.” Mike exclaims sounding a bit harsh and Will feels the need to ask him if he’s okay, but the words get stuck on his tongue. It's as if his own brain won’t let him speak normally around Mike anymore.
The boys settle in watching the movie they've seen a million times before grabbing slices of pizza and just enjoying themselves like they always do. Will watches the way Lucas rolls up his pants slightly noticing the way the fabric wrinkles. He watches Dustin take his hat off and gazes at his curls bouncing out as if they can finally breathe. Lastly, he looks over at Mike who is sitting closer to him now. His dark eyes reflected the screen in front of them. Mike looks over one eye brow coming up. “Is everything alright?”
Will starts to panic (look away from his eyes NOT THE LIPS YOU DUMBASS) His face turns bright red as he fails to not look at those perfect lips. “Uhh, yeah I um need to use the bathroom…UPSTAIRS ONE!” He stands up immediately tripping over the empty pizza box. “I’M SORRY!” He runs up the stairs feeling everyone's eyes on him. (What the fuck is wrong with me)
When he makes it to the bathroom he shuts the door and stares at himself in the mirror. He wasn’t always a pathetic clutz around Mike but ever since he and Jane got together he just short circuits anytime Mike is within 30 feet of him. It's so stupid Will knows Mike isn’t gay even if he was there is no way Will could ever afford to take care of him the way Jane can. He splashes water on his face hoping to wash away these feelings for at least tonight and heads back down stairs.
He finds his spot and quietly sits spacing himself a little further from Mike and tries to just focus on the movie. He laughs at the parts he always does and listens to Lucas gossiping about some new drama he heard on the basketball team. Soon enough it's 11:57pm and the guys start cleaning up, saying their goodbyes and driving off. Will stays a bit longer helping Mike wash the cups and plates they had used.
Mike looked over at Will “I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
“I’ve been really busy lately and this gig at B.E. has kinda taken over my life.”
“Mike, you're a celebrity now.”
“No I'm not!”
Will laughs and for the first time in a while his brain isn’t freaking out, that is until he accidentally drops the cup he’s holding splashing water all over the front of Mike's white shirt. It sticks to his chest perfectly outlining his thin frame.
Oh god, I'm so sorry here let me-” he grabs a hand towel starting to pat down Mike's front, his hand swipes down to his abdomen and Mike squirms letting out a slight whimper.
“It's okay Will, I can just take off my shirt.” He stands back and removes the white fabric. Will stares for wayyyyy too long before his brain finally reboots.
“Uhhhhh I gotta go home right now!”
“Will, wait!”
“Jonathan left his cactus out and I gotta water it!”
“Oh ...well I'll see you tomorrow.”
Will grabs his helmet and is already half way home when his conscience comes back to him. (He took his shirt off and I just ran away. I’m the dumbest person in the world. But wait, wouldn’t that be like a form of sexual harassment staring at him like he’s a juicy steak. I wish I was a juicy steak so he eat me ou- What the fuck am I even thinking!)
He somehow makes it home without causing any accidents or flying himself over the nearest cliff. He parks his bike on the side of the house walking in as quiet as he can. All the lights are off so he heads to his room shutting the door behind him. He throws himself on his bed contemplating whether or not he should end it all tonight or move to timbuktu and just start over.
He stands up, grabs an old shirt and some sweats from his closet changing into them. When he turns around to look at his desk he notices a small octagonal black box with red engravings all over. (Did mom get me something? I told her to stop buying me stuff since we can barely afford bills.) He opens the box and a blinding light flashes before him making him drop the box.
A small red alien flies out of the box “Hello William, my name is Tikki and I am your kwami. Now you’ll probably have a lot of questions so we can start on-”
Will throws the nearest thing he can find at her “WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!” He then jumps back staring at the bug thing floating in front of him.
“Hey! I’m a kwami of creation and possess the miraculous Ladybug. Now please listen to me because Hawkins is in grave danger and you have to save it.”
“Great, I’m schizophrenic now.”
Will picks up the paint brush he threw and sets it back down on the desk.
“William please! We need you!”
“Trust me I’m not a savior. Plus what needs to be saved in Hawkins anyway? Except for the extreme boredom virus.”
“I need you to take me seriously or you’ll never get to transform.”
“Tran-what? Like The Hulk?”
“I’m not sure what that is but you can turn into a magical entity with the powers of the miraculous ladybug. You will be given a yo-yo as your weapon. It will grant you access to communication with other miraculous holders such as your other half the black cat. You must keep your identity a secret from everyone. The miraculous of the black cat and ladybug can never be in the same hands or something horrible will happen.”
Will sits on his bed rubbing his temples trying to soak in all this new information while also telling himself he’s just hallucinating. He takes a deep breath and decides to just pretend that this is real and go along with his insanity because this might be a good distraction from Mike.
“Okay…say I believe you, how would I transform?”
“Well it’s quite simple” Tikki picks up the red and black spotted earrings flying over to him. “Put these on and say Tikki, spots on.” She has these bright blue bug eyes that makes Will really question if Dustin or Lucas had snuck some shrooms into the pizza.
He put the earrings on and stood up. “Okay, so I just say Tikki spots on-”
Suddenly pink and red sparkles start flying all around him going to his hands he watches as red and black start covering his body. He feels the magic flowing over his legs and chest, a really big yo-yo appears around his waist. The super bright flashes simmer down as small glitter particles disappear into the ground. The whole world stops as Will looks into the mirror in front of him. There is another version of him staring back with a red mask and black spots. His hair is slicked up instead of the bowl cut he has had since he was four. The suit was a red base with black shoes, gloves, and sides of his waist. He turned slightly “Holy shit my ass is fat.” His eyes were a brighter green now and he couldn’t stop looking at the more confident and attractive person before him.
After he stopped gawking at himself he looked around realizing Tikki wasn’t there anymore.
“Tikki? Did I mess something up? Where are you?” He looks down and sees his yo-yo blinking. He picks it up and it slides up showing a screen like the wheelers computer just hand size. “Woah, Dustin would love this!” He sees words appear on the screen. “It's me Tikki, I’ve provided you with my magic, but when you hear your earrings start beeping, say Tikki spots off and you will detransform.”
With this new found super hero form Will decides to go out his window and practice in the backyard so he doesn’t wake up anyone. He stands near Castle Byers. He starts spinning the yo-yo and he immediately smacks himself in the face with it. “Of course I'm still clumsy.”
He keeps working with the weapon when he has the idea to use it as a grappling hook. He threw it over a pretty high tree branch above him and yoinked himself to the tree slamming his entire front into it. “I'm indestructible or something because that should definitely hurt.” He eventually swings up to the branch and decides to swing down the street until he finds a taller building he can reach. He sits down at the highest part of the roof and stares off into the night sky. He closes his eyes for a few minutes soaking in this dream and slightly wishing it was actually real.
“It’s Beautiful out here.”
“Yeah it really is.”
Will jumps and his foot starts to slip all of a sudden he starts falling down the roof when someone grabs his hand. He looks up and it's a boy probably around his age with dark curls, midnight blue eyes and a black mask concealing any other features. He has a black suit with a comically large bell as the zipper going from his neck all the way down to oh-. Will stares at him eyes wide as he pulls him back up.
“God, I’m sorry I scared you. I was just looking at my baton and it showed another miraculous user was nearby so I came over. It's tricky though because I have to practically act like the pole dancer with this thing.” He pulls out a silver baton and it extends fifty feet. “I don’t really know if this thing has a limit on how far it can go but it's still pretty cool.”
Will is just blankly staring at the boy as he rambles on.
“I can’t believe I’m a super hero now. It feels so nice to be freed from my house at least for the night. Plagg is kinda an asshole but his powers are cool.-”
“Wait, who's Plagg?”
“Oh um he’s the little bug looking cat thing that gave me a very bland run down on a bunch of boring stuff like guardians and cosmic world rewrites.”
“Oh your kwami.”
“Yeah I think that's what he called himself. Oh I'm sorry my name is Paladin Noir, what's yours handsome.” He stands up holding Will’s hand and bows down giving his hand a small peck while having this look of longing for him.
“My name is wil-WISE BUG!” He yells, pulling his hand back and covering his mouth with it. (You must keep your identity a secret from everyone) Tikki's words from before echo through his head. “Yeah Wise Bug, is it a cool name?”
“Hmm I like it if you do.” He holds a little smirk. “Wanna do something?”
“What would we do?”
“Eh, let me show you. Can I?” He holds his hand out and Will grabs it. Paladin Noir wraps his arm around him using the other hand to let the baton expand beneath them. He grips on tighter as they start flying into town. They land at the top of Starcourt Mall. He carefully lowers them on the roof slowly letting go of Wise Bug as they land. “I’m still learning but it's really fun jumping around.”
“What are we doing at the mall?”
“Just look”
He looks out and sees the way the led signs light up the town leaving purple, blue, and yellow everywhere. He noticed the way the sky is clear tonight and the way the concrete sidewalks have muddy foot prints. He really couldn’t wait to paint this later. He took it all in listening to lights flutter off and cars driving by. Its all so-
“It’s soothing.” Paladin Noir says, cutting off his thoughts and leaning back on the roof. Wise Bug lies down next to him taking in the stars.
“What if it's all just a dream.” He says
“Well I never want to wake up. When will I get another chance to be a superhero?”
“I don’t know, this just seems too perfect.”
"Well that's because you’re with me bugaboo. But just to be sure, promise you'll meet me here tomorrow morning.”
Bugaboo? “Uh…yeah I can do that. What time is it anyway?”
Paladin Noir pulls out his baton “3:24 am”
“Oh shit!” He stands up abruptly “I have to be home cause my mom wakes up really early for her job and- wait I can’t talk about my personal life sorry I gotta go.”
“Aww bummer well how does 8 am behind the arcade sound.”
“Yeah sounds pretty good, I'll see ya.”
“Don’t miss me too much.”
Wise Bug spins his yo-yo and swings home. Luckily he only fell about four times on houses he was jumping across. He makes it back into his room, shutting the window softly.
“Tikki spots off.”
The red and pink sparkles appear again detransforming him back into pathetic William Byers. Tiki reappears in front of him. Looking slightly unhappy.
“I’m starving, you didn’t detransform for three hours.”
“Oh I'm sorry, what would you like? I have a chocolate bar in my backpack.”
Will grabs the sweets from his bag and watches as she nibbles at it.
“Wow, I really like this.” She finishes the sweets and sits down on his bed.
“William, you should get some rest especially if you’re meeting up with Paladin Noir tomorrow.”
He sits down next to her. “You can call me Will, and yeah I probably should. But I have a lot of questions, like what is a guardian?”
“Well, a guardian holds all the miraculous and chooses who gets them. Luckily Dr. Owens chose you!”
“Is Dr. Owens the Guardian?"
“Yes, and he is a very good one. Sadly he lost a few of the miraculous during world war two.”
“Which ones?”
“The fox Miraculous of illusion, the peacock miraculous of emotion, and the butterfly miraculous of transmission.”
“Well why did he choose me?”
“That I do not know exactly, but if I can guess it's because of your great kindness and yearning for peace. You feel as though you can never share your true feelings no matter how much it hurts you and I can help you.”
“How did you-”
“I can feel everything you can. When you transform we become one. Also you have done very well for a first use. Don’t worry it’ll get easier.”
“I’m going to be honest with you Tikki. I still don’t believe I'm sober or conscious right now but I wouldn’t be upset if I wake up and you are still here.”
“Aww thank you Will, now we should get some sleep.”
“Okay, goodnight Tikki.” Will lays down closing his eyes as Tikki curls up next to his arm.
“Sleep well Will.”