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It keeps happening.
Will isn’t that bothered, really.
He’s always somebody who loves being physically close with his friends. But now, it’s happening literally everyday and everywhere - for that matter.
When they’re out with the party, Mike might as well tie himself to Will’s belt loop. Always an inch away from him at all times. Like seriously, Lucas and Dustin haven’t stopped with the relentless teasing. Oh Dustin! Should I follow you to the bathroom, or do you need me to walk you to all your classes! It makes Will a little nervous, but Mike just rolls his eyes - seemingly unbothered as he keeps his fingers curled around Will’s shoulders, pulling him in even closer, like he might just disappear if his grip loosens even for a second.
Will guesses it started after they moved into their dorms. Shared bedrooms and all. In the confines of their 900 square feet New York apartment - there’s not much space to be far apart from each other.
Mike keeps close to him in the mornings, afternoons, and especially at night. Insistent on sharing a bed together.
As of now, Will has a busy day ahead but is currently standing over the stove making their favorite breakfast, scrambled eggs. Yeah, basic - he knows, but they both love it.
“What are you making?” Mike creeps up behind him, hugging his waist from behind.
Will knows this isn’t what all friends do. But Mike’s just different. Will thinks it helps Mike being close to Will after everything that happened with the Upside Down. He’s become a bit of an overprotective mess actually, constantly asking Will if he’s okay - after being woken up countless times from Will screaming in his sleep. Will can’t blame him.
Will’s a little bit embarrassed by it - but it really does help. Having Mike sleep next to him, if that weren’t for the recent problem - the snoring. Which is exactly why he’s so exhausted right now.
Will lets out a yawn. “Same thing we eat every morning, Mike.”
“Are you tired? Did you not sleep well?” Mike questions Will, tucking his face into Will’s neck.
Will doesn’t want to tell him. Mike’s been such a good friend the last couple of months - it’s just one favor he's returning if he tells a little white lie. “No, sorry. I’m fine. It’s just really early, and I have a bunch of work to get done.”
Mike seems to accept this answer. There’s a smile creeping up the corner of his mouth as fingers reach below the hem of Will’s cotton shirt and crawl up to tickle the side of Will’s stomach. Will starts uncontrollably giggling - dropping the spatula and batting Mike’s hands away from him.
“Stop- You’re going to make me burn the eggs.” He pleads, unable to get any more words out. So ticklish.
“I’m just trying to wake you up, sleepyhead.” Mike stops and spins Will around. “And I think they're already burnt, Will.” he mumbles, sneering.
Will gasps, clutching his chest - feigning hurt. He starts swatting Mike with the spatula as he picks it up again. “How dare you!”
Mike is the one uncontrollably snickering now. “Okay, okay. Stop!” He grabs the spatula away from Will's dainty hands and reaches up above Will towards the cabinet and pulls out two plates, setting them on the kitchen island. “Sit.”
Mike grabs the pan and scrapes the scrambled eggs out, splitting the portion between the two of them. Will settles onto his bar stool, knees tucked to his chest - satisfied with his slightly overcooked eggs.
“Syrup.” he reaches out his palm, just one word acting as a request to Mike on the other side of the kitchen island. Mike hands him the sweet topping, all knowing.
They do this everyday - have breakfast together before heading off to their classes. Then they come home and have dinner together. It’s a nice schedule, Will certainly isn’t complaining. Mike’s just about his favorite person on the planet. So what if they're a little codependent?
Mike’s mouth half full of eggs, he mumbles. “So, we’re still on for movies and pizza tonight?”
“Gross. Finish chewing.” Will puts on a disgusted expression and pokes Mike’s shoulder.
Mike catches the finger meeting with his shoulder and pulls Will's entire hand on his, intertwining their fingers together. He swallows. “Answer my question.”
He softly rubs the back of Will’s hand with his thumb, the small act sends a shiver up to Will’s spine.
Will’s caught off guard by this just a little bit. His entire body going still. He’s used to it now, but sometimes it still sets him back - Mike just likes to be close, really close. Yeah, holding hands isn’t really an overprotective thing, more of a Mike thing. If it makes him happy, Will’s fine with it. He just wishes his heart would stop fluttering in his chest, trying to break out and scream Stop! and More! at every touch.
“Will?”
He drifts up his gaze from their hands and blankly stares at Mike’s face, forgetting he had asked a question.
He shakes his head, trying to get out of his thoughts.
“Oh. Shit. I completely forgot to tell you. I have this pair assignment for my Mixed Media class, I’ll be at the library till late. I’m so sorry.” Will looks at Mike like he’s just admitted to killing a puppy.
Mike lets out a breathy laugh. “Will. It’s fine, I promise. We can just hangout tomorrow.”
Hangout tomorrow. It’s a little bit funny when Will hears it come out Mike’s mouth. Because, they’re literally always together. Just ask any of Will’s friends. No, Will isn’t free tonight because he’s got plans with his boyfriend! Will’s neck creeps up with blush at the memory of his friend’s words, he remembers the way his eyes widened. He quickly dismissed the label saying they were just friends.
Although, it’s becoming harder and harder to deny it.
“Okay. Tomorrow.” He nods and smiles, Will’s grip on Mike’s hand tightens a tiny bit. Yeah, he won't deny it - he likes the touch a lot too.
Mike visibly brightens at that.
The night comes fairly quickly. Will only had around two classes today, then he’s in the library with his classmate.
They've been there for hours, back pain already reaching his shoulders from being bent over a small booth for so long - papers, magazines, pencils and possibly every kind of stationary is present on the table.
Will’s tired, like truly - so exhausted.
A yawn escapes him, as he’s cutting out a piece of a magazine cover and his head almosts falls to the table.
“Am I boring you, Will?” his classmate Daniel mocks him.
Will rolls his eyes, smiling. “Sorry, no. I’ve been having trouble sleeping.”
“What’s the problem?” Daniel implores, curious.
"It’s my roommate. He kinda snores a lot.” Will’s unsure of why he’s being so honest - Daniel doesn’t need to know all this. But he’s too tired to stop the words from coming out of his mouth.
"Oh, tough. I mean, you could always get him nose strips. My grandmother used to have trouble with snoring all the time and my grandfather would go insane like truly insane, he got zero sleep most nights.”
Will blushes a bit at the thought of him and Mike being compared to an old married couple.
"Nose strips, huh?”
“Yeah. Trust me, they work great.” Daniel lifts up the large A1 poster - it’s a combined medium of 80s singers and headline covers. “Honestly, I think we’re good for today.”
“Really?” Will asks, his tone already becoming more excited.
All he wants to do is go home right now, and flop onto his bed.
“Yeah, we can do the finishing touches another day. And you,” Daniel says, dragging his pointed finger up and down Will. “definitely have to go to sleep right now. You look exhausted.”
“Thanks.” he snorts.
“Let me walk you back to your dorm, don’t want you passing out on the side walk.”
“Oh, no. That’s really not necessary. It’s only a five minute walk.”
Daniel’s a little bit… persistent. Immediately perking up at the chance of being Will’s partner for this assignment. To be honest, they didn’t even need to meet up tonight - Will thinks it was a little bit suspicious Daniel decided to reschedule when Will mentioned he had plans with Mike. Come on, Will. It’s due in 3 weeks, best we get it done soon.
The excuse sounded a little thin.
“Don’t question it.” He’s packing up all their things before Will even has a chance to try to disagree again.
Will’s not good at saying no - call him a people pleaser or whatever.
He picks up his bag and they leave the library.
It’s around 12 AM, the time they reach the dorm. The walk was a little quiet, Will’s genuinely too exhausted to make small talk with his classmate right now.
“Okay, here we are." Will stops outside the door. "Thanks for walking me.” He takes his bag from Daniel which was kind of stolen from him halfway through their walk.
“Yeah. No problem, Will.” He looks like he has something else on his mind, not yet leaving the entrance of Will’s dorm.
Will reaches for the door knob to turn it, but is quickly stopped as Daniel’s hand curls around his own.
“Wait. Do you maybe wanna hangout another time?” he asks, a bit shy.
Will’s taken aback by the sudden hand on his, feels wrong - intruding. “Like for the assignment?”
He’s acting a fool right now. He knows what Daniel means. His classmate isn’t too subtle at showing the tiny crush he has on Will. But honestly, Will’s not all that interested. He’s trying his hardest to get out of this without hurting his feelings.
“No. Like coffee or… dinner?”
Before Will can begin to muster up a half-assed excuse on how he’s suddenly busy every single day of the year from now on, a voice cuts in.
The door is abruptly opened. “Will.”
Mike looks a little irritated, but it’s not directed at Will. Never at Will.
His eyes are kind of boring into Daniel’s skull, like he’s the one who interrupted a conversation - not the other way around. Mike’s eyes then glance down to Daniel’s hand around Will’s and then the expression on his face turns twice as sour. Will just stares innocently at Mike's face - a silent plea for help.
“Who are you?” Mike asks, his tone as if he’s not looking for an answer.
What he means is: leave.
Daniel lets go of Will’s hand, fast. His face looks like he’s made a connection between two things.
He glances between the two of them, his expression growing a smile. “Oh, right. I should get going. Bye, Will.”
Before he can even question the implying tone behind Daniel’s ‘oh’. A hand curls around his wrist and drags him inside the apartment. He lets out an oomph sound at the fast movement.
Mike closes and locks the door behind Will.
His face immediately softens a bit just staring at Will’s sleepy disposition. “Who was that?” he immediately questions, again. His tone is less angry, and radiates of protectiveness now - compared to when he had asked Daniel the question.
His big hands curl around Will’s cheeks, caressing at them gently and Will just sighs into the touch. He always feels safe under Mike's hands. “He’s just my partner for the project.”
“Why were you holding hands?” his eyes squint at the question.
Will almost wants to laugh at that, they were most definitely not holding hands. “What? We were not. Why are you awake?” he sleepily grumbles.
“I just heard some noise outside the door, so I went to go check what it was.” he glances down at his sock-clad feet like he’s been caught doing something.
“Oh.” Will lets out another yawn, jeez - he really needed to go to bed.
Mike’s hands warm up his face, then travel down to his shoulders - rubbing at them. “Are you okay?” His voice is like honey. He glances all over Will as if trying to make a mental catalogue that everything with him is okay.
“I’m just so exhausted. I didn’t get much sleep last night, and then I was running all over the place today because my two classes were on opposite sides of the campus, and if you haven't noticed our campus is crazy huge. I was like a madwoman trying to not to be late, people probably thought I was insane. And then- some lady spilled coffee on me so I had to come back to our dorm and change into a new shirt–” he stops as he glances up and sees Mike grinning at him. “What?” his brows furrowing.
“Nothing, you’re tired and still rambling. Cute.” Mike looks at him with pure adoration in his eyes.
Cute. Great, he’s going to be replaying that specific word in his mind for the next couple of days. His face quickly becomes red at the adjective.
“Shut up.” He lets his head fall to Mike’s shoulders, closing his eyes.
Mike’s hand travels up to his hair, playing with his ends and scratching at his scalp. Will lets out an embarrassing whimper at that. Jeez, get it together, Will. “Let’s get you to bed.”
He complies just as easily as Mike drags him down the hallway towards their shared room.
Will changes into his pyjamas quickly, after telling Mike over and over again that he could change on his own. He's tired, not physically impaired, Mike.
He's a little shy changing in front of Mike but he was hesistant to leave the room, in case Will got hurt - bullshit. As he finishes pulling his shirt over his head, Mike’s already in his bed - expression on his face as if he’s exactly where he's supposed to be, waiting for Will to come next to him before he sleeps.
Will stands next to his bed picking at the sheets, unsure of what his next movements will be.
He knows he’s going to be awoken halfway throughout the night by the loud noise that is Mike Wheeler.
“Are you sure you don’t wanna sleep in your own bed?” Will asks, hoping his tone will imply what he’s truly asking for.
“But we always sleep in the same bed... unless you don’t want to.” Mike is slightly pouty.
Yup, let it be Will that admits defeat as soon as he sees that look cast itself on the curly hair boy's face.. “No! I do. It’s just - it’s a really tiny bed, Mike. Are you even comfortable? You’re so tall, we barely fit.” he chuckles, he can’t believe he has to convince Mike almost every night that they can fit into his petite sized bed.
Mike never lets him win this argument.
“Will, come on. I like it, just sleep.” he drags himself to the corner of the bed, and pats the space next to him - pleading.
He’s almost too tired to fight it now - all he wants to do is snuggle up next to his best friend. And tonight's not the night to tell Mike about his ear-piercing problem.
And he's definitely going to wonder what Mike meant by he likes it because to him - they only sleep together because of Will's nightmares.
Will lifts up the covers and gets into bed. They’re squished together, like - really, really close. He doesn’t know where he ends and Mike begins. It was awkward when they first started sleeping in the same bed. He’s stopped having nightmares, so he’s unsure of why Mike is still insistent on sleeping in his bed. You stopped having nightmares because started sleeping together, Will. He remembers the exact words he used when he tried to use that argument last time - his face in shock at the double entrendre behind Mike’s words, he obviously didn’t mean it like that.
But now, it feels natural. Mike’s hand creeps around his waist and pulls him in even closer.
Mike rests his head atop of Wills, letting out a sigh. “I missed you today.”
“We literally saw eachother this morning.” he chuckles, readjusting to the position they’re in - he slides his leg between Mike’s.
“Exactly. Way too long. We should start having lunch together, you spend too much time with your college friends.” he snuggles closer, his hand tangled in his hair.
“So - breakfast, lunch, and dinner together?”
Mike really is so clingy. And, Will isn’t going to sit here and lie to himself - he likes it, he even loves it.
“Yup, sounds perfect to me.” Mike absentmindedly draws circles into Will’s back. The gesture relaxes Will, he feels as if he could pass out right now. Mike breathes him in. “You smell good.”
“Stop it. I haven’t even showered.” Will makes a disgusted sound and tries to distance himself from Mike. But his hands are too tightly wounded around Will’s waist.
“Don’t care.” he says sleepily. “Sleep, Will.”
They both drift off into sleep, warming each other up. All body parts intertwined.
Will wakes up at around 3 AM. Of course, to the sound of his annoying snoring. God, he really needed to fix this. Nose strips, Daniel had said. This time - Will just wanted a short term solution, he was so, so tired. Mike’s snoring is right next to his ear, like a radio blasting on full volume.
He opens his eyes and realises Mike’s hands are now underneath his shirt, loosely snug around Will’s stomach.
He squirms out of his grip - it takes longer than a few seconds. Will realises he can’t even take his pillow because they’re sharing one. Mike’s dead asleep, snoring like it’s no one's business. It’s a little cute - but Will’s too tired to smile at that right now.
Will grabs an extra pillow and blanket from Mike’s bed and sluggishly drags his feet to the living room, and sinks onto their medium sized couch. He lets sleep overtake him.
Will’s awake and it’s still dark outside. He couldn’t have been asleep for that long. Before his sleepy brain can even process where he is, the snoring has become twice as loud, somehow. His face is smushed onto the back of the couch and then the realisation that there’s an arm thrown over his waist hits him. He tries to sit up quickly but, oh god. Mike’s leg on top of his, securing him in place.
You have got to be kidding.
Okay, he’s had enough. Truly, enough. Will tries his hardest to weasel his way out of Mike’s arms, sitting up properly - and shakes Mike out of his coma-like snoring induced trance. “Mike. Wake up, wake up. Come on.” both his hands on Mike’s shoulders, wobbling him awake.
Mike mumbles something in his sleep, face turning on their pillow. He then opens his eyes slowly meeting Will’s slightly annoyed but amused gaze. “Will?”
“What are you doing?” he asks, dropping his arms from Mike’s shoulders. Mike seems to wake up a little bit at the question, sitting up.
“I woke up and you weren’t next to me. I thought something was wrong.” he says like it should be obvious.
Will lets out a laugh and his head falls back onto the pillow, he groans. “It’s your snoring, Mike!” he admits.
Mike is taken aback by the sudden accusation. “What. I do not snore, Will.”
“Yes! Yes, you do. It’s so loud. I can’t sleep. You’re like a big bear, you snore so loud!”
“Okay, now you’re being dramatic.” Mike stops in his tracks and pouts at Will. “Come on, let’s just go back to sleep.” he says as he tries to push Will back down onto the sofa.
Will pushes himself up and punches his shoulders. “No! You’re going to start snoring again. Go back to the room.”
“So, you don’t want me to sleep with you?” Mike asks - puppy dog eyes making an appearance again. God, how is Will going to fight that?
Of course, the wording of Mike’s sentence has made Will blush a little again - his face still in a bit of shock due to his tired state. He shakes out of it quickly.
“How about we go out and buy you nose strips or whatever. My classmate, Daniel said it would help - and we can sleep together tomorrow?” he's really trying his hardest to find a middle ground with the tall man squished up next to him, arms still loosely hanging off Will’s sides. So clingy.
“You told your obsessed classmate about my snoring problems?” Mike gasps, hands going covering his face, embarrassed.
“Obsessed?” Will’s confused at the word choice.
“Oh, come on. He’s all over you. He was practically begging you to go out with him earlier.”
Will connects one and one together. "You. Were. Eavesdropping." Will pokes Mike's shoulders, tone completely far too dramatic for the revelation.
Mike rolls his eyes, a blush reddening his cheeks. “Will! I was just making sure you were alright.”
He looks like he has something else to say, he glances down at his fingers and picks on them slightly. "And you know I can't sleep without you."
Hah, caught him. It helps with your nightmares. It's not for me. Liar.
“Fine." he drags out his words. "Now, can I please sleep peacefully in silence, and then first thing tomorrow - nose strips. And it's all back to normal."
Mike relunctantly agrees, then whines. “Okay." He readjusts himself on the couch now. "But there’s no way I’m letting you sleep on this small couch. Take the bed.”
Will feels a little guilty now. Mike catches it immediately on his expression, and grabs Will's hand and takes it into his own. “Hey, it’s fine, okay? - I’ll buy the nose strips tomorrow and stop snoring.” he lets out a laugh.
“Okay.” Will nods then begins to stand up from the couch, releasing himself from Mike's hold - but Mike follows right behind him. “What are you doing?” he says in a teasing tone tilting his head sideways at the boy.
“I’ll just stay with you until you fall asleep.” Mike says like it should be common sense by now, the fact that he has to go everywhere Will has to.
Will accepts this quickly, unquestioning as to why Mike would want to do that. He just rolls his eyes back playfully.
After all, he’s never been one to deny Mike's company.