Work Text:
1) Lucas Sinclair
Lucas had been watching television in his and Will’s shared apartment when he heard the phone ringing. He mindlessly walked over to it and picked up the ringing machine.
“Hello, is this William Byers? I am speaking from the Ivy Lodge,” the clearly female voice, of a receptionist Lucas assumed, asked.
Will had gone to an art exhibition in Rhode Island last week, and he had stayed at one of the hotels, so Lucas just assumed that Will had left something there.
“Uhm, I am his roommate. Can I take a message?” Lucas asked.
“Yes, after he left, we actually found a cologne and eyeliner in the room. Would he like those back? Because we can mail them back, but that would require a small fee,” the woman said.
“I will tell him about it, and he can call you back,” Lucas said and ended the call, feeling a bit confused. Will never wore any eyeliner, ever since college had ended, since he claimed it made him look like a raccoon. This didn’t stop Will from nearly fainting every time Mike applied some, though. Lucas chose not to think much of it—maybe Will had wanted a new look?
Will took that moment to enter the apartment, home from his work animating. Will had taken an art course at NYU after the whole party escaped their boring small town of Hawkins and had gotten a very good job at an animation studio. Lucas had gone to NYU too, on a basketball scholarship, majoring in nursing, and then graduating to work at a hospital in the city itself. They had found a great apartment near Central Park and moved in together; with both of them being dormmates in college and having work nearby, it made sense. Then the apartment next to theirs opened up, leaving room for Max and Mike to move in, while Dustin and Jane moved in together just a street away. It was great having the party so close.
“The hotel from Rhode Island called.”
Will stiffened for a moment, confusing Lucas even further. “What did they want?”
“You left some eyeliner and a cologne there. They want to know if you want them back, since they can mail it back. And since when do you use eyeliner?”
“Uhhh, I was experimenting, yep. I am going to call the hotel back now.”
Lucas raised an eyebrow but decided to leave his tense friend to call the hotel back, deciding to question him afterward.
Lucas hadn’t gotten the chance to question Will, as Will had practically run to Max and Mike’s apartment, the party’s unofficial hangout spot, so he decided to crash there too. When Lucas got there, Mike was bustling about, dressed to the nines for a concert he was going to with Holly and Nancy—a monthly Wheeler siblings’ tradition after Holly’s kidnapping back when they were kids. Lucas took a seat beside Will on the couch as Will watched the panicking Wheeler boy bustle about the room with clear fondness in his eyes.
“Wheeler! Where’s the eyeliner I gifted you for your birthday?” Max, who was helping Mike get ready for the evening, asked, clearly annoyed.
“I don’t know, I think I lost it...”
A bulb lit up in Lucas’s head as he turned to look at Will, his best friend, with wide eyes, not listening to Mike and Max’s argument, which he knew would be solved in like 10 minutes. Mike had apparently gone on a trek with Holly the same weekend Will had gone for his exhibition. The looks those two gave each other and the eyeliner made sense now. Will and Mike had lied and spent a weekend together in Rhode Island, and there was only one explanation.
Will turned his head too to look at Lucas, and his suspicions were confirmed. All Lucas could do was look from Mike to Will and let out a choked, “You—you—”
He then felt Will grab his arm and take him across the hall to their apartment, and Lucas asked, “You and Mike?”
Will nodded, with a nervous but giddy smile on his face.
“OH MY GOD! YOU GUYS WERE IN RHODE ISLAND TOGETHER!” Lucas let out.
Will shushed him and said, “Yes, but we haven’t told any of the others yet, so please don’t tell anyone.”
Lucas furrowed his eyebrows, feeling confused, for both Mike and Will were out and had been since they were 20 and 16 respectively.
Will noticed his expression and replied, “We want to keep it to ourselves for a bit and, you know, explore it without any outside opinions.”
Lucas nodded, and though he hated hiding anything from the party, he understood why Mike and Will were doing it. He felt a smile stretch across his face at his friends, who had finally gotten their heads out of their asses, and hugged Will and whispered, “I am so happy for you both.”
Will laughed and smiled.
“When did this even happen, though?”
“Remember when we went to Hawkins for my mom’s wedding?”
“WHAT?”
Will laughed and nodded at Lucas’s expression.
“How did you guys hide it for so long? That was like 3 weeks ago!”
“It wasn’t easy—”
“Lucas! Will, what happened?” Mike Wheeler bustled in, dressed in a graphic tee and jeans, lacking his usual eyeliner.
Will pulled the ravenette to his side by his jeans’ belt loop, and the other boy looked at Will in confusion, not knowing that Lucas knew now.
“Lucas knows, Mike,” Will explained, with one of his arms around Mike’s waist.
“Oh, and you are cool with it?” Mike asked Lucas tentatively, to which Lucas pulled his friend from Will’s arms to hug him and say the same thing he told Will.
Mike laughed and looked at Will with clear love in his eyes, and Lucas felt like an idiot for not noticing it earlier as Will pulled the ravenette back to his side and kissed his cheek, to which Lucas said, “I am going to create a PDA jar for you both, by the way. You guys were bad enough when you were just friends. I can’t imagine what I will have to endure now. I also need, like, all the details, by the way—who confessed and everything.”
His best friends laughed and nodded, and Lucas had never been happier for them. They were the second most loving couple Lucas knew.
“WHEELER! COME BACK HERE! I have found it!” Max called.
Well, maybe he was biased.
2)Max Mayfield
Max Mayfield would never say it out loud, but Mike Wheeler was her best friend, right after Lucas, of course. Sure, the two had butted heads a lot when they were younger—what could Max say? Mike was a little bitch back then—but after the two became depressed in their junior year, Max because of her brother’s car crash and Mike because of his father’s homophobic comments and worries of not conforming to society, they formed a weird alliance, only letting each other in when they needed company.
They did recover from the depression, with a lot of help from the rest of the party, and Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan, but the bond was formed then, and there was no breaking it. Mike was the brother she never knew she needed but got anyway, so she knew the boy inside and out—and she knew that he was hiding something though she couldn’t figure out what.
Max was watching a rerun of one of the episodes of Friends when she decided to call Jane to have coffee at the Westside Coffee, the party’s usual hangout spot, since Jane wanted some advice on what Jane could get for Dustin’s upcoming birthday. She picked up the phone and immediately recognized Mike’s voice meaning that he was talking on the other line. Look, she knows that snooping is wrong but Max never claimed to be a saint.
“I can’t wait to be with you. I am just going to tell Max that I am going to go do laundry for a couple hours.” She heard Mike say and now she couldn’t very well stop listening in since Mike hadn’t really told her or anyone really that he was dating someone, especially the disaster that was the relationship with Andy Harper.
“Laundry, huh? Is that my new name?” The voice replied back and she immediately recognized that voice. That was Will fucking Byers. What-?
“You know your nickname Mr. Big-” Max immediately kept the phone back on its spot and tried to make sense of what she heard.
“Oi! I am going to do some laundry.” She heard Mike say and sent him a thumbs up to say that she heard him. She heard the door close behind him and spiraled.
So, Mike and Will were off having sex? Since when? Why hadn’t they told the party? Why hadn’t Mike told her? They lived together for Christ’s sake! Did he think that she was going to be homophobic? No! That didn’t make sense. She had been perfectly nice to even dumbass mouthbreather Andy!
She stood up, walked across the hall and knocked at the door sharply, stepping in ignoring Lucas’s confused look.
“Mike and Will are fucking.”
Lucas blinked and said, “Okay”.”
“THAT’S IT?!”
“I figured it out a week ago Max.” Lucas said as he sat back on the ugly couch that Mike and Dustin had found at a garage sale and gave to Will and Lucas for a housewarming gift. She sat beside him and asked, “How?”
Lucas told her about the thing with the eyeliner and Max mentally kicked herself for not realizing it earlier.
“Why didn’t they tell us?” Max asked as she settled against her boyfriend’s side and breathed him in.
“They are dating Max. they wanted to figure it out themselves first. Don’t tell them that you know. Let them come to us on their own.”
“I am just hurt and angry that he didn’t tell me.”
“I get that but you have to understand it.”
And look Max did try to understand it but she just couldn’t see why Mike was being a hypocrite and breaking the party’s friends don’t lie rule despite being the one who got his panties in a twist whenever someone lied.
A few days later, Max was eating popcorn watching Jumanji when she heard the phone ring. She picked up the phone and had half a mind to hang up upon hearing the voice of lying Michael Wheeler.
“Hey, I am going to be working a bit late so I will be home late.”
Max said okay and hung up the call. She knew that she was being a big unreasonable but really, she couldn’t help but be hurt and angry.
Lucas emerged from the bathroom and sat down beside her, taking a handful of popcorn from her bowl.
“By the way, Mike isn’t going to get here till later so we have time-” Lucas said wiggling his eyebrows. Max’s eyebrows furrow as she asks him, “How do you know that?”
“Well, Will told me that Mike and him are going to be in his room, if you know what I mean. Max where are you going?” Lucas asked confused when Max stood up fuming and headed towards the door.
“Max-”
Max ignored him and walked across the hallway, opening the door to Will and Lucas’s apartment with the spare key and walked over to Will’s door, fully bent on confronting those two idiots.
“I feel really bad about lying to Max, you know.”
“I understand baby but you know that we tell Max then she will tell everyone and are you ready for that?”
A sigh “No, I get that. I am just sad that I have to lie to her, I mean she is my best friend.”
“Oh baby, come here.”
And oh, Max felt tears gather in her eyes. Mike wanted to tell her but he just wasn’t ready for the others to find out and max’s gossip problem was infamous and that’s the reason why he didn’t tell her. She looked up to find Lucas who had a soft smile on his face and she smiled back shakily. She understood why he hid it from her now.
As she was walking back with Lucas she bumped into the ugly center table, making the stack of Lucas’s books fall. She glared at Lucas and turned as the door to Will’s room opened revealing panicked Mike and Will.
“Oh, hey Max! I was just taking Will’s help with this umm article that I am writing.” Mike said as Will nodded frantically.
“Oh, okay. I just needed some beer from the fridge. You guys can go back to that.” She said.
Mike and Will would tell them when they were ready.
3) Dustin Henderson
Dustin Henderson hated moving day. When Max, Lucas, Mike, and Will had announced that they were going to the Big Apple the night of their graduation from Hawkins High, Dustin had felt that that was the end of his place in the party. How couldn’t he feel that way? Jane was moving with Joyce and Hopper to New Jersey, while Dustin was going to MIT, all the way in Boston—but luckily, that hadn’t been the case.
Dustin had enjoyed his time at MIT and had visited the five in New York whenever he could, and they exchanged frequent calls and letters. Sure, sometimes Dustin felt like they were a unit and he was a component who didn’t belong, but that feeling went away as he grew older and realized that maybe distance was good. He met Suzie, who was studying computer science at MIT, and his friends still included him whenever they could. He moved there after graduation—not because of his friends, but because he got a job at the University of Rochester, teaching and guiding students like Mr. Clarke had done for him. Suzie had moved with him, and the two of them rented an apartment together.
Then shit hit the fan as the news came that Eddie, one of Dustin’s best friends, had died from a drug overdose. Eddie hadn’t been addicted or anything, as far as Dustin knew, so the news crushed him. He knew that he was a douche after that—snapping at his friends, refusing to leave his room, and often blowing up at Suzie too. Well, then Suzie decided that she was done with him and dumped his ass. That was the thing Dustin needed to get his act together, and he vowed to become the kind of young man Eddie would have wanted him to be.
Sadly, the chapter with Suzie was closed, so Dustin needed a new place to move. Luckily, the apartment complex right next to the others’ apartment had an opening, and he seized the opportunity to be closer to his friends. His apartment had a direct view of Mike and Max’s place, which led to many joking “stalker” allegations from the others.
“PIVOT! PIVOT!” Dustin practically shouted to Jane, Will and Lucas who were moving his couch up the stairs while he stood to the side instructing them on what to do, this noble work had led to him being called a plethora of colorful words including but not limited to bastard, motherfucker, bedwetter and fatass. This particular instruction earned him a glare from Byers and Hopper and another curse from Lucas.
Max and Mike, those bastards, were lazily talking about some work drama at Max’s place while holding two of the lightest boxes Dustin had packed.
“How much longer do we have to stay here? Some of us have a life, you know.” Mike said airily.
“If you can find a way to magically teleport this couch and all my boxes to my apartment and then unpack them then we can go on our merry way!” Dustin said with fake cheeriness.
“What are you even doing Henderson? You don’t even have any boxes with you.” Mike asked and Dustin reminded himself that violence isn’t the answer.
“I am navigating Jane, Lucas and Will.”
This earned him a glare and a protest from the mentioned members of the party.
After a lot of complaining, the couch was in the apartment. Will and Lucas collapsed on the couch as Max and Mike deposited the boxes they had been carrying in the bedroom.
“What was in the box you were carrying?” Will asked Mike as he made space for the ravenette on the couch.
“Pillows” Mike replied smugly which caused Will to scoff in disbelief.
“Come on guys! The boxes aren’t going to move themselves!” Dustin said as he and Jane came in carrying some more boxes. Lucas and Will wailed in despair while Max and Mike sighed and walked to get more boxes.
With more complaining (“Why would you want to move on a fucking Sunday?”, “I don’t want to do this!”) and cursing (“Motherfucker!”, “Asshole”), the move was done.
“You guys want to stay over for drinks? I got some vodka from my colleagues as a housewarming gift.” Dustin asked the party.
“Actually, I am not feeling good so I am going to go back to my apartment.” Mike said, standing up.
“I can come with you, Mike. I mean, its not like I drink anyways so it's not like I am not missing out on anything.” Will said, standing up too. It made sense, Will and Mike couldn’t bear to stay away from each other when the other was sick. What made Dustin confused was the snicker that Lucas let out which led to him receiving a glare from Wheeler.
“Jane and I are also going to bounce. I need to help her choose an outfit for her date tomorrow.” Max said to which Jane nodded excitedly. The girls gathered their belongings and left like the guys before them.
“Well, guess it’s just you, me and the vodka buddy.” Lucas said and clapped Dustin on the back. “Where’s the vodka? I can go and get it.” The guy said and Dustin told him about where he had kept the vodka and Lucas immediately bustled to the kitchen.
Dustin was walking in the living room and looked outside his window, which had a front view of Max and Mike’s apartment, and saw Mike and Will standing there, talking. He tried to wave to try to get his best friends’ attention. Then it happened.
Mike and Will kissed with Will’s hand on Mike’s waist and Mike’s hands in Will’s hair.
“What-what are they doing?” Dustin said to himself and shrieked when he saw Will removing Mike’s shirt and Will going down on the ravenette.
“What happened?” Lucas said, panicked, having heard Dustin’s shriek.
“WILL AND MIKE! OH MY GOD MY EYES!” Dustin practically shouted as he moved away from the window and closed his eyes.
“Oh, you found out.”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?”
And that folks is how Dustin Henderson found about the relationship between Michael Wheeler and William Byers.
+1 time they told the group
Mike Wheeler was feeling incredibly nervous. They had asked the party to meet them at the coffee house to tell them something. Mike knew that Lucas knew but he was nervous about the reaction of the others’, he knew they would be hurt that Mike and Will hadn’t told them and he hated confrontation of that kind. Luckily mike wheeler had a very loving boyfriend in one Will Byers.
“Why are you so nervous?” Will asked as he held Mike’s waist as they were locking the house door before heading downstairs.
“What if they are angry? Angry that we didn’t tell them. God I can’t even imagine what Max would think.” Mike said feeling a tight panic in his chest.
Will put his hands on the ravenette’s shoulders and told him to breath.
“Maybe they are going to be a bit hurt but at the end of the day, we are friends and they are going to be happy for us, you know. God knows they are tired of all the pining I have been doing for you.” Will says with a smile and his smile get wider as Mike nods.
“Okay lets go.”
They walked to the coffeehouse where the rest of the party was gathered, with Lucas and Max on the loveseat per usual and Dustin and Jane on the couch.
“Hey guys!” Mike said and they received greetings back from their friends.
“So, what did you want to tell us?” Jane asked curiously.
“Mike and I are dating each other.” Will said.
“Fucking finally”
“I thought they would never say it. Jesus Christ”
“Thank god”
“YIPEE”
Safe to say Mike and Will were confused by the reactions from their friends.
“Wait a minute, what do you mean finally?” Mike asked.
“We already knew.” Dustin said smugly.
“You guys did?!” Jane, Mike and Will exclaim.
“Yep” the other three say.
“Man, you guys were so obvious.”
“No, they weren’t!” “No, we weren’t” Mike and Jane exclaimed at the same time.
“Jane, my darling baby, no offense but you are incredibly oblivious.” Max said.
“How did you guys even find out? I mean I knew that Lucas knew but what about you guys.” Will asked.
Dustin and Max looked at each other and nearly tripped over themselves to tell their stories.