Archive of Our Own

If there’s anything Will Byers has always wanted to do, it’s go on a road trip.

Perhaps the movie fantasy isn’t anything like real life, and maybe he’s simply too much of a romantic, but the idea of a road trip with the Party seems so fun.

Somewhere — anywhere, it doesn’t really matter. Blast music in the car with the windows rolled down, stay in either the crappiest hotel they can find or the fanciest hotel they can afford, maybe see the city, whatever. He can imagine an entire scene with his friends, lame pop music playing in the background and everything.

Will loves his friends, and he would kill to spend just a day or two road-tripping to some big city or some barren wasteland with them.

Will felt so strongly about his fantasy, in fact, that he worked up the guts to bring up this idea as a fun food for thought thing, way back in sophomore year.

It was in some conversation with the Party at the diner, and he managed to find a way to say something to the effect of “hey we should go on a summer road trip together sometime”, and everyone agreed with enthusiasm, which was relieving because he was very nervous they would find it stupid.

His labors were fruitless, however, until about last month, when they were in the home stretch of junior year.

Lucas, Will’s close personal friend and probably a saint for having the memory to call back to such a one-off comment, brought it up again for summer break as something fun to do for their last summer before senior year.

With this, the Party commenced their plan for their summer road trip, funded by money made from Scoops Ahoy and Surfer Boy Pizza alone and the power of friendship.

Of course, this is really exciting, mostly as something that’s been on Will’s bucket list ever since he first saw the representation of teen friendships in movies (though he doesn’t really have a bucket list, he just mentally crosses something off when he thinks it’s bucket list worthy).

There is one part of this that might be more exciting than the rest of this, however, and it’s a tiny romance trope called forced proximity, which he will totally be having with Mike Wheeler on this trip.

Now, Will knows that in previous moments in his life, he may have called his feelings for Mike the bane of his existence, and something that makes his life infinitely worse — and that’s totally true. But, things have been starting to shift recently.

Don’t get him wrong, he’s still at least fifty percent sure that Mike would never really like him back, because he’s so beautiful and capable and straight, but Max has made a lot of quips over the years, and, call him delusional, but he’s starting to think that there might be something there.

It sounds crazy, he knows, but hear him out here. A lot of people in his life have made comments about them having feelings for each other, not just Will having feelings for Mike. The other week, he had a conversation with Robin about “signals”, and he feels like that snowball might just be going somewhere. He has shared looks with Mike on multiple accounts.

Sometimes Mike says something that makes everyone else raise an eyebrow, and sometimes he initiates a lot more casual contact than is needed in any situation, and — the worst of all — he stares. A lot. Robin said the signals get obvious, but he isn’t really sure just how obvious. Is the staring thing obvious? It always makes Will really nervous.

Is he reading too far into this? Probably. Is this all a product of him being sick of sitting on his feelings and kind of wanting to do something about it but being too scared that Mike will reject him and making up signs to make the idea of confessing less daunting? Definitely.

The point still stands that there is at least a glimmer of hope that he has a chance with Mike in the next million years, which is better than freshman year, where everything was doom and despair and he didn’t even have the whimsy and delusion to imagine Mike liking him back, so he’ll take it.

Call him an optimist or call him crazy, either way the sun is shining and school is out and every day he gets closer to developing the nerve to make a move on Mike, and this road trip is the perfect opportunity for that.

Will and Mike are sharing a hotel room, just them. He thinks it’s El and Max and then Lucas and Dustin in the other two, or at least he’d assume.

This means that he’ll be in the car, sitting next to Mike and talking about everything and nothing, maybe singing the songs that Dustin puts on (he’s on aux duty), maybe partaking in a classic group debate about something totally useless. If Will gets lucky, Mike might even fall asleep on his shoulder, though that’s in fantasy territory.

And then, after they’ve done some exploring and the sun is down and the group is tired, they’ll have a hotel room together, which means that he’ll be spending the entire day by Mike’s side, which is thrilling.

Maybe things play out in a classic forced proximity style, as well. Maybe there will somehow be a mix-up with the booking of the hotel rooms, and, for some reason, there’s only one bed in the room that they’re given.

Perhaps Will then pretends to be mildly upset about this, but he ends up volunteering to sleep on the floor, though Mike objects and ends up insisting that he sleeps on the floor.

Maybe in the end, Mike sleeps on the floor, but a series of events in the middle of the night causes Will to ask him to come up to the bed. Usually, this step involves Will having a nightmare and seeking comfort, but he doesn’t really feel like having a nightmare so he’s skipping that step and leaving it as a minor plot hole.

Maybe then, Mike will come up to the bed and they’ll wake up in each other’s arms and be super flustered about it.

That is absolutely, one hundred percent, positively never going to happen, but it’s most definitely a fun thing to imagine, and most definitely something that Will’s imagined on more than one occasion.

The whole point to this is that this road trip will be fun because he gets to hang out with his friends in a way he’s always wanted, but he also has two days and one night to possibly begin to sow the seeds of confessing his love for Mike. Perchance.

He knows he can’t really just say perchance, but the whole entire point is that he’s getting a little more confident about his feelings, which is definitely a good thing.

Maybe he’s a little too positive for his own good, but he feels like this trip is turning a hopeless romantic into a hopeful romantic.

Status report on the road trip — it’s going well, he thinks.

The Party set off in the morning, on a trip to Chicago that El has planned to a tee. She passed around itinerary sheets and everything.

As far as Will is aware, it takes about three to four hours to get to Chicago from Hawkins, which was to involve them leaving at around seven in the morning. From there, Will’s understanding of the plan isn’t quite so meticulous, though he really appreciates El for planning it so much.

He was really trying to listen when the Party was discussing the plans, and he thinks himself a good listener, but his mind has been elsewhere thanks to a certain boy in his life recently and he’s only on the basics of the plan, which kind of makes him disappointed in himself.

If it’s to make him feel better, Mike doesn’t seem to have very much of a clue what the plan is supposed to be, so perhaps he wasn’t listening either, but Mike doesn’t really listen to much, so Will isn’t really sure that it does make him feel better.

The good news is, they have itineraries, and things are going to plan to a surprising degree, to be honest, because something always manages to go awry with Will’s friends, but El seems to have gotten this one down for today, at least.

For a quick recap of today’s events, they managed to set off at the planned time, which was kind of shocking. Will was ecstatic. Honestly, he’s still kind of buzzing as of now, because this is kind of a lifelong dream of his, though it’s kind of a stupid one, and no one hates each other yet.

Will was trying not to seem quite so excited when they left, but everyone else had the same level of energy — even Mike, who can’t seem to fathom the idea of waking up before noon when he doesn’t have school. Will thinks it’s kind of adorable.

Unfortunately, Will is kind of zero for zero on romantic moments with Mike, because tropes aren’t real and all hope is gone and Mike didn’t fall asleep on Will’s shoulder.

He knows it’s not quite as tragic as he’s making it seem, and perhaps Mike’s flare for the overdramatic is kind of rubbing off on him, but it was more than a little disappointing, considering that he spent the whole ride pressed up against Will and complaining about how early it was. Again, adorable, and Will could have caught fire, but that isn’t the point.

The worst part is Mike did fall asleep for a little, but he leaned the opposite way, against the window. Is that a bad sign?

Of course not. That’s absurd. Mike can’t control the way he leans when he falls asleep in a cramped car, with four people in the back and Dustin and Lucas living the luxury in the front, being the DJ and designated driver respectively.

Still, it could be some kind of universe thing that’s telling Will to quit trying to pursue his feelings, because Mike won’t even fall asleep on his shoulder.

It’s hardly plausible, but that isn’t exactly not plausible.

Will is too in his head. He spent the entire time that Mike wasn’t asleep talking to him anyway, and they were sat unbelievably close together.

Sure, Will was sat just as close with El, but that’s totally different.

The rest of the day followed the itinerary perfectly, time slots and everything.

Chicago’s a pretty cool place, with some really awesome landmarks that Mike seemed to find boring, and the pizza’s pretty damn good, and any big city is pretty fun to the Party, considering that they’ve spent their entire lives in a small town (minus Max, but she doesn’t really count).

Will is still zero for zero on romantic moments with Mike, though there haven’t been any more bad signs. Mike’s wearing a new outfit with a shade of blue that looks really good on him, and Will might have caught him staring on the way to the small but surprisingly good pizza joint that Max found, though it could be his own delusion, and staring could mean anything.

Maybe Will just had something on his face. God, he hopes not.

Though Will is just slightly disheartened by his lack of overtly romantic moments with Mike today, he’s not distraught, because they’ve spent the whole day with the Party and there isn’t much room for an intimate moment with all of their friends in the room with them at Pablo’s Pizza.

Plus, tonight is the night where everything changes, he hopes.

It’s been kind of a long day. He has no doubt that tomorrow is going to be longer, but he’s relatively tired.

Mike looks really tired, though Will imagines that about half of it is exaggerated for the sake of theatrics, which is cute.

As of right now, it’s eleven thirty-seven p.m., and Will and his friends are waiting to check into the swankiest hotel in their budget.

That being said, it’s really not that fancy, probably totally average, but it’s luxury for a handful of seventeen-year-olds who are living off of summer jobs at the local mall.

“And here’s your room key,” Will hears the lady at the desk say, sounding the most bored that a person could possibly sound as she slips two cards to El and Max.

“Alright, night, guys,” Max drawls, turning around to Will, Mike, Dustin and Lucas and sounding completely ready to collapse into a semi-comfortable hotel bed. Somehow, it looks like El still has some energy left.

The girls leave, and Dustin and Lucas walk up to the counter. Will looks back at Mike, who seems to be looking at him. Will’s heart rate shoots up. Mike quickly looks away.

Does that count as romantic? Probably not. Will thinks he’s reaching.

All he’s really done is reach, to be honest. His mind is still racing with possibilities of what could happen tonight. What he’s hoping is that they stay up really late to have some kind of heart-to-heart, or just a conversation. It doesn’t have to be deep. Conversations can be romantic.

Maybe Will can confess? Or maybe not. He doesn’t think he feels totally ready. Unless that only one bed thing is still on the table, he might have to shoot his shot another time.

Mike is smiling. Will doesn’t know what about, but he also doesn’t really need to question why his best friend is smiling. It’s a nice sign, because it shows that the first half of the trip has been fun to Mike, despite his incessant complaining about everything that comes up. Sometimes Will has no clue how this is the guy he fell for.

“And here’s your room key,” the lady at the desk, her tone a carbon copy of the last time she said it, as if she’s said it so many times that it’s wired into her.

Lucas and Dustin take the cards, turning around to Will and Mike, saying their good nights and disappearing into the halls.

All of the Party’s rooms are on the third floor of the building, and Will’s already kind of grinning at the thought of a semi-tired Mike complaining about having to climb the stairs, but just as well complaining about having to wait for the elevator. Floors just really aren’t Mike’s thing.

This is actually a new experience for Will, because he’s never checked into a hotel before. He was trying to listen to his friends before him to see what they did. Does he just say his name?

He thinks so. The lady at the desk catches the hint.

“Ah, you two…” She begins, her voice impossibly monotone, and Will wonders what warrants such a reaction, because that’s obviously not in her script.

“Is there a problem?” Mike asks, taking the tiniest step closer to Will. Will’s chest tightens a little.

“See, there was a mix-up in the booking of your room,” she begins. Will tries not to have a physical reaction to those words in her tired-sounding voice, because they’re straight out of his highly unrealistic romantic fantasies. “We’re going to have to give you a different one. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

She doesn’t necessarily sound sorry, but she’s doing her job, and he can’t blame her. If Will worked this shift at a hotel, he imagines he might have similar energy.

“What do you mean by that?” Mike demands, sounding slightly annoyed.

“It’s nothing horrible, don’t worry.” The lady shrugs, trying to keep her eyes open. “In fact, you guys are lucky. Your original room had broken air conditioning, but this one works. You’re kind of getting more than you paid for with this room.”

Will exchanges a glance with Mike and shrugs, trying not to look like an idiot.

There’s a mix-up with the booking. Will’s heart might force its way out of his chest. It’s straight out of a romance novel. There’s a slight chance that there’s only one bed. Will feels like an idiot.

“Yeah, alright, we’ll take it.” Mike says, like they have a choice in the matter. The lady nods.

“And here’s your room key,” the lady goes back to her script, her tone unchanging and endlessly bored. Will picks up the cards and hands one to Mike.

“Hey, look at this, Mike.” Will grins, stopping somewhere in the middle of the lobby. “Our new room’s on this floor.”

“Yes,” Mike breathes a sigh that’s really much happier than it has any reason to be. “I hate hotel floors.” Mike pauses for a second. “What do you think our new room’s going to look like?”

“I don’t know,” Will comments, before deciding to be a little bold, “Imagine if there’s, like, only one bed or something.” Will presents his idea as a joke, but he’s dead serious.

“I wouldn’t hate that,” Mike shrugs, and Will gets a surge of butterflies.

Does that count as a romantic moment with Mike? Mike’s probably joking, but the fact that he said that in the first place could, and possibly should, mean something.

Will attempts to act cool, continuing to walk through the halls of the hotel and being as quiet as possible, while subtly trying to bump elbows with Mike. Apparently, that’s a signal.

Not to brag, but they do end up bumping elbows multiple times, so that definitely, probably, means something. Not really.

“Will,” Mike drawls, his tone giving away what he’s going to say next. “I’m so tired.”

Mike really draws out the vowel in “tired”, seemingly to get his point across.

To further get his point across, he stops walking halfway down the hall to dramatically slam his head onto Will’s shoulder, kind of sort of collapsing into Will’s arms, though a tiny but different and far less romantic.

Though it really isn’t that romantic, it still manages to give Will full-body chills, because it was unexpected and Mike did not have to do that. Will will take any sort contact with Mike right now, and Mike having his head buried in Will’s shoulder while softly complaining into his shirt definitely isn’t a bad sign.

“I know,” Will laughs a little, “it’s all you’ve talked about for the past two hours. You’re so whiny, you know that?”

“I am not,” Mike retorts, his voice muffled through Will’s shirt. Will’s face is heating rapidly.

“You can collapse onto an actual bed when we get to the room. It’s just down the hall.” Will tries his best to soften his voice to a whisper so as to not disturb anyone in their rooms. He lightly grabs Mike by the arms and pries him away from his shoulder, staring just a tiny bit too long at Mike’s face and his incredibly messed-up hair.

Unfortunately, he’s gorgeous.

“Fine,” Mike groans, continuing their walk down the hall, which doesn’t go on for much longer when they quickly reach the room with the number that matches the one on their keys.

It’s now back at the forefront of Will’s mind that their room could literally be anything, just with working air conditioning, which Will doesn’t really consider to be important.

He feels unreasonably nervous as he taps his card on the door, Mike standing slightly behind him.

The door creaks open to reveal a surprisingly large room. Will and Mike step in, though they can’t exactly see the contents of the room in the pitch dark.

The stakes are through the roof as Will flicks the light switch.

A pause.

There are a couple seconds of nothing but silence as Will’s eyes gloss over the array of beds in the room. He counts.

One, two, three, four, five, six…

Seven.

Will turns his head to look at Mike, who’s cracking up beside him, covering his mouth and shaking at the shoulders as if he’s never seen anything funnier.

“Dude, when they said “mix-up with the rooms”…” Mike starts, stifling hysterical giggles in between his words, “I didn’t think they meant there would be seven beds.”

Mike doesn’t look so tired anymore. Will’s kind of in shock.

Turns out, Will’s fantasy of there only being one bed has been completely reversed.

There are too many beds.

Will shuts the door behind them, still trying to process the situation. There are seven single beds, lined up next to each other and practically touching in a surprisingly large room. The lady wasn’t kidding when she said they got more than they paid for. What kind of group would possibly be fishing for this room?

“So, do you think that there are seven people out there that are having to share two beds right now?” Mike asks, his previous tiredness vanquished and replaced by a grin.

“Probably,” Will responds, laughing a little at the concept.

“The beds are so close together that it might as well just be one big bed. Who’s wanting this?” Mike continues, still incredulous.

“And I’m also spoilt for choice,” Will observes, “I don’t know which bed I’m gonna take.”

“That, too,” Mike agrees, and, now that Will thinks about it, Mike is right. It is kind of funny. A hotel room for two people has seven beds.

“Let’s think about this after we get changed. You can take the bathroom.”

“Alright,” Mike nods, peeling off the backpack that he’s been hauling around all day, something that Will knows because Mike hasn’t exactly shut up about how much his shoulders hurt, though Will helped Mike pack the bag and he knows that there are at most five items of clothing in there.

Will collapses onto one of the many beds when Mike disappears into the bathroom, letting out a sigh and taking off his own backpack, retrieving a simple yellow t-shirt and pair of shorts.

This is a different kind of dilemma.

There’s a small bedside table with a lamp on it, not so much a bedside table as a bedopposite table, and Will imagines it wouldn’t be convenient for anyone to get up and walk to the other side of the room just to turn the lamp. At that point, just turn the real lights on.

This is a weird room.

Mike still doesn’t have the budget for matching socks, emerging from the bathroom with a yellow striped sock on his right foot, and a black sock with blue at the toe and heel on his left foot.

Now that he tries to recall, Will doesn’t think he’s ever seen Mike without odd socks. He thinks he does it on purpose at this point, but he’d be lying to say he doesn’t find Mike’s commitment to the bit to be sort of adorable.

Maybe Will should get some more ambitious socks. His green socks look boring compared to Mike’s, because they match and they say Friday and Will feels like a loser because it is actually Friday.

Then again, maybe socks aren’t the thing that Will should be focusing on, when they’re in a room with seven beds.

Will sits on the middle bed, fidgeting with the drawstrings on his shorts and trying not to stare at Mike, who’s seemingly just washed his face and his hair is a total mess. It’s painfully attractive.

Will fails his objective the second he looks up at Mike when he walks into the room, because he’s already swept away into a dream world where he can see Mike’s freckles perfectly clearly and — oh God — Mike’s just done that thing where he runs a whole hand through his hair through the front in an effort to smooth it out, thought it only ever messes it up more.

“You know what,” Mike stretches, placing himself onto the middle bed and right next to Will. “I’m actually not that tired anymore.”

“Figures,” Will grins, and he only grins wider when he sees the jokingly offended look on Mike’s face.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mike’s drama is still at its height, even when it’s almost midnight.

“It means that you’re never really that tired,” Will responds, “when you’re actually tired you don’t talk about it as much.”

There’s an elephant in the room that needs to be addressed.

“So…” Will starts, “What are we gonna do about this?”

Will gestures to the plethora of beds that surround them, and Mike nods in an attempt to seem to be in thought.

“Picking a bed to sleep in is a lot easier when there aren’t so many,” Mike states the obvious, “Why don’t we just take the ones at each end of the room?”

Okay. Sure. Alright. Fine. Cool. Suggest the option that leaves them furthest away from each other. Whatever.

In all fairness, it’s not like they had the chance to sleep in the same bed anyway, because there are multiple beds, and the trope is always activated by the two characters having no choice but to share a bed, rather than actually wanting to, because Will thinks that if Mike was to ever express a want to share a bed with Will, all of Will’s problems would be solved already.

Plus, sleeping in the beds at either side of the room is a perfectly logical idea, and doesn’t mean anything to imply that Mike doesn’t like Will and wants to stay as far away from him as possible. Unless it does.

No, it doesn’t. Will is crazy.

“Yeah, sure,” Will nods, not missing a beat and keeping his internal crisis to himself for the time being. He almost can’t wait to tell Max all about this insanity in the morning.

Farthest to the left of the room is the bed right next to the window, the curtain shut and concealing a rather dull view of quite a run-down part of the city. That’s the bed Will takes, as Mike claims the far right bed, closest to the bathroom.

“I know you said you aren’t really tired,” Will starts, moving up to turn the lights off, “but you should still get some sleep. Tomorrow’s a long day, and I wouldn’t want you to be tired.”

“Yeah, mom,” the energy’s already draining from Mike’s voice, and Will can see his eyes shutting. Mike sits on the far right bed, running fingers through his hair.

“I think that you’re more tired than you thought,” Will observes, trying not to smile.

“Maybe,” Mike acknowledges, finally laying down and throwing the covers over him. “But… I think you should sleep, too. So you aren’t tired.”

“I should.” Will agrees, flicking the light switch down.

He doesn’t think he can.

Will doesn’t know what time it is, but he knows he hasn’t slept.

It’s either been ten minutes or two hours, but time feels like eternity when you can’t sleep, and all Will‘s done for who-knows-how-long is toss and turn in a bed with a comfortable mattress but a rock-hard pillow, so he isn’t sure if the bed itself is comfortable or not.

Will has never been a good sleeper. He’s kept up a lot, whether it’s nightmares or tonight, where his eyes simply just won’t stay shut.

When he was a kid and he slept over at Mike’s pretty much every other night, Mike would spend a lot of time attempting to soothe him to sleep. Usually, it works, because Mike has a strangely comforting presence and a really soft voice, which Will has noted he never uses for anyone else, which would technically be a good sign.

Mike doesn’t do that as much anymore, because it’s kind of weird considering that they aren’t ten, and it’s not “cute” to do that as friends anymore.

To be fair, Mike used to do it all the time. Mike’s on the other side of this room right now. Will wonders if he should tell Mike that he can’t sleep. Would Mike still let Will rest his head on his shoulder and talk to Will about whatever he could think of until he was out cold?

Maybe, but Will would never bring it up. It’s probably something like two in the morning right now. Mike’s probably asleep.

Will’s only options are to fall asleep on his own, with Mike Wheeler in the same room but just out of reach, or just not sleep.

Will has a feeling he’ll be doing the latter.

He’s facing the window, trying and failing to keep his eyes shut. For the fifteenth time of the night, he turns to the other side, the side that faces Mike.

It’s dark, and Will can’t really make anything out, but he thinks that Mike looks back at him.

“Will?”

The room is so silent that Will swears that Mike’s voice echoes. He’s mildly surprised that Mike isn’t asleep, because he could have been sure that he was for the past however-long-it’s-been.

“Mike?” Will’s voice comes out cracked and barely a whisper, just a little too scared to interrupt the silence. He doesn’t know if he’s been blessed or cursed. “You’re awake?”

“Uh-huh,” Mike confirms, though it’s kind of obvious that he’s awake. “You can’t sleep?”

Will feels a little tug in his chest at Mike’s first guess being right. Will supposes he’s stayed at Mike’s house enough times for Mike to know this type of thing well enough.

“Yeah.” Will’s voice is a little louder this time. “You?”

“I just woke up,” Mike rolls onto his back. “I had this really weird dream.”

“Really?” Will’s almost afraid to ask what he’s about to ask next. “What was it about?”

“Well, we were on the road trip, like now,” Mike begins, “except for some reason we were in England? I don’t think we could get to England from Hawkins by car, or in three hours, but…”

Will exhales a breathy laugh. Though there are many things he wants — to stay up all night and listen to everything Mike has to say in this exact gentle tone of voice, to leave behind six beds and cram into a singular one with Mike, pressing up to him and not being scared or ashamed — just talking with Mike a bit, from across the room, is enough to put Will a little more at ease.

“Wait a second,” Mike continues after a second, and Will hears the rustling of bedsheets, followed by the sight of Mike’s silhouette getting up and moving.

“What are you doing?” Will asks, assuming that Mike is going to the bathroom, but the visuals of him moving to the next bed down say otherwise.

“I’m moving a bed down.” Mike explains, as if it’s obvious. “So I’m closer and you can hear me.”

Will could already hear Mike fine. He figures that Mike must know this.

In all fairness, Mike is Mike. Will feels himself smile, because he can’t really imagine a world in which Mike stays in a hotel room with seven beds and doesn’t try to put all of them to use, just for the fun of it.

When it comes to moving closer to Mike, Will can’t not take the opportunity he has, so he decides to join in on the joke.

“I‘ll move down, too,” Will quickly volunteers himself, using more energy than he feels like he needs to pull the covers off of him and roll over to the bed to his right, which is so close to the far left bed that he doesn’t even need to get up.

There are now three beds between them, and Will feels like he can see Mike a little better. If he really squints, he can see the vague details of Mike’s face in the dark.

Will gets under the covers of his new bed, sinking into his mattress and already sensing the neck pain that this pillow will cause him in the morning. He thinks about taking the pillow off the bed, when he realizes that he should give Mike his attention, just in case Mike falls asleep again and this is his last chance.

“Well, we were in England,” Mike begins, “and we all had British accents, for some reason.”

“Even me?” Will asks.

“Especially you.” Will thinks that he can hear the grin in Mike’s voice as he says that, a thought that makes Will smile even wider.

“And, instead of our room having too many beds, it only had one.” Mike explains, and Will feels like his heart stops. Has everyone been thinking about this trope lately?

Does this mean something? This might imply that Mike had a dream about bed-sharing with Will. Do dreams have romantic implications? Will feels like, if he’s crazy enough, they could.

Well, maybe he should let Mike finish talking before he jumps to any conclusions about his possible future love life with Mike, so he stays quiet.

“So we had to sleep in the same bed because there wasn’t enough for the both of us. Isn’t that crazy?” The tone in which Mike is saying it definitely sounds like he’s trying to play it off as a joke, just some weird dream that he had that has nothing to do with real life. Will, however, is dead serious.

“Yeah, that’s pretty crazy,” Will agrees, because he doesn’t know what else to do aside from agreeing. At least, he doesn’t know what else to do that wouldn’t be too weird or overtly romantic.

Mike isn’t saying anything. Maybe Will is crazy, but it feels like he wants Will to say something next. Will’s heart is beating out of his chest.

“Was it… a good dream?” Will asks, and he doesn’t know why. Maybe he just wants to know if Mike would ever do such a thing in real life.

Even if he didn’t have to.

No response. Rather, the sound of sheets moving once more.

Mike is moving down to another bed. For a solid few seconds, Will forgets how to breathe. There are two beds between them. Will doesn’t know why Mike’s moving down again.

After Mike moves, it still takes Mike a second to respond to Will’s question. Will regrets asking. It was dumb. Too romantic. He’s going to seem weird.

“…Yeah.” Mike responds, quieter than everything else he’s said. “It was far from a nightmare. It would be a nightmare if it was, like, Max or something, but…”

Will catches himself laughing a tiny bit at the Max comment, easing the tightness in his chest a bit.

“You’re nice,” Mike decides. “Calming.”

The silence almost kills Will. He reaches a hand out to the next bed over. He moves.

He had hardly settled into his new bed when he made the middle-of-the-night-sort-of-romantic-hope decision to shake the covers off, attempt to make his bed in the pitch dark and climb into the one right next to it.

One bed. He can see Mike’s face, but not as clearly as he’d like. He can’t see every individual freckle, only the outline of his curls falling over his eyes and the soft smile he’s wearing — the one that El says is reserved for Will.

Will changes the topic.

“So, how’s Chicago?” Will asks, out of the blue. He realizes he’s bad at changing topics. “The road trip, I mean.”

“I’ve really liked it so far,” Mike responds, “but I think tomorrow will be more fun.” Mike looks as though he wants to say something more. “And I love everyone else, but I’ve liked hanging around the city with you the most.”

“Seriously?” Will asks, though he shouldn’t be surprised.

“Totally. You’re my best friend.” Mike says, his voice softening even more. Will thinks he melts, even in the working air conditioning. “And you’ve always wanted to go on a road trip, right? You’ve mentioned it before.”

“Yeah,” Will nods, though Mike probably can’t see that.

“Then as long as you’re having fun, I’m happy.” Mike decides, with such sincerity that Will can only smile. Mike likes to joke a lot, he likes to deflect and hide his feelings, so it makes Will feel something different when he says something genuine. “And, you know… Oh come on, you’re my best friend, don’t make me feel stupid. You know I just like spending time with you.”

“Right.” Will can’t fight back his grin. “I like spending time with you too. But, you know that.”

“I can’t wait until we graduate,” Mike remarks, though senior year hasn’t even started yet. “Then, we can get, like, an apartment together or something. Spend time with each other every day, unless that’s stupid—”

“Of course it’s not,” Will quickly cuts him off, because that’s something he imagines daily. It’s one of the only things that excites him about growing up and becoming an adult. “I always imagine my future living with you.”

That’s kind of an embarrassing thing to admit, but he’s not above saying it. The two have talked about their dreams for the future before, and that’s only getting more prevalent with senior year fast approaching.

“Aww, really?” There’s a tiny bit of teasing sarcasm in Mike’s voice.

“Yes, really.” Will breathes out a sigh, one that’s pretending to be annoyed but can’t help but be endeared. “I’ll kind of miss being a kid, but I’ll be excited to collaborate with you on the next bestselling comic in the future.”

“Absolutely,” Mike agrees, his voice raising a little in volume, presumably out of excitement for the idea, an idea which creates a warm buzz in Will’s chest.

Will has been told his whole life not to wish his childhood away, but that’s hard when Mike Wheeler is a bed away from him, bringing up living together in the future.

Will wonders what it would be like to live with Mike. Will wonders if Mike will ever reciprocate his feelings; if they’ll live together as roommates or as a couple. If they can live in a romantic sort of domestic style that involves Will cooking Mike breakfast or something cute like that. With the topic of bed-sharing lingering in the air, would that ever happen?

Probably not, and Will needs to stop thinking about it. That stopped being endearing when they were twelve, and now, no matter how much Will wants it, he can only ever have it in a world where Mike wants it — in a world where Mike wants him.

And, as of right now, Will feels like his chances of such a thing are fifty-fifty.

Will misses even being a kid sometimes, and he’s only getting further and further away from that. But he might have a chance to start something new.

“Is that where you see yourself, Mike?” Will asks, out of curiosity and a smidge of boldness. “Living with me?”

“Of course.” Mike replies easily, and that simple and soft tone that Mike uses, like the answer is obvious, is turning Will’s insides upside down. “I don’t think I would ever have it any other way.”

This time, Will makes the move.

With a whole lot of nerves, he sits up and moves to the next bed over, so he’s right next to Mike. He doesn’t lay down, though, he sits up on the bed, because he knows he won’t be able to sleep, and he might as well make the most of the conversation.

“What are you doing?” Mike’s face is clearer, showing confusion as he tilts his head at an awkward angle to look up at Will.

“I’m sitting up,” Will states, “I mean, I can’t sleep, so I’d rather just talk to you. If you’re— if you’re up for it.”

“I’m always up for it,” Mike’s confusion morphs back into a grin, and Will feels himself mirroring it, but brighter.

Mike moves to sit up, resting against the wall and a few feet away from Will in the next bed over. Will hopelessly wants Mike to move over to the middle bed and lean against him.

Tonight, Will’s prayers are finally answered.

“Do you want me to move over?” Mike sounds like he hesitates. “You, know, next to you.”

It’s a question that Will tries not to act excited to hear.

“Yeah,” Will’s voice cracks again, and he tries to make up an excuse to make it seem more normal. “I can’t sleep, so you can help me. Like when we were kids.”

Will desperately hopes that bringing that up isn’t weird as Mike shuffles over next to him, officially sitting on the same bed as Will and slightly touching their shoulders together.

Obviously, sitting on the same bed isn’t nearly the same as sleeping in the same bed, and they’ll probably separate once they’re done talking, but Will will take what he can get.

“Like when we were kids,” Mike repeats. “I wish we did that more nowadays.”

Will’s heart stops, but he needs to play it cool.

“Me too,” Will attempts to be chilled about it, though this is a great sign. A part of him is hyping himself up to make a move while he has the chance. “You always help me sleep when I need it.”

“I think…” Mike begins, and Will moves a little so he can face Mike and have a better view of his somewhat hesitant expression. “If we were in a situation like the one in my dream,” Mike begins, like some kind of strangely romantic hypothetical, “would you do it?”

“Do what?” Though Will probably knows what he’s implying, he wants to check so he doesn’t misunderstand and say anything stupid.

“Share a bed,” Mike says quietly, looking and sounding as if he really didn’t want to have to say it. “Forget it, that’s a weird thing to ask—”

“I would.” Will bites the bullet and answers honestly, though he feels his face heating rapidly at the question.

The fact that Mike even asked that has to mean something, doesn’t it? Friends don’t just ask that kind of hypothetical for no reason.

“You would?” Mike’s eyes widen a bit.

“Yes.” Will answers, trying to keep his voice from shaking, because he figures he can’t go back on it now. Mike always says that when he can’t go back on something, he doubles down. In most situations, that’s bad advice, but here it’s all he can do. He’s nervous to throw the question back, but he’s really curious. Mike’s answer to this is the key to the secrets of the universe. “Would you?”

“Yeah,” Mike answers, and Will isn’t completely sure because of the dark lighting, but he thinks that Mike blushes just a little bit.

Will’s insides twist. That’s exactly what he wanted to hear, but it’s followed by absolute silence.

He’s heard one thing he wants to hear, and he decides to just go for the other one.

“Even if you didn’t have to?”

A pause. Will might die.

“Even if I didn’t have to.” Mike confirms, his voice a little firmer, as if he’s finally sure about something.

Mike shifts position so they’re fully facing each other in the middle of the bed. Will’s eyes trace the outline of Mike’s face in the dark. For the first time in his life, he thinks that can use the word palpable to describe this tension.

Neither of them say anything, rather they stare. Is this a good time to make a move? Did that conversation give anything away about Mike’s feelings? Will wants to lean in and kiss Mike, but he shouldn’t. That’s too forward. What if Mike doesn’t like it? Will might have had the complete wrong idea.

But if he doesn’t do it now, then when will he do it? How much does the risk outweigh the reward?

He should do it. Should he? Maybe. He should. He should kiss Mike while he has the chance, at two in the morning in the middle of seven hotel beds. He should. He’s going to. Maybe. He places a hand on Mike’s waist. Is that too much? A shiver runs down his spine.

Will is far too busy evaluating whether or not now is a good time to do something to even notice the way Mike moves in, and Will doesn’t notice how close he gets until Mike grabs the sleeves of Will’s shirt and his eyes are squeezed shut and he’s kissing Will.

It’s quick, impulsive, everything Will wishes he was and Will only has about a second to melt into it, firming his half-hearted grip on Mike’s waist and closing his eyes. The feeling is unreal.

The one thing that Will doesn’t like about the kiss is how short it is, as Mike pulls away almost immediately. Will can’t see Mike’s face very well, but he looks uncertain, as if he has no idea whether Will wanted that or not. Mike doesn’t know just how much Will has wanted that.

Silence. Will should say something and ease the look on Mike’s face.

“I’ve been wanting you to do that for so long,” Will breaks the silence, and, after taking a couple seconds to process just what happened to him, he finds himself grinning uncontrollably.

Will Byers, after something of twelve years, has finally been kissed by Mike Wheeler.

“Really?” Mike’s eyes widen. For some reason, it’s surprising to him. “You…” Mike can’t seem to get the words out, rather he points at Will and gestures with a sort of bewildered expression.

“Yes,” Will’s smile softens, “is it that hard to believe? I’ve been told it’s kind of obvious…”

“I’ve been told it’s obvious on my end, too…” Mike admits, sounding kind of embarrassed at the fact.

A beat.

“So…” Mike starts, still looking nervous. Will thinks he’s dreaming. “Does this mean that we can share the bed tonight?”

“If you insist,” Will feigns annoyance, but he’s really quite overjoyed about the idea of throwing his arm over Mike’s chest and sleeping pressed up to him on a half-comfortable hotel bed — the pillow really does ruin it.

“Do you wanna talk about this tomorrow?” Mike proposes, getting under the covers. “I mean, I’m really tired, and I have so much to tell you.”

“Yeah.” As if on cue, Will yawns, and he feels like a kid again as he carefully pulls the covers over himself and shuffles next to Mike. “Definitely.”

Will has so much he wants to tell Mike as well, he wants to tell him just how much he loves him and all the other cheesy shit that he’s been keeping at bay for so long.

However, he’s way too tired right now.

He’s also still struggling to fathom that his first ever kiss — his first kiss with the boy he’s been head over heels in love with for the better part of his entire life — was in a hotel room with seven beds in Chicago. And he is so happy with that.

“I’m going to bed,” Will announces, beginning to shuffle to a laying down position.

“Aren’t you going to kiss me goodnight?” Mike asks, his tone joking and his blinking overly excessive but his request serious and seriously adorable.

“How are you already this needy?” Will attempts to sound annoyed, trying not to smile, but he knows he would never say no to a request that makes him so happy.

He pretends to be as reluctant as possible as he sits back up and places a kiss on the corner of Mike’s mouth, but he is smiling.

And he thinks that Mike can tell.