Chapter Text
“Guys! What’s going on? The lasagna’s getting cold!” Karen calls form up the stairs. The basement is filled with discarded drink cans and the party. They just finished their campaign. Max crashed out at the ending and El sat there in confusion. The rest were congratulating Mike with nods. It was the best campaign yet, they defeated everything, in the game and in real life.
The Upside Down was destroyed, they were no longer connected to the Mind Flayer or Vecna, El hid and made it out safely.
“Yeah, we… we just finished. We’ll be right up.” Mike shouts back. They place their binders on the shelf and make it up the stairs. Mike stays a bit longer, looking at his binder next to Will’s, they look nice next to each other. He caresses Will’s binder with his thumb. He feels like he’s lost Will, he wants to be able to love him. He’d always felt different and he was too scared to confess if Will wasn’t like him.
He could feel everything built up inside him; sadness, fear, frustration. He remembers the day they killed Vecna; they spent their time on the tower. He said about how much he was an idiot for not seeing him, for not seeing how much Will had been hurt by people for being different. He said it was okay, of course he did, he asked to still be friends; even though he was the most different out of all of their friends.
‘Friend? No thanks…best friends’
That’s all that’s been circling in his head ever since he said it. he could’ve said a million different things that could all end up translating to ‘I love you’. But he didn’t, he was scared. Of himself, of what Will would think, of what everyone else would think. He’s tried to not think of him self as sick ever since he realised. But that feeling still lingers around, its stronger more days than others.
He remembers the day he realised, July 3rd, 1985, rain coming down in heavy sheets and he’s arguing with Will about El.
‘It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!’
The look on Will’s face makes him crumble and he rides away quickly on his bike. Mike tries to go after but fails as he can’t see anything in the rain, it feels like he’s drowning.
His tears mix with the rain that attacks his face and he’s not entirely sure what’s coming from the clouds and what’s the salty tears streaming out from his eyes. He wipes his face as he lets out a broken sob, realizing he’ll never be able to take back what he said.
‘It’s not fault you don’t like girls!’
But its Will’s fault Mike doesn’t.
“Mike?” his running train of thoughts gets cut off by the sound of Will’s voice as he descends down the stairs. Mike scrubs at his eyes to get rid of the tears he hadn’t realised had fell down his face.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Will asks, face full of concern. He walks over to Mike from where he’s standing her puts his hands on Mike’s shoulders.
“I just- I don’t know” Mike lies, he can’t tell Will the truth, not in a million years, not in any universe. “Can you…stay the night?”
“Yes, of course” Will smiles, “Also again, lasagna, let’s go upstairs”
“Right” Mike chuckles, trying to hide the sadness in his voice.
They walk up the stairs slowly, Will goes to open the door when it shoots open, Holly and all her friends rushing down the stairs to sit at the same table they were just playing at. The younger kids voices overlap each other as they set up their D&D game, Holly as the dungeon master.
“She’s just like you, you know?” Will giggles quietly as they leave to head to the kitchen.
Mike just smiles at what he said, his sister following in his footsteps, being the leader, the heart.
They spend dinner eating lasagna and telling Karen about the campaign, clearly not understanding but still interested in her son’s happiness. She seems happier as well. After she divorced Ted and he moved out, she’s gotten better and more positive, she does work a little more but that’s fine by all the kids.
Nancy’s still living after she denied Emmerson and got back together with Jonathan, who’s been studying with Robin at the community college.
After they finish, they all say their goodbyes, Will cleaning up with Karen like he always used to do when he lived there.
“Thank you, Will” she says, putting away the last dishes.
“No problem, Ms wheeler”
“We’ll be up in my room, night mom”
“Night you two”
They go to the bathroom, brushing their teeth together, bumping every time they move. They move into Mike’s room, Mike throws Will a sleep shirt and pyjama trousers and grabs his own.
Will goes back into the bathroom to change, when he comes out, Mike is also changed.
Mike looks at Will, he looks nice in Mike’s clothes. All warm and comfy. They’re a bit bigger on Will but Mike thinks it’s cute.
Mike falls onto the bed with a thump and Will climbs onto it carefully, the mattress dipping under both their weights. They end up sitting there, talking most of the night, mainly about the campaign.
“Are you sure everyone liked it? They didn’t seem like it” Mike asked, fidgeting nervously with the hem of his sleep shirt as they sit up in his bed.
“Yes, Mike”
“Everyone?”
“Maybe not Max- “
“Did you like it? That’s what I’m asking”
“Yes, of course I did, I like all your campaigns” he says softly, making Mike feel like he could melt on the spot at Will’s lilting voice.
“Really?”
“Definitely”
Mike laughs.
“What?” Will asks.
“I just thought of something really cool. What if our D&D characters, like, were real? Or could be in our world? We could go on actual quests. It would be so fun!”
“Yeah, that’d be really funny. Do you think we’d still be friends?”
“Definitely, in every universe.”
They end up drifting the conversation into something else before falling asleep late.
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Will jumps awake at the loud thud on Mike’s bedroom floor. He looks down to see Mike’s arms curled around his waist. Right, Mike asked him to sleep over, he said yes. He looks back up to see a portal that’s formed in the middle of Mike’s room. What? He shakes Mike awake vigorously.
“Mike?”
“Mhm…Five more minutes”
“Mike!”
“Yes?” a voice comes from the floor.