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“Happy birthday dear Wiiii-iillll, happy birthday to you!”
It was a messy rendition, as they always are when five people start in different keys and just go for it – but he was smiling bashfully regardless. Mike stood across from him and cheered as he blew out his candles, all eighteen of them, in one carefully calculated swoop. The Party clapped enthusiastically, and Jane leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, grinning up at him.
They looked more like twins than ever these days, all soft caramel hair and warm flannel shirts. In the golden March light slanting in through the kitchen window, even their eyes began to blend into the same colour, Will’s hazel shifting towards Jane’s gentle brown. They sometimes reminded Mike of a pair of baby deer. It was a little confusing, he had to admit, his ex-girlfriend and his best friend looking so very alike – especially when they were side by side in front of him, as they were now.
He’d even had a dream about them a few weeks ago: the kind of dream that had left him with damp sheets and a guilty conscience, unable to make eye contact with either of them for the rest of the day. Jane had been completely unbothered, as usual, but poor Will had followed him around for hours, worrying that he looked feverish, checking if he was feeling okay.
They were currently hovering around the table at the Wheelers’ – still the Party’s home base, even after all these years – having already devoured a handful of pizzas and watched two John Hughes movies back to back. Mike wasn’t sure he could face cake on top of so much cheese, both literal and metaphorical, but he’d have a good go. For Will, and all that.
“Soooo, what’re we doing to round out your day?” Dustin asked, halfway through his slice before the others had even had time to take their plates.
Jane leaned over and wiped a smear of vanilla buttercream off his chin, sucking her finger guilelessly. Mike’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline. Well, this was a new development. Dustin didn’t seem particularly perplexed about it; Mike exchanged glances with Lucas, then Will, who just shrugged. Interesting...
“Max told me about a game called… Seven Minutes?” she was saying now, completely ignoring the startled looks being thrown her way. “She said it was a good game to play when there are no parents home.”
Lucas grinned. “Oh, I just bet she did.”
“Seven Minutes in Heaven,” Max cut in smoothly. “And it’s a great game. Your parents aren’t gonna be home until later, right?”
Will snuck a sideways glance at him and smirked. “Is your mom at wine club again?”
“Book club,” he corrected, huffing out a laugh. Only Will could have gotten away with being quite so direct about it – but he wasn’t wrong. There was significantly more alcohol involved than literary talk when those ladies got together. His mom would be on the coffee and painkillers in the morning, no doubt.
“And the ever-charismatic Ted?” Dustin asked, dumping his plate and heading for the sink to wash icing sugar off his hands.
“Fuck knows. One of his boring hangouts for respectable men with PlayMobil haircuts.” Will laughed, and Mike grinned. He hadn’t heard that sound nearly often enough during The Vecna Years, and it had made him ridiculously happy ever since.
Hopper and Joyce, he knew, had gone into town, to Enzo’s and then to a movie, leaving the kids to enjoy Will’s birthday however they saw fit. Mike didn’t know what it must have taken for Hopper to persuade Joyce to leave her baby boy alone with his friends on his eighteenth, but he respected the fact that he’d pulled off a minor miracle, right there.
Bless her, he loved that woman like a favorite aunt, she was practically his second mom as a kid, but even Will would guiltily admit that she could kill their vibe stone dead in seconds. As for Hopper, he was as protective as dads came – Mike had experienced that first hand – but these days he knew when to back off and leave them to their own devices.
“So, Seven Minutes in Heaven, then?” Dustin asked. “I mean, I’m down if you are.” Mike noticed him sneaking another look at Jane and made a mental note to interrogate him later.
“But… how would that work?” Will asked, suddenly looking a bit uncomfortable. “Lucas and Max are already together, plus there are more boys than girls…”
“All the more fun for you, birthday boy,” Lucas said, leering at him and cocking an eyebrow in that way he thought made him look like Harrison Ford. Max pinged the back of his head with her fork. “Ow, what was that for?”
“Stop torturing him,” she said firmly. “He’s got a point...” Then her face broke into a devilish grin. “But I mean, as long as we’re all up for it, then it’ll still be a good time, right?”
Mike glanced over at Will again. It was sometimes hard for the others to read him these days. He was more confident now, more able to speak up and set boundaries for himself – but when it came to something like this? Party games, five on one, where there might be some... tricky... moments to navigate? He knew full well that Will could crash out completely if this went wrong.
“Up to you,” he said quietly. “Birthday boy gets final say, that’s the rule.” Will looked up at him gratefully, but then he nodded.
“Okay. Let’s do this.” His eyes went to Max, his reluctant expression smoothing into a very Will mixture of intrigue and stoicism. Good enough for now. Mike could always rescue him later if he changed his mind. He’d know. He always knew. “You’d better explain the rules though. I don’t think any of us have ever actually had the opportunity to play.”
Max hissed out a “Yessss!” and grabbed a soda bottle from the kitchen counter. “Wait, do you have anything stronger than this?” She held it up, watching the bubbles frothing inside. “And less fizzy, preferably?”
“Stronger?” Jane looked confused.
“Yeah, like wine or liquor or something.”
Mike was already making for the bar cart in the living room. “Like this, you mean?” He swept his hand across the array of bottles. “Take your pick.”
“Mike,” Will said warningly. “Your dad!”
“It’s okay,” Mike said. “Seriously, this shit gets replaced so fast, he’ll never notice. Or you can just take a bottle of wine. There are plenty of those. Mom’ll just think she drank an extra one this week.”
“I think… vodka,” Max said, wandering up behind him and pulling a clear bottle from the shelf. “We won’t need that much. We’ll have a gulp or two each, just to break the ice. Then we can use it to pick people, like in Spin the Bottle.”
“So how does the game work, again?” Dustin asked.
“One of us spins to start. I’ll do the honors...” She cackled. “Whoever it lands on is the first player. Then that person spins again – that’s player two. Off they go into the nearest closet, seven minutes to enjoy themselves, then we pick again. Easy.”
“Enjoy themselves?” Jane sounded completely mystified. “And I do not see a closet.” She gestured around at the open space surrounding them.
“There’s one at the top of the stairs,” Will chimed in, and Mike’s eyes cut to him sharply.
“The linen closet? It’s tiny!”
“Isn’t that kinda the point?” Dustin asked.
Mike shrugged. “Alright. Linen closet it is.”
Max was nodding, satisfied. “Once you’re in there you make out, usually. I mean, you could just talk or, like, count towels or whatever. No one will know. But…” she grinned lasciviously, “…what happens in the Seven Minutes closet stays in the Seven Minutes closet. Do with that what you will.” She waved the bottle again. “Everyone in? Boys?”
Lucas rolled his eyes. “Do I have a choice?”
Dustin laughed. “Screw it. Let’s do it.”
Mike just waved his hand in assent. Will nodded into his plate, still looking a little worried.
“Sit, sit.” Max dropped onto the floor in front of the sofa and the others followed, forming a rough circle. “Everybody drink. Dutch courage. Well…” she checked the bottle, “… Russian courage. Hey, this is good stuff!”
She passed the bottle around and they all took a generous mouthful, cringing and coughing at the paint stripper taste as it burned down their throats. Mike felt a buzzing starting up behind his eyes almost instantly and pinched the top of his nose, waiting for it to settle.
“Okay! Let’s go... I’m thinking six people, six rounds. Good?” Without waiting for an answer, she placed the bottle on the ground and spun it. It rattled on the wooden floor, and came to a stop on Lucas.
“Shit, already?” He groaned and reached to spin it again. “Nooooo! I couldn’t have got a girl at least?”
“Well, fuck,” Dustin sighed. “Come on, loverboy. Let’s get this party started.” He clambered to his feet and reached down, pulling Lucas up too.
“Seven minuuuuutes…” Max sang out gleefully as they climbed the stairs, glaring daggers back at the group as they went.
_______________
When their time was up, Max yelled out for them, and they heard the closet door opening and shutting with a thump. Dustin tripped down the stairs, a chocolate pudding cup in one hand. Lucas just looked bored.
Mike snapped his eyes to Max. Her face was morphing rapidly from surprise into a frown of disappointed ire. Uh oh. He’d had enough experience with that look to know that it meant trouble for the poor schmuck on the receiving end. Still, at least it wasn’t him this time.
“Where did you find that?” Will asked, amazed.
“Holly,” Mike explained, laughing. “She squirrels snacks in random places when she knows you guys are coming over to raid the kitchen.” He eyed Dustin meaningfully. “Guess I’ll have to warn her that she’s been rumbled, tell her to find a new spot.”
“It was behind some bathmats,” Lucas said.
“Why were you looking behind some bathmats in the first place?” Max asked incredulously.
“Well, I wasn’t gonna get seven minutes in heaven with him, was I?” Dustin huffed, barging Lucas to one side. “I figured I might as well snoop around a bit.” He waved the cup at them. “And it paid off.”
“Y’know what? Stop right there,” Max said, holding up a hand and catching Lucas across the chest. She’d downed a couple of extra mouthfuls of vodka while they waited and her face was flushed red. “I think at the very least we should get to see a little kiss. A peck. Otherwise it’s gonna be really boring being the ones sitting down here.”
“What do you mean?” Dustin said around another mouthful of pudding, sticking his finger back in the cup in lieu of a spoon.
“I mean, new rules. We’re mixing Seven Minutes with Spin the Bottle.” He still looked confused. “Kiss him.” She looked pointedly from one to the other. Jane laughed.
Mike threw a discreet glance Will’s way, a faintly sickly feeling blooming in his chest. It felt weird, making a spectacle out of it when there was a gay guy right there watching. A gay guy who’d never kissed anyone before, he suddenly realised. Oh yeah, this could go very wrong.
Still, Dustin didn’t seem to care much. “Comin’ in,” he said with a shrug, and swooped a kiss onto his rather startled victim.
Lucas grimaced and smacked his lips, wiping a smear of pudding from the side of his mouth. “Chocolatey, but hell no.” He wandered back to the circle. “Will, I love you man, but that ain’t for me.”
Max leaned over and kissed him sweetly. “Well, that’s a relief.” She gestured to the bottle again. “Dusty Bun, your turn to spin.”
He did, letting out a screech of triumph when the bottle slowed to a stop in front of Max. “Aha! Time for the tables to turn!”
Max quirked an eyebrow and spun it again. “Will! Well, isn’t this my lucky day...” He clearly didn’t know what to do with himself, but he let Max drag him to his feet and cart him away up the stairs, throwing a slightly panicked look back down at them as he went.
Mike had no idea what was going on in there, but when they emerged seven minutes later Max had that soft look that she rarely got around the others, and Will’s face was bright red.
“Max!” Dustin exclaimed, sounding shocked. “Did you force yourself on the innocent homosexual?”
“Of course not,” she said, then leaned up and gently touched her lips to his, swiping her thumbs over his cheeks. He went even redder, if that was possible, and sat down hard in his spot. Mike felt a twinge of something in his gut – all that pizza, probably – but there was no time to ponder it now. Will was already reaching for the bottle, his hand shaking slightly.
“Mike!” Max crowed. “Oh, this should be good…” Mike almost laughed out loud when her face fell spectacularly a few seconds later. “Wait, fuck, what?”
“Sorry,” he said, unfurling himself to his full height and holding out one giant hand to pull her up again. “You started it, now you’re just going to have to play along.”
She clambered to her feet, muttering mutinously, and let him lead her up the stairs. The last thing he saw as he turned the corner was Lucas and Dustin laughing their heads off, and Will, staring up at him with an odd look on his face.
_______________
“After you,” he said, holding the door open and directing her inside. She stomped in and turned to face him as he pulled it closed, propping herself against the shelves, her eyes a challenge.
“So…” she said, smirking.
“So...” He stared at his feet. “Ummm, what exactly did you do to poor Will in here?”
“Not much,” she shrugged. “He said he’d never kissed a girl before, and I asked him if he wanted to try it, just for fun.”
“And?”
“And… he’s a very sweet kisser. As you might imagine.”
Mike’s eyes snapped up. “He went for it?”
“Fuck you, Wheeler, I’m a catch. You don’t have to be straight to know that.” She tossed her hair and gave him a hard stare. “And what exactly are you going to do to him in here? Y’know, if the stars align before the six turns are up?”
“Very poetic. And what do you mean, what am I going to do to him?”
“I mean, are you gonna kiss him?” Mike choked, and Max scoffed. “I’m just saying, that’s literally the point of the game, to squash people in a closet and force them to make out. And there’s a fair chance you’re gonna end up in here together, so…?”
“I don’t think Will would want that.” Max’s snort echoed in the tiny space, making him jump. “The fuck was that for?”
“Seriously? Oh Mike.” She shook her head. “I love you, but you are so blind sometimes.”
“What do you mean?”
She reached up and patted his cheek. “All I’m saying is, be careful. It’s his birthday. You could make it the best birthday ever, or you could absolutely destroy him. And your friendship.” She weighed the options. “Or something in between, I guess. It’s all gonna be on you, though.”
“You’re saying he’d enjoy it?”
Her eyes softened for a moment and she looked at him thoughtfully. “Okay, I wasn’t ever going to do this, but since I may have just dangled a flaming sword over the two of you by accident, I should probably… y’know.” She grimaced. “At least try and put it out before it drops and slices your head off.”
“You sound more like a D&D character every day, y’know that? Also, that metaphor was a mess.”
“Mike.” She put her hands on his shoulders. “Listen to me carefully. And use this information wisely, please.” She waited for him to make eye contact. “Will likes you, okay?”
He laughed. “What? No he doesn’t. He’s been my best friend forever, we’re just really close.”
“You’re an idiot,” she said, flicking him on the temple, dangerously close to his eye. “If you haven’t noticed by now that he worships the ground you walk on then… well, I don’t know what to tell you. Just… make good choices today. Please. For his sake.”
She leaned back and looked up at him, then smiled winningly. Between the vibe switch and the grenade she’d just thrown in his face, it took him a second to recalibrate.
“Oh god, what now?” His shoulders slumped and he frowned, waiting for the next bomb to drop.
“Now, we’ve got about two and a half minutes left.” She fluttered her eyelashes. “You wanna see if it’s true that there’s a fine line between hate and passionate attraction?”
“What?”
“Shut up and kiss me already.”
Before he had time to think twice, she was up on her tiptoes, his back to the door. He squeaked as her lips landed squarely on his, and she blew a sharp blast of air out of her nose, clearly trying not to laugh in his face. Okay. Okay, he could do this. Challenge accepted.
He brought his hands up and cradled her back, tilting his head to kiss her properly. She made an odd noise in the back of her throat, and he smirked against her mouth. Game on. Then suddenly her tongue was brushing his, and her hands were in his hair, and the noise he made was so undignified that she broke away altogether, laughing into his shirt.
She pulled back, her breathing a little faster than it had been a moment ago. “Well well well. Jane’s loss, maybe Will’s gain, who knows?” She grinned. “You’re pretty good at that, Wheeler.” She reached behind him and opened the door, snorting as he went reeling backwards, catching himself hurriedly before he landed on his ass in the middle of the hallway.
At the bottom of the stairs, all eyes were on their mussed up hair and rosy cheeks.
“Ummm, what the fuck?” Lucas asked, his eyes darting between them.
“Kiss!” Jane sang out, and Max twirled back into him, bringing her arms up around his neck and pressing her lips against his one more time, slow and deep.
“What can I say?” she asked, turning back to the group and shrugging. “Turns out he’s a damn good kisser.”
She skipped back to her place, high-fiving Jane on the way, and Mike risked a glance at Will, who was now staring very hard at the floor, his own cheeks turning pink again.
Could Max be right? She and Will did talk a lot, probably about stuff he wasn’t comfortable sharing with Mike and the others. And there was that whole crush thing he’d told them about once, back when he came out at the radio tower. He’d looked right at Mike, tears rolling down his face – but when he just kept talking and then never mentioned it again, Mike had assumed it was a coincidence (he had to look at someone, right?) and put it to the back of his mind.
Three more turns to go. Maybe he wouldn’t have to grapple with it today anyway.
_______________
The next spin landed on Jane, who was immediately paired with Will. A general outcry led to an amended rule that pretty-much-siblings were definitely not what this game was about, so Will spun again and Dustin whooped, pulling a blushing Jane up the stairs and banging the closet door behind them.
When they came back down seven minutes later, Jane’s hair was all over the place, her shirt was suspiciously rumpled, and Dustin looked like he’d won the lottery. He kissed her softly as they rejoined the group, and when he sat down Lucas immediately and gleefully punched him so hard on the arm that he nearly sent the bottle flying across the floor.
Mike saw Will and Jane exchange one of those secret glances they so often shared these days, and smiled to himself. She deserved happiness, and Dustin would treat her like a queen, he just knew it. He was still going to carry out that interrogation, though. Just to be doubly sure. Hopper would definitely approve.
To everyone’s great interest, Max and Jane were paired off next.
“Seriously?” Lucas huffed. “I swear you’re fixing this now. It’s like you’re auditioning for my replacement or something.”
Max just chuckled. “As if I could ever replace you,” she said, dropping a kiss onto his lips as she wandered past, Jane’s hand in hers.
“Petition to make them do their seven minutes down here?” Dustin called.
Jane threw a glare over her shoulder. “If you’re going to be disgusting, you’re never getting your seven minutes in heaven again.”
“Ooooh!” Lucas sang out, and Mike and Will caught each other’s eyes and laughed.
To their collective surprise, when they returned Jane was as calm and unperturbed as ever, but Max? She was glowing like a radioactive strawberry.
“Ummm, you okay there babe?” Lucas asked.
Jane brought her hands up to her shoulders and kissed her hard. Max went rigid, her eyes wide, arms stiff at her sides.
“Oh!” Dustin said quietly.
Will was smirking at the ground. “Sorry Max,” he said. “You know Jane. She doesn’t let anything stop her when she gets curious.” He made eye contact with his sister and grinned. “Had fun up there, did you?”
“It’s been a very enlightening game,” she said primly, sitting down and smoothing her hair for the second time in fifteen minutes.
“Alright,” Max visibly shook herself, then slid the bottle across to Jane. “One more turn to go…” she intoned, looking between them slowly. “Who’s it going to be?”
Her eyes lingered on Mike, then on Will, and he suddenly realised he genuinely didn’t know whether he desperately wanted to get paired up with him or desperately didn’t. They could talk about D&D or something, it didn’t have to be weird. But it might be weird. Oh god. Okay.
Jane spun the bottle. “Mike…” Max said, her voice tightening ever so slightly. He could feel the others, watching with bated breath. Will swallowed audibly. He reached out and grasped the bottle. This was it. He spun it hard, and they waited… and waited… and it slowed… and…
“Oh, shit,” Dustin breathed.
Mike let his gaze sweep across the group, trying to calm his panic. He met Max’s eyes and she shrugged, her expression a little worried. In fact, everyone was looking at him strangely – everyone except Will, who just looked like he was about to hyperventilate.
Hold on, did everyone know about this except him?
Okay. Okay. It was Will’s day. He had to at least try not to look like he was dying inside. He got to his feet, his legs a little unsteady. “C’mon, birthday boy,” he said, with as much cheer as he could muster, holding out his hand. “This is the stuff dreams are made of, being wedged in a closet with my ugly mug for seven minutes.”
Will looked up at him, something approaching a frown flitting across his face, then slid one trembling hand into his, allowing himself to be pulled up and away from the circle. Mike didn’t let go until they got to the top of the stairs, studiously avoiding making eye contact with anyone as he went.
“Go on then,” he said, jerking his chin towards the closet.
“Mike… you don’t have to…” Will whispered, looking towards his bedroom door instead. “We can just go sit in your room for a few minutes, they won’t know.”
His heart clenched. “Just get in the damn closet, Byers.” Wait. His eyebrows shot up at the same time Will’s did, and suddenly they were both laughing. He shook his head ruefully. “Wow, this is going super well already.”
He pulled the door open and gestured inside, then eased it shut behind them, leaving only the pale light from the dusty bulb overhead. It felt smaller in here this time. He shuffled past Will and poked at a pile of towels on the shelf. “So… do you come here often?”
Will huffed out a laugh. He still looked mortified. “I… ummm… I’m really sorry about this.”
“Sorry about what?” He was genuinely puzzled. “It’s us. I won’t be offended if you just stand over there for seven minutes. Talk to me about art or something, whatever you want.”
“Mike, what you said down there...” Will’s voice was tremulous. He trailed off and started again. “You don’t… I mean, you don’t think that I wouldn’t want to kiss you, right? Everyone else has done their seven minutes, I would never want you to feel like-”
“Like your dreams don’t involve being wedged in a closet with my ugly mug?”
“You’re not ugly,” he said firmly. No hesitation, no room for argument. He looked up, a hint of sparkle finally returning to his eyes, “And Max said you’re a good kisser, so...”
“Excuse me, I think her exact words were, ‘a damn good kisser’,” he corrected. “Yeah, I was quite proud of that, actually.”
“Kinda makes me curious…” Will murmured, his eyes drifting unmistakeably to Mike’s lips, then away again. He turned abruptly to examine one of the shelves, his hands plucking nervously at a pile of bed linen. “Sorry, that was a weird thing to say.”
“Why?” Mike asked bluntly. “I mean, fully half of us have kissed Max today. I’m guessing Dustin’s getting real curious about that.”
Will laughed. “Yeah, I guess.”
A sudden thought struck him, and Mike blurted it out before he could stop himself. “Would you have kissed him if he got sent up here with you? Or Lucas?”
Will blushed. “I think you’re asking the wrong question here.” Mike frowned, not understanding. Will stared at him like it was obvious. “Would they have kissed me?”
“I don’t see why not.” Mike shrugged. “I mean, we’re all old friends. Dustin’s always up for trying random things just because, and you’re objectively hot, so-” Will’s head shot up, and Mike rolled his eyes. “Don’t give me that look, you’re pretty as hell and you know it.”
He looked down at his feet, suddenly somber, feeling the tips of his ears burning. “So it’s just me you won’t kiss,” he said quietly. “Got it.” He nodded at the ground, feeling bizarrely like he might cry. He made a mental note not to double-feature romcoms again for a while. Moping in a closet because his best friend didn’t want to kiss him at a birthday party? Ridiculous.
“I would.” Will’s voice was so unexpectedly small. Mike looked up. “I just… I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m gay, Mike. It’s not a fun experiment for me. It’s me kissing a guy for the first time ever.” He was wringing his hands together now, his face a mask of misery. “And it’s you.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Your best friend.”
“Yes.”
“The guy you actually like.”
“Yes. No! Wait...” The color was gone from his cheeks in an instant. He swayed on his feet.
Shit. “Hey… hey, it’s okay.” He reached out and was horrified when Will flinched. In the back of his mind he could hear Max warning him to be careful. Damn him and his big mouth.
“Look, it’s just me in here. Just me. No one else heard that.” He held up his hands placatingly. “All I’m saying is that if you’re still curious… like you were with Max, right?” His voice dropped to little more than a mumble, and he toed at the carpet with his shoe. “Well, so am I.”
Of all the things that could have flown out of his mouth at that moment, he would never have predicted that – and neither would Will, if the shock painted across his face was anything to go by.
Mike paused, then took a step forward, very slowly. His heart was pounding. “Look, you can tell me to get lost if you want – birthday boy gets final say, we’ve established that – but also, what happens in the Seven Minutes closet stays in the Seven Minutes closet, remember?”
Will was breathing hard now, watching him warily, as if he was no longer his nerdy friend of just about forever, but some kind of predator: a big cat perhaps, one that might purr at him but might equally just claw him to death right here, surrounded by blankets and spare pillowcases.
“Close your eyes?” Mike said softly. Will’s gaze darted wildly around the confined space before finally locking on, his expression painfully conflicted. Then, to Mike’s surprise, his eyes fluttered closed. He stood motionless, his hands clutching onto the shelf behind him for dear life. The vulnerability and trust in his beautiful face made Mike’s heart hurt.
“Now what?” he whispered. Something flared in Mike’s chest, warmth and excitement mixing in a potent cocktail, and he took a last careful step, right into his space. It was now or never.
“Happy birthday,” Mike whispered back, and kissed him.
Something literally sparked as their lips met – too much starch in this closet, probably – and Will let out a tiny whimper against Mike’s mouth. He wasn’t expecting it: not the sound, not the way it sent a jolt of electricity through him, not the way his pants suddenly felt a teeny bit too tight. He gasped.
Then their eyes were open, and they were staring at each other, panting, frozen.
“Mike?”
“Shut up,” he murmured, and closed the distance between them again, bringing his hands up to cup Will’s face, reaching one around to slide into the soft hair at the nape of his neck. Will sighed and melted into him, tilting his face up and kissing him so sweetly that he thought he would die, right here. Max hadn’t been kidding; this was lovely.
And then Will’s mouth opened and Mike’s tongue met his, and, suddenly he was being pushed backwards, his shoulders hitting the closet door with a gentle thump, and Will was pressed flush against his body, his fingers in his hair, and there was nothing soft and sweet in it any more. This was desire, pure and heady.
They may look alike, but this wasn’t at all like kissing Jane, or even Max. Mike could feel his strength, the breadth of his shoulders, the muscles flexing in his back as he shifted. His lips were firm. He tasted like vanilla buttercream, but his scent was all spiced cologne and man.
Mike suddenly understood everything that Max had said earlier. There was no coming back from this. And honestly, the way his insides were lighting up right now, he didn’t think he wanted to. He made a decision, right there on the spot, and brought one arm up around Will’s waist, pulling him in, canting his hips ever so slightly so that he could feel what this was doing to him.
Will immediately pulled back to look up into his face, his eyes wide, something like fear flickering in their depths.
“Will… fuck...” Mike leaned down and rested his forehead against his. “Sorry, was that too much?” He slid his hands up under Will’s T-shirt, trailing his fingers in soothing patterns across his back, trying to breathe like a normal human and failing miserably.
“I don’t… I mean, are you…?”
“Still curious?” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “Very.” He leaned back and watched him quietly, his fingers flexing against the warmth of his skin. “You?”
Will’s eyes searched his for a moment, then he nodded frantically, his breath audibly hitching as he reached up to kiss him again. Mike didn’t waste another second. He ran a hand up into his hair and tugged gently, swiping his tongue into his mouth. Will made a keening sound in the back of his throat, and Mike all but growled as he flipped them, pressing him hard against the door, rolling his hips into him and kissing his way down his throat.
Will brought his arms up around his neck and tipped his head back to give him better access, his eyes closed, those incredible eyelashes brushing his cheeks, a look of pure bliss on his face. Heaven indeed, Mike thought, as he hoisted one of Will’s legs up and around his waist, grinding upwards, chasing something neither of them quite understood yet.
_______________
When the door opened suddenly, nearly tumbling Will out backwards, it was all Mike could do not to start throwing towels in frustration. Four faces stared back at them, ranging from sweetly intrigued (Jane) to profoundly satisfied (Max). Interestingly, Mike registered that none of them looked particularly surprised.
“We... ummm... heard a thud in here?” Lucas said, trying to look innocent.
“Several thuds.” Dustin was clearly trying not to laugh. Jane punched him on the arm and he winced.
“Your seven minutes are up,” Max said, raking her eyes over their kiss-reddened lips and rumpled T-shirts.
“Eleven minutes ago,” Lucas added.
“I guess we’ll be going now then?” Max quirked an eyebrow at them, and Will buried his face in Mike’s chest, blushing furiously.
Mike nodded, glaring around at them. “Fuck off, all of you. Party’s over. We’re staying in here forever.” He ran his hands idly over Will’s back and felt him shiver.
“Fine,” Dustin huffed. “And congratulations, I guess?" He paused. "I’m stealing another piece of cake for the road though.”
“Happy birthday, Will!” Jane called as they disappeared down the stairs. Will leaned out into the hallway and waved them off weakly. Mike heard Dustin burst out laughing and grinned, shaking his head.
The instant the front door slammed, Mike wrapped his arms around him and pulled him back in, feeling him arching under his hands, kissing him ravenously.
“Guess what happens in the Seven Minutes closet doesn’t stay there after all, then? Not when that lot are involved anyway,” Will said, humming quietly, nuzzling his face into his shoulder. Mike sighed, Will’s hot breath on his neck doing something twisty and exciting to his insides.
“Okay…so how about we upgrade to the Definitely More Than Seven Minutes bed, make out until my parents get home and go from there?” he asked, already steering Will backwards towards his room.
“Yes please,” he whispered, allowing himself to be guided inside, the only sound the gentle click of the door closing and locking behind them.