Work Text:
“To make out?”
“To date?”
. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.
After Robin explained to Will how she knew, Will couldn’t stop thinking about how every. single. fucking. sign. matched him and Mike.
Will was helping with something at The Squawk one day, when he finally lost it.
He had so many questions. It just seemed like Mike might feel the same back. Maybe?? Possibly?? Will had to ask. Not knowing was killing him.
So Will turns around and starts running.
Will hates running but he runs like he never had before, yes, even faster than when he was in the upsidedown. Because after that conversation he finally has hope, something he didn’t have there, afraid and helpless.
This time Will runs for love and not for fear, and love is much stronger than any other feeling.
Will runs until he is in front of the Wheeler’s house, doubt starts to creep in, distantly he hears thunder, but Will shakes his head.
He must get an answer, he knows he may die after their fight against Vecna, and he already died once not knowing.
This time Will, if he has to go he will go knowing if he was loved like he desperately wishes or not.
Will needs to know, either to move on or to start something new with Mike.
He opens the door and goes up the stairs. He doesn’t stop again until Mike is in front of him, looking up startled while seating in his bed.
"I need you to tell me." Will blurts it out, no longer able to keep it in.
"What? Will-" Mike is quick to stand up, noticing instantly how agitated Will looks.
"I need you to either tell me no, so I can move on or-" Will starts fidgeting with the bottom part of his shirt, twisting it around his fingers.
"Move on? What are you-" Mike reaches for Will's hands automatically wanting to comfort him.
They used to that all of the time when they were kids. Whenever one was fidgeting, without even looking the other was already reaching for, in Mike’s case his legs or in Will’s his hands, but there was never hesitation.
When Will came back it took a while to appear, but it appeared anyway, the hesitation.
It started in front of Jane, Will thought maybe Mike just wanted to look more cold hearted in front of her, girls like that, don’t they?
And Mike can be an asshole sometimes, sure, but he is not cold hearted. He never was, at least not to him.
Will’s Mike could never be cold hearted.
So when they were alone, Mike never hesitated. Mike comforted him still, and when he did, it was like every single painful thing Will has ever endured was worth it. Just for that one hug, a hand brushing his hair, thumbs wiping his cheeks to dry his tears, just for that one moment of his touch.
For that one moment when his heart would mend for a second, minutes or hours.
It would never last, though.
His heart would break again. Will never doubted that, it’s what he was used to.
When Mike started hesitating in front of other people, Will realized it wasn’t because of Jane anymore. So he stopped seeking that comfort. He couldn’t handle to know if Mike would hesitate if they were alone too.
Now, Mike doesn’t hesitate though. Mike reaches for Will, and when his fingers touch Will’s, for a second (again), it’s like he finally came up for air after years of drowning.
Then Will hears thunder, closer this time, and his head is under the water again. He is fighting, has been fighting for years to stay higher than the waves. Waiting for the tide to calm down.
It won’t.
“I can’t- I can’t breathe anymore, Mike.” Will doesn’t pull his fingers away but he keeps staring at the spot Mike touches him.
“What happened, Will? I’m not understanding anything.” Mike steps closer, snaking his hands up to Will’s arms, feeling him shaking in his hold.
“You. You happened.” Will smiles sadly up at him. “I tried not to. I promise you I did.” Will closes his eyes remembering of all of the times he tried to kill his feelings. Be it for Jane, for Mike or even for himself. “But- But it’s like I lose a piece of myself every time I try. It’s like I can’t be myself if I’m not loving you.”
“You lo- love me?” Mike sounds scared, but his hold on Will’s arms gets stronger, like he needs Will to anchor himself.
“I do. I always have.” Will whispers back to Mike, afraid of making him more scared. “And, Mike? I can’t go on like this any longer. I know that you still- you still love Jane. Okay? I know that. I also know that you love me, maybe not like I love you.” Will moves one of his hands to Mike’s shirt right where his heart is beating. It’s faster than usual, maybe Will is really scaring his best friend away forever. But he needs to tell him and get an answer.
“That’s not-“
“Mike, let me just say- I need to tell you everything first. Let me do that.” Will clenches his fingers around the shirt and closes his eyes. He feels Mike nodding his head. “I realized I was in love with you a week before I was taken by the demogorgon, I believed that was why. I have been called names my whole life, realizing that I was in love with you, admittedly, was horrible the end of the world to me, in some ways. It was also the beginning of a new world. You make me the happiest version of myself, the version that it’s still happy to be alive. You and only you, are the person who I was made to love. I accepted my love for you a long time ago, and i really thought that that year in California it would be gone. Instead I realized that I don’t want it to be gone. I want to love you for the rest of my life, for how short it may be, you know since we are going to fight against a crazy powerful burnt toast soon.”
Will giggles at his own little joke but Mike frowns and steps closer moving his hands around Will, it looks like Mike wants to intervene but he stays quiet.
“Uhm anyways, I know, well no, I thought you weren’t like me, but then I had a conversation with someone like me…and well, I’m just wondering now. Not- I’m not- Fuck- I don’t mean that you are like me. I just-“ Mike hands comes up to Will’s face and he stares at Will like he really wants to say something. Will just needs to finish this faster. “I guess I’m ho- I’m hoping now. And I know the breakup is fairly recent, so I’m not expecting anything to change, that’s not what this is. I just need you to know and I need to know as well. I need you to tell me that you don’t love me like I love you. So I can know for sure, so I can pretend to move on.” Will felt the tears falling down his face and Mike’s thumb catching all of them and wiping them away.
They stand there for a few seconds in silence, Mike waiting just to check Will finished speaking, and then his already soft eyes somehow grow softer as he opens a silly smile at Will.
“You love me. You love me as, like. you are in love with me. You, Will Byers, the first person I was actually glad I met loves me.” Will could see the tears gathering in Mike’s eyes now. “I’m just- God, what could I have possibly done to deserve your love?” Will opened his mouth to reply but Mike kept talking before he could say anything.
“Do you know how desperately in love with you I am? I don’t remember a single moment, since I met you, where I haven’t felt this way. I’m sorry I took so long to realize it, I thought that-“ Mike’s face turn serious as he thinks about what Will said. “If I had realized it sooner you’d could’ve felt my love for you even in the darkness. I really thought that the need I have to be closer to you and know everything about you, tell you everything, have your attention on me and feel like I could finally see a better future, I thought that was just your effect on people. I remember you called me the heart once,” Mike touches his forehead against Will’s “Let me tell you a secret though, if I’m the heart then I’m only beating when you’re near me. I feel the most when I look at you, I’m most brave when you are next to me, I work the hardest, on myself and things around me, because I want you to feel my love and admiration for you in any way possible. I figured if I couldn’t touch you, I could love you with actions. And I know that it’s my fault, that I stopped touching you like before and that you stopped seeking my comfort afraid of the hesitation. I’m aware I messed that up, but I started noticing around that time that what I felt for you was stronger than what anyone else did. I started noticing that Lucas felt that way for Max and so it freaked me out a bit, it mainly made me scared to lose you again. If I allowed myself to touch you without restraining myself, honestly I would be touching you all the time.” Mike giggles.
“Hooking our pinkies together, brushing a hair away from your face, hugging you, letting a hand linger on your arm, my knees would touch yours every time we sat down, my elbows would brush yours every time we walked and maybe you would’ve- you would’ve let me kiss you. Something sweet, because you deserve all the sweetness you give to the world.” Mike brushes his nose against Will’s going back and forth a bit, making Will scrunch his nose. Mike’s eyes shine with delight before going dim. “You need to know that loosing you for the first time, made me realize that you could, in fact, be lost. I wish you never knew what it felt to be lost and that I never knew what it felt like to lose you. Every time I wanted to touch you, I would start thinking it could be the last time, my thoughts would start to spiral and I would blame myself for not asking, no, begging you to stay that night at my house. Have a sleepover. Because the thing is, I was going to. I was going to ask you to stay and I didn’t, and because of that I lost you.” Mike closes his eyes as for a moment he is back at that time, that time where all he wanted was to find Will, hear his laugh, watch him talk or simply see him breathing in front of him.
“I learned my lesson now, I will never hesitate to show you my love again. I will never stop myself from asking you to stay, and I will, if you want me to, help you make this new world that begun a place where we could- uhm- we could be together? A world where I could be yours and you could be mine. Would you- Would you like that?” Mike was practically begging with his eyes for Will to say yes.
As a lightning strike breaks through the window, Will can see the fear in Mike’s eyes but overpowering that and making the fear almost completely gone is hope and love. There is so much love in Mike’s gaze, and this time Will reaches the surface of the water and his head stays higher than the water.
In his head, Will takes a hesitant breath in afraid of being pulled under again, but he keeps breathing and nothing is pulling him down. He watches as the sun shines against the calm water, he feels as it hits his face.
Will feels a chill of excitement run through his spine and his whole body shakes with it. He opens a big smile to Mike and leans in.
“I would’ve let you kiss me if you asked, Mike. But I’ve been waiting for so long that right now, I’m the one who’s gonna kiss you.”
Will closes the distance in a second. The kiss is better than all of thousand times he imagined before. It starts sweet, the way Mike promised he would’ve kissed Will. Then one of Will’s hands moves up from Mike’s shirt to his hair, and Mike gasps at the sensation of Will’s nails lightly scratching his scalp.
In an instant the kiss is desperate. It’s like they are apologizing and forgiving each other for every time they wanted to reach for one another but thought better of it. It’s as if they are repairing each other’s broken parts, as if they are making up for all the lost time.
It’s like they are finally taking what they want, accomplishing their most deep and rooted desires.
Mike tastes like mint and home. It’s Will’s new favorite taste.
They pull apart smiling silly to one another, still resting forehead against forehead.
“I take it that you’d like me in this new world, huh?” Mike whispers in the space between them.
“There’s not a world out there that I exist that I wouldn’t want you in it.” Will whispers back.
“I’m gonna help you build the happiest of worlds for us, I’m gonna love you in every other world created, be it by you, by me, or any greater force out there. My love for you will surpass dimensions and I hope you will feel it in every time line and universe. I hope you never stop feeling it, even in the darkest of places. My love will find you in every shadow and in every light as so will I. This is my Paladin Oath to you, I will follow you everywhere you go and you don’t really need it anymore, but I will protect you and I will never stop loving you. My biggest goal will be to let you know every day how much I love you and to make you happy.” Mike starts kissing all around Will’s face before dropping to his knees.
“Fuck, and Jane said you weren’t romantic. Such a sap.” Will lets a big laugh out, a sound full of joy.
“It’s because she isn’t you. She never was. No one compares to you.” Mike leaves a big kiss under Will’s ear and Will’s breath hitches. Both of them stop immediately.
It’s in this moment of silence that they hear it.
The thunder is stronger, it finally reached the Wheeler’s house. It’s also this moment that Will realizes that the color of the lightning before wasn’t white.
It was a shiny red.