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The late September sun set slowly over the horizon, the view between trees blinding Mike’s line of sight. Leaves crunched under his feet, sticks snapping. It seemed quiet.
Something rustled to his side.
“Are you lost?” Will asked, nervous smile disappearing with the scrunch of his nose. “I think they turned around that big tree with the hole in it.” He pointed ahead, light shining into his eyes as they met the hole in the trunk of the tree. It doesn’t bode well for the future of the tree, but it’s a helpful landmark Mike didn’t notice.
Mike huffed. “I’m not lost, I’m just…exploring.”
Eddie had dragged them all out into the woods for a night of spooktacular happenings. There was apparently an abandoned mental hospital from the 20’s that lived deep in the forest. With Vecna finally gone, Mike typically didn’t enjoy seeking further life threatening thrills, but he trusted Eddie. Mostly.
Dustin and Lucas had stuck directly behind Eddie the entire time, clinging to his knowledge of direction or each other’s pinkies at any given time. Eddie promised them the second they wanted to go home they would, no questions asked, no chickens declared. Mike had said no at first, but after seeing Dustin so excited to go proclaim his undying love for their dungeon master outside of the Wheeler’s basement walls, he jumped at the opportunity. Lucas was dragged along at the last minute after they caught him at Melvald’s with nothing better to do.
Will was still nervous. Mike could tell without even looking at him that he was scared of whatever Eddie was dragging him towards. Sure, they’ve all had enough of hospitals, but Will seemed particularly afraid at the promise of ‘ghosts’. Mike himself had always been a little superstitious, and the whole Upside Down situation had not helped in the slightest, but he wasn’t entirely afraid of whatever unfinished business some ethereal floaty things might have. Even if they were violent, Mike surely hasn’t lived long enough to irrevocably destroy their eternal lives, so he’s probably in the clear. Though, despite Mike talking through his thoughts on the expedition, Will still seemed unsettled.
He also hadn’t eaten all day, according to El. If Vecna wasn’t 100%, completely, in hell superdead, Mike would’ve thought this was the second coming. (Or third. Or fourth.) Will’s hand feels cold and clammy where he’s holding it, but the warmth Mike knows emits from his skin (El kicked him out of a shared sleeping bag because he was apparently a furnace) seems to comfort him a little.
They eventually stumble upon the rest of the group. Eddie’s standing with arms wide open and yelling something vaguely like a motivational (or threatening) speech towards the clearly gated and locked up plot of land that housed years of uncared for concrete. Dustin is seemingly shaking in anticipation behind him, and Lucas looks like he wants to run as far away from the place as possible, considering his slow steps towards the beaten path they had come from. Mike turns to make fun of him to Will, but stops short when he notices the tears gathered in Will’s eyes.
“Will?” His voice is noticeably softer as he speaks, rubbing a thumb across the back of Will’s hand. “If you want to go, that’s alright.”
Will shakes his head, pointing eerily upwards. Eddie, who had turned around after his definitely threatening speech had ended, seems to catch the movement. He whips his head around and faces in the direction of the pointing, which seems to be an upstairs room that had seen better days. Even from the outside, the concrete was noticeably stained dark and covered in cobwebs. Eddie is smiling when he turns. “That, boys, is our first stop. Good eye, Will.”
By the time Mike faces Will again, the tears are gone. His facial expression has gone flat, his skin has cooled. Shit.
“Um. Eddie?” Mike’s voice cracks. “Will doesn’t…”
Will’s hand tightens on his own. “I’m fine, I just thought I saw something in the window.” His head is ducked.
Mike squints at him. His skin doesn’t feel cold anymore. Maybe it was just a chill? From the ghost in the window, or something.
He hears a snapping of a lock, and suddenly Lucas is dragging him away from Will and towards the creepy outdoor staircase leading to the second floor. “If I die, you are coming with me.”
Eddie cackles. “I’m sure this is harmless.” His expression grows more serious, eyes softer. “But if any of you guys want to leave, I promise to take it seriously, alright?”
Dustin rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. You’re as bad as Steve, whatever.”
Eddie blushes. “I am not.”
Mike hears them bicker down the hallway, Will following close behind Dustin with a newly acquired flashlight. Lucas’s radio sparks to life when they’re out of sight, up the stairs and towards the room Will had been pointing at earlier. Eddie’s voice crackles in the static box. “Alright, Team Cooler is heading to the freaky room, Team Okay should explore the bottom level. I heard there’s a toilet! Over.”
Mike scoffs. “Why am I always on Team Okay?”
Lucas bats his hand away from where he was grabbing the radio. “Eddie was yelling vaguely towards that hallway about “the shitting ghost” so I think that’s the first place we go.”
“Woah! Don’t change the topic! Why am I-”
“Mike. You’re capital O okay. You are not capital C cooler. Deal with it.” Lucas smiles at him nonetheless. “Imagine playing dungeons with this as the setting. Will the Wise getting all up in everyghosts—”
“Did you just say everyghosts?”
“ — business and we get to learn all about Eddie’s dark and twisted ideas of campaign past or something! This is a mental asylum too, so the crazy lunatics could like…actually be really cool to fight.”
Mike grins. “Imagine fighting against Eddie’s personal and close friend “the shitting ghost” in a one-shot. Like, actually obliterating a shit ghost.”
Lucas laughs, “Yeah! We totally have to make him do that. Max would absolutely kill it.” His smile brightens. “We could totally invite El too! I’m sure she would have fun—”
Mike’s eyes, which have been scanning the ground, catch on something and quickly pull Lucas away from it before it gets crushed under his heel. Lucas’s eyes seem to decipher it at the same time as Mike, because they both shriek and back away.
It’s a bone.
A real. Human bone.
Not that they haven’t seen those before, but without the context of blood and veins and Vecna, it seems wildly different. Scarier. The bone rattles lightly against the ground when a strong wind passes through the halls. Mike’s flashlight waves wildly across the ground past the bone, searching for anything else.
Lucas seems to scratch at his arm uncomfortably. “I think that’s an ulna. I saw it in one of Erica’s freaky textbooks.”
Mike shivers. Glances at the radio still in Lucas’s hand. “You know. On second thought, I think I don’t really want to be separated from the others.”
Lucas nods frantically, pulling Mike by the arm out of the long hallway and back outside. It’s gotten darker. Not significantly, but noticeable enough that the flashlight waving around the top floor catches their attention. After running up the stairs and narrowly avoiding tripping off the side of them, they find the rest of the group in the room Will had pointed to.
Lucas gets there before Mike, and he stands frozen at the doorway.
“What?” Mike asks, trying to peer over Lucas’s higher shoulder.
He can see that Dustin is speaking frantically into his radio, but nothing’s coming through the one in Lucas’s hand. Either the radio isn’t working, or Dustin is talking to someone else.
He manages to see Eddie next. Eddie’s on his knees, rummaging through his small backpack that he had brought under the guise of having ghost hunting supplies and for emergency fruit snacks.
There seems to have been a first aid kit hiding in there as well, considering it’s quickly brought out and set on the floor. Lucas’s shoulder drops, and his eyes land on Will.
His head is bleeding.
Mike reels back, hand on Lucas’s arm ripping away as he clutches his stomach and tries not to hurl. Lucas catches him before he falls down the stairs. “Mike, he’s okay. He’s alright.”
He regains the air in his lungs, head pounding. He glances back into the room. Will’s cheek is bleeding. The top of his perfect, bowl cut head is fine. It’s a small scrape and Eddie seems calm as he wipes over it and applies a small bandaid. Dustin isn’t as frantic as he remembers, seeming talking to Jonathan over the radio that they had to cut their extravaganza short because Will had managed to trip face first into the room and sliced his cheek on a rock.
Lucas seems more worried about Mike at the moment, actually. “Your eyes went crazy dude.”
Mike shrugs Lucas off him, brushing off his arms. “Sorry? I swear I thought he had brained himself and was dying again—”
Lucas cuts him off. “Mike.” He shakes his head. “Dustin said we’re leaving.”
Mike nods, walking shyly into the room and feeling his eyes twitch a little when he sees Eddie run a hand over Will’s cheek to smooth down the bandaid.
“All better, munchkin!”
Will’s face screws up, but even Mike can tell in the dim light that he’s blushing. “Don’t call me that.”
Mike sits down in Eddie’s spot when he gets up. “You okay? I know this was supposed to be fun but it sucks that you got hurt.”
Will nods, shoulders relaxing minutely. “I’m okay. Really. I just—” His eyes fall flat again.
Mike’s brows furrow. “Will?”
The tears are back. The shaking is back.
“Will! Will!”
Eddie kneels down beside him, Dustin and Lucas vaguely chattering in the background. “What?”
Will’s hand searches for something on the ground, before finding Mike’s hand. “Oh, there you are.”
Mike blanches. Will’s voice is significantly deeper in pitch, airy in tone. Eddie’s eyebrows are practically past his forehead.
Will coughs, scrunching his eyes. “What’d you say?”
Mike stares at him. “What the fuck are you talking about.” Eddie slaps his arm. Will stares back. Mike softens a little. “Sorry, I must’ve been hearing things.”
Eddie shook his head. “I definitely heard it too.”
Dustin and Lucas are silent behind them, but shuffle towards Will slightly. He cowers. “What are you talking about? Why are you all looking at me like that?”
Dustin clears his throat. “The name on the wall is Phillip.”
Eddie glances over his shoulder at him. “And?”
“The illness under it says ‘homosexual’.” Three pairs of eyes land on Dustin at the same time. He flounders. The radio in his hand has been turned off. “It was a little dirty, but I cleaned the plaque off just now. I guess the guy in this room was put in here for being gay.”
Will chokes behind them, a sob muffled beneath his hand. Mike’s heart shatters, sliding next to him and grabbing Will’s hand out of his hair and holding it. He’s quiet as he speaks, delicate in the way he only ever feels for Will. “What’s wrong?”
Will sobs again, burying his face in Mike’s shoulder. Eddie seems incredibly out of his element, but pulls Dustin and Lucas out of the room, something about waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs spilling quickly out of his mouth.
Mike squeezes Will closer to him. “What’s wrong, baby?”
Will sniffs into Mike’s cotton sweater. “I’m wrong.”
A wind blows past them, sticking uncomfortably against Mike’s back. “Will, nothing is wrong with you. You’re perfect.”
Will shakes his head, rocking back and forth in his place in Mike’s lap. “I want to go home.” He sounds exhausted, and all Mike wants to do is wrap him up in thirty blankets and stick him in front of a fire and never leave his side.
An ache forms in his chest when he pulls Will away slightly. “Will.” He whispers. “Nothing is wrong with you. Is this because of what Dustin said? About Phillip?”
Will shivers when he nods, eyes scattered across the floor.
Mike hugs him close again. “Nothing wrong with you, baby. You’re still my perfect boy.”
Will sobs against him again. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Will.” He whispers into his hair, kissing the crown of his head. Will pulls back, eyes wide.
Mike nods. Will leans in and finally fucking kisses him. To be completely honest, Mike has been wanting this for a long time. After El broke up with him for not spending enough time with her as her boyfriend, all Mike wanted to do was see more of Will. His poor boy that has suffered so much throughout the past years. It dawned on him six months ago, after the Party had a movie night that had jumpscared Mike so bad that he almost pissed himself. Will had laughed so hard he fell over into Mike’s lap, and never left. His heart had beat so hard he was briefly worried he was suffering a heart attack, but when Will had gotten up to grab more popcorn, his heart had settled watching him use Steve’s kitchen to make up some popcorn and grabbing a can of New Coke from the fridge so casually.
He’d been wearing a soft pair of jeans and the most baby blue sweater he owned. The color fit him so well Mike almost wanted to cry. Will had smiled at him across the back of the couch as he walked back over, and Mike knew.
Obviously, Will deserved better than him. But Mike would do anything to make him feel the happiest he could. So if pissing himself scared would keep that gorgeous smile on Will’s face, Mike would watch every horror movie in existence.
Will’s lips were pillowy soft and slightly cold, but Mike’s warmth quickly took over and soothed the pale boy’s everpresent chill. The hand along Will’s back had moved up to hold his shoulder, squeezing as he kissed his favourite person in the whole fucking world.
When Will started crying again, Mike kissed the tears off his face and held him close.
By the time they had escaped the room, it was completely dark outside. Dustin and Lucas were busy playing a deck of cards Eddie had apparently brought, and were oblivious to the teary Will and bright red Mike that descended the stairs. Eddie caught Mike’s gaze after smiling softly at Will, holding a thumbs up with a questioning look.
Mike kissed Will’s forehead in response. Will tucked closer into his side, warily glancing Eddie’s way. Eddie shook his head fondly, waving them over as Dustin and Lucas seemed to catch on, firmly hugging Will and whispering to him comfortingly. With a hand still trapped in Will’s, Mike turned to smile awkwardly at Dustin and Lucas, who were immediately all loud and proud and demanding money from Max over their radio’s.
On the way back home, lit well by the four flashlights that Eddie, Dustin, Lucas, and Mike carried, Will leaned into his side and stole every ounce of his attention until they were practically tripping over the Harrington household door step. Loch Nora was quiet as they entered their safe haven, Eddie immediately finding Steve on the couch and throwing himself into the younger boy’s lap. Dustin and Lucas were already on their bikes and out the door, a screaming match between Lucas and Max starting before they could escape the house.
Eddie pointed giddy at Will and Mike as they sat on the couch opposite of him and Steve.
Mike ignored them, pulling Will into another hug. “You okay?”
Will nodded, squeezing him tight. “You love me.”