Work Text:
Dustin’s text arrived at 3:17 p.m.
DUSTIN: everyone come to my house after school
Mike stared at his phone.
That was it.
No explanation.
No context.
Not even one of Dustin’s usual twelve-paragraph messages filled with unnecessary details and misspelled words.
Mike immediately typed back.
MIKE: Why?
Three dots appeared.
Disappeared.
Appeared again.
DUSTIN: just come
Mike frowned.
MIKE: Dustin.
DUSTIN: MIKE
MIKE: Is something wrong?
The reply came almost instantly.
DUSTIN: no
Mike narrowed his eyes.
That was suspicious.
Very suspicious.
He shoved his phone into his pocket and looked across the classroom at Will.
Will was already looking at him.
Their eyes met.
Will immediately looked away.
Mike’s suspicion increased approximately one hundred percent.
Something was definitely happening.
⸻
By the time Mike reached Dustin’s house, almost everyone was already there.
Lucas was sitting on the floor.
Steve was arguing with Robin over something.
Nancy was flipping through a magazine.
Jonathan was leaning against the wall.
Eleven and Max were sharing a bowl of chips.
And Will—
Will was sitting on the couch.
He glanced at Mike when he walked in.
Then immediately looked down at his hands.
Mike stopped in the doorway.
“Okay,” he said slowly. “What’s going on?”
Everyone looked at Dustin.
Dustin looked offended.
“Nothing is going on.”
“That’s exactly what someone says when something is going on.”
“Mike.”
“Dustin.”
“Guys,” Lucas interrupted, “can we please do this before Mike has an aneurysm?”
“I am not having an aneurysm.”
“You’re doing the face.”
“What face?”
“The suspicious face.”
“I don’t have a suspicious face.”
Max snorted.
“You absolutely have a suspicious face.”
Mike looked around the room.
“Seriously. Why am I here?”
Dustin stood up dramatically.
“Because, Michael Wheeler, today we are doing something revolutionary.”
Steve groaned.
“Here we go.”
“Something unprecedented.”
Robin rolled her eyes.
“Just say it.”
Dustin spread his arms.
“We’re having a completely unofficial, entirely spontaneous, one-hundred-percent supernatural-free…”
He paused.
“…normal teenager hangout.”
Silence.
Mike blinked.
“What?”
“A normal teenager hangout.”
Mike looked around again.
“This is your definition of normal?”
“Yep.”
“You invited half of Hawkins to your house.”
“It’s called having friends.”
“You made a schedule.”
Dustin glanced at the clipboard beside him.
“This is called organization.”
“You have snacks separated into categories.”
“That’s called preparation.”
“You have board games stacked by difficulty.”
“That’s called—”
“Dustin.”
“Fine. That’s called me being awesome.”
Lucas laughed.
Mike shook his head.
“You’re insane.”
“And yet you’re here.”
Mike looked toward Will.
Will was smiling.
Just a little.
Mike smiled back before he could stop himself.
“Yeah,” he said. “I guess I am.”
⸻
The first hour was chaos.
The second hour was somehow worse.
They played Monopoly.
Steve accused Dustin of cheating.
Dustin accused Steve of not understanding the rules.
Robin claimed both of them were idiots.
Max stole half of Lucas’s snacks.
Lucas complained for approximately five minutes before stealing hers back.
Eleven kept asking questions about the rules even though she’d played Monopoly before.
Nancy somehow won.
Nobody knew how.
Then they moved on to music.
Which immediately became an argument.
“You cannot seriously listen to that,” Steve said.
Robin stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s terrible.”
“You listen to hair metal.”
“Exactly. Which means I have taste.”
“You just proved my point.”
Dustin turned up the volume.
Everyone started shouting at once.
Mike barely paid attention.
Because Will was laughing.
Not his polite little laugh.
Not the quiet one he used when someone made a joke and he felt like he was supposed to react.
A real laugh.
His head was tilted back slightly, his eyes squeezed shut, and he was laughing so hard he had to put his hand over his mouth.
Mike stared.
He hadn’t heard Will laugh like that in what felt like forever.
Something warm settled in his chest.
He smiled.
Will caught him looking.
Their eyes met.
Will’s laughter softened into a smile.
Mike looked away.
He had absolutely no idea why he’d done that.
From across the room, Max raised an eyebrow.
Mike immediately shook his head.
Max’s eyebrow went higher.
He mouthed, What?
Max just smirked.
Mike frowned.
She knew something.
That was concerning.
⸻
Later, Dustin put on a movie.
Nobody actually watched it.
Steve and Robin were arguing over the plot.
Lucas was trying to explain something to Eleven.
Nancy was reading again.
Max was drawing on the floor.
Jonathan and Argyle were talking quietly in the kitchen.
And Will slipped outside.
Mike noticed.
He waited maybe thirty seconds.
Then followed him.
Will was sitting on the back steps with a sketchbook balanced against his knees.
The sky was turning orange.
Mike stood in the doorway.
“Hey.”
Will looked over his shoulder.
“Hey.”
Mike sat beside him.
“What are you drawing?”
Will hesitated before turning the sketchbook slightly.
It was a picture of the backyard.
The trees.
The house.
The fading sunlight.
It wasn’t finished.
“It’s nice,” Mike said.
“Thanks.”
They sat quietly for a moment.
From inside came the muffled sound of Dustin yelling about the movie.
Will smiled faintly.
“They’re idiots.”
“Yeah.”
Mike leaned back on his hands.
“It’s kind of nice, though.”
“What is?”
“This.”
Will looked at him.
“Just… everyone being together.”
Will’s smile faded slightly.
“Yeah.”
Mike noticed.
“What?”
Will looked back at his drawing.
“Sometimes I wonder if we’ll ever actually get to be normal.”
Mike didn’t answer immediately.
Will continued.
“After everything that happened… I don’t know.”
He rubbed his thumb against the edge of the paper.
“Sometimes I think maybe we’re always going to be waiting for something bad to happen.”
Mike understood that feeling.
More than he wanted to.
“But maybe normal doesn’t matter.”
Will looked at him.
Mike shrugged.
“Maybe we’re never going to be normal.”
“That sounds encouraging.”
Mike laughed.
“You know what I mean.”
Will smiled.
Mike looked out at the sunset.
“We’ve spent so much time worrying about what’s going to happen next.”
He glanced at Will.
“Maybe we should just have days like this.”
Will was quiet.
“Even if they’re not normal?”
“Especially if they’re not normal.”
Will smiled.
A real one.
“Do you really believe that?”
Mike nodded.
“I do.”
Neither of them said anything after that.
The silence wasn’t awkward.
It was comfortable.
The kind of silence Mike wished they had more often.
He looked down.
Will’s hand was resting beside his on the step.
Mike stared at it.
His heart started beating faster.
He wasn’t sure why.
Maybe he was.
Slowly, before he could convince himself not to, Mike reached over.
His fingers brushed Will’s.
Will looked down.
Then up at him.
Mike froze.
For one terrible second, he thought he’d made a mistake.
Then Will turned his hand over.
Their fingers slipped together.
Mike smiled.
Will smiled back.
Neither of them said anything.
They just sat there, watching the sun disappear behind the trees.
For once, there was no screaming.
No sirens.
No monsters.
No Upside Down.
Just them.
⸻
“HEY!”
Dustin’s voice echoed through the house.
Mike and Will jumped.
“You’re both missing the best part!”
Mike looked toward the door.
“What?”
“The movie!”
Will laughed.
“We’re coming!”
Dustin shouted something incomprehensible in response.
Mike stood.
Will stood with him.
Neither let go.
They walked back inside hand in hand.
Nobody said anything.
Lucas glanced down.
Then looked away.
Nancy smiled.
Jonathan noticed and quietly smiled too.
Eleven looked at their joined hands.
Then at Max.
Max gave her the most smug expression imaginable.
Eleven giggled.
Mike noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Eleven said innocently.
Max shrugged.
“Nothing.”
Mike narrowed his eyes.
“You guys are weird.”
“Look who’s talking,” Max said.
Will laughed beside him.
Mike looked over.
And smiled.
Nothing supernatural had happened that day.
Nobody had saved the world.
Nobody had fought a monster.
Nobody had nearly died.
They had just eaten junk food, played stupid games, argued about music, watched a terrible movie, and spent an afternoon together.
It wasn’t normal.
Maybe it never would be.
But as Mike looked around at the people he loved, with Will’s hand still warm in his, he realized something.
He didn’t need normal.
He just needed this.
For once, that was enough.
And somehow, it was one of the best days he’d ever had.