Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

MIKE.

Will seemed different today, he moped behind the group, which wasn't particularly new, but it was different somehow. He usually made remarks from time to time, laughing at Lucas' dumb joke, or Max's sarcastic remark. But today he said nothing, he looked towards the ground, fiddling with his hands.

"You're such an idiot!" Max said jokingly, punching Lucas lightly in the shoulder.

"Hey! That hurt." Lucas said, hand gripping his shoulder dramatically, as if he'd been shot.

"Suck it up, fartface." Max said, emphasising on the insult

"At least i don't have a giant zit on my forehead." Lucas muttered, loud enough for Max to hear. He suddenly started backing away, knowing what was about to happen.

"You're dead Sinclair" Max started sprinting after him, screaming various insults, Dustin ran after them, shouting at the pair like an annoyed mother, but Mike wasn't really paying attention to them, but more to Will. He was concerned. The Will he knew would probably be laughing hysterically right now, voicing how stupid they were, and how he couldn't believe he were friends with them. But he still said nothing, didn't even raise his head.

"Uhm i'm.. just gonna go to the bathroom." Will stated, already starting to walk away.

"Wait!" Mike grabbed his wrist, a little harder than he should've honestly, realising this he let go slightly. Will looked back to him, a puzzled expression on his face. The boy analysed Mike's face, as if he was trying to guess what he was going to say.

"Are you.. okay? You seem really different today"

Will looked into his eyes, trying to form an answer.

"I'm fine." Will muttered, just loud enough for Mike to catch the end of the sentence

"Are you sure? Because you really don't look fine."

"I said I'm fine, Mike." Will said, with a bitter tone. This wasn't like Will, whenever something was wrong, he would always tell Mike. Their friendship was special. Sure, he loved everyone else in the group. Max, Dustin, Lucas, and El, of course. But him and Will had something different, something he couldn't quite place. They just had a special bond of some kind. Which is why this was so strange.

"You know you can talk to me, right? You can always tell me what's wrong." Mike said sympathetically

Mike saw as something shifted in Will, his eyes glaring a cold stare, some sort of anger washed over him.

"Fine Mike, you really want to know what's wrong?"

Mike nodded, confused at why he was so angry all of a sudden

"You guys all forgot my birthday."

Mike felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. How could he be so stupid, it was the one day of the year that was most important, to Mike, and to most importantly, Will.

March 22th.

"Will, i-" Before Mike could even finish his sentence, Will interrupted him.

"Save it Mike, I can't believe all of you forgot my one day, the one day that was supposed to be about me. But I can't believe you forgot Mike. Out of all people, you." Will's eyes become glossy. "But you can save it, you can go complain to your amazing girlfriend, or your cool new friends. Just go." Will's voice raised significantly, cracking at the end.

Mike was in shock.

"Well I'm sorry, but my life has been difficult too. Okay. You're not the only one living a hard life, Will. Maybe I forgot because I haven't seen you in so long!"

Will's look was something he's never seen before, not anger, just disappointment. He raised his voice louder than ever this time.

"You've made it super clear that you don't care about anything I have to say. You've called maybe, a couple times, it's been a year Mike. Meanwhile El has a book of letters from you!" Will said

"That's because she's my girlfriend."

"And us?"

"We're friends, Will. We're friends." Mike said annoyingly, at least that's how he sounded. But he knew deep down he wanted to wrap the other boy into a tight hug, and tell him how sorry he was.

"Well we used to be best friends." Will said, tears in his eyes. He walked away, muttering something like “Just leave me alone..”

WILL.

Will was furious, walking away at a fast pace. He could hear Mike in the distance shouting for him to come back, and the rest of the group arriving to ask what happened. But that didn't matter, all he could focus on was the quiet buzzing in his brain. He felt like he was about to throw up, start hyperventilating, whatever. He honestly couldn't believe how ignorant Mike was.
We're friends, Will. We're friends, kept replaying in his head. He didn't know how Mike could even say that, after all they've been through? Was that all he really was, a friend? He opened the mall’s doors forcefully, ever since Starcourt burned down, a new mall was built. Which is where the gang would meet up every couple of months. But I guess that didn't really matter either. He started making his way down a busy street, was he really about to walk home? (well not really home, just a dingy hotel they were staying at for spring break). Call him dramatic, but he didnt feel like talking to anyone right now.

He saw happy couples, people walking their dogs, or people in a rush to get somewhere. He wished he would have just stayed quiet, maybe he would still be laughing and having fun with his friends. He touched his face, realising he had started crying. Maybe he wouldn't be if he could have just shut up for once.

“Youre so stupid, stupid stupid stupid..” He muttered under his breath

Chapter Text

WILL’S HOTEL ROOM

He was so happy Joyce was on a business trip, and that Jonathan was with his so-called friends. He had the whole room to himself. He flopped onto the bed, rolling over and laying face first on the pillow. Maybe if he did this long enough, he would disappear, and wouldn't have to confront any of his problems, he thought, chuckling at the idea. He was so desperately hoping that Mike would come running through the door, apologizing and hugging Will as hard as he could, maybe confess is requited love or something, but that's a story for another day,

After what felt like hours, Will rolled over to the other side of the bed, the clock reading 5:00PM. He should probably go get something to eat. He checked his pocket for any spare change, and pulled out 10 dollars. “Yes!” He said quietly to himself, getting off the bed. He looked at himself through the small mirror on the wall. Wow, he looked like a mess, dried tears marking his face, his shirt all shriveled up. But it didn't really matter anyway. Fixing his hair slightly, he started walking towards the door, opening it with one swift motion, but on the other side of that door was something he wasn't expecting at all.

Mike.

MIKE.

Mike felt like such a dick. Not even, worse than that. He felt like the most rotten and terrible friend in the world. He shouldn't have yelled at Will, he didn't deserve that. He deserved a lot more, somebody who wasn't as big of an idiot. While walking up the stairs to Wills' hotel room, he practiced what he would say.

“I'm sorry, I love you?” Mike mumbled, no that wouldn't work. He looked down at his empty hands, he should've bought something, like flowers or something meaningfull. God he's starting to sound like Steve. He finally got to the other boy’s door. He exhaled a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Nervously trying to psych himself up, he reached out his fist to knock, but suddenly, the door opened. He saw the sweetest sight in the world, Will. He looked.. bad, not that he could ever, but you know what i mean. The boy was staring at him with wide eyes, his right hand still on the door knob, and his left holding a 10 dollar bill. His eyes were red and bloodshot, like he had been crying moments before. God he just wanted to hug him right there and pretend like nothing ever happenned. But he couldn't do that, he had to apologize.

He realized that he hadn't said anything yet, and that they had been staring at each other for 10 seconds.

“Can i….” Mike started his sentence, but Will already moved out of the way, as an invitation to come in. He walked in and sat on the edge of the bed, watching the other while he closed the door and leaned against it, hesitating if he should sit next to Mike or not. He realized he didn't even know what to say. There's so many things he wanted to say, I've loved you for years, I never want to lose you, but instead Mike just stared right into his eyes.

“I… uh..” Mike started but was quickly cut off.

“Wait. Before you say anything, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you or been so dramatic, I mean you have a really hard life and a lot of things to deal with, and I feel really selfish for getting mad. And you're right! I haven't really written to you at all, I just.. Things have been different since I moved, you know? So.. uh.. im sorry.”

I was absolutely speechless, was Will really apologizing to me? He had nothing to be sorry for. I was a complete Idiot!

“Woah woah woah, why are you apologizing? You did nothing wrong. I'm the one who is in the wrong here, I've been nothing but a jerk the past year and you dont deserve any of that. I'm so sorry I forgot your birthday Will, i just.. The last year, it's been weird, you know? I mean, Max, Dustin, Lucas, they're great. But it's Hawkins, it's not the same without you. And I feel like maybe I lost you, or something. ”

A small smile formed on Will’s face, and he slowly walked towards the bed, sitting down next to me. He looked right at me, for a moment everything around us disappeared, and all I could focus on was Will. There's so many things I never noticed about him, the small freckles scattered around his face, his long eyelashes. I then realized we were inching closer to each other.

“Uhm.. Do you wanna go get something to eat?” I said, rubbing the back of my neck, pulling away from him. God that was awkward.

“Uh, yeah sure.”

WILL.

We then walked out of the hotel room and made our way to a diner, but i couldn't really think about that. Was that really just about to happen? Were we really about to kiss? No of course not Will, you just want that to happen. But he was so close to me, and he kept glancing down to my lips, and looking right at me-

‘Earth to Will?” Mike said, waving his hand in front of my eyes.

That broke me out of my thoughts, wait, where are we? I realized we were at the counter ordering, the cashier was looking at my expendely, and there was a line behind us. I stumbled over an apology and ordered the first thing I thought of. We walked over to a table with our meal, and sat down.

“You good man? You looked like you were really thinking about something.” Mike said

“Yeah of course, I was just in the zone” I awkwardly chuckled.

He looked at me suspiciously, but decided not to bring it up. We continued eating and making small talk, but there was still an unexplainable tension, something so awkward that if anyone were to bring it up, I think we'd both spiral. He wasn't even looking at me, what was he thinking about? What if he thinks I'm a freak, he probably does, i mean who wouldn't-

“Do you wanna go to the junkyard? It's dark so we could look at the stars, or something.” Mike asked, in a bit of a shy tone. It was cute.

“Yeah, okay.”

JUNKYARD

They sat atop of an abandoned car, it was really big, which made it easy for the two to lay on the roof together. There was still that unspoken tension between them, he wondered if he should say anything about it. His eyes made his way to the other boy, but once they did, Mike was already looking at him

A grin appeared on Will's face, “What?” he asked

“You're just…” Mike started but didn't finish, he looked deep in thought. His eyes were traveling everywhere, from Will’s collarbone, to his cheeks, to his eyes, and to his lips. But his eyes stayed on his lips for a lot longer, which made Will absentmindedly dart his tongue out to lick them.

“You're really beautiful”

That sentence alone made his whole world stop. Was he being serious? This could be my chance, maybe he actually likes me? No thats stupid, hes probably just joking. But he wasn't, he wasn't laughing at him, he wasn't calling him a freak, or anything. He just looked at him like he was the only thing that mattered. This was the push he needed.

“You can stop me if you want” Will said before putting a hand on Mike’s cheek, and leaning in to reach his lips.

But he didn't. He could feel the quiet gasp Mike let out when Will finally reached his lips, his eyes went wide, but slowly, he closed them, and put his own hands on Will’s shoulders. Mike’s lips were surprisingly very soft, even though the kiss was in a very uncomfortable position, it was the best kiss he ever had. Will had been waiting to do this for years. Mike tilted his head slightly, making the kiss a lot better. Their hands roamed, Will’s ending up tangled in Mike’s hair, and Mike’s and his hips. They pulled away to catch their breaths, and Will’s grin was so big he felt like his face could fall apart.

I'm in love with Mike Wheeler.