Work Text:
6:30 P.M.
On a Friday
Hawkins, IN
-
“Mike, I don’t think Lucas is gonna be very happy about us dropping by unannounced like this. For popcorn, of all things.”
“It's fine, Will! Besides, you guys do this exact same thing to me literally all the time.”
Mike knocks on the door.
–
Mike was right. Will had done this about an hour ago, trotting into the Wheeler house like it was a second home (which, at this point it kind of was). The difference was that Will was actually expected seeing as it was Will and Mike’s Friday movie night. Will, though he would never, ever admit this to Mike, liked to think of it as Friday movie date night. He only got one-on-one time with Mike so often, and by god would they have to pry Friday movie (date) night out of his cold, dead hands. Will was painfully aware he was stuck in the friendzone, and he’d take what he could get.
Will was just settling down on the couch when disaster struck with a distinctly Mike-sounding cry echoing upstairs.
“Everything okay up there?” Will called, concerned.
“No! Nothing is okay! Everything is awful!” Mike yelled in reply. Will heard footsteps pounding from the kitchen to the basement, then the door opening to reveal a visibly distressed Mike in the doorway. “We’re out of popcorn!”
“How can you be out of popcorn?” Will questioned. “You guys literally always have popcorn.”
“Well clearly not!” Mike was pulling his signature look of theatrical anguish, which involved a lot of scrunching up his face and hands in his hair.
Will, just happy to be there, didn’t really think this was that big of a deal. If he was being honest, he would’ve watched a three hour movie with no snacks or drinks and sat on a cold, hard floor the whole time as long as Mike was there. However, for Will, playing along with his dramatics was part of the great fun of hanging out with Mike. Will can’t be blamed for egging him on. Will very carefully kept his amusement off his face. “Well, what do we do now? We can’t watch a movie without popcorn. That's like… a sin or something.”
Mike seemed to think for a minute, and then, “.. we could go ask Lucas? I bet he has some.”
Will grimaced. “Didn’t he say that he and Max were hanging out at his place tonight? I’d rather not interrupt…”
“It’s fine. Probably. Besides, this is an emergency.”
This did not sound like a good idea to Will, but Mike has always been the idea guy between them. Besides, what was the worst that could happen?
–
Which brought them here, in front of Lucas’s door waiting for him to answer. Mike had just raised his fist, about to knock again when they heard the lock click and the door finally swung open. Will watched as Lucas’s face morphed from the politeness with which a door is usually answered, to vague annoyance as he realized it was just his friends here, presumably to bother him. Which, he wasn’t entirely wrong so Will could hardly blame him for being blatantly unhappy to see them. Will bit his lip to keep from laughing.
“Who is it?” they heard Max call from somewhere in the house. Will felt a pang of sympathy for Lucas. If Lucas had interrupted his and Mike’s movie (date) night, Will would probably feel similarly. The only difference would be that he would not have the luxury of showing it on his face.
“Just Mike and Will!” Lucas called back.
“What the hell do they want?”
“No clue!” Lucas answered, before turning on them with a raised eyebrow. “Well? You heard her. What the hell do you guys want?”
Will elbowed Mike.
Mike made his puppy-dog eyes at him. “Ow, what was that for?”
Will raised his eyebrows. Those eyes would not work on him. This time, at least. “This was your idea. I’m not asking.”
“Why do I have to ask?”
“I just said why!”
“Shut up!” Lucas interrupted, cutting off their back-and-forth. He pinched between his eyebrows with his thumb and forefinger, before taking a deep breath. “Just tell me why you’re here.”
“We need popcorn,” Will and Mike blurted out simultaneously.
“Woah, that was freaky,” Will laughed.
“Dude,” Mike gave him a gentle shove, “get out of my brain.”
“...Seriously?” Lucas looked utterly confused. “Why wouldn’t you guys just go to the store?”
“Because we–!” Mike cut himself off abruptly, turning to look at Will to say, “now that I think about it, we could have just gone to the store.”
“I knew that. How did you not think of that?” Will asked.
“Because you guys turn into the biggest idiots around each other.” Lucas seemed exasperated.
Will gasped, hand flying to his chest in exaggerated offense. “We do not.”
Lucas simply looked him dead in the eyes and barely blinked before replying,“yes, you do. Don’t you remember that time you ran directly into a wall because you were too busy talking to Mike to pay attention to where you were going? Dustin and I literally tried to warn you like five times, but it was like you two were in la la land or something.”
Will decided to stop talking before Lucas brought up any more of his embarrassing moments. He’ll get him back for this. Will narrowed his eyes at him slightly. Just you wait, Lucas. Next time he hangs out with Max, he's gonna have some stories to tell.
Mike also seemed to take offense at this. “Hey!” Mike said, “That conversation warranted that level of concentration. Choosing movies for movie night is serious business.”
Lucas barely even seemed to register Mike’s reply and Will’s lack thereof and continued, “if I bring you guys popcorn, will you guys go away?”
Will and Mike nodded.
Lucas let out a Mike-level dramatic sigh. “Fine. Wait here.” Lucas turned and disappeared into the house, presumably toward the kitchen.
Barely ten seconds had passed before Max appeared in the doorway. She looked like she had put a bit more effort into her appearance that day. Her hair was smoothed out, devoid of its usual slight frizziness, and her clothes were devoid of the usual signs of skateboarding. Yup, definitely their date night too.
“Why did both of you come just for popcorn?” Max looked at them, even more annoyed than Lucas was. Evidently she had been listening to their conversation.
“Why wouldn’t we?” Mike replied and then almost as if he had developed a sixth sense for her snark, “And no, I didn’t think of going to the store. But in my defense, Lucas’s house is way closer!”
Will nodded proudly. Good save, Mikey.
“Whatever Wheeler. You could have just sent Will so I didn’t have to see your annoying face.”
“Last time I let him leave my house alone didn’t go so well.”
Will snorted. Max looked amused at the joke for all of three seconds before shifting back to her default annoyed-face.
“Yeah. Sure. I think he could’ve handled himself, seeing as he's not twelve anymore. You're just a couple of co-dependent losers."
Okay, backhanded compliment. Max must be more annoyed than he thought if she's dragging him into this. Will adds Max to his revenge list for later. What Will could possibly do to get revenge on Max he had no idea but maybe he and Mike could put their minds to it later.
“Neither of us are dependent!” Mike replied, defensive.
“You sure? When was the last time you went more than a day without seeing each other?"
“Pshh. All the time.”
“Without radioing?”
“I–…. he always radios…”
Will distantly hears himself muttering in corroboration. Do he and Mike really spend that much time together? It doesn’t feel like it, to Will at least. But to be fair he can never get enough of him. He's just so fun and interesting and perfect and handsome and… well, Will could go on and on. Will realizes he could very well be spending a disproportionate amount of time with Mike without even realizing it. He feels his stomach swoop anxiously. Are they spending too much time together? Is Mike going to realize and get sick of him? Or worse, is he going to start to wonder why Will likes spending time with him so much? Could he, miraculously, connect the dots and figure out that Will doesn’t exactly harbor solely friendship for him?
While Will is in the middle of that mental spiral, Lucas finally comes back holding a pack of popcorn. “Enjoy your movie, boners.” he says, and smacks it into Mike's palm before closing the door on them.
They hear Max and Lucas snickering through the firmly shut door, too wrapped up in each other to realize the emotional bomb they just dropped on Will.
After about a minute of what feels like stunned silence from the both of them, Mike says, “Don’t listen to them. They don’t know anything about our friendship.”
“Yeah…”
The walk back to the Wheeler house is suspiciously quiet.
–
Friday movie (date) night passed by without any of its usual magic in the air. It was just a bit… awkward. The conversation with Lucas and subsequently Max had totally thrown Will off. He was too in his head about Mike thinking about it too and figuring out… he wasn’t even sure what. Something bad. Something like he doesn’t actually want to spend this much time with Will. Something like why Will wants to spend this much time with him. Despite Mike’s adorably valiant attempts to coax Will into participating in their usual movie banter, he could only respond in hums and monosyllabic words.
Mike, clearly discouraged by his lack of reactions, eventually stopped trying. They ended up sitting in dead silence on opposite ends of the couch for the majority of the night, the bowl of popcorn forgotten on the table in front of them. Normally Will would feel bad, but he really didn’t have room for guilt on top of the heart-gripping fear that steadily creeped over him. The movie ended and he and Mike picked up the basement in silence, exchanged stilted goodbyes, and Will went home. He laid awake for a long time before falling asleep.
–
Will resolved himself to another day of subtly avoiding Mike. It had been about five days since movie night, and Will had been making a concerted effort to spend less time with Mike. It was better this way. Safer. The risk of Mike catching on to… something… would be much lower. Even if he did, it would hurt less if it ruined everything because Will would be less… nevermind. It would still hurt just as much, but that was even more reason to distance himself.
Mike hadn’t been making it easy, though. The puppy dog eyes had been on a near constant since Will first saw him at school on Monday. Will had put off seeing him for as long as possible, but as soon as he sat down at the Party’s lunchtable Will felt Mike’s gaze on him and looked up almost instinctually. His resolve nearly crumbled right there and then, god knows how he's kept it since. He would always just quickly look away and pretend to pay attention to the lighthearted chatter from the other members of the Party.
He got away with it, until Thursday rolled around and Mike’s patience seemed to have worn thin. Will was listening to the Party’s chatter, as always. Will even huffed out a laugh at something particularly funny Dustin said, barely a noise next to El’s wholehearted laughter next to him. Will refocused onto his sketchbook, or at least he tried until he felt a tap at his shin. He looked up to find the culprit and couldn’t even find it in himself to be surprised when he found Mike looking back at him from across the table.
“Friday tomorrow. We still on for movie night?” Mike asked, casually. Like he assumed Will would say yes. No one else even batted an eye. It sounded like a standard Mike and Will conversation to them. But Will could tell why he asked from the slight furrow in his brow, the tinge of doubt in his voice, the look in his eyes that wanted reassurance. Every instinct was screaming at him to respond with his usual enthusiastic agreement, to reassure Mike, smooth the doubt away by giving him what he wanted. But Will had to fight it.
“I can’t,” Will blurted. He was desperately hoping Mike would buy whatever lie he could come up with in the next ten seconds. Maybe he had left his sixth sense for lies at home today.
Mike frowned. “Why not?”
“Uh,” Will coughed into his fist a couple times, “I’m sick.” He could see the others giving him weird looks out of the corner of his eye. He was then also desperately hoping they would mind their business. Though his friends had been historically terrible at doing so.
Mike narrowed his eyes, and Will knew he didn't believe him. Damn that sixth sense.
“You’re a bad liar.” The rest of the table fell silent at that. A Will-and-Mike fight was a rare occurrence but it always threw the entire party dynamic off.
“I’m not lying.” Will said, like it was ridiculous. All the roleplaying they’ve done over the years in D&D had some perks.
“Really? Let me feel your forehead then.”
Ok he couldn’t fake that. Will pulled a face at him. “What? No.”
“Why not?”
“Because! Jesus, Mike you’re not my mother! I’m just sick, okay?”
Will held Mike's fierce gaze for what felt like forever until he finally looked away.
“.... Fine. Whatever.” Mike crossed his arms and set his eyes on his lunch.
They didn’t look or talk to each other for a while. The rest of the party shifted uncomfortably in their seats for a minute before striking up a conversation to break the tension. They probably hoped they would work it out later on their own, like he and Mike usually did. Will hoped he could come up with something to smooth it over later. Right now he just needed this to be over.
But then Mike slammed his hand down on the table and suddenly it was not over. “Since Will is too busy with his illness for movie night, who's free? Cause I already rented tapes!”
Everyone else just shifted around and began uncomfortably muttering out excuses. Evidently, they didn’t want to get in the middle of this.
Almost everyone, at least because the next thing Will knew El was speaking up next to him.
“I am free. What tapes did you get?”
Will panicked a bit. That was his date night. He couldn’t let El take his place. Not again. He elbowed El to get her attention, “But you’re not. Mom asked you to do that thing, remember?” He looked at her pleadingly, hoping she would somehow read his mind.
El just tilted her head, confused. “No? What are you talking about?”
“Excuse me!” Mike said, indignantly, “Just because you’re blowing me off doesn’t mean El has to!”
“I’m not blowing you off,” Will said, indignant.
“Right. Because you’re sick,” Mike deadpanned. “Whatever. Have El. I get Lucas.”
“I… I have plans…–” Lucas said weakly. No one was listening.
“–What the hell are you even talking about?” Will fired back, right over Lucas.
“Custody. You get El and you can have Max, but I want Dustin and Lucas.”
Max rolled her eyes, “Fine by me, honestly.”
Mike ignored her. It was like their fields of vision had narrowed in on each other and all they could focus on was this.
“Mike, this is ridiculous” Will threw his hands up, “I cancel on you one time and suddenly you want to– what? Friendship divorce me?”
“It’s not just this–”
Before Mike could finish that thought, Dustin yelled, “Enough!”
The world widened again. Will realized everyone else was right there while they were bickering like some old married couple. God he was really not helping his case here was he?
“You guys know the rules,” Dustin continued, “who drew first blood?”
Will turned and pointed accusingly at Mike, just to see him doing the same thing back. Fucker.
Dustin seemed at a loss for a second before saying, “... okay. You know what. Doesn’t matter. Go make up. Now. You are banished from the Party table until you stop arguing. You are throwing off our good vibes. Now shoo!” and Dustin ushered them off, waving them aggressively away with his hands.
Both he and Mike tried to argue, but Dustin just kept cutting them off with a string of uh buh buh buh until they both reluctantly got up and trudged off.
Will assumed they would just go out into the hallway, but Mike just kept walking so he felt he had no choice but to follow him. They walked for so long, Will started to wonder if Mike was trying to walk away from him and at any second he was going to suddenly turn around and tell Will to stop following him. They hadn’t exactly discussed if they were going to actually hash it out or not. Just as Will was contemplating turning around before Mike inevitably rounded on him, Mike must’ve found whatever he was looking for and opened a door. Will felt a small sense of relief as he followed him into an empty classroom. Mike turned and just looked at him. Will realized he was waiting for him to start. Will bristled for a moment, but technically Mike was right. Will did draw first blood. He held his hand out.
Mike let out a short laugh, devoid of any actual humor. “Oh no. You’re not getting off that easy.”
Will stared at him, but Mike was just waiting for him to speak again. Will cleared his throat, suddenly nervous. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you,” Will said.
Mike rolled his eyes. “The truth.”
Will breathed out harshly, frustrated. He couldn’t exactly tell Mike what he was afraid of. He wasn’t even sure. He just knew he couldn’t say it. It wouldn’t even come out right and besides. He'd know. “I did, okay?”
“No. Not okay. You haven’t been answering your walkie, you’re refusing Friday movie night because you’re ‘sick’, which makes it even worse because you’re lying to me!”
“I’m not lying, Mike.”
“Really? Because I know what you look like when you’re actually sick, and this isn’t it Will! Even if you were, I’ve never seen it stop you before! Trust me, I’ve caught enough colds from you to know.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m lying. Maybe I just don’t want you to catch it for once.”
“For fucks sake Will,” Mike’s voice broke and wobbled around, “you won’t even look at me!”
Will flinched. His heart broke when he looked up. Mike seemed to have shrunk in on himself, no longer the tower of righteous fury he was when they walked in. He was still a whole head taller than Will, but with his shoulders hunched and arms crossed, looking down like that he looked small. Young. Like he was still that little boy who befriended Will on the playground the first day of kindergarten.
Mike seemed to gather himself quickly, wiping a tear off his cheek and pretending it had never been there in the first place. “You’ve barely looked at me for more than five seconds this whole week. And I waited. I thought maybe you just needed some space. Then I saw you laughing just like always and I thought maybe. Maybe it's okay now. But obviously it's not but I can't just wait anymore. I can't keep not hearing from you, or seeing you, or talking to you.”
Will couldn’t take it anymore, couldn't help it. He stepped right into Mike’s space and put his arms around him. “I'm sorry. I’m sorry, okay? I’ll stop. I was being mean, just stop crying, please.”
They stood there for a while, Will squeezing Mike and babbling his apologies. Mike let his arms hang limply for a minute but eventually settled them around Will’s waist and just quietly blubbered into Will’s shoulder.
Will’s babbling continued until he heard Mike say, “I can’t stay mad at you when you’re being all sweet like this.” Even muffled as it was into his shoulder, it went straight to Will’s heart and he suddenly regretted eating any of his lunch earlier as the butterflies in his stomach flew and the room seemed to get warmer. Suddenly the embrace they were in felt like too much, and he was relieved when Mike pushed him away to continue, “I know I joked about it last week but… I still wake up sometimes and it's that day.” Mike sniffled. “I just hate when you feel far away. Can’t you just talk to me? We can fix it together. Whatever it is.”
God even when Will had been such an ass to him, all Mike wants to do is fix it. Will can’t help being reminded of the way he had almost immediately followed Will into the rain, all the way to Castle Byers to find him and try to fix things. Despite how angry he’d been, at Mike and himself, he couldn’t help feeling loved. Mike always made him feel so cared for. It made it so easy to fall for him. Will felt like he fell a little bit more every day, and today was certainly no exception.
“Look,” Will finally said, “I can’t really explain what was going on with me this week. Can you just… let me get away with it? Until I find the words? All you need to know is I’m sorry. I won’t do it again Mike.”
Mike huffed. Clearly he didn’t think this was fair. Will didn’t feel like it was either. He put Mike through more hell this week than he thought he would. He was so scared Mike would realize something that Will hadn’t even stopped to think about how it might affect him and he felt like the scum of the Earth. He just hoped Mike would forgive him. Will did his best impression of Mike’s puppy dog eyes.
“Fine.” Mike finally said. It came out a bit petulant, but Will would take it. Mike grabbed Will’s arm and pulled him right back into another embrace.
“Thanks, Mike,” Will said. I love you, he didn’t say. But he would. Eventually. He promised after all.
–
Will threw his bike into the yard in front of the Wheeler house and stomped right through damp, freshly watered grass right up to the front door. He threw a quick hello to Mrs. Wheeler in the kitchen on his way in and went right into the basement. There he was graced with the sight of Mike lounging on the couch, looking very cute in his sweatshirt and pajama pants. As Mike looked up to greet him, Will noticed how bits of his hair were sticking up in weird spots like he had woken up from a nap not that long ago. He felt endlessly endeared to the boy in front of him. Will has no idea how he had managed to go without talking to him for so long. He never wanted to be away from him for more than a day again. Fuck whatever anyone said about it.
“Hey,” Will greeted, “you got those tapes?”