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The gang had just finished coming up with a plan to defeat Vecna, and though the situation they were in was absolutely insane, they still needed to rest. Everyone decided it was best for them all to relax for a couple of hours and recuperate, starting fresh the next day and putting this whole plan into motion.
Will fiddled with his fingers, standing up and taking a deep breath. There’d been a lot to think about over the last couple of days, and while he knew he should’ve been thinking about the danger at hand, his teenage mind and heart just couldn’t get past the indescribable feeling he always got whenever he was around his best friend, and in this moment, it was all he could think about, the feelings practically holding him captive.
He sighed, walking past the others discreetly, slipping his hands into his pockets. He needed to get away for a little while.
“Will?” He heard an all too familiar voice say, and he whipped around so fast it made him dizzy.
Mike reached out to steady him, concern etched on his features. “You okay?”
Will flushed in embarrassment, looking anywhere but Mike and he laughed nervously. “Yeah, I’m okay, I just—I needed to walk around a little.”
When Mike didn’t say anything, he got slightly self conscious and for a moment wondered if Mike had left, but no, his hand was still gently gripping his arm and even that made his heart thump wildly in his chest. He knew Mike didn’t have to still be holding him and he’s sure Mike knew that too but lately something had come to pass between them, the air that surrounded them when it was just the two of them was different, way different than anything he’d ever experienced and he’d be lying if he said it didn’t make him go absolutely feral.
A few more seconds of agonising silence passed until finally, Mike spoke. “Can I come with you?”
“What?” Will turned to face him at lightning speed, the thought that maybe all of this was some sort of sick dream starting to kick in.
“I just—“ Mike hesitated, using his free hand to nervously scratch his head, his beautifully freckled cheeks dusted with a light crimson and had they not been stood so close together, Will might never have seen it, but boy was he glad he did. “The thought of you being out there on your own just freaks me out and I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you.” He practically rambled out.
Will smiled gently, his heart throbbing with adoration for the other boy. “I mean, yeah, of course you can come with me. I’m kinda flattered you would wanna waste your time with me.”
Mike frowned at that. “Will, I could never be wasting my time with you—if anything, being with you is my favourite thing.”
Will visibly startled at that, heat rising to his cheeks quicker than lava bursting through a volcano. Keep it together, Will, keep it together, he thought to himself, his heart now beating so hard he could feel it in his ears, once again making him slightly lightheaded. “I… me too.”
Mike smiled, finally letting go of Will’s hand to rest it on his lower back and Will didn’t know if that was better or worse, but judging by the way his heart now started to pound so hard it was painful in his ribcage, he supposed it was worse, and by worse he meant amazing but also fucking terrifying. It was all so confusing.
Mike kept his hand on Will’s back as they walked together, only pausing for a moment to ask, “Where are we going, exactly?” Will smiled.
“I don’t know—anywhere.”
After a while of walking, both boys found themselves back at the Byers old house, and Will’s heart squeezed painfully. He missed this place like crazy, all of his best memories were made here and if he closed his eyes, he could almost see every single one, the best ones playing out right in front of him, frozen in time in his mind.
Once again he found himself walking, but this time he knew exactly where he was going. He didn’t know if Mike was still following, but if he knew his best friend, he definitely was. When he finally made it to where he was maybe intending to go this whole time, he turned to Mike, the other boy silently looking back at him.
“Castle Byers…” Mike’s voice was barely above a whisper, and he walked forward to join Will, sadly looking down and picking up a broken piece of wood that once hung proudly at the top, the words ‘Castle Byers’ broken but just able to read.
“I destroyed this place after our fight last year,” Will admitted, leaning down and picking up a broken piece of what used to be his comfort, almost crying at the memory. It wasn’t just Castle Byers that was broken into pieces that night—it was also his heart, and wether he was going to tell Mike that he was still on the fence about.
He felt Mike’s arm snake around his shoulder, and that was his cue to lean into his embrace, resting his head in the crook of Mike’s neck, warmth spilling from his chest at the comfort. “I’m so sorry.” He heard Mike whisper, and if he wasn’t mistaken, his voice sounded broken, hurt, and Will snuggled deeper into him at the sound of it.
“It’s okay…” he felt himself whisper back, and that’s when both of Mike’s arms firmly came to wrap around his waist, squeezing tight.
“No, it’s not okay. I hate what I said to you, I hate who I was during that time, I hate it all.”
Will pulled back just enough to see his face, and what he saw had him gasping in a little shocked breath, the tears that were spilling down Mike’s cheeks making tears of his own appear, burning his eyes like fire to wood. He didn’t even realise he was moving, but once he did it was too late to back out, and he found himself holding Mike’s face in his hands, wiping his tears away gently with his thumbs and resting their foreheads together, Mike leaning into the touch almost desperately, and Will wanted to cry all over again.
“Please can we fix this…” Mike’s voice wobbled, and Will had to suck in a breath at how genuinely pained his voice sounded. God it was heartbreaking.
“We’re already fixing it, I promise.” He replied, his hands on Mike’s face tightening slightly as he rubbed his thumbs over his cheeks again in a comforting manner. Mike moved his forehead against Will’s in approval, and once both boys pulled back he watched Mike walk over to where most of the wreck of what Castle Byers used to be was.
He silently watched as Mike picked up the pieces, putting them back together and his heart warmed anew, thawing away at the once cold, cold memory that resided there, now replacing it with a new one, a softer one, a better one. Will joined him, and for the next couple of hours, they worked their asses off, rebuilding Castle Byers together, new memories being made as they did it.
They finished rebuilding it just as the sun was peeking over the horizon, and both boys should’ve been exhausted, but as they turned to look at each other, there was nothing but excitement in their eyes. Will leapt forward with a grin, wrapping his arms around Mike’s neck, making the other boy stumble in surprise just before he caught himself, reciprocating the hug and resting his chin down on Will’s shoulder.
“I love it…” he heard Will whisper, and his heart thumped hard, his arms unknowingly tightening around his waist.
And I love you…
His thoughts were broken when Will pulled away, the smile that was plastered on his beautiful face making every single challenge, every single mishap, every single argument and disagreement, every single tear of pain absolutely worth it, and he knew that he would go through it all again just to see that smile on Will’s face. He wouldn’t even have to think twice about it.
He watched Will happily bound into Castle Byers, and let out a little huff of laughter at Will yelling at him to join him from the inside as he walked over there himself, sitting down and smiling at the boy next to him. A few seconds of comfortable silence passed, and Will nudged him on the shoulder affectionately.
“Thank you, Mike. For this,” he motioned his hands around Castle Byers, “for everything…”
Mike shook his head. “No, thank you, Will. Even after I was a total dick to you you stuck by me when you didn’t have to. I know some people would’ve just walked away.”
Will flushed, nervously looking away from Mike and around them for a second before settling his eyes on him again. “Yeah, well, I care about you a whole lot, y’know? I could never just leave you.”
Mike scoffed in a self deprecating way, and it made Will’s heart hurt. “I don’t know why, honestly. How you still care about me is just beyond me.”
Will frowned, edging closer to him. “I don’t think you quite understand. You are literally the most important person in my life, Mike, the most important person in the world to me.”
Now it was Mike’s turn to blush, the sincerity in his tone jarring.
“Actually it’s… how do I even say this? Should I even say it?” He noticed Will was starting to ramble to himself, every thought he had meshing together and causing him to stress. Mike reached out and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Will, you don’t have to say anything you don’t want to say.”
Will shook his head vehemently, placing his hand on top of Mike’s, making his heart go double time. “It’s not that… I do want to say it I just—it’s hard to say it. I don’t know how you’re gonna take it.”
Mike moved closer, his hand tightening on Will’s shoulder. “Listen to me, no matter what happens, you and me? We’ll always be best friends. We’ll always have each other and nothing and no one could ever and I mean ever change that, okay?”
Will just stared at him, his face blossoming with warmth and before he could stop himself, the words he’d always wanted to say, the words that had been constricted in his throat and locked up never to be released came tumbling out.
“I love you.”
Mike froze, his entire world stopping in front of him, breaking and putting itself back together simultaneously. He didn’t even get a chance to say or do anything, because Will was talking again, and though his heart was pounding so painfully it was making his ears numb, he did his absolute best to listen.
“And you don’t have to say anything, it’s okay, really—I just,” he sucked in a shaky breath, “I just really needed you to know. I’ve loved you since, god, well, forever and over this past year being away from you just made it more real because I thought about you every second of every day and at one point it got so unbearable that all I did was cry,” his voice was getting shakier and shakier, his hands violently trembling and each word wobbling just that bit more and Mike could see he was falling apart and he couldn’t handle it. He moved forward without even thinking, pressing his lips to Will’s cheek, the other boy’s words immediately dying down in his throat.
“Will,” Mike choked out, his own eyes now filling with tears. Tears of surprise, but most of all, tears of relief. He brought his hand up, resting it along Will’s jaw before lightly moving it to the back of his neck, tugging him just that bit closer. Will’s eyes widened, and he leaned into the touch.
“I love you too.”
Will didn’t even try to hide the surprise he felt, the tears that had built in his eyes slipping out and down his cheeks, Mike being there to wipe them away instantly. “You—you love me?” He managed to say, his voice thick with emotion. Mike nodded, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to his forehead this time. Will sucked in another little surprised breath, closing his eyes at the feel of it.
“I’ve loved you for a long time… I don’t know how long ago the feelings started, but I first began to notice them last year. I was scared—hell, I was fucking terrified and that’s why I started being so off with you. I thought if I stopped reaching out that the feelings would go away and that if I talked to El more I would start to like her in the way she liked me, y’know?” Will stared at him in absolute wonder, nodding gently as Mike continued,
“All the things I was doing with her I wanted to be doing with you. I even wrote you letters,” he laughed, making Will’s heart pound. He did? “And when I finished writing them I full on panicked because I knew that wasn’t the kind of stuff you were supposed to say to your best friend—it was the kind of stuff I should’ve been saying in my letters to El so naturally, I decided not to send them. I just tucked them away safe in hopes that maybe one day I could give them to you.” Will nodded in understanding,
“When you left—instead of my feelings getting smaller they somehow grew bigger, and as you said, I started thinking about you every second of every damn day and it got to the point where I had to distract myself from it, from the pain, the immense feelings of missing you and the romantic feelings I knew I had for you—so then the Hellfire Club happened. I had to get my mind off of you in some way, but doing something that completely shoved you out of the picture was something I couldn’t bring myself to do.” He breathed out a little laugh again, more of a nervous laugh,
“Don’t get me wrong the Hellfire Club is great, but it’ll never be what we had. Nothing will ever be what we had and nothing will ever be able to change that. I was so nervous coming to California and I should’ve been nervous to see El, but I wasn’t, it wasn’t her I was scared of seeing again. It was you. It was the thought of seeing you again that made me panic and when I actually arrived, you were the first person my eyes landed on. El was the person to call my name and my attention should’ve been on her but it wasn’t, it was on you, on how you looked and god I was dying to know how you sounded. I missed your voice,” Will’s cheeks darkened, he’d missed Mike’s voice too…
”And because of my feelings for you that I was very very aware of I couldn’t bring myself to hold you in my arms like I desperately wanted to. You can’t even know how hard it was for me to push you away, but even that was impossible at the end of the day. The whole time on the way to the roller rink and at the roller rink itself, my attention kept falling on you, in the moments you weren’t looking I found myself just staring, wondering, trying to read your mind and at some points I wanted to ask what was wrong. I wanted to ask why you didn’t reach out, if you had new friends and even worse, a girlfriend which the thought of made me feel sick,” it made Will feel sick too.
“And in the end I just didn’t do any of it. After not seeing or talking to you for so long finding out you had moved on and found someone would’ve crushed me and I know that’s selfish, but I was scared, and seeing you again made me realise how my feelings never went away and how they only got stronger, and I guess that’s when I knew what I feel for you isn’t just a little puppy crush, it’s way bigger and it’s something I’m gonna feel for the rest of our lives. I knew I loved you, and I’m sorry I was too much of a coward to say it earlier but I’m here and I’m saying it now and I always want you to know it.”
He’d convinced himself a long time ago that he would never get to know what it felt like to hear Mike say he loved him, how it would feel to hold his hand and to feel his breath on his face before kissing him but now, all of those things were starting to become reality, and he closed his eyes to stop the overflow of tears that wanted to rush out, his heart singing a beautiful melody that only Mike could create.
He opened his eyes to see Mike already gazing at him, the pure love and adoration in his eyes impossible to miss, and it made his heart flutter in his chest like a butterfly spreading its wings, ready to take flight. He didn’t miss the way Mike’s eyes flicked down to his lips and back up, and by instinct he replicated the action, making Mike’s face bloom with colour and lean in just that bit closer.
He watched as Mike looked down at his lips once again, and when he looked back up into his eyes, his mouth opened to ask him, the hopefulness in his voice melting him to his core—“Can I kiss you?”
Will finally smiled, the relief and love that he’d always felt for his best friend bursting to the brink, and the look in Mike’s eyes was enough to push him to move forward, and he nodded, tentatively resting his lips over Mike’s.
The other boy gasped lightly, his hand tightening around Will’s neck as he pulled him closer, Will’s familiar, warm scent so close it was dizzying. Both boys fumbled with the kiss and got comfortable, and Mike tilted his head, slotting their lips together more—closer, and the little noise Will made sent his brain into overdrive, little shocks shooting down his arms and spine. His lips were soft and pillowy, a little chapped from where he nervously bit them sometimes which made his heart melt. His lips were different to El’s, better than anything he’d ever felt and undeniably Will’s. He was kissing Will, and god he never wanted to stop.
They parted for a split second to look one another in the eyes before drawing each other back in, the soft tickle of Will’s breath beneath his nose making his heart tingle and his pulse pound hard through his veins.
Warmth blossomed in Will’s chest as sparks ignited, and those butterflies that had been sitting in his gut for the longest time finally took flight, all of them dancing around happily in his stomach. He smiled into their kiss, carding his fingers through Mike’s hair which inspired the taller boy to move in closer, him also now letting out a little giggle of happiness against his lips.
Will was overjoyed, and the fact that he now knew what Mike’s lips felt like, how it felt to hold him the way he always wanted to hold him… it was almost like everything was finally okay in the world and that they weren’t going to go and fight a life sucking monster later on that day. He laughed as they pulled apart, both of them pressing little kisses to each other’s mouths before finally being satisfied enough to fully pull away from one another.
They smiled at each other, and Mike slowly swiped his thumb over Will’s bottom lip, his heart skipping at how kissed he looked and at the fact that he did it, chuckling in a low, throaty way before pressing one final kiss to his lips.
“Let’s start a new party, you and me.” He whispered against his lips, and Will’s heart did a somersault in his chest.
He looked into Mike’s eyes as their hands found each other, their fingers sliding together—squeezing lovingly.
“Sounds like a plan.” He whispered back, resting his forehead against Mike’s.