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Will’s paintbrush glided across the canvas with ease. Art was always something that came naturally to him, and it was a major destressor. Whenever he got too far into his own head, Will could take out a pencil, brush, or canvas, and the art would just come to him. He flecked on a metallic gray color, then made one final stroke, placing his brush onto the easel and stepping back to admire his work.
Will smiled.
A knock at the door startled Will from his painting trance, and his paintbrush fell to the ground.
“Come in!”
Mike pushed the door open to find Will, crouched on the ground, attempting to grab the now rolling paintbrush. He chuckled.
“Need help with that?”
Will scoffed. “Think I’ve got it, thanks.” The paintbrush then rolled under the bed.
“Shit.”
Mike couldn’t help but laugh, and Will sighed. He made his way over to Mike. “What brings you here?”
Mike shrugged. “Just felt like visiting.”
Will stared at him. “And you couldn’t have…told me you were coming?”
Mike waved his hands, smiling nervously. “Surprise?”
Will rolled his eyes and looked away. As much as he loved Mike, the recent events lingered on his mind. What was up with him just…ditching? Mike hadn’t called, written, nothing. Plus, the speech in the van flew completely over his head. Will sighed.
Mike tilted his head. “Will? Everything okay?”
Will shrugged. “I don’t know, Mike. Is everything okay with us?”
“What?”
Will frowned. “What’s up with us? We’ve barely interacted recently, even after Vecna. I’d think we’d at least say something, but when we talk, I always initiate, and you barely respond. It’s like we don’t even know each other. It’s like…” Will trailed off, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “It’s like we were never friends.”
Mike furrowed his brows, walking over to sit down next to Will. He looked up with concern in his eyes. “Will…Will, we’re still friends.” Mike said this in a way that made it seem like he was convincing himself along with Will, which only made the latter more agitated. He looked at Mike, eyes full of sadness and anger.
“Are we, though? Are we still friends? Because every time I try to reconnect with you, you never reciprocate!” Will's arms flew into the air. “I don’t get it! I know, El’s your girlfriend, and I know, you want to spend time with her, but it’s like you’re actively trying to avoid me! Did I do something to you, Mike? What did I do, and why aren’t you telling me? We used to tell each other everything, but now I’ve never felt more distant from you. I just…” Will reached his emotional peak. He bent over, putting his face into his hands. “I just don’t understand.”
Mike didn’t know what to say. He never meant for things to get this far, but he needed to fix his mistakes. He did this in the only way he could think of how.
He told Will a story.
“Hey…do you remember, back in kindergarten, right after we first met?”
Will, confused, looked up and nodded slightly.
“That was so long ago…” Mike smiled. “I was this dumb little kid who was too rowdy for his own good, and you…you were quiet. You never talked much. You sat in the corner, scribbling away with crayon. And that interested me. So, the next day, I think the one right after we became friends, I hobbled over to where you were sitting, and I talked to you.” He held out a hand and put on a high voice. “Hi. Whatcha drawing?” Mike drew his hand back. “And you didn’t respond, can you believe that? I went go out of my way to talk to you, but no, little baby Byers is too good for me.” He nudged Will’s shoulder playfully, and he couldn’t help a small smile from forming. “Well, the next day I’m mourning the loss of a possible new friend, but who shows up in front of me? Little Will Byers, holding this piece of paper behind his back. And he says something.”
“Dragon.”
Will finished Mike’s thought for him. He smiled. “I said dragon.”
“You did! And I was so confused, but you just held out the piece of paper, and by god if that wasn’t the greatest dragon I’d ever seen. And the way you lit up when I told you that, it was just…incredible.” Mike looked at the wall. “That painting you showed me in the van…it took me back. To kindergarten. That dragon, man…”
Will sighed softly, then sat up, recounting a tale of his own. “Hey, that reminds me of second grade. Remember that time when I was drawing, as always, and you were leaving early? I looked up, waved to you, and said ‘goodbye.’ And do you remember what you said?” The two of them put on goofy grins and waved at each other.
“Smell you later!”
Will laughed, and Mike grimaced. “Yeah, not the best moment for good old Wheeler.” He sighed. “Jeez, dude, how were you even friends with me?”
Will calmed down, but was still smiling. “I guess I thought you were charming.” That still hasn’t changed, he didn’t add.
Mike’s face grew warm. Will always had that way of indirectly complimenting him, the way that made Mike wish he could just be with him already. But Mike was getting sick of keeping secrets from his friend. Will needed to know.
“Listen, Will, you know I love Eleven, you know I do. But…not in the way I used to.”
Will looked at Mike. “What? What do you mean?”
Now it was Mike’s turn to put his face into his hands. “Okay, you know that speech I gave to El to ‘keep fighting’ and whatever?”
Will, slightly confused, nodded.
“Yeah, kinda pulled that one out of my ass. In case you didn’t notice, the entire thing was just your speech to me in the van, flipped on its head.”
As Mike mentally cursed himself for bringing up that awful truth, Will processed his confession. His eyebrows raised in realization. Now that he thought about it, that speech did seem pretty haphazard. If he really tried, Will could point out every single thing Mike took from his speech.
Wow.
“Also, I know El didn’t commission the dragon painting.”
At this, Will’s eyes widened in shock. “What? But…but she…”
“Mentioned in one of her letters that you were painting something and not letting her see it? Yep.”
Will fell silent. Mike sighed, sitting back up.
“If I’m really being honest, the spark between us faded when she ‘dumped my ass’ at the mall. Things have never really felt the same as they did when we were just two little kids at the Snow Ball. And I think I know who I blame for that.” He pointed at himself dejectedly. “This guy.”
“Mike…”
“Nope. Don’t want to hear it. It was my fault, and I have proof. Because the entire time we were in that mall, in that van, I wasn’t worried about El. I was worried about you. After I connected the dots with the painting, I wanted so badly to tell you that you could just, you know, tell me how you felt. But I didn’t. I held myself back.”
“Why?”
Mike took a deep breath. It was now or never. “I wasn’t ready to accept that part of me yet.”
There it is.
As he expected, Will asked, albeit hesitantly, “What part…are you talking about?”
And here we go.
Mike looked around, seemingly terrified to drop another bombshell. He pushed down whatever fear that was keeping him from coming clean, and carried on.
“The queer part, Will.”
Silence. Mike pushed on.
“How do I even say this…the part that cared for you in ways I never thought I could. The part that never stopped caring about you, but neglected you and your needs just for El’s sake.” Mike paused, contemplating on how to phrase what he wanted, no, needed to say next. “The part… the part that understood everything you said in that van. The part that loves you. And…and not just as a friend.”
The room fell completely silent.
Will didn’t speak. He couldn’t. Sorry that he was a little starstruck after his best friend (and seemingly unrequited crush for what, a decade?) suddenly confessed his feelings for the boy.
What was he supposed to say?
Will had no idea what the actual, logical answer to this was, so - ignoring the protests of every ounce of rationality in his body - Will acted on impulse. Before either boy knew what was happening, Will cupped his hands on either side of Mike’s face, lifted it up, looked straight into his eyes, and pulled him in for a kiss.
It was abrupt and unexpected, catching Mike completely off guard. After a few seconds of confusion and wait…Will’s kissing me? WILL’S KISSING ME? Mike finally came to his senses and kissed back, even smiling into the kiss.
Will’s eyes widened in surprise. Even though it had been Mike who had literally just confessed his love to him, Will was still trapped in the mindset that his feelings would never be returned.
He quickly pulled away, failing to catch Mike’s rather disappointed expression in response to that abrupt and unsatisfactory ending. Will quickly rushed an apology, moving to the opposite side of the bed.
“Holy shit, I’m so sorry Mike, I–I didn’t, I wasn’t thinking and I didn’t know how respond and–”
“Will.”
“-and you had said you loved me which threw me off since I’ve been waiting for that for years but never expected it to happen–”
“Will.”
Will stopped rambling, mentally kicking himself. He turned to look at Mike. “Sorry…”
Mike was smiling. “God, Will, I thought I was the dumb one here.” They both laughed, the tension in the room slowly lifting. Mike, realizing that Will was still visibly uncomfortable, quickly began a ramble of his own.
“And…for the record, uh, I liked it?” He blinked, then quickly added, “The kiss, I mean. It…it was nice.”
Will, finally making direct eye contact, broke into a smile. “Jesus, Mike! And you say I’m the dumb one?” Mike’s smile widened, and the two of them beamed at each other in a comfortable silence. But something was still…off. Will’s smile quickly fell, remembering a certain someone who was oblivious to all of…this.
“El.”
Mike looked over in confusion. “What about her?”
Will leaned back into his hands. “Goddamn it, Mike, you’re still dating El!”
Mike’s eyes widened, and he too leaned into his hands.
“Shit.”
Mike, who had been so utterly lost in the moment and the fact that the feelings he had stifled for literal years were not only accepted, but reciprocated, had completely forgotten about the fact that he was, at the time, still in a relationship with the said boy’s sister.
“Shit” was right.
Mike used the collective power of all his remaining, functioning brain cells to think his way out of this one. “Fuck, okay. Well…” he tried. “How about this? I'll…I’ll let her down gently tomorrow. Come clean, I guess. I–I’m sure she’ll understand, right?” He looked almost desperately at Will, silently begging for confirmation. Will nodded softly.
“I know she can be…intense about loyalty, but you’re Mike. She’ll love you no matter what, but it doesn’t always have to be romantically. Besides,” he added, nudging Mike's shoulder, “she dumped your ass last year, so hey, you’re even.”
Again, Mike gave Will one of his Mike Wheeler™ smiles and fuck, the latter could’t remember a time where he had felt this content and happy and accepted since he was a little kid spending hours in Mike’s basement playing D&D. Will began fidgeting with his fingers, staring at the wall.
“Hey…should we tell the others? About, ya know…” he trailed off, staring at his hands.
If Mike had a nickel for every important thing he forgot about after kissing Will, he’d be rolling in them.
“Oh…right. Well, I was hoping to keep this…” Mike paused, realizing they had yet to put a label on…whatever the hell this was, “…thing, I guess, a secret. Just because…you know. People are assholes.”
Will nodded. “That’s…probably better, honestly. I mean, with all that’s been going on…one less thing for them to worry about, right?” Mike nodded back. Will then slowly slid back to his former position, nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with Mike. After a few seconds of hesitation, he took the leap and grabbed his hand, interlacing their fingers.
Mike looked down at their now conjoined hands, and leaned his head onto Will’s shoulder (something he realized he could do, now that the two of them were almost the same height).
Without moving his head from its very comfortable resting spot, Mike asked: “So…can we be friends?”
“Oh my god, shut up,” Will laughed, shoving Mike off of his shoulder. This had no effect whatsoever on Mike, as the latter simply laid down on his back and repositioned his head onto Will’s lap.
“You love me,” he smirked.
Will sighed, but grinned as he leaned down and quickly kissed Mike for the second time. He laughed as Mike’s face turned pink.
“Damn it, Mike, I really do.”