Chapter Text
“Mrs. Wheeler?” Joyce knocked on the Wheelers door with Mike, Will, Jonathan, and Argyle trailing behind her. Joyce looked through the peephole, trying to find any sign of life inside the house that was seemingly empty. The curtains were closed and the lights were turned off, maybe no one was home?
Just before the group turned around to leave Mrs. Wheeler answered the door. As the sunlight hit her face, her face went pale with shock as she stared at Mike.
“Micheal Wheeler, where in the world have you been!” she ran to him, pulling him in a tight embrace as Mike squirmed in her arms, “You haven’t been home for days…we were worried sick! ..Especially after that earthquake hit and we kept calling and calling but no one would answer the phone at Joyce’s house!”
Mike pushed her off of him, his cheeks red as a tomato with embarrassment, “I’m okay mom…” he mumbled as she took a step back from him. She crossed her arms, looking him up and down as if expecting to find something wrong with him.
“I apologize for interrupting this family reunion,” Joyce said, coughing, “But could we stay at your place for a couple of weeks? I think it’s best if we talk inside…”
Mrs. Wheeler paused for a moment but nodded her head and held the door open. She seated the five of them down at the dinner table, providing them each with a cup of ice cold water. Joyce then explained everything to her, about why the kids were always out and about in middle school, the upside down, El’s powers, and why Will had gone missing.
When she had finally finished her explanation Mrs.Wheeler looked like she’d just been told a sales pitch.
“Joyce…none of that made any sense. I mean, powers? Will? This doesn’t make any sense at all. If–if you just need a place to stay you can say that, there's no need for elaborate stori-”
“Shes not lying! Mom, please, just–just listen.” Mike cut in.
“I-I just don’t know how I’m supposed to believe this,” she scoffed, “I might believe the story about the lab but superpowers are a whole other thing! You can stay here for a couple of weeks but that's it, I don’t need you telling my children all this-this nonsense!” She shook her head, “Honestly Joyce ever since Will went missing you’ve been a little… Out of it?” She laid her hands on the table as a concerned look formed on her face, “You know, there’s a good psychologist just out of town, maybe you should consult him once this whole earthquake thing is over.”
“Mom please-!”
Joyce held up her hand in front of Mike, signaling him to drop it, “I can assure you Karen I’m just fine in the head, thank you though for worrying about me. I understand that this is a lot to process, I’m just grateful you can let us stay here for a couple of weeks.” Mike opened his mouth to say something but instead closed it and excused himself from the table, trudging up the stairs to his bedroom.
“Excuse me Mike get back here, we haven’t finished talking-!”
“I’m sorry to interrupt but I think Mike needs some… time alone Mrs.Wheeler,” Will tried to explain to her, “He’s been through a lot lately.”
She put her hands up, sighing and scooting her chair away from the dinner table, “I swear everyone in this town has gone crazy ever since Will went missing…” she mumbled, shaking her head as she walked down the hallway, “Have fun deluding yourself in whatever this-this crazy fantasy world you guys made for yourselves. In the meantime I will prepare everyone’s beds.”
A couple of days later
Will stared at the ceiling, feeling as though someone had just socked him right in the gut. Ever since he’d gotten back from California Mike had been ignoring him the whole time, or maybe he had just been too preoccupied with visiting El at her cabin. Either way he hoped it was the first option.
He looked over at Mike's alarm clock 6:45am. Mike had called a meeting the day before on the radio to be down at his basement at 7 o clock sharp.
Jonathan came down the stairs, his eyes sagging from lack of sleep these last few days.
“Everything alright Will..?” Jonathan asked with a hint of worry in his voice. Jonathan always had a 6th kind of sense for these things.
“Yeah just… tired I guess.” He stood up from the blow up mattress that was set up in Mike's bedroom as a temporary bed for now until they could return to the coast.
“Alright, well mom and I are going over to Hopper's cabin, wanna come?” Will shook his head. Jonathan turned around but hesitated for a moment, “Hey Will, you know you can talk to me about anything, right?” He craned his neck to look back at Will, holding the doorframe with his left hand.
“Yeah I know.” He said, trying his best to sound confident. Jonathan nodded slowly before eventually deciding to stop pestering him and left. Will flopped back on the bed and covered his face with his hands, sighing.
“Let's solve one problem at a time Will… one problem at a time….” He whispered to himself. You’re the problem, he thought to himself. Maybe if you weren’t here this wouldn’t have happened to Hawkins. He shook his head, stop thinking like that Will, you’ve gotta snap out of it.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, he finally got the courage to get up and talk to his friends who were all waiting downstairs. He trudged down the stairs; trying his best to avoid Mike’s parents and having to engage in small talk with them. Will always hated small talk since there was no point of it other than to break the awkward silence.
At the bottom of the stairs lay the main crew Lucas, Mike, and Dustin all sitting at their DND table. It reminded him of when times were simpler. When the only demogorgons they had to were about were in games and forgetting to complete their homework over the weekend. Will sighed and sat down at the table, where he always used to sit.
“So why did you call us all here again Mike?” Lucas asked, yawning, “It’s 7 in the morning I should still be in bed..” He put his hands on the table and Will noticed the bags that were forming under his eyes. He must’ve been up at the hospital with Max all night. He knew how Lucas had felt responsible for Max’s near death, Will knew how guilty that would make you feel til it ate you up whole.
Mike rolled his eyes profusely before responding with, “I’ve called you guys here today to talk about how we’re going to defeat Vecna once and for all so he can never ever come back.” We all exchanged looks for a few moments before Dustin replied.
“So why exactly is it just the four of us talking about it…? What about y’know maybe Hopper or Steve?” Will stayed silent, not wanting to get into another argument.
“We need to discuss this alone, we’re going to need something more than El to defeat that thing.” Mike looked over at Will and his heart skipped a beat for just a moment, “We need Will and his superpowers to detect Vecna and we’ll be prepared with El and other weapons, look in the DND book what are his weaknesses’?” Dustin grabbed the new DND book from the Hellfire club and set it down on the table.
“I thought you sold the other DND book where’d you guys get this one from…?” Will asked nervously. The room went silent and the three exchanged glances. He looked at Mike for an answer but he wouldn’t meet his gaze. Beads of sweat dripped down Will’s face as he awaited an answer, “Actually it-it doesn’t matter you guys don't have to tell me, we should get back on track.” Dustin nodded before opening up the book to Vecna’s page.
“Well from what Nancy said one of his weaknesses is fire and when he’s trying to kill someone that's when he’s most vulnerable.”
“We already tried that last time and it clearly didn’t do a damn thing, I mean look at what happened to Max! She’s barely alive because of your stupid plan!” The boys bickered back and forth and Will quietly sat, wondering where in the world they got that DND book. They said they wouldn’t join another campaign without him but… Sometimes friends don’t keep their promises. I mean look at what had happened to his and Mike’s friendship, he said he’d always be there for Will but lately it seems like he’s more concerned about his girlfriend than his own best friend.
“He’s back in the Upside Down that clearly did SOMETHING to hurt him!”
Snap out of it Will, of course he’s supposed to be concerned about his girlfriend not about you! You guys are just friends, that's it… Nothing more. Will was disgusted with himself for thinking this way, he wasn’t supposed to like boys. Well his father taught him that, and had engraved it into his mind. But Johnathan said that his father wasn’t always right about things and Will trusted Johnathan more than his father.
“What do you think Will?” Dustin asked and everyone turned to look at him. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment as he had no clue what they were talking about the moment before.
“Sorry, what were we talking about? I got a little side tracked..” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Thats okay we were talking about ways to defeat Vecna and I suggested we should just send him back into the upside down (since he’s pretty much invincible) and seal the portal.” Will nodded but didn’t say much else, he preferred to stay silent nowadays, not like anyone would really listen if he talked anyhow.
“Alright all in favor?” Will’s head snapped up, and everyone raised their hands. He awkwardly went along with whatever they were voting on and slowly raised his hand, unsure of what he was getting himself into.