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“Will! Wait up!”
Will slows down and throws a glance over his shoulder to see Mike bounding toward him. He raises his brows. Once Mike has closed the distance between them, he grins. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Will replies. He smiles, slightly confused about why Mike would be making his way over so close to go-time. Will had walked away to gather his thoughts while they have time to kill before Vecna starts to make his move.
Mike’s grin twists a little bit, into something more thoughtful. “Um… I just wanted— about earlier.”
“Oh,” Will breathes, “I— yeah. I just felt like I needed to say something. You know, before… everything. It’s really no big deal, Mike.”
“But it is!” Mike nearly shouts. “Sorry, sorry. Not… not like that. I mean. It is a big deal, though. That… that was really brave, Will.”
Despite himself, Will feels his cheeks warming. He can only hope the strange, dim lighting of the Upside Down is enough to mask it. He smiles. “Thank you, Mike.”
Mike smiles back, and there’s a beat of silence as they just look at each other.
“So,” Mike starts, drawing the syllable out. “Tammy?”
“Oh.” Will laughs. “Yeah, that… that would be confusing, wouldn’t it? That’s… not my story to tell, though. It’s… well. Yeah, it’s this person that I… had a crush on. But I was just being delusional. I— I realised they weren’t ever gonna lo— feel the same. I know they can’t.”
Mike frowns at him. Just a tiny thing, like he’s trying to figure something out.
“But how do you know?”
It’s Will’s turn to frown. “What?”
“How do you know that…” Mike takes a short breath, “that— he doesn’t feel the same?”
“Mike,” Will feels a laugh bubble out of his throat.
“You shouldn’t give up, I’m just saying!”
“It— it’s not that easy for me, Mike.” Will sighs. “It’s not like I can just go up to someone like you or Lucas or Dustin. I can’t just tell someone I—”
“I’m serious! You said you know. How can you possibly know that?” Mike is waving his hand around like he does when he’s trying to bring the Party into a particularly exciting campaign.
“I don’t know, Mike!” Will throws his hands in the air. This is the opposite of the relaxing, introspective moment to himself he had been going for when he split off from the party. “How did you know you liked El? You just… when you know, you know.”
Mike stills a bit. He takes a deep breath, frowning now. “And if I didn’t?” he says, quiet all of a sudden.
“What?”
Mike’s eyes are wide, like he’s surprised at his own words. If Will didn’t know better, he’d say Mike looks scared. He gets a sinking feeling, stomach falling to his knees. “Mike.” His chest feels as if someone is slowly tightening a vice around it. “What is this about?”
Mike swallows, still with that nervous look on his face. He sticks his hands in his pockets and looks to the side, over toward where the others are. “The painting,” he says quietly.
Will frowns at the non-sequiteur before it quickly dawns on him just what those words mean. He looks away from Mike’s face, tries to find something, anything, else to fix his gaze on to avoid eye contact. Mike takes a step closer to him and Will’s breath hitches. “I’m so sorry,” he says, voice a whimper. “I’m sorry, Mike.”
In the corner of his eye, he sees Mike biting down on his lip. “All that stuff about… being different, and— and pushing people away—”
Will shakes his head. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lie. I know, friends don’t lie it’s just I—”
“You know,” Mike keeps going, like he can’t hear what Will is even saying, “when you lived in Lenora… I tried to call. But, your Mom was always keeping the line busy with her job, you know? I meant it when I said that Hawkins isn’t the same without you. But— after a while I… well, I guess I just thought it would be weird.”
“Weird?” Will says, glancing up at Mike for a second.
Mike’s lips twist in a crooked smile. “I mean. I was calling all the time. Mom was pissed.” Mike laughs. “And I guess… I mean, I sent a lot of letters to El, but there’s stuff I’d wanna talk to you about, y’know?”
“To… talk to me about? Like what?”
“El mentioned that you were painting a lot in one of her letters,” Mike says. “She said she thought you were making a painting for a girl. Guess not, huh?”
Will feels tears burning at his eyes, and he looks up at Mike, who still has that crooked smile plastered on his face. “Guess not,” he agrees.
They stand in silence for a bit, Mike rocking back and forth on his heels with his hands still in his pockets. He looks around a bit, and then says, “So… this Tammy person. Is that who you were making the painting for?”
A chill runs down Will’s spine. Nothing even remotely supernatural, just raw, animal fear. He nods. “Yeah.”
“Do they… does he live in Lenora?” Mike asks.
Will huffs out a laugh that’s closer to a sob. It’s like the words are fighting to get out of his body, like they’ve been contained for too long and are getting impatient. He confessed one thing and the other is just… hot on its heels. Avalanche, indeed. “No. He, um… No.”
Mike tilts his head, brow furrowing. “Why did you lie to me, Will?”
“Do I really have to say it?” Will takes a shaky breath. He feels tears burning his eyes.
“I want you to say it.” Mike takes his hands out of his pockets and lets them hang limply at his sides. Will fixes his gaze on Mike’s left index finger.
Will’s face crumples, and he feels the tears start to roll down his cheeks. “Mike,” he whispers, “please.”
Mike takes a step closer. His voice is quiet, soft the way it only ever is when he talks to Will. “Will. Trust me.”
Will looks up, searching Mike’s face for any sort of hint as to what might be going on inside his head. “I can’t lose you,” he says.
“You won’t. I promise.” Mike smiles. “Friends don’t lie, right?”
Will huffs a laugh. “Right.” He closes his eyes and tilts his head down. He takes a shaky breath, as deep as he can manage. “Mike… I… I love you.”
There’s a beat of silence where Will just feels the hot tears rush down his cheeks as he tries not to sob. Then, there are hands on his cheeks and his head is being tilted up. His eyes fly open just in time to see Mike lean in to kiss him. It’s only for a second that their lips meet before Mike pulls back, smiling.
“I’m not Tammy Thompson.”
“But—” Will stammers, “But you— wh—”
“All that stuff you said about being scared, and pushing people away? It made me realise… that’s what I’ve been doing all along. I pushed you away and I was distant because I was scared. But I don’t—”
“But El,” Will stresses. At this, Mike looks slightly bashful.
“Oh. Um, yeah. We, uh— broke up. A year ago, almost.”
“What!?”
Mike is still holding onto Will’s cheeks as he nods. “Yeah. I mean, with everything going on... we didn’t want to make a fuss by telling everyone. And it didn’t really make that big of a difference anyway. It was mutual — we just… we’re still friends. But it’s better that way.”
Will laughs, leaning into Mike’s hand, still feeling his lips tingling from contact. “Is it?”
“Sometimes,” Mike smiles.
Will’s gaze flickers down to Mike’s lips, and his smile falls as he catches himself. “And… others?”
“Other times you have to be brave,” Mike says.
They stand like that for a bit, just breathing. Mike’s hands on Will’s cheeks and Will’s shaking at his sides. Mike’s gaze meets Will’s, intent clear in his dark eyes. “Hey, Will?”
“Yeah, Mike?” Will says, voice barely more than a breath. Mike wouldn’t hear it if he were an inch further away. He leans in.
“I love you, too.”
Will sobs, then, just a single exhale as the tears start rolling down his cheeks again, and he leans in to wrap his arms around Mike’s waist. Mike sighs in relief. His hands slide from Will’s cheeks, one to his shoulder and the other to the back of his neck, warm and protective over the spot where his skin always rises in gooseflesh. Will presses his face into Mike’s shoulder.
“I got you,” Mike whispers. “I got you, Will.”