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Will climbs the ladder, breathing heavily. He reaches the platform where Mike is standing, catching his breath and drinking water. He sees Will join him on the platform and offers his water to him.
“You want some?”
“Yeah,” Will says still out of breath. These past few days have really taken a toll on him even though he is very much in shape. I guess that’s what fighting Vecna in your mind does to a person.
“Hey, um… “ Mike starts, although seemingly unsure where his sentence leads.
“What you said earlier at the Squawk… I’m sorry. I mean, not sorry about what you said. That came out wrong. Or not came out wrong. Jesus Christ.”
Will chuckles. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s… it’s not.” Mike continues “I should have been there for you, and I wasn’t. And I guess I was just so self-absorbed that I couldn’t see it. I just… I feel like an idiot, and I… [sighs] I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry. And you are not an idiot. You’re not. It’s just… I didn’t even understand it myself for the longest time. I just… I think it needed to happen the way it happened. I needed to find my own way. But what matters is that you’re still here, and you still think we can be… friends.” Will says in almost an apologizing tone.
“Friends? No, thanks…” Mike says in almost a teasing way.
Then he paused for what felt like an eternity and for a moment there is a small sense of hope radiating from Will’s face.
“ …Best friends.” He continues proudly like he just said the best thing in the world.
That small bit of hope was immediately crushed, like so many times before, except this time Will didn’t feel sad or shameful, he just felt frustrated, almost angry.
“Why would you do that?” Will says while turning to look away.
“What?” Mike asks genuinely sounding confused
“Why would you pause like that?” Will turns back to look at Mike and that softness he usually has in both his face and his voice is gone like it was thrown off the radio tower.
“What do you mean?” Mike asks now sounding both confused and concerned.
“What do I mean? What do YOU mean? I swear Mike no matter what I do I just can’t figure you out.” Will says a lot sharper than maybe initially intended. But he didn’t care. Today was the day of saying things just as they are”
“El told me you kept calling our house when we were in Lenora and it couldn’t be for her because of the government, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think you have a relationship with our mom where you would suddenly want to talk to her on the daily. But then we see at the airport and you suddenly can’t hug me or even really talk to me at all and it was my birthday Mike. March 22nd, or did you forget about that?”
“But then a few days ago I talked to Robin and she told me about these signs; the shared looks and small touches and you gave all those signs Mike, and the damn “Will-voice” or whatever and it’s like you’re throwing snowballs left and right but then you smash them before any of them have the chance to become an avalanche.”
Will pauses to take a couple of breaths before continuing.
“And I know you’re supposed to be my Tammy but you were in my 8 millimeter film reel, so you’d think it’s not the same but maybe it is and I just need to find a way to be okay with that but I swear to god Mike you are not making it easy for me. I mean at this point I might prefer Vecna’s version of all of this because at least that was clear. Jesus Christ Mike.”
Will takes a deep breath and just leans on the fence of the radio tower. There is no words left to say. The anger and frustration is slowly changing into sadness, Will realizes that there is no going back anymore. That moment of frustration just caused him his best friend. But still, there is a small drop of relief in the tears forming in his eyes, because it needed to be said. He was so done with the uncertainty he had been living for years now.
After gathering himself Will realizes Mike hasn’t said anything since Will’s lecture to him. He wipes his tears and turns to look at Mike, who just stands there with a totally unreadable face just staring at Will like he didn’t even hear a word Will said.
“You know what I’m sorry, I’ll just go.” Will sighs and turns to go continue up the ladder but before he can take the first step Mike grabs his arm so fast it almost startles Will off balance.
“No wait I… I just need a minute.” Mike says almost pleading.
Then Mike releases Will’s arm just as fast as he grabbed it and drops down to sit because standing feels too much right now. Mike’s head feels dizzy. Not just because they are way too high on a not-that-stable feeling radio tower and he isn’t really a fan of heights, that feeling has been there during the whole way up to this point. Mike’s head feels like it’s splitting open. Snowballs. Avalanches. Film reels. And who the hell is Tammy?
“I didn’t forget your birthday” Mike says after a while, almost whispering. He wasn’t even sure if Will was still there but felt too stuck to look.
“What?” Will asks and sits in front of Mike to hear him better. Mike raises his head, eyes a little red and teary, finally looks Will in the face or at least close to it and continues
“I didn’t forget your birthday. I would never forget your birthday. In fact I had this whole thing planned for you. I built a character for you for Eddie’s campaign that I was going to ask if he could include as a NPC, so that you could still be a part of the game because playing dnd without you felt so wrong. And I had a minifigure that I thought you could paint in a way you wanted and if you wanted to keep it you could or I could have taken it with me for the campaign.” Mike turns to look back to look at his hands that are still holding the water bottle.
“But then you showed up with the painting and I remembered El telling you were making it for a girl you-, well now I know not a girl but someone you liked and I guess I got jealous and thought it was all too much. I mean all I brought El was a small bouquet of flowers that were mainly your favorite colour anyways and she was my girlfriend even though things hadn’t been working out with us for a long time. And you were there with a painting for someone else and I don’t know it all felt wrong like that wasn’t the way things were supposed to go.” Mike stops to finally take a breath before continuing the same speed that he himself could barely keep up with.
“Then you gave me the painting but then you said El commissioned it and talked about how perfect we were together even when we clearly weren’t and I knew that. In fact I had known it for a while. Every time I wrote El a letter I wrote one for you too but I was too scared to send them. When El yelled at me for not writing “Love, Mike,” something clicked. Every letter I wrote to you ended that way. But I didn’t think anything would ever be possible because why would someone so perfect like you like someone so damaged like me.” Mike stops to quickly wipe away the tears and turns to look at Will in the eyes properly for the first time during this speech.
“And honestly until like an hour ago I thought you had something going on with Robin and I was so mad and jealous and I just really wanted to be normal but nothing I did mattered and I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to be your Tammy, I have always wanted to be your Mike… your Mike.”
Now Will was the one with his head spinning. He didn’t know what to expect Mike to say but it definitely wasn’t this.
“Are you… Are you sure?” Will asks, not even really knowing what he was truly asking but that was the only thing he could come up with.
“I mean I still don’t know what you mean by half the things you said about snowballs and film reels but of course I’m sure, what are you even-
Before Mike can finish his sentence without really even knowing what he is doing Will grabs him by his vests collar and pulls Mike closer for a kiss. Then as quickly as Will pulled Mike in, he pulls himself back, looking for a reaction in Mike’s face. Mike looks at Will with those damn puppy dog eyes that are slightly teared up and says.
“Thank you”
“Thank you?” Will answers not really sure if he heard correctly and still trying to make sense what just happened.
“Yes, thank you.” Mike says tears returning to his eyes.
Then Mike puts his hands on Will’s face and pulls him back in, this time for a longer, real kiss. Small tears going down both of their cheeks but after a long time of sad tears, these are happy ones. Because even if the world was ending, their everything was right there in that moment, and there was nothing that could break that. Other than Robin yelling “Hey lovebirds, come on we have a planet to catch” from the platform on the opposite side of the tower.
They break the kiss, turn to see Robin standing next to Steve on the platform, both clapping their hands and cheering before continuing to climb up.
Will and Mike turn to each other, resting their foreheads together and chuckling, until Will says something he realized Mike still hadn’t figured out.
“You do know the painting was from me right? I mean El barely knows anything about dnd, so I don’t know how it wasn’t obvious. But I lied about it being from El, actually the only time I have ever lied to you. I’m sorry for lying, I just thought that it would mean more if you thought it was from El instead of me.”
“Ohh- No I didn’t realize that but it does make sense now that you say it.” Mike answers and places a small kiss on Will’s lips before continuing in that soft voice of his that was only reserved for Will.
“I always loved it, but now it just means so much more to me.”