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If someone had told Will a few weeks ago that years of yearning and pining for Mike Wheeler would have led to the current situation he finds himself in, he would have laughed in their face.
He knows he's probably—most definitely—going insane from sleep deprivation alone, but he's starting to really freak out over Mike coming to visit him for the first time since he moved away, and it’s making him feel like he’s about to throw up. And Robin is decidedly not helping.
“I’m telling you, maybe he’s going over there fully prepared to finally confess to you,” She tells him over the phone.
Will snorts. “And what could have possibly given you this idea?”
“Just… instinct.”
“He has not once displayed any interest besides friendship with me. With me or any other… guy for that matter.” Will states, matter-of-factly.
“Wow, you really are as clueless as him.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Robin sighs, lovingly so. “Just enjoy his visit, alright?”
They hang up, and then he’s right back where he was before that call. Alone in his dorm on a Saturday night. Losing his goddamn mind.
It just doesn’t feel real yet. Mike Wheeler, his best friend—and not-so-secret first love —is on a train on his way to visit him right now. And arriving at any moment at his door. Will has already cleaned the room twice in the last four hours, so there isn’t much left for him to do while he waits.
Will it be like old times? Will it be awkward? Will they hug or will they just have a repeat of the Lenora incident? Will feels a shiver down his spine at the thought of that day and decides he might as well clean the room one last time.
And that's when he hears a knock at the door.
“Will? It's Mike!”
Mike. Mike is here. His voice hasn't changed one bit. Will feels something akin to heartburn at the sound of it without the barrier of a telephone.
He finally moves and makes his way to the door. Hands fidgeting between his clothes and his hair, unsure what to do with himself.
Just open the door. He tells himself.
Will is taken by surprise the moment he finally unlocks his door and finds a scruffy-haired Mike immediately dropping his bags on the floor to hug him. He's just hugging him, but Will nearly feels himself faint from a combination of ecstasy and relief.
Mike buries his face in Will's neck, and this is probably the first time they've shared a hug this long—so long Will's arms are starting to feel slightly uncomfortable, but he can't find it in himself to care.
“You look nice,” Mike says the moment they both eventually pull away.
Will feels a slight blush making its way to his cheeks at the comment. “Huh?”
“You look nice.” He repeats, like it's nothing.
“Uh, you too,” Will says, attempting to borrow some of the nonchalance Mike seems to be displaying. “Your hair's longer.”
Mike smiles at him, and his knees nearly buckle.
“Are you gonna invite me in or not?”
Will blinks. “What, are you a vampire?”
He raises Will an eyebrow at that, and he has to immediately change the subject before his growing blush gives him away. “So, how was the trip here?”
“Long,” Mike says as he takes a seat on the chair closest to Will's bed. “But worth it.”
Mike can't seem to stop smiling at Will, and it's both infectious and slightly unsettling. Will feels like the air around them keeps getting thinner with each passing second they spend so close together after all that time away from each other.
“So, how's, um, New York treating you so far?” Mike is the first to break the silence again. “Miss Hawkins much?”
I miss you.
He doesn't say it.
Instead, he starts telling Mike about his “adventures” in New York city so far, which consisted mostly of libraries and bookshop tours, as well as coffee shop hunts during his free time.
“What about… people, have you, uh,” Mike is suddenly nervous. “Have you met anyone?”
“Like friends? Yeah, definitely, I got a few.”
“What about, like… dates?”
“Oh,” Will is so caught off guard he forgets to feel slightly embarrassed about the answer he's about to give. “None, really.”
“Really?” Mike almost beams at that, and it makes Will even more confused wondering where all this is coming from.
Will feels embarrassed all of a sudden. Even though he knows he shouldn't because, well, there's nothing wrong with that. Besides, it hasn't been exactly easy, considering… everything.
“Don't be embarrassed,” Mike's voice is softer now.
Will feels heat creeping up on his face again and he almost wants to kill Mike for doing this to him. Again.
How many times until Mike realises Will's blush isn't a result from the cold weather?
“I'm not,” Will says as Mike's smile only seems to grow. “Shut up.”
“Really, it's just… I just figured you'd have plenty of candidates by now. Girls were always throwing themselves at you, I imagined it would be the same, you know, with… guys.” There's a tone to his voice when he says that, Will almost thinks it strikes as jealousy.
Oh.
“Well, it's not like there haven't been any opportunities,” Will admits, and there really have been more than just a few times where he's been asked out, but because he never really knows how to act upon being flirted with, it always just leads to it going nowhere.
Not to mention the two massive elephants in the room: Mike Wheeler himself, and the fact that Will still hasn't had his first kiss yet. So every potential date feels a thousand times more nerve-wracking.
“And, you know, I still haven't… I haven't—”
“What?” Mike interrupts him, looking weirdly hopeful. Will isn't sure for what, though.
“I've never kissed anyone.” Will confesses.
“You haven't?" And now Mike is staring at him like he just shared the most life-changing piece of information he's ever heard.
"Don't be an ass."
"I'm not, I just thought..." Mike trails off mid-sentence.
"Is that surprising to you?”
Mike is all about honesty today, it seems. “Yeah, actually.”
“Mike.” Will pokes his cheek as he says it, dragging the last vowel of his name.
“I'm serious,” He keeps going. “It's just a little crazy to me.”
“Why?”
“You know why.”
Will is afraid to ask, but still does anyway. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, it's...you.” And there's so much honesty in his voice, it nearly sounds like a confession begging to be brought to light.
And the silence that follows is somehow loud enough to break glass.
“I could help you.”
Will breathes again. “What?”
“I could help you,” He repeats himself. “You could practice with me. I mean, we could practice. Kissing, I mean. If you want me to.”
And for the first time since his arrival, Mike actually looks flustered.
Will stares at him incredulously for what feels like at least ten minutes and then responds by scoffing and pushing him away playfully, almost throwing him off the bed. At this point, he's sure his cheeks are cherry red, and if he can feel it, that means Mike can definitely see it.
“Oh.” Will finally gets it. “You're not kidding.”
“Look, maybe… you just need to get that out of the way,” Mike suggests slowly, looking almost self-conscious now. “And I could help. If you want.”
Will feels his cheeks rising in temperature with each passing second.
“So you… you want to kiss me?”
Will feels like he's losing his mind. This is definitely the last scenario he could have imagined would happen when Mike walked through his door tonight.
“Yes,” Mike responds way too fast, still not looking up, and quickly adds, “To help you, I mean. Unless you don't want to. Is that too weird? I'm sorry for even suggesting it, Will. I just thought—I don't know. I mean, I don't know? I just figured… you and me… we're best friends, so it wouldn't be weird. Right?”
Wouldn't it?
Sure, they had cuddled before when they were kids, and one time when they were older and drunk for the first time in Mike's bed, too drunk to move to their respective sides of the bed.
And there was also the one other time after that, where Mike wrapped himself around him in the middle of the night during a sleepover and made Will feel inexplicable things he could never bring himself to tell anyone about, especially not the guy that made him feel those things, the same guy who's sitting right in front of him right now.
“Okay,” Will decides as he sits next to him on the bed, and Mike stares at him, anticipation visible on his face. “Help me. And… Tell me what you think. Of my kissing skills.” Will says finally, and his face is now officially burning up.
“Yeah?”
Mike smiles at him and Will lets his face fall onto his hands again, bracing himself for whatever is about to come next, and responds with a quick and easy, “Yeah.”
“Are you sure?” Mike's voice suddenly cracks and Will thinks it's adorable.
“Yeah, I mean. You're right, how weird can it be? If you really want to. As friends. Helping each other out.”
“Well, I'm the one actually doing the helping.”
“Shut up.”
Mike has a devilish smirk to his face now, Will wants to wipe it off. And then he wonders what that same smirk would feel like against his lips, what it would taste like, how it would feel dragging against the bare column of his neck.
Fuck.
“So… should we just—” Mike seems to notice Will's uneasiness.
“Now? Oh. Okay.” He feels himself about to begin blushing again.
“Can I just, uh, shower first, though? It was a long trip.”
Will's heart skips, seeing how nervous Mike suddenly looks.
He smiles briefly, and guides Mike to the bathroom.
“Alright, so just, uh. Pretend I'm one of your... dates, I guess.” Mike hesitantly suggests as he sits next to Will on the bed again, Will senses that same hint of jealousy again in the way Mike says that, but decides to ignore it.
Mike is a library of confusion tonight, it seems. And his rosy cheeks and long curly haired dripping wet from the shower are awfully distracting. Will decides to ignore that, too.
Will purses his lips, almost apprehensive. “Okay, I'm just gonna go for it, then.”
“Show me what you got.” Mike whispers, low and dangerous, words tickling over Will's skin like fire.
Now that seems to do the trick for Will to lose some of his sudden self-consciousness; Mike didn't even make it sound like a challenge, but Will took it as one. He reaches out and cups Mike's face in his hands slowly, carefully, his thumb brushing against Mike’s cheek gently.
Mike can't seem to tear his gaze away from Will's lips, and turns out that's the final push he needed to close the space between them entirely.
It's slow at first, chaste, even. But it's enough for Will to want to lean in further and chase after Mike's lips with his own, more forcefully this time. Before they can actually get into it, Mike is pulling away, and Will lets out a frustrated whine, his hands never leaving its hold on Mike's face.
“That's it?” The words leave Will's mouth before he has any chance to stop himself.
Shit.
Mike's eyes seem to be uncharacteristically unfocused, and Will's hands are still holding him close, making it difficult for either of them to say anything.
“That was, um. That was nice,” Mike tries. “Your kissing skills are definitely up to the task.”
“‘Nice?’ You didn't even show me anything?”
Mike pulls away awkwardly, and touches the back of his own neck as Will's hands move from Mike’s face.
“I'm sorry, it's weird, isn't it? I'm sorry, Will—”
Mike pauses when Will takes a deep breath, and Mike looks as if he's about to brace himself for something. He opens his mouth to apologise again, but Will cuts him off, a sudden burst of confidence taking over him.
“Just—” Except Will never finishes what he's about to say and just brings a hand to the back of Mike's neck and guides their lips together again.
Mike is kissing him more resolutely now, not holding anything back like five seconds ago, and it makes Will absolutely lose it. Mike always smells good to him, but right now he smells a different kind of good. It's freshly clean, which isn't surprising since he just showered. He smells like fancy soap and something else Will couldn't quite place, but it made it nearly impossible for him to pull away from it.
Will finds it in himself to really show Mike all he's got, and really kisses him. Properly. Exploring tongue and curious fingers start moving from his face to his neck, making their way up to play with his hair. Mike is holding him by the back of his neck, keeping him from pulling away even though it's clear neither of them intends to.
He reaches a shy hand toward Mike's face and slides his fingers over the smooth line of his jaw, slowly caressing it as he does so. Will doesn’t miss the resulting whimper he receives from Mike at his touch, and swallows it down.
Will isn't exactly sure of what he's doing, except just going with the motions, following his instincts. And by the sounds coming out of Mike, he figures it's fair to say he's doing a good job. A great job, even.
"Howㅡhow am I doing?" Will manages to ask in between long, open-mouthed kisses.
But instead of a response, he just feels Mike's hands pulling hard at his waist, more firmly than before, as if he's aching to have every inch of their bodies as close as possible.
Mike's teeth lightly pull on Will's lower lip, and he presses them closer until there’s no space left to breathe. Will stumbles back as his entire body starts to give up and Mike is pushing Will back into his bed, until they’re fully lying down on top of his sheets, until every possible inch of them is touching. Chests pressed together and legs intertwined, Mike then uses his full body weight to hold Will in place, slipping his knee between his parted thighs.
And then he's being straddled by his best friend.
Will searches in the back of his mind for the reason why they were doing this in the first place, and he can't seem to find it when all he could think of was the way his heart was soaring in his chest with each touch, beyond distracted by the softness of his best friend's lips, the sweetness of his tongue so beyond intoxicating it almost made him feel like he had to be under the influence of something right now.
“Mike…” Will manages, their lips separating with a resounding wet ‘pop’.
Will's head falls back in the bed as Mike’s hands slip under Will's t-shirt and his lips make their way down, peppering open-mouthed kisses along his jaw, until he reaches his neck. Will is pretty sure he's trembling, so much so he should be embarrassed. And he should also be pulling away before they do something they couldn't come back from, but that seemed pointless as he laces his fingers in Mike's hair and pulls on it lightly before dragging his face back up to make their lips crash again.
He kisses Mike harder this way, hands pulling on his hair and pressing their bodies closer together, legs wrapping around his waist and making their hips meet. Mike is gasping into Will's mouth and sliding cold but terribly soft hands underneath his t-shirt, and it makes his pants feel significantly tighter as he does so—Mike’s tongue traces his lips like he wants to commit them to memory. Like he wants to memorise their shape and learn exactly how to bring those same sounds out of his best friend again.
Will starts to squirm, bucking his hips under Mike's weight as they kiss, making him shift a little bit closer, attentively positioning his thigh in between Will's thighs, grinding against the solid pressure of his leg.
Will's heavy breaths fill the entire room as he tries to suppress another loud moan when Mike grinds against him, desperate for friction. He tilts his hips forward against Mike's thigh from a different angle now, wrapping his legs around him and bringing his middle down even closer somehow, fully attempting to fuse their bodies together. The new-found pressure draws another moan out of Will, and he can see it affects Mike just as much when he pulls away, pupils blown wide, and his lips are swollen, with an intoxicating red tint colouring both his lips and his cheeks.
Will feels his stomach clench, and a jolt of pleasure racing up and down his spine like little jolts of electricity, screwing his eyes shut as Mike continues grinding down his body, melting away with the friction he's so desperately searching for. Will can't help but grind into him again, clumsy and so, so hungry.
Mike reacts with instinctive clumsy thrusts of his own, the heat between their legs is so goddamn overpowering, and Mike's firmness is rubbing into his own so frantically, Will's almost scared he won't last much longer.
Mike then grabs Will's hips and flips them over, so Will is the one straddling him, the sudden switch making him see stars, and he can't stop himself from letting out a moan.
And then Mike is pulling away.
Fuck.
“Wait, wait.” Mike's voice is hoarse, barely able to string together more than one word at a time. “Shit.”
Will freezes, his fingers hovering over his lips, entranced by the phantom tingle left behind in the wake of their kisses. “What's wrong? Did—”
“We need to talk.” Mike cuts him off before he can finish, sitting upright and bringing a pillow to his lap almost clumsily.
Will feels that same fear of getting rejected by Mike that he did back at the tower years ago. He never had any plans to confront his feelings for his best friend again, not any time soon at least, even after Mike made plans to come visit him.
“Look, Mike,” Will starts, bracing himself for the impending rejection, even though he was in this current mess because of Mike. But Mike immediately stops him.
“No, you—let me do this. Okay?” His voice is soft and he's blushing.
Wait, he's blushing. Why is he blushing?
Will can only think of a few reasons, and the one he finds himself hoping for the most at this moment doesn't seem to make any sense at all in his head. If Mike actually has a crush on him, if he actually likes likes him, surely it would've been made clear at this point, considering all the time they've known each other. It would have been hard to miss. Right?
“I like you,” Mike says, straightforwardly. Like it's the easiest thing in the world.
“Well, I should hope so.” Will attempts to keep the mood light in all the nervousness and uncertainty he's currently under.
Mike rolls his eyes, like he's run out of patience for Will's sudden antics. “No, Will. I like you.”
And Will's brain completely short circuits.
“You—what?” He tries his best not to let his voice crack with the shock of what Mike had just told him, and fails miserably.
“I like you.” Mike repeats it with a grin, clearly enjoying watching Will's brain rattle around in his head.
“No, no, no, no, no.” Will starts rubbing circles around his temple, digesting what he just heard. “Please say you're joking right now.”
Mike seems to be taken aback by his words, the smile on his face slowly falling like the last leaf in autumn.
“Sorry?” And he really does look sorry for even suggesting to help Will, just a few minutes prior to this very awkward conversation he did not see them having when Will said ‘yes’ to Mike kissing him. "I thought—"
“No, you—you idiot.” Will stands up now, looking frustrated. “I cannot believe you beat me at confessing.”
Mike’s eyes light up again. “You were going to confess?”
“Well, no. Not today, at least. I guess it took you kissing me for me to realise you might like me, too.” Will is clearly an idiot, too.
“You like me,” Mike says incredulously, but it still comes out as a statement of fact. Will flushes as red as a cherry tomato. “You do, right?”
“I never said that,” Will retorts, even though he knows it's a lie. Well, sort of.
He did say he had a “crush” on Mike, and Mike clocked that at the time, there's no way he didn't. But yeah, it was a lie. It was never just a crush.
“You didn't have to.” Mike smiles, and Will's world stops.
An unanticipated rush of relief washes over Will again. Mike likes him. He actually likes him.
Will peers into Mike's big brown, stupidly beautiful puppy eyes, and pulls him in by the collar of his t-shirt. He finds it unbearably endearing how Mike is suddenly shy.
“So.” Will places a quick chaste kiss to Mike's cheek and he looks gone. “You were saying?”
“Stop. I'm the one who confessed.” Mike pushes Will away playfully only to tighten his grip on his waist a second later.
“Yeah, but I'm the one making you flustered right now, so. Fair to say I won this one.”
Mike huffs, but his eyes say different, he's beyond smitten. And Will is back to having all his walls and defenses down.
“So, are we…” He trails off, unsure how to continue.
“What, Byers?” Mike teases, raising an eyebrow.
“Don’t make me say the words.”
“But I want to hear you say the words, Will.”
“You piss me off so much,” Will says, but his fingers find their way to Mike's hand, fingertips running over his palm, tracing the lines on his soft skin and rubbing circles over his knuckles.
“I'm sure I do,” Mike beams, leans down, and kisses him again.