Chapter Text
End of Summer 1989
The music was deafeningly loud. Pulsing into Mike's ears from all angles as he leaned against the wall and scanned his eyes over the party.
It was the final party of the summer. Within the next two days, what felt like the entire town would be leaving to fan out across the country and head to college.
Mike was enrolled in a Business degree at Indiana University, so he at least wouldn't be too far from home. But Dustin was heading to MIT, and Will... Will was moving to Seattle.
The Arts degree was one pull, but he had also been drawn by the new scene emerging there - creative, expressive and open. Free in a way Hawkins never had been.
When he'd told Mike he was going there instead of NYU, Mike's stomach had twisted uncomfortably. He'd always known Will would leave Hawkins, leave Indiana - he needed to go somewhere he could be himself for the first time. But Mike hadn't expected it to be on the opposite side of the country.
NYU was a long way, but it was bearable. He could fly there in a couple of hours, or drive there in less than a day. Seattle was like a two day drive, minimum. Will wouldn't be able to come home all the time for holidays and summers.
Mike shifted against the wall, his eyes still flicking over the faces in the crowd, pretending he wasn't looking for anyone in particular. But he was.
Since Will had dropped the bomb about Seattle, his face had been haunting Mike's thoughts. Making his chest tighten and his stomach churn. He didn't know why, which made it even harder to control.
Tonight was a lot worse. Tonight Will was drunk - and so was Mike. His ability to control whatever the maelstrom of thoughts in his head were, was at an all time low.
Suddenly he saw it, the rumpled tangle of brown curls weaving through the crowd that signalled his best friend.
Lurching off the wall, Mike followed him quickly. They entered a long hallway, Will still ahead of him - his hand clutched tightly by Max as she pulled him along behind her.
There was an open door at the end of the hall, and Max and Will vanished though it.
Mike followed, down a staircase and into a basement. The music was quieter down here, almost overshadowed by the roar of multiple conversations and laughter.
Then Stacey appeared in the middle of the room, swaying slightly as she pushed her long hair over her shoulder.
"Right! You all know why we're here, so it's time to assume the position! Circle on the floor people, circle on the floor." She waved her arms around herself in a circle to encourage the intoxicated crowd to hurry up and follow her instructions.
Across the room, Mike saw Will and Max sitting down in the circle, so he plopped down himself, just across from Will. At that moment Will looked up and a smile flitted across his face when they caught eyes.
A jolt of something hit Mike as he watched Will's lips curling up at the sides. So familiar yet suddenly so different. Like he'd never noticed the way Will's smiles made his eyes light up. The mole on the corner of his lip creasing into the smile.
Mike swallowed, as his mouth went unexplainably dry. He could feel his heart beating fast against his chest.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
It's just Will. Will has smiled at you a thousand times before.
His eyes flicked up again and he saw Will was still looking at him, almost shyly through his long eyelashes.
Mike's heart spiked in his chest again.
He wrenched his eyes away and tried to concentrate on the game.
Oh Fuck. It was Seven Minutes in Heaven.
He watched the bottle spin around and land on Will, followed by a cheer from the crowd.
"Okay," Stacey yelled, "Looks like Will is our first victim, now we just need to see who gets to go to heaven with him!"
Mike's heart plummeted to his ass.
Someone was going into the closet with Will. Someone might kiss him - touch him. Will hadn't even had his first kiss. What if the person was rough - what if they weren't nice to Will. What if he hated it.
Worse.
What if he liked it.
What if Will spent the whole time making out with someone and loved it.
Mike was sweating, his heart hammering so hard into his chest he felt like any moment now it would burst out. And he still didn't know why. Why was even the thought of someone kissing Will making him feel like he was standing on the edge of the quarry again. Like Will was lost. Gone. And the only way to be with him again was to jump.
Another loud cheer from the crowd pulled him from his thoughts, and with a deep feeling of dread he looked around the circle to see who was going to be the person who got to give Will his first kiss.
Then he realised everyone was staring at him. His eyes dropped to the bottle... pointing right at him. Instantly his eyes searched for Will.
Will was frozen opposite him, his cheeks pink and one hand clutched tightly to his chest like a claw. He looked terrified.
"Earth to Wheeler," Stacey's voice pierced his ears, "You're up. Closet is that way." Her arm pointed along a hall to a single door.
Swallowing Mike stood, watching Will do the same as they both walked slowly towards the hallway... and the door.
This will be fine. At least it's me - we can just talk and no one has to kiss him.
That thought made Mike feel better, no one was going to be taking Will's first kiss tonight. It settled his nerves a little, until he got to the door and opened it.
The closet was tiny. And Mike was big. Once he got inside there was barely enough room for another person.
Will hesitated in the doorway as if coming to the same conclusion. Then he slipped inside, pressing against the wall as if trying to make sure their bodies didn't touch.
Someone closed the door from the outside, plunging the tiny space into total darkness.
"Your seven minutes starts now!" Stacey yelled through the door.
Mike shifted a tiny bit, trying to move away from the hook digging into his shoulder. He ended up closer to Will, close enough to hear the little hitch in his breath. Close enough to smell the alcohol on his breath, mixed with the clean, fresh smell of his shampoo, and the softer scent underneath that was just Will.
Mike's own breath caught. He could feel the heat from Will's body, so close to his.
Will laughed then, nervously. His hand brushing against Mike's arm as he moved a fraction.
"This is... uh... pretty strange right?" He asked, his voice low and shaky.
"Yeah," Mike replied, his brain starting to get fuzzy at the edges from the proximity, the smell of Will's hair and the heat radiating from his body. A low throb started in Mike's groin, heat rushing through his body.
He shifted again unconsciously, closer to Will. Their hands brushed sending electric sparks up Mike's arm and through his body. Heat pooling and swirling in his belly.
What the fuck is going on?
"Mike?" Will's voice wavered through the darkness, "You're... you're really close."
Mike swallowed. His brain was almost completely on the fritz. His body taking control as he shifted a tiny bit closer again, his nose brushing against Will's cheek.
"Oh," Will gasped quietly, his soft breath ghosting over Mike's lips.
Mike's brain short circuited. The last of his control went with it.
One trembling hand reached up, sliding across Will's cheek, feeling the heat beneath his fingers as he splayed them out. His thumb sliding across the satiny surface.
A small strangled moan fluttered out of his throat.
"Mike?" Will whispered, his breath now coming in small gasps.
Acting purely on what his body wanted now, Mike leaned in. His lips brushing Will's softly sending sparks of pure fire through his veins. Then his last tiny thread to sanity snapped.
"Will," he groaned onto his lips as he pressed them against him again, the hand on Will's cheek pushing up into his hair and cradling his head so it didn't bang into the wall.
Will was frozen against him for a second, and then it was like a surge. His hands flew up, reaching around Mike's back and pulling him closer, then sliding over every part of him they could reach - like it wasn't enough, would never be enough.
Mike pushed back, opening his mouth and sliding his tongue along Will's plump lips, feeling them open and his scorching hot tongue pressing into Mike's mouth.
"Jesus, Will," he groaned again, pressing his hips forward as his other hand dropped to Will's hip, grabbing it firmly and holding him tightly in place.
Will whined into his mouth, sending more blood rushing downwards.
He had never imagined Will could make sounds like that.
That he could make those sounds because of Mike.
Their mouths opened and closed against each other, tongues sliding in and out of the wet heat. The noises of their mouths mixed with Will's small whimpers filling the tiny space.
He still wasn't close enough. Wanted to feel every part of Will. He bucked his hips forward again.. and there it was. A hard, hot lump, pressed against his thigh. He felt Will shudder as he rolled his hips again, chasing the friction.
He knew Will would be able to feel him too, but he didn't care. Nothing mattered except this tiny, dark room, the noises filling it, and the taste and feel of Will's mouth.
Mike had kissed before - he'd spent an entire summer making out. But nothing had ever felt like this. It was like pure ravenous hunger, wanting to consume the other person and be consumed by them in return. It was like knowing every single part of someone and then finding out there was so much you didn't know, and needing - no, requiring - that knowledge.
How was this Will. The same Will he had known since he was five. The same Will he'd slept next to hundreds of times and not known the fire that existed within his body.
"Mike," Will whimpered again, into his mouth. The soft puffs of his breath as he spoke his name igniting even more desire inside Mike's blood.
"Fuck, Will... I - I.." Mike broke the kiss, needing air as he rested their foreheads together, jagged heavy breaths filling the space between them.
"What are we doing?" Will asked urgently, his voice broken and rough.
Mike didn't know. Couldn't have explained why he had kissed Will. All he knew in the haze of his mind was that he wanted to do it again. Never wanted to stop doing it.
So he did. Regathering Will's mouth quickly and rolling his hips again, relishing the tremble he felt shake through Will's body at the contact.
God, he was so close, so close to spilling inside his jeans from grinding like an animal against his best friend. But he couldn't stop it, couldn't bear to think of never tasting this again. Tasting Will.
"Mike," Will moaned shakily, "If you... if you don't stop.. I - I can't.."
"Me too," Mike gasped, dragging his cock hard against Will's and feeling the jolt straight through to his core. "Fuck, Will... I can't stop, I don't want to.."
To his surprise, Will surged against him again, his tongue delving harder and deeper as his own hips bucked now uncontrollably. Soft gasps of Mike's name falling from his lips every time they parted from the kiss.
Thrusting into Will again, Mike's body overloaded. White hot heat raced through him as his hips stuttered against Will, feeling Will clutch his ass hard and moan his name as his own body bucked in release. Warm fluid filling his jeans as wave after wave pulsed through him.
He realised he was biting Will's lip, releasing it as his body finally eased down, leaving a trembling, sticky mess of a man behind.
Suddenly the door swung open, blinding light pouring in from the hallway.
For a second Mike saw Will's face. His eyes were all pupil, his lips swollen and red with a tiny drop of blood where Mike's teeth had clenched down. His hair was a tangled mess and he was breathing rapidly - his eyes locked on Mike's.
"Holy fuck! You two certainly made the most of the time!" Stacey's voice broke the spell that had been holding Mike captive, and everything hit him with the force of a thousand bricks.
His arms dropped from Will's body, his eyes darting around in a panic.
What the hell had he done.
He flicked a glance to Will again. He looked like he'd been mauled by a wild animal, and he looked terrified again.
'Terrified of me' Mike though desperately.
He had to get out of there.
"Are you guys coming out any time soon or should we set the timer again?" Stacey asked mischievously, her voice slurring.
Panic now controlling him, Mike pushed past her, heading for the stairs as fast as he could. Distantly he heard Will's voice behind him, but he couldn't face him. Not after what he'd done.
Almost sprinting now, Mike opened the front door and fled into the night. His mind swirling with horror at himself. At what he had done. At how much he had loved it. How much he wanted to do it again.
Will's voice calling to him from the front door didn't manage to break through the spiral.
Nothing could.
The next two days, Mike hid.
He stayed locked in his room, the spiral in his mind consuming every part of him. Visions of Will like a trapped animal in the back of the closet, dancing through his brain and keeping his sanity from returning.
His mother knocked on the door occasionally, telling him someone was on the phone. He didn't speak. Couldn't bear to speak to anyone.
Finally he heard Will's voice through his door.
"Mike? Are you in there?"
A shiver of terror raced through him. Why was Will here. He couldn't face him. Not now. Maybe not ever.
Knowing if he saw Will he would want him again.
"Mike, please. Open the door and talk to me." Will's voice was broken, pleading.
He couldn't. His mouth was so dry he couldn't form words, couldn't speak.
He heard Will sigh outside the door.
"Goodbye Mike," he said softly.
Then his footsteps faded away down the hall.
Will was gone.
That evening his mother picked the lock on his door with a hairclip and broke in to his sanctuary.
She took one look at the broken boy huddled in the bed and crossed quickly to take him in her arms.
Finally, the tears came. Mike cried, heaving, racking sobs that tore through his weak body like claws. Tearing him apart.
His mother held him the whole time, soothing him with words and soft touches with her hands.
Eventually the tears stopped, and with them released, Mike's mind regained its clarity.
"Mom.... I - I think... I know... I'm gay," he whispered. The sudden concrete knowledge of it filling his brain and easing the jagged edges of his frayed soul.
She kissed him, hugged him. Said all the things he needed to hear.
And all the while the truth danced through his mind like a stadium floodlight in the night sky.
Now he needed to talk to the person who had made him realise this truth.
He needed to talk to Will.
After having his first shower in a number of days, then wolfing down a plate of food his mother pulled together, he went to the basement so he could talk in private.
Dialling Will's number his heart began to race again.
What if Will was in fact angry about the closet. Or about how he'd ignored him earlier. What if he was too late.
"Hello," Joyce's soft voice came through the phone, halting his momentary spiral.
"Uh, hi Joyce, is Will there?" He asked, trying to keep his voice steady as the nerves threatened to take over.
"Mike? Is that you? He's gone honey - he said he was coming to say goodbye to you earlier today."
Gone.
Fuck - what day even was it?
"Gone?" He repeated shakily.
"Yeah, we just got back from taking him to the airport. He flew out not long ago for Seattle."
Mike's heart stopped. He slid down the wall, the phone receiver still held loosely in his hand.
He was too late. Will was gone.
And it was his fault.