Chapter Text
Mike sat cross-legged on his yoga mat, awkwardly adjusting his footing. He couldn’t figure out how to criss-cross his long, spindly legs into a position that was comfortable, continuously switching his left foot from resting on top of his right thigh to wedging it somewhere underneath.
This is so fucking stupid, Mike thought to himself, fidgeting his bony ass on the thin mat. The ground is rock hard even with this cheap ass mat, why do people do this? Isn’t this why chairs were invented? I’m gonna end up with bruises just from sitting. He let out a dramatic sigh, pushing his overgrown black curls out of his eyes and glancing over at Will. Calm, zen-ed out Will who was currently imitating a freaking monk, legs criss-crossed and body completely still, his eyes closed lightly.
“Psssst,” Mike whispered not quietly. “How much time do we have left in this stupid class anyway?” Will cracked one eye open.
“50 minutes, Mike. Class hasn’t even started yet.”
Mike let out another sigh, glancing impatiently around the room. They were set up in the Bill Garrett Fieldhouse, one of the old, moldy gyms on campus. The yoga students were spread out in one of the basket courts, yoga mats placed in a large circle in the center of the room. In a class of about 30 people, there was a large variety of students. The far majority were girls, future yoga moms in the making who brought their own pre-bought yoga mats and water bottles, decked out in yoga pants and sports bras likely fresh off the rack from some pretentious, over-priced fitness store. Ponytails high, cleavage popping out and pants tight across their perky asses, this was the one upside to signing up for this godforsaken class. At least Mike could get a good view while he was being tortured for 50 minutes on a weekly basis.
Among the girls were Max and El, seated to the right of Will, also cross-legged but instead of taking their own silent poses were whispering excitedly to each other. Unlike the yoga-moms-to-be, they were dressed in much more casual attire. Max wore a comfortable looking set of black joggers and a cropped Indiana University Class of 1993 T-Shirt, red hair tied up in a messy bun. El wore a similar pair of grey joggers and a black and pink sports bra, hair tied half up and falling across her shoulders.
The four of them were convinced by Will to sign up for the class, an interest he had apparently retained since his days in Lenora. “I’m telling you guys, Argyle was the biggest yogi, and he would tell me how grounded and centered it would make you. No wonder he was so zoned out all the time. Well, yes, I’m sure from the Purple Palm Tree Delight, but the yoga too! He even taught me some of the basics - Savasana, Sun Salutation, really simple stuff. But it’s so beneficial - good for your blood flow and flexibility and quiets the mind… Plus it’ll just be fun to take a class together!”
Max and El didn’t need much convincing. Their first semester of freshman year was loaded down with some of the toughest pre-requisite classes, both being STEM majors. El was majoring in Biology and Max in Chemistry, and both of them had already experienced the dread and devastation of Organic Chemistry I. After endless late nights in the library and just barely scraping by with passing grades, they were trying to lighten their loads a bit in the spring semester. Mike, on the other hand, who was just looking to fulfill his Physical Education requirement, was simultaneously being pulled by Lucas to take basketball with him.
“You want to lounge around with the fruits and nuts and use our in-state tuition to learn to stretch? Come on man, I’ve been dying to get you to shoot some hoops with me since Hawkins, and you could use some muscle on those skinny bones!”
“Lucas, you know tuition was comped by the government for our entire Senior class, literally everything we take is free,” Max gave him a shove. “Come on Mike, you don’t need a class to pass a ball around. Bro out with Lucas on the weekend and take a class with us for a change, you see him in all your lame-ass business classes anyway.” Mike had to see the logic in that - with Mike being an Accounting major and Lucas double majoring in Entrepreneurship and Computer Science, they basically had the same course load first semester.
“I don’t know, I’d take neither if I could, but I need to get this fucking PE credit out of the way… Doesn’t saving the world from inter-dimensional lifeforms bent on destruction count for that?” He sighed, and Will chuckled. Mike glanced over, shooting him a sideways grin.
“Max has a point, it would be fun to actually have a class together for once.” Will ran a hand through his hair, eyes glancing to the side like he did when he was pretending not to care but really cared a lot and just didn’t want to say it. “But, ya know, it’s okay if you don’t think you can handle it. You’d probably drop out after the first class anyway, yoga is a lot more complicated than just throwing a ball around.” And that settled that. Even though the logic didn’t really line up - he and Will were roommates and saw each other all the time - Mike couldn’t resist a challenge.
And that’s how he ended up in this stinky gym on this hard floor with a developing bruise on his tailbone.
The rest of the students in the room were a random assortment obviously just trying to get their Physical Education credit covered as well. Some big, beefy football players still wearing their gym shoes, standing on their yoga mats looking like they had no idea how they even got in the room. There was a handful of other guys that Mike recognized from his intro business courses, also looking uncomfortable but not quite as out of place as the football guys. Like Mike, they had borrowed the school yoga mats from the gym closet and seemed just as frustrated trying to get in a comfortable position.
Mike glanced back at Will, his eyes back to closed and still settled in his criss-cross position, hands resting lightly on top of his knees, looking like the picture perfect student. He wore black gym shorts and a grey The Clash T-shirt that hugged his chest and arms tightly, a well-worn piece from early high school that he had outgrown after putting on a bit of muscle. Going into first semester of college, he had finally decided to age out of his traditional bowl cut and his hair now resembled something somewhat fashionable, hair sweeping across his forehead in tender brown locks. It really suited him.
Honestly, college in general really suited Will. As an art major, Will had almost immediately found his people on campus. Creative, freewheeling types that were as open and honest with their emotions as they were in their art pieces, Will seemed to finally find a group where he could let his true self shine. Not that he wasn’t himself around Mike, he repeatedly assured him that of that. But it was nice for other people to see who he could truly be when he wasn’t pushing down his feelings to try and fit in in overly-conservative Hawkins. And not to mention the aforementioned inter-dimensional lifeforms bent on destruction and also, on the occasion, full-on possessing Will for several years. With that little hiccup behind them and a future open to any possibilities for the Party, Mike was just glad Will was finding a place to be himself.
There was also the whole piece of Will’s sexuality, something that hadn’t really been a topic of conversation since his coming out prior to their Final Battle with Vecna. After Will’s declaration and Mike’s reassurance of their best-friendship on top of the radio tower, the topic sort of got buried underneath the whole saving-the-world thing. But Mike was Will’s best friend and he was determined to not make it weird. So much so that upon receiving their housing registration for Indiana University, he immediately made the decision for the two of them and signed himself up to be Will’s roommate in the dorms, affirming his dedication to his friend and the absurdity of feeling any sort of discomfort at sharing a dorm room a gay person. Not that it would be any different from sharing a room when they had sleepovers in Mike’s basement, or, on the occasion, sharing Mike’s bed when the basement got too cold in the winter. They had just let things carry on as usual, organizing DnD campaigns and enjoying their last year of high school together, supernatural phenomenon behind them. The topic of Will’s sexuality never really came back up.
That is, until they got to college and Will’s new group of art major friends showcased more and more that they were not in Hawkins anymore. Each week would bring new and colorful people arriving at their dorm door - girls with hair dyed every color of the rainbow, guys with beanies and tattoos decorating their arms, and every kind of piercing you could imagine. Mike didn’t even know some people got those body parts pierced with a needle.
In comparison, the business school students were drab and plain, always interview ready with their conventionally colored hair and business suits they often had to wear to class on presentation day. Not that Mike minded either way, he’d managed to make some good, non-pretentious friends in class that he could study with and enjoyed making conversations about various art projects on the weekends with Will’s friends. It was a great balance, just like college should be.
In the back of his mind, Mike always wondered if Will was interested in any of the colorful guys that would stop by their room. He didn’t even know if any of them were gay - it’s not like they wore buttons declaring their sexuality to the world. And so far, Will didn’t seem too attached to anyone in particular, different people floating in and out as his social circle expanded. With newfound confidence and a major that aligned with what he loved, Will drew in anyone and everyone like a freaking magnet, his laughter loud and bright as he studied with friends in their dorm room or smiled at a joke over a red solo cup at a party.
Mike’s thoughts were interrupted as the gym doors slammed open, a tall, lean man striding in. Shoulder-length, dark hair with a slight curl flowing and a long stride, he almost kind of resembled…
“Holy shit, Californian Wheeler?” Max whispered to his right, erupting into giggles with El. Will opened his eyes and surveyed the man up and down, a small grin pulling on his lips.
“I mean… you’re not exactly wrong… he does kind of have an older Mike look to him…”
Mike scoffed, he really didn’t look that much like him. Mike would never wear shorts that short. And the tank top he was sporting rode just above his midline, fitting tightly in ways that Mike would never dare be seen in outside of the privacy of his bedroom.
“Namaste class, apologies for the late arrival, someone wrote the wrong wrong room number on my schedule. They really need to get their shit together… typical Indiana…” The man muttered under his breath, making his way through the circle of mats and setting in an open spot. He whipped open his bright purple matt and took a moment to arrange his bags next to him, knocking over his water bottle in the process.
“Same Wheeler clumsiness too,” Max whispered again, another eruption of giggles from her and El following. Mike frowned - he was not that clumsy. Maybe he had a tendency to trip up the stairs in Ballantine Hall, but who wouldn’t in that deathtrap of a stairwell! And he had only spilled the entire contents of his bag once during one of those falls, unfortunately with the luck of Max following closely behind him and cackling at his misfortune.
“I see we all have our mats out, that’s good. And a friendly reminder, as you would have read in your syllabus, that yoga is a shoe and sock free exercise,” the man said as he picked up his water bottle and attempted to sop up the water with an extra shirt from his bag, eyes making daggers at the football guys. They quickly exchanged glances and rushed to remove their socks and shoes, tossing them into the center of the circle and narrowly missing a few girls in the process. The man sighed.
“Oh this will be a long semester… okay! Welcome to Yoga 101. I will be your instructor this semester, Carlton. My roots are in sunny southern California in a quaint little city called San Diego. I have been a certified yoga instructor for 10 years now and previously taught at UC San Diego. That is, until my bitch of an ex-boyfriend kicked me out and sent me packing to the first relative I could find with free housing…” He muttered under his breath, then quickly forced a beaming smile on his face. “And I’ve now found myself with you lovely people, ready to bring some yoga expertise to this midwest cultural wasteland.”
The students in the room all exchanged glances, nervously wondering what they hell they signed up for. Was this guy for real? Mike glanced at Will, his body stiff with tension as he took in their instructor, his eyebrows worrying. Maybe they should have signed up for basketball with Lucas after all…?
Carlton took a deep breath and closed his eyes, hands coming in front of him like he was praying. He inhaled deeply and let out a large breath of air, seeming to settle himself. When he opened his eyes, his demeanor completely changed and a peaceful smile settled on his lips.
“Now, let’s begin our practice. Everyone who is seated, rise to your feat and lets start in Prayer Position.”
The room paused for a moment, then everyone rushed to their feet, mirroring the pose that Carlton held. Feet together, back straight, hands held together like a prayer in front of his chest.
“Breath is the center of all yoga practice. In the yogic tradition, the breath is seen as the outward manifestation of prana, or vital energy, Gaining control of the breath by practicing breathing exercising - or pranayama - increases the flow of prana through the body, recharging the body and mind. Now, everyone take deep breaths with me to center yourselves. In through your nose and out through your mouth is best practice, if you’re able. Let’s begin. Inhale…” The sound of wheezing breath filled the room, some student’s noses pulling in a sniffle of congestion, classic back-to-school case of the sniffles. “And exhale…” A large whoosh of air surrounded Mike as the room of 30 people all let out a sigh at once, some of the football players making their exhales especially dramatic and letting out snorts. Mike rolled his eyes - idiots.
They repeated the basic breathing a few times, each repetition getting less chaotic in the room and more controlled as the class settled in. By the fifth round, a hush fell over the class as everyone seemed to be at ease.
“Great… now, yoga breathing exercises focus specifically on opening two major nadis - the pingala nadi, corresponding with the right nostril, and the ida nadi, corresponding with the left. This strengthens the flow of prana in them when we exercise both equally. Everyone reach your dominant hand up to your nose, and let’s practice breathing into each nostril respectively, opening both nadis with equal practice.”
Glancing around the room to make sure he didn’t look stupid, Mike brought his hand up to his nose, pressing one side closed and breathing in. The rest of the class did the same, also looking hesitant.
Carlton led them through variations of the breathing exercises, having them press one side of their nose down, then the other, then going through different types of mouth breathing with a hand on the stomach. Wow, what a great class, Mike thought. Teaching us how to breathe. What an important skill I didn’t already have for my entire life, so glad I’m spending my comped non-tuition money on this load of garbage.
After what seemed like a lifetime of practicing breathing Carlton finally opened his eyes, looking around the room. “Excellent work class, the breath is the foundation of the soul, and this will give you a great center as we start our practice.” He looked at his watch, eyes widening.
“Well, that may be all we have time for today,” Seriously?? “But before you go, please come grab a schedule for the semester as well as your text book. We’ll be working our way through the basic yoga forms, giving you a foundation for a complete practice, meditation styles, and enhanced lifestyle. We’ll continue the lesson when we next meet.” He brought his hands back to prayer position in front of his chest, bowing lowly. “Namaste.”
The class looked around hesitantly. Only Will, clearly the yoga expert from his abridged lessons with Argyle, mirrored Carlton and returning the bow and his own, “Namaste.” The class slowly followed suit, a ripple of “Namastes” flowing throughout the room.
Carlton rolled his eyes, his calm demeanor he held during class dropping as they disbanded. “Yeah… we’ll work on that.”
Mike picked up his mat, bringing it back to the gym closet with Max and El. They met back up with Will who had finished rolling up his own personal mat and walked together to grab their class calendar and textbook from Carlton. As Will grabbed his materials, Carlton dropped a hand onto his shoulder. Will looked up.
“Hey, great job today, I can spy a fellow yogi when I see one. What’s your name?”
“W-Will,” Will stammered, his cheeks turning slightly pink at the compliment. “I-I lived in California for a bit too, Lenora Hills.
“Ah Lenora! A great spot, not too far from SD at all. I’ll have to stop by the next time I’m back, that is if Chase ever let’s me come back to grab my stuff…Well, Will, keep it up. I’ll see you next week.” Carlton quickly patted Will on the shoulder before dropping his hand. Will shuffled to keep up with Mike, Max, and El, color continuing to rise up his cheeks.
“What’s up with that Byers?” Max teased once they were out of earshot. “Got yourself a little Californian boyfriend?”
“Shut up,” Will murmured, a small smile on his lips. “Argyle’s lessons must have made me seem like I knew what I was doing…”
“If you could even call those ‘lessons’,” El chimed in, bumping her hip with Max’s. “Who knows if any of what he taught you was even real yoga!”
“Whatever, I must’ve done something right,” Will chuckled, ducking his head. Mike frowned slightly, stomach dipping slightly at the topic of conversation. This guy was a teacher for Christ’s sake, what’s he doing grabbing students and making small talk like they’re buddies?
“Well, I thought that was a waste. An entire class spent just on teaching us how to breathe? Like, come on, might as well have had Argyle teaching us how to smoke rings up there, that would’ve been more useful.” Mike laughed, but he noticed Will frown.
“I thought it was kind of nice. Definitely a lot more relaxing than my double art studio courses. And like Carlton said, the breath is the foundation of all of yoga. We’ll probably get into more of the actual moves next time, we’ve got to start with the basics.”
“Hmm, yeah I guess…” Mike murmured, wanting to change the subject. “Hey, you got time before your next class to grab a bite at Reed? We can split a waffle, fuel you up after that invigorating class.” Will chuckled.
“Obviously I’m always up for a Reed waffle,” he bumped his shoulder into Mike. “But only if you let me add the pineapple topping this time.”
“Ugh EW you really did let California get to you, we are NOT disgracing our waffle with pineapple. I can’t believe you let that nasty shit touch your pizza too.” Will laughs and the four of them make their way down the sidewalk to the dining hall.