Chapter Text
Mike’s perspective :
It had been four years since Mike had last seen Will. They’d barely even spoken on the phone since then. All he knew about Will was that he had just graduated from NYU and was now living in New York with his new boyfriend.
They both should’ve reached out more, Mike knew this, but a part of him wanted to be angry with Will, to blame him, or even that boyfriend of his. It was really stupid, but not as stupid as the fact that Mike was actually just about to get on a flight to New York.
Of everyone he knew: Nancy in Connecticut, His dad, still in Hawkins, even his mom in Florida, Mike chose to go all the way out to New York for Will.
Will, who he hadn’t spoken to since the end of high school. Will, who probably hated him for being such a shitty friend for so long. Will, who was in a fully committed relationship and already moved on with his life. Mike knew all of this, and he should’ve called beforehand, but it was too late. He was just about to miss his flight.
There wasn’t really that much of a time restraint, but Mike told himself he didn’t have time to call. The real reason he didn’t was because he was scared. He knew Will had every right to be angry with him, and he knew that Will would have a harder time turning him away in person after he packed up all of his belongings, which wasn’t much, and went to a whole different state.
If Mike couldn’t stay with Will, he would have to stay with someone in his family and he really really didn’t want to do that. His mom took Holly and a lot of money in the divorce, His dad was still a piece of shit, and Mike didn’t want to bother Nancy with another mouth to feed.
The only logical answer was Will. He had always been closer with Will than everyone else, well, for a while at least, and it was a great time to meet this new guy. Y’know make sure he was treating Will right. Or at least that’s how Mike justified it to himself.
He boarded the plane and got to his seat, which took a while because of the group of old ladies in front of him who all collectively had to get their glasses out to read their seat numbers on their tickets. Eventually he got past them and to his seat. He didn’t have a carry on because, like everything else he’d ever done, this was an impulsive decision and he just shoved everything he cared about into a suitcase. There were a couple outfits, a toothbrush, another pair of shoes, and his laptop case. The rest of his stuff he put into storage right before he got evicted.
Bills had gotten too much, and the writing gig was only good when he could think of things to write down. The only reason he could afford this plane ticket was because his mom sent him a huge check for his birthday last year. He’d been saving it for something big, but he guessed that having somewhere to stay was pretty important, and he wasn’t gonna stay in that hotel for more than one night.
It was already pretty late, and Mike was in a perpetual state of exhaustion, so he closed his eyes to hopefully catch up on some sleep, but sleep never came. Instead, his mind immediately went to the worst case scenario. What if Will shut him out? What would he do? There was no way he could afford a place in New York, and he couldn’t fly there just to fly right back. Stop thinking, he thought. There was no use in assuming the worst. There was nothing he could even do about it until it actually happened, and that is only if it actually happened.
Mike didn’t even realize that the person next to him was talking until she nudged his shoulder. “Huh?” He muttered, a bit annoyed. “Oh, sorry. Did I wake you up? I didn’t know if you were asleep or not. I just get nervous sometimes and start talking and talking. I don’t want to keep you awake. Sorry,” she was doing that same rambling thing that Mike did. He’d never seen it from an outside perspective. He almost felt bad for her. “It’s okay. I can’t sleep anyway.”
“Right? These seats are so uncomfortable!”
“Yea.”
“Anyway, what business do you have in New York?”
Mike explained that he was visiting an old friend, leaving out the part about going broke and having nowhere to stay. She told him that she was visiting some family who she hadn’t seen in a while. It was nice to talk with somebody at the same pace as him. He hadn’t really met anyone who would listen so intently, other than Will at least, but he mostly just nodded along silently.
The conversation eventually got onto the topic of the woman’s love life, to which Mike could not relate. She went on a tangent about relationship after relationship, Mike occasionally chipping in with a “no he didn’t” or “what!?” He kind of zoned out about halfway through, but could still follow the basic set of events. He tried to silence what was going on in his head, but no matter what he thought about, it came back. There was a very real possibility of Will hating him and that scared Mike more than it should’ve.
“Helloooo?” The woman dragged, “Are you okay?” Mike snapped back to reality so quickly he damn near got whiplash.
“Huh?”
The woman kept going, “I said are you okay? You just kinda zoned out.”
“Oh uh yea. Sorry, it's just been a long day.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Really sure?”
“No.”
“Okay… so what’s wrong then?”
Mike didn’t even know the answer to that question. Yea, he was technically homeless right now, and he was using pretty much the last of his money to fly multiple states away in order to stay with someone who he hadn’t seen in years, but there was also something else. He had felt it every time he thought about Will, which was almost constant. It felt almost like fear, but he couldn’t quite place it.
He didn’t even notice it when they were young. It was just Mike and Will, and it was great, but that summer when Will left changed things. Mike didn’t know how to be without Will and no matter how hard he tried, things never really went back to how they used to be.
“I mean, I guess I’m just worried. Like, what if I go all the way out here and he doesn’t even want to speak to me?”
“Your friend?”
“Yea. What if I show up and he slams the door in my face?”
“Well, I’m not saying that’s what’s gonna happen, but why do you think he would do that?”
“I’ve just been such a shit friend and I haven’t even reached out to say hi or anything. What if he hates me?” The woman went quiet for a moment, looking like she was thinking very hard about this. “So, you haven’t spoken to him yet? You’re just showing up to his doorstep without warning and hoping he’ll let you in?”
“Well, yes, but it’s not like that. I’m just-”
“Not like that?” she exclaimed, “It’s exactly like that!”
“Okay… It is like that, but I just… I didn’t have anywhere else to stay, okay? I’m going through a lot right now.”
“Wait, I'm confused. You’re staying with him? As in living with him?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but… I just lost my house, and I had nowhere else to go.” Mike lowered his voice to hopefully make it easier to say out loud.
“Oh. That’s really rough… I’m sorry, but don’t you have any family or other friends who are maybe… closer to you?”
Mike didn’t feel like explaining himself anymore, partly because he knew however he said it out loud would sound stupid. He sighed and closed his eyes, leaning back against the headrest.
“I mean I do, but it’s just different with him. It was an impulsive decision I admit, but I’m already on the plane. I can’t exactly back out now.”
There was silence. Mike opened his eyes to see the woman looking back at him with a trace of a grin on her face. “Different how?” she asked slowly.
“What?”
“You said ‘it’s just different’ with this specific friend. What does that mean?”
Mike knew he was the one who said it, but he still didn’t know what he meant by it. He stuttered a few times before he decided that saying nothing was better than trying to make something up.
“Well, I think,” the woman continued, “that you just don’t want to accept that you know what ‘different’ means.”
The silence that followed was only interrupted by another passenger a few rows away coughing. Mike wasn’t sure how to process any of that. He just stared, wide eyed and slack jawed, at the woman.
“What is that even supposed to mean?”
“What do you think it means?”
The realization hit Mike all at once. The reason Mike acted the way he did. The reason he felt guilty every moment he spent with El. The reason why, after all these years, he’d still not even thought about another relationship. Every moment of his life replayed in his mind from a new perspective.
He felt his heart clench at the words that still kept him up at night. It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!
The truth, no matter how much Mike didn’t want to know it, was finally revealed. Mike cycled through every other possibility he could conjure up in his mind, but none of them were so clearly right.
Mike liked Will. No, he really liked Will. More than he should.
Oh God. This is really bad. What could Mike even do? He was literally on the way to Will’s apartment that he shares with his boyfriend. How had he not seen it before? Friends? No thanks, best friends. Mike cringed at himself. What an asshole. He thought. He felt like his brain was about to implode.
The voice next to him started up again, “So… did ya’ figure it out yet orrr?”
“Yep. Nope, I got it,” Mike mumbled, looking at his hands where they fidgeted in his lap. Mike sat like that for a while, zoning out and spiraling internally, while the woman slowly dozed off.
Pretty soon Mike fell asleep too. Although he dreamed about Will. The same way he had since they went off to college. He wasn’t one to dream very frequently, but every time he did, it was somehow related to Will. Most of the time it was memories of the police pulling a body out of Lovers Lake. Other times it was just Will being so angry that he refused to see Mike.
This dream was different, though. It was kind of similar, in that Will was there. The difference was that there wasn’t a body and Will wasn’t exactly angry with Mike.
The whole dream felt so real. Mike could feel everything like it was actually happening. Will’s hands on him. His mouth on him. The way he moved his-
“We are beginning our descent,” the automated voice on the intercom blared, “Please safely stowaway any large carry on items and put up your tray tables, and thank you for flying with us.”
Mike blinked his eyes a few times, adjusting to the bright lights. His heart sank when he realized what this meant. He was almost to New York. Almost to Will. It was really bad, but Mike couldn’t help but feel a little excited to see Will. Okay, a lot excited. But that’s not the point.
Mike looked at the woman next to him. Her short hair a bit ruffled in the back and her big glasses falling off of her face a bit. She reminded him a bit of his dad when he would fall asleep on the recliner.
She was probably around her late 30s to early 40s, which seemed much older than Mike than it really was. He felt an odd sense of gratitude for her. While she did flip his whole world upside down in only a few sentences, she also shone a light on a part of Mike that he never even knew was there.
“Hey,” Mike whispered, nudging her shoulder, "We're landing soon. You should probably like… wake up.”
The woman jumped a bit, causing her glasses to fall fully off her face and into her hands. “Oh, uh yea,” she replied, putting her glasses back on. The plane was mostly silent for the rest of the flight, other than a few announcements made about the landing process.
When the plane finally landed, Mike thanked the woman for nothing in particular and rushed through the airport to get his suitcase back. He really hated being apart from his stuff.
By the way the sky looked outside of the windows, it was some time in the very early hours of the morning. Mike didn’t know what he was doing, but there wasn’t much time to think about it, as he was just getting into a cab.
He told the driver the address he had written on his hand- the means of how he got that address was no one’s business but his own- and finally stopped thinking about it. About Will.
He chose to, instead, think about a new novel idea he’d been trying to plan out. All he’d been able to think up was a setting and basic plot line. He still needed a setting, characters, and so many more details before he could even begin to write it.
He wanted it to take place in a fantastical world, far away from the real world. Mike never really liked writing reality. What was the point if he already lived it? So, he wrote of beautiful meadows with fairies and perfect kingdoms with talking trees and stuff, but he’d been too unmotivated to write any new storylines lately.
Even though he was looking directly out the window, he didn’t notice that it started raining until it was basically pouring down, making it almost impossible to see anything but colorful blobs outside.
Shit. He hadn’t planned for rain when he left Hawkins. His outfit was just sweats and a slightly oversized long sleeve shirt, which would undoubtedly stick to his skin if it got wet. He hated the feeling of wet fabric on his skin, but that’s not the biggest issue here.
Mike needed to get to Will’s place soon or he was going to have a very public breakdown. The ‘what if’s’ were running around his head again, causing complete panic to explode through Mike’s entire nervous system.
Almost as if the cab driver could read his mind, he spoke up, “Almost there. It’ll be about two minutes if traffic’s on my side today.” His voice sounded old and raspy, but the way he spoke calmed Mike down in a way. He nodded at the driver in the rear view mirror, and then looked back out of the window.
The cab pulled over in front of a small, but nice looking apartment complex. Small meaning compared to the surrounding buildings, but not really that small in general. The cab driver helped Mike get his bag from the trunk and then went on his way, leaving Mike standing on the sidewalk in the pouring rain.
He triple checked that he was at the right place before walking in the door to what looked to be a lobby, or maybe just a public seating area. Mike wasn’t very educated on apartment buildings. There seemed to be no one there, so Mike walked towards the door with a small staircase sign next to it.
According to the apartment number, Will lived on the fifth floor. Jesus Christ. Mike thought to himself, looking up the first set of stairs. He was never the most athletic person, but he continued anyway, shaking the whole way up.
He finally made it to the fifth floor and pushed the door open quickly. His legs were sore and his hand was starting to hurt where he was holding his bag, so instead of waiting at the top of the stairs to catch his breath, he trudged down the hallway.
Mike could feel his heart beat faster and faster, as the numbers started to get closer to Will’s place. He felt like throwing up a little bit, but he had no time for that. He was more worried about just getting somewhere he could sit down.
He stopped short in front of Will’s door, still catching his breath as he knocked quietly. He really hoped Will would open the door soon.