Chapter Text
“I was looking for answers in somebody else, but… I had all the answers. I just needed to stop being so goddamn scared. Scared of… who I really was”
Mike looked around, unsure of where Robin’s voice was coming from in the midst of the Demogorgons’ attack on the military base. He realized the familiar sound of static from the walkie and was about to radio a code red, when he heard another sound.
Swings, a playground, the sound of chatter and laughter from kids coming through the walkie and Mike stood confused as he wondered which of the party members had enough time to walk to a park, why it was so busy in the dead of night, and why they were there at all.
His confusion came to a halt when he heard another familiar voice through the static. “Do you want to be friends?”
He listened in awe as he recognized the voice of his younger self and placed the memory of the best thing he ever did, befriending Will Byers.
In all of this confusion he momentarily forgot about the monster above him as he listened to a handful of childhood memories with his best friend. Tears formed in his eyes.
This brought him back to another time, before monsters, before Eleven, before they grew up. Mike enjoyed the memory for a moment, then something else started to happen.
He thought it was a dream, but then the demogorgon before him began to rise up, struggling and looking like it was almost in pain. He looked over towards Will and saw an outstretched hand, his pupils white as snow.
“No…” Mike said aloud. It couldn’t be? Will thrust another hand forward, lowered his head, and pulled his arms in sharp and quick. Simultaneously, the bones on the monster above him began to bend into unnatural shapes before finally falling to the ground, seemingly dead. Holy shit.
He looked around, looking for another possible explanation. Maybe El saved them in the knick of time, just as she had when she came in looking like an MTV rock star years before? But Mike only saw Will.
Will, with his hair wet from sweat, a dazed expression fixed on his face, his eyes staring straight as his nose began to bleed. Holy shit, this was real. Mike’s breath hitched.
Will fell to his knees and wiped the blood from his nose, and it was as if time froze for Mike. He tried to wrap his head around the fact, but as he was processing the events, his best friend fell forward. The confused boy instantly snapped out of it and did the only thing he knew how to. He ran to Will and caught him before his head hit the floor.
As he held Will in his arms, it vaguely reminded him of the time El had collapsed in a similar way after fighting Billy outside the sauna, after their test.
He thought of all the times El had used her powers, and he realized how sometimes the walkie acted as speakers for what was happening in her mind. So did Robin’s voice, and the swings, come from… Will?
He looked down at the boy in his arms and thought how he had never seen his friend like this before. I mean sure, he had carried him through the hospital when his mind was possessed, but it hadn’t been like this.
He studied every detail of his face as if it would disappear if he looked away. The voice in his head kept screaming to get Will home, get him safe.
He picked up the unconscious boy and nodded to Mrs. Byers to follow his lead as he started for the tunnels again.
______________________________________________________________________
It had been a few hours since they arrived at the Wheelers, Mike figured it would be the best spot to lay low as no one was home, anyway. Will laid asleep on Mike’s bed while Mike sat on the floor beside, not wanting to let Will out of his sight.
The rest of the party was downstairs, with Mike practically having to push Mrs. Byers down the stairs to sleep on the couch so she could get rest too. He had promised her that he wouldn’t blink until Will woke up, and that she would be the first to know, and with these promises she laid on the basement couch and drifted off.
He looked up at the brunette and suddenly got flashbacks to a similar sleeping arrangement when the mindflayer had made its first appearance in Hawkins, something he had not thought about in a while. He remembered being cold in the house and not wanting to sleep just in case something had happened.
He would never have forgiven himself if Will needed him and he was asleep, so he resolved to stay awake no matter what. He remembered the uncertainty of not knowing what was wrong and he felt it again now as he watched his best friend’s breathing.
In… and out. In… and out. As he watched, mesmerized, he could hear Will’s heart. Listening to the quiet sound, he began to think about Will’s words a good few months back; how he thought Mike was the heart of the party, and the painting... he had wondered how accurate that statement was at the time, with him ditching the party for El the summer prior, and he silently hoped he had made up for it the past few months.
Ever since his mutual breakup, he had reflected on how he and Eleven had brought out the worst in each other the few years they were together. How Mike had become distanced from his best friends, how El had lost her whole sense of self in the relationship, the constant need for reassurance on both ends.
He cringed with the thought, and replaced it with a happier thought of how far they had all come in the last few months. He was no longer lying to himself about the nature of his love for her, and they had formed a good friendship from the platonic love they shared for one another.
More time passed and Mike’s eyes were starting to feel heavy, so he decided to grab a Walkman and play some music while he waited for Will to wake up.
They all had their designated cassette mixtapes, thanks to Steve and Robin’s new job at the radio station, and he looked for his tape around his room. With no luck, he decided to steal Will’s, thinking maybe Will could join him in listening once he was awake.
The Clash was first, as always, and Mike tapped his fingers to the beat as it started. He had never particularly liked the song, but he now associated it with being powerful enough for Will to get a message through the mindflayer, and that was good enough reason for him to tolerate it.
Darling you’ve got to let me know, should I stay or should I go?
His mind wandered back to the last time he heard this song, and how scared he was seeing his best friend tied to a chair and unable to speak with words. Good old Will the Wise, he thought, always finding a way to outsmart the villains.
He thought of his words to Will that day, the story he told of the fateful day on the swings. He stopped drumming, his mind now drifting to a more recent memory. Why was Will thinking of the day on the swings moments before he used his powers for the first time?
Mike knew that El had used a memory that angered her in order to access her powers in the past, was it the same for Will?
He was sick with the thought, and tried to push it out of his mind, but it was no use. Why would that memory make Will angry? Mike knew that their friendship wasn’t on the best of terms for a while, but he thought they had been doing better now?
He tried to pull up any recent memories of a fight, something that would hurt Will, but he did not land on anything recent. Their last big fight was…
Oh. Mike’s brain played a film reel of that day at the roller rink, followed by a cut scene to the pouring rain that summer. His heart swelled with guilt as he remembered how he had treated what was supposed to be his best friend. It’s not my fault you don’t like girls! We’re friends, we’re friends!
The words echoed in his mind, of course Will hated him! He was so horrible to him, choosing those words, knowing the things people said around town.
He tried to push the thought away, but it was proving useless as his mind kept flashing between the roller rink and the rain. Rink, rain, rink, rain, We’re friends and it’s not my fault you don’t like girls. Roller skate, running from El, biking to Will’s in the rain, Castle Byers, gone, It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!
Mike didn’t know the explicit truth of the rumors, but he knew how Lonnie used.. that word.. in the house growing up. Of course Will liked girls, he had to, right? He just hadn’t met “the one” yet, and that was okay! He began to think back to one of El’s letters, about the girl in California that Will had made a painting for.
He thought to bring it up again, maybe he could help Will contact her again after all the madness was over in Hawkins. His heart twinged at the thought, and he took it as a signal that he was just overwhelmed from all the events of the day.
The song came to a close and the next began as he considered the possibility of Will getting a girlfriend, and his mind did not know how to react. On one hand he only wished happiness for his friend, however there was a small part of him that felt… off.
He tried to imagine himself not being Will’s favorite person anymore. How someone else would be getting all of his drawings, they would no longer have midnight conversations over the walkies, he wouldn’t want to come over to play DnD anymore. Just the thought of it made him… oh god, he was going to be sick.
Mike clutched his stomach and quickly realized it was not his stomach that hurt, rather it was his chest. It felt like his heart was going to explode out of his chest and his sight shook. He was dizzy with emotion and didn’t know what else to do, he only knew that he needed to get out of this room.
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away
The song echoed in his head as he ran down the basement steps, immediately waking Will’s mom.
“Is he okay?” she asked with an edge in her voice, but Mike barely noticed and it sounded miles away as blood rushed through his head.
“Y-yeah, he’s still asleep” Mike replied, suddenly sounding winded.
“I just- um, air” he replied in a daze, pointing to the door as he made his way outside, while she ran upstairs to take Mike’s place.
Why did this thought make him so weary? He walked and listened to the music and tried to chalk it up to just caring about his friend and not wanting to lose him again. He forced himself to think about the first time he lost Will. The desperation, the hopelessness, the anger. It was just that again, right?
He thought about when they had found Will’s fake body, how mad he had been at the world, at Eleven. He remembered the euphoria he felt when she found him and he finally heard Will’s voice on the radio that night, after what seemed like an eternity of missing his best friend; he was so thankful to El, he could have… well, he could have kissed her.
Well, he did kiss her. Maybe not exactly then, but thinking back, it was a pivotal moment in their relationship. He thought back to their first kiss, in the cafeteria waiting for Will to return home with his mom and the chief. Will hadn’t left his mind all week, and he remembered how the anticipation of Will’s arrival was clouding his head.
How he had kissed Eleven only after she had found him in her mind. How happy he was that she had been able to find him, how grateful.
Mike remembered how everyone kept accusing him of liking her, how it confused his 12 year old mind, and he thought that he should like her, why not? After all, she was his very own superhero! And in the movies, the guy always kissed the girl first.
He remembered the tension, the confusion, the emotion. Was it possible that the kiss had nothing to do with Eleven at all?
No. He liked Eleven because she was nice, and pretty, and…
Going even further back in his memories, Mike thought back to the night in the woods, how he had seen El in the woods and thought it was..
No. No! Okay, maybe it wasn’t love at first sight, but he still fell in love when they had shared a conversation right?
He thought again back to that night, their first conversation, how she could barely speak a word to him. How he wanted to send her back to Pennhurst, but that was before she pointed out Will in the photo. If she hadn’t done that he would have never given her a second thought. The only reason they kept her around was… Will.
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away (cry to your soul)
Word Count: 2,319