Work Text:
It was the night of the Snow Ball and the party was currently getting ready. Whether that be with pictures, the practice of asking someone to dance, or getting forced by your mother to help you get ready, they were all doing something.
The Byers house was full of love and teasing as Joyce attempted to put a tie on Will. She failed over and over again as Will would criticize how it looked constantly once she was done. It wasn’t that he wanted to be mean, it was just that she had no clue as to how to properly put on a tie.
Jonathan was across the room with a camera in hand recording this whole catastrophe. He laughed on the sidelines as Joyce shot him a look. “Jonathan, come on, just help—”
“I don’t know how!” He cuts in while laughing. “And someone’s got to document this failure.” Joyce rolls her eyes as she continues to struggle with the tie around Will’s neck. Will stands there patiently, waiting for his mother to finally figure it out.
Meanwhile at the Wheeler’s house, Mike was being bombarded by his mother for picture after picture. He had stood there for what felt like hours but were merely only minutes as his mother had him stand in various poses. With each picture, Mike became more irritated.
“Okay, okay, that’s enough mom.”
Karen wouldn’t stop despite the request. “Just one more—”
“No—” He tried to cut in.
“You just look so handsome.”
Mike groaned. “Mommmm.”
“Mikeee.” She replied, stretching out the ‘e’ as he had done the same with her name. Karen continues to snap a bunch of pictures as everyone else in their respective homes are still getting ready.
Over at the Sinclair household, Lucas is standing in front of his mirror messing with his suit in most definitely not a flirty way. He looks at himself as if staring at someone else in a loving way.
He smirks. “Hey, so… you wanna… dance?” He tries to say casually, but ultimately fails. He coughs, straightening himself back up before trying again in a more laid back tone. “Hey, maybe we should, you know, get out there. You and me?” He tries to deepen his voice to sound better. “I love this song. You?” He lifts his eyebrows in a way that seems as if he is attempting to flirt. He begins to hold out his hand as if trying to persuade the imaginary girl into dancing with him.
“Yeah! I love it!” Erica says in a high pitched voice from his doorway. Lucas immediately turns around in a fit of anger to find her standing at the entrance to his room. “But not as much as I love you, Lukeee!” She teases, dragging out the ‘e’.
“Get out of my room!” Lucas yells, walking over to slam the door.
On the other side of this lovely picture, Max is currently getting ready with her mother. She sits at the bathroom sink while her mom, Susan, is doing her hair from behind. She begins tugging at her hair as Max complains.
“Ow! That hurts!” She winces, grabbing at her pants as her mom begins pinning up her hair.
Her mom insists though. “It’s gonna be worth it. Promise.” She gives Max a slight smile before going back to working on her hair. A figure walks by the door to the bathroom, causing Max to glance over at them.
Billy was standing there, staring at Max with intense eyes. She stares right back at him, not allowing any sort of fear to show in her eyes. She wasn’t fearful. She was brave and ready to fight if needed. Billy seemed to give up after a few seconds before sauntering off past the door where Max could no longer see him.
“See!” Susan says, guiding Max’s attention toward her mother and her hair in the mirror. “Pretty!”
She shrugs. “Yeah, okay.”
“Now. Are you sure you don’t want to wear a dress?” Max glares at her mom before walking off into another room.
All the while, over at the Henderson household Dustin is currently rummaging around his house, attempting to find exactly what he had been looking for to complete his party ready look.
“Son of a b¡tch!” He complains, running into the kitchen and looking around at the counters.
His mom looks at him as she watches. “Where did you last see it?”
Dustin points toward the counter. “Right here where I put it.”
“What’s in there that’s so important anyway?” She asks, glancing over her shoulder to see if Dustin was still looking around. Dustin finally finds the hairspray he’s been looking for and rushes past his mom. “You look fabulous, baby!” She yells as he sprints up to his room.
“Got it.” He calls back before entering his room and staring at himself in the mirror as his mother calls up that his ride is here to pick him up. “Okay.” He takes a deep breath before spraying loads of hairspray into his hair.
~˙⋆ 𝜗ৎ ⋆˙~
Later that evening, the party is finally all together at the dance. Dustin is approaching the group with the utmost confidence when Lucas looks over in pure shock. “Holy sh¡t. What happened to you?” Lucas asks, staring directly at Dustin’s freshly sprayed hairstyle.
“What do you mean, ‘What happened’?”
Max laughs. “Dude.”
Will cuts in to point out the obvious. “Your hair.”
“Is there a bird nesting in there?” Lucas asks with a loud cackle.
“There’s no bird nesting in here, ɑsshole. Okay?”
Suddenly, slow romantic music begins playing in the background as people start dancing slowly with one another on the dance floor. Lucas turns to Max and coughs loudly. “Max…” He says, gaining her attention. “Hey. Um… it’s nice, right? You want to, um… you want to, like… you know? Like, just you and me?” He completely messes up his words as Max grins at him.
“Are you trying to ask me to dance, stalker?” She asks teasingly.
“No, of course not… unless you want to.”
She chuckles some more before saying, ”So smooth. Come on.” Max drags Lucas on to the dance floor, leaving Will, Mike, and Dustin behind. The three of them stand there for a little while before a cute girl begins to approach them.
“Hey, Zombie Boy.” She says, gesturing toward Will. His eyes light up as he faces her. “Do you want to dance?” She asks.
Will begins to stutter over his words, “Um… I don’t…” he glances over at Mike who is trying to convince him to take the offer. Will doesn’t let his guard down though. “No… thanks. I’m sorry.” The girl gives him a glare before walking off back to her group of friends, presumably going to complain about the sudden rejection.
“Dude!” Mike says, tapping Will on the shoulder. “Why didn’t you say yes?”
Will shrugged. “I don’t really feel like dancing. She also made me feel… uneasy?” Will walked away from Mike and Dustin to sit down at the table behind them. Meanwhile, Dustin turned to look at Mike with a smirk.
“Wish me luck, Mike. I’m going in.” He nudges him on the shoulder before walking over to a group of girls chit chatting with one another. Mike smiles at Dustin as he turns to sit next to Will at the table, leaving the two completely alone with one another.
On the other hand, Dustin was going in to ask Stacy to dance with him. “Stacy.” He said as she continued speaking with her friends as if he didn’t exist.
“He just broke up with Jennifer. Plus he’s, like, not my type.”
Dustin cleared his throat. “Stacy.”
She finally turned to look at him. “Yeah?”
“Shall we?” He asked, extending his arm out.
Her mouth opens in shock as she scoffs out a laugh. “Um, no thanks.” The girls around her laugh as Dustin retreats from the group, heading toward the bleachers as various other students look at him through the crowd. Dustin ends up on the edge of the bleachers watching all the other students laugh and have a good time.
Seconds later, a figure comes into his view extending their arm out to him. “You look lonely. Want to dance?” He looks up to find El standing in front of him.
“Oh. Hey, El. Why would you want to dance with me? Don’t you have Mike?”
She frowns. “Me and Mike are no longer like that. And we are friends, yes? Friends stick with friends.” She turns her frown around once more and extends her arm more firmly this time. “Come on.”
Dustin smiles while taking her hand in his as the two head out onto the dance floor. When they stand in the midst of everyone else, Dustin guides El’s hands onto his shoulders as he places his own hands on the area above her hips, so as not to be rude or create any weird and unnecessary tension.
“I don’t know how to dance.” She says, gently swaying to the soft, slow music. Dustin chuckles.
“Yeah, me neither honestly. I don’t really hang out with girls much, only the guys.” He shrugs while still having his hands above her waist.
El smiles. “Good thing I’m here to teach you.”
“Yeah. You’re a great friend El. I’m glad the party got to meet you.”
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Come on. Keep dancing.” The two continue swaying to the music, laughing and having fun. Just two rowdy friends joking with one another without a care in the world. On the other side of the dance though, Mike and Will were still sitting together at the table, silence filling the air between them.
“Looks like Dustin is dancing with El.” Will points out, gesturing over to the two of them with the nod of his head.
Mike squints, seeing them after a few seconds of looking. “Oh yeah.” He smiles seeing the interaction. “You know, I’m actually glad me and El broke up.” Will looks at him and tilts his head in question. “Well, I mean I’m glad she’s being given more opportunities. I guess it was pretty stupid of me to date her right after she escaped an entire lab. But I’m glad she’s able to have fun with the rest of the group now. I think I was holding her back.”
“Don’t think of it like that Mike.” Will says from beside him, looking at him with comforting eyes. “Think of it as… you were just letting her experience more about the world.”
He shrugs. “I guess. I’m just glad she and Dustin are talking a lot more now. I think I was holding her back from forming those important friendships with other people. She looks happy.”
Will frowns at him, yet there’s a hint of care in his eyes. “Are you happy, Mike?” Mike looks over at him in the eyes.
He smiles. “Yeah. I am. I still have the party, and El’s still a part of my life. And I mean, I have you as well.” Will’s heart beats at the sound of Mike mentioning him. “I couldn’t ask for anything better.”
Without thinking, Mike says something completely off the rails. “You know, I don’t even think I ever loved El the way I love you.” Both boys widen their eyes as Mike tries to play it off. “Well— I um… what I mean is— I—”
Will starts chuckling softly as Mike’s face slowly turns red. “Mike.” Will says, making the flustered boy look him in the eyes. “I feel the same way.”
Mike’s saddened expression turns around. “Really?” He asks as Will nods his head. “A-and you’re not just joking?”
“Would I really be one to joke about this?” Will smiled sweetly at him, reassuring him with that smile Mike knew all too well.
He smiled in return and got up from his seat, lending a hand to Will. “Shall we dance then?”
Will hesitated, hovering his hand over Mike’s. “Aren’t you um… worried?”
Mike shrugged. “I mean of course I am. But I would do anything to dance with you right now.”
“Okay then,” he says, taking Mike’s hand in his. “Lead the way.” Mike grabs his hand and drags him out to the dance floor. They get a few weird glances from some kids, but most of them are too busy dancing to notice the two boys. Mike and Will find themselves at the side of the crowd next to where Dustin was sitting on the bleachers moments before. The two stand awkwardly there for a few seconds before Mike grabs both of Will’s hands and guides them up to his shoulders. The taller boy then guides his own hands down to the shorter one’s hips and gently places them, gripping tight enough to hold on. They sway back and forth slowly as the song continues to echo throughout the entire gymnasium.
“How long?” Will asks as Mike raises his eyebrows. “How long have you… felt this way?”
Mike thinks for a moment. “I can’t pin the exact time,” He states, “But I think since the day I met you. When I first laid eyes on you on that swingset.” Mike sighs into a smile. “Obviously I didn’t realize it until El and I broke up, but there has definitely always been something there.”
“I’ve loved you since the day we met.” Will says, smiling in response. “I just… never thought you’d feel the same.” Mike began to remember the day where his feelings became noticeable.
The day that the snowball turned into an avalanche.
They continued to sway to the music, back and forth as Will rested his head on Mike’s chest. Mike pulled him closer, not wanting to let go of whatever they had with one another now. It was fresh, delicate, and fragile. Mike didn’t want to ruin the one chance he had at a real relationship. Because this one felt real. Mike knew it was real. His feelings were more than real. “Will.” He said as the boy in front raised his head up to look at him. “Can I kiss you?”
Will’s face immediately flushed. “I— um… here—?”
Mike smiled before dragging him away from the group of dancing teens, and into a secluded location on the side of the bleachers. Surprisingly, there were no other kids hiding here to swap spit with each other, so Mike and Will had their privacy to themselves.
“How about here?” Mike asked, smirking and all.
Will was surprised at how confident Mike had suddenly turned to be only after minutes of confessing their feelings to one another. He smiled regardless. “Perfect.” With that, Mike gently cupped Will’s face in his hands and moved his lips to his. Their mouths collided for a second, yet it felt like years of unspoken truths.
“Your lips are soft.” Mike said, still cupping Will’s face. Will smiled before pulling Mike into a longer kiss, one that lasted merely only seconds longer. God forbid two teenage boys begin making out behind a set of bleachers.
Will smiled after pulling back. “I so wish I could have kissed you sooner.”
“Says you. I wish I could have realized my feelings for you sooner. We could have been doing this already a long time ago.”
He chuckles at Mike’s response. “Now come on,” he grabs Mike’s hand in his and gently drags him away from the bleachers, “The party is probably wondering where we are.”
“But I don’t wanna go find them, I wanna stay with you.” Mike pouts, sticking out his lips. Will turns around to quickly kiss them, catching a stunned Mike off guard.
“There. You got another kiss. Now come on!” Will says while chuckling at Mike’s expression.
The two head out from the bleachers to find the rest of the party back at the table. When they arrive, and the party asks where they had been, they simply reply with, “Nowhere”, and leave it at that. The party doesn’t push anymore questions on to them as they continue chatting like nothing ever happened. Mike and Will take a seat at the table next to each other, and quickly interlace their fingers together under the table.
Those two would have many more adventures to come in the near future. But at least they would have each other through it all.