Chapter Text
It starts with an itch.
Mike does not even notice it at first. His brain and his body seem to be frozen to the moment Chief Hopper told them Will is missing. The only thought in Mike’s head is find Will. The only problem is no adult in his life will listen to him.
He starts scratching at it without even noticing, rubbing his hand over the fabric of his sleeve while his mind goes over every minute detail of the last time he saw Will and what little he knows that happened after, which basically amounts to Dustin saying he raced Will to his house and Will won. Mike is not surprised by this in the slightest, Will has always been very fast.
“Honey, are you okay?” His mom asks at one point during dinner, which is frankly the stupidest question Mike has ever heard because Will is missing so of course Mike is not okay. He completely misses the fact that she pointed to his right arm while asking and the conversation devolves from there, ending with Mike storming away from the dinner table.
He first consciously notices the itch while he is in the basement talking to Lucas over the radio. With a huff he rolls the sleeve up until he uncovers his forearm. The scar tissue starts just below his wrist and extends up to his elbow on the inside of his right forearm, a slightly darker patch of skin which is especially smooth to the touch. It has been there ever since Mike can remember and tonight it has taken a faint red hue accompanied by the itching sensation that has been bothering him for some time now.
Mike frowns, trying to remember if he accidentally touched something that might have caused this kind of inflammation and coming up empty. He turns his arm to inspect the other side but finds it completely normal. His eyes land on his watch though, spurring him into action. He does not have time for this, he needs to meet up with Lucas and Dustin to go find Will. He tugs his sleeve back in its place and decides that whatever it is, it will have to wait.
The itchiness never lets up.
It becomes the most annoying thing when all Mike needs is to concentrate on finding Will. He tries everything he can think of to get rid of the inflammation all while juggling hiding El from his parents and sneaking out of the house at all hours. He tries applying soothing cream, he tries cleaning the skin with soap and disinfectant but nothing helps. The itch only gets worse, the skin redder and warmer, until it starts being actually painful. At one point Mike ends up wasting a bag of peas he stole from the freezer just to have some brief relief from the mounting pain.
El looks at him weirdly as he lies on the couch in the basement groaning in relief at the cold seeping into his skin.
“Are you hurt?” She asks.
“No,” he says, then after a hesitation continues, “I don’t know. I think I touched something that irritated my skin and it’s been bothering me ever since,” he momentarily removes the bag of peas to show her his reddened skin. Some darker spots have started appearing in the last few hours and Mike prays that he does not end up needing to go to the doctor for this. There is no time for crap like this when Will’s life is on the line.
“What is that?” El asks, indicating with her finger the borders of Mike’s scar tissue.
“Oh, that’s just my soulmark scar.”
She frowns, “Soulmark?”
Mike nods, “Yeah. This is where the name of my soulmate will appear. You know, once I’m older and I’ve actually met them. Do you have one? Most people do.”
El looks confused for a moment, then she tugs at the collar of her shirt, revealing a patch of scar tissue over her left collarbone, “Like this?”
“Yes, that’s exactly it,” Mike confirms and places the bag of peas back on his forearm.
“A name will appear here?” El asks.
“The name of your soulmate.”
“What’s a soulmate?”
“A soulmate is like the most important person in your life. They complete you and you never want to be apart from them. They love you more than anyone else and you love them back.”
El looks at him like he just sprung a set of antennas from his head.
“I know it sounds super mushy,” Mike says, “But there are amazing stories about famous soulmates who, like, made the world better because they met each other and did great things together. I could show you a book about it. Anyway, the way it was explained in school is that the name is supposed to appear only after you’ve actually met them, like it’s a confirmation of a bond you should already feel. But nobody knows how long after first meeting them it will happen because it changes from person to person. Apparently there are records of names appearing after only one day and others taking years to appear. There are a lot of theories about what influences it, like age and other stuff but nobody really knows for sure yet.”
“Is that what is happening to you?” El asks, pointing to Mike’s arm.
“What? No, of course not–” he drops his eyes to the melting bag of peas.
Shit.
That cannot be it.
Mike does not have time for this.
The night Will’s body is discovered in the water at the quarry, the itching stops.
Mike is so busy the whole day that he does not notice it subsiding slowly and then his mind and body are reeling with so much pain overflowing from every pore that he cannot feel anything else.
He barely remembers the ride back home in the dark, tears filling his eyes as he tries to escape the image of Will’s lifeless body. He sobs in his mother’s arms until he can barely stand on his feet and does not complain when she guides him to his bedroom.
Mike sits on the bed and stares at nothing.
“You should try to get some sleep,” his mother softly encourages, “Do you want help changing?”
Mike shakes his head and she reluctantly leaves the room. He kicks his shoes off and lies down on the bed over the covers, with his bedside lamp still on.
He feels empty, spent from all the crying, and numb, torn between disbelief and despair at the awful reality he witnessed.This is when he realizes the lack of physical pain, specifically in his right arm. As if on autopilot he tugs the sleeve up and freezes.
The skin is still pink but the darker spots that had started appearing have now taken a clear unified form in a hue similar to that of his freckles, spelling out the name William Byers on his skin.
A sound that belongs to a wounded animal escapes Mike’s lips as he curls up on his side, gripping his forearm to his chest and squeezing his eyes shut against a new wave of tears.
He trembles, shaken by sobs, for what feels like hours until a thought pierces the haze of his pain.
The name only appears if your soulmate is alive.
Mike barely remembers the explanation in his Health class but it had something to do with a biological trigger, which also explained why the name only appeared after actually meeting the other person, never before.
The name will not develop if the other person is dead.
Which means Will must be alive.
“Will is alive!” Mike announces to El when he storms into the basement.
She looks at him with wide eyes from where she is sitting in her blanket fort, fiddling with the radio.
“I know,” El says in a low tone.
Mike gapes, “You know? What do you mean you know? How?”
El keeps fiddling with the radio in silence.
“El? How do you know?”
That is when Mike hears it. At first it is just a breath and then Will’s voice comes in, singing his current favorite song. The weird one Mike only likes because Will likes it.
Mike grabs the radio and tries to hail Will but the connection fades. He watches as El cleans the blood from her face.
“How did you know?” She asks, eyes boring into him.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Mike,” El says, tone surprisingly stern for such a small person.
“If I tell you, do you swear you’ll never say a word about it to anyone? Not even Lucas or Dustin. Not even under torture.”
El widens her eyes but nods nonetheless, “I promise.”
Mike visibly hesitates for a few seconds before finally tugging up his sleeve and showing El the inside of his right arm, where the name William Byers marks his skin.
El looks at it for a moment, then looks back at Mike. Mike tugs his shirt sleeve back down, making sure his forearm is fully covered.
“Isn’t it a good thing?”
“Of course! This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me!”
“So why can’t we say anything?”
“Because. I want to be the one telling him about this. About me,” he feels himself blush at the thought, heartbeat speeding up as his mind cannot help but conjure up an image of Will, looking up at Mike with his beautiful hazel eyes while Mike stumbles over his words trying to tell him.
Mike is not sure when he started thinking of Will as beautiful but he guesses the thought must have always been there, he just had not spent too much time dwelling on it yet.
“Are you nervous?” El asks, tilting her head to the side and somehow guessing exactly the latest addition to Mike’s many current feelings.
Mike nods, buzzing with renewed energy, “I need to find him.”
Mike rummages through his drawers frantically. He knows they must be here somewhere, he definitely remembers his mother putting them in one of his drawers just in case he wanted to use them. He lets out a triumphant noise when he finds what he is looking for at the back of his bottom drawer and pulls one out. A sleeve to cover his forearm.
Mike has never bothered covering up his mark before, but now that his name has come in, he suddenly understands the need to cover it up. He does not want to showcase to just anyone the most important part of himself, especially when he has not had a chance to talk to Will yet. A small smile blossoms on his face at the thought and his heartbeat picks up a bit.
Mike cannot wait to find Will, both because he misses him like crazy and needs to see with his own eyes that Will is fine, but especially because now that he knows for sure that they are soulmates Mike has realized something very important that he wants Will to know too. Because the truth of the matter is that Mike has been hoping for Will to be his soulmate practically ever since he knew what a soulmate was, but he has always been scared to admit it out loud and sometimes even to himself, for fear of being disappointed or worse, rejected.
Now that it is true, he needs Will to know how much Mike has always wanted this, he needs to see it confirmed on Will’s skin and feel it under his fingertips. He needs to hold Will in his arms and promise him that nothing will separate them ever again.
In the hospital Mike makes sure to wear his hoodie the whole time. The waiting room is packed full of people and the last thing he needs right now is anyone noticing him suddenly wearing a cover up sleeve and making a big deal out of it.
When they are finally allowed to see Will, Mike rushes in and his face splits into the biggest grin at the sight of Will looking back at him, smiling. Mike is so excited that he ends up faceplanting on Will’s chest instead of hugging him, but he loves the way he gets to hear the laugh bubble up in Will’s chest and feels it rise and tremble with it under his ear.
He steps back just enough to let the others greet Will but his fingers move almost of their own accord, finding Will’s wrist and lightly caressing his skin. Lucas and Dustin start talking excitedly about everything that happened but Mike does not register a single word of it. His eyes widen when his fingertips meet the smooth skin of Will’s soulmark on the inside of his left forearm. Will has covered up his soulmark almost all his life and Mike is startled to feel it bare now. Will looks at him then and their eyes lock. Mike feels like time slows down for a long moment, until Dustin says something that gets Will’s attention away from him.
Mike’s gaze drops down and he can feel himself blush. This is not the right time to talk about it but it still feels like they both know something has changed between them. Mike finds himself staring at the spot where his fingers are lightly holding onto Will’s arm so he notices immediately when Will shifts. Mike almost panics, because Will is not wearing a sleeve nor any other kind of cover up – and why did nobody think of procuring one for him? Mike wonders angrily – when he freezes, stomach dropping at the sight of Will’s inner forearm, his naked unmarked forearm.