Work Text:
Tuesday, November 11th, 1997:
A familiar knock at the door comes at 7:30 on the dot as expected. Will is always on time to everything, contrasting with Mike, who’s often late to everything. He sets his book down and lets him in.
Every month Will comes into Hawkins from a town over to visit Mike and hang out. It’s their way of keeping in touch after everything that’s happened. All their friends have moved too far away or are just too busy to call and set up a hang out, so Mike and him decide to do it alone to keep their friendship alive.
Luckily, this is easy to do since Will only moved to a bigger town about thirty minutes away from Mike’s apartment. The others couldn’t bear living in Hawkins after the whole near end of the world stuff- Will couldn’t either, but Hopper had to stay for work and Joyce didn’t want to leave him so Will stayed close enough to visit whenever he could.
What they don’t know is that once a month Will drives in just to see his best friend.
Mike chose to stay. He could’ve left, he had the money fresh out of college and no real reason to stay- his family annoyed the fuck out of him and the town was basically falling apart. But as much as he hates it, it’s his home. So he found a nice little apartment and a part time job, and settled for that.
As for the monthly hang outs, they’re just there to help a friendship that’s survived much worse. Mike would’ve ruined it a long time ago if he could, because… he'd like it to be more than a friendship- he always has. And if not for Carlton, he would tell him during one of his hang outs.
Ugh, Carlton. Will’s Boyfriend.
He’s just some guy Will met back in college that happened to also like guys. Mike wasn’t jealous- some actions may prove otherwise but that was seven years ago- he was happy that Will found someone that liked him back. He was happy that Will was happy.
But Will’s not happy.
If he was, he wouldn’t currently be complaining about him to Mike.
Apparently, Carlton’s car needed an oil change last week and he came home hours later with champagne on mouth and seemed to be a bit disheveled. The next day, Will found a receipt for a $40 necklace that wasn’t his. He hopes that he ruined the surprise and Carlton was just getting Christmas presents early this year. With the way things are going, however, it doesn’t look like that.
And Will suspects it’s his work friend Lisa. He hasn’t met her himself but Carton talks about her so often is pretty obvious.
“What should I do?” Will takes a sip of wine, “I’d ask him but I know he’ll just call me paranoid.”
Mike swirls his wine in his glass, “Just show him the proof and unless he has an actual explanation… I say dump him.”
Sure, Mike wants Will to dump him so he can treat Will better and love him like he needs to be loved- like he deserves, but he still shouldn’t date a guy that’s cheating on him.
“Dump him? Come on, Mike, We’ve been together for years and, what, you expect me to just leave him just like that?”
“I’m not saying ditch him completely, but if he’s cheating you don’t wanna stay with him, right?”
“Yeah…”
“So just tell him that if you’re not enough then he doesn’t get to have you at all. And he can have Lisa or whoever.”
Will pauses, “Okay. And what if this is all just a misunderstanding?”
“I doubt it. You said he took three hours to change his oil. That takes- What an hour?”
He takes another sip, tapping his finger on the table.
“Okay look, I know you like him and can’t face the idea that he’s bad. But as your friend, I say it’s wrong for someone to treat you like that. Cheating is always horrible, but when someone does it to Will Byers… that’s just horrendous.”
Will smiles, “Alright, and my name’s on the house so I can just kick him out and I won’t have to see him ever again.”
“You can throw his stuff out the window, too.” Mike jokes, taking a sip.
Will laughs, and it’s nice to see him smile, even if it doesn’t last.
“What?” Mike asks.
“It’s just… I don’t know, Carlton has been good to me so far and we don’t get in fights that often. But I don’t know everything about him- he’s always been kinda secretive so… What if he’s been lying this whole time? And I’ve been falling for it for years?”
Mike sets his glass down, putting his hand on Will’s shoulder, “I don’t think he’s capable of hiding it for that long. You’ve known him since college, you’ve met all his friends, you’ve even met his parents. If he was doing this that long you’d know already.”
It hurts to say it, even to think it. Mike hates that Will’s spent so much time with this guy just for it to end this way. He put so much effort in, let it get serious and now he may experience real heartbreak. Mike should’ve confessed long ago, so that Will didn’t have to put up with this bullshit.
“But why?I-I know he has some issues but he takes medication for it. Why would he just start doing this all of a sudden?” His voice cracks at the end of his sentence.
“I don’t know,” Mike rubs Will’s back.
“What did I do?”
This is stupid. So stupid. Will shouldn’t be thinking he’s the problem, he’s done nothing wrong. This has been an issue for a while: Will takes other people's troubles and makes it his own, blames himself, then he tries to fix it when there's nothing wrong to begin with. Carlton is clearly the one at fault but he’s manipulated Will enough to make him doubt himself and not him.
Mike pulls him into a hug, “You didn’t do anything. He’s the asshole who may or may not have cheated.”
Will sighs, and it could’ve been a laugh if he tried enough, “You’ve been calling him that since college.”
“Yeah, well, I was right. I hate to say it, but I was.”
Will leans more into the hug, burring his face into Mike’s neck. There might be tears, but Mike doesn’t say anything. He keeps rubbing Will’s back, offering any sense of comfort he can.
They don’t move for sometime, eventually Will leans away and Mike lets him.
“Sorry.” He wipes his eyes.
“What did I say about saying sorry?”
“So- I mean, I know.” he picks up his wine, swirling it around.
“Just call me whenever you do it. I want to know everything.”
“What is this entertaining to you?” His tone is serious, but his expression shows amusement.
“No- well, kinda- But I care about you and I wanna be there if you need me.”
Will pauses, eyes focused on his wine before he takes another sip, “Alright fine, I’ll call you. But can we change the subject now? I come here for wine not therapy.”
“Not for me?”
“Okay, wine, then you, then your couch that’s way more comfortable than mine.”
Mike laughs, “At least I’m top three.”
Thursday, November 13th, 1997:
Mike’s phone rings, waking him up at nine in the morning two days later. He thinks about ignoring it, but he sees that it’s El calling so he answers.
“Hello?” He mumbles.
“Mike, hey, so… We have a problem.” Her voice comes in louder than expected, scaring him fully awake.
“What? Why? What happened?”
“Well I went to work yesterday and he wasn’t there so I called but he didn’t answer so I just thought he slept in or something but then today he still wasn’t at work and he didn’t return my calls so I went to his house during my break and his car is still parked at his house- I think something happened!”
Mike struggles to comprehend what she’s saying, his brain fills with questions before the most important one slips out, “Who?”
“Will.”
Mike’s stomach drops at the name. He throws his blankets off himself and rushes to his closet, pulling out random clothes, “What?!”
“Yeah, last I checked he was with you so I figured he spent the night but because his car is still here I think something happened.”
“Oh my god. Okay, I’m on my way. Where are you now?”
“Driving to my house. I’m not sure what to do.”
“It’s alright, we’ll find him. Just give me half an hour and I’ll be there.”
“Okay.”
Will is missing. Again.
This has to be a nightmare, or some kind or prank. Will’s probably just lost his phone or something… right? And El just didn’t think of that. Maybe he went to someone else’s house and forgot his phone, they drove him so his car is still there. That has to be it. Will’s okay. He has to be.
Mike ignores the deja vu and hurrys to his car, speeding to El’s place.
This can’t be Vecna again. He died, along with anything else out to get them. Sure, he was working with the mind flayer, but that died too (if it was even technically alive in the first place). This isn’t like last time. No secret government hiding alternate dimensions. No demogorgons out to kill. No fake news to throw the public off.
This was real.
Mike’s getting a head of himself, he’s sure that Will’s fine. And until proven otherwise he’ll keep thinking that.
El’s place was closer to Hawkins than Will’s was. She preferred a house with nature around it than neighbors.
He gets out and rushes to her door, already opening as he steps up on the porch.
“Hey,” He brings her into a hug, unsure what else to do.
She lets him, for only a second, “Hey. I called him again. Nothing.” She wipes her eyes.
“Have you tried Carlton?”
“Ugh, no. I don’t even have his stupid number.”
If this wasn’t a dire situation, he’d laugh at her hatred of Carlton too.
“You went to his house, didn’t you at least knock?”
“Yes, I even went to the side door. Nobody answered.”
Mike thinks for a moment. Where could Will be? If his car was still there he wouldn’t have left on his own- he hates walking anywhere that isn’t close by- so someone would’ve had to pick him up.
“Was the other car there?” He asks.
“What?”
“Um, Carlton has a black car, was it there when you went to his house?”
“No.”
Great. So Will probably left with Carlton to go do something and forgot his phone. Despite thinking he’s cheating, Will still likes him enough to go out to eat or something.
“Lets check his house again. Maybe at least Carlton's back.”
Fifteen minutes later, they park on the curb just outside Will’s house. Sitting in the driveway is Carlton's black sedan.
“See, he’s back already.” Mike gets out of the car.
“But is Will?”
Mike ignores the question.
He knocks on the door, hoping to see Will’s smiling face like he did only two days ago.
Not long after, the door opens, “What?” Carlton's rather ugly face answers.
He seems annoyed. Mike’s a bit intimidated by his hollow stare. The way his eyes flicker between the two in question- it’s almost unsettling.
“Hi, uh, do you know where Will is? Will Byers?” El asks, looking just as scared as Mike feels.
He avoids the question, “Wait, are you his sister? Jane, right?”
“Um, yes I am. Could you tell me-”
“I don’t know. I thought he was at work.”
“But, his car is still here…”
“I know, but you work with him so I thought he just got a ride.”
“That was yesterday right? What about today?” Mike tries.
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Well I thought he spent the night or something, with whoever picked him up.”
“Well, you’re his boyfriend, didn’t you try calling him?”
“No. He’s his own person, man. He can do whatever he wants. Look, I’m busy right now, so if you don’t mind…” He slowly starts shutting the door.
There’s a pair of heels in his walkway. That’s odd. Mike doesn’t judge, but he’s not sure if Carlton is the type of guy to “dress up”. And Will certainly isn’t either.
Mike’s skin goes cold. Those must belong to his mistress.
Of course Will goes missing right as he’s suspecting Carlton of cheating. If that wasn’t suspicious enough, Will was supposed to call Mike whenever he confronted Carlton, but he didn’t. And now he’s missing. Plus those shoes mean that Lisa (or whoever) is here, so he either is taking this as an opportunity to fuck this girl in his own bed, or he knows Will isn’t able to catch them because…
“Wait, if you see him tell him to call us, okay?” El tells him.
He nods, shutting the door the rest of the way.
She sighs and turns back to the car, “Well, maybe it’s time we tell the police.”
“Yeah, but…” Mike turns around, making sure nobody can hear them, “I think he did it.”
She stops, “Did what?”
Mike looks away, to Carlton’s car where he notices some new tires. That’s also a little weird. But he ignores it, “I don’t know, but I think he has something to do with Will going missing.”
“But that’s his boyfriend-”
“Well, he’s cheating.”
“What? How do you know?”
“Will told me he thinks there’s something going on. And right now I saw heels in their doorway- probably his mistresses.”
“Why would anyone cheat on Will?”
“I don’t know, but maybe he confronted him and something happened…”
She pauses, “For Wills sake, I hope you’re wrong.”
Mike hopes he’s wrong too. Although, it seems too coincidental to not be suspicious. Yeah, maybe Will has known Carlton a long time, and would know if he had any ill intentions, however when push comes to shove, anyone could do something wrong. Mike wouldn’t have thought he’d be killing demos in his teens but he had to, maybe this is the same thing. Will also said that Carlton takes meds for something- Mike didn’t bother remembering why- maybe he stopped.
Mike hops in the driver's seat, “We should still tell the police, though, just in case.”
“Yeah, just in case.” The last part comes out mumbled.
The police station was quiet, calm, only a few people were talking to cops. Which is good, a slow day for cops in a place like this means it’s safe.
Mike walks up to the front desk. The lady seems nice enough, she writes something down and makes a call before telling them to sit and wait a minute. Eventually a man opens a door at the end of the hall, nodding for them to come in.
“What’s the problem?” He asks.
“Our friend is missing. Well- her brother, my friend. Um, his name is Will Byers.”
“I already know. His roommate came in last night to tell us.”
Mike and El share a look, El speaks for them both, “His- his roommate?”
“Yeah, Carlton or something.”
“Oh…” Mike says, “Well do you have any updates?”
“No, sorry. Hey, isn't he that kid missing back in ‘83?”
Mike nods.
“Wow, I feel bad for him.”
“Yeah, sorry to waste your time.” Mike gets up, eyes reddening.
He makes it back to the car before breaking down in tears.
“Hey, Mike, it’s okay.”
“No it’s not! That asshole did something to my best friend and lied to my face about it! He lied to the cops too!” Mike cries, “I knew I should’ve told him sooner so that we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
She pauses, “Told him what?”
Mike stops, avoiding her gaze, “Nothing…”
“Mike, come on. Friends don’t lie.”
He sighs, “Told him that- that… I like him.” he mumbles, hoping she doesn’t hear him
She does, “Mike…” She wraps her arms around him, rubbing his back.
“It doesn’t even matter now. Carlton probably did horrible things like cheating wasn’t enough.”
“Don’t say that. Even if it’s true, don't say that.”
Mike complied and shut up switching seats so she could drive them back to her house safely.
She makes him some tea when they arrive, calming his nerves.
“So what do we do? Tell the cops he lied?” El suggests.
“They wouldn’t believe us, it’s not enough proof.”
“Not enough? Will caught him cheating!”
“I know, but we can’t tell them that because they don’t know they were dating. Nobody does.”
“What about photos? Do you think there’s any with the two of them looking coupl-y?”
He thinks for a second, “Maybe, but that’d be in their house and we can’t just break in. The cops would also need proof to get a warrant to search and even with one the pictures may or may not exist.”
“Well then… now what?”
Mike doesn’t know. The cops would probably take a few more days to figure everything out anyway- assuming they care about this case. After that it’s a fifty-fifty chance that they find him alive- and Mike didn’t want to think about those odds.
“I’m not sure. But what I am sure of is… I want revenge.”
“What?”
“I want revenge.” Mike repeats, “He messed with my best friend for some hoe he works with! I’m not gonna sit here and let him get away with it!”
“How would you even get revenge?”
“We could smash his car.”
“Come on, Mike! Are you really serious?”
He shrugs, “It looked like he got new tires. We could simply slash them.”
She sighs, “And if we get caught?”
“I don’t care about that. I care about Will and if Carlton did something, he needs to pay.”
“Oh my god, you’re actually going through with it. Fine. I’ll help.”
“Wait, really?” He expected her to put up more of a fight.
“Yes, you forget that I have powers, if anything happens while you’re there I can help you. And, you’re right, Will does deserve better.”
“Okay. We can go over tonight and just do the tires and get outta there.”
She nods.
A few hours later, they take Mike’s car over to Will’s house, parking it just down the street enough to not be seen. It’s pitch black outside, perfect lighting for revenge.
Mike brings a knife to slash the tires (He’s not sure if that’s what people use, but it should work). He also brings a metal bat he keeps in his cars for emergencies- this is an emergency.
They follow the porch light on the house, slowly creeping up to the car, careful to not set off any alarms. Mike stabs the back right tire first, it deflates a little with minimal noise.
“Is that how you’re supposed to do it?” El whisper-shouts.
“I don’t know, I’ve never done this before.” Mike stabs the back left, “Keep watch, if he tries to open the door use your powers or something.”
“Alright.”
He continues the stabbing process with all four tires, stepping back to admire his work.
“Wow…”
“Nice work.” El pats him on the back, “Now, let's leave before we get caught.”
“Oka-” Mike stops.
On the ground just under the back of the car is a circular red stain, dark enough to be dry. The trunk is big enough that something could’ve been inside and nobody could see. Or someone.
And as he looks closer, the top of the trunk has another red stain, smeared like it’d been wiped away.
Oh that’s it.
He steps forward, right next to the back right window. He holds the bat high, adjusting his grip.
“Mike… What are you doing?”
He doesn’t answer. Anger flows through him. Carlton hurt Will. Mike won’t let that happen.
He swings.
Glass shadders everywhere, a loud crash echoes though the quiet neighborhood. A dog barks somewhere down the street at the sound.
Mike swings again. And again. And again. It’s so loud, he really shouldn’t be doing this. But he has too. Carlton is the reason Will’s gone, and if the worst Mike can do back is destroy his beloved car, then so be it.
He loses count of how many times- his arms hurt from the repeated motion.
El finally stops his outburst with her powers, she holds the bat in place.
“Hey! Wha-”
She covers her mouth with her finger- he shuts up.
A previously darkened room in the house is now lit up, a door slams shut just a few feet away from them.
Mike looks back at his work. Carlton’s car is completely destroyed on one side. The doors are bent in, the windows are now glass shards all around him. Mike feels proud as he looks around, he knows that it’s wrong- he could go to jail for this- but it was worth it.
“What the hell is going on out here?”
Well, speak of the devil.
El lets go of the bat, whipping her nose. She steps back in an attempt to escape but Mike doesn’t move. He turns to face the footsteps approaching him, only to see an angry looking Carlton facing them.
Now the dead eyes make sense. Carlton knows what he did and he has no regrets whatsoever. That was the look of a man who’d just killed his boyfriend to be with his mistress, and got away with it.
He’s sick, he’s so sick.
Mike clenches his jaw. His breath quickens and his grip around the bat gets tighter every second.
Carlton sees what Mike had done. As soon as he does his fist is hurling towards him.
He steps back at the punch. Without thinking, Mike swings again. Only this time, at Carlton himself. All the built up hatred pours out of him and adds to the impact of the swing.
“Fuck you, you fucking piece of shit! How dare you hurt Will?! How dare you! Lying to my face about it you son a bitch! How ‘bout I give you a taste of your own medicine? Huh?” Mike shrieks. He doesn’t stop swinging.
Carlton falls to the ground. Blood spills everywhere, splashing back at Mike. He keeps hitting him.
“You treated him like shit! I could’ve been a better boyfriend then you ever were! You left him for that hoe! I loved him and you took him away again! I just got him back! He’s been through so much! I love him so much, I-I…” He trails off.
He hits him one last time, then drops the bat beside him.
Mike falls to the ground himself, tears building up in his eyes and falling to the ground like they did all those years ago. He can’t stop himself- not then, not now.
Before Mike was telling himself that it’d be okay- that Will was okay. He thought that it was only a matter of time before he got to see him again. Now, with everything he’s seen. It’s hard to still hold on to that. That hope that Will’s still alive, just like last time.
Will’s actually gone now.
Coming back to reality, Mike notices El standing beside him, looking like she’s seen a ghost.
“-Mike,” She covers her mouth in shock, “Oh my god,”
He wipes his eyes, only to instantly have more tears replace the old ones, “I’m sorry-” He breaks down.
“Is he…?”
Mike looks back at the deformed body lying in front of him. It’s perfectly still.
Taking a moment to collect himself, he croaks, “I- I think so.” standing up and struggling to balance at first.
“What do we do?” She looks at him, her voice monotone.
Mike thinks for a moment. There’s only one thing they could do that would prevent them getting in trouble.
“We hide the body.”
“What?”
“I know, I know. I just- You don’t wanna get arrested, right?”
She nods slowly.
“Right. So… If we hide the body then the cops would assume whoever took Will took him too. And we frame Lisa.”
“Lisa?”
“His mistress- at least Will thinks that’s her name.”
“Oh, alright…” She takes a moment, looking back at the body.
Mike does feel guilty about having her help him do something that was all his fault- but she hated Carlton too, and he killed her brother so it’s not like she didn’t want to kill him. Mike just did it first.
“So, where do we hide it?”
He smiles at her agreement despite the situation, “We could dump it in a lake.”
“A lake?”
“Yeah, there’s one just outside of town. Maybe you could make him sink in the deep end?” Again, he feels guilty for asking for help.
Eventually, she speaks up, “Okay. I’m in.”
The lake is further than expected, it takes thirty minutes to get there. Well, it didn’t help that El used her powers to put Carlton into a random trash bag that Mike had in his car; then she spent ten minutes cleaning the blood and making it evaporate- not even she knew she could do that.
They also drove the scenic route to avoid police and anyone driving at this early hour.
Mike parks under some trees to avoid being seen. They both take a moment to prepare before getting out.
It’s oddly peaceful. The moon shines on the water, as well as the stars that are only visible out in the country.
“How far is the deep end?” She asks, looking out at the lake.
“I don’t know, aim for the middle I guess.” He shrugs.
“Okay.” She opens the back door and closes her eyes. When she opens them again, her hand is stretched out, trembling as she lifts the body out of the car.
He watches her bring it higher, walking with it carefully towards the water. She uses her other hand the further along it goes, eventually dropping it with a huge slash.
“Whoops. That was really loud.”
“It’s fine.”
He walks to her side, looking out at the rippling water, “I’m sorry.”
She turns to him, confused, “For what?”
“I’m the one who wanted revenge and then I’m the one who killed him and now I’m using your powers to clean up this mess.”
“Mike, it’s okay. You acted on impulse and anger, I did too, at least you had a reason.”
“So you’re not mad?”
“No, of course not.”
He breathed a sigh of relief.
“We should probably go now, it’s cold and I don’t wanna get caught.” She says, walking back to the car.
“Yeah, good idea.”
Back at her house, El lets him take a shower to clean off the blood splatter still on him.
He still can’t believe it. He killed someone. It’s not like he tried too, it just… happened. And it was a bad person too. Carlton killed Will for no reason and might’ve gotten away with it, he deserved to be killed. Or at least that’s what Mike’ll believe to help himself sleep at night.
Then there’s that same feeling. The gut-wetching feeling that’s both foreign and nostalgic.
Will’s gone.
Mike can’t handle this feeling, he can’t accept it as the truth. He nearly lost Will fifteen years ago, then spent about six years fighting the person who caused his pain. Will was back but not fully the same until Vecna was dead. Then Mike got so much of him all the time- it was almost overwhelming. Now he’s been ripped away for good and it feels unreal.
Mike’s so used to Will, when he wanted to call and talk to him he could, at any time- because Will always answered, at least to Mike. He just knows that he’ll forget about all of this and try to call him again just to have it hit him like a ton of bricks as the ringing turns into voice mail and he hears that sweet voice again.
It’s the worst realization he’s ever made. Even after seeing the body come out of the quarry it was only an hour or so before El showed him that Will was still there.
The joy he felt seeing him in that hospital bed, alive, was unmatched.
He vowed right then and there that he’d never take Will for granted again, and that he’d make sure at all times that he was safe.
So he’s also failed himself. Great. It’s the rotten cherry on top of his already poisonous ice cream.
He gets out of the shower once the water runs cold (which he can apologize for later). He feels a little better now that he’s clean, though he was still crying all through his shower.
When he goes downstairs, El’s sitting on the couch watching a sitcom on TV.
“Hey,” He sits next to her.
“Hey.” She whispers. Her eyes are puffy and red, she must be feeling the same pain he is right now.
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
“No.” she sniffs.
“I mean the Carlton thing. We should probably get an alibi set if we get questioned.”
“Oh, right.” She pauses the TV, “What do we say?”
“Just that we came to your house after the police station and we didn’t leave, we watched a movie or something and I slept over. If we both have the same story it should be believable.”
“Makes sense, what movie did we watch?”
“Um, I guess we could do a Christmas movie since it’s almost that time of year. What about Home Alone?”
“Oh, that’s a good one. Do you think they’ll ask us anything else?”
Would they even question them at all? Unless the cops think they killed both of them there’s no reason to suspect them. And even though their alibi isn’t that good nobody saw them driving around anyway. They should be able to get away with it.
“Honestly I don’t even think we’ll need an alibi at all, so we’re probably fine.”
El hums in response.
Mike takes note of her silence, she’s been this way since they dumped the body. Maybe she’s just thinking about Will, or she feels guilty about Carlton. Which again shouldn’t be the case, if she wasn’t okay with helping Mike she could’ve said something.
As soon as Mike thinks this, she looks over at him, “We need to agree to not tell anyone about this.”
“Okay.”
“And that, if the cops do ask, we stick to our alibi.”
“Okay. Yeah, I agree.”
She nods, the look on her face is somewhere between pleading and guilty. Then she turns back to the TV, letting whatever was on before play.
Mike settles into the couch, his guilt and sorrow lingers in the back of his mind but he ignores them. And he’ll continue to ignore it even if it eats away at him for the rest of his life- at least the guilt part. Because, though he does feel guilty he doesn’t regret it. It’s the sorrow that’ll come back to haunt him every day, and if he doesn’t ignore it then it could drive him to do bad things. If the only thing keeping him from feeling guilty about Carlton is the revenge he got from losing Will then the misery from not having him will be enough of a punishment.
If he has to keep this up for the rest of his life then fine. It’s what he gets from letting Will be the one that got away.
Wednesday, February 18th, 1998:
Mike gets in his car and turns on the heater with the intention of getting warm, instead, he’s blasted with freezing air.
A soft giggle from next to him warms his cheeks almost immediately though, like it always has.
He sighs and turns it down, waiting for it to warm up.
“Be patient, El still needs to get the cake.”
“I know, I know. Why are we doing this again? It’s freezing.” Mike whined.
“Because, you two put her in there so the least we can do is celebrate her birthday. Is that so much to ask?”
“No, you’re right.”
Will grabs Mike’s hand, “Besides, I can warm you up.”
El opens the back door, letting more cold air in, “Hey, how are you guys?”
Great question. How is Mike Wheeler?
Well, he’s holding hands with his boyfriend Will Byers in a freezing car outside El’s house, about to go see Lisa- who’s actually an amazing girl- in jail; Compared to four months ago, he’s the happiest guy alive.
“I’m good.” Mike smiles towards Will, getting a smile back.
“Same.” He squeezes Mike’s hand.
Both of them are doing amazing. After all they’ve been through, they’d be happy to just be safe- Mike is forever grateful he doesn’t have to fight demos anymore. It’s the small things that really make each day wonderful: cuddling when they wake up, kissing, movie nights, and they even still talk and have wine like before.
Mike has Will, and that’s all he could ever ask for.