your smile is like a thousand victories
Mike Wheeler is a liar.
He lies to his friends when he forces fake smiles and says “I’m fine”, lies to his parents when they ask him what he’s doing with his life and most of all, he lies to himself when he says I am not in love with Will Byers.
Because, of course he is and always has been. Deep down, he knows it’s true, but… it’s scary to love someone, especially a boy, and know that they’ll never love you back.
How could Will, this fallen beam of sunlight whose smile feels like a million victories and whose eyes are the color of everything Mike sees in his dreams, love him, Mike Wheeler, this selfish, cowardly liar who can’t even admit that he…?
Loving his best friend has always been easier than breathing. He didn’t even think about it until Will went missing and everything was horrible and the only thing he could think was…
Well, now, I’ll never get to tell him, which was the first time he realized he had something to tell.
Then, he immediately thought, “well, shit” and pushed it down enough that he didn’t think about it. But, it’s always there, like when his best friend laughs and he feels warm all over or when Will smiles and it’s the only thing he can see. It’s always there and it shouldn’t be, which makes it so much worse to try to get rid of.
And Mike is only human, so he can’t help blushing at every brush of fingertips against his wrist or a knee pressed against his. There’s sparks bursting and firing off mayday, mayday, mayday responses all over his body. One of the side effects is that his face turns bright red.
That hug earlier? What the hell was that?! They never hug. He thinks he’d actually die if they did. (Don’t think about the way his head fits perfectly in the crook of your neck or the way he held you like you were his entire world. Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it.) See? Already dying.
Then, Will literally grabbed his hand (!!!!!) and dragged him down the hall to where he played love songs as they talked about their plans for the newest campaign.
Mike is getting very mixed signals that he’s probably overthinking.
And, of course, when Max snuck up on him (he’s going to murder her), he totally threw himself into Will’s arms. How could he be any more obvious?! It was… nice though, he has to admit, even if El was totally giving him that shit-eating grin of hers the whole time.
“Mike, you should’ve seen your face. It was adorable,” Will said and Mike just about died.
He managed to squeak out the response of, “Adorable?” before becoming totally mortified with himself and burying his face in Will’s shoulder again, then realizing that was a terrible plan. God, Mike is an idiot.
“Yep, adorable,” the other boy repeated and he’s 100% certain he blushed his ass off, but there’s nothing he can do about it now.
“Now, kiss!” Robin, the girl from Scoops Ahoy who Nancy won’t shut up about, shouted from the doorway and then, Max and El ran out of the room cackling while he grumbled after them. Honestly, Mike doesn’t even know what he said- something like you’re the worst, I hate you all and go to hell, but like at the same time, so it sounded like you’re the hate all hell.
He thinks that basically got his message across though.
After they left, Will gave him this sideways grin and said, “Mike. I can’t feel my arm.”
“Oh, sorry,” he muttered and scrambled back to where he was sitting on the bed before finishing his idea for an epic campaign involving ogres, warlocks and evil werewolves. He’s been planning it for the past couple weeks since they finished the last one and it’ll be totally awesome.
Before he knew it, they’d shifted so they were both leaning on their elbows with their feet at the top of the bed and pressed together because beds aren’t normally designed for teen boys to lay on with plenty of space between them.
Not that Mike’s complaining, except for the fact that he can’t think straight.
“... my face,” Will laughs a little bit and Mike blinks at him, since everything has gone in one ear and out the other since his best friend pressed his foot against Mike’s.
“I like your face,” he mumbles, because he has no filter and he’s a goddamn idiot.
Will blushes and stammers, “Uh… thanks… I mean, I like yours too…” before trailing off as Max and El storm into the room together yet again.
“Robin and Nancy are…” Max gestures a little bit.
“Oh, thank God,” Mike is so relieved that Nancy will stop moping, “If I have to hear my sister saying she’s so gorgeous and I just want to kiss her and I love her, but she doesn’t love me… one more time, I’ll actually die.”
“You’ll die?” Will teases and nudges him a little bit.
Yes, if you keep doing that, Byers.
Then, El coughs and Mike thinks he hears her say, “Hypocrite.”
He shoots daggers at her with his eyes and wishes that he could wipe that stupid smirk off her face. Max is just grinning at her dreamily, which makes him roll his eyes too.
El is EVIL, Mayfield, he wants to scream, She’s my best friend, but she’s maniacal.
The two girls sit down on the floor and Will leans over to whisper something in said evil genius’s ear. When she laughs, he smiles triumphantly and Mike knows all of Will’s smiles, but this is one of his favorites.
It’s tied with the soft one he gives when talking to children and the bright one he has when he’s biking or running or playing D&D.
Of course, all the rest of them aren’t very far behind.
Mike doesn’t let himself go too far down the path of I love Will Byers, so, instead, he reaches over to grab a pillow and chucks it at Max. She looks startled before picking it back up and attempting to throw it back.
Of course, Mayfield has horrible aim, so she ends up hitting Will straight in the chest.
On the bright side, Mike can now justify another attack by claiming he was defending his true love best friend’s honor.
Soon enough, they’ve broken out into a full-on war- Will and Max vs Mike and El. Will just has to name himself and Max the “disaster gays”, which makes Mike’s heart stop for long enough that Max can hit him straight in the face with another pillow.
“Mike!” El elbows him.
“We need more ammo!” he hisses back and she runs off to Jonathan’s room to grab more pillows as Will jumps at him and Max stares after her.
They’re both shrieking and Mike puts his hands up to block the onslaught of pillows whacking him, but he accidentally slaps his best friend in the face and shouts, “Sorry, sorry, sorry!” as Will laughs hard enough that tears are falling and he’s wheezing.
Then, El comes back with a tower of pillows stacked in her arms so that her face is hidden and just leans a little bit towards Max. They all come tumbling down on the redhead who lets out a peal of laughter and scrambles to pick up some. Soon enough, the two girls are rolling around and laughing on the floor.
Mike finally snatches the pillow out of Will’s grip and runs at him. He watches as his best friend backs into a wall and then stands over him with the pillow outstretched when the shorter boy swallows and…
Holy shit. They’re really, really close.
If he wanted to, Mike could just lean down and…
Well, he’s not gonna do that because kissing someone without permission is gross and that’s not how their first kiss is supposed to go.
Not that he’s planned it out or anything! (Oh, who is he kidding? He has about seven different scenarios that would be perfect, one of which involves a marriage proposal and another which consists of Will confessing his undying love for Mike).
They’re both frozen, blinking at each other, and Mike stares at the green flecks in Will’s beautiful, beautiful eyes while he wishes they could stay like this forever and…
“Geez,” El grumbles and shatters the moment, “Get a room.”
Mike turns bright red and whips around, praying that Will hasn’t suddenly developed telepathy.
“El!” he hisses, and she just shrugs, saying “you taught me the word”.
Also, he’s totally going to murder Max even more if possible (he will find a way), because she’s smiling fondly at her girlfriend like “good job, keep doing it”.
“Get your shit together,” she says.
“El!” Will glares at his sister and frowns.
She just sticks her tongue out over her shoulder as she and Max leave the room. On the one hand, Mike wants to drag them both back in because he CANNOT be alone with Will Byers, the love of his life, when he still can’t string two words together after gazing into those gorgeous eyes and… but, also, he’ll take every moment of time he can get with this person that’s more perfect than should be possible.
When he turns around after the two girls are out of sight, Will is still staring at him with something in his eyes that he quickly blinks away.
Was that… was it…?
“So…” Mike stammers and fidgets with the bottom of his shirt, “What do you wanna…?”
“I love you!” the other boy blurts out and he blinks.
“What?”
There’s no way he heard that right. He must have said something like I bluff you, which makes no sense, but it’s more logical than WILL BYERS admitting that he loves MIKE WHEELER.
Does not compute, is all his brain says, flashing error messages.
Will stares down at the ground and bites his lip before whispering, “I love you” again.
“Oh,” is all Mike can reply, feeling like an idiot because there’s so many things he wants to say, but he just can’t.
“Sorry,” his best friend mutters.
“No, it’s ok,” Mike replies and immediately slaps himself in the face before continuing, “I mean… I mean… I mean…”
“Mike. You don’t have to say anything. I get it if you hate me now because...”
He cuts Will off, “I don’t hate you! I never could… you’re… we’re… crazy together, remember?”
“Yeah,” Will grins a little bit, but there’s still something sad behind his eyes and Mike wishes he could just say the stupid words that shouldn’t be so hard to spit out.
They stand there in silence for a while- Will stares at the ground and Mike stares at him. Then, the shorter boy sighs and walks out of the room.
I love you, he wants to shout after Will, I love you more than anything I’ve ever known and it’s the only thing I know is true and I want to hold onto for the rest of my life because you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
But, Mike Wheeler is a liar, so he just sits down on his best friend’s bed, puts his head in his hands and cries.
There’s a hand on his shoulder and a voice that sounds like home which asks “Mike?”
He looks up, wipes the tears out of his eyes and sure enough, there’s Will Byers who opens up his arms as Mike falls into them.
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs over and over again.
“No,” Mike’s voice cracks as he replies, “No.”
Then, he pulls Will back and looks into his eyes before saying, “I love you, too.”
And Mike Wheeler might be a liar, but that’s the truest thing he’s ever said.