the truth comes out
“So do we even know what we’re going up against here?” Mike asked as Will was pulling him down the stairs of Mike’s “house.”
“Eddie just said it was a swarm of “something” … and either way I don’t like the sound of that. Which way was it coming from?” Will asked Eddie.
“The front. We should try to sneak around back.” Will nodded.
“Let’s go to the basement.” Will kept holding onto Mike’s hand and the butterflies were flying in his stomach and they needed to stop because now was not the time for butterflies.
“Wait!” Mike said, as they got to the bottom of the steps. Will looked back at him in confusion.
“Why? We need to go!” Will looked to Eddie who seemed to agree with Will.
“But they don’t know for sure that we’re in here.” Mike said. “If we leave and go running then those… whatever that are coming towards us will definitely know! Vecna knows we’re down here, that’s for sure. But that doesn’t mean he knows exactly where we are. He’s probably just sending creatures to anywhere he thinks we might be. Maybe if we hide, even if they come in here, they’ll leave, and we’ll be safe.”
“So… playing defense again?” Will asked, sighing. It was starting to remind him a little too much of being stuck in the Upside Down last time.
“Better than going up against whatever those things are with,” Mike held up the broom he grabbed and motioned towards the book Will had picked up as a ‘weapon,’ “these fearsome weapons.” Will chuckled and nodded, it made sense.
“Yeah… you have a point… I’m just… I’m scared.” Will said the last word so quietly, he didn’t even know if Mike heard him, but he squeezed Will’s hand and stepped down to be on the same level as him.
“Hey… you’re not alone this time, okay? You have me. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you ever again. I promise.” Will felt himself blushing and nodded with a small smile. He looked to Eddie.
“What do you think?” Asked Will. Eddie thought for a moment.
“I think Wheeler is in love with you.” Will almost passed out right there.
“Wh-what!? I— I meant with the plan… I… no!”
“What? What did he say?” Mike asked curiously. Will’s face was an even brighter red.
“Uh… he said that he thinks we should… um… try to—uh—figure out how to contact people but— ya know, we have to survive first so let’s hide!” Will glanced at Eddie, who was grinning like the cat who got the canary, then pulled Mike into the bathroom in the basement.
Mike sat on the toilet and Will hopped up onto the counter by the sink. There was a heavy silence in the air and Will wasn’t even sure why. There were a few minutes of silence before either of them spoke.
“What did Eddie actually say?” Asked Mike. That made Will tense up and he just laughed it off.
“I—uh, I told you!” He said quickly, maybe too quickly, because Mike rolled his eyes with a sigh.
“And… you’re lying to me again.” Will’s heart sank and it almost hurt him because… he didn’t want to hurt Mike. And that’s why he never told him about the painting or about anything else with his feelings… at the end of the day, he didn’t want to hurt Mike.
“Can you try to understand that… I never… I… you mean a lot to me, Mike. Your friendship means a lot to me, and I don’t… I don’t want to ruin that.” Mike looked confused, which was incredibly valid.
“How would you telling me the truth ruin anything?” Will sighed.
“Sometimes people lie to protect people.” Mike rolled his eyes again, angrier.
“Well, you don’t need to protect me, Will! I’m a big boy, I can protect myself. I just want you to be honest with me. And let’s start with the painting, finishing our conversation before Eddie interrupted us.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Will said again.
“The truth! Why did you lie about the painting! Why did you say El commissioned it? Why didn’t you tell me the truth when you gave it to me!? Why do I constantly feel like you’re pulling away from me and—!”
“Because I’m gay!” Dead silence. “I’m gay and I feel that way about you, Mike. When I said El said something… it was how I felt.” Mike had his mouth wide open for about 4 seconds before closing it, opening it again and closing it again. This went on for probably about a minute before Will finally sighed and looked at Mike.“You wanted me to be honest with you.” Mike took a deep breath and grabbed Will’s hand, using his other to grab Will’s knee and pull him so that he was facing Mike.
“You’re gay?” Asked Mike. “And you have… you have feelings for me… like friend feelings or—?” Will shook his head.
“No, Mike. Like feelings for you… I never wanted to tell you because how do you tell your best friend that? And how do you tell anyone that you’re disgusting and wrong and—.”
“No!” Mike interrupted. “You’re neither of those things, Will. You’re brave and kind and a good friend and an even better person. You’re… I…”
“I’m sorry for telling you.” Will felt so embarrassed… now Mike knew his biggest secret and… well, he didn’t seem to care that much actually… it didn’t seem as life ruining as he thought it was going to be. “I never wanted to ruin our friendship or—or hurt you.”
“Don’t… don’t apologize, Will. I… thank you.” Will raised his eyebrows.
“Thank you?” Will asked with a chuckle, Mike smiled in return… at least things seemed… relatively normal… right?
“Can we promise to always be completely honest with each other? Even if we think the other might get mad or—or hurt? I just… I want us to be honest with each other.” Will nodded and looked Mike in the eyes again.
“I promise.” Will said.
“Good.” There was a short silence again before Mike said, “Then what did Eddie actually say to you?” Will was totally backed into a corner now. He had just promised, looking Mike in the eyes, to always be honest with him. “Gotcha.” Mike said with a small, knowing smile.
“Mike…” Will started, trailing off.
“You promised.” Will took a deep breath; he chuckled and rolled his eyes.
“Whatever… he said… “I think Wheeler is in love with you.” And it’s… it’s ridiculous! Obviously, you’re not and that’s why I didn’t even want to tell you because—.” And then Mike did the most confusing thing in the world. He kissed Will, completely cutting him off and leaving Will with no idea what was happening. Will had never kissed someone before… and he always dreamed about kissing Mike… but how was this actually happening? Before Will could even try to kiss back, Mike pulled away, staring at him in confusion… as if Mike had the right to be the confused one here.
“Did… did you not want me to kiss you?”
“I… what? You… why did you kiss me? It’s not funny, Mike.”
“Funny? It’s not supposed to be funny.” Will got up from the countertop in anger.
“I don’t need your pity, Mike! I… that was really hard for me to tell you and then you… why would you kiss me!?” Mike stood up too, calmly, and grabbed Will’s hand. Will tried to pull away and Mike grabbed on harder and turned Will towards him.
“Hey,” He started, softly, “your logic is that instead of assuming I kissed you because I wanted to… is that I kissed you because I felt bad for you?” Will said nothing, what was he supposed to say? Did Mike just say that he… wanted to kiss him?
“I…” Will couldn’t think of anything intelligent to say.
“Will,” Mike started again, pulling Will in even closer to him. “I’ve been confused about my feelings for a while now. Pretty much since you left Hawkins, I’d been thinking about you, nonstop, which confused me because I was pretty sure I liked El… at least in some way. And then when I got to Lenora, I became even more confused because you were acting so cold to me when all I wanted was to be… look, my point is, I… Eddie’s… I have feelings for you too, Will. And it’s all kinds of terrifying because I never felt this way about El. And all the ways that I care about you, think about you, and want to be around you all the time… I am… I have these crazy, weird, intense feelings for you. I never realized it until El basically bullied me into admitting it.”
“You’re… you… have feelings for me.” Will said, it wasn’t a question… he was just saying it aloud because… how could this be real? And then something else hit him from Mike’s confession. “Wait… El did what?” Mike chuckled.
“She… found this letter that I wrote to you but never actually sent. It was essentially a rambling of all my confused feelings… and that’s why we broke up. Well, it’s not why we broke up. But it’s what started the conversation that led to our breakup.”
“You wrote me a letter?” Asked Will, small smile on his face. Mike smiled and nodded.
“Yeah. If we ever get out of here, I’ll show it to you.” Will nodded. He couldn’t believe this.
“I do want to kiss you… I just… I don’t know how.” Mike smiled softly and pulled Will even closer to him, so that their heads were practically touching.
“I can teach you.” And part of Will was overwhelmed and excited and really wanted to kiss Mike and learn how to kiss from Mike… but the other part of him was also a little freaked out in knowing that the only reason Mike knew how to kiss at all was because he used to kiss Will’s sister… “Will?” Asked Mike.
“Yeah?”
“I can hear you overthinking. Just… just…” And Mike leaned in again, pressing his lips against Will’s. Will still didn’t really know what to do, but pressed firmly against Mike’s lips trying to replicate what he was doing, and it all felt really nice. Will put both his arms around Mike’s neck and moved closer into him as Mike’s hands went around his waist. Suddenly all fear, confusion, and awkwardness rushed away, and it was just him and Mike. There was no Vecna, no ex-girlfriend that happened to be Will’s sister… just two boys who cared about each other. After a minute or so (Will wasn’t really counting) they both pulled away, mainly to catch a breath. Mike looked insanely beautiful. And maybe boys aren’t supposed to look beautiful, but he did.
“That was…” Will started, unsure what words could express exactly what he was feeling.
“Really amazing?” Mike offered. Will smiled and nodded.
“I could concur with that.” Mike smiled back and grabbed both of Will’s hands.
“I… really care about you, Will.” Mike said, looking directly in Will’s eyes. Will couldn’t breathe… this still didn’t feel real.
“I really care about you too.” A knock on the door made Will jump.
“What is it?” Asked Mike, confused.
“Uh… sorry to break up the steamy make out session that’s probably happening… but uh… I think the coast is clear.” Eddie’s voice rang through the door and Will’s face was definitely bright red now… but it was hard to care with Mike holding onto him.
“Uh… coming!” Will said. “It’s Eddie, he says the coast is clear.”
“TMI, little dude. TMI…”
“Not what I meant!” Eddie just chuckled and Mike looked more confused than ever… but still… Will couldn’t find it in him to do anything but smile. They opened the door and sat down on the couch to try and figure out a game plan, because as happy as Will had felt in that moment kissing Mike in the bathroom, they were still stuck in the Upside Down with seemingly no way to get out.
“How can we be sure that an SOS signal would even work?” Asked Will, mainly to Eddie.
“I mean, you can’t. But you said Nancy, Steve, Robin, Dustin, Lucas, they’re all up there, right?” Will nodded. “They might be looking for something like that. That’s what we did when we all got stuck down here.”
“Okay. Eddie said that the others might be looking for an SOS signal because that’s what they did.”
“That makes sense. I was also thinking… and I know it’s gonna sound crazy…”
“That’s never a good way to start a game plan speech.” Will said, Mike chuckled.
“Just hear me out. What if we go back to the gate that got us trapped in here.”
“But it closed… we watched it close.”
“No, I know. But what if we can get through to them. El is probably working on opening a new gate at that spot, because it has an energy force already. What if, somehow, we can get through to her?”
“How would we do that? Neither you or me can do what El can do.” Mike said nothing for a moment before he took a deep breath.
“You might be able to.” Will raised his eyebrows.
“How would I be able to?”
“You were trapped down here for a week, Will. Maybe you can get through in a way I wouldn’t be able to. Maybe you have a… different connection to the Upside Down. I say we definitely do the SOS signal, but maybe we could try that too. You and El seem so connected, maybe you could get through to each other, you know? I know it sounds crazy.”
“No, it doesn’t. El and I do have a strong connection but I… I don’t know. And whatever connection I do have to the Upside Down, it’s nothing like El’s.”
“Will, the mindflayer was inside you.” Will shuddered and Mike sighed. “I know, I know you don’t like to think about that… but it’s true. You might have a deeper connection than you think… or want to have.” Will sighed too and nodded.
“I know. Eddie, why don’t you do the SOS signal upstairs. Mike and I will head over to the gate where we got lost. We’ll meet back here when we’re done.” Eddie nodded and Mike grabbed Will’s hand, tightly.
“You’re really brave. You know that?” Will smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. If only Mike knew that he felt anything but brave right now.