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“How was I supposed to know?” Mike shouts.
“You were there , Mike, why wouldn’t you know?” Will shouts right back, gesturing wildly in the air. Mike crosses his arms, tensing his shoulders. “And Max said someone told you, so now you’re lying to me about it!”
Mike rolls his eyes with a dramatic sigh. “I didn’t lie because I didn’t know ,” He exclaims, making Will scoff. “You’re not listening to me, Will!”
Will huffs. “I think I’m listening fine,” He says sharply. Mike mutters something under his breath and turns away to clean up the Byers’ living room table. Will crosses his arms like Mike had just done. “It seems to me you’ve been lying, you know, the thing that fucked up your last relationship with my sister?”
“Don’t you dare bring that up!” Mike exclaims, spinning around and glaring at Will. “I’m not lying, Will, is that so hard to understand?”
His boyfriend scoffs and rolls his eyes. “So you’re saying Max lied?” He questions.
Mike shuts his eyes, pinches the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. “I have no idea if Max lied or not, I’m just saying I didn’t!” He says, opening his eyes again.
“Max didn’t lie!” Will shouts.
“I’m not saying she did! Did you not listen to me?” Mike exclaims. He curls his hands into fists and takes another deep breath. “Listen, we’re both over emotional and saying things we don’t mean, lets just–”
“Oh, so now you’re calling me emotional?” Will interrupts, making Mike groan in annoyance. “Last I checked, you’re the one blowing up at every little thing!”
Mike facepalms. “Will, I didn’t say that,” He says.
“You know, I’m getting really tired of this ‘victim’ act, when are you ever going to take charge of your own actions?” Will shouts. “Do you even have feelings?”
Mike goes silent and so does Will, knowing that he crossed the line. Mike felt tears welling up in his eyes and he turned away from Will, holding himself tightly. “Jee, Will, I don’t know, do I have any feelings?” Mike mutters.
Will’s eyes soften and he steps forward, reaching out his hand. “Mike, you know I didn’t mean that,” He says softly.
But Mike smacks his hand away. “No, Will –!” He starts, but pauses and sighs, all the anger gone from his face. “Just leave me alone.”
He storms out of the house and into his car even as Will shouts for him to come back. Mike leaves the driveway and onto the road, paying no attention to how dark– almost pitch black– and stormy the sky was.
He takes a few turns before the tears in his eyes cloud his vision just as he drove through an intersection. An intersection he didn’t see the red light.
Mike’s eyes widened as he saw a bright light to the left of him.
A loud boom makes Will look up with his tearstained face, dread pooling in his stomach. He stands up and rushes to the door, running to the sidewalk in the pouring rain. Even from here, he could see flames a few blocks away, and he knew there was a car crash. “No, no, no,” He mutters.
“Hey, did you see that?” One of his neighbors questions from their porch, frowning at the sight in confusion and concern. “I think there’s an ambulance coming.”
Sure enough, when Will looks, he can see a flashing red and blue light.
Without speaking to his neighbor, he takes off down the sidewalk, running as fast as he could to get to the wreckage. When he does, he’s right on time to see paramedics place the unconscious body of Mike into a stretcher.
Will shrieks in horror and lunges forward, but a bystander grabs him and holds him back, even as he starts sobbing uncontrollably, trying desperately to reach his lover.
“It’s okay, he’ll be okay,” The bystander says softly, and god dammit, bless this woman’s heart. “They’re taking care of him right now.”
“ NOO !” Will wails as the ambulance drives off, still struggling and sobbing. “MIKE!”
“Mike’s going to be alright, sweetie, just calm down,” The woman holding him back whispers, and Will turns so the woman could pull him into a proper hug, sobbing into her shoulder like a child. “That’s right, sweetie, everything will be okay..”
Will continues sobbing for many minutes, clinging onto the woman he doesn’t know for dear life as he thinks of his boyfriend being carted away in a stretcher.
“Come on, honey, how about we go to the hospital and I call your parents?” The woman suggests. Will nods and pulls away, sniffling and wiping his eyes.
She helps him to her car and the two of them go to the hospital. Once they were there, the woman called Will’s parents and Joyce and Hopper arrived minutes later. Then when they held Will as he sobbed, the woman said goodbye and left.
“I– It’s all my fault!” Will sobs, wiping his face. “We had a fight and I said the most
horrible
things to him and he left but then he got in the car and– and–”
He bursts into sobs again and Joyce gently shushes him. Hopper walks off to go find a hospital staff member. Joyce gently brings Will to a seat and the two of them sit next to each other while Joyce whispers reassuring words in his ear and holds his hand tight, letting him lean his head on her shoulder.
Hopper comes back an hour or so later. “Mike’s going to be fine,” He says immediately, making Will sigh in relief. “He’s a little banged up and he probably has a concussion, but the doctor says he should be fixed up in no time.”
“Is he awake? Can I go see him?” Will asks, sitting up as his eyes widen.
“No, he’s not awake,” Hopper says with a sigh. “And the doctor said that he needs to go under surgery soon, so he’s restricting visitors until afterward.”
Joyce frowns. “Surgery?” She questions in concern.
“Something about his hands, I’m not sure,” Hopper says, and sat down on Will’s other side, gently placing his hand on Will’s shoulder. “But he’ll be fine, that’s what they’re completely sure of. So you don’t need to worry.”
…
Mike woke up a week later, barely coherent when anyone visited him. Both arms were in casts and he had stitches on his forehead, plus multiple cuts and bruises all over his body. Once he was coherent enough to hold a proper conversation for more than a minute, the doctors gave him the go to go home.
Will only went to see Mike once in the hospital, without any else. It was when he still was mostly out of it. Will looked at Mike’s cuts and bruises with tears in his eyes. He places his hand in Mike’s fingers open, squeezing them gently.
“Hi Mike,” He whispers softly as the boy’s head shifts. “I’m here.”
Mike didn’t open his eyes, but his lips parted slightly. “..Will..” He mumbles, his voice soft. Will exhales softly, smiling. “...You’re… here…?”
“I’m sorry, I was.. I was busy,” Will whispers.
In the silence, Mike slipped back into unconsciousness. Will felt tears formed in his eyes and he squeezed Mike’s hand again, choking on a sob.
But once two more weeks went by, Mike was back in his house. Except, two days after that, no one was able to babysit Mike for the day. With Ted, Karen, and Nancy working, Mike needed someone to watch him and help him.
Will got the call from Karen in the morning, and he jumped at the chance to take care of Mike for the day. So here he was, in the Wheeler’s kitchen.
“He takes pain medicine at nine, two, and ten,” Karen was saying, grabbing keys and her bag while holding Holly in one arm. “You won’t need to be here at ten, but he needs them at nine, which is..” She looks at the clock. “In ten minutes. You need to make sure he eats lunch and breakfast, completes his rehab sessions.. Oh! The instructions are on the fridge if he forgets, which is something he does recently because of his concussion. Don’t be worried if he doesn’t think properly.”
“Okay,” Will says, watching the woman rush back and forth around the counters. Once she was halfway out the door, he spoke. “Thank you, Mrs. Wheeler.”
“Oh sweetie, you’re a lifesaver,” Karen says, then closes the door.
Will stays there for a moment before taking a deep breath, walking up to Mike’s room, knocking on the door before entering. “Mike, it’s Will,” He says.
Mike was resting on his bed, drooling on his pillow in a way that was way too adorable for Will’s sanity. Will walked over to Mike’s bedside and crouched down next to Mike’s face, gently tucking some stray hairs away from Mike’s face.
“Hey, love, you need to wake up to take your medicine,” Will whispers, caressing Mike’s face. He saw Mike’s eyes roll around under the lids until they fluttered.
“But ‘m tired..” Mike mumbles, his voice soft and fragile.
Will smiles softly. “I know, but you’re gonna be in pain if you don’t take your meds,” He says. Mike’s eyes flutter open and he stares at Will for a long moment. “How about I help you sit up and then we’ll go from there?”
“M’kay,” Mike mumbles, and allows Will to guide him up so he is resting with his back against the wall. “The meds make me all loopy though,” He whines.
Will’s smile turns somehow even softer. “Would you rather be loopy or in pain?”
His boyfriend narrows his eyes in thought. “..In pain,” He decides, making Will chuckle softly, resuming his gentle caressing of Mike’s cheeks, making sure to avoid and/or not think about the scabs and bruises decorating Mike’s skin.
“You and I both know that’s not true,” He whispers, standing up. Mike hums and shrugs slightly. “C’mon, let's go down to the living room, okay?”
Mike nods and stands up with Will’s help, yawning. “It’s too early..” He whines.
“No, it’s not, Mike,” Will says as he helps Mike down the stairs and to the living room, having him sit down on the couch while he goes to find the medicine for Mike. Unfortunately, it took a little longer than he’d like since he forgot to ask Karen where the medicine was. He finally finds it in a cupboard and grabs a glass of water too. Will walks back into the living room, smiling. “Ready, Mike?”
“Nooooo,” Mike complains, but takes the pills from Will’s hand and takes a sip of the water to down it. He looks up at Will and then down at the ground. “Sorry.”
“No, you’re not saying sorry,” Will says with a sigh. “I talked to Max again. You were right, I was making a big deal out of nothing and I crossed the line.” He smiles softly as Mike looks up again with those sweet bambi eyes. “You do have feelings, Mike.”
The raven haired boy smiles sweetly, and Will thinks he might die from those beautiful bambi eyes. “I have feelings for you, mhm,” He says with a giggle.
Will raised his eyebrow. “Wow, the meds do make you loopy,” He whispers.
Mike giggles again as Will sits down next to him. “They make me so loopy,” The boy whines. He presses his nose to Will’s shoulder. “My brain is all warm and happy.”
“I can see that,” Will says with a chuckle of his own. He taps Mike’s nose, making the boy giggle again. A second later, Mike bursts into a giggle fit, unable to stop and Will doesn’t really want him to. “What do you want to do now, Mr. Loopy?”
“Mmm.. Lemme kiss you..” Mike mumbles, pecking Will on the lips before Will gently pushes Mike away, making the boy frown. “What? Did I do something wrong?”
“No, of course not,” Will rushes, because he can’t stand the sad puppy look in Mike’s eyes. “No, I’m just worried about your face. Doesn’t it hurt?”
Mike’s bottom lip wobbles. “Are you trying to say my face is ugly?” He questions.
“NO,” He exclaims quickly before Mike could start crying. God, this was terrifying. He hates when Mike cries. “It’s the cuts and bruises, remember?”
His boyfriend frowns. “Oh,” He says, and Will is reminded of the fact Mike has a concussion. “Right.” He smiles at Will and sinks into his shoulder again. “Okay, then can we just cuddle then? I love cuddling with you.”
Will smiles. “I love cuddling with you too,” He whispers, but the boy was already mostly asleep, drooling on his shoulder and clinging to Will like a cute koala.
Discreetly, Will kisses the top of Mike’s head and smiles. He loved Mike. Completely and utterly it was hard to think straight(haha) around him. Will leaned back on the couch and sighed contently, feeling just happy . And that was enough.