Chapter Text
Will blinked the colours from his eyes to find a random stranger—although, he thinks random but his features were slightly recognisable. Where had he seen him before?—leaning into him with pouting lips and fluttering eyelashes.
Panicked, he splayed a hand over the other’s chest and decisively pushed him away. “What are you doing?” he balked, wide-eyed, taking in not only this person, who seemed vaguely familiar in that sort of way where you’ve probably only crossed paths with them in the supermarket, and you’re left utterly powerless in being able to mentally place them in your memory if you ever saw their face again, but also simultaneously taking in the entirely new space he’s found himself existing in.
He blinked dots from his vision, fighting the sudden vertigo of going from being sat down in a dark bedroom to standing up and everything being bright, as the mid-day sun shone through open blinds.
It was a tidy but small apartment, and they were stood in a quaint kitchen with too little space between them. Will felt immediately flustered by this, shifting backward but not wanting to appear so completely out of place that it was suspicious. Especially to whoever this even was, who had to know absolutely nothing about the Upside Down and supernatural monsters.
“Um, well, I was trying to kiss my boyfriend?” he answered somewhat playfully, like Will was playing some sort of practical joke. He reached forward despite Will’s clear reluctance to be near, pulling him in by the waist, and Will felt an uncomfortable shiver run down his spine.
Boyfriend?
“No,” he said forcefully, shoving him away.
Carlton flinched like he’d taken a solid punch to the face. “No? I’m not allowed to?”
“That is what no means, if you’re testing my recollection of the word,” he snapped hastily, and then widened his eyes at his sharp tone.
But, come on, boyfriend? That made absolutely zero sense! Why wasn’t Mike the one saying that to him right now? This was meant to be a universe where they defeated Vecna together. How couldn’t they have found their way to each other after all that, when in each and every other universe he’d visited in the past, they were always together, orbiting each other like the earth to the sun?
There was a distinctive rattle at what Will assumed to be the front door to… his apartment, the tell-tale sound of something jiggling the lock with keys, before it was opening with a heavy, shouldering push.
“I’m home,” a familiar voice called liltingly.
His apparent boyfriend’s expression dropped in an instant, splintering into something unsurprised but incredulous at the same time. It was a weird, unattractive look. “Is that why you won’t kiss me? Because you’ve been expecting him to come home?”
“Ah,” Mike said rather eloquently, a chocolate bar hanging from his mouth with keys swinging in one hand and a shopping bag in the other. He hastily took a bite out of the bar, awkwardly reaching up with the keys to pop it out, and swallowed it down, glancing discerningly between them. “Am I interrupting something?”
His voice had a hard edge layered underneath it, that only served to spread a prickling heat along the nape of Will’s neck and into his cheeks.
Mike, his thoughts gushed; so relieved, in fact, that it was embarrassing how eager he was to ditch this stranger to run straight into his real boyfriend’s arms. At least they seemed to live together in this startlingly dystopian-like future where they were somehow not dating.
“Yeah, is he, Will?” Carlton asked, agitated.
“Woah, who’s ‘he’? The cat’s mother?” Mike joked, trying to dismantle the tension in the room, throwing the keys in a routinely manner into a small china bowl resting on the kitchen’s countertop.
A reflexive smile twitched to life on his face.
“Very funny,” Carlton said flatly, indicating it wasn’t funny at all.
“I don’t know, Will seems to find it funny,” Mike pointed out smugly, raising his eyebrows. “Who’s funnier, Will? John… or me?”
“The name’s Carlton—” Carlton started tightly, narrowing his gaze.
Will barely held a gasp back as he recollected exactly where he’d seen his face before. On the damn pirate ship! But this universe’s Carlton was glaringly and rapidly appearing to be a complete and utter mouth-breather, rather than the hesitantly sweet and repentant guy he met back then.
“—and you know that,” Carlton continued, irritated beyond belief. He folded his arms and directed his next glare Will’s way. “What I don’t seem to understand is why you’re not correcting him for me?”
Will’s mouth parted, agape in tacit surprise. “He’s just joking,” he replied weakly.
“Yeah, Carlton, I’m just joking,” Mike concurred, eyes sparkling with glee.
Will in turn glared at Mike, because that provoking display was surely not helping their case. Not that he even wanted to build a case, he instead wanted Carlton gone so that he could talk to Mike alone.
They had a lot to talk about.
He supposed a good way to do that would be…
“Uh, Carlton?” he started awkwardly. Carlton’s brow slanted in question, a somewhat hopeful glean entering his eyes. That made Will feel really guilty, but he steadily pressed on. If anything, he was doing his alternate self a favour. “I don’t think things are working out.”
He blinked, once, twice. Then, he lurched back. “What?”
Will took a deep, calming breath, feeling his hands sweat. “Yeah, I just… we don’t have a lot of things in common anyway, and... you seem a little insecure about my relationship with Mike which isn’t something I’m willing to concede on, okay? He’s my best friend for a reason.”
Mike dropped his bag where he was stood; it slipping from his fingers like water. Will hardly even glanced in his direction, wanting to smirk despite himself, but he didn’t think that would be the appropriate, considerate response to breaking up with someone.
“Are you…” Carlton whispered. “Are you being actually serious? You’re breaking up with me in front of him?”
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Will bit out, feeling a burst of protectiveness at the way he was talking about Mike like he wasn’t even there, or like he shouldn’t even matter. “That shouldn’t be important. It shouldn’t be what you’re focusing on, either.”
He was definitely doing his other self a favour; Carlton only seemed to be further proving a conclusion he’d made on his literal first (okay, technically second) impression of him.
“Right,” Carlton said, almost winded with hurt.
The guilt blossomed in his chest, tight and restricting, because maybe he was being a teensy bit harsh. He’d never had to break up with someone before though, so he feels he should have some margin of error. “Sorry,” he said quickly. “I just think it’s for the best.”
“I think you’re probably right,” Carlton croaked, clearing his throat, blinking against tears. “I should’ve known your relationship with your best friend superseded whatever connection I thought we had. And you told me not to worry about him,” he scoffed, his mind ticking away in unpleasant thought. “Well, guess what?”
Will (and Mike) clearly had no choice but to hear it with open ears.
“You’re never gonna be happy putting his needs before your own,” Carlton pushed out, his mouth tightening. “So, yeah, whatever. Good luck and goodbye, I wish you nothing but happiness in your pursuit of friendship.”
Will’s eyes remained wide and shocked as Carlton shoved past Mike—who quickly jumped to the side, but not far enough out of his way to avoid getting his shoulder bumped—straight to the door, ripping it open with haste.
It slammed with a startling BANG!
Mike whistled in the aftermath. “Didn’t know you had it in you.”
“Really?” Will asked, unimpressed by his non-existent tact.
Mike shrugged. “No. I knew it. I’m just glad I managed to nab a front seat to free entertainment.”
“Shut up,” Will muttered, disbelieving. “Me breaking up with someone is entertainment to you?”
“Well, yeah,” Mike replied offhandedly. “Especially when the guy you’re dating is an utter and complete asshole.”
“Mike!” Will laughed out, incredulous. “You can’t say that.”
“Last time I checked, I have the liberties to say whatever the hell I want. Do I need to educate you on the First Amendment? You did graduate High School with me, right?”
Will shook his head, amusement blooming in favour of ruminating on what Carlton had just spat at him in his anger. Is that why they weren’t together here? Mike was happy just being his friend? Was it possible that he just didn’t… reciprocate the same feelings here?
He had originally believed that sexuality could possibly be a flexible, shifting thing in every universe he visited. Maybe Mike really wasn’t into guys here, and he’d actually done this universe’s Will a complete disservice when he was only trying to move on in order to conserve his friendship with Mike?
Did it bear thinking about, when he was only here to ask how they even managed to defeat Vecna in this world?
“I need to talk to you,” Will sputtered.
Mike paused on his way to circulate around the kitchen countertop to Will’s side, placing the shopping bag he’d dropped (Will remembered this with lingering satisfaction) heavily on the table.
“Uh, okay. Shit.” Mike grimaced as he reached a hand into the plastic bag, rooting around and snapping his hand out with sticky fingers. “The eggs exploded.”
“I wonder why,” Will replied dryly.
“What!” Mike whined. “Excuse me for being shocked that my literal dream came true just earlier. I was hoping you’d break up with him ages ago.”
“You were?” Will asked hopefully.
Maybe there was something to Mike saying he was in love with him in every universe after all.
“Yeah, he was ruining what was a good thing we had going on. When was the last time we were able to watch as many sci-fi and fantasy films we wanted before we ran out of snacks to keep going? It’s your turn to do the next shopping spree, by the way, and I’d like some Doritos.”
Will’s eyes widened incrementally with every word. “Noted.”
Mike nodded, his mouth ticking into a smile. “Maybe we can do that tonight? After whatever you wanna talk to me about?”
That was a rain on his parade, as it were. He felt like he was getting sentimental thinking about whether this would be how he and Mike would be acting in their future, all completely domestic, like it was as easy as breathing.
But that’s only if they survive long enough to even reach adulthood.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Mike asked, his voice soothing and soft.
Will glanced up to Mike staring at him with a questioning, concerned frown, his eyebrows drawn sharply together.
“You’re not actually upset, right? Carlton was bad news for you. I know that because he doesn’t even like sci-fi or fantasy films. I mean, what type of monster does that make him? One that doesn’t deserve you, that’s for sure—” Mike rambled, his voice still soft, like he wasn’t even forcing it to spare his feelings.
“It’s not about Carlton,” he admitted freely.
“Oh. Then what?”
Mike’s hip was digging into the countertop where he was now leaning away from him, like he’d realised he was getting too much into his space and they needed the distance. All he desperately wanted was to fall into his Mike’s arms back home and breathe his scent in; wanting comfort like a desperate, needy thing. He clearly couldn’t do that here, however, and the thought came with a terrible pang in his chest.
“Mike, you’re going to want to sit down for this.”
“Uh, okay,” Mike started hesitantly. “Have I done something? It’s not about what Carlton said, right?” There was an almost panicked tenor to Mike’s voice. “You’re not gonna bring up moving out again? Because I think what we have here is super healthy and not co-dependent at all. Yes, I heard your phone call with Max the other day, and no, I was not snooping.” Mike folded his arms self-consciously, his eyes wide with conviction.
“What the fuck?” Will couldn’t help but blurt to that mental offloading he’d just been subjected to.
Mike groaned, pushing a hand through his hair and tugging. “I know, I’m sorry. Maybe you need to tell Max to lower her voice, I don’t know.”
“Max,” he breathed, still in complete awe. “We managed to save her?”
Mike’s eyebrows furrowed. “What?”
“Sorry,” Will said, his voice sounding rough with emotion. “This is why I told you to sit down.”
He grabbed his hand and pulled him to the couch, ignoring the absolute look of startled surprise on Mike’s face at the sudden touch. It sent a jolt through him, like he was now wired with electricity, running on the point of contact between their hands.
That was, until he forced himself to let go.
Mike was unorthodoxically quiet, just content to listen.
Will breathed unsteadily. “Look, you can either just believe me, or I do have evidence to back myself up. But I’m… not from here, Mike. I’m from a world similar to this one, but we’re still fighting Vecna, and I came here to seek… help.”
Mike licked his lips, shaking his head like a subconscious no. “That’s not possible.”
Evidence to prove himself, then. Will could hardly blame him. It appeared that Vecna must’ve been well and truly gone for years now, with no other concerns except for Will apparently seeking a boyfriend and maybe the usual but welcome stresses of college.
So, he focused inward, letting the power surge within him until he felt it intensify at the tips of his fingers, and the lights above them began to flicker, sparking as he increased the heat.
Mike’s jaw dropped. His leg started bouncing. His fingers were restless atop his knee. “Okay. Okay! I believe you.”
Will opened his eyes to a surprised gasp as he let the power fade.
“Your eyes…” Mike murmured, an awe-like quality rising in his voice. A familiar one. It was the same unmistakable tone that he’d previously heard in his Mike’s voice, when he called him sorcerer.
“Yeah, I know,” he said gruffly. “An honest-to-God sorcerer, right?”
Colour flooded Mike’s cheeks, almost making his freckles disappear entirely.
Will, delighted, had to make commentary. “Are you okay? You seem… flushed?”
“I’m fine,” he spluttered, embarrassed. “You mean, you really haven’t defeated Vecna yet? In your world?”
“No… we’re still in our last year of High School. It’s not like we’re still fighting him in college, or something. I assume that you defeated him at roughly the same time?”
Will really didn’t want to mention the fact that if he didn’t defeat the Vecna in his world, it was likely that every single world, (including this one), would be subject to total subjugation by the Mind Flayer, whatever that even looked like (probably not good, though, he winced).
In other words, everyone was completely and utterly doomed if he didn’t find any answers here.
So, yeah, he was definitely not mentioning that. He should probably keep that solely to himself. It was his problem anyway, no one else’s.
“Oh my God,” Mike said in horrified realisation. “You’re only seventeen years old?”
“Well, yeah,” Will replied, a tad confused. “How old are you?”
“Twenty,” he pushed out. “You’re a kid. Inhabiting my best friend’s twenty-one-year-old body!”
“Well, okay, I don’t see why that matters,” Will said, affronted by the accusation. “But you did defeat Vecna at my age, right?”
“Yep,” Mike confirmed, still reeling for some unforeseen reason. “I guess we did.”
“You guess? I’m putting a lot of faith in you by coming here, you know that, right?” he teased.
Unpredictably, Mike didn’t smile at this. If anything, a complicated flicker crossed his expression and his eyes went dull. “Maybe you shouldn’t be. I mean, I can help you,” he squeezed out, discomfited by Will’s clear panic, “but maybe I’m not the right person to ask? I made… I made a lot of mistakes.”
“You are the right person for this,” Will stated adamantly, eager to wipe that desolate look from his eyes. “Of course you are. And… I’ve made plenty of mistakes too. The world I’m from isn’t even my original one. I got… everyone killed there,” his voice wavered, always finding it difficult to talk about. But it looked like this Mike needed to hear it too, if that was the familiar look of guilt reflecting in his eyes. He felt his fingers digging into the palm of his hand, and the pain there kept him from sinking.
Mike glanced up. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Well, believe it. I… I exchanged my life for Holly’s in that world, and you can guess how that went.”
Absolute terror burgeoned to life in Mike’s entire countenance. “What?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve learned from it,” Will said uncomfortably. “So maybe you’ve learned from your own mistakes?”
Mike blinked, swallowing harshly. “I find that hard to believe too,” he whispered.
Will swayed forward with the desperate inclination to comfort him, but Mike flinched back. He didn’t understand.
“How… how can you travel across worlds?” Mike asked, unmistakably redirecting the conversation. He wasn’t being slick, but Will allowed it with a heavy sigh that Mike pretended not to hear. “You weren’t able to do that in ours. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you had powers,” Mike emphasised, as though that was very important. “But not ones that could do that.”
“What could I do?”
“You were able to use your True Sight and take control that way. Like, seeing through the Demogorgon’s eyes gave you power over them. And over Vecna.”
The description of his True Sight, seeing through their eyes, wasn’t a complete shock. Because that had happened in his original timeline. It’s how he knew Vecna had been targeting the kids. It’s how he knew the Demogorgon was heading for Mike’s house, (not that that knowledge particularly helped, considering Karen died and Holly was taken regardless). But it’s also how he knew the Demogorgon was heading toward the barn in search of Dipshit Derek, and that had helped, however briefly.
Will’s lips parted, however, at the very simple idea that his True Sight could give him power or control over them. Unbidden, he remembered Mike asking whether he could feel the vines that El had described fighting against in her and Hopper’s most recent Crawl to save Kali. He had a prickling awareness that maybe his Mike was already considering whether or not he possessed a second power… one he hadn’t yet discovered himself.
“Tell me more,” Will urged.
And Mike did.
Will learned a lot of things. Including how they managed to get to the Abyss, which was a welcome relief to find out the answer to, but also...
“Ooh, so, I was siphoning Vecna’s powers… That would make me more like a wizard here, right?” Will missed the look of outrage flashing in Mike’s face. “I wonder if I can do that in my world too. I mean, sometimes I can feel the vines. I could see through Vecna and the Demogorgon’s eyes.”
“Okay, yes, you can probably do that then,” Mike agreed, his voice soft which came across with quite a bit of dissonance, since he was frowning at the same time. “But my Will is also a sorcerer, not a wizard, okay? Trust me, I know the difference.”
“But those powers that you’re describing, at the MAC-Z? Well, they didn’t come from me, did they? They came from Vecna.”
Mike aggressively sighed. “You don’t get it. They did come from you. It was all… you,” he breathed, his expression brightening in recollection. “You told me once, that in that moment, when the Demogorgons were coming for us: me, Lucas, and Robin…”
Will didn’t know about any Demogorgons coming for three very important people in his life. That was clearly a pivotal moment that hadn’t happened in his universe, but had in this one. After Vecna’s return, he’d given Will a choice to exchange his life for Holly’s, and they’d gone searching for her while he fell quiet, conflicted about whether to take what he thought had been an opportunity to rectify his wrongs. If only he could have sensed the Demogorgon sooner, when it had been heading to Mike’s house, then maybe Mike’s mom would’ve still been alive, Holly still in reach… So, yeah, Will made a deal. A deal that had ultimately failed, but he didn’t like to think about that monumental mistake.
“You realised that you’re the one who had all the power. From the very beginning. Maybe…” He curled his lip, as though he hated to remind himself of this point. “Okay, maybe Robin’s words were what helped you discover that, but it wasn’t her that gave you strength… It was the memories of… of everyone you love that made you find the strength. That’s what you told me, anyway. It made it possible for you to be able to find that power within yourself. Believe me, okay, you were a full-fledged sorcerer."
Will couldn’t help but feel utterly endeared, his heart fluttering. “And just who were the memories of? You? You don’t have to dance around it.”
Mike spluttered, “Me? What, why would they…? I don’t know who you thought about. You never… elaborated on that. I never asked. I assumed, like, the whole Party, not just me? Maybe even your mom and Jonathan?”
“Oh,” Will blurted in surprise. He didn’t have to be this Mike’s Will to know for certain that the way he used his powers was by thinking about Mike. There was genuinely no other explanation. “Oh my God, Mike, I was definitely thinking of you. That’s how I can use my powers. So that I can travel across different universes.”
Mike seemed completely floored by that, his eyes big and wide. “You think of me? Every time?”
“Yeah, of course every time,” he said shyly. “What, is that suddenly a problem?”
“No! Of course it’s not… a problem. I just… I don’t understand. Why me? I mean, it’s just that I’m not… I was never…” he spluttered, his ears burning.
“Mike…?”
“There’s a reason we lost touch, you know, back then,” Mike blurted, and pushed through his hesitation despite the immediate regret flooding his face with heat. “California. I know it was a really long time ago, but maybe it isn’t. Not for you…” Mike considered his words, gnawing at his lip until it looked sore.
Will couldn’t believe California was something they hadn’t talked about yet, and they were, what? Twenty and twenty-one-years-old, respectively? That was crazy. That was actually the most shocking thing he’d heard all night, as the sun had descended from the sky, leaving the lamps the only thing illuminating the living room so they could continue talking.
“Carlton was right, you know? Maybe… maybe you are putting my needs above your own, because I’ve always been the selfish one out of us two. Because… I’m not a good friend,” he admitted painfully, his throat tight. Will’s heart squeezed when he saw Mike’s eyes starting to tear up. “I never have been, I don’t think. It’s not a surprise. I’m not a good son either, my mom would attest to that since I haven’t called home in, I don’t even know how long, and God, even you have to agree that I was the worst—"
“Mike,” he lamented, wanting Mike to take a breath to calm down. He was getting himself worked up. It was like he was unleashing everything because it was safe… maybe because he wasn’t his Will, so it was less risky. Why didn’t he think he could tell him though? Did he think he’d judge him? Agree with this horrible assessment of himself?
“—boyfriend. The worst. She didn’t deserve me; she deserved so much more. I mean, she at least deserved someone who actually understood her. But I couldn’t figure it out in time and I—I failed her. I failed almost everyone. I mean, what good even was I except to build the bomb that killed her—" he breathed raggedly.
What? Will thought, a terror like no other sweeping through him. “El’s dead here?” Will asked quietly.
“I told you I made mistakes,” Mike pleaded, a tear rolling that he hastily scrubbed away.
“Mike, I’m not blaming you.” What could he do to convince him that? There was no way a different version of himself would ever blame Mike for that.
“You should, you should, I never deserved a happy ending, I never deserved you—not after—”
“Don’t say that, please,” he whispered, and Mike sniffed, quieting down instantly.
Kali must’ve been able to talk El into it. He was glad, then, that they’d made preventative measures for that, but it didn’t absolve the fact that it had happened here. It didn’t take away from that devastation crumpling Mike’s expression, the tremble at his mouth.
“I… I didn’t realise you never broke up with El here. You were still together when she… when she died?”
“What?” Mike asked brokenly. “We broke up in your world?”
“Yeah,” he replied gently. “In September. You said the point of no return was when you talked about the painting. The one I gave you in Lenora? That painting.”
Mike shuffled, his eyebrows lifting in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
He swallowed, suddenly, very anxious. “You guys never talked about it? I guess that explains things, because if you never confronted me about it, then maybe I wouldn’t’ve ever told you the truth… It would’ve been too hard to admit on my own after so long—"
“Will.” His voice was desperate, barely held together by a string.
“El… she never commissioned it. I… I lied that day. In the van. The words were all me. I’m the one that… needed you, and thought you were what held everyone together. The Heart. I still do. I still mean every word I said back then. No matter what universe I find myself in, that’s what I think of you. So, yeah, you can’t say that about yourself and mean it, Mike. It… it hurts to hear you talk about yourself that way. You… of course you deserve a happy ending.”
Hesitantly slow, he reached a hand out and settled it over Mike’s, gripping tight.
Mike’s eyes glittered with a sharp reckoning.
“Will. Was I your… Tammy?”
Tammy? Will’s nose wrinkled. He didn’t even know who that was.
“Who the hell is Tammy?”
Mike laughed through a sob. “Well, I guess that makes two of us. It… it doesn’t matter. I’m being dumb.”
“You’re never dumb,” Will told him, rubbing his thumb in a slow, comforting circle, smiling up at him.
Mike swallowed, his gaze flicking across his face. Lingering.
Mike definitely loved him in every universe. He can’t believe he even questioned it earlier; it was obvious.
“Mike?”
“Yeah,” he murmured.
“You should talk to your Will. Properly, just like this. Because there’s one thing that I’m entirely sure of now…”
Mike’s gaze… it was flashing with something cautiously approaching hope.
“Which is?”
“I’m sure that we’re in love. Every single universe, Mike. I don’t believe that this is the one world where it’s an exception…
“Do you?” he asked quietly, flitting his eyes up.
He let the question sink like quicksand all around them, an inescapable thing for Mike to ruminate heavily on as his Will was returned to him, and he gathered his power. The vivid colours sprinkled across his vision, and Mike’s lips just barely parted in his shock.
“Bye, Mike.”