Chapter Text
Marcus was awoken by the sound of medieval music blaring throughout the basement.
His blurry eyes peaked open to find the blankets Will had been laying on were vacant.
“What are you doing?” Lucas groaned from his spot on the ground.
“Yeah Will, can you turn down the music?” Mike yelled over the booming stereo.
Marcus sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes.
“Please address me by my full name.” Will ordered.
Marcus looked up in the direction of Wills voice. He was dressed in a full purple wizard’s costume, hat and cloak and staff and all.
“What?”
Will slammed his wooden staff down in the floor. “My full name!”
“Oh my god. Okay,” Mike rubbed his face in exasperation, “Will the Wise, can you please turn down the music?”
“That is not music.” Will corrected assertively. “That is the sound of destiny! I have seen into the future, and I’ve seen that today is a new day. A day… free of girls!”
Lucas looked around in confusion, though his eyes were barley open, so he wasn’t seeing much of anything. “What is happening right now?”
“Will, come on.” Mike groaned. “It’s so early.”
“Is it? Is it early, Micheal?” Will took a step towards Mike. “Tell that to the villagers crying for your help, the children so frightened, they cannot sleep. Are you truly going to let them perish? Or are you going to come to their rescue and be the hero’s you were always meant to be?”
Lucas looked over at Marcus in genuine confusion and back at Will. “Uh… can I at least take a shower first?”
About an hour into the campaign Marcus realized there was no chance of getting Mike and Lucas to give a shit about anything besides their girlfriends… or ex-girlfriends now.
Before they started, Will woke them up around 7:00 in the morning, Lucas’s shower delayed them at least twenty minutes.
After that, Mike and Lucas disappeared upstairs to eat breakfast around 8:00, leaving Marcus to convince Will to drop the act for a moment and eat something as well.
They finished eating around 9:30.
Then Mike complained some more about El, which was followed by being forced by his father to clean the living room, which resulted in Mike starting a small argument with Marcus because he was talking too much with Will.
They finally started playing closer to 10:30.
Marcus felt so bad, he was the only one actually playing.
Mike moped the whole time while Lucas wouldn’t take anything that was happening seriously.
A few hours in, and after plenty of ‘bathroom breaks’ requested by Mike, Marcus’s heart broke watching Will’s confidence fade and falter as the storm outside built and strengthened.
“Do you guys hear that?” Will continued optimistically. “It sounds like… thunder. But no, wait! That’s not thunder… it’s…” he slammed four figures down on the table, “a horde of juju zombies! Sir Mike, your action.”
Mike looked like he’d rather kill himself than be sitting at that table.
“What should I do?” He asked Lucas in false interest.
Lucas just shrugged.
“Try attacking.” Marcus encouraged.
Mike cast him a quick side eye before grabbing the die. “Fine, I attack with my flail.” He set the die down on the table. Didn’t even roll it, just dropped from a centimeter above the board.
“Woosh! You missed.” Will pushed on. “Your flail clanks the stone, the zombie horde lumbers towards you, and…” Will aggressively shook the die and rolled it on the table. “the juju bites your arm, flesh tears! Ahh! Seven points of damage!”
“Oh no my arm! Look at my arm.” Mike groaned sarcastically as he grabbed his shoulder. Lucas covered his face with his hand to hide his quiet snickers.
Will’s shoulders slumped and his expression fumbled a bit. He looked over at Marcus.
Marcus nodded at him. Desperately trying to motivate him to not give up… or snap.
Will sat up a bit straighter at the encouragement, internally hyping himself up. “Sir Lucas.” He directed his attention at his other friend.
Lucas snapped his head back up, his lips pressed together tightly as he tried not to laugh.
“The zombie horde roars! Do you fight back? Or do you run?”
Lucas’s eyes squinted, and he slowly raised his finger as he tried to think of a semi-genuine response.
Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by the basement phone shrilling loudly throughout the room.
All four boys’ heads whipped towards the sound.
“No!” Will stood up from his seat, banging his staff on the ground for attention. The only boy’s attention the action instantaneously grabbed was Mike’s. “It’s a distraction! A trap! Do not answer it!”
Mike did a triple take from the phone to Will. Eyes wide, he looked over at Lucas, and the two boys leapt up to answer the intruder.
“Wait. No!” Will attempted to stop them, but they reached the phone too quickly.
“Guys –-” Marcus stood up as well.
“El?” Mike practically yelled into the phone. “No. Sorry. Not interested.” He slammed the phone back into the receiver. “Telemarketers.”
“Maybe we should just call them.” Lucas suggested.
“We can do that?”
“I think so.”
“Yeah but, what would we say?”
“We will say nothing!” Will banged the staff on the ground again. “The Khoisan tribe still need your help!”
“Alright then, I’ll use my torch to set fire to the chamber, sacrificing ourselves, killing the juju’s and saving the Khuisar’s. We all live on as heroes in the memories of the Kalamar.”
So Mike had been paying attention.
“Victory.” Lucas gave Mike a high five.
Marcus looked over at Will to see his bottom lip tremble once. Not in sadness, but in anger.
“Fine. You guys win. Congratulations.” He threw his hat and staff on the ground, turning off the stereo and ripping off his cloak.
Mike’s voice softened. His whole attitude softened. “Will, I was just messing around. Hey, let’s finish for real.” He walked around the table to stand back by his seat.
Will ignored him.
Mike frowned, “How much longer is the campaign?”
“Just forget it Mike.” Will snapped at him.
“No, you want to keep playing. We want to keep playing right?” Mike hit Marcus’s shoulder. He was Will’s best friend now, wasn’t he? He should be able to stop him.
“Yes, we do.” Marcus nodded sincerely. “Will, I promise you we want to keep going--”
Alright, Mike decided that was enough out of him. “Yeah. We’ll just call the girls afterwards--“
Will whirled around to face him, his countenance radiating in anger. “I said forget it Mike, okay?! I’m going home.”
Mike’s chest squeezed in agony as he watched Will start walking away from him.
Marcus’s eyes winded in shock. He’s never seen Will snap at any of his friends like that. “Will…”
Lucas reached out an arm to stop him. “Come on Will,”
“Move!” Will shoved Lucas to the side and stormed up the stairs.
Marcus was mid step after Will when Mike grabbed his arm almost violently and yanked him back. Without a word more, Mike jogged past him and Lucas and climbed the stairs after his friend, leaving the two stunned boys alone in the basement.
Mike caught the door to the garage before it could swing shut, following close behind Will.
“Will come on. You can’t leave, it’s raining.”
Mike walked up next to Will who was rummaging through his backpack. Mike imploringly stared at him to stay.
“Listen, I said I was sorry, alright?”
Will continued to rummage through his bag, frustration building as he struggled to find his house key.
“It’s a cool campaign, it’s really cool. We’re just not in the mood right now--“
Will slung his bag back over his shoulders and turned to Mike. “Yeah, Mike. That’s the problem, you guys are never in the mood anymore! You’re ruining our party.”
“That’s not true!”
“Really? Where’s Dustin right now?”
Mike hesitated. The storm outside the garage increased in volume. Rain slammed against the driveway so hard Mike could feel it shatter into the ground and hit his ankles; cold and uncomfortable.
“See? You don’t know and you don’t care and obviously he doesn’t either and I don’t blame him! You’re destroying everything and for what?! So you can swap spit with some stupid girl?”
That got to Mike. The accusation hit him hard. “El’s not stupid!” He fired back.
Why was it his problem Will couldn’t find a girl on his own to make out with? It was Will’s fault for making him feel weird about girls after all. If it wasn’t for him, maybe he wouldn’t feel the need to keep lying to El anyway. If it wasn’t for him, he’d still have a girlfriend. “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”
Will froze. He took a slow, half step back. His body trembled ever so slightly against his will. Out of everything Mike could have said, that wounded a part of him that was buried so deep he felt his skin start to burn.
Mike paused and swallowed nervously. He knew he fucked up. He always managed to fuck up when it came to people that he cared about. And he cared about Will more than anyone. Or anything.
“I’m not trying to be a jerk, okay?” He started again, slowly, trying to be more careful with his wording. But the same defenses came flowing back before he knew how to stop them. “But we’re not kids anymore. I mean, what did you think, really? That we were never gonna get girlfriends? That we were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?”
Will wanted to shrink. He wanted to disappear. How could he be so damn stupid? This whole argument was his own fault. If only he could get himself to move on from clinging onto the same bullshit childhood memories that pervaded his mind and dreams like a relentless, meretricious parasite. He needed to grow up and learn another way to overcome his trauma and unhappiness instead of believing his friends could fix that. Instead of letting himself believe Mike would even care about him enough to help fix that.
Because he knew Mike’s heart wasn’t big enough to give two shits about anything besides Eleven.
Only if he knew the truth…
But instead of hiding, Will lifted his chin slightly, anger again fogging his previous sense of fear and crushing disappointment.
“Yeah. I guess I did. I really did.”
Mike’s chest did the same agonizing squeeze it did in the basement as he hopelessly watched Will mount his bike.
Will pedaled off into the raging storm, the sound of rain hitting the pavement drowning out the sounds of Mike calling after him, leaving Mike alone. Trapped in his own oppressive guilt.