Chapter Text
Will’s eyes shoot open and he jumps out of bed,
grabs his neatly folded clothes he had set out for himself the night before and hurries down the hallway to the bathroom so he can get ready for the day ahead.
It’s been a year and half since they defeated vecna and a week since graduation but today they leave on a summer long trip to Michigan. On the day of graduation after their last campaign Lucas told them his uncle owns a camper, that he rents a campsite year round and offered to let them spend the summer there as a graduation gift.
Will finishes packing his things making sure he has everything he needs as he hears a knock on the door startling him a bit. He smiles eagerly, lifts his backpack onto his shoulders and wheels his suitcase towards the door. Joyce jumps up from the couch and hugs him tight rocking him slightly back and forth, she cups his face in her hands.
“You be safe okay sweetie, I love you and if you need anything at all you call me and I’ll be there in a heartbeat.”
Joyce pulls him back into a hug, tighter this time.
“I will mom, I promise.” he says reassuringly, resting his chin on Joyce’s head.
Will kisses her head and pulls away from the hug slightly.
“I love you mom but I really have to go. I’m the first stop, we still have to pick up the others.”
She smiles. “I love you honey, be careful I mean it.”
Will gives her one more quick hug before opening the door. Mike smiles, his dark curls shining in the sunlight.
“Do you have everything you need?”
Will smiles back. “Yeah, I made sure to pack last night so I wouldn't forget anything important.”
Mike grabs Will’s suitcase and wheels it to the car. Will follows, throws his backpack in the trunk and hops in the front seat.
Karen and Ted got Mike a car for his graduation gift, A deep blue Ford Bronco. It was perfect for him, for them.
Mike slams the trunk closed, hops into the driver's seat and looks at Will with a slight smile.
“Did you… bring your CD’s?”
Will feels his cheeks flush and quickly turns his head before jumping out of the car and opening the trunk. He comes back with this yellow case filled with endless CD’s organized in alphabetical order. He hands them to Mike and hops back into the car feeling proud of himself.
Will watches Mike shuffle through the disc’s, the way his long fingers linger before flipping to the next page, the way his brows furrow in concentration making sure he picks the perfect album. He stops flipping through the pages and smiles, proud of himself. Mike carefully pulls the disc from its rightful slot and puts it in the player. He hands the case of CD’s back to Will with a smile before putting the car in reverse, pulling out of the driveway and heading towards Dustin's house.
The music starts playing. A dreamlike melody blares through the speakers, drums, guitar, piano. Will finally realizes the album Mike chose.
“Show me, show me, show me, how you do that trick.”
The Cure.
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Will looks at the clock.
-2:32 PM-
He sighs.
They had only been in the car for an hour with 3 more to go. Will leans his head against the window feeling Mike's eyes dart towards him every time they hit a red light and away as soon as the light turns green or he sees Max eyeballing them from the back seat.
“I’m hungry, can we stop?” Max whines, breaking Will away from his thoughts.
“Are you serious? We’ve only been in the car for an hour Max!” Mike groans and rolls his eyes.
Will turns his head towards the conversation and away from the window “I could eat…” he says shyly brushing his hand on the back of his neck for comfort.
Mike looks toward Will with a caring look in his eye then whips his head around to look at max and glares at her before pulling off of the highway at the next exit. Max kicks the back of Will’s seat discreetly to get his attention and smirks at him knowingly. He blushes then quickly presses his head against the window out of pure embarrassment.
Shortly after, they pull into a small, cute roadside diner. Max jumps out of the car first with Lucas in hand, Dustin follows. Mike turns off the car and looks over at Will with a gentle and caring look before hopping out of the car to join the others.
Will hesitates, his thoughts eating away at him.
Get it together Will, he already told you, you're “not friends, bestfriends.” he will never see you in the way you see him no matter how much you want him too.
His cheeks heat up and his chest tightens. He feels as his heart makes its way to his throat, the tears boiling behind his eyes fighting with him to be set free.
Will takes a deep breath and swallows, that swallow burying every thought, every emotion forbidden from being spoken. He hops out of the car meeting the others forcing a smile before they all walk inside the diner, tension fills the air that nobody else can feel, just Will and Mike.
It smells like comfort. The smell of french fries, pancakes, burgers, milkshakes and any other meal your heart could desire. Will felt some stress release, finally a distraction. Sitting in the car drowning in his thoughts wasn't working for him.
They sit down at a large booth. Dustin slides in to the end Mike sits down next to him, Max and Lucas slide in across from the others and that leaves Will. He slides in shyly next to Mike trying not to get too close, tensing up anything their arms brush against each other. Mike notices and gives him a look that says
We’ll talk about this later when we have some privacy.
Will gives him a half smile and continues looking over the menu.
They finish eating and all pull out their wallets splitting up the payment.
Will pulls his wallet from his jeans and opens it before he sees a hand close it and take it from him.
He looks up and sees Mike discreetly holding his wallet before handing it back to him under the table and mouthing to him ‘I got it.’
Before Will can argue Mike hands his money to the waitress proudly.
“Thank you!” They all say in unison before leaving the diner and walking back to the car.
They continue driving towards Michigan, still over two hours before they’d arrive
Will leans back against the window and eventually falls into a deep sleep.
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Will wakes up to Mike extremely lightly tapping and shaking his shoulder.
“Hey Will, it's time to get up, we're here.” he says softly, brushing Will’s hair out of his face.
Will groans then slowly forces himself out of the car, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.
He looks around, taking in the view. There's trees everywhere, all different types swaying in the light breeze. The beautiful lake down the hill. Will smiles and walks toward the trunk to help unload. He sees there’s nothing there, feeling bad he wasn't awake to help.
Mike puts his hand on Will’s shoulder.
“We brought everything inside and unpacked. We wanted to let you sleep longer… I wanted to let you sleep longer.” Mike gives him an awkward but playful smile rubbing his hand on the back of his neck for comfort.
Will blushes. “Thank you I really would've got up to help if you had woken me up.” He pushes against Mike’s shoulder playfully.
Mike smiles. “Of course, anytime.”
They walk together towards the camper. It's huge. There's a deck in the front with stairs built up to the door, They walk up the steps and step inside. It’s beautiful, it’s perfect.
The camper is very nice. In the back room there’s 2 bunk beds, the bottom one much bigger than the top. In the common area the bathroom is off to the side, there's a small kitchen, a couch that turns into a bed and a table with a booth. The master bedroom is in the front of the camper, Lucas and Max will be taking that.
“Sooo… where do you guys wanna sleep?” Mike asked.
“I’ll take the couch bed, I don't really like bunk beds.” Dustin says.
Mike and Will both glance at each other making Will’s cheeks flush.
“Okay, cool.” Mike says awkwardly.
Max quickly finds a way to change the subject.
“Guys guess what.” She exclaims.
The boys all look at her confused but intrigued and raise their eyebrows.
Max digs in her bag and pulls out a giant bottle of vodka.
The boys look at her in shock then all smile before Will starts digging in his bag, he pulls out a clear bag filled to the brim with a green plant.
“I may or may not have stolen Jonathan's weed.” Will said, his voice cracking into a giggle.
“Now it’s really a party!” Lucas exclaims, him and Dustin laughing.
Will looks over towards Mike, he tries to read his expression but he can’t and it makes him feel unsettled. He gives Mike a soft reassuring smile even though he doesn't know what he’s reassuring him about and Mike gives him a half smile back.
Will mouths ‘We’ll talk later, okay?’
Mike gives him a real smile this time and mouth’s back ‘Okay.’
It’s about 7:30 PM now and starting to get dark out, now the fun really begins.
“Alright losers, who’s ready to play truth, dare or shots.” Max says before glancing at Will and winking at him.
Will feels his cheeks start to heat up.
“The rules are simple. You spin this water bottle and whoever the cap is pointed towards has to pick truth or dare, if they refuse to answer or do their dare they have to take a shot. Got it?” Max explains.
Everyone nods in unison as they gather in a circle on the floor of the camper.
Max spins the bottle first landing on Dustin.
“Truth or dare Dustin?” Max smirks.
“Dare, I guess.” Dustin laughs
“I dare you to let me draw something on your arm with a permanent marker.”
Dustin laughs. “Are you serious? Okay fine.” He smiles jokingly and gives her his arm.
Max begins to draw her silly little picture on Dustin's arm. “Don’t look.” She warns.
Dustin half laughs “Okay okay, I wont.”
“Anddddd done.” Max exclaims feeling and looking proud of herself. “I hope you enjoy my beautiful masterpiece.”
Max giggles as Dustin opens his eyes to look down at his arm. He sees a medium sized penis that has a smiley face on the shaft covering his forearm.
He shakes his head smiling, trying not to laugh.
“I should've expected this.”
Everyone breaks out into pure laughter before Dustin spins the bottle.
“Lucas, truth or dare?” Dustin smirks.
“Truth.”
“Whats your deepest darkest fantasy about Max?” Dustin smirks harder this time.
“Pass me the damn bottle.” Lucas says, shaking his head in defeat.
He takes a swig from the bottle and sets it down on the floor while Max is next to him blushing.
Lucas spins the bottle.
“Mike, truth or dare?” Lucas says looking at max quickly then back at Mike with a knowing smirk on his face.
“Uh… I don't know, truth I guess.”
“Do you have any sexual thoughts about anyone in this room?” Lucas says cautiously, side eyeing Max who told him earlier she thought there was something going on between Mike and Will.
Mike's whole face turned from pale to pink in almost an instant. Without saying a word, Mike quickly grabs the vodka and takes at least three shots in one swig before setting the bottle back down. The others didn't notice but Will did, he always notices.
Will turned to Mike with so many different feelings in his eyes and then back toward the game, the rest of the group.
Mike spins the bottle this time.
“Max, truth or dare.” he says with a mischievous look in his eye.
“Dare.”
Mike smirks. “I dare you to let Lucas give you a hickey.” He says, proud of himself and pointing his chin up slightly.
Max’s jaw drops. “Screw you Wheeler!” She says, playfully shocked.
“Not in front of you idiots though.” Max grabs Lucas’ hand and drags him toward the master. Lucas looks back and all the boys give him a thumbs up, smirk and laugh.
They come back about five minutes later, Max has a deep red mark on her neck. Dustin gives Lucas a fist bump, Max rolls her eyes as she spins the bottle.
“Will, truth or dare.” Max smiles, hard.
“Umm… dare.” Will smiles back
Before giving Will his dare Max looks into his eyes with a look that says
You’ll thank me later.
“I dare you… to go skinny dipping with the person next to you.” Max looks at Lucas then back at Will.
Will’s entire face turns bright red as he slowly looks towards Mike whose face is doing the exact same things.
Is there a chance Mike could actually want to do this too? That he could be feeling the same things I am?
Max, Lucas and Dustin wait patiently for them to decide what they’re gonna do, awkward glances exchanging between the three of them.
Will continues looking at Mike, searching his face for any type of sign to see what he’s feeling, if he wants to do this or not, if he wants to do this with him. Will can't seem to read his face like he usually can so he waits, he waits for a signal.
Mike finally grabs the bottle, takes another large swig from it and sets it back down, seeming as if he’s waiting for Will to say something.
Will lets out an anxious sigh.
“Okay… I'll do it but I'm gonna need a couple shots first.”
Mike picks the bottle back up and hands it to him without looking to hide his red face.
Will takes it from him and takes a large swig from it just as Mike did followed by another. He sets the bottle on the ground and hesitantly stands up before glancing at Mike and walking to the back room to grab towels.
“Hey… do you think you could bring some of that weed you got from Jonathan?” Mike asked shyly.
“Yeah, sure if that’s what you want.”
Will quickly rolls a joint the way he always watched Jonathan do it. He hands Mike a towel and gives him a reassuring smile before slipping his shoes on and walking out the door.
Max and Lucas discreetly high fived as Mike slipped his shoes on and followed Will out of the door.
“I can't believe that really worked!” Max whispered.