It's just polyester •byler

Chapter 8: It's their home and I'm welcome no more

"Anyone hungry?" Will interrupts abruptly, shooting Nick a glance

"Yep"

"Me"

" Please"

As they're walking toward the house, Mike falls back to stand next to his sister. She's giving him an almost guilty look.

"Forgot to factor Nick into your plan huh, Nancy?" he says through gritted teeth

"Mike, I didn't know he'd be here" She sounds genuinely apologetic "Jonathan said they've only been dating a few months, I didn't think he'd be here for Christmas"

"It's fine. Just. No more of those comments ok? Not now."

Before she can say anything else, they hear Jonathan calling from the front door

"Are you guys coming?"

Mike and Nancy share one more look, resigning themselves to silence.

And they make their way inside.

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They're all sitting around the table when Joyce Byers arrives home. She walks through the door, flustered and immediately starts to deflect the questions from her children (mostly Jonathan) by making a show of greeting Mike and Nancy.

Mike notices that, though she'd been incredibly welcoming as soon as she'd seen himself and his sister, she hadn't really done the same for Nick. Instead, taking to ruffling his hair, the same way she had done to Will moments prior. It was a moment of familiarity, her hand moving habitually, and it was evident Nick was comfortable here. Mike internally sighed, realising he was going to be dealing with a whole lot of this. Somehow, the thought of Will having a boyfriend hadn't fully registered until this moment. Until he had seen the way that Nick fit in with the Byers, the way that he had nestled himself into their lives. Mike, for the first time since he'd met Will, felt like an outsider in the Byers home. He pushed some of his food around his plate, not wanting to watch the moment any longer.

"Mike, Nancy, how was your Christmas?" Joyce asks, a soft smile on her face, taking a plate of food from Jonathan. He'd used leftovers from Christmas Day to create a homemade turkey pot pie.

Well, I broke Mom's Christmas photo tradition, told my parents they won't be getting grandkids, in some roundabout way. Oh and learnt an awful lot about myself whilst doing so. How about you?

"It was okay. We had Nana this year" It's Nancy that answers, taking a mouthful of Jonathan's homemade pie.

"We had a houseful too with Nick over this year"

Of course he was.

"Nick made some really nice Snickerdoodles with Will" El states, almost as a reminder to Joyce

"Oh of course! The mess they made in the kitchen however-"

"Mom! We cleared everything up"

"Will, honey, there was flour in places I didn't realise it was possible to get flour"

Laughter spreads across the table and the chatter continues. Mike considers that maybe he shouldn't have come. It would have been easier if El had just told him "No Mike. Don't come." And he wishes she had. There were still five days until The Party arrived in Illinois and he wonders if there's anyway he could pull some strings. Lucas' parents were pretty easygoing, he was sure if he managed to call him, Lucas would be able to convince his family to get him here early, then he could call Max and Dustin and they could be here tomorrow. Easy. But he knew, in reality, it was just going to be himself, Will and Nick for the next few days.