The loud music drums in Will’s ears and he keeps pushing himself through the sea of drunken bodies. He finally makes it out on the other side of the room and squeezes himself into the kitchen.
A tap on his shoulder makes him turn around. Blue eyes framed by red hair look into his.
“Will, join us for truth or dare!” Max half yells over the music and tugs on his sleeve. Will pulls his arm back.
“I was just about to steal some snacks, I’ll be there in a second,” he replies. “Where are you playing?”
“We’re sitting in Kathy’s bedroom,” Max says and reaches behind Will to grab a red cup from the counter. “Bring some extra chips for me?”
Will nods as Max takes a six pack of beer from the fridge and then slips out of the kitchen. He takes two cups from the counter as well and fills them with chips and popcorn. He goes after Max, careful not to spill anything.
He finally makes it to the stairs and starts walking up them to get to Kathy’s room. He’s been here a million times before, chatting with Kathy about anything and everything, things he hasn’t told anyone else.
After asking him to dance at the Snow Ball, Kathy had become his first friend outside of the party. They quickly grew close and now they’re inseparable. They are always each other’s dates to school dances but they’re clearly no more than friends. They aren’t best friends either; no one can replace Mike in Will’s life.
Will and Kathy had realized something about the other very quickly that made them stick to the other. Now, several years later, Will supposes his first clue should have been Kathy’s rainbow hair clip at the Snow Ball. She kept fiddling with it the whole evening, but he hadn’t understand why until about a week after the Snow Ball, when he heard one of the other kids call her a queer.
His mind had quickly put two and two together. After bumping into Kathy not even a second later, he grabbed her jacket sleeve and quietly asked her if the rainbow clip meant anything. Upon her shy nod, he told her about the rainbow ship he had drawn a few years prior.
Will smiles as he walks up the stairs, thinking about all the long talks about themselves he and Kathy have had since that day. He remembers coming out to the party, he remembers Kathy calling him that night, he remembers his happy tears as he told her how well it went, how accepting the party was.
“Earth to Will!” a voice says in front of him. Will snaps his head up and comes face to face with El.
“Sorry, what?”
El laughs from where she’s standing in the open door to Kathy’s room. “Come on, we’re waiting for you.”
She walks back into the room and Will follows, sitting down between Mike and Kathy.
“Alright, let’s get this game going,” Max exclaims as she leans over to grab the cup of chips from Will.
“Everyone clear on the rules?” Dustin asks and drinks from his bottle. “We spin, the person it lands on chooses truth or dare, and if they refuse to answer or do the dare, they drink.”
“What about me and Will?” Mike asks. “Designated drivers?”
“You have to drink twice at the next party?” Dustin suggests. Mike looks at Will who shrugs. “Fine by me.” Mike nods in agreement.
Dustin finishes the last of his beer and then places the now empty bottle on the floor. He spins it.
“Lucas, truth or dare?”
Lucas leans his head back against Max’s and sighs. “Truth.”
Dustin’s quiet for a moment before he speaks again. “If you had to kiss anyone else in this room except for Max, who would it be?”
Max straightens up a little. “Oh, this’ll be fun.”
Lucas groans. He looks around the room for a second before he says, “Kathy.” Kathy nearly chokes on her drink. “What?”
Lucas shrugs. “Safe bet, you won’t catch feelings.”
The group laughs. Lucas grins and leans forward to spin the bottle. It lands on El. “Alright, El, truth or dare?”
“Truth,” El says before Lucas finishes talking.
Lucas hums, thinking. “Would you rather kiss Dustin,” he begins, “or go a month without Eggos?”
Dustin starts a dramatic drumroll on the floor. “If you’d rather go a month without Eggos, El, I swear to God…”
El interrupts him by taking a sip from her cup. “I choose not to answer,” she says when she lowers it with a small smile. Dustin puts a hand to his heart, a pout on his face. “You wound me, Hopper.” El sticks her tongue out at him. “My turn!” she says and leans to spin the bottle. “Oooh, truth or dare, Mike!”
“Dare.”
Excited voices fill the room. “First dare of the night!” Max whoops. “Let’s make it a good one.”
“I’ve got one, if you’ll allow it, El,” Kathy says from beside Will. El nods.
“Mike, I dare you to kiss the prettiest person in the room,” Kathy says with a grin. “They have to be single, though,” she adds and nods toward Lucas and Max.
Mike bites his lip for a moment, thinking it over.
“Could everyone close their eyes?” he asks. “So no one else knows…?”
“Sounds reasonable,” Will hears himself say. He blushes a little as he closes his eyes.
“Us too?” he hears Lucas ask, then two disappointed sighs from him and Max as Mike says yes.
Will sits still, knowing Mike isn’t going to kiss him. Mike’s not gay, he just doesn’t want people to see who he kisses, and that’s fine.
But… a small (okay, fine, huge) part of Will wants Mike to kiss him. The part of Will that has almost always seen Mike as something else than a friend, something that he for the longest time hated himself for.
He sits perfectly still as he waits for Mike’s voice to call out that everyone can open their eyes again. He sits perfectly still as he feels a hand on his knee. Just Mike steadying himself to get to a different person easier. He sits perfectly still, frozen in shock, as he feels soft lips against his own for no longer than a second before they pull away again.
He opens his eyes, looking into Mike’s. Mike’s eyes widen when he notices that Will has opened his, and he quickly sits back in his spot, his head down, blushing hard.
Will’s lips are on fire. He slowly reaches a hand up to them and feels where Mike’s lips touched his. Did that just happen?
Will waits a few seconds before he clears his throat and closes his eyes again, dropping his hand. “Did-did you kiss anyone yet?” he stammers. He can hear a small smile in Mike’s voice as the taller boy replies with, “yeah.”
“Took you long enough,” Kathy says and opens her eyes at the same time as Will, and Will swears she’s looking directly at him as she says the words.
...Oh she did not plan that. No way.
—
A few hours later, after the last people have left Kathy’s house, Will drops Max off at her house and makes sure she can sneak in through her window properly before he gets back in the car and starts driving home.
His lips are still burning. He recalls the look on Mike’s face as he opened his eyes the second time. Shy, but a tad hopeful.
The walkie talkie in the passenger seat crackles and Will reaches a hand out to answer it.
“Cleric Byers, who am I speaking to? Over.”
“Hey Will,” Mikes voice comes from the other end. “Are you headed home? Over.”
“Yeah, I should be there in about fifteen minutes. Over.” Mike’s silent for a while and Will’s about to say something else when Mike finally speaks again. “Do you want to come over? You can call Joyce and tell her you’re spending the night. Over.”
Will’s heart skips a beat. Or two.
“Already turning the car around,” he says as he does just that. “See you in five minutes. Over and out.” He drops the walkie talkie back in the passenger seat.
Five minutes later he pulls up in the Wheelers’ driveway and gets out of the car. Mike’s standing by the door. Without a word, he goes inside and lets Will follow him to the basement. They don’t say a word, but the usual comfortable silence has an edge to it tonight.
When they reach the bottom of the stairs, after Will quickly calls home, Mike sits down on the couch and turns to Will.
“Can we –”
“Talk?” Will finishes and sits down next to Mike. “Please.”
Mike fingers with the hem of his T-shirt and suddenly makes a point to look everywhere but directly at Will.
“Mike –”
“I’m sorry,” Mike blurts. “I should’ve told you that I like – that I’m…”
“Gay?” Will asks. Mike shakes his head. “No, the other one. Bi.”
“Oh.”
Mike bites his lip. “I didn’t want to seem like I was doing it just cause you did it,” he says softly and looks down at his hands.
“Does anyone know?” Will asks, already suspecting the answer.
Mike hesitates for a split second before he nods. “Kathy,” he says, then, in nearly a whisper, adds, “and Nancy.”
“I’m not mad, you know,” Will says and puts his hand over Mike’s. “And I’m not mad that you kissed me.”
Mike looks up at him, surprised. “You’re not?”
Will shakes his head. “I’m – I’m glad. I, um…” He takes a deep breath and looks down. “I actually, well… like you.”
Mike says nothing. Will mentally curses himself. He said too much. He starts pulling his hand back, but Mike grabs onto it. Will lifts his gaze back to Mike’s and his mind short circuits as he sees the way Mike is looking at him. Lovingly, adoringly. He’s about to open his mouth to say something, but Mike leans forward and catches his lips with his.
The kiss is even shorter than the first, but it leaves Will breathless. Mike leans away, unsure, but Will follows him and kisses him again.
Where the first two kisses were quick and chaste, this one is slower and more certain. Will shivers as he feels Mike’s hands move up his arms to finally come to a stop on his shoulders, and he tilts his head slightly to the the right.
He feels his hands wander up Mike’s chest to wind around his neck, then they both break apart for air but they stay close, their lips nearly brushing against each other.
“I…” Mike begins, but trails off and blinks a few times as though to clear his head.
“Oh,” he says instead. Will laughs. “Yeah.”
Mike smiles. He hesitantly brings one of his hands to Will’s cheek, and Will leans into the touch with a smile of his own.
“Can I – can we do that again?” Mike asks quietly. Will doesn’t answer and instead leans in.
The following morning, Nancy comes downstairs and sees the one of the Byers cars in the driveway. When she steps down in the basement, she finds her little brother on the couch with his arms wrapped around his best friend. She smiles, walks up to the couch and pulls a blanket over the two boys, then walks back upstairs to make breakfast. If she makes toast and waffles for the boys in the basement, that’s for her to know and them to soon find out.