(for more chapters, see the studio below) “Hi. I, um..” Mike started fidgeting with his hands, “I saw that you were alone and I was wondering if you, maybe, wanted to be friends?” Mike said quickly, spitting the words out. He finally looked at the boy and was met with big brown eyes studying him warily. Mike tried his best to smile in a way that didn’t show signs of the crippling nervousness he felt. “Yeah. I’d like that.” He said softly. “My name’s Will.” Mike’s smile grew into a genuine, large grin. “Okay! My name’s Michael.” He sat down on the swing next to Will, wrapping his hands around the chains. “Do your friends call you Mike?” Will asked curiously. “Oh.. I dunno.” He shrugged, “I don’t really have any friends. You can call me Mike though!” He caught a glimpse of the sketchbook in Will’s hand and could make out a detailed depiction of the tree Mike was under only moments before. “Woah, did you draw that?” Will blushed furiously, quickly hugging the sketchbook to his chest. “Oh, it's.. It’s nothing.” “Can I see?” Will took a breath, slowly holding his sketchbook out for Mike to see. “That’s awesome!” Mike exclaimed. Will’s face lit up, “Really?” He stared skeptically at the page; he was clearly self-critical about his art. “Yeah! Can I see your others?” Mike asked. Will flipped through the pages, Mike remarking at each one, giving Will a huge confidence boost. The two grinned at each other, then Will pointed at the dragon on Mike’s shirt. “That's cool.” “Thanks! It’s from D&D.” Mike was met with a puzzled look from Will and elaborated, “It stands for Dungeons and Dragons. It’s a tabletop roleplaying game. You get to create a character and they can have special abilities or powers, and you get super cool weapons. And you battle monsters with your party like dragons and Thesselhydras and Demogorgons and-” He stopped himself. “Sorry- I don’t mean to bore you.” Mike stared down at his hands folded in his lap. He looked over to see an expression of awe on Will’s face, “That sounds awesome!” He exclaimed. “Oh. Well in that case..” Mike jumped into a lengthy ramble of the game, Will hanging onto his every word. “Do you think you could teach me how to play sometime?” Will asked eventually. Mike was taken aback. Will seemed genuinely interested, much was much more than the zero fudges everyone else gave. “A- absolutely!” He stuttered, “Can you come to my house after school today?” He held his fist out, prompting him. A moment’s hesitation, then, “Sure!” Will reached his hand out and bumped his fist against Mike’s. The two chatted for the remainder of recess, the words flowing easily without hesitation on either end. Mike was sure now, Will would become his best friend. He could feel it. He knew, even then, that this was the best decision he could have made. That was twelve years ago. That shy little boy alone on the swings and the rambunctious little D&D nerd grew into the best of friends. They saw each other every day, and though their friend group continued to grow over the years, they confided in each other the most. Their deepest secrets and shames were shared between them only and they understood each other better than anyone else. Of course, there were some bumps in the road that Mike was surely not proud of, but still they persevered. However, when Will and his family moved to California, unable to bear the stresses of Hawkins any longer, the two became estranged. Their friendship became tense as certain.. feelings arose, especially when they saw each other for the first time in over a year. Mike used all of his energy trying to focus on El, shoving everything else away, but still he couldn’t get Will out of his mind. Neither knew exactly what these feelings meant, though Mike was much more oblivious to it. But finally, after a number of heartfelt talks and raw honesty (to a degree), their friendship was restored. The two of them have been through hell and back, quite literally. That small, shy little boy sitting alone on the swings has been through more than anyone could imagine, and still he remains the strongest of the group. After Hawkins has been engulfed by the Upside Down, the earth cracking apart and the barriers between the two worlds blurred, Vecna could finally cross. His plan could finally come to fruition, and he planned to use Will to do it. But nobody knew what to expect or when to expect it. Mike had been determined to protect him, deeming himself Will’s personal bodyguard. He never left his side, for fear that if he looked away, Vecna would seize hold of his mind. The Byers family had already sold their house in Hawkins when they moved to California, so the Wheelers had invited them into their home for the time being. Their house was far enough away from the damaged part of the neighborhood that they were allowed to continue living there.
Even though El was Mike’s girlfriend, she had bunked with Nancy; Jonathan and Joyce had taken the basement; which left Will to sleep with Mike in his room, though much to his father’s dismay. “The basement should be perfectly fine for him. I don’t understand why two grown boys need to share a bedroom. I don’t want them getting any.. Ideas from each other.” Ted’s grumbled over and over again. Even though Ted would never say it out loud and certainly not to his face, both Will and Mike knew perfectly well what he meant by this. He didn’t want his only son ‘catching any gayness’ from his little fruitcake of a best friend. Will’s own father believed the same thing, that he had caught it from some other boy in his class. It wasn’t like he was out though, so he could feign ignorance and pretend like those comments didn’t cut him right to his core. Mike was oblivious to the fact that Will was actually gay, but he still stood up for him every time his father made a homophobic comment around him because he knew how badly Will had been bullied his whole life for it. He wouldn’t let his father do the same. Will was eternally grateful for this, because he would never find the courage to stand up for himself, especially to the person who has the power to kick him out of the house. Their shared room had allowed the two boys to become closer than ever, growing awfully chummy with each other. Everyone else wrote it off as trauma bonding, seeking some sense of comfort in a very uncomfortable time, but.. There was something different about the way they interacted. Nobody really seemed to notice, though. Slowly, Hawkins became swarmed with armed military officers and vehicles, keeping a close eye on the rifts after hearing first-hand tales that monsters lurked beneath the surface. They were skeptical, but then again, they would never had expected the earth to open and for there to be some kind of hellscape mirroring this world on the other side, so they were forced to trust the stories they’d been told. The town had also been put on a quarantine because nobody was sure how or if the particles from the Upside Down would affect your body, and they didn’t want it spreading anywhere else if it was contagious. So far, nothing had happened, but everyone remained tense and on edge, not knowing when Vecna would decide to poke his ugly head out into their world.
