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Chapter Text

July 1986

Weekly doctor check-ups are annoying and a painful reminder of all the trauma sheʼd experienced not too long ago, but Max would much rather have them than continue being stuck in a hellish coma. She would also have preferred to keep her eyesight intact, but beggars can’t be choosers and at least the vague blobs of colours that she can see now are starting to slowly take shape. Kinda. If she squints. Point is, there’s a chance that her vision will recover, and her broken bones are healing nicely, and yes, even if she has to drag herself to the hospital every week, Max is glad to be alive.

At least she has company, if somewhat questionable one. Lucas is a godsend of a boyfriend who makes a point to come with her every week, which she very much appreciates, but this week Mike and Will have decided to grace them with their presence too. 

Mike is… not as bad as he used to be, honestly. He started working on repairing some friendships after last summer, but he’s doubled his efforts since his break-up with Eleven after Vecna’s defeat in March. Now, that’s not to mean he doesn’t get on Max’s nerves nearly every time he opens his mouth, but she’s learnt to appreciate his company and to enjoy their stupid bickering. As for Will, he’s an absolute sweetheart but also a sassy little shit at the same time, and Max doesn’t understand how he does it, but he does it so well that she has to respect him for it. He’s cool in her books, is what she’s trying to say, and they get along great, especially when they, along with Lucas or El or whoever’s nearby, gang up on Mike. That’s always fun. However, it is Mike and Will together that gives Max a headache because honestly? The mutual pining that radiates from them verges on painful to watch — or, not watch because, well, you know why — but even just hearing them makes Max want to puke. And the worst part is how utterly oblivious they are.

Take now, for example:

They’re sitting at the hospital’s waiting room, passing the time with meaningless conversation until the doctor calls Max, when Will gets up and says,

“Hey guys, do you want something to eat from the vending machine?” 

Bless his heart and good timing, Max was starting to get hungry.

“Sure,” she says. “Maybe some Skittles —” she turns to face Lucas — “and maybe we could share, stalker?”

“That’s fine by me,” he says and squeezes her hand.

“What about you, Will?” Mike asks, probably before even thinking about what he wants, the whipped boy that he is.

“I’ll just — uh, get whatever, I guess.”  And then he’ll probably get nothing ‘cause he’d rather spend his money on his friends.

“No way,” Mike responds without leaving room for argument. “I’ll come with you and we can get some Reece’s Pieces to share, alright?”

“Alright,” Will says, his voice all soft and mushy and Max just wants to throttle both of them until they confess their feelings to each other.

Once the boys are out of hearing range, Max turns to Lucas to tell him her plans — but she hesitates. Lucas… wouldn’t take it badly, would he? The idea that two of his boy best friends could be crushing on each other? He’s not like Billy or her ex-step-father or any of those close-minded assholes that throw out slurs to anyone who shows even the smallest of hints that they could be ‘like that’. She doesn’t want to think that Lucas could turn out to be like them; in fact, she’s going to trust that Lucas isn’t going to be like them and she’s going to share her observations. Before she can do that though, Lucas speaks up.

“I’m glad Mike and Will solved their issues,” he says — apparently Max wasn’t the only one thinking about those two. “Last summer they got into a really bad fight. Mike wouldn’t tell me what happened but it was obvious that they were both hurting a lot. They seem to have made amends though, and I’m very happy for them. Their friendship is stronger than ever now.”

And… Max could hum and agree. Leave it at that. But she can’t just leave it at that. 

“Suuure,” she says, sarcasm absolutely dripping from her tone. “They’re such very close ‘friends’.”

She can already picture the bewildered face Lucas must be making.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Max huffs. Was it too much to ask for Lucas to catch on quickly to her meaning?

“Just— look at them and tell me what you see.”

Her instincts couldn’t be wrong about this.

“Okay…” he says wearily. “They’re standing by the vending machine? Uhhh… Will has fed it a coin and —” he snorts — “it looks like snacks are stuck. I swear, hospital vending machines always malfunction.”

“Ugh that’s true but that’s —” Max tries to find the right words. How to say it without saying it? “Look closer. How are they standing? How are they talking to each other? What faces are they making?”

Lucas must have noticed the pleading in Max’s voice because he takes a few seconds to answer.

“I guess they’re… standing pretty close,” he starts. “Mike is leaning over Will’s shoulder while he presses buttons on the keypad. He’s got that face he makes when he’s frustrated but he’s trying to not raise his voice. Will… he’s staring at Mike and trying to hide a smile… he definitely wants to laugh at Mike but in a ‘you’re being endearing’ kinda way. 

“I don’t know what your point is, Max.”

Max groans. How can it be any more clear?

“And they call me the blind one —”

“Max —”

Thump.

“What’s that noise?”

Thump. Thump.

“Is Mike hitting the vending machine?” Max asks, unimpressed.

“Yup,” Lucas answers, equally unimpressed. “Mike is hitting the vending machine.”

The thumping continues and at this point, Max thinks it’s a matter of time before a hospital worker comes to kick Mike out of the hospital but then Wheeler surprises her with one last, loud thump and an excited, “I got it!” — and then the waiting room must have quieted down for a second because she’s able to hear Will’s response as clear as day:

“You’re my knight in shining armour, aren’t you, Mike?”

And the world screeches to a halt in Max’s head because did Will just —

“Did he just —”

— openly flirt?

“Lucas you have to tell me —” she pats his arm vigorously— “is Mike blushing?”

Lucas takes a moment to process this but Max can tell the moment he understands what she’s been trying to say all along when he starts patting her arm back.

“Oh my God, he totally is,” he says, and he sounds awed, like he’s just made a world-changing discovery. “Is this what you meant?”

“That they’re totally crushing on each other?” Screw subtlety. “Duh.”

“Wow, okay — I can see it,” he says. “I just don’t quite understand… if Mike had feelings for El, a girl, how can he be crushing on Will?”

That’s… that’s sort of a valid concern? But not really, at the same time? At least he doesn’t sound mad or disgusted about it, just confused.

“Well, I cannot tell you what goes on inside Mike Wheeler’s mind, nor do I want to actually know, but maybe he never had romantic feelings toward El, just platonic ones, or he just — likes both.”

“Both?”

“Yeah, both girls and boys.”

“Oh…” Lucas says slowly. “Wait — that’s a thing?”

Max raises her eyebrows in a ‘yeah, catch up, Stalker’ expression, and Lucas thankfully takes the hint.

“That’s actually pretty cool,” he says at last, and then in a lower voice: “makes me want to reconsider some stuff, too.”

Reconsider? Could Lucas be… well, whatever Lucas may or may not be, he’s taking this whole thing well enough so she might just…

“I’m like that, too,” Max says quickly, before she can lose her nerve. “I like both.”

She faces downward, trying to hide her blush and control her breathing. She’s never said this out loud to anyone.

Lucas interwins their fingers and simply says, “Cool.”

And Max smiles, feeling her shoulders untense. 

“Cool.”

She loves Lucas. She really does.

“Anyway,” Lucas continues, his tone lighter than before, “I think you’re right about the Mike and Will thing: they’re definitely smitten with each other.”

“Right?” Max laughs. “Took you long enough to notice. Should we bet on how long it’s going to take for them to get together?”

“I don’t know,” she feels him shudder in her grip. “I’m kinda afraid of making bets with you — and I’m afraid they will never get together because they can both be so…”

“Oblivious?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not wrong about that,” Max muses. “Sometimes I think I should just push them into a closet together, lock them in and not let them out until they’ve confessed.”

“I see your point,” he concedes, “and I agree that we should do that but we should give them some time to figure themselves out before taking any drastic measures.”

“Okay, but if in a few months’ time they’re still being pining idiots, we will get them together my way.” She disentagles her hand from his and raises it for him to shake. “Deal?”

He takes her hand and shakes it.

“Deal.”

Not a second later —

“What’s going on here?”

Max smiles viciously.

“Nothing for you to know, Michael.”

“I’m sure nothing you say could be so important, Maxine.”

“You did not just say that.”

“Oh but I did.”

She hears Lucas and Will share an exasperated sigh and — yeah, Max thinks, hospital visits are bad but… not so much when they’re with friends.

August 1986

Another blistering August day arrives and Robin has never been as thankful as she is right now to have returned to her job at the Family Video Store, where she can laze around all day in the sweet company of her friends and a fan. Today it’s just the Scoops Troop in the store, with Steve in the lookout for customers, Robin in charge of cataloguing movies (Steve tried that once — never again) and the kiddos, Dustin and Erica, working on some DnD project behind the counter. 

It’s been like this all summer, with the other kids coming and going, and honestly, Robin hasn’t felt more at peace since working at Scoops Ahoy, knowing that the whole supernatural, world-ending stuff was done for good this time. Now, her only ' big ' problem was figuring out how to ask Vickie out, and even that wasn’t that bad because she was practically certain that Vickie had been flirting with her these last few months. Like, 85% certain — sue her, she’s never had a girlfriend before, much less have another girl flirt with her before, this is new territory for her — but anyway, the point is that it may be stressful but it’s a fun, not-world-ending sort of stress, and Robin takes comfort in it. 

It seems like it’s a slow day, with only a couple of customers having come in since lunchtime. It’s around mid-afternoon when Steve finally calls out, “Incoming!”, signalling the arrival of potential victims of Steve’s terrible movie recommendations. 

Curious, Robin turns around to greet the surprise guests and finds that they’re no other than Mike Wheeler and Will Byers. Robin smiles.

“Hey there, little guys!” she says excitedly. Those two may be the kids that she’s directly interacted with the least, but they’re still some of her favourites, partly because they’re entertaining, sassy little shits when they wanna be, but also because of a certain theory of hers that makes her want to squeal every time she sees them together.

“I’m pretty sure I’m taller than you,” Mike starts to argue, with that funny disgruntled frown on his face, but he’s interrupted by Will, who shoves him to the side in a successful attempt to distract him. “Hey! What was that for?”

“Hi, Robin,” Will says, deliberately ignoring Mike and his attempts at retaliation. “Hi, Steve.”

“Hey, kids,” Steve responds with a wave.

The commotion must have gotten to Erica and Dustin cause they pop up from behind the counter all of a sudden, Dustin with an excited, “Will! Mike! You’re here!”, and Erica with a sarcastic, “Great, the nerds are here.” (Robin sees her smile, though — they’re her friends too.)

Dustin wraps them both up in a quick hug, which they both return fiercely. 

“What are you guys doing here? I thought you were volunteering at the library today,” Dustin asks, still smiling widely. It makes Robin happy to see him like this. For the bright, sunny kid he is, he’s had too many sad, quiet days since Eddie’s death, so it’s good to see him recover some of his characteristic enthusiasm.

“We were, but they dismissed us early,” Will says. “We were thinking about doing a horror movie marathon. So far it’s just the two of us since Max and Lucas are having a date night, El and Nancy and Mom are having a ‘girl’s day out’, and Jonathan is hanging out with Argyle before he goes back to Lenora, but you guys are more than welcome to join if you’re free.”

Will makes eye contact with every one of them, and he’s so earnest that Robin kinda wants to put him in a box and protect him because yes, the kid can be a brat but hello? He’s also absolutely adorable. And if Robin’s intuition’s right, she’s not the other one who thinks this, and in a less platonic way too. The way Mike looks at Will… there’s no accurate way to describe how head-over-heels the boy looks at his best friend.

“A movie marathon sounds fun,” Dustin says.

“A horror movie marathon,” Erica interrupts. “I don’t know… they all look so fake, I can’t take them seriously.”

“But that’s part of the fun,” Mike says like he was a telemarketer or something. “Criticising and making fun of them is all part of the horror movie watching experience.”

“That,” Will says with a smirk, “and watching Mike scream like a little girl at the jump scares.”

Dustin, Steve and Robin snigger while Erica hums appreciatively.

“You both make very good points.”

Mike groans and pokes Will’s arm repetitively.

“What’s up with you today?”

“Haven’t you heard?” Will says with a sly smile. “It’s National Annoy-Michael-Wheeler day, I’m just doing what I must.”

Mike gives Will his most offended look, but it’s obvious he’s trying not to laugh.

Gosh, this is totally a flirting thing, Robin’s sure of it. It’s just another little piece of evidence for her ‘Mike Wheeler and Will Byers are crushing on each other’ theory.

“Anyway,” Steve says, “I think it’s a good idea.”

“Yeah!” Dustin agrees, and Robin wants to agree too but then she’s hit with a vision.

“I agree it would be great,” Robin quickly says. “However, in case you’ve forgotten, we already have plans, the four of us — so you two are gonna have to have your movie da– your movie hangout on your own.”

“Wait, I’m confused,” says Steve. “What plans?”

Dustin also looks ready to protest but thankfully, Erica seems to have caught on to what she’s trying to do.

“Have you been drugged by Commies again? Dustin and I are going to teach you how to play DnD for our next campaign. How could you forget?”

“You are?”

“We are?”

“Yes, dingus,” Robin intervenes. “We agreed like, a week ago.”

She shoots Steve a pointed look.

“Oh– yeah sure, silly me, I totally forgot we were doing that today.” He laughs nervously.

“Oh, okay,” says Will, though he doesn’t seem to be too put off about it. “Do… Do you guys need any help with that?”

“No!” Robin exclaims and now both Will and Mike are looking at her weirdly.

“Don’t you trust me to teach ‘em well or something?” Erica intervenes, once again saving Robin from herself.

“What? No!” Mike says. “You’re great at DnD, of course we trust you.”

“Then leave it to me,” she says smugly. “These two nerds will soon be the best DnD players you’ll ever see.”

“I’m not a nerd,” Steve is quick to defend but Erica is quicker to shoot back, “But you will be,” with a wicked grin. Steve looks appropriately cowed.

“Don’t worry guys,” Dustin says to his friends, still looking a bit confused but apparently deciding to just go with the flow of the events. “We’ll be okay. Do you want any movie recommendations?”

“That’d be great,” Will smiles. “Thanks Dustin.”

Remembering her job, Robin straightens up.

“I’ll help too!”

“I can help —”

“No!” Dustin stops Steve before Robin can. “I’m sorry Steve, I just don’t trust your judgement in movies.”

“What?! I recommend the best movies.”

And then the bickering starts. 

Just another day with the Scoops Troop.

(Robin loves her little family of misfits.)

Eventually, they manage to give Mike and Will a variety of horror movies (Robin tried to give them the scariest ones — you know, to give them a small excuse to hold each other during the movie — Robin’s a genius, she knows) and then they were gone, leaving Steve and Dustin looking at Robin and  Erica expectantly.

“So?” Dustin asks expectantly. “Care to explain what that was all about?”

Erica turns to Robin, “Should you explain or should I?”

Robin sighs.

“Look, we just thought that those two could use some time alone, just the two of them… see if anything happens.”

She lets that sink in for a second.

Steve’s eyes widen.

“Wait, are you telling me that Will and Mike…”

“I mean —” Robin shrugs — “I can’t know for certain but…”

“Can’t know for certain?” Erica exclaims. “I swear those two have been doing heart-eyes at each other for as long as I’ve known them.”

Dustin looks at her, gobsmacked.

“What!?”

“You know, it makes sense,” Steve says, ignoring Dustin. Suddenly, his face lights up and he turns to Robin. “Remember last summer? It was like they were going on little double dates with Max and Lucas!”

Robin gasps.

“Oh my God, you are so right! How did I not think of that?”

She adds this to her ‘mutual pining’ evidence.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Dustin raises his voice and makes wide gestures with his arms, making them all shut up. “Let me get this straight —” Robin snorts, unable to help herself, but Dustin pays her no mind — “are you implying that two of my best friends are like, gay and like each other?”

There’s a beat of silence before Erica speaks up:

“We’re not ‘implying’, we’re stating.”

Dustin’s brows furrow as he stops to think for a second.

“Huh,” he says, sounding surprised with himself. “You know what? I can totally see it. It makes total sense — they have that electricity.”

Robin’s not even going to pretend to know what that last bit means, just breathes a sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” she says and, riding the high of her victory, she adds, “Anyways, I’m glad I can recognise my fellow gay compatriots.” Then subtly tries to see everyone’s reactions.

Dustin raises his eyebrows, surprised; Erica looks unphased, like she’d known all along; and Steve… Steve bursts out laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“Are you sure you’re talking about yourself? You, who wouldn’t believe me when I said that Vickie likes women even when I showed you compelling evidence?”

“Okay, first of all, pausing a movie at a specific time is not compelling evidence —”

“It definitely is —”

“Secondly —” she glares at Steve — “we’re still not a hundred percent sure that she likes women.”

Steve gapes at her. 

“But she’s been flirting with you all summer!”

Robin feels herself blushing and decides to ignore that statement.

“And third, I’m very biased when it comes to her, so whatever her preferences are, I can’t be trusted to tell.”

“Okay, I can agree with that,” Steve concedes. 

Robin brings back her attention to her little friends. Again, Erica looks like she’s cool with everything — she did once say that she has no phobias — even bordering on being bored with the topic. Meanwhile Dustin looks like he’s just received the answers to the secrets of the universe.

“So this is why you and Steve never dated.” His eyes are wide in a everything-makes-sense way.

“I thought this was all obvious.” Erica shakes her head and Dustin makes a noise of protest. “Whatever,” she continues. “We should be concentrating on more important things right now.”

She makes significant eye contact with Dustin and nods towards the counter. Dustin immediately understands.

“Ohoho Lady Applejack, how right you are!” He makes intense eye contact with Steve and Robin. “You know, in this friend group, our most important rule is: ‘friends don’t lie’, and I don’t want to break that rule, even if it’s to give my two oblivious best friends some romantic time together that will hopefully get them to realise their mutual feelings. Now, the only way to fix this, is to actually go through with the lie, meaning…”

“Meaning that you’re about to be taught the art of playing DnD and you’re going to be blessed with the honour of ascending to the highest nerd-state of being,” Erica finishes off.

Robin looks at Steve and they have a small silent conversation.

Are you seriously considering going with this? Steve raises his eyebrows.

Sure, I mean, what can we do about it? Robin shrugs, then she smiles sharply. It shouldn’t be too bad… or does it scare you, ‘King Steve’?

Steve rolls his eyes but admits defeat.

“Fine,” he speaks up in a ‘I guess I have no choice’ tone. “We’ll do it.”

He can’t hide his smile though, and neither can Robin.

Dustin and Erica waste no time in dragging them into their madness. Robin has a vague idea of what to expect from the game. What she does know for sure though, is that she’s going to have fun, and that the company is going to be the best part of it all.

September 1986

It’s the start of September and Jonathan does not envy his siblings. Just because the world nearly ended last March didn’t mean that highschool was cancelled, and just because the kids had saved the world didn’t mean they were exempted from classes and homework. Honestly, Hawkins might be the only town that could survive an apocalypse and get the school system running again only a few months later, and get it running well enough to make the kids have a pile of homework after only one week back from the Summer holidays.

Jonathan watches with a grin as Will thumps his head against the dining table he, El and Mike were currently working on. Mike sniggers and pats his head consolingly, though Jonathan doesn’t know what he’s laughing so much about because if his intuition’s right, the work Will is struggling with is Maths, and Mike is no way near good enough at Maths to find Will’s suffering amusing. El has a look of feigned disappointment directed at the boys — it’s obvious she’s having fun too.

Jonathan doesn’t envy his sibling’s (and Mike’s) unreasonable amounts of homework, but he does envy the ease with which they’re quick to offer each other help and make working a fun time. Until he made friends with Nancy, and later Argyle, he never had that kind of support during his time in highschool. He’s glad, though, that the kids get to have this kind of simple happiness, especially after everything they went through.

Speaking of happiness, Will must be ecstatic to have his long-time, no-longer-taken, crush leaning over his shoulder, with their faces mere inches apart, to explain one of the maths problems. It’s likely that Mike doesn’t even know what he’s doing — both with the Maths and the proximity to his best friend — but Will is definitely flustered, if his blush is anything to go by. 

Sometimes Jonathan wishes Will would just get it over with and just tell Mike. Jonathan is sure Mike wouldn’t take it badly — in fact, who knows? Mike might even reciprocate his feelings. Even if he didn’t, he definitely wouldn’t let it ruin their friendship. But Jonathan understands Will’s reluctance, especially after all the heartbreak he’s been through. The hateful opinions of the outside world don’t help either.

Jonathan sighs. He just wants his brother to live happily and in peace for the rest of his life with the boy he loves. Is that so bad? Right now Will might be happy but he’s also —

“He’s such a pining mess,” comes a voice from beside him and Jonathan turns to see Nancy coming to stand next to him by the kitchen counter, joining him in watching the kids.

Jonathan gapes as Nancy her arm around his and leans on his shoulder.

“How did you know?”

Will is usually pretty subtle, Jonathan thinks. He’s had a lot of practice in hiding and Jonathan only notices because he actively looks for signs of his brother’s crush, if only to look out for him and make sure he’s not hurting again. (During the last few months, he appears to have come to terms with his love for Mike and accept it as part of who he is, letting himself moon over him without guilt. Jonathan’s pretty proud of him for that.)

“He’s my brother,” Nancy states, deadpan. “Of course I know.”

Jonathan’s thoughts screech to a halt.

“Wait. You’re talking about Mike?”

Nancy looks at him, brows furrowed in confusion. 

“Of course I was talking about Mike — look at him! He’s got it bad for Will.” She bites her lip and Jonathan can practically see the gears turning in her head. “Who did you think — wait, are you telling me…?”

“... that Will has a big, fat crush on Mike too?” Jonathan grins widely. “I guess I am.”

“Oh my God,” Nancy gushes. “It’s not one sided! And it seems so obvious now, doesn’t it?”

Jonathan nods. It does seem obvious. It’s in the way they smile at each other, swaying from flirtatious to absolutely smitten.

Right now, they’ve teamed up to annoy El by throwing little balled-up papers at her, which, big mistake, because she’s now retaliating with her own paper attacks and she’s got the biggest advantage of all: superpowers. 

They laugh and play-fight and Mike steps in front of Will saying, “I’ll protect you!” while Will does the actual heavy hitting. They’re all over each other: pulling, shoving, always touching each other in some way or another while El continues her relentless attacks from a distance. By the end, they’re both lying in the ground, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, facing upwards at El, who stands over them, grinning in victory.

“They have no idea, do they?” Jonathan wonders out loud.

“I… don’t think they do,” Nancy replies, thoughtful. “Should we do something about it? Give them a little… push in the right direction?”

Should they? Jonathan knows Will has struggled with his feelings for a very long time, and for him to realise that they weren’t one-sided at all? It will be the best feeling in the world, Jonathan’s sure of it. However, it will probably be even better if he figures it out organically on his own, with Mike. And he’s sure that the same applies to Mike. So, as much as he wants to…

“...No,” he says with a soft smile. “Let’s give them time. I’m sure they’ll figure it out eventually.”

She smiles back.

“Yeah, okay.”

And they watch as the kids fill the recently-moved-into Hopper-Byers home with laughter and fun and love. 

Jonathan holds Nancy tightly in his arms, knowing in his heart that things will turn out alright in the end.

October 1986

It’s Halloween evening and Joyce, strangely enough, feels no stress about it. How could she, when she’s wrapped up in the arms of the man she loves, watching her children have fun in their Halloween costumes? Will and El are posing in their Luke and Leia costumes while Jonathan does a photoshoot that’s going to fill up a whole album. They play-fight with the fake lightsabers that the younger siblings had spent weeks working on and El uses ‘the Force’ to lift a nearby vase while Will pretends to do the same. If Joyce hadn’t given birth to only one of them, she wouldn’t believe it if someone told her that those two weren’t twins. 

It’s honestly amazing how they managed to find each other — how they all managed to find each other, and form this amazing family that fills Joyce’s heart with love and joy.

“Here we go!” Joyce jumps a bit on her seat at the couch, jostling Jim in the process, when Murray makes his sudden, loud appearance. “Here’s some fuel to start the night!” 

He places a bottle of clear liquid — definitely vodka — and some cups on the small table at their feet and proceeds to make himself comfortable on the lay-Z-boy on Joyce’s left. 

“I thought we agreed to not take out the alcohol till the kids had left,” Jim grumbles but starts filling the cups anyway.

“What do you think, Jim? That your kids are not going to end up more wasted than we are at whoever’s name’s party they’re going to?” Murray shakes his head. “You should know better.”

Joyce places a calming hand on Jim’s back before he can even think about not letting the kids go, while sending Murray her best glare.

Maybe Murray’s right. Maybe the kids will try some drinks, but she trusts that they won’t go too far and she wants them to have this normal teenage experience of partying with their friends. They deserve that much, at least.

Joyce’s thoughts get interrupted when the bell rings.

“I’ll get it!” Both Will and El shout and Joyce watches them rush to the front door. She doesn’t even need to look to know who it is because Will and El’s synchronised “HI, MIKE!” is clue enough, but it’s still worth it to see Mike’s utterly bewildered face as he experiences the full force of the Byers Twins’ enthusiasm. 

Mike gets over his surprise fast enough though, and his face breaks into a grin.

He wastes no time in wrapping El in a tight hug — making Hop grumble something about personal space, which Joyce shushes him for — and then giving Will the same hug treatment, except… Except they hold each other tighter, it lasts some seconds longer, and when they let go, Mike’s hand lingers on Will’s arm.

Interesting…

“So,” Mike says, “are we ready to go?”

He certainly looks ready, with his styled hair, white shirt and dark vest, and the fake gun strapped to his thigh.

Jonathan coughs loudly, bringing him back to attention. He raises his camera.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Mike groans and Joyce has to hold back her laugh. She suddenly recalls all the times Karen had complained about how ‘difficult’ Mike was when it came to taking his photos. At first, she hadn’t believed her because she’d seen Mike in photos with Will and their friends and he always seemed happy enough, but then Karen brought proof and Joyce could not deny it: Mike looked absolutely done in those solo pictures, as well as some family ones.

“C’mon, Mike,” says Will in an uncharacteristically soft voice. “It would be nice to have something to remember tonight.”

It’s only now that Joyce starts to think that there may be a common denominator for those ‘happy Mike’ photos, because by the time Will had finished speaking, the warmest of smiles had made its home on the teen’s face. 

There’s a sudden flash of a camera and it breaks the moment. A disgruntled Mike looks at Jonathan who shrugs guiltily. (Just as guiltily, Joyce will ask him later to give her a copy of that photo — but can you blame them? That was a beautiful moment to capture and if her intuition’s correct, she’s sure that some day, Will and Mike will be thankful for it.)

Mike rolls his eyes but says, “fine”, making Will laugh and El cheer. And so, the photoshoot begins, with all three kids posing and Jonathan directing them.

Joyce continues watching them, enjoying every little bit of their happiness.

Murray, who seems to be also watching, hums in thought, catching her and Hop’s attention.

“I feel there’s some… tension between Mr Solo and Mr Skywalker over there,” he says, and if Joyce had been drinking her drink, she’d have surely spit it back out.

“Murray,” she hisses. She has noticed, of course she has — she’s one of the boys’ mother and might as well have the honorary title for the other seeing how much time he’d spent at the Byers’ home. She just hadn’t expected anyone to actually say it out loud, much less — okay, maybe she could’ve expected Murray to say something. He had precedents for this type of thing. Still, it’s a delicate topic, even if she wishes it wasn’t.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” comes Hop’s deep, unamused tone.

Murray raises an eyebrow.

“I’m just telling it how I see it, Jim.” He shrugs. “Joyce agrees with me, right?”

She spares a glance at the kids, who are thankfully paying the adults no mind, then takes in Hop’s incredulous look, before answering carefully though trying to sound nonchalant.

“I mean… I always thought that Mi– I mean, Han and Luke had some chemistry.”

Jim groans, rubbing a hand up and down his face. Joyce’s eyes squint at him.

“You don’t… have a problem with that, right?”

The warning that flashes through her tone must have not gone unnoticed because suddenly Hopper is sitting straight and looking her in the eye.

“No, not at all, not with that…”

Okay. Good.

“But?” she asks, this time more lighthearted and Jim groans. Again.

“Why,” he hisses, “does it always have to be Mike fucking Wheeler? I don’t understand — why are you laughing? I’m serious, it’s like a curse!”

Murray bellows out in laughter and Joyce can’t help but giggle too. The kids look over in concern but Joyce waves them off and they carry on with their thing.

“You have to admit,” Joyce says when the laughter died down, “that they’re good for each other.”

They look over at the boys. It’s like they’re in their own little world. They’ve got the biggest of smiles as they pose together, back-to-back, fake gun and lightsaber at the ready for any danger that could come their way. 

Joyce shares an understanding look with Jim and she knows they’re both thinking back to three years ago, when Will went missing and Mike never gave up hope that they’d find him; to two years ago, when the Upside Down came back for Will and Mike refused to leave his side for a second, when Mike managed to reach out to Will when nobody else could; to last Spring, when they teamed up to find El, and later when they managed to escape Vecna’s clutches together during the final confrontation.

Yes, they had each other’s backs.

They always had.

Joyce remembers when Will came back from his first day of kindergarten like it was yesterday. She had never seen him smile so brightly — not even Lonnie was able to dim it — and it was all thanks to one boy. From that moment she knew that Mike Wheeler was always going to be special for her son, even if she couldn’t have predicted just what type of special it would be. Looking back, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

They’ve had their ups and downs, Joyce is aware of this, but at the end of the day…

“There’s no one I’d trust more with my boy than Mike,” she says, and it rings true.

Hopper nods.

“My turn!” El exclaims, and pushes Will aside. The boys grumble but in no time, Mike and El start their photoshoot while Will watches with a smile by Jonathan’s side.

“What about… Leia?” Hopper asks in a low voice so only Joyce can hear. “Do you think she’d be alright with it?”

Mike and El try to strike one of those ‘romantic’ couple poses typical of movie posters, with Mike holding El in his arms, looking deeply into each other’s eyes, but they barely last a second — barely enough for Jonathan to take a picture — before they break apart between cackles and giggles.

“I’m sorry El,” Mike says, clutching his stomach from laughter, “I can’t do that — I really can’t.”

El giggles and wipes tears from her eyes.

“It’s okay, I could not do it either…” She sends Will an appraising gaze. “But I know someone who could try.”

And that’s how Will ends up wrapped up in Mike’s arms, blushing faces inches apart, gazes soft and — dare Joyce say it — loving, while El stands aside grinning at them like a maniac.

Joyce doesn’t have to think too much about her answer to Jim.

“I think she’ll be just fine, Hop.”

Jim nods again.

“She does look happy.”

And as long as their kids are happy, they are happy too.

Jonathan takes a hot second to start photographing again, but once he gets over his shock at the two boy’s sudden closeness, he’s off again, flashing his camera non-stop. Who knows when they’ll manage to get such a Mike-and-Will photo again? Joyce is sure that her eldest son has noticed that something between his brother and said brother’s best friend too.

“Jesus,” Murray speaks up, reminding Joyce that he was there and that he’d watched the kid’s exchange too. “Those two are worse than their siblings. They’re even worse than you two. Though, I do understand that dealing with external and internal homophobia is not fun or easy at all so I’ll give them that. Still —” he hums, thoughtful —  “they might need a little… ‘ Murray intervention’ if this carries on for too long.”

The reaction from the other adults is immediate. 

“WHAT?”

“NO!”

“I do not want my kids traumatised, Murray,” Joyce hisses.

“But I already meddled with the other Byers and the other Wheeler and they’re just fine!” Murray defends himself. “In fact, this could be great! Three out of three Byers, together with their one true love, thanks to moi.”

Murray’s grinning smugly now, and Joyce just gapes at him. Chief of police Jim Hopper is having none of it though. 

“You will leave the kids alone, Baumann,” he threatens and throws his most intimidating glare at Murray.

Murray holds Hopper’s stare for a minute straight before relenting.

“Fine,” he says, “I honestly don’t want to get involved in teen romance anyway. A second time, too. A third time, even, because really, you two acted like children back then.”

“Murray!”

“Alright, alright! I’ll shut up now.”

Joyce sighs. Hopper chugs down half his drink.

“Is everything alright?”

Joyce blinks up and finds a concerned Will hovering nearby. Apparently the photoshoot was over.

“Everything’s fine, sweetheart,” she answers warmly. “Are you leaving already?”

“Yeah, at this rate we’re going to be late.”

He laughs and lounges forward to hug his mother. She holds onto him tightly. No matter how much he grows, he’ll always be her little baby. 

“Will you be okay, Mom?” He whispers.

Her kind, sweet baby who she loves more than anything in the world.

“I’ll be just fine,” she whispers back, and means it. They pull apart. “Have fun, okay?”

Will smiles.

“I will,” he says, and Joyce can tell that he means it too.

Maybe she should feel stress about the kids leaving for some party, about them not returning till very late at night — or not returning at all — but she knows her kids. She knows that they’ve been through hell together and that they’ll take care of each other no matter what.

The kids say their final goodbyes and suddenly, they’re gone. 

Joyce melts into Jim’s arms.

There’s nothing to worry about.

November 1986

“Mike! Time to wrap things up! It’s late and your friends’ ride is here!”

For just a moment, Karen felt like she’d been transported back in time. She hears the boys’ noises of complaints downstairs and she has to hide her smile.

Hurried footsteps make their way up the basement stairs and Karen looks at Mike expectantly when he opens the door.

“Ten more minutes?” He asks, hopeful.

“You know I’d say yes, but Steve might not be too happy to have to wait out there in his car for so long.”

“He could… come inside?” he tries.

“I’m sure he has better things to do,” she remains firm. “Don’t be rude, Michael. He’s doing you boys a favour.”

Mike deflates. He makes a half turn and heads downstairs.

“We’ll have to finish next week guys.”

He sounds disappointed on the surface, but Karen can tell there’s an undertone of excitement too. After all, after everything those boys’ have been through, they get to have this again. Hanging out in their basement, playing their fantasy game just the four of them, Lucas, Dustin, Will and Mike, the way it used to be.

Not that things haven’t changed. They have. So much. And it’s frightening to look back and realise just how much Karen had missed, and not just the whole inter-dimensional monsters and super powered humans thing, but also her kids’ hardships and internal struggles. Getting Nancy to open up wasn’t easy, per se, but with enough gentle prodding, she was willing to share her problems with Karen, and Karen tried her best to offer comfort. It was different with Mike. He was stubborn, and tended to bottle up his feelings till he couldn’t any more. Still, Karen tried her best to be a shoulder he could cry on when he needed one. Last year had been especially hard for him. If there was one thing Karen was grateful to the literal apocalypse for, it was that it brought the Byers back for good, bringing back Mike’s smiles and good attitude back with them too. 

She decides to spare the boys from more nagging and goes to join Ted and Holly in their TV-watching. It looks like they’re on a Disney marathon. On the screen, a boy who never grew up fights the captain of a pirate ship and Karen’s husband and youngest daughter watch on, enraptured. Another good thing about the apocalypse? It got Ted to start actually trying to be a half-decent father. The truth about what had been happening in this town shook him to his core (and Karen too) and apparently got him to start reevaluating some of the things he had considered as facts until this point. Finding out how many times they could’ve lost Nancy and Mike was also a real wake up call. The changes were small and slow-going — it was hard to let go of old habits — but they were happening, and it made Karen feel… content.

The movie is close to finishing but Karen still tries to catch on to the plot from what she remembers from previous watchings. She likes Peter Pan, but there’s something about children who never grow up that makes her heart ache.

Distantly, she can hear the boys rushing up the basement stairs.

“Give me just one sec!” Someone says, loudly, and suddenly, Dustin’s there in their living room, giving Ted his cheekiest grin.

“Thank you so much for your hospitality, Mr Wheeler,” he says, in a tone that screams sarcasm with the clear intent to tease. Then with a much more truthful voice and smile, “You too Mrs Wheeler.”

And then runs off with a quick “Bye Holly!” before either adult can respond.

Ted rolls his eyes and mutters, “brat”, while Holly and Karen share a look and giggle.

There’s faint talking by the front door, some laughing and happy good-byes. Then the door slams shut and Karen turns back to the movie.

“Mom?”

Karen blinks, surprised to hear Mike. She expected him to go back downstairs, work on his campaign, or go up to his room and drown out the rest of the world as he practices playing guitar. Playing DnD, whether with the expanded ‘Hellfire Club’ or just with the original ‘Party’ made Mike incredibly happy, but he’d often get into a mood afterwards, shutting himself in his room and playing songs to express his grief — Eddie Munson’s death had hit her son harder than what he’d ever admit, but Karen was glad that he had a healthy outlet for expressing himself when he didn’t feel like talking to his friends about it.

She’s then even more surprised when she looks up and finds Will standing behind Mike, looking shy in a way she hasn’t seen in a long time. The Wheeler house is like a second home to the young Byers and has been since Mike first invited him over all those years ago, back when they were still in kindergarten.

“Is everything alright?” she asks.

Mike’s looking at her but it’s obvious that his attention is all on the boy behind him.

“Oh yeah, um, everything is fine, just — is it okay if Will stays over tonight?” he asks, and sends her a silent pleading look.

Karen raises an eyebrow, concerned. This is not new; Mike and Will have been having sleepovers since forever and after the whole ‘Vecna’ thing, it was more uncommon to find them in separate homes than together in one of them. Often, Karen only found out about it when she found Will sitting at their table during breakfast and she’d started joking with Joyce on the telephone about how their boys were now a package deal. So yes, Mike asking this was uncommon, though not totally unheard of, but it looked like today they needed reassurance. Seeing Will confirmed this: the boy who had arrived a few hours earlier with a bright smile and excited greetings was all but gone as he slightly trembled by Mike’s side, his eyes dark and distant like he wasn’t quite all here with them.

The TV turns to sudden static as the movie finishes and the boys flinch. It’s then that Karen remembers: today’s November sixth. 

“Of course he can, honey.” Karen smiles gently. “You know Will is always welcome here.”

Tension drains off the boys’ shoulders, as if they’d expected Karen to say no, to send Will home when it was in a night such as this, three years ago, that Mike said goodbye to his best friend, not knowing that he’d be gone come morning. 

“Just be sure to give your mom a call, alright?” she tells Will, who nods and smiles softly, sweetly. It’s hard to believe that such a good, innocent kid had gone through so much in such little time. She’s glad that he feels safe here, safe with Mike. She can tell that Mike feels safe with Will too. It’s sweet.

“Will you stay and watch Sleeping Beauty with us?” Holly pipes up, looking up at Will and Mike with her best pleading look. She adores spending time with Will and Mike. Mike has been tasked with babysitting her a lot recently and therefore, so has Will, seeing as they rarely leave each other’s sides. Holly has no complaints: her drawing sessions with Will and storytelling from Mike may be her favourite things in the world right now. She listens to them more than she does Karen at this point. She’d find it annoying if it wasn’t so endearing, and it’s obvious that the boys love her just as much as she loves them because it only takes one shared look between them before they’re agreeing to stay.

It’s amazing to think that, if things go on the way Karen suspects they will, then Holly will only have memories of Mike and Will as Mike-and-Will, the inseparable unit, the self-proclaimed team. She won’t remember that week that Will went missing where Mike had to hold on to the hope that they’d find him even despite everyone telling him otherwise, or those months where Mike had been a shell of his usual self when Will had left for California with the intention of staying away from Hawkins, for good. Holly’s known them both for her whole life, and if everything goes well, they’ll remain a comforting constant for her.

Will calls Joyce and then the boys settle in on the free loveseat sofa. They huddle up close though not quite enough for it to be called cuddling. Holly doesn’t waste a chance and jumps off from where she was laying on top of Ted and makes herself comfortable on what little space there is next to Mike, forcing her brother to scoot even closer to Will — not that he seems too upset about it. 

The movie watching goes smoothly, with added commentary from the kids that slowly dwindles down as they grow tired. Karen wishes Nancy were here so it could’ve been a whole family bonding type of thing, but she was at Robin’s for their almost-sacred monthly sleepover, and that was something Karen would never dream to take away from her daughter.

By the end of the movie, the kids are all asleep and Mike and Will are definitely cuddling. It’s a heart-warming sight to behold, the boys holding onto each other in their sleep while Holly rests sprawled out over Mike and part of Will, and it’s one that Karen commits to memory.

Karen hears Ted sigh before he gets up from his Lay-Z-boy and manages to manoeuvre Holly onto his arms without waking either of her ‘pillows’. Karen grabs a spare blanket and carefully places it over the boys before following Ted to their daughter’s room. He gently drops her off on her bed and wishes her a quiet goodnight. Karen goes to do the same, but her daughter blinks her eyes open before she can.

“Can —” Holly yawns — “Mamma, can Mikey tell me a story?”

Karen’s heart melts a little at her youngest’s request.

“He’s asleep, Holly,” she tries to reason softly.

“S’okay, I’ll wake him!” 

And suddenly, Holly’s sleepiness is gone, replaced with excitement, and she’s jumping off her bed and speeding back down the stairs before either Ted or Karen can think to stop her. The parents share a look, accompanied by an exasperated sigh, and they wordlessly come to the agreement that Karen would deal with this since Ted had to rest before going to work tomorrow.

Karen takes her time making her way through the house, knowing that she’d never be able to catch up with Holly before she got to her brother. She hears hushed voices as she approaches, and pauses by the entrance to the living room to listen in on the conversation, making sure to stay out of sight.

“— promised to finish the story today!” Holly whines while attempting to whisper. Karen can imagine her little pouting, guilt-inducing face directed at Michael with certain clarity. God knows Karen’s been on its receiving end plenty of times already.

Mike groans dramatically.

“I did, didn’t I?”

Karen chances glance around the corner to find Mike wide awake, a sleeping Will still being held in his arms. The way Mike looks at Will… it’s obvious he’s more than reluctant to leave him alone.

Following her brother’s example, Holly looks at Will too.

“Will is really pretty,” she says, awed.

Mike smiles tenderly.

“Yeah.” His voice is softer than Karen had ever heard it. “He is.”

For a moment, under the warm light of the living room, Will looks young and peaceful, as if nothing had ever hurt him, as if he’d never known pain.

The illusion doesn’t last long, though.

“Mikey,” Holly chimes up with a small, fragile voice, “why is he frowning? He looks sad… and scared.”

Mike’s hand rises to Will’s face, his thumb caressing over his furrowed brow. The sleeping boy’s face relaxes, but he still looks troubled.

“It’s probably a nightmare, Holly.”

The girl hums, thoughtful.

“Is it… like a curse?” she asks.

“Oh um, sure, yeah,” he answers distractedly. “Kinda like a curse.”

Holly nods seriously.

“Then you have to wake him up —”

“Maybe I should, ye—”

“— with a kiss!” 

Mike lets out a sudden burst of laughter, like he couldn’t help himself. Karen herself has to cover her mouth to contain her giggles at the startled look on her son’s face.

“What?!” he exclaims in a whisper, still mindful of the sleeping boy in his arms.

Holly gives Mike her best ‘are you dumb?’ look.

“A true love’s kiss!”

“True love?” Mike parrots back, looking slightly dazed.

“You love him, yes?” Holly asks expectantly.

“I do,” Mike answers. No hesitation. Holly nods like she had expected nothing else.

“And he loves you, so, true love’s kiss!” She says, confidently. “It will break the curse, and Will will never have nightmares again.”

Oh, Holly…

“I’m afraid it’s not that easy,” Mike says with a small, far-away smile, echoing Karen’s thoughts.

“You should still try.” Holly shrugs innocently. Mike’s smile brightens slightly.

“Yeah, maybe I should.”

He doesn't get the chance.

“Mike?” Will mutters groggily, glassy eyes staring up, almost unseeing

“Hey,” Mike says — and there it is again: that soft, loving voice. “I’m here, Will. I’m here.”

Just like that, it’s like they’re in their own little world. They’ve always been like this, for as long as they’ve known each other, but it’s only now that Karen is starting to comprehend the true depth of their bond; the absolute devotion they hold for each other.

True love indeed.

Holly, unaware of the moment she’s interrupting, whines loudly.

“Awww,” she pouts, obviously upset that Will woke up without… help. “Promise that you’ll try next time, okay Mikey?”

Will raises an eyebrow in confusion but Mike shakes his head, choosing to answer Holly instead of offering explanation.

“I will, I promise.”

Will he do it? Karen wonders. Karen doesn’t want to speculate whether the boys are already in a relationship or not, not until Mike comes to her with the information, but it is obvious they love each other, at least to her watchful eye. If they’re not together, Holly’s plan would definitely be an… interesting way for Mike to confess his feelings.

“Now go wait for us in your room,” Mike continues. “We’ll be there in a minute.”

That’s Karen’s cue to leave before her eavesdropping is discovered.

It’s not long before they’re all inside Holly’s room. Holly is tucked tight in her bed and Mike and Will sit to either side of her. When Karen stays in the room, Mike sends her a curious look but says nothing, finally nodding to himself with something like approval.

Now, it’s not the first time that Karen hears Michael tell one of his fantastical tales — when he was younger, he would not stop spilling all of his DnD campaign ideas to Karen, who listened patiently but didn’t really try to understand — but it’s the first one that she truly appreciates the talent her son has for bringing his stories to life with immense passion and talent. He uses his whole body to express himself, gestures widely to convey the tension building up, gives each character a unique voice that encapsulates whole personalities… simply put, Mike is in his element. Will watches with tired eyes but a genuine smile. Every once in a while Mike will ask Will the Wise for input, which Will gives with true enthusiasm.

Holly enjoys every second of it. Karen does too — she’s thankful she got to see this side of Mike, that she can see him like this and think of how proud she is of the wonderful young man he’s becoming.

Eventually, the story ends, the heroes win, the town is saved and the little girl falls asleep, content.

The other room’s occupants creep out of the room, unwilling to let Holly be woken up. Once Mike closes the door, he lets out a sigh of relief.

“Well, that was embarrassing,” he says, sounding uncharacteristically self-conscious.

Will places a comforting hand on Mike’s shoulder.

“It wasn’t,” he says, gently. “I thought it was sweet.”

Mike tries to pout but his smiling lips betray him.

“Yes,” Karen says, reminding them of her presence. The boys pull away from each other slightly and Karen’s heart pangs with pain as she curses the world that taught these sweet, caring boys to be wary of the affection they show. “Thank you, Mike, for doing this for Holly — she loves it. You too, Will. Thank you.”

Thank you for being you, Will. Thank you for being the person who brings the best out of my son, who brings him happiness just by being there. Thank you.

The young Byers’ cheeks pinken slightly, probably not expecting to be in the spotlight.

“Ah, it was no problem, Mrs Wheeler.”

“Haven’t I told you before, Will? You’re more than welcome to call me Karen,” she says lightly. She can’t help but ask, teasingly, “After all, you’re practically part of the family, right?”

The boys share a look and blush deeply.

“Oh – um – sure.” Will smiles nervously.

“Stop being embarrassing, Mom.” Mike grabs Will’s hand and starts dragging him to his room. “C’mon, let’s go to sleep. I’m exhausted.”

Karen chuckles.

“Good night, boys!” she calls out.

“Good night!” they chorus back, and Mike’s bedroom door shuts behind them. 

After going through her nightly routine, Karen slips in bed beside her husband, who is still awake, completing some kind of crossword. She grabs her latest romance novel and sets out to start reading, but Ted’s voice interrupts her before she can even find the right page.

“Should we be letting them sleep in the same room?” He asks, voice monotone, almost uninterested, but it brings all of Karen’s thoughts screeching to a halt.

“What?!”

Ted barely looks up from his crossword for a second to give Karen a slight disbelieving look.

“We both know their relationship isn’t going to stay ‘platonic’ for long.”

Karen gapes at him.

“You noticed?”

“That my son is obsessed with that Byers boy?” He huffs. “Of course I noticed. I still can’t believe he ever had a girlfriend when he’s always been like that.”

Karen hums, a bit unsure how to proceed with this. Ted doesn’t sound mad or even disappointed. 

“And you’re… okay with it?”

Ted drops his crossword onto his lap, giving Karen his attention. He doesn’t look mad or disappointed either. Just like all of this was simply a… fact of life or something along those lines.

“It’s been a long time coming, really, and even if I wasn’t ‘okay’ with it, it’s not something I can change,” he says. “It’s obvious the Byers boy likes him right back, so there’s nothing I can do except be thankful that my son didn’t fall for someone like that Henderson kid — he’s a real pest, that one. Anyone’s better than him.”

Karen can’t help but giggle a little. This is such a strange turn of events that she almost wonders if she’s dreaming. She won’t question it too much, though. She’ll take this reassurance, that if Mike ever decides to come out to them, he’ll be in a safe environment, where he’ll be able to feel loved and unjudged.

“Will’s a sweet kid,” she says. “He makes Mike happy.”

Ted hums in what seems like agreement.

“At least we will never have to deal with our son getting some random girl pregnant.”

…

What — this — 

“Ted!” she hisses.

She should’ve known this was all too good to be true. And now Karen is starting to wonder if perhaps they should make the boys not share a room; set some kind of boundaries.

Then she remembers the date, remembers Will’s nightmare. She remembers the look of pure relief in Will’s eyes when he woke up to Mike, and just how safe they always seem to feel around each other.

Best to leave them alone, she decides. Besides, she can’t even be sure that they’re together yet, so there’s no true reason to bother them with those kinds of things yet. 

Until her son is comfortable with sharing this with her, she’ll let it pass. Karen can wait. 

There’s no rush — they’ve got time.

Chapter Text

+1

December 1986

El has decided that she loves Christmas. In the last couple of years, it’s become one of her favourite holidays. 

Two years ago she experienced her first Christmas with Hopper: a day where El was introduced to cheesy Christmas music and movies, where they attempted to make some home cooking that ended with a particularly fancy meal of microwaved dishes, and where El had begun to understand the true value of family. She had received some gifts from Hopper and her friends, though she wasn’t able to reciprocate, being stuck in the cabin as she’d been. Having things to call her own was a truly wonderful experience, and having those things be the result of people thinking of her and caring about her… well, it really made her happy.

The next year, she’d spent the holidays in California with the Byers, her new family. If El had ever felt a bit like a stranger in this home, then this was the day that she started to feel like she could truly belong: singing silly songs with Will, documenting the whole day via photographs with Jonathan, cooking and baking with Joyce, then enjoying dinner with everyone… The Byers made her feel welcome, and even if she missed Hopper more than ever, her family was there as a reminder that she wasn’t alone. It was also then that she’d realised that if she liked receiving gifts, then gift-giving was even better. With Joyce, she made some chocolate-chip cookies for everyone to enjoy; Jonathan helped her create mix-tapes for everyone; and with Will, she put her creativity to work as he introduced her to a bunch of artistic media that she had never heard about — she wasn’t half-bad at drawing with pencils and crayons, but she discovered that she liked hands-on work like making collages of photos and magazine extracts, or working with vibrant paints that would stain her fingers without her notice — and then guided her to create works that would be meaningful for each of the family members.

This year would be extra-special, she knew, because she was going to spend it with everyone. Hopper, Joyce, Will, Jonathan, Mike, Max, Lucas, Dustin, Nancy, Steve, Robin, Erica, and even Murray would be there, as well as the rest of Mike’s family, since it was at their home where they would celebrate Christmas Eve today and Christmas Day tomorrow. All the people that El loved and cared about, together in one place.

El’s almost vibrating with excitement as she gets ready, putting on her newest dress — an acquisition from last week’s trip to the mall with Karen and Nancy, made of white fabric, soft to the touch, with small red flowers trailing down the skirt — and a red headband to hold back her short curls.

“You look beautiful, honey,” Joyce calls from El’s half-open bedroom door. She’s slightly out of breath, having been running around the house to get everything ready for the last hour or so, getting food ready in tappers and finishing wrapping presents, and yet she’s still taking her time to approach El and comb her fingers gently through her hair before hugging her tightly, just because she can.

“Thanks, Mom,” El says, hugging back just as tight. “You look beautiful too.”

And she does. Joyce is not one to wear fancy dresses or heavy makeup, the way other women like Karen do to make them look pretty, but El has come to learn that those are not necessary to look beautiful, and Joyce is the living proof of it. It’s her bright smiles and warm gestures that make Joyce the most beautiful person El knows, and today she’s radiant with excitement and holiday cheer.

Joyce pulls back from the hug and gives El her softest smile. She places a kiss on the top of El’s head, making her insides feel mushy from all the love and care that fill her interactions with Joyce.

“When you’re finished, could you please check on Will?” Joyce asks, apparently remembering that they were in a bit of a rush. “We’re going to be the last ones to arrive at this rate.”

El nods and Joyce mouths a quick “thank you,” before leaving to carry on with her own things. El takes a look in the mirror, decides that yes, she’s ready, and journeys out to her brother’s room. She finds the door a few inches open, a silent sign that while solitude is preferred, company is not discouraged. That’s why El feels no guilt when she barges into the room with no warning.

“Jesus, El.” Will, standing in front of his easel, clutches a hand to his chest when the door bangs open. “One day you’re gonna give me a heart attack.”

El rolls her eyes at his dramatics.

“Mom says we’re going to be late,” she says with a sort of fake seriousness. “And we don’t want that, do we?”

“Oh, of course not,” Will replies, matching her tone. “That’s more of Mike’s thing, isn’t it? We wouldn’t want to take that from him.”

They stare at each other for about five seconds before they break down laughing. 

(Elsewhere, one Michael Wheeler feels a sort of shiver down his spine, as if his subconscious’ telling him that someone’s making fun of him… he has a feeling he knows who it may be.)

“So, are you ready?” El asks once the laughter has died down.

Will sighs and eyes the painting still propped up on his easel.

El approaches slowly, giving Will ample time to stop her, but he doesn’t and she gets to see the painting that Will had been working on for the last month or so.

Her breath catches in her chest.

“Will…”

It’s different, is El’s initial thought. She’s seen his drawings and paintings before; they’re usually cartoonish or tend to imitate a medieval style that bring to life the Party’s DnD adventures. This, though, seems like something El imagines could be taken out of a museum. The soft, precise brushstrokes, the dream-like colours of the sunset, the carefully crafted details of two young boys, sitting on a swing set.

El has never been to the place Will painted, but she recognises the scene nonetheless. Mike had told her about it during one of the many conversations they had all those months ago where they tried to repair and strengthen their friendship after their break-up.

(“I don’t know why I lied to you. Well — I thought that’s what I was supposed to say, what was supposed to help you, but I shouldn’t have said it. Not when it was a lie. A lie that hurt you. A lie that hurt him. Because… because maybe my life restarted when we found you in the woods, just because I felt like it was ending the longer we spent searching but finding no trace of Will. But then you appeared and you gave me hope. You’ve always given me hope in the darkest times. But it was wrong of me to say what I did, especially when — when I had already told him that asking him to be my friend was the best thing I’ve ever done.

“It was back in kindergarten, did you know? He was sitting alone on the swing set and — well, long story short, I asked and he said yes, we spent the rest of recess talking and playing on the swings, and then the rest is history. It’s one of my most cherished memories.”)

El had come to learn other things too. She now knew that Will’s painting in California had been made with the purpose of remembering friendship, teamwork and trust. She knew that while its meaning was intended as platonic, Will’s true feelings bled through the small details, hidden in plain sight. And El knows that Will would’ve never actively exposed those feelings, not when they could’ve interfered in his best friend’s and sister’s relationship — but then Mike had been in distress, in need of validation, and so a web of half truths and disguised feelings had spilled out as Will selflessly tried his best to help. Despite Will’s good intentions, his actions complicated the mess that was the inevitable end of Mike and El’s romantic relationship and caused heartache for everyone involved. 

Everything ended up fine in the end — they all found their happiness — but it was a painful ride overall.

Things are different now and this new painting reflects that change. There’s no hiding here: it’s as if Will’s taken all the love held in his heart and poured it onto every brushstroke, clear for anyone to see. A love letter without words, built upon years of friendship that throughout the years developed into this, a kind of deep, unspoken love that words could only wish to describe. And it all started there — with two boys and a swing set.  

“Is it too much?” Will asks, uncertainty creeping into his voice.

Will is very brave, El thinks. Displaying his feelings the way that he’s done requires a unique type of courage, especially when, as El has sadly come to learn, the world doesn’t take kindly to the way Will feels and loves.

El leans onto Will, placing her head on his shoulder and takes hold of his hand, squeezing it tightly.

“It’s perfect,” she says truthfully. “He is going to love it.”

But not as much as he loves you.

Never as much as he loves you.

The thought comes unbidden, but El welcomes it with a smile.

“You really think so?”

El nods.

“I know so.”

El has grown a lot these last few months. Back in March, when she’d started to truly comprehend just how deep the problems in her and Mike’s relationship ran, she remembers feeling a strange and uncomfortable kind of bitterness every time she saw Mike and Will interact. It was weird and confusing — she didn’t want to feel this way, but she couldn’t help it. The tenderness with which Mike looked at Will, seeking reassurance with every turn of events, the way that Will encouraged Mike with all his faith and trust even after their rocky reunion… they seemed to have reached this kind of unspoken mutual understanding that El had rarely seen between two other people. She didn’t know why but somehow… it felt a bit like betrayal. According to all the TV shows and movies she’d watched, it’s what she should’ve had. Mike was her boyfriend; he should’ve arrived in California to sweep her off her feet with romantic gestures and thoughtful words. Instead she was met with squished flowers, more From Mike’s, angry words — “What did you do?” — and stony silences. And when she finally got what she thought she wanted — “I love you” — well, it felt lacking. El found no comfort in the words, no relief. Apparently, the world’s problems weren’t fixed with loud, sappy love declarations the way movies had made El believe. She had lost, and there was nothing she could do to go back and change that.

She broke up with Mike, spilling out something about finding her own path that sounded almost right, but not quite. A partial truth. Circumstances didn’t let her dwell on the official end of her relationship, nor on the brief but undeniable look of relief that flashed through Mike’s eyes when it happened. She pushed all traces of resentment aside; no broken heart would stop her from saving her friends and family — even those who had hurt her, as unintentional as it could’ve been. She had to find Max. She had to be the superhero she had set out to become one last time.

For a while, everything was utter chaos, but in the end they did it, the world was saved. Henry was dead and he wouldn’t come back. Everyone had been scattered during the final battle and El had set out to reunite with her friends. Of course, the first people she saw were them, Mike and Will — but they hadn’t seen her. It was like they were in their own little world, holding onto each other in the tightest embrace. Something about that scene made El stop in her tracks and simply watch and listen.

“I thought — I thought I had lost you again.”

“You didn’t, Mike. You will never lose me. I’m here, I’ll always be here.”

“Will, you have to understand. I have to tell you. I — I —”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to say it… I know.”

El had dried off a stray tear on her dirty cheek and turned around, deciding that she could give them more time together while she found the others. 

Those last words had sent a pang through El’s chest. They haunted her for a while. She didn’t quite know why, but she thought she was starting to understand.

She had decided that she wanted to talk to Mike and Will. Still, it was hard to build the courage for it, because facing the truth… It was scary. Friends don’t lie, was something she’d tried to live by, but she’d been lying to Mike for a while, in her letters, at Rink-o-Mania, and even worse, she’d been lying to herself, looking away from the issues in her relationship till she couldn’t anymore, and thinking that they could be fixed with just three words. It was funny how she could go head to head against Henry, but somehow facing her relationship failure was scarier. As straightforward as she tended to be, she didn’t quite know how to approach the subject; with Max still recovering from her coma and getting used to her blindness, El hadn’t wanted to bother her with her less-than-world-threatening problems to ask for advice, and going to Joyce or her dad had seemed like a betrayal of trust to Will, who was also involved in all of this. Thankfully, it was them who came to her first. 

The conversation started somewhat stilted and awkward, the three of them sat on El’s bedroom floor. Mike began by apologising profusely to El and explaining, haltingly, his side of the story: how he’d tried to follow convention, be a good boyfriend to El, but failed miserably because yes, he loved El so much, but not in the way he should’ve loved her as her boyfriend. And Mike, he’d liked Will for longer than he remembered but he never truly realised how much and in what way until they were leaving for California. Mike had been so confused and scared that he didn’t really know what to do. He had tried to figure out how to keep both Will and El in his life and in the process, he’d almost lost both of them.

“I was stupid… and a coward. I hid from my own feelings for a while and led you on in a relationship that I knew, deep down, wasn’t working. And in the process, I pushed Will away too, and ended up hurting both of you. I’m so, so sorry.”

At that point, Will had taken Mike’s hand and carried on with his side of the story: he’d known that he liked Mike for a very long time but he’d never told El about it because he thought that she’d be happier not knowing. Well, he’d never told anyone directly because he felt a lot of guilt about liking Mike, and of course he hadn’t tried to tell Mike because he wanted for him to be happy more than anything, and he thought that was with El.

“After you guys broke up though, we… figured things out. And, um…”

El’s gaze had flickered to their joined hands.

“We’re together now — dating,” Mike had finished off, a bit rushed but confident. Proud.

El had blinked at them, taking a minute to process their words, then nodded to herself.

“You don’t seem… surprised,” Will had ventured.

She hadn’t been. Not really.

“Looking back, it’s obvious you’re both in love with each other.” Somehow, saying that hadn’t hurt as much as she thought it would, and she’d had to consciously keep down a smile when both of them blushed.

“Really?”

“Maybe not super obvious. But I’m not stupid. I notice things.”

“You’re crazy smart, El,” Mike had said, and this time, El didn’t bother hiding her pleased smile.

After that, they asked that she keep their relationship a secret. When she asked why, she was once again reminded of how cruel the world could be to people who dared to be different to what was thought to be the norm. Society is dumb, El had thought back then, and still does, really.

“But our friends and family… I think they’d be okay with it,” El had said and watched as Mike and Will shared a meaningful look.

“We think so too,” Will had answered, “but we want to take it slow, we want to take our time to get used to this —” he squeezed Mike’s hand — “before sharing it. And as much as we trust our friends and family to be supportive, to share something like this…”

“It’s scary,” El finished off, and the boys nodded.

“We don’t want to lie,” Mike had said. “If someone asks, we’ll tell them the truth, but we won’t tell anyone directly until we’re ready.”

“I understand… but then, why tell me?”

“First, because we trust you,” said Will. “And because we thought that you deserved to know.”

“You are one of the most important people in my life El, and I want us to be real friends again,” Mike continued, “and that means that I want you to get to know me for who I really am, no more hiding. And hopefully, I can get to know the real you too.”

“The real me…” Not Eleven, the lab experiment turned superhero; not fake-California-Jane, the popular highschooler, or even real-California-Jane, the powerless, bullied kid — just El. El, who liked arts and crafts; El, who tried to never miss an episode of her favourite telenovela; El, who enjoyed using her powers for silly things, to have fun; El, who loved her friends and family above all else. El, who is also Eleven just as she’s also Jane but at the same time she’s just — El.  

She smiled. 

“I’d like that. No more hiding, no more lying.”

And that right there, was when El had truly started to believe that she could heal. She had gone through heartbreak, yes, but it wouldn’t last forever. 

Here, in Will’s room, looking at the painting that her brother had so lovingly crafted for Mike, she can finally look back and feel proud of how much she’d grown in the last few months; and she can finally say, with confidence, that she is happy with her life. 

“Thank you, El,” Will says, and gives her a quick but tight hug. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she replies as he lets go. “Now let’s go before Dad starts complaining.”

Then, not a second later:

“KIDS, LET’S GO!”

El and Will share an amused look before yelling in unison, “WE’RE COMING!” and then set off.

Hopper, Joyce and Jonathan are waiting already inside their car. Hopper watches them from the driver’s seat, windows rolled down.

“Took your sweet time, kiddos,” he teases. 

El rolls her eyes and knows that Will has done the same when Hop barks out a laugh and says, “You two really are twins, aren’t you?”

“They got separated at birth, didn’t you know, Hop?” Joyce jokes as El and Will get into the car.

“You look very pretty, El,” Jonathan tells her, and El smiles.

“Thank you!”

“So are you…” Hopper tries to ask nonchalantly, eyes focused on the road. “Dressing up for someone in particular, or…?”

“Dad!” — “Hop!” The cars’ occupants exclaim at once.

“What are you complaining about? ” He makes a motion to raise his hands but quickly brings them down on the steering wheel before they can crash. “It’s my duty to ask about these things,” he grumbles and then says, “What about you, Will?” He sends him a look through the rearview mirror. “Is there someone I should threaten?”

Will huffs and crosses his arms.

“I am not answering that, Jesus,” he says and El giggles. When Hop finds out, Mike’s gonna have to sleep with one eye open. “What about Jonathan?” Will continues, diverting the others’ attention. “Aren’t you going to give Nancy a shovel talk?”

Hopper frowns.

“Son, if anything, she would end up being the one threatening me, not the other way round.”

They all humm thoughtfully and nod in agreement. There’s no arguing there.

The rest of the car ride passes with jokes and fun conversation. The festive mood can be felt in the air and El has never felt warmer. She loves her family.

In the end, they’re not late, but they are the last to arrive. Karen and Nancy welcome them all into the house with tight hugs and happy greetings. El likes Karen. El’s always thought that she’s very pretty, and now that they’ve gotten to know each other during the last few months, she can confidently say that she’s like a second mother to El. She gives amazing hugs (though not as good as Joyce’s) and very thoughtful advice when you least expect it.

The two Wheelers are complementing El’s dress when Mike comes rushing down the stairs, heading directly towards Will and encasing him in a huge hug. They tumble a bit from the force of the hug, but quickly find their footing.

“Merry Christmas, Will,” Mike says, slightly out of breath.

“Merry Christmas, Mike,” Will responds softly.

El bites her lip to stop her smile. She can’t believe no one’s caught onto them by now.

“Hey El!” Mike turns to her and gives her a tight hug. “Merry Christmas!”

El responds in kind and watches with Will as Mike makes his rounds greeting the rest of their family until he returns to them with a stupid smile on his face.

“Oh hey,” he says faux-casually to Will, “what’s that?”

“Oh this?” Will says teasingly and raises the rolled-up painting. “Just something I’ve been working on.” 

“Cool,” Mike says, stupidly, with a stupid smile.

“Cool,” Will responds smiling and equally stupid.

El swears Mike makes her brother dumb. In a good way, though.

“Anyway, I’m gonna go find the others,” Will says, and goes off to do just that, leaving Mike to El’s own teasing commentary.

“You’re doing it again,” she says.

“Huh?”

“You do it every time Will is around.”

“W-what is it?”

“You get a stupid look on your face.”

Mike groans.

“Who are we calling stupid?” a new voice chimes in. “Mike?”

Mike groans again, twice as dramatically, and El laughs. She wastes no time in approaching Max and linking an arm with hers.

“Obviously,” Lucas says, from Max’s other side.

“What’s obvious?” Dustin comes in, with Will trailing behind him.

“That Mike is stupid,” says Max.

“Oh yeah,” Will smirks, “that’s pretty obvious.”

They all break out in laughter, especially Mike, though he does try, unsuccessfully, to put on a mask of indignation.

“This— this is treason! I cannot believe — Betrayed by my own Party!”

And so the night starts off, full of laughter and friends.

Dinner is, as expected, absolutely delicious. The only problem was fitting everyone into the dining room, but they made due by not trying to fit everyone into one room, and instead occupying other available tables on the ground floor and trying their best not to make any mess when carrying food from one place to the other.

Afterwards, they all move down to the basement, which has been cleared up enough so that they can all be comfortable moving around. In no time, little groups start to form, with Hop looking vaguely annoyed at something Ted is saying while Karen and Joyce gossip to the side; then there’s Nancy, Jonathan, Steve and Robin, all paying close attention to a discussion happening between Erica and Murray, of all people; and then there’s the Party — Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, Max and El herself — all huddled up eating candies and soda and talking animatedly about their Winter Break.

Everything is fine and nothing’s out of the ordinary.

At her side, Will shivers, and Mike, who had been deep into a bickering match with Max, immediately clocks the movement.

“Hey Will, are you cold?”

Will barely has time to shrug bashfully before Mike is pulling his arm and guiding him to the stairs.

“C’mon, let’s get you a thicker sweater,” is the last thing El hears Mike say before they’re out of range. And while El is sure that they’d come back with a new, warmer sweater for Will, El’s not stupid, and she knows that they’d be using this little window of time to the fullest. Making out, probably. While Mike and Will were careful not to isolate themselves from the group, it was true that on days like these where everyone was present, they probably appreciated the couple of minutes of privacy. 

It seems like El is not the only one whose thoughts are lingering on the couple because as soon as the boys are out of sight, Dustin jumps up with an incredulous look on his face.

“Did you see that?” he exclaims. “It’s not even that cold!”

“I mean…” Lucas responds, sounding doubtful. “Will is kinda sensible to the cold?”

He is, El doesn’t say. It’s not unbearable to him, but he does offer a thankful smile when El wraps a warm blanket over his shoulders on particularly chilly days.

“But did you see the way Mike just — jumped, like, no hesitation, no thoughts, just —”

“Will,” Max finishes, nodding. “Yeah, you don’t need to see to know that that boy is absolutely whipped for Byers.”

“Max!” the boys whine, which the girl ignores with a smirk.

“Whipped?” El asks, curiously.

“Yeah, like, devoted,” answers Lucas.

“That he’d do anything for Will,” adds Max.

“That he’s in love,” finishes Dustin, loudly.

El’s first thought is, that makes sense. The second is, wait, they know?

“Dude, tone it down,” hisses Lucas eyes the room furtively, particularly to where the adults are talking. “I agree with you, I do, but I don’t think we should be discussing it so loudly, yeah? We don’t know who might hear.”

Dustin looks properly chastised, then downright guilty when a curious Nancy Wheeler comes over unannounced and followed by the rest of the older teen crew (plus Murray and Erica) and asks:

“So, who’s in love?” Though her tone of voice implies she knows exactly who they’re talking about.

Dustin and Lucas scramble for a response but Steve cuts them off.

“I thought we’d talked about our inside voices Dustin,” he chides. “There’s no use in hiding anything. I think all of us here know… right?” He eyes Murray wearily.

 Murray rolls his eyes. 

“Who do you take me for? I’m not blind — no offence, Red” — “None taken.” — “I can recognise teen pining when I see it, believe me.” His accusing stare finds Nancy and Jonathan, both of whom decide to ignore the older man.

A sudden silence settles over the group. El can hear some Christmas jingles playing on the radio and the sound of Hopper’s low baritone and Joyce’s and Karen’s gleeful laughter in the background.

“So…” ventures Robin. “Are we going to talk about them? About baby-Byers and baby-Wheeler and the undisputable tension between them?”

“Not only should we talk about it,” says Erica, “we should actually do something about it.”

Do something about it? El wonders. What’s there to do?

“Oh my God, thank you,” says Max. “There’s some sweet, tooth-rotting stuff going on there and it’s starting to become bad for my health.”

“I love Mike and Will to death,” adds Lucas, “but one of them has to make a move soon. This has gone on for long enough.”

“Agreed,” mutters Jonathan under his breath.

Dustin nods vigorously. “This has been going on for years.”

“Lots of years,” agrees Nancy.

“And they’d be so cute together, right?” Robin asks. “Childhood best friends turned boyfriends — it doesn’t get much better than that, right?”

Everyone hums and nods in approval. 

El knows what’s going on now. She smiles and tries her best not to laugh.

“I agree, they are cute together,” she says truthfully.

Everyone grins at her.

“So we’re all in agreement that we should do something about it?” asks Erica with a sly smile.

“Please!” Max, Lucas and Dustin exclaim.

“I don’t know… I wanted to let them figure it out for themselves, you know?” Jonathan says. “I — I know Will’s struggled with this before. It’s better now, but I don’t want to force anything.”

El catches Jonathan’s gaze and smiles softly at him. He’s an amazing brother.

“Yeah, I get that,” says Robin, empathy filling her voice.

“Yeah,” echoes Max. 

“We don’t have to force anything,” says Dustin, his voice much softer than it had all night. “It would just be a little push, right? A hint from an outside source that will help them open their eyes to what’s right in front of them.”

That seemed convincing enough for everyone.

“Welp, I’m gonna leave you kids to your scheming,” says Murray. “If your plan doesn’t work, call me and I’ll use the Murray Method — it works every time.”

He winks at Jonathan and Nancy.

“We won’t be doing that, thank you,” she says as he leaves, and grumbles about meddling old men under her breath.

“O-kay,” says Steve. “What is the plan?”

Dustin opens his mouth and closes it again, not unlike a fish. And then the pacing starts.

“Huh, maybe… no that wouldn’t work. But what if — no, too complicated.”

Everyone watches him go, wide-eyed and not even trying to keep up with his racing thoughts. That is, until Erica clears her throat loudly.

“Don’t hurt your brain, Dusty-bun,” she says smugly. “While you were all here wasting time, I raided the decorations box and got exactly what we need.” She raises her hand, showing off her acquisition which lies on the top of her palm.

The teens look at it, a mix of surprise and contemplation on their faces.

“Huh, okay,” someone says. “Simple but effective.”

“It’s a good start.”

“I like it!”

“Worth a try.”

“Let’s do this!”

El watches on, amused, and wonders if Will and Mike will be able to get out of this one.

…

It turns out that they can actually, ‘get out of it’, because apparently, when presented with the opportunity to kiss his boyfriend under the mistletoe that El painstakingly placed over the stairway to the basement a few minutes prior (which, actually, took no effort at all because — superpowers), all one William Byers will do is peck said boyfriend’s cheek, leaving said boyfriend a bit of a flushed mess, and then dragging said boyfriend, a still blushing Michael Wheeler, off to get some drinks.

“That’s it?!” hisses Erica under her breath, probably echoing everyone’s thoughts. And no one can call the boys out on their ‘cop-out’ because they had all agreed to be discreet, don’t embarrass them, okay?  

“Am I the only one who thought that was a bit… weird?” muses Steve. “I mean, one would think that they would use this opportunity to do something. It was the perfect excuse!”

“Don’t think too much about it Stevie,” says Robin, patting his back. “They’re just too oblivious.”

Max, who had been carefully listening to Lucas’ whispered explanation of the situation, suddenly stands up from the couch and cracks her knuckles.

“Well, I think it’s time for the ‘lock them in a closet and don’t let them out till they kiss’ operation,” she says, and starts walking forward with clear intention.

“Slow down, Mad-Max,” Lucas says and grabs her by her arm before she can get too far. Her vision might not have healed yet, but they all know she would’ve found a way to carry out her plans. “There has to be something else to try before we have to use that option.”

“How about… some sort of game?” suggests Nancy.

“Oh yeah!” says Steve, snapping his fingers. “Like — like — Spin the Bottle!”

“Seriously, Steve?” Erica says. “Spin the Bottle?”

“What? It’s a great idea! El could do her thing and make it land in them!”

“Yeah, uhm, no.” Dustin shakes his head. “First, that’s way too obvious, and second, I don’t think any of us have played Spin the Bottle other than you, Ex-Mr Popular, so they’d immediately know something’s up.”

“Ex- cuse me, I’m still popular — or at least, I’m not un- popular.”

“Sure, Steve. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“Hey—”

“Max and I have played Spin the Bottle,” El pipes up, feeling the need to say something to stop the bickering. It works. Her statement is met with shocked silence and raised eyebrows all around the group.

“Oh?” Robin says, mouth curving into what Max had once explained to be called a ‘shit-eating grin’. “That’s cool.”

Max turns towards the sound of her smug, knowing voice and begins flailing her arms in a very un-Max kind of way.

“I— that’s not — it’s not like —”

And wow, El has never seen Max’s face look so red. It’s cute, she thinks, and feels heat trailing up her own cheeks.

“It’s okay, Max,” says Lucas, his tone gentle but teasing. “It’s cool.” Then makes a point to look over Max’s shoulder directly at El and wink.

El is definitely blushing now.

Max groans.

“Our version of the game is different, okay?” Is it? El will have to ask about it later. “And! May I remind you, we’re getting off track here!”

Oh, right. Their planning to get Will and Mike together. Right.

“Getting off track from what?” A familiar voice says and – look at that, it’s Will. Looks like they’ve run out of time.

“Yeah, and why does Max’s face look like a glowing tomato?” And there’s Mike, never too far from Will, and never knowing subtlety even if it hit him in the face.

“Watch it, Wheeler.”

“Or what, Mayfield?”

El easily tunes them out and places her attention on Will, who has an overly fond look in his eyes as he watches Mike’s petty argument with Max.

El wonders if they heard any of the group’s previous conversation. For all they had tried to be discreet, they hadn’t exactly been quiet in their (failed) planning. But then, Mike and Will had this thing where, under the right circumstances, they could get sucked into their own little world, ignoring everything else around them.

Feeling El’s gaze on him, her brother turns to meet her eyes, raising an eyebrow in question.

What was all that about, before? Is what he’s asking. So, okay, it looks like they didn’t overhear too much, if anything at all.

El feels herself smiling widely in response. She can’t help it, this whole situation feels thrilling. She’s spent so long keeping Mike and Will’s secret, watching out for them because she knows that it’s a secret that, sadly, could get them hurt if it got out to the wrong people. But now, during the last fifteen minutes she’s come to learn that there’s nothing to fear in their friends, that Mike and Will will have their full support and if El feels ecstatic about it, she can’t imagine how the boys will feel when they find out.

Nothing for you to be worried about, El tells Will with her smile and her brother nods, trusting El’s judgement.

So maybe El could tell them — tell everyone about the miscommunication, but… where would the fun be in that?

The evening goes on smoothly for the next couple of hours, with more chatting and joking, and some Christmas karaoke accompanied by some questionable dance moves from the most fearless of their group.

Eventually, one disgruntled looking Holly comes stomping down the stairs.

“Mom! Why is Santa taking so long?”

Karen looks at her daughter with surprise and a bit of concern.

“Holly? What are you doing up and about? I thought you were asleep,” she says.

“I wanted to see Santa bring the presents but he’s taking forever,” she grumbles, hugging her mother’s leg. “I thought that this year, since we’ve all been extra-good, he’d come earlier with ours.”

“I see,” Karen says, her eyes softening.

“Hey Holly,” Mike says suddenly. “Why don’t we take a walk around the house and try to see if Santa is nearby?”

He sends a look at his mother and she nods, understanding.

Holly’s whole face brightens. 

“Okay!” she says, and skips to take Mike’s hand and starts steering them towards the backdoor before she stops in her tracks and turns to El’s brother. “Will! Come with us!”

“Yeah, Will,” Mike says with pleading eyes. “Come with us!”

Will laughs under his breath. 

“Okay, okay.”

As soon as they’re gone, Karen stands up and claps her hands. 

“Alright! It seems this year, our gift-exchange is coming early!”

The teens cheer and the adults all get up to go and set up all the presents under the Christmas tree.

“Now’s our chance!” Dustin says when they’re out of earshot. “If we’re going to try a new plan tonight we have to talk about it now.”

“No Spin the Bottle,” Jonathan is quick to say, sending Steve the stink-eye.

“It was just a suggestion, Jesus,” the boy says. “Nance was the one who said something about games!”

Nancy grimaces. “Yeah, I was thinking more on the lines of Truth or Dare?”

“As if that would be subtle at all,” Max says, then raises the pitch of her voice: “Hey Will, if you had to kiss someone in this room, who would it be? Mike! Mike! Tell us, who do you have a crush on? — see what I mean?”

“Yeas, that does sound stupid,” Erica says.

“Well, it’s better than nothing,” Dustin replies.

“Guys,” Jonathan cuts off, “maybe we should let this rest for now — take more to plan. It doesn’t have to be today.”

Everyone lets the words sink in.

“I mean,” Robin says, “sure, it doesn’t have to be today, but could you imagine? Getting together with the love of your life on Christmas Eve? Very romantic and wholesome.”

El very much agrees. Maybe she should tell the boys to break up and get back together again today… or maybe not, that sounds like too much trouble. She’ll just keep this in mind till she finds her own significant other.

“What if they broke up, though?” Steve says, a haunted look in his eyes. “Then the date would always be a reminder of a failed romance.”

…

“What the hell, Steve!”

“That depressing as fuck, holy shit!”

“Why would you even think that?”

“Steve,” El feels the need to say, “who hurt you?”

Steve sighs. “Forget it! Forget I said anything! The world will end before those two break up anyway.”

“Exactly,” says Lucas.

Of course, as seems to be the theme of the night, the conversation is never concluded. They get ushered out of the basement by a disgruntled Hopper and into the living room where the heavily decorated Christmas tree stands. They make the finishing touches on the stacked presents beneath and then rush to spread out around the house so Holly can have the honour of being the first to find ‘Santa’s’ presents.

It’s terribly sweet how the little girl makes it her mission to make sure everyone is present before the gift-opening starts. And once it’s done, it’s an absolute chaos of gift paper and gasps of surprise along with bouts of laughter when a present is particularly funny —- “Stop it with the Farrah Fawcett, Robin, I told you about it in confidence!” — and even a couple of tears when it’s thoughtful. El herself receives one of Max’s old skateboards, which she will learn to use and then treasure with her life; a couple of fantasy books — recommendations from Mike; a couple of personalised mixtapes from her brothers; a bunch of bracelets and accessories from Nancy and Robin; a short series of Wonder Woman comics from the Sinclairs, Dustin and Steve… She hasn’t been able to stop smiling from the moment she got her hands on the first packet with her name on it, but it’s nothing compared to the feeling that she gets when she sees the others open the presents that she made or bought for them. The way they turn to her, stars shining in their eyes, then a mouthed ‘thank you’ or a hug that leaves her inside feeling warm and fuzzy… These, she thinks, are the kind of bright moments that keep the darkness of their world at bay.

They migrate once again to the basement, all of them chattering on in excitement about their gifts. El in particular is listening to Holly gush about her new watercolours and how Will has promised to teach her how to use them and maybe El, since she also likes to paint, could come with them too? 

El agrees without a second thought, of course. And, speaking of her brother… he seems to be, once again, stuck with Mike in their little world of Mike-and-Will, only this time — this time there’s something that makes El pause when she looks at them. There’s something in the air around them, a charged kind of tension, like a moment before a storm, but it’s not scary — it’s just anticipation for something important that’s to come. And she’s not the only one to feel this, she thinks, because slowly, conversation dies down to soft whispers all around the room. The boys, standing in their corner of the room, don’t seem to notice, though.

Will looks at Mike with wide, hopeful eyes while cradling a stack of unassuming looking papers to his chest. Mike himself doesn’t quite look at Will, preferring to look at his own, restless hands as he fumbles with his words:

“I know it’s just — a rough draft for now, and there’s still a lot of — plot holes to fill and characters to develop and… And I know it’s a bit silly like, how old were we when we started planning this? Six? Seven? But I really think that we could go somewhere with it. I know that the chances of living off a project like this are very, very low and that it will take lots of time and effort but — I want to try.” He builds his courage and looks up into Will’s eyes. “And I know that it will be worth it, because it will be with you. 

“So… what do you say?”

And it’s like everyone’s holding their breath, waiting for Will to say something, anything, and are very much rewarded when he carefully places the papers on a table, pulls Mike into a fierce hug and says yes.

“Of course I want to,” he adds, leaning back from the hug to look at Mike with shining eyes. “Are you kidding? Making our own comic? That’s  — Mike, that’s literally a dream come true, I —” He chokes back on a disbelieving laugh. Takes a moment to breathe and compose himself. Offers a smile warm enough to chase away the lingering chill of this December night. “I’m looking forward to it.”

By now the room’s volume has risen with the excited whispers and commentaries being shared between groups. 

El’s close enough to the adults to hear Murray say, “Damn, that kid’s gonna nail his wedding proposal in a few years,” to which Joyce says: “You better be taking notes, Hop,”   which in turn makes El’s dad almost choke on his drink. 

El has to tease him about that later.

“Are Mike and Will getting married?” a curious Holly asks El.

“Not yet,” El replies.

“But they will?” the little girl insists.

“We can’t know that but…” El lowers her voice. “I think so.”

If El has learnt something about those boys during the time she’s known them, it’s that they tend to bring the best out of each other and that they work best when they’re a team. Marriage is such a far-away concept, it seems unreal. They’re still kids, after all. But there’s something comforting about the thought that a relationship that makes Mike and Will so happy, could last so long and carry on strong.

“Good,” Holly says, resolutely.

Unaware of their audience, Mike and Will seem to be basking in their own little bubble of happiness.

Will dries his watery eyes with the sleeve of his (Mike’s) sweater before reaching behind him to get — oh! 

Perfect timing, Will.

“Here,” Will says, handing the rolled-up painting to Mike, who takes it eagerly. “I know this is nothing compared to what you’ve given me but—”

“Hush, Will,” Mike says gently, not taking his eyes off Will, hands stilling on the painting. “You know you don’t have to worry about that.”

Will nods, mouth twitching into a fond smile. Satisfied, Mike turns his attention to the unrolling painting. 

El can tell the exact moment that Mike truly takes in what he’s seeing with how his mouth opens in a soundless gasp — the boy is speechless. The next few seconds seem to stretch a lifetime as Mike stays still, looking down at the painting. His bangs obscure his face but if El knows Mike — and she does — then she knows that his eyes are roaming all over the painting, taking in every detail and committing it to memory.

When he finally looks up, the room’s occupants let out a collective gasp, El included. 

Michael Wheeler is crying. 

Silent tears form tracks down his cheeks, and perhaps El should be concerned because Mike will rarely let other people see him cry, but his breathing is even and his lips form the softest of smiles, so no, El isn’t worried at all.

“Will I —” Mike starts and chokes up. “I just —”

With utmost care, Will’s hand rises to cup Mike’s cheek, thumb delicately drying his tears.

“I know, Mike,” Will says. “I know.”

And El finally understands. She’s seen this before.

I love you, is what Mike wants to say.

You don’t have to say it, is what Will responds, because it’s true. 

Mike doesn’t have to say I love you, just as Will doesn’t have to say I love you too, because they know. They both know without having to put it into words, and El thinks that’s beautiful.

“Thank you,” Mike whispers, and it feels bigger than a simple thanks for a gift.

The air buzzes with something that El can only describe as electrifying. Time seems suspended in this moment, waiting for something to happen. And maybe El shouldn’t be watching — maybe none of them should — but really, the love they have for each other is nothing they haven’t seen before and at this point it’s obvious, at least to El, that they don’t have to try to hide it anymore. And maybe they feel so too, however subconsciously, if only because they feel safe enough to show all these emotions out here in the open, where everyone can see, whether they intended to or not.

And maybe this moment could’ve lasted forever, maybe they could all have carried on waiting with bated breath for that something to happen.

(A kiss, El thinks. They were definitely waiting for a kiss, if the mistletoe plan was anything to go by.)

But of course, not everyone is as patient.

“Jesus, Michael,” Ted Wheeler’s voice cuts through the charged silence, voice sounding more emotive than El has ever heard it. “What are you waiting for, son? Just kiss the damn boy already.”

The effect is immediate: as if in a hivemind (ha! — okay, not funny), everyone turns to stare at Mr Wheeler with varying expressions of shock, wide-eyed and mouths agape. Will’s eyes look blankly at the man as if he hasn’t quite finished registering what he’s just said, and Mike — well, if Mike had been making fun of how flushed Max had looked earlier, then he has no room to speak now because his cheeks are glowing an increasingly furious shade of red (which El will tell Max about with no lack of detail). His mouth opens and closes like it has a mind of his own.

“Dad!” he manages to say, voice cracking in the end. It’s enough to kickstart a reaction from the rest of the room, the loudest of which is, of course, Dustin.

“Holy shit, Mr Wheeler! Holy shit!” he repeats over and over, to which Mr Wheeler sends a very unimpressed look while Holly giggles at El’s side.

“What Ted is trying to say,” Karen says in a raised voice but not quite shouting — just enough to bring the room back into some semblance of order, “is that you don’t have to be afraid to show your feelings, yes?”

And her tone is serious and comforting but her eyes are twinkling.

“Mom!” Mike hisses, utterly mortified. “What!?”

“Look, kids,” Murray says, “this little thing you’ve got going on here?” He gestures between Mike and Will. “We’ve all noticed.”

“W- what thing?” Mike tries to play dumb, obviously having been caught of guard.

“Oh my— Mike, there is no way you haven’t noticed the huge signal Will is sending you here,” Max says, sounding exasperated. “There’s no way you’re that oblivious, just as there’s no way you haven’t noticed you’re giving signals right back.”

Mike gapes at her.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Steve says, probably worried about the silence from the boys. “If you guys are like, worried that we’d judge you or something, then you shouldn’t be.”

“Yeah!” Robin is quick to reassure. “I mean, we’ve all seen stranger things, right?”

There are nods and hums of assent around the room.

“I’ve seen what’s under Lucas’ bed — there’s nothing stranger than that.”

“Erica!”

“What? Just the facts.”

“Anyway,” Nancy says pointedly, then smiles at her brother and Will genuinely. “They’re right, there’s nothing that could surprise us at this point.”

“I told Will a long time ago: who wants to be ‘normal’ anyway?” says Jonathan, air-quoting the word normal.

“Exactly!” Robin says, then words start rushing out of her: “And you — you’re not alone in your kind of ‘weird’ either because, well I’m like that too, kinda — well, I’m a lesbian, so… so yeah you’re not alone.” She breathes deeply and Steve rubs her back comfortingly. “And — and nobody minds that, right?”

“Of course not, honey,” Joyce says, voice filled with the same amount of care that she has for her own kids. “We love you,” she says to Robin, and then to Will and Mike, “and we love both of you, no matter what.”

“And we’re proud of you, okay?” Hopper says, voice uncharacteristically soft. “You are good for each other, in whatever way that may be.”

“Mom… Dad…” Will says in awe, finally snapping out of his shocked silence. “You all seriously would be okay with this?”

“Of course, man,” Lucas says with a wide grin. “You’re our best friends. Nothing will ever change that.”

“Yeah,” Max adds, and then with a wicked grin: “Even if the pining was getting annoying.”

Will lets out a surprised laughter and El giggles quietly with him.

“What?” he chokes out.

Dustin nods.

“It’s just—” he says, “well, it’s pretty obvious you have a thing for each other. I mean, it was hard to notice at first because you’ve always been close, but once aware… it’s hard not to notice.” He laughs. “And it’s a little bit hard to watch when the electricity is so obvious, and then you don’t do anything about it!”

“Obvious,” Mike mouths to himself, still processing. Meanwhile, Will is biting his lip, the way he does when he’s debating whether he should say what’s on his mind or not.

“Bottom line is, kids,” Murray says, “that there’s no sense in hiding.”

“Not that you were doing a great job of it,” Erica says smugly, “seeing as everyone noticed — except each other.”

Mike and Will share a knowing look — one second, two seconds, three — and that’s it, they break into matching giant grins that soon devolve into full-blown laughter, to the utter bewilderment of their friends and family.

El bites her lip hard as she watches everyone, trying to hide her amusement. However, it only takes one sincerely confused Steve Harrington to ask, very genuinely, “What’s so funny?”, for El to lose it.

And now they’re looking at her weird, which only serves to fuel her laughter further.

“El? You too?” Dustin asks. “Can you please tell us what’s going on?”

El considers it for a second then shakes her head, still smiling.

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?” Erica asks.

“I can’t,” El repeats. “I’ve been… ‘sworn to secrecy’.”

“Sworn to secrecy?!” a few voices echo.

El nods seriously.

“I promised.”

“You promised?” Jonathan asks suspiciously, eyes flitting between his siblings until they suddenly widen in realisation.

“She promised…” Robin muses to herself. “Wait. Holy shit. I think I know what’s happening.” She laughs, a little bit unhinged, throwing her hands to her head. “Oh my God, we miscalculated. We greatly miscalculated.”

Mike seems to interpret this as a good reaction and takes it in stride.

“It looks like you had all the components of an equation but just turned out to be bad at math.” He smirks.

“We all get better math grades than you, Wheeler,” Lucas reminds him teasingly, earning a playful glare in return.

“What we’re trying to say,” Will intervenes, “is that all of you — you almost got it right but… not quite.” He shares a short but charged look with Mike, and suddenly they’re both standing straighter, with matching determined looks on their faces. “We do have a — ‘thing’  for each other. And, not only did we notice, but we talked about it, and then we did something about it.”

In one smooth, confident motion, Will takes Mike’s hand. 

“Mike Wheeler is officially my boyfriend, and has been since June.”

The room bursts into a cacophony of delighted laughter, loud cheering, and one very enthusiastic, “Fuck yeah!”, from a very enthusiastic Dustin. And Will, El thinks, looks absolutely radiant, basking in the knowledge that yes, he can finally say this out loud without fear, knowing that the people who matter will be happy for him. And maybe there’s always been something shy about Will, something insecure or rather, misunderstood, but now — now he gets to stand tall, unapologetic, surrounded by people who will love him no matter what.

El is so, so happy for him, her heart could burst.

And Mike? El doesn’t even try to hold back her fond laughter at the absolutely starstruck look on his face. He’s staring at Will like he can’t look away — it’s like what El calls his ‘stupid’ look only maxed up to a hundred. 

Soon enough, Mike and Will become the receivers of endless hugs, well-wishes, and well-intentioned teasing from friends and family alike.

“It seems we underestimated your emotional intelligence and capability to get your shit together,” says Max.

“Hey!”

“I am so, so proud of you boys,” Joyce says and traps them in a warm hug, looking comically small between the two of them. 

“So, six months, huh?” says Hopper as he narrows his eyes at Mike. “I seem to recall a lot of sleepovers and not once did I see that door open three inches… You’re on thin ice, Wheeler.”

And that would’ve been menacing, if it wasn’t for the following hair ruffle that left Mike half-pouting, half-laughing as he tried to fix the mess that was left behind by El’s dad.

Not to be left behind, Karen gives her own rounds of hugs and whispered comforting words that may or may not have left the boys a bit teary-eyed. 

Even Mr Wheeler, who El had not known to be particularly affectionate, pats Mike’s back with what has to be approval — and if Karen’s words hadn’t made Mike cry a little, then that small action definitely did. Then he turns to Will, and Will stares back, eyes wide and slightly apprehensive.

Mr Wheeler sighs and opens his arms, the invitation clear.

“Come here, son, I’m only doing this once.”

And so Will hugs Mr Wheeler, and it’s a short hug, all things considered, but still long enough to feel the awkwardness spilling from the participants. 

“An ultra-rare Mr Wheeler hug!” Dustin exclaims and is shushed immediately.

And Will, he shares catche’s El’s eyes over Mr Wheeler’s shoulder, looking so utterly bewildered it’s actually hilarious — but then it’s over and there’s no denying the overall pleased look on Will’s face.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us for so long!” Nancy exclaims, messing up Mike’s hair once again to his dismay.

“Yeah,” Jonathan says, much more subdued and slightly… sad? “Was El the only one who knew?”

Will grimaces, guilt flashing across his face.

“We wanted to take our time, you know? It wasn’t easy to… come to terms with everything and then gather the courage to tell everyone.” He says to the room as a whole. “We would’ve said something at some point; you guys just… got ahead with your theorising, I guess.

“And as for El…” He grins. “Well, I didn’t want to date my sister’s ex-boyfriend without her knowing.”

“And I,” says Mike, “didn’t want to date my ex-girlfriend’s brother without her knowing.”

They share a smile with El while the rest of the room processes the situation.

“That,” pipes up Steve after a moment, “sounds more complicated than the plot of Back to the Future and that’s saying something.”

“Back to the Future is not that complicated.”

“It is when you’ve been drugged by Russians, Little Sinclair.”

“Even then, it really wasn’t.”

“Shush, Robin.”

“Anyway,” says Mike, “it’s El. She would’ve caught on eventually.”

He sends El an exaggerated wink, and she winks back, glad that she can have these interactions with Mike without any lingering awkwardness from their past relationship.

TV shows were wrong: exes can still be friends.

“Besides,” Will addresses Jonathan, grinning. “I wanted to save Mike and myself from your inevitable teasing for as long as possible.” 

Jonathan laughs, all traces of sadness leaving his frame as places an arm over Will’s shoulder and the other over Mike’s, holding them close.

“And how right you were to do that,” Jonathan smirks, “because I’ve had to deal with you two more than you can imagine and I’m not going to let you live any of it down.”

Mike scoffs. “We weren’t that bad.”

“Oh really?” Jonathan raises a teasing eyebrow. “Where should I start? With the whole ‘best thing I’ve ever done’ speech from a couple of years ago, or perhaps the more recent ‘you are the heart’ speech that happened in the middle of nowhere, Nevada. Admit it, you both are sappy as hell, and we probably haven’t seen the worst of it.”

“Jonathan,” Will protests, sporting a light blush (not as bad as Mike’s). But it’s too late, the floodgates had opened and now everyone was piping up with their own embarrassing stories of the couple.

“— and I just wanted to be their friend but Mike was being a total asshole about it but then Will was in trouble and suddenly he was talking to him with the most gentle voice and being all protective, I swear he was a completely different person —”

“— then I accidentally spilled a bit of juice on the drawing — a honest mistake, really! Barb had just made me laugh a lot — and he started crying so much I seriously thought he was going to pass out —”

“— Will was so determined to make the best surprise birthday party, DnD themed, of course. Dustin and I ended up being little more than minions to carry out his schemes —”

“It was madness!”

“Mike burned lunch one day because he was staring at Will! He had to start all over again.”

“Holly!”

And so it went.

At some point, Mike ran up to his room and came back down with a painting El definitely recognised, which he started proudly showing off to everyone — along with the new painting — to Will’s absolute mortification.

El contributes a couple of anecdotes but eventually decides to just watch from the sidelines, taking the whole scene in: everyone huddled close, talking and laughing and just — brightening the room with unrestricted happiness.

If Vecna were to come back from the dead to haunt them once again… El thinks this moment, right here, would be enough to keep them safe.

“Hey,” a pleasantly familiar voice says, close to El’s ear. El smiles without thinking and reaches out to take Max’s hand before turning to face her.

“Hi,” El breathes out. 

Max is close, very close. Max says it’s because the closer she gets to something, the better she can make out the details from the smudges of colour she’s currently able to see.

El doesn’t mind. Not at all.

“Are you okay?” Max asks, her lighthearted tone not quite masking her concern. Because Max knows El, understands her. Even if Max had been the biggest supporter of El dumping Mike Wheeler’s ass again, she also understands that the role that relationship played in El’s life was important. And if she thinks the break-up hurt El, then she’d be right. It had.

But right now…

“I’m okay.”

She really is.

“Are you… happy?”

El squeezes Max’s hand. She doesn’t have to think too much about her answer.

“The happiest I’ve ever been.”

All tension leaves Max’s frame.

“Good,” she says. Then, “You’ll have to tell me about your side of the story someday, okay?”

“Okay,” El answers easily. “I promise.”

Really, there’s no one else she’d rather tell.

Feelings are funny things, El thinks. They come and go, some change from day to day while others seem to remain a constant in her life.

When they all make their way up the basement stairs and Mike and Will fall into the mistletoe trap again, El feels none of the bitterness or jealousy she might’ve felt half a year ago had she seen them kiss, so sweet and loving, the way they do now. 

And when they all fall asleep while watching a cheesy Christmas movie, everyone a pile of bodies and blankets and pillows covering the living room’s floor and sofas, El and Will end up curled up on top of Mike. Mike, who makes for a terrible pillow, but that’s not the point.

The point is that, for all that the night is cold, El has never felt warmer. And she thinks that, as long as she surrounds herself with the people she loves, this is a feeling that is never going to change.