youngcreature28

[youngcreature28]

Byler microfic - “Maybe I do like you – a lot.” - @creativewritingprompts - Word count: 1587

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“Hey, Will?” Mike whispers into the darkness, his head on his pillow, the blanket tucked tight around him.

He’s been staring at his ceiling for over an hour, waiting unsuccessfully for sleep to come. 

Will hums softly, more asleep then Mike.

“How do you know if you like someone?”

Will doesn’t respond for a moment before he sits up and Mike can see him staring at him in the corner of his eye.

Mike sighs, tilting his head slightly until their eyes meet.

“You’re asking,” he pauses for a second in disbelief, “me?”

Mike swallows, looking away and fiddling with his blanket. “I just-” he shrugs helplessly, “I don’t know who else to talk to.”

The confession is soft, almost unheard. 

“Mike,” Will laughs slightly, sounding confused. “Literally anyone else would work. Our friends are literally in love, my mum would help you with anything you need, hell, your sister is in a very happy and committed relationship with my brother.”

He pauses for a second, “maybe not your parents,” he admits sheepishly, “they’re not the best example of love and a healthy relationship. But anyone else would work.”

They both laugh and Mike feels his chest loosen, Will just has that effect on him.

“You have so many people who care about you and would help, why me? I’ve never been in a relationship, I've never even had my first kiss.”

“You’re my best friend,” Mike whispers helplessly, it’s the only fact he knows. “There's no one else I want to talk to.”

He leans off his pillow, resting his head near the edge of the bed so they can look at each other. Will's blankets are rumpled and strewn around from where Mike had heard him tossing and turning earlier.  “You’re the only one I want to talk to about these things.”

Will swallows, his eyes shining in the darkness but there’s a smile playing on his lips. “You’re my best friend too.”

Mike nods, “exactly. I need my best friend right now, Will.”

“Okay,” Will nods, blinking determinedly. “I can try.”

“Thank you,” Mike closes his eyes.

“I guess,” Will begins, “it feels different to how it does with everyone else, yeah?”

Mike nods, listening, encouraging.

“Like, having feelings for someone is, is this new feeling and it can make you feel lighter, as if they’re your reason for smiling, for getting up in the morning. It’s not always that intense, especially not in the beginning, but it means something to you.”

Mike can hear Will lay back down and settle in. “You feel safe and content with them, they make you feel better and you care what they think. Sometimes it can even feel like there are butterflies in your stomach when they do something.”

“Think about it this way,” he says, “if you had Dustin next to you right now, what would you do?”

Mike furrows his brow, but thinks about it. “I guess we’d be going to sleep.”

Will chuckles, “I mean, would you be doing anything differently, what would it feel like?”

“Like normal,” Mike shrugs helplessly. “I mean, we wouldn’t be up here,” he admits, “but it would feel like any normal sleepover.

“Where would you be?”

“In the basement,” Mike answers simply.

“Why?”

“Because it-” Mike frowns slightly, “it’s different.”

“Different how?”

“I don’t-” Mike hesitates, “I don't know, that’s just how it’s always been. The party have always slept in the basement in our sleeping bags.”

“Why am I here then?” Will whispers, sounding small. “Why are we not in the basement?”

Mike frowns, “why would we be?”

“Because we’re a part of the party, Mike.”

“Yeah, but it’s different,” he argues.

“Why?” he asks again, “why am I different.”

“Because you're you, and we’re us,” Mike answers simply. “It’s not the same, our friendship has always been more because we’re best friends. We sleep up here because it’s right, okay? It feels right.”

Wills breathes heavily and Mike can hear how shuddering his breathing sounds. He wants to see if he's okay, to make sure he’s alright, but it doesn't feel like now's the time for his overprotective worrying. 

“Sorry,” he apologises quietly, “I got sidetracked. But it's kinda the same, the way you'd feel would be different to how you feel about your friends.”

Before Mike can say anything, Will carries on.

“So this person, the one you might like,” he says the words tightly and Mike wants to open his eyes and look at him, see why he sounds different but he can’t. It’s as if his eyes are glued shut by some invisible force. “If she was here, what would you be doing, how would it be different than if Dustin was here? Then how I’m here?”

She? He thinks, confused, before he understands what Will is asking.

“Well,” Mike stops, blinking his eyes open again, “it wouldn’t be different to this.”

After a pause, Will answers. “I don't understand,” he confesses. 

“Yeah, it’d be different to Dustin, but it wouldn’t be any different to us,” he admits. 

Mike glances down just in time to see Will frown, his lower lip trembling.

“So,” Will says before clearing his throat, “what we have, it would be the same as how you’d treat her? This wouldn’t be just for us anymore? She’d be your best friend?”

“No,” Mike denies, “you’ll always be my best friend but-”

“Well,” Mike contemplates, “it doesn’t feel any different to this when I think about it. This is exactly how I imagine it going.”

“Oh.”

Will goes still and Mike blinks, it almost looks like there’s a tear falling from the corner of Will’s eye.

“Umm,” Will stumbles, “I don't really know then. If you like someone, I don't think you should treat her the same as me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just-” Will shrugs, “it’s a bit weird that you don’t want to treat your supposed partner differently to how you treat your best friend. And, yeah, you treat me good and you’ve always been protective and caring, but it’s not the same, Mike.”

Something inside him clicks and Mike pauses for a second before he accepts it. 

“Why not?” Mike asks softly, staring at Will despite him refusing to open his eyes.

“Because- because it's just not,” Will shakes his head.

“But why?” he repeats, not looking away. He watches him frown and look confused, he sees the way his fists clench.

“Because it makes it sound like you like me,” Will bursts out, his eyes snapping open and meeting Mike’s intensely. “If you don’t want it to be different to how you are with me, then it sounds like you want to have a relationship like the one you have with me, Mike! It sounds like you want me. Which is impossible.”

Mike smiles gently, waiting for it to click, “would it be so bad if I did like you?” Mike ponders, “what's wrong with that?”

Will laughs, sounding almost hysterical, as if he’s on the verge of tears. “You just,” he shakes his head in denial, “you can’t.”

“Well, it’s not exactly up to you, is it?” Mike says rhetorically, “maybe I do like you - a lot.”

“Would that really be so bad?”

“I-” Will trembles, blinking roughly against the moisture in his eyes. “Stop it, you’re being mean.”

Mike stops for a moment before shaking his head. He sits up, ignoring Will’s panicked questions, and slides down onto the floor. He lays on top of the covers, not quite touching, but close enough to feel his body heat.

“Will,” he says softly, their eyes locking once more, “I like you.”

Will’s lips tremble and his breath catches. “No you don’t.”

Mike nods, smiling encouragingly. “I do.”

“You can’t,” he fights, “you can’t like me.”

“Why not?”

“Because this doesn't happen to people like me,” Will nearly shouts, eyes widening in shock at his outburst. “People like me don’t get the guy, they don’t have the person they want like them back.”

“Maybe,” Mike acknowledges, “but what if it’s real anyway?”

Will blinks, tears falling and Mike reaches out to brush them away.

“Really?”

“Really,” he agrees. “I like you, Will. I didn’t understand before because I was feeling different and all I knew was that what I feel for you doesn’t compare to our friends but you helped me understand. I don’t want some girl who will cause us to stop being best friends, I want you, I want my best friends and I want it to be more. Why is that wrong?”

“Jonathan says it’s not,” Will responds, leaning closer until their pinkies touch. “Maybe people just don’t understand it, maybe it’s not wrong, just not understood?”

“I don’t care,” Mike confesses, “I like you and I'm not afraid or ashamed of it, it feels pretty right to me.”

“Me too,” he agrees, “I like you too, Mike.”

“I know,” he smiles. “But I like hearing you say it.”

“Maybe I'll just have to say it more often then,” Will tilts his head down until their foreheads touch.

“Yeah,” he agrees breathlessly, pressing closer and allowing his eyes to shut. Sleep claws at the edges of his brain and he doesn’t fight it this time. “I’d like that.”

Will sighs, his body relaxing as if a weight has been taken off of him and he sinks into Mike’s touch, body turning lax as sleep overtakes him too. “That’s good.” Mike smiles sleepily, linking their pinkies and letting his mind drift off. That’s good.

[youngcreature28]

Good morning, here's some buddie to help you cope with yesterday's episode.

(I have a vision for a more gut wrenching painting following the episode, but I'll wait for tomorrow to start working on that, I think, because I can't bring myself to)

[youngcreature28]

missing scene

[youngcreature28]

“you’re here now”🤍

[youngcreature28]

Thinking about

this mike with this will

[youngcreature28]

For “Happy Birthday “ album

Trailers After Dark 🔅

[youngcreature28]

☝️💕❤️.

[youngcreature28]

Mike honey I’m sorry but I really think you’d drop him

[youngcreature28]

miwi cleradin where will gets a makeshift costume made by joyce and mike's upper middle class family has him go all out

[youngcreature28]

Guyss

Mike doesn't even give a shit about the rain. Lucus has his hood up and Mike is just like i don't care about the rain I have to find my Will and apologise to him.

They are so endgame

[youngcreature28]

🐕.

[youngcreature28]

🫂❤️😋

[youngcreature28]

bro why are we even discussing this, straight people don't do this and you do not write moments like this for an unrequited love story

[youngcreature28]

Hug

[youngcreature28]

Frank: Why does Buck have a key to your house, Eddie?

Eddie: In case of emergencies.

Frank: What kind of emergencies?

Eddie:

Eddie: Sometimes he really misses me.

[youngcreature28]

Liar😋

[youngcreature28]

life