Chapter Text
Prologue:
The days and weeks after the final cataclysmic events at the Mac Z bled into months. Seasons changed and life in Hawkins slowly went back to normal.
The Byers family had remained staying at the Wheeler house for the first few months, even after Karen Wheeler had been released from the hospital. She was still weak and recovering, and while she was grateful to be home at long last, she wasn't capable of running the house - or handling the emotional, hormonal tribe of people currently living there.
During the weeks Karen had been in the hospital, Nancy - and less often Mike - had filled her in on some of the horrific events from the last few years. When they told her about how it all started, what had really happened to Will all those years ago, she had broken down in tears.
They kept a lot of it back, not because they didn't trust her but because she was still weak. And it was still so hard for any of them to talk of or think about El. So they told her enough to appease her questions and help her understand what the nightmare was that had half destroyed their house, taken her child, and nearly killed her and her husband.
Karen left the hospital a very different woman than she'd been before the night the Demogorgan stole her daughter and her innocence. She was fiercely proud of all of her children, and determined to break down the walls within the Wheeler family. To make sure her kids wouldn't have to suffer through such heartbreak again, at least not without her to guide and support them.
Nancy, Mike and Holly all went to bring their mother home the day she was released, and as they pulled into the familiar driveway Karen couldn't help but feel a pang of fear.
Nancy, realising what was on her mothers mind, lay a calm hand on her arm.
'It's ok Mom. It's safe'.
Karen smiled shakily and let Mike help her out of the car and to the front door.
The door opened and a rush of warmth hit her face, followed by the familiar chaos of voices that could only belong to the Byers family. Their habit of talking over each other endlessly, the ease with which they soothed and worried about and supported each other. Karen had found it annoying at times in the past, but now it finally eased her fears and helped propel her over the doorstep and into her home.
The first face she saw was Will's.
A range of emotions swept her as she looked at him, remembering how small he was at 12 and picturing him trying to hide from that monster in an alien world for an entire week, alone. Not to mention her immense gratitude for his part in the effort to bring Holly back to her. She had always liked Will, but now she felt a rush of something closer to motherly love.
She reached out her arms to him gasping 'Will' as she moved slowly across the kitchen.
Will bit back tears as he gratefully fell into her embrace. Slightly embarrassed at the amount of emotion he was showing, but so thrilled to see her on her feet again and back in her home where she belonged.
He shyly untangled himself from her grasp and said "Welcome home Mrs Wheeler'.
She smiled at him fondly through her tears, then turned to see Joyce.
"Oh Joyce" she managed to sob softly before gathering the smaller woman into her arms.
She now knew exactly what Joyce had been through when Will went missing, and it seemed she had also apparently looked after all of Karen's kids during their years of other worldly chaos. Karen owed her everything.
Joyce had a few tears leaking from her own eyes once they separated, but she straightened up, cleared her throat and smiled.
"Jonathan just went to get takeaway, we thought it would be easier the first night back rather than cooking"
Karen smiled gratefully. Nancy came over then and began to lead her mother to the stairs.
"Come on Mom. I'll help you to your room and you can rest until the food arrives"
Karen was about to argue and say she'd rather stay in the lounge and catch up with everyone, when a wave of fatigue rolled over her. In the end she quietly went along with her daughter and was soon safely tucked up in her own bed.
Will turned from watching her slowly climb the stairs and his gaze fell on Mike. Mike was also watching his mother, blazing love and worry for her showing clearly across his features. He turned his head slightly and caught Will's eye.
Mike blushed and quickly wiped away a tear from the corner of his eye. Then he grinned at Will, obviously unable to contain his happiness at having his mother home.
Will grinned back. There hadn't been a lot of grins and happiness in the house for a long time, and it felt almost healing to feel this way again.
The front door banged open as Jonathan came in carrying steaming bags filled with Chinese food. Nancy made her mother and herself a plate and went to eat upstairs. The rest of the household descended noisily into the piles of delicious food heaped on the table.
Mike sat back and let the noise of another raucous mealtime wash over him. He felt somewhat at peace for the first time in months and the feeling was too good to ignore. He smiled softly to himself again, then raised his head and met Will's eyes as always.
Over the months since the final battle, he and Will had become extremely close again. Mike had fallen apart at the seams after losing El, having nightmares almost every night. Waking to realise once more that she was truly gone, every time feeling as brutal and gut wrenching as the first.
Will was also broken. He had not only lost someone he had come to see as a sister, but had had to strip his soul bare in front of everyone he loved, before he had been really ready to do so. He was slowly healing but he still felt raw, naked and exposed whenever he thought about it.
At the start they had grieved separately, but after a few weeks of constant nightmares Mike had finally sought out Will for comfort. When he started down the stairs to the basement he realised Will was also having terrors in his sleep, and after that it seemed only right to face them together.
Even though Mike was a direct cause for a lot of the pain Will felt, Will loved him so deeply that he pushed his own pain aside as much as he could, and comforted Mike as often as Mike would allow.
Some nights they would sleep in Mike's room - Will on the mattress on the floor and Mike in his bed. Sometimes they would sleep in the basement - Mike taking the couch while Will slept on his own bed. Other nights when it was really terrible, and they couldn't breathe for the fear and loss and panic, they would share a bed. Wrapped around each other like they had as children. Their familiar scents calming each other, heartbeats mingled, minds intertwined.
They barely talked about what had happened. And they never even skirted the subject of Will coming out, or their brief talk afterwards on the tower.
Will hadn't expected Mike would feel the same way about him, in fact he was sure he wouldn't. When he had told everyone about himself it was so raw and painful, and given everything that was about to happen he hadn't believed a confession to Mike - including the fact that he'd been in love with him since he was about 12 - was going to help anyone. He had clasped onto the story Robin had told him about Tammy Thompson, so that he was able to do what he had to do - and also gently probe the reactions of the dark haired boy he loved so much.
Mike's reaction had been better than he expected. He hadn't denounced Will as a sick pervert or pushed him away in disgust. He had even apologised for being oblivious. But he had also made it clear that they were just friends. Best Friends yes, but just friends. Nothing more.
So Will had swallowed his love back down to the very depths of himself, where it was well used to living, and reminded himself that he was in fact lucky after all. Mike was still his friend. He had told him the biggest truth about himself and Mike had accepted him the way he was. He had to be thankful for that - and now that he knew Mike didn't feel the same for him, he also accepted that he couldn't ever let Mike know the depths of his true feelings for him.
Because if Mike knew his skin burned every time their fingers grazed accidently, if he knew how sometimes Will woke up in the night and watched him sleep, memorising every angle of his face, every freckle scattered across his nose, if he knew that sometimes the dreams Will had weren't in fact nightmares, but erotic kaleidoscopes starring the one and only Michael Wheeler... well Will might end up seeing that push of disgust after all.
And so life in the Wheeler household had gone on.