Archive of Our Own ^beta

At the age of five, Mike finds out that he lives in quite a peculiar world.

It’s the day before kindergarten and when his parents sit him down in the living room, Mike doesn’t know how to feel: his mother carries worry in her gleaming eyes, while his father looks like he’d rather be anywhere but there.

When his mother takes his hand, Mike tries to think of things he’s done and how he could be in trouble, but then she smiles so tenderly that all his worries go away.

“Mike. Do you remember when you asked us about the tattoo you’ve seen on Grandma Julie’s wrist?”

Mike nods and a whole new world opens up for him.

The first thing his mother tells him is that the funny little tattoos he’s seen on his grandparents and occasionally on grown-ups’ wrists are something quite unique, something that, when the time is right, will tell people who their special person is.

“A special person?” he asks. He hasn’t met many special people if he has to be honest. His grandma surely is and even if Nancy is annoying nine times out of ten, she’s still his sister and he likes her. Sometimes.

His mother tells him that this is something they will talk about when he’s older – and Mike tries his absolute best not to remind her that he is already older – and that, for now, all he needs to know is that some of his teachers will have visible drawings on their wrists, while some will have wristbands to cover them because not everyone likes to show them or even talk about the tattoos.

“It’s important that you understand this, Mike,” his mother repeats, squeezing his hands tighter than Mike would’ve expected. “Do not ask people about the tattoos. Okay?”

Mike nods, wondering why it’s so prohibitionary to talk about drawings that are meant to symbolise something special, and for a moment he wonders if this rule applies to his parents, too.

He itches to know more and his curious eyes try to take a quick and discreet glance at their wrists; he remembers seeing the drawings on his grandparents’ right wrists, and just then he notices that his father is wearing a watch. He’s always worn his watch on his right hand, even if it’s the hand he uses to write. His mother has always worn bracelets of all kinds and Mike realises, just then, that the bigger ones are on her right hand.

Do not ask people about the tattoos.

Mike looks up and wonders, how is he going to understand who his special person is? How will the drawing appear? When will this special tattoo appear?

He looks up and his mother smiles, and the only thing Mike dares to ask is if he can have a glass of milk.

That night, his dreams are filled with funny drawings and his mind gets filled with questions he doesn’t know how to get the answer to.

In the morning, he considers asking his sister for help because she is older and she definitely knows more, but she ignores him and Mike decides that bothering her is much more fun.

The first thing he notices on his first day of kindergarten is that kids his age wear a lot of bracelets. He thinks about ways to approach some of them to ask them about their bracelets without asking directly about the drawings, but then he notices that wherever he looks, there are groups of kids who are animatedly talking to each other and Mike suddenly feels alone.

He sees a boy laugh at another kid’s joke, and a girl near them smiles as her friend braids her hair. Mike looks around and he feels lonely, because everyone seems to have friends already, and that’s when Mike thinks: maybe they’ve all found their special person.

He swings on his feet and considers running back inside when his eyes land on a lonely boy on the swings.

He’s alone, too, and he’s got no bracelets. His eyes are lost in the void before him and Mike feels naturally pulled towards him.

Maybe he doesn’t have a special person yet, he thinks, and as he nears him, his mind races with his heart. Maybe I can be his special person.

The moment he stops in front of him the boy looks up with confused eyes, and Mike reaches out with his hand and smiles.

“Hi! I’m Mike. Do you want to be my friend?”

The boy’s eyes grow so wide that Mike almost gets lost in them. It’s like marble balls are about to fall from his face and the smile that creeps up on his mouth makes Mike’s own grow wider.

“Yes!” he exclaims, and squeezes his hand clumsily. “I’m Will.”

Mike peeks over his exposed wrist and notices that it’s clean – as clean as a five-year-old wrist can be – and Mike decides that right now, it doesn’t matter that much anymore.

“Can I swing with you?”

ooo

Mike finds out, between one class and the other, that kids don’t actually have tattoos on their wrists. The bracelets aren’t wide enough to stick to their wrists and whenever Mike remembers, he looks at them and sees that none of the kids have tattoos.

He starts to pay more attention to grown-ups, too, and when Will’s mom comes to pick him up, he notices that she’s wearing a wristband, and his own mother’s words echo around his brain as he restrains himself from asking.

Time passes and Mike finds out that nine-year-olds don’t have tattoos either when Will’s brother and his sister, too, show him – either by accident or because he was trying to peek – their clean wrists.

“They’re called soulmarks,” Will tells him one day. It’s playtime and they’re digging holes in the sandbox, trying to make a ditch around the castle they’ve built. “My mom told me that.”

“Soulmark.” Mike recites the word over and over, savouring its unfamiliar sound, only to realise that to him, it sounds weird. “Why soulmark?”

Will shrugs, taking some sand with his blue shovel. “I don’t know. Maybe it creates a mark on the soul?”

“It doesn’t make sense. They should be called wristmarks since they’re on the wrist.”

Will laughs and Mike passes him a bucket to create a second tower.

“We could call them that.”

Mike smiles and nods, enthusiastically. “Yes! Wristmark is so much cooler than soulmark.”

When Will giggles and passes him the blue shovel, Mike feels something weird tickle his stomach. It’s a funny feeling, something that makes him want to take Will’s hand and never let go.

They’ve been friends for quite some time now and Mike likes to have him around. Ever since he met him, Mike has been the happiest he’s ever been. Whenever they’re together, he feels warm inside, and there’s something special about the way Will smiles at him, something that makes him want Will to stay over for a sleepover every day.

He’s the best friend he’s ever had – not that he has had many but Will is the best and he doesn’t really want to find a new one – and as Will claps his hands excitedly as the second tower takes shape, Mike thinks that he wouldn’t mind if he his wristmark ended up telling him that Will is his special person.

As they grow up, Mike realises that that peculiar feeling never leaves him. It finds shelter in his heart and each day it gets fed with new memories and moments he tries not to forget. As they grow up, Mike slowly starts to focus less on the soulmark problem – because it’s a problem until he finally gets more answers that apparently his parents think he’s too young to understand – and his heart grows with his body and the bigger it gets, the more space he finds in it to guard the feelings that grow with him and the friendship he shares with Will.

When he’s around Will, he feels euphoric and when Will is gone, he’s grumpy and moody, and both their parents quickly give in and let them have sleepovers every weekend and sometimes, even during school days.

The more time passes, the clearer it gets to Mike that Will is his special person and when they’re seven years old, Mike adds a new piece of information to the soulmark problem: apparently, wristmarks have to match.

“What do you mean?” Will asks him. They’re in Mike’s basement and it’s Saturday night. They’ve just finished watching Star Wars with Lucas, and it’s been barely a few minutes since the Sinclairs came to pick him up to take him back home. He wasn’t allowed to stay over for the sleepover, something about the whole family having to leave early in the morning to go and visit his grandma just out of town.

Mike turns on his side in his sleeping bag and rests his head on his hands.

“I overheard Nancy talk about it with Barb the other day,” Mike whispers. It’s way past their bedtime but it’s Saturday, so it doesn’t really matter. They’re allowed to sleep in on Sunday mornings. “She said that your mark has to match with your special person, and that’s how you know they’re the one.”

“So…you mean they have to have the same mark?”

Mike hums. He didn’t hear his sister say it, but he also didn’t hear her not say it. “I’m not sure,” he replies. “But it would make sense. That would definitely help people to find the right person.”

“Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

Will gives him a soft smile and then turns to look up. His eyes are fixed on a distant spot on the ceiling and Mike knows there’s nothing interesting up there, and he stares at Will while he gets lost in his thoughts.

“We could make our own matching wristmarks,” Mike suddenly says, breaking the silence that was all but uncomfortable. Silences are always easy between them; never awkward, never too heavy, just enough to enjoy each other’s presence without having to fill it with empty words.

Will almost gives himself whiplash when he turns to look at him. “What?”

“We could draw our wristmarks, and make them match!” Mike sits up, and Will follows his actions. He looks uncertain, almost scared, but Mike is too excited to let his mood match with his best friend’s.

“I’m not sure we can,” Will whispers and Mike rolls his eyes.

“Didn’t you see Katy’s mark on her wrist the other day?” Mike replies. “She kept bragging about how she and Kit decided to have their own marks. She said that they painted them themselves! Just like Susan and Bo did last week. And James and Betty.”

Kids can’t have wristmarks, Mike knows that much, but they’re kids and one thing he’s noticed while growing up, is that kids like to draw marks on their wrists, whether it be hearts or names, to pretend that their current crush or best friend is their special person. The marks usually wash off after a couple of days but some are persistent and keep drawing them until the crush is gone or they get bored of them. Mike thinks that he would never wash his and Will’s marks off.

“But they’re all boys and girls. I’m not sure we’re allowed to have them.”

Mike feels something heavy settle on his stomach; he didn’t think about that.

“But…I want you to be my special person,” Mike responds. “You’re my best friend. Don’t you want to have matching marks?”

Suddenly, panic fills his tiny body because what if Will doesn’t want to be his special person? What if he cares for him just enough to call him his best friend but not enough to want him in his life forever?

“I do!” Will exclaims, looking panicked, and he immediately lowers his voice when he realises he’s talked too loud. “I do,” he repeats, whispering with his head down. “I just…I never saw boys having matching marks.”

They’ve seen them on two girls, Ellie and Hannah. They're two girls from their class and just like them, they're inseparable. They're best friends and always hold hands through recess, but the day after they painted their marks, they both came back to school with their wrists clean and grumpy looks on their faces.

“Well, we can be the first ones to have them!”

Mike jumps out of his sleeping bag and runs to the table. Scattered all around it are the colours Will used after dinner to draw while they waited for Lucas to come, and Mike looks through them until he finds a Sharpie.

He runs back to Will who, to Mike’s delight, is now smiling.

“What can we make?” Mike asks, sitting in front of his best friend.

“I don’t know,” Will replies but he doesn’t sound scared. His eyes wander around, just like he always does when he’s trying to think of something. “It should be something that means something to both of us.”

“We both like Star Wars,” Mike suggests. “We could draw the logo!”

“Lucas likes it, too.”

“Mmh. That’s true.” He loves Lucas, he’s definitely his best friend, too, but for some reason, he doesn’t want to match with him. He twirls the sharpie in his hands, trying to find something that has a significant meaning for both of them and only them, and Will’s shoulders hunch after the first couple of minutes spent in silence.

Suddenly, an idea pops into his mind.

“We could draw the D&D dice!” Mike exclaims.

“We play D&D with Lucas, too,” Will retorts and Mike takes his hand, making his friend gasp in surprise.

“I know but we can make them special to us,” Mike replies. “We can write our birthday dates on the side of the dice! I can have a twenty-two and you can have a seven.”

“Marks are supposed to match, though.”

Mike rolls his eyes. Will being meticulous about this doesn’t surprise him at all. “Alright then, we can write both our birthday dates on both our marks. Happy?”

Will chuckles, making Mike’s stomach flutter with happiness. “Yes. Do you really want to do it?”

“I do. And you?”

Mike bites his lip, fearing again that he’s pushed too far, that Will is trying to pry himself out of this situation in a nice way that would end up with him kindly rejecting Mike. But Will’s eyes light up with a new sparkle, and when he nods, Mike loses all his fears.

“Good! I think you should make them, I’m not good at drawing,” Mike replies, handing him the Sharpie.

“I could make yours and you could make mine. You would just have to copy it.”

“Okay. But don’t come complaining to me when your mark looks ugly.”

Will laughs, shaking his head, and with the pen in his hand, he starts to draw on the inside of Mike’s wrist.

Mike stares at him while he concentrates; Will’s lips are slightly apart, his eyes fixed on the movement of the sharpie on the skin. He zones out a couple of times, and Mike realises he’s grinning when Will finishes.

“Here. Do you like it?”

Mike looks down at his wrist and beams at the sight of his newly made mark. It’s a twenty-sided D&D dice and right in the middle of it, there’s a seven and a twenty-two written next to each other. It’s simple but it’s perfect, and Mike realises, he wants to have it carved into his skin for the rest of his life.

“I love it,” Mike whispers. His fingers twitch with the desire to touch it but he doesn’t, not wanting to smudge the ink.

“I-I’m glad,” Will replies, giving him the Sharpie back. “It shouldn’t be too hard to replicate.”

Mike snorts, grabbing the pen and taking Will’s hand. “It shouldn’t be too hard for you.”

Will chuckles and Mike does his best to replicate Will’s mark. He has to look at his wrist a couple of times, and Will guides him at one point, and once he’s done, he nods, satisfied with his work.

“Not too bad.”

“It’s perfect, Mike.”

They stretch their arms out and Mike feels something weird stir in his stomach when their marks are next to each other. Suddenly, it feels like that’s how it should be, that this is exactly what will appear on his skin when he’s older and ready to know who his special person is. Suddenly, he doesn’t want anyone but Will to be that person.

“I wish we could choose our own wristmarks,” Mike whispers. His fingers gently touch the dried ink and a shiver runs down his spine when Will turns his hand around and grabs Mike’s.

“Me too,” he replies and Mike doesn’t know much about the world he lives in, but the more he grows up, the more it feels like it’s wrong.

When morning comes and Will stays the whole day to play with him, Mike forgets all about his worries and when Mrs. Byers comes to pick Will up before dinner, they hug each other tight and both pass their thumbs on the other’s wrist.

Mike hops back inside, a wide smile plastered on his face, and he’s convinced that nothing is going to wipe it away. And yet, when dinner comes, Mike discovers some new truths about the world he lives in that make his happiness shake.

“What is that thing on your wrist, Michael?”

Mike looks up from his plate and blinks a few times.

“Oh, this?” He waggles his arm around, showing the mark to both his parents and sister with pride inflating his chest. “It’s a mark!”

“I can see that,” his father says, putting the fork down. “And why do you have it?”

“Will and I wanted to have matching marks,” Mike explains, giggling as he remembers last night. “So we draw a D&D dice with our birthdates in the middle! Look!”

He knows his parents don’t understand his passion for board games, and he’s not surprised when his father sighs and his sister rolls his eyes, but Mike realises that something is off when he can’t read his mother’s expression.

“That’s stupid,” Nancy exclaims and Mike sends her a glare that he wishes could make her annoying face blow up. Or maybe just cut her precious hair. That would be nice.

“It’s not stupid,” Mike retorts. “A lot of kids do it.”

“So you’re just going to follow the mass?” his father asks.

“Of course not. We wanted to do it.”

“Well, I won’t allow such behaviour in my home. Go wash it away.”

“Ted!”

Mike blinks a few times, resting both his hands on the table. His fake wristmark touches the cold surface and he’s not quite sure he understands why, but the atmosphere in the room has suddenly gotten heavier.

“It’s just a mark,” Mike replies.

His father takes his glass and Mike is well aware of his constant indifference, of how he just says things to show he actually remembers that there are other people in the house he lives in, but this time feels different.

His father drinks his water and when he puts the glass down, he gives Mike the most serious look he’s ever given him.

“I will not repeat myself, Michael,” he says. “Go wash it away or I will make you.”

His mother gets up and for a moment, Mike is afraid of his parents, but it all lasts a fraction of a second because she gifts him a smile and reaches out for his hand with gentleness, and his father goes back to his dinner as if nothing has happened.

“Come with me, Michael,” his mother says and with tenderness in both her voice and gestures, she guides him to the bathroom.

“I don’t understand,” Mike retorts. He’s sitting on the edge of the bathtub and his mother is wetting a cloth under the running water. “It’s just a pen drawing. Why couldn’t I just wait for it to wash off on its own?”

His mother takes her sweet time to answer. “Kids don’t have marks, Mike,” she replies and Mike pouts when she passes the cloth over his wrist.

“It’s just a fake one,” Mike states and sighs when his mother washes it off completely.

“I know that but for your safety, it’s better if you don’t do this again,” she replies. “Not with Will, anyway.”

“What do you mean? Why can’t I have a matching mark with Will?” Mike blinks away his disappointment and folds his arms, hiding the clean wrist. “He’s my best friend.”

Something dark crosses his mother’s face. It’s sadness, Mike can see that much, but it’s a different kind of sadness because it’s filled with something else. Pain, Mike would say, but he doesn’t understand why.

“I know he is,” she replies and the caress she leaves on his face is delicate. “But best friends don’t have matching marks.”

Mike wants to ask why because it feels absurd, that best friend can’t have matching marks because, to him, Will is special. He’s the most caring and gentle soul he’s ever met, he’s creative and funny and when he feels safe enough to be himself, he shows his mischievous side and both he and Lucas enjoy making pranks with him.

Will is just the most perfect person he’s ever met and Mike doesn’t understand why he can’t match with him, but his mother pushes him back to the kitchen and Mike doesn’t ask anything.

The next morning, Mike wakes up in the worst mood. He puts on his clothes and sighs when he sees his clean wrist, and he thinks of how disappointed Will is going to be when he’s going to see that he removed it already. It’s not like he wanted to and he hopes that Will is going to understand that he was forced to wash it off.

Weirdly enough, Nancy doesn’t tease him during breakfast, and the look she gives him is almost pitiful, and Mike doesn’t utter a word until he’s dropped off at school.

He waits for Will at their usual spot near the plum tree, nervously swinging from one foot to the other, and his arms are so tightly crossed over his chest that he fears he’s not going to be able to untie them.

Will arrives a few minutes later than usual and the sad expression on his face makes Mike’s grumpiness disappear into thin air.

“Hey,” he says and Will smiles at him but it’s a smile that barely has the strength to arrive up at the edges of his mouth. “Is everything okay?”

“I’m fine,” Will replies but he doesn’t look fine at all. It’s like there’s a sad veil over his face, dark and so heavy that he has a hard time lifting his face up.

“You don’t look fine,” Mike insists and Will just shrugs. Mike doesn’t know what he can or cannot say, and it looks like Will isn’t really in the mood for talking, so Mike tries to distract him.

“Do you think we’ll be able to go to the fair this weekend?” he asks. “I heard Mom say that there’s a stand just for apple pies. We should try them!”

Will smiles, a bit more warningly, and Mike takes it as a win.

Will’s mood doesn’t really change throughout the day and Mike has to figure out a way to cheer him up because Lucas is home sick and can’t help him with his mission.

When recess comes, Mike takes Will to the swings so that they can have time for themselves and not be bothered by other kids. Unfortunately, at some point, a couple of girls ask them if they can use the swings for a bit and Mike drags Will to the furthest spot of the schoolyard, and there, under a tree, he starts to ramble about their latest class. 

“I’m still not sure I like Ms. White. She talks so slow,” Mike exclaims. Will is sitting next to him, both of them with their backs against the tree’s trunk. “Did you hear her earlier? ‘For next time please read from page five to seventeen.’ I feel like falling asleep whenever she talks.”

Will chuckles at his spot-on impression of their teacher and Mike smiles at the sound. He likes to make him laugh. He takes a slice of his orange and passes it to Mike and when Will’s eyes fall on his clean wrist, Mike almost snatches his hand back.

“Sorry,” he says. “I-uhm…I wanted to tell you this morning but I didn’t feel like it was the right time.”

“You removed it?” Will sounds sad. Hurt

“No!” Mike turns to look at him and Will’s pained expression turns into a confused one. “I didn’t want to but my dad forced me to do it. And I didn’t even do it, my mom washed it away.”

“Oh. What did your dad say?”

“Not much, to be honest. He just kept saying that I had to remove it and when I said I wouldn’t, Mom washed it off for me.” He leans back on the tree and takes a grass blade to play with. “She told me that best friends can’t have matching marks but that’s stupid.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

Mike looks up at Will and he’s ready to give him a smile, to tell him that they don’t have to follow the rules, but his eyes land on Will’s wrist, the one he’s trying to cover with his other hand, and Mike goes through a different kind of emotions in a matter of seconds.

First, he feels puzzled because he can’t see the mark he painted on Will’s wrist the other day, and then, when he leans a bit forward, he sees something that wasn’t there yesterday morning.

Mike gently reaches for his hand and when he turns his wrist around, he gasps.

Will’s mark is gone, too, but there are some new marks, fresh ones, and they’re bruises in the shape of a hand.

Mike knows Will has a complicated situation back home. His mother is one of the most gentle and funny grown-ups he’s ever met. She always lets them have extra marshmallows in their hot cocoa and she pretends she doesn’t know they’re awake late at night when they’re having a sleepover at Will’s and they’re hiding under the covers, reading comics with a flashlight. Will’s brother, Jonathan, is all right, too. He’s quiet but plays with them and watches over them when the adults are away, but Mike knows Will’s father is all but kind. He doesn’t even try to fake kindness when he and Lucas go over to spend time with Will, but this is a new level of unkindness.

“Will.” He gently passes the thumb over a bruise and Will flinches. “What happened?”

Will has never lied to him. Sometimes, he just doesn’t want to share but never once has he lied to him.

“D-dad didn’t like the mark, either,” Will replies. He sniffs and passes the other hand over his eyes, but tears fall on his cheeks anyway. “He made me wash it off, too.”

“Did he do this to you?”

Will nods and Mike doesn’t know what to say.

“He g-grabbed my wrist very hard,” Will replies and Mike gasps again. “He yelled some…weird words at me. I don’t know what they meant. He called me q-queer?”

Mike doesn’t know that word, either, but for some reason, he doesn’t think it’s a nice one.

“Mom wasn’t home. Jonathan was i-in his room listening to music a-and didn’t hear Dad yelling at me.”

“Did you tell your mom?” Will shakes his head and sadness weighs down Mike’s shoulders. “Will. You should’ve told her.”

“I-I know but I was scared. I didn’t know what to do.”

He tries to throw back his tears again but it’s clear that he needs to let them out, so Mike does the only thing he thinks can actually help him.

“Can I hug you?” he asks and as soon as Will nods, he opens his arms and lets Will fall into his embrace.

They’re quite far from the playground and there are not many students playing where they are, and Mike holds Will until he stops hiccupping.

For your safety, it’s better if you don’t do this again. Not with Will, anyway.

His mother’s words come floating to the surface of his brain and suddenly, he thinks he understands. Not entirely, not completely, but he’s never seen two men or two women hold hands or kiss and maybe there’s a reason for it.

Maybe, women aren’t supposed to love other women, just like men aren’t supposed to love other men.

For some reason, this thought bothers him to the point where it makes him uncomfortable, and Mike decides to ignore the feeling and focus solely on Will. He realises that if they ever want to get matching marks again, they’ll have to hide them from their parents, and probably from their friends, too, and Mike is willing to give it up completely if it means having Will by his side for the rest of his life.

Over the years, Mike learns a couple more things about wristmarks.

The year before Nancy’s fifteenth birthday, he overhears his parents give her the talk, which basically consists in them telling his sister that the soulmark will appear on her right wrist on the day of her fifteenth birthday and that the mark is going to be half of a sign, and her special person – which Mike finds out is called soulmate – is going to have the other half, just mirrored.

That afternoon, Mike drags Will to the library and together, they read all about soulmates: a soulmate is a person with whom one has a deep and unique connection, someone who harmonises with your personality and someone who completes you. Soulmates are two sides of the same coin and the more Mike reads, the more the thought becomes clearer in his head.

“It’s us,” he whispers. Will lifts his gaze from where he’s resting his head on a dictionary and he looks at him with adoring eyes. “We’re soulmates.”

“You really think that?”

Mike takes his hand and slips it under the table, and once he’s sure no one can see them, he squeezes it tight.

“I do. I really do.”

Will smiles back and Mike knows he’s too young to know what love is and how it feels like, but there is something in his heart that tells him that the day he’ll find out, he’ll find out with Will.

Another thing Mike learns by talking with Nancy is that some people end up with black marks.

“Aren’t all marks black?” Mike asks and Nancy rolls her eyes.

“Yes but they’re not completely black. There is always some colour, haven’t you noticed?”

Mike can’t say he has because he hasn’t seen many marks and Nancy’s birthday is three weeks away.

“Anyway, they’re a different kind of black. It’s like they’re faded or something.”

“Have you seen one of those?”

Nancy puts down her hairbrush and sighs. “I have. A couple of times. One was on Barb’s aunt’s wrist.”

“What does it mean?”

She slowly turns around and the look on her face tells him that she’s not supposed to say anything about this to her little brother, and while they often argue, sometimes they have little moments where they share meaningful talks.

“When your soulmate dies before your fifteenth birthday, you get a completely black mark as a soulmark.”

It’s heavy information to process because it’s a thought that never crossed his mind. He didn’t think that some people could lose their soulmate before they even got to know them, and Mike feels a sudden wave of sadness invade his body.

How cruel life can be, if people end up living a whole life without their other half. How cruel and unfair it is that everyone is doomed to love someone that’s chosen for them.

Mike doesn’t want this.

“But…how do you know who it was?” Mike asks. “If they die before you get the soulmark, how do you know it’s them? Do…do marks appear on dead bodies, too?”

“I don’t think so,” Nancy replies, twisting her nose and turning back to her mirror. “I think you just don’t know.”

“That’s crazy. I thought marks were supposed to help you find your special person.”

“They’re all but helpful. And they’re not a guarantee, either.”

Mike’s eyes widen so hard that he has to rub them at one point. “What do you mean?”

Nancy turns to look at him with an expression Mike doesn’t really know how to decipher: it’s sad, it’s full of a pain he doesn’t know, and it’s pitiful.

“You’ve really never noticed Mom and Dad’s marks, have you?”

“No.”

“They don’t match.”

Mike feels a sudden pang in his chest and it’s weird because he can’t believe he’s never paid that much attention to his parents’ wrists in the eleven years he’s lived.

His mother is always careful to hide it and his father rarely wears short sleeves, even in summer. Eventually, Mike stopped trying to catch glimpses of them.

“How did you see them?” Mike asks.

“I was curious, so I investigated a bit,” Nancy tells him and Mike knows she’s telling him a secret. “I saw Dad’s one morning when he forgot to wear his watch. Mom was harder to see but…I managed, eventually.”

Mike takes it all in and he’s not sure he likes this new information. “Why did they get married then?”

Nancy shrugs but the look on her face shows all but indifference.

“I’m not sure,” she says. “But I feel like Mom doesn’t like to tell this story.”

Mike hums, turning to look out of the open door of Nancy’s room. Their mother is downstairs, taking care of baby Holly, and Mike really can’t fathom a world where he marries someone whose mark doesn’t match his own. How can he give his heart to someone his heart hasn’t chosen? He wants to choose, he doesn’t want something like destiny or whatever messed up entity there is to choose for him. He wants to follow his heart, and his heart is leading him straight to Will. He knows that a life with him is all he needs.

That night, when Holly is already in bed and his mother comes to check on him, Mike tries to peek at her mark. She’s not wearing the wristband she usually wears when she goes out, and her arm is devoid of all her bracelets.

When she kisses him goodnight, Mike feels the urge to know more poke him inside and he sits up before his mother is out of the room.

“Mom?” She turns around, a warm smile on her face. She looks tired. She’s been looking like this since Holly’s birth. “Can I see your mark?”

Her eyes widen and her hand automatically goes to cover her wrist. She hesitates a couple of times before she eventually closes the door and goes back to sit on Mike’s bed.

“Why do you want to see it?” she asks and Mike feels a small weight lift off his chest when he hears the tenderness in her voice.

“We’ve never talked about it. I’m…curious.”

She tucks a lock behind his ear, sighing softly. “You still have four years before you get yours.”

“I know. It’s not about that, it’s just…does your mark match with Dad’s?”

His mother’s eyes are always warm. Whenever she talks to her children, there is a soft light in them and even when she scolds them for getting into trouble, the warmness is still there.

Right now, that softness disappears for a moment, and Mike sees a sudden darkness filled with sadness cover her eyes.

She passes her hand over her wrist a couple of times before she turns it towards him.

“No.”

Mike looks down and gasps.

There, on his mother’s wrist, is a black mark.

It looks like a half-moon with a letter written in cursive right in the middle, and Mike realises it’s a “J” once he’s taken a good look at it.

A black mark.

“It’s all black,” Mike says and even if he loves to bicker with Nancy and get her into trouble, he doesn’t really want to snitch on her for telling him things he’s supposedly too young to know.

“Yeah, it is.”

“What does it mean?”

She looks at him and Mike knows she’s debating on whether to tell him everything or brush this off as another talk they’ll have when he’s older.

“It means that my soulmate died before my fifteenth birthday,” she replies.

“Did you know him?”

“Yes. We were in high school together. He was three months older than me.”

She turns her wrist around, covering the mark, and Mike nervously plays with his hands, hoping he didn’t cross the line.

“I saw his mark before he died,” she finishes. “I got lucky. At least I got to know it was him. Some people don’t.”

His family has never been one that seeks physical comfort but right now, it feels like the only thing to do. Mike leans forward and wraps his tiny arms around his mother, hugging her as tight as he can, and his mother trembles for a moment.

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

“Thank you, Mike.”

He doesn’t ask more questions, doesn’t try to get her to tell him if his father’s mark is dark, too, or if he just decided to ignore it – because somehow, he doesn’t think his father would be willing to talk about it. He hugs her for minutes and lets her tuck him into bed like old times.

When the light is off and Mike is alone with his thoughts, he thinks that the world is a wicked place and he knows there’s not much he can do about it, that this is something no one can change, but what he can do is follow his heart if his mark won’t match Will’s because a life without Will is inconceivable to him.

A thought that never crossed his mind was the possibility of ending up with a black mark.

Never once did Mike think: one of us is going to die before we reach our fifteenth birthday. He thought of many other scenarios, ones where their marks didn’t match and they did everything they could to stay together, such as running away, making their marks match by craving new lines into them, he thought of everything but death.

So right now, as he stands near the quarry, his heart beats faster than it has ever beaten.

“That’s not Will,” he says to his friends. “It can’t be.”

It can’t be because Will can’t die. He’s been missing for days and those days have been the absolute worst of Mike’s life because a life without Will is a life without happiness and light. Will can’t die because he can’t leave him to face this world all alone. They have adventures to live, movies to watch and decisions to make, and they have to do all of this together. Mike isn’t supposed to be on his own.

When the police pull a body out from the waters, Mike feels his world crumble.

“It’s Will,” Lucas whispers and he’s crying already. “It’s really Will.”

Mike thinks, it can’t be him, but his eyes tell him, it’s Will.

He’s pale and too still, and the cold sneaks into his bones like a slithering viper ready to pierce his heart with its venom, and that’s when Mike feels his heart drop.

Mike?

Someone is calling him, maybe it’s Dustin, but he soon understands that it’s not. It’s the new girl, El, the one with the superpowers who was meant to save Will, and Mike storms out on her and runs away because that can’t be Will, I can’t be losing him, and he takes his bike and runs back home.

It’s not Will, it’s not Will, it’s not Will.

“Mike?”

He turns around and realises, he’s home. He’s home and his mother is there and there are some other people with her but Mike can’t focus because he’s breaking inside. He opens his arms and when he’s engulfed in his mother’s embrace, he breaks down and cries.

He doesn’t know how to deal with this.

It’s like a new wound has cracked its way into his heart, and it’s so deep that it’s bleeding copiously into his chest. It hurts, tremendously, and he knows that no word or medicament will ever have the ability to close it. He’s alone and Will is gone and he was not prepared for this.

“Mom?”

He’s still in her arms but they’ve moved to the living room. They’re alone, the guests have left, and Nancy is talking with their father. He hasn’t said anything about what happened but he thinks his actions made it clear.

She passes a hand over his arm and kisses his head. “Yes?”

“What happens when your soulmate dies?”

Mike knows it’s probably the wrong thing to ask because he’s not stupid. Boys can’t love each other, not the way husbands love their wives. But when his mother tightens the grip around his shoulders and strokes his hair, he feels safe and that glimpse of fear that sparkled as soon as his words came out of his mouth quietens down.

“Your soulmark burns,” she replies. Her voice carries notes from the past, and Mike’s never asked her more questions about her soulmate and how she dealt with his death, but he knows it’s a sad story. “It burns for days and sometimes it bleeds. Then the pain moves to your heart. And it never really leaves but you find new things in life that bring so much joy that the pain fades for a while.”

Mike raises his hands from his lap and instinctively caresses the spot where his soulmark will appear in three years. Where, many years ago, Will painted their first mark. He knows Will is not his official soulmate, that they still have to wait three years for their soulmarks to appear, but he knows it’s him. It can’t be anyone else.

“I-I don’t know how to deal with this,” Mike confesses and his mother cradles him in her arms, kissing his hair in a way she used to do when he fell from his bike as a kid. It’s something that used to swipe all the pain away because it was his mother reassuring him with both words and actions. It used to work, years before.

Mike sobs and he lets his mother lull him into a tight embrace he’s not sure he wants to get out of. He knows it can’t be anyone else but Will, but now Will is dead. He’s gone and their marks can’t match anymore because Will is never going to get his. And whatever mark will appear on his wrist on his fifteenth birthday, Mike knows it will have the colour of death.

“It’s going to be okay, Mike. One day the pain will be bearable, I promise.”

She whispers and comforts him, and this time, her magic doesn’t work and Mike cries until he can’t feel anything anymore and sleep comes to take him.

ooo

Mike doesn’t know how to live without Will. The images of his future always had Will in it. He’s there when he graduates from college, both holding their diplomas tight in their hands, and he’s there when Mike publishes his first book. He’s there to take care of him when Mike ends up with a cold and he’s there to help him understand how bills work when Mike has trouble paying them. He’s there for every step of his life and Mike simply cannot think of new scenarios without Will because it’s simply not possible for him.

Even his current life is unimaginable without Will. He’s everywhere he turns, in his memories and the room. There is a book on the shelf that Will forgot months before, and the crayons he used last time he was at his home are still sprawled out on the table. Mike realises just how much Will is part of his life and he moves his finger gently over Will’s drawings.

He smiles as memories come back to him and he tells El to stop fiddling with the walkie. He doesn’t want to think about anything right now.

His fingers slip from the drawings he was looking at and move to his wrist, where Mike presses them against his skin. It doesn’t hurt, and there are no signs indicating what he will feel in the future. Mike wonders what will appear on the day he’ll get his dark mark. How cruel the world can be, to remind you of what you’ve lost long after it’s gone.

He grips his wrist and thinks, it doesn’t hurt, and when the walkie in El’s hands starts to talk, Mike’s fear dissolves into thin air.

“Should I stay or should I go…should I stay or should I go now?”

Mike would recognise Will’s voice anywhere.

“If I go there will be trouble, if I stay it will be double…”

Mike jumps out of the couch and reaches for the walkie and thinks, it’s Will.

“Will, is that you? It’s Mike. Do you copy? Over.”

He’s never hated the static sound of the walkie as much as he does now and he holds onto the hope that it will stop and Will’s voice will come back to tell him that he’s alive.

“Will, are you there? Will!”

Silence follows and El’s nose starts to bleed. Mike feels his heart pound hard against his chest because maybe, maybe his soulmate is still out there. Maybe, he’s not hurting the way his mother said he would not because his mark still hasn’t appeared but because his soulmate isn’t dead.

“Was that…was it…”

El smiles, timidly. “Will."

And Mike’s world starts turning again.

ooo

It’s a race against time, and it’s a fight Mike and his friends only ever fought in games, but it’s a fight nonetheless and they lose El, but Will comes back to him.

From the moment they step into the hospital to the one where Jonathan tells them they’re allowed into the room, Mike feels like he can’t breathe. Will is there, in the other room, but he doesn’t know how hurt he is or how bad his injuries are. He doesn’t know anything and his heart is racing fast against his ribs, but the moment he opens the door to his room and sees Will smiling, every little piece he lost finds its way back to its place.

He runs and lays his head on his chest and when he hears Will’s heartbeat, he realises that it’s real, that Will is really back and that he didn’t lose him.

“I thought I would never see you again,” Mike says once they’re alone. Will’s mom is talking with his parents, probably trying to find a solution for the night – because Mike made it clear that he’s not leaving the hospital tonight – and Lucas and Dustin have just gone back home, both picked up by their parents.

Mike takes his hand and squeezes it, and even if Will hardly manages to squeeze back, Mike feels all of his strength in their hold, and that’s all he needs right now.

“Me too,” Will replies.

Mike smiles down at him and his hand ends up slipping down to Will’s wrist. He traces lines over his skin and he sighs, loudly and relieved.

“For a moment I thought I would get a black mark,” Mike states. He still hasn’t told Will about his mother’s mark but it’s not his story to tell. The only thing he dared to share was the information he got about the black marks from their conversation.

Will turns his hand around and grabs his again, squeezing it gently. “You still think we’re soulmates?”

“Of course I do. Don’t you?”

For some reason, Will doesn’t share his confidence about their future together but Mike never takes it as Will not having the same sensations he has when it comes to them staying together, whatever the future holds. It’s something different but Mike can’t quite grasp what it is.

“I want to believe that we are,” Will replies. “I just don’t have the same trust you have in our world to actually make it happen for us.” 

“You don’t have to trust the world,” Mike replies. “You just have to trust us.”

Will chuckles and a cough sneaks in, making him sit up to let it all out. Mike reaches for the glass of water on the bedside table and Will drinks it until the cough is gone.

“I trust us,” Will eventually replies. “But it’s not us who decide.”

Mike takes his hand again and when the door opens and Joyce comes back in, he doesn’t let go. She smiles at them and goes to the wardrobe to pick up something, Mike doesn’t pay much attention to it, and when he turns back to face Will, he leans in.

“Then I guess I will have to convince you that we’ll end up being soulmates,” Mike whispers and Will chuckles again, without coughing this time, and Mike takes in the sound of a voice he thought he’d never hear again.

Mike makes it his mission to show Will that they’re made for each other, and over time, Mike’s feelings for Will grow and develop into a love that he realises has always been there, just in a different form, and showing him becomes increasingly effortless.

At one point, he doesn’t even have to think about it because it becomes natural. It’s little things, such as handing Will an eraser while they’re studying because he knows he likes to play with it when he reads, or sharing the last piece of cake and leaving the chocolate part for Will, because he has a sweet tooth and doesn’t like to admit it that often.

Will, on his part, starts to let go of some of the fears that keep holding him back and shows Mike just how much he wants this, too. Sometimes, he shows him by picking his favourite movies for movie nights with the Party and other times, he picks up the stories Mike throws away in the bin in a moment of discomfort and tells him just how much he loves what his mind can create.

Other times, when darkness comes back to visit them, Will holds him close when Mike tells him how guilty he feels whenever he thinks about El sacrificing herself for them and it’s little things that are not little at all, because they know each other and understand each other, and Mike can’t think about spending forever with any other person.

The blissfulness of growing up and getting to discover their feelings is short-lived when the Upside Down comes back to haunt their days.

Will teeters on the edge of oblivion, and Mike digs deep to find every ounce of strength he possesses to prevent Will from falling into a void that threatens to strip him away of everything that defines him as Will.

It’s another race where time ticks fast and Mike can’t help but think that he’s going to lose Will, this time for good. It’s a fear that worms into his veins but he never once lets it overrule his brain. He refuses to believe it’s over when Will starts to lose his memory because even when he doesn’t remember, he still knows Mike’s name, and that’s the only light Mike needs to continue his journey to save him.

But then, as they find themselves in the Byer’s shed, with Will tied up to a chair and glancing around with a bewildered gaze, Mike fears it might be too late.

Will is slowly slipping away, and he’s both himself and someone else entirely, someone who is not the boy he’s known for years, and Mike feels as though a part of him is dying alongside him.

“When you were eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons, do you remember that?” Joyce says and Mike holds his breath as Will’s mom tries to bring back whatever is left of Will to the surface.

She talks and talks, and at some point, Jonathan joins her, and when his story is done, Mike feels the urge to share bits of their own story, too.

“Do you remember the first day we met?”

Will looks at him and there, under the dark pupils of his eyes, Mike sees something. A sparkle, something that is Will and that makes Mike cling to the hope that he’s still there.

“It was the first day of kindergarten. I knew nobody,” Mike continues and he remembers that day all too well. How alone he felt, how new everything was and how he had no one to share his fear with. But then, on the swings, he saw a little boy all by himself and the urge to know him pushed him to ask what most probably ended up being the most important question of his life.

“I asked if you wanted to be my friend. And you said yes. You said yes,” Mike whispers and Will’s eyes widen as if he’s trying to tell him something. Mike’s breath hiccups and for a minute, he forgets all about the world around them.

“It was the best thing I’ve ever done,” Mike continues. “How many people can say that they met their soulmate when they were five years old?”

He’s brought back to reality when soft gasps fill the silence around them and he knows he’s exposing them both, but Will is dying and if Mike actually loses him this time, then he won’t care about what the world thinks of them.

He kneels in front of him, feeling an intense urge to grab his hand, but he knows he can’t. Not now, not when it’s still not his Will, not completely, but Mike knows he’s still somewhere in there and he needs to reach every part of him that he can.

“Don’t leave me here alone,” he pleads and even though he means every word he’s saying, he also hopes that Will’s nerd side is still there, too, and that it will grasp onto the quote. “It’s your Mike calling. Don’t go where I can’t follow.”

It’s The Lord of the Rings and it’s Frodo and Sam, a story Will always deeply loved and the first book they read together, but it’s Mike’s words nonetheless because while he can physically follow him to the Upside Down, he can’t reach him where his soul is trapped.

Joyce leans forward and tries again, and Mike knows Will is not gone, he can’t be, and when he finally opens his mouth, Mike’s heart stops.

“Let me go.”

Mike has no intention of doing that and thankfully, neither do his friends and family.

ooo

When he sees Will again, he’s barely awake.

El comes back and helps them close the gate and when everything is over, Hopper leads them back to his cabin, where Will was taken to get the Mind Flayer out of him. Mike trembles all the way there and El gently reassures him by taking his hand and telling him everything will be okay. Mike is both happy and relieved that she survived and came back, and he hopes that, now that everything is over, she will have the chance to embrace the normal life she was deprived of.

When they finally arrive at Hopper’s cabin, Mike’s heart starts to beat again when his eyes meet Will’s.

He’s on a mattress in the middle of what Mike thinks is the living room and his mother is stroking his hair. When he steps into the house, she gets up and Mike wastes no time.

He runs to Will and engulfs him in a tight embrace, crying as he releases all his fears, and his body relaxes only when Will wraps his arms around him.

“Will.”

Mike starts to lull him, gently, and when Will shakes, he immediately starts to stroke his back in an attempt to warm him up.

“I didn’t go,” Will whispers and Mike realises that he’s not shaking because of the cold but because he’s crying, too. They break apart and Will quickly passes a hand over his eyes. “I-I didn’t go where you couldn’t follow.”

Suddenly, a new feeling sets off into his chest. It rushes from the bottom of his stomach right to his core, and when it tickles his heart, his breath stops in his throat. Mike knows it doesn’t really work like this, but it’s a sensation he genuinely feels and can’t think of any other way to describe it because suddenly, he wants to kiss Will.

He wants to pull him closer and kiss him, not on the cheek, not on the forehead but right on his lips and he knows he can’t right now, for many reasons – the most important one being that he won’t have his first kiss with Will in front of his own sister – but he chooses not to ignore it.

“You heard me,” Mike decides to say and Will’s chuckle warms him up.

“Of course I heard you,” Will replies and Mike doesn’t know if it’s the near-death experience or if suddenly, Will is not scared anymore, and Mike decides it doesn’t matter because Will takes his hand and squeezes it tight. “I always hear you.”

Mike knows he’s not only referring to his possession. He’s telling him that he heard him all those times he tried to tell him that they’re truly meant for each other and Mike doesn’t need anything else. He hugs Will again and lets out a deep breath of relief because it’s finally over and they have time. Time to live together and time to learn how to love each other.

Falling in love, Mike realises, is the most beautiful experience he’s ever had the luck of living. Now that he’s older, he understands that what he feels for Will is the type of love that never leaves you, and even if Nancy insists that he’s still too young to understand what love really is, he brushes her words off because he knows and understands what he feels.

He knows that the love he feels for Will is different from the one he has for his other friends, and when Dustin and Lucas tease him about El, he realises that the world still isn’t ready for people like him and Will and that he’s expected to love a girl, but that love is different. El is his best friend, just like Dustin, Lucas and Max, and nothing will ever change that.

For New Year’s Eve, his mother allows the whole Party to sleep over in the basement and they get to stay up to watch the Time Square Ball drop. He spends the night attached to Will’s side and when midnight strikes and everyone hugs, he takes both El and Max in for a group hug and lingers a few seconds longer in Will’s embrace.

“Happy New Year, Will,” he whispers and when Will tightens the grip, leaving him breathless for a second, his heart skips a beat, too.

“Happy New Year, Mike.”

The smile they share with each other is full of feelings only they know the real meaning of, and Mike knows they can’t share their love with the rest of the world but for now the moments they get are enough for both of them.

Nothing really changes between them because even before they both realised that they loved each other as soulmates do and not just as friends, they always spent their time together and the only difference is that now Mike actively plans dates. He tries to take Will on secret dates to the lake, where they spend time skipping stones and laughing at each other’s lame jokes, and Will starts to hold his hand more often and sometimes, he brushes his fingers against the back of his hand during lunch at school.

Nothing really changes but at the same time, everything changes because they’re falling in love and Mike feels the urge to kiss Will grow more and more every day.

He never tries to kiss him, though, mostly because they’re never really alone and also because kissing changes things. It makes everything more real and even if Mike has no doubts about his feelings and about Will being his soulmate, he understands that it’s a big step, too, and Will doesn’t seem ready for it.

For the first couple of months, it’s just them enjoying the peace and the days free of monsters they’re given, but when Valentine’s Day rolls around, Mike feels like maybe it’s the right time to take a step forward in their relationship and that’s when Mike realises that they never really talked about that, either.

“Are we boyfriends?” Mike asks one afternoon. They’re sitting on Will’s bed doing homework, with Will focusing on calculus and Mike on an essay he forgot to write the week before.

Will raises his head and blinks a few times before answering. “I thought you said we were soulmates.”

Mike rolls his eyes and drops the papers on the side. “We are. You know that. I was just wondering if…if us being soulmates means we’re boyfriends, too.”

Mike doesn’t doubt Will’s feelings for him but he knows that Will – rightfully, Mike might add – still doesn’t trust the world and the society they live in.

Will lowers his book on his stretched legs and the smile he gives him makes Mike’s heart flutter.

“We never talked about this before.”

“That’s why I’m asking now.”

Will chuckles and sits up, crossing his legs and throwing the book on the ground.

“I-I would love to,” Will replies. He takes his hand and intertwines their fingers together, gently passing his thumb over Mike’s fingers. “I never asked you before because I-I wasn’t sure we were…ready for it.”

“Do you feel ready now?”

Will purses his lips and his thumb starts to draw circles around Mike’s hand. Mike waits, patiently, as Will looks for the right words.

“I do,” he replies. “I-I’m just scared. This is all so new to me.”

“It’s not like I know better, you know,” Mike answers back and when Will chuckles, Mike takes it as a personal win. He tightens the grip on his hand and leans slightly in. “I’m scared, too, you know?”

“And you still want to do this?”

“Of course.” Mike wraps their joined hands with his other one and they’re close now, closer than they’ve ever been before, and Mike feels his heart slow down its beat. “I know we’re soulmates, Will. I have no doubt about it and I-I want to be your boyfriend, too.”

Will stares at him with eyes full of sparkling stars and there’s a sort of electricity around them that Mike can almost touch with his hands.

“Okay then,” Will suddenly says. He’s smiling so wide that the edges of his mouth almost end up touching the tears that are ready to fall from his eyes. “Do you want to be my boyfriend?”

“Yes!”

They both laugh, soundly and happily, and Mike feels excitement flow in his veins because they’re boyfriends now and boyfriends can kiss. He thinks, at least, because that’s what boyfriend and girlfriend do and he just assumes that’s what they can do, too.

Will’s smile is tender and the laugh is still echoing on his lips when Mike starts to lean in, which promptly makes Will’s breath hitch. He looks for any sign of hesitation or unwillingness, but Will keeps looking at him like he’s in love and Mike decides to close his eyes.

“I’m home!”

They jolt apart before their lips even get to feel the breath of the other and even if they know that they can’t be themselves out in public, they stay close to each other without feeling the need to jump to the opposite sides of the bed because, to them, the Byers’ house has always felt like a safe place. Neither Jonathan, Joyce or even Hopper said anything to him after he basically confessed his feelings for Will in front of them months before while in the shed, and Mike figured they were probably okay with it. Mike has even noticed Jonathan giving Will knowing looks whenever he leaves them alone.

Joyce reaches them and knocks on the open door, and Mike watches as her eyes land on their joined hands.

“Hi Mom,” Will says and when he doesn’t let go, Mike feels his heart swell in his chest.

“Hello boys,” she replies and she gives the room a quick glance. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, we were doing homework.”

“Homework. I see.” She chuckles and Mike’s cheeks turn a bright crimson colour at the same time Will tries to suppress a groan. “I’ll leave you to your homework, then. Are you staying over for dinner, Mike?”

“I-I’d like to, if that’s okay.”

“Of course it is. I’ll call you boys when it’s time to set the table.”

She walks away and leaves the door open, and once they’re sure she’s far from the room and otherwise occupied, they burst into a muffled laugh.

“Maybe we should really try to finish our homework,” Will says and Mike nods.

The magic bubble that surrounded them is now gone, burst but not completely ruined. Mike doesn’t want their first kiss to happen with Will’s mom right next door, ready to walk in on them at any minute.

“Ugh. I wish we were done already,” Mike complains as he picks up his papers again.

“If you hadn’t forgotten about your essay last week, maybe we would be doing something more fun right now.”

Mike blinks a few times and stares at Will for a good minute because he just flirted with him, quite blatantly he’d say, and all of that without lowering his voice.

“I say that we can still have fun,” Mike answers back, glancing at his wristwatch. “I bet it won’t take me more than half an hour to finish it.”

Will snorts, grabbing his book from the ground. “Yeah, sure.”

The first time they kiss, it’s unexpected.

Mike plans it for weeks; he plans different dates on different occasions, something like taking Will to a garden in the evening or a movie night in his basement, and each time he plans on ending the date with a kiss, but for some reason or another, they’re either interrupted or not completely alone.

When he leans in to kiss Will goodbye on the porch, the door always slams open, and when he scoots closer to Will on the couch in his basement, Holly’s screams break their bubble, so Mike decides to plan a whole day just for themselves, or at least half of the day, where they can be alone.

It’s a Sunday morning when it happens.

They’re sitting on the Byers’ couch, enjoying the morning together following a sleepover last night, and Mike is telling Will all about his new idea for a D&D campaign.

“I was thinking that we could start a campaign where our Party goes to find a rare gem,” Mike explains. “They could head to Greyhawk but, obviously, as soon as their journey starts, they encounter some monsters, something like an ogre maybe…”

He keeps rambling about obstacles and stormy weather that make the Party’s journey ten times harder, and he’s too caught up in his own story to notice that Will is listening but not hearing a single word he’s speaking.

He’s looking at him with adoring eyes, head resting on his hand, and the only thing Mike actually notices is his sweet and tender smile.

He’s still talking about a shortage of supplies and muddy terrain when Will leans in without saying a word and interrupts him by kissing him.

Mike’s breath hitches in his throat and he widens his eyes when he realises that Will is kissing him. His brain goes haywire and by the time he thinks of kissing Will back, it’s all over because his boyfriend leans back.

“S-sorry,” Will says. He taps his fingers restlessly and Mike is still too shocked to answer. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you, it was just- I don’t know what came over me but I just wanted to-you know…”

Mike brightens with a smile and he senses all of his emotions tickle him inside. Will kissed him. They finally kissed and he didn’t get to kiss him back because he was too shocked by the kiss itself, but they kissed.

“No, don’t apologise.”

Mike reaches for his hand and Will lets out a breath of relief as soon as their hands touch. He scoots closer, intertwining their fingers together, and the smile that appears on Will’s lips makes Mike’s heart melt into a puddle of feelings.

“Okay,” Will replies, readjusting his position. “Uhm, you were saying? Something about big rocks falling and blocking the way for the Party?”

“I’m not sure I remember,” Mike lies and leans slowly in, dragging Will closer by the hand. “It wasn’t that important.”

“You sure?”

“I’m definitely sure.”

When Will smirks, Mike knows he’s allowed to continue this and when he closes his eyes, Mike kisses him.

It’s a weird sensation at first because his heart beats so hard against his chest, Mike almost fears it might dig a hole and jump out and run around in circles.

When he presses his lips against Will’s, his whole body is shaken by shivers, and he swears that, for a moment, his wrist tickles.

Will brings his free hand over his chest, carefully sliding it near his neck, and Mike untangles their fingers and brings his hands on Will’s face to drag him ever closer.

They kiss and Mike thinks, this is how it’s supposed to be, and after a while he stops paying attention to how this kiss is affecting his body and just enjoys the moment.

It’s a sweet and messy kiss because both of them don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s beautiful nonetheless. Will laughs a couple of times, leaving Mike to chase his lips, and Mike doesn’t really know how it happens but at one point, he’s lying with his back on the armrest and Will is on top of him, kissing him and laughing at the same time.

Mike has felt happy on different occasions; when Will agreed to be his friend, when he realised that being soulmates meant exactly what he had with Will, when Will asked him to be his boyfriend, but this, Mike thinks, tops it all.

They kiss for however long they manage and when Will leans back, Mike follows him and pecks his lips one more time before composing himself.

“We should’ve done this sooner,” Will states, cheeks madly blushing.

“I tried but for some reason, we always got interrupted,” Mike exclaims and Will’s eyebrows rise up.

“Have you?” he asks.

Mike leans in to take his hand again and nods. “Yeah. Every time we went on secret dates, I planned to kiss you but it was never the right time. People always interrupted us.”

“Well, I’m glad no one interrupted us now,” Will replies and Mike realises, in that very moment, that they’re not alone.

Jonathan is in his room, listening to music so loud they can hear it from the living room, and the last time he checked, Joyce was in the kitchen, cleaning the breakfast dishes.

Mike suddenly turns around and lets out a deep breath of relief when he sees that the kitchen is empty, and Will chuckles next to him.

“Mom left a while ago,” Will tells him, his thumb gently moving over their joined hands. “I wouldn’t have kissed you if she was still there.”

“Well, you never know,” Mike replies. “You might’ve been too caught up by the situation to notice her.”

“You’re beautiful but you’re not that distracting, you know,” Will answers back and Mike gapes for a moment.

Beautiful. Mike knows that what he feels for Will is love, that he has yet to word it to him, but he knows they’re in love, and being in love means considering the person you’re dating beautiful. Mike thinks Will is the most beautiful person in the entire world, with his pretty eyes and soft smile, but he never thought that way about himself. He almost finds it hard to believe.

“You think I’m beautiful?” Mike asks and he doesn’t mean to sound this uncertain, but his voice trembles a bit as he speaks.

“Of course.” Will scoots closer and gently pecks his lips. Mike trembles at the touch. “You’re the most beautiful boy I’ve ever seen, Mike.”

“Yet.”

“Stop it!”

Will shoves him and Mike giggles when he pushes him back, and soon enough they’re tickling each other. Mike hits him where he knows Will is the most ticklish, and he yelps a couple of times before he starts tickling him back.

It doesn’t last long and Mike ends up dragging Will in his embrace, kissing him gently to stop the laughing fight.

“I think you’re beautiful, too,” he whispers against his lips and Will closes the gap between them with a soft sigh.

It feels absurd, to be able to do this, to kiss your soulmate and know that within a year, you will both have matching marks. Mike’s a confident kid but he knows when to admit he’s wrong – even if it might take him a while to do so – but this is something he knows it’s real, even if he’s got no power over it.

Will is his soulmate and he is Will’s, and nothing in this world will be able to tear them apart, not even something as stupid as destiny if it decides that their marks can’t match.

His heart belongs to Will and Will only, and as Will deepens the kiss, Mike feels like Will’s heart can belong to him and just him.

“Ahem.”

They jolt apart, as if hit by a sudden electric discharge, and Mike wants to grab the nearest blanket and disappear behind it when they turn around and see Joyce staring at them.

Will’s face is bright red, so bright he almost looks like he’s fighting off a fever, and Mike knows he wants to disappear just as much as he does.

“Sorry to interrupt, boys,” she says, walking towards them. She stops in front of the coffee table and picks up a couple of folders. “I just came to get these.”

Mike sinks into the cushions and Will nods, frantically.

“Oh, y-yeah, sure.”

Joyce stares at them and Mike knows she has a big heart, and he knows she’s kind and understanding but somehow, he still can’t help but fear her reaction. But then, when she smiles, Mike’s fear dissolves like salt in hot water and he can feel Will hold his breath next to him.

“You might want to move this to your room,” she says, hitting Will’s legs with the folders. “But keep the door open, please!”

She leaves without saying anything else and as soon as the door of her room closes, Will finally breathes again.

“Well, this was embarrassing,” Mike states and Will hides his face in his hands.

“This was terrifying.”

“You didn’t think she would be okay with this?”

Will turns to look at him with a perplexed look on his face. “I mean, yes? I knew that she knew but she never saw us being this…close. Or intimate. This makes it more real. Before it was just…guesses.”

Mike reaches for his hand again and holds it tight. “You have nothing to worry about, Will. She’s fine with us being together,” he states.

“I know. It’s just weird, I guess. A good weird.”

“Good.” Mike quickly looks towards the corridor and leaves a quick kiss on Will’s lips. “And I’m glad this is real, you know?”

“Me too.” Will kisses him again and Mike almost brings his hand over his cheek, but Will leans back and smirks. “You know, Mom is right. We should move this to my room.”

Mike chuckles, feeling a sudden rush of excitement run in his veins. “Yeah, we totally should.”

Will tightens the grip on their hands and gets up, dragging Mike with him. They run to his room and leave the door a tad open – not too much but also enough for it to not be considered closed – and it doesn’t take them long to reprise their kissing.

They kiss, and they laugh, and then they sing when Jonathan opens his room and music invades the corridor.

It’s a blissful moment that radiates joy and happiness and love, and Mike thinks, between one kiss and the other, that after all they’ve been through, nothing can ever separate them again.

The thing is, he didn’t quite consider the possibility of the Upside Down coming back.

When summer arrives, Mike has big plans. He wants to maximise his time alone with Will, but he also looks forward to spending long afternoons with the Party, whether it’s at the arcade, the movies, or even going for a swim in one of the lakes. He hopes his parents will allow him to bring Will along to their holidays at the beginning of August, but all his plans burn down with Starcourt Mall when the Mind Flayer comes back, stronger than ever, and wrecks their lives.

Hopper dies, El becomes a Byers and in all this mess, the worst news Mike could possibly get comes knocking on his door on a late Tuesday night.

“Will?” Mike says when he opens the door only to find his boyfriend soaking wet on the doorstep.

“Can I come in?” he asks and Mike steps aside quickly.

“What happened?” he asks as soon as he closes the door. “It’s late, why didn’t you call?”

Will shakes, wrapped in his own embrace, and he trembles so much he doesn’t find the strength to word his visible concern.

“Will!” His mother suddenly appears at the front door, and she looks him up with worried eyes. “Darling, you’re drenched! Let me get you a towel.”

She runs to the bathroom and Mike takes a step closer. Will is still shaking, eyes lost in the nothingness, and Mike fears the worst. His mind races as he ponders over all the ways the Mind Flayer might have come back again, how it’s probably still not over even if it’s been three weeks since everything – apparently – ended.

His mother returns with a large towel, swiftly wrapping it around Will to provide warmth and comfort. She places some other towels on the floor, making sure they can make their way to the living room without leaving any wet tracks on the wooden floor.

“What happened?” Mike asks as soon as they’re near the couch. His mother lays another towel on it, and she’s still fixing it when Will speaks.

“We’re moving.”

Mike blinks a few times, trying to process what he’s just said. “What?”

“W-we’re moving. P-probably in October.”

“Where?” Mike asks and at the same time, he tries to understand how this news can be this devasting for Will to basically run across town during a storm to seek his comfort.

His house doesn’t really hold that many good memories; it’s the place where he first disappeared, where he had to live part of his possession, and even before that, his father made that place a living hell. If Will were ever to move away from it, Mike thought he would do it with a light heart.

“We’re going t-to California.”

Mike’s breath hitches and his heart briefly stops. His mother covers her mouth with her hand, but she doesn’t step forward to comfort any of them.

“California?” he asks and when Will nods, Mike feels his own heart shake.

Will wraps the towel tighter around his body, and when he sniffs, Mike realises that he’s crying. His tears mix with the rainy drops on his face, and when Mike steps forward and touches his arm, Will breaks down.

He cries, and cries, and Mike wraps him in his embrace and closes his eyes.

Will is moving. He’s leaving Hawkins. He’s leaving him.

He guides him so that they’re both sitting down on the couch, and Will hides his face in the crook of his neck as he keeps on crying.

Mike looks up and the look his mother gives him is one of the saddest he’s ever seen on her face. It’s compassionate, filled with empathy and sorrow, and somehow Mike feels like it’s understanding, too.

“I’ll call Joyce,” she whispers, and they both know Will can hear it, too, but she still keeps her voice low. “I’ll let her know Will is spending the night here.”

“Thank you, Mom.”

She nods and leaves and Mike knows that she knows, just like Will knew Joyce knew about them, but Mike doesn’t really know where she stands on the topic of her son being in love with another boy.

For your safety, it’s better if you don’t do this again. Not with Will, anyway.

Mike remembers the words she told him long ago, when he and Will first drew their marks when they were seven. She never said anything about it being wrong. She just knew it wasn't safe for them to be themselves out in the open.

She held him when he thought Will was dead, she kissed his head and tried to soothe his pain that she knew all too well, and ever since Will came back, she’s been nothing but kind to them.

She doesn’t know everything but she’s shown him, multiple times, how much she still loves him and Mike thinks that maybe, one day, he’ll tell her everything.

They spend almost an hour on the couch, and even after Will has stopped crying, they remain silent. They stay there, drowned in each other’s arms, and Mike’s heart only trembles with fear when Will intertwines their fingers together.

His father is nowhere to be seen, probably already in bed or somewhere in his office, but he definitely wouldn’t like to see his son holding hands with another boy.

“I don’t want to leave,” Will whispers and Mike tightens the grip around his shoulders.

“I don’t want you to leave, either,” Mike replies. “Is there any chance she might change her mind?”

Will shakes his head, his fingers gently playing with Mike’s. “Mom said that she was looking for a new house before this whole mess happened,” Will replies. “She wanted to leave Hawkins but now, with the government going after El, it’s better if we go far away from here.”

Far away.

It could’ve been worse, Mike thinks. They could’ve moved to Europe or worse, Australia. They won’t be too far away. But still, they will be miles and miles apart.

Suddenly, Mike feels the urge to have him even closer, and he untangles their hands and fully engulfs him in his arms. Will buries his face near his neck, and Mike softly kisses his head. They know it’s risky, to kiss in his house, but he tries to ignore all of his fears and he leans back enough to see Will’s face.

He kisses him on the lips, eyes closed, and when Will kisses back, hard and deep, Mike realises they’re both shaking.

Gloomy thoughts invade his mind, fogging it again with fear and pain, and Mike drowns them away by keeping his mind anchored to what he has in the present. It’s Will, and he’s still there, in his arms, and he’s kissing him, but even if he tries his best to put those thoughts aside, they keep coming back because as he thinks, Will is here, he’s kissing me, his mind reminds him that he won’t stay there forever and that their kisses are numbered.

ooo

October comes too fast.

The last month of summer is spent between days made of just tears and afternoons spent all together, trying to create as many new memories together as possible. Then the Party – minus Will and El – start school again and their time together is limited, but that doesn’t stop Mike from sleeping over at Will’s during the week, and his mother never opposes him.

Over time, Mike grows uneasy. He feels like time is slipping away from his hands and there is so much he wants to do with Will and just not enough hours in a day to do them, and weirdly enough, Will becomes the comforter.

“Do you want this back?”

Mike looks up from the books they’re packing and smiles.

“No, you keep it,” he replies, and Will smiles back at him with blushing cheeks. He puts his old copy of The Lord of the Rings in the box he’s taking with him to California and then goes back to his room.

The Byers are leaving today. There are still a few things to pack but the truck Joyce lent is already in the front yard, filled with heavy things such as the couch and mattresses.

Mike has hated each day leading to this day, even the days he got to spend with Will because every minute was counted but today, he hates it like he’s never hated anything before.

He keeps putting the books away, and each one of them weighs like a brick falling on his soul, and when Will comes back and puts a few of his old books in the donation box, another brick crushes his heart.

“Woah, Will. That’s the donation box.”

“I know.” Mike eyes the D&D manual and that’s the only thing Will needs to understand. “I’ll just use yours when I come back.”

“Yeah but…what if you want to join another party?”

Much to Mike’s surprise, Will smiles. He leaves the book in the donation box and steps closer to him.

“Not possible,” he whispers and Mike’s heart falters when Will takes his hand. “Mike. I know that I’m leaving but I’m not going to forget about you or our friends.”

“I know that.” Max and Lucas are still singing in the room next to theirs, with Dustin trying to shut them up. Mike smiles, tightening the grip on his hand. “It’s just… I hate this. This was not supposed to happen.”

“A lot of things weren’t supposed to happen, yet they did. It’s okay, Mike.” Will inches closer, bringing both his hands over his face, and Mike grips his wrists. “This is not permanent.”

“How is it not? You’re going to California, Will. You’re going to be there for the next four years for sure.”

“I know it’s a lot of time but we’ll still see each other. I can come back for Christmas, you can come visit for spring break. We’ll spend the summer together. We can still be together.”

“This is unfair,” Mike whispers and sniffs, suddenly feeling a tear stream down his face. “We just got together.”

“I know. I don’t like it either,” Will replies, and Mike leans into his touch when both his thumbs start to caress his face. “But once we’re eighteen and school’s over, we can choose the same college and move in together. We’ll get to be together then.”

“Yeah, but it’s supposed to happen now,” Mike exclaims. Will sighs but doesn’t lean back. “We’re supposed to have our firsts now, not in four years.”

“I know. I know.”

Will leans his forehead against his and Mike closes his eyes. Their friends are still laughing next door and El is somewhere with Joyce. The house still feels alive, even when Mike is dying on the inside. They’ve got minutes now, minutes to spend together and all Mike can think of is how they’re going to be separated.

He suddenly leans in and kisses Will.

They haven’t told their friends they’re together yet but they also haven’t exactly kept their bond a secret, and Mike is pretty sure they’ve all figured it out – all apart from El, obviously, but they’ll get around telling her, eventually.

Will kisses him back and Mike doesn’t want to let go. He deepens the kiss, his hands desperately trying to glue Will to his body, and Mike realises, here and there, that there is a first they can still have.

“I love you,” he whispers against his lips, and Will’s breath comes to a halt. He leans back, eyes open and wide with shock, but there, in his eyes, swims an emotion Mike knows all too well.

Will traces his finger along his cheekbones, and he smiles, sweetly, bitterly.

“I love you, too,” he replies and leans back in to seal their confession with a kiss.

This is not how he thought they would confess to each other. Mike likes to plan things, likes to make things perfect, but if there’s one thing he’s learned by being with Will is that planning has never worked.

It’s a bittersweet way to finally be able to say those three words that Mike has wanted to say for quite some time. It’s not perfect but at the same time, it’s perfect for them and Mike holds onto Will as long as he can.

“Will.” They turn around, breaking the hug they both wrapped themselves into at some point, and Joyce looks at them with tears in her eyes. Next to her, El is crying, too. “It’s time to go.”

It’s weird, to see the Byers’ house this empty, and it’s weird to see all of their belongings cramped into a truck.

When they’re all outside and Joyce has locked the house, everyone starts to hug goodbye.

Mike hugs El and she cries, and when he lets go of her, she runs into Max’s arms and stays there for as long as she can. Dustin and Lucas take turns saying goodbye to Will and when it’s his turn, Mike wants time to stop.

He hugs Will and doesn’t want to do it, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to let go.

“I’ll call you as soon as we have a landline,” Will whispers, arms wrapped tight around him.

“I’ll be waiting,” Mike answers back and feels each fibre in his body ache.

Will leans back and Mike feels like parts of him are being removed from his chest, but when Will rests his hands on it, his tumbling feelings slow down.

“I’ll see you for Christmas, hopefully,” Will says and the hope in his eyes is something Mike wants to hold onto. Christmas is barely two months away.

“And I’ll try to convince my mother to let me come for spring break,” Mike answers back. “It will be your birthday, too.”

“That’s true.”

Will turns his wrist around and with the other hand, he traces lines where the mark will appear in five months.

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Mike says. “We’ve been talking about getting our soulmarks for years and now it’s barely months away.”

“Yeah. I always thought we’d be together for it.”

“We will.” Mike wraps Will’s face between his hands and in that moment, the rest of the world disappears. “Nothing in this world will stop me from being with you when you get your mark.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I promise.”

Mike knows that making promises he’s not sure he can keep is something he shouldn’t do, but he’s determined to keep this one.

The smile that appears on Will’s face is tired, painted with blue colours, and Mike feels the clock ticking.

He leans in and kisses him, hard and deep, and Mike wishes for time to freeze: he wants to stay there, in Will’s arms, and he wants to go back to those blissful months they had before everything went down to hell.

Four months is all they got to enjoy their relationship. Four months is all this messed up world allowed them to have, and Mike wonders if all of this pain was written in their destiny, too.

“I love you,” Will whispers once they break apart.

“I love you.”

Mike wraps his arms around Will as they both cry, and when Joyce opens the door of the truck, Will slips out of his arms and Mike feels his heart getting ripped out of his chest.

It’s a hard goodbye because no one wants to say it, and even if they’re trying to put smiles on their faces, they’re all aching.

Will gets in Jonathan’s car, the rest of the Party picks up their bikes and when the truck leaves, Mike panics.

Will is leaving, he thinks, as Jonathan follows the truck out of what used to be the Byers’ front yard.

Will is leaving me, Mike thinks and that’s all it takes for him to start biking.

“Mike!” Dustin calls out for him but Mike ignores him.

He bikes until he’s right behind Jonathan’s car, and he’s never been a fast biker but he forces his legs to give their best.

Will rolls the window down and sticks his head out, and with the wind messing with his hair, Will turns around towards his brother to probably tell him to slow down a bit as Mike tries to pick up the pace.

He bikes until he’s right next to the car but even if he pushes his legs to their limits, he can’t quite keep up with it.

Jonathan slows down but cars are starting to queue behind them and Mike knows he can’t bike with them for long.

He bikes, and Will smiles at him. There are tears in his eyes, tears Mike wants to wipe away but he’s not near enough and Will keeps getting further and further away.

Jonathan starts to pick up the pace and Mike feels his leg hurt. He’s almost cramping but he doesn’t care.

He smiles back at Will and that’s all he needs.

They’re smiling, through tears and pain, and Mike brakes only when he can’t keep going.

He stops abruptly right before the sign ‘Leaving Hawkins’ and Will becomes a faraway figure that slowly disappears into the traffic of people coming and going from his town.

Will leaves, and Mike stays behind, in Hawkins.

His heart breaks when the car is long gone and Mike instinctively puts his hand around his wrist.

Somehow, he’s hurting there, too, and he hopes that all this pain and suffering will be worth it the day they both get their soulmarks.

Will doesn’t get to come for Christmas and Mike begs his parents to let him go to California for New Year’s Eve, but an exceptional blizzard stops all the flights from leaving, and Mike starts to wonder if the universe is really against gay people or just him and Will in particular.

All that’s left for him to do is wait. He anxiously counts the days to spring break, and he dreams of days where time speeds up, but the wait is endless and so slow that Mike feels like he’s going crazy.

When March finally rolls around, Mike is a bundle of nerves because he’s finally going to see Will again. However, his parents give him the final blow on his string of bad luck when they forbid him to skip class and leave for California one day early.

Mike has to settle for arriving in Lenora on the day of Will’s birthday and he tries to sweep all of his anxiousness and irritation under the rug because he’s about to see Will again and that’s all that truly matters.

When he lands, he tries to move past the sea of people to get as fast as he can to the hall where Will said they would be waiting for him, and when he gets there, his eyes dart around anxiously to find him.

“Mike!”

He turns around, recognising his friend’s gentle voice, and when he finally finds El and Will in the crowd, his heart pumps back to life.

There he is, the boy he loves. His breath stops for a moment when Mike realises just how much Will has grown in those months apart, and his heart skips a beat because he’s even more beautiful than the last time they physically saw each other.

When Will catches sight of him, Mike sees his face morph into the happiest expression he’s ever seen and Mike all but runs to him.

He’s clumsy and uncoordinated, and he almost doesn’t see Jonathan right next to them, but he reaches his boyfriend and when he does, he lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

Will wraps his arms around his shoulders and Mike trembles.

“Hi,” he whispers, dropping the bag on the floor and slipping his arms around Will’s waist. He knows he ought to be careful since they’re in public, but it’s been five months since he’s touched the boy he loves and he will not hold back right now.

“Hi,” Will whispers back and when they break apart, Will looks on the edge of tears. “You look ridiculous.”

Mike blinks a few times and realises that it’s not tears but a belly laugh he’s holding back. He crosses his arms, eyebrows furrowed, and Will snorts.

“I-it’s not ridiculous!” Mike answers back.

In all the letters and calls they’ve exchanged, Will has told him all about California. Lenora is a cool city; it’s big and it’s trendy, and most importantly, it seems much more inclusive than Hawkins – not that it takes much for that anyway. Will also couldn’t stop talking about how people wore more colours and how stylish everyone looked and Mike wanted to fit in, too, during his short visit.

“It is,” El says and Mike gapes as he turns to look at her. She scrunches her nose but steps forward to greet him anyway, and she hugs him hard. “Are you wearing flip-flops?”

“Max said it was cool,” Mike answers because, in his attempt at trying to be California-cool, he asked Max, a fellow Californian, for help.

“Since when do you listen to Max?” Will asks and Mike crosses his arms.

“Well, I guess this was the only time I should’ve actually ignored her,” Mike mumbles and everyone around him laughs. Jonathan steps forward to greet him and he introduces him to his friend, Argyle, and when they head towards the car, Mike feels the urge to take Will’s hand.

As he lowers his gaze, Mike realises that Will is wearing a wristband.

Memories of his sleepless night come rushing back to him and the pain he felt when midnight struck and he was alone in his bedroom radiates through his body again. He promised he’d be there with Will and he wasn’t, but he knows Will doesn’t blame him for not being able to arrive one day earlier. He shakes those thoughts away and thinks, I’m here now, and he aches to know what Will’s mark is.

They sit in the car and El leans towards the front seats to request a song, and Mike takes the opportunity to scoot closer to Will and take his hand.

“Happy birthday,” Mike whispers and Will squeezes his hand.

“Thank you,” Will replies. “I wish I could kiss you right now.”

“Me too. I guess we’ll have to wait until later today,” Mike says, waggling his eyebrows.

Will chuckles and El keeps on arguing with Argyle about the song she wants to listen, and Mike can’t quite believe they’re finally together again. Mike passes his thumb over Will’s hand and his breath hitches when it brushes against the wristband.

“You’re wearing a wristband,” Mike states.

“I didn’t want anyone to see it before you,” Will replies and Mike’s heart swells with love.

He knows they can’t control destiny, that it’s not up to them, but Mike really can’t fathom a world where they’re not soulmates. Every single fibre in his body pulls him towards Will. He’s his heart and his soul, and there is no one else on this Earth whom he’ll get to feel this love for.

They spend the day around town, eating burritos for breakfast – El insisted on that – and going around places Will and El usually go to, and El makes them promise to go to a place called Rink-O-Mania the next day.

As soon as they’re home, Joyce hugs him tight and ruffles his hair, and Mike has no time to take a proper look at their new house that Will all but drags him down to what Mike finds out is Will’s room.

Will closes the door with a swift movement and Mike barely manages to drop his bag on the floor that Will’s lips are immediately on his.

Mike closes his eyes and his hands find their way to Will’s face without too much of a thought. He deepens the kiss and his heart puts back the pieces he lost all those months ago when Will left Hawkins. It’s like they’ve never been apart but at the same time, it's a relief to be together again after such a long time, and Mike puts all of his feelings into the kiss.

Will apparently gets his message because he guides him until they hit the bed and fall on it, and Will crawls on top of him to keep at minimum the distance between their bodies.

Time slips away as their lips try to remember what it feels like to be this close, and they kiss and kiss until both have red and chapped lips, and Mike chases Will one last time before they break apart.

“I missed you,” Will whispers, lips brushing together. Mike moves a lock out of Will’s face and pecks him gently.

“I missed you, too,” he replies. Will rolls off him and sits next to him, intertwining their fingers together.

Mike sits up, quite clumsily, and when Will chuckles, Mike suddenly realises just how much he’s missed hearing it in person and not just at the end of the receiver.

He starts to play with his fingers and Mike’s gaze falls on his wrist, still covered by the wristband. He doesn’t want to push too much for it because suddenly, it’s real. One of them already has their soulmark and it’s not just talks anymore. It’s half real.

“Do you…do you want to see?” Will asks and Mike doesn’t have to ask him what he means. He looks up to find Will smiling at him with kindness and sweetness, but there’s also a bit of uncertainty strewn on his face. Mike didn’t really expect him to be unbothered or calm about this situation.

“Yes.”

Will lets go of his hand and gently removes the wristband. Mike crosses his legs and starts to bite his lower lip. He’s suddenly nervous and his stomach clenches and threatens to release all he’s eaten from dinner last night to lunch barely a couple of hours before.

The wristband ends up on the mattress next to them, and Will takes a deep breath before turning his wrist around to show it to him.

Mike leans forward and somehow, what he sees is not what he expected.

Right in the middle of Will’s wrist, two lines form what looks like an open triangle. They’re a soft shade of black, not the kind of faded black he’s seen on his mother’s wrist, but rather the one on marks of people whose soulmate is still alive. There’s a bit of grey colour inside the area the lines make and right under the top line, there’s a red figure, and the more Mike stares at it, the more it confuses him. He can’t quite understand what it is and the three yellow triangles on top of it confuse him even more.

He passes one finger over it and Will hisses.

“Does it hurt?” Mike asks because he didn’t think of that possibility.

“No, not really. The skin is still a bit sensitive, that’s all. Mom says it will take a couple of days for it to stop bugging me.”

“I see.” Mike looks back down and smiles. “How does it feel when it appears?”

“It’s weird. At first, it tingles but then it hurts a bit. It’s like when you have an open wound and salt accidentally falls in.”

“That hurts a lot.”

“No, I know, but it’s only for a few seconds. After that, it just stings for a while.”

Mike starts to trace his fingers along the lines of his mark, trying his best not to press too much into his sensitive skin, and Will lets him.

“Lucas said that his mark appeared gradually,” Mike states after a while. Lucas is the oldest of the Party, being born in January, and on the day of his birthday, he spent lunch telling Mike and Dustin all about it.

“Mine, too,” Will replies. “Did you see Lucas’ mark?”

“I did. It’s a weird shape and it has some red lines around it. They look like sparkles. He’s convinced it’s going to match with Max’s when she gets hers.”

“I understand the feeling,” Will whispers and Mike looks up, feeling suddenly excited. He’s going to know in sixteen days.

“I can’t wait to get my mark,” Mike exclaims, taking Will’s wrist in his hand and bending down to take a closer look at it. “I can’t quite figure out what it is and what it might end up being with my matching mark, but it’s beautiful.”

Will’s chuckle comes and goes quickly, and his breathing intensifies rapidly. When Mike looks at him, he sees a new light in his eyes. He’s suddenly uncertain, as if he’s wrestling with himself over whether he should tell him about that dreadful news only he knows about, and Mike can’t help but panic.

What if he already found his matching mark? Mike thinks. Even if he knows that their hearts belong to each other, destiny, Mike has learned over time, is messed up. It gives you soulmarks and soulmates, and it takes them away from you with too much ease.

“I need to show you something,” Will says, and he climbs down the bed.

Mike clutches his hands together, anxiously playing with his fingers, and he follows Will with his intense gaze as he crouches down near his dresser. He moves some of his stuff out of the way and then picks up a long brown tube, and Mike squints his eyes as his brain tries to find a word for it.

“I made this for you,” Will says, sitting back on the bed. “It’s a painting.”

“Will.” Mike takes it but doesn’t open it immediately. “It’s your birthday. You’re supposed to receive gifts!”

Will chuckles, shifting closer. “I know. Let’s just say that this is an early birthday gift for you.”

“You could’ve waited two weeks to give it to me.”

“Not really.” Will sighs, shoulders hunching. “Mom still hasn’t agreed on letting me come to Hawkins for your birthday. She knows it’s important for us but she’s still thinking about it.”

“Oh.” Mike knows that he couldn’t quite convince his parents to let him leave one day early because he didn’t tell them all the reasons for it. He couldn’t, even if he thinks – and hopes – that his mother would’ve understood. He’s got a feeling that she would accept him for loving another boy, but he knows his father wouldn’t.

He might not have their full support but he knows he can count on Joyce’s, and in all honesty, he didn’t think she would have to think about it at all.

“Besides, I kind of need you to open it now,” Will finishes and Mike is suddenly interested.

“Why?”

“Just open it.”

Mike obliges, even if some parts of him want to hold back and open it with Will on his fifteenth birthday, but as he rolls it open, his smile reaches his cheeks like a flash of light.

The first thing he sees it’s the three-headed dragon standing on the left side. It’s majestic, almost too real, and right in front of him there’s the Party. Mike is quick to recognise them all: Lucas stands proudly on his horse, eagerly prompting them to march forward to slay the dragon. Dustin is in his Bard attire, axe ready to defend their group, and Will is right next to him, in his Cleric robe, hands filled with blue magic. Then, when Mike sees himself as the Paladin, his heart stops.

He's leading the Party and Mike’s breath hitches when his eyes stop on the shield he’s holding.

It’s a Medieval shield and right in the middle of it, there’s a red heart crowned in yellow.

Mike looks up and finds Will holding back his tears.

“The shield,” Mike whispers. “It’s…that’s your mark.”

“It is.”

Mike inhales deeply and glances down at the painting. “How is this possible? Did you…did you paint it overnight?”

Mike is no expert but the colours on the canvas look dry and he supposes Will wouldn’t have rolled the painting if he had painted on it barely a few hours before.

“No, that’s the thing. I-I finished this painting a few days ago.”

Mike’s eyes widen as he looks up at his boyfriend. “You mean… you accidentally drew your mark on a painting for me? Before even getting it?”

Will nods and Mike feels his heart jump to his throat. He’s not sure what to make of it and it’s both exciting and scary.

Will made a painting for him and gave him a shield with a heart on it, and then said shield proceeded to appear on his wrist.

“This can’t be a coincidence,” Mike suddenly says. “It has to mean something.”

“I-I had the same feeling,” Will replies, fingers picking on a hangnail on his thumb. “I mean, destiny would be surely a cruel thing if it made me draw my mark on a gift for you only for my soulmate to be someone else.”

“It’s not going to happen.” Mike reaches for his hand and squeezes it tight. “In sixteen days, I’m going to get the exact same mark. Just mirrored.”

Will chuckles, lowering his eyes, and Mike scoots closer, carefully picking the painting up as he tries not to crease it.

“Okay,” Will says and they wrap up the conversation with timid smiles.

Mike knows they will touch this argument again in the near future, but he believes that today is not the right day for deep and heavy conversations. He glances down, admiring the painting again, and a warm feeling comes to nuzzle his heart.

“It’s so beautiful, Will,” he exclaims. “You’re so talented.”

“Thank you.”

Mike smiles and lets go of his hand to carefully fold his gift. “But, since today is your birthday, it’s time for your present!”

“You didn’t have to get me anything, Mike,” Will replies as he watches him jump down from the bed to reach his bag. “You being here is the best gift I could’ve asked for.”

“Yes, I agree, but I still got you something.”

Will rolls his eyes and Mike grumbles like an old man when he takes too long to find the gift. He retrieves it from the very bottom of his bag, muttering to himself how he should’ve just put it in the front pocket, and he hops back on the bed and hands Will the yellow package.

“Thank you,” Will exclaims, sounding adorably excited.

He turns the little box over, studying it curiously, and Mike taps his finger nervously. He knows they’re different on this because while Will analyses his gifts as if they’re mysteries to solve, he rips the wrapping paper as soon as the present lands in his hands.

After a long and endless moment – for Mike, at least – Will decides he’s analysed it enough and starts ripping the wrapping off, and Mike’s heart bounces in anticipation as he watches Will’s pleasantly confused expression. When he finally manages to open the box, Mike shakes with emotion, watching as his boyfriend realises what he’s given him.

Will lowers the box and takes out its contents, and Mike smiles when he sees Will’s eyes light up.

“Oh, Mike,” he whispers, grinning so wide Mike can almost see his gums. “It’s beautiful.”

Mike can’t quite wipe the grin off his face as he watches his boyfriend admire the bracelet he’s given him. It’s quite simple, it’s not too fancy or shiny; it’s a light green bracelet made of a soft fabric and right in the middle of it, there’s a letter made of metal.

“Do you like it?” Mike asks.

“Like it? Mike, I love it,” Will replies and he crawls until he’s barely a couple of inches from his face. “I love you.”

He kisses him, firmly, sweetly, and Mike intakes deeply as he closes his eyes. Sometimes, he still can’t believe this is something they get to do.

“I love you, too,” Mike replies once Will leans back.

Will smiles, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink, and he turns the bracelet around in his hands. He picks up the letter between his fingers and shows it to Mike.

“M for Mike?” Will asks and both already know the answer.

“Yes,” Mike replies, gaining a giggle from Will. “And…there’s one more.”

Will furrows his brow and looks into the box again. He widens his eyes as he realizes that there’s a second bracelet beneath a tissue paper.

“That one is for me,” Mike finishes as Will picks it up.

“You made us matching bracelets,” Will states, and it’s not a question. When Mike nods, Will inspects the new bracelet and the smile that slowly appears on his mouth is all Mike needs to see right now. “There’s a W on this one.”

“Yes, obviously,” Mike replies. “You should’ve seen the lady in the shop. She was basically melting when I told her I wanted to get my soulmate matching bracelets.”

Will laughs, his thumbs caressing the gifts in his hands. “I’m sure she was,” he says. “Did you ask to customise them?”

“I did. I had to tell her your name was Wendy.”

Will snorts, blinking away his amusement, but he fails to keep it in when his laughter eventually turns into a belly laugh.

“You did not,” he says, hiccupping between one laugh and the other.

“What’s wrong with Wendy?”

“Michael and Wendy? It doesn’t ring a bell?” Mike shakes his head and Will wipes a tear from his eyes. “I thought you’d notice right away, darling.”

Mike blinks a few times, trying to register his words, and then, finally, his synapses put the pieces together and he shoves a still-laughing Will, who doubles over with a hand over his mouth.

“Oh, come on! What’s wrong with getting names from Peter Pan?”

“They’re siblings, Mike.”

“What? So now you can’t fall in love with someone who has the same name as your sibling?! I’m sure there’s a Mike and Will somewhere out there in this world who are brothers and that hasn’t stopped us from falling in love!”

Will snickers, hands holding his belly, and Mike pretends to be offended or even just annoyed because it makes Will laugh more and that’s a sound Mike will never get tired of.

“It’s just extremely funny,” Will exclaims once he’s stopped losing breath because of his laughter.

“Just to you.”

Will chuckles, sitting up again, and Mike can’t deny him a smile when he pecks his lips.

“I still love the bracelets,” Will says and Mike feels his heart melt into a puddle of feelings right away.

“I’m glad,” Mike replies. “Here.”

He takes the bracelet with his initials from Will’s hand and gently slips it around the wrist with the mark.

“It can help cover the mark, if you don’t want people to see it,” Mike states and Will hums.

He grabs his hand and copies his actions, putting the second bracelet around the wrist that in sixteen days will have a mark.

“Same for you,” Will replies and without a warning, he leans in and kisses him.

Mike hums, contentedly, and his hands quickly find their way to Will’s hair. He tangles his finger in it, tugging it slightly as he pulls Will closer. Will crawls until he’s in his lap again, and for a while, they lose themselves in kisses and soft laughs, embracing each other and enjoying the moment they’re given.

It’s a gentle moment, one Mike wants to savour for as long as they can, one he wants to store in his mind for the days to come when they’ll be separated again, and when Will leans back and pecks his lips one last time, Mike feels his whole body shake with love.

“I’d say it’s time to get you out of these clothes,” Will suddenly says and when he kisses him again, Mike panics.

“O-oh,” he stutters, feeling his hands suddenly sweaty. He grips the shirt around Will’s waist and leans back enough to see his boyfriend’s face. “I’m not sure I’m ready for…it. N-not yet.”

Will blinks a few times and tilts his head to the side in such an adorable way that Mike melts inside. But the sweetness of the moment is gone in seconds as anxiety comes back to bite his side.

“I mean, I-I know I talked about us doing our firsts b-but, uhm, I was thinking more like going to our first prom together?” Mike continues. “Or, you know, something like getting our driving licences at the same time and going somewhere alone, and, uhm…”

Will’s eyes go from confused to wide with shock in a very short span of time.

“Oh! Oh, n-no, I wasn’t…I wasn’t asking you to…to have sex,” Will answers back, lowering his voice. “I’m definitely not ready for that.”

“Oh. You weren’t?”

“No.” Will chuckles and leans in again to leave a quick kiss on his lips. “You just really need to get out of these clothes because they’re ridiculous.”

All the anxiety and worries scattered around his body dissolve into thin air and Mike wants to fake a pout again, but he can’t help but agree with Will.

“Yeah, listening to Max was truly a bad idea,” he concedes, and Will laughs before getting off of him and helping him up.

“Please tell me you have normal clothes in your bag.”

“Of course I do! I didn’t think I’d be wearing this the whole week.”

Will giggles and Mike starts to take out his clothes from the bag, asking bits of advice to his boyfriend. He takes out a couple of flannels and a pair of jeans, and between one laugh and the other, someone comes knocking on their door.

El doesn’t wait for them to answer, she swings the door open and excitedly enters the room.

“Do you want to go to the beach?” she asks, eyes darting between them.

Will turns to look at him and Mike nods, enthusiastically.

“Yes!” he replies. He likes the sea, likes to run barefoot on the beach, and doing it near the lakes is not quite the same thing.

“Good,” El says, satisfied, and then, she raises her eyebrow when she glances at him. “You need to change clothes.”

“I’m doing that!” Mike answers back and Will falls on his back laughing while El just rolls her eyes and leaves, not caring to fully close the door.

“Max will pay for this,” Mike mumbles under his breath, taking off the awful yellow shirt, and Will giggles and tries to nudge him with his foot.

“Come on,” he says from where he’s lying down. “Less talking, more changing. The beach is amazing.”

Mike gets rid of the purple shirt, too, and quickly fishes for a blue shirt that suits more his style.

“Do you like it?” Mike asks, head popping out of the sweater.

“The sea?” Will sits up and Mike nods. “I do. I didn’t think I’d like it this much but it’s actually quite soothing. Well, only when the beach’s empty. It gets quite messy when there are too many kids.”

“I have no trouble believing that,” Mike states, quickly switching his shorts for a pair of jeans.

“It’s just so different from Hawkins, you know?” Will continues, falling on his back again. “You can actually see the sun setting on the horizon and there’s always a soft and warm breeze around six in the evening. It’s so nice.”

Mike buttons his pants and stares at Will. He’s still lying down, fingers absentmindedly playing with the bracelet, and Mike can’t help but feel both happy and sad.

Will looks happy in Lenora. He seems more relaxed, carefree, there are fewer wrinkles on his face and Mike realises that moving away has been the best solution for both him and El. Jonathan seemed a bit off, earlier that day, and he hasn’t talked to Joyce that much but overall, it seems like it’s doing them good.

Mike is happy for Will but he can’t not be sad for the times they’re missing together in Hawkins. Their hometown might not be the best city in the world, but it’s the place where they met, the city Mike is stuck in.

This is not permanent, Mike reminds himself and he thinks that if the only way to give Will stability and calmness in his life is for him to live in Lenora, then Mike is going to be patient and wait for school to be over to move out wherever Will wants. He wouldn’t mind moving to Lenora. It sounds nice.

“You look happy,” Mike states and Will leans on his elbows to look at him.

“I have less to worry about, that’s for sure,” Will replies. “But I’m not really that happy here.”

“Why not?”

“You’re not here.”

A blush creeps onto Mike’s cheeks, causing him to lower his gaze for a moment, but when he looks back up, he is met with a gentle smile from Will.

“I love you, you know that?” Mike says and Will sits up properly.

“Of course I do,” Will replies. “And I love you.”

“I know. I know.” Mike walks up to him and Will immediately takes his hand. “I just mean…I love you and I can wait for you. I know that, when you left, I didn’t exactly sound supportive and I’d still rather have you in Hawkins with me, but I can see that this is good for you and I can wait four years if it means you get to be happy in the meantime. Does it make sense?”

“It does,” Will replies, getting up and sliding his arms around his neck. “And I know distance makes things harder but I’ll still love you in four years.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure, you idiot.”

Mike laughs, wrapping his arms around Will’s waist, and Will kisses him until he’s laughing.

Mike knows they’ve got four long years ahead of them – which are actually three and a half, now that he thinks about it – and that this is just another challenge they have to face and overcome.

“Will! Mike!” They break apart and find a quite annoyed El staring at them. “Are you ready?”

“We are,” Will replies and he takes Mike’s hand before El is even out of the room. “Come on. I want to show you some other places, too.”

Mike grins and follows his boyfriend out of the room. He puts his gloomy thoughts aside and buries them deep down where his worst fears are headquartered.

He has seven days to spend with Will and he wants to enjoy every single minute of it. He wants to go on dates with his boyfriend, visit new places with him and El, and maybe, if he’s lucky enough, he will even get to talk to Joyce and convince her to let Will come to visit him in sixteen days.

The upcoming week looks nothing but idyllic, and Mike decides, in the minutes it takes them to reach the beach, to push aside the doubts and questions that have been whirling in his mind. There’s just so much he can learn by voicing his concern right now and thinking about it, he’s just sixteen days away from learning the truth.

Mike reckons that, after waiting months to get the first piece of the puzzle that is their love life and future together, he can be patient for a couple more weeks.

What Mike didn’t quite expect was for those sixteen days to turn into a quite literal hell on Earth.

El managed to get herself arrested – after a fight that escalated very quickly but one where Will kept telling him that the other girl, Angela apparently, deserved what she got – and then later disappeared off to the desert to get her powers back. In the meantime, they became runaways after surviving a shooting, run around the desert for days without having the chance to properly shower or sleep, and after finally finding El, they went back to Hawkins only to find it in shambles.

It's where they are now, in a dusty city that’s falling apart where time feels like it has frozen, where the gates to another dimension are throbbing with buzzing lights and where monsters come out sporadically only to be killed by the military.

“Thirty-seven!”

Dustin drops the box he’s holding right in the middle of the table, and while his friends give him confused looks, he smiles, as if what he’s just said is the thing that makes the most sense in this world.

“Thiry-eight?” Lucas suggests, and Mike looks between them and tries to remember when exactly they said anything about counting whatever they’re trying to count.

“What?” Dustin asks.

“I don’t know, you started saying random numbers!”

“It’s not random,” Dustin exclaims, pointing his finger at Lucas. “It’s the number of how many soldiers I’ve seen around the city today.”

Mike rolls his eyes, hands digging back into his own box. “You’ve been counting?”

“Yes, obviously.”

Mike chuckles, picking up a few objects from the box. They’re at Lucas’ place, rearranging old boxes in search of anything to donate to the evacuees and, at the same time, trying to find anything that could help them fight monsters and magic creatures.

“You’re weird, man,” Lucas replies, throwing a couple of old bed sheets in the donation box. Dustin is about to answer back, finger already up and threatening, but he doesn’t get to speak because Lucas’ mom enters the living room and makes a beeline to the window. She pulls the curtain back a little and that’s all the boys need to jump to their feet.

“Mom?” Lucas asks.

Sue raises her hand, prompting them to not make a sound, and Mike feels on edge again. The last couple of weeks have been filled with tension and extreme anxiety, and sure, they’ve dealt with monsters before, but they’ve never been involved in such an apocalyptic scenario.

“Charles?” Sue says, and her voice is loud enough to make Mike think that they’re not in imminent danger.

“All clear!” Lucas’ father shouts from the other room, and Sue sighs and lets go of the curtain.

“Sorry boys,” she says, reaching her son and kissing him on the head. “We heard some noises in the backyard and wanted to make sure the way was clear.”

“What was it?” Lucas asks, and his father enters the room looking extremely pale. Mike has known him for years and he’s never seen him this agitated.

“Probably just a cat running away,” Charles answers, giving everyone his best smile. He looks at the table’s feet and picks up a box they filled an hour before. “Is this ready to go in the car?”

Lucas nods and Charles fixes the box in his arms and leaves the room just when Erica runs down to ask what has happened. Sue takes her hand and leads her towards the kitchen, trying to soothe her daughter’s worried frown with her warm smile.

“When are Will and El coming?” Dustin asks, opening an old and small brown box and gagging as soon as he smells its contents.

“They should be here soon,” Mike replies. “Hopper is taking them.”

“I still can’t believe he’s alive.”

“Right?!” Dustin exclaims and picks up another unknown object from the box. He moves it around and almost hits Mike with it. “I swear, we should stop having funerals until all of this is over for good.”

Mike smiles but his heart aches at the memory of Will’s funeral. Even as he stood there, surrounded by people grieving the loss of an innocent, he didn’t believe for a second that Will was dead and six feet under. But the feeling of doubts, of what if he’s actually gone, never left his side and sometimes it comes back to haunt his dreams.

They keep digging out old family heirlooms, each one of them prompting Lucas to tell a new story about his past, and they throw old rough shirts away and hide some old but meaningful toys in a box destined to be hidden either in Lucas’ wardrobe or under his bed.

When the doorbell rings, all objects are abandoned on the table and Lucas rushes to open the door.

El is the first to run inside, dropping right into the open arms of Dustin, and Mike steps forward and wraps his arms around his boyfriend as soon as Hopper closes the door behind them.

“Is everything okay?” Lucas asks, unable to hide the anxiousness in his voice.

El untangles herself from Dustin’s arms to find comfort in Lucas’ hug, and when she sighs, Mike sees all of her energies slowly extinguish.

“Everything’s okay,” Will replies, resting his head on Mike’s shoulder.

“Any news with Max?”

Will shakes his head and Lucas tightens his grip around El.

Both Will and El have been going back and forth from the hospital, working together to find a way to bring back Max. The connection Will continues to have with the Upside Down still hasn’t proven itself useful but both El and Will are convinced it will help them find their best friend, wherever she is.

Mike has been to the hospital a few times, most of them to bring some food or clothes to Lucas. He rarely leaves her side but his parents have forced him to come back home to get some proper sleep in the last week, giving him all kinds of peculiar tasks to keep him distracted.

“But she’s stable,” El finally says, leaning back just enough to look at Lucas right in the eyes. “So, everything is okay.”

Lucas nods, pulling her into his arms again, and Hopper squeezes Will’s shoulder before heading towards the kitchen, probably to talk with the adults.

“Anyone up for some hot cocoa?” Dustin suddenly asks, breaking a silence that was slowly falling around them, and even if it was all but uncomfortable, they gladly take the interruption.

“Yes, please,” Mike exclaims, his arm circling Will’s waist. He pulls him closer and Will chuckles, a sound ignored by everyone but him. “I need a break from rearranging Lucas’ old memorabilia.”

Dustin heads them towards the kitchen as if it’s his house, but the Sinclairs don’t bat an eye when he opens the cabinets to fetch the chocolate powder, and Sue smiles warmly when he asks the grown-ups if they want some hot chocolate, too.

Will slips out of his embrace – not without a fight, and Will rolls his eyes when Mike pouts – and helps Dustin while Lucas and El sit down on the couch in the living room.

Mike takes a minute to look at his friends: El looks drained of all her energies, and when Hopper kisses her goodbye, she manages just to smile. She leans on Lucas’ shoulder and he doesn’t say a word, he just keeps caressing her hair as he stares into the void with an empty look craved into his eyes.

It’s hard, to see them like this; they’ve been through hell together, faced monsters and bullies but something makes this situation unbelievably dreadful. There are dead bodies in the morgue, still waiting for a proper time to have a funeral, of people they’ve known and people they’ve probably seen on the streets. Eddie, Mike thinks, and his heart aches at the thought of his friend dying and him not being there. There was so much he wanted to share with him, so much he wanted to say, and most importantly, he couldn’t wait for Will to meet him. He made plans for his birthday and begged Eddie to DM a campaign with Will, too, and there were so many memories he wanted to create with both of them because somehow, Eddie felt like them. He was an outcast, a freak, someone who didn’t fit in and Mike swears he saw Eddie look at the boys in their school the way people expected him to look at girls.

His chest suddenly clenches because it’s all what-ifs and regrets of questions he didn’t dare to ask, something he will never get an answer to, and he holds his breath when he feels tears pool his eyes.

“Mike.” He turns around and the gentle smile on Will’s tired lips makes his aching heart beat again. “Hey.”

Will cradles Mike’s face with his palms and a soothing feeling blooms in his chest; Will’s stare is gentle, reassuring, full of love, and it’s like a spell on his soul that little by little swipes his pain away.

“Are you okay?” Will finally asks and Mike breathes out loudly.

“I am,” he replies. “Sorry. I got caught up in my thoughts.”

“I know,” Will replies and there’s no malice in his words. It’s the simple truth because Will knows him well enough to know when his boyfriend is hurting because of his own doing. “Can you help me bring these to the living room?”

Mike nods, grateful for the distraction, and he takes two fuming mugs to Lucas and El. Dustin and Will reach them shortly after, and they sit quietly while they sip the little comfort they can get from the hot beverage.

“I’ll find her,” El suddenly says. She sits up straight, her hands clinging onto the mug so strongly that her knuckles turn white. “I will find Max.”

“We don’t doubt your powers, El,” Dustin replies. His voice sounds tired all of a sudden, and Mike is not used to hearing him like this. “But you can’t keep doing this every day. You need to rest. What if we have to face other monsters again?”

“Dustin is right.” To everyone’s surprise, it’s Lucas who speaks. He bumps his shoulder against El’s and she widens her eyes, as shocked as everyone else in the room. “You’re exhausting yourself like this.”

“But I want to find Max,” El states, her eyes looking for her brother’s as if to ask for backup.

“We all do and no one more than me,” Lucas answers back, taking her hand and squeezing it tight. “But Max is alive. We haven’t found her yet but she is alive.”

“How do you know?” Will asks. “El can’t find her in the void. We don’t have…the certainty of it.”

“I do.” Lucas looks solemn as he speaks, eyes filled with stoicism and a feeling Mike thinks he can understand. His eyes dart down to his wrist. “My mark hasn’t faded.”

“Why would it fade?” El asks.

“When your soulmate dies, your mark fades. It almost disappears but mine is still there. She’s alive.”

“Is Max your soulmate?”

Lucas nods and while El beams at the news, Dustin sighs.

“You can’t know for sure,” Dustin whispers. He doesn’t look at any of them, eyes fixed on the mug in his hands. “No one can until both parties have their marks.”

“I know that,” Lucas answers back, and even if they love to bicker and throw gentle insults at each other, this time Lucas’ voice is filled with understanding and gentleness. “But I can feel it. I don’t know how to explain it but it’s her for me.”

“And what if she’s not? What if you’re wrong?”

El’s eyes flicker with confusion as she glances between them, and it doesn’t take her long to rest her eyes on Mike and Will, too.

“I’m not,” Lucas retaliates.

“But what if you are.”

Dustin means no harm, they all know it, but he’s asking the uncomfortable questions they’ve all been avoiding for so long.

“Then I will keep loving Max,” Lucas answers. “There are plenty of married people with unmatching marks.”

“But…aren’t marks supposed to help you find your soulmate?” El asks. “That’s what Dad told me.”

“They’re all but helpful,” Mike mutters, reminiscing about the talks he’s had with both his mother and sister.

“They should help but it’s not always that easy,” Lucas replies. He sniffles and shakes his head quickly, trying to imprint a smile on his lips. “But I won’t be wrong. She’s my soulmate. I just know it.”

Dustin smiles at him, and Lucas leans forward to bump their fists together, reassuring him that all is all good between them.

“I understand that,” Mike suddenly says, and all eyes are on him. He takes Will’s hand and intertwines their fingers together, gaining a curious look from their friends. “I feel the same.”

“Sorry, Wheeler, but you can only have one soulmate,” Lucas replies and Mike blinks a couple of times. “And I saw Max first.”

“Oh, you can keep her,” Mike answers back and Will not-so-gracefully nudges him in the side with his elbow. “Ow! I’m just saying, I’m happy with mine.”

Dustin opens his mouth but no words come out of it, and Mike knows he’s about to repeat what he’s said barely minutes before to Lucas, you don’t know yet, or, you can't be sure. He gapes and thinks, and his mouth curves into a soft smile.

“You guys never really told us how you got together,” Dustin decides to say and it takes both him and Will by surprise. Will’s breath hitches and Mike takes a few moments to think how to answer him.

“Mind you, they never told us they were together,” Lucas points out. “Mike just decided to kiss Will in front of us one day and that was it. From that day on, Will was his boyfriend.”

“I-we wanted to tell you. Properly,” Mike begins, wiggling around. “We just…we didn’t find the right time.”

“Hence the kissing.”

“Shut up. We were saying goodbye.”

El giggles, adjusting her position to make herself comfortable, and Mike feels Will relax next to him.

“My question still stands,” Dustin continues.

“It wasn’t a question.”

Lucas rolls his eyes, sighing loudly, and Mike peeks quickly at his boyfriend to see his reaction. The smile Will gives him is fond, and the light in his eyes is all he needs to know he can go on and appease their curiosity.

“It happened over time,” Mike starts but his voice comes to a halt when he doesn’t know what to say next. He doesn’t know how much Will wants to share, how much he’s allowed to actually say to his friends, but the fact that, after the kiss they shared in front of them six months prior, they randomly started to tease him about having a boyfriend and never once questioned the fact that they were two boys and in love with each other, makes Mike think they can share the world with them.

“You always had a special friendship,” Lucas chimes in when Mike doesn’t continue. “That was pretty obvious.”

“That’s true,” Dustin replies, and curiosity widens his eyes. “Did you always know?”

“Mike did,” Will suddenly says and Mike turns to look at him with adoring eyes. “He always knew that what we had was…special.”

There’s a soft silence that suddenly swallows them, and Mike can almost feel the electricity his and Will’s gazes make as soon as they lock eyes.

“You didn’t?”

The magic breaks quite rapidly, and Will turns to look at Dustin. There’s something gloomy swimming in his eyes, something that resembles like uncertainty mixed with hopefulness.

“I always found it hard to trust this world,” Will replies. His hand slips gently into Mike’s, and Mike finds it enchanting to see just how easily their fingers intertwine. “I wanted to believe it, but it wasn’t that easy. It took some convincing on his part.”

Mike chuckles, sinking deeper into the couch, his mind getting flooded with gentle memories of him trying to convince Will that they were made for each other.

“I’m sure it didn’t take him too long to do that,” Lucas replies. “When Mike wants something, he doesn’t stop until he gets it.”

“Hey!”

“Will probably agreed to be his boyfriend just to shut him up.”

Lucas doesn’t even try to hide his laugh and when Will snorts next to him, Mike feels both offended and relieved.

“I didn’t force him to be my boyfriend!” Mike answers back, letting go of Will’s hand to fold his arms. “He asked me.”

“Wait, really?” Dustin looks bewildered, and he glances between them with wide and curious eyes. He leans forward in his seat and Mike swears that if they had popcorn, he would be gulping them down.

“Yes,” Mike replies. “And he kissed me first.”

“Geez, Byers. I was not expecting you to be this bold.”

“I’ll have you know that I can be very bold when it’s needed,” Will answers back and their joyful laughs blend together to form a blue harmony when Will’s words finally hit.

Will has been bold since the first day Mike met him. He’s gone through so much pain and he’s still managed to come out of it all as the purest soul of them all. Only someone brave and bold could manage that.

“Yeah. That’s true,” Lucas says, preceding his own intention to remind his boyfriend that his bravery has not been overlooked.

“Then I have to say that I didn’t expect Mike to be this patient for once,” Dustin continues, trying to sweep away all the grains of sadness that are threatening to overthrow their mood. “Because I think I can safely say that you guys have been dating since, I don’t know, probably sixth grade. Maybe a bit later.”

“Actually, we got together last year,” Mike mutters, feeling suddenly too hyperaware of the fact that they’re sharing personal information with their friends. Best friends, his mind reminds him, and friends who have never once questioned their sexual orientation, but that doesn’t remove the awkwardness from this conversation.

“Last year?” Dustin blinks a few times and Lucas snorts.

“You’re joking,” Lucas intercedes and when neither he nor Will answer, his eyes grow wide. “Last year?! This can’t be real.”

“Why not?” El asks as she squints her eyes, trying to find an answer herself.

“They’ve been acting like lovebirds since seventh grade!”

“We have not!” Mike answers back and as soon as his words come out, he realises that maybe Lucas is not entirely wrong.

“I mean, he’s kind of right,” Will replies, as if he’s reading his mind. “You’ve been telling me we’re soulmates since we were ten.”

Mike gapes, trying to find a way to get out of this situation without looking too stupid or too in love, but then again, as he thinks about it, he realises he doesn’t actually mind if he does.

“Yeah, I have,” he decides to say, and his hand finds its way back to Will’s. Their fingers lock and Will chuckles, and while Dustin and Lucas keep teasing them about all those times when it was clear they were crushing over each other, Mike sits back and for once, gladly takes it all.

ooo

That night, when all of Lucas’ boxes have been emptied and filled again, with new labels to indicate which go to charity and which might still prove useful, the Party goes their separate ways.

Charles and Sue survey the front yard as they say goodbye, ready to protect the kids in case anything happens, and after a few failed attempts at asking Dustin and El to stay, they stay back and let the kids go.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Mike asks as Dustin hugs Lucas goodbye.

“Of course. If anything paranormal happens, El will take care of it,” he replies, and they all turn to look at the siblings who are still hugging each other and giggling about some inside jokes between them. “It’s not a long ride anyway, I have my mom’s car.”

“Okay.”

Dustin hits his shoulder with his fist and Mike almost falls on the ground.

“I guess we’ll be seeing you tomorrow, birthday boy,” he exclaims and Mike rubs his hand on his shoulder, sending his friend his best grumpy look. “Are you excited?”

The grumpiness is gone in seconds because suddenly, he’s very excited. “I am. And nervous.”

“Don’t be,” Lucas tells him. “It’s not going to hurt that much.”

Mike chuckles, and his hand automatically ends up on his wrist. His fingers start to trace random circles on his clean skin, right where, in a few hours, his mark will appear. Mike lets out a shaky sigh; midnight is barely five hours away.

“I know. Will told me all about it when he got his mark.”

He looks back again and sees Will whisper something to his sister with his eyes fixed on the ground, and El immediately engulfs him in a tight hug.

“How did you know?” Dustin suddenly asks. Mike turns to look at him and finds Dustin looking right where his eyes were just seconds before. “How did you know it was him?”

“It was a feeling I had inside,” Mike explains. “Whenever I was with him, I felt happy. I felt safe, and understood.”

“How did you know it was different from our friendship?”

Mike smiles, and Lucas folds his arms and listens attentively, while Dustin turns to face him with sad eyes Mike was not expecting to see.

“I never wanted to kiss any of you, that’s for sure,” Mike replies, and while Lucas laughs, Dustin frowns. “I don’t know how to explain it. I knew I wanted to spend forever with him. When he disappeared, I felt like a part of me went missing, too. I thought, for a very brief moment, that I was going to end up with a black mark. It was always him for me.”

Dustin surprises him with a tight hug, and Mike loses his balance for a second. He doesn’t waste time and hugs him back because it feels like Dustin was looking for specific answers from this conversation and Mike doesn’t know if he’s given him what he needs, but he still wants him to feel all of his support.

“I really hope it works out for you guys,” Dustin whispers, arms tightening around Mike’s shoulders, and Mike knows it’s not the time to remark how confident he is that in five hours, he’s going to get a mark that will match with Will’s.

“Thank you, Dustin,” Mike replies, and when Dustin breaks the hug, he smiles as if he’s trying to hold back tears.

“Right, we better go,” he says, turning around and heading towards the car. “El?”

El kisses Will on the cheek and gives him a reassuring smile, and after she’s waved everyone goodbye, she hops into the front seat and Dustin turns the engine on.

“Is he okay?” Mike asks. Will reaches them and stops right beside him.

“He’s been acting weird, lately,” Lucas replies. “Ever since he got to see Suzie last week. I feel like something happened.”

“Did they break up?” Will asks.

Lucas shakes his head, folding his arms. “No, they’re still together. But I have a feeling they had a talk about soulmarks and it didn’t go that well.”

Mike wonders how things could have gone wrong, how his or Suzie’s words could’ve done such damage to lead one or maybe even both of them with doubts and eyes filled with sadness.

Lucas brings him out of his thoughts with a punch on his shoulder, and the smile he gives him is witty and kind.

“I guess we’ll be seeing you tomorrow, birthday boy,” he says. “Let’s hope we get time to celebrate your birthday.”

“It has been awfully quiet in the last couple of days,” Will states, and his words only make Mike snort.

“Yeah, it’s the calm before the storm. With our luck, tomorrow hell will swallow us whole.”

“Hopefully after the cake.”

Lucas hugs them both again between laughs and chuckles, and Mike and Will quickly walk to Mike’s house. They hold hands for the whole journey back – not that it’s actually that long, since Lucas is basically his neighbour – and it still feels weird, to hold Will’s hand out in the open, but the streets have been awfully quiet and empty in the last couple of days and even if people saw them, Mike thinks they would be too preoccupied with the literal apocalypse they’re living to notice two boys holding hands.

At home, they have a nest of worrying parents waiting for them. His mother drags him in as soon as he opens the door and hugs him tight, while Joyce and Jonathan make Will disappear in the group hug that Hopper wants to join but doesn’t. When they let him go, though, Hopper ruffles Will’s hair and Will does nothing to dodge his touch, and Mike wonders what it would feel like, to have a caring father, because it looks like Hopper is going to take that role for Will sooner rather than later and his own father does not care enough about him to even look him in the eyes and reassure him with a smile.

It's rare to get a moment for themselves in his house because his mother absolutely refused to let the Byers family – and as a consequence, Argyle and Hopper, too – find another place where to sleep. The guest room was instantly assigned to Joyce and Hopper, while Argyle and Jonathan ended up in the basement and El in Nancy’s room. His mother didn’t oppose when Mike simply stated that Will was going to stay with him in his room.

“Where is El?” his mother asks once they’re alone. “I didn’t see her at dinner.”

“She’s staying with Dustin tonight,” Mike answers, stopping mid-way through the stairs. “They wanted to check something together.”

“I see.” She looks at him with inquiring eyes, not harsh but full of a glimmering emotion. Her eyes land on his hands and Mike suddenly knows what this is about.

She reaches for his hand and Mike lets her. He doesn’t run away, doesn’t say something like, Will is waiting for me upstairs, he takes a few steps down and lets his mother pass her thumb over his wrist.

“You’re finally getting your mark,” she whispers as a smile creeps up on her face. It’s almost sad, tinted with blue colours that Mike knows no one can wipe away. “Do you remember when you and Will drew your marks? You were so excited. It broke my heart to wipe it away from your wrist.”

“You had good reasons for it,” Mike reminds her and somehow, he hopes that she understands that he understands why she did that. That he knows she was protecting him, protecting them, and that he does not resent her for it.

She looks up, and the sadness in her eyes reaches the corners of her mouth, too, and her smile vanishes.

“I wish I hadn’t,” she confesses and she takes both his hands in hers. “Listen, I know we never talked about it but…we both know that I know.”

Mike gulps down his words because this is a talk he never thought they’d actually have. He thought he would get his mark, his parents would ignore it and not ask about it, and after surviving the end of the world, he would move out with Will and his parents would once again ignore the fact that they had a son who decided to never marry and instead settled to spend the rest of his life with another man. He expected his mother to still talk to him and maybe even come visit, but he didn’t expect her to actually acknowledge their relationship.

“I-I wasn’t sure,” Mike admits.

His mother smiles, and one of her hands finds a place on his cheek. “A mother always knows.”

“And a father?”

She snorts, letting out a soft laugh, and Mike feels his chest get lighter by the second.

“Your father can barely see what is happening right in front of his eyes,” she replies. “But I’ve seen you grow. And I’ve seen you fall in love with Will.”

Mike ducks his head, feeling suddenly ashamed, because her words are true but they still scare him, even if they carry nothing but love.

“Hey. Mike, look at me.” He takes his time and she never forces him, but when he finally looks up, he realises they’re both silently crying. “I love you. I’ve always loved you and I always will. Nothing will change that, not even the fact that you’re in love with another boy.”

Mike shakes and he doesn’t want to cry, doesn’t want to break down, and he doesn’t want to make this heavier than it is.

“No?” he manages to say, and his mother caresses his cheek once again.

“Of course not. How could I? The bond you have with Will is special, I can see that, but what makes me happy is how happy he makes you. You’re always happy when he’s around.”

“I know. I-” I love him. He doesn’t say it, he’s not ready to share it with her yet. “I am. I am happy.”

“I’m glad.” She gives his hands a hard squeeze and lets out a sigh of relief. “I hope your mark will match with his tonight.”

Mike’s breath hitches for a moment because it’s one thing to acknowledge the fact that your son is gay and in love with another boy, but to wish for him to have a boy as a soulmate? Mike was not ready to hear it.

“Me too,” is all he manages to say and she chuckles gently, patting his hands a couple of times.

“I mean it, Mike. I really hope he’s your soulmate because honestly, I don’t think you’ll ever find anyone else willing to put up with you for the rest of their lives.”

Mike blinks. Then, again, as he registers what she’s just said.

“Mom!”

“What? You’re my son, I know you! And Will is lucky to have you but you, my boy, are extremely lucky to have him.”

“I know that!” Mike folds his arms and fishes out his best grumpy face, not wanting to let her win.

“Good, but have you told him?” Her smile comes back, this time wittier than ever, and Mike knows he’s in for their usual mother-and-son bickering. “Because I’m sure he’s shown you plenty of times how lucky you are to have him.”

It sounds mildly ambiguous and Mike suddenly doesn’t want to bicker anymore.

“I’ve definitely shown- we are not having this conversation.”

“I’m just saying, you need to bring him on dates, tell him how much you love him, be considerate when-”

“Okay, I’m going up, good night, Mom!”

She laughs and he turns his back on her, but she stops him once again by grabbing his hand.

“I’m just teasing you,” she says, her voice filling once again with softness. “I know you’re both good to each other. But if you need anything, you can come to me, okay?”

Mike nods, trying to hold back the tears that were gone the moment the teasing started and that are now threatening to fall again.

“I know. Thank you, Mom.”

She offers him a smile again, and lets go of his hand. “Go, I’ve kept you from your boyfriend long enough,” she says, and Mike’s heart jumps at the word boyfriend. “Good night, Mike.”

“Good night, Mom.”

She leaves with a grin on her face and Mike gives himself a few seconds before going back upstairs. There are still a couple of hours to midnight but this, he thinks, is one of the best birthday gifts he could've ever received.

“You look happy.”

Mike closes his bedroom door and looks at Will. He’s sitting on his bed, legs crossed, and it might be weariness but for once, he looks relaxed.

“I am,” Mike replies, dragging his feet to the chair to change into his pyjamas. “It’s been a good day.”

“I’m glad.”

Will chuckles when Mike struggles to get out of his shirt, but he stays back and enjoys the show. Once Mike’s all done, he jumps on the bed next to his boyfriend and peppers him with kisses, enjoying the little moments his room allows them to have.

“Did something happen?” Will asks when Mike gingerly starts to kiss his whole face.

“My mom knows.” Mike leans back and Will’s wide eyes make his heart flutter with joy.

“About us?” Mike nods and Will’s breath shakes out of his mouth. “I didn’t know you were going to tell her.”

“I didn’t. She…she stopped me and told me that she knew.” Mike takes his hand, automatically intertwining their fingers together, and his thumb goes to trace the lines of Will’s mark he now knows by heart. “She said that she hopes our marks will match tonight.”

“Did she?” Mike nods, the angles of his mouth almost reaching his ears for how much he’s smiling, and Will stares into the void for a few seconds. “Wow. I was not expecting this.”

“Me neither, but I’m happy it happened tonight.”

When Will turns to smile at him, Mike is too caught up in his own happiness to notice right away that Will’s smile is sweet but not completely happy, and he leans in and kisses him. It’s when Will kisses back that Mike notices something is off, because he puts a bit too much passion in it, as if their last kiss is nearing. Mike wouldn't blame him for thinking that, they’re at war with a supernatural monster, but this feels different.

Mike is the first to break the kiss and Will chases after him but doesn’t kiss him again. He gives him a smile that makes him look vulnerable, and Mike suddenly remembers the hug he shared with his sister hours before.

“What did you and El talk about before?” he asks. “It seemed serious.”

“She was just…” Will starts but the next words lose all sound. He looks down, hands mingling with Mike’s, and Mike waits. “She wished me good luck for tonight. And told me she's going to be there if I need her.”

Mike knows that, realistically, there’s a high chance that Will is not going to end up being his soulmate. With nearly five billion people on Earth, the chances of his mark matching with Will’s are incredibly low. And yet, even though Mike knows he does not control destiny and that he cannot choose, his heart continues to insist that their marks will match.

“We don’t need any luck,” Mike replies when the silence starts to feel like it’s too much.

“Mike.”

Will tightens the grip around his hands and Mike doesn’t want to think that these could be the last hours before the end of their relationship, because if they’re not soulmates, they’re going to have to break up at some point. They can be stubborn all they want, they can deny the evidence, but if they’re not meant to be, their hearts will probably stop loving the other and start loving another, and Mike can’t even contemplate such a thing.

“We have to take it into consideration that our marks might not match,” Will continues when Mike refuses to look at him. “We’re not the ones who decide.”

“Says who? The universe?” Mike looks up and all the joy and happiness he felt barely minutes ago leaves his body. Everything feels heavy, like marble slowly holding him down, burying him under darkness and emptiness. “Destiny? I don’t give a fuck about destiny.”

“Neither do I but what do we do if our marks don’t match? Do we just ignore them? Ignore our true soulmates?”

Mike lets go of his hands when he feels the urge to disappear. He brings them over his eyes, quickly wiping away some tears he didn’t even know he was shedding, and then he covers his ears.

“I don’t want another soulmate!” Mike spits back, and his voice raises loud enough to make Will widen his eyes. “I want you, do you understand? I want you and no one else, and the world can tell me that there’s someone else out there waiting for me but I won’t listen because all I want is you.”

“But how is it fair to that other person?” There are tears, gleamy and trembling, ready to fall from Will’s eyes. “If I’m not your soulmate and you decide to stay with me anyway, how is it fair to your real soulmate? Don’t they get to have their happy ending, too? With you?”

“No.” Will gazes at him with a look of profound disappointment, and in that instant, Mike knows he has somehow let him down. His words are cold and almost insensitive, but he means every word. “How could I give them a happy ending if I could never love them the way I love you?”

“You will learn to love them, just like you learned to love me.”

Mike shakes his head. He’s known to be stubborn and he knows it’s a flaw rather than a perk, but this time, he doesn’t want to be wrong. He cannot be wrong.

“I will never love anyone the way I love you,” he whispers.

“You’re saying this now. Things might change,” Will replies, and his shoulder hunch down at the same time the corners of his mouth go up. “Things will change. And you’ll love again.”

“Why are you talking as if we’re broken up already? I still have to get my mark. We might still be soulmates.”

“It’s just…” Will lowers his gaze, and Mike notices how he’s fidgeting with his hands. “I want us to be prepared for the worst.”

“And I want us to be prepared for the best.”

Mike takes one of his hands and realises they’ve distanced themselves when he has to scoot across the mattress to get closer to him again.

“Will. Look at me.” It takes him a couple of minutes to finally look up and when he does, he tries to smile but his mouth trembles. All over his face, Mike can see a forceful battle made of doubts and fears, one Will is clearly losing, and he’s more determined than ever to put and end to his conflict for good. “I love you, okay? I might not say it all the time but I love you and there is no one else in this world that I will love more than you.”

He softens his look, realising it was probably a stare when he feels the skin around his eyes pull.

“I don’t know how to explain it but when I’m with you, I feel like I don’t even have to say what’s on my mind because you know what I’m thinking.”

A smile crosses Will’s lips, but it’s as fast as a blink of an eye.

“I feel safe, safer than I’ve ever felt with anyone,” Mike continues. “I know I can be myself, my true self, with you because you never judge me.”

“Well. Not really. I definitely judged you at the airport two weeks ago,” Will chimes in and the laughs that escape both their mouths ease the tension they’ve created around them.

“That’s different. It wasn’t you telling me my life choices are bad or that whatever I do or wear is not what I’m supposed to. You tell me things that I need to hear for my own good.”

“That shirt was really ugly,” Will replies, muffling his imminent crying with a laugh. “I couldn’t not tell you.”

“Yeah, I know.” Mike laughs and he lets them relish the moment for a while before continuing. “I’m my best self when I’m with you, Will. There's no way I will ever be able to be that with anyone else.”

Will stares at him for a time Mike cannot measure, and he doesn’t even try to because to get lost in Will’s eyes is a privilege he never wants to have to renounce.

“I don’t want you to be your best self with anyone else,” Will whispers. “I don’t want to see you grow old with another man, o-or woman. I want to have you in my life forever, and not just as my best friend. I love you a-and I want to spend forever with you, too.”

Mike never doubted the strength of their love but to hear Will say it, say that he feels exactly how he feels, makes his heart ten times lighter.

He leans in and rests his forehead against Will’s, causing his boyfriend to let go of a quivering breath.

“But I’m scared destiny has different plans for us,” Will continues, holding back a sob. “I-I don’t want to let go of what we have. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me a-and I don’t want to start over with someone else.”

“Me neither.”

It’s a possibility that they both know has a high chance of happening, but Mike doesn’t want it to. He wonders, for a moment, how they will deal with the very plausible reality where they’re not soulmates.

“We can still try to make it work,” Mike says. “If by any chance we’re not soulmates, we can still try. Live our lives together, and see what happens.”

“And if we meet our soulmates?”

“We’ll think about it when it happens.” Will sighs, and Mike doesn’t really like where this is going. “First of all, we have to survive this war.”

Will snorts, leaning back to look at him. “Easier said than done.”

“True. And even after that, we might not meet our soulmates for years. Decades even!” He scoots closer, nearly ending up on Will’s lap, and the smile he gains from Will looks like victory to him. “Why deprive ourselves of love in the meantime?”

“Mmh. I guess you’re right.” Will moves a lock of his hair away from his eyes and tucks it behind his ear. “Besides, there is no rule that says that people who are not soulmates cannot be in a relationship before they find their true ones.”

“Exactly! We can still be together,” Mike replies, his voice going from funny to soft, so soft that Will’s eyes tremble at that sound. “You’re all I want, Will. You’re all I need.”

That’s all it takes for Will to let go of his fears and lean forward so quickly that Mike almost misses it. He kisses him firmly on the lips, pressing his mouth to make it clear that they’re kissing – as if Mike could miss such a moment – and Mike can feel that this kiss is different from the one they’ve shared minutes before.

It’s somehow still desperate, but it’s a different kind, as if Will is trying to tell him to hurry up and kiss him back with the same passion because they might not be soulmates when midnight comes, but they are now and that’s all they need at that moment.

Will’s hands find their place in Mike’s hair, and he grabs it to pull him closer, making Mike inhale into the kiss. His lips move hungrily against his, and Mike switches off his brain and gives him all he has.

He rests his hand on Will’s chest, his fingers gently playing with the buttons of his pyjama shirt, but then he moves them up, inching closer to his neck. He gently wraps them around it and then locks them right behind it, his fingers immediately finding their way to the hair at the base of his neck.

He plays with them as Will deepens the kiss, head moving to the side to give him better access, and his mind goes blank when Will pulls away only to kiss his cheek. He moves slowly to his ear, making Mike laugh, and then kisses his way down to his neck at such a slow pace that Mike thinks time has stopped.

They’re in their bubble again, where they so often get lost in when their souls meet when they’re at peace. Will kisses the back of his ear, and Mike feels his heart stop. Mike presses his hands on Will’s lower back, and Will’s breath hitches in his throat. Their lips meet halfway and their heartbeats sync together to sing a love song known only to lovers.

Will goes back to his neck, a place he so often likes to find shelter in, and he kisses his way up, tickling his skin with his wet lips.

Then, he stops near his ear again and Mike never once opens his eyes.

“Ever thine,” Will whispers, hands on both sides of his face. Mike leans into his touch, his head gently bumping against Will’s cheek.

“Ever mine,” Will continues, and Mike knows it’s a quote they’ve read somewhere, but his brain is too fuzzy and inebriated with love to think about literature.

Will’s lips leave his skin but Mike needn’t to wait long when he feels his warm breath against his lips.

“Ever ours.”

Will kisses him again and his whole body shakes with such powerful emotions he fears, for an infinitesimal moment, he won’t be able to control it.

He pulls Will closer to him and his heart gets shocked by a sudden wave of electricity, and all these new emotions swim through his body as he kisses the boy he loves with all his heart.

Then, as if pulled by a magnet, the energy conveys all in one place and Mike feels his wrist burn.

“Ow!”

He breaks the kiss and inevitably, the magic around them, too, but the annoyance towards himself fades like steam when he realises that his wrist is burning.

He holds his wrist in his hand, eyes stuck on the black lines that are gradually coming together, and Mike’s head snaps up to look at the clock on his nightstand.

00:00.

It’s midnight. It’s his birthday.

And he’s getting his soulmark.

He looks up and sees the most terrified and yet hopeful look on Will’s face, and they look at each other one last time, aware of the fact that everything is about to change for good, before looking back down at the mark.

The first thing that appears is black lines. They chase each other until they stop once they’ve formed an open triangle, and Mike feels his heart come to a halt.

Will’s mark is a triangle, he thinks, but all the hope that burns inside him vanishes in seconds, as if put out by a cold waterfall. Will’s mark is a triangle but his triangle is not the same as Will’s. It’s almost as if it’s upside down, and his mind blanks as he tries to give himself an explanation.

Marks have to match, that’s how it works, and they have to be mirrored. Mike tries to recall all the talks he had with Nancy about soulmarks but she never talked about marks being upside down. The only thing that comes to his mind is the time she told him that sometimes, marks look different at first sight, only to look complete when put next to the soulmate’s.

He holds his breath and thinks, I can still be Will’s soulmate.

His heart goes through tumultuous emotions in a span of a second when a red spot appears right in the middle of his wrist. Will has one, too, but it’s not the same and Mike’s mind is reigned by such chaos that he can’t think straight.

It’s not the same, Mike thinks as he watches his mark come to life, and he thinks of ways to turn this situation around and make it work for them.

He’s heard of people who remove soulmarks, and he’s heard stories of people who’ve died from it, but he thinks that maybe, if they look well enough, they’ll find one that can make their marks match and then-

His breath catches in his throat when he sees three blue lines appear right above the red spot.

Will’s crown is yellow, he remembers, and his whole chest gets paved with the heaviest truth.

Their marks don’t match.

For a while, all he hears is silence. This is not possible. It’s simply not possible because a universe where Will is not his soulmate cannot exist.

His eyes are glued to his wrist and he can hear Will hold his breath in front of him, but he doesn’t dare to look at him yet. He keeps staring at his mark and hundreds of questions float around in his head: how can people have similar marks without being soulmates? No one ever said anything about it and he doesn’t remember reading about this in the books he’s found in the library.

Marks have to match. It’s the rule that this messed up world has made, destiny, fate, whatever people want to call it, and if people can have marks this similar without actually being soulmates, then whatever it is, it’s surely laughing at their faces.

Mike suddenly feels dizzy and he tightens the grip around his wrist to steady himself. It can’t be a coincidence because this mark is way too similar to Will’s, and the more he looks at it, the more his brain goes back to what his heart has been telling him for years.

He knows this mark. He’s spent nights staring at it and studying every single line of it and yet, he knows it’s different.

It’s different because it’s mirrored. It’s different because it’s upside down and it has blue instead of yellow, but most importantly, it’s different because this is his.

His fingers finally unfreeze and when they start to trace the lines, he hisses but doesn’t ignore the pain because every ounce of discomfort he feels makes it more and more real.

He looks up and his eyes lock with Will’s.

There’s confusion, sadness, and utter panic swimming in his eyes and Mike decides that this situation requires exactly that self-assured person he’s always tried to be in the past few years.

“It looks like yours,” he tries and Will moves his gaze back and forth from the mark to his eyes.

“It’s not the same,” Will whispers and Mike scoots closer.

“It is. It’s just upside down,” he replies and tries not to laugh at the irony of their marks being upside down.

“Mike. It’s not just upside down.” Will sniffles, passing a hand under his nose, and Mike feels him pull away. “My mark has yellow on it. Yours is blue.”

“It’s just a colour.”

“Mike, please. I-it’s not the same. They don’t match.”

They’ve been dreading those three words for years and Mike never thought he’d hear either of them say it, not for real.

“But we can’t ignore the fact that the rest of the mark is basically the same. Look.” Mike lifts his wrist up, bringing it closer to Will’s face. “Everything else is the same.”

“Then how do you explain the different colours?” Will asks.

Mike takes a deep breath and thinks. “Nancy said that some people only know that their marks actually match when they put their wrists next to each other. Maybe it’s the same for us, too.”

“You think the colours will look different if we do?” Will asks, sounding a tad too sarcastic. “Like it’s a light trick or something?”

“Maybe it is!” Mike answers back because he is not losing hope. Not yet. “There’s only one way to find out.”

Mike extends his arm between them, his fresh mark still pulsing against his skin. He looks at Will with such confidence that he doesn’t know where he’s getting it from, but Will needs him to be the strong one right now and he’s not going to let a stupid colour ruin the mood, because it might not be the exact same as Will’s, but it’s definitely the same mark. He just knows it.

Will takes a few seconds to raise his arm, and his hand shakes when he places his wrist right next to Mike’s.

Mike feels his heart throb fast in his chest, going from a silent run to the loudest marathon he’s ever heard take place in his ears.

Both their breaths come to a halt as they stare at their joined wrists and realise that their marks make the perfect replica of the shield Will painted on the painting weeks ago. The only thing that’s different is the colours; however he looks at it, Will’s crown is still yellow and Mike’s is undoubtedly blue.

Even so, the colours don’t feel that important when Mike looks at their marks next to each other, looking so complete and in harmony even with different shades, and he smiles so wide that his ears shoot up and hide in his curls. He opens his mouth but he has no time to say anything at all that their marks start to glow.

The lines on his wrist are burning again, harder than before, and he looks up to see the same discomfort on Will’s face. But all is long forgotten when the glow becomes stronger, and all their attention is drawn back to their marks.

Tiny green beams shoot out of the black lines, and for a moment, it’s all a dance of colours and light. It’s a mesmerizing view, so full of wonder and emotions that Mike feels complete.

Then, when the glow starts to lose its brightness, gleaming lines come out of their marks and rise up in the air to form the complete mark, as it would be if not divided into two parts.

It’s the shield, and it’s different because the crown is neither yellow nor blue: it’s green. The mark shines brighter and brighter until it disappears into the night, and Will gasps.

“My mark,” he exclaims, eyes fixed on it. “I-it changed.”

“What?”

Mike doesn’t know how to feel because he both panics and rejoices at the same time, and he forgets his own mark to look at Will’s.

“The crown,” Will replies, gently bringing his wrist up. “It’s green now.”

Mike widens his eyes when he sees that the yellow has been replaced by a vivid green colour, and he loses no time and checks his wrist.

He quivers, and a twinkling feeling blossoms in his chest. “So is mine.”

Will vigorously grabs his hand and brings it near his scrutinizing eyes, and for the next minute, their gazes move frantically as they try to analyse every single detail of their marks.

“They match,” Will whispers, breaking a silence that felt like heavy bricks on their chests. “They’re the same now.”

Mike nods, suddenly feeling ecstatic. He wonders, for a very brief moment, if Will’s painting has changed, too.

“It’s you,” Will then says. “It’s really you.”

“I told you we were soulmates.”

Will laughs so loud that Mike startles, but he leans forward and hugs him tight. Will’s laugh has always been one of his favourite sounds but now it feels like a mark on his soul that will never be wiped away.

They’re soulmates. Mike tightens the hug at that thought and his wrist hurts as he rubs it against the fabric of Will’s pyjama.

“Oh my god. We’re soulmates. We’re fucking soulmates.”

“Could you not swear in a moment like this?”

“Sorry. It’s just…” He leans back and he’s smiling so wide that his cheek hurt already. “You’re my soulmate.”

“You’re my soulmate,” Will parrots, and he laughs again. “I’m your soulmate.”

Suddenly it's like their kids again, and they can’t stop laughing as their hands keep grabbing each other. They laugh and they roll around the bed as if they’re seven years old again and they know nothing about soulmates and destiny. It’s like old times again except, this time, their wrists are tainted with marks that are there to stay forever, lines that bind their futures together like a thread, and Mike knows he’ll never be as happy as he is now.

He kisses Will, long and sweet, and Will wraps him in a tight hug as he vows to never let him go.

“We’re ours,” he whispers against his lips and Mike deepens it as he presses his own body against Will’s, caging him between his arms and the mattress.

In a haze of happiness, Mike’s body shakes with realisation: they’re soulmates.

In a universe of five billion people, he found his soulmate in the only person he ever wanted to love. His best friend in the entire world is the person he’s meant to spend the rest of his life with, and Mike thinks, between one kiss and the other, that maybe destiny doesn’t really exist.

Maybe it’s all their doing, maybe they’ve influenced their paths so much that there was no other outcome but them having matching marks.

When Will giggles into the kiss, Mike realises that he’s tickling his neck with his hand, and his mind instinctively decides to replace it with a tender kiss. He moves down, his lips finding a spot right under Will’s ear, slowly inching towards his neck, and Will’s laugh never stops.

Mike can feel his smile even when their lips are not touching, and when Will wraps his legs around him, Mike lays all his body weight on his.

As their bodies press together, Will’s breath hitches and Mike smiles when he moves on the other side of the neck, his mind lost in the moment and his heart beating so fast he’s sure Will can feel it, too. He kisses him, again and again, and when Will tightens the grip around him, Mike moves a bit too much to the right and they both realise they were on the edge of the bed when they roll and fall on the ground.

“Ow!”

Mike disastrously lands on his back while Will’s fall is attenuated by Mike’s chest. He feels pain irradiate through all his back up to his shoulders and Will quickly rolls off of him as soon as they’re landed.

“Are you okay?” Will asks, his voice mildly concerned. When Mike grunts and gives him a deadly stare, he smiles.

“No! Obviously!”

Will chuckles, sitting up, and a soft knock startles them both.

“Guys? Is everything okay?” It’s his mother and Mike senses a nervous note in her voice.

“We’re fine! We just…fell from the bed.” Which is true, but embarrassing nonetheless.

“Okay. So…everything’s good?”

Mike realises just then that she’s not just asking about the loud noise she’s just heard.

“Everything’s perfect, Mom,” he replies and her sigh of relief is so loud, it almost feels like she’s in the room with them.

“I’m glad,” she says and Mike almost considers letting her in to take a look at their marks, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to let anyone in into their own little moment and he knows that when morning comes, everyone will get their turn to look at their marks.

“Good night, boys.”

“Good night, Mom.”

She leaves with excited steps and when Mike turns to look at Will, he finds his boyfriend – his soulmate – looking back at him with adoring eyes and a smile so wide, it reaches his pupils.

“We should try and get some rest,” Will says. “This war is not going to stop because we got our matching marks tonight.”

“I know, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep any time soon.”

“Same. But we can still just laze about in bed.”

Will gets up, reaching out to help him stand up, too, and Mike takes his hand and feels his wrist burn again when their marks brush.

Will jumps back into bed, this time getting straight under the covers, and Mike follows him and finds his place in his arms.

“I still can’t believe our marks changed so that they would match,” Will states, nuzzling his nose into his hair. “I’ve never read about it.”

“Me neither,” Mike replies, sighing contently. “But we haven’t actually read that much about soulmarks. And I feel like all the books in this world don’t have all the answers we need.”

“That’s most probably true.”

Mike shifts in his place and lifts his wrist mid-air, bringing his fingers over the crown in his mark. “It’s green.”

“Yes, I’ve noticed that.”

“Like the bracelet I gave you.”

Will hums, turning to look at him with a funny smile, and when he gleefully kisses his forehead, Mike feels the urge to giggle.

“That’s true,” Will exclaims, laughing softly. “You really manifested it, huh?”

“I’d say we both did,” Mike replies, wiggling around to find a more comfortable position. “You draw the shield, I chose the final colour. This is both our doing.”

Will chuckles, making his heart tickle with emotion, and a new question sparkles in Mike’s mind.

“Do you think they’ll glow like that every time we put them next to each other?” Mike continues, tracing the lines of his fresh mark with his fingers. It still stings, and he should really give his skin some rest, but he just can’t stop.

“I don’t think so,” Will replies. “And I kind of hope it won’t because it would get us in too much trouble, don’t you think?”

Mike snorts, resting his head on Will’s chest as he finally finds a comfortable position. He knows the world they live in does not accept people like them, and it feels even more absurd now that he knows that gay people can actually have soulmates.

“You’re right,” Mike answers. “And now that I think about it, I’ve never seen people with matching marks have glowing wrists.”

“We don’t know that many couples who are soulmates, do we?” Will states and Mike realises, that they really don’t.

“I can only think of Lucas’ parents,” he replies. “Has Jonathan ever told you if his and Nancy’s marks match?”

“No, never.”

“Neither has Nancy.”

“I’m not sure why, though, because if they’re soulmates, they would’ve told us, but then again, maybe they don’t want to share?”

“I’d want to share with the whole world,” Mike replies and Will chuckles as he turns slightly to his side and slips his arm around his waist. “Maybe they’re not soulmates.”

Will rests his cheek against his head and lets silence fall around them as Mike keeps on staring at his mark. It’s a possibility, they both know it, and it’s not surreal to think that they’re still together even if they’re not soulmates. It was their plan, too, in case their marks had turned out differently.

“Whatever it is, I hope they both find happiness,” Will states after a while. “And peace, if necessary.”

Peace. It’s what they would’ve had to find one day had they not been soulmates, but even if that was a speech they had mere minutes ago, Mike feels like it belongs to a past long gone, and he turns around and hides his face in the crook of Will’s neck.

“I’m glad it’s over for us,” Mike whispers.

“Me too,” Will answers, and his fingers start to trace lines on his shoulder, as if he’s trying to draw a mark there, too, and Mike thinks he would let Will draw lines everywhere if it meant letting the world know he’s taken and that his forever lays in Will’s heart. “Did you ever doubt it?”

Mike looks up, feeling equally confused and confident, ready to swipe off whatever doubt is still navigating in Will’s mind.

“That we were soulmates?” Will nods, almost imperceptibly, and Mike leans in to kiss his cheek. “No, never.”

“How? How could you not doubt it in all these years?”

Mike hums as his mind ends up on the avenue of memories. “I don’t know how to explain it, but I always knew. It was something I felt deep inside me, as if it was printed in my core.”

“I didn’t feel it,” Will suddenly says and Mike leans back to look him in the eyes, but Will has his gaze planted on the roof, as if he doesn’t dare looking at him. “I had doubts, constantly. I-I wanted to believe we were soulmates but I just couldnt be sure about it.”

“That’s okay. We’re different, we all have our own feelings.”

“But shouldn’t soulmates just know they met the right person?” Will asks, finally turning around and meeting his gaze. “Shouldn’t I somehow have always known that you were right all along and that I had to feel it, too?”

“It’s not a rule, Will. It’s okay that you had doubts.”

“No, it’s not. It makes me feel like I don’t deserve this, that I don’t deserve you, because I doubted this would happen.”

“Hey, no, don’t be stupid.” Mike sits up and forces Will to do the same, and he takes his hands and squeezes them tight. “You, Will Byers, deserve all the love and the happiness in this world, especially after all you’ve been through. We deserve this, we deserve each other and you having doubts doesn’t make you unworthy of having a soulmate. It makes you real.”

“How so?” Will asks and he’s holding back tears, something Mike was not expecting because even with the evidence right in front of them, on their wrists, Will still cannot believe he deserves this.

“Because people can’t just know everything,” Mike replies. “I had a feeling, and that’s okay, but I could’ve been wrong.”

“But you weren’t. You weren’t and we’re soulmates. I should’ve had that feeling, too.”

“Don’t you think that if that’s how things were supposed to work, then everyone would have found their soulmates already?” Mike asks and Will rolls his eyes, one of his hands quickly wiping away a tear. “I know you love me, Will, and I love you. What we had, what we went through, was all I needed to know that we were meant to be each other’s soulmates and you might have had doubts, but I don’t blame you. It’s perfectly normal and it’s just who you are. It does not make you any less worthy of being loved, do you hear me?”

Will nods but Mike can see how he’s still not entirely convinced.

“Will. We don’t need soulmarks to know that we’re meant to be together. Our love is all we need and we might have the confirmation that we’re soulmates but even without this,” Mike exclaims, and he takes Will’s hand and locks their fingers together, making their soulmarks touch, “I would’ve loved you anyway, forever and for eternity, in this world or in another, where things like soulmarks and destiny don’t exist.”

Will chuckles, bringing their joined hands over his mouth, and Mike smiles when he kisses them.

“Okay, okay, I believe you,” Will whispers.

“Say it. Say you deserve this.”

Will’s eyes gleam with sadness, but then, when Mike looks at him, the sadness goes away and happiness replaces it.

“I deserve this,” Will says. He kisses their hands again, for a long time, and Mike basks in the moment. “I deserve you. I deserve us.”

“You do. We do.”

Mike leans in and kisses him, closing his eyes and hoping that this is also enough to wash some of Will’s fears away. He knows it will take him more than this speech to make all of his doubts and fears disappear but they’ve got time. If the monsters don’t kill them before they get a chance at living a normal life, that is, but that is a thought he wants to leave for other days.

Will lets go of his hand and brings his arms around his neck, and as they kiss, Mike remembers the words Will murmured before his mark appeared.

“It’s just like you said before,” he whispers, chasing Will’s lips when he breaks the kiss to look at him.

“What did I say?”

“Before I got my mark, you were quoting something, but I can’t quite remember what it was.”

Will blushes as his eyes go wide, and Mike wishes he had a camera to capture this moment.

“It’s part of a love letter Beethoven wrote to his lover,” Will answers. “We had a lesson about it once in Mrs. Kimberly’s class, do you remember her?”

Mike nods, clearly remembering their old English teacher from middle school.

“She’s kind of hard to forget.”

“I know. She did a lesson about poetry once and I remember being fascinated by this love letter. It stuck with me a-and I know it was cheesy, but it felt like the right thing to say.”

Mike smiles, pecking his lips quickly. “It was quite romantic.”

“And cheesy.”

Mike shoves him gently, gaining a soft laugh from Will that sounds like a melody to him.

“It was perfect,” Mike answers back. “Because it’s true.”

He scoots closer and kisses Will on the lips, but before either of them can deepen it, he leans back but still stays close enough.

“Ever thine,” he whispers, and he kisses him again. “Ever mine.”

Will smiles into the kiss, making him forget for a moment that there’s still something he wants to say. He kisses him and Mike gets lost in their love that throbs like an active volcano.

“Ever ours,” Will completes and Mike seals their promise with another kiss.

Mike knows that the world that he lives in is peculiar, and cruel, and unfair, but right now, at this moment, locked between Will’s arms, basking in their love, he thinks that maybe, the world isn’t that bad at all if he gets to spend forever with the boy he loves.