What is Love? (A Byler Oneshot)

What is Love?

 Will, Lucas, and Mike hung out in the basement of the Wheeler household on a rainy summer afternoon. Will had dressed himself up in wizard robes to look more like his character in dungeons and dragons, Will the Wise, in an attempt to get his friends more into the campaign as some renaissance type music played in the background. The friends, in Will's perspective, seemed to be having a good time. If you were to see the situation from Lucas and Mike's perspective, however, it would be a different story.

You could see remnants of the tight-knit group's past strewn across the basement's carpeted floor. A blanket fort lay in the corner, a reminder of the first time the group had met Eleven and she had lived with them for a few days. Drawings that had been done by Will throughout his childhood remained hung on the walls, by the sofa where Mike always did his homework, and Dungeons and Dragons pieces lay across the floor. The three boys sat in chairs at a small table, a game board before them, Will talking enthusiastically as he led his friends on the new campaign he had made. It was strange to imagine that Mike had sat in that same seat two years ago, on the night that everything had changed for their group of friends.

As the boys sat around the table the phone rang. Lucas and Mike's bored expressions rapidly turned to eager ones as they raced towards the phone.

"No! It's a distraction!" Will exclaimed in his dungeon master voice over the sound as he tried to keep the game going. He hit his wizard's staff against the floor as he continued, "A trap. Do not answer it."

Mike quickly picked it up, "El?" he inquired. His expression fell as he responded to another voice over the line, "No, sorry. Not interested." He hung up the phone and turned back toward his friends. "Telemarketers," he stated dejectedly.

"Maybe we should just call them?" Lucas suggested as Mike turned to look at him.

"We can do that?" Mike responded in a confused tone.

" I think so."

"Yeah, but what would we say?"

"We'll say nothing!" Will cut in, still using his dungeon master tone, "The Khuisar Tribe still needs your help."

Mike looked at him with a bored expression, "All right, then. I'll use my torch to set fire to the chambers, sacrificing ourselves, killing the jujus, and saving the Khuisar. We all live on as heroes in the memories of the Kalamar." he stated flatly.

"Victory," Lucas answered without enthusiasm as he high-fived Mike, without breaking eye contact with Will.

"Okay. Fine." Will started, "You guys win." he began to take off his wizard robes to reveal his clothing underneath. He then put the staff down and turned off the music. "Congratulations."

"Will, I was just messing around," Mike assured his friend. "Hey, let's finish for real. How much longer is the campaign?" he started to walk closer to his friend as he talked to him.

"Just forget it, Mike," Will answered.

"No, you want to keep playing, right?" Mike asked Lucas.

"Y-yeah, totally," Lucas reassured as he turned towards Will.

"We'll just call the girls afterward." Mike turned back to Will.

"I said forget it, Mike, okay?" Will shouted. "I'm going home." Will finished as he grabbed his backpack and started walking towards the stairs.

"But..." began Mike.

"Come on, Will." Lucas tried to stop his friend.

"Move!" he shouted at Lucas as he continued towards the stairs. Lucas sighed as Mike quickly followed his oldest friend out of the room, and soon out of the house and into the pouring rain.