byler oneshots ft. mikes obliviousness

the heart in the tree pt. 2

They boys had ben playing dungeons and dragons for about 3 hours, when Karen called them up for dinner. "But mom! can you just give us five more minutes?" Mike yelled up the stairs. "No Micheal, you can continue after dinner" Karen answered in a flat voice. "Fine" Mike said and rolled his eyes. "Come on guys" He then said and began to run to the stairs, Dustin and Lucas right behind him. When they were half way up the stairs, Mike noticed Will still sitting at the table. "Will?" he said. Wills head immediately snapped in Mikes direction. "You coming?" Mike said and furrowed his brows.  "Uh.. Yeah" Will said as his eyes stared into the distance. Mike frantically  turned around, trying to figure out what Will was staring at. There was nothing. Just the slightly opened door , creaking a little bit after Dustin had ripped it open. "Come on Will.. Lets go eat" Mike said and walked back down the stairs. Will just kept still. "I'm not very hungry" Will said and played with a loose thread on his shirt, where a button had ben once. "I have to use the bathroom" Will then said and raced past Mike, leaving him alone in his basement. "Weird" Mike thought to himself, and then walked up the stairs.

When Mike reached the dinner table, everyone had already gathered around it. "Where's Will?" Lucas asked as Mike pulled out a chair and sat on it. "I dunno, he said he had to use the bathroom" Mike shrugged. "Fair enough" Lucas said as he carefully placed a piece of salmon on his plate.  "Is he okay?" Karen asked from the other side of the table, raising her brows. "I'm sure he's just fine, ms. Wheeler." Dustin said with a polite smile. Karen then nodded and returned to the salmon on her plate. There was an awkward silence at the table. "Sweetie eat your vegetables" Karen broke the silence, and started to cut the carrots on Holly's plate into smaller cubes. Suddenly, Will came jogging down the stairs. Mike turned his chair around, the wooden legs on his chair causing an obnoxiously loud sound against the hardwood floor. Holly whimpered and made herself small, since she did not like loud sounds like that. Nancy just raised her brows and started to cut her vegetables more aggressively. Will then pulled out a chair for himself, and sat down. Even though he had a smile plastered on his face, his skin was pale and his eyes looked dull. "So uh.. Its Steve's birthday soon" Nancy muttered, keeping her eyes on the salmon carefully separated from the vegetables on her porcelain plate. "Oh" Karen said and corrected the napkin in her lap. "Carol and I were just thinking about going to the mall, and finding him a gift" Nancy shrugged. "Seriously? You're hanging out with Carol now?" Mike said raising his voice slightly. Nancy just gave him a glare, and returned to her mothers confused face. "Micheal calm down now" Ted, who had not spoken the whole dinner, said. Mike sighed and laid back in the chair, crossing his arms angrily. Dustin and Lucas shared a look. "That sounds very nice, Nancy" Karen said with no sign of any emotion in her voice. 

When the horribly awkward dinner was done, all the boys returned to their campaign. Mike knew Will used to love their campaigns, but something had just seemed very off since he got back from the 'upside down'. For example, he just used a fog cloud when he was being attacked by some aggressive goblins. (i legit know nothing about d&d so bear with me okay) when he could have used ray of frost or something. 

It was now 3am. the boys were mouthing words and making weird hand moments to communicate, because if Karen or Ted heard them being up this late, they would definitely be in deep shit. Despite the campaign being thrilling, they decided it was time to sleep when Dustin's eyes suddenly began to close, and his head fell onto Lucas' shoulder, completely limp. Lucas had of course flinched right away, causing Dustin to wake up again. Mike had really had to contain himself not to laugh, but Will on the other hand just looked down at his fingers and smiled. 

Dustin was the last one to roll out his cheap thin portable air mattress, letting out a huff of air and collapsing onto it, and pulling his blanket all the way over his head. Just as all the other boys were arranging themselves, Will stopped dead in his tracks. "W-what is it Will?" Mike stuttered, rather freaked out by his friends behavior. "I uh.. I forgot my walkman at castle Byers." Will said, still looking into nowhere. "Oh, well can't you get it tomorrow?" Mike asked. "No, I need the music to fall asleep" Will said and looked down. Just as Mike was about to answer, they heard snores coming from both Lucas and Dustin. Their eyes then met again, both of them smiling. Even though it was 3am, Mike understood that his friend needed music to fall asleep, he had ben in another dimension for a week after all. "Its okay, we'll go get it!" Mike whisper shouted, careful not to wake his other friends up. Wills eyes immediately lit up. "Really?" he asked. "But i don't have my bike, my mom drove me here!" "Its okay, you can just ride on the back of mine" Mike, who was already getting up, said. "Now come on" He said and stretched his hand out for Will to take. Wills hand was ice cold, meanwhile Mikes hand was nice and warm. 

The two boys made it into Mikes garage as quiet as possible, praying that Holly wouldn't wake up or something, as she would definitely tell Karen. Mike pulled out his bike and kicked down the kickstand on his bike. "Hop on" Mike whispered to Will, who was standing a little hesitant behind him. Mike did  feel a little as when he felt Wills arms go around his waist, as it reminded him of Eleven. But at the same time it was a nice feeling, of closeness. Mike struggled a little as he stomped in the pedals. Even though Will was obnoxiously small for his age, it still made biking a lot harder with him on the back. As they made their way to Mirkwood, Mike could feel Wills arm going even tighter around him. Mike knew this was the place where he had seen the 'demogorgon'. Will had told him and the other boys. The leaves crunched as the tires on Mikes bike drove over them. Inside the forrest was a bumpy terrain, and not really meant for riding a bike. A silhouette of castle Byers was beginning to appear in the distance. "We're here!" Mike said to Will, who had buried his face in the back of Mikes coat. Will quickly jumped off, leaving Mike being able to breathe properly without Will squeezing his stomach. Not long after, Will pulled away the cloth that served as a door to castle Byers, and walked out with his walkman in his hand. Though instead of jumping onto the back of Mikes bike, he ran over to a tree and picked up a rock. Since it was quite dark out, Mike couldn't figure out what will was doing, though it sounded like he was carving something into it.  Will then turned back to Mike with a genuine smile on his face, which Mike had missed dearly. Instead of looking at the tree, Mike turned his gaze to Wills dainty hands, still holding the sharp rock. "Whoa!" Mike exclaimed. Will felt relief rush through his body. He had carved a heart into the tree, and written his and Mikes initials in it. Ever since he had come back from the upside down, it had ben hard to communicate with others, even his best friends. So therefore he had decided he might as well take a grand chance and put himself out there, by carving that heart in the tree. "Cool rock!" Mike continued. "Wha-" Will said quietly before being cut off by Mike "it's perfect for Lucas' wrist wrocket!" Mike squealed as he ripped the rock out of Wills hands. Will felt stupid. Of course Mike wouldn't feel that way about him. They were just friends.