𝚆𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴 𝙸𝚂 𝙼𝚈 𝙼𝙸𝙽𝙳? ⇢ ʙʏʟᴇʀ

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"So what started this... whole thing?"

With his back pressed against the hard brick finish of Hawkins Junior High's right wing building, Will Byers tucked his chilled fingers into hand openings of his sweater, trying to conserve as much heat as he could as he stared out across the school's parking lot. As the weeks progressed, Indiana was proving it's winters to be more and more hostile as the temperature average decreased and bundling up with multiple layers of socks and coats became the norm.

To Will's left, Dustin sat against the small jutting out piece of brick wall that rested against the structure just high enough to provide a seat for the four boys in comparison to the frigid concrete beneath their dangling fear. His hands were stuffed into his pockets tightly, trying to keep his hands from growing cold as his gaze followed Wills.

"The name, I mean. It was... it's because he's cranky, right? Like he's 'blue'?" Dustin had offered in response to Lucas' questioning, glancing towards Will as he tipped his head, waiting for some sort of confirmation from his guess.

To Will's right sat Lucas and Blue, in that order. Lucas, the owner of the voice that had posed the initial question, was tucked well into a puffy green jacket that he'd owned for several years but hadn't quite grown out of yet. Wrapped snugly around his neck was a pitch black scarf, and his hands, which were mirroring Dustin's on the insides of his pockets, were gloved and toasty. Blue sat peacefully on the other side of him, nestled inside of his plaid jacket like he couldn't have been happier anywhere else in the world. His bare hands, pale, thin and shaking (not entirely credited to the winter cold) were resting on the brick makeshift seat they were all seated on, fingers gripping the frozen structure as he leaned forward just enough to see Will from around Lucas' shoulder.

"It's not because he's cranky, Dustin," Lucas grumbled softly, in no way cranky himself as he peered between Will and Dustin, his eyes settling on Will finally as he awaited a response. Watching the kids dribble out of the school and head towards the idling cars that were parked along the drive in through the school's main parking lot, Will savoured the question for several seconds before his gaze flickered towards Blue. As their eyes met, and Blue gave Will a soft, patient smile, Will felt his throat tighten.

He needs a haircut, Will thought almost immediately, and his face, though already flushed from the cold, darkened even more at the fact that this was the first thing that came to his mind.

As the first couple weeks of December had slipped by gracefully, everything got progressively more blue. Both in a general sense, and in Will's case, quite literally. The school was now completely papered with decorations for the coming evening, which had crept up on the students and faculty like a quick-moving infection. Students had their outfits all picked out, and in only a couple hours after their departure, students would be returning to the school in glittery dressed and nice dress shirts to spent their evening dancing and having fun. It had been getting more Blue for Will, of course, as one could expect. After their confrontation at the quarry, everything seemed to settle back into place. Will was drifting off after long school days to spend his evenings in Blue's basement with the three of them again, and there had even been several nights (on weekends, of course) that he'd found himself too tired to make his way home. These nights he crashed on the couch downstairs, enveloped in the welcoming scent of Blue's home, whispering nothings back and forth with Blue until the two of them drifted into a serene sleep. This was doing nothing, of course, to help Will's prior situation. He thought, however, that if he couldn't approach it now, he could wait. He liked spending time with Blue more than anything else, whether Blue was aware of that himself or not. Even if they weren't really doing anything. Just being there felt nice. It felt right.