Chapter Text
Mike traced every small hole in his ceiling from pins where he had used to place posters, until he’d taken them down to make space for new decor on his walls. The alarm clock’s red light projected onto the walls, giving them a slight tint of red.
He turned to stare at the time, it was almost four in the morning and he hadn’t been able to close his eyes.
Great. No point in waiting on sleep to ease his body now if he was just going to get up in an hour.
He forced himself out of the comforts of his sheets, walking out his room and downstairs into the kitchen to pour himself a warm cup of coffee.
He blankly stared at the wall in front of him as he picked up the coffee pot, his mind in a far away place.
His best friend was asleep in the basement, and he had hardly spoken to Will at all. He had been a dick all summer, and tried his best to avoid the other. The guilt pressed on Mike’s chest, he squeezed his eyes shut.
A sudden pain broke through his trance, he froze— he went to whip around with the coffee pot and mug in hand, spilling the hot coffee on his hand.
“Shit!—“
Mike dropped the mug, the ceramic smashing into pieces on the floor, the coffee flooding around it in a sad puddle.
He cursed under his breath, wondering who he had just woken up from the loud crash. He sighed and put the pot back down, grabbing the towel that rested by the sink and throwing it over the steaming liquid.
Mike’s eyes watered slightly, just from pure exhaustion. He felt a headache creeping into the back of his skull, he put his head in his hands for a moment before he heard footsteps.
Will stood there with a concerned expression, he gave Mike a shy smile before looking down and noticing the sad broken mug on the floor.
“What happened there?” Will’s voice was soft, Mike appreciated that. The soft voice felt so— easing to his headache, maybe he wouldn’t need ibuprofen.
“I dropped a mug.” Mike gave a gentle smile, trying to play off the situation, “It was old, don’t worry about it. Just burnt my hand on some coffee, okay?”
Will nods, stepping over to help clean up the spill. Mike reached out, a hand falling to Will’s shoulder.
Will glanced up, Mike felt his face go slightly red.
“You don’t have to help, I shouldn’t have been making coffee in the dark anyway.” Mike tried to soften his voice, removing the hand that now felt like it was burning from the feeling of Will’s shoulder.
The brunette shrugs, bending down and grabbing the shards of what was left of the mug, placing it gently into the cloth.
“I really don’t mind, Mike. You seem exhausted anyway, why do you get up so early?”
Mike shrugged, grabbing a few paper towels off the counter and starting to clean up the liquid on the kitchen floor.
“I prefer to, always have. Not usually this early..” Mike tilted his head, “But I normally don’t sleep for long, might as well do something with my life and get up, right?”
Will snorted, “As a kid you would sleep until like.. The afternoon at my house. I miss that sometimes.”
Mike hummed, “I liked sleeping on your floor— It was nice to be next to you honestly? I’ve been…”
Mike hesitated, he didn’t want to start sobbing about his feelings then and there, but Will deserved an apology.
“I’ve been an asshole. And I’m sorry. It hasn’t just been this summer, it’s been last summer and everything–”
“Hey, hey.” Will interrupted, taking the wet paper from Mike’s hands. “I know, and we can talk about this later, for now, just take it easy and get ready for school. Okay?”
Mike nods, “Yeah, okay. Cool.. Cool.”
The brunette smiled at him, and finished cleaning up the mug mess. Mike went up to his room to change into something presentable for school and came back downstairs, laying down on the couch to rest his eyes for a minute,
He heard the basement door creek open, Will stood, wearing a nice polo button up that suited his eyes. Mike flashed him a gentle smile for a moment before Will’s face changed into something of concern.
“Hey, is your nose okay?”
Mike paused, lifting a hand to his nose he suddenly realized that his nose was bleeding, the crimson coating two of his fingers. He groaned and grabbed a tissue from the coffee table.
“Yeah— It’s probably just a little dry out. Allergies and stuff.”
Will frowned and sat beside him. “You’re sure it’s not an upside down thing? I know Vecna’s been gone and everything but.. We can’t rule out all possibilities.”
The ravenette held back a laugh, what could Vecna possibly want from him? He wasn’t traumatized, nor did he struggle with his mental state. Sure, he was upset sometimes but everyone had bad days. Everyone struggles, that doesn’t instantly mean Vecna has a way into his mind.
“I’m not under his spell, I couldn’t be. It’s me, Will.” Mike nudged his shoulder, Will didn’t exactly seem to be playing around.
Will lifted a hand, pushing it to Mike’s forehead— "Are you sure? We should at least tell my mom. She could help figure out if this is an upside down problem, and maybe it could help us out in crawls-“
“I’m not cursed.” Mike cut in, his eyes held a glare that he didn’t mean. He didn’t want Will looking into him, he didn’t want Joyce, or Hopper having to spend a constant amount of time with him.
He wasn’t Max. Max had a reason to be upset, her brother had fucking died in a ‘mall fire’, what did he have to be afraid of?
“Mike. Let’s be serious, you’re getting thinner, you haven’t seemed like yourself since Vecna started attacking Mike— there could be a possibility that you could be under his trance!”
Will wasn’t done, he moved his hand to Mike’s shoulder, “If something is wrong with you, you can’t just run from it. You have to let someone help you— You have to reach out, tell someone!”
“I don’t want to talk about this!” Mike shoved Will’s hand off, standing up and running up the stairs, he felt like a child, running away from his school bullies as they chased him from behind.
He scrambled to get into his room, collapsing onto his floor the moment he shut the door. The sobs racked his sides, he felt like he couldn’t breathe. When he finally opened his tight eyes, he was staring down at the quarry.
“Holy—“ He attempted to scramble back before falling onto his ass, he ran as fast as he could, trying to get away from the edge. He just couldn’t get away.
The memories flooded his head, watching his best friend’s body getting lifted out of the water. Wondering if someone had pushed him, if he had been thrown in by someone who wanted to ruin Will’s life. Will would never jump.
But Mike did. Mike jumped— He took the pussy route and listened to the pressure of the kids behind him. He could still hear their voices, he fell to his knees. Sobbing.
“Mike! Don’t do it, Mike! Mike!”
Dustin had been screaming, Dustin was horrified.
Mike was horrified, he jumped anyways.
“Mike!”
Mike opened his eyes shakily— he lurched upwards, he had somehow managed to be lying on the down, almost as if he had fallen asleep, seeing his room finally gaining some sunlight. Nancy suddenly opened his door, glaring down at her little brother who was on the ground.
“Why are you on the ground?”
Mike wiped the underneath of his nose, shooting a look at her. “I fell.”
Nancy snorted but rolled her eyes, “Okay. Breakfast is ready, Mom wants you downstairs.”
Mike sat up, making sure he looked semi presentable before following her downstairs. He noticed the entire table set up, and Will was staring at him in pity. He didn’t have the heart to send a sharp look towards him, but he wanted to scream — What are you looking at?
Mike took his usual seat beside the brunette, picking at his eggs. Watching bowls and plates being passed around like wildfire between the two families, he noticed the milk in the cup on the table. He grimaced.
Will seemed to notice and chuckled, “That’s what I said.”
Mike flashed a shy glance at him, he pushed himself up and out of the room. Not bothering to excuse himself as Karen was probably way too distracted with Holly and attempting to converse with Joyce to notice. He threw away most of what was on his plate and started to scrub, staring out the kitchen window for a moment.
He swore the sky was tinted red, until he blinked and it turned back to the normal blue.
“Oh, God.” Mike muttered under his breath, a small chuckle escaping his lips purely from shock. “I’m losing it.”