Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sunday, March 22, 1987

It is an average temperature clear morning in Hawkins. Blue skies, not cold and not warm, just a fine day for what the gang had planned. 

Will has been excited for this day for the whole year, since somehow everyone forgot last year in California.

It was Will’s birthday, and not only was his birthday it was also Sunday which meant they had the whole day to have fun together and Dustin and Lucas had planned out a whole day for them to do something.

Lucas and Dustin were biking towards the Byers house, as they bike up the driveway of the Byers household they finally see the rundown cabin they have lived, or basically squatters in since they got back from California, same cabin, same rundown walls and windows, and pretty soon it might be abandoned since the military observing the growing rift from the upside down near them.

They put their bikes against the porch columns and enthusiastically Dustin knocked three times on the door.

The door opens and Will stands before them with a somewhat down face as the morning sun shines on his face.

“Hey.” Will’s soft, restrained voice was almost quiet as he lets them in, seeming he had already braced to be forgotten.

“Hey! Happy birthday!” Dustin says with a genuine enthusiasm as he gives Will a caring embrace totally unaware of Will’s emotional state.

“Yeah, happy birthday” Lucas says warmly with care as he closes the door after him and looks around the room. It seemed empty, like only Will was home, Lucas clocks that something was off immediately.

“So, where is Mike? I thought he’d be arriving with you?” Will says trying to seem happy they are here, but there is a crack of anxiety underneath his words, he needs Mike to show up.

Lucas looked around again making sure he was correct in that it was only Will home. “Well honestly we thought he might have headed over already since when we went by his place he wasn’t there…” He scratches his neck confused about where everyone was. 

“Oh…” Will says with a sigh, his hope deflating. “Okay, we can still get started with what you guys planned” he adds giving them a small faint smile, forcing optimism as he tries to not ruin the day they have planned out for him, minimizing his own feelings.

“Yeah! Totally!” Dustin says way too quickly “Your day man!” 

The room is slightly dark as the morning sun shines through the blinds and the air feels heavy.

“Dustin! Chill…” Lucas says seeing the slight sadness in his friend “Are you okay Will?” He says gently showing he is emotionally present.

“No yeah it– I’m okay…” Will tries to dismiss the question but Lucas can tell that there is something by his face.

Lucas knows how Will has built himself an automatic deflection/response when something is up.

“Will, don’t do that…” Lucas with slight frustration with Will’s dismissal. “I know you, what’s going on? Where is everyone, why are you home alone right now?” Lucas finally asks the question he had been burning in his mind since him and Dustin entered.

“Oh.. um.. Jonathan is somewhere with Nancy I think…” Will says, trying to rationalize everyone's whereabouts. “Jane is somewhere with Hop as usual I think and I don’t really know where my mom is…” Will shrugged trying to play it as it was not a problem.

Dustin stands there entirely oblivious since he did not clock the sadness in Will’s voice.

“Oh shit, they all left on your birthday? I’m sorry man” Lucas says with anger for Will as he takes Will into a warm embrace.

Will’s head slightly falls on Lucas’ shoulder and lets himself be vulnerable as the hug lasts for a few moments before Will pulls away quickly wiping his eyes. “No… it’s– it’s fine… let’s just go” He lies trying to pull it together.

Dustin finally understanding the situation “hey yeah… it’ll still be a good day, right?”

Lucas nods with a slightly concerned look for his friend “yeah, me and Dustin have it all planned out… and I’m sure Mike will turn up” He said hopeful.

With a lot of thought hanging over him Will gives a slight nod with that faint smile of his “yea… “

Will shakes his head trying to gather himself. “Anyway… so what have you guys planned for today?” there was a small hint of energy that came out when he asked.

Dustin gets excited by the question. “Alright so.. It’s been awhile since we went to the arcade so we’ll start there then–”

Lucas cuts him off. “Aah ah ah, let’s have the rest a mystery for now…” he winks with a playful smile.

“Okay okay” Dustin says, putting his hands up in defeat. “Should we get going then?”

“Yeah” Will and Lucas say accidentally in unison, they both chuckle a little from the accidental moment.

Will takes his jacket and then the three boys walk toward the door and go onto the porch. 

The wind has picked up when they step outside and it is starting to feel a bit colder but thankfully the sky is still clear.

Will fetches his bike from the side of the cabin as the other boys get on theirs and wait for him.

Will comes up alongside them and Lucas gives a small nod. “Let’s go!” He says taking the lead as the bike away from the Byers.

As they bike through the town Lucas notices that Will's mood is getting better. “Want to go by Mike’s place and check if he’s there?”

“I can try radioing him” Dustin chimes in pulling out his walkie “Mike, are you there? Over”

Silence

“Mike! Are you there? Over” He repeats

“He might have his turned off” Lucas says as they make a turn “let’s just head by his place again before going to the arcade”

“Yeah.. okay..” Will says quietly with slight hope in his voice.

They change their course a bit to bike towards the Wheeler house.

As they come up to the Wheeler house. “I’ll just quickly go to the door and ask” Dustin says quickly jumping off the bike as they stop in the driveway.

“Okay!” Lucas says after Dustin as he almost runs toward the door “you doing better?” He says turning his head toward Will as they sit on their bikes and wait for Dustin to come back.

“What? Uh yeah yeah… I’m better, nice hanging out with you guys” Will mutters out not having expected the question.

“Good, it’ll be a fun day. I promise” He smiles back at Will.

They see Dustin running back toward them, no Mike in sight. “Mr. Wheeler answered the door, gave me nada on where Mike is but he is not home.” He says getting back on his bike.

Lucas makes a disappointed face “where is he? Like dang” it comes out with a bit of a disappointing scoff.

The disappointment on Will can even be seen by Dustin as Will’s head hangs low and his eyes barely able to show emotion besides disappointment.

“Hey, maybe he just went straight to the arcade.” Dustin mutters out trying to sound convincing.

Will slightly shook his head as he huffed, almost laughing to himself from the hope Dustin is putting in Mike. “yeah… maybe”

“Yeah.” Lucas looks unconvinced by his own words. “Let’s just get to the arcade before we spend the entire day on a wild goose chase”

They start to ride off again now heading for the arcade to spend time there until noon.

Once they got to the arcade they parked their bikes outside and headed in, the place was buzzing with people but still, no Mike.

They stand for a moment in the entrance and look around. “What should we start with?” Lucas asks.

“I saw that at least our high score in Defender has been beaten, so should we try taking that back?” Dustin said, kind of cheery.

Will nods with a small smile “sure.”

They headed over the game, Lucas could see Will was more quiet, I guess Mike was right back in the day, sometimes he is more quiet and often because something is bothering him or he’s upset.

“Birthday boy, you begin!” Dustin states making way for Will. “take our high score back”

Will takes the first game, his focus locked in as the other boys look on as he ranks up points, he only comes short of a few points to beat the current high score.

“Ooh! Dang! My turn” Lucas says as Will moves to let him take the controls.

Lucas starts off strong making it seem he might beat the current high score, he loses full focus just by the end and ends up with the exact same score as their previous high score.

“How did you manage to get our exact old score?” Dustin huffs out in a small laugh at the same time Will chuckles. “Okay, let the pro through” Dustin almost pushes Lucas out of the way.

“Oh no, you know if he gets this Lucas, he’ll be cocky about it for the rest of the day…” Will says with a quiet laugh looking at Lucas.

Lucas tilts his head as he looks at Will with a tired look “I know” his tone almost cry laughing.

Dustin takes the controls with determination to beat the current high score, one crucial mistake costs him a new high score.

“Dang it!” Dustin almost shouts as he comes just short of the high score.

“One more round for each” Lucas states gesturing for Will to go.

Will steps up once more taking control, the tension builds as he is nearing the high score with Lucas and Dustin almost jumping from excitement.

Then, with one sweep he climbs above the high score, making a new one.

The boys jump in celebration. “You did it Byers!” Lucas screams in celebration with pride for Will.

Suddenly stopping the celebration Dustin determined. “Alright, I want to go play Dig Dug, I want to beat Max’s score”

Lucas laughs “you haven’t been able to do that since she did it way back!”

Will chuckles by Lucas’ comment.

“Yeah , yeah, laugh all you want guys, I’ll get that high score one day” Dustin says, confident in himself as they head to Dig Dug.

Time flies, it’s past noon now and the boys are getting ready to go to the next step of Lucas’ and Dustin’s plan for Will’s birthday.

“I did tell you it wasn’t gonna happen today” Lucas smirks at Dustin as they head out of the arcade.

“Yea, yea” Dustin slightly rolls his eyes “but I will get it… one day…”

Will huffs out a chuckle.

“See? Even Will knows it won’t happen” Lucas laughs out.

“I didn’t say anything! Don’t make me complicit!” Will says jokingly. “But, anyway… What are we doing now? What’s this masterful plan going to take us now?” He asks curiously, eager to know what they’ll do now.

Lucas smiles seeing how happy Will is. “Well, we were talking about this the other week and we all wanted to go see it…” he stops for suspense.

“Wait! Are we going to see that new cop thriller?!” Will interrupts Lucas excitedly. “Wait what’s it called again” He looks down in thought.

“I don–”

“Lethal Weapon” Dustin says, cutting off Lucas.

“Yeah… that” Lucas sighs in slight frustration after being cut off by both of them. “Okay, shall we?”

“Yeah, first should I try radioing Mike again?” Dustin asks, looking at the others as he pulls out his walkie.

There appears a slight frown on Will’s face at the mention of Mike, looking at the ground. “Sure…” No hope in his voice as it comes out flat.

Lucas punches Dustin lightly to the shoulder and mouths ‘Dude’ and Dustin looks at him confused for a moment then gets it when he looks back at Will.

“Hey, let’s not dwell on where he is, he knows when the movie is so he’ll show up if he wants, he ditches us for your birthday we ditch checking in on where he is… we can have fun without him” Lucas gives Will a friendly grab on the shoulder with a genuine caring smile as he tries to reframe, and not erase Mike from the equation.

Will just nods trying to shift focus, wiping a single tear from his eye quickly trying not to be obvious about it.

Dustin has quickly tucked the walkie back into his bag, Lucas squeezes Will’s shoulder before letting go.

Will straightens himself as they stand outside the arcade. “Alright, how long til the movie?”

It’s started to get cloudy, looks like it could rain within the next few hours and the wind is picking up.

“Uhmm…” Dustin looks at his watch “we have about 30 minutes”

“We better get going to the movie’s then” Lucas says as they walk toward their bikes.

They get on the bikes and once more Lucas takes the lead biking now toward the movie theater, as they bike they start to get small rain drops on them, it will no doubt start showering later knowing Hawkins.

They get to the theater and park their bikes outside and head in and as they do it starts to fully rain.

Will slightly looks back outside. “That was lucky…”

“Yeah…” Lucas says as he and Dustin also look back as they stand in the lobby of the movie theater. “I’m not wearing clothes for rainy weather…” Lucas chuckles awkwardly to himself.

“So, snacks?” Dustin suggests.

“Yeah” Lucas says in agreement as they all head to the shop in the theater.

The film eventually starts after a long line of ads for other films, they sit through the film and after it finishes they go toward the exit filled with soda and popcorn.

They look outside and see the rain is still going strong, the dread of biking in the pouring rain sits with them for a moment.

“My place first? Shortest distance” Lucas looks side to side at the other boys.

“Sure.” Will nods.

“Actually I have to head home now, sorry” Dustin says quickly.

“Oh? How come?” Lucas asks, confused.

“It’s just my mom had planned something at 4 so she wanted me home then, else I’d be up for it.” He explains.

“Don’t worry Dustin, I had a great time with you guys, but I’m still taking you up on that offer Lucas.” Will says with a smile.

“Glad to hear!” Dustin says cheery.

“Yeah” Lucas says with a big smile. “Shall we go into the rain and go?”

Dustin and Will nod as they head outside, the three of them get drenched almost immediately as the downpour is not stopping anytime soon.

“Well this weather sucks” Lucas laughs painfully to himself.

“Let’s just try to get your place quickly” Will looks at Lucas as they get on the bikes. “Us two get to go inside before Dustin at least” He laughs “he has to go even further.” Will says as they start biking off.

“Oh yeah? Lucas don’t let him go to your place, then he’ll have to go to the middle of nowhere” Dustin puts his tongue out at Will playfully as they bike down the road.

“Nah” Lucas laughs. “I can’t do that to the birthday boy.” he adds.

They come up to a fork in the road. “Cya guys!” Dustin calls out before starting to turn off.

“Yeah, see ya!” Lucas says back.

“See you Dustin, thanks for the day again!” Will calls after him, He is not sure if Dustin heard.

Will and Lucas bike up the driveway of the Sinclair's and quickly go inside.

Lucas’ mom calls out from the living room “That you Lucas?”

“Yeah, Will is with me” He answers back.

“Oh lovely, how are you hunny?” Ms. Sinclair says endearingly as she comes to welcome Will.

“Hey, Ms. Sinclair. I’m good, it has been a good day” Will smiles.

“Lovely to hear, and call me Sue, Will, you don’t need to be so formal” She says as they walk inside.

The boys are wet through and through as they head to Lucas’ room. 

“You boys want hot chocolate, it is good after being drenched in the rain outside” Sue calls out from the kitchen.

“You want that?” Lucas asks quietly to Will.

“Sure, nice to get something warm” he answers.

“Yeah! Thanks mom!” Lucas calls back. “I’m gonna change into dry clothes, want to lend some so you are not drenched anymore?”

Will hesitates for a moment but then thinks about it, all four boys have lent each other clothes before so why would this be different. “Yeah, thanks.”

“Of course” Lucas says, going into his drawer to get out a set of dry clothes for him and Will to change into. “Here, I’ll go into the bathroom to change.”

Not having sat down yet Will quickly says “no, I can use the bathroom” he says taking the clothes Lucas hands him and heads to the bathroom.

“Okay” Lucas shrugs, not thinking too much of it as Will leaves for the bathroom.

Will changes clothes quickly, the top he got feels a bit broader since Lucas had a bigger torso.

After Will finishes changing he goes back toward Lucas’ room and as he enters Lucas is finishing putting on his shirt. “Sorry, should have knocked”

“You're good, I’m done getting dressed” He says with a smile.

“Boys, your chocolate is ready. It’s in the kitchen” Sue says as she peeks through the door.

“Thanks mom.”

“Yeah thanks Ms. Sinclair… I mean Sue.” Will smiles

“You're welcome!” she says as she goes down the hallway.

Lucas looks at Will “dang, you have grown, I remember when you were not able to use my clothes because they were way too big” he laughs.

“Yeah…” Will chuckles awkwardly back.

“Anyway, sit down while I go get the chocolate”

“Alright” Will says sitting down on Lucas’ bed and looking around the room, it’s been a while since he was at the Sinclair's.

“Here we are” Lucas says, coming back into his room with 2 cups of hot chocolate.

“Thanks” Will says as Lucas hands him one of the cups, he looks down deep in thought.

“You did enjoy the day, right?” Lucas says seeking reassurance he didn’t fail to uplift Will's spirit as he sits next to Will on the bed.

Will just nods quietly starting to shut down.

Lucas waited for Will to answer but he didn’t say anything else, he tried again. “Even though… you know. Mike being a no show for some reason?”

Will just nods again.

“Will, don’t do that, don’t shut down… don’t go non–verbal on me” Lucas says with fear and slight worry for his friend.

Will is quietly sitting there not having taken a sip of his chocolate yet, feeling his fingers tighten around the mug. His shoulders hunched inward, like he was bracing for something, his mind spirals with thoughts and it shows as tears start to form in his eyes, his walls finally starting to break after the day.

“I know you and Mike have been friends for longer…” Lucas hesitates before continuing. “And… Mike has told me, you know, that when you guys started being friends you talked little to none…” Lucas says, putting his hand on Will’s shoulder in comfort.

“For years…” Will says.

“Right… don’t… don’t do that, don’t hide your voice… especially when you are hurting from something… I’m also your best friend… I’ll listen” Lucas says with softness in his voice.

“I– I know you listen…” Will slightly smiles through the hurt.

“Then talk to me… say what you think… put out your frustrations with Mike not showing.” Lucas says encouragingly.

Lucas thinks to himself that he’ll go after dinner to Mike’s and call him out on it.

“I’m mad at him…” Honest anger finally surfaces, but his words are fragile, like they might shatter if he said more. “And I hate that I am.”

Lucas quietly listens not wanting to interrupt.

“But…” He hesitates. “this isn’t the first time…” Will looks slightly up at Lucas as he opens the wound from last year's birthday.

“What do you mean?” Lucas asks, confused, has Mike done this shit before? Left him alone on an important day?

“Last year…” Will thinks before continuing. “In Lenora…” The hurting memory of everyone forgetting then, granted he didn’t have Lucas or Dustin but… Mike… Mike was there.

“No… did he? Did he also forget then? When he specifically went to be there for your birthday?” Lucas says, shaking his head in disbelief.

“I mean… not only him… They all forgot” Will almost stutters out with hurt. “I– I just thought… maybe… I just wasn’t important enough to remember” 

“That’s not–” Lucas takes a deep breath. “That’s not true.” He says trying to comfort Will. “And… No… that’s… that’s not normal…” Lucas looks down at his chocolate in thought, the chocolate that is probably getting cold by now.

Lucas suddenly looks like he got an epiphany almost dropping his cup.

“Wait… could it… could it be?” Lucas shakes his head.

“What?” Will asks confused.

“Vecna” Lucas says, starting to look up at Will. “Of course… it must be… he is trying to isolate you from your friends and family… breaking your spirit to make you weaker so he can control you.” Lucas says, now sure of his theory as he places his hand on Will again.

“Wait… do you… I– I mean that would explain… so much…” Will starts to breathe heavily in slight fear of the thought.

“Will, we won’t let him… we need to tell everyone, the whole party…” Lucas says reassuringly. “I– I wonder why me and Dustin still remembered…”

“He must have focused on the people around me in Lenora…” Will suggests.

“Wait… that means” Lucas thinks for a moment. “Promise me, promise me if I suddenly have forgotten today when you ask me tomorrow, tell me, tell everyone… he can’t get the upper hand” He says quickly with fear like he might forget today and Will as they speak. “We need to break this hold he has on removing our memories of you.”

Will hesitates for moment processing “yeah… yeah, I– I promise” he nods in a slight scared panic but showing trust as he holds his hand to his head.

Will slightly smiles and chuckles suddenly still in deep thought.

“You're smiling” Lucas looks happily at his friend.

“Yeah… I’m… I’m just grateful… for– for you… piecing this together… thank you Lucas” Will looks up with genuine appreciation for his friend.

“Stop that sappy stuff” Lucas slightly laughs “your welcome tough…”

“It was a nice day…” Will finally honestly answers Lucas’ first question when they sit down. “Even though Mike was a no show, I– I believe your theory…”

A big smile spreads across Lucas’ face. “Good… now drink this chocolate before it freezes over like the upside down.”  he jokes.

A small huff chuckle escapes Will. “yeah…” he says, taking the first sip. “It’s still lukewarm at least” he looks at Lucas before they both laugh.

They finish their cups and Lucas quickly grabs them to get them into the kitchen, he quickly returns.

“My mom said you could stay for dinner if you want” he says as he closes the door behind him.

“Thanks, I think I should get home though… before it gets too dark… you know” Will says slowly standing up.

“Yeah… I get it” Lucas says knowing Will still is slightly afraid of riding home by himself when it’s dark, after all, it all started when he went missing, how our lives changed Lucas thought to himself.

“Can I ask you something, Lucas?”

“Of course” Lucas answers quickly.

“What do you think…” Will stops.

“What do I think about what, Will?” He repeats back.

“About… about what the upside down is like…” Will says as he looks at Lucas.

“I– I  mean… I heard it’s cold… dark… honestly… probably a nightmare world… I can’t imagine being stuck there for a whole week” Lucas says, kinda wanting to ask Will what it was like but is kind of afraid too. “Can I ask… you know–”

“About my experience there?” Will finishes his sentence.

“Yeah” Lucas hesitantly says, not wanting to push too hard. “You don’t have too” he quickly adds.

“I– no, it’s– it’s fine you ask… I just… ain’t quite feeling talking about it… yet… I haven’t talked about it really… to anyone… so” He answers back, rubbing his neck in thought.

“Okay…” Lucas slightly nods. “You better get going home before it gets dark, I’ll walk you out”

“It was scary though… traumatic to be perfectly honest… even just the beginning when it… the Demogorgon… followed me or… hunted me in the woods…” Will shakes his head trying to shake away the painful memory of that time.

Lucas can see he hurts talking about it. “You don’t have to tell me this now man… Come, let me walk you out and we’ll see each other tomorrow.” Lucas puts his arm around Will to guide him to the front door.

“Yeah, okay” Will slightly nods in agreement. “I needed this… talking one on one… I probably would have shut down… gone non–verbal for a few days…” There was sincere honesty in his voice.

“First time I have prevented that I believe…” Lucas smiles thankful he could be there for Will. “Thankfully it is less frequent for you to go non–verbal nowadays.”

“Yeah” Will quiet voice comes out with a small smile as they reach the front door.

“Not eating with us, honey?” Sue asks as she sees them by the door.

“No, not today, thank you though.” Will answers.

“Okay, dear. Ride safely home” she smiles to Will before heading back into the kitchen.

“See you tomorrow” Will says as he opens the door.

The rain has stopped outside and the sun is starting to set.

“Yeah, see ya Will” Lucas says as he gives Will a small hug.

“Wait, I forgot, my wet clothes are still inside” Will says suddenly.

“Right, I’ll get them” Lucas says quickly as he heads back into the hallway.

Lucas quickly returns holding a plastic bag. “I put them in a bag for you so it’s easier to carry.”

“Thanks.” He says back as Lucas hands him the bag. “See ya”

“See ya”

Lucas hangs in the door as he watches Will bike away, then when he is out of distance he goes inside.

It’s a quiet ride home for Will, but as he bikes up the driveway of the Byers a military jeep drives past him and away from the cabin, He sees his mom on the porch as he rides up to the house.

“Hey mom.” Will says as he gets off of his bike and puts it against one of the porch pillars. “What was the military doing here?”

“They are forcing us to leave… vacate the house…” Joyce says, still looking down the driveway in thought.

“Oh…” Will gives a slight sad look. “Where are we going?”

“We’re supposed to figure that out on our own… We are basically illegally squatting in the house after all…” She shakes her head slightly. “It got abandoned by the ones who bought it, it was perfect to use as a hideout or home when we got back from Lenora, even though it was run down, is… run down.” She says finally looking at Will. “but… now we’ll figure out where we go next… I’ll call Mrs. Henderson or the Sinclair's…”

“Or the Wheeler’s” Will suggests knowing they have the biggest house.

“Yeah…” Joyce kind of hesitates. ”or the Wheeler’s… They still think we bought the house back… I’ll have to make up a lie if I get anyone to help me move what we have.”

They both stand there on the porch for a moment. 

“Mom? You okay?” Will can tell this visit from the military bothered her.

She sighs quietly. “Yeah sweetheart… let’s get inside.” She says turning around and going inside with Will following her as he still holds the bag with his clothes.

“What’s for dinner?” Will asks hoping somehow she remembers his birthday suddenly and lets him choose.

“Ooh… uhm… just some leftovers” Joyce shrugs slightly.

There’s disappointment on Will’s face, even though he kind of expected it to be still forgotten, like Lucas said, I have to tell them… after dinner Will thinks to himself.

“Okay… I’ll be in my room.” Will says heading to his room.

“I’ll let you know when I’ve warmed the food.” Joyce calls after him.

Before he enters his room Will turns around. “Mom?”

“What sweetheart?” Joyce responds from the kitchen.

“Nevermind…” Will goes into his room without another word.

Joyce doesn’t think of it and continues what she’s doing in the kitchen.

At the Sinclair’s house Lucas is sitting at the dinner table eating with his family, his mind continues to go to Will and how people are forgetting his birthday, must be awful, I have to make sure I  don’t forget it.

“Lucas, are you okay? You seem so distracted” Mr. Sinclair, Lucas’ dad, asks.

“He always looks this dumb” Erica snarks.

“Erica!” Lucas’ mom says out in a type of scold. 

Lucas looks up not having really registered what happened. “Uuh yeah, I’m– I’m good”

“Okay, try to focus on your food then.” his dad winks at him with a smile.

“Yeah.” Lucas answers, continuing to eat his dinner.

After dinner Lucas is pacing back and forth in his room in deep thought.

“Screw it.” He says to himself, he has to talk to Mike, he has to call him out about him not remembering Will’s birthday, but also give his theory about why, Mike wouldn’t forget Will’s birthday intentionally, right?

He leaves his room and goes to Erica’s room.

“Erica, can you cover for me, I have to sneak out, gotta talk to Mike in person.” He sounds desperate to her.

Erica turns her head toward him and tilts it slightly. “What’s in it for me?”

“Erica, please, it’s urgent… regarding you know… the upside down” Lucas pleads with his sister to cover for him.

“Alright, tell me first” She says with sass.

“Shit, fine… I think Vecna is messing with some of the party's memories, okay, you happy?” Lucas says annoyed.

“Memories?” one of her eyebrows pirks.

“Yeah, memories… making some of us forget certain stuff” Lucas says hoping that this is enough to get her to cover for him going out after the military curfew that is in place.

“What kinda stuff?” Erica keeps digging for more info.

“Birthdays” Lucas answers quickly trying to not become too frustrated from the questioning. “So? Will you cover for me?”

“I never remember your birthday but sure… I’ll cover for you, but promise to keep me updated.”

“That’s different Erica, I mean like Joyce Byers and multiple others forgetting Will’s birthday, this year and apparently also last year in Lenora.” Lucas explains, it kinda feels good telling more people, might make it more secure so they can stop this memory erasing. “But thank you Erica, really.” Lucas is about to turn around and leave her room.

“Hold on, when is Will’s birthday?” Erica asks.

“Today.” he looks slightly back.

“Come here for a quick second.” Erica says gesturing for him to come close.

“What? I don’t have time for this.” Lucas says, reluctantly coming over to her as she suddenly grabs Lucas’ hand yanking it to her. “Hey!”

She has a pen and writes something on his palm.

“There” Erica proudly announces.

Lucas looks at his palm ‘Will, birthday march 22’ it reads, Lucas has a small smile. “Thanks, good idea.”

“Yeah yeah, just go” She commands “and don’t forget your friend!” she calls as he leaves her room.

Lucas goes down the hall sneaking past the living room not to alert his parents before getting to the front door.

As he gets outside it is relatively dark with only a few red glows lighting the sky since not all rifts to the upside down or from so called ‘earthquakes’ as the government explains it, have been patched up, although they are heavily monitored.

Lucas gets his bike and starts to bike down the street a couple of houses to Mike's place.

As he arrives near the Wheeler’s he parks his bike a bit further and sneaks up toward the house, he goes around back and finds a small rock to throw at Mike’s window.

It’s quiet.

After a few moments Mike appears in the window looking surprised to see Lucas before opening the window.

“What are you doing here?” Mike asks.

“We need to talk, it’s important” Lucas says eager to come inside and talk. “Can you let me in?”

“Yeah, hold on, need to make sure my parents won’t notice you coming in, meet me by the backdoor.” Mike says before leaving the window.

Lucas heads to the backdoor and stands there in the quiet night for a few moments before the backdoor slides slowly open.

“Get in, stay quiet…”Mike whispers as he lets Lucas inside. “Let's head to the basement.” Mike leads the way through the hallway walking by the living room where Ted is slumping in the sofa watching the television not having a clue they sneak by behind him.

They head down the stairs to the basement closing the door that leads upstairs.

“So, what is so urgent that you have to bike over to my place at this hour?” Mike questions as soon as they reach the bottom of the steps.

“Where were you today?” Lucas asks back.

“What? That’s the urgency?” Mike shoots back confused.

“No, I mean, yeah” Lucas’ mind suddenly goes blank. “Today… we… me and Dustin went to the arcade then the movies… I–” He struggles to find words.

“Dude, have you forgotten why you came or what?” Mike asks, kind of annoyed.

“No, I– wait Erica…” Lucas looks down at his palm. “Shit.” he exclaims, the writing is all smudged after holding the handlebars ‘W*** ***thday *arch *2.

“Erica? Something to do with your sister?” Mike asks, confused.

“No, there is something… I don’t feel right…” Lucas sits down feeling his mind kind of spiral from not knowing what is going on. 

“What doesn’t feel right? Is it something to do with Vecna?” Mike asks.

Lucas has a small form of memories flowing suddenly from the mention of Vecna. “Yeah… yeah I think so… but I don’t remember how…”

Mike sits down next to him, ears now perked for info about Vecna.

“Remember…” Lucas repeats himself. “Today… it’s something to do with today… I think… I don’t remember…” Lucas says, shaking his head trying to think.

“Is he making you forget?” Mike asks, looking concerned that Vecna can possibly remove memories.

“Yeah… I think so, but… not just me… I think…” Lucas hesitates in thought before continuing. “That’s… that’s why I came here… I think…”

“That’s why you ask about where I was today?” Mike looks at Lucas

“Yeah… yeah!” Lucas says in agreement enthusiastically before his face drops again. “But… It’s– you– you were supposed to be with us… I don’t know why though…”

Mike looks down thinking slightly “I was just spending the day with El” he says looking back up.

“El?  Yeah… I– I’m positive Jane was supposed to meet us at some point today too… well you know not at the arcade or the movies since the military is still searching for her…”

“If this is really Vecna, we need to figure this out with the party and somehow stop him if he really is messing with our memories.” Mike says, trying to figure out just how they are going to do that.

“Yeah… I’ll have to… we’ll have to figure out what Vecna is trying to make us forget…” Lucas says kind of putting the burden on himself since he brought it up.

“Erica, you said Erica and then looked at your palm, did she write something?” Mike asks, recalling Lucas mentioned her earlier.

“Wait, yeah, shit… I hope she knows, I need to get home, I’ll ask her… she must know, she wrote it.” Lucas says suddenly eager to get home and ask her.

“Alright, alright… let’s get you out of the house without alerting anyone” Mike stands up and walks toward the stairs. “Wait while I double check the top of the stairs if it’s clear” he says looking slightly back at Lucas standing up behind him.

“Okay” Lucas said with a simple tone.

Mike goes quickly up the steps and creeps into the hallway upstairs.

“Clear.” Mike gesturing to Lucas to come up.

Lucas heads up behind Mike sneaking into the hallway, they go slowly towards the backdoor but as they go past the living room they overhear and see Karen talking to Ted while he continues to watch the tv. 

“Well it is decided, I’m not letting them be homeless Ted.” Karen says in frustrated anger.

“When do I ever get a say in anything anyway…” Ted snarks back. “Just make sure those Byer boys keep to the basement then, don’t want them especially that Jonathan boy, him and Nancy can’t be alone in a room together” Ted says firmly.

“Fine, the Byer boys sleep downstairs at night, but don’t think I’m going to restrict the rest of the house during the day.” Karen argues back before storming to the kitchen.

“Yeah run to your wine bottle…” Ted says looking after Karen.

Lucas and Mike are still just around the corner of the living room listening.

“I’m sorry you had to hear that” Mike whispers with a hint of vulnerability in his voice from having his parents argue.

“No man, I’m sorry you have to deal with this toxic environment…” Lucas whispers back with a kind of sadness in his voice because he has never heard his parents argue like that, maybe because dad knows mom is ‘always’ right.

“You get used to it, come” Mike says leading the way to the backdoor.

“You shouldn’t have to” Lucas whispers back in response.

Not wanting to comment more on what they saw, Mike slowly slides open the door to let Lucas out.

“See you tomorrow” Mike says with a thoughtful smile. “You’ll tell me if you figure out what you or we forgot.”

Lucas nods “yeah, take care” he says not pushing further on the subject of what they witnessed before turning around to head to his bike before doubling back. “By the way, your walkie is off, turn it on, we couldn’t reach you today…” Lucas adds before turning away again. “Wait, also do tell me if you figure out why they were talking about the Byers” It’s like he is constantly wanting to say something more.

“Yeah yeah, go before someone sees you” Mike urges to Lucas.

“Yeah” Lucas chuckles quietly “sorry” He finally starts to leave and goes down the driveway toward his bike.

The bike ride home was quiet, almost too quiet.

Lucas arrives at home, there are less lights on from when he left, he quickly puts his bike in the back and sneaks into the house.

When inside, it’s quiet, it seems like his parents went to bed early, he looks at the clock in the living room, it reads 23 minutes past 9, I hope Erica has not fallen asleep yet.

“Erica” He whispers quietly lightly knocking on her door with the last knock falling flat because the door opens.

“How did it go?” Erica asks, her room is only dimly lit with her nightlight.

“Well…” Lucas says awkwardly. “I think my memory was erased as soon as I arrived at Mike’s…” he adds standing just outside the room with Erica in the doorway.

“Of course it did, were you able to use what I wrote down on your palm?” Erica says in a kind of mocking tone.

“Well not exactly as intended since it got all smudged up by the handlebars on my bike but I think I managed to figure out most…” Lucas says, trying to explain himself.

“So you mentioned Will?” She asks with a straight face still standing in the door.

“Will?” Lucas responds not remembering anything.

“Oh my god… either you are weak minded or Vecna ain’t focusing on people who don’t know Will well…” Erica says finally walking into the room and taking a paper note. “Good thing I ain’t dumb like you and don’t write it down, here… keep it so you don’t forget.” Erica says, handing him the note. “What you were gonna tell Mike is that Mike forgot Will’s birthday… and now apparently you do too even though you were with Will celebrating today…” Erica says as Lucas reads the note.

“Shit… how is Vecna doing this?” Lucas asks himself, disappointed in himself that he wasn’t able to resist the memory wiping. “Thanks Erica…” Lucas says before getting ready to head to his room.

“Aha…” Erica says, closing the door as Lucas leaves.

Lucas goes into his room and looks around the room to find his walkie, he finally spots a glimpse of it underneath a pile of clothes on the mess that is his floor.

He quickly grabs it “Mike, are you there? Over” Lucas paces back and forth while waiting for a response.

“I’m here Lucas, what’s up? Did you figure out what I apparently forgot today?” Mike asks “over” he adds quickly.

Lucas stops pacing around the room. “Good, you're there… you… or we forgot Will… over” Lucas says looking at the note from Erica.

“What do you mean Lucas? I remember who Will is… Over” Mike responds confused.

“No, I mean what today is for Will–” Lucas says before getting cut off.

“What is today? Or was today?” Dustin’s voice suddenly asks over the walkie.

“Dustin? What are– nevermind it is Will’s birthday, or was his birthday…” Lucas says quickly like he is afraid to forget it even though he is holding a note that tells him.

“What?!” Mike and Dustin say over the walkie in unison with shock.

“No, I– I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t forget his birthday” Mike says with clear pain in his voice that he forgot, this isn’t who he believes himself to be.

“I wouldn’t either… over” Dustin says.

“Dustin, I don’t think we did forget today, well until the evening I am guessing…” Lucas responds feeling the heavy tension of this. “I think… Even though my day is blurry, that Will was with us at the arcade and the movies…” Lucas Explains.

“I don’t remember him being there… I just remember us at the arcade, you got the high score back in Defender, then we later went to the movie’s… Over.” Dustin says clueless it was really Will that got the high score back today.

“It was not me that got the high score, in my memory it was you, but… it has to have been Will…” Lucas says trying to puzzle things together as bargaining mumbles from Mike’s end are heard, a quiet ‘I wouldn’t’ followed by heavy breathing as he is starting to have a panic response to the situation.

“Mike, you're holding the comm button down… over.” Dustin says not really clocking right away the state Mike is in on the other end.

“Mike, are you good?” Lucas asks as the bargaining mumble continues from Mike’s end.

“I– I–”Mike struggles to talk through his painful realization of forgetting.

“Your spiraling Mike, go to Nancy, now!” Lucas orders knowing Nancy is one of Mike’s comfort people.

Suddenly the mumble stops with a snap like the walkie could have fallen to the floor.

“Shit, hope Mike is good… you still there Dustin? Over.” Lucas says with a worried voice.

“Wow I’m bad at catching how people are doing…” Dustin responds through the walkie. “Over” he adds.

“That’s nothing new…” Lucas sighs. “Ooh… you should write it down… you know so you don’t forget…” Lucas suggests. “Over…” adds reluctantly, feeling it is unnecessary at the moment.

“Wait, I didn't even ask, how are we forgetting these things?” Dustin asks as he scrambles to find a pen and paper. “Is it Vecna messing with us again? Over”

“That’s my theory…” Lucas admits sitting down on the bed.

“Forgot to say over… over.” Dustin says.

“Not the time Dustin!” Lucas snaps back.

“Okay, you're right, sorry… but why? Why erase Will’s birthday from our memories? That seems so random…” Dustin says finally focusing on the thing that is important as he writes down on a ripped piece of paper ‘Will Byers’ birthday March 22’.

“Vecna must be trying to isolate him away from us…” Lucas says almost sure of his theory. “Isolate Will I mean…” he adds to clarify.

“Always comes back to Will, do you think Vecna is trying to use him as a spy again, isolating him from everyone to make him an easier target?” Dustin responds.

“Possibly, but whatever the reason is we have to stop it… figure it out… somehow and soon…” Lucas says determined.

“We’ll all come up with a plan tomorrow, better to all be there in person and with Will” Dustin says, shuffling the piece of paper in his hands.

“It’s school tomorrow…” Lucas says.

“Then at school and after it, we should schedule for the whole party to meet up at the squawk. I'll contact Steve and Robin in the morning to make the secret call for a meet up through the station.” Dustin says also writing down to contact them so he won’t forget that.

“Yeah, okay, see you at school tomorrow…” Lucas says putting the walkie next to him on the bed.

“Yeah, see ya… signing off” Dustin says before shutting off his walkie.

Earlier when Mike went into a spiral.

Mike drops his walkie to the ground, his breath is heavy and shaky.

Mike stumbles forward, his mind cloudy from everything as Lucas’ and Dustin’s voice’s continue coming from the walkie that is now on the ground, he can’t make out a word, his mind is too broken in the moment.

Mike goes into the hallway, his breath still extremely shaky as he heads toward Nancy’s room.

Without knocking he opens the door into Nancy’s room.

“What the hell Michael” Nancy shouts angrily at Mike for barging in without knocking before noticing his state. “Shit” she stands up quickly from her bed and takes him into an embrace. “Mike, what’s going on? What happened?” she asks with worry in her voice for her brother.

Mike completely breaks when he falls into Nancy’s embrace. “I– I–” he struggles to say anything as his breathing continues to be shaky and tears start to swell up in his eyes.

“Come sit down.” Nancy says, gesturing to her bed as she closes the door after them. 

They sit down, Mike leans against her in a hug, it’s like he is 10 years old again when he is in the vulnerable state. “Breathe Michael, deep breaths in and out.” Nancy says, taking a deep breath in and out to help Mike calm down.

Mike struggles but he follows Nancy’s directions with only a few shaky breaths escaping in between the deep ones as he starts to calm down.

After a few moments Mike has calmed a bit down, Nancy is still cradling him in her arms like she did when they were younger. “Are you able to tell me what is going on Michael?” she asks quietly with worry.

“I– I forgot…” Mike manages to blurt out with a hint of hatred for himself in his voice.

“Forgot what Mike?” She asks knowing that it has probably something to do with one of his friends. “Is it something to do with Jane?”

“No… not El…” Mike shakes his head with a painful look.

Nancy knows that look, it can only be about one other person then she thinks to herself. “It’s about Will…” She says basically not asking.

Mike nods quietly.

“What did you forget about Will that is so important?” Nancy asks, really focusing on listening to everything he has to say.

“His birthday…” Mike says before tearing up again from having said that showing the realization.

“Shit… how– I mean… When was his birthday?” Nancy says now getting why this was taking this much of a toll on him.

“Today… and… and I guess I forgot last year too when I went to Lenora to visit them…” Mike is starting to cry once more. “I– I was so horrible to him the day I got to Lenora…”

Nancy looks down thinking of what to say next.  “You arrived in Lenora March 22…”

Mike nods quietly to confirm.

“I– I don’t understand though… you have never forgotten his birthday… never… why now?” Nancy says, trying to understand.

“Lucas thinks it’s Vecna messing with our memories.” Mike says quickly, trying to wipe away his tears. “No wonder he was so miserable that day… no one acknowledged his birthday…” he says recalling that day at the Rink–O–Mania where he made Will feel unimportant almost the whole time they were at the Rink with El.

“Wait, that means you weren’t the only one to forget last year… What about today?” Nancy asks, seeing that Mike is more calmed down although still vulnerable if pushed too much.

Mike shakes his head. “I forgot for sure… El too since we were together…” He thinks to himself for a moment before continuing. “Before I dropped my walkie talking to Lucas and Dustin… I think they… they said they had been with Will… but it was like it was getting erased as we spoke…” he says trying to remember what they said after he started spiraling in thought.

“It sounds like it’s not your fault then… sounds like Vecna is erasing memories of Will’s birthday…” Nancy says trying to comfort Mike by letting him know it’s not his fault.

“I– I just don’t understand I could…” Mike breaks once again thinking about it.

“Wait here, I want to show you something…” Nancy says quickly standing up making Mike have to sit straight up.

Mike looks after her confused as she goes into one of her desk drawers and pulls out a paper, Mike only sees the back of it. “What’s that?” he says, wiping tears again.

“This…” Nancy sits back down and hands him what is a drawing, which seems to be an old one. “Is a drawing Will gave me when you had been friends for a few years…” she says with a growing smile. “I’ve kept it… I’ve kept it because back then I found it absolutely adorable that my little brother's best friend would give me such an amazing drawing… a drawing that shows your deep friendship…”

Mike looks at it, it’s nothing like how amazing his painting is nowadays but for that time it looks… Like everything, Mike smiles seeing how the drawing depicts Will and Mike holding hands running through grass in the sun with a rainbow overhead. “I needed this…” Mike says, tearing up from joy seeing the drawing.

“I know you have a book full of his drawings and paintings… but… I don’t think you realize how many Will gave me…” Nancy says with a caring smile.

“Really?” Mike asks, looking up from the drawing shocked.

“Yeah… really…” Nancy says, huffing a little chuckle. “I chose this one to show you since I think it describes your friendship with Will the best… It is also the first drawing I got where he actually talked to me, until then I had never heard his voice…” She says, recalling the first thing Will said to her.

“For the longest time he didn’t speak to anyone but me…” Mike admits. “What did he say to you?”

“Well… I remember he came and knocked on my door, you must have been downstairs in the basement or something. I opened up and before saying anything he just put his hand out and handed me this drawing, which was usually how it happened before but after I told him ‘thank you Will’ as he was going to hand it to me and ditch he turned around, looked like he thought for a moment before giving me a hug saying ‘thank you for being a good sister… to Mike’, he hesitated before saying to Mike…” Nancy says with a big smile remembering that interaction long ago.

Mike smiles at the story.

“I like to think he considered me a type of an older sister he didn’t have… especially during the time before Mrs. Byers had divorced Mrs. Byers… I know it was hard for him then…” Nancy says with deep care for this precious memory.

“It was because of Will’s dad he went silent for so long…” Mike says, looking at the drawing again. “He told me about how it was at home… how Jonathan had to play songs loudly to drown out their parents arguing about them…” He says thinking about the argument he overheard with Lucas earlier tonight. “Makes me think about mom and dad’s arguing”

“They don’t do it that often.” Nancy says knowing that is kind of a lie.

“They were arguing tonight… earlier…” Mike looks at Nancy with a small frown.

“Oh… what was it about?” Nancy asks curiously.

“I think the Byers are gonna be staying here, the military might have finally evicted them from the area… it is surrounded by still open rifts to the upside down…” he explains. “I think dad did not want the so–called ‘Byer boys’ by him, to stay here, especially Jonathan… probably because he doesn’t want Jonathan around you all the time…” he adds quietly.

Mike looks much better, not with a tear filled face still and is breathing normally.

“Well… guessing mom won the argument which means… you have the perfect opportunity to apologize to Will… Right?” Nancy says, squeezing Mike’s shoulder encouragingly.

“Right…” Mike nods slowly. “Thank you Nancy… I needed this talk…” Mike says grateful for his sister.

“No problem Mike, anything for my siblings…” She smiles.

Mike stands up still holding the drawing. “Can– can I keep this?” Mike hesitantly asks, holding up the drawing. “For now… I’ll give it back… promise” he adds quickly.

“Of course Michael… now go get some sleep…” She orders.

“Yeah… okay, goodnight Nancy” Mike smiles, going toward the door of Nancy's room.

“Goodnight Mike” she says smiling as Mike leaves her room and closes behind him.

Nancy, pleased of being able to help her brother goes back to what she was doing before he came into her room.

The night progresses with quietness sitting over Hawkins til morning.

Chapter Text

Monday, March 23, 1987

“This is your host Rockin Robin here on the WSQK radio the Squawk*honk noise plays* It’s a bright sunny Monday morning here in Hawkins people, with helicopters already flying to make us, the happy little quarantined people of Hawkins feel the immense care that the military brings to our, not so quiet anymore, town!” Robin opens up on the WSQK radio station. “We have a lot of fun stuff to get through today and not enough time and sadly for us here in the studio, no coffee, I repeat no coffee people and we won’t be able to get more until 4 later today! I repeat 4!*sad trombone noise*” Robin continues as she looks at the full coffee machine at the station. “Our first song today has been played often here as a request from a great friend of the station, here you go miss young Wheeler.” Robin says before ‘Open Your Heart’ by Madonna starts playing.

Will is biking to school, at the mention of no coffee through the radio he thinks to himself, meeting at the Squawk today at 4, wonder if it was Lucas calling for a meeting because of yesterday.

As Will bikes up to Hawkins High and see’s Lucas and Dustin in front talking too fast, like people do when they're nervous and pretending not to be.

Will parks up his bike and walks up to them. “Hey guys.” Already bracing himself for something to be wrong again.

“Hey Will, did you tell your mom or Jonathan?” Lucas says kind of anxiously to quickly get to the point.

“Hey Will.” Dustin says before Will gets to answer.

“Not yet no” Caution in Will’s voice as if to guard himself emotionally. “Was it you who called for the meeting at the Squawk later?” Will asks, looking at Lucas. “Also, you still remember.” Will smiles happily with hope before he can stop it.

“I asked Dustin to make the call, and… no…” Lucas says dreading the admission that it had been wiped. “I– or rather me and Dustin don’t have a clear memory of what we did yesterday…” The shame fills his face even though he knows Vecna is probably behind it. “But, I know it was your birthday because Erica was smart and wrote it down before I forgot…” Lucas admits awkwardly trying hard to soften the emotional blow this might have on Will.

“Yeah, I wrote it down too… well after I had forgotten but… Lucas told me” Dustin adds to Lucas’ statement trying to help the already crap situation totally unaware with these words only making it feel worse.

“Ooh…” Disappointment falls upon Will’s face, all of his hope goes in an instant. “I gotta thank Erica next I see her I guess…” The forced humor is obvious to hide the hurt. “you give her way to little credit Lucas…” Will gives out a huffed chuckle followed by a small smile, gently teasing Lucas through the hurt.

“I know…” Lucas says embarrassed, placing his hand on his face and dragging it down. “Also… I told Mike…” Lucas says with slight guilt “so… just know he might be super upset and will apologize like a thousand times…” Lucas gulps trying to be reassuring to Will before continuing. “He didn’t take it well…” That’s an understatement Lucas thinks. “he uh– he had a panic attack I think…” Lucas says feeling responsible for his panic attack. “it was over the walkie’s so… was hard to tell but… I told him to go to Nancy.” Lucas says hoping Mike is feeling better today.

“Ooh… okay… thanks for the heads up…” Will says feeling relieved he doesn’t have to face Mike alone “I’m not sure if I’d been able to tell him directly myself… at least not alone… You’ll help me talk about it at the Squawk, right?” Will asks, seeking backup before seeing at the corner of his eye Mike biking up to the school and parking his bike then starts to walk toward them with a smile on his face.

“Hey guys!” Mike says cheery like nothing had happened. “How was your weekend?” Is genuineness so painfully out of sync.

“Mike.” Lucas nods surprised by how cheery and normal he seems after yesterday.

“Hey.” Dustin says quickly.

“Mike… are you okay?” Will asks with a somewhat serious face searching Mike’s face for any emotional break.

“Why is everyone so serious? Why shouldn’t I be okay?” Mike says looking around the group confused, Mike catches that Will seems to be wearing Lucas’ sweater, why is he wearing Lucas’ sweater he asks himself.

“Yesterday?” Lucas says confused in response, testing Mike’s memory of yesterday before he catches Mike checking Will out up and down.

“What about yesterday?” Mike asks like he genuinely doesn’t know. “I mean, I was just hanging out with El… until… well doesn’t matter…” He shrugs, avoiding to continue that sentence.

It becomes slowly clear to Will that Mike's memory is not fully there anymore, Will shuts down not ready to tell him.

“Right… you told us you were with Jane but… I’m talkin yesterday evening Mike” Lucas looks at him concerned.

“Oh yeah, I did tell you on the walkie yesterday… although I don’t remember much from the evening, it became kind of blurry after some time while talking on the walkie’s…” Mike says, still with quite a cheery voice.

“Mike… you had a panic attack when I told you– wait… you– you don’t remember?” Lucas’ eyes widen while he thinks to himself ‘shit… his memory got wiped again.’

“Oh yeah… I do recall some of that… I– I don’t remember why I got it… I just remember going to Nancy…” Mike struggles to gather memories of last night. “Why don’t I remember what happened?” Mike looks down, questioning himself in confusion that is leading into fear.

Will looks at Mike with a broken facial expression.

Dustin slightly opens his mouth, shocked. “Shit…” He mutters out with realization.

“What? What guys? What aren’t you telling me?” Mike spits out quickly in a nervous tone, his anxiety clearly spiking.

The school bell rings to class suddenly.

“We– we have to go to class…” Will says quickly but quietly after the bell wanting to escape this conversation, he can’t handle this right now.

“No… no wait… guys? Please…” Mike pleads.

“You have memory loss because of Vecna. Okay?” Lucas says firmly with blunt honesty. “We’ll– we’ll tell you more later… okay?” he adds more calmly trying to ground Mike.

“Vecna? That’s why there is a meeting later?” Mike asks.

“Yeah… Now let’s get going… I don’t want to be late.” Dustin says walking first.

Will sighs as he starts following Dustin.

Lucas place’s a hand on Mike's shoulder in comfort. “Come man, let’s get inside.”

Mike nods looking slightly down to the ground in deep thought, what did I forget?

They all head inside and go to their classes, the day progresses and it’s lunchtime when they all meet up again in the cafeteria.

Mike is the first one at the usual table, tapping his foot impatiently waiting for the others.

Dustin and Lucas arrive at the same time with Will only a few steps behind.

Mike has been spiraling all morning wanting to know what is going on. “What did I forget? Please? It’s been digging at me since the morning, what’s going on?” He says right as the others settle into their seats.

Surprised by Mike's quick getting down to things attitude, Lucas answers first. “Well it’s to do with Will, we forgo–”

“Lucas, I’ll tell him” Will cuts in looking at Lucas, taking control of his burden to tell Mike.

“Okay…” Lucas looks back at Will with a slight nod.

“Mike… considering they told me this was the cause of your panic attack yesterday I wanna make sure you are calm…” The sense of protecting Mike is in Will’s voice. “And don’t take it like you did something bad… cause you didn’t… your mind is just being messed with…”

“Will, you’re just scaring me… is it that bad what I forgot?” Mike has a worried look.

“That’s just it… it isn’t necessarily bad per–se…” Will continues minimizing his own pain. “it more just sucks… well for me that is…” Will talks slowly letting Mike take every word in slowly.

“Okay?” Mike says with a confused but worried face.

“Yeah… so… what you forgot is…” Will hesitates with worry that Mike might have meltdown again from this re–telling of again lost memories. “My birthday… it was yesterday…” He says knowing it might reopen the wound. “and last year when you were in Lenora…” Will looks slightly down as the wound will dig deeper at Mike.

The quiet on the table gets deafening for a few moment’s as all of them focus on Mike who says nothing.

“Mike?” Will says gently with worry.

Mike's expression is unreadable as he uses a finger scratch between his eye and nose as he looks at his lunch tray. 

“Say something please…” Will almost begs terrified of the silence from Mike.

With upset finally showing on Mike’s face the mutters quietly. “I– I– I’m so– so sorry Will” Mike is trying hard to hold everything together. “I’ll make sure to make it up to you…” He adds with deep promise in his voice, quickly wiping away a single tear.

“I know you will… I know…” Will nods aggressively with reassurance, wiping a tear himself that came from relief Mike didn’t take it as bad as it was yesterday.

“Okay…” Dustin says looking between Mike and Will. “That went smoother than expected…”

The nervous humor from Dustin doesn’t please Mike “Screw you Dustin…” Mike says in a painful chuckle.

“Good… he can still joke.” Lucas says with a small smile.

Will makes a small chuckle followed by a genuine smile.

An awkward silence follows.

“Alright… I’m– I’m gonna go early towards the next class… want to join me Will?” Mike says standing up almost having not eaten a single bite.

“Uh… yeah sure” Will says quickly standing up.

“Ooh, wait… here” Dustin says quickly pulling out his piece of paper that had the birthday written down on. “I’ll make a new one, we don’t want anyone to forget again while we figure this out.” he hands Mike the note.

“Thanks.” Mike smiles slightly as he takes it from Dustin.

Will and Mike leave the cafeteria and the table falls silent once more for a moment.

“I don’t think he took it well… to be honest his reaction reminded me of how Will sometimes reacts, just not speaking… just bottling it up… unlike Mike” Lucas makes a small frown when they are completely gone out of eyesight. I know how Mike usually takes things, yesterday was an extreme but it happens. But shutting it in, that’s not like him. There must be something else going on, something he is not telling us.

“Don’t be so pessimistic Lucas, it looked fine to me.” Dustin blurts out as he eats his lunch.

“Yeah… because you are so perceptive…” He rolls his eyes with a small chuckle at Dustin.

Dustin looks at him offended but still smiling despite himself. “I– shut up”

Lucas just smiles before thinking about what he forgot to ask Mike about before they left, were the Byers staying with the Wheeler’s like him and Mike overheard from Mike’s parent’s.

Walking down the hall together Will and Mike stop by Mike’s locker.

“You really are okay?” Will asks standing just by him.

Mike’s eyes flicked to Will. “I– I mean no… it sucks I forgot or missed your birthday… but I’m okay… ish” he focuses back on getting books from his locker. “I just… that’s– that’s not the only thing that has been going on… the last day and a half have been… hell…” He lingers for a moment before closing his locker.

“That’s why I ask… Jane told me…” Will says slowly, slightly clenching his lips.

Mike’s eyes flick up in a slight panic. “She did? Of course she did, she’s basically your sister” he scoffs at himself.

“I do think the revelation that I forgot your birthday yesterday was the breaking point…” Mike adds before gesturing to go toward Will’s locker. “Hence why I just… completely broke and had a panic attack yesterday…” he says walking next to Will trying to speak quietly.

“That’s– that’s fair…” Will stops by his locker shrugging slightly toward Mike before he opens it. “Well… even though Jane is my sister you are my best friend and I’m here for you too… you know that, right?” He says almost sticking his head inside the locker to get something.

“Right… what a best friend I am” Mike shakes his head at himself with his eyes flicking quickly at Will while he rummages through his locker before Will turns around and he is quick to look away.

“Hope that hasn’t changed” Will smiles slightly not having noticed.

“No– no it hasn’t… I do want to talk later though… just get to the Squawk early so we can be alone.” Mike says as they start to walk again. “In other news my mom confirmed this morning that you guys can live with us since the cabin will be a restricted area. My mom called Mrs. Byers, your mom, when me and Holly were leaving the house.” He says kind of relieved from moving away from problems that are bugging him.

“Oh nice… surprised my mom didn’t sound like she wanted to be there, she at least called Mrs. Henderson and the Sinclair’s first.” Will says kind of happy. “You guys have the most extra space… I think it was due to Jonathan and Nancy are at that age and she has said quite often she doesn’t want to be a grandma quite just yet.” He laughs at the thought.

“I think my dad felt the same, overheard my parents arguing about it yesterday.” Mike says as they sit down at a bench in the hallway by the next class.

“Ooh… yeah, to be honest… my mom also doesn’t want to be there because I think your dad reminds her of… you know…” Will quiets down staring straight ahead with his head slightly tilted only giving out a small sigh.

Mike’s eyes fly around, the hallway is mostly empty, his eyes then flick slightly to Will. “Lonnie?” He says it half quietly as he knows that is a name Will doesn’t really want to think about since it can reopen old wounds.

“Yeah…” Will’s stare shifts to the floor as he sits in deep thought with the name of his dad.

“I only met him a few times but it was enough for me not to be allowed to go to your place when he was still there… because of… you know” Mike doesn’t want to bring it up if Will doesn’t.

“It’s okay… you can say it… he was a… a dick…” Will says surprised with himself for the honesty. “Thankfully I was allowed to go to your place for some peace and honestly, safety.”

“Potty mouth Will, that doesn’t happen often…” Mike huffs a small smile and chuckle.

“Yeah…” Chuckle’s quietly at himself shaking his head.

“But since you allowed me, yeah I agree… how he treated you and Jonathan… can’t imagine how it was when there wasn’t a guest…” Mike says thinking about all the time’s he witnessed Lonnie yelling at Will. “I’m grateful you felt safe with me at my place.” He adds with a hint of protectiveness over Will.

“Not to mention, why, you weren’t allowed too… on two separate occasions he yelled at you too, just because we were playing together…” Will says recalling that difficult time of his life.

“I– I don’t even want to think about that…” Mike looks away taking a deep breath, he remembers cycling home two times crying because an adult called them names, he still felt kind of guilty leaving Will all alone even though it was a long time ago, especially because on those two times it was only Lonnie at home.

“Me neither…” Will mutters out quietly as he takes a deep breath to keep his emotions in. He remembers how it only got worse when he was completely alone, him and Mike had never really talked about it, this was honestly the furthest they had ever talked about it.

An awkward silence starts as they both linger around those old memories, traumatic memories, both remembering more than they say. The silence is broken by the bell as the hallway starts to fill up with students.

“Hey queers.” A random jock says walking by them.

“Fuckin asshole.” Mike says quietly looking after the jock, why do they always assume that? Fuck… he looks down again in thought.

Will straightens himself not letting that comment bother him since he has heard it all his life. “Shall we.”

“Yeah.” Mike says broken from his thoughts.

They both stand up almost in unison and head to their class.

The rest of the school day goes normal, with the core meeting outside the school after the final bell rings.

“Are you guys gonna go early to the Squawk?” Lucas says as he walks up to the rest of the group.

“I– no, I think I probably have to go home, we are moving to Mike’s it seems…” Will says with his eyes flick between Mike and Lucas as he still intends to get there a bit early since Mike asked.

Mike’s eyes follow Will as he speaks “Yeah.” he adds after Will with a loving smile to Will. “I was gonna go home and ask about how my mom had planned the set up for you guys.” he says as he adjusts his backpack.

“Yeah, see ya at the Squawk, I need to run.” Dustin says quickly before almost bolting away.

“Okay…?” Lucas says looking after Dustin.

Will chuckles at Dustin’s sudden departure. “Okay, anyway. I’m gonna go now too, see you.” Will gives a small wave goodbye before walking off.

“I guess I’ll go then too, later.” Lucas says to Mike before starting to walk off.

“Wait!” Mike says, grabbing Lucas’ shoulder.

Lucas turns around surprised.

“Sorry…” Mike says letting his grip go. “ I just– I just want…” Mike scratches his eyebrow before continuing “shit… um… can we go to your place or something and just… talk… I need it…” Mike has his pleading eyes on full blast as he needs to unravel but just not in front of Will, not yet.

“Uh yeah… sure…” Lucas says a bit taken aback. “Let’s– let’s just go get the bike’s then.” Lucas turns back walking toward the bike racks.

“Thanks.” Mike says quickly, following Lucas.

“Yeah, no problem.” Lucas says getting his bike off the rack. “Was there something in particular you wanted to talk about?” he adds looking at Mike while he gets his bike.

“Yeah… well… kinda…” Mike says with deep thought on his face.

“Is it about Will?” Lucas asks, knowing it probably is as they both get on their bike’s. “I saw how you were looking at him this morning.”

With a panicked look Mike’s eyes flick to Lucas. “What? I– I wasn’t– I’m not– no… I mean– it’s– it’s not not about Will but– I–” He thought Lucas meant something romantic.

“Woah, calm down there, I just noticed how it looked like you knew something was wrong and it had to do with Will…” Lucas puts his hands up like he is trying to calm down a horse. “What did you think I meant?” Lucas looks at Mike kinda knowing what Mike thought he meant because the fear reaction was telling.

Straightening himself up and looking forward again. “Oh ah… yeah… it’s no… not that” Mike says awkwardly as he settles his hands on the handlebars. “I’ll tell you when we are in private.” he starts to roll his bike forward.

“Okay…” Lucas says not being able contain his smile from how flustered Mike got as he looks after him for a moment before following after him. “My place or?”

Mike just nods while in front.

The rest of the ride is quiet.

Lucas just follows not wanting to push if Mike doesn’t want to talk until they are in private even though he feels weird that Mike is this quiet, are we taking out of Will’s playbook now?

When they finally get to Lucas’ house they are both quite quick to hop inside.

“I’m home, Mike’s with me.” Lucas calls out when they enter.

“Hey son, your mother and Erica are out. What are you boys gonna do? Is Mike into playing basketball? I finally fixed the hoop out back.” Mr. Sinclair says as he walks in to greet them.

“Wanna?” Lucas looks at Mike suggesting they should. “You know while we talk.”

“I– I’m not” Mike hesitates.

“I’ll leave you guys to it.” Mr. Sinclair says before going to the living room.

“I know you’re not good but, still… we’ll have something to do” Lucas says kinda wanting to shoot some hoops.

“Whatever… just saying I’m not just bad at basketball but just bad at sports in general…” Mike reluctantly agreeing to it.

“Oh I know… I’ve seen you in gym class… Will runs faster than you.” Lucas lets out a teasing giggle.

“I– shut up.” Mike scoffs an offended chuckle.

“Let’s just go to the backyard” Lucas has a grinning smile before leading the way through the house and into the back of the house.

Lucas picks up a ball and throws it, it goes in and Lucas looks apologetically at Mike.

“Yeah this is gonna be fair…” Mike sighs.

Lucas chuckles a little, getting the ball back and throws it to Mike. “So, what did you want to talk about?” He looks on as Mike miserably misses his shot.

Mike rolls his eyes at himself for the miserable shot. “Well… me and El–”

“Jane.” Lucas cuts in knowing that Jane wants to move from being just a number. “Sorry, continue.”

“Yeah… Me and Jane… we uh… we– we broke up… at least took a break… or I don’t know…”

“What?! Mike! How– why didn’t you– when did you break up–” Lucas misses his shot because of shock as his eyes widen looking at Mike.

“Chill, it was only yesterday and… It was basically mutual… we both need to reevaluate how we go on, the relationship has been hanging by a thread for the last year… It was her suggestion but… I agreed even though it hurt”

Lucas stared for a moment letting the ball roll back on its own. “Well shit…”

“Yeah” Mike laughs nervously out.

“Does anyone else know? Does Will know?” Lucas says slowly picking up the ball while still holding eye contact.

Mike clearly is not having the best time with this topic since it's so fresh. “Will knows… El– I mean Jane… told him” 

“Yeah, make sense… they are basically siblings…” Lucas says handing the ball to Mike.

Mike takes the ball as he nods slightly “Yeah…” he lingers not throwing the ball.

Lucas notices he’s not throwing the ball. “Are you guys okay? Is Jane okay?

“I think… I just…” Mike shake’s his head still not throwing the ball.

“Want to sit down for a moment?” Lucas gestures to 2 lawn chairs by the sliding door.

“Yeah… It’s hard to focus on the game and say everything I want to say…” Mike admits.

“I can tell…” Lucas says walking to the chairs and plops down.

Mike follows quietly, letting the ball drop from his hands and roll away.

As Mike sits down next to him “alright, speak.” Lucas almost commands.

Mike huffs “I mean… it was mutual…”

“I feel like there is a but in there?” Lucas says leaning back in the lawn chair.

“Well, I didn’t necessarily… take the fallout well… then you added that I forgot Will’s birthday in the evening… even though I don’t really remember that happening… I know it did… I did have a complete meltdown.” Mike falls back in the chair looking into the sky. “I shouldn’t be sulking this much… I just have to… man up or… something…” He says echoing his father’s words.

“Man up? You do know it is okay to have emotions, don’t take this the wrong way but try not to become your dad…” Lucas says slightly looking over at Mike trying to hit him with a bit of honesty.

“What? What do you mean?” Mike scoffs slightly.

“I don’t wanna talk badly about your dad but he doesn’t seem the happiest, I think it's due to his emotionless nature…” Lucas says slowly not wanting to offend. “All I’m saying is, don't think you are not allowed to have emotions. Cause that's just stupid to think.”

“Wow… thanks for the honesty… I guess” Mike almost sinks in the chair.

“Was that too much?”

“No!” Mike says quickly. “You are right… I shouldn’t bottle up everything… it's just hard, you know.”

Lucas nods as he retrieves his note holding Will’s birthday and holds it up a tiny bit. “Wanna talk about this?”

“Will… yeah… he is always the one I– I mean he’s always there, you know… even with my relationship with Jane… me and Jane had just been lying to each other even before I went to Lenora…” Mike shakes his head with disappointment in himself.

“Lying was also one of the causes of when she dumped you the first time… is this one different?” Lucas asks, already having the feeling that it is.

“Oh don’t remind me of the first time… I sulked so much then… and was horrible to Will that day…” Mike says covering his face with his hands feeling bad for that time.

“Sorry I brought it up… but if it’s any consolation I was also mean to Will that day while trying to help you get her back…” Lucas says not knowing everything that happened that day.

“Right… I was worse though… I just projected my own insecurities on him and made him ride home in the rain…” Mike says hating himself for that even though it was long ago.

“Ooh… what– what did you say to him?” Lucas asks cautiously, sensing how casual Mike has become with his self hatred.

“Doesn’t matter… it was so long ago…” Mike dismisses the question.

“Right… let’s bottle it up…” Lucas says before thinking. “Sorry… that was rude, you don’t need to tell me everything, but you should–”

“I should not bottle everything up… I know… I have to let this memory sit longer… there’s– there's more to it.” Mike says not wanting to elaborate.

“Okay” Lucas nods. “So back to yesterday's break up then.”

“Well, we were lying to each other. When they were in Lenora she told me in letters that she was doing so good, had all these friends and stuff… only found out when I visited them there… Even though I should have known, I think that was the thing Will was hinting at in his few letters he sent me, trying to say she was struggling…” Mike says, annoyed with himself not noticing it.

“I thought you didn’t send any letters to Will?” Lucas says surprised.

“I didn’t… I was gonna… just didn’t get the time, I guess.” Mike says knowing that is a lie, he did write just never sent them. “I still have his letters but I only called him… though it was annoying how Mrs. Byers telemarketer job took up the phone…”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t stop talking about it…” Lucas says calmly.

“Yeah… I know, it was just so stupid… made Will and my relationship get strained…” Mike says sulking.

“Well that makes me even more surprised you didn’t also write to him, you are best friends… well we all are but you have always been closer” Lucas says looking tensely at Mike’s expression.

“Well like I said, I just didn’t have time…” Mike says almost too quickly, doubling down on the lie.

“Right… you didn’t have time…” Lucas says slightly nodding, seeing right through him. “So… what would you have said in letters to Will?” He says not wanting to push him too much.

“Shit… I don’t know” Mike says defensively. “Just some normal shit I guess.”

“Okay, so… let’s go back to the break up… what did you lie about?” Lucas says shifting in the lawn chair.

Mike shrugs. “Everything, I couldn’t tell her how I felt and to be honest it was just a huge mess but… we talked and ended it on good terms… I think” he says almost unconvinced by himself.

“Well shit, sorry I didn’t see it was hanging by a thread.” Lucas says feeling guilt for not having noticed.

“It wasn’t yours to fix Lucas.” Mike scratches his eyebrow.

Lucas looks at him still feeling sorry. “I know, but I could have been there for you… you know I would… always.” He looks at Mike with an apologetic smile.

“Not when I was in Lenora… it was bad down there…” Mike shakes his head.

“Arguments start down there?” Lucas asks with his voice low.

“You could definitely say that, yeah…” Mike huffs. “A couple of them… fights that felt like we were like my mom and dad arguing…” He says half embarrassed by those fights. “They were so stupid but you were right… I have to stop taking from my dad cause I felt like my dad in those moments…”

“Well… you know Jane just wants to feel normal and that's why she probably lied.” Lucas says understanding what Jane has always desired, to be normal.

“I know… that’s why I feel like an asshole for having been angry that she lied… but still she lied…” Mike says, sitting with his thoughts.

“She did… Did Will not even try to mention it when you arrived in Lenora?” Lucas asks, not connecting it was Will’s birthday that day at the moment.

“Well that is just it… he didn’t exactly say it out right but can I blame him? No, I was a total dick to him and it was apparently his birthday and no one remembered and… shit… I just…” Mike says, arguing with himself. “It’s– it’s honestly just so… fucked… and then I had the audacity to have a fight with him too in Lenora because he was upset that I was ignoring him and only called a couple of times.”

Lucas, not having seen Mike explode like this for a while, just looks stunned by all the emotions that just burst out. “You did tell him why you only called a few times, right? You know Mrs. Byers and her job down there took the phone up all day everyday.” He says almost reluctant to interrupt.

“Of course I didn't,” Mike says, annoyed with himself. “Like we are kinda good on that now… I did apologize to him but shit… I didn’t know it had been his birthday then… and like I did say sorry for it earlier today at school but… I feel I haven’t made it up to him yet…” Mike says thinking if he should tell Lucas he asked Will to meet him early at the Squawk. “I will though… I’ll make it up to him…” He says deciding not to.

Lucas looks on in shock with the extreme reaction. “Well damn Mike… that’s a lot to be holding in, do you feel better talking about it?”

Mike huffs a chuckle despite himself. “Shit.. I guess yeah…”

“Good.”

“Can I ask something kinda stupid not that it matters.” Mike says feeling it matters for some reason.

“Yeah?” Lucas says, listening for the question.

“Was that your sweater Will was wearing today?” Mike asks, looking at Lucas intensely.

“Yeah? We got soaking wet yesterday from the rain” Lucas says side eyeing Mike. “I let him borrow…”

“Right, right…” Mike nods aggressively and starts to sit up straight. “Wait… what's the time?” He says wanting to get out of there and not be late meeting Will.

Lucas shakes his head slightly at the shift from Mike. “Uh… not sure… we can go inside and check…” Lucas says standing slowly up.

Mike stands up quickly and follows him inside.

“Three fifteen.” Lucas says, pointing at the clock on the wall.

“Shit, I have to get going… see ya at the Squawk later.” Mike says, starting to walk fast toward the front door.

“Uhh okay” Lucas follows, confused by the sudden hurry. “See ya…” he says as Mike shuts the door almost in his face.

Mike gets his bike quickly and starts heading toward the Squawk.

At the Squawk Radio Station

“I must say you are early though mini Byers…” Robin says as she organizes the records. 

“Yeah, why are you here so early?” Steve says as he gets himself a cup of coffee. “Want coffee?” he asks, turning to Will who is sitting on the sofa.

“No, I’m good.” Will shakes his head slightly. “Mike asked me to, he wanted to talk before the meeting.”

“Oh okay… do you know why Lucas called for a meeting?” Steve says, sitting down on the sofa.

“You can get extra privacy downstairs to talk!” Robin calls now from the other room.

“Yeah thanks…” Will says with an awkward chuckle. “But yeah… I do”

“Okay? Are you gonna tell me? or?” Steve says before taking a sip of his coffee.

“Uh… it’s– it’s info on Vecna…” Will says quietly.

“Woah, like location or?” Steve says, almost excited by that.

“Oh no… not that kinda info… We believe he’s messing with us or… some of us at least…” Will says before hearing the front door open and close as he perks up.

“Oh right… okay” Steve says before Mike enters the main room. “Oh hey, Mike.”

Will stands up kind of excited to see him. “Robin said we can use the basement for privacy to talk.”

“Hi.” Mike says awkwardly, not even looking at Steve with all his focus on Will. “Okay cool… lets– lets go.”

They walk together down to the basement and Will sits down but Mike just starts to pace back and forth as he holds his piece of paper with Will’s birthday.

“Mike? Don’t you want to sit down?” Will asks as he watches him pace.

“Uh yeah no, I– I’m good or you know…” Mike continues to pace. “About me forgetting–”

“Mike, sit, please” Will says, getting tired looking after him back and forth.

“Yeah uh yeah… sorry… I just… yeah…” Mike says, making him fall onto the sofa.

“Okay, just take it slow, because I’m fine with it, isn’t your fault.” Will says, looking at Mike.

“Right, but– I’d– I’d understand though, like…” Mike starts extremely fidgety. “if you’d hate me after how I treated you in Lenora when it was your birthday… I mean, I was horrible to you”

“I could never hate you and also you didn’t know” Will says not blaming Mike.

Mike nods “Right, I know but I’d be fine with it… like I would hate myself” he fidgets with the end of his sleeve.

“Why would you, you're not to blame and I don’t believe you would.” Will says calmly.

“Well… I already do… you know, hate myself… for so… much stuff I’ve done.” Mike says, too uncaringly with the self hatred running deep.

“What? What are you talking about Mike? Why would you” Will gestures to Mike. “Michael Wheeler, hate yourself? You are a great friend, BEST friend” He emphasizes. “Plus you were an amazing boyfriend to Jane… Even though you broke up… I’m still rooting for you guys… I hope it is only a break…” Will says with honesty in his voice.

Will roots for us? Mike thinks to himself. “Boyfriend…” he scoffs at the mention. “Will, I couldn’t even say I love you to El– I mean Jane until you basically encouraged me to do it.” Allowed me to, Mike thinks as he looks down at his hands.

Will sighs slightly. “Doesn’t mean you were a bad boyfriend, you just needed more time than she did to say those words… It’s hard opening up to people like that…” Will says feeling like he is repeating himself from when he lied about the painting.

Mike shakes his head. “I don’t deserve you, you’re always so nice to me even when I have been an ass to you… In reality, you are the amazing friend, not me, and you…” He thinks looking toward Will. “You'd probably be the perfect boyfriend too to whoever is lucky enough to have you…” He projects admiration, something unspoken and lingers on the compliment for a moment too long before looking away. “The girl of your dreams will emerge one day I’m sure.” he adds with a slight smile that is trying too hard and just looks sad, it doesn’t sit right with him, ‘girl’.

Completely oblivious Will slightly giggles to himself by Mike’s statement. “Me? A perfect boyfriend? I don’t know about that…” he says half embarrassed talking about this.

“I do” Mike lingers on that word for a moment too long. “Like… if you weren’t basically a step brother to E– Jane you’d make a much better boyfriend than I ever was.”

“If you really feel like that, why did you and Jane stay together so long?” Will asks before realizing it might have come as rude. “I mean… Sorry, that was mean.”

Mike gestures at Will as a whole. “See? Immediately you are apologizing even though it was not that rude of a question… you are a much better person than me.” He says with a genuine smile. “And to answer your question, we were together because I do, I do love her… but… I just…” he bites his lip slightly as he stops himself from saying that he just doesn’t love her like that.

“Just what, Mike?” Will says, curious to why Mike stopped so suddenly mid sentence.

Mike fidgets with his sleeve again nervously. “I just– I just don’t know how to show it… Be the man she deserves, not that she’d want me back…” He says trying to save himself from the sentence he started. “Maybe you could teach me to be more of a man” he jokes before thinking it was a weird joke, please say no to that, he thinks to himself.

Their privacy is broken as Lucas looks down into the basement. “Hey you love birds.” he jokes standing in the stairs. “Everyone is already here so we can talk to them now.” he says before disappearing upstairs again.

Saved by interruption. “Right…” Mike says awkwardly, standing up. “Good talk.” he says not really thinking so because they didn’t finish talking but he heads for the stairs anyway.

“Yeah…” Will says quietly standing up and going after him upstairs.

Upstairs everyone is there, besides Murry since he is out of town.

Lucas stands in front of everyone and gestures for Will to join him. “So… uh” he hesitates as Will gets next to him standing quietly. “We have a new Vecna problem… or so to speak… some of you already know and I think you told your mom and brother, right?” He looks to Will.

Will nods quietly.

“Right. So most of us know why we are here.” Lucas continues. “Vecna seems to have been messing with memories for certain people and– well– Will want to… continue?”

Will nods kind of nervously. “Uh yeah… so the memory that has been erased for many… around me… is… my birthday–”

Lucas cuts in. “Guys I know how it sounds, but just hear us out… it’s not just about Will's birthday party.”

Jane’s face shatters as she hears this. “When was it?”

“Sorry I didn’t tell you earlier… it was yesterday…” Will answer looking slightly down to the ground.

“It’s not you that has to be sorry… I’ll get mom to help me bake a cake when we get home.” Jane says looking at Joyce who just nods with a small bittersweet smile.

Will smiles and gives a small chuckle.

“Okay with the cake sorted, can we get to what we can do about this or what we know?” Hopper says walking to the front.

Lucas nods “Yeah, so it seems that this memory of Will’s birthday was first erased from everyone last year in Lenora–”

“Two cakes then.” Jane cuts in with a smile.

“Right… uh where was I?” Lucas asks himself.

“Lenora last year.” Hopper says wanting to get through this quickly.

“Yeah, um… it was  erased there first we believe but it only affected those who were in Lenora. Then this year it spread  to more people like me and Dustin–” Lucas says before being cut off yet again.

“But not until after his birthday.” Dustin cuts in.

“Good you weren’t alone on your birthday…” Jane says happily.

“Right, yeah we didn’t until after but we still did which has made our yesterday blurry to say the least… but to not forget like Mike had to sadly experience we have made notes for everyone, Dustin, you have them?” Lucas looks to Dustin.

“Yeah, I have them right here.” Dustin takes a small stack of notes.

“I didn’t know his birthday to begin with so do I really need one?” Steve asks.

“Right, me neither” Robin says in agreement with Steve.

“It has more than just his birthday, since we believe the reason this specific memory is being messed with is because Vecna is trying to isolate Will, making him an easy target again.” Lucas explains enthusiastically as Dustin starts to give out these notes that hold what they know so far and Will’s birthday.

“Okay, you said memories were tampered with when people were in Lenora but as far as we know that should not be possible, right?” Hopper asks, confused.

“Your right, that has also been bugging me about this all, but then again we only learned about him last year, it was only the mind flayer hive connection to Will that is completely disconnected… Also, we haven’t had a crawl in a few weeks now, it would help to see if anything has changed down there…” Lucas says before looking at Hopper. “Is there any news from Murry on when the next crawl might be?”

“Nope.” Hopper says plain and simple, shaking his head. “Okay… how do we stop these memory erasures?”

“Good question… we haven’t gotten that far yet…” Lucas says half embarrassed to admit to Hopper.

“So… nothing? Well, then I can’t see anything but we continue the same routine and hope to find this bastard in the next crawl.” Hopper says loudly, annoyed that Vecna has been plaguing them for a whole year now. “And if he’s really trying to erase memories about Will’s birthday, what makes us sure he ain’t trying to make us forget Will completely?” He asks, looking over the group.

Will feels like he loses balance when he hears that, what if Hop’s right? Would he remember them? Would his mind be so vulnerable that he’d be controlled by… “That’s his plan” Will says quietly with only Lucas and Mike barely catching it.

Mike stands abruptly up. “Will, you okay?” He goes over to Will placing his hand on Will’s back.

“Will, you good?” Lucas says with concern in his voice.

“That’s his plan… It must be” Will repeats more loudly so everyone. 

Hopper looks at Will with a concerned face before he rubs with one hand in thought. “Alright, Will, son.” he walks up to Will and places his hand on Will’s shoulder. “You're not gonna be forgotten, I’ll make sure of it.” he emphasizes on I’ll, before looking around. “We’ll make sure of it.” he gives Will’s shoulder a squeeze before letting go again.

Mike stands next to Will like he is protecting him as Mike’s elbow brushes Will slightly.

Will looks around the room at everyone that is now staring at him. “I know we will, doesn’t mean it’s terrifying to think about…”

“That’s what this asshole does… feeds on the fear… we are not gonna let him, alright?” Hopper says determined.

Will nods. “Yeah…” He is starting to feel uncomfortable as everyone continues to have their eyes on him. “Alright, you can stop staring, I’m good.” He says looking down awkwardly.

“You heard him!” Mike almost shouts realizing too late how too protective that sounded.

Lucas gives Mike his signature side eye as the rest of the group starts to break up into smaller groups to talk and now it’s only a group of Lucas, Mike, Will, Hopper, Jane and Joyce.

Hopper is still standing near Will now with Jane also beside him. “Okay, since we can’t really do anything right now, you guys focus on moving to the Wheeler’s and Jane will stay with me in hiding, and no Mike you are not allowed to come visit to see Jane.”

Mike looks awkwardly at Jane then at Hopper. “I wasn’t gonna ask…”

Hopper looks at him surprised but secretly pleased. “Good.”

“We broke up.” Jane says with ease like it was no problem.

Hopper looks at Jane by his side. “Really?” he says with a creeping grin of happiness. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” he says, fully planning a celebration in his mind.

Will looked at Jane surprised how she seemed so unbothered by the break up and just more happy.

“I’m surprised” Joyce shoots in. “But anyway, I had talked to Mrs. Henderson to help me move things tomorrow while you guys are at school, and Will, honey, you’ll just go with Mike home as we are moving completely tomorrow.” She says look at Will then flicking her eyes to Jane. “And you, honey, last night you can be close before you and Hop need to be elsewhere, and yes we can definitely make Will a cake and have a small celebration, it’s a great idea.” She hugs Jane and then looks lovingly at Will.

Hopper gives a small smile to Jane. “I’ll have to skip out on the cake, I might join in later, either that or I’ll see you at the cabin tonight Jane.” He says with a friendly wink to Jane before walking off.

“Mrs. Byers.” Mike says shyly.

“Yes dear?” Joyce says with a gentle smile.

“Can I– can I join you guys for that small celebration for Will?” Mike flicks his eyes shyly between Joyce and Jane, he doesn’t want to make Jane feel uncomfortable.

“Of course you can.” Jane says with a smile. “He is your best friend after all and you missed it too.” She says not thinking about what they went through yesterday, she only thought to make her brother, Will, happy.

Mike looks to Jane grateful. “Thanks.”

Jane looks at Lucas that has been quietly observing the entire time. “ You are welcome to, right?” She looks at Joyce  for approval.

“Of course.” Joyce says, smiling to Lucas.

Suddenly taken out of his observing state. “What, uh no, it’s all good, I spent the day with Will yesterday, I’ll let you guys have a private party.” Lucas smiles.

“Okay.” Joyce says before looking over to Jonathan who is speaking to Dustin, Nancy, Steve and Robin. “Jonathan?”

“Well we don’t know that, do we?” Jonathan says before looking over. “Yeah, mom?”

“Are you gonna come home with us now or?” Joyce asks, already kinda knowing the answer.

“No, I'll get a ride with Nance later.” Jonathan says smiling before turning back to talk to the others.

“Will, I’ll just take your bike in the car and yours too, Michael so you guys can drive with me home.” Joyce looks to the two boys where Mike is definitely inside Will’s personal space. “And honey.” She looks at Jane next to her. “You know the drill, you take the tunnels, we’ll see you at home.” She gives Jane a hug.

“See you at home.” Jane says as she turns away to leave.

“I better be going too, if there is any updates Will, I’m on the other side on the walkie, or you Mike” Lucas says looking between Mike and Will before leaving.

“Shall we?” Joyce says before taking the lead walking out to the car. “Get your bikes in the car.”

Mike and Will follow silently and get their bikes to the trunk of the car.

Mike gets into the middle back seat and Will takes shotgun. “You boys strapped?”

“Yes Mrs. Byers.” Mike says quietly from the back.

“Yeah mom.” Will says, slightly looking back to see Mike before looking at the road ahead.

“Good.” Joyce smiles and then starts the car.

As they drive it is quiet no one's talking, Mike feels awkward with everything and doesn’t want to talk about all the things he wants to talk to Will about with Joyce also here.

“So… why is everyone so quiet?” Joyce finally breaks the silence.

“I think it’s just been a lot, Mike has never missed my birthday since we met and now he has missed two…” Will says trying to spare Mike having to say much. “Kinda my fault for last year's one… I didn’t say anything, we could have figured this out then, stupid.” He says suddenly annoyed with himself.

“No!” Mike says leaning toward the front from the backseat as he grabs Will’s arm. “It was never your fault, never think that, we should know your birthday, you are not supposed to have to tell us.” Mike says trying to make sure Will doesn’t blame himself for anything. 

Joyce tilts her head slightly then nods in agreement with Mike. “Michael is right, you know?” She looks quickly to Will before her eyes go back to the road. “Since you told me earlier today, I have blamed myself too… but if we are correct about Vecna's hand in all of this, He is to blame.”

Mike nods his head and looks between Joyce and Will. “Exactly, we could never blame you… we lo– care about you so much.” Mike edit’s himself mid-sentence hoping no one noticed.

With a quick glance to Will from Joyce. “We do, and like Hop said, we’ll take this bastard down at the first chance we get, okay?” 

“Okay.” Will says looking at his pants in deep thought before looking forward. “It is weird though, how is it that you, Mike.” he looks back at Mike. “Lost the memory of my birthday again but not my mom and Jonathan, granted I told them after school today but they didn’t have a note or anything.”

“I hadn’t even thought of that… but, to be honest, being here with you, near you, it feels like I am slowly gaining some memories back…” Mike says, thinking hard, getting bits of the walkie call yesterday. “I– I remember bits, bits from… when Lucas told me yesterday… I– I–” He starts to remember when he dropped his walkie.

Will puts his hand in the back on Mike’s knee. “It’s okay Mike, I know it was hard to hear from Lucas the first time, you don’t have to dwell on it, you remember that’s what matters.”

With Will’s touch it’s like he gain’s everything about last night. “Shit.” He exclaims suddenly.

“You okay?” Will asks, looking at him concerned.

“No yeah, I’m– I’m good, I just remember… everything from last night…” Mike shift’s slightly. “I think it’s harder for Vecna to erase memories of you when you are in close proximity.”

“Close proximity?” Joyce repeats as they turn up the Byers driveway.

“Close by, mom” Will says as the car comes to a stop outside the house.

“I know what it means honey… just–” She shakes her head slightly as she turns off the car. “Strange… but I guess it is perfect timing then for you Michael, ain’t it.” She says looking into the back mirror at Mike before they all step out of the car.

“What do you mean?” Mike asks, half confused as they take the bikes out of the trunk.

“Well, we’ll be living at your house, and we are moving tomorrow.” Joyce says as they walk toward the house. “Will is gonna be close by.”

“Oh yeah, you’re right.” Mike says half relieved from that realization.

Joyce unlocks the door and lets them in. “It is probably a couple of minutes til Jane arrives so I’ll start gathering ingredients for a cake.” She says walking toward the kitchen as the boys close the door after themselves. “Carrot cake okay?”

“Yeah that’s perfect.” Will says, knowing that is Mike’s favorite type of cake.

 “Okay.” Joyce calls from the kitchen. “Will, you can finish packing.”

“I’m basically done, it’s not like we have much, almost everything was left in California.” Will says walking toward his room with Mike following like a puppy.

“Okay, if there is something more, you’ll just put it in one of the boxes by the door.” Joyce calls from the kitchen.

“Yeah.” Will calls back.

Mike follows Will into his room, it’s a complete mess, barely a livable space. “I’m thankful you guys are coming to live with us, I hate seeing you have to live like this.” The protectiveness and slight guilt not realizing how bad it was lingers in his voice as Mike looks around before sitting on the old bed that only has an old blanket and pillow. “Aren’t you cold in here?” He says feeling a small breeze coming through a cracked window.

“I mean… Yeah, a little… but I’ve survived…” Will says taking a folder filled with what seems to be pictures. “Can’t expect much from living in an abandoned house…”

“Right…” Mike nods slightly before focusing on the folder Will has. “What’s that?” He says really curiously.

“Just my drawings and paintings, I’ve done quite a few since we got back from Lenora” Will states with a smile  “Sadly I was not able to take all my drawings from there… so they got lost…” Will says disappointed.

“Awh… That sucks…” Mike makes a small frown knowing how great Will’s drawings can be and it is sad to lose them. “Can I see the ones you have? It’s been a while since I saw a new Will Byers painting or drawing.” He says wanting to see what Will has been making lately.

“Umm… these? These ain’t that good…” Will says placing them where he’ll remember them. “I’ll make you a new one for your birthday in two weeks.” Will says hoping Mike won’t ask more about the one he has here.

“Ooh… okay, I’ll take that.” Mike says happy but still wondering why Will kept the other one’s a secret. “You’ll still show me those one day, right?”

“Uh… yeah, maybe…” Will says as he gathers the few clothes he has in a pile.

Maybe? Mike thinks to himself, why doesn’t he want to show me, he used to show me every picture he made. He suddenly remembers the painting Will gave him commissioned by Jane. “I still have the last one you made for me, the one Jane commissioned.” He says with a bittersweet smile. “I might give it to her since we aren’t together anymore.” He says while looking at Will from behind while he gathers stuff.

A little panicked by that statement from Mike, Will turns around to face him not catching when Mike looks quickly away. “Why would you do that? I’m sure she still wants you to have it.” Will says quickly hoping that Mike doesn’t talk to Jane about the picture, his lie would be uncovered, that stupid lie.

“Yeah… maybe, I’ll just ask her I guess…” Mike says with a thinking look. “I never even thanked her for it to begin with…”

“Right…” Will says, shit… he’ll find out…

Suddenly they hear the front door open and close.

Jane must be here, Will thinks he has to talk to her first. “I’m gonna check if that was Jane, we might get some cake soon.” He force’s a smile to seem calm before going out of the room.

As Will leave’s Mike’s eyes land on the folder of picture’s Will has made, should I? He thinks for a moment before standing up and taking the folder and opening it. “Woah…” He says out loud without thinking. He flicks through pictures containing the D&D party even including Jane and Max even though they had never played with them. There are only a couple of picture’s left in the folder, he goes to the next one. “Oh…” He gapes as he looks at his own face in the folder, This one is painted, he quickly goes to the next one, drawn, he goes to the next stunned by the art, a completely pencil drawn with stunning details. “One final picture” He whispers to himself before flipping to the final picture. He stares for a moment before hearing footsteps coming towards the room he is quick to close and put the folder back and he sits down just as Will comes in and closes the door again. “Was it Jane?” He asks, trying to seem normal.

When Will leaves the room

Will walks into the kitchen and sees Jane and Joyce. “You're here, before you go start the cake with mom, can we talk? Privately…” he says nervously.

“Yeah.” Jane says with a small smile.

They go to the living room to have privacy.

“What is it Will?” She says so calmly with a smile.

“Uh… so… I hate to ask this… but I messed up… I made up a lie last year… that–” Will bite’s his lips nervously before continuing. “It included you having commissioned a painting I made for Mike…” He takes a deep breath looking ashamed and hurt that he lied to begin with. “I can’t–” He says, almost tearing up. “Please… if he asks… tell him you did… you did commission it.” A single tear escapes his eye as he tries to wipe it away immediately as he fears losing Mike from this lie born from insecurity.

Jane’s smile has faded and changed into a small concerned frown, she hugs Will tightly before whispering to him slowly. “You have to tell him Will… lying again will only make it worse…” Jane says not wanting Will to repeat the mistakes of hiding behind lies “Me and Mike broke up because of lies, don’t keep them going, it’ll only hurt more… for you both.” she pulls back slowly seeing where Will is now with tear filled eyes.

Will just nods slowly. “Okay…”

“I’m sure it’ll go okay…” Jane says half unsure. “Promise me to tell me why you lied to him, it’s unlike you.” she says, giving him another quick hug. “I’ll go make that cake now.” She says before walking to the kitchen.

Will stands there for a moment wiping his eyes, the edges of the sleeves of Lucas’ sweater he lent are completely wet from his tears. He gulps before walking toward his room, as he opens the door Mike is still sitting there, on the bed.

“Was it Jane?” Mike asks.

“Yeah.” Will says, trying to hide the wet sleeves as he walks to the pile of clothes he had gathered. “I have to quickly change my sweater.”

“Lucas’ sweater, right?” Mike says with a half smile. “Looks good on you, or you know Lucas’ style somehow fits you…” He says clearly not talking about fashion as he looks away awkwardly. “Why do you need to change?” He says, trying to forget what he said previously.

“Uhh it was just a small spill while in the kitchen.” He says, confused by that complement that Mike made as he picks a sweater to change to. “I’ll just change here if that’s alright.”

“Yeah go ahead, I’ll look away.” Mike says, looking away.

“Thanks.” Will says, removing Lucas’ sweater showing his toned torso as he has his back turned to Mike.

Mike can’t help but sneak peak, when did Will get so… muscled, his eyes lingered for a moment longer than necessary, it’s new territory seeing Will physically… He looks away again as Will finishes to put on another sweater.

“Okay… there, you can look again.” Will says standing in front of Mike before it dawns on him what he has to do, he has to tell Mike. “Mike?” He says nervously scratching his left palm with his right thumb.

“Yeah?” Mike says with a smile.

Will takes a deep breath. “I have to tell you something… about… the painting.” He continues to fidget with his hands, terrified of his unspoken words.

Wait, what painting, Mike questions himself, the paintings in the folder, does he somehow know he looked at them. “Which painting?” He asks, trying to stay calm.

“The painting I gave you last year.” Will says slowly.

“The one commissioned by Jane.” He says relieved.

“Right” Will shifts nervously standing in front of Mike while he just sits there calm on the bed. “Um– so… it wasn’t…” He says struggling to continue kinda hoping Mike can connect the dots.

Mike’s face shifts. “What do you mean?”

“I’m sorry Mike…” Will says, trying not to cry. “I– I lied…” He is breathing manually as one tear falls down his cheek.

Mike’s face half breaks into denial as he shakes his head. “What did you lie about?” Will had never lied to him.

“It– it wasn’t from Jane…” Will manages to say before his voice breaks into a shaky breathy cry, the shield breaks. “I– I’m so– so sorry– I’m so sorry Mike…” his words barely audible from his shaky breathy cry.

Overwhelmingly hurt by this, Mike looks at Will kinda wanting not to see him right now. “What? Why did you lie?” His eyes now also filled with tears as he stands up. “Why!?” He screams into Will’s face with hurt, betrayal, fresh breakup and deep running self hatred.

Terrified by Mike’s sudden scream, Will takes a small step, looking down, with his hands falling to his sides.

“Shit!” Mike exclaims seeing Will’s immediate trauma response, hurt but also angry with himself for yelling at Will before storming out of the room, leaving Will.

“Are you leaving?” Joyce questions as she sees Mike go toward the front door.

“Something came up, I need to go home.” You could hear the hurt and anger in Mike’s voice as he leaves out the front door quickly.

“Hmm… What was that?” Joyce questions looking over to Jane.

“I don’t know, I’m gonna check on Will.” Jane says knowing what probably happened.

She walks down the hall to Will’s room that is open, Will is still standing in the same spot right in front of his empty dresser.

Will looks slowly up at Jane with tearful eyes “I did it.” Will blames himself entirely with even lying to Mike to begin with.

Chapter Text

Monday Evening, March 23, 1987 (Jane’s Pov)

“Why!?” a muffled scream is heard down the hall from Will’s bedroom, not just anger but hurt detonating.

Joyce and Jane look at each other quietly. Not long after they see Mike storm past them.

Jane looks sad looking after him quietly as Joyce asks if he was leaving, Jane knows it didn’t go well as Mike does not do that tone and never with Will, especially not with Will, she still feels it was better for Will to be honest even if it hurts now.

“Hmm… What was that?” Joyce questions looking over to Jane.

“I don’t know, I’m gonna check on Will.” Jane immediately walks toward Will’s bedroom, protective sister mode, Will comes first.

“Okay, I’ll continue here.” Joyce calls after Jane but she probably didn’t hear as she had already left the kitchen.

“I did it” Will mutters looking at Jane as she stops in the doorway.

Hearing how he said that, it breaks Jane’s heart seeing Will, her step brother, like this. She is quick to walk over and take him into a hug that he sinks into starting to sob into her shoulder as Will does not hold his emotions in anymore letting everything collapse. “I’m sorry, Will.” They continue to stand there holding each other.

Monday Evening, March 23, 1987 (Mike’s Pov)

Mike slams the door leaving the house, standing on the porch panting, angry, hurt, confused. “Shit!” He screams at himself with deep anger for himself. Before he gets on his bike starting to bike fast away.

I screamed at him, I fucking screamed at him… even when he was trying to come clean I fucking screamed at him… what is wrong with me? I made him terrified of me, he stepped back in fear.

The moment that replays destroying Mike, not the lie, not the yelling… the flinch.

He continues biking home crying, thinking about how Will looked, completely broken, shattered.

He doesn’t wipe away the tears, doesn’t slow down, really just punishing himself with speed.

I messed everything up… what is wrong with you!? What is wrong with you!? He’ll never want to see you again, you… you idiot.

The fear of permanent loss of his friendship with Will because he was stupid flows through his mind.

The bike ride is a blur from tear filled eyes and anger filled thoughts.

He is quick to go inside as he arrives home.

“Michael, is that you? Nancy said you were probably gonna eat at Will’s?” Karen walks to see him come in but he quickly goes upstairs. “Honey? What happened?” She asks as she sees him fly upstairs without a word.

Karen follows him upstairs. “Michael?” as she comes up the stairs he is standing down the hallway by his door completely stopped. “Honey, what happened?”

Mike turns around slowly, barely looking up at his mother that stands by the stairs as his eyes have a noticeable look that he had been crying. “I– I messed everything up…” There is full self blame, not just ‘we fought’ it was on him he felt as he starts to tear up again.

Karen, not having seen him this upset for a while, walks up to him and puts her arms around him in a hug. “Honey? What is going on?” She questions again, worried for her child.

“Mom, is there anything else I can help with?” Holly comes up the stairs standing behind them. “What happened?”

“Go into your room honey, I’ll come in a minute.” Karen’s voice is quiet and soft to Mike, releasing him from her hug.

Mike goes into his room.

Karen turns around toward Holly. “Uh you can go set the table honey, I have to go talk to your brother, I’ll be down in a few minutes.” She says before turning to Mike’s door and knocking lightly before entering.

“Okay” Holly looks at her in thought before going downstairs.

Mike looks up where he is sitting on his bed as Karen comes in.

“Talk to me, what is going on? What happened?” She sits down next to him and takes his hand to comfort him by rubbing it with her thumb.

Mike stays quiet for a moment finding the right words to explain what happened. “I– me and Will fought– or– I– I yelled at him.” His voice slow and quiet as he falls to the side onto his mother’s shoulder and she puts her arms around him again and he breaks into tears again.

Karen closes her eyes, feeling pain for her child. “What did you fight about?” She uses her motherly slow soft voice as she leans her head over his head that is on her shoulder feeling like she is holding little kid Mike, not teenage Mike at this moment.

“It's stupid…” He shakes his head slightly still in her side embrace. “He– he” He stutters with his breath shaky. “He was just– he was just trying to come clean…” Mike knows Will was just being brave which is making him feel so much worse.

“Come clean? Did Will lie about something?” She asks as she looks down at his head on her shoulder.

“Yeah but– he– he, I– I know he was sorry– I– I just took it poorly without thinking…” He sobs into her shoulder as he pictures Will’s face when he yelled. “And– I just yelled at him… I– I made him–” he hesitates, completely broken remembering Will stepping back when he yelled.

“It’s okay honey, I’m sure you guys will patch things up” She says trying to comfort him.

“No–” He looks up at her, slightly shaking his head. “I made him step back in fear… he– he was terrified, mom, I yelled at him–” He says completely broken, seeing himself as dangerous to Will. “he probably doesn’t want to see me ever again!” He says feeling horrified with how he reacted to Will being honest with him and jumping straight to the thought of permanent loss.

Considering her words carefully “I don’t believe that, you guys will figure things out, you always have… not to mention it will be hard for you to avoid him completely when they move in here tomorrow.” She gently strokes his back to try to give him some comfort.

“No… you should have seen his face, mom… he hates me… I hate me” Mike felt too much, deeper than guilt, identity level shame, he truly believed Will would never want to see him for that.

“I don’t think he does…” Karen says, feeling Mike’s hurt.

“He does.” He says sure with himself not believing he could be redeemed for his reaction. “I– I just need to be alone, please…” He starts breaking away slowly from her embrace and making himself fall flat on the bed looking at the ceiling with tears in his eyes.

“Okay… but you need to talk to him.” Karen looks at him laying flat beside her on the bed before she stands up. “Dinner is soon, I’ll come get you when it is ready.” She says before going toward the door.

“I’m not hungry…” There is no care for himself at this moment.

“You need to eat Michael.” She looks at him worried before leaving the room and going down stairs.

How am I gonna navigate school tomorrow? Or here at home, we’re supposed to go home together tomorrow, why did I react like that?

He’s been laying there quietly staring at the ceiling feeling sick with tonight's events for a couple of minutes when there is a small knock on his door.

“Michael?” It’s Nancy. “Can I come in?” her voice muffled by the door.

“Go away.” Mike answers still in the same laying position, not wanting to talk to anyone without breaking again.

“Okay, I heard something happened between you and Will from Jonathan, but I won’t bother you if that’s what you need.” She says through the door. “Anyway mom said dinner is ready, so, hope you come downstairs.” Mike hears her steps fading away seconds later.

If Jonathan didn’t hate me before, he definitely does now for what I did to Will. I didn’t even hear Will out… I still don’t know why he lied, why?

Only about two minutes have passed since Nancy came by his door when there is another small knock.

“Go away!” Mike calls at the door thinking it’s Nancy again.

“Michael, it’s me.” His moms voice comes through the door. “Come down for dinner, you need to eat.” She says hoping he will come downstairs.

He doesn’t answer.

“Please Michael.” She says.

He hears the plea and hurt in his mother’s voice from him not coming out or answering.

“Okay…” She says almost quietly, trying to accept his quietness. “I’ll save you a plate.”

He hears her footsteps fade and hates himself more for letting his mom be upset because he can’t just… man up… he covers his eyes hiding quiet tears that start to form.

Me Mike The bRaVe, maybe my young self… he would go forgive him… now I’m just Mike the Coward, letting some asshole jocks get to me.

It must be a half hour later when his door opens without a knock, it's his dad, Mike is quick to sit up and straighten out. “Stop this nonsense and go down to your mother and eat, stop sulking about your best friend because he lied, man up, you're closing in to becoming 16 years old so start acting like it!” Ted says in a scolding manner, just confirming every fear Mike had, emotion is weakness and grief is embarrassment. “That boy is a bad influence on you anyway so just find new friends if he lies, it doesn’t matter if you will live under the same roof, live as strangers… Ask and I’ll throw them out even if your mother disapproves” He says firmly framing Will as the problem.

Mike gives a small nod followed by a small gulp not having had a talking to like this from his dad in years since he is usually on the couch watching TV. “Yes sir.” He says looking at the ground to avoid his dads eye contact. “We don’t need to throw them out, I’ll stay clear of them.” He doesn’t agree it is Will’s fault or he is the problem, he feels powerless toward his father.

“Good.” Ted says before leaving again without closing the door, feeling proud with himself for finally taking a step.

Mike is frozen holding in his emotions, desperately trying to hold his tears in from the scolding.

30~ Minutes Earlier, March 23, 1987 (Karen’s Pov)

Karen walks downstairs and goes to the dining room and sits down where the rest of the family is, having started to eat.

Ted looks up. “Where is he?”

“Still upstairs.” Karen looks quickly at Ted as she starts to eat herself.

“What happened anyway? Why is he acting like this?” Ted asks, stopping himself from taking another bite.

“Him and Will just had a fight, so we’ll just let him come down when he feels like it.” Karen says before taking another bite.

“Like a physical one or?” Ted questions like that should not stop Mike from coming downstairs.

“No, they had an argument after Will admitted to having lied about something.” She says looking at Ted.

“An argument? I’ll go talk to him.” Ted says ready to stand up.

“Ted, let him be.” Karen gives him a stare. “I’ll talk to him again after dinner.” She gives him the look of you don’t know how to talk to your kids.

Ted grunts before starting to eat his dinner again.

“Let’s talk about something else, Holly, how was school today?” Karen says looking over to Holly who has stayed quiet so far.

Holly looks up from her food. “It was fine.”

“That’s– that’s good” Karen nods, she was hoping for more. “What about you Nancy, how was your day?”

“It was good, I was able to finish up a few things and then later in the day met up with some friends.” Nancy smiles at her mom.

“Yeah, you were barely home” Ted comments.

“Yes, dad, I just came home for a quick second before driving Jonathan.” Nancy makes a small sigh.

“Of course, Jonathan” Ted says kind of mockingly. “These Byer boys are quite something for you kids…” The hostility toward the Byers is not subtle. “good there ain’t a third one for Holly.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Nancy says half annoyed.

Ted looks at Nancy. “They are ba–”

“Enough.” Karen cuts in. “Both of you, hope this is not how we are gonna be acting when they are going to be staying here.”

“If they get to stay for long…” Ted unnecessarily comments viewing them as intruders.

Karen now looks at him annoyed. “Well, they are.”

“Mom, can I leave the table?” Holly asks, having finished first.

“Yes dear.” Karen says sweetly to Holly.

Holly leaves the table, the table is silent for the rest of the dinner.

Like usual Ted is probably gone to the sofa watching TV before Karen has removed everything from the table although she hasn’t heard any noise from the living room.

Karen starts to take the dishes as she does, she also hears the TV turn on suddenly after being quiet for probably 6 minutes after Ted left the table.

Moments later without her noticing anything coming up behind her while she removes from the table. “Here mom, I’ll help you.” Mike says quietly, taking a few dishes with a blank face, eyes swollen from crying earlier.

Karen looks at him when he comes up beside her suddenly, she knows that face, trying to hide his tears because he was told to. “Honey…” She Realizes what probably happened. “Ooh…” She feels sick knowing that Ted probably scolded him. “Did–”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He says quickly not wanting  to repeat Ted’s words as he continues to help his mom.

Karen’s heart clenches with the truth. “Okay…” She says following him as he takes dishes to the kitchen. 

Mike places the dishes in the sink then turns toward the dining room intending on getting more things off the table but his mother is in the way. 

“Come here.” She says softly, opening her arms for a hug.

“Please, dad said I–” Not to cry, not to be emotional and not to be soft.

“I don’t care what he said, I’ll talk to him.” She says firmly, cutting Mike off.

“Okay…” He says looking slightly down, making a small sniffle before being pulled into a hug by his mom.

He falls into her embrace and his head onto her shoulder while she holds him quietly.

Quiet muffled sobs come as he cries into her shoulder.

After a moment standing there in the kitchen she slowly pulls away to look at him. “I’ll heat up the plate I saved for you.” She says kissing his forehead before she starts to get the plate ready for him.

Mike just stands there quietly wiping away tears.

After a moment only looking at the floor in thought his head slowly lifts to look at his mom. “Why… Why do I feel like this?” He says quietly confused by the intensity of his emotions.

“You're hurting…” Karen says validating his feelings “someone you deeply care about lied to you, broke your trust, even if you feel like you acted rashly in the heat of the moment doesn’t mean your feelings are invalid.” She says gesturing for him to sit by the breakfast table.

He quietly does as he thinks about her words.

“Here.” She says putting a plate in front of him with heated up food. “Eat.”

He just stares at the food, no appetite after all that has happened throughout the evening.

Karen goes around the counter to sit next to him. “When did you eat?”

Mike just looks at the food, feeling his mothers eyes on him while he tries to avoid them.

“Michael.” She says waiting for an answer. “Did you even eat this morning?”

Ashamed with himself he just quietly shakes his head.

Karen takes a deep breath gathering her thoughts. “You have to stop doing this honey.” Her voice is soft and caring. “You need…” She hesitates feeling it is hard from caring too much. “You need to eat, you need food.” She sounds like she is holding back tears. “Please Michael… do it for me.”

“Okay.” He says, not wanting to make his mom feel like this, he picks up the fork hesitant not feeling the hunger that is in reality there, not doing it for himself but for her.

He starts to force himself to eat, slowly.

Karen keeps an eye while he slowly eats, she knows he's only doing it for her. 

Suddenly the doorbell rings.

“Who is ringing the bell at this hour, I’ll be back in a moment.” Karen says standing up.

Mike looks quietly after her.

After a few moments Karen comes back. “Look who came by, for you this time.” She says as Jonathan emerges from behind her holding a small container.

“Hey, Mike.” Jonathan says calmly, he sits down quietly across from him.

Mike just gives a nervous smile.

“Here.” Jonathan says pushing the small food container he arrived with across the table. “I’m not here to be angry at you for your reaction with Will confessing he lied, I get it.” He adds immediately removing the threat Mike expected.

“Is it okay Mike that I go to the kitchen and finish cleaning?” Karen asks, looking at Mike.

Mike makes a small nod before taking the small container and slowly opening it.

Karen goes to the kitchen leaving Mike and Jonathan sitting across from each other.

Mike tries to hide a small smile when he sees what is inside, making him disarm his defenses.

“It didn’t sound fair to me you didn’t get any.” Jonathan says with a small smile when he notices Mike's small smile.

“Thanks.” Mike says quietly, surprised by Jonathan’s kindness, why are all the Byers so nice?

“Wanna talk about what happened?” Jonathan questions slowly.

“How is Will doing?” Mike asks wanting to know how Will is after he yelled at him, even in shame the instinct to check on Will is always a priority.

“He’s okay, well, at least when I left…” Jonathan says calmly knowing Mike felt bad for yelling at Will. “I mean he was still upset when I came home but… he had Jane, he wasn’t alone, mom is with him now.”

“Good he wasn’t alone.” Mike says quietly, believing he didn’t deserve comfort but relieved Will had it, taking his fork from his dinner and using it to take a small piece of the carrot cake that was in the small container.

“Were you?” Jonathan asks, looking at him feeling sorry for both Mike and Will at this moment. “You know, alone?” Trying to make Mike feel seen.

“I asked to be left alone.” Mike shrugs slightly, taking another piece of cake.

“Okay…” Jonathan says with thought. “Nance has told me you tend to bottle your emotions, but… you should talk to Will.” He says gently, challenging Mike to be brave and talk to Will.

Mike looks up at Jonathan, staying quiet for a moment. “I can’t, he probably hates me after I yelled at him… fears me…” He can’t see the possibility of Will forgiving him for yelling like that.

“Well, you don’t know that until you talk to him.” Jonathan looks at him back with a caring smile. “So… just talk to him, please, for his sake… and yours.”

Mike sniffles slightly from having cried earlier. “Maybe…” He says, fearing having to talk to Will, what if he’ll never look at me the same?

“Well… I better get going.” Jonathan says standing up walking around to Mike. “Take care of yourself.” He says squeezing Mike’s shoulder quickly before leaving the room.

Moments later Nancy comes into the room after most likely bumping into Jonathan while he was on his way out. “Didn’t expect to see my boyfriend in the kitchen just now”

“He just wanted to deliver me a piece of cake.” Mike says quietly.

“It’s good ain’t it? I got a quick slice when I drove Jonathan earlier.” She says sitting down next to him knowing it is carrot cake, his favorite.

“Yeah… it’s– it’s good” he says, almost trying to hide his tiny bit of happiness that he got from getting this simple thing from Jonathan. “Your boyfriend isn’t half bad.” He teases giving a small smile, he needed that.

“The Byers are pretty good, you should know, I’d argue you even have the best one.” She nudges him in a playful sibling-like way, seeing what is there between Mike and Will.

“Mmm…” Is the only sound Mike gives thinking for a moment about how great, amazing, perfect Will is, he tries to not see the negatives right now with how his and Will’s relationship feels strained right now. “I do at least approve of your boyfriend, he’s a good brother to Will.”

“Like I needed your approval…” She chuckles lightly.

“Course you did.” He says teasingly.

“Mhm…” She looks at him with a big grinning smile.

Mike takes another piece of the cake slice, he has almost finished it.

“So… did you tell mom what Will lied about?” Nancy sits back slightly. “Cause, Jonathan told me… can I see the painting that is being talked about?”

Mike looks at her a bit nervous, debating with himself if he should show her. “Okay…” he nods half aggressively but in a nervous tone.

“Finish that slice first.” She smiles.

Mike eats the final bite of the cake slice. “Okay, it’s down in the basement.” He says standing up.

Nancy takes his dinner plate and he takes the small food container.

Mike walks first into the kitchen where their mother is still, Mike places the container on the counter before he continues through the kitchen.

Nancy walks closely after him, placing his plate by the sink before mouthing to her mother. “He ate the whole cake slice that Jonathan came with.” Then continue to follow Mike toward the basement.

Karen makes a small happy smile.

Earlier This Evening, March 23, 1987 (Jonathan’s Pov, before he knew about Mike and Will’s argument)

“This has been an odd day.” Jonathan says to Nancy as they are driving up to the Byers house.

“Yeah.” Nancy responds.

“Do you know how Mike is doing after he found out he forgot?” Jonathan asks as the car stops outside the Byers house.

“He had a breakdown yesterday… not surprising though, Him and Jane broke up and he forgot his best friend's birthday.” Nancy says, turning off the car.

“Ah… yeah, hope he finds some happiness being with him now having cake.” Jonathan chuckles slightly. “Speaking of cake, shall we go inside?”

“Yeah, I’ll come inside quickly for a cake slice and get Mike.” She says before they step out of the car.

They walk toward the front door, not noticing that Mike’s bike is not there, they go inside expecting to see everyone when they come in but there is no one.

“Mom?” Jonathan calls.

“I’m in the kitchen, since you are home, can you talk to your brother?” Joyce calls back.

“Uuh sure.” Jonathan says looking half confused. “You can just go to the kitchen and get yourself some cake.”

“Okay, I can’t stay long so I might be gone before you're done talking with Will, oh and tell Mike to come so we can go home.” Nancy says walking toward the kitchen.

“Hi Mrs. Byers”, “hi my dear” Jonathan hears as Nancy goes to the kitchen.

Jonathan goes to Will’s room and knocks on the closed door. “Will? Can I come in, mom told me to talk to you.”

The door opens, it's Jane holding a plate of cake. “Hey, Jonathan, I’ll leave you to it, I have to go to Hopper's cabin.” She says turning looking at Will that is sitting alone on the floor by his broken dresser. “See you tomorrow?”

Will nods slowly “yeah.”

Jonathan looks around  half confused not seeing Mike there. “Where’s Mike?” He asks as he lets Jane by him in the doorway. “See you, Jane.”

“He went home.” Will says quietly with a sad tone.

“What happened?” Jonathan asks sensing there was something wrong.

“I told him about the painting lie…” Will says slowly, flicking his eyes between looking at Jonathan and not looking at him. “We had a fight… or so to speak...”

Jonathan thinks for a moment as he walks and sits on the bed. “Painting lie? Are you talking about the painting you gave him last year that you said was from Jane?” He asks, recalling hearing some of that conversation in the van last year.

Will just nods quietly looking at the half eaten cake he has on the plate in his lap. 

“Jonathan? Are you– oh… is everything okay? Where is Mike?” Nancy says coming suddenly into the doorway.

“Will, you decide if I tell Nance or not.” Jonathan looks from Nancy who just came in to Will sitting on the floor.

Will nod slowly. “It’s okay, she can know.” He says quietly.

“Mike’s not here, he went home after they got into an argument.” Jonathan says look back at Nancy.

“Ooh… I’m– I’m sorry Will, what were you arguing about?” Nancy says, looking at Will.

“I told him I lied about a painting I gave him last year, he yelled, then left” Will says it almost too calmly. “I’ve never lied to him, not like this, he probably hates me.” He says like he has just accepted that.

Nancy closes her eyes for a moment knowing how her brother can react sometimes. “You two? Hate each other? I don’t think that is possible.” She says slowly looking back at Will.

“Yeah, you guys are perfect together, perfect friends.” Jonathan adds.

Both Nancy and Jonathan see the deep bond between Mike and Will even if they couldn’t at this moment in time.

Will doesn’t respond, just takes another bite of his cake slice. 

“Well, I have to get going but I hope you and Mike will talk, I don’t think either me or Jonathan is gonna allow your friendship to shatter.” Nancy says, giving Will a small smile. “Bye Jonathan” She adds before leaving.

After Nancy is gone, Will and Jonathan sit in silence for a few moments.

Will takes another bite of his cake.

“Good to have a comfort cake to eat, huh?” Jonathan says teasingly.

Will makes a small smile he tries to hide. “It’s good cake.” He says quietly.

Jonathan smiles letting out a tiny chuckle. 

Will shifts slightly sitting there on the floor. “Have you tried it?”

“Not yet, I’ll probably get some after we eat dinner, I could smell mom was making something good.” Jonathan says, happy that Will looks to be doing okay considering everything. “Was Mike able to try it before he left?” He asks knowing it’s a risky question since he is bringing Mike back into the conversation.

Will shakes his head. “No, I should have told him after cake, I made him miss cake.” Will says like he is disappointed with himself for not letting Mike have cake before.

“Well, I don’t think it would have changed the outcome much but… I can go with a slice for him after dinner using moms car.”

“It might have changed something.” Will says quickly, trying to convince himself if he had timed it differently, just waited, maybe Mike wouldn’t have yelled, trying to rewrite the moment in his mind. “But yeah, that would be nice of you, thanks.”

“Yeah, cake is magical.” Jonathan jokes. “No need to thank me though.” He smiles at Will.

Will looks up at Jonathan. “Just tell him it’s from you, I don’t want–” He says to not look desperate, not him trying to win Mike back with cake.

“Okay, no need to explain.” Jonathan cuts him off.

Joyce appears in the doorway. “Dinner is ready, I made your favorite.” She says looking at Will.

“Okay, let’s help you stand up, cake boy.” Jonathan says standing up and going over to Will to help him up. “Let’s go eat something other than cake.” He jokes as he helps Will stand up from the floor taking his now empty cake plate in the process.

“Okay, I’ll still need another slice after dinner.” Will says half joking and half not joking.

“Of course you do, but you’ll have to leave something for me.” Jonathan says playfully.

“Won’t promise anything.” Will responds with a half smile as they all walk to go eat dinner.

The dinner is mostly quiet as the atmosphere feels strange.

“Enjoying the food?” Joyce finally asks after a long silence.

Will just nods quietly.

“It’s perfect mom.” Jonathan says looking from Will to Joyce.

“”That’s– that’s good.” Joyce says, showing that she worries about how Will is doing with everything. “Will, I– I’m– I’m sorry for how the past two days has been for you, I’ll never forgi–”

“Mom, don’t, it’s okay.” Will cuts her off knowing it isn’t their fault now. “You did nothing wrong, you– you just–” Will struggles to find the words to continue.

“I think what Will is trying to say is that he doesn’t blame you or us for not remembering his birthday.” Jonathan says finishing what he believes Will was trying to come across.

“How did you figure it out anyway?” Joyce asks, still feeling sorry for everything.

“It was Lucas…” Will says quietly. “I wouldn’t have figured it out.” He adds looking intently at his plate that he has almost finished. “He figured it out when I told him it was also forgotten last year in Lenora.”

“I wanted to ask about that, why didn’t you say anything last year when we forgot?” Jonathan looks at Will remembering how down he looked last year during that time.

“I didn’t want to be a bother…” Will says knowing that they will think it’s a bad answer, self erasure.

“You know, I’ve always thought you are too selfless Will…” Jonathan shakes his head in disbelief with Will’s answer. “Why would your birthday be a bother?”

Will shrugs avoiding all eye contact. “I don’t know… more important things were going on…” He says ranking himself last as he often does.

Joyce just looks on silently thinking about all the times Will put everyone as a priority before himself even when he was in hospital.

“Can you promise us to never not tell us if we forget anything like this, ever… again?” Jonathan says knowing their mom was thinking too much to say what should be said.

Will slowly nods. “Okay.”

“Say I promise.” Jonathan presses playfully, needing to hear his younger brother to value himself.

“I promise.” Will says with a bittersweet smile.

Joyce smiles looking between her two boys. “With that settled, let’s enjoy the rest of this last dinner we’ll ever have in this house.” Joyce says happy to have her two boys here and now.

“Yeah, that’s true, our last dinner here, wow…” Jonathan says looking around taking the room in.

“I’ll miss having Jane come over…” Will says looking a bit down thinking about that.

“Yes, me too.” Jonathan says remembering all the fun moments they three had together.

Joyce closes her eyes for a quick moment. “Not having my… my daughter… will be hard…” She says knowing how much Jane has all impacted them as part of the family.

“My wonder sister…” Will says with a small smile.

“Our… wonder sister” Jonathan said as a correction.

They finish their dinner.

After the dinner Joyce is gonna start to remove from the table.

Will cuts in front of her starting to take the dishes. “I’ll do it mom.” he says quietly.

“Will…”  Joyce looks at him with a look of that he shouldn’t have to. “I can do this, it’s okay.”

“No, I’ll do it.” Will says, continuing to remove from the table wanting to be useful, if he’s useful, he’s wanted, right? right?

“Will, you're doing it again.” Jonathan says as he is taking a slice of the cake and putting it in a small food container. “You're being selfless, you've had a long day, take a break.” He adds seeing the pattern repeat itself.

“No, I want to.” Will says not stopping what he is doing.

“Well, thank you Will.” Joyce says giving Will a small quick hug as he tries to pass her with dishes. 

“I’m gonna go for a quick visit to the Wheeler’s” Jonathan says, putting the small container on the counter for a moment while he puts on his jacket.

“Oh?” Joyce says surprised. “What are you doing there?”

“Wanted to give Mike a slice of the cake since he missed it.” Jonathan says, taking the container again.

“You don’t want to eat a slice before you go?” Joyce asks knowing how fast the cake has been going the entire evening. “There are only two slices left, Will and Jane didn’t go lightly into eating the cake… I wouldn’t risk it” Joyce smiles.

“I’m willing to take that risk.” Jonathan answers, starting to walk towards the front door. “See you later.”

“Don’t say mom didn’t warn you” Will calls after him while doing the dishes.

“It’s okay Will, you deserve the cake.” Jonathan calls back before they hear the front door shut.

Chapter Text

Tuesday, March 24, 1987 (Joyce’s POV)

It’s an early morning, Joyce is already up and getting ready for the day ahead.

“Will, are you awake yet?” She knocks on his door.

There is no response.

“Jonathan, are yo– oh morning dear.” She says as she sees Jonathan walk down the hall to the kitchen.

“Morning mom, Will awake yet?” Jonathan asks, stopping by Will’s door.

“Please check on him, I have to check if Mrs. Henderson is here yet, she was gonna help me move the things we have to the Wheeler’s.” Joyce says gesturing for Jonathan to go wake Will up if he ain’t awake yet.

“I’ll have too, Nancy offered to pick us up and drive him to school today and I’m sure she’ll be here soon.” Jonathan responds. “I forgot to mention it yesterday, there were other things going on.” He shrugs slightly to Joyce before knocking on Will’s door.

“Do you think Nancy can take Will’s bike in her car then?” Joyce asks going toward the front door with another box. “Aah we’ll figure it out if not.” She adds.

“Maybe” Jonathan responds before opening Will’s door.

There is a knock on the door.

“I’m coming.” Joyce says as she places the box by the door before opening it.

“Hey Mrs. Byers, are Jonathan and Will ready?” Nancy asks as Joyce opens up.

“Oh hi dear, they should be ready soon, I think Will was still waking up but Jonathan was checking on him… you can just come in for a moment.” Joyce says with a smile.

“Ooh, thank you but I think I’m gonna wait in the car, Mike is in the car.” Nancy looks back toward the car. “Want to keep him company after whatever happened yesterday.”

“Ah, okay.” Joyce looks past Nancy toward Nancy's car. “He is of course allowed to come in for a moment too.”

“I asked him before I went to knock, he is–” Nancy stops not knowing what to say.

“It was a lot for them both and I don’t even know what really happened, Will didn’t want to talk to me…” Joyce says half disappointed. “But it is okay, he had Jane and Jonathan.”

“Yeah, it was nice of Jonathan to come with some of that cake for Mike, it made him the tiniest bit of happy.” Nancy says with a smile. “Well, I’m waiting for them in the car, if you’d tell them.” She adds before heading back to the car.

“I will.” Joyce says, turning around, seeing both Will and Jonathan coming down the hall towards the door.

“Nance!” Jonathan calls after Nancy as he goes past his mom to get outside. “Bye mom.” He adds looking slightly back as Will follows quietly.

“See you later today.” Joyce says with a tiny bit of a concerned smile for Will.

Joyce looks after them as Nancy talks to them. Giving Jonathan a small kiss and Will a caring hug before they all get into the car, Nancy and Jonathan in the front and Mike and Will in the back.

Joyce can’t help but think about Will and Mike’s friendship hoping they can talk about whatever went on between them.

She looks on as the car drives off at the same time another car approaches, it is Mrs. Henderson.

Joyce waves as Claudia drives up and stops the car.

“Hey there Joyce, how are you doing dear?” Claudia says smiling as she gets out of the car.

“Hey, thanks for coming to help me move everything.” Joyce says walking to greet her with a small friendly hug.

“Oh no worries honey, I didn’t have work today either way… how are the boys?” Claudia says as they walk towards the house together.

“Jonathan is doing well, Will has had a hard few days but he’s still okay.” Joyce says, trying to seem happy.

“Dawh… how come he’s had a hard few day’s?” Claudia asks as they enter the house. “Wasn’t it Will’s birthday last sunday, Dustin told me he was quite happy then.”

“It was, I think he was mostly happy on his birthday but it happens that not everyone remembered apparently…” Joyce says stopping by the pile of boxes that will go with them.

“Oh?” Claudia says surprised. “Who forgot, was it Lucas or Mike? Those four can’t go a birthday without each other it seems.” She gives a small sad smile.

“It was Mike, sadly…” Joyce looks at the boxes. “Anyway enough about that for now, these are the boxes and it would be perfect that you take a few of them and Will’s bike since he and Jonathan had a ride today instead.”

“Of course I’m sure his bike will fit, we’ll make it fit.” She gives a happy smile.

They start to carry one box each toward the cars, starting with filling Joyce’s car with just boxes.

“Does Karen have space for all of your things?” Claudia asks as they put the first boxes in the car.

“She said we can store most of it in the garage, let’s hope it won’t be long we have to stay.” Joyce says with hope in her voice as they head towards the house again to get more boxes. “Thankfully it isn’t as many things as we had, like when we moved to California, none of the furniture since that came with the house and I can’t be bothered.” She adds knowing they lost a lot because much was left at the house in California after last year's events and were just using what was left in the abandoned house after they got back.

“I think it is such a disgrace by our government to just evict you from your house just after you bought it back and with no place to relocate.” Claudia shakes her head with disappointment.

Joyce has to think for a moment since no one knows they are there illegally squatting the house. “Right, I guess since it was the military that shoved us out they didn’t feel obliged to help us find a relocation.” Joyce just gives a fake smile.

“You are probably right, they have been plaguing the town since those big earthquakes last year.” Claudia says, picking up another box. “I must say, when you told me Will wasn’t having the best past days I thought of my Dusty.” She says walking out the door before Joyce.

“Has something been bothering him?” Joyce asks, following Claudia holding another box.

“That’s just it, I don’t know, but this morning he wasn’t himself… acting all… strange” Claudia says, upset thinking about Dustin. “And the problem is he doesn’t want to talk to me about it.”

“I’m sorry to hear that… but I’m sure one of the other three can talk to him, they are all more open to each other rather than us, the parents.” Joyce says, giving a smiling laugh.

“You're right, he will probably talk to one of the other boys if there is something bothering him.” Claudia says placing a box that fills the trunk of Joyce’s car.

“Hope Will is okay at school today too, he was quiet, something happened between him and Mike yesterday, some argument…” Joyce says opening the rear door and placing the box she has in the back seat.

“Oh… I’m sure they’ll all figure it out” Claudia says as they start to walk back toward the house. “Lucas seems to always try to keep everyone together, such a sweet soul that boy has.” She adds before noticing Will’s bike on the porch. “I should probably get this into the car before we put boxes into my car.”

“Lucas is such a sweetheart, wish he came over more to visit, maybe I’ll see him more while we stay at the Wheeler’s.” Joyce says, pondering. “Uh yes, that’d be wise I believe.” She shakes her head out of thought.

Claudia fetches Will’s bike and leads it to her car while Joyce goes back inside for another box.

“It will have to do.” Claudia says as Joyce comes up behind her with another box having placed the bike in the trunk but it will be sticking out. “It’s at least across state lines so it won’t be a far ride.”

Joyce halts for a moment looking at how the bike hangs a bit out of the trunk. “Yeah… I’m sure it’ll be fine.” She says before getting the box she is holding into the back seat of Claudia’s car.

“How many boxes are there left?” Claudia asks, looking at the space left in the car.

“I think there are three.” Joyce answers, also taking in the space left. “They are not big so they’ll fit, there is also some space in my car still.”

“Enough space then, let’s get those boxes.” Claudia says, turning toward the house.

They finish getting the rest of the boxes.

“Time to say goodbye…” Joyce says looking back at the house having already closed the door. 

“For the second time… such a shame.” Claudia says standing to the side behind Joyce.

“Okay, to the Wheeler’s.” Joyce says not wanting to linger too long around the past of this house.

“See you there.” Claudia says getting into her car driving off first.

Joyce gets into her car, she hunches over the steering wheel for a moment in thought.

“Why the hell have we still not found this… asshole…torturing my boy…” She talks to herself, getting a few tears. “He doesn’t deserve this, neither does Jonathan having to constantly see his little brother get tortured by… by this– SHITHEAD!” She screams hitting the dashboard of the car with her fist.

She takes a deep breath calming a bit down, she felt she needed that scream, felt right.

She starts the car finally driving off from the old house for what she hopes is the last time.

When she drives up to the Wheeler house Claudia’s car is parked in the driveway but Claudia is not outside.

Joyce parks the car and heads toward the front door.

The front door opens before she gets all the way up to it.

“You're here, come in.” Karen says as she opens the door.

“What about the boxes?” Joyce asks half confused on how Karen just knew when to open up for her.

“After coffee dear, I also was baking cinnamon buns, so come in so we can eat them while warm.” Karen ushers her inside.

“Is Claudia inside?” Joyce asks as she enters.

“And Sue, we haven’t all seen and been together for so long so…” Karen gives a warm smile.

“Ooh…” Joyce says surprised.

“Look who's finally here!” Karen announces as they come into the living room where Claudia H. and Sue S. are sitting by the coffee table on the sofa talking.

“Joyce! You're here” Sue says as she stands up to give her a small hug.

Joyce hugs Sue back. “Have to admit, I wasn't expecting us girls having a little get together today.” Joyce says as they all sit down.

“Perfect timing to, no one else in the house.” Sue says with a small smile. “Especially not the husbands.” She adds looking at Karen.

“I got rid of mine long ago and good riddance to him.” Claudia says, holding one hand up.

“I didn’t get rid of mine soon enough…” Joyce says, thinking of how horrible Lonnie was to Will and Jonathan. “I do think the boys will forever have traumatic memories of him…” She adds.

“You at least got rid of him, I still am stuck with mine…” Karen says talking about Ted. “But, Joyce… I have to say that your boys have much more traumatic memories than from their deadbeat dad.” She adds.

“She is right Joyce, your boys went through much when Will went missing in the woods…” Claudia says of course not knowing the real truth and how it’s much worse.

“I– I really don’t want to remember that week right now…” Joyce says, closing her eyes as she remembers the horrors and also what she put Jonathan through when they found ‘Will’s’ body making him plan his own younger brother's funeral.

“I’m sorry– I- I didn’t mean to bring up that hard for you honey.” Claudia says seeing Joyce’s reaction.

“It’s– it’s fine, I know you all mean well as always.” Joyce says, looking between them.

“Well, taking a pause on talking about the men in our lives or past men, I want to taste some of those smell good cinnamon buns you have made Karen.” Sue says, inching toward the coffee table where they are on a plate taking one.

“Oh yes please.” Claudia says also taking one.

“Let me fill your cups.” Karen says taking the coffee pot and pouring into each of their mugs.

“Just give me a little.” Joyce says reaching for a bun.

“So, how are each of the boys?” Sue asks not having heard any of the troubles of the other sons.

“Dustin has not been acting himself since last night… doesn’t tell me why, and– I don’t know, I worry.” Claudia answers first.

“Same with Mike, but it began more at midday last Sunday, I believe but hasn’t gotten better with… well…” Karen says, looking slightly at Joyce.

“Will has been struggling to, a lot going on, the latest yeah…” She looks back at Karen. “Will and Mike had an argument about something, it might have been something to do with his birthday last sunday…”

Karen looks thoughtful as she processes what she learned from Mike yesterday. “Well, Mike told me it was about some lie that Will came clean about, with Mike feeling like he overreacted… but wait, Will’s birthday was sunday?”

Joyce nods. “Yeah, apparently Mike missed that…” She says hiding the truth about why.

“That could explain why he was down Sunday, but I find it strange he wouldn’t just join the others late rather than not go at all since I saw him upset around noon.” Karen says before taking a sip of her coffee.

“The problems of our boys only get bigger as they grow.” Claudia shoots in before taking another cinnabon. “These are delicious Karen.” She adds quickly.

“Agree.” Sue holds her nearly finished bun.

Karen smiles from the compliments. “You're too kind.”

“Sorry for going back to that, do you know what Will lied about, did Mike tell you?” Joyce says as she hadn’t heard about no lie.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know.” Karen shakes her head slightly.

“All this and we haven’t asked how Lucas is doing, Sue?” Claudia looks at Sue.

Sue thinks for a moment, knowing mostly Lucas is doing okay, besides considering Max. “Well, he tries to be as energetic as always but it has been hard on him since Max, his girlfriend, landed in a coma.” Sue says, feeling the pain for her son.

“Girlfriend, that makes me wonder, Dusty was talking to his long distance girlfriend…” Claudia hesitates, not remembering the girlfriend's name right away.” Suzie, I believe… yeah he was talking to her yesterday and this morning he was all acting… just unlike him.” She continues pondering about it. “I wonder if something happened between them?” She says like she is asking herself before realizing she accidently glossed over what Sue was talking about. “I’m sorry Sue, you were saying.”

“Oh honey it’s fine, we’re all friends here.” Sue waves it like it was nothing. “But yeah, Lucas has been a constant visitor to his girlfriend in the hospital… I just hope that girl wakes up… it’s– it’s just so tragic for her and her loved ones, including Lucas.” She looks down at her coffee mug in her hands.

“Poor girl, and poor Lucas for having been the one to find her how she was.” Claudia responds with a heavy heart. “But I'm sure Lucas can get through this and help his girlfriend through it too, he is such a strong kid” She adds with a caring smile to Sue.

“Ooh I appreciate that Claudia.” Sue smiles back. “And I'm sure Dustin will find help in one of the other boys, even though it sounds like the group is in a rough patch, or at least half of it.” She adds before taking a sip of her coffee.

“Mike and Will have to figure things out, they have been friends too long to be lost to an argument” Karen says thinking about the two boys. “I just feel Mike takes things too seriously and has difficulty regulating his feelings, making him think everyone is out to get him and now even thinks Will hates him.” She shakes her head slightly. “He reminds me of Ted when I first met him… same difficulty regulating his feelings…”

“He doesn't believe that, does he?” Claudia asks in disbelief. “I'm sure Will does not hate him, isn't that right Joyce?” She looks at Joyce for confirmation.

“I think Will believes the reverse…” Joyce says giving a disappointed face expression.

“Wait, does Mike then repress some feelings or?” Sue asks, doubling back to talking about Mike.

“Well…” Karen says thinking for a moment. “I would guess so, even though I told Ted not to, he apparently went up and scolded the boy for being upset about his best friend…” She says with annoyance in her voice. “He most likely repressed something after that, yesterday evening but he did thankfully come down even though it was because of Ted scolding him.”

“That's something…?” Claudia says unsure.

“I don't know how you put up with that man.” Sue says with sincere honesty. “There must be some benefits since you've been with him this long… my man wouldn't dare go against my word.” She adds firmly.

“Mostly for the kids…” Karen says thoughtful. “We have had problems for a while but… I don’t think I could support all my kids without him… financially…” She adds.

“That’s… fair, I mean look at this house compared to the dumb I just left behind.” Joyce says, looking around the room. 

“Oh don’t say that Joyce, it was a cozy cabin.” Claudia says, trying to be comforting. 

“Oh no Claudia, it’s– it’s just too many bad memories there, so… I say good riddance…” Joyce looks at Claudia with honesty and calmness in her voice.

“That is fair honey.” Sue says understandingly as she reaches for another cinnabon.

The room falls silent for a moment as each of them linger in thought.

“Well… I want to get those boxes somewhere.” Joyce says standing up.

“Ooh yeah, of course… I'll open the garage and we can put everything there.” Karen says with a smile, putting her coffee down on the table and standing up. “You lady’s finish your coffee.”

“Oh we’ll come help you, it’ll be faster.” Sue says standing up without hesitation.

Claudia stands up. “Indeed, I’ll drive the car around to the garage.”

Joyce goes outside to also drive her car closer to the garage, as she walks toward the car she spots Mike walking up the street, the school ain't nearly done. “Mike?” She says, confused seeing him now.

Mike is quick to avoid eye contact or any in general and speed walks toward the house.

Joyce looks after him for a moment before getting into the car.

As Joyce and Claudia have moved the cats closer to the garage the garage door opens with Sue and Karen ready to help unload the two cars.

Getting out of the car. “Karen, did you see Mike?” Joyce asks, looking at Karen.

Karen tilts her head slightly. “What do you mean?” She asks, confused.

“I mean I just saw him go into the house.” Joyce tells Karen as Sue and Claudia start to unload Claudia's car.

“What?!” Karen says before storming into the house.

After Karen has gone into the house Joyce turns to Sue and Claudia that seemed to have started after Karen as she went inside.

“Did I do the right thing by saying something?” Joyce asks unsure if she made the right call regarding Mike, it's not her kid after all.

“Absolutely honey, whatever is going on with him doesn't mean he should be skipping school, it's only like 10:30!” Sue says reassuringly to Joyce. “We'll just continue here and let Karen deal with her kid.”

“Sue's right, let's get this done” Claudia adds before starting to walk back toward the car to get more out of it.

“Right…” Joyce says joining them unloading the cars.

They finish unloading both cars and Karen is still not back from talking to Mike.

“Well girls, I need to get going but it was nice seeing you, send regards to Karen for me Joyce.” Sue says before giving Joyce a small hug as they stand by the garage door.

“It was nice seeing you too” Joyce responds before Sue also gives Claudia a small hug.

“Bye honey.” Claudia smiles.

Sue walks down the driveway and then sidewalk toward the Sinclair house down the road. 

“Are you gonna come inside for a bit again or?” Joyce asks Claudia.

“Well I'll go inside for a quick second, I might get myself one more of those cinnabuns Karen made to take with me.” Claudia says before they close the garage and walk into the house.

They get into the living room and Joyce sits down.

Claudia takes two cinnabuns. “Karen is still not down yet from talking to Michael…” She shakes her head. “Hope it is figured out… I’m gonna head out now,  hope to see you again soon.” She smiles.

“Yeah… okay, you too.” Joyce looks after as Claudia leaves.

Joyce sits in the quiet for a moment looking at the mess on the coffee table. “I guess I can lessen her load a little…” She says to herself before standing up and gathering the mugs to go wash them.

She finishes up washing them and as she does Karen comes to the kitchen.

“I don’t know what to do with him…” Karen exclaims as she leans on the kitchen counter. “Are the others gone?”

“Yeah, they left a while ago.” Joyce says now looking at her over the counter. “I clean up after us in the living room.”

“Oh, thank you Joyce, I really appreciate it.” Karen smiles softly.

“So… why was Mike home already? Is he okay?” Joyce says

“Well it sounds like Claudia was right thinking Dustin was acting strange this morning because of his girlfriend…” Karen says slightly looking around if they are gone. “Mike told me that he feels he messed up his friendship with Dustin now as well after he only half listened as Dustin confided in Mike he had broken up with his girlfriend.” She shakes her head. “And that made him feel right in just going home early skipping school… I guess…” She huffs.

“Ooh… well that’s– a lot…” Joyce nods trying to understand. “Do you know if he and Will talked? Figured out things?” She adds wanting to know if her boy was on better terms with his best friend Mike.

“I don’t think so… Sounded like they were avoiding each other…” Karen says slowly with honesty in her voice.

“Well… let’s see how the evening will go, they can’t avoid each other when living in the same house…” Joyce responds knowing they will have to talk about what happened between them yesterday.

“Yeah… that much is true…” Karen ponders for a moment before standing up straight again. “So any more plans for you today?”

“What’s the time?” Joyce asks both Karen and herself as she looks at the clock. “Yeah, I promised someone to join them for something around noon.” She says not revealing it is the thought to be dead police chief Hopper that she is meeting.

“Okay, I have my hands full already anyway, I’m gonna try getting Mike back to school even though it’s late.” Karen says before heading back towards the stairs to go up to Mike’s room.

Joyce goes to the front door starting to get ready.

Karen comes downstairs in a hurry again. “Did you see him come down? He’s gone” She says half panicked.

“Woah woah” Joyce says, catching Karen into her embrace from the panicked state. “He can’t be far, maybe he just went back to the school?” She suggests.

“I– I worry he might do something irrational.” Karen says, looking up at Joyce for reassurance.

“I’m sure he’s fine, you calm down and I’ll look for him.” Joyce says, getting her to the living room to sit down.

“Okay… thank you Joyce…” Karen sits down on the sofa trying to calm her breathing.

“Yeah, I’ll go look for him, okay?” She says going toward the front door.

As she exits she sees Dustin Biking up to the house. “Dustin?”

“JOYCE! Is Mike inside?” Dustin says panicked as he stops his bike in front of her.

“No? Why?” Joyce responds now equally panicked by Dustin’s eagerness to find Mike.

“Shit!” Dustin Exclaims. “SHIT SHIT SHIT!” He paces letting his bike fall to the grass lawn before looking up in realization. “I think I know where he is…”

“Let’s go, I’ll drive.” Joyce commands walking toward her car parked by the garage.

Dustin quickly runs after Joyce to the car.

They both get into the car.

“Where too?” Joyce asks, turning on the car.

“You know the side road on top by the quarry?” Dustin says, looking at Joyce.

“The quarry?” Joyce questions before backing up the car.

“Yes, please… drive fast.” Dustin says looking straight forward on the road as they drive heading toward the quarry.

The drive is quiet but eerie to them both as they approach the top of the quarry, the quarry where Will’s fake body was found all those years ago.

Joyce takes a gasping breath and lets the car come to a stop as she sees Mike standing on the edge of the quarry cliff staring it down.

“Please let me handle this.” Dustin says begging before leaving the car quickly.

Joyce is frozen as she watches Dustin start to talk to Mike not hearing what they are saying from inside the car.

She sees Mike look toward Dustin, seeing how emotionally broken Mike is with tears in his eyes but then in a sudden change after Dustin says something Mike’s legs drop to the ground into a hunch.

Dustin rushes over to Mike embracing him in a cradle on the gravel road that is by the steep edge of the quarry.

Joyce takes a deep breath of relief as she lets her head fall over the steering wheel.

After a few moments Dustin helps Mike up and toward the car.

They both get into the back seat.

“I know you're not my son Mike but…” Joyce hesitates looking back thankful he is safe in the car. “But please… Never do anything like that again…” She says looking at Mike before flicking her eyes to Dustin. “I don’t know what you did but thank you, Mike is lucky to have you.”

Mike just looks away slightly. “My bike.” He says quietly.

“I’ll get it.” Joyce says, getting out of the car.

She walks to his bike that is lying on the gravel road by the cliffside.

She takes it to the trunk of the car, putting it into the trunk.

Joyce gets back into the car. “We are going home.” She says, meaning the Wheeler house.

I’m thankful for him, my god… Joyce rethinks feeling kind of ashamed she froze and instead let a kid, even though his friend, talk him down.

The drive back to the Wheeler’s feels long, the air heavy with no one saying a word all in their own thoughts.

The car stops outside the Wheelers.

“Dustin, can I talk to Michael alone, please?” Joyce says, needing to say things as a mother herself.

“Please take care of yourself.” Dustin says, sounding worried for him before leaving the car.

Mike looks up toward the front seat at Joyce who is now looking back at him. “I wouldn’t do it…” He admits quietly.

“You have to tell your mother what happened here today… I won’t do it unless really necessary,  Michael… I care about you, Will cares about you, don’t do this to yourself, talk to my boy, talk to Will.” Joyce says, believing that he wouldn’t but that he still went there, troubles her, really troubles her as a mother.

“Okay…” Mike answers quietly.

“Good, now… go inside… I– I have to– I have to go to Jane and Hopper, I’m already late in meeting them…” Joyce says slowly, feeling half useless, unable to give good advice to Mike.

Mike gets out of the car.

Joyce hunches over the steering wheel in deep thought after Mike closes the door.

Why did I freeze? He was on the edge of a cliff and I… I just froze… I let a 15 year old… a kid… talk him down… Joyce looks up slowly still in thought.

After a few minutes hunched over in thought she slowly lifts her head and takes a deep breath before restarting the car and driving off.

The time is going by and I haven’t gone for a grocery run for Hop like I said I would, I’ll have to do that quickly then go to the training ground and meet them there, Joyce thinks to herself heading towards the only store open across town after Melvald’s general was closed.

Joyce drives through town seeing the heavily military guarded Mac-Z where the town square was before everything.

I can’t wait to see this town bloom again, just need to get that bastard, and soon. She thinks.

She finally gets to the store.

After nearly 15 minutes she comes out with a week's worth of groceries for Hopper and Jane to have in the cabin.

She puts everything into the car, then gets in herself and drives off toward the training ground.

Joyce's mind keeps drifting back to past hours of the day, how everything went, how everything could have gone and how she would have already been with Hopper and Jane if nothing of it happened, but then again she feels like if she wouldn’t have been there to drive to the quarry, what then? Would Dustin have been quick enough to get there?

As she finally drives up to the training ground seeing it looking empty.

She doesn’t leave the car, just looks around, they must have left early.

Joyce backs the car up to drive to Hopper’s cabin that is just a bit further.

She drives up to the cabin parking the car.

She gets out of the car and retrieves two bags of groceries out of the backseat before walking up to the house.

Before even being able to knock the door opens with Hopper standing there.

“Where were you today?” Hopper says leaning slightly on the door letting her in.

Joyce was surprised by how Hopper opened without question. “No questioning who is coming, just opening without question, risking Jane’s safety” Joyce half teases.

Hopper follows her as she gets the grocery bags to the kitchen. “You're never a risk… also we do have a window, so I just looked out when I heard the car approaching.” He says with a loving smile to Joyce.

Joyce puts down the bags turning towards him with him capturing her with a small kiss. “I missed you too” Joyce says as the kiss breaks. “So where is Jane? How come you guys left training early?” She says looking by Hopper towards Jane’s room.

Hopper holds her by the hips. “She’s in her room talking with Henderson…” He says staring lovingly into her eyes.

Joyce’s eyes shoot up looking at Hopper. “Dustin is here? How did he look?” She asks quickly, wanting to know if he was doing okay.

“Uhm… I– I think he looked okay? Maybe a bit distressed looking… why?” Hopper asks, half confused.

Joyce looks down at Hopper's shirt. “Well, there is a reason why I was late…” Joyce looks slowly back up at him.

“Okay?” Hopper says with a listening ear. “Want to talk about it?” Hopper asks with a caring voice.

“There are still two bags in the car, let me get them first…” Joyce says gently breaking away from his grip walking back towards the front door.

Hopper lingers for a moment before turning around and following her. “I’ll talk first then…” He says following her outside. “We had to cut training short today because of helicopter activity near the training ground… couldn’t risk it.” Hopper says taking both of the bags not letting Joyce hold them.

Joyce tilts her head as he takes both the bags. “I could get that…” She says, shaking her head at him as he walks toward the cabin again. “But yeah… that’s understandable, surprised you let Dustin in to talk to Jane, I thought we talked about having no visits from the others?” Joyce says, still kind of thankful Dustin has someone to talk to after earlier events.

They both get inside, with Hopper putting the bags into the kitchen.

Hopper starts to put away the groceries. “Well, Henderson sounded desperate to talk to Jane… and Jane basically let him in… so.” He shrugs slightly as he continues to put away items.

Joyce starts to help him by putting everything away. “I thought you said he looked okay?” Joyce questions him.

“He did, but his voice was a different story…” Hopper admits. “But also Henderson seems to be quite the gentleman, calling me sir, knowing the rules of my house.” Hopper says half proudly.

“Right…” Joyce shakes her head slightly with a small giggle. “Then I’m even more surprised since Jane is newly single after Mike and her broke up…” She says before looking at him.

Hopper looks at her with a smile. “Well, doesn’t Henderson already have a girlfriend?” He says half smug.

Joyce gives a grimacing face before saying something. “Well… I do believe they also just broke up…” She says before chuckling a little.

Hopper’s face falls flat. “What?” He stands straight up shocked, ready to go into Jane’s room and make Dustin leave.

Joyce places her hand on Hopper’s chest, using it to calm him down. “I don’t think he would right after a break up… He is only here for his friend right now, the day was hard…” She looks at him trying to convince him.

Hopper breathes more calmly. “What even happened today?” Hopper shakes his head.

“Well… Mike’s not doing good, me and Dustin found him at… the quarry…” Joyce says slowly, reimagining Mike on the edge of the cliff.

Hopper tilts his head slightly confused. “Mike? The quarry? Why the quarry?” He asks half squinting his eyes, confused.

Joyce closes her eyes as she remembers the event, how she just froze. “On top of the quarry…” She says slowly knowing he’ll connect the dots as the spot has been used for previous attempts in the town.

The realization dawns on Hopper. “Oh… shit…” Hopper feels sorry for Mike. “Because of his break up with Jane or?” Hopper asks hesitantly. 

Joyce looks at him so deep in thought. “I– I don’t think so, there were a bunch of things that built it up I think… he had an argument with Will and thinking Will hates him now and… I– I don’t know…” She shakes her head slightly not knowing what to say.

Hopper looks down Joyce slightly as they stand quite close. “Mike is safe though, he didn’t…” He trails off not wanting to finish the sentence.

“Yeah.” Joyce answers quickly, with a half concerned face.

“Good… never thought I’d feel bad for Michael Wheeler… but I guess he has emotions like other kids…” Hopper says with honesty in his voice.

“Yeah…” Joyce says still thinking about her involvement and how she just froze.

“Well, good you could help him.” Hopper says not knowing the full truth of what happened. “Let’s finish getting these groceries sorted.” He says turning to the groceries again.

“Okay…” Joyce says half distant.

They finish putting everything away.

Hopper stands up from a kneel after putting the last item into the cabinet under the sink. “So… You going right away or… wanna take this to the sofa for a bit?” Hopper says hinting but knowing they won’t do anything special since Jane and Dustin are in the next room.

Joyce smiles at him. “Well, there are kids here but we can still hang a bit on the sofa… I guess.” She says with a suggestive grin.

“Good.” Hopper says, catching her hand in his as he passes her, making her follow him to the sofa. “These kids need to plan one of those game sessions at the Squawk allowing Jane to join them so we can… you know… have alone time…” He says pulling her with him onto the sofa.

Joyce chuckles. “You mean a D&D session?” She looks at him lovingly.

“Right, that… can’t you nudge Will to set one up…” Hopper says half seriously.

“You… you are something… but, maybe Will could use the distraction and the others probably too.” Joyce lingers with a loving smirk.

Hopper nods slowly. “Yeah, with everything going on, a distraction is needed when we have nothing else to do but wait for the next crawl…” He says as they sit there half holding each other.

Joyce thinks back on the events of the past few days. “I still don’t understand it though… Why try to erase Will’s birthday and why do we remember it now?” She asks, confused with the thought.

“I don’t know… maybe the rat bastard gave up on that approach… I guess we’ll just have to try to be a step ahead of him so nothing bad happens… to any of us.” Hopper shakes his head slightly, feeling the concern within Joyce. “But let’s not think about that now… I’d much rather think about this.” He says, turning his head to kiss her, getting ready to have a small makeout session before he hears Jane’s bedroom door open so he straightens out quickly seeing Dustin leave the room. “You doing okay kid?” He asks gently, knowing what happened earlier.

Dustin looks back at Hopper and nods. “Yeah.” He smiles slightly.

Hopper nods back. “Good, take care.” He smiles somberly.

Joyce nods also to him with a caring smile. “Take care dear.” She says quietly.

“Yeah, bye.” Dustin says starting to close the door after him.

Hopper catches Joyce’s lips in a loving kiss at the same time he sees the door start to close.

Hopper lifts his head slightly. “I wish we could have more intimate times…” He whispers quietly into Joyce’s ear before kissing her again.

Hopper hears Jane’s door open up again and straightens out once more as he looks toward where Jane comes out of her room. “No peace…” Hopper whispers suggestively to Joyce.

Joyce ignores his comment and stands up. “Hi sweetheart, how are you doing today?” She says giving Jane a hug.

Jane reciprocates the hug. “I’m okay… a bit worried for Mike though… Do you know how Will is doing? He said he’d come to the training ground but he never showed up…” She says looking up at Joyce.

Joyce looks at Jane still holding her. “I don’t know, he was quiet this morning… hopefully he wasn’t alone… I think I’m gonna go now to make sure he is home and is doing okay, I’ll let you know how both of them are doing tomorrow, okay?” Joyce says in a promising voice, stroking Jane’s cheek before giving her a motherly kiss on the forehead.

Jane hugs Joyce again. “Thank you, see you tomorrow.” She says quietly into Joyce’s shoulder before letting go.

Joyce looks over to Hopper who has been looking at them lovingly. “And I’ll try to suggest what you asked…” Joyce says teasingly to Hopper. “See you tomorrow.” She says before heading for the door.

Right as Joyce is closing the front door after her she hears Jane. “What did you suggest?” Jane asks Hopper.

Joyce heads to the car.

She starts the car and backs up and drives off towards their home for now, the Wheeler’s house.

The drive is quick, quiet with only thoughts about the day.

She parks her car seeing other cars in the driveway indicating most, if not everyone is home.

Joyce walks up to the front door, checking if it is locked. “I should have asked Karen for a key.” She mutters to herself before ringing the doorbell.

Moments later Karen opens the door. “Joyce, come in.” She says letting Joyce in.

Karen closes the door. “I’ll keep the door unlocked for now until I can find the spare key for you.” Karen smiles.

Joyce nods before looking at Karen slowly. “How is Michael?” She asks wanting to know if he is doing a bit better and has potentially told his mom what happened.

Karen starts to walk toward the kitchen as Joyce follows her. “Well I convinced him to write down what he wants to say to Will since he seems to not believe he would be able to say everything he wants to say… but he seems… not himself…” Karen says, looking slightly back. “Where did you find him?” She asks as they enter the kitchen.

Joyce hesitates not knowing what to say. “Well– I– He– I found him at uh…” She trails off.

Karen looks at Joyce confused by the hesitation. “I know you and Dustin found him, he said that much… but just said he was ‘around’ but that was not really a good answer… so what are you not telling me?” She asks honestly.

Joyce takes a deep breath knowing Karen won’t give up easily to get the answer. “He was…” She gulps slightly. “at the quarry…” She tilts her head slightly down keeping eye contact with Karen, hoping she won’t connect it to a spot previously used for… attempts.

Karen’s face changes. “Where…” She hesitates, making Joyce slightly panic, Mike should be the one to tell his mother what happened. “Where Will’s fake body was found?” She says like she is recalling the memory of the night that happened.

Joyce sighs in quiet relief and thinks for a moment knowing although technically true that is not necessarily the reason Mike went there. “Yeah…” She nods quietly, she changes the nod into a shake. “Talking about Will, is he home yet?” Joyce says wanting to change the subject.

Karen slightly taken aback by the change of subject. “Uh um no, I haven’t seen him come home yet, do you know where he is?” She asks, starting to prepare something while she talks.

Joyce sighs slightly. “Okay… He must be with Lucas or something… I hope so…” She looks as Karen moves around the kitchen. “Well… can I help you with something here? I think I need the distraction…” She says with a somewhat tired tone.

Karen looks up from what she is doing. “Uh yeah, that’d be great to have some help.” She smiles lightly.

An hour or so passes by before they hear the front door open and close making Joyce look up from what she was helping Karen with. “I have to–”

“Go check on him.” Karen cuts in knowing it can only be Will that just came through the door.

Joyce walks quickly toward the front door seeing Will and taking him into an immediate hug.

Will looks slightly shocked by the tight embrace from his mother. “Hi mom… You okay?” He asks, sounding slightly concerned.

Joyce lifts her head to look at him. “I’m fine… it’s– it’s just good to have you home.” She smiles softly hiding the reality of what happened today.

Will just nods slightly. “Okay… Anyway…” He drifts slightly off. “Where is Mike? He left school today… He was upset, I–” Will stops himself slightly like he is thinking before speaking. “I just need to know he is alright.” He says, trying to sound nonchalant like a concerned friend.

Joyce notice’s his hesitation. “Uh, I don’t know, probably in his room?” Joyce says, trying to be helpful.

Will nods. “Okay… thanks mom… love you.” He says effortlessly before heading towards the basement.

Joyce looks after him quietly for a moment before heading back to the kitchen.

“How was he?” Karen asks as Joyce comes back into the kitchen.

“He seemed okay, he asked if Mike was okay… I thought he would go upstairs right away but he seemed to head for the basement first…” She says looking at Karen taking out dishes from the cabinet.

“They’ll figure it out, Mike has quite the writer's hand and like I said, I did tell him to write down what he wanted to tell Will, even if that just means he hands him the paper to read.” She says, like she has read things Mike has written. “Anyway, can you start putting plates on the dining table?” Karen smiles handing Joyce the plates.

Joyce takes the plates. “Of course, and yeah so I’ve heard from uh… Will.” She was almost gonna say Jane.

“Ooh? I thought he never sent any letters to him when you guys were in Lenora.” Karen says not knowing about the letters to Jane. “He just kept complaining he couldn’t call Will often because of your job…” She says as Joyce walks into the dining room. “Didn’t mean that as a bad thing of course.” She adds.

“Oh? Did he really? I’ll have to apologize to him for that, never meant to keep him distant from his best friend.” Joyce calls back into the kitchen as she places the plates on the dining table.

“I’m sure he is over it by now… I do know he wrote though… but he said he never sent any…” Karen calls from the kitchen. “Not sure why…” She says making it sound unsure if she knew why.

Joyce finishes setting the table and walking back into the kitchen. “How strange… I would have thought he would send some to Will, but I meant the stories Mike has written, for example their D&D games.” She says trying to sound convincing, not having heard much about their campaigns.

“Of course, he does most of the stories for that, doesn’t he?” Karen says not really asking.

Jonathan suddenly enters the kitchen. “Uh so where can I find trash bags?” He asks Karen.

“Oh uh, let me see.” Karen says looking into the cabinet under the sink. “Here.” She says handing him a trash bag.

“Thanks Mrs. Wheeler.” Jonathan says quickly, turning ready to go back where he came from.

“Hold on dear.” Joyce calls after him, making him turn to look at her. “How is your brother? Do you know if he talked to Mike yet?” She asks wanting to know if they have figured things out.

Jonathan looks up and down like he’s thinking. “Uh yeah, he’s fine but no not yet, I’m making him help me clean up that basement.” He says, like he is hiding something.

“Okay… go down to him again then.” Joyce smiles accepting his statement.

Jonathan leaves, heading for the basement again.

“He didn’t sound that convincing… but he is polite and wow I’m glad they are gonna clean that basement… it usually lands on me.” Karen says with honesty in her voice.

Joyce shakes her head. “No he did not… Makes me worry for Will once again…” She says thinking about all the times she felt like she needed to protect him. “I sound like a terrible mother, always making it seem I am forgetting my other son… uh…” She adds, annoyed with herself for always focusing on Will, making Jonathan feel less relevant to her.

Karen looks at Joyce with a caring look. “You are not a bad mother, you have just gone through so… so much…” She says feeling the hurt Joyce has. “Want to talk about it?” She asks, offering a listening ear.

“Maybe… not now… after dinner?” Joyce says not quite ready to talk about all of this but feeling the need.

“Over wine.” Karen says with a small wink.

Joyce slightly smiles with a small nod.

Later at dinner, everyone is quiet, Will sitting across from Nancy, Mike next to Nancy with Jonathan across from him, Joyce can feel the weird tension in the air as she sees Mike eyeing Will every so often with Will looking slightly down not really looking toward Mike.

Mike is the first to leave the table, with Nancy and Jonathan leaving soon after.

Will is the last to leave, at the same time as the adults.

Joyce looks after him as he walks towards the basement.

Karen starts to clean the table.

“Did you also feel like there was tension at dinner?” Joyce asks before looking at Karen and starts to help her take off the table.

Karen nods looking at her. “Yeah… the air felt thick…” She says as they carry the plates and leftovers to the kitchen.

Joyce places what she has on the kitchen island. “Will seemed upset again…” She says thinking about the dinner and leaning on the kitchen island looking down.

Karen puts plates into the sink before turning to face Joyce on the other side of the kitchen island. “Ready to talk about it?” She asks carefully, putting off finishing doing the dishes.

Joyce looks up slowly in thought, thinking about Will and all that has happened to him. "I just feel like I always have to cradle him after wh-"

Karen puts her hands on Joyce's hands over the kitchen island and cuts her off. "Joyce... It's understandable... He was missing for a whole week and most believed he... Died..." A few tears build in Karen's eyes though she tries to hold them in for Joyce. "You kept hope... THAT… Is what saved him... Remember that." Karen recalls the hardships on Mike that week.

Joyce tearing up herself remembers the horror of that week. "I know... I just..." She shakes her head embarrassed to be starting to tear up. "I just don't want anything to happen to him again... And maybe I can be a bit overbearing... But I just... Can't... Not again..."

Karen goes around the island to hug Joyce. "I know... I know... And if he thinks it gets too much, I'm sure he'll tell you..." She lifts from the hug to look into Joyce's eyes. "You are also not alone in this... He is more capable than you think and he also has Jonathan... Not to mention the special bond Mike and Will have even though it has changed in the past years, especially with current events" she gives a small smile knowing they will make up and be best friends once more.

Joyce has wiped her tears. "They were absolutely adorable together back then... I miss seeing them together so..."

"Innocent, care free?" Karen cuts in.

Joyce nods with a small smile. "Yeah..." Then shakes her head. "Why did we end up with husband's that were so..."

"Bigoted..." Karen says leaning on the island next to Joyce, she reaches for the radio sitting on the island and turns it on with low volume so they can both listen and talk, it's in the middle of playing Angeleyes by ABBA. "Although... I am happy... I wouldn't have my amazing children without Ted... And you, yours not without Lonnie..." She reaches over the counter to grab her wine glass and a bottle.

"You're right..." Joyce says, tilting her head in thought.

"Do you want some?" Karen gestures to the wine as she pours herself a glass.

"No thank you." Joyce is leaning on the island with one hand under her chin.

"But... To answer your question... For me it was his absolute angel eyes when we first met... He really had me hypnotized..." Karen closes her eyes imagining when she first met Ted. "He really was..."

"Perfect, something else?" Joyce finishes her sentence.

"Yeah... Too bad it was all a disguise for the real person underneath..." Karen thinks about the first time she saw Ted what he really could be like before taking a big sip of her wine.

Joyce reminisced "And then Ted introduced me to Lonnie... And my rollercoaster started..."

Karen looks to Joyce apologetically. "If I wouldn't have introduced you to Ted... We'd be rid of thinking about Lonnie..."

"Yeah... But like you said earlier... We wouldn't have our wonderful children without those two knuckleheads...."Joyce gives a small smile.

"Yeah..." Karen says before her face gets kind of serious in thought. "You know... It was one of my worst weeks as a mother when Will went missing… nothing compared to yours but…" She recalls the heavy weight that was over, especially Mike that week. “Mike… he…” She stops in thought, the radio starts to play Heroes by David Bowie.

Joyce looks up to Karen. "How was Mike? That week, when... Will... Was..." She couldn't finish the sentence.

"It was the hardest on the evening Will's... Fake body... being found..." Karen thinks before continuing. "He..." She gulps. "He apparently saw... When they found him... I only found that out later but... Michael came home late..." She wipes away a tear. "And fell into my arms... He... He was broken... His heart… His tiny little  heart… Shattered... He cried so… so much..." She shakes her head now fully crying remembering this.

“And we Kissed! As though nothing could fall!” David Bowie sings in the background of their conversation from the radio.

Joyce herself has her eyes full of tears, she straightens up and puts her arms around Karen. "Michael has such... Deep care for Will... Truthfully he was a great help to me... Even if he wasn't with me... I heard he never stopped looking for Will even though… that thing..." Joyce whisper's quietly as she continues to hold Karen in a hug, thinking about the fake body of Will.

"I- I have never told anyone this... Not even Ted... That night... He also said things... No mother wants to hear... But still I understood why he said them..." Karen hesitates, finding it difficult to actually repeat what Mike said when he was mourning Will. “And that’s what hurts, I understand.” She says in a breathy cry.

"Oh..." Joyce says kind of knowing what Michael might have said considering what she witnessed today. "Did he?" She asks quietly.

With a tiny shaking nod Karen struggles to continue. "Yeah... He said... He didn't want to live... Didn't want to be in a world without him… without Will" Karen's head shivers as she half covers her mouth with her hand. "I understood him though... I really did understand him... Why he would say that... Didn't make it any less hard to hear but... Losing the person that is most important to you... I can't imagine it..." Her eyes are still swollen from the tears as she tries to breathe normally. “He ended up wanting to be alone for the rest of the night… I think he went to look at Will’s drawings…”

"I did too... I had bad thoughts myself... Though I never showed it because I had to believe... I- I thought about it... But I still had Jonathan and I could never... Never do that... To him..." Joyce says. 

“I think Michael never wanted to stop believing that Will was alive… even after everything but I could see he struggled with it…” Karen closes her eyes in thought with slight tears in her eyes.

Joyce exhaled deeply. "Wow... It is... Good... To open up and just... Talk" she says, as they are now both standing up right. “Hug?”

Karen nods. "I think I needed this too..." Karen sniffles as they hold each other in a firm hug. “How happy he was… when he told me Will was alive… He told me he never wanted to leave his side again, though he knew he had to at some point…” She slightly smiles through the tears. 

Joyce tries to smile through the tears. “They will be close again, they must.” She says remembering how inseparable they were as kids.

“They are meant to be.” Karen says with honesty in her voice, she knows how it sounds.

Joyce smiles with a small nod.