Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Always make sure to check that the right tape is in the case, before the customer leaves, too. Sometimes customers will be assholes and try to keep movies they like better and return some old, shitty movie of theirs in our case.”

Will nodded along as Robin listed off things to remember on the job.

“But do it in a subtle way, because some of them will think that you don’t trust them if you check right in front of their face. I mean, we don’t trust them, but they don’t need to know that.”

Will asked, “What do I say if they do return the wrong movie?”

Robin waved her hand, “Just call me over, and I’ll handle it for you.” She rubbed her hands together and added with a grin, “I’ll slap ‘em with a late fee unless they bring back the right one that day. And if they don’t do that, I can escalate the situation up to Keith or Ernie, who will charge them with the cost of replacing the movie, and that’s always fun.”

She laughed a little maniacally as Will watched on, impressed and a little intimidated.

“So anyway, assuming that they returned the correct movie with no funny business, mark the movie as returned on the computer and check the customer out if they have any other rentals. If there are no other customers that need to be helped right away or if someone else is available to man the desk, bring whatever returned movies you have over to the TV and VCR in the back office to rewind them to the beginning of the tape. After that, you can put them back on the shelf. Any questions, little Byers?”

Will shook his head, and said, “No questions. Thanks, Robin.”

“Perfect! So just, you know, hang out, and we’ll do a run through once a customer comes in.”

Will nodded again and said, “Okay, cool,” and stood nervously behind the desk, tapping his fingers on the countertop.

The Byers had moved to Hawkins five months ago. Or rather, technically, they had moved back to Hawkins five months ago.

They’d lived in Hawkins as an unhappy little family until his parents had divorced. Will was only three. Right after the divorce, his mom had moved him and his big brother, Jonathan, to California. Will didn’t have any memories from his childhood in Hawkins, just memories of the brief visits to Hawkins for the holidays with his mom’s parents throughout the years, only a few days here and there. Hawkins hadn’t made much of an impression on Will. It seemed a little dreary, and he could never quite get used to the snow.

Fourteen years later, though, the prices in California were rising too quickly, his mom’s hourly wages weren’t rising at all, and his dad had stopped paying child support and alimony. And then his mom had one of her regular phone calls with her mom, who always, always, always said to her over the phone, “When are you coming home? We miss you. Your old friend Jim is back in Hawkins too, he’s single now. I miss you, I’m lonely here without you, come home.”

Will’s mom always told him about their phone calls with a little wistfulness in her voice, but Will never thought she’d do it. But then the bills piled up too much, and then she did. She moved them back to Indiana. Will rolled his eyes at the memory.

They moved back after Will finished his sophomore school year and Jonathan had gotten accepted as a transfer student to NYU after his first two years at a community college. They had the summer to unpack at their new house and to get Jonathan ready for his big move to New York City. Jonathan went to college a couple months later, leaving Will alone with his mom and with the challenge of tackling a new high school as a junior.

He’d had some trouble adjusting and making new friends.

Things in California had been easier. Will had always been shy, and in such a big school, it was easier to go unnoticed, easier to be a little different without anyone really caring. He’d had a couple friends back in California, no one he was especially close to, but still, it was nice to have people he could hang out with in classes, someone to sit with at lunch.

And of course, it was California. It was California and Will was gay. California had Harvey Milk. It was liberal. It didn’t feel stifling to just think about who and what he was there. Will knew there were people like him out there on the West Coast. Maybe no one that he knew of from school, but in the nearby cities. They were within reach and he knew where to find them once he was older.

Hawkins was the exact opposite of that. It was small, everyone knew everyone, and people noticed everything. The people here called each other ‘fags’ and probably didn’t even know about Harvey Milk. Will felt sorry for them, and then he felt sorry for himself that he was stuck there for another two years.

But Will did what he could to blend in while also trying to be happy in the new town, the new school. He’d been watched like a hawk the first two weeks of school, everyone trying to figure out which clique he’d join, where he’d naturally fit in. But he just stuck to himself and watched the others around him. Eventually the others lost interest as it became clear that he didn’t really fit anywhere. Only then did Will really relax.

Jonathan, from the sounds of it, was having the exact opposite experience off at college in New York City. He loved it, and he’d somehow met a girl in one of his classes that was from Hawkins as well. Her name was Nancy. Jonathan mentioned her during three separate phone calls as “my classmate, Nancy” until suddenly she was “my girlfriend, Nancy.”

After Will had spent a couple months quietly sticking to himself at school, Jonathan encouraged him to get a job. Just for something to do to get out of the house, to save up for a car, for college, to have some more spending money. To meet some more people in the area, and maybe, just maybe, to make some friends.

Apparently, and at this Will had rolled his eyes, Jonathan's beloved, sweet, beautiful Nancy had a friend in Hawkins: Robin. And apparently Robin said that she could use Will’s help at her job at Family Video. That was the only reason that Will had agreed to the whole arrangement. He liked movies.

He’d had an interview, which was more like a formality, and a week later, Will was receiving training during his first shift. Robin was surprisingly fun, and Will wondered if Nancy was much like her. He couldn’t really picture Jonathan dating someone like Robin, but he supposed that friends weren’t always necessarily alike in personality. 

Robin was a good trainer though, as Will was figuring out. 

After a few awkward, quiet moments during which Will just stood at the counter wondering what he was supposed to be doing, and during which Robin waltzed around the store, putting movies away and chattering (to herself?) as if it were her own personal ballroom, Will’s first customer came in.

Robin stepped in when he got stumped by the computer’s catalog and struggled to navigate to find the customer’s name, and she made small talk with the customer as he slowly made change for them, his neck burning from his awkward fumbling.

Robin patted him on the shoulder once the customer left and said, “First one is always the hardest. You’ve got this, little Byers.” 

And at that, Will had to smile.

The day got easier from there. No customers returned the wrong movie, Will slowly got used to the computer system, and Robin went from being right by his side during each customer interaction to slowly trusting him to handle some customers while she stood half the store away (still within hearing distance though, for when he frantically called out for her for help, which he had done a few times). 

When the store got busier around lunch time, Robin handled the counter and instructed Will to take care of rewinding the movies. He popped the movies in the VCR and hit Play to check to see if he even needed to rewind. A few lucky times, the tape was already rewound, but most were stopped at the end credits. 

There were a couple horror movies that had been stopped at the gruesome parts, which had obviously been the tipping point for a sensitive viewer. Will snorted at those as he rewound. There was also one very sad instance when Will caught sight of a harassed looking mom and a sad looking little kid returning Bambi before he brought that movie back with the stack that had accumulated. Will inserted the movie tape in the back office to see that the movie had been stopped during the scene where Bambi and his mom were running away from the hunter. He hastily hit the rewind button before Bambi’s mom met her inevitable end. 

A few hours later, Will was manning the customer service counter, nearing the end of his shift, when he saw someone approaching through the storefront window. It was the vaguely familiar shape of his classmate: Mike Wheeler.

Will hastily tugged at his green Family Video vest, feeling awkward in the uniform for the first time since putting it on. He looked up quickly at the sound of the door, and sure enough, it was Mike.

They made eye contact for just a moment as the door closed behind Mike, before he turned to face the wall of movies on his left.

Will watched him for several seconds, the way his hair hung around his neck, the way his jacket fit his shoulders. Will let his eyes travel down Mike’s long legs slowly and then he turned around.

Mike Wheeler. He was just someone from Will’s English class. He wasn’t anyone, not really. Just a stupid guy. 

Will peeked over his shoulder really quickly at Mike, who still had his back facing Will. Will turned back in a hurry before he got caught looking.

Will was well acquainted with the back of Mike’s head. Will sat in the back of his English class, while Mike sat towards the front with a couple of his friends. After the first couple weeks of school, Will had started to notice Mike more and more, as not just another classmate, but as someone he found himself wanting to look at a little more than anyone else.

But that was it, really. He was just a stupid guy. He hadn’t really talked to Mike more than saying “Excuse me,” when trying to pass by him when he and his stupid friends were clogging up the classroom entrance. Will only knew his stupid name from when the teacher called attendance.

After finally getting Jonathan’s girlfriend’s full name, Will put the pieces together that he was crushing on his brother’s girlfriend’s brother. He tried not to think about it and vowed to never mention any of this to Jonathan. He secretly kind of hoped that Jonathan and Nancy broke up so that he never had to see Mike at family functions through Nancy. Will didn’t need to see his stupid face around forever, haunting him on holidays and birthdays for the rest of time.

Will glanced over at Robin, who wasn’t paying attention to either of them at all, and when he glanced back, Mike was walking up to the counter. 

Will cleared his throat in a hurry and said, “Oh, hey! Umm, how can I help you?” He felt his cheeks warm as Mike looked right at him. Mike hadn’t ever looked right at him before, with eye contact and all that. It was unnerving. Mike had really pretty eyes, a nice dark brown. So fucking stupid. 

Mike said, sounding infuriatingly unruffled, “Hey! I didn’t know you worked here.”

Will swallowed and said, “It’s just my first day.” He looked down at his feet for a second before looking back up. His eyes darted over to Robin, who still wasn’t really paying them any mind. He admitted, “Still learning and everything.”

Mike nodded his head, his long hair swaying with the movement, dark and thick and a little curly. Will snapped his eyes back to Mike’s as he spoke. This was no time to get distracted. Ugh, Mike Wheeler.

Mike said, “Cool! Cool. Well I’ll keep it simple for you.” He smiled a little bit and Will felt a little breathless. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Mike placed a movie on the counter and said, “I just have to return this.”

Will looked down to see The Outsiders. He looked up at Mike as he grabbed it, quickly trying to reorient what he knew about Mike (which was very little) with this new piece of information. He rented The Outsiders. Huh.

Will subtly checked that The Outsiders tape was truly inside the case, feeling more awkward than ever doing that with Mike watching him, seemingly not distracted by anything, perfectly content to watch Will go about his Family Video employee duties for whatever reason.

Will marked on the computer that The Outsiders was returned and said to Mike, “You’re all set. You’re sure you didn’t want to check anything out?” 

Mike said, “Nope, I’m totally broke right now. But thanks! Well, I’ll see you around, Will.”

Will faltered as his own name left the lips of Mike Wheeler and then Mike was turning and Will rushed out before he lost the chance, “Yeah, see you at school.”

His breath came out kind of high and breathy and Will cringed at himself. And then he shamelessly, stupidly watched Mike as he left Family Video, all the way until he was no longer visible through the store windows.

He heaved a great sigh and repeated to himself, ‘just a stupid guy, ugh ,’ until Robin knocked him out of it, walking behind the counter to join him.

“Hey, Wheeler didn’t give you any trouble, right?”

Yes, of course. Because this was Hawkins and everyone knew everyone and Robin was best friends with Nancy, of course Will’s boss knew Will’s crush as well.

Will sighed. “No, he was fine.”

“Good! So, you’re almost done with your shift. Why don’t you deal with these last couple movies and then you can head out early.”

Will, eager to go home, get off his feet, and daydream about Mike, thanked her. He grabbed the stack of returned movies and headed to the back office, rewinding a couple tapes before getting to The Outsiders.

Will had seen The Outsiders before. It was a pretty good movie. Not one of his favorites, but it had a good plot and there were a lot of cute guys in it. He wondered if Mike had liked it. Will hadn’t thought to ask in the moment. Mike’s stupid face had distracted him.

Will popped in the tape and hit the Play button, curious to see if Mike was the kind of customer to rewind his movies when he was done. He kind of doubted it.

Sure enough, the movie loaded not at the start of the tape, but also not at the end credits. Rather, a certain scene from the movie popped up, causing Will’s mouth to drop open and for his eyes to widen as he soaked in what was on the TV. He stared for a few moments, then whipped his head around really fast to make sure Robin hadn’t seen the screen or his reaction. Thankfully she wasn’t looking in his direction at all.

Of all the scenes in the movie, Mike had returned The Outsiders during the few, brief seconds when Sodapop was getting out of the shower in the background of the shot. Sodapop haphazardly covered himself with a towel, and then wrapped the towel just, like, stupidly low around his hips, his chest still wet and bare from the shower.

Will watched the scene play out, just a few seconds really, before hitting the Rewind button with his thumb. He remembered that scene from the time he’d watched The Outsiders, of course he did. But it was such a small part of the movie, what were the chances of someone turning it off right then and there? What were the chances of Mike turning it off right then and there?

As the movie rewound, Will considered the other movies he’d rewound during the day. Scary movies stopped at the scary parts, Bambi stopped right before Bambi’s mother died. People seemed to stop watching the movies when they didn’t want to see what was happening anymore.

Will sighed as he removed the fully rewound tape and stuffed it back in the case. He roamed the shelves of movies in the front of the store, putting the movies back in the right places when he found them, thinking all the while. 

Will came to the conclusion that Mike must’ve been so disgusted by a half naked guy that he had to stop the movie immediately upon seeing that, and then he returned the movie without even finishing it. He saw one shirtless guy two-thirds the way through a movie he had spent money to rent, and decided that he didn’t even care to see the ending.

Will rolled his eyes as he shoved the stupid case for The Outsiders back on the shelf.

He fucking hated the stupid people here. Stupid Hawkins, Indiana. Stupid Mike Wheeler. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He rounded out the thought by acknowledging that he himself was also stupid, for getting all wide eyed and nervous over just a stupid guy coming into his place of work and exchanging like three words with him.

Clearly, based on when Mike stopped the movie, Mike wasn’t interested and would never be interested, so Will wouldn’t waste any more time on Mike Wheeler’s stupid ass. Even if he did have a cute butt.

Not another second would be spent thinking about stupid Mike Wheeler. Not one second more.

Chapter Text

Despite his previous commitment that he wouldn't think about it anymore, Will couldn’t help himself during his next shift. He asked Robin, “So, do people sometimes return movies at like… weird spots? Like when you pop them in to rewind the tape to the start, do you ever notice they load up during, like, a weird scene?”

Robin cocked her head and asked, “Weird how?”

Will said, “Like… okay, like when a mom returned Bambi the other day, the movie was stopped in the middle of the scene when the hunter is chasing down Bambi and his mom. Or, or, like, when a movie is returned with uhhh, you know, someone half naked on the screen.”

Robin laughed loudly, startling a couple browsing customers. 

“Ohhhhhh yeah, that happens a lot. Actually, my girlf-”

Robin stopped abruptly before starting again. “One of my friends returned a movie like that once a few years ago, it was so funny. Fast Times at Ridgemont High, stopped right on Phoebe Cates’ boobs. I tease them about that all the time. And you wouldn’t believe the number of bored looking housewives that return Dirty Dancing, and the movie was stopped at a scene when Patrick Swayze is going all crazy with his hips. They obviously just go back to rewatch those scenes and then forget to rewind before returning it.”

Robin waggled her eyebrows.

Will thought for a second, his forehead furrowed. “Oh. No, I meant like, someone that might’ve turned a movie off during a scene like that because they didn’t want to see more. Like they were grossed out by too much of that, or something.”

Will felt himself turning red. He shouldn't have brought this up at all.

Robin looked at him, considering. “I mean, maybe that happens. I guess I usually just think it’s the other reason. You know, not that they’re stopping the movie because they don’t like those kinds of scenes, but rewinding to go back to those scenes for a rewatch. Now that people can watch movies at home, they like to rewind to some of the uhh, stand out scenes, you know, the ones they couldn’t rewatch in theaters as much as they want. But maybe, I guess.”

She eyed him curiously, and Will turned to busy himself with putting movies back on the shelves and just mumbled, “Oh, okay.”

But that didn’t make sense. Mike wouldn’t have gone back to rewatch Sodapop coming out of the shower. Mike didn’t want to see that. This was Hawkins, and he was just some stupid, straight guy. A stupid, stupid, straight guy whose face was too pretty for his own good.

Will sighed. Everyone in this town was impossible.

At school, Mike had started saying, “Hey,” to Will when they passed each other in the halls and when Will passed Mike’s desk to get to his own in the back corner of the classroom.

It startled Will every time. He blushed and sometimes said, “Hey,” back, or sometimes just gave him a little wave, or a quick, awkward nod. 

He’d had crushes before, for fuck’s sake, but they usually didn’t, well, they usually didn’t know him or acknowledge him or see him even. Will could keep his cool yearning after some guy in a school with a thousand other kids. In a big school, no one was paying attention to anyone else outside of their own little group. His lovelorn glances would go unnoticed when he was one person blending in with hundreds of others. 

But Mike had noticed him. He was on Mike’s radar. Mike had said his name at Family Video, like they were acquaintances or whatever. This was uncharted territory. Will didn’t know how to navigate through this development.

In an effort to protect himself in this new, vulnerable position that Mike had so rudely put him in, Will started paying attention to Mike more. He needed to determine if Mike was so disgusted by men that he stopped a classic like The Outsiders during the brief seconds Sodapop came out of the shower barely covered by a towel, or if there was another unknown reason.

Will had decided to disregard what Robin had said entirely. That whole idea applying to Mike was inconceivable.

He didn’t want to be harboring a secret, stupid crush on a total asshole. He’d really prefer to just crush on someone bland and straight, so even if it was hopelessly unreciprocated, it wouldn’t end in too much pain or disillusionment.

Unfortunately for Will, however, Mike didn’t fit into either of those categories. The more Will watched, the more he liked the person Mike seemed to be, in a few really stupid ways. Will shook his head in disappointment at himself every time he discovered something new that didn’t put him off from Mike entirely.

While the school bullies were both mean and rude, and while Will considered himself to be mean on the inside but not rude on the outside, Mike seemed to be the exact opposite. He was rude but not mean. Will found it ridiculously charming.

Mike would not hide his disgust for a boring class assignment, would not hesitate to shoot someone a rude face if he felt they deserved it, and always seemed to be a tad on the side of being ill-mannered when talking with his friends: blunt, crass, and honest. He barreled through the halls of Hawkins High School perpetually unaware and uncaring about being on what anyone would consider his best behavior.  

He didn’t seem to have a mean bone in his body though. He didn’t name-call, he wasn’t cruel, he didn’t push someone who was already down. Will had overheard Mike being really quite kind to his friends, and not, like, an asshole to strangers.

In a town full of jerks, Will thought it was really very admirable for Mike to let himself be rude but not let it soak in enough to be mean as well.

Will hadn’t exactly figured anything out about why Mike would’ve returned the movie during that scene of Sodapop leaving the shower, though. Will hadn’t heard Mike say anything homophobic, unlike several other classmates of theirs. He didn’t appear to have a girlfriend, but that didn’t mean anything. Will wasn’t sure. But he kept finding reasons to keep watching Mike.

A couple weeks and several shifts at Family Video later, Will was trying to eavesdrop on Mike and friends in their English class before the bell rang. As usual.

They seemed rowdier than normal. Will kept his eyes downturned towards his sketch but a few words stood out to him. He heard Mike’s friend Dustin say, loud and insistent, “No, listen, Flashdance! It’s really good.”

And then Mike’s voice, quieter than Dustin’s but just as heated, reached Will’s ears, “No way! I think The Empire Strikes Back is a good choice. The ‘I love you’ scene? Come on!”

They kept talking for a minute until Will heard Mike say his name. Will’s head whipped up to see all three of them walking towards him, where he sat in the back corner of the classroom. He frantically slammed his sketchbook closed and stuffed it into his backpack. 

Will was thoroughly alarmed. He’d been minding his own business, sketching a figure that didn’t look at all like Mike, for fuck’s sake , and suddenly Mike was bringing a lot of hustle and bustle around him. Usually, other quiet loners sat around him in the back corner. That’s how Will liked it.

But no, Mike dragged his friends over, and they were all talking over each other, and then suddenly, Mike’s stupid, sweet voice said, “Hey, Will!” 

Mike slid into the seat next to Will, while his friends, Dustin and Lucas, sat in the seats in front of them and turned around to face him. 

Will, with all of those eyes on him, said nervously, “Hi.”

Mike said, his voice entirely too bright and cheery, “So, Lucas here has been trying to figure out what a good date night movie would be. He’s coming up on his three year anniversary with his girlfriend, Max, in a few weeks. Max Mayfield, have you met her yet? I bet you’d like her actually, she’s from California too. I think I remember that you’re from California, right? Anyway, she moved here and they met like three years ago, so Lucas wants to plan a nice date for them, and I thought you might have some good ideas for a date night movie, as, you know, someone who works at Family Video, and someone who sees what movies people seem to like when they return them and what movies people don’t like.”

Will stared at Mike in shock. He didn’t think that anyone at school had spoken to him that much about something unrelated to class work since moving to Hawkins. He felt stupidly out of practice with talking like this. 

He forced his mouth open and said, “Oh! Three years, that’s a long time. Yeah, I think Max is in my gym class. Red hair, right?”

Will knew of Max peripherally, from spying on her best friend, El Hopper, the adopted daughter of Jim Hopper. His mom had asked him to report back on his findings, as she slowly got reacquainted with her old school friend, Jim Hopper. Will could see a dawning romance there a mile away and nervously watched El from a distance, wondering if she knew about the impending awkward dinner date that was sure to come, during which their parents, dating, would introduce them as potential future step-siblings.

El Hopper seemed fine. At least she didn’t seem to be one of the many bullies in this high school hell hole. More often than not, El and Max seemed to ditch or barely participate in their gym class activities, preferring to hang back and talk and laugh together, ignoring the teacher-assigned sports going on around them.

Will glanced over at Lucas for confirmation, who was smiling dreamily and said, “That’s her, she has nice hair. But yeah, what do you think, what’s a good movie for a date night? I need an expert’s opinion.”

Will glanced back over to Mike, who was still watching him. Will’s thoughts scattered, which was fucking stupid, and he desperately tried to recall anything from his last two weeks at Family Video. 

The images of three separate couples returning one certain movie, always seeming very pleased, popped into his head and he blurted, “The Princess Bride. People always seem to like The Princess Bride.”

Lucas squinted at him. “What’s it about?”

Will said, “A princess getting kidnapped, I think? I’m not too sure, I haven’t watched it myself yet, but that’s what I remember from what people have said about it. Everyone that returns it seems to really love it.”

“Hmm.” Lucas looked thoughtful.

“Sounds kinda cool, I guess,” said Dustin.

Will chanced a glance over at Mike, who was already watching him. He wasn’t readying to say something or looking with judgment at Will’s movie suggestion. He was just looking at Will with a small smile on his face. Will turned away quickly.

Will offered to Lucas, “I’ll be working tomorrow night after school, if you want to stop by then. We can look over that movie and a couple other options if you want.”

Lucas shook his head and said, “I’ll be at practice late tomorrow night, basketball practice, but hopefully I’ll catch you when I do stop by, maybe over the weekend. Thanks, man.”

Will nodded and then the chatter of Mike and his friends started up again until class started. Will was driven to distraction for the entire class period. It wasn’t as easy to stare at Mike when he was sitting right next to Will. And it was much harder to concentrate. Not that Will was too concerned about paying attention, it was just English class after all, but he just felt extra aware of himself now that he was so visible to Mike.

When he peeked from the corner of his eye, Mike was tapping his pencil and jiggling his leg. He didn’t usually do that. Will would know. He fucking watched Mike enough to know. He wondered if Mike was nervous about something. Maybe he cared more about the upcoming English test than Will did.

The next day in English class, Mike sat next to Will again, even if he and his friends didn’t have a movie question for him. Will continued to be overwhelmed by all of it.

Later that day during his shift at Family Video, Lucas didn’t show up but Mike did. He was alone again, and this time, he walked right up to the counter to greet Will. Robin was in the back office, working on her assistant manager paperwork, as Will was now comfortable handling most customer interactions without her help. 

Mike gave him a big smile and said, “Hey! How’s your shift going?” 

Will felt like he was glowing slightly under all of Mike’s attention lately and all he could manage to say in response was, “Good, thank you.” Will felt his cheeks grow warm.

It was starting to get colder out and Mike’s cheeks were pink, from the chill outside. As he tucked some hair behind his ear, Will caught a glimpse of the tips of his ears, which were pink too. Mike’s smile was stupidly big and earnest, and Will wanted to hit the pause button on it so he could stare as long as he wanted without getting caught, without getting so nervous and needing to look away every two seconds.

Mike finally looked away and swung his backpack around to pull out another Family Video movie.

“So, I have a return for you, here you are.” And he held out the movie for Will to grab. Will glanced down quickly to see what it was.

It was Rocky III. 

Will felt his eyebrows shoot up before he could stop them. He’d assumed that Mike had stopped The Outsiders at the scene where Sodapop got out of the shower because he wasn’t comfortable with a half naked guy, but Rocky Balboa was right there on the cover of the movie case, shirtless and oiled up, muscles prominent.

So maybe… maybe it was something else. Will didn’t know. So he just asked, “Rocky, huh? Are you, uhh, into boxing?”

Mike stood there, tall and skinny and nerdy, and Will tried to picture him being into boxing, but he just couldn’t quite make that image fit. Will heard him complaining about gym class a lot. But maybe just watching someone exercise was different from having to do it yourself. More exciting somehow.

It took longer than normal for Mike to respond, and Will realized that he looked pinker now than when he’d first come into the store. “I guess. I, umm, well, my dad wanted to watch with me, he’s the one who wanted to rent it. I’m just returning it for him.”

Will nodded. That made more sense. He turned to face the computer to mark the movie as returned and said, “Oh, okay. Was it taken out under his name or yours?”

There was a long silence during which Will tried to figure out what the issue was, until Mike said awkwardly, “Uhh, it’s under my name.”

Will just nodded and marked the movie as returned on the computer, turned to Mike and said, “You’re all set. Did you want to check something else out?”

But Mike looked very on edge now, looking away towards his feet, his stupid hair hanging in his face a bit. Will wanted to tuck it back for him. 

Mike mumbled, “No, I have to get going. Sorry, Will, I’ll see you at school.” And then he strode away on his too long legs, and left the store.

Will shook his head in confusion. With the store now empty of customers, he joined Robin in the back office.

“Hey, Robin. How’s the paperwork going?”

Robin shot him a dirty look. “It’s miserable, thank you very much. How are the customers doing?”

“Oh, you know. Same old. Renting and returning all kinds of interesting movies.” He held up Rocky III. 

Robin laughed. “Maybe not my taste, but I guess, if you’re into, you know, boxing and Sylvester Stallone maybe?”

Will snorted and looked down at the movie cover again. If he squinted, Rocky looked like an extremely buff Mike, with his fluffy, long, dark hair. Not really though. Will snorted again. So fucking stupid.

He peeked out to the store floor to double check that no customers were on their way in, and seeing that it still looked blissfully empty, he flipped open the case and popped the tape in the VCR to rewind it. But, as always, he first hit the Play button.

Will wasn’t sure if he expected it or not, but once again, the movie did not load at the end credits.

Instead, the Rocky theme music played with determination in the back office of the Family Video, and Will and Robin watched, both open mouthed, as a very handsome man, who Will later learned was named Apollo Creed when he looked more into the Rocky movies, trained  Rocky in a long montage.

Rocky boxed in a tight crop top, his stomach exposed and abs bulging, his arms mountains of muscles. He swam in a pool, doing laps, his back muscles straining. Rocky and Apollo raced each other on the beach, in slow fucking motion, and the camera lingered, it lingered close-up in slow motion , on both of their thighs, barely covered as both men were wearing short shorts. Their thighs were as thick as fucking tree trunks.

Will got redder and redder, and shifted nervously, all too aware that Robin was right there. His face burned.

A sweaty, dripping Rocky toweled himself off after jumping rope and then bent down to kiss a woman sitting nearby, watching him. Will pictured himself getting kissed by a soaking wet hunk of a man like Rocky. Or a skinny, lanky one like Mike. He sighed.

Rocky finally beat Apollo in their race on the beach and both men ran into the ocean together and hugged, arms wrapping around each other, inexplicably still in slow motion. 

The scene ended and the movie transitioned to the next scene and Will stood there in a daze. He swallowed nervously, wondering if he should’ve been less obvious, if he should’ve looked away instead of watching it all with probably all too much interest apparent on his face.

But then Robin broke the silence with a loud giggle. She started laughing louder and Will joined her, anything to break the tension and the fact that he was driven to distraction by the slow motion shots and the crop top.

They laughed and laughed, until Robin asked, “Who the hell returned that movie on that scene?”

Will’s laughter faded a bit and he said, “I don’t know, just some gu— just some person.”

Robin squinted at him. “What’d they look like?”

Will felt himself growing more and more defensive, and said, “It was no one, it doesn’t matter.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and looked away from Robin as he walked forward to click the Rewind button on the VCR. 

Mike had only rented it for his dad, Mike had said that. He’d probably felt weird about that scene, just like he’d felt when he stopped watching The Outsiders right when Sodapop was getting out of the shower. Maybe he and his dad had been weirded out, so they just stopped watching. Or maybe Mike’s dad had rewound the movie to watch that scene again for some, some, some reason, Will didn’t know. It was probably just Mike’s mom that had done it.

But if Will said it was a guy that had returned it, Robin might make assumptions, because she claimed that bored housewives returned Dirty Dancing at those kinds of scenes, and what would Robin think if it had been a guy from Will’s classes that returned it, if it had been her friend’s little brother? She might decide he’d rented it for the same reason as the housewives renting Dirty Dancing, and then what would she say? Probably some kind of shit that everyone in Hawkins always said about anyone different, even if it wasn’t true. 

Robin was quiet and Will could feel her eyes on him. He started to feel guilty, and then a little nervous, because she was his boss, and he’d been a little rude. He was usually so good at keeping that meanness inside. He smashed his mouth into a tight line and put his head down while the movie rewound.

Finally, Robin spoke. “Remember when I mentioned Fast Times at Ridgemont High? How a friend of mine returned the movie on a shot of boobs? It was my friend Vickie. She returned it paused on the boobs.”

There was quiet as Will considered that. He looked over at Robin quickly, who was looking at him with her face soft and kind. 

She continued, “She’s my girlfriend now.” And Will felt his eyes grow wide.

“Oh. You’re dating a girl?” Will felt a bit scattered, like his brain was rushing to catch up.

Robin nodded softly and smiled.

“Oh.” Will felt a big smile stretching across his face. His eyes were a little damp. “Oh, okay.” He brought his arm up and wiped his eyes with his hand.

Robin added, “If a guy brought in Rocky, it wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened, and it won’t be the last time either. It’s totally cool here, it’s cool with me. Don’t worry about it.”

Will nodded quickly and sniffled. “Cool, Robin. Thanks. I,” and he stopped to clear his throat after his voice cracked. “I appreciate that. Thanks for telling me that.”

“Any time, little Byers. Now why don’t you go put the, uhh,” and she pointed at the Rocky III case, “the Italian Stallion back on the shelf where he belongs and you can head out early if you want.”

And so he did. Rocky’s oiled up muscles went back up on display to lure someone else to rent it out, and Will headed out after saying a quick, shy, “Bye,” to Robin. 

Will didn’t know what the fuck was up with Mike, but maybe Hawkins wasn’t a total lost cause. Will wasn’t alone here.

Chapter Text

At school, Will kept trying to think of smooth ways to ask Mike about Rocky III: if he’d liked the ending, what he thought about the final boxing match, if his dad seemed to like it a lot, if his mom had watched it with them. Anything to figure out what had happened to have the movie returned during that training montage. 

He couldn’t think of a smooth way to do it though, so he didn’t bother trying.

Mike kept including him in conversations with his friends though, and, in a bewildering development, he’d started to walk with Will when they left English, all the way to Will’s math classroom.

“So what was it like in California? Are the people really different there? Did you go to the beach all the time? How do you like it here in Hawkins?

“California is, you know, sunny. My school was a lot bigger. Not as many bullies. I didn’t get this fucking cold.” Will had resorted to wearing layers in late fall, even at school. He was wearing a long sleeve shirt and a sweater on top of that. He hated the cold.

Mike barked out a laugh, and Will realized that was probably the first time he’d sworn in front of Mike.

“We lived kind of close to the beach. My mom really liked to go, and me and my brother were happy to go too, when the beaches were a little bit quieter. I like swimming, so it was nice to have that so close.”

Will’s mind flashed to Rocky and Apollo hugging in slow motion in the ocean in that scene from Rocky III. Will’s thighs weren’t nearly as muscular as theirs, and neither were Mike’s from what Will could tell by how Mike’s legs looked in jeans. Will snuck a quick peak to remind himself how they looked anyways when Mike wasn’t looking. They were definitely skinny. But that was okay. More than okay.

Will stopped himself there. He was letting his mind wander like a fucking lunatic. Mike’s legs were stupid (too long) and Will was being stupid (too imaginative).

He cleared his throat and continued, “But yeah, I guess Hawkins is okay. There are some things that I like here.”

And Will’s eyes darted over to look at Mike again, because Mike was the fucking nice thing that Will liked in this stupid town. This time, Mike was looking back at him, his eyes focused and interested and much too curious. Will changed the subject quickly.

Eventually they discussed the fact that their siblings were dating each other halfway across the country in New York City, and Mike seemed to feel just as awkward about it as Will did. They avoided the topic altogether after that. Will sometimes talked to Mike about Jonathan because Will did miss him a lot, but Mike didn’t usually talk about Nancy.

They always parted ways once Will got to his math class, and a couple days into this new development, Will realized that Mike was basically walking him to class every day. Like… like Will saw some other people doing at school. It was, well, it was kind of like that. But not really, because Will’s math class was kind of on the way to Mike’s next class anyway. Kind of, if he didn’t think about it too closely. He tried not to think about it too much. The whole thing was stupid.

During English class one day, they were all paired off for an assignment. They didn’t get their pick of partners for the assignment though, their teacher just paired them all up, alphabetically by last name.

Will watched with some level of defeated pessimism as Mike worked with a pretty girl across the room.

He just kept thinking to himself, ‘Mike probably returned The Outsiders at that scene because he can’t even bear to see a half naked guy. Mike’s mom probably took Rocky III after he’d watched it with his dad and watched the training montage and Mike had no idea.’

And then he spiraled further. ‘Maybe Mike likes the girl he’s working with. Maybe he’ll be coming to me for date ideas soon. I’ll tell him to rent Grease 2 to sabotage their date because that movie sucked. But then Mike will think I have a shitty taste in movies and he’ll stop talking to me.’

Will tried to keep in mind what Robin said about having a girlfriend and Vickie returning Fast Times on the shot of the half naked girl. He tried to picture Mike making that kind of slip up with The Outsiders and Rocky, but then Mike leaned closer to the girl he was working with, pointing at something on the worksheet in front of them, and Will became terribly, mournfully glum. He returned to his partner he was working with and did the absolute bare minimum to contribute to their assignment, every word from his mouth coming out sour.

After the bell rung, Will tried to rush out of the classroom without Mike, because Will didn’t need some stupid guy walking him to his next class, trodding on his heart every step of the way. Mike caught up to him before Will even made it past the next classroom door though. 

“Hey,” he said, a little out of breath from jogging to catch up to Will. “Are you going to be at work later? Lucas and I were thinking of stopping by. His big anniversary movie date with Max is this weekend.”

Will huffed out an angry breath. Mike was pissing him off. He was too much. He was too fucking cute and too fucking earnest for someone that Will had a crush on. Will should’ve picked someone mean and shitty to crush on so he could get over it easier. 

Will muttered, “Yeah,” and kept walking away fast.

Mike’s stupid legs were longer though, and he easily kept pace. “Are you okay, Will? Is something wrong?”

Will wished he and his mom had just stayed in California. It was getting too cold out and he missed his crush on that one douchebag on the school baseball team that never looked twice at him. Things were simpler then. He didn’t need to wear so many layers, he didn’t need to actively try not to get his heart hurt in any kind of serious way. 

“I’m fine, Mike, I just need to get to class."

Will didn’t linger by the classroom door like they had been doing lately, no chatting until the first, warning bell rang when Mike would realize he needed to get to his class several hallways away in the next sixty seconds.

Will just went into his math classroom and slumped into his seat in the back of the room. When he peeked over, Mike was standing in the doorway, just kind of looking his way pathetically. Will turned to face the window instead.

He sulked for the rest of the day, and later at Family Video, Robin tried to poke and prod him about what the matter was but he didn’t feel like sharing. He felt like sulking.

And so he did, and continued to do so a couple hours later as Mike and Lucas entered the store noisily. 

Mike greeted him with a chirpy, “Hey, Will!” And Will, feeling meaner and more bitter than ever, just looked at him with his eyebrows drawn down and didn’t bother responding. Mike kept looking at him, a little nervously, and Will sighed and turned away to help an approaching customer.

He wasn’t sure why he was getting so nasty and mean, it was just a stupid fucking crush. But then he peeked over at Lucas and Mike shopping around for a movie for Lucas’s three year anniversary with his girlfriend, and he remembered that yeah, that was why. Will wanted a three year anniversary with someone sometime, but that felt years away, decades away. It was half a country away in one of the big cities in California. He certainly wasn’t going to be celebrating a three year anniversary with anyone in fucking Indiana.

Lucas and Mike got in line to be helped, Lucas clutching two movies, Mike holding onto just one. Will tried to calm his anger down.

Once Will had checked out the customer ahead of them (The Breakfast Club, Will barely restrained himself from rolling his eyes), Lucas and Mike stepped up to the counter. 

Lucas, who never really seemed mean or rude, something that Will couldn't quite wrap his head around, plopped both The Princess Bride and The Empire Strikes Back onto the counter. 

Will gave Lucas a half smile, just a tiny, little twitch of his lips, and asked, “Couldn’t decide on just one, huh?”

Lucas shook his head and said, “No, man, I really couldn’t! Max isn’t usually into the princessy stuff, but I trust your opinion on people bringing this movie back happy. But also, you know, if we watch The Empire Strikes Back, we can make out during it without worrying about missing the plot because we’ve already seen it like five times, so, you know. Plus, Princess Leia saying "I love you,' and Han saying 'I know'? That's good shit. Max eats it up every time I try to re-enact that with her.”

Will laughed. He should, could, would be happy for Lucas even if he’d felt bitter a couple minutes ago. Because it was Lucas, who was always a ray of sunshine, a friend, and a sweet guy that didn’t make Will’s chest feel like it was about to combust.

“Sure, I understand,” he said, and checked him out on the computer. “Let me know which one Max ends up going for.”

Mike stepped up to the counter once Lucas grabbed his receipt. Before Will could even see what movie he was holding, Lucas exclaimed, “Mike! Oh my god, not again.”

Mike sputtered and said, “Lucas, shut up, I can rent whatever movie I want.”

Will tried to see what movie Mike was gripping but before he could make it out, Lucas groaned, “Not The Outsiders again. I swear to god, Mike, you could’ve just bought the movie, probably a few times over by now, with how often you rent it.”

And sure enough, Mike was clutching The Outsiders. Will’s brain stalled out, trying to reevaluate all of his previous assumptions.

Mike protested, putting the movie on the countertop, “It’s my favorite movie, I can rent it as much as I want! Movies are expensive to buy, shut up. My allowance isn’t that much and I can never save up enough.”

It was Mike's favorite movie. His favorite. If he’d already seen it, many times by the sound of it, he definitely hadn’t been taken by surprise by a barely covered and dripping wet Sodapop coming out of the shower. He hadn’t been surprised or so disgusted that he couldn’t finish the movie. He’d watched it all the way through before, and not that long ago, he’d returned the movie at the scene of Sodapop coming out of the shower. 

Well, that meant, that meant…

Huh.

Lucas scoffed and snatched The Outsiders off the counter and waved it in Mike’s face. “Look at yourself, Mike! Of course you never have enough money to buy it, not when you’re renting it every few months. No, you are not renting this again. Save yourself the money, put it in a little fund just for The Outsiders, and you can rewatch the Greasers and the Socs battle it out every day once you save up enough.”

Mike looked a little embarrassed as he looked over at Will, his cheeks pink. Lucas walked away to put The Outsiders back, and Mike said to Will awkwardly, “I don’t rent it that much. I mean, I know you saw me return it just, like, last month, but I don’t, I mean, I just like the movie a lot.”

Will’s mood had lifted significantly. His heartbeat was thudding in his ears and he was looking at Mike in a whole new light. Mike had returned Rocky III in the middle of the training montage. Maybe, maybe, maybe…

Oh my god. Mike was so fucking stupid and adorable. Oh my god. 

Will smiled at him for the first time since before English class and said, “No, don’t worry about it. We like what we like, right? The Outsiders is a good movie.” 

Mike cast him a shy smile, Will’s heart was pitter pattering in his chest, and what if? What if this was really what it seemed like?

Lucas hollered over from across the store, “Mike, was there something else you wanted to get or are you good?”

Mike sighed and called back, “No, I’m good, I’ll just borrow one of yours maybe.” He turned back to Will and said, “We live just down the street from each other.”

Lucas came back and Will, feeling rather giddy about everything, shook his head in fake disappointment and said to Lucas, “I can’t believe you just stole a sale right out from under me.”

Lucas laughed and said, “Oh, come on, it’s not like you’re paid by commission. We’ll come back soon enough to get something else. Right, Mike?”

He beamed over at Mike, who was still looking a bit harassed about his movie preferences. “Yeah, yeah,” he muttered.

Lucas started walking towards the door, and Mike said, “I’ll be there in a minute, Lucas,” before turning back to Will.

He asked, “You’re not mad at me or something, are you? You seemed quiet at school earlier, and, I don’t know, are you okay?”

Mike was looking at him with wide, concerned eyes, and they were so dark brown and beautiful. Will felt like everything that had happened in the last five minutes was some deeply indulgent fever dream.

Will licked his lips and said, “No, sorry, I was just, I was in a bad mood earlier. Sorry for being kind of a dick, I know I kind of was. I’m good now, and we’re, yeah, we’re good, we’re okay.”

Mike watched him carefully and asked, “Yeah?” And his voice was gentle and sweet and Will melted right then and there. He was so fucking screwed.

Will nodded his head quickly, smiled, and said, “Yeah.”

Mike smiled back and seemed to let out a sigh of relief and said, “Cool. Oh, I actually had something for you, hang on.” 

Will watched, taken aback by Mike having something for him, as Mike swung his backpack from his shoulders and reached in. He fished around in what Will knew to be the deeply unorganized and irretrievably messy depths of his backpack for several moments. Mike made several ridiculous faces, ranging from annoyance to disgust at the state of his backpack, until his eyebrows finally flew up on his forehead and a smile spread across his face. 

“Ah-ha, here it is!” And he triumphantly held up a pack of Reece’s Pieces, then held them out to Will. Will took them from him and stared at the candy in shock.

Will swallowed hard as Mike added, “I got these for you because it seemed like you needed some cheering up earlier. But, now, I guess, maybe they’ll help you get through the end of your shift? Movie candy to enjoy in a Family Video, I guess. I don’t know, but yeah, there you go.” 

Will looked up at Mike and smiled wide, probably too wide, and said, sounding ridiculously lovelorn, “You’re the best. These are my favorite.” Will wanted to say, ‘You’re my favorite,’ but of course, he did not.

Mike beamed and said, “I thought so, I saw you eating those a while ago. I gotta go, but I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

And then Mike chased after Lucas, and Will stood there behind the counter, smiling too big and swinging his arms back and forth. He laughed, and ate his Reece’s Pieces. He thought about Mike watching the stupid training montage from Rocky III and laughed some more.

The rest of his shift went by quickly and Robin was very pleased with his change of mood. 

A few weeks passed. Will consistently found himself in a more cheery mood than he had been in since moving to Hawkins. If Mike was renting out movies specifically so he could gawk at hot, shirtless guys, then Will could work with that. And even if Mike never really grew to like Will, it still made Will over the moon happy to be friends with someone like him. 

He had found Robin by some stroke of luck, and Vickie was out there, and now Will had found Mike too. 

He didn’t let on to Mike that he knew though. If anyone ever suggested something like about Will to him, he knew he wouldn’t take it well, so Will just acted like he knew nothing.

Will slowly figured out more about who Mike was though, outside of his movie preferences. It turned out he was a big fucking nerd.

“It’s called D&D, short for Dungeons and Dragons. We try to meet once a week, depending on everyone’s schedules, and we play in these campaigns. I’m the Dungeon Master, so I’m the one who is kind of telling the story and guiding the players through these challenges, and everyone has a character. Characters have different races, like dwarves and gnomes and half-orcs, and then different classes too, like wizards, bards, rangers, and so on.”

Mike was talking a million miles a minute before class started. He was beyond excited to explain everything after Will had asked what club he stayed after school for.

Will, trying to understand, asked, “Do you have your own character, or do you not need one as Dungeon Master?”

“Well I don’t play as a character when I’m the Dungeon Master, but when someone else is trying out acting as the Dungeon Master, I have a character that I do play. I’m a Paladin, which is kind of like a knight that is always fighting for good.”

Will noticed how Mike said these words with pride, and he felt a small degree of surprise that he felt so fond for this guy that he was still getting to know, who was so nerdy and went to ridiculous lengths to check out shirtless guys. Mike was just explaining so eagerly and seemed so pleased that Will seemed interested, so Will just said the sappy thing that was right on the tip of his tongue. If Mike was being honest and vulnerable in sharing this, Will could be too.

“Wow, so you're a real knight in shining armor, huh?”

Mike laughed and his cheeks got a little pink. “Yeah, yeah. Kind of, I guess. And Lucas is a ranger and Dustin is a bard.”

Will summoned some bravery, recalling his many phone calls with Jonathan pushing him to make some friends and join some clubs, and asked, “Could I come to a club meeting sometime to see what it’s like?”

Mike looked even more excited at that and blurted out really quickly, “Yeah, of course you can!”

Before they could talk about it more, class started. Afterward though, as he walked Will to his math classroom, Mike talked even more about how playing works with the dice and how to create your character, on and on. Will listened with a big smile on his face. Mike was beyond endearing like this.

The first warning bell rang and Mike stubbornly tried to continue talking until Will reached out and gave his shoulder a little push. He said with a laugh, “Go! Go to class unless you want to be late, Mike.”

Mike just smiled at him and said, “Fine, fine! As you wish, Will Byers.”

Will laughed as he watched Mike rush off down the hallway, feeling a little flip in his stomach. Stupid knight in shining armor shit.

At Family Video, the manager, Ernie, asked Will and Robin to start reminding each customer to rewind their movies before returning them. Apparently the amount of time Will and Robin were spending rewinding nearly every movie before returning them to the shelves was getting to be too much. 

Will didn’t think anything of it until Mike walked in. Will decided immediately that he wouldn’t say anything about it to Mike, of course not. Will didn’t want to put Mike in an awkward spot. 

Mike walked up to the counter and pulled Top Gun from his backpack and put it on the counter.

Will suppressed a giddy laugh. He’d seen Top Gun. He knew exactly why Mike had rented this one. He could just hardly believe his luck in having the one job that assisted him in figuring out that he might have a chance with Mike Wheeler. It was all so fucking silly. 

Will asked in a level tone, “Did you like this one? I saw it with my mom when it first came out, we both thought it was fun. Kind of goofy, but fun.”

Mike laughed and said, “No, it was definitely silly, but some parts…” Mike trailed off, looking a little flushed. Will watched him closely, with a straight face but feeling absolutely delighted. Mike continued, “Some parts were good.”

Will was about to be a shit and ask Mike which parts were his favorites, when Robin popped over from where she’d been reorganizing some shelves. 

“Hey, Wheeler! Did Will give you the spiel yet?”

Will froze, his eyes wide. He tried to catch Robin’s eye to indicate to stop right there, but Robin was barreling ahead, oblivious to Will looking like a deer in the headlights. 

Mike glanced over at Will, then back to Robin. “Nope, I don’t think so. What’s up?”

Robin said, “Well the manager wants us to remind all customers to pretty please with a cherry on top rewind any rental movies before returning them. So, you know, pretty please?”

Mike wrinkled his nose in annoyance, and Will was reminded of his earlier assessment of Mike, which still proved true: even if he wasn’t mean, he had some lovable rudeness to him. It was almost enough to distract him from watching the slow motion car wreck in front of him.

“But why though? We never had to before.”

Will tried to cut Robin off and said, “It’s nothing, just store policy—“

But Robin spoke up and added, “Well, more people used to rewind them, but lately no one has been, so Will and I have had to rewind every single one before they go back on the shelves. Poor Will here is spending half his time in the back office, popping movie after movie into our VCR on our TV back there to rewind them all. I think the head honcho is annoyed that he’s paying Will to spend more time watching movies in reverse than actually spending getting face time with the customers.”

Will closed his eyes for a moment to just try to savor the moment before Robin’s words sunk in for Mike. When he opened them again, Mike was clearly processing and putting things together. 

Mike asked nervously, “Wait, so you put the movies on to see if you have to rewind them when we return them? You don’t just put them back on the shelves?” 

Will spoke up, to try to calm Mike. “Yeah, but it’s no big problem, Mike, don’t worry about it. It’s just me or Robin, and—“

Mike’s face was growing redder and redder, and he started to look a little nauseous. He looked down at the movie he was returning (Top Gun, for fuck’s sake), and then he muttered, “Sorry, I have to go.” And he grabbed Top Gun and turned towards the exit.

Will called out, “Mike, wait!” but Mike was already out the door.

Robin asked, confused, “What was that all about?”

Will just said, “He was the one who returned Rocky III,” and comprehension dawned on her face.

She groaned and put her face in her hands and said, “Fuck, really? Oh god, that wasn’t good.”

Will thought for just a moment before he said decisively, “I’m gonna go after him, I need to talk to him. I’ll be right back.”

And Robin nodded as he rushed by, calling, “I’m really sorry, Will!”

Will hollered over his shoulder as he exited the store, “Not your fault, Robin!” 

Out on the sidewalk, Will looked around frantically. He spotted Mike getting on his bike a block away. Will ran over to him, calling, “Mike, hey, stop, please.”

Mike turned and watched, still very red faced, as Will caught up to him by the bike rack. It was 7:00 PM and the sidewalks were quiet.

Will said, a little breathless from the chase, “Mike, it doesn’t matter, okay? It’s fine, it doesn’t change anything, you-“ 

But Mike interrupted him, his voice coming out much higher than usual. “No, Will, stop, I know what it is that you saw when I returned movies before, I can’t believe I didn’t realize what you guys had to do, this is so fucking embarr-“

Will interrupted Mike right back. “Mike, I’m gay.”

There was a shocked beat of silence as Mike looked at him in astonishment. Will felt quite astonished himself. He hadn’t meant to just say it, but he didn’t want to see Mike struggling.

He repeated, “I’m gay. So that’s not something you have to worry about with rewinding your movies, okay? I’m gay and I totally get it, Rocky is hot, Apollo Creed is hot, and Sodapop really wasn’t being super careful with his towel, like it was barely covered when he got out of the shower. Trust me, I get it.”

Will’s cheeks were burning. He’d come out to his mom and Jonathan, but he’d never really talked like this to anyone before, never really talked about finding guys hot.

It felt… it felt like he was free. Will felt really, very, joyously happy to say that shit out loud. It felt like what Will always imagined the big cities in California would feel like. And he found that feeling just on a sidewalk in Hawkins, Indiana.

Mike was still gaping at him. “Are… are you serious?”

Will nodded with vigor. “Dead serious.”

Mike was breathing hard and Will stepped a little closer. He nudged Mike’s arm with his hand and added, “It’s okay, you’re okay. And we’re okay, Mike. If we have to listen to Lucas talk about how he made out with Max throughout the entirety of Empire Strikes Back, I’m cool to rewind your movies, it only seems fair.”

Mike let out a watery sounding laugh. Will reached out again and pulled Mike closer, then wrapped his arms around him for a hug. He rested his chin on Mike’s shoulder and breathed in really quickly at the shock of Mike’s proximity. Mike felt nice in Will’s arms. Mike held onto him for a few moments, during which time Will heard a sniffle, but he didn’t say anything about it.

When they pulled away, Mike said nervously, “Yeah, I’m… I’m gay too.”

Will grinned at him, and said, “Cool. That’s cool, Mike.”

Mike let out a laugh again, this time less watery, and smiled back at Will.

Will said, “Listen, I have to get back before things get too busy back there. Can I grab Top Gun from you? It’s totally cool if you want to go home and rewind it or whatever, but if not, I promise you, I’ll make sure to be the only one around to rewind it, and plus, if you let me take it now, I won’t slap your ass with a late fee, which I will have to do if we don’t get it back today.”

Mike laughed again and said, “Oh, fuck off.” He handed Will Top Gun though, and said, “Promise you’ll be the one to rewind it?”

Will nodded solemnly. “I promise.”

Mike covered his face with his hands for a moment and groaned, “Promise you won’t judge me?”

Will said honestly, while looking down at Tom Cruise in a leather jacket on the movie case, “Mike, I’m probably going to enjoy whatever scene you paused on just as much as you did, seriously.”

Mike snorted and said, “Okay, fine. I’m biking home and will try not to die of embarrassment.”

Will grinned and said, “Bye, Mike. And really, it’s fine. I promise, we’re good.”

Will got back to the store and reassured Robin that Mike was okay. He went into the back office immediately after that though, shutting the back office door behind him, and put Top Gun into the VCR, and clicked Play.

Sure enough, the dulcet tones of Kenny Loggins filled the back office, crooning about how ‘One of life’s simple joys / Is playing with the boys,’ accompanied by the many grunts and groans of four men, three of them shirtless, playing an intense game of volleyball. Will watched the TV with wide eyes and he started giggling. His face got red even if Robin wasn’t in the room with him this time. 

The men were all sweaty, or maybe it was just some oiled up movie magic that caused their muscles to gleam in the sun. The men jumped and stretched their torsos, flexing, to hit the volleyball over the net, and they dove into the sand repeatedly for last minute saves. 

Will recalled wondering about this scene the first time he watched it with his mom. She was giggling the whole time, and Will sat, not out to his mom yet, mostly just entranced by the nearly two minutes of just men. Shirtless, sweaty men.

So many movies had women in skimpy clothes in the same scenes that men were shirtless like this, which always made him feel a little bit uncomfortable, a reminder of what his mom might be thinking he should want to look at. But no, there were no women, just men. There weren’t a lot of scenes like this in movies, when he could just sit and enjoy without feeling that guilt and awkwardness. So at the time, he was mostly entranced, but also giggling right alongside with his mom because the volleyball game had nothing to do with the plot, it was just a glorious little break to watch some homoerotic sports. 

Will was still happy to take a break to watch some homoerotic sports when the opportunity arose.

He flushed at the idea of Mike watching this. As Tom Cruise pulled his white t-shirt over his glistening abs, Will finally hit the Rewind button. 

The whole situation was so silly and stupid. Will had to tamp down several giddy smiles and bursts of incredulous laughter that kept rising to the surface for the rest of his shift. It was all so ridiculous.

Chapter Text

Will was nervous about going to school the next day.

He’d blurted out that he was gay in a panicked attempt to save Mike from freaking out too much. Mike said he was gay too, so it wasn’t like he’d make it weird with a straight person that didn’t understand. And it’s not like he’d told Mike that he liked him, but Will wondered if it would be obvious now that Mike knew he could potentially like him.

This was uncharted territory. Will was used to lingering in familiar waters, not exploring the unknown.

He shouldn’t have worried though. Things were mostly normal between them. Mike gave him a nervous smile once he got to their English classroom, which Will returned. Mike slumped into his seat and they were quiet for a few seconds, during which time Will was regretting most of his decisions for the past month.

But then Mike handed him a small bag of Reece’s Pieces from the school vending machine, and most of the tension melted away. Will happily ate the Reece’s Pieces throughout class, occasionally slipping Mike a few across the aisle. Their hands kept brushing and Will felt a little spark each time.

It was a stupid vicious circle: Will got so warm from the little sparks and the way Mike’s soft hand felt against his that he had to take off his sweatshirt. Will couldn’t help but notice that Mike eyed him as he took it off. That made his heart race and his cheeks flush. The teacher called on him and he was so preoccupied by sneaking glances at Mike that he hadn’t even heard the question and had to ask the teacher to repeat herself. That made him even redder. By the time class ended, Will hadn’t heard anything the teacher said in at least fifteen minutes and was buzzing right out of his skin. 

This kept up for the next couple weeks. During class, the air between them was full of electricity, but before and after class, they had more to talk about than ever. 

Will told Mike about Harvey Milk and about San Francisco, and Mike told Will about how much it sucked being bullied in middle school. Will showed Mike a few of his drawings. Mike asked if he could have one of his drawings, and Will told him that he’d make one especially for him. Mike confessed that he was trying to learn guitar and agreed to play something for Will eventually once he learned a whole song.

Soon enough, it was the last day before winter break. It was the first time Will hadn’t really been looking forward to a winter break. It would be a few weeks without Mike, Lucas, and Dustin. 

Will spent English class agonizing over a little slip of paper he’d torn from his notebook, on which he’d written the Byers’ family phone number. Truth be told, he’d rewritten it a couple times: once, when he thought he’d written it too messily to make out the difference between the one and the seven, and a second time because he’d been holding onto it while so nervous that the paper had gotten disgustingly damp from his sweating hand.

Mike walked him to his math class after English, and as Will watched him lean his lanky form against some lockers, he got desperately anxious. His mind flashed to all of his previous years in California, when he’d had people he’d thought were friends because he sat with them in classes, but they weren’t people he missed during break, and it certainly never seemed like they missed him either. It hit him heavier than ever that he’d been a rather lonely boy all his life. He didn’t want to go three weeks without Mike, Mike and their friends.

Will blurted out, rather pathetically, “You won’t forget about me over break, right?”

Mike looked downright affronted. “Will, how the hell do you think I’d forget about you? That would literally never happen.”

Will sucked in a huge breath, feeling silly but reassured. He stuck his hand in his jeans pocket and fished out the piece of paper with his phone number. He held it out to Mike and said, “Here, you can call me if you want. Call if you want to talk, or hang out, or whatever.”

His heartbeat was thudding in his throat as the first bell rung, indicating one minute until the next period. Mike took it and stared at it for a few seconds, before looking up and smiling like the cat that got the cream. 

Mike said eagerly, “I mean, I was just going to come by Family Video all the time to bug you, but sure, I’ll call you, too. As you wish.”

The next class period was starting in about forty seconds, and Mike started to walk backwards, narrowly missing a few classmates rushing by as he grinned at Will. He waved the piece of paper in the air like a prize and called, “I’ll call you tomorrow!” Will laughed at him, shaking his head, and with that, Mike turned and started to jog down the hallway.

Will laughed again as he turned to head into math class. He hardly stopped smiling throughout the whole class period. 

Sure enough, the next day the phone rang and when Will answered it, Mike’s voice came through the receiver. 

“Hey Will! Are you gonna be at work tomorrow?”

Mike sounded eager and happy, and Will was smiling immediately. “Yeah, I work from 11 AM until 5 PM.”

Mike said, “Perfect, okay. Cool, that’s perfect.”

Will snorted. “I mean, I guess. Why, are you stopping by? You prefer my customer service over Robin’s?”

There was quiet from Mike for a few moments, and then he said, “Well of course I do. Do you know if you’re, umm… No, never mind.”

Will barked out a laugh, his heart starting to race, “Mike, no! You can’t just say that and not finish the question. Come on, what?” 

Mike let out a small huff of a laugh, and Will thought it might’ve sounded a little nervous.

“Umm. I was just going to ask if you know if you, uhhh, if we had any English homework we’re supposed to do over break?”

Will scoffed quietly. That was so not what he was going to ask. Mike was so fucking stupid. He said, “We just have to start reading one of those books from the list we got.”

Mike rushed to say, “Okay, cool, thanks Will. Well I’ll see you tomorrow, probably later in the afternoon.”

Will nodded happily, if not a little weirded out by Mike acting strange. “See you then! You better rent something, by the way. I’m still looking to make up the money that Lucas talked you out of spending last time with The Outsiders.”

Mike laughed and said, “I promise, I will. I already know what I'm going to rent. Bye, Will.”

“Bye, Mike.”

The next day, Mike did, in fact, show up at Family Video about an hour before Will finished his shift. He gave Will a big wave, but didn’t come up to the counter immediately, as there were other customers milling around. Instead, Mike perused the shelves, while Will checked out a few customers.

Robin, also working behind the counter, walked a bit closer after all the other customers were helped. She whispered, plenty quiet to be covered up by the music playing in the store, with Mike half the store away, “Little Wheeler seems to be coming around a lot lately. And, well, Rocky III? Is there romance blooming in Family Video before my very eyes?”

Will blushed scarlet and gave her a little shove, making her laugh. He turned to talk to her closely so there was no risk of Mike overhearing. “Robin, you are to not discuss this while he’s right here in the store with us. Maybe after, but like… shhhh.”

Robin made a goofy face as she attempted to stifle a grin. Will rolled his eyes and faced back towards the counter, where Mike was standing, just on the other side. Will jumped a little, and desperately tried to stop blushing. Nothing was amiss here, nope. He shot a glance behind himself at Robin, who was slinking backwards to the back office.

Will turned back to Mike. He was wearing his leather jacket and there were some water droplets in his hair where the falling snow from outside had melted. Will wanted to draw him or kiss him or towel dry him like a shaggy dog and then give him a warm beverage.

Will cleared his throat and said, “Hey, Mike! You got a movie you’re checking out?”

Mike smiled at Will shyly. “Yeah, I do. But, umm, how’s your day going?”

Robin coughed in the background and Will shot a rude look her way, but the back office door was already clicking shut behind her. He turned back to Mike and said, “My day has been, you know, fine. A… significant number of people have come in here trying to rent holiday movies. So that’s been handful.”

Mike looked appropriately concerned over Will’s obvious cry for help. “Oh no. Well, just an hour left, right?”

Will laughed wearily. “Yep, I’m out of here at 5:00 on the dot.”

Mike nodded his head, a bit overly energetic. “Cool, good. That’s really good. Umm, so here, I wanted to get this.”

And he put the movie he was holding on the counter. It was The Princess Bride. 

Will stared at it for a few moments. That was the movie he’d suggested to Lucas as a good date movie. Will kept staring down at the movie case. It was a date movie. For a date. 

Will said, “Oh.”

Mike’s voice drew his eyes back up. He sounded nervous as he said, “I wanted to get this and see if you, well, if you maybe want to come over and watch this with me later. After your shift, if you’re free? Or maybe tomorrow, if you’re not free tonight?”

Oh.

Will, not one to hesitate, said in a rush, “Yeah, of course, I’d love to! I can come over after my shift.”

Mike’s face lit up and the nervousness melted away. “Okay! Okay. Cool, that’s cool. I’m, uhh, I’m glad you want to. Alright, well, I’m going to go grab some movie snacks, and I’ll be back here when your shift ends. We can go over to my house together after that? You bike to work, right?”

Will swallowed. His mind was racing and he could hardly believe this was happening to him. Mike wanted to watch The Princess Bride with him. He nodded and said the first thing that popped into his head. “Can you get me some Reece’s Pieces?”

Mike nodded his head fast and said, “Yeah, as you wish.”

Knight in shining armor shit again. Will laughed. “You are such a nerd.”

Mike just grinned at him, like he had a stupid secret or something, tapped the movie with an eager finger, and said, “Come on, check me out, I have errands to run.”

Will just kept smiling so hard that his cheeks hurt and checked him out. Will wasn’t very confident that he’d made the correct change, as his mind kept going every which way and keeping track of nickels and pennies seemed rather unimportant in comparison. 

Mike walked out quickly after that, calling with a flash of a grin, “See you in a bit, Will!”

Will just kept staring after his retreating form through the window, smiling like an idiot, until the back office door swung open with a creak, and Robin cleared her throat. 

Will jumped, having completely forgotten there was anyone else in the store. She was grinning in a very self-satisfied way, and drawled, “So, romance blooming in front of my very eyes, yes?”

Will tried to remain stoic, but he burst into laughter, more of a happy giggle than anything else, really. Robin put a hand on his head and ruffled his hair. “Atta boy. Family Video really is bringing all the queer kids together, huh?”

Will called his mom in the last hour of his shift to let her know he’d be home late. When he mentioned that he’d be hanging out with Mike, she went, “Ooooohhh, Mike?”

Will rolled his eyes and said, “Mom, stop. He’s just a… Ugh, whatever, I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, okay? I promise.”

She happily agreed to that. Will hoped that it went well enough for him to have something good to tell her. 

Robin also handed Will a few mints, which he rolled his eyes at, but he pocketed them nonetheless, his heart racing with nerves.

At the end of Will’s shift, Mike showed up again. Will shucked off his Family Video employee vest in a hurry, and biked with Mike back to his house, Mike’s backpack looking heavy with snacks. Will had butterflies in his stomach the whole way.

Once at his house, Mike took him down to the basement, which was very cozy. Mike unloaded all the snacks, including the requested Reece’s Pieces, and ran back up to grab them some drinks.

Alone in the basement, Will released a massive exhale, trying to get his nerves under control, slipped a mint into his mouth, and before he could freak out any more than that, Mike was jogging back down the stairs.

Mike asked while he poured them some soda, “So you haven’t seen this yet, right? Even though a lot of people said it was good?”

Will shook his head, “Not yet, no. Why?”

Mike settled next to him on the couch, close enough that their legs were pressed together. Will’s breath hitched.

Mike declared, “I’ve actually seen it already.”

“What?? When?” Will scrunched up his nose.

“Well, Lucas rented The Princess Bride and The Empire Strikes Back for his anniversary date, as you know, and he and Max decided to watch The Empire Strikes Back, so I borrowed The Princess Bride from him. I watched it that night with my little sister. It’s a good movie. I think you’ll like it.”

Will shot him an incredulous look. Mike tucked some hair behind his ear and looked at him all innocently. Mike was so stupid and cute.

“You’re sure you won’t mind watching it again?”

Mike shook his head confidently. “No, of course not! Trust me, it’s a very good movie.”

Will settled in to watch, murmuring, “Hmm, okay,” and Mike took a deep breath before clicking on the movie. They watched in silence for a minute or two. On the TV, a grandfather started reading a story to his sick grandson, and then the story began, a girl badgering a farm boy who worked on her family’s farm with requests.

Will froze when he heard the line: The girl, Buttercup, said, “Farm Boy, polish my horse’s saddle.” And then Westley, the Farm Boy, said, “As you wish.”

Mike had been saying that to him for weeks. Several times. Those exact words. ‘As you wish.’

Will snuck a peek over at Mike, who, Will realized all of sudden, looked very nervous, staring with determination at the TV. 

The grandfather narrated, “‘As you wish’ was all he ever said to her.”

Will held his breath, making sure to not miss a single word.

Buttercup said, “Farm Boy, fill these with water. Please?” and again Westley responded, “As you wish.”

Will realized with a rush that “as you wish” hadn’t been some cheesy paladin phrase, it wasn’t some silly knight in shining armor thing for Mike. It was from The Princess Bride. He thought back quickly and realized that Mike hadn’t started saying that to Will until after Lucas’s big movie date with Max, when Mike would’ve watched this movie the first time.

The grandfather spoke again. “That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying ‘As you wish,’ what he meant was, ‘I love you.’”

The line, delivered three and a half minutes into the movie, hit Will like a ton of bricks. His heart was bursting out of his fucking chest and his breath was coming fast. 

He turned his whole body towards Mike, ungluing his eyes from the TV.

Mike was nervously tucking some hair behind his ear again, eyes darting down and then up to meet Will’s eyes, back down and then up again. 

Will felt stupidly out of breath but he managed to ask, his voice quivering, “You like me?”

Mike watched him for a moment, gnawing on his bottom lip, and then he said, “Well, I mean, I think the old guy said it meant more like ‘I love you,’ but I guess that liking you falls under that, so-“

Will rushed forward and kissed him.

Mike was being stupid and Will was feeling stupid, and he couldn’t take not kissing Mike anymore, so he just fucking kissed him.

He pushed his lips into Mike’s, who breathed in hard from his nose, but then pushed back, lips mashing against lips. Will buried a hand into Mike’s hair and Mike held onto his arm tightly, and Will didn’t really have anything in his head but those fucking words, ‘as you wish, as you wish, as you wish.’

Will leaned so far into Mike that they fell back onto the couch a little bit, and Mike pulled away to laugh and then swooped in again to kiss Will. It felt safe and warm, and Will was burning from how hot everything was and from all the happiness bubbling up inside of him.

A few moments after Will snuck his tongue into Mike’s mouth, they heard the grandson from the movie say, “Hold it, hold it. Is this a kissing book?”

Mike pulled away and said, earnestly and breathlessly, “It’s not just a kissing movie, Will, I promise, it gets really good. It’s like a really, really great movie.”

Will nudged closer, and with his lips nearly touching Mike’s again, he said, “I believe you, it’s already pretty good,” before he closed the distance between them again.

They kissed for ages, and when it all got to be too much and they realized that the movie was still playing and they were supposed to be on a first date, Mike rewound the movie to start from the beginning again, ignoring Will’s teasing cries of, “Oh, so you do know how to rewind movies back to the start!”

Mike scoffed and whined, and said, “Oh, come on, Will! Give me a break, will you?”

Will was still giggling as Mike sat back on the couch, pulling him closer, and they enjoyed the rest of the movie, legs tangled up and holding hands, with only occasional kisses and lots of pausing to talk about the movie’s events.

Will liked Inigo and his hair. It reminded him of Mike’s hair, which he’d finally gotten to run his fingers through. Mike liked Westley, because of course he fucking did. There were shockingly few sexy shirtless scenes for a movie that Mike seemed to like so much, though. Will was a little bit disappointed in that, but otherwise the movie was really fucking great.

After the movie, Mike pulled him in for a few more kisses before he hauled himself off the couch and began to put the movie away, without, believe it or not, rewinding the movie first. 

Will exclaimed, throwing his hands up, “Mike! I am begging you, please rewind!”

MIke looked at him and then at the movie in his hands, and he burst out laughing. “Sorry, sorry!” And he put the movie back in the VCR and clicked the Rewind button before he turned around and watched Will, who looked back. His heart was beating hard, right out of his chest at the way Mike was looking at him, his eyes soft and kind and loving and so, so dark brown. Will felt luckier than he could comprehend. It was all nearly inconceivable.

The next day, Mike returned The Princess Bride, and when he looked around to make sure Robin was in the back office and that no one else was in the store, he leaned over the counter and pulled Will in for a kiss. Mike’s lips were cold from outside, and his nose, nudging into Will’s, had a chill, but despite that, Mike’s enthusiasm had Will’s cheeks feeling feverish, the pit in his stomach was boiling, and Mike’s tongue was hot as it swiped over Will’s bottom lip.

Mike pulled away after Will had become thoroughly discombobulated and said cheerily, “See you later, Will! I’ll call you after your shift, okay?” And then he walked out of the store, just like that, his legs way too long and his hair brushing his shoulders. He was so fucking stupid and hot.

Cheeks bright red, Will didn’t bother checking if the movie was rewound on the TV in the back office. He didn’t have to. He just walked over to one of the shelves in a thoroughly kissed daze, and put The Princess Bride back, ready for some other customer to rent it out and fall in love with it.

Staring at the movie case, Will decided that next time he saw Mike, Will would sneak the words “as you wish” into the conversation somehow. He’d felt a little too shy to say it back, Westley’s words or the actual words, the night before. But he would say it, he wanted to. Will smiled. Mike would like that. He’d get that big, stupid smile on his face and Will would have to kiss it off him. 

Will nodded to himself. Yeah, that’d be fucking great. Will would kiss Mike’s stupid, beautiful face all over. 

Will would kiss him silly.