Chapter Text
When Will moved out of Hawkins he thought, or at least hoped, that they would be able to leave everything behind.
After spending most of his childhood fighting monsters from other dimensions he had wanted nothing more than to be able to just be normal. Just a normal college student with his normal boyfriend but that had almost immediately proved impossible.
He had thought leaving Hawkins would help with his nightmares, like it had when they lived in Lenora, but being away from his family had only made his nightmares worse. It had gotten so bad during the November of his freshman year that he had genuinely considered dropping out and moving back home, he probably would have if it wasn’t for Mike.
Mike who was so impossibly perfect that Will woke up every morning wondering how he got so lucky to have him. He had been the one to suggest therapy which had been what allowed him to finally start sleeping through the night and begin to recover from everything he had gone through as a kid.
So now, even on the anniversary of the day he went missing, he wasn’t woken up by nightmares but instead by the emptiness of his bed in his shared apartment with Mike.
He jerked awake to find his boyfriend noticeably absent in the dim moonlight. He turned to face the clock which read 4:47 AM, still way too early for Mike to be up.
A moment later he registered the note pressed to the top of the alarm clock written in messy handwriting that Will instantly knew belonged to his boyfriend.
Couldn’t sleep at the library studying
Love you - Mike
Although it seemed odd that his english major boyfriend was up studying before 5am, he brushed it off as just stress from finals season since it did seem to be creeping up on them.
With that thought, he managed to fall back asleep for a few hours before he had to be up for his own class.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
By the time Will had finished all of his classes for the day, he was absolutely exhausted. As he turned his key in the door he could already sense Mikes presence in the dorm.
“Hey baby” He said as he hung up his coat, “How was your day?”
No response.
“Mike?” Will questions again, his eyebrows knitting together tightly in concern as he walks towards the desk where his boyfriend sat over his books.
“Hey what’s wrong?” He questioned sinking down to the ground to be at eye level with Mike. He gently placed his hand on his boyfriend shoulder and Mike immediately flinched, pushing back in his chair as he frantically hurried away from Will. He had a panicked look in his eyes as he searched the surroundings until his eyes finally landed on Will and his breathing began to slow.
“Hey hey it’s okay you’re okay,” Will murmurs softly, still avoiding touching Mike as he rests his hand on the arms of the chair.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere Mike started sobbing, horrible, gut wrenching sobs, that make Will feel as though his heart was being ripped out of his chest. He lightly touched Mikes arm and he immediately slid out of the chair to collapse into Wills arms.
Will pulled him as close as he possibly could, as if to shield him from the rest of the world. He carefully wrapped his arms tightly around his waist and tucked Mikes head gently under his chin. He began to rub light circles on his back as Mike continued to sob.
They stayed like that as Wills mind began to race. Nothing huge had happened to set Mike off like this, in fact, he had never seen him breakdown like this. Even in the midst of everything that had happened with the upside down, Mike had always been steady.
This was new territory for them. Sure they had lots of experience with Mike comforting Will in situations like this, but Will felt beyond useless and he sat there racking his brain for what he could say to comfort Mike.
Eventually, Mikes sobs slowed and Will could feel him matching his breathing to his. He took the moment of calmness to coax Mike into standing up and moving to the bed.
As they lay down, Mike practically flopped on top of Will, and despite being a good bit taller then him he managed to curl himself up small enough for Will to hold him and play with his dark curls.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Will murmured into his ear as Mike shook his head sharply.
“Did something happen?” Will continued to push and Mike once again shook his head.
“Well did-“ Will began only to be cut off by Mike, “Can we just not?” he whispered, sounding so incredibly fragile that Will felt his chest tighten.
“Can we just go to bed?” he paused, sucking in a deep breath, “please?”
“Of course Mike,” Will murmured back as he moved his hand back down to hold Mikes waist. Eventually he felt his breathing slow as he fell asleep but Will stayed awake long after Mike fell asleep, running through everything in his head, trying to decide how to help until eventually sleep overtook him too.