Chapter Text
Our scene opens in Hawkins, the aftermath of the "Earthquake" still all too apparent. Ever since the rift was torn, nothing had been any semblance of normal. It was all wrong.
People had begun to move out in droves, an exodus of refugees started to stream out of Hawkins almost immediately after the disaster, and though the rush had slowed, the trickle of those leaving continued as so many now sat homeless or without stability. Rumors of a gate to hell and strange monsters ran amok. Government entities hovered around every other corner in town, especially near the lab. Vans and helicopters patrolled regularly, an ever lurking threat to El's safety on top of the incoming psychic war.
Every other day since the rift broke through it had been something. Another person missing, another odd sighting, another unbelievable story. The small town had truly been taken apart in one fell move, it seemed. Nothing could ever be the same. The government was tripping over itself this time, trying to keep it under wraps, struggling more than ever. Yet, some citizens still hung around and pretended things could go on as usual with a little volunteer work alone.
Will now stood in Hopper's cabin, eyes fixed out the window looking at the dark and foreboding overcast sky. He felt a shiver, and he was reminded of a Tolkien excerpt.
The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him, and his Eye piercing all shadows looked across the plain to the door that he had made; and the magnitude of his own folly was revealed to him in a blinding flash, and all the devices of his enemies were at last laid bare.
"Will?"
He blinked, turning away from the daunting view to find Mike looking at him with worry as he sat near, their bodies mirrored. "You okay?"
"Just…another one of those feelings. Like he's watching me or something." Will's gaze flicked across the room to meet eyes with a mounted deer.
"Watching you?" Mike's voice trembled ever so slightly with fear, though he subdued it.
"Like the Eye of Sauron, y'know? It's as if… because we've been connected before he just knows. Like I'm a threat. I always feel his proximity but sometimes the feeling gets stronger and it's like his eyes are on me. It's so unnerving-" he shuddered.
"Not sure I should even be here." Will continued. "What if he uses me to his advantage like before?"
Mike set a firm hand on Will's shoulder, shaking his head. "Even if he does, you're not going anywhere alone. You have a target on your head, so you need somebody to watch your back. Preferably more than just one of us."
Will had trouble meeting his eyes. "I just don't want to be the reason anyone gets hurt."
"And none of us want to see you get hurt." Mike retorted stubbornly.
Will sighed, shaking his head. "I feel like I'm waiting for something, and the worst part is not knowing what it is."
Across the room, Joyce and Hopper sat speaking over a map in hushed tones, meanwhile El sat a few feet away, her back to the wall as she peered out another window. Jonathan sat near her, dozed off as he leaned against the back of his chair, Nancy had gone to gather some resources, and Argyle was in the van, probably stoned or asleep himself. Many of them had barely slept since.
El seemed to be listening to the boys, and as Will spoke she slowly stood and crossed the room to him. "I feel it too."
"What?" Will asked, confused.
"Being…watched." El took a seat, and Will noted that she avoided sitting near Mike, taking Will's opposite side on the couch (which no longer sat on its back).
"Will." She ejected into the silence, making him jump ever so slightly.
"Y-yeah?"
"I have to tell you more. About Henry." She spoke slowly, piecing together information.
"What about him?" Will inquired, seeming a bit confused, but immediately engaged.
"I think I know why he chose you."
Will's eyes widened slightly, a nervous lump forming in his throat. "Is it a good idea to talk about it if he could be listening?"
"We don't have much choice." El gave a jaded shrug, looking concerned about this issue herself. Will understood the dilemma, but nodded in agreement. "Ok. Go ahead."
"You are like him, in his eyes anyway. Before he became this." She explained patiently, eyes fixed on her brother's face as she formed the words with caution. She didn't want to scare him, but he'd need to know.
"Will…can I-" She hesitated. "This will be strange but may I check your neck for something?"
"My…neck?" Will was more confused now, yet he felt goosebumps rise on his skin as that strange feeling crept up his spine once again. "Yeah, I guess."
El leaned forward, reaching her hand out to feel his neck. There was no shallow lump like Henry, yet something told her to look harder, to look with a different angle. She closed her eyes, feeling the flow of her powers permeating the space and mass around her, and as she did she focused on Will. On his neck, and the odd intuition that shouted at her to be certain.
El felt it, a nodule buried in the flesh near the crook where Will's skull met his spine. She gasped, eyes shooting open. "...Oh no."
"Oh no? What oh no?" Mike asked, his voice jumping an octave. Will looked at El with anxiety while she settled back to her sitting position, hand hanging withdrawn as she pulled away. "Will. Do you remember your time at the lab at all?"
"Not much to be honest, especially not the procedural stuff, I was unconscious for…most of it." Will blinked, feeling his gut churn nervously.
"You have an implant in your neck, and I think I know what it is." El stated this so bluntly that Will nearly tipped over.
"A what?!" Will balked in horror. Joyce and Hopper paused, heads swivelling to look at the trio.
"If I am right, it's called Soteria. Henry had one too. It tracks and weakens us, people like us."
"Wait- wait wait back up El." Will put a hand to his forehead. "Are you saying I might have powers too?"
"I don't see why you're so surprised, Will. I am not. You've shown signs before. You've always felt…there's a strong field around you. I knew something about you was like me." She turned her eyes to the wall, thoughtful. "It wasn't until I remembered more about Henry that I understood it could be your own, not from what Henry and the Mind Flayer did. He didn't change you, he awakened you."
"Actually...that does make sense, doesn't it?" Mike spoke up, seemingly contemplative. "You fought when that thing was inside your head, I saw you fighting back. I don't think most people could do that, right? Maybe El is onto something. Maybe that's why you've always been different- special. Maybe he felt something about you, and maybe it's why he targeted you in the first place."
Different. Special.
Will felt himself flush, and stamped it down.
No. Stop it Will. He told himself.
Joyce rushed across the room, listening intently as she folded her arms with stress. "…Will- the lights."
"The lights?" Will paused, then it clicked. "Oh…the lights. I must have tapped into something."
"Is that why they faked your death?!" She suddenly seemed angry, seething as the realization hit. Hopper piped up, sounding taken aback. "That sick bastard Brenner wanted another lab rat."
"Owens." Will said, blinking incredulously. "Is that why he was so keen on us taking care of El without Hopper? Better to keep me and her together- two birds, one cage." He sighed, shaking his head. El placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Owens may have meant well in his…vague way- at least I hope he meant well, but I wish he'd have told us what's going on. I mean, an implant?" Will groaned under his breath, frustrated. Part of him wondered now if Owens was more like Brenner than he'd hoped, if the compassion had in ways still been for show. Maybe he wasn't as bad, but that's a low bar.
"I may be able to get rid of it. I got rid of Henry's, before…" Her voice faltered. "Before he changed. He tricked me."
"Get rid of…" Will winced, imagining the pain. "God, I don't know, El. What if it's buried in some essential nerve or something?"
"I will be as careful as I can, I promise. It is your choice, though. I won't force you."
Will swallowed nervously. "...If I have powers then shouldn't I learn to use them? To fight back?" He hesitated. "We can try to remove it. For a good cause, right? Besides, I don't like the idea of some shady facility being able to track me."
Joyce and Mike grimaced at the thought, but remained silent. Mike felt a strange, creeping dread. He ignored it, choosing instead to spend a moment begging the universe to have mercy on Will for once. Mike didn't believe in God, how could he in all he'd seen? But he hoped something could hear him, that something could turn the tide.
In the time spent in the return, Mike had felt the gap between himself and Will closing, healing. He wouldn't lose him. Never again.
"So if I have-…how would I know? What does it feel like to know if you have something like that? I thought it was just…Henry, the Mind Flayer- whatever. I thought it was from outside of me, but what if it's really not? How do I know?"
El shrugged. "I cannot say. I haven't known anything else in life."
Will nodded understandingy, his face pulling into a focused grimace. "Wouldn't there have been…signs? When I was a kid or something? How could it go so long without being more obvious?"
"Just like I have lost my powers at times, you could. You had a hard childhood, and you weren't being taught how to use it." El stated this matter of factly, glancing at Joyce knowingly. Joyce nodded in agreement. "You probably don't remember so much, Will. But this doesn't surprise me as much as you might think. Not really."
Jonathan stirred, blinking awake as he realized something was up. "What's going on?"
"I think Will has powers. There's a tracker in his neck suppressing them and I'm going to remove it." El spoke bluntly, and Jonathan looked like he could pass out. "What?!"
"El- you're gonna give him a heart attack." Will sighed, shaking his head. "You wanna pay attention, Jonathan."
He sat up, urgently wiping the sleep from his eyes as he caught up fast. "So, wait… Will?"
Jonathan paused, blinking with realization. "There was…there was this time. Mom and Lonnie were arguing- so we went and hid in my room together.” He shook his head slowly, reminiscing on the darker times.
“We did that so much I'm sure it all blurs together for you-" He fixed his eyes on his little brother, recalling a night from their childhood.
"But there was this specific time that stuck in my head, when you were pretty little. I hadn't mentioned it because I was afraid it would scare you and mom, make you think that something's been following us your whole life. I hadn't considered the idea that it could have been you."
Will looked at him expectantly.
"There was this loud thump from Lonnie throwing something, and in the exact moment it hit my door and scared us, the lights flickered in the room. Like, a lot. You got really scared by the noise and had a panic attack."
Joyce stopped in her tracks. "Wait a minute. This was when you were ten, right Jonathan? The argument about the Holidays because he spent all the gift money?"
Jonathan nodded. Joyce shook her head in disbelief. "It wasn't just the room Jonathan. The rest of the house flickered in and out. We were too busy bickering to acknowledge it, I thought it was just faulty wiring back then."
Will looked astonished. "So there actually was a sign when I was a kid?"
Joyce sighed. "Really there's a lot to go on, isn't there? Nancy and El told us all they know about Henry, how much of your childhood reflects his? If I thought long enough I could probably keep us here all day thinking of reasons that this makes sense."
El nodded. "My point exactly. It is also why he wanted Will. As a puppet." Will shuddered with contempt.
Just then, the cabin door swung open as Nancy rejoined them, a duffle bag of guns and weaponry over her arm. "The cavalry has arrived. Robin and Steve are going to regroup with me after this, they're in." Behind her came Dustin, Erica, and Lucas.
"Lucas! How's Max?" Mike asked immediately, the worry for his friend coming back to the front of his mind. El looked at Lucas as Mike said this, a sad look in her eye.
"She's hanging in there. I didn't want to leave her but…we have to kill this bastard, and I want to help get it done." He took a seat near El, setting a hand on her upper back. "She's strong, we know she is. We have to believe she'll be okay, and we have to stop this creep, right?"
El nodded, giving a weak but reassured smile.
"You did the best you could, El. You saved her, she's still here and she's got a chance. That was you." Lucas said, speaking almost as if reading El's mind. He gave her a hug, and she leaned into him gratefully with misty eyes. "Lucas…"
"I know, it's okay." He replied, giving a gentle but firm squeeze of reassurance.
Mike and Will sighed at this, then Will braced his shoulders, setting a compassionate hand on El's back before turning to the others.
"You may want to buckle in mentally guys, we have a bombshell."
"First…Mike?" Dustin piped in, his voice quiet. "I haven't been able to tell you, man- but you deserve to know."
Mike's heart jumped with fear at his tone. "What?"
"...Eddie…Eddie's gone, Mike."
Mike felt his chest drop as if his heart had been chucked over a cliff side. "Eddie…"
His eyes welled ever so slightly, even in his difficulty with crying. "God damn it-" Mike curled in on himself, remembering their friend, the way he'd dragged Mike out of a depression, rekindled his childlike wonder. Inspired him.
"Not Eddie…no-" Mike remembered the kind smiles, the reassurance, the way Eddie made him realize that maybe "normal" is overrated nonsense. Sure he was kind of a dictator about D&D, but he had been an incredible friend. A role model in some profound ways.
"I'm sorry, Mike. He went out…as a hero." Dustin's voice cracked.
"It was so stupid…so stupid- but he was tired of running. He stayed behind because he thought it was the best he could do." Dustin's eyes leaked, and tears finally escaped down his cheeks. "I was there. I was the only one who was there. He was buying time, that's what he said anyway. I'll…explain how he got dragged into everything later. Okay?"
Nancy pulled a sad grimace at her brother's pain, recalling the strange but good natured outcast, Eddie "the Freak" Munson, her last exchange with him. He didn't deserve to die, to be another Barb, another Bob, another Chrissy, another Fred. All of this death.
Will set a hand on Mike's shoulder, confused but sympathetic. Who's Eddie? Why does he mean so much to Mike? He wondered, but now wasn't the time to ask.
Mike sniffed, shoving it down. They didn't have time for this, not now. "I'll be okay, Will. Go ahead, tell them."
Dustin gave Mike an obligatory hug of comfort and shared pain, then Lucas joined them a moment, wrapping his arms around his friends regardless of any frustrations he'd had with them, with Eddie, with Hellfire. They sat back, then looked at Will expectantly.
"Lay it on us, man." Lucas prompted, eyes fixed on their friend with determination.
"El thinks I have powers. She might be best to explain-" Will began, his voice unsure.
Nancy perked up, intrigued. "You and Henry…"
Will nodded, completing her thought. "We're very alike, yes. El thinks that's why he targeted me."
El spoke up, sounding daunted but focused. "I felt something in Will's neck. An implant, Henry had one too, a long time ago. These implants are used to suppress people like me, and like Henry. To weaken us and track our movements. Which means…"
The room got quiet, all of them fitting the pieces together. "That makes more sense than it ought to- I'm surprised none of us realized this possibility sooner." Dustin observed, his voice still trembling but held together in determination.
Will felt a strange bubbling in his chest, and he ignored it for the time being as El explained, occasionally interrupted by others offering pieces to the puzzle, the years of hints that could have told them long ago if they'd only connected the dots. He grew increasingly quiet, preoccupied. He looked uneasy with a morbid grimace of contemplation. Above all, Mike noticed.
"Okay Will. Do you want me to try to take it out now?" El asked this hesitantly after concluding her exposition amongst the group. Will swallowed, then gave a firm nod as the others looked on grimly. "Yes. Let's do it."
Will braced himself, and Mike took his hand despite all hesitation. "Squeeze for the pain, don't worry about me."
Will nodded, accepting the gesture. Joyce grimaced, but a subtle half-smile cracked through at Mike's offer to share the pain. Even all this time later, he was so protective of her son, and she cherished the boy for it.
Hopper grabbed a wooden spoon from the countertop nearby, passing it to Will. "Don't be cocky. Bite this."
Will took it and bit down on the handle, face hardened in anticipation. El stood to move behind Will now, hand raised toward him as she focused on the invasive lump. "Found it. Get ready."
"Just do it." Will spoke through gritted teeth, squeezing the life out of Mike's hand in anticipation. Then, he screamed, hissing between his teeth to bite the cry back as El ripped the cursed thing out.
"Fuck, that hurt."
Joyce winced at her son's agonized tone, then stared loathefully at the bloody bead as it landed near her feet, stomping on it with a crisp sound and shattering it beneath her shoe.
"So much mess from something the size of a pill." Hopper scoffed, shaking his head.
Nancy and Jonathan moved in fast with first aid, and Mike continued to let Will clutch his hand as they tended the wound carefully. Will winced and hissed with every other move, but held it together. Mike simply sat by in a mixture of concern and awe. Will is so strong, too strong. Too used to hurting.
Will huffed a short laugh suddenly, jaw tense. "Imagine how much better off we'd be if I could have known and been practicing all these years. Owens screwed me." El pulled a face, nodding in agreement. "It's not fair."
Will sighed. "It's especially not fair that he expected you to do it alone and knew about me, El. I wish we'd known."
"I know, but this is how it is, so we'll find another way. Right, Will?"
"...Right." He replied hesitantly.
After this was concluded, Will excused himself for air, slipping out quietly as the others planned moves. They assumed he was honest, they assumed he needed a moment to recoup. They were too caught up in the future battle to notice his flighty behavior, to infer his plan.
Will took note that Argyle was in the van asleep and nobody else was around, with this opportunity he took off, power walking into the woods. He dove into the brush, swiping flora out of his way as he went. He was so loud and frantic about it that he didn't realize he was being trailed just as quickly by Mike, who had been watching him through the cabin window in concern.
"Will!? Where are you going?!"
Will whipped around, freezing in place with a tense deer in headlights stare. "Mike. Go back."
"What are you talking about? What do you think you're doing?"
"Protecting you all from me. We know what happened before. I won't let him use me to be a spy again! I'm not like El, I'm not a hero or a badass or anything like that. What does it matter if I have powers? I can't even evict the creep from my own head. I'm going to fight, but I'm not staying here to get you all hurt if I fail."
"Will…you are a badass. Are you kidding me? Did you forget how you even survived that place for a week? We've beat him before, we'll do it again as many times as it takes. You can't do this alone. You're not weak, and I don't understand why you'd think you are. You're the strongest of all of us, if you ask me."
Will shook his head. "Don't lie to me, Mike. El is the strongest, this is her battle and I'm an obstacle."
Mike felt a pang. He'd lied to El back in that Surfer Boy's kitchen. But lie to Will? About this? No. "Why is it so hard to believe I'd think highly of you? El is important, but so are you!"
"Maybe because you don't act like it until it's convenient!" Will lashed out, then immediately regretted it. He felt his stomach flip, but he pushed on, trying to hurry away.
"What does that mean? Will! Come on, talk to me, please-" Mike pleaded, and Will ran. Mike took off after him, and soon he was short of breath, but he wouldn't stop. Not until his lungs gave out.
"Will! Stop-!"
He didn't, he kept on, sprinting ahead and leaving Mike crashing along clumsily behind as he tried to keep up. They had lost track of where they were going, and in the blur of time that was the chase, Mike found himself taken by surprise as they hit the edge of Lover's Lake.
It sat at a much lower water level with the rift torn through it, mud spanned for meters along the half drained shore. The signature heart shape of the body of water had withered, atrophied.
How had they gone so far?
By the time Mike came out of the brush, Will was already climbing onto some poor bastard's rowboat, shoving off into the water. "I'm sorry, Mike. I can't be a liability, not this time."
"Will! God damn it come back here-" Mike called out over the water as he hit the dock, and as he ran, he made his choice. Without stopping, he launched himself off the dock and into the water, swimming desperately after Will. "Come back-!"
Will stopped, setting the oar in his hands aside as he noticed Mike was struggling under the weight of his wet clothes. The skinnier boy hadn't ever been the most athletic. Not that Will was a jock or anything, but he'd actually been a bit stronger than Mike for a long time.
What am I doing? He thought.
Just then, an eerie quiet settled on the lake as Will realized Mike had sunk under. Without a moment of hesitation, he leapt in after him.
The sharp chill of the water smacked him like a wall of ice, it felt much colder than it ought to this time of year. The temperature was lowered by the meld between the right side and the upside down, which had torn through the middle of the lake.
The water remained, but it was cold and sat at a lower level, much of what used to be water now showed as a pathetic muddy ring around the chilling dark waves, as if the disturbed water had been partially sucked down into the other side.
No wonder the water had exhausted Mike, it probably cut right into his thin frame and froze him out in the cold shock response, but Will had experienced a worse cold than this. Will was struggling himself despite the advantage of desensitization, shoving down the reminder the lacking temperature always brought.
He likes it cold.
Will cracked his eyes despite the discomfort, and there he was, Mike. Will reached out, took hold of the back of his shirt, and swam up as forcefully as he could, even with the pain shooting down his back and arms from his neck. He simply wouldn't think about what he'd just opened his eyes in.
He pulled himself up onto the boat, then dragged Mike up behind him. Mike spluttered and coughed, hacking up water as he gathered himself from the delirium.
"Mike..." Will seemed to curl in on himself. "I'm sorry. Please don't ever do something that stupid again."
"What do you call what you're doing?" Mike spat, clearly frustrated. "What do you think will happen if you try to face this on your own?"
Will got quiet. He knew what he expected. He expected to die. Die fighting maybe, but nonetheless he didn't expect to come back in one piece. Just like he expected to die when he asked them to close the gate the first time. Will was even starting to think it would never end unless he'd die.
"...You saw what he did to those soldiers in the lab because of me. How he used me like a tool. How are you not worried he'll do it again?"
"I am worried, worried that my best friend is in danger and there's nothing I can do about it. Nothing…except to be here. I won't leave you, I won't let you run off and try to do it alone! I can't lose you, Will! I refuse."
Will felt his chest seize, and he remembered in the pizza kitchen, Mike saying those words to El. Why is it that Mike held more emotion in this moment than he had in saying it to her? This crept into Will's mind, slowly planting a root of hope.
"...I'm sorry. I just…I don't think I should be with the others. It's a bad idea."
"Then wherever you're going, I'm coming with you. I can't stop you, but I can follow you." Mike sounded so stubborn, and Will felt a warmth cut through the chill of his soaked clothing.
"...Do you understand what's at risk?"
"You know I do."
"I'm going through the water gate, and we're going in there."
"Without a gun? Without you even knowing how to use your powers? Can we even really dive like that after what just happened? What is this, a suicide mission? How are we supposed to get down there?" Mike huffed, shaking his head. "We need to go back and be prepared for this, Will. You didn't think this through."
"If we go back, you know they won't let me leave if they realize why I've taken off. I can't risk being a liability to them, even if you're stuck to me like a tick. And I did think this through thank you very much, but I didn't plan for you. I got to swim a good amount in California, I could probably pull off the dive, give me credit."
"...Okay." Mike sighed. "I trust you. But we make a new plan. I'm not going anywhere."
Those words made all the darkness and weight resting on Will's shoulders light, for just a moment. "It really is always us, isn't it?" He couldn't help a sharp, tense laugh.
Mike laughed back, sounding tired. "It is. It really is."
Just then, Will's head snapped up straight, his eyes rolling closed. His neck whipped backward unnaturally, craning with concerning effort as he was seized in a fit. Behind half open lids, his eyes violently rolled and quivered in their sockets.
Mike startled and tensed, grabbing him by the shoulders. He'd seen this happen to Will before, after all. "Shit, no- no no no, Will! Will!"
Will found himself in a trance, and as this overtook him Mike became distorted in his mind's eye, something was wrong.
"Why are you running from me?" Mike crooned, sounding unlike himself. Saccharine. False.
Will felt a shiver run down his spine. He felt…frozen.
"Why do you run from yourself?" The shadow of Mike said, voice oozing smugly as the pitch of it sank deeply, the voice now rasping and rumbling.
"What do you know?!" Will shouted, seized by wrath as he realized Henry was speaking to him.
"I know…enough." This time the voice was disembodied, and Will watched in horror as "Mike" was dragged into the air, as his neck and limbs snapped. A gruesome vision of his worst nightmare.
"Let him go, Will. He is holding you back. He is unworthy of your loyalty. They are right, Will. You are a predator, but you are superior for it." Henry rasped, then the vision wavered.
Will snapped out of it and found himself clutched in Mike's arms, held tight against his chest, as if Mike was afraid of letting go. Tears streamed down his face as he gawked in abject terror.
"Will? Oh my god you're back- wh-…what the hell was that?" Mike stammered frantically as he pulled back, hands still firmly on the other's shoulders. There were tears in his eyes.
"Henry. He spoke to me."
"What?"
"Mike, you're in danger, you have to go back."
"Me? What are you saying?!"
"He showed me you dying, Mike."
Mike fell silent, staring a moment before managing to reply. "What do I have to do with any of this? He's just messing with your head, Will."
"Mike. Think for a second. If I'm like Henry, if I'm important to him like El- Who does Henry think we care about? You're her boyfriend and my best friend. Besides, none of the victims seemed like they were involved, yet they're dead or hurt. Max is the only survivor and we don't even know if that will last. You're tied to El, you're in the center of this, like it or not."
Mike grimaced. He hadn't told Will about the break up. "I- actually uh-" He bit his lip. "El dumped me."
Will let this information process, and though it shell shocked him he had to move past it to make his point, he didn't have time to focus on what that made him feel.
"Regardless, you're important to us, you've thwarted him before because of your proximity and meddling." Will sighed deeply, trying to gather his last frayed threads of courage.
"You're bait. He just told me point blank that he's got his eye on you. We'll prepare, but we're going to try to do it while keeping space between me and everyone else. I don't feel right. He probably knows my soteria is gone, and it may make me an even more appealing target."
El dumped him?! What happened? I thought…I guess I was wrong. Shit- focus, Will.
Mike sighed. "Me going back alone won't help, if he's looking at me as a target. He can get anyone anywhere in Hawkins as far as we can tell. There's nothing they can do for me that you can't."
"Except El." Will retorted.
"Will. I'm not leaving you. I'm not." Mike sounded certain, and Will took a deep breath, sighing with exasperated acceptance. He'd probably do the same in Mike's shoes. His heart jumped at this realization, feeling a powerful second wind. Maybe Mike wouldn't ever love him the same way, but there was love, he knew this.
"You're so damn stubborn, Mike."
"Yeah well, I didn't get my best friend back to abandon him. You're stuck with me. Crazy together, remember?" Mike felt his stomach tighten into knots, but they shared a brief smile nonetheless.
"So what are we doing then?" Mike prompted.
Will took a moment to think, turning his eyes away. Mike's gaze however, remained fixed on Will.
I'm a mess. He's so handsome it hurts- Pull yourself together, Mike. Don't lose the plot.
"We're going to visit your parents and your dad is going to "misplace" some cash. Then, we can just wing it while we figure this out. Buy some supplies, stock up on some way to fight with fire. Maybe molotovs, that seems like a manageable thing to craft in a pinch."
"What? How? We can't drive and don't have a vehicle anyway, we don't have bikes- and wait, stealing from my dad?!" Mike stammered, taken off guard.
"Our legs aren't broken, Michael. Clearly. We got this far. Besides, Ted sleeps constantly and I know he leaves the wallet near the entrance in a drawer. I doubt that's changed. Your dad can spare some emergency funds."
Mike sighed, but laughed. "Have you been staking my dad out to rob him for years? That's a little scary, Will. Okay, let's go."
Will couldn't help but to laugh in return, shrugging. "I'm just observant. We'll do what we have to do, right?"