Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

December 18th, 1986 

He can’t believe how unorganized the one library in Hawkins is. Seriously, whoever is in charge of shelving the books needs to find a different career path because whenever Mike does happen to find the book he needs it’s always horribly mis-shelved. 

He glances over to the information desk to check who is working today when he catches the eye of a certain bothersome redhead. The mis-shelving makes sense now. Max simply looks him up and down, rolls her eyes, and continues to do whatever it is librarians do.

He’s looking for a new release to carry him through Christmas break with every branch and twig of his family tree crawling throughout his home. Every Year it’s:

‘Oh, Michael, still no girlfriend?’ 

Or:

‘When was the last time your mother took you to get your hair cut? It’s starting to look like a girl’s!’

Or, the worst ones:

‘Y’know, my friend has a daughter about your age, I’m sure you two would get along wonderfully!’

And no matter how many times he expresses that he has no need or want for a girlfriend, that he actually likes his hair long, or that he definitely doesn’t want a girlfriend he’s never met before, they ask every year. 

He’s sure that whatever girls his aunts are always trying to set him up with are perfectly fine people, the problem is they’re not his type, per-say. Well, he doesn’t actually know if he has a type, he mainly just finds himself attracted to pieces of one particular person. 

Usually, he’d ask Will to borrow something from his personal library but things have been… different lately. He’s not exactly sure what shifted in their decade-long friendship but he does know that Will has been avoiding being alone with him since the school year started. This week he didn’t even sit across or next to him! 

It’s like Mike is missing a part of him, which makes sense, Mike and Will have been joined at the hip since they were little kids wearing ‘Star Wars’ pajamas acting out all their favorite scenes in the comfort of Mike's basement. Life seemed so simple then, when he could hold his best friend’s hand when he was scared, or sad, or just wanted the comfort of Will’s hand in his own. Before high school and girlfriends. Before growing up got in the way. 

His thoughts wander with his fingers across the spines of novels in half-decent shape considering how many times they’ve been checked out. Mike's eyes catch a faded light green spine. A mix of dread and curiosity fill his stomach as he removed it from the shelf and grazed his fingertips over the words carefully written in neat handwriting on the front. 

Do You Dare…?

“Yes.” is his first thought. His breath feels locked in his lungs, his interest is officially piqued. He opens the notebook. 

I have a quest for you. If you wish to accept it, turn the page.

Mike looks up from the paper and scans his surroundings for any eavesdroppers or nosy middle-aged ladies. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a swift movement of orange near the information desk, but when his eyes focus on her, Max looks unbothered. God, Mike really wishes he was just invisible right now, it’d be significantly easier to stick his nose in the mysterious notebook that has captured his attention. He walks down one of the many abandoned aisles and leans against the wall with his left hand holding up the book while his right flips the page. 

Since you’ve chosen to play, I trust you’ll be able to decipher the message I’ve left for you. 

Curiouser and curiouser. The rest of the page has every line filled with a mixture of dots and dashes. He needs a paper and pen. 

“Woah, woah, hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing Wheeler?” Max’s voice rings out through the library. Mike still doesn’t understand how she got hired here in the first place. 

“Grabbing a pen?” He doesn’t mean for it to come out as bitter as it does. 

Her gaze drops to his chest where he’s holding the notebook against himself like he needs it for his heart to keep beating. “You found it.” 

“Hold on- did you write this?” God that’d be so embarrassing if all of this excitement and curiosity was over Max. The words don't sound like hers and the handwriting is way too nice. 

“What? No.” She looked appalled that he would even ask such a question, yet also, weirdly guarded after she spotted the book in his hands. Nodding slowly, she flips around, grabs a blue pen from a cup full of them and a small yellow notepad, and flips back. “Here.” 

“Thanks? I was expecting you to hold these hostage for at least until the library closes.” He’s laughing it off but Mike is genuinely surprised at her immediate assistance, even though it is technically her job. 

“Whatever, I promised him I’d help.” Max’s mouth snaps shut as soon as the words leave.

“Him?” 

“I didn’t say anything.” 

“Oh no, Maxine, it’s too late for that, you said him. It’s a boy, and whoever he is, he is testing me.” This might be Mike’s favorite holiday break ever. Well besides 5th grade when his parents both got sick and he got to spend 3 consecutive nights at the Byers. 

“Thanks, Max!” 

“I didn’t help!” 

Ok, Clue Boy, I accept your quest. I’ll solve every riddle you give me, decipher every message, God, this was gonna be fun. 

Mike finds the nearest empty chair and table to set up and starts his decoding. 

Four dots in a row, dot dash, three dots and a dash. 

Hoping that his morse code skills aren’t too rusty, Mike scribbles down his translation onto the notepad so graciously gifted to him from Max one letter at a time.  

Have you ever-

Have I ever what? 

The Morse Code stops there, giving way more questions than answers. Once he turns the page, he’s met with a list of books with page numbers written next to them. He immediately gets up to continue his curiosity voyage. 

Mike doesn’t know what about this author intrigues him so much that he’s hanging onto every word he writes. Maybe he cast some sort of spell onto the pages so that whoever read the book couldn’t put it down. That has to be it. 

The first book was from the children’s section, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ it was Will’s favorite when they were kids, he must’ve drawn at least 30 different versions of Wonderland based on the descriptions. Mike turns to the 10th page and spots the word ‘been’ underlined. 

He places the book back where he found it and moves on to the New Releases section. His eyes lit up once he picked up the newest Stephen King novel, ‘It.’ The pure bravery it must’ve taken to vandalize in one of the most popular titles of the year. Clue Boy even took the liberty of doodling one of the characters with big goofy glasses at the end of the chapter. Mike tucks the book under his arm to check out later and continues to the final book. 

He isn’t sure where he recognizes the name from. It was nothing his teachers had mentioned or anything that he’d seen in the library on his escapades before. Retracing his steps, Mike finds himself back where he first found the notebook, and sure enough, ‘Maurice’ is right next to where he picked up the notebook not even an hour earlier. Once he finds the page and the underlined word on it, he quickly scribbles it down to complete the question on his notepad.

Have you ever been in love? 

Oh. 

The short answer is yes, of course, he has, he knows he’s been in love at least since the summer before freshman year. Since whenever he would kiss his, now, ex-girlfriend, his mind would wander to broader shoulders and shorter hair, to a pair of hazel eyes that have haunted him since. Since he felt more electricity when his hand brushed Will’s while they walked than when El clung to his arm. 

Why are you asking me this?

First of all, if you find the last book disgusting, I’m requesting you kindly return both books back to the shelf. 

Mike’s stomach drops. He recalls a very angry great aunt of his complaining to his mother about the book ‘exposing her poor son to twisted demonic ideas.’ It was a gay love story. He turns the page again.

If you want to know who I am, or what the quest was for, fill the next page with what love means to you, turn in the notebook to Max at the desk, and check out the last book, if you’re not too scared .

The slam of the notebook’s leather against the wood of the information desk startles Max out of her daze. 

“Who is he?” 

“What the hell, man? I’m obviously trying to read here.” She holds up and waves around a book that Mike doesn’t care enough to check the title for. He’s too focused.

“You know who the author is. Tell me who he is.” 

“I’m not gonna do that.” She says it in that tone of hers, the one where you’re scared to say anything less you get your nose broken. 

“Fine then. Check this out for me.” He slides ‘Maurice’ across the counter into her line of sight.“I’ll figure it out myself.” 

Chapter Text

December 15th, 1986

As soon as Will got home, he bee lined straight to his room and fell dramatically as he could onto his bed.

Every day was another reminder on why he had to get over Mike. If he didn’t stop telling him ‘Good morning, Will.’ every day at his locker, looking at him like that, with his signature Mike Wheeler grin and stars in his eyes, one of these days Will is going to have to sign himself into Penhurst. Maybe if he stared up at the ceiling long enough it’d swallow him whole. Maybe it’d turn into the boundless April sky Mike held his hand und- and he’s doing it again.

He flicks his eyes over to his bookshelf, nearly every single book was one that Mike briefly mentioned wanting to read that Will checked out of the library in hopes of letting Mike borrow it. Sure, its not the most solid plan considering he would wait till the very last minute to return them, but he was addicted to the look in Mike’s eyes when he sees Will’s collection. Sometimes Will will pick one up to see what it’s all about, he loves reading words that he knows Mike will read a couple days later. 

There is one book on the bookshelf that remains untouched by Mike's hands, ‘Maurice.’ He noticed it collecting dust in the library, behind the atlases that no one in this tiny town ever thinks to check out. Once he got past the first couple chapters, something seemed different about the story. Maurice was never interested in marriage or kids, at least with a woman. But he still fell in love and got his happy ending. Will only wishes he could find someone to be his Alec, someone to face all the bullshit with, someone that he can run away with. Freckled skin and a wide grin visualizes in his head without his consent and he quickly shoos the thought away. As much as he hates to admit it, the book gave him hope. It gave him hope that maybe one day he could fall in love.

A rhythmic knock on his bedroom door pulls him out of his daydreaming. He recognizes that knock anywhere. “Come in, El” 

She pushes the door open, arm linked with Max, who is following close behind her with that goofy grin she only gives Will’s sister and Lucas. “Why are you moping?” 

El has always been… direct. Never beating around the bush or dancing around a topic. When his mom first started dating Hopper, Will and El didn’t talk much, both of them preferring just to sit in silence together. It wasn’t until the end of 7th grade when she punched a guy, who wouldn’t leave Will alone, in the stomach, that they became inseparable. They don’t even correct people when they get mistaken for twins anymore.

“I’m not moping!” Him dragging out the last syllable wasn’t helping his case. “Can’t a guy just stare mindlessly at his ceiling in peace?” 

“No, because you are moping.” She pokes him in the arm for emphasis as she plops down on the foot of the bed, arm still linked with Max. “We need to get you a boyfriend.” Max, with literal hearts in her eyes, just mindlessly nods along to El’s bullshit.

“El!” She was the second one he came out to, after his older brother, she immediately hugged him and started interrogating him about his special friendship with Mike. “It’s not that easy and you know that.” 

“I mean-“ Max finally speaks up and moves her eyes from the girl next to her over to Will. “It’s not like you don’t have options.”

“Jesus Christ, Max, if you bring him up one more time.” He doesn’t need any more false hope. 

“I wasn’t gonna say anything! I’m just saying if you were to kiss him under a mistletoe, he would definitely not be opposed.” She sing-songs the last bit while abandoning her spot next to El on his bed. 

“Shut up! Oh my god.” Will tries to suppress the laughter in his voice until El bursts into a fit of giggles that are, unfortunately, very contagious, the laugh escapes him before he can do anything about it. He didn’t have a love story, but he didn’t need one, here he was talking about boys with his sister and best friend. It’s just… 

“I think- I mean, I just wish I could talk to a guy without having to out myself to the whole damn town. I wish I could ask out a guy without the chance of getting a black eye.” He also wishes talking about boys didn’t always turn into a funeral for his dignity. “It's easier to plan campaigns and put characters in terrifying situations. Outside of stories and D&D, I just… can’t.” He begins to pull at the loose thread at the end of his sleeve. 

Max halts in her pacing in a quite dramatic, very Mike-like fashion. “What if you could talk to a guy without having to talk to him?” 

Why does she feel the need to always speak in riddles? “Max, what the hell are you on about?” She gives El a mischievous look that makes him feel very out of the loop. Seriously, what is he missing here?

Once they (finally) break eye contact, Max turns to Will with a certain fire in her eyes that Will is far too smart to question and gives him a look that says ‘Trust me.’ God, he hopes that this isn’t going to get them killed. She struts over to his bookshelf searching for… something. 

“Aha!” 

She pulls out a green notebook that he has most likely never touched. He believes it was a gift from Hopper from the first christmas him and Will’s mom started dating. 

“A quest!” When he gives her a confused glare, she rolls her eyes, grabs a marker and pen from his desk, and slams her collection in front of him. “Send him on a quest.” She says it with her signature smirk plastered on her face. 

“What- Who?” 

El hits him in the arm. Ow .“Will, you need to keep up.” As soon as she finishes her sentence and assault, her eyes are glued back to Max, who’s pulling his chair up to the bed, again. 

“Write clues, get your message across, and I’ll put it on a shelf at work.” She sounds awfully sure for someone who is spouting bullshit.

“And what exactly makes you think this won’t end in a dumpster fire?” Even if, and that’s a big if, a guy who likes guys picked it up, there’s no way any of them would measure up to Mike.

“We can instruct him to bring the book to me at the counter, Lucas and I will do some research with our shared access to book and video history, and we will assess whether or not he’s good enough for you.” Will has to admit, it’s not a particularly bad plan. But- 

“Lucas? I thought we agreed you wouldn’t tell him until I did.” He’s one of Will’s best friends, he wants to tell him, he really does, but telling Lucas means he’d only have so long before he had to tell Mike. And he is decidedly not ready for that conversation. At least with Dustin spending the holidays with Steve and Robin in their shared apartment, Will could avoid talking to him at least till new years. 

Max leans over to place her hand on his knee and looks up at him through her brows, “No, no, don’t worry we would never tell him. Lucas is a simple guy, one of us asks him for something, and he obliges.” Her reassuring smile is quickly replaced with a proud one. 

Well…

“Fine, but I'm writing the clues. And you two aren’t allowed to look at anything I don't tell you to. Okay?” Part of him is hoping that they come to their senses and talk him out of it, to tell him that this is crazy and he should just sit in his room alone forever. But another part of him, the braver part of him, is screaming at him to do it. And he wants to be brave.