"It was the best thing I've ever done" Byler Oneshots

[11🤭] Boys Don't Cry

(We're going to pretend like that one part of the trailer with Will almost surely coming out to Jonathan, takes place in Hawkins.)

(AKA, Will just can't quite seem to get that "comfort" is just temporary, and always will inevitably wind up in a tragic spool of burnt film.)

- - -
It's hurt that seeks him first.
A pinch to the pulsing skin at the bridge between his untamed brows, a gush of blood flaring from his nostrils, the reminder that Will's time left is just temporary that takes the form of that god-awful clock that's been hunting him down ever since they've made it to Hawkins.

Will knows that, by probability and simple math, the chance of him navigating his way through another hurl into the upside down is.. unlikely, to put it in the simplest way. And sure, at first he had doubts because- hey! What if, just by coincidence there was a sudden overpopulation of heirloom-appearing grandfather clocks? Positivity is key, right?

But then Max explains what happened to her and then he hears about Chrissy, Fred and Patrick and.. well he knows it's not coincidence anymore.

And Will, well, he's not going to burden anyone with something else to worry about. Not when El is still being hunted by Brenner and his goons, not when Will is just a minor death in the grand scheme of things and really- he thinks being gone would just help the party more. The only thing he's good for now is drawing, painting, expressing himself through brush strokes and textured canvases that he knows will probably wind up in some cheap thrift shop when he inevitably dies someday.

So he's vowed to himself that he'll sort this through alone.

Besides, he's already memorized 'Boys Don't Cry' and 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' and he's wound up with a very high endurance in singing to himself (from his very first encounter with the Upside Down.)
He'll be fine.

But just in case- just in case he does.. Y'know- not make it back from this, he wants to leave with no more secrets. For El because Friends don't lie. If he's dead nobody can hate him anyway, so win-win?

He's going to tell Jonathan first. Because Jonathan was the one took the tedious task of straining all night to build Castle Byers, which remains as a clutter of broken twigs at the old Byers House. He told Will that it was okay to be different, that he should feel like normal was the only right way to do life.

"I'm gay." Is what Will says, quietly as possible, during some eery time between the hours of 12:00 am and 2:30 am, both clocks are wrong in here. They're in the kitchen of one of the Surfer Boy Pizza's in Hawkins, as the party had gotten hungry and Argyle has his employees discount.

"Will-"

"And I know! It's gross and it's weird and I'm a freak of nature, the true Zombie Boy and-"

"Will!" Jonathan chuckles bittersweetly, as though somebody fed him a plate of pancakes with maple syrup drizzled on top and- without him beginning to choke or show any signs of uncomfortableness, a waitress preformed the Heimlich maneuver.

So Will looks up, fear spun into lacy tears that cling to his eyelids. Instead of putting it into words, Jonathan simply tugs his younger brother into the tightest, safest embrace Will'd gotten since seeing his mom return from closing the portal, just under a year ago. And Will just lets the tears collapse into waterfalls and meets the hug by tying his arms into a bow around Jonathan's mid-back.

He feels so safe, so- so happy. So himself.

But that's the thing.

That's the damn thing.

Will just can't seem to put together that comfort is only temporary and always winds up as a spool of burnt film, rolling on the carpet floor until it engages everything around it in the waltz that is fire.

Something about Jonathan feels- off, his hair- normally greasy, is fluffy and his touch is warm. Jonathan doesn't smell like "purple palm tree delight," he smells like citrus shampoo and the taint of a cheap cologne. The back that Will's gripping onto feels lanky and slim, the spine is tangible through the fabric, Will's finger catches on it once.

And then he feels the person he's hugging start to squirm. Why is Jonathan squirming? Is Will hugging too tight? Is something wrong?

"Will, what the hell? Why are you hugging me?! Get off' me!" That is definitely not Jonathan's voice speaking. That's- that's-

He pulls himself away, quickly undoing that bow he'd formed with his arms earlier in this interaction.

Jesus fuck.

It's Mike.

How? He has no freaking clue! He remembers telling Jonathan, clasping onto Jonathan. Not Mike. He wasn't ready to tell Mike.

He's sweating, god he's sweating badly. Mike's there and he looks revolted. So utterly disgusted with the thing in front of him, his eyes are flared with hatred and betrayal

Will wants to melt into the tiled floor right now.

"I thought you weren't like that, Will! I defended you, y'know, when Troy called you a fairy. Because I wasn't going to let that mouth breather call my best friend something nasty like that. But he was right about you, Will. He and Lonnie were right. God- I should've known it when you were always so clingy! I should've known you were a queer." Mike is backing him into the corner of this cold, steal kitchen. His breath is bruising the oxygen that engulfs the two. His steps are splinters carefully pushed into the skin of a thumb as you hammer away at a block of wood. His words are a pencil led snapping into dust, a carpet burn on an already-bruised knee. Will is suffocating.

"Mike- I-I'm sorry. Please don't-"

"'Don't' what, Will? Don't leave you? Like you deserve?" Mike hisses, his hands are clenching at his sides and Will swears that his voice is sinking. It's getting deeper and deeper and-

Will hears a clock chime somewhere in the distance.

Mike's skin is melting into a sickening shade of calloused gray-purple. His face wrinkling and his eyes  hollowing in. Around his neck are what seems like tree roots- but of flesh.

"Hello, Will. It's about time we meet again."
- - -

A/N
BRO IM SORRY FOR THE TERRIBLE QUALITY OF THIS ONESHOT. I DID IT IN ONE GO AND ITS CURRENTLY 3:39 AM SO..

Anyway 🤭🤭
I know I'm looking to far into it, but- as some other people pointed out- the low quality second photo of Will and Jonathan hugging REALLY looks like Mike. The hair especially. I know it's probably just because it's a low quality picture of something we'll get a lot more context on later, but I weaved into my own idea cuz I had to write it.

Words- 1161