𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐭

xiii. I MISS HER.

IN Will's bedroom, Charles got into bed and stared up at the ceiling. He doesn't tear his eyes away as Will shut the door and got ready for bed as well, before getting under the covers next to his boyfriend, sighing softly.

"I'm sorry." Charles said, pursing his lips before glancing at Will. "I--I shouldn't have been so jealous. But I always felt like you liked Mike better than me, so I'm sorry..." He says before glancing away and Will scoffs softly. "I'd never like Mike better than you." He says, shaking his head and Charles chuckles.

"He could be a real jerk sometimes..." He says and Will nods, glancing over. "Yeah. But he's still our friend. Or mine at least... I don't know, what's going on with you guys?" He asked as he moved to lay on his side, looking at him and Charles followed his actions, glancing down between them. "I--I didn't really like how things changed after you guys left." He whispers and Will furrowed his brows a bit.

"Everyone acted like... nothing happened. Hopper, Billy, my mom... The mindflayer and all of that stupid shit. It was... crazy. And we all couldn't talk about it or didn't at all." He says and Will just raised his hand up to Charles' face. "Do you want to talk about it?" He whispers and Charles just sniffled.

"I miss her, Will. I miss my mom so much." He sobbed and Will immediately scooted closer, wrapping his arm around Charles' waist as his hand goes to the back of his head. Charles started sobbing, tilting his head down. "And no one could understand. No one would understand. Not Mike, not Dustin, not Lucas--" "you could've talked to Max, you know... she would've understood." Will says and he looks up at him. "Yeah... but she was distant. Cold." He whispers before glancing away.

He sighs, "I don't blame her. I was too. I shut everyone off. I pushed everyone away." He says and Will just pulls him closer. "You never have to do that with me." He whispers and Charles just wraps his arms around Will as well, closing his eyes and sighing softly. "I never want you mad at me. And I never want you to think I'm mad at you." The Dumont whispers.

"I'm mad at literally everyone else but never you." He said and chuckled as Will just smiles, rubbing his lower back. "It's apart of relationships, right? We argue or get upset, then we fix it. Promise me we'll always talk and fix it? Let's... let's not do what my parents use to do." Will says and Charles just nods.

"We won't do that..." He whispers before cupping Will's face gently, leaning in. He pressed his lips lovingly to Will's and Will kissed back, hugging him tighter. After sharing a kiss, Charles pulled back and put his head to Will's chest, closing his eyes. "I love you." He whispers and Charles rubs his back.

"I love you too..."

The next morning, Charles was sitting at Will's desk, reading a book when he sighed and got up, walking around to look for Will and appeared in the doorway of Jonathan's room to see Mike and Will sitting together, Will looking at Mike who glanced away, smiling faintly. "Hey..." He suddenly says and they both look over. "Hey." Will stood up suddenly, like as if he'd been caught or something.

"Is everything okay?" Charles said, looking towards Mike who glanced up. "Yeah... I guess." The way Mike answered, Charles can tell is about El before looking at Will who reached out, grabbing his waist gently. "Are you hungry? You look tired..." He says quietly and Charles just shook his head. "No... just worried about everyone back in Hawkins." He sighed, grabbing onto Will's upperarm.

"Which is why we can't stay here." Jonathan caught their attention as they look over. He walks in, setting down a can of soda before grabbing the chair at his desk. "Listen," he sat down and so do Charles and Will, "let's assume these friends of Owens are telling the truth. We can't call Hawkins without alerting the military, putting El in danger." He explains.

"Fine, then we'll have to go to them." He added. "Go to Hawkins?" Mike asked and Charles furrows his brows. "How?" He asked, confused. "What are you worried about? Ponch and Jon out there?" Jonathan nods towards the livingroom. "They're half-asleep right now watching golf." He explains. "No, Jonathan. He means we don't have a car or money." Will spoke up and Charles nods, pointing to him.

"Then we'll hail ourselves a ride." Jonathan then raised the paper in his hands. "A cheap one." He added and Charles sighs before he, Mike and Will head to the livingroom. "Excuse me, sir?" Mike spoke up first. "Uh, hey?" Charles said more loudly so the man sighs before turning his head to look at the trio.

"What?"

"We're hungry." Will raised the paper and the man sighs again before looking over at the other agent. "I could eat." He says and the man picks up the phone, Will reciting the numbers to the man who then raised the phone to his ear, waiting for someone to pick up. Charles can tell by the fact he makes, he got annoyed by whoever answered the phone.

After that, Charles and Will went into Will's room to pack their bags. "How... your weird, loner, photographer brother met someone as weird as Argyle to mellow him out is, uh, a bit of a shocker to me." Charles suddenly says as he emptied out the drawer of clothes Will cleared out for him to put his clothes into.

"Yeah... it also feels like he's changed a lot." Will said and his gaze is on his clothes in front of him as Charles zipped up his bag, glancing over. "Hey, Will... did you ever--" "You're packed already?" Will asked when Mike entered the bedroom, slowly swinging the door back before walking over to the bed.

"Yeah, I mean, I never really unpacked."

Charles looks at the dark haired boy on his boyfriend's bed. "I'm gonna be right back." He mumbled and walked out the bedroom, not sparing another second as he heads into the bathroom, grabbing his toothpaste and other bathroom essentials. When he returned, he slowly stopped, "I don't know, I feel like maybe, I lost you or something." He heard from Mike, saying it to Will so he just stood there. "Does that make sense?" He asked.

"I have no idea what's gonna happen next. But whatever it is, I... I think we should work together. I think it'll be easier if we're--we're a team. Friends." Mike suddenly said. "Best friends." He added and Charles gave them a minute, his moment of worry gone in a fleet. He hopes this cheers up Will, after feeling like he's lost Mike as a close friend. "Cool."

"Cool." Right then, Charles heard tires screeching so he finally walks back in, sighing. "That was fast." He says, grabbing his backpack. "Thirty minutes or less." Will says, looking up at him with a small smile. "Alright, you guys ready?" Jonathan barged in, behind Charles who now zipped up his backpack.

"Yeah." Came from all three boys as Will grabbed something from the side of his dresser, Charles noticed it was a painting before the boy zipped up his backpack. "Come on," Charles held out his hand to the boy standing on his knees on the floor as the doorbell repeatedly went off. Will grabs his hand, standing up with a small smile before interlocking their fingers.

authors note oh, yk, will casually giving his two bfs paintings 😊😊😊😊 i kinda have to keep the other painting in the plot i guess bc it's how mike "realizes" his love for el ot whatever, idk the whole thing is unnecessary and could've saved max from getting hurt and eddie from dying (i'm vv bitter about it)