if only we could meet again | byler

chapter 4

Mike didn't think as he walked out of his door and into the chilling night. He disregarded the time and the next day and the possibility that he might only get so far or even just nowhere. He just knew he needed this now, he needed..

Will's building was locked as he tried the door.

Fuck, he should have considered this. But Mike wasn't doing a lot of thinking, and that was why he was here in the first place.

With a sigh, he walked impatiently to get the antsy feeling boiling inside of him to settle, trying to work through his somewhat muddled brain on how to get in. If there was another entrance or a way to reach Will or anything.

Mike was out of luck, finding only closed doors and darkened hallways on his fruitless search. After a few moments of just hoping Will would somehow know he was here, he looked up to gauge where the other's window sat and if he could climb or throw rocks at the glass or something.

It was only a couple of stories, and there was a fairly reachable fire escape. Mike just wasn't exactly sure which room was Will's by looking at the outside.

He turned sharply when the door next to him suddenly forcefully opened, leaving Mike just staring for a few seconds, expecting and wanting it to be Will there, for him to be out here for a smoke or, maybe, feel the same way as Mike did right now. With an urge to seek out the other because no time was enough to make up for the loss they experienced.

To get back the years Mike so carelessly wasted.

But Will wasn't there. He had to go find him, doing so now by slipping into the now available entrance, made by someone who passed him with a wary glance as he desperately caught the closing door, Mike merely muttering a quick, "Thanks," as he made his way inside.

It was a little disorienting to be here, mostly because he had rarely been. And never without Will leading the way and Mike blindly following. The corridors had sharp turns, and the numbers displayed didn't seem to line up well in any actual order.

Mike repeated Will's room number to himself as he walked quickly by all the others, standing still as he reached what he had come for. He smiled softly again at the bold letters of Will Byers that sat on a bright sticky note, left hanging on the surface since the first days of orientation.

Then he knocked.

He knew, in the way he was answered so quickly, with Will looking at him like Mike was insane and a disparagement in his tone, he knew that the other only expected him to be on the other side of the door.

"What the hell," Will spoke in a blown out utterance, keeping his voice low, "It's, like, 2 in the morning."

"Good to see our watches are still in sync."

Will just gave him an unimpressed look back, shaking his head at the grin pressed upon Mike's lips, reminding, "Remember? My midterm is literally due tomorrow? I can't really be awake right now."

"Well, yeah," Mike replied, wondering if he should be here at all and warring with how much he couldn't be anywhere else. That he felt restless, he felt like he needed to see Will right now and he didn't know why and he wasn't able to even close his eyes to get any sort of sleep, so he went out to find him, find Will. Mike's voice was a little too loud as he accused to offset his own discrepancies, "But I don't believe for a second you just woke up. I can tell."

With a quick glance back into his darkened dorm room, Will's panic ebbing as it seemed his roommate hadn't stirred, he turned back to Mike with a huff that showed his creeping resignation to all this.

"Everyone is sleeping, shit," Will muttered, chastising the other to keep his volume down, softly closing the door behind him, "It's way past quiet hours. You're gonna get me in trouble."