Ao3 story (Why would you ever kiss me)

Part 5

The next morning was a hell storm. Will followed through with his promise to shower with his eyes closed and he ended up knocking over just about every soap bottle in the process.

Hopper tapped on the door when he heard the commotion.

"You okay in there, El?"

"Yeah, I'm great!" He shouted just as another bottle clattered on the ground.

He avoided touching El's body as much as possible, which only worked out well because he'd found a loofah before showering.

To summarize the whole experience it was basically a ten minute long full body cringe.

When he emerged from the bathroom and went back to their room, he found El sitting on the bed reading one of the books that Mike had picked out. El glanced up at him.

"How did it go?"

"As good as it could've gone I guess. I hate this, El."

"Me too." She set the book down and stood up. "I guess this means it's my turn."
Will was already dying of embarrassment, he honestly felt like he might cry. Will didn't have very much in his life, but he used to have privacy to some extent. And now all of that was out the window. "Stop stressing, Will. I'm not going to look. Just get dressed. Mike will be here in like thirty minutes."

"Cool, yeah. Yeah."

Will was stressing.

They'd opted to get dressed without the other present, because it was awkward no matter who was who. And Will had managed to shower without looking, so getting dressed was a piece of cake. Will put on what El had laid out for him on the bed, and he picked out clothes for El once she got out of the shower. Maybe this system wasn't the worst, but it still warranted some getting used to.

Will looked down at the clothes he'd chosen for El. They didn't have very much in terms of variety because they'd gotten to Hawkins with barely anything. Mike had been kind enough to lend some of his older clothes to both El and Will.

Mike's style was a little funny. It was like he couldn't decide if he wanted to emulate his dad or something like that. Will also had this strong hunch that his mom bought most of his clothes. Lucas and Dustin used to tease Mike for looking like he'd walked out of a kids clothing catalog when they were younger. Will remembered being vaguely jealous of Mike because he would always get brand new clothing whereas he got Jonathan's and even his mom's old hand-me-downs.

Will flinches at the memory of being bullied for coming to school "dressed like his mommy." Even though he was not even wearing an overtly feminine shirt that day.

No wonder they called him a fag. Will bit the inside of his cheek. Could he even fault them for calling him that? They were right.

But those bullies had also accused him of trying to look like a girl. If only they knew how much he hated being one.

And then Will remembered the end of that story. How Mike had biked over to his house that very same day and given him clothes that he claimed he didn't need. Insisting that he had too many of them anyways. Will said that he couldn't accept them and Mike became the most annoying person ever, pestering him until he changed his mind.

Will's eyes strayed to the book that El had left open on the bed. The book that Mike was so excited to give her. The book that she was reading in her moments of free time. The book that, for the time being, was her only connection to Mike. A wave of sadness passed over him, turning all the warm feelings in his chest cold again.

Everything was just getting more and more complicated with every moment that they spent as the other.

He just wanted Vecna to disappear altogether so that things could go back to normal. But Vecna was targeting them, Will specifically. Will had never given himself time to process that. Why did Vecna want him? Probably because Will was still attached to the Upside Down in some ways, he didn't think that was ever going to change. He'd been possessed before by him, his mind was weak and easy to infiltrate. That must've been why Vecna wanted him. Because he was weak.