Fake Love-Byler

Your Beauty Never Really Scared Me

AN: omfg...the end? THE END IS NEAR!!! ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT!!! Anyways I decided that y'all can get another chapter strictly dedicated to Mike being in love. It's what you guys deserve after dealing with El's nosy ass for 10 chapters (I think?) straight.

School suddenly became more enjoyable. How ironic, Mike used to absolutely loathe going to school before this new dynamic was put into place. What new dynamic, you may ask?

Will was so much more comfortable talking about his interests in front of him. He was quite talkative once anyone asked him about art, fantasy, or DND. It was so charming. Mike didn't even want to get a word in, all he wanted to do was listen to Will talk for hours on end.

"Hey!" Mike waved to Will one day. "Did your teacher let you borrow The Wizard Of Earthsea? If not, I saw it was checked back in the library."

Will scrunched his eyebrows together. "Yeah, she's giving it to me in class today. But..you listened when I talked about that?"

"Of course I was. You seemed like you really liked talking about it."

Wills cheeks turned a light shade of pink, suddenly avoiding eye contact. "Oh. Well, thanks. I'm just not used to people paying attention to me like that."

"No problem! Uh, anyways, can you show me your drawings after school? And tell me about them maybe?"

Will gave him an unreadable look. Was Mike being too obvious? A soft smile broke on his face and he nodded in compliance. "Yeah. I'll show you my drawings."

Mike grinned in response. Will was finally opening up to him in such a charming way. He couldn't be more head over heels.

As promised, Will and Mike met outside after school. They both decided to bike to Will's house since it would be more convenient. After arriving they both headed straight to Wills room, Mike plopping down on his bed while Will got out his most recent drawings.

"I just decided to make concept art of a knight. He's not exactly a full character yet, but I'm thinking of making him one!"

Said knight was in typical knight getup. His bangers were curly and shaded lightly with a led pencil. The feather on his helmet was fluffy and drawn over with a green pen.

"Then I decided to make him some friends," Will mumbled then handed Mike another drawing. This time, the Knight was with four other knights. They all didn't have differing clothing besides the shape and color of their helmet feathers. There seemed to be a singular girl, seeing as her eyes were the only ones with cartoony lashes. "I know it's weird, but I kinda based them off of our friendgroup."

"It's not weird!" Mike protested. He looked down at the picture once again with a grin. "Who's who?"

"The one I first showed you is based off of Dustin. Then from left to right it's Lucas, me, you, and Max. But I also decided to make another girl for the one based off of Max to be friends with."

"Can I see her?"

Will turned over the knights drawing to show him said girl. Her hair was shaved down to a stubble, her princess like gown ratted and shaded to look dirty. A long, bloodied sword sat in both of her hands. "She's a princess who escaped from her abusive castle. She met the knights and became friends with them after a while! I considered making her date one of the knights but I don't like that trope. I like the thought of an independent princess. So she still has the same attributes as a cliche princess; she just doesn't care for dating anyone. And- shit."

"Huh? What's wrong?"

Will laughed but it was devoid of any joy. "Sorry for talking your ear off. I tend to do that sometimes. I don't mean to scare you away or anything."

"It's fine. Your beauty never really scared me."

"M-my b...anyways!" Will turned around and started shifting through more drawings. Mike thought the blush spreading on his cheeks was absolutely adorable. "Um, here. Other drawings." Will covered his face and tossed said drawings in his direction. Mike let out a little laugh and went through them. They were mostly just colorless doodles but still beautiful to look at nonetheless.

"You're so talented. Your work is gorgeous."

"Thanks. I didn't think you'd like nerdy stuff like this."

AN: short filler chapter before the final one :3