Spider-man, Spider-boy and Spider-El |Stranger Things AU|

~part III., chapter 9.~

Nothing apart from fighting a few mutants every now and then happened during the summer. El was back in school in September with Spider-El's one year anniversary aproaching. El was walking to school with Mike next to her, he never aproached the Reformator accident and acted as if it never happened, El also didn't tell him about her little trip to Steve's house, not realizing that's exactly what Will did to her, but Mike didn't have his suspicions yet. And Mike had no idea how much more secrets are going to be kept from him, at this point El didn't know either.

"So, I was thinking D&D at my house later today? If you have time," Mike suggested.

"I thought you never play without Will," El gave him a questioning look.

"I was thinking about asking him too," Mike said, slightly nervously.

"I don't think he'd want to. Mike we're not kids anymore, there's more important things to deal with than a stupid game," El said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, you're right. With being a superhero and all, I'm sorry I brought up something so stupid like a game," Mike mummbled.

"Hey, don't give me that tone," El crossed her arms, "you know I was never into it, I played like once."

"Yeah, sorry. And it was twice," Mike said, "besides I need to use the bathroom, see ya at lunch." And with that he ran straight into the school building.

El walked inside on her normal pace, seeing Dustin, Lucas and Max talking by her locker. El aproached them with a smile. Dustin and Lucas gave her a smile while waving at her, while Max looked bothered by something, even the boys' smiles seemed forced.

"Is there something wrong?" El asked with concern, not bothering with 'hello'.

"Max found something out, but we can't tell Mike," Lucas said with a sigh.

"Is it that serious? Does it have something to do with his dad?" El whispered, Max shook her head.

"So, when me and Mike got kidnapped by Reformator, there were several other kids, or like people our age. You get what I mean. Well anyway," Max started, kinda struggling with finding the right words, "there was this one dude who stuck up to me, and not just because he was holding me when Mike decided to jump," Max let out a sigh, El nodded in understanding, "so, when Mike so decided to sacrifice himself, he told me something along the lines to tell Will he loves him, nothing weird, right? But then this other guy, I think his name was Gareth, the one that was holding me, said something like: 'Will? As in?' and then he got cut off, I didn't think much of it," Max let out a disappointed sigh, "Until yesterday... I saw this Gareth dude with Will in a coffee shop, it looked like a date, but I don't want to jump to conclusions just yet. I mean, they weren't kissing or holding hands or anything, just talking, but it did look like a date. And I don't want to tell Mike unless I'm absolutely one hundred percent sure they have something going on."

"That doesn't sound like Will at all," El let out in surprise.

"When was the last time he was himself, though?" Dustin stated a good point.

"Like a year ago," Lucas answered for him.

"No, unless he broke up with Mike officially, he wouldn't do that," El protested.

"You sure?" Max asked with a raised brow.

"Yeah, once we watched a movie, like a long time back and Will was totally weirded out when the girl went on a date and kissed another guy when she just had a fight with her boyfriend. Like unless Will would be sure that him and Mike are over, he wouldn't go on a date with someone else," El explained, she was sure of that.

"I mean they haven't talked with each other for like a year almost, so," Dustin shrugged.

"Dusty-bun, you're not helping," Lucas told him, Dustin gave Lucas a betrayed look.

"Only Suzie-poo can call me that," Dustin said, Lucas rolled his eyes.

"How can you be sure Suzie is actually a girl our age from Utah and not some old creepy dude, you've never even seen her," Lucas said.

"Guys, we're dealing with Byler here, not Duzie," Max said, giving the boys a glare.

"The what now?" Lucas asked, Max rolled her eyes.

"Byler, Byers and Wheeler, it's a ship name, keep up," Max sighed.

"And what is 'Duzie'?" Dustin asked.

"Dustin, Suzie, easy to guess," El said, rolling her eyes as well.

"Why do you ship them?" Lucas asked, Max shrugged.

"I could come up with a name for every single ship in our friend group if I wanted to, but that's not the point we're dealing with right now," El said impatiently, hoping the boys would just drop it.

"Okay, so what are we gonna do now, then?" Dustin asked, looking over everyone.

"Find out what's going on with Will and this Gareth, obviously," El rolled her eyes.

"And how are you planning to do that?" Lucas asked with a raised brow.

"How is who planning to do what?" Mike asked, walking over to the group with a smile. El started feeling bad, seeing him so happy after what they just discussed.

"Nothing much, just ... planning to get rid of Creeper," Dustin quickly came up with an excuse.

"Like I said, be in the art course, we don't have him anymore," Max said with a smirk.

"Lucky you, we'll have him forever," Mike groaned, El giggled.

"We still have him too, that's so unfair," Lucas protested, Max gave him a victorious grin.

"Right now I'm glad I was forced to transfer," Max said with a smile. "I need to get to class, Jane would you be so kind?" Max added, gesturing towards the handles of her wheelchair, usually Lucas was the one carrying her around, unless they were having classes, then El would.

"Sure, see ya boys later," El said, taking a hold of the handles, waving to the boys before the girls left.

"Now, what were you really talking about?" Mike asked, throwing his arms over Lucas and Dustin's shoulders.

"Your mom," Lucas quickly said, shaking Mike's arm off and running into his first class. Mike turned to Dustin.

"You're not getting away that easy, what was it?" Mike asked, Dustin let out a sigh.

"Jane didn't want us to tell you, but she's worried about what happened with your father, you don't want to talk about it, but don't tell them I told you," Dustin said, well enough to convince Mike.

"She's never gonna stop worrying 'bout me, is she?" Mike sighed, "I really don't care, I didn't like him anyways," Mike shrugged.

"Dude, that's unhealthy way of dealing with this stuff. Lucas was right, you need therapy," Dustin sighed as Mike ignored him, walking towards their first class.

Max and El were meanwhile going around the school's entrance to see a group of people looking out, the sound of motorbike was heard.

"Let's see what that's about," Max suggested, El changed their course and soon they had a clear view of what was going on outside.

A motorbike really aproached the school, two people on it. The one in the back got off and took off the helmet, both El and Max gasped in surprise when they saw who it was. The two shared a quick hug, said some words to one another, and the other drove off, while the first one walked towards the school, ignoring the looks he was getting from everyone around.

"What was that?" Max asked as he walked past them, but got ignored. "I bet the other guy was Gareth, I told you Jane," Max turned to El when he was gone and the group walked off as well.

"That is not like Will at all," El let out in disbelieve, she'd seen it herself, but it was still hard to believe.