Vincent

Starry starry night, paint your palette blue and grey | Chapter One

Love is a delicate thing, it can be kind, sweet like fresh honey.

It can be passionate, fierce like wood log flames.

It can be grief filled, slow and sad like a son taken to an early grave.

It can also be painful, oh so painful. See, when love hurts, it really hurts. Not a scratch, not a sting, a death more gruesome than one could imagine.

For Will Byers, it was all four.

Will was a complicated boy, he knew what he wanted but never dared act on the selfish desires. He spent his time pining and pushing others away just to be pulled back in, he had desires that could, should never be met. He loved wrong. The wrong person, the wrong way, the wrong time, but for some reason there was always a scratch at the back of his mind, The right person, the right way, the right time. He pushed those thoughts to places never to be sought out.

And yet here he was, a lifetime of pining, denying and excruciating pain and he still had these thoughts. Could he be loveable? I mean sure probably, maybe by someone, but not the person he wants.

Mike Wheeler was just as complicated of a boy as Will, if not maybe more.

It was always a push or pull with Mike, one second he clung to Will like if he let go even slightly Will would disappear again and other days, he pushed Will so far away you'd think he hated him. He probably did, hate Will that is. Will thought it was fair, being friends with the kid who got fucking abducted to another dimension is one thing but being friends with a fairy? That's a whole other reason Mike could have this indifference to Will.

Will had come out to the party about a year ago, when the final battle was just starting out. It was an attempt to reclaim what Vecna could use against him, reclaim his dirty secret. He was accepted with open arms much to his surprise, the only off-putting part of it all being the silence that followed from Mike for days. Wills abrupt coming out had inspired others to do the same, for the comfort and the reassurance. It was nice to know there were others like him, people who he could confide in when he felt like a mistake. Robin was one of the 2 that followed Will's coming out. She was an outgoing and fun girl, she became like a sister to Will over these past few months, she confessed her love for a girl named Vickie that volunteered with them at city hall and they started dating in may, it was September now. The war still wasn't over, they all still volunteered together at the shelter. Will liked Vickie, she was sweet, soft like rain. She had short red hair that reminded him of Max's, she could hold her own and made Robin happy, so she made Will happy.

Robin knew all about his Mike situation, so did Vickie by extension. The supported him through it as much as they could and he supported them. It was nice, having connections with someone and knowing 'Hey you're like me' It was refreshing to not be treated differently. The party were all supportive of course, especially Max. The two had grown closer than ever once she'd woken up. It was a bit of a surprise to the group but they were happy that the two could confide in each other.

Max knew about Mike, she judged him, not because Mike was a boy but because he was Mike. The guy who used to eat dirt in the playground when he was little, the guy who broke up with her best friend, and well, he was just Mike in general.

Life was okay, it was the apocalypse so I guess it's the best it can be. Will had friends who supported him, a dirty secret that they accepted and loved him in spite of it, he was moved out of the wheelers house and finally into the Hopper-Byers new home, Hopper was back, El was alive, Max woke up, He had Dustin and Lucas again, they started playing dnd again, he was back in Hawkins with his school friends, it was okay.

Except it wasn't really. Everyone was going through their own shit, waiting for the world to end. All WIll's friends knew his dirty secret now and he could tell they thought different of him, he was in his own dark, lonely room which meant no longer sharing a room with Mike who Will isn't even sure likes him anymore but who he found comfort in, Hopper was juggling the psychological trauma as well as the physical of Russia, El and Mike had broken up, El was trying to be strong but at least once a week she'd break down in his arms, Max was struggling with the loss of her sight, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, Will could tell she was hurting. Dustin was still grieving over the loss of Eddie, Will supported him as much as he could, Lucas was struggling with what had happened with Max, again Will supported him as much as he could. Will had found out the group had all been playing dnd while he was in California, breaking Mikes promise to him. He was back in Hawkins. He was back in Hawkins, he was still being bullied, he was still the freak they always knew him as, he was still known as the town fairy. It was shit.