You Are The Best Thing That's Ever Been Mine
In honour of Byler Day 2023 and Speak Now (TV) <3 hope you enjoy!
(ALSO I'm also posting this onto my ao3 so if you wanna check that out that's be great!! my ao3 is: just_a_byler_kid if you're interested)
Will had been at kindergarten for less than a day, but he already knew one thing for sure; kids were annoying. He watched them all run around screaming, playing tag, throwing sand at each other, and he had no idea why. What was the point in their games? Fun? Well, they didn’t look fun, not to Will anyway. They looked downright terrifying.
Still. He would’ve liked someone to ask him to play, too.
He would’ve said no. Obviously.
But if only someone had just asked…
He huffed to himself, frowning, and stared at the ground, just slightly out of reach from his dangling feet. If he stretched, the very tip of his worn, scuffed trainers touched the gravel. For a brief moment, he grinned, proud of his achievement. The other kids probably couldn’t do that, he thought smugly to himself. He was a little taller than most kids in his class, apart from a kid called Troy Walsh, who seemed to tower over him. Troy was scary, Will had decided. Best to stay out of his way. But even though Will thought so, he couldn’t help noticing that Troy Walsh wasn’t sitting by himself on the swings. No, Troy was playing tag with a whole group of kids, and it was he, Will, who was alone. Maybe he had gotten the wrong idea. Maybe he should try to make friends with Troy, or at least someone. But a terrible thought struck him all of a sudden- what if no one wanted to be his friend? What if everyone was going to hate him forever? What if-
“Hello,” came a voice. Will jumped, and looked up at once. A boy had appeared, with dark curls falling in front of his big brown eyes. The boy looked very small, and very scared. What was he doing here? What was Will supposed to say back?
“Hello,” he said, his voice extremely quiet.
The boy took a deep breath, as though he was building up the courage to speak. His words came out in a rush. “Doyouwanttobemyfriend?”
Will blinked, unsure if he’d heard right. “Huh?”
“Do you want to be my friend?” the boy repeated, this time speaking slower than was natural. He looked up at Will through his curls, and Will found he was suddenly quite shy.
“Okay,” he said, even quieter than before, smiling timidly, still a little confused as to what was happening. The boy’s face split into a huge grin, one radiating with bright, bubbly happiness.
“Great!” he cried, climbing onto the swing beside Will. “I’m Mike, by the way. Who are you?”
“Will.”
“Will, we’re going to be best friends forever, okay?” Mike said, like it wasn’t even a question. Will looked down at Mike’s sneakers; they couldn’t touch the ground at all. He felt his smile grow; he was taller.
“Okay.” And, although they barely knew each other, Will believed it with all his heart.
“Will!” Mike shouted from across the playground, and Will hurriedly scrubbed tears off his face before looking up to see his best friend running towards him. The smile on Mike’s face faded as he reached the swings, taking in the obvious redness of Will’s eyes. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Will said automatically, doing his best to smile. But there was never any fooling Mike. He just knew everything; it was one of the things he liked best about him.
“No, you’re not,” Mike said, his voice full of concern. “What happened?” After a pause, he added, his voice even softer, “Is it… your dad?” WIll nodded, eyes stinging again, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground. His feet touched the ground easily now, but Mike’s did easier. Mike was taller than him now, and so was just about everyone. Will had liked it better when he was one of the tallest.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Will thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Maybe later,” he whispered, voice wobbling a little.
“Do you want a hug?”
This time, Will nodded. Instantly, Mike wrapped Will in his arms, squeezing him comfortingly. Will’s stomach felt lighter at once, and his heart felt a bit warmer. This was the only good thing about Mike being taller; he gave the best hugs. Will sometimes felt that he could spend forever there. Mike made him feel safe, and happy, and whole. But the hug only lasted a few seconds, like they always did at school. They never spoke about it, but they both knew they shouldn’t hug each other for too long, or Troy Walsh would get upset. It was okay though, Will thought as Mike smiled down at him, the kindness in his eyes making his heart flutter a little, because later, when he went to sleep over at Mike’s, they could hug for as long as they wanted. As Mike turned around to look for their new friends, Lucas and Dustin, Will smiled to himself. He couldn’t wait until later.
The words took him completely by surprise, and it looked as though they took Mike by surprise, too. They both sat there, in stunned silence, for a few moments, both waiting for Will to say something. The only problem was Will couldn’t remember how to speak. He had forgotten what words were. His brain had short-circuited the moment he heard those words come out of Mike’s mouth. And so he stared at his feet, trying to remember how to function. They were both too tall for the swings now, their legs bending awkwardly, but it didn’t really matter, because the swings were their place. Even now they were seventeen, over a decade after they had met, they hadn’t truly outgrown them. The first thing that really hit him was that this was the place Mike had chosen to tell him. The realisation almost made his heart melt, Of course he had. Mike Wheeler had always liked to be poetic.
Then he remembered what Mike had said.
His fist tightened on the chain of the swing, the cool metal pressing into his palm, grounding him, reminding him that he wasn’t dreaming. “You mean it?”
He looked up to meet Mike’s gaze, and saw for the first time the true fear in his eyes. Tears were streaming down his face, and his curls were falling in front of his eyes again. God, Will had always loved those curls.
“I mean it,” Mike whispered, his voice hoarse. “I’ve never meant anything more in my life, Will. I love you. I love how you smile, and how you laugh, and how you speak, I love how you’re kind and generous to everyone you meet, I love how you force me to listen to those terrible songs you like, I love how you never let anyone kill bugs we find in the house, and how you insist on taking them outside to a nicer place, I love how you’re creative and brave and gentle and so fucking perfect. I love you, and I’ve loved you for so long, Will. And I’m sorry that I had to go and ruin everything, because you mean more to me than anything in the world. But I had to tell you, because I can’t keep lying to you abou-”
Mike stopped talking with a quiet gasp as Will reached out and brushed his hair out of his face. There were tears in Will’s eyes, and his hands were shaking. This couldn’t be real. But it was. This was real. Because he could feel the tears on Mike’s face, the heat radiating off of his body. This was real.
“Mike?” he whispered, voice shaking,his hand still resting on Mike’s face.
“Yeah?”
“I love you too.”
Everything happened all at once. Mike’s hand was on his, and then Mike’s lips were on his, and it was like fireworks were exploding inside of Will’s heart. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All he knew was he was kissing Michael Wheeler, his best friend, the boy he had loved for years, the boy he had given up on, and it felt amazing. Mike’s lips were warm, and soft, and felt so perfect against his own. Mike moved his hand across Will’s face, and goosebumps followed his touch, only intensifying when his hand came to a rest by his jaw, holding WIll’s face gently in his hand.
For the first time in many, many years, Will felt as though everything was perfect. Everything was as it should be.
@cgi-heart-eyes and @bylerday2023 <3
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