Byler Cinderella!AU, except Mike wants nothing to do with the ball, so he purposefully gets in trouble to stay home, (his parents also punish him by telling him to do the chores), and Will is the Prince who (temporarily) runs away from his own ball, not wanting to “marry a nice woman and settle down”, as Hopper put it. (No one in his family knows he’s gay… yet)
Will successfully escapes from the Kingdom, making sure to leave behind no trace of where he was going. And why should he? He’ll just be back later anyways. Now, Will has never really been in the eye of the public, not being as extroverted as his adopted sister Jane, (they called each twins though), and not having to be out there like his reluctant older brother.
He sits there for a while, before the other wakes up, and then begins the interrogation, starting with, “Are you hurt anywhere?” Will is at first flabbergasted. He doesn’t know where he is, where wouldn’t he be? He shifts uncomfortably, before shaking his head. “Are you mute?”, comes the next question, and Will just gawks. After a few more weird questions, Mike finally asks the other for his name, and what he was doing passed out in front of his home. “My name is Will, and as for your other question,” he makes up an excuse for it, not wanting to know he’s a prince. After all, it might be a freeing feeling. They actually hit it off after that, and although Will does offer to help with the chores, he’s completely useless in that area - all off the servants normally do all the work, the only thing he really excels at is painting and drawing. So Mike just eventually tells the other (after many mistakes), to sit down and he’ll take care of it himself.
They get to know each other a bit more, and they find out each other’s hobbies, and interests, and dislikes. Mike tells him about his in royalty, Wills says they are not bad, “pushy sometimes, but not bad.” Mike just shrugs at the comment and moves onto something else. “Hey. Do you think you can show me one of your paintings sometime?” Will nods ecstatically. He was glad to have recognition for his hobbies and not his status for once. Poor Buff Byers. :(
Will then looks at the grandfather clock, it was way past midnight - the ball has ended. He turns back to Mike and smiles. “Well, I better go. My family will be worried, and they are a bit overprotective of me.” Mike snorts, “Why did you sneak out if you knew your family would be worried?” Will’s smile widens. “I already told you, I wanted some space from home.” Then, after a beat, he says, “hey, do you think I come over tomorrow?” And thus becomes the start of a beautiful romance.
Also, Jancy happens at the ball because I say so, and they are so adorable together, just like Lumax, Rockie/Vibin and Duzie. TwT
Plus, another plot device! :0
It’s not like Will and Mike could get publicly married anyways, but Mike would definitely be freaking out about it for no reason. (Mike also checks out Will’s muscles on the second visit, lmao)
Another throw away prompt, I’m getting good with these spontaneous ideas.
Anyways, use this as you wish, and again, I’ll be stalking AO3, waiting! UwU