Tech Ed Sucks
Stranger Things Fic
Request: Hii! 1st time requesting something, I hope it’s okay! Could you write a Will/Reader where she finds something in common w/ Mike and it seems like she enjoys spending time with him more than she does with Will, and when he tries to confront her, she says he’s being ridiculous and there’s no reason for him to be paranoid, and she doesn’t realise it hurt his feelings, so he talks to Eleven and she’s in the same boat, and they do pretty much what Mike and Reader are doing, so that they both realise (anonymous)
So you didn’t finish the request, anon, but I think I went where you were going. Hope you like it!
Pairing: Will Byers x Reader
“Hey, Y/N, these are my friends,” Will introduces, motioning to the group of people sitting at his lunch group. You’ve seen them all in different situations, but never together; that redheaded girl always skateboards around and the boy with the dark curly hair and dorkish sweater has had to fix problems teachers have had with technology more than a few times. They’ve all been a little too intimidating for you to approach on your own; like you’d said, the redhead is a skateboarder, and the curly-dark-haired boy and the curly-haired girl you can only assume is his girlfriend are literally never apart, and you don’t want to intrude on that. Not to mention the boy with the wild but light curls always looks to be joking around with everyone and popular. The last boy, the dark-skinned one, plays basketball, which means he is automatically cool.
So, really, you feel like the only approachable one is Will. He’s in your art class and pretty quiet. You’ve never even see him with these people, so it’s a coincidence that he’s friends with them. Pretty close friends, too, if he’s leaving his art friends to sit with them and everyone else is leaving their own friends to sit here. You know for a fact that the dark-haired boy always has an invitation to sit with the basketball guys, and to turn down an invitation with them takes guts.
So it’s a bit intimidating for you, the new girl at the school for the past five months, to sit down at this table of clearly very close friends when every other day at lunch you’ve been eating in the library despite it being against the rules. You just hide your food when the librarian’s watching; it’s easy.
“Guys, this is Y/N,” he continues. “My…”
You tense. You and Will are definitely something. Neither of you are for sure about what you are, but there’s definitely feelings that are reciprocated. Now what those feelings are you have to figure out.
“Hey!” the curly-light-haired boy says, extending his hand. “I’m Dustin. You’re in my science and P.E., right?”
“That sounds right,” you say, shaking his hand (seriously, what kid shakes hands?). He’s got a good, firm grip, though, even if his hands are slightly sweaty. You try to discreetly wipe your hands on your pants under the table after you sit down. “You’re the class clown, right?”
The dark-skinned boy and the redheaded girl offer small chuckles.
“I’m Mike,” the boy with the dark curls says, offering you a smile that that doesn’t show teeth and a small wave. “This is El.” He nudges the girl you’d assumed to be his girlfriend with his elbow and she offers you another smile without teeth. She doesn’t wave, though, or echo the greeting.
Did you do something to offend her? Then again, you’re pretty sure she’s just like that; you’ve noticed that Mike’s practically her voice during class and nobody’s batted an eye. Maybe she’s deaf.
“I’m Max,” the redhead says, waving at you with her sandwich. A few crumbs land in Dustin’s hair and he groans at her. “That’s Lucas.” She jerks a bit and Lucas groans and clutches his leg. She’d obviously kicked him under the table. “So how do you know Will?”
“We’re in the same art and history class,” you respond, taking a bite out of your own sandwich. Plus, you’ve met at the arcade more than a few times. And at Benny’s...
“Hey, you’re in my Tech Ed class, right?” Mike asks, staring at you and squinting like he’s just trying to place you.
“I think so?” You shrug. “Probably. You looked sorta familiar, so that might be it.”
“What do you think about Mr. Short?”
You make a face and immediately regret it. What if he likes Mr. Short?
To your relief, Mike laughs and gestures at you. “I know, right?”
“He doesn’t explain a thing!” you exclaim. “And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even know how to use a computer!”
“I know more about that class than he does!” Mike responds excitedly.
Will and Eleven lock eyes as you and Mike talk in increasingly loud voices, as if you’ve forgotten the rest of the table is even there. When El puts her hand on Mike’s knee, he doesn’t even notice, and you’re talking so loudly you don’t even hear the bell ring for the end of lunch.
“Talk to you later, Mike!” you say, waving over your shoulder at him as you walk away. When you turn around, you hug your books to your chest and grin at Will. “Wow, Mike’s really nice!”
Will sighs and turns the volume up on the TV once more. Eleven sits next to him, trying to watch the show, but you and Mike aren’t making it easy. Will swears he hears you say ‘Mr. Short’ five times in less than as many minutes.
Will hadn’t intended for it to be only you four. That would make it seem too much like a double date and he is not dating you. He has no idea what you feel about him. Honestly, at this point it sort of feels like you’re more interested in Mike than you are him, and if Will didn’t know any better, he’d say Mike’s interested back.
Unfortunately, Max and Lucas were off doing their own thing (both vehemently insisted it wasn’t a date, but why else would they be going to a diner just the two of them on a Friday night?) and Dustin had to take his mom’s cat to the vet.
So the moment you and Mike arrived, you were talking about your one (one! Will shares two classes with you and so does Dustin!) tech ed and your infuriating teacher and the latest unclear homework he assigned.
Will had even told you that it sort of felt like you were interested in Mike. You’d brushed him off, which made him think that, maybe, you might be interested in Mike. You’d just said that he was being crazy, which was sort of rude, now Will thinks about it. Whenever he brings up concerns like that to Jonathan and his friends they listen to him.
Well, except Mike now. He’d also told Will that he was practically crazy for thinking he may have feelings for you despite the fact that he’d brought El here and has barely said a word to her. Besides, Will has it on good authority that Mike didn’t sneak over to the cabin on last Saturday night even though he always does. El had acknowledged that the Chief had been sending Mike dirty looks recently, so he might not have wanted to risk it, but why wouldn’t he have just told El?
Will’s not sure if Mike was with you Saturday night. He doesn’t want to think about it. He’d liked you. You’re smart and sweet and a really good artist. To be honest, he’d expected you and El to hit it off more than you and Mike; she wants to learn how to draw and you seem like someone that’d be willing to teach her. Now it may have something to do with the way El thinks you’re stealing her boyfriend, but she sort of hates your guts. Not that anyone can tell; she’s been ignoring you, which is par for the course when El’s at school. She loosens up a little bit at the cabin, Mike’s house, and Will’s house, but she’s still super duper quiet.
Will notices El’s hand clenching. She’s staring at you and Mike again. He puts his hand on her fist. You still don’t know about her powers and he doesn’t need El hurting you with them just because she thinks you’re making moves on her boyfriend. “Hey,” he says softly. “It’s okay. I talked to Y/N.”
El just blinks at him, which he takes as a cue to keep talking. Mike’s the best at reading El’s little cues, but given the amount of time she spends over at Will’s house while his mom and the Chief ‘hang out’, he’s gotten pretty good at it too. “She said they’re just friends.”
El shakes her head. It doesn’t look that way.
“I know,” Will says softly. “Hey, do you want to draw?”
She nods.
“But we’ve gotta trust them, right?” he continues, handing her a piece of paper and a crayon. At this point, most of El’s drawings look like children’s drawings, but he tries to be as encouraging as possible. After all, she is a superhero that saved his life, and she’s also emotionally fragile. He also can’t help but think of her like a sister. She’ll be his stepsister soon enough anyway; the Chief asked Jonathan if he could ask Joyce to marry him and Jonathan told Will.
He said yes. Will thinks.
“A relationship without trust isn’t a relationship.”
“You and Y/N?”
Will shakes his head and exhales. “I wish. I don’t know, though.” So he’s a hypocrite. So he doesn’t trust that you and Mike are ‘just friends’. It’s still good to set a good example, especially for such an impressionable young girl. “I’m just trying to work up my courage, you know?”
You have hung out with Will without Mike. You have. And Will’s pretty sure you’re acting normally when it’s just you and him. And, really, if he’s going to get into a relationship, he doesn’t want it to be like his mother’s marriage; he wants to be able to trust his partner. He also doesn’t want his partner to act like they prefer someone else’s presence over his all the time. Some of the time, sure. Will can understand if you’d rather hang out with Max while you’re talking about sports, or (if you were close to El; he’s sure you will be once El stops thinking you’re making moves on Mike) El if you want to talk about fashion. El likes fashion.
But not all the time.
Eventually you have to leave and Mike immediately comes to sit between Will and El, asking her what she’s drawing, and the purposeful way he sits between them starts to give Will an idea.
“So what do you think?”
“Yuck,” El says without looking up from the rainbow she’s coloring. Her nose crinkles. “I like Mike.”
“Yes, I know you like Mike,” Will says, bouncing his leg anxiously. “And I know you don’t like me.”
“I do!” she insists. “Just… not the same.”
“Yeah, that’s what I meant,” Will clarifies. “You like me like a friend or like a brother, right? And you like Mike as a boyfriend. And I like you as a friend or a sister, and I like Y/N as a girlfriend.” He hunches down over the table to continue coloring so El doesn’t think he’s too invested in this conversation. He really wants to try the experiment and get to the bottom of the drama, but El might not want to do it if she thinks he’s being too demanding of her. She doesn’t like to do things that aren’t choices. And he totally understands! It’s because of those assholes in the lab, but right now he really needs her to say yes. Will picks up the blue crayon for the robes of the wizard he’s drawing. Normally he hates crayons and prefers colored pencils, but El likes pencils and also feels insecure about all her differences from the other kids. Sometimes it’s nice to let go a little bit and draw with colored wax. It doesn’t look as bad making a mistake as it would if he was using a colored pencil. “But if we just pretend for, like, a day or so, then we can see if Mike still likes you like a girlfriend.”
He hears a massive sniff and looks up with alarm. Tears are already pouring down her face and cascading onto the drawing of her rainbow. Will drops the blue crayon. “El! Wait! How’d you start crying so fast? Wait, El, that’s not what I meant—” He practically throws himself around the table to hug her. “El, that’s not what I meant at all. I’m so sorry.” He looks up nervously at the sound of a car passing. If the Chief comes home and sees his daughter sobbing, Will’s gonna get murdered. “What I meant was I want to know if Y/N thinks of me as a boyfriend. Mike obviously thinks about you like a girlfriend. Didn’t he sneak out last night to come see you?”
El sniffs and wipes her nose with her sleeve, nodding. “Came to my window.”
“And it was cold last night, right? And Mike’s house is pretty far away. Plus, it was a school night,” Will points out. God, his friend is so whipped. Too bad El’s too insecure to see that. “Mike wouldn’t just do that for any of his friends.”
Wait. But Mike would do that for any of his friends. That’s just the kind of person that he is. Will curses internally and hopes El won’t think about that, but the look she gives him let him know that she knows that.
“What if Mike doesn’t want to go to the Snow Ball with me?” she wails, starting to cry harder, and Will’s at a loss. He knows that Mike and El mean a lot to each other. He honestly can’t see Mike ever leaving El, let alone for a girl he’s known for around a month. Honestly, Will’s just worried about you.
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” he says hurriedly. “We don’t have to pretend to like each other. I’m sorry I brought it up. Mike definitely likes you. Do you want me to get Mike? I can get Mike.” Mike always knows what to do when El’s crying.
El shakes her head, hiccuping. “Mike doesn’t like me anymore. Mike won’t help me.”
“Oh, no, El,” Will soothes, rubbing her back. “Mike does like you, I promise.”
“I don’t like Y/N!” she bursts out, clenching her fists and banging them on the table. Well, angry El is better than crying El. It’s something, at least. At least, it would be, if the crayon she’d been using to draw wasn’t hovering over the table. It’s a sign that El’s losing a teensy bit of control over her powers.
Now, Will’s got a good imagination. It’s not as good as Mike’s, obviously; Mike’s the best Dungeon Master anyone could ask for. But Will’s still got a good imagination, and right now Will’s imaging Eleven using that crayon to stab you.
“El, I just really like Y/N,” Will pleads. “This would help out a lot.”
“I’ll do it,” El says suddenly. The crayon snaps in two and falls onto the table. Will flinches. “Not too much. But…” She rolls her eyes. “To help you.”
Will grins and has to stop himself from pumping his hand into the air, crowing.
You notice when Will doesn’t greet you in the morning. He’s too deeply engrossed in conversation with El. They’re both standing by Mike’s locker, obviously waiting for him to get here.
“Hey, guys!” you greet happily, walking over to them. Your stomach flips a little bit, just like it always does when you see Will, and you hope he doesn’t notice the way your grin widens when you make eye contact with him. “What are you doing?”
“We were… just talking,” Will says, motioning between him and El. She stands on her tiptoes and whispers something into Will’s ear and his face breaks out into a wide grin. “What?” He looks at El in a way that makes your stomach churn. It’s intimate in a way and shares many more words than a mere sentence.
The smile drops off your face. Shit. Fuck. He’s moved on from you and you two weren’t even a thing. Worst thing is, he’s moved on to El, and you know how much Mike likes El. He barely stops talking about her!
“Hey, Will,” Mike greets behind you. His smile looks a little forced as he glances around. “Hey, have you seen El?”
Will shrugs and points in the direction she left. “She went that way. She probably saw Lucas or Dustin.”
Mike nods, giving Will a look you’ve never seen before, and he stalks off without even getting his books from his locker.
“Y/N, do you want to get dinner with me tonight?” Will blurts out before you can make up an excuse to escape his presence. “Like… a date?”
You blink, having gotten whiplash. Just a second ago he was flirting with El, wasn’t he? “What? A date?”
“Well, yeah,” Will says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I have a funny story to tell you…”
“So me and El were super jealous, you know?” Will starts. You nod. You hadn’t realized how upset Will was by you and Mike being close. You’d thought he’d be happy that you’re getting along with his friends, and you’d also thought that if he really cared he’d make a move!
Well, he did make a move.
You hope.
“Well, we decided that we were going to try to make you and Mike jealous,” he starts and you screw up your face with disgust.
“Ew! Mike said you and El are practically siblings!”
Will huffs out a laugh. “Well, yeah. That’s why the whole scheme lasted for about five seconds until El whispered in my ear that she was sure you liked me. So… I asked you out. El’s never wrong.”
You tilt your head. “Why didn’t you just ask her in the first place?”
“I think she was a bit blinded by her hatred for you,” he says matter-of-factly.
You blanch.
“Not anymore!” Will adds, holding out a placating hand. “She just thought you were going to make a move on Mike or something. Anyways, neither of us think that anymore, so…”
You smile at Will. “I’m glad you didn’t waste either of our time on that stupid scheme. I’m also sad I didn’t take your feelings into account when you came with them to me.”
“Hey, it’s fine,” Will promises. “No big deal.”
Taking a huge risk, he reaches across the table to where your hand is resting on it and laces his fingers with yours. Your eyes are wide, brain unable to function, and his fingers are so very warm.
Will smiles at the table.
I’m going to start working on a Wanda Maximoff x Stark!Reader as soon as I can. Unfortunately, my spring break is ending so I won’t be able to upload as quickly. Thank you all for the support!
