burned to the touch
Pairings: Mike/Will
Warnings: None
Summary: Hawkins didn't have much going for it. It was as boring as the people who lived in it. So, Will moved to New York City. The city of dreams to take up his own dream of becoming a professional ghost hunter. There, Will moves in with Mike Wheeler. A cute boy with a love for candy and a passion for writing. Mike joins Will on his ghost hunting adventures.
But, what happens with Mike starts acting a little strange and Will sets out to find out who, or what, exactly Mike is.
Words: 1,620
Parts: 1/?
Taglist: @erstwhilemagic , @bylerr , @theres-no-going-home , @midheavensmike , @moonlesbi4n
Will shuffles awkwardly out of the cab, his suitcase tumbling out behind him. The door shuts after him and the cab driver doesn’t wait until it speeds off, disappearing into the distant. Will pays no mind to it and instead focusing on the building that towered over him. It was made of red bricks with concrete stairs leading up to a bright red door. He stares down onto the piece of paper where an address was written in messy small letters. Will shoves it back into his pocket and moves toward the door, struggling to get his suitcase over the stairs. He reaches the top and pushes the doors open, suddenly being hit with warm air that combated the cold, fall air outside.
The first floor was surprisingly empty, no one was around. Will walks to the elevator and pushes the up button. He waits for a second, messing around with the hem of his dark green sweater. The elevator dings and the doors slide open. He walks in and presses the button next to the number two. ‘Room 208. Room 208.’ Will repeats in his head. He was awfully nervous. It was his first time in New York without Johnathan’s helpful guiding. Although, Will used to find him annoying and would often say that he could make his way around the city just fine without him. But now, he was all alone in a big city with no one’s help. He was old enough to live on his own as he had reassured his mother, but he wasn’t so sure now.
There wasn’t much time to time to regret his decision now as the elevator’s doors slid open once more. Will was greeted with a long hallway and ten or so doors. He walks out and pulls his suitcase with him. ‘Room 208. 208.’ Will looks to the right then left. Even numbers were on the left, and the odd numbers on the right. He moves forward, looking at each door carefully. ‘202. 204. 206. 208!’ He stops in front of the door labeled 208. “This is it,” Will whispers to himself, raising his hand to knock. Before he can though, someone opens the door. Behind the door, leaning against the door frame was a guy with jet-black hair, dark blue eyes, and pale skin. “Will Byers, right?” He said and give Will a small smile.
Will nods and smiles back. “Mike Wheeler,” Mike says and moves away from the door frame. “Though, I’m sure you already knew that.” Will stands still outside the door, he was still stunned by Mike. He certainly wasn’t expecting Mike to look how he did. He was much cuter and wow, did Will love his voice. “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to come in?” Will laughs awkwardly and walks into the apartment. He looks around, taking in every small detail. One thing he noticed was a box from Dunkin’ Donuts surrounded by candy wrappers and an opened can of Coca-Cola sitting on the coffee table.
“Here, I’ll show you your room.” Mike grabs Will’s free hand and leads him to the other end of the apartment. Will almost immediately notices the fact that Mike’s hands were unusually warm, especially since it was cold outside. But, he doesn’t focus on that and instead focused on the small table that sat in between the two doors. It had a small vase with a rose and a picture frame. “Here it is,” Mike says, and Will looks back at him. He had opened the door to the left and Will peeked his head into it. It was remotely empty, save for a bare bed frame and a few scraps of paper. “What happened to the last person who lived here?” Will asked, cautiously.
“They died,” Mike says in a cold tone of voice. “What?!” Will body tenses as Mike stares him dead in the eye. A smile breaks out on Mike’s face and Will only really notices he was joking when Mike starts giggling. “Just kidding! They moved out.” Will lefts out a sigh of relief that he wouldn’t have to be living with a ghost and maybe even a potential murderer. His body relaxes only to tense up again when Mike places a pale hand on his shoulder. “Well,” He starts after a second or two of stillness, “I’ll leave you to it.” And with those words, he left. To what? Will wasn’t sure, and he assumed Mike didn’t really know either. He finally walked into the room after standing in the doorway for a minute or so and fully observed the room entirely.
It was slightly bigger than his old room back in Hawkins with a dark tile floor and warm white walls. There was a small closet on the right end of the room. Will opened up the closet door, expecting it to be empty. And it was save for a few clothes hangers that hung from the white rack secured on the wall. He closed it again and walked toward the bed frame. It was wooden and colored a harsh black, where the mattress would be laid five or so sticky notes all in an assortment of colors. Will picked up a bright orange one and read what was on it. It seemed like some sort of to-do list. He put it down and grabbed another one, this one was a hot pink and was addressed to someone named Max.
Will thought it was probably the person who had stayed in the room previous to him. Although, he didn’t give it much thought and moved the notes to the far corner of the bed. He shrugged off his backpack and pulled it into his lap. He hadn’t brought much as he didn’t own a lot. Will opened the bag and reach into it. He pulled out a camera case and zipped it open, carefully handling the video camera that nested inside. It was Johnathan’s who had given it to Will as a sort of “going away present.”
It was a little scratched up, but it meant a lot to Will. It also meant he didn’t have to buy a new one. He didn’t know how well it would be in recording spirits and such, but he would just have to find out. When Will went to put it back into his bag, Mike appeared from wherever he had gone to. In his hands were his car keys that he jingled around. “Come on, Will. We’re going out.” Will raised an eyebrow and ponder on if he remembered agreed on going out. “Sorry?” Mike walked in and sat down next to Will. “What’s that?” Mike completely ignored Will and instead pointed to the camera in his hands. “Oh, um, it’s a video camera,” Will started out slowly. “For recording when I go hunting.”
Mike look at him surprised. “Hunting? You don’t look like the hunting type.” Will shook his head and laughed quietly. “Hunting as in ghost hunting. Not hunting animals.” “Ghost hunting?” Will turned red, he knew how stupid it sounded to most people. “I feel like…” Will took a breath before finishing. “There’s someone, or something, out there. And most people choose to ignore that but not me. I want to know what’s out there and I won’t stop until I do.”
Mike straightened up and looked at Will who had shifted his focus from the camera to Mike. Mike ran his hand through his hair and let out a small hum. “Well, just know that sometimes what’s out there is worse than what is right in front of you. And if you go too deep, you’re likely to find things that you would never have imagined. So, sometimes it’s best to leave things undiscovered.” Mike said softly and give Will a tight-lipped smile. “Although it’s your choice really.” And with that Mike stood up and dusted himself off. “Are you coming or not?” Will nodded and put the camera back into the case, following after Mike. “Yeah. Course.”
---
Will and Mike walked into the apartment together, Mike had an arm around Will who was laughing. They had spent a good few hours out, first going to a small bakery near the building. Then they wandered around a small park and time square. They had talked about pretty much everything, to Mike’s old roommate to Will’s old hometown. It was an enjoyable night and Will was starting to really like Mike’s company. Mike listened to everything Will said intently, and Will laughed at every one of Mike’s dumb jokes.
Will had found out that Mike had a big sweet tooth and worked at the local animal shelter. He had also found out that Mike didn’t really have many friends beside two close ones that he had to know forever. Will was confused as to how since Mike seemed so charming to him.
Will had to sleep on the couch since his furniture hadn’t arrived yet and Mike had given him a blanket, as Will didn’t bring one. He snuggled up against it and fell asleep quickly after that.
---
He was awakened later by a loud noise which resulted in him to sit up half asleep. It turned out to be Mike who had gotten up for a late night snack. “Mike??” Will mumbled as his eyes adjusted to the bright light of the kitchen. “Oh,” Mike said and looked towards Will. “Sorry Will, I get hungry a lot.” He said sheepishly as he took a bite of the leftover donuts. Will groaned and pulled the blanket over his head. Mike shut off the lights and made his way to his room.
“Goodnight, Byers. Sweet dreams.”