I don’t think we talk about the fact that Will probably gets BAD nightmares from his trauma regarding the upside down. So I headcannon He had them frequently after he was possessed.
Sometimes he’d deal with it alone and freak out to the point of exhaustion. Sometimes he just wouldn’t sleep at all. If he was at his house, his brother or mom would hear him when he woke up screaming or whimpering and of course rush to go soothe him, even though Will would constantly plead with them to go back to sleep (he insists they’re babying him and he can figure it out himself).
With the literal apocalypse happening the nightmares probably only get worse, except this time when it happens he’s alone. His brother is with Nancy and his mom is talking with Karen or something. Despite the slight wedge in their friendship ever since California, Will finds himself jolting awake and calling for Mike just like he’s 12 again. After all, it had been a flashback of that Halloween night before the mind flayer violated him.
Within 30 seconds Mike appears at the entrance to the basement. His hair is shuffled like he had just woken up, and he has a sort of sleepiness in his voice when he speaks.
“Will. What’s wrong? Are you okay?” His voice is urgent, yet somehow still carries the gentleness that Will has always heard from him.
Will tries to tell Mike that he just had a nightmare and to go back to bed, but ends up choking back a sob as tears begin to spill over.
Mikes breath catches in his throat a little as Wills eyes well up with more tears. God he’s pretty. Shaking the thought away (cause his friend is literally crying and scared) he moves to sit next to Will on the bed and hesitantly puts his hand on his lower back.
Despite Mikes fear that Will does not want any comfort from him, he feels Will lean into the touch. He slowly starts rubbing circles on his back to try to calm him down a little.
When Wills heart wrenching sobbing sounds turn to little hiccups Mike finally speaks again.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Will thinks about it before shaking his head. “Just a nightmare… I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of them Mike.”
Mikes heart rips into pieces at his confession. The knowledge sinking in that he can’t do anything to protect Will this time.
“I don’t want to keep feeling like this.”
Mike stops rubbing his back to grab his shoulder. “I know. I’m sorry Will. Can I do anything right now? Water? Do you wanna watch a movie or something?”
“I’m so tired. I just want to sleep. Actually sleep.”
A beat passes.
“Please just… please just stay with me?”
The way Wills voice trembles makes Mike want to hurt every single person that has made Will feel like this. Scared. Exhausted. Alone. Even if that means him too.
“Always.”
And with that they just quietly sit next to each other. If Will ends up slowly falling asleep with Mike laying right beside him it’s no one’s business but his own. And if Mike hears Wills steady breathing and wraps his arm around Will when the world is still too quiet to make him feel bad for loving such a sweet boy, it’s no one’s business but his own.
If Will cuddles further into Mikes embrace so he can feel his soft breath on his neck and remind himself he is alive and nothing bad can get him when his paladin is protecting him, it’s no one’s business but his own.
And if Joyce walks in the next morning and sees her son and his best friend cuddling together despite the Queen sized mattress they brought downstairs when the Byers first moved in, it’s no one’s business but her own. (Well hers and the boys when they recieve constant glances from her the next morning).
(If this is trash I’m sorry. I wrote it half dead in my bed and didn’t proofread 😭😭)
