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"I think you've had way too much alcohol," Mike muttered to Will as he held Will up as they walked towards the hotel room that was Will's.
Mike and the rest of his guy friends were in Vegas for the weekend. It was a trip that Lucas had as a surprise for Mike for his bachelor party because in a matter of weeks Mike would be marrying El finally.
The Upside Down stuff was long gone and had been for years and now the party was in their mid twenties and Mike was going to be marrying the girl he loved. The girl he had loved for so long and he should still be out celebrating with Dustin and Lucas but instead he was helping Will get back to his hotel room because Will had chosen to drink too much at the bars they had gone to.
Will had overindulged and Mike was the one tasked with taking care of him because it was always Mike who took care of Will. That was an unspoken rule that everyone in the party knew. Mike was the one who always took care of Will and no one else.
Just like Will always took care of him even if at times Mike knew El wanted to be the one who took care of him but it was Will.
It would probably always be Will even after he was married and said his vows to El.
There were just some things that Will understood about him that El never would. Things that Mike wasn't sure El would ever understand because she hadn't been there since the beginning. She hadn't known him since kindergarten.
Not that it was her fault of course but it was just the way things were.
"I think I haven't had enough alcohol," Will slurred as he shook his head and the minute he did that Mike slowed his steps, not wanting Will to get dizzy and throw up on him.
Mike didn't have the best stomach and he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle wearing Will's puke. He could handle sitting beside Will as Will got sick but actually wearing the puke, that would be a different story.
"Oh yeah?" Mike asked with a hint of amusement. "You had two beers and five shots," he said as he made a face thinking of all the alcohol Will had consumed. "You don't normally drink that much...it's done you in bud."
"It's not done me in," Will interjected with a whine that Mike hated to admit was adorable. He usually hated whiny voices but somehow Will's whine didn't effect him all that much. Instead it kind of made him a bit more endeared to Will. It made him like his best friend just a tad bit more.
"Then what would you say it has done to you?" Mike asked once they reached Will's hotel room and he stopped outside the door trying to figure out how to open it while still holding onto Will.
He wasn't the best with coordination at times, especially when he had alcohol in his system and well Mike did have alcohol in his system. Not as much as Will but enough that he was afraid he could lose hold on his best friend as he tried to open the door. That was the last thing he wanted to happen because what if Will got hurt?
It would be his fault and he never wanted to be the reason his best friend got hurt.
"Where is your room key at?" Mike asked as he raised an eyebrow to look at Will not even caring that Will hadn't answered his earlier question yet.
All Mike cared about was getting Will into the hotel room and making sure he was safe, making sure he wasn't going to hurl or any other side effects that came with too much drinking.
Drinking that Will wasn't usually used to doing often.
"In the back pocket of my pants," Will answered and his words were still slurred but somehow Mike could make them out and he chewed on his lip wondering just how he could get the room key out without letting go of Will.
Mike was afraid if he let go of Will that Will would fall or some shit.
"Do you think you can stand on your own if I let you go long enough to get your key?" Mike questioned as he eyed Will.
"I'm a grown man Michael," Will stated, sounding so offended in what Mike had just asked him. "Of course I can stand on my own for you to get my room key."
Mike rolled his eyes though he didn't say anything back to Will. Instead he let go of Will and moved slightly so that he could reach his hand into one of the back pockets of Will's jeans, feeling a little triumphant when he felt the key on his first go.
He really hadn't wanted to dig around this pocket and then move to the other one. Not with the way they were just standing out in the middle of the hallway.
They were standing right where anyone could see them and Mike was sure they probably looked stupid right now with how they were. They looked stupid and Mike didn't want people judging them too much even if all these people were strangers.
Once he had the keys in his hand, Mike opened the door of Will's hotel room and slipped the key into his own pocket before putting an arm back around Will and helping him inside.
"You know," Will stated right as Mike closed the hotel door behind them. "I meant it when I said I was a grown man. I can walk on my own too," he muttered, sounding petulant now.
It was enough that Mike was once again rolling his eyes especially when Will moved away from him and started to head for the bed, stumbling slightly as he walked on his own now.
But luckily for him as well as Mike he seemed to make it to the bed in one piece and laid down once he reached the bed.
"You may be grown but you are also very intoxicated," Mike said as he followed Will to the bed, sitting down on it when he reached it. "You're intoxicated and you need someone looking after you."
Will made a face at Mike's words and Mike knew that Will had issues with them. Will found something wrong in what Mike was telling him.
"And this is why you'll never love me," Will stated, sounding so vulnerable that Mike felt like his heart had stopped beating. "You think of me as a kid you need to protect and not a man who is capable of doing stuff on my own."
Mike frowned at Will's words shaking his head because he always hated when Will brought up wanting Mike to love him. Will knew he couldn't...Mike couldn't love Will because it was wrong. It was wrong in every way possible. It was wrong and yet Mike did love him. Mike loved Will but he'd never admit it out loud. If he did it could ruin everything. It could ruin the life Mike was supposed to have with El.
"You don't want me to love you," Mike told Will honestly with a shake of his head. "You don't even love me," he told him, though he knew that last bit was a lie.
Will loved Mike. Will was in love with Mike and Mike had known it for years though of course he'd never done anything about it.
There was nothing he could do about it. Not when he was with El. Not when two boys being in love was wrong even if it felt so right for Mike to be in love with Will.
"How can you think I'm anything but hopelessly in love with you?" Will asked him, finally voicing out loud what had been obvious for years.
The truth of how Will felt for him was now out there and Mike wasn't sure how to handle hearing it from his best friend's lips.
"I'd do anything for you to love me," he admitted so softly and sadly that Mike was sure his heart broke at the way he said those words to him.
Before Mike could respond though, Will made a slight groaning noise before slipping off the bed and running to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him and not long after the door was shut Mike could hear Will throwing up and he knew then that the consequences of Will's drinking had finally hit him.
Will was getting sick and if Mike remembered correctly from the handful of times Will had over indulged before this would be a rest of the night thing. Will would be puking the rest of the night and living in the bathroom and Mike hated that for Will but maybe he also felt relieved as well.
He was relieved because that meant they didn't have to talk anymore about love and what Will had said. They could just ignore for the time being that a can of worms that couldn't be closed had come open tonight.
It was a can of worms that Mike had wished had stayed closed because now that it was open it complicated everything. It meant he could no longer run from and deny how he felt even if he knew it was wrong.