THREE: STATIC

"DO YOU KNOW WHERE DUSTIN AND LUCAS ARE?" Daniel asked as he came trotting down the stairs of Mike's basement that afternoon. Mike was sitting alone, his nose in a comic book. The boy looked up and shook his head once he heard the question.

"I think they're still trying to spy on that new girl. Will's still at his appointment, I think, or he's at home. You know he likes to be left alone and all that stuff on these days," Mike said, beginning to ramble as he put the comic book down. They were coming up on the anniversary of when they met Eleven, which Daniel thought might explain why Mike had been visibly upset lately.

Daniel joined him on the couch, leaning against the armrest as the other boy cuddled up to him, resting his head on the curly-haired boy's shoulder.

"I miss her,"  Mike whispered.

The boy nodded, resting one hand on Mike's dark locks and kissing him on the forehead softly. "I know, I miss her, too."

"You hated her," the Wheeler boy scoffed, but there was a joking undertone to it.

"You're right, because she made my best friends fight and also, she was making a move on you and well, you know why I didn't like that," Daniel joked, earning a small laugh from Mike, "but then she apologized, she flipped that van like a badass, and she saved us. In a way, she's the reason you and me are here now because that Demogorgon would've killed us if she wasn't there."

Mike shivered at the mention of the monster from almost a year ago. "I don't know what I would do if I didn't have you, Danny."

"I know, I'm pretty great," the boy said smugly, earning a light-hearted shove from his boyfriend. Mike sat up, turned so he was looking at Daniel. Mike shook his head disapprovingly before Daniel leaned in and pressed their lips together softly. When he pulled away, he rested his forehead against Mike's. "I remember the first time I kissed you."

"I wish I didn't," Mike mumbled, which shocked Daniel, "I-I was so mean. I pushed you!"

Daniel laughed, "So? You still kissed me back, even if I got a good shove right after. That was what kept me going, you kissed me back."

"I can kiss you back right now," the other boy laughed, kissing his boyfriend again. "Almost a year, ya know?"

"In a month or so," Daniel nodded, "I wanna tell everyone. I wanna tell everyone that you're mine, that I'm the one who gets to comfort you, to hold you tight, to kiss you. I hate that this is the way things are for people like us. I hate it."

Mike's face turned solemn as he laid back down on Daniel's shoulder while the dirty-blond-haired boy wrapped his arm around Mike's shoulders. The Wheeler boy sighed, "One day. One day we'll be free to love whoever we wanna love." 

"I don't think I'll ever be free," Daniel thought aloud. That thought plagued him, weighing down on him like the world on the shoulders of Atlas, an unbearable weight he was forced to carry with him for the rest of his life. He would never be free. People like him, Mike, Veronica, they would never be free.

"Well, at least you and I know."

"Know what?"

"That I love you," Mike's voice was soft, barely above a whisper, "and you love me. You do love me, right?"

Daniel turned to look at him in disbelief, "You're a loser, you know that? Of course, I love you, dork. I don't think I could put up with you calling her every day or you being all moody if I didn't."

"I'm not moody!"

"He says moodily."

"That's not a word!"

"Boys!" the voice of Karen Wheeler rang down the stairs, "Dinner!"

Daniel snickered at Mike's offended expression as they untangled from each other and ran up the stairs. They sat down at the table, looking normal as ever as if they hadn't just been kissing exchanging the words 'I love you' back and forth. Nancy was absent from the table, but Daniel remembered Mike saying something about her having dinner with her best friend's parents. That was another thought that made Daniel feel heavy, too. Two children had been taken, but Will was the only one who made it out alive. As far as her parents and the town of Hawkins knew, Barbara Holland was missing. Yet the boys, the teens, Joyce and Hopper all knew the truth. He couldn't imagine Heather dying or going missing. It must be so painfully hard on her parents.

"After dinner," Karen began saying once they started the meal, "I want you to pick out your toys for the yard sale."

"Fine," Mike sighed, sending Daniel an annoyed look to which he just shrugged.

"Two boxes worth."

"Two boxes?" Mike repeated, which told the other boy that two boxes worth was more than Mike was willing to give away.

Mike's mom, however, wasn't messing around. "You heard me."

"I'm fine with you giving away a couple, but the other ones have way too much emotional value!" Mike argued.

"Emotional value?" his mom repeated with an irritated look on her face.

"They're hunks of plastic, Michael," his dad cut in. In the years he had known the Wheeler family, Daniel had barely ever seen or heard Ted Wheeler. He couldn't imagine his family being this bland, but at least Mike's dad was actually here and not having illustrious affairs with many other women. Daniel was great at looking on the bright side.

"You already took away my Atari!"

"Didn't wanna give away more toys, you shouldn't have stolen from Nancy," his mom scolded. Which, she kind of had a point, but Daniel wasn't going to say anything.

Mike scoffed, "I didn't steal. I borrowed."

"Oh, and you didn't curse out Mister Kowalski last week, either?" Daniel remembered that day. Watching Mike explode. Daniel had so badly wanted to just grab and squeeze his hand and remind him that everything was going to be okay, but he couldn't because they had been out in public. "Or plagiarize that essay? Or graffiti the bathroom stall?"

"Everyone graffitis the bathroom stall."

"So if your friend jumps off a cliff, you're gonna jump, too?" Ted Wheeler asked with a bored expression. Daniel held back a snort, remembering the time Mike literally jumped off a cliff. He hated remembering that, he had been so terrified that his best friend was going to die without ever knowing how he felt. But look at them now.

Mike must have remembered this event as well because he simply responded with an eye roll. Daniel reached in between the festering argument to grab the salt.

"Look, we know you've had a hard year, Michael. But we've been patient," his mother began on her spiel, "This isn't strike one. This isn't even strike three."

"It's strike 20. You're on the bench, son." Yeah, even Daniel knew that wasn't how baseball worked. "And if it'd been my coach, you'd be lucky to still be on the team."

"Two boxes. Two," Karen said with a certain finality to it.

After dinner, the two boys went back down to the basement. Mike angrily began throwing random stuffed animals into the box while Daniel watched from the other side of the couch. He watched as Mike grabbed his plastic dinosaur, the one that roared when you opened its mouth.

"Didn't you show that to her on—" Daniel began to ask before Mike cut him off.

"—the night we found her. Yeah," the boy finished the sentence and answered the question as he opened the mouth of the dinosaur, listening to the roar. He put that one to the side and grabbed the Millenium Falcon model he had. Yeah, there was no way Mike was getting rid of that one. Mike looked down at it before looking at the fort he had. "Are you gonna stay the night?"

"If you want me to."

"I'll always want you to."

"Then I'll stay."

Still looking at the fort, Mike asked, "Do you mind if I—"

"No, call her."

Mike put the Millenium Falcon down and moved towards the fort. Daniel watched as he grabbed the walkie-talkie. It hurt Daniel's heart to watch. "El, are you there? El?" Static. "It's me, Mike. And Daniel, Daniel says hi. It's day 352, 7:40 pm. I'm still here." Static again. "If you're out there, say something. Or give me a sign. I won't even say anything. Just... I wanna know if you're okay." More static. Mike gave up, pushing the antenna back in, "I'm so stupid."

"No, you aren't," Daniel said immediately, getting up from the couch and walking over to the fort, sitting down next to his boyfriend, "I think she's still out there, too. She has to be."

They might have been imagining it, but right then something came through the walkie-talkie.

"Mike," it said.

His eyes went wide as he grabbed the device again, "Hello is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me, Dustin," both boys sighed, "What're you doing on this channel again? I've been trying to reach you all day! We were right. Max is Mad Max."

Mike looked at Daniel and rolled his eyes as he spoke into the walkie-talkie again, "Well, I'm busy."

Dustin tried to say something, but Mike slammed the antenna down and the radio went silent. Daniel was quiet as he wrapped his arm around Mike's shoulders, rubbing his arm softly. The boy laid his head on the other's shoulder, neither of them saying anything.

"It'll be okay," the boy muttered, "She's out there. I promise."

( note! )

anyway, i made myself cry with this chapter. also, me knowing that Daniel is gonna be still alive and about 46 years old by the time gay marriage is allowed in the entire country and even though he'll be older, he'll still be free to love who he wants to love: