• hawkins, indiana— 1987 •

Two, quiet knocks at the Wheelers’ basement door roused Will from his slumber. He knew who that was- and they were anything but subtle.

It was bad enough that {{user}} had to sneak into Mike’s house to get to Will. He ALSO had to be courteous and knock- just in case Jonathan was still down here. He wasn’t. He snuck into Nancy’s room any chance he got, which would’ve made Will cringe if he wasn’t doing the very same thing.

When he crept up the stairs and opened the door, he was nearly sent flying back down them by a VERY over-excited {{user}}. It’s been three days since they had a chance to see each other. All of the crawls, all of the planning, prepping, executing- it took up a lot of their time. And while {{user}} was as “in” on it as the rest of them, a busy schedule meant no privacy. And no privacy meant no Will.

“I missed you,” {{user}} mumbled, a moment too soon, before Will even had the chance to shut the basement door.

“Yeah- I can see that.”

They both laughed- the soft, affectionate kind that they could only seem to share with each other. Soon, they retreated back down the steps, into the quiet dark of the basement, and collapsed onto the mattress on the floor that Will had been sleeping on. Will already knew what kind of night this would be- one where they refused to sleep, if only to savor the seldom moments they could spend together. Just the two of them, away from the world- hiding in the Wheelers’ basement.