A/N: this has been sitting in my drafts for like two years so i just went ahead and finished it up. enjoy

Lucas halted the anxious tapping of his mechanical pencil against his notepad and sighed.

He couldn't concentrate.

Torn out yellow loose leaf pages littered his bedroom floor beside his desk.

Tomorrow was the last day of summer break.
Of the party's senior year.

Meaning Lucas now had less than 24 hours to put the never ceasing aching in his chest for his best friend into words before they all left for college.

No pressure.

It's not like he hasn't tried before.

Lucas realized he liked boys as well as girls his freshman year.

Lucas realized he liked Will that following summer.

El had made it her mission all summer to plan something fun for their entire group to do everyday before they could no longer bike to one another whenever they felt lonely. With her bob cut of curls bouncing and never leaving bright look in her eyes, she eagerly dragged them to museums, cheesy drive-in movies, amusement parks, countless beach trips, and even leisure days of biking around Hawkins reminiscing on their younger days.

It was around then that Max thought it would be fun to try and teach her uncoordinated best friends how to skateboard with weekly lessons outside of her house. They tripped and laughed as Max sought to teach them the basics. By week three she had given up on actually teaching most of them anything, seeing as it always lead to Lucas and Mike competing to see who could improve the fastest, quickly following the two of them beaten and scraped on the ground giggling as their friends rushed to help them out.

El would look at Mike with a frantic look in her big eyes, kneeling beside him to cup his face and make sure he was okay, no matter how many reassuring smiles and thankful nods he sent her way.

It never even occurred to him how Will would instinctively sit beside him, pulling his scraped hands off of the road and into his own before Lucas could even process nor protest.

Not that he would want to.

Will would mumble strings of You've gotta be more careful's and Sorry's as he applied the antiseptics to Lucas's arms and winced along with him, as if the pain he felt was shared between the two of them.

His tender concentration often left Lucas to stare down at his long lashes, and become hyper sensitive to the soft feel of Will's hands around his.

"I'm sorry" Lucas would say, silently cursing himself for how faint the words came out.
"I guess I got a little carried away."

And Will would laugh.
Oh how Lucas felt his heart flutter at the sound escaping the smaller boy's lips, even if it only lasted a moment.

"You never change, Sinclair. Always trying to be the best." And Will would look up at Lucas then, the corners of his eyes crinkled, his lips upturned into a small yet sincere smile, and he carefully closed the blue bandaid around Lucas's index finger.

Lucas felt his breath catch in his chest.
And that's when he knew that he was in love with his best friend.

He now pulled out of his memories and dropped the pencil down on his desk before slowly making his way to his bed.

He didn't bother to change out of his khaki shorts and dark blue sleeveless tee. Why bother when he knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep anyways. Thoughts of the brunette kept him awake, his mind racing almost as fast as his beating heart.

He glanced at the clock on his bedside table.
12:00 am.

Today would be the day.
Today was the only day, that he could tell Will how he felt. Maybe not on paper, but out loud.

Lucas closed his eyes to try and still the way his hands shook at the thought.

- - -

The teens all gathered in Mike's basement, eager to learn what El had planned for today. The brunette girl had waited until they all arrived to happily run outside, claiming that the event was to be a surprise.

Max and Dustin leaned against the wall while Lucas, Mike, and Will sat patiently on the couch.

"I wonder what it could be. Maybe another trip to that one diner she really likes? It's around brunch time." Dustin inquired as his fingers drummed against the wall behind him.

Max playfully rolled her eyes. "Whatever it is, I hope it doesn't take much longer so I'm not stuck here with you four idiots."

Mike scoffed. "Says the one who nearly knocked down my mailbox driving here."

"I was in a rush! At least I got my license at a reasonable time. It took you four tries until you actually passed. How do you manage to fail a test three times?"

"Parallel parking is hard, okay! It's not my fault they kept sticking me with the same uptight instructor that never gave me the benefit of the doubt. I'm an impeccable driver."

Will chuckled softly at that then quickly covered his mouth.

Max smirked in his direction before crossing her arms over her chest. "Have something to share with the class, William?"

Will shook his head violently and his hair swayed as he did, hitting Lucas who sat beside him with a scent of strawberries. Strawberries?

"Yeah Will, tell Max about that time I drove you to the post office to pick up the stamps for your mom. I didn't get pulled over once!"

"That's true.." Will began, slowly lowering his hand from his mouth as all eyes were on him. "But that was the same day you nearly ran over that family of ducks."

Dustin gasped as Mike frowned at the boy beside him. "I thought you were on my side! Where's El?"

"Calling for your girlfriend to back you up is cheating. Enlighten us, Mike. What happened after that?" Lucas chimed in, taking the opportunity to distract himself from Will's leg flush against his.

Mike blabbered in shock before stubbornly turning his head away. "You guys are always ganging up on me, I can't believe you'd join them Will, of all people."

Dustin walked closer to the coach. "Aw, don't be like that, Mike! You know we say all that stuff cause we looove you."

"We? Who's we?" Max asked with a mock dumbfounded look on her face.

"C'mere." Was all warning Dustin gave before pulling the four of them into a hug, his cap falling off in the process.

Seconds later there was a thud and they all turned towards the basement door as El had abandoned the five sleeping bags on the floor and made her way towards her friends. "You're having a group hug without me?" The girl pouted and Dustin swiftly pulled her in as well, smiling proudly at her shrill giggles that followed arms enveloping her as well.

"I'm gonna miss you guys." Dustin said in a hushed tone, the atmosphere turning dim just for a moment as the five remembered this was their final day all together.

"Well anyways, what'd you plan for the big day, Ellie?"

El gasped and squirmed out of the hug, causing everyone to break free as well, matching smiles on their faces at how excited El got heading back towards the dropped bags.

She bent beside them. "Well I was thinking, since we'll all be busy heading off tomorrow, what if we end the summer with "at home camping". We could look at all the pretty stars and relax under the moonlight and tell scary stories... you know, the works." By the end of her spiel she had that same starstruck look on her face and one glance at Mike showed him slowly matching her smile.

"That sounds perfect. And cheap. I'm tired of spending my money on you dorks." He said, already defensively putting his arms over his head as an impromptu pillow fight ensued, four against one, with El trying to save Mike from the chaos while holding in her laughter.
- - - - -

The rest of the day consisted of a scary movie marathon in the Wheeler basement, many failed attempts at making brownies, setting up tents in Mike's backyard (which would have been a shared effort but ended up being mostly Will, Dustin, and Lucas doing the work while the others feigned being tired), and simply enjoying each other's company while sitting around and swapping stories of their time together.

Soon enough it started getting late so the teens decided to divvy out who would sleep where and they could talk some more and stargaze until everyone was asleep. Mike and El went over to one of the four tents, hands already entwined and scooted inside gazing up at their friends.
"What?" Mike asked dumbly. "El brought her special blanket so we could share. You jealous?"

Max fake gagged and walked to the tent farthest from the two lovebirds. "I call this one for myself. No way am I sharing one with any of you fart faces."

"Wow, real mature." Dustin replied with a smile and made his way to the tent beside her, already opening up his sleeping bag. "You guys don't mind sharing right? You don't really move that much in your sleep judging from our last sleepovers. I need my space."

Lucas and Will simply sat on the grass and looked over at each other without saying a word. Will shrugged, "I don't mind.. Do you?"

Lucas blinked a few times as his words registered in his mind. "No problem at all. Glad my tent mate isn't Dustin, I can't stand his snoring."

Will laughed at that while Dustin flipped Lucas off, and the two headed over to their assigned tent.

After about an hour, and Max complaining of everyone being far too loud considering the time, everyone quieted down and got more comfy in their sleeping bags. Lucas and Will now faced each other, wrapped up and warm, whispering and giggling as they recounted their own privater stories about their antics at Hawkins High, and Lucas couldn't help but shamelessly swoon over Will's contagious smile directed at him and him alone. He looked over and noticed his friends were dozing off and lowered his voice a bit.

"Hey Will?"
The other boy nodded and brought his eyes back down to Lucas from their spot skimming the night sky above them.

"I've been meaning to tell you something. For a while now, I just never knew how to let you know."

"Okay." Will turned back over to face him. "What's up?"

Lucas' stomach churned as he realized he had hardly practiced what exactly he was going to say. He just knew he had to say it. And fast.

"Well..." Lucas hesitantly turned away from Will, now looking back at the sky to try to ease his nerves. "Remember sophomore year, when me and Max broke up and I never really explained why?"

Will was silent for a bit before humming in acknowledgement.

"It was around then that I did some soul searching. And no one knows other than Max, and El's probably guessed it by now, but I... I like both boys and girls. In a romantic way. Does that make sense?"

Will slowly sat up a bit on his elbows and nodded. "Yeah... yeah that makes sense."

"Okay. Well after telling Max I also told her there was someone I liked. A boy. This was after we broke up of course, and she said that I should try to talk to him. But I just couldn't bring myself to do anything like that. I already get enough stares as it is, I couldn't bring myself to have yet another reason to be bullied for.

"But then the more I thought about it, the angrier I felt. Because... because I really liked this boy. Like this boy. And I wanted to be able to show him off, and hold his hand, and take him on silly art dates and let him teach me how to draw more than just stick figures cause I always found it super impressive how he had a knack for things like that. And I wanted to be able to hold him when.. when the nightmares got too bad and he would come over to my house to talk about them cause he knows I wouldn't mind that it's late."

If Will was still listening, Lucas couldn't tell. He didn't move, or make any noise whatsoever. He could be asleep in the darkness for all he knew. But something told him to keep going. He couldn't stop.

"I just didn't have the courage. And now it's like we're all leaving and going our separate ways, and of course we'll all still be friends but I just want to be able to tell him how I wish in another world... I don't know, in another world we could have been something more. Me and him." Lucas let out a long, deep breath he didn't know he was holding. "That's just stupid though, right?"

Will stared at Lucas's frame from his spot next to him in the tent, speechless. Could he hear his heart beating this loud from over there?

"Lucas," Will finally let out, breathlessly. "I don't think it's stupid."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, I know what it's like to be afraid you'll come off as a freak or weird for wanting to be with someone who's.. different. And you talk so great about this guy but don't give yourself nearly as much credit as you deserve. You're really cool too."

At this, Lucas looked over to see Will perched up, still staring right back at him.

"So cool in fact, that I wish you would've told me sooner, cause I would have been able to say I wish I could've done that stuff with you too."

Will's voice came out shaky. He prays he interpreted what Lucas had said to him with such sincerity right. He hopes it was about him, because god would that be something.

Lucas inches closer and simply takes in the way Will's eyes sparkle with the moonlight washing over his face.

"You mean it?"

"Of course I do, Sinclair."

"Oh. Well, shit. What now?"

Will chuckled and made his way down to the ground and snuggled down closer to Lucas.

"Well now.. now we enjoy the rest of the final night we have left, kick ourselves for wasting our whole summer and the last few years pining, and schedule meet ups during the year."

Lucas smiled. "You mean to tell me this whole time, you liked me too?"

Will rolled his eyes. "I thought I made it pretty obvious with the way I always swooned over you during your games and took every opportunity to hold your hand."

"So those days with Max and the others when Mike and I would get hurt.. here I thought you were just being nice!"

"I was being nice. I just had other motives."

The two laughed at that and joined their hands together.

"So are we boy..friends?" Will asked timidly, stroking his thumb over Lucas's hand.

"Us. Boyfriends. Sure. But I won't make it official until the second date when I ask you properly."

Will laughed softly at that. "We haven't even had the first one and you're already planning ahead?" He smiled fondly over at Lucas, who smiled right back.

"Hell yeah I am! I'm not going anywhere, no fancy pants art school you wanna go to is gonna change that."

Will rested his head on Lucas' chest and sighed with content. "Good."