A/N: Sorry, I think I forgot to put when I initially posted the first chapter that this only has two parts/chapters.

"Well there's something definitely wrong with him," Mike said before chasing after his best friend, El hot on his heels.

Will's shorter than him but Mike's always been a fast runner. Though that had mostly been because of necessity. Mike hated that after everything that Lonnie had done to Will as a child, somehow he deserved to get custody of him just because Will had half his DNA. He had tried to talk his parents into taking Will in but they had thought that he should be with his Dad during 'this trying time' but they didn't understand.

Will had made him promise not to tell anyone when they were kids. It was the only way that he would even admit it and friends didn't lie. He told Hopper though when he was trying to get Hopper to try to adopt him but Hopper had just looked at him sadly.

"I tried kid, I was sheriff remember? They try to keep families together, even when they shouldn't. I don't want that kid going anywhere near that bastard. But the biggest problem is that Will wants to go, he thinks he's changed. He doesn't understand how easy it is for people to backslide, especially for Lonnie to backslide. I made him promise to tell me if Lonnie hurt him though, " It doesn't make him feel any better because when it comes to Lonnie and adults, Will didn't always tell the truth. It looked like there was nothing he could do to stop it. Will was going to live with Lonnie.

He was glad that he's wearing sneakers not sandals as he follows Will down the sidewalk trying to keep him in sight, with the slight disadvantage of not having any idea where he was going when Will did. Will was fast, if he didn't have a problem changing in front of people and teams, he probably would have done well on the track team or something. Thankfully, Mike's still taller so he has that to his advantage as he barrels after his friend who seems intent on losing him. The day was warm for March, especially March in Indiana.

He needs to run more, Mike realizes as a stitch hit his side that he steadily ignores. He's not going to lose Will, not again. Not after everything. He gasps as he realizes they were heading to a large grove of trees. It will be a lot harder to find him there. Will's good at hiding, especially in trees. Yet another thing Lonnie Byers had taught him. Stupid system.

In a fit of desperation, he digs in deeper than before, he has to reach him before he gets to the trees and disappears. The stitch hasn't gone away, if anything it's gotten worse as he runs even faster. His heart pounds in his chest, he can even hear it in his ears.

Doesn't matter, nothing does except reaching Will before he hit the trees. Mike can see Will better with each step. Sweat pours down his face. But he has to keep running, can't let him get away now. Puffing shallowly he manages to get close enough to snag Will's shoulder and then let himself stop, bracing himself.

His chest burns as he tries to catch his breath while making sure that Will can't keep running away. Will's chest is heaving too, and he's actually coughing a little. It's strange, usually, Will is a good runner. Though maybe it was from the smoking? He believes El, he does. He knew that she wouldn't lie about this but he had such a hard time thinking about Will doing…that.

"Have you heard from Will?" He asked nervously. Maybe it was just him and El he was freezing out. As much as that would hurt, at least he would know that his best friend wasn't just alone. Lucas looked sad but shook his head. The longer they all went without hearing from Will the more it worried him.

"When's the last time anyone heard from him?" Mike asked, not knowing if he really wanted the answer.

"A month ago," Dustin said and Mike tried not to feel hurt since Will stopped taking his calls two months ago. Although, he knew it was two months for El as well and that she was just as worried about him as he was. She wanted to spy on him and the longer it was the more he was tempted to let her, even though he knew Will would be furious at them for it. But as bad as it sounded, he really doubted that the reason Will is freezing them out was because he got new friends, as much as that was his excuse every time they wanted to visit. Or that he suddenly enjoyed the baseball games his dad's apparently taking him to every other week.

Mike knew how Will sometimes dealt with things. When his Dad left, even though Mike had been ecstatic because that meant he wouldn't have to see his friend so hurt again, Will had been quiet and had started to pull away. It had been easier back then with all of them being in the same town to push Will back in than it was now that Will lived the furthest away.

Mike felt lost. He just kept losing Will. In the upside down, to the Mind Flayer, and a couple of times because he was too distracted with El. He had thought after their talk in Will's bedroom that he was done losing Will only for Vecna to prove him wrong. Mike just wanted to stop losing. He nodded to El that he was in for spying to figure out what Will was trying to hide.

"Let me go, Mike!" Will struggles against him and Mike grabs Will's other shoulder too to try to get a better grip on him. Will tries to elbow him and Mike barely steps away from it, only letting one shoulder go but just for a moment.

"El!" He shouts. They lost her while they were running but he might need to keep Will from running away again. They were surprised the first time around, they hadn't expected him to just bolt.

"Let go of me!" Will shouts again. Mike can't see his face because of their angle but Will is trying to kick him now . Mike hissed as Will's foot manages to find his ankle.

"God Will stop, I just want to talk to you." He said between clenched teeth because of the pain in his ankle. Why was Will making this so hard? All he was trying to do was be a good friend and be there for him.

"Mike!" He heard El's voice again and notices that they had almost made it to the grove of trees The leaves were starting to sprout again. The breeze filters through the air, drying some of the sweat from the run.

"El!" he yells back again, hoping that she could follow his voice. He steps back again as Will tries yet again to blindly kick him.

"God Will stop!" Mike shouts again. When he and El stole the Wheeler's car to go on this trip with Mike only having his driver's permit, he hadn't imagined this as the result. He heard footsteps behind him and saw El running towards them.

"Leave me alone!"Will shouts as he keeps trying to kick him. El looked as puzzled by Will's reaction as he was. Yeah, Will hadn't wanted to talk to them on the phone, and they knew he was sad, really sad but they had expected the indifference that they heard on the phone, not this frantic attempt to get away. El nodded at him and he allowed himself to step back nursing his ankle as he did so. Will stilled, and he could see Will's legs tense again.

"Will," El said softly but also as a warning. Will's wearing a blue and white plaid button-down shirt with threadbare jeans, though Mike hadn't yet seen his face yet. Will visibly deflates but he seemed to understand. El doesn't usually use her abilities against her friends, or her brother in this case but this was not a normal situation.

"Please, go away." Alarmingly Will's voice sounds empty, which was more worrying to Mike than if he had started crying.

"We're not going anywhere," Mike spoke as he started to circle around Will so that he could actually see his face for the first time. He gasps loudly, Will's much skinnier than he was expecting. He had filled out in California, but he looked just as thin as he was when he was 12.

But other than that, his face looks blank, alarming vacant of any noticeable emotion. Mike wants to gather him up in his arms like he did when they were kids but he's still afraid Will would try to fight him off if he got too close again.

Mike frowned as he realized that Will was gripping his left arm tightly near the elbow, especially with what he knew. Will's trembling slightly.

"Hey it's okay-" Mike said, reaching slowly towards Will's shoulder only for Will to step backward away from him. The trembling increased but this time he was glaring at him even worse when he had left his house after they hadn't taken D & D seriously and Will headed out into the rainstorm. He had torn apart Castle Byers that night.

"Stay away from me!" Will shouts his voice echoing slightly against the edge of the grove of trees that Mike couldn't see the end of. Mike exchanges glances with El who still looks just as confused as he feels.

"Will, we're not going to hurt you," Mike puts his hands up and nods at El to do the same, she follows after a moment. "We just came to see how you're doing," he spoke calmly and slowly hoping to make him less on edge.

"I'm fine!" Mike doesn't think so and rage bubbles up from his stomach at those words. Will is not fine. El had told him that much and before he can think too much about it he shouts back.

"Then what is this !" Mike spoke as he reaches for his sleeve, pulls it back and then feels the wind get knocked out of him. El had told him but still, actually looking at the cigarette burns, some almost healed and some angry and red littered across his arm makes him want to gag. It's worse that he knows that Lonnie hadn't done this, Will did it himself.

"Were you spying on me!" Will's eyes narrow at El who shrank back at his uncharacteristically venomous tone. Mike steps in front of her to protect her, even though he doesn't like Will looking at him like that either.

"Well, you wouldn't talk to us. You wouldn't let us come and see you! What were we supposed to do?!" Mike shouts back.

"You ever think I didn't want to see you! You were supposed to leave me alone!"

"You're my best friend!"

"It didn't seem like that last year, did it? You ignored me for nearly a year. Maybe I just got tired of it!" Guilt bubbles up inside him. He isn't proud of that. He had been distracted by school, by El and things were harder when they were so far apart. He had tried to do better this time around but somehow he had still gotten it wrong.

-No! Mike had called once a week every single week. He had asked to visit him multiple times. This time it wasn't on him!

"I'm sorry about last year but I called you every single week. I told you, you could call me or El anytime. You never called us after the first week!" Mike shouts back even though he knew he should probably be handling this better, more calmly.

Will's eyes dart around, the way he sometimes did when he wants to run and Mike grabs his hand to stop him, only for Will to flinch. That's when he saw it among the burns, the finger-shaped bruises. He had worried about it, spent many sleepless nights, especially the first few weeks, worried that Will was being knocked around this time with nowhere to run when it got bad. Every time he asked though, Will had sworn up and down that Lonnie wasn't hurting him. A lie it seems. Will seems to panic even more once he sees Mike looking at the bruise and tries yanking his arm away.

"It's not-It's not what it looks like." Will starts stammering, still trying to yank his arm out of his grip.

"You mean that that piece of shit that calls himself your father isn't hurting you again?" Mike speaks more sharply than he probably should have. Will shakes his head but Mike doesn't for a second believe it, even as his heart sinks deeper into his chest cavity. Will was drowning, and in more ways, than they had known.

"You can tell us. We are on your side," Mike shouts again, he knows he sounds even angrier. Will's trembling only gets worse but he violently shakes his head.

"Nothing's going on." Mike frowns at his best friend, not sure why he's trying so hard when the evidence was right there in his skin. Or why he hadn't come to them to begin with? He knows that he and El would get him out of here and that no matter they would keep him safe from his father. Right? Or does he think they were such crappy friends to leave him with that abusive sack of shit? No, that wasn't it. Is he afraid of what Lonnie would do to him if he knew that he told, like he had been as a child?

...Mike didn't think so.

The longer he looks at his trembling friend, the more Mike realizes that Will's fear is being taken away from here. Being exposed. Suddenly Mike gets it, gets why Will has been pulling away; why he wouldn't let them see him. He wants to be punished by Lonnie, by himself. His vision goes blurry as he frantically blinks back the tears. How could his best friend want that?

He remembers Johnathan's funeral.

Nancy had been crying on his left and Will on his right. Nancy was louder and Will so softly that it was almost silent as tears slipped down his face. Lonnie was there a few rows back before any of them knew that he was going to try to get custody again. El was a few seats down, a blind Max holding her hand trying to be supportive, while also learning how to be blind. It seemed almost surreal that the only personal casualties in their war against Venca, after the Supergate opened were the two Byers. Johnathan was killed by Venca directly and his mother not far after by being in the wrong place at the wrong time as a new gate opened.

"Do you think the dead carry a grudge with them into the afterlife?" Will asked quietly, so quietly Mike almost hadn't heard it. He puzzled the question over trying to figure out what Will wanted to hear but decided to answer honestly and hope that he wasn't too insensitive.

"No, they're dead. Do you think Johnathan would be mad at you?" Mike spoke just as quietly as the minister went on extolling Johnathan's virtues and acting like he hadn't just barely turned 18 before he died. Will shrugged and looked at the floor avoiding his eyes. Mike had planned to ask him about it later but later had been the shocking announcement that Lonnie wanted to take Will home with him.

Will must somehow think it's his fault. Even though it wasn't. Vecna killed them. Although he reminds himself that Will also blamed himself for Bob's death and the death of all those scientists. He hinted at it once after a nightmare, years ago. Maybe because of their connection? But the abuse alone he knew that Lonnie tried that when Will was a kid too.

"You don't deserve it," Mike whispers softly tears filling his eyes that he blinked back, he could break down later, right now was about trying to get Will to believe him. Lonnie used to tell him that when he hit him, it was because he deserved it. That he was trying to make him into a man, a real man, not a fairy. Will never told him himself, he had a hard enough time letting Mike know when it happened much less what Lonnie said while he did it. He had heard the foul words come out of the asshole's mouth himself once before Will stopped letting him come over to his house.

Will avoids his eyes and looks instead at the ground. Mike could see in his defeated posture that he didn't believe him and that he blames himself completely, even if he has no idea why. The thought that Will blames himself settles harshly in his chest.

"Will, it's not your fault!" Mike said sharply. How could his best friend think that it was his fault? Will vigorously shook his head.

"Yes, it is. If I hadn't been taken or if I would have just died. They wouldn't have been a part of this. They wouldn't have tried to stop it! They would have been safe! It is my fault!" Mike didn't know how to explain that he was wrong even as it broke his heart. The thought of Will dying in The Upside Down terrified him. It has been hard enough to think he lost El but if he lost both of them, he probably would have completely lost it.

Even if he did have the words, he doubted that Will would believe him. There was only one thing he could think to do. He hugged the shorter teen tightly to his chest, trying to put all the love and affection he felt into it. Will struggled against him and he was glad when El stepped in on his other side, trapping him between the two of them before he could try to run again.

"It is not your fault. It was Vecna's no one else," He said softly into Will's t

oo-thin chest.

"No." The trembling was worse and he could feel him move, shaking like a hummingbird.

"The only person to blame is Venca," El agrees softly from behind Will. She had let him do most of the talking, she knew that he would find the words easier and they had known each other longer. He can feel Will shaking his head against him even if he doesn't speak.

"It's not your fault," Mike repeats, he will say it every day until Will believes it. He will be there every moment that Will needs him to be until he is okay again.

"We're taking you home," Mike promises him. He doesn't care if he has to fight off the government again. He'll hide Will in his basement like he did El or go live in a cabin in the woods. Too bad Hopper's cabin was destroyed.

He'll call Lucas and Dustin and they'll come down to help. Or have El stand guard and forcefully keep away everyone who would try to let his Dad touch him again. He looked over Will's shoulder at El who nodded knowing what he was asking without him having to ask it. She would keep anyone from trying to take Will away. No one would take Will from them again.

Mike pulled slightly just enough to see Will's face.

He didn't want to, but If he had to, he'd have El knock him out and keep Will there for Will's own sake.. Will must have been able to see his determination in his eyes and knew that was no other way than Mike's way. Will looked down at the ground again but softly spoke,

"Okay."

Will was not okay. He was most definitely not okay but they would be there for him until he was.

Please let me know what you thought :)